Sunday, March 31, 2013

The next $1B markets in tech - Business Insider

Reuters

Social e-commerce is going to be BIG.

New tech industries start small but can grow into permanent, billion dollar slices of infrastructure. Sometimes that seems to happen overnight ? like with smartphones.

And sometimes it takes years ? like with the dumb phones that grew like mold from the mid-1990s through the late 2000s.

And now, for example, the prevalence of smart mobile devices has spurred the mobile app industry, an entirely new piece of infrastructure which supports thousands of companies and billions of dollars in sales.

There is a discussion going on over at Quora about which industries are poised to gain the next $1 billion.

We pulled out a few of the most interesting and explored why they're set to explode.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-next-1b-markets-in-tech-2013-3

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Senate group resolves key issues on immigration reform: lawmakers (reuters)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Toddler Picks Lock, Raids Sister's Room to Gank Pillow Pet at Night

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/toddler-picks-lock-raids-sisters-room-to-gank-pillow-pet-at-nigh/

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Keep police business off Facebook, NYPD tells cops

The New York Police Department has begun policing how its officers use Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

An internal order made public on Thursday advises members of the nation's largest police department to be careful with what they reveal online ? even urging them not to disclose that they're on the force.

Officers "are to exercise good judgment and demonstrate professionalism expected of them while performing their official duties," the memo says. It also warns that "personal social media sites may be used against them to undermine the credibility of the department, interfere with official police business, compromise ongoing investigations and affect their employment status."

The guidelines bar officers from posting photos of themselves in uniform ? with the exception of those taken at promotion or awards ceremonies ? unless they have permission from the department. Officers could face discipline if they don't comply.

Police officials said the policy has been in the works for about two years, and arose out of concern that police officers' online postings could embarrass the NYPD or be misinterpreted as official police policy. The department punished more than a dozen officers after they made degrading remarks about revelers at the West Indian Day Parade in 2011.

"We believe these guidelines are reasonable and make sense," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which represents 23,000 police officers, declined comment. In the past, the union has cautioned its members about what they post and who they interact with on the Internet.

The NYPD edict prohibits the posting on personal websites of crime scene photos or witness statements. It also bars officers from using social media to contact witnesses, crime victims or lawyers involved in pending cases, or to contact minors who aren't part of their families.

"Such communications may be deemed inappropriate or unethical and may jeopardize an ongoing investigation," it says.

The adoption of guidelines was first reported in the Daily News.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a241b59/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Ckeep0Epolice0Ebusiness0Efacebook0Enypd0Etells0Ecops0E1C9143650A/story01.htm

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Iran, North Korea, Syria block U.N. arms trade treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.

To get around the blockade, British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly.

U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday.

"A good, strong treaty has been blocked," said Britain's chief delegate, Joanne Adamson. "Most people in the world want regulation and those are the voices that need to be heard."

"This is success deferred," she added.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman, told a group of reporters, "We look forward to this treaty being adopted very soon by the United Nations General Assembly." He declined to predict the result of a vote but said it would be a "substantial majority" in favor.

U.N. member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

Arms control activists and human rights groups say a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

Delegates to the treaty-drafting conference said on Wednesday they were close to a deal to approve the treaty, but cautioned that Iran and other countries might attempt to block it. Iran, Syria and North Korea did just that, blocking the required consensus for it to pass.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told Iran's Press TV that Tehran supported the arms trade treaty. But Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the conference that he could not accept the treaty in its current form.

"The achievement of such a treaty has been rendered out of reach due to many legal flaws and loopholes," he said. "It is a matter of deep regret that genuine efforts of many countries for a robust, balanced and non-discriminatory treaty were ignored."

One of those flaws was its failure to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit "acts of aggression," ostensibly referring to rebel groups, he said. The current draft does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

'HELD HOSTAGE'

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed the Iranian concerns, saying he also objected to the fact that it does not prohibit weapons transfers to rebel groups.

"Unfortunately our national concerns were not taken into consideration," he said. "It can't be accepted by my country."

North Korea's delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty: "This (treaty) is not balanced."

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats said. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.

North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Russia and China made clear they would not have blocked it but voiced serious reservations about the text and its failure to get consensus. A Russian delegate told the conference that Moscow would have to think hard about signing it if it were approved. India, Pakistan and others complained that the treaty favors exporters and creates disadvantages for arms importers.

If adopted by the General Assembly, the pact will need to be signed and ratified by at least 50 states to enter into force.

Several diplomats and human rights groups that have lobbied hard in favor of the treaty complained that the requirement of consensus for the pact to pass was something that the United States insisted on years ago. That rule gave every U.N. member state the ability to veto the draft treaty.

"The world has been held hostage by three states," said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. "We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional."

"Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated," she added.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

Washington demanded that the conference be run on the basis of consensus because it wanted to be able to block any treaty that undermined the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms, a sensitive political issue in the United States. Countryman said the draft treaty did not undermine U.S. rights.

The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-north-korea-syria-block-u-n-arms-002525001.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Judge rejects divorce for transgender pregnant man

PHOENIX (AP) ? An Arizona judge on Friday refused to grant a divorce for a transgender Arizona man who gave birth to three children after beginning to change his sex from female.

Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled that Arizona's ban on same-sex marriages prevents Thomas Beatie's 9-year union from being recognized as valid.

Thomas Beatie was born a woman and later underwent a double-mastectomy, and began testosterone hormone therapy and psychological treatment to become a man, but he retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children.

Gerlach said he had no jurisdiction to approve a divorce because there's insufficient evidence that Beatie was a man when he married Nancy Beatie in Hawaii. He said the Beaties never provided records to fully explain what Thomas Beatie actually had done and not done to become a man.

"The decision here is not based on the conclusion that this case involves a same-sex marriage merely because one of the parties is a transsexual male, but instead, the decision is compelled by the fact that the parties failed to prove that (Thomas Beatie) was a transsexual male when they were issued their marriage license," he wrote in Friday's ruling.

A spokesman for Beatie, Ryan Gordon, said the judge's comments came as a shock and that Beatie plans to appeal the ruling. He said Beatie legally was married as a man and never was required to disclose that he retained female reproductive organs when applying for and being granted a new birth certificate in Hawaii as a man. He said Beatie halted testosterone treatments so that he could give birth to his children.

"It's unfortunate that the judge out here doesn't recognize marriage in another state," Gordon said.

Beatie is eager to end his marriage, but the couple's divorce plans stalled last summer when Gerlach said he was unable to find legal authority defining a man as someone who can give birth.

Gerlach's ruling didn't address whether Arizona law allows a person who was born female to marry another female after undergoing a sex change operation.

A separate ruling issued Friday by Gerlach sets guidelines on how the Beaties will co-parent their three children and grants them joint authority in making legal decisions. Thomas Beatie is required to pay nearly $240 a month to Nancy Beatie for child support, but she won't get alimony because the marriage was declared invalid.

Nancy Beatie's attorney, David Higgins, praised Gerlach for the thoroughness of the decision on the marriage, although it wasn't the one she had hoped for.

"He still sees a same-sex marriage, but he gave us all the rulings that we're asking for as far as the children," Higgins said.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which isn't involved in the Beatie divorce case, has said courts have declared marriages involving a transgender person invalid in a handful of cases across the country, but that those cases had different factual and legal issues than those in the Beatie case.

Thomas Beatie, known as "The Pregnant Man," was born Tracy Lehuanani Lagondino in Oahu, Hawaii. He began testosterone treatments in 1997 and underwent double mastectomy and chest reconstruction surgery in 2002. He changed his Hawaii driver's license to say he was a man and had a Hawaiian court approve his name change to Thomas.

Gerlach's ruling noted that Thomas Beatie halted the testosterone treatments and that he didn't provide documentation for any additional non-surgical efforts.

Thomas Beatie married his partner Nancy in early 2003 in Honolulu and became pregnant because Nancy was unable to have children. Thomas Beatie conceived with donated sperm and gave birth to children who are now 4, 3 and 2 years old. The couple eventually moved to Arizona.

Beatie has garnered a range of media attention, making the rounds on talk shows such as Larry King and Oprah Winfrey and winning a spot on Barbara Walters' list of "10 Most Fascinating People" in 2008, alongside President Barack Obama, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh and swimmer Michael Phelps. He also published a book, "Labor Of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy," the cover displaying an image of a shirtless Thomas sporting facial hair and holding a hand over his bare pregnant belly.

___

Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Ariz. Associated Press Writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rejects-divorce-transgender-pregnant-man-162832151.html

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Obama pitches public works spending to create jobs

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

President Barack Obama removes his jacket before touring a tunnel project at the Port of Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, while promoting a plan to create jobs by attracting private investment in highways and other public works. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama tours a tunnel project at the Port of Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, while promoting a plan to create jobs by attracting private investment in highways and other public works. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

(AP) ? Trying to show that the economy remains a top priority, President Barack Obama promoted a plan Friday to create construction and other jobs by attracting private money to help rebuild roads, bridges and other public works projects.

Obama fleshed out the details during a visit to a Miami port that's undergoing $2 billion in upgrades paid for with government and private dollars. The quick trip was designed to show that the economy and unemployment are top priorities for a president who also is waging high-profile campaigns on immigration reform and gun control.

Obama said the unemployment rate among construction workers was the highest of any industry, despite being cut nearly in half over the past three years.

"There are few more important things we can do to create jobs right now and strengthen our economy over the long haul than rebuilding the infrastructure that powers our businesses and economy," Obama said. "As president, my top priority is to make sure we are doing everything we can to reignite the true engine of our economic growth ? and that is a rising, thriving middle class."

Among the proposals Obama called for, which require approval from Congress, are:

?$4 billion in new spending on two infrastructure programs that award loans and grants.

?Higher caps on "private activity bonds" to encourage more private spending on highways and other infrastructure projects. State and local governments use the bonds to attract investment.

?Giving foreign pension funds tax-exempt status when selling U.S. infrastructure, property or real estate assets. U.S. pension funds are generally tax exempt in those circumstances. The administration says some international pension funds cite the tax burden as a reason for not investing in American infrastructure.

?A renewed call for a $10 billion national "infrastructure bank."

Arriving at the expansive port in Miami, Obama stood inside a double-barreled, concrete-laced hole in the ground, touring a tunnel project that will connect the port to area highways. The project has received loans and grants under the programs Obama touted and is expected to open next summer.

The president made private-sector infrastructure investment a key part of the economic agenda he rolled out in his State of the Union address last month. In the speech, he also called for a "Fix-It-First" program that would spend $40 billion in taxpayer funds on urgent repairs.

Congressional approval is not a sure bet, considering that House Republicans have shown little appetite for Obama's spending proposals. In fact, the infrastructure bank is an idea Obama called for many times in the past, but it gained little traction during his first term.

Obama's focus on generating more private-sector investment underscores the tough road new spending faces on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers often threaten to block new spending unless it's paid for by cutting taxes or other spending. "These are projects that are helpful to the economy and shouldn't break down on partisan lines," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

But Florida Republicans, including Gov. Rick Scott, faulted Obama for being "late to the party." Before Obama arrived in Florida, Scott argued that state taxpayers have had to pick up too much of the tab for this and other port projects because the president was slow to support them.

Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters traveling with Obama that the initiatives discussed Friday will cost $21 billion, not including the $40 billion for "Fix-It-First." Krueger said any increased spending associated with the proposals would not add to the deficit.

Krueger said details of how the programs would be paid for would be included in the budget Obama is scheduled to release on April 10.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-29-Obama/id-2293a13f06f14aa1b27b34591cc46a6c

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MOBILE WEBSITE RESELLER BUSINESS - Fully ... - Flippa

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Mobile Website Creation Service is high in demand and the best part of this type service is the Repetitive Customers. The demand for mobile friendly websites has exploded within the last few years and therefore investing in the mobile web sites development has therefore become a very lucrative business. The importance of Mobile web has suddenly increased with the mobile revolution. Today, the number of individuals who use mobile web to find information about the products and services they need has increased in leaps and bounds. ?This is a perfect business website for the beginners, newbies, Internet marketers, or for the people who really desire to own a fully automated and outsourced online business which makes huge profit with less efforts.

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Extended (Customer Pays $197) - (Your Cost: $110) = $87 PROFIT
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Note** All price only suggestion price, as the owner of this business you have authority to change it with suitable price.


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  2. FREE?transfer to your hosting account?(worth $47)
  3. FREE?Premium Wordpress Theme (worth $50)
  4. FREE?Complete set of WordPress Plugins installed for you?(worth $57)
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  6. FREE?30 days for hosting your site?(worth $37)
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All these worth at least?$649, and these are all yours regardless of how much you win the auction for!

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Terms of Service

????????? Winner will have?72 hours?after the auction ends to make the payment via PayPal. If I didn?t received any payment from that time period, I have right to dispute the sale and the winner get more 72 hours to answer or reply the dispute report.

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Source: https://flippa.com/2906310-mobile-website-reseller-business-fully-outsourced-no-exp-req-high-profit

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Newtown gunman Adam Lanza fired 155 bullets in less than five minutes, prosecutor says

Search warrants and other documents released by prosecutors show that shooter Adam Lanza fired 154 bullets from his rifle in less than five minutes. NBC News' Michael Isikoff has more.

By Michael Isikoff, Tom Winter and Erin McClam, NBC News

Adam Lanza left a home stuffed with weaponry and carried out the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in a 154-bullet barrage that took less than five minutes, investigators said Thursday in the first detailed account of his surroundings and troubled state of mind.

Search warrants from the second-worst school shooting in American history revealed that the home Lanza shared with his mother in Newtown, Conn., was a veritable arsenal: Authorities found at least nine knives, three Samurai swords, two rifles, 1,600 rounds of ammunition and a 7-foot, wood-handled pole with a blade on one side and a spear on the other.

Authorities also recovered a certificate in Lanza?s name from the National Rifle Association, seven of his journals, drawings that he made and books from the house, including books on living with mental illness.

The warrants offered a thorough look at the environment in which Lanza lived before he shot his mother, Nancy, to death and drove to Sandy Hook on the morning of Dec. 14. Twenty first-graders and six teachers and staff were killed before Lanza shot himself to death with the 155th bullet.

An FBI report based on interviews with people who knew him said that Lanza rarely left home, considered himself a shut-in and was an avid gamer who played ?Call of Duty,? a first-person shooter game. Lanza considered the elementary school his ?life,? the papers said.

Among other items seized from the home were a holiday card containing a check from his mother to buy a firearm, an article from The New York Times about a 2008 school shooting at Northern Illinois University and three photographs of what appeared to be a dead person covered with plastic and blood.

Full list of Lanza arsenal as detailed in search warrants

The books included ?Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger?s? and ?Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Mind of an Autistic Savant.?

At the school, Lanza fired the 154 rounds from a Bushmaster .223-model rifle and the final bullet from a Glock 10mm handgun to take his own life, said Stephen Sedensky, the chief prosecutor investigating the shooting. Police recovered 10 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster that Lanza took to the school. Three of the magazines had a full 30 rounds still in them.

Among school shootings in the United States, the death toll from Newtown is second only to the 32 people killed at Virginia Tech in 2007.

The attack touched off a nationwide debate about gun control. The fate of proposed changes to national gun laws, including expanded background checks and limits on high-capacity magazines, remains unclear.

President Barack Obama spoke Thursday at the White House to make the case again for tougher gun laws. He appeared with parents of Sandy Hook victims and of other gun crimes but did not specifically reference the newly released Newtown warrants.

?The entire country was shocked,? the president said. ?And the entire country pledged that we would do something about it and this time would be different. Shame on us if we?ve forgotten. I haven?t forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we?ve forgotten.?

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, citing the warrants, also called for stricter gun laws.

?We knew that these weapons were legally purchased under our current laws,? Malloy said. ?I don?t know what more we can need to know before we take decisive action to prevent gun violence. The time to act is now.?

The warrants spelled out a vast inventory of weapons and other gun paraphernalia recovered from the Lanza home.

Among the items found were paper targets, gun manuals, earplugs, holsters, almost 40 types of ammunition, nine types of magazines, a bayonet, knives with blades as long as a foot and Samurai swords with blades as long as 2 feet 4 inches.

Authorities also found a starter?s pistol, a BB gun, an NRA guide to pistol shooting and an NRA certificate in Nancy Lanza?s name.

In a statement, the NRA said it had no record of a ?member relationship? for the Lanzas, nor for someone with the same last name and their first initials.

?Reporting to the contrary is reckless, false and defamatory,? the statement said.

On Wednesday, a judge granted a request from prosecutors to withhold some information in the records, including a witness name, credit card information, telephone numbers and serial numbers.

Besides the Bushmaster and the Glock, authorities found a Sig-Sauer 9mm semiautomatic pistol in the school. In the car outside, police found a shotgun.

All those weapons were legally owned by the mother, authorities have said. Enough public blame and anger has been directed at her that she was left out of many of the memorials and shrines to the Newtown victims.

There have been reports that Lanza was obsessed with other mass killers, including Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a shooting and bomb attack in Norway two years ago.

A law enforcement official told NBC News last month that Lanza had collected material on previous mass shootings, although the source said there was no indication that it played a role in the school massacre.

Police told NBC News in February that investigators were still a long way from determining Lanza?s motive. Police said then that they hoped to have a report on the shooting finished by June.

Search warrants:

Dec. 14 (first) | Dec. 14 (second) | Dec. 14 (third) | Dec. 15 | Dec. 16

President Barack Obama delivers remarks Thursday at the White House regarding gun reform in America.

This story was originally published on

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a18c376/l/0Lopenchannel0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C280C1750A12820Enewtown0Egunman0Eadam0Elanza0Efired0E1550Ebullets0Ein0Eless0Ethan0Efive0Eminutes0Eprosecutor0Esays0Dlite/story01.htm

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Three Guys in Scuba Suits Can Do More Damage to the Web Than You Think

Slowdowns in Internet traffic in the Middle East and South Asia earlier this week were likely the work of hackers. Hackers in the traditional sense: The Egyptian Navy caught three men hacking into an undersea cable. And it's a bigger problem than it seems.

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According to the Associated Press, the Egyptian Navy announced the arrest on its official Facebook page yesterday. The AP translates the Navy's statement:

The cable that was damaged was the SMW-4, which its website (it has a website) indicates travels from Marseilles in the south of France to Singapore. TeleGeography's Submarine Cable Map shows the route the cable takes.

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It's one of a number of cables that come inland at Alexandria near the historic Citadel of Qaitbay, below, as documented in Neal Stephenson's December 1996 overview of cable networks for Wired. Cut the SMW-4 there, and you have an effect on countries in three continents.

RELATED: Occupy Wall Street Calls Off Its Egyptian Expedition

While cables are regularly damaged by fishermen or boat anchors, lines have also been intentionally cut a number of times before. In 2007, as a report published by the US Naval Institute indicates, Vietnamese pirates stole parts of an cable near that country. In February 2008, outages on five separate underseas cables were attributed to sabotage by a UN official.

The USNI report also suggests that the offshore cables could be a tempting target for terrorists ? and the damage could be significant. Even small delays in internet transmissions can, for example, have serious economic repercussions. One of the key benefits of a new line run last year between London and New York was that it would reduce transmission speeds from 64.8 milliseconds to 59.6. For people making electronic trades, that's a massive improvement. More serious damage, an outage that completely cripples communications, offers a much broader and obvious set of problems.

Not that there's much that can be done. It's not clear how Egypt caught the saboteurs, although it appears they were operating fairly close to the coast. There are thousands of miles of accessible, unprotected cable lying on the ocean floor, running onto lightly protected beaches around the world. All of the effort and consideration put into online security means little when three guys in scuba suits can severely damage communications between nearly a dozen countries.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/three-guys-scuba-suits-more-damage-think-182415735.html

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Streaking Penguins winning with defense

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? Look out, the NHL's highest scoring team is learning to play defense too.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have ripped off 13 straight wins, the second longest streak in franchise history. While they're getting the typical production from star center Sidney Crosby, the Penguins are developing into one of the league's top defensive teams.

Pittsburgh has allowed just nine goals in its last nine games, the lowest total in the NHL over that stretch. Defensesman Brooks Orpik says the team just got tired of trying to win every game in a shootout and knew it needed to tighten things up if it wanted to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup.

The Penguins will try to make it 14 in a row Thursday when they host Winnipeg.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/streaking-penguins-winning-defense-180357151--nhl.html

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Creationist offers $10,000 to anyone willing to challenge literal interpretation of Genesis in court

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/creationist-offers-10-000-anyone-willing-challenge-literal-164018499.html

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Heat Winning Streak Over: Bulls Defeat Miami 101-97

CHICAGO ? No last-second shot.

No fourth-quarter rally.

No record for LeBron James and the Miami Heat, either.

The Heat's bid for NBA history ended Wednesday night when their 27-game winning streak was snapped by the Chicago Bulls 101-97, setting off a raucous celebration inside United Center.

Miami finished six shy of the 33-game record held by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

Later, James said there was no shame in falling short.

"It's one of the best that this league has ever seen," James said, referring to the streak that began on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3. "We recognized that and rightfully so."

James tried to spur yet another comeback in the final minutes, getting mad after a rough foul. But the reigning MVP could never get the defending champions even or, more importantly, ahead.

With only two-tenths of a second left, James took the final inbounds pass in his own end, dropped the ball to allow time to expire, turned and walked toward the exit.

Luol Deng scored 28 points, Carlos Boozer added 21 points and 17 rebounds, and the Bulls brought the Heat's stampede to a screeching halt.

Miami's superstar did all he could to keep the run going, scoring 32 points and even collecting a flagrant foul during a physical final few minutes.

"We haven't had a chance to really have a moment to know what we just did," James said. "We had a moment, just very fortunate, very humbling and blessed to be part of this team and be part of a streak like that."

The Heat hadn't lost since the Pacers beat them in Indianapolis on Feb. 1. But after grinding out some close wins lately, including a rally from 27 down in Cleveland, no one counted them out until the final buzzer.

For the better part of two months, they were the NBA's comeback kings. They erased seven double-digit deficits during the streak. They found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter 11 times, and won them all.

Not Wednesday.

And when they walked off the floor in Chicago, faces were stoic as the Heat trudged toward the locker room. James turned and glared at one fan who grabbed at his head.

The Bulls, meanwhile, whooped and slapped hands with anyone they could reach.

It will go down as the second-longest winning streak in the history of American major pro sports. And some of those Lakers believed their time would pass as Miami's streak rolled along, with Jerry West among those saying that he believed the reigning champions had a real shot at pulling it off.

"We understand, probably more so later on in our careers, the significance of that. And then that was it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We took that moment to acknowledge it, to acknowledge each other, that experience, but it was never about the streak. We have a bigger goal, but also right now, it's about `Are we getting better?'"

The streak began in Toronto, a day when Heat players were mildly annoyed about having to miss football's title game. When San Francisco and Baltimore were to be playing, the Heat were to be flying home for a game the following night.

So team officials team changed course, as a surprise.

Miami beat the Raptors that afternoon, then stayed in the city several more hours to watch the Super Bowl together, an event highlighted by Shane Battier giving an unplanned speech about appreciating little moments as a team.

For whatever reason, the Heat were unbeatable for nearly the next two months.

And they won games in a number of different ways.

They blew out good teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Bulls, then inexplicably struggled with lottery-bound Cleveland, Detroit, Sacramento, Charlotte and Orlando. They rallied from 13 points down in the final 8 minutes to beat Boston, from a 27-point, third-quarter hole at Cleveland, and from 11-point deficits against Detroit and Charlotte ? all those coming in a seven-day span, no less.

"There are several teams that can do it," Pistons guard Jose Calderon said, when asked what it would take for someone to beat Miami. "It's difficult to maintain this concentration every day. It will likely take everyone to have a bad day."

Even when those bad days happened, the Heat found ways to win.

A layup by James with 3.2 seconds left against Orlando. Double-overtime against Sacramento. Huge comebacks. Whatever it took.

"To do something like this, everyone needs to step up," said Battier, who was part of a 32-game winning streak at Duke, a 22-gamer with the Houston Rockets and now played a role in this epic Heat run.

There were times when even the Heat themselves didn't know how long the streak was. Because it was interrupted by the All-Star break, Spoelstra was surprised when a staff member said something about Miami having won nine in a row. When it was at 24 games, Dwyane Wade made a reference to "23, 24, whatever it is."

They insisted they did not care about it, whatever the number was.

Heat President Pat Riley played for the Lakers team that won 33 in a row, and remained silent throughout Miami's streak, mainly because he rarely gives interviews these days but more so because the official team stance was that it simply did not matter. This season is championship-or-bust for Miami, one where nothing else other than raising yet another Larry O'Brien Trophy will satisfy.

Still, the streak will go down as the story of the regular season.

When it started, Miami was 5 1/2 games behind San Antonio for the overall NBA lead, only a half-game ahead of New York in the Eastern Conference race, held just a four-game edge over Atlanta in the Southeast Division and were the league's ninth-best road team in terms of winning percentage.

Funny what two months or so without losing can do.

The Heat now sit atop the overall NBA standings, gained 12 games over New York in the East entering Wednesday, put away the Hawks for good several weeks ago and are now, by far, the league's best road team. And with the streak over, all that's left now is getting ready for the postseason.

They trailed by as much as 13 in the first half, took the lead while outscoring Chicago 22-14 in the third quarter and were within two early in the fourth after a basket by Wade.

That's when Deng answered with a 3-pointer from the wing and Kirk Hinrich brought the crowd to its feet with a floater. Then, after a layup by James, Deng nailed a 3 to make it 83-75 with just over six minutes left.

It got testy after that. James did all he could to keep the streak going, taking enough hard hits that even his headband was dislodged, and finished with seven rebounds.

Chris Bosh scored 21. Wade added 18 points after a sore right knee sidelined him for victories over Charlotte and Orlando, but the Heat fell to a team that continues to give them fits even though Derrick Rose has been sidelined all year.

Deng came up big, burying four 3-pointers. He also had seven rebounds and five assists.

Boozer was a force inside. Jimmy Butler provided a spark with 17 points and the Bulls stopped Miami even though they were missing Joakim Noah (right foot), Marco Belinelli (abdominal strain) and Richard Hamilton (lower back).

For the Heat, luck simply ran out after recent wins in which they rallied trailed Boston by 17, Cleveland by 27 and Detroit and Charlotte by 11 each. They were also tied with Orlando late in the third quarter before pulling away, and when Battier nailed a 3 with 4:30 left in the third, it looked like they just might pull this one out, too.

They were leading 59-58 after that shot, and they were up by two before Boozer converted a three-point play off a neat bounce pass from Taj Gibson in the closing seconds to send Chicago into the fourth quarter with a 69-68 lead.

But they came up short down the stretch, fans chanting "End of streak! End of streak!" in the closing minute.

"We were much more competitive in the second half. It became make or miss in the fourth quarter, and we couldn't get the necessary stops we needed to," Spoelstra said. "In the last handful of games, those shots were going down and maybe that masked a few things going down the stretch."

There was a rumor that Rose would make his long-awaited return from a knee injury after rapper Waka Flocka Flame posted on Twitter, "Word is D.Rose back." The two are fans of each other, but the superstar point guard squashed it at the morning shootaround, with two words ? "Not tonight."

Rose actually sounded more like someone who will sit out the entire season, saying his recovery is "in God's hands." He hasn't played since he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in last year's playoff opener against Philadelphia, sending the top-seeded Bulls to a first-round exit, and his comeback has been an ongoing soap opera.

The Bulls were the biggest threat to Miami in the Eastern Conference the past two years, but without their superstar, they're just part of the pack.

Even so, no one has given the Heat more trouble since James and Bosh united with Wade in 2010. They had split 14 games leading up to this one, with Chicago winning at Miami in early January and the Heat returning the favor at the United Center last month.

Notes: Coach Tom Thibodeau said Noah was improving but wasn't ready to return. "It's better, but he's not quite there," Thibodeau said. "I just want to be smart about it." ... Tom Boerwinkle, the former Bulls center who had a franchise-record 37 rebounds in a 1970 game against the Phoenix Suns, has died. He was 67. Bulls spokesman Tim Hallam said Wednesday that a family member informed team officials of Boerwinkle's death, and the University of Tennessee issued a statement saying the former Volunteers player died Tuesday at his home near Chicago after a lengthy illness. Boerwinkle played 10 seasons with the Bulls from 1968-69 to 1977-78 and also worked as an analyst on the team's radio broadcasts from 1991-94.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/heat-winning-streak-over-bulls-miami-deng-lebron_n_2968081.html

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Colorado medical pot system lacks oversight, plagued by money woes

The agency charged with regulating Colorado's medical marijuana industry has not adequately defined its mission, squandered money, and under-reported tax revenues, state auditors report.

By Keith Coffman,?Reuters / March 26, 2013

Peter Bensinger, a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, is one of eight former DEA chiefs that say the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington's laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.

M. Spencer Green / AP

Enlarge

The agency charged with regulating Colorado's medical marijuana industry has not adequately defined its mission, squandered money on capital projects and underreported tax revenues, state auditors said in a scathing report released on Tuesday.

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The Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, a division of Colorado's Department of Revenue, failed to follow the framework laid out by the state legislature when lawmakers approved the program in 2010, auditors said in the 96-page report.

"The division has not adequately defined the oversight activities it must perform or determined the resources it needs to implement the regulatory system envisioned by the General Assembly," the report said.

The Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the report. But revenue department officials agreed with its recommendations, the report said.

The report noted that the agency experienced 19 straight months of net losses, including a $2.3 million loss in June 2011 because of "large capital purchases," including furniture, computers and a software program that failed to materialize.

Funding for the division has "fluctuated significantly," since it was established, auditors said, as revenues have declined by 56 percent from $8.6 million to $3.8 million. Expenditures during the same time have increased by 11 percent from $4.7 million to $5.2 million.

The drop in revenue was largely due to a moratorium on new dispensaries from mid-2010 through 2012, which meant the division collected fewer fees.

"Weaknesses in the division's fee-setting, strategic planning and expense controls contributed to its funding problems," the report said.

Colorado voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2000, and last fall voted to legalize small amounts of pot for recreational use. State lawmakers are in the process of crafting a bill that would establish a regulatory framework for the use of recreational marijuana.

Staff layoffs at the revenue department contributed to the underreporting of about $760,000 due the state in tax revenues from 56 of Colorado's more than 1,400 medical marijuana dispensaries, auditors said.

Additionally, regulators spent $1.1 million in 2011 and 2012 on a marijuana plant tracking computer system that "not does currently exist" because the agency lacked the remaining $400,000 to pay the vendor to implement the system.

Michael Elliott, executive director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, blamed the legislature for the oversight problems identified in the report.

"Our members follow the law and expect state officials to give the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division the budget it needs to ensure proper enforcement," Elliot said in a statement. "We want more inspectors and oversight of the industry."

Auditors recommended the revenue department streamline its licensing procedures, step up monitoring activities, and improve the way it seizes and disposes of unauthorized marijuana.

The report also said the division should impose spending controls over expenses and the staff use of state-owned vehicles.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/EmanPHk6w1A/Colorado-medical-pot-system-lacks-oversight-plagued-by-money-woes

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Congressman wants to telecommute

For the second time, a member of Congress is proposing rule changes that would let lawmakers telecommute to Washington and pass laws without meeting face to face. But is that in the best interests of voters?

Joint_Session_of_CongressThe idea of a ?virtual Congress? isn?t new and isn?t likely to get a lot of support in the current Congress, but it does raise some interesting issues.

New Mexico Representative Steve Pearce introduced the idea back in November 2010. His latest resolution argues that that a remote Congress is better for citizens, because it puts elected representatives closer to constituents.

Pearce?s resolution ?directs the Committee on House Administration to establish procedures and rules for the consideration of legislation by Members of Congress in a virtual setting.?

In short, the House of Representatives would be able to teleconference and video conference and ?implement hearings, conduct debate, meet, and vote? under Pearce?s plan.

Pearce?s argument also states that a remote Congress would save taxpayers money by minimizing travel costs, and prevent evildoers who might disrupt the government with a terrorist attack on Capitol Hill by spreading members across the country.

In a 2010 policy document, Pearce provided more details about the plan. For starters, the House wouldn?t be 100 percent virtual, which would keep the proposal from conflicting with constitutional requirements for it to meet in person in Washington.

?Members of Congress would report to Washington for debate and votes on critical bills and bills that pass a certain threshold of spending. Other occasions that warrant they be present in person would be to attend the annual State of the Union or receive addresses by foreign heads of state and other significant events,? he said in 2010.

Article 1, Section 5, Clause 4 of the Constitution requires that if the House or Senate wants to meet in session outside of the Capitol, it needs permission from the other chamber.

The 20th Amendment also requires that Congress ?shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.?

Pearce also states that a remote Congress would insulate members from lobbyists in Washington, and make representatives directly responsible to voters.

?Regular, everyday citizens have little-to-no-input as legislation moves through the subcommittees, full committees or floor debate. That is a problem that needs resolution,? Pearce said in 2010.

Last week, he told The Hill that ?Keeping legislators closer to the people we represent would pull back Washington?s curtain and allow constituents to see and feel, first-hand, their government at work.?

However, critics of the current Congress and its underachieving predecessor point to the constant travel to and from Washington by politicians as a leading cause of gridlock.

Labeled ?The Commuter Congress,? most lawmakers use long weekends to travel home and see family members and constituents. Business on Capitol Hill is often limited to three or four days a week.

For example, in the current calendar for the 113th Congress, the House meets four days a week for 26 weeks in the year; its members are never scheduled to work a five-day week. The House will work on 14 Fridays, out of 52, this year.

Former Senate leaders Trent Lott and Tom Daschle have talked about the lack of personal contact outside of work between Congress members as a direct factor in political gridlock.

?I know many times I would look up on TV and I would see somebody and then the name would come up and it would say ?member of Congress? and I?d go ?I don?t even know who that is,?? former congressman Connie Mack told CNN in January 2013.

A 2011 Newsweek article recounted some tales from prior sessions of Congress, where politicians and their families spent a lot of time with each other outside of the Capitol?and regardless of political affiliation.

?Real legislating?the compromises and deal making that distinguish politics from posturing?happens only among people who know and respect each other,? said author Lisa Miller.

Miller also pointed out two other realities: Some politicians don?t want to be seen as part of the Washington establishment, and it?s easier for congressional members to raise election funds at home.

Back in 1787, when the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, much compromise was achieved when the delegates met socially after their contentious sessions inside what is now known as Independence Hall. Many also stayed in the same rooming houses. The resulting document was the U.S. Constitution, which set up Congress along with other essential institutions of government.

Scott Bomboy is editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-really-allowed-home-full-134018048.html

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Berezovsky's billions: How the tycoon lost so much

FILE - A Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 photo from files showing Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky talking to the media after losing his case against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich as he leaves the High Court in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

FILE - A Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 photo from files showing Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky talking to the media after losing his case against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich as he leaves the High Court in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

(AP) ? How do you burn through billions?

The unexplained death of Boris Berezovsky, whose body was found Saturday inside his upscale English home, has refocused attention on the fantastic wealth racked up by Russia's ruthless oligarchs ? and their propensity for spending it. Berezovsky, 67, had once been considered Russia's richest man ? but by this January, a British judge was wondering whether the tycoon would be able to pay his debts.

Police say Berezovsky's death is unexplained but that there was no evidence of anyone else being involved. His lawyer said the oligarch had been in "a horrible, terrible" emotional state. The tycoon had survived several assassination attempts, including a 1994 car bomb in Moscow, and there was speculation as to whether his death was natural, part of a conspiracy or a suicide.

To understand how one man could lose so much money, it helps to see how he made it in the first place.

___

FOUNDATIONS OF A FORTUNE

Berezovsky, a mathematician, made his fortune in the 1990s during the catastrophic privatization of the Soviet Union's state-run economy. That era was marked by hyperinflation, contract killings and rampant corruption. As Russia's GDP crumbled, oligarchs leveraged their ties to ruthless criminals and crooked officials to tear off huge chunks of the country's assets for themselves, draining resources and stripping factories to build fabulous fortunes.

Berezovsky ? whose interests ran from automobiles to airplanes to aluminum ? was one of this dark period's primary beneficiaries. He became a political operator in Russian President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, trading on his connections to rack up assets estimated by Forbes to be worth roughly $3 billion in 1997.

"No man profited more from Russia's slide into the abyss," author Paul Klebnikov wrote in a critical profile of Berezovsky titled "Godfather of the Kremlin."

Eventually, the abyss began threatening Berezovsky as well.

The tycoon had been instrumental in orchestrating the accession of Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, but when the new leader and Berezovsky began to clash, his political cover disintegrated. Berezovsky then fled the country in 2000, eventually claiming political asylum in Britain.

___

LIVING LARGE IN LONDON

How much money Berezovsky really had ? and how much he was able to take with him from Moscow ? remains shrouded in uncertainty. Rich Russians at the time routinely stashed their money in labyrinthine offshore trusts or held assets under the names of associates or family members. Many deals weren't even put into writing.

What's clear is that the 1998 Russian financial crisis, coupled with Berezovsky's spectacular fall from political grace, had a big impact on his bottom line. Forbes estimated his post-Moscow fortune in the hundreds of millions. Rival oligarch Roman Abramovich testified in court that Berezovsky had been down to his last $1 million when he fled Russia.

If Berezovsky were strapped for cash, he didn't show it. He rode around London in a reinforced Maybach limousine and was often seen huddled with business contacts in the exclusive hotels that line London's Hyde Park. His string of oversize mansions in England, France and the Caribbean suggested he was a cut above the average millionaire.

Russian officials seemed to believe that Berezovsky had plenty of cash on hand, trying ? with mixed success ? to claw back some of the exile's assets. Charges are still pending against him in relation to the alleged embezzlement of some $13 million from Russia's now-defunct SBS-Agro bank. Berezovsky had also previously been convicted in absentia of bilking hundreds of millions of rubles from the airline company Aeroflot and the carmaker AvtoVaz.

___

THE BILLS PILE UP

Berezovsky often expressed a fondness for Britain's legal system, despite his frequent and expensive encounters with it. A search of British court records throws up roughly three dozen judgments ? libel, fraud, divorce, breach of contract ? involving the tycoon in some way.

Berezovsky sued a business associate over a fraudulent loan. Other business associates sued him over a botched oil deal. Berezovsky sued Forbes over an unflattering profile. He sued Russian television for suggesting he had a hand in the poisoning death of ex-Russian KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko. His second wife sued him for a divorce. His girlfriend sued him for a house he'd promised her. He sued the wife of his long-time partner, Badri Patarkatsishvili, in a complicated dispute over how to split the man's assets after his death.

The sums involved were staggering. The loan deal was worth $5 million. His second divorce settlement in 2011 reportedly cost him 100 million pounds (about $154 million at the time). Patarkatsishvili's assets could be worth hundreds of millions more. The biggest lawsuit of all, against Abramovich for breach of contract and blackmail, was for a mind-boggling $5.6 billion.

Berezovsky lost the lawsuit against Abramovich last year and the judge involved stopped just short of calling him a liar. He was stuck with tens of millions of pounds in legal bills.

___

A FORTUNE FALTERS

Whatever the extent of Berezovsky's wealth, his expensive divorce, Patarkatsishvili's death and his paper mountain of litigation left it much reduced.

In 2008, Berezovsky was forced to sell the Darius, a 110-meter (360-foot) -long custom-built yacht that many believed was an attempt to compete with an even larger ship, the Eclipse, being built for Abramovich.

Earlier this month, the Times of London reported that Berezovsky was downsizing his art collection, selling off his homes, firing staff and closing his office in London's upscale Mayfair district.

In a January ruling in a dispute between Berezovsky and his ex-girlfriend Helena Gorbunova, High Court Judge George Mann wrote that the oligarch's fortune appeared to have been spread thin.

"On the evidence, Mr. Berezovsky is a man under financial pressure," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-25-Britain-Berezovsky's%20Fortune/id-d5651e3d05de4f6ab715dd893b1af8e4

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iPhone 5 coming to T-Mobile April 12th, 4S and 4 available in 'select markets'

T-Mobile to carry iPhone 5

Remember when T-Mobile announced that it would begin carrying Apple products sometime this year? It looks like today's the day we finally get more information. As we've been expecting, the fourth-largest carrier is now ready to officially offer the iPhone after years of inviting customers to bring an unlocked model onto its network. The iPhone 5 will be available in retail stores and online starting April 12th, but you'll be able to pre-order one beginning April 5th. Additionally, the iPhone 4S and 4 will be coming to "select markets," though we haven't seen details on which markets or when they'll be offered.

What about pricing? You can grab the iPhone 5 for $100 down and pay the rest in $20 monthly installments for the next two years; the 4S will be $70 down (with the same $20 installments) and the 4 will be $15 down with $15 monthly payments. No doubt, this move will make its forthcoming LTE launch even more enticing, but that's not all: T-Mobile CEO John Legere stated on stage that his company's version of the iPhone 5 will support AWS HSPA+ in addition to LTE. HD Voice is also offered on this particular model.

We also learned that despite the network's use of the "UnCarrier" brand, its version of the iPhone 5 will be locked to T-Mobile until the phone is completely paid off.

Stay updated on T-Mobile's announcements with our liveblog!

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Source: T-Mobile

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/t-mobile-iphone/

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