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February 03, 2012
23:45
FBI probes Anonymous phone hack
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

The FBI investigates how activists linked to Anonymous obtained a recording of a phone call between US and UK police on their operations against hacking.

23:12
Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: Super Bowl Apps
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Most football fans will be forced to spend at least part of the weekend away from televised Super Bowl coverage. For those not willing to endure that sort of pain, the N.F.L. this week released three apps to help.

20:44
US politics live: Nevada GOP caucus, unemployment surprise
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Mitt Romney has a big lead ahead of the Nevada caucuses while sharp fall in joblessness is good news for Obama - live
3pm: Here's that new Newt Gingrich web-ad mentioned earlier. As usual, it's a brutal attack on Mitt Romney.
Ha ha ha: "I'm George Soros and I approve this candidate"
2.33pm: Oh dear, poor Rick Santorum. According to Buzzfeed Politics, Santorum couldn't raise the 500 signatures needed on a petition to get on the Indiana primary ballot:
The Marion County chief deputy of voter registration on the Democratic side, Scott Carr, confirmed that Santorum had not submitted 500 valid signatures. An Indiana Republican source said Santorum is "a couple dozen" signatures short, but that Newt Gingrich will be on the ballot.
The Indiana Primary won't be held until May 8, and is unlikely to be decisive in any event, but Santorum's shortfall cuts against some of his supporters hopes that he will rise as Newt Gingrich falls to provide a final challenger to Mitt Romney.
2.04pm: Newt Gingrich is in Nevada, appearing at Stoney's Rockin' Cafe in Las Vegas. It looks like the sort of place in keeping with Newt Gingrich's dignity and gravitas.
Gingrich is trailing Mitt Romney by a long way ahead of tomorrow's caucus but today he's back on the warpath against Romney, and kick off by reciting a new web-ad he's running with a clip of George Soros saying there is no difference between Romney and Obama.
Naturally, Gingrich also challenges Romney to one of his fabled Lincoln-Douglas debates. Which I would gladly buy on pay-per-view.
But the real zinger comes when Gingrich uses a strange comparison: "Obama is big food stamp, [Romney] is little food stamp." Quite what that means I don't know precisely but it's not nice.
Apparently Gingrich is getting a good crowd at Stoney's Rockin' Cafe.
1.26pm: Now Lance Armstrong, the well-known cyclist and cancer survivor, wades into the Komen v Planned Parenthood fracas, with a $100,000 donation to Planned Parenthood and this statement:
For 15 years, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has served people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities. We join Mayor Bloomberg and our partners in the philanthropic community today in their efforts to preserve access to cancer screening for women throughout the US. The Lance Armstrong Foundation will add an additional $100,000 to Mayor Bloomberg's matching challenge for Planned Parenthood's cancer services fund.
As Dr King said, "there is no greater injustice than inequality in health care." Cancer, on the other hand, respects no boundaries. It's a big, vicious disease that has no regard for race, gender, income or which side of the aisle we call home. Its survivors – 12 million of us throughout the US – deserve every bit of support we can muster. The Lance Armstrong Foundation will continue working to expand access to healthcare as we always have.
(Side thought: if the US had a single-payer, national health service then would neither Planned Parenthood nor the Komen foundation need to exist?)
1.04pm: The Susan G Komen foundation versus Planned Parenthood isn't going away, despite the Komen board's apology.
The Washington Post's Greg Sargent talks to a Komen board member about the Komen's future funding for Planned Parenthood:
I asked Komen board member John Raffaelli to respond to those who are now saying that the announcement doesn't necessarily constitute a reversal until Planned Parenthood actually sees more funding. He insisted it would be unfair to expect the group to commit to future grants.
"It would be highly unfair to ask us to commit to any organization that doesn't go through a grant process that shows that the money we raise is used to carry out our mission," Raffaelli told me. "We're a humaniatrian organization. We have a mission. Tell me you can help carry out our mission and we will sit down at the table.
For background, here's an earlier piece: Five myths about Planned Parenthood
12.47pm: The New York Times's Nate Silver explains in detail why the US unemployment figures are a big deal during a presidential election year:
No economic indicator is the holy grail. The American economy is a hard thing to measure, and initial estimates of economic performance are subject to significant revisions.... But if you want to focus a single economic indicator, job growth during the presidential election year — especially as measured by the series called nonfarm payrolls — has a lot going for it.
Warning: article contains the phrase: "if you run a regression analysis..."
12.21pm: Mitt Romney is up on his hind legs in Las Vegas, campaigning befopre the foregone conclusion that is Saturday's Nevada caucus.
He's trying to retool his message somewhat in the face of the latest unemployment figures, so that it is now basically: "It should have been more."
But then it's back to the Romney stump speech that we have come to know and loath from New Hampshire onwards – including a brief tour through the lyrics of America the Beautiful.
12 noon: Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney made a few people queasy – and the Obama campaign was quick to capitalise with a fundraising email to supporters:
Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he was 'humbled' to accept Donald Trump's endorsement. Seriously. Yes, Donald Trump – birth certificate conspiracy leader – has decided that Mitt Romney's his guy, and Romney has embraced him without reservation. He made a speech and even sent out a press release welcoming him.
11.46am: After the latest jaunty jobs figures, President Obama appears at a fire station in Arlington, Virginia.
In brief remarks before urging Congress to pass a bill helping US military veterans find work, Obama said the US economy is going strong and that the recovery was speeding up – although he cautioned: "These numbers will go up and down in the coming months."
Obama then called on Congress to extend the payroll tax cut:
I want to send a message to Congress: do not slow down the recovery we are on. Don't muck it up. Keep it moving in the right direction.
11.22am: After three days of controversy over its decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screening programme, the Susan G Komen foundation backs down.
Here's the statement from Susan G Komen board of directors and chief executive Nancy Brinker:
We want to apologise to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.
That about-turn is met with dismay by anti-abortion activists who had been quick to support the decision by Komen, seeing it as further isolating Planned Parenthood:
The net outcome for Komen is the worst of all possible world: they have now managed to outrage both sides.
This one, as they say, will run and run.
10.50am: While Mitt Romney continues to reap his financial and organisational advantages in Nevada, some conservatives are unhappy to discover another position Romney took while governor of Massachusetts.
The Boston Globe reports:
Mitt Romney accused President Obama this week of ordering "religious organizations to violate their conscience,'' referring to a White House decision that requires all health plans - even those covering employees at Catholic hospitals, charities, and colleges - to provide free birth control. But a review of Romney's tenure as Massachusetts governor shows that he once took a similar step.
In December 2005, Romney required all Massachusetts hospitals, including Catholic ones, to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, even though some Catholics view the morning-after pill as a form of abortion.
Cue much grumbling among religious conservatives, who are ramping up attacks on the Obama administration over just this issue.
If the economy recovers, exactly what is Mitt Romney left to complain about the Obama administration?
10.22am: Video has surfaced of Rick Santorum telling the mother of sick child she shouldn't have a problem paying $1m to keep her son alive.
Speaking in Woodland Park, Colorado, Santorum told the mother of a child with a rare genetic disorder, "People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why? Because you've been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it." The mother's son is prescribed Abilify, which can cost up to $1m a year without health insurance. Santorum argued that demand should set the price for drugs:
He's alive today because drug companies provide care. And if they didn't think they could make money providing that drug, that drug wouldn't be here.... Fact is, we need companies to have incentives to make drugs. If they don't have incentives, they won't make those drugs.
10am: While Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich squabble in Nevada on the final day of campaigning before Saturday's GOP presidential caucus, the big story of the day is the surprisingly good national job figures.
The US unemployment rate dipped to 8.3% in January – where it was when Barack Obama took office in 2009 – thanks to a buoyant 240,000 growth in jobs during the month, suggesting that a recovery is finally gathering steam.
The White House was exultant about the figures, while Republicans were dismayed since the fall in unemployment tends to undermine its central case against Obama's re-election, especially if Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination.
Here's a round-up of the latest news on the campaign trail, from Ryan Devereaux:
• Mitt Romney continues to dominate the polls heading into the upcoming Nevada caucuses. Public Policy Polling has the former Massachusetts governor on 50% while Newt Gingrich has 25%. In a reversal of yesterday's Las Vegas Review-Journal poll, PPP has Ron Paul ahead of Rick Santorum with 15% for the Texas congressman and 8% for Santorum.
• Romney is understandably winning the large Mormon vote, leading Paul 78-14. PPP projects Mormons will account for 20% of the vote in Nevada. Romney's support from his fellow Mormons is not without some controversy, however. The New York Times notes that his hardline views on immigration have conflicted the church's accepting approach to the issue.
• While PPP reports that Gingrich is decidedly disliked in Nevada – only 41% of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of him – multi-millionaire Mitt Romney has received the support of fellow super-rich guy, Donald Trump. Yesterday Trump announced his official endorsement of Romney: "He's not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love."
• Minnesota's house speaker and majority leader have also climbed on to the Romney bandwagon before Minnesota's caucuses next Tuesday. The AP reports speaker Kurt Zellers will make his announcement later today. Romney wasn't Zellers' first choice for the Republican nomination: he originally backed Tim Pawlenty and then endorsed Michele Bachmann.
• Romney has condemned President Obama's plan to pull US troops out of Afghanistan next year as "naive" and "misguided." Speaking at a warehouse in Las Vegas, Romney said that he didn't understand why the president would announce his time table for withdrawal.
Richard Adams
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

20:30
Micron's Appleton dies in crash
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Steve Appleton, the chief executive of memory-chip maker Micron, has died in a plane crash near Boise, Idaho.

20:29
Greek rescue package talks blocked by unions and employers
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Greece's economy will be crippled if lenders' demands for pay cuts and tax rises are implemented, claim coalition's critics
Greek unions and employers' associations have blocked a critical element of a rescue deal put forward by the European Union, accusing negotiators of crippling the economy with wage cuts and tax rises that will undermine growth.
In a joint letter to the Greek prime minister, Lucas Papademos, the employers and unions said a cut in the minimum wage was non-negotiable and the focus of talks should switch to the tax system, the complexity of regulation and corruption.
Athens is under pressure to wrap up talks on a bond swap and a €130bn (£108bn) bailout to avert a chaotic default. But hopes of an imminent deal faded after eurozone finance ministers put off a meeting expected on Monday to finalise the rescue. The ministers may meet later next week instead, said its head, Jean-Claude Juncker.
The unions' and employers' statement undermined efforts by the coalition government to agree a package of reforms as demanded by the country's international lenders if Athens is to receive the crucial €130bn second rescue package.
The three main parties in the coalition will meet on Saturday to discuss the situation, though sources close to the talks said a quick resolution was unlikely.
The refusal of unions to accept further wage cuts and the discovery earlier in the week of an extra €15bn hole in Athens's accounts are expected to force negotiators to rethink their tactics over the weekend.
The troika of officials from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and EU want Greece to agree a package of spending cuts and reforms before they release the fresh €130bn of funds.
Splits have opened up inside the Greek coalition, which includes right- and leftwing parties, as leaders jockey for position in the runup to the elections scheduled for March.
Antonis Samaras, the leader of the conservative New Democracy (ND) party, which is leading in opinion polls, opposes cuts to pensions and to wages in the private sector, which he argues would deepen the current recession. The ND leader joined employers in proposing a salary freeze, though even this plan is rejected by unions, which have already accepted 14% wage cuts.
Disagreements within the ranks of the troika have also undermined the talks. The IMF's lead negotiator said earlier this week that the deepening crisis in Greece should persuade negotiators to relent on some cuts in favour of more far-reaching reforms.
The EU, with the backing of the German government, has made it clear that Greece must accept severe austerity measures as the price of a bailout.
The coalition is ready to agree a framework deal struck last week with banks that hold around €206bn of the country's debt. The banks are ready to accept a near-70% writedown in their loans to Greece in exchange for new 30-year bonds.
Weeks of negotiations with a team of bankers led by Charles Dallara, head of creditors group the International Institute of Finance, were close to being finalised last weekend before the talks became dependent on an agreement with the troika.
The government must conclude negotiations on its second rescue package "that will ensure debt sustainability of the country in the long run, and that will bring remedies to a number of serious problems that the Greek economy has had even before this crisis," said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, spokesman for the EU's monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn.
"And one of the main problems of the Greek economy, as we have said time and again here, is the chronic loss of competitiveness over the past decade," Tardio said. "Therefore all the elements, including elements linked to the labour market, wage formation, are part of these discussions."
Without the new bailout deal and agreement with lenders, Greece would go bankrupt in March, when it faces a €14.5bn bond redemption it cannot afford.
Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said the bond swap deal – known as the private sector involvement, or PSI – and the parallel negotiations with the troika were almost complete.
"The PSI, I think, in its basic elements is ready," he told Real FM radio, adding that talks with the debt inspectors were "in the final stage".
He added: "Within the day, we will have to finalise a series of alternative proposals which will be put before the political [party] leaders so we can take the final decisions."
A meeting between Papademos and the heads of the three parties in his interim coalition government was expected to be moved from Friday to Saturday, according to government officials.
Asked whether there was any alternative plan, Kapsis said that "there will necessarily be a Plan B" but that he did not want to discuss what it might be.
"Clearly, if we don't close the deal and we let go and say we will default on our own, we would be heading to an open bankruptcy. But I don't think anyone supports that."
Speaking from Brussels, Tardio said that while negotiations were "extremely complex," he believed an agreement was within reach "in the days to come".
Greece has been surviving since May 2010 on rescue loans from a €110bn bailout package from other eurozone countries and the IMF. In return, it has pushed through tough austerity measures, including public sector salary and pension cuts and repeated rounds of tax hikes.
Despite the measures, however, the country has failed to meet the targets set out in its bailout agreement, and now needs a combination of the bond deal and a second bailout to prevent a default that would send shockwaves through the single currency.
The Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, warned parliament that while the situation was difficult now, the alternative the country faced was catastrophic.
"We are not playing with fire when we are dealing with the fate of our people," he said. "Yes, the people have become poorer. Yes, we are living a drama. Yes, our standard of living has gone down. Yes, it is dramatic to be obliged to cut wages and pensions. But what we could live through, and we are trying to avoid, is indescribable."
Phillip Inman
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

20:17
Reblogged: The Real Reason the Inc. 500 Is Made Up of a Bunch of Crappy Bloggers
» ‎ Z-Blog
In line with today’s post by Boštjan, Marcus Sheridan makes a strong case why blogging is here to stay.

The Real Reason the Inc. 500 Is Made Up of a Bunch of Crappy Bloggers
This article won’t be long. And it won’t be very romantic either. But it needs to be said, so here goes. I was reading a great post by Mitch Joel a few days ago that led me to the following article found at ReadWriteWeb , who wrote about a recent study the University of Massachusetts did on the blogging trends of the Inc. 500.

via: www.thesaleslion.com

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- Reblogged Vs. Retweet: A Case for the Former (zemanta.com)

20:06
Chris Huhne vows to prove innocence over speeding charges
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Chris Huhne's divorce spiralled into political crisis after claims by his former wife that she took speeding points on his behalf
The acrimonious divorce of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce spiralled into a political as well as personal crisis when they were both charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, prompting Huhne's resignation as energy secretary and a call by Pryce for the case to resolved quickly.
Huhne described the director of public prosecutions' decision to charge him as deeply regrettable and vowed to prove his innocence in front of a jury.
Pryce, in a brief statement from her lawyer, did not declare her innocence or guilt, saying she would now spend some time with her family and adding: "Obviously I hope for a quick resolution of the case." It is not known what plea she will submit to the charges.
In a day of personal turmoil and suspense for Huhne and Pryce, Keir Starmer, the DPP, announced he judged that sufficient evidence existed to charge the former couple. It is alleged that Pryce has admitted taking speeding points on behalf of her former husband in March 2003, an allegation she initially made in the Sunday Times during their separation.
It is the first time a serving cabinet minister has been charged with an imprisonable criminal offence in modern times, and represents a devastating blow to one of politics' most resilient figures, as well as potentially weakening the Liberal Democrats at a time when the party is hoping to stage a recovery. Huhne has been described as "the grit in the oyster", self-confident enough to challenge his coalition partners across the policy range.
Lawyers for the former couple will be summoned to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 16 February, with a full trial at the Old Bailey possibly in September, on the assumption that neither side pleads guilty or manages to get the case dismissed. There is a prospect that other Liberal Democrats could be summoned to give evidence.
In a letter accepting Huhne's resignation, Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister, said: "I fully understand your decision to stand down from government in order to clear your name, but I hope you will be able to do so rapidly so that you can return to play a key role in government as soon as possible."
David Cameron, however, made no mention of a possible return in his own letter accepting Huhne's resignation, saying only: "Like the deputy prime minister, I am sorry to see you leave the government under these circumstances and wish you well for the future." He added that Huhne had made the right decision to stand down in the circumstances, and praised his work on climate change.
In a typically robust response, Huhne said: "The Crown Prosecution Service's decision today is deeply regrettable. I'm innocent of these charges and I intend to fight this in the courts and I'm confident that a jury will agree.
"So as to avoid any distraction to either my official duties or my trial defence, I am standing down and resigning as energy and climate change secretary. I will of course continue to serve my constituents in Eastleigh."
Clegg spoke to Huhne on Thursday night and Friday morning. Clegg's wife, Miriam, spoke to Pryce to express her sadness and offer her support. It was being stressed by Lib Dem aides that the Cleggs were not taking sides, but making a human gesture to two people who as a couple had been the only Liberal Democrats to attend their wedding.
Pryce is said to be disappointed at the decision of the Sunday Times to succumb to a police court demand to hand over emails between herself and a journalist on the paper. The Sunday Times had initially resisted the release of the emails, but changed tack, prompting some of Pryce's friends to claim that it had not protected its sources as newspapers are expected to do. News International sources said it had a written agreement with Pryce that it would protect her but if the court demanded material, the Sunday Times could hand that material to the police.
Cameron was informed at 9.10am of Starmer's decision and spoke to Huhne by phone at 10.40am, little more than half hour an hour after Starmer's announcement.
In a rapid, long-prepared response to the resignation, Cameron appointed the Lib Dem business minister Ed Davey to succeed Huhne. Norman Lamb, Clegg's parliamentary aide, has taken on Davey's former brief.
Lib Dem officials praised Davey's quick policy grasp and ability to get on with officials and said he would be his own man putting forward a strong green case. He said his three chief challenges were climate change, energy security and securing a better deal for energy consumers, a field in which he specialised at the business department.
The prime minister's spokesman said he did not expect to see any substantial change in policy as a result.
But some environmentalists voiced dismay at the loss of Huhne, described by Greenpeace as "a vocal advocate for the green agenda in a government whose green credentials are looking more than a little tarnished".
Other government changes resulting from the resignation saw the Lib Dem MPs Jenny Willott appointed an assistant government whip and Jo Swinson take Lamb's old post as parliamentary private secretary to Clegg. Despite speculation, there was no return for David Laws, who quit as Treasury chief secretary in May 2010 and was later suspended from the Commons for seven days after an expenses scandal.
Patrick Wintour
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
20:00
Angus Deayton: 'I plead guilty to having an affair. But it's no one else's business'
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Angus Deayton on sex, scandals and why everybody gets paid too much on TV
The problem with interviewing Angus Deayton is neatly summed up in a one-line email from the PR before we meet. "Angus would like to keep the interview current, so he doesn't wish to talk about Have I Got News For You." What this really means, of course, is that he doesn't want to talk about why he got sacked from the show nine years ago. And who could blame him?
When 2002 drew to a close, Deayton recalls thinking to himself "that the words annus horribilis didn't really cover half of it". That summer, the News Of The World had splashed with a classic cocaine-and-hookers kiss'n'tell, involving the presenter and a woman he'd met in a bar. For Deayton, it came as news that she was a call girl; for the rest of us, that he wasn't quite the pillar of moral rectitude many had supposed. Only a solemn promise of no further revelations – and a pay cut from £50,000 to £25,000 a show – saved his job. But that autumn another woman told the tabloids she'd had an affair with him for two and a half years, during which time his partner was pregnant, and his 12-year reign in the HIGNFY chair was over.
As Deayton observes more than once when we meet, "It all feels like a very long time ago now." And if we have learned anything from the Leveson inquiry by now, it's that tabloid scoops are not always reliable. But the fact remains that we probably wouldn't be talking to each other if he were merely an actor in a new BBC3 series, or the presenter of a new series of a Radio 4 panel game. It was HIGNFY that made Deayton famous – and the scandal amplified fame into infamy – thus leaving quite an elephant in the room between us.
To anyone with access to Wikipedia, let alone a television set, it can be no secret that Deayton has worked pretty consistently for the past nine years. He has, among other things, starred in the award-winning dark BBC comedy Nighty Night, presented Hell's Kitchen and a quiz show for ITV, anchored and starred in several Comic Reliefs, hosted the BBC panel show Would I Lie To You?, presented the British Comedy Awards and appeared in two feature films. "As wildernesses go," he points out, "it's been quite populated, really." And yet every new show he's made has been described by one or other critic as a "comeback vehicle" and almost every press interview presented as a watershed moment, signifying – at last! – the disgraced star's rehabilitation.
"Yes," he agrees drily, "I appear to have had more comebacks than Status Quo. And been 'welcomed back by the BBC', too. And you think, well, I was working at the BBC about two months after Have I Got News For You. I never even left." The observation is delivered in the same ironic tone of detachment with which he used to read out his old show's more bizarre news items – but doesn't it annoy him? "Er, yes. Yeah. I've never quite understood it, other than it makes an interesting story to maintain there's been some great redemption. It's not like audiences suddenly stopped laughing, or – like it was made out in the tabloids – that I was walking down the street and people would shun me as I passed. Actually, it was the opposite. And I never stopped working."
His latest project is Pramface, a comedy drama in which he plays the father of a well-heeled 18-year-old girl who gets pregnant from a rebelliously drunken one-night stand with a less well-heeled 16-year-old virgin. I've seen the first episode and it is very funny – sharply written, quite rude and ideal for Deayton, a master of the urbane middle-class British husband role, whose disappointment and anger is betrayed with subtle economy. He hasn't yet seen it himself and admits, "You just hope, when it goes out, you don't think, 'Oh God, I wish I'd done it completely differently.' There's no audience feedback, so you're kind of in the hands of the director."
Which does he finds more exposing, acting or presenting? "Presenting, I think, definitely. If you mess up, everyone sees you messing up and it's your fault. Acting, you're hiding behind a character, and I've always thought if it isn't any good, then there are all sorts of other people you can blame." He laughs. "You can offload responsibility."
When I ask how close he thinks his presenting persona approximates to his own character, he says, "It's probably easier for you to tell, because I feel as if I'm the same person." I've had limited exposure to the material, I point out, whereas he's had decades to analyse it, so isn't he better qualified to answer?
"Yes," he confesses, laughing, "desperately trying to pass the buck. OK. So, is the persona of the guy behind the desk the same as me? Um, no, I don't think it is. I fell into presenting after doing about a decade of parody shows of presenter-based shows, and a lot of it was me parodying a presenter, so when I started doing Have I Got News For You, I carried on that persona. So in some ways it's a sort of pastiche of my own pastiche – if that doesn't sound too arseholic. Er, which I think it does, actually."
He is a presenter in his other current project – a new series of the Radio 4 panel game It's Your Round, in which every week four guests each devise their own comic round. It didn't sound to me like an idea that would work, until I heard it. Deayton agrees. "You never really know if any show's going to work within the series, depending on which rounds the guests turn up with. But in a way that's built into the format, so if something isn't working, it's quite fun to be able to talk about the fact that it's not really working – and that it's not really," he adds with a laugh, "your fault. It does help if I can turn to the person on my left and say, 'Well, I'm sorry, the reason this is crap' " – and he starts to laugh again – " 'is because you brought it along, and you maintained that it was going to be good.' So it's nice to be able to offload any kind of responsibility – again."
Deayton has a comedian's instinct for a running gag, and this motif of endless buck-passing sounds to me just like that. Further into the conversation, however, I begin to realise it can be read in one of two ways – depending on what you think about the scandal that cost him his old job. "The great British public," he claims at one point, "can tell when someone's being victimised." But that's not how everyone saw it. If you believe Deayton had only himself to blame, then the running gag will probably sound less like a joke than further evidence of an arrogant refusal to accept responsibility. If, on the other hand, you think the scandal was either largely tabloid lies, or none of our business, you'll think he is simply being funny.
Before we met, I'd wondered if he would turn out to be nothing like the Deayton we know from our screens – bone dry, understated, impenetrably poised, with a surgical wit that can be cutting to the point of cruel, but rarely if ever unfunny. I would say now that he's warmer than you might expect, less intimidating, and perhaps more sensitive, but otherwise any distinction between performer and person is barely discernible. His laugh sounds like an unusually grown-up giggle, and he has a gift for injecting it into a word, mid-syllable, making almost everything he says sound amusing. When I ask about his domestic life, which he shares with his long-term partner Lise Mayer, a comedy writer, and their son Isaac, 10, he comes across as the rather droll headmaster of north London's comedy set.
"I bumped into Julia Davis's husband the other day – they live near us in Islington – and he had one of their twins with him. I said, 'Which one's this?' " – Deayton mimes the father peering into the pushchair, looking back up and spreading his hands in a baffled shrug. Laughing, Deayton adds with a sly grin, "A lot of our friends are drifting west now, though. They've passed away to Notting Hill. We do use Notting Hill as an adjective, in a slightly derogatory way. 'It's a bit Notting Hill' means a bit, 'We'll wait and see what else is happening before we commit.' They'll always be the last people to reply to any invites, while they wait to see all their different invitations come in." He affects to check himself with a brisk cough. "I'm being terribly rude about most of my friends."
Some of his former friends have been quite rude about him. Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, HIGNFY's team captains, were widely reported to resent their chairman's pay packet and to have been influential in his dismissal, with Merton describing him as "arrogant". It's Deayton who brings this up, when I remark that it's funny how presenters' salaries make scandalised headlines, whereas no one ever seems to mention how much actors earn.
"Or team captains, interestingly, I've noted over the years. This is, er, yeah, something that I've noted quite a lot in the many years I've been behind a desk," he quips. Why does he think that is? "I genuinely don't know. I find it baffling that for years and years I got tremendous stick for the amount of money I earned. I was often tempted to say" – and he starts to laugh again – " 'If you just cast your gaze to either side of me, there are some other people earning exactly the same as I am. We are on parity.' "
Hislop and Merton were on the same as him? "Yes. And some of them wander in at four in the afternoon of that recording, and other people have been working on it for four days." Again, the clipped dry laugh. "And he's the one who's getting the stick for earning all the money. So it did seem curious – and still does."
Why didn't he get on with them, then? "We always got on terribly well." That's not what I'd heard. "Yes, well, that's another urban myth," he laughs. "Bizarrely perpetrated by them. Which is odd. Certainly Paul has rewritten history a bit in terms of our relationship. We were always the last ones out of the bar on a Thursday night. We were clapping each other on the back, saying how wonderful the show was. 'A phenomenon – it's a phenomenon,' Paul always used to say. So, yeah, we always got on very well."
Urban myths are a recurring theme, because Deayton maintains that most of what's been written about him isn't true. "The Sun once did 20 things you never knew about Angus Deayton – and I didn't know 16 of them. The Daily Mail wrote something about me a few years ago and it had 36 sentences in it, and 33 of them were lies. The only three that weren't were quotes. Everything else you could put a 'not' in the sentence and you'd be closer to the truth." Almost the only much-quoted fact he will confirm was that at the age of five he decided he wanted to be either "a funny man or an advert".
That ambition was quickly forgotten, though. Born in 1956 into a traditional middle-class home counties family – with an ex-naval father and a teacher mother – he attended minor public schools, was good at sport and studied languages at Oxford. But though a big comedy fan, he'd never thought of having a go at it until an Oxford contemporary, Richard Curtis, asked him to stand in for a last-minute drop-out in an Edinburgh festival revue. Deayton enjoyed it, toured Australia with a spoof Bee Gees band, and began writing for comedy sketch shows.
He spent the 80s writing scripts, doing radio voiceovers and commercials, playing the straight man in bigger stars' shows – Rowan Atkinson, Alexei Sayle – and making the Radio 4 comedy series Radio Active, which transferred to BBC2 as KYTV in 1989. But he was basically unknown until 1990, when a part in One Foot In The Grave and the chair of HIGNFY turned him into a household name more or less overnight.
Looking back at his career in the 90s, certain ironies are inescapable. He fronted a programme called The Lying Game, and another called The Temptation Game, and when asked by one interviewer if fame had brought temptations his way, replied, "Actually, there are plenty of reasons why you should not give in. Someone could sell their story to the Daily Mail." So when I now ask if fame had brought with it concerns about his privacy, what I really mean is how did he think he could get away with cocaine trysts with strangers – or a long-running affair – without the papers finding out? But he interprets the question quite differently.
"Well, towards the late 80s, I started working quite closely with Rowan [Atkinson] and I think I learned from him how to deal with fame. He's intensely thoughtful about the whole thing, and private, and quite aloof. I think I probably learned from him how to conduct myself." This is a surprise, given how disastrously public Deayton's private life became.
"Yes, but sadly not anything I could do anything about. You have to kind of put your trust in someone – you can't be mistrustful of everyone you meet and everyone you come across. And sometimes that trust is ill-founded, and what can you do, short of actually never, ever putting your faith in anyone again?"
Some would say the answer's easy – you stay faithful to your partner. "Ye-e-e-es. Yes. Hmm. Well, I think that's kind of being wise after the event. There are definitely people I wish I'd never met, and I wish I'd never placed any trust in. But as I say, unless you go through life expecting everyone to behave in the worst way that you could ever imagine, then, er, there's only so much you can do about it."
A tabloid reader might think Deayton has some nerve to complain about betrayal of trust. The story his former mistress sold in 2002 wasn't pretty: she said she joined him and Mayer on holiday at their Italian villa, where they would sneak off for sex, leaving an unsuspecting six-months-pregnant Mayer lying by the pool. She claimed he enjoyed a threesome with her and a friend the night before his son was born, and would often hire prostitutes to join them in bed when she was unable to satisfy his Olympian sexual appetite.
Deayton says that so many outrageous lies were printed, "it would take an entire book the length of War And Peace to actually unravel it all". But he declines to identify any – "I think it's too little too late, and I don't feel as if I really want to start unpicking it all" – so there's no way to judge his indignation, or to tell if his reticence really might be a rare celebrity example of wisdom and self-control. "I always kind of expected that at some stage someone would explode the myths, but no one really has. And I don't think it should be me who does it."
He did consider giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry, but didn't want to "regurgitate everything again". When I ask if he's been following the hearings, though, his face lights up. "The gift that keeps on giving? Yes, every day." He laughs. "It is extraordinary, reading Hugh Grant's witness statement, I just thought, that's what life was like for me for six months. And, to be honest, it's the tip of the iceberg, because phone hacking is horrendous and ghastly, but what about hacking into bank accounts and medical records, entrapment, blackmail, blagging your way into someone's house or making threatening phone calls to elderly relatives?" He experienced all of that? "Yes."
Deayton tried to stop his ex-mistress selling her story by taking out an injunction, and says criticism of gagging orders "is always dressed up as being about a woman's right to – but to what, though?"
To do with the story of her own life as she chooses, is usually the answer. "Ye-e-e-e-es, but on the whole what they're doing is simply revealing details of a private relationship. I suppose it's technically anyone's right to do that, but you can't divorce the fact that they're making shedloads of money by doing it. And why would anyone," he adds with an expression of utter distaste, "want to do that?"
It's impossible to know if Deayton was more sinned against than sinning. What comes across very clearly, however, is his assumption that most people believe he was. His reluctance to reopen the whole saga is entirely understandable, and probably very sensible. But in the absence of any actual rebuttal, I suspect many readers may infer from all his complaints about betrayal and intrusion not bad luck or injustice, but self-pity.
He looks taken aback, thinks for a moment and for once the air of ironic amusement gives way to a flash of real feeling. "Right. Well, OK. I would say that I've suffered a fair amount of punishment over the years, one way or another. Yes, I would plead guilty to having had an affair which I shouldn't have had. But it's not really anyone else's business than mine. No one is in my relationship, so they can't make judgments about my relationship. There was one two-night stand, and there was an affair. Well, I don't think that's completely unheard of, either in the realms of relationships, or indeed television presenters. There are many who have done as much, if not worse."
I wonder if he was ever tempted to retaliate by identifying some of them. "Certainly on the drug front, yes. It would be like looking at the Manchester United team and pointing at Bobby Charlton as being the alcoholic because he had a glass of beer. I know a lot of people within the business find it quite amusing that I, of all people… well, I'm not necessarily talking about the current crop of presenters, but certainly 10 years ago, it was slightly odd to pick me out. With the exception of Clive Anderson." He pauses to think. "I can't actually think of anyone else. I've never said so before, but now I have. He's the only one."
• Pramface starts on BBC3, on 23 February, at 9pm
Decca Aitkenhead
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19:47
RBS chairman defends Stephen Hester's near-£1m bonus
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Sir Philip Hampton admits taxpayer-owned bank might look for ways to halt awards of annual bonuses altogether to avoid annual row over pay
Royal Bank of Scotland's chairman admitted today that bankers' pay was too high – even as he defended the near-£1m bonus for its chief executive, Stephen Hester. He conceded the bank might look for ways to halt awards of bonuses altogether to avoid the row over pay every January.
Sir Philip Hampton admitted the bank, 82% owned by the taxpayer, had underestimated the scale of the reaction to the award of 3.6m shares to Hester – which he later waived – but said the decision had been made earlier than usual in an effort to avert speculation about the size of the payout.
As he revealed that the government, contrary to claims by ministers, had not tried to intervene to keep the bonus below £1m, Hampton acknowledged that the pay system may need to be changed to make it more acceptable.
"Clearly there's a challenge around the annual bonus," he said, indicating that one way might be to put more emphasis on the three-year long-term incentive plan. He stressed no decisions had been made and no particular plan was being worked on. He also quashed speculation that the board had threatened to resign over any intervention.
With the focus poised to turn next week to Barclays, which on Friday is expected to report 2011 profits of just under £6bn, the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, called on all banks to "show restraint" on payouts.
"This bonus culture has ultimately been corrosive," Miliband said, amid speculation that the Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, could be handed £11m in shares and cash. Barclays profits are expected to be down only slightly on last year and the bonus pool in Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm, is thought to be stand at about £1.8bn.
"People who did not cause the financial crisis are paying the price. And many feel that those who did cause the financial crisis are not," Miliband said.
The RBS chairman, who has also waived a payout of shares potentially worth £1.5m, acknowledged that the gap between top pay and that outside the boardroom was a "cause for concern" – a view he said was shared with other chairmen he talked to.
While the debate about bankers' pay rages in the UK, in Spain, it was announced today, bankers working at bailed-out banks are to have their pay capped at €600,000 (£500,000) with no bonuses.
Hampton insisted that Hester was not overpaid. "He is doing one of the hardest jobs in the world. He is being paid at the low end of the range," he said, adding that Hester was not likely to quit as a result of the row. "I think and hope he will continue to see it through."
Hester was parachuted in to run RBS after its taxpayer bailout – which eventually amounted to £45bn – in October 2008, a year in which it reported the biggest loss in British corporate history, of £24bn.
Hampton also said it was important to "watch some of the rhetoric around business … bashing people up who are actually there to help doesn't in itself help."
It was the move by Miliband on Sunday to call a parliamentary vote on the payment to Hester – described by Hampton as a "tough character … extremely able chap" – that ultimately forced the RBS chief executive to waive his award of shares. Even so, in coming weeks Hester could still be awarded shares worth up to four times his £1.2m salary, some £4.8m, in a three-year long-term incentive plan.
The bank also faces the prospect of paying out annual bonuses to its investment bankers, from an estimated bonus pool of £500m, just as bonus deals set up in 2009 fall due. The head of the investment bank, John Hourican, is in line for as many as 21.3m shares worth about £6m and, with every rise in the share price, options that give him the right to buy shares at 28.2p also become more valuable. The share price was 28.69p last night.
Hampton would not reveal the size of the bonus pool but said it would be "a lot down" on 2011 – when it stood at £1bn – and that this would reduce the number of millionaires employed by the bank.
He insisted that a banker could not be found to work for the same rate as Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King, who receives £305,000, and that Hester would be difficult to replace if he decided to go.
Hampton also admitted that the new management team had expected that they would be selling off shares in the bank by 2012 but this now looks unlikely as taxpayers are currently nursing a £20bn loss on their 82% stake.
He had earlier told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "Pay has been high for too long … particularly in the banks, particularly in the investment banks, shareholders have done pretty badly and employees have done pretty well certainly over the last 10 years.
"That needs to be corrected. It actually isn't a society or fairness issue, it's a straightforward business issue. Too much of the money has not been going to the right place," he said.
"I recognise absolutely that some of the pay levels are very high, very difficult for people to understand, but by the standards of this market they are not high."
Jill Treanor
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19:45
Susan G Komen in U-turn over Planned Parenthood funding cut
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Nancy Brinker, cancer charity's CEO, apologises for 'recent decisions' and says Komen will honour existing grants
America's largest breast cancer advocacy group has been forced to make a self-abasing retraction of its plan to cut funding for Planned Parenthood following a huge outcry against the decision.
Susan G Komen for the Cure, a Dallas-based organisation, has announced that it will honour existing grants to Planned Parenthood and allow the organisation to continue to apply for future funding – a U-turn from its earlier decision to cut its annual $650,000 provision.
Nancy Brinker, who set up Komen as a pledge to her dying sister to work to end breast cancer in the US, together with the foundation's board of directors, put out a statement in which they apologised to the American public "for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives".
Although the statement insisted that the move to sever Planned Parenthood's funding had not been political in nature, the board did admit that it had left itself open to the charge that it was vulnerable to political persuasion within America's highly-charged debate over abortion. It said that it would amend a new rule under which the funding cut had taken place to make clear that political considerations had no place in its decision making.
"The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen," the statement said. "We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
It added: "We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone's politics."
The newly-adopted rule under which Komen made its controversial decision to cut ties with Planned Parenthood, the largest reproductive and sexual health service provider in the US, stated that no body should be funded should it be under official investigation. Planned Parenthood is indeed under congressional investigation – the problem, though, is that the investigation was launched against it by overtly politically motivated individuals who are opposed to abortion. The organisation is a favourite target of anti-abortion lobbies because some of its clinics offer abortions.
"Our original desire was to fulfil our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation," Komen said in its statement. "We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair."
In a statement, Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's president, described the support she had received since Tuesday as astonishing and "a testament to our nation's compassion and sincerity".
She said: "In recent weeks, the treasured relationship between the Susan G Komen for the Cure Foundation and Planned Parenthood has been challenged, and we are now heartened that we can continue to work in partnership toward our shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women.
"We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers. What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer, and we honour those who are at the helm of this battle."
The reversal was welcomed by local Komen affiliates, many of which had publicly denounced the funding decision. "We are elated," said Michele Oftrander, executive director of Komen in Denver. "We opposed the decision from the very beginning. Planned Parenthood is an essential partner in breast health care."
There have been suggestions that Komen's new rule was pushed through the foundation by the organisation's recently appointed senior manager for public policy, Karen Handel, who had been quoted as saying: "I am staunchly and unequivocally pro-life … Let me be clear: since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood."
Komen's statement leaves some room for ambivalence, however. Though it says that existing funding for Planned Parenthood will be reinstated, it puts a question mark over future funding by saying only that the group will continue to have "eligibility to apply for future grants".
Whether those applications will be received favourably is left unresolved.
Since Komen announced on Tuesday that would pull the funding, it has faced a massive barrage of criticism. Social media protests appeared instantly, including a Tumblr blog entitled Planned Parenthood Saved me, which saw 216 posts in just two days.
Komen's own local offices went public with their disapproval. Paula Birdsong, spokesperson for Komen's Sacramento affiliate which opposed the national office's decision, said the chapter believed Planned Parenthood should not be penalised for being under investigation.
"Normally we are in complete support of decisions that are made at our national level but this issue is one we could not support," she said. "We believe until someone has been found to have been guilty of a charge, funds should not be pulled just because someone is under investigation. It's innocent until proven guilty."
Prominent individuals associated with Komen also resigned in protest, including the group's top health official, Mollie Williams, the executive director of its Los Angeles chapter, Deb Anthony. A member of its medical advisory board in New York, Dr Kathy Plesser, had also announced that she would resign if the decision were not reversed.
The fury directed at Komen was matched by an outpouring of support for Planned Parenthood. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, led the charge, pledging $1 for every equivalent dollar donated to Planned Parenthood up to a total of $250,000.
In addition, $400,000 was raised online from 6,000 donors in the first 24 hours after the announcement. Within hours of the controversy breaking, the $650,000 cut had been more than compensated.
Yet Komen continued to defend the decision, with chief executive Nancy Brinker appearing in a video published on the organisation's website to explain the decision. She also told MSNBC that Komen wanted to focus on giving grants direct to service providers, whereas Planned Parenthood sent people to other facilities. "The investigation isn't the only issue … Our issue is grant excellence."
Now Komen hopes that its policy reversal will temper the storm that has raged around it. "It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect," its statement said.
Ed PilkingtonSaabira Chaudhuri
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19:20
BT claiming fibre 'game changer'
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

300 mbps fibre to premise connections 'on demand' will be available next year, BT says.

19:17
BBC Persian staff face Iranian intimidation
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Relatives of BBC staff in London detained and threatened by intelligence agents and one employee interrogated online
Iran is carrying out a campaign of intimidation and smears against the BBC's Persian TV service, watched by millions of people in the Islamic Republic but loathed by the government in Tehran.
In recent incidents, relatives of BBC staff in London have been detained and threatened by Iranian intelligence agents, top presenters targeted by malicious rumours and one employee subjected to an online interrogation in London after a family member in Iran was jailed. Iran is thought to be preparing a documentary film discrediting the channel in the runup to parliamentary elections next month.
Sadeq Saba, the head of BBC Persian, was accused live on air by an unknown caller of raping Pooneh Ghoddoosi, then presenter of popular Persian-language talk show Your Turn. Both insist the charge is entirely without foundation but it has since been repeated as fact by leading Iranian government media outlets.
Iran has repeatedly jammed BBC Persian TV since it was founded in 2009. The latest bout of harassment comes against a background of sharply deteriorating relations between the UK and Iranian governments. Last November Britain shut its Tehran embassy after it was stormed by demonstrators in apparent retaliation for sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear programme. Iran's London embassy was then ordered closed.
Tensions worsened in recent weeks after the closure of Press TV, the English-language Iranian state broadcaster, in London. The UK regulator, Ofcom, revoked its licence for breaching the Communications Act. BBC Persian staff say they believe Tehran wants to stop the channel covering the elections on 2 March.
Following weeks of angry internal debate about how to handle the issue, Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, on Friday issued a strongly worded complaint about "disturbing new tactics" and called on the Iranian government "to repudiate the actions of its officials".
Anonymous callers or others using names such as the Cyber Army of Allah have accused BBC Persian staff of being drug dealers, converting to Bahaism or Chrstianity – potentially a capital offence in Iran as it is considered to be apostasy – or taking bribes. "We are well trained to cut these people off when they say rude or libellous things," said Ghoddoosi, whose image has been used in pornographic montages posted on the internet. "They use F-words and C-words non-stop."
Saba said: "Even Stalin or other dictators never did what the Iranian regime is doing with this campaign of intimidation against our journalists. Iran has arrested a group of people and forced them to confess that they have worked for BBC Persian. We have not hired anyone in the country and we condemn these brutal actions."
Journalists arrested recently include Marzieh Rasouli and Parastoo Dokouhaki. Friends believe they are under pressure to confess on camera that they have been collaborating with BBC Persian in Iran.
Saba and Ghoddoosi are popular in Iran, despite the profound official hostility to the BBC channel. The channel is considered such a threat that someone has created a website identical in design to that of BBC Persian to spread allegations against BBC employees. The fake site uses an .ir domain name, which requires government permission.
BBC Persian's reporting has challenged government versions of both the domestic political scene and Iran's troubled relationship with the west. Iranian officials often cite BBC Persian's work as evidence of a foreign plot against the clerical regime. Saba says one news programme is watched by 12 million to 15 million people per week.
Tehran was furious with the BBC's extensive coverage of the disputed 2009 presidential election, which gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term. During the unrest that followed, BBC Persian conducted hundreds of telephone interviews with protesters who described deaths, injuries and arrests by security forces. The BBC's correspondent was expelled. Last year the BBC secured Iranian agreement to deploy a new resident correspondent, but it has never been implemented.
Last month security forces raided the home of a BBC Persian employee's relative in Tehran, searched and confiscated their belongings and transferred the person to Evin prison. Hours later, a man claiming to be the relative's interrogator at Evin contacted the employee in London, seeking information about the BBC in return for the family member's freedom.
"My brother and mother have both been subject to interrogations in the past two years," said a colleague. "My brother's personal belongings, including his computer, were confiscated. They were asked to persuade me to collaborate and gather information from the BBC."
Fifty-two BBC Persian staff complained this week about the corporation's handling of the issue, calling it "scandalous" that Iranian intelligence was able to interrogate a BBC employee in London. Thompson's statement followed. "This issue is wider than the BBC – other international media face similar challenges," he said. "But it is behaviour that all people who believe in free and independent media should be deeply concerned about."
Initially, BBC staff believed it was best to simply ignore the Iranian campaign. "I and others have received death threats," said Ghoddoosi. "They say 'you are a servant of the imperialist English government. We will kill you like dogs and crush your bones.'
"Virtual harassment is tolerable – being called a whore or whatever. We dismissed it by saying silence was the right answer. But when it came to the point of our relatives getting arrested at airports and having their passports confiscated, or Iranian intelligence being so brazen that they interrogated someone on British soil, we finally decided to speak out."
Ian BlackSaeed Kamali Dehghan
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18:59
Mark Zuckerberg Remains the Undisputed Boss at Facebook
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Mark Zuckerberg’s success is a lesson in what works in Silicon Valley: Stay in charge, stave off potential predators and expand the company so quickly that no one can challenge the boss.

18:59
Hackers breach FBI-UK police call
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Hackers Anonymous release a recording of an intercepted conference call between the FBI and UK police discussing their efforts to fight hacking.

18:59
Egyptian football fans mourn and rage amid political chaos
» ‎ The Guardian World News
As Al Ahly supporters in Cairo lament 74 deaths many seek revenge while others call for sense of calm and responsibility
Hundreds of supporters of the Cairo football club, which lost 74 fans in Wednesday's riot, have rallied outside the club's premises to mourn the dead and call for revenge against fans of their rival team.
As the rally took place, fans of Al Ahly club in central Cairo were still burying those killed in the northern city of Port Said during the clashes with supporters of their bitter rivals, Al Masri. The violence was Egypt's worst football riot in 15 years.
Yet, among the outrage of the crowd of about 400 people, a sense of responsibility was stirring. "Take that sign down," said one leader of Al Ahly ultras, the militant fans at the centre of Wednesday's disturbances. "We don't want to blame Scaf (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) today. Politics can wait."
Another group argued about whether to chant political slogans on a march to Tahrir Square planned for late afternoon. "I'll chant what I want, when I want it," shouted one man, but those arguing against political statements won.
The ultras, who have been on the frontline of clashes with riot police in Cairo for the past year have had an uneasy relationship with Egypt's liberals. As well as battling riot police at football fixtures, the ultras have led a series of reinvigorated protests in recent months against Egypt's military rulers, which has renewed focus on the waning liberal push for influence in the evolving post-Mubarak society.
The country's silent majority, many of whom backed the status quo and looked disdainfully on the liberals as naive utopians, has – until now – been even more scathing of the ultras, who they see as reckless anarchists.
But the manner of the 74 deaths – and where they died – has resonated with many Egyptians, much more than clashes in Tahrir Square or the killing of 27 Coptic Christians outside the government broadcasting headquarters last year. Football strikes an emotional chord that crosses sectarian and social structures in Egypt.
"They shouldn't have been killed like that, no matter who they are," said Ali Abbas, who supports the military leadership and believes it will deliver on a promise to see Egypt through the transition to civilian leadership. "The violence does not appear normal. It seems like punishment."
Mohammed Salama, 23, an Al Ahly ultra whose leg was broken in the stadium riot, said it became clear at half-time in the match between the two historical foes that trouble was brewing.
Leaning on a red walking cane he said Al Masri supporters had stormed through open gates after full time and trapped him and other fans against locked gates at the back of the stadium.
"They threw me off," he said, pointing at his leg in a full plastercast. "They were saying: 'You should have brought (burial) shrouds to the game.'" Another Al Ahly fan said the same words were displayed on a sign outside the grounds before kickoff. "It became clear that they were planning an ambush," he said. "It had to have been backed. The gates [to the pitch] are never open like that."
Tahrir Square was again heaving with demonstrators, many of whom buy into the Al Ahly view that militant Al Masri fans were given a green light by some elements of the security forces to attack their rivals.
The streets near the interior ministry building were again a battleground between riot police, several hundred of whom held a frontline near their headquarters on Friday, and mostly young Egyptians who ran the gauntlet, throwing rocks, molotov cocktails and, according to the security forces, sometimes shooting weapons. Four people died on Friday clashes, two in Suez, near Port Said, and two in Cairo. Medical authorities in the capital said around 1,500 people had been treated for injuries in the past 48 hours. Most appeared to have suffered from teargas inhalation. The Al Ahly ultras say they will rejoin the fray when the time is right. "When we do, everybody will know we are there," said one ultra Mahmoud Saleh. "These fans did not die for nothing."
Martin Chulov
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18:40
South Korea Indicts Park Jung-geun Over Twitter Posts
» ‎ NYT > Technology

South Korean prosecutors indicted Park Jung-geun, a social media and freedom of speech activist this week for reposting messages from the North Korean government’s Twitter account.
18:37
Incoming Chief Takes On a Sony That Is a Shadow of Its Former Self
» ‎ NYT > Technology

The company warned it expected to post a fourth consecutive annual loss, of $2.9 billion, as sluggish sales and natural disasters weighed on its bottom line.

18:11
American tourists kidnapped by gunmen in Egypt freed
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Two women and guide abducted by group of Bedouins released hours after negotiations with tribal leaders in Sinai peninsula
Bedouin tribesmen abducted two American tourists and their Egyptian guide at gunpoint but released them several hours later after negotiations with tribal leaders in the Sinai peninsula, the region's security chief has said.
The abduction along a busy highway came as a fresh blow to Egypt's vital tourism industry, which has been heavily affected by the unrest following last year's uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Tensions across the country have spiked since a football riot on Wednesday spiralled into a political crisis and fuelled anger at the ruling military council, after protesters accused police of standing by and allowing the bloodshed.
Major General Mohammed Naguib, the head of security for southern Sinai, said the three were snatched from a minivan after it was intercepted at gunpoint while carrying the group from St Catherine's monastery to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. The attackers, who were driving a saloon car and a pickup truck, then sped away into the mountains. A helicopter scoured the area as authorities launched a search and rescue mission.
The bus was carrying three other people of unknown nationality who were left behind, Naguib said.
The gunmen were demanding the release of a number of fellow tribesmen arrested this week on drug trafficking and robbery charges, but agreed to free the women after mediation efforts between officials and tribal leaders, Naguib said.
Bedouins have long complained of discrimination and harassment by the government, and tensions have intensified in recent months along with a general deterioration of security in the region. There have been attacks on police stations, with armed militias roving the streets and attacks on pipelines carrying gas to Jordan and Israel.
Naguib said he had agreed to look into the Bedouin demands.
Katharina Gollner-Sweet, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Cairo, confirmed that two American women had been kidnapped but gave no further details, citing privacy concerns.
Earlier this week, armed Islamic militants seized 25 Chinese factory workers after forcing them off a bus elsewhere in the peninsula, but they were freed the next day. The kidnappers were also demanding the release of members of their group arrested years before on charges of terrorism.
Egypt has faced a surge in crime since the uprising, which toppled Mubarak's police state, which kept tight control over its population of 85 million. Protesters accuse the military council that has assumed power and the police force of negligence.
The tourism minister, Mounir Abdel-Nour, said last month the number of tourists who came to Egypt in 2011 fell to 9.8 million from 14.7 million the previous year. Revenues for the year were $8.8bn compared with $12.5bn in 2010.
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18:04
European cold snap threatens energy crisis as death toll rises
» ‎ The Guardian World News
European commission puts its gas co-ordination committee on alert as Russian supplies to some states dwindle
At least 221 people have died during a cold snap in which temperatures have plummeted to -30C and below across eastern Europe, with Ukraine the hardest hit country.
The cold has killed 101 people in Ukraine, many of whom lived on the streets. Health officials have ordered hospitals to stop discharging homeless patients after they are treated for hypothermia and frostbite, while authorities have set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters to help people survive.
The week-long cold snap, eastern Europe's worst in decades, is causing power cuts, frozen water pipes and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries, airports and bus routes.
An energy crisis is looming as Russian gas supplies to some states dwindle by up to 30%. Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Italy are those worst affected.
On Thursday the Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said it was sending as much gas as it could spare to Europe, and that Ukraine, whose pipelines carry Russian gas to the EU, must be taking more than its contracted share. Kiev has flatly denied doing so.
The European commission put its gas co-ordination committee on alert, but said it was not yet an emergency.
The cold spell has killed 24 people in Romania, 17 in Poland, 11 in the Czech Republic, at least two in Slovakia and one each in France and Germany. In Russia, officials said more than 64 people died of hypothermia in January.
In Moscow, the mercury remained below -15C for a third week running. The coldest temperatures were recorded in the isolated region of Kamchatka, where -48C lows are forecast for the weekend.
Although long used to harsh conditions, Russians have been enduring temperatures 7C to 12C below average. Desperate to keep warm, many have turned to space heaters, which have been blamed for a 30% rise in house fires since the harsh weather set in last month.
Activists preparing for an anti-Kremlin demonstration on Saturday, urged protesters to stay warm by donning thermal underwear and thick mittens instead of gloves as they prepared to brave -18C weather. Russia's chief health official, Gennady Onischenko, went further, saying: "If the weather report turns out to be true, then I categorically suggest not taking part in these protests.
"No tea or warm drinks will save you - and can even play a negative role."
Rome experienced a rare snowfall on Friday, prompting officials to close the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, the former home of Rome's ancient emperors, to prevent tourists from slipping and falling. Northern Italy has been gripped by snow and ice that is disrupting train travel. Temperatures in the Italian Alps have fallen as low as -22C.
In Poland, the interior ministry recorded eight more deaths on Friday and said two other people died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide-spewing charcoal heaters.
An 82-year-old man was found dead in woods in north-east France on Friday. Paramedics said he was found in his pyjamas and that he suffered from Alzheimer's.
In Serbia, blizzards gripped Belgrade, the capital, and Novi, the country's second largest city, complicating efforts to rescue people trapped in their homes. In northern Serbia, hundreds of tonnes of fish in the Ecka lakes were in danger because the water was icing over. Dozens of people have been working non-stop to break the ice, sometimes falling into the freezing water.
In Croatia, some roads were closed and the waters of the Adriatic Sea froze in some areas. Buses that travel from Zagreb, the capital, towards the coast were cancelled. In Montenegro, the airport in the capital, Podgorica, was closed due to heavy snow.
Helen PiddMiriam Elder
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17:41
Anonymous hacks into phone call between FBI and Scotland Yard
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Investigators can be heard discussing joint inquiry into cybercrime in 15-minute call released on the internet
Hackers from the group Anonymous have broadcast a private conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard exposing details of an international cybercrime investigation, the FBI has confirmed.
The FBI and Scotland Yard admitted that the security of the call had been breached.
Investigators can be heard discussing their joint inquiry into a cybercrime investigation going through the British courts, and linked to investigations in New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Ireland.
It is understood the breach occurred at the US end of the call. As the news broke, Anonymous began taunting the FBI, asking if it was curious about how the group could keep reading the bureau's internal communications.
Investigators can be heard on the broadcast talking about named individuals who have been charged in the UK with hacking into the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
In one lengthy exchange, the British contingent can be heard discussing a 15-year-old hacker as a "wannabe" and a "pain in the bum". The 15-minute call has been broadcast on the internet, but the names of some of the individuals being sought have been bleeped out by the hackers.
Scotland Yard said: "We are aware of the video which relates to an FBI conference call involving a PCeU [member of the e-crime unit] representative. The matter is being investigated by the FBI.
"At this stage no operational risks to the MPS have been identified; however, we continue to carry out a full assessment. We are not prepared to discuss [it] further."
The conference call was one that appears to be held weekly between officers from the Metropolitan police's e-crime unit and the FBI in New York and Los Angeles.
The law enforcement agencies are working together on a cybercrime investigation involving teenagers and young people from the UK, Ireland, Germany and the US, it is understood.
Six people are going through the British courts charged in connection with hacking into computers belonging to Soca. They include Ryan Cleary, a British teenager who is charged with five offences of hacking websites. Cleary, 19, from Wickford, Essex, was arrested in June last year. His arrest was linked to a series of cyber-attacks by a group called LulzSec.
Cleary was charged over cyber-attacks against British-based targets. He is due to appear at Southwark crown court with his co-accused, Jake Davis, on 11 May. Four other individuals, are due to appear at the same court in March as part of the same investigation. Cleary has been charged with three attacks – on the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in November 2010, the British Phonographic Industry in October 2010, and on Soca.
The method he is alleged to have used is a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against all three websites. He was also charged with constructing a botnet, a network of infected computers that can be used remotely to direct attacks.
On the intercepted call, the British police officers joke with their FBI counterparts early in the conversation while they wait for others to join, and are heard making fun of Sheffield - where the Acpo cybercrime conference is being held next week. "It's a khazi - not exactly a jewel in England's crown," says the British detective. The call, which took place nearly a fortnight ago – it is understood – includes a conversation about the appearance of Cleary and Davis at Southwark crown court last Friday.
The FBI official expresses his gratitude to the British officers for "being flexible" and co-ordinating with them. "New York appreciates it," the FBI operative says.
In response, the British detective says: "We have cocked things up in the past."
The British detective then gives the FBI details of a 15-year-old who was arrested in the UK before Christmas. He calls the 15-year-old a "wannabe" and is connected with two other teenagers who are known as CSL sec "Cant Stop Laughing Security".
"He is just a pain in the bum," the officer says. The call ends with all parties agreeing to talk again the following Monday.
The events leading to the arrest of Cleary involved an investigation by British police and the FBI. The bureau's involvement, plus the nature of the targets, raised the prospect of Washington seeking the teenager's extradition to the US.
The conference call reveals that two other individuals are to be arrested in the future. It makes clear that the investigation is complex, stretching across international boundaries and focusing on teenage hackers in many different cases.
Karen Todner, a lawyer for Cleary, said the recording could be "incredibly sensitive" and warned such data breaches had the potential to derail the police's work. If they haven't secured their email it could potentially prejudice the investigation," she told Associated Press.Anonymous is a collection of internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included the Church of Scientology, the music industry, and financial companies such as Visa and MasterCard.
Sandra Laville
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17:28
Anonymous leaves FBI, Scotland Yard utterly red-faced
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

The remarkable ongoing story of Anonymous took an almost unbelievable twist after the group revealed details of a joint FBI and Scotland Yard conference call – which claimed to have Anonymous on the back foot.

In a development which appears to be straight from a Hollywood spy blockbuster, the internet activist collective has left top security forces on both sides of the Atlantic shame-faced.

Scotland Yard and the FBI thought they were closing the net on Anonymous members after the group had conducted many high profile security breaches. However, it seems that the hacktivists were at least one step ahead of the bungling cops the whole time, after it posted a YouTube video with a recording of the conference call.

An email was also released by the hacker group, revealing codes being sent around to security officials to join in on the call.

One Anonymous member said: “The FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now."

The names of various suspected members of Anonymous were discussed during the meeting, though some were blurred out. The call also covered splinter groups of Anonymous such as LulzSec.

Despite the leak, British police have released a statement claiming that “at this stage no operational risks” have been identified.

Aside from potentially hampering attempts to apprehend suspects, the revelation that the very people that security officials were hunting had become the hunted will be hugely embarrassing for all involved.

At one point, the British police admitted that they had “cocked things up in the past, we know that”.

Security expert at Sophos, Graham Cluley, highlighted the astounding nature of Anonymous’ latest hack: “It is extraordinary - incredibly audacious,” he told TechEye. “It is one thing to DDOS the FBI or SOCA but to actually dial into a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard is really rubbing the authorities’ noses in it.

“In fact it is almost the sort of thing you would expect in a movie or a comedy.”

Cluley believes that aside from the sheer cheek of the hack there is certainly a serious side to it, and shows security officials to be bungling and care free.

“They do talk about the current investigations, so that might give suspects a tip off," Cluley said. “Also, it seems that Anonymous didn’t use high tech means to do this, someone’s email account has been hacked.”

The email, Clulely said, might have been forwarded to a personal account which had then been accessed. "Forwarding to a personal account is dangerous," Clulely warns, "and, if this is the case, it is certainly a clear example of how it can go wrong.”

17:24
Mother of six killed in collision
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
A pedestrian who died after being struck by a car was identified today as a mother of six.
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17:15
'New evidence' over Omagh bombing
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
New evidence on the Omagh bombing has emerged to strengthen calls for an international inquiry into the atrocity, bereaved families have said.
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17:02
Hackers intercept phone call between FBI and Scotland Yard
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
A sensitive conference call between FBI and British police's cybercrime investigators was recorded by the very people they were trying to catch, officials and hackers said today.
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17:01
Harry Redknapp has 'back to the wall' court hears
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Jurors hearing Harry Redknapp's tax evasion trial were warned today to "keep their eyes on the ball" when they consider their verdicts.
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17:00
The artist vandalising advertising with poetry
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Scottish artist Robert Montgomery goes about at night illegally plastering over advertisements with posters covered in his poetry. His very pleasing verse is presented in white typography on a black background, screaming out ideas about beauty, consumerism and hypocrisy, among other things. The elegant words, and their sparse presentation, have been appearing illegally on hoardings for the last ten years. But Montgomery, who trained at Edinburgh College of Art, and whose intellectual basis for working tumbles out in glorious verbal torrents, is not really a street artist. Although he has been somewhat embraced by the movement. Instead, he thinks of himself as following in the Situationists, a group of European revolutionaries who constructed artistic situations (which today we might call guerrilla installations) in unexpected places, to promote their ideas.
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16:37
Malmesbury Abbey Skate returns for fourth year
» ‎ Latest News

Malmesbury Abbey Skate returns during February half-term aiming to inspire other churches to think how they can reach out using sports outreach during the Olympic Games. Booking is now open for Malmesbury Abbey Skate 2012, the fourth year a skatepark has been set up inside the 12th century abbey that dominates the hilltop town of [...]

16:29
David Cameron accepts White House invitation
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
David Cameron and Barack Obama will hold face-to-face talks on Afghanistan and the global economic crisis when the Prime Minister makes an official visit to the White House next month.
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16:10
Apple overturns Motorola's ban
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Apple is granted a suspension of a sales ban imposed on some of its iPads and iPhones in Germany.

16:01
Indian Court Cancels Contentious Wireless Licenses
» ‎ NYT > Technology

The ruling by the Supreme Court was a rebuke to the government and came after years of litigation over a scandal involving telecommunications licenses sold at below-market prices.

15:45
VIDEO: How latest malware uses disguises
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Criminal hackers have found a way round the latest generation of online banking security devices given out by banks

15:34
Ye Booke of Foxconn
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

1. And the JOBS said unto Terry Gou, Come thou and all thy factories into the China; for thee have I seen profitable before me in this generation. 2 . Of every iPhone thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the white and his black and of Ipads that are yea even unto the iPad 2. 3 . And there in China you shall create unto me a huge Ark with trillians of workers to make unto the Children of JOBS expensive toys that Shine and sparkle and empty their bank accounts. 4. For yet seven years, and I will cause the world to suffer. Yea, great will be the economic ruin that shall fall upon the world. For I have decided that the Western workers are too expensive and I will only have slaves build my toys. 5 . And Terry did according unto all that the JOBS commanded him. 6. And lo, the Chinese went into his plant, two by two and there they worked for all the air he could supply them. And JOBS looked upon Terry's work and did say: 7. “Blessed art thou Terry Gou, for thou hast created for me profit margins that are wider than the ocean and as high as the heavens above and deep as the deepest ocean. For hath I not saved millions by not having to hire Americans, who demand money to work for me.” 8. But Gou said unto Jobs: “Lord, lord, these workers are but beasts and thou hast made me a zoo keeper. I feed them but air, I work them to death with only the excitement of the occasional industrial accident to brighten their day. Sooner or later the demons in the press will hear of this.” 9 . And JOBS said unto him “Fear not, for I will telleth the world that thou art not a shop where the staff sweateth and they shall believe me.” 10. And it came to pass after seven months into the economic flood that staff aboard the Ark did say unto themselves “Sod this for a game of soldiers, this really is a pit of shit to work in, let us go forth because bt surely must be better working in a rice paddy than this dive." 11. And yet they were too busy to leave and there were the guards all around the Ark to maketh sure that the staff told no one of the plans of JOBS for the next batch of shiny toys. 12. And so they made it unto the roof and many did cast themselves off where they did die, or did fall forth into the flood waters of economic ruin. 13. And Gou did fear that he would have no staff left for they were exiting the Ark two by two. So he said unto himself, I will build a net so that those who fall from the roof will bounce back to work. And so it was done. 14. But the news of the deaths had leaked out unto the press and they did go forth unto Jobs and saideth unto him, “Why hast thou hired a man who treats his staff like animals and worketh them until they die in their own sweat?” 15. And JOBS did say unto them “I have personally visited the Ark of Gou and it is not a place of sweat at all. They have tennis courts, and beds, and are they not paid more than most Chinese? And it mattereth not if Chinese people die, it is a huge Ark and it is inevitable, on a percentage basis, that some are going to top themselves.” 16. And the press said unto JOBS: “Yea, verily that is good enough for us, can you get us a review copy of the iPhone 4S and what exciting thing are you going to putteth into the next iPad?” 17. For they knew that their readers cared not for dead Chinese, but careth much about the next iPad. And all was well for Gou until it came to pass that JOBS had passeth on. 18. For in that time America had suffered from the terrible economic flood, and many started to wonder why the Children of JOBS were giving Chinese people jobs. And they did point unto the Gou and said his Ark was a shop of sweats, yea even the New York Times felt it had to beateth him. 19. And Gou did look unto the followers of JOBS for help, but he foundeth it not. For Apple had ordered an inquiry unto the Ark and did say in the press that it loved each and every staff member. 20. And Gou said unto himself “How can it be that when JOBS was alive, I was a zoo keper and my staff were my animals. Whyfor now doth the Children of Apple claim they are interested in them. Are they no longer interested in the margins of profit?”

15:32
Scientists call for curbs on own research on deadly bird flu virus
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Virus experts in the US say outbreak of genetically engineered bird flu could be worst influenza pandemic in history
A group of the leading virus experts in the US has called for new, permanent restrictions on research in the face of a new genetically engineered flu virus that could kill half the population of the world.
Scientists are currently observing a 60-day moratorium on research into the bird flu virus, after two groups found a way to make it infectious through airborne transmission.
An outbreak of this virus could be worse than the 1918 Spanish flu that killed tens of millions of people, warned Michael Osterholm – who has led research into previous dangerous outbreaks – at a public meeting on censorship in science in New York on Thursday night.
"Frankly, I don't want a virus out there that, even if it was 20 times less lethal, would still be the worst influenza pandemic in history," he said.
Professor Osterholm is a member of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which in December asked the journals Science and Nature not to publish the full research on the virus.
Bird flu, or H5N1, has so far infected 583 people according to World Heath Organisation figures, mostly in South East Asia, and killed 344 – though it is believed the proportion of fatalities to infections might be lower, as some may have caught the virus but not been hospitalised.
It can currently only be caught by close exposure to infected birds.
However, the new research demonstrated that the virus could be mutated, through genetic manipulation and other methods, into a form that was transmitted between ferrets in airborne droplets from coughs and sneezes.
Ferrets are considered a good model for human-to-human virus transmission.
The NSABB said this posed a huge risk to the world.
"If this virus were to escape by error or by terror, we must ask whether it would cause a pandemic," said NSABB chair Paul Keim in an interview published in Nature this week.
"The probability is unknown, but it is not zero. There are many scenarios to consider, ranging from mad lone scientists, desperate despots and members of millennial doomsday cults, to nation states wanting mutually assured destruction options, bioterrorists or a single person's random acts of craziness."
Professor Osterholm said he considered the new virus a worse threat than the return of smallpox.
"I wouldn't like to see smallpox get out of the lab, but if it did it wouldn't overly concern me," Osterholm said. "We could contain it. The same thing is true with Sars. But influenza would scare the hell out of me, because it is the most notorious, the 'Lion King' of transmission."
"Once it's out there, it's gone, it's worldwide."
However, he said the research could have positive results, such as finding a better vaccine, or improving virus detection in the early stages of a pandemic if it emerged naturally. He said virus surveillance at the moment was "like a whole lot of broken smoke alarms".
The meeting agreed that restricting research, and access to research data, would have bad consequences for science, because new advances often come from unexpected places.
Several speakers said the publication of redacted data should only be a temporary measure until a better solution was hit upon.
Professor Arturo Casadevall, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who is also on the NSABB board, said he had originally been against restricting research but had been persuaded it was necessary.
"If it is the worst case scenario half the people you know will die, and half the people you don't know will die," he said. "If it is two orders of magnitude (100 times) lower, you are looking at 7 million deaths.
"These viruses were generated in the laboratory … when these things get out and they recombine with existing strains, I think it will be very unpredictable, and this is a risk I think is very high."
However, he said research should continue in a more regulated way.
"Since 1997, we have had sporadic occurrences of this organism," he said. "We did not know it had the potential for mammal to mammal transmission. Now that we know, humanity is under threat and this work needs to go on."
Dr Laurie Garrett, from the Council on Foreign Relations, said any move to control or limit research into influenza would also limit the ability to protect against it if it emerged naturally.
But she added that the more laboratories around the world worked on the virus, the greater the risk it would escape – even in the US, there were hundreds of breaches of quarantine in the highest-level labs.
And she said the spectre of a biological weapon based on the virus was raised "very, very high".
She warned that if scientists agreed a way to move forward among themselves, without consulting more widely, they may discover the issue will "blow up" once the public is made more aware of it.
Alan Ruldolph, from the US Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, said information on the virus was "relatively uncontrollable", and the focus on bird flu should be on how to prepare for and respond to an outbreak.
It is estimated more than 1,000 scientists already know the details of the censored research.
Professor Peter Palese from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine said the moratorium should end and research should continue.
He said the risk of the virus spreading to humans, and the level of danger it posed, had been vastly overestimated.
"All evidence we have now suggests H5N1 isn't easily transmitted to humans, and these experiments don't make it more likely," he said. "When do you stop being afraid?"
Virus experts from around the world are to meet in Geneva this month, at a meeting of the World Health Organisation aimed at assessing the risks, and benefits, of research into the bird flu virus.
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15:22
News: EM Ireland Winter 2011 eNewsletter
» ‎ European Movement Ireland

Read all about EM Ireland's latest news and upcoming events in the Read all of Winter 2011 edition of the EM Ireland eNewsletter.

Download now

15:05
Apple takes double beating from Motorola in Germany
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

Apple will be rueing the German legal system today after its iCloud services took a whack from Motorola, while also being forced to remove iPhones from online stores.

The two separate cases amount to a bad day in Bavaria for Apple after a Mannheim court ruled that the ‘push’ email service was indeed infringing upon Motorola’s patents. Push email is a synchronising feature which allows the instant updating of emails to mobile devices.

The ruling – a permanent injunction – means that Apple will have to remove the service or will be barred from selling iPads and iPhones using it.

It is thought that the decision to pull Apple products from sale was not related to this decision, however, according to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller. He believes that it is due to a FRAND patent dispute dating back to the end of last year relating to 3G technology.

Although the latest Apple handset, the 4S was not affected, the iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G have all been removed from sale. The handsets will still be available from stores, but it is likely that Motorola, and the company in the process of buying it – Google – will be rubbing its hands with glee anyway.

According to Mueller, it looks like Motorola has decided to go ahead and post a 100 million euro bond, though it could lose out on this if Apple is successful in appeal.

Motorola's decision to assert its FRAND patent, which are generally recognised as industry standards, will not be picked up by an EU inquisition. Earlier this week Samsung began a grilling by European Commission investigators regarding its own use of FRAND patents against Apple.

However, with Google already in hot water with the EU over antitrust claims, it seems that officials are waiting before applying the thumbscrews to Google’s new toy.

14:40
Google asked to pause rule change
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

An EU data protection group writes to Google to ask them to suspend changes to their privacy policy.

14:30
Personal Data’s Value? Facebook Is Set to Find Out
» ‎ NYT > Technology

The social network’s stock offering, expected to value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, is bound to raise even more concerns about privacy and other issues.

14:24
Egypt gunmen snatch US tourists
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Gunmen have snatched two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide near in the Sinai.
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14:17
Three die in Egypt clashes over deadly soccer riot
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Police in Cairo fired salvos of tear gas and birdshot at protesters angry over a deadly soccer riot as fresh clashes on Egyptian streets killed three people on Friday, according to a volunteer doctor and health officials.
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14:08
E.U. Backs Delay in Google's Privacy Policy
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Viviane Reding, the European Union justice commissioner, is pressing Google to halt changes to its privacy policies while the implications for personal data protection are being explored.

14:03
Former PCSO jailed for raping 12-year-old
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
A former police community support officer has been jailed for 10 years for the rape of a 12-year-old girl.
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13:41
£1.5bn bailout for seven NHS trusts
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
The Government has announced a £1.5 billion bailout for NHS trusts suffering serious financial problems.
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13:40
Hospital trusts offered £1.5bn emergency fund to pay PFI bills
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Andrew Lansley says some trusts can no longer afford to honour PFI deals that were 'badly negotiated' by Labour ministers
Seven hospital trusts struggling with crippling private finance initiative debts are to receive £1.5bn in emergency funding from the government to help them avoid cutting patient services to pay their bills.
The Department of Health is making the £1.5bn available – in grants, not loans – to the seven hospital trusts in England with some of the heaviest PFI debts through a "stability" fund. Trusts will be able to use the money to meet PFI repayments, rather than their usual budgets, as long as they meet four conditions set out by the department.
The move will help trusts such as South London Healthcare NHS trust, which is facing a PFI repayment in 2012-13 of £66.8m under the terms of a deal agreed in July 1998, in the early days of Tony Blair's government. They will be able to access the £1.5bn over the next 25 years, until the PFI contracts end.
Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, said he had been forced to use taxpayers' money because certain NHS organisations could no longer afford to honour PFI deals that had been "badly negotiated" by Labour ministers.
"Labour left some parts of the NHS with a dismal legacy of PFI, and made them rely on unworkable plans for the future. They swept these problems under the carpet for a decade and left us with a £60bn postdated PFI cheque to deal with," Lansley said.
"The problems facing some parts of the NHS left to us by Labour now have to be sorted out. Tough solutions may be needed for these problems, but we will not let the sick pay for Labour's debt crisis."
The six other NHS trusts are Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS foundation trust; St Helens and Knowsley; North Cumbria; Dartford and Gravesham; and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.
Without the fund, there was a danger that services would be put "at severe risk" because of the weight of their PFI deals at a time of tightening NHS budgets, according to Department of Health sources.
South London faces the largest annual repayment in 2012-13. The Barking, Havering and Redbridge trust has to find £49.8m on its deal, agreed in January 2004, and the St Helens and Knowsley trust's payment will be £42.5m under the terms of its contract, signed in June 2006.
Lansley acted after 22 hospital trusts told him their PFI debts were endangering their financial or clinical future. Department of Health research established that PFI payments were one of the reasons for trusts' problems.
The department set four conditions for trusts to use the fund:
• The problems they face must be exceptional and beyond those faced by other organisations.
• The problems must be historic and they have a clear plan to manage their resources in the future.
• They must show they are delivering high levels of annual productivity savings.
• They must deliver clinically viable, high quality services, including delivering low waiting times and other performance measures.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, who was health secretary during Labour's time in office, has previously admitted in relation to the deals: "We made mistakes. I'm not defending every penstroke of the PFI contracts we signed."
The money will be available over the remaining lifetime of the seven trusts' PFI contracts. It will come from underspends over that time in different Department of Health budgets.
In December a report into NHS finances by the public accounts committee flagged up looming problems with PFI debt. It concluded: "The cost of private finance schemes is an additional challenge for a limited number of hospitals. Analysis commissioned by the department has identified six trusts that are unviable largely because of their PFI charges. Long-term private finance initiatives deals reduce the department's ability to establish a level playing field of financially sustainable, autonomous trusts.
"In many cases efficiency savings alone will not be enough to make unviable trusts financially sustainable. The department faces a particular dilemma about how to manage the debt of these hospitals as their long-term financial commitments make reconfiguration more difficult," it added.
Denis Campbell
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13:37
Green Liberal Democrat Statement on the Resignation of Chris Huhne
» ‎ Green Liberal Democrats News Stories

The Green Liberal Democrats are saddened to hear of the resigination today of Rt Hon Chris Huhne MP from the role of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Chris was an excellent advocate for the environmental agenda within both the coalition government and the Liberal Democrat party. There is much he can feel proud of from his 20 months in the role - like his leadership role at the Durban Climate Conference, the huge growth in renewable energy during his tenure, and putting the UK Economy on track to meet its carbon targets.

Chris is a Vice-President of the Green Liberal Democrats, and despite the heavy demands of his position, we found him at all times to be supportive, engaging and accessible. We would like to register our gratitude for that and we hope he is able to clear his name swiftly.

We also hope that the Coalition will continue to ensure that tackling environmental issues and reducing the nation's carbon emissions remains at the heart of all government policy. These issues are not only our greatest challenges, but also key opportunities for securing jobs and a sustainable future.

Steve Bradley

Chair, Green Liberal Democrats

On behalf of the Green Liberal Democrat Executive
Published and promoted by Green Liberal Democrats, 8-10 Great George Street, London SW1P 3AE

Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY

13:28
Saving Spain's Socialists: ex-minister fights for control of a party in tatters
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Victory for Carme Chacón in leadership contest would set her on course to be country's first female PM
Spain's opposition Socialist party may set the former defence minister Carme Chacón on the path to becoming the country's first female prime minister at a nail-bitingly close contest for a new leader .
Chacón is in a two-way contest with the former deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba to take over a party in tatters after a rout at elections in November.
Although both candidates worked closely with the former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Chacón is seen as closest to the man who governed Spain for eight years until December.
Zapatero has publicly declared himself neutral in the fight between the two career politicians, but is privately reported to back Chacón.
Rubalcaba, 60, has the open support of Felipe González, who was prime minister from 1982 to 1996. The wily veteran also has the backing of Patxi López, the popular Basque regional prime minister, and of many party veterans.
Chacón, a 40-year-old Catalan who studied part of her law degree at Manchester University, has called on the party's women to back her and appears to have the support of a younger generation of Socialists.
Her team are sure they have won enough pledged votes from delegates who have started gathering in the southern city of Seville for her to win. "She is going to get it," one of her team said.
But Rubalcaba's side also claims to be narrowly ahead in the battle for a majority of the 956 votes at the conference, with a block of up to 100 undecided delegates set to be key.
There is little difference, politically, between the two candidates. Both have veered further left since they were ejected from government in November, but neither belongs to the more rebellious wing of a party that competes for leftwing votes with the communist-led United Left coalition.
Higher taxes on the wealthy and support for the Tobin tax on financial transactions is mixed with a call for Spain to slow its austerity drive to prevent an even deeper fall into recession.
Spain's political system is mostly a two-party affair, with either the Socialists or the conservative People's party (PP) of the current prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, running the government since 1982.
Whoever wins the post of secretary general can expect to challenge Rajoy for the prime minister's job at the next elections, which are due in late 2015 or early 2016.
They can also expect to preside over a fractious party that is bitter about losing power in Madrid as well as in many regional government and town halls.
The first major electoral challenge will be a vote for the regional parliament in the traditional socialist stronghold of southern Andalucía in March. Opinion polls there show the party in danger of losing to Rajoy's PP.
The task of turning around the Socialist vote is immense. It received its lowest overall vote since 1977 at the November general election, with just 110 MPs in the 350-seat parliament. Voters punished it for the economic crisis, massive unemployment and for Zapatero's 2010 U-turn on the economy. Rubalcaba was the candidate for prime minister at that election and Chacón campaigners point to his inability to stave off disaster.
Zapatero imposed austerity, raised the retirement age, froze pensions and cut civil service pay in May 2010 as bond markets put massive pressure on Spain's sovereign debt after the collapse of Greece and neighbouring Portugal.
It is still unclear how much the two candidates can distance themselves from Zapatero – especially as both were cabinet ministers when he performed his policy turnabout.
As opposition leader, they will shadow Rajoy, who has already performed his own U-turn by raising taxes as part of his attempt to cut back a budget deficit of more than 8% last year. With unemployment at 23% and still growing, many Socialists believe Rajoy will soon become vulnerable.
Spain has just entered the second phase of a double-dip recession, with the International Monetary Fund predicting the economy will shrink 1.7% this year. Many economists see the recession stretching into 2013, and Rajoy's embrace of greater austerity will also see more job losses.
The prime minister was recently caught on camera privately admitting that his planned reforms to the labour market, to be announced next week, would provoke a general strike.
Chacón's popularity leapt in 2008 when, aged 37 and seven months pregnant, she was appointed as Spain's first female defence minister by Zapatero. His second-term cabinet, with nine women to eight men, was Europe's first majority-female cabinet.
Giles Tremlett
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

13:24
Football bosses claim victory in satellite TV row
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Football industry bosses today said they would tackle publicans using foreign satellite systems to broadcast Premier League action without permission after a new court ruling in a long-running row over the screening of live games in bars.
Related Stories
- Move over Moyles ... John Humphrys closes in on Radio 1's biggest star
13:14
Ed Davey takes over as Energy Secretary
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Ed Davey has replaced Chris Huhne as Energy Secretary, Downing Street announced today.
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13:00
Minus 11 as UK braces for widespread snow
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Britain is lying in wait for widespread snow this weekend after another bitterly cold day in which temperatures in some places struggled to get above freezing.
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12:46
Police ask former NoW staff to help with phone-hacking probe
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Operation Weeting officers ask former journalists to act as witnesses in investigation into phone hacking
Several former News of the World staff have been called by police in the past few days to see if they are willing to act as witnesses in the investigation into phone hacking.
Former journalists at all levels at the now-defunct News International tabloid, who have had no known involvement in phone hacking, have been asked by officers to give accounts of their time at the News of the World.
Some have been called in the past week by officers from Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police unit responsible for investigating phone hacking, to see if they are willing to give a witness statement.
The former staffers contacted say they have been asked to see the police on a voluntary basis. One of those contacted said they were told that the police were aiming to talk to as many former News of the World journalists as they could.
Another former journalist, who asked not to be named, told MediaGuardian: "I was surprised to get the call from the police but am talking to them about what it will involve."
The Metropolitan police declined to comment.
Last month, News International chief executive Tom Mockridge revealed that the Met had just given the company permission to conduct interviews with News of the World staff.
"The company has been restricted in conducting its own investigation in order to avoid prejudicing the police investigation," he told the Leveson inquiry.
"We have, however, very recently obtained permission from the Metropolitan Police Service for Linklaters to begin its own investigative efforts in relation to the News of the World."
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
Tara ConlanDan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

12:40
Tougher sentences to be imposed on arms traders
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Criminals who trade in illegal firearms face severe sentences, leading judges warned today as they doubled the number of years to be served by a man caught by police with a loaded revolver.
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12:34
China cut off internet in area of Tibetan unrest
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Internet connections and mobile phone signals were cut for 30 miles around scene of clashes in Sichuan, state media reports
Chinese officials cut off mobile phone and internet connections to areas where Tibetans were shot dead amid unrest last month, state media has reported.
Officials say security forces fired in self-defence after mobs of rioters attacked police and official buildings in the south-western province of Sichuan, resulting in two deaths.
Tibetan exiles and campaign groups say police fired at peaceful protesters and killed at least three people.
It has been impossible to verify accounts of the unrest. Foreign reporters attempting to visit the region have been turned back, with officials blaming bad weather and the state of the roads.
Friday's English-language edition of the Global Times newspaper published a report from the region titled Monks Run Amok. The police chief of Luhuo in Ganzi – a county known to Tibetans as Drango – said police first tried to disperse rioters with high-power water guns and rubber bullets, but failed.
"Rioters continued to attack and tried to grab the guns from the police," he told the paper. "[Officers] first shot in the air as a warning, but it was completely ignored, so we had no other choice but to open fire."
The newspaper said the incident began with a protest that became violent. It said other Tibetan-populated counties had quickly tightened security, allowing police to quickly control the next day's unrest in Seda, known to Tibetans as Serthar, where another Tibetan was shot dead.
"After the riots, internet connections and mobile phone signals were cut off for over 50km [30 miles] around the riot areas. Police believe external forces played a part in the riots," the newspaper said.
In 2009, China cut off internet and text messaging services across the north-western region of Xinjiang after ethnic riots in the capital, Urumqi, left almost 200 dead.
Officials blamed "trained separatists" for instigating the events in Ganzi. They have also sought to blame outsiders for a string of self-immolations by Tibetan clergy and laypeople over the last year, mostly in Sichuan.
China appears to have stepped up security across other Tibetan areas, with the top party official in Lhasa urging security forces to increase surveillance of monasteries and main roads in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Qi Zhala ordered all people entering Tibet to carry identification cards from March, the state news agency Xinhua reported. He urged officials to strive for "no big incidents, no medium incidents and not even a small incident".
Tania Branigan
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12:23
Oliver Wright: Huhne the bruiser will be a hard act to follow
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Today’s departure of Chris Huhne from the Cabinet will, in the short term, make little difference to the Coalition or its policy agenda.
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12:19
Scientists suggest life can't exist on Mars' surface
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

B-movie sci-fi fans prepare to be disappointed: the surface of Mars is officially an unlikely place to find life after a 600 million year drought.

David Bowie's planet looks like it has been completely arid for over 600 million years, according to researchers at Imperial College London, which has made it far too hostile for life to survive on the surface. A team of researchers has been pouring over data from NASA's 2008 Phoenix trip to Mars, where Phoenix landed and searched for any signs that the planet was habitable. It was also used to analyse ice and soil it could collect.

Unfortunately for sci-fi buffs, the results of the soil analysis point to Mars having been arid for hundreds of millions of years. That is despite the ice on the planet. Prior research showed that Mars could have had a warmer and wetter climate in its history but that would have been over 3 billion years ago.

Of course, Phoenix was only able to trawl a portion of the planet, but satellite images, along with previous studies, do suggest that the same soil can be found across the whole planet - meaning the team's findings could be applied to all of Mars.

Dr Pike, lead author on the study, said: "We found that even though there is an abundance of ice, Mars has been experiencing a super-drought that may well have lasted hundreds of millions of years."

However, Pike did say the team thinks Mars is very different now than in its earlier history. Future NASA and ESA missions, he said, will dig deeper to explore the possibility of life underground.
12:01
RIAA opposes more reasonable anti-piracy bill
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

A new anti-piracy bill that is going through Congress has not got the backing of the Recording Industry Association of America.

Dubbed the OPEN Act, the RIAA says that it will do nothing to stop online infringement and "may even make the problem worse."

According to Ars Technica, Big Content is apparently leaning on its sock puppets to kill the bill until it includes a few more draconian punishments and draws up the US Constitution to give it total control.

The RIAA thinks that the bill does not establish a workable framework, standards, or remedies. It is not supported by those it purports to protect.

OPEN is sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and tries to shift enforcement against rogue sites to the International Trade Commission.

If the ITC found a site was dedicated to infringement, the site would be cut off from American advertising and payment networks.

However, the RIAA is worried that this will take ages and indeed, the ITC might actually carry out an investigation rather than take its word as proof of infringement.

The process envisioned by OPEN would allow for "endless submissions by parties such as Google" to slow down the process.

We have already reported how the MPAA thinks that Google runs the internet so this might explain why the search engine got a mention.

The RIAA also warns that the need to hire an attorney to navigate the ITC's arcane legal process will "put justice out of reach for small business American victims of IP theft." We would be intrigued to know which small business would be interested in trying to take a pirate site to the cleaners. Under the current system we have not seen a family business try to take down a file sharer. So far the main prosecutors have been Big Content and while we understand it wants to have the state do its enforcement for it, that is not really what tax dollars are for.

The RIAA also says it's "virtually impossible" to prove that a site infringed wilfully, as OPEN requires.

OPEN "needs to be scrapped," the statement says. "Stakeholders and Congress need to start over with a fresh look at solving this problem."

We guess it will not be happy until it can round up every internet user on suspicion of piracy and shove them into death camps, using US troops to invade countries which are havens for software and music piracy.

11:55
VIDEO: 'Flying people' and other tech news
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a remote-controlled man-shaped plane. This and more in this week's tech news.

11:51
Huhne: The exchange of letters and Clegg's statement
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
This is the full text of the resignation letter sent by former energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and Mr Clegg's reply:
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11:51
Chris Huhne's and Nick Clegg's exchange of letters
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
This is the full text of the resignation letter sent by former energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and Mr Clegg's reply:
Related Stories

11:50
3-minute interview: why marketing technologists now
» ‎ Chief Marketing Technologist

Bertil Snel, who arranged for me to present on the marketing technologist role at last year's Adobe Partner Day, just posted a follow-up — the marketer of the future is a "techy" — including a post-event video interview we did backstage.

His post is in Dutch, but thanks to the miracle of Google Translate, I'm pretty sure that he's not making fun of my exaggerated hand waving. But judge for yourself. Here's the 3-minute "short version" of the marketing technologist pitch:

11:49
Huhne entitled to £17,000 pay-off
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Resigned energy secretary Chris Huhne is entitled to a severance payment of more than £17,000.
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11:48
Megaupload bail appeal rejected
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Kim Dotcom's bail appeal is rejected by a New Zealand Court, as US campaigners hint at legal action to prevent files being deleted.

11:42
Top universities warned over places for 'disadvantaged' students
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Top universities in England were warned yesterday they face having to slash their fees if they fail to recruit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Related Stories
- Don't reward teachers indiscriminately says Ofsted head
11:36
Don't reward teachers indiscriminately says Ofsted head
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Teachers should be refused pay rises if they cannot inspire their pupils and improve their performance, the chief inspector of schools said yesterday.
Related Stories
- Top universities warned over places for 'disadvantaged' students

11:27
France fines Google for free maps
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

A French map maker which charges companies to use its maps has won its case against Google Maps for offering them for free.

Bottin Cartographes made stacks of cash charging customers to use its maps but suddenly saw its business drop when Google Maps started offering them for free.

It went to a French court and claimed that Google was trying to gain control of the market by undercutting existing French map providers, then start charging. It has a point. In the US that is exactly what Google has done, but at the time of the court case - which was nearly two years ago - no one knew this.

According to IT World, the court decided that if Google wanted to enter the market it would have to charge for its products. The French judge banged the gravel and fined the search engine €515,000.

Needless to say, Google is a bit annoyed, and rather than think that it is lucky to have escaped without a trip to see Madame Guillotine, it plans to appeal.
11:16
Thousands queue to make Apple gear
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

You would think that with all the bad publicity Foxconn has been getting about its working conditions, it might have a few problems finding workers for its plants.

Apparently not. According to Chinese website Mic Gadget, Foxconn wants to increase its workforce in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou and despite the stories of suicides, explosions, over zealous security guards and roof top protests over broken promises, people are still interested in working there.

The site shows thousands of aspirants are lining up for jobs in Foxconn "not a sweatshop" style factories. They all lined up outside a labour office in Zhengzhou, the largest city of Henan province in North central China.

It is possible that they got the message all wrong and they thought they were fanboys queuing up to buy an iPhone 4S, but this is unlikely as some of them had job applications in their hands.

Foxconn, whose CEO famously said that he needed to take tips on managing his staff from the local zoo, wants to hire an additional 100,000 employees as it is aiming at augmenting its iPhone production.

According to advertisements the pay package at Foxconn starts at $261 and it is likely to reach somewhere around $379 after an appraisal. The company is also providing food and lodging facilities.

11:14
Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Managing Folders in the Safari Bookmarks Bar
» ‎ NYT > Technology

If you use Safari, working within the browser's bookmark manager is usually the easiest way to organize, rearrange and delete bookmarks from folders in the Bookmarks Bar or from the Bookmarks menu itself.

11:13
Verisign hacked
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

Network infrastructure company Verisign has admitted it was hacked throughout 2010 and has not got a clue what data has been pinched.

The firm told Reuters it "does not believe" the attacks breached servers that support the Domain Name System (DNS) but it could not rule it out.

Data stolen from Verisign's DNS could allow attackers to intercept unencrypted communications and redirect traffic to malicious web sites. Verisign itself is keeping quiet about the hack and has only told its staff an "ugly, slim sliver of facts".

The breaches were revealed in an October US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing required to be disclosed to investors under US law and were only uncovered when Reuters went through more than 2000 SEC filings looking for information on data breach risks.

Verisign security staff apparently reacted quickly to the attack but forgot to mention it to their bosses.

Symantec, which bought Verisign's digital certificate arm in early 2010, said there was "no evidence" it was affected by the breach.

11:09
Divorce tycoon loses passport bid
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Property tycoon Scot Young today failed in his High Court bid to get his passport back.
Related Stories

11:00
Open Letter to Board Members
» ‎ Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog

Hey, I get it. You’re a dedicated board member and you are invested all the way from your hair follicles to your bunions in your nonprofit organization’s mission. You want everyone to know how awesome your nonprofit is. For whatever reason, what comes naturally is to emblazon your mission statement everywhere you can: annual reports, brochures and, in a streak of misinformed enthusiasm, your website homepage.

Oh, no. No, no. You are sorely mistaken there. Your mission statement does not belong on your homepage. I would argue that thing shouldn’t be within throwing distance of your website. Your site is not a place where you need to talk about how you’re meeting your organizational vision. In fact, the words “vision,” “mission statement” and “statement of purpose” have no business anywhere on your website.

Why? Because nobody cares. I’m not trying to be mean here, there’s just no other way to say it. I guarantee the people you’re serving care more about what you’re doing for them than looking at your gobbledygook mission statement.

I’ll tell you now that no pregnant teen, no neglected pet, no activist, congregant, health worker, educator, mentor, counselor or any other type online audience member visiting a nonprofit’s website ever needs to know the mission statement. Not one!

I’m writing to you directly, dear board member, because you’re the unseen reverser of many a good decision about website homepages. I know this because in my work at a web development firm, I lead our clients through a painstaking process of identifying the most important information for the homepage. We look for something that will keep them there longer than 10 seconds. Too often a board member steps in during final approval to insist on the mission statement going front and center. So back we step.

Listen, I’m not a board member. I don’t know what goes on behind doors when choosing a mission statement. It could be a mixed martial arts battle over which words to choose (“innovation” or “enrich”? “Potential” or “realize”?). You might have bloody lips and bruises that prove your mix of bizpeak is the best. Respect, man. That’s got to be tough.

Still, though. It doesn’t change that no one cares.

So for pity’s sake, pretty please stop insisting your mission statement appears anywhere on your website homepage.

Respectfully yours,

Frustrated web developers everywhere

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10:49
Miliband urges bankers to reconnect
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Ed Miliband warned bankers today they must wave goodbye to their culture of "excessive" bonuses and reconnect with the rest of the country.
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10:49
Lib Dems win from Labour
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Liberal Democrats gained from Labour in this week's only reported council by-election.
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10:23
The internet's secret black market
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Drugs and guns for sale on the internet's black market

10:22
The DPP's full statement on Huhne
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
The Crown Prosecution Service explained how it arrived at the decision to bring charges against Chris Huhne and his former wife Vicky Pryce in a statement today.
Related Stories

10:21
VIDEO: The untraceable 'dark web'
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Out of reach of regular internet searches is the secretive online world known as the 'dark web' where you can shop for illegal goods, and where customers go by code names.

10:20
Jobs fear as glass-maker Pilkington cuts back
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Glass manufacturer Pilkington is to cut production at a UK factory under plans to axe 3,500 jobs worldwide.
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10:15
Largest optical telescope created
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Astronomers at the Paranal observatory combine four telescope to create the world's largest virtual device with a 130m-mirror.

9:57
US lawmaker wants to tax violent games
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

A US lawmaker has hit on a wizard wheeze to make money off violent video games.

An Oklahoma state representative with the ironic name of Will Fourkiller wants to get a bit of cash from the gaming industry while at the same time sending a message that violent games are bad for you.

Unfortunately for Mr Fourkiller, the US has this thing called Freedom of Speech so he can't ban violent games, so he shows that he learned a thing or two from the way the state handled the cigarette industry. There, the State made shedloads of cash while at the same time discouraging people from smoking. It worked, right? Well, the State had access to a lot more money it didn't have before.

Fourkiller told Kfor that he has seen first hand how video games can lead to obesity, and says research shows they can lead to bullying. Of course if you followed the same logic you would tax fast food and High Schools which also do that.

Fourkiller also shows that he is ahead of the game with his knowledge of violent video games. He cited a game called "Bully" claiming that "bullying is often what happens when kids play these games". Bully came out in 2006 and has not been seen since 2008. It's for the Playstation 2.

Fourkiller also trotted out the line a that a man who shot a police officer only did so because he played Grand Theft Auto. Generally, if you are the sort who is going to kill someone, you will do it even if you play badminton.

Fourkiller said that he believes that after hours of watching the screen, playing the video game, being that person and taking on that role, people get desensitised.

Anyway, he has introduced HB 2696, which would place an excise tax of one percent on violent games that carry a software rating of Teen, Mature, or Adult Only.

The money collected will fund the state's Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund to fight obesity and the Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund.

Presumably this would not apply to the free to play videogame developed by the US government, America's Army, in which soldiers carry guns and generally use them to shoot at other people.

9:52
Liberal Democrat News 3rd February 2012
» ‎ Liberal Democrats RSS

Clegg calls time on unfair tax system

At the Institute for Government last Friday, the Deputy Prime Minister gave a major speech on tax and supporting working families.

“The tax system,” said Nick Clegg, “should be designed to reward effort, enterprise and innovation... and bear down on those things which are bad for our society.
“Attitudes to tax are a good proxy for our deepest political instincts and the three major political traditions in the UK – conservatism, socialism and liberalism – have very distinct approaches.”

“The liberal approach, put most simply, is based on a profound commitment to the value of paid work. Citizens are empowered when they can keep the fruits of their own labour. And fiscal liberalism supports taxes on unearned wealth... precisely to lighten taxes on the incomes of hardworking people.

“So the Coalition is calling time on our unfair and out-of-whack tax system.
We’ve put up Capital Gains Tax; we’ve reduced tax breaks on pension funds for the very rich; we’ve clamped down on avoidance – the steps taken already will raise an extra £7bn every year by the end of this parliament. And our priority in government - from the front cover of the Lib Dem manifesto to the pages of the Coalition Agreement - is freeing the lowest-paid from income tax altogether... and cutting income tax for millions of ordinary workers.

“Whether you call them the ‘squeezed middle’, ‘hard-working families’, or, as I have, ‘alarm clock Britain’… it’s the people who whose incomes are too high to qualify for welfare benefits but too low to provide any real financial security who need this extra help. Over the last few decades wage rises have outpaced the increase in the allowance... so that more people have been sucked into the income tax net.

“At the last election my party promised to raise the personal allowance for ordinary taxpayers to £10,000 and I am extremely proud that the Coalition has committed to doing so over the course of this Parliament. I want to make clear that I want the Coalition to go further and faster in delivering the full £10,000 allowance.
Because the pressure on family finances is reaching boiling point … these families cannot be made to wait.

“Delivering the £10,000 personal allowance more quickly will need to be fully funded. But to those who say: we cannot afford to do this. I say: we cannot afford not to do this.

“It is often said that to govern is to choose... and, in particular, to choose whose side you are on. That is especially true when there is no money around. My choice – the Liberal Democrat’s choice – is clear: I want to help hard-pressed and hardworking families. If that means asking more from those at the top – so be it.

“We are committed to eliminating the deficit... and eliminate it we will. But I am determined that we do so in a way that is fair...that rebalances our economy...that gives the right people the right rewards.
“People look to the Liberal Democrats to keep this Coalition anchored in the centre ground. They want economic competence, but they want compassion too.
It is our job to make sure this government delivers both.”

9:45
Zombie botnet Kelihos rises from the dead
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

The Kelihos botnet which was killed by Microsoft and Kaspersky Labs in September is back for its expected sequel.

Microsoft and Kaspersky started in the original botnet horror flick, crippling the Kelihos botnet by forcing everyone in it to communicate with a tame computer leaving it to wither and die in what is called a "sinkhole".

However, everyone knows that a monster like Kelihos will be back for at least three sequels, with most of the original cast dead by the second reel.

Kelihos II,"Back from the Sink Hole", reveals that while everyone thought that it was a simple botnet serving up nearly 4 billion spam messages a day, promoting, among other things, pornography, illegal pharmaceuticals and stock scams, Kelihos was actually an evil Zombie botnet which can rise from the grave.

Part of the problem is that the computers that comprised Kelihos were still infected with its code and the controller of the botnet just used the botnet's complex infrastructure of proxy servers and communication nodes to regain control.

Ram Herkanaidu, security researcher and education manager for Kaspersky Lab, said that unfortunately it was illegal for security experts to update infected machines to clean them up.

Even with the best intentions, that would be hacking. Because the good guys were too good, Kelihos is out and this time it is angry.

He seems to have emerged from hell with an updated form of encryption to mask the communication with the botnet controllers.

Two different RSA keys are being used for encryption, which means it is possible two different groups are controlling Kelihos.

Microsoft claims that Andrey Sabelnikov of St. Petersburg wrote the code for the botnet, although he says he is innocent.

Microsoft said it is working with Kaspersky on studying the latest Kelihos developments. This time the story will probably end with Kelihos dowsed in flames falling into the River Volga and everyone thinking they are safe again.

That is until Kelihos III, "this time it is personal."

7:29
BT cuts costs to increase profits
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Telecoms group BT reports a sharp rise in profits, thanks largely to a jump in the number of broadband users.
7:11
Panasonic predicts a record loss
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic forecasts a record net annual loss of $10bn for the year to March.

7:00
5 reasons why you should consider blogging
» ‎ Z-Blog
Some argue that blogging is passé, but nothing could be further from the truth. Available tools enable all of us to express ourselves, share our views and especially knowledge and experience with a much wider audience than ever before. I really believe that everyone should and can blog. Indeed, it’s not surprising to anyone who knows me that that is a reason why Zemanta is part of my life: to make blogging easier for everyone.

Last weekend I read Antonio Cangiano’s (IBM) great blog post on why every professional should consider blogging. It inspired me to think more about why we all should do it. Here are my five main reasons why you should at least consider blogging if you’re not already doing it.

1. Blogging improves your storytelling skills

Blogging is about storytelling, either in words, with pictures, videos or podcasts. Storytelling is nowadays essential part of (content) marketing. But storytelling isn’t so much about talent; it’s a skill that needs constant nurture. Practice makes you better. And blogging is a perfect opportunity to polish your storytelling skills.

2. Blogging improves your communication skills
By polishing your storytelling skills, you also improve your communication skills. Are you shy, introverted, do you have low self-esteem, maybe you don’t know how to sell yourself? Blogging will help you overcome these obstacles. Communication essentially means to convey information to others. The better your communication skills the better you can sell your ideas, skills and knowledge to others. This is one of the reasons why I started blogging in the first place.

3. Sharing is caring
I am a whole-hearted advocate of the philosophy that knowledge is to be shared. Blogging can be a great platform for sharing what you’ve learned and know with others who may be interested in what you have to say and learn from you so they can improve their lives.

4. Position yourself as a thought leader
Blogging helps you build corporate and personal credibility. This is how you can position yourself as a thought leader in the marketplace. Indeed, thought leaders are perceived experts and everyone is expert in something. When done right, blogging can give thought leaders great visibility in the search engine results. Therefore, blogging connects you with others. That’s how great blogging can be.

5. Blogging builds your personal information repository
This is another reason why I decided to blog. Every day we are bombarded with tons of information we try to consume. Every one of us has his/her own way of looking for particular information. Blogging, however, helps archive information you will sooner or later need again. I regularly browse my blog and in this way remind myself of issues, solutions, and ideas I might have already forgotten, but are still useful. Sometimes it’s fun and a bit of an ego boost (we all need it from time to time) to check how far you’ve come.

What do you think about these 5 main reasons why everyone should blog? What other reasons would you add to these five?
Related articles
- Guest Blog Post: 3 Reasons YOU Are Not A Thought Leader (zemanta.com)
- Point of View: Jason Falls (zemanta.com)
- Zemanta Best of 2011 – Power User Interviews (zemanta.com)

6:23
The Bay Citizen: GitHire, a Headhunter, Is Swamped After Promising 5 Hire-Worthy Bay Area Programmers for $1,000
» ‎ NYT > Technology

GitHire, a new source for technology-industry hiring in the Bay Area, promises the names of five great programmers for $1,000, but there are only so many people in this field around.
0:06
Gadgetwise Blog: Photo Apps Move to the Desktop
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Photo software makers are releasing simple but powerful desktop versions of phone and tablet photo apps.

0:05
Viewpoint: The connected workforce
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Google on technology that could change the way we work

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