News Blog: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Zelaya's wife to seek IMF deal if elected in Honduras - running mate

By Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCICALPA (Reuters) – The wife of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya will seek a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resolve a mounting debt crisis if she wins next month’s presidential election, her running mate said on Thursday.

Juliette Handal, the vice-presidential candidate of Zelaya’s wife Xiomara Castro, said their leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE) would seek assistance from the IMF to help tackle the country’s bloated budget deficit.

“We’re going to seek an accord with the International Monetary Fund based on reality; it’s necessary, we’re very clear about this,” Handal told Reuters in Tegucigalpa as her party presented its plan for governing the country.

Honduras, the biggest exporter of coffee in Central America, is on track to post a budget deficit of at least six percent of gross domestic product for the second year running.

The election will be held on November 24, and latest polls show Castro and her conservative rival Juan Hernandez, head of Honduras’ Congress, are running neck-and-neck.

Outgoing President Porfirio Lobo is constitutionally barred from running again after serving a four-year term.

A voter survey earlier this month gave Hernandez 28 percent support, compared with 27 percent for the 54-year-old Castro.

In 2010, the IMF agreed to provide some $200 million in financial support to the Central American country to help it strengthen its public finances and stabilize its economy.

The agreement expired in March 2012 and Lobo’s government has failed to reach a new agreement with the Washington-based fund after falling short of consolidation targets.

The budgetary crisis has sparked strikes and protests by public sector officials like doctors, nurses in police in Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Americas that also suffers from the highest murder rate in the world.

Castro, catapulted into the spotlight after a 2009 coup when she led protests against Zelaya’s ouster, is running on a toned-down version of his leftist populism.

Many see Zelaya, whose removal triggered a deep political crisis, as the power behind Castro’s candidacy. At rallies, supporters often cheer more for him than for his wife.

The election campaign has been dominated by debate over how to tackle the predations of drug gangs, a major cause of the country’s high crime rate. Mexican cartels have moved into Honduras, using it as a staging point for moving large quantities of South American cocaine to the United States.

(Editing by Dave Graham and Ken Wills)

Zelaya's wife to seek IMF deal if elected in Honduras - running mate

Asia factory sector upbeat, led by China

BEIJING (Reuters) – Asian manufacturing activity picked up in October led by China, where factory sector growth hit its fastest pace in 18 months off the back of new orders, purchasing managers’ reports showed on Friday.

The surveys provide a more upbeat view of world demand following a month in which a political standoff in Washington over the U.S. debt ceiling and the sixth straight cut in IMF global economic forecasts had raised fresh concerns about the health of the global economy.

China’s official purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 51.4 in October, up from 51.1 in September and above expectations for a reading of 51.2. A PMI reading above 50 suggests expansion from the previous month, while a figure below 50 points to contraction.

“With global demand momentum likely to pick up gradually and domestic demand growth remaining solid, we expect GDP growth to comfortably exceed the government’s bottom line in the coming quarters,” Louis Kuijs, an economist at RBS, said of the China PMI in a client note.

The China PMI offered some support to weak Asian markets on Friday and data elsewhere in Asia also pointed to brighter economic prospects.

The HSBC/Markit PMI for South Korea showed factory activity expanded for the first time in five months and separate data showed the country’s exports in October handily beat expectations to hit a record high of $50.5 billion (31.4 billion pounds).

Factory activity in major exporter Taiwan, key to many global tech supply chains, was running at its fastest pace since March 2012, an HSBC/Markit PMI showed.

Japan reported on Thursday that its factory activity grew at the fastest pace in more than three years as the Markit/JMMA PMI rose to a seasonally adjusted 54.2, adding to hopes that the world’s third-largest economy and home to big brand names like Sony and Toyota is pulling out of two decades of stagnation.

PMI reports from India and the United States are expected later in the day. A euro zone PMI is due on Monday.

The rise in China’s official PMI offered some relief to the growth outlook for the economy after a disappointing run of data last month, which included an unexpected slide in exports.

A breakdown of the sub-indexes showed that new orders in large industries reached 53.8, while for small industries the number was just 48.8, suggesting larger firms are benefiting more from the stabilising economy.

“The PMI data for October shows a continued increase, indicating a preliminary stabilisation in the economy,” Zhang Liqun, an economist at the cabinet think-tank Development Research Center, said in a statement released with the PMI.

“The foundation for a recovery is not yet solid.”

The HSBC/Markit PMI for China rose to 50.9 in October from 50.2 in September, suggesting factories were humming at their strongest pace in seven months.

The figures showed a surprise jump in new export orders, with many factories reporting stronger demand from the United States.

(Additional reporting by Stanley White in TOKYO, Natalie Thomas in BEIJING, Faith Hung in TAIPEI and Se Young Lee in SEOUL; Writing by Neil Fullick; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Asia factory sector upbeat, led by China
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Asia factory sector upbeat, led by China

Analysis - Facebook's ad warning sounds a note of caution for Twitter

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s investors and other proponents of the social network like to say that it captures one of the greatest concentrations of human attention on the planet and thus offers a boundless opportunity for advertisers.

But Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman on Wednesday cast doubt on those assertions by suggesting that there may be a limit on how many ads Facebook can show users before they get turned off.

Ebersman’s warning carries far-reaching implications for not only Facebook but also other social media companies including Twitter Inc, which is in the middle of a roadshow to promote its initial public offering to investors.

Twitter has yet to turn a profit but it is pitching an advertising business model similar to Facebook’s.

“It’s important for investors to realize that there is a limitation on the mobile ad revenue that can be generated. The sky isn’t the limit when it comes to that,” said Jeff Sica, the founder of Sica Wealth Management. “That’s the issue with Facebook. That will be the issue with Twitter.”

Seven-year old Twitter faces an additional challenge: its active user base, now at 230 million, has expanded much more slowly compared to Facebook, due in part to its struggle to retain newcomers. A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll found 36 percent of Twitter users do not use the online messaging service.

“You don’t know how many people sign up and don’t use it, how many abandoned accounts they have,” said Adam Grossman, an analyst at Middleton & Co who attended a roadshow lunch presentation by Twitter executives in Boston on Thursday.

Twitter has set a price range of $17 to $21 per share for its IPO, which aims to raise up to $1.6 billion (997 million pounds). The price range values Twitter at up to $11 billion, less than the $15 billion that some analysts had expected.

One investor who attended the Thursday luncheon said Twitter’s ubiquitous brand name will draw some investors.

“It’s a company that has changed the world so I wouldn’t bet against it,” said the investor, who did not want to be identified. “But they also haven’t created a business model which has proven that they can continue to grow at 100 percent a year and be profitable.”

THIRD-PARTY ADS

Twitter is trying to expand its ad business in other ways. This week it closed a $350 million deal to acquire MoPub, an ad network that serves ads within mobile apps.

“The consumer eyeballs, and the amount of ads they can absorb without being irritated, is finite,” said Rich Wong, a venture capitalist at Accel Partners, who invested in MoPub and AdMob, a mobile ad network that Google Inc acquired for $750 million.

With MoPub, Twitter will be able to serve ads in other apps to grow revenue without cluttering its own users’ Twitter streams, Wong said. “By leasing real estate, you can expand by orders of magnitude the eyeballs you can get to,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether MoPub can unearth new revenue for Twitter. But some industry experts liken the deal to Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick in 2008, which helped the search giant improve its ability to place targeted ads on Web pages across the Internet, not just google.com.

In the case of MoPub, Twitter will serve ads within third-party mobile apps, such as games, rather than websites.

In late September, Facebook also resumed work on its own mobile ad network after it appeared to put the project on hold earlier in the year, according to several tech blogs.

The renewed effort to seek other sources of revenue could be explained by Facebook’s reluctance to show more than one ad per 20 stories in a user’s news feed. Ebersman told analysts on Wednesday that the 5 percent ad ratio would not increase by much in the future.

That surprised some analysts and investors who had expected a higher rate.

“Five percent is relatively low,” said Brian Blau, a Gartner analyst. “I’m surprised that it’s only five percent. I was anticipating more, to really push the boundaries.”

BETTER TARGETING

According to its investor prospectus, Twitter now makes a little over $0.65 per user compared to Facebook’s $1.72. Analysts believe Twitter has room to grow in getting more revenue per user because Chief Executive Dick Costolo has been cautious so far about injecting more ads into Twitter streams.

Twitter’s format and the nature of its fast-scrolling content also differs from Facebook, which means Twitter users may be more tolerant of ads, said Gartner’s Blau.

But if Twitter’s ability to show more ads becomes limited, then it would have to seek higher ad prices by promising marketers the ability to target users with greater accuracy.

In the past year, Twitter has expanded its targeting features to show ads to users who live in certain metropolitan areas, or show interest in certain topics.

Twitter infers what its users are interested in based on who they follow and what they tweet. In July, the company also began to use cookies to track the Web pages that its users visit, a commonly employed technique among Internet firms.

But even when displaying the highly personalized ads prized by marketers, social media companies have had to weigh the value of the ad versus their “creepiness factor,” which could scare away fickle users.

(Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Edwin Chan in San Francisco, Olivia Oran in New York and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

Analysis - Facebook's ad warning sounds a note of caution for Twitter

MPs condemn European Arrest Warrant

The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is “fundamentally flawed” and the Government needs to go further with its reforms of the system, a group of influential MPs has warned.

The EAW, introduced in 2004, allows a national judicial authority, such as a court, to get a suspect extradited between European Union (EU) member states.

The fast-track arrest warrant is among 35 EU criminal justice measures the Government wants to retain – but Home Secretary Theresa May has promised to change British law to prevent it b eing used to extradite UK nationals on trivial or dubious charges.

However, the Home Affairs Select Committee has said it is concerned the reforms do not go far enough and has called for an urgent vote in the House of Commons on continued UK membership of the EAW.

Committee chair Keith Vaz said: “The European Arrest Warrant, in its existing form, is fundamentally flawed and has led to a number of miscarriages of justice with devastating consequences for those concerned.

“We welcome the Government’s proposed reforms, but are concerned that they do not go far enough.

“The House should be given the opportunity to vote separately on continued UK membership of the EAW as early as possible in order to provide a parliamentary mandate for any future negotiations.”

In its report, the committee said some countries use the EAW simply to expedite their investigations, whereas others do so in pursuit of relatively minor crimes.

It added that for these reasons the UK receives disproportionately more warrants than it issues.

The committee argued the EAW has also facilitated miscarriages of justice in a number of cases.

Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, if the Government wishes to claw back criminal justice measures from Brussels it first has to opt out of all 133 on the list and then negotiate to opt back in to those it wishes to retain.

Announcing her decision to retain 35 earlier this year, Mrs May said she would amend the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Bill to ensure that an arrest warrant could be refused for minor crimes.

In its report, the committee argues that if the Government proceeds with the opt-in as proposed, it will not result in any repatriation of powers to the UK – and may even result in a net flow of powers in the opposite direction.

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said: ” Labour supports the European Arrest Warrant and the other crucial measures of EU cooperation that tackle serious crime, bring criminals to justice and protect victims.

“While the Government’s U-turn on the arrest warrant has been welcome, the Home Secretary has been foolish in putting EU cooperation at risk in a big game of phoney hokey-cokey.

“As the Home Affairs Select Committee rightly points out, there is no repatriation of powers in the Government’s package. The measures being lost are either defunct or happening already.”

Fair Trials International, a human rights charity that provides assistance to people arrested in a country other than their own, said the ‘opt-out decision’ is a key opportunity for the Government to take action to address long-standing concerns about the EAW.

Fair Trials’ head of law reform Libby McVeigh said: ” We hope this report persuades the UK Government and politicians in Brussels to reform the arrest warrant to prevent future cases of injustice.

“The arrest warrant is an important crime-fighting tool but, without reform, will continue to be used inappropriately with devastating human consequences.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “European Arrest Warrants provide the police with an important mechanism for returning criminals to the UK to face justice.

“But they need to be used proportionately and requests shouldn’t be made prematurely.

“That’s why we are incorporating important safeguards into our law governing requests received from other EU countries.”

Source Article from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/mps-condemn-european-arrest-warrant-024539411.html

MPs condemn European Arrest Warrant

Bomb attacks across Iraq kill at least 16

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Bombs exploded across Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, police and medical sources said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks, but Sunni Islamist militants including al Qaeda, have been regaining ground in Iraq, seeking to undermine the Shi’ite-led government.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to the United States this week seeking military supplies to counter insurgents who have pushed the civilian death toll above 3,000 so far this year.

In the latest violence, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a group of people who had gathered to assess the damage from two earlier blasts in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, killing four people, police and medics said.

A car bomb went off inside a parking lot west of Baquba, killing five people, and another blast near a gathering of young people in the street killed a further three, police said.

In the town of Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, another car bomb went off in an open door market, killing four people, police and medics said.

The surge in violence has reversed a decline in sectarian bloodshed that peaked in 2006-2007.

Officials in Baghdad say the bloodshed is a spillover from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which has drawn hardline Sunni Islamists into battle against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi’ite Islam.

Al Qaeda’s Iraqi and Syrian affiliates merged this year to form the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on both sides of the border.

Insurgents have exploited growing discontent among Iraq’s Sunni minority, which complains of marginalisation under the Shi’ite-led government that came to power following the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

(Reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and a Reuters reporter in Baquba; Writing by Raheem Salman; Editing by Isabel Coles and Alison Williams)

Bomb attacks across Iraq kill at least 16

China names Islamic group as 'supporter' of Tiananmen attack

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement was a “behind-the-scenes” supporter of this week’s attack on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, China‘s top security official Meng Jianzhu said.

“Its behind-the-scenes supporters were the terrorist group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) based in central and west Asia,” Meng said when asked about the Tiananmen incident on a visit to Tashkent in Uzbekistan, video posted online Thursday showed.

A high-profile car crash on Monday killed two tourists and injured dozens at the popular tourist site and symbolic heart of the Chinese state, with the three people in the car — a man, his wife and his mother — all dying, police say.

They said the vehicle had a licence plate from Xinjiang, the far western region where China’s mostly Muslim Uighur minority is concentrated, while the names released of the three people inside and five other arrested suspects sounded potentially Uighur.

ETIM is known as a militant Islamic separatist group that that seeks an independent state in Xinjiang.

The United States and the United Nations both classified ETIM as a terrorist organisation in 2002, during a period of increased US-Chinese cooperation following the 9/11 attacks.

Meng made his comments, a video of which was posted on the Chinese web portal Tencent, while visiting an anti-terrorism office of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security group which links China, Russia and a number of central Asian countries.

But ETIM’s strength and links to global terrorism are murky, and some experts say China exaggerates its threat to justify tough security measures in Xinjiang, which has seen sporadic ethnic clashes and anti-government sentiment.

ETIM might have ties in Pakistan and Central Asian countries but it is unclear how close they might be, said Michael Clarke, a professor at Griffith University in Sydney who has authored a book on China’s policy of integration in Xinjiang.

“It’s not that China shouldn’t be concerned about those (ties), but the core issue is that the linkages have been exaggerated by the Chinese government,” he said, adding that he was “sceptical on the exact nature” of ETIM.

Chinese state-run media have reported periodic bouts of violence in Xinjiang which Beijing often describes as “terrorist attacks”.

One such incident in June left 35 people dead, and 139 people have been arrested in recent months for spreading jihadist ideology.

But Uighur organisations dismiss claims of terrorism and separatism as an excuse by Beijing to justify religious and security restrictions. Information in the area is difficult to independently verify.

Alim Seytoff, a spokesman for the overseas-based World Uyghur Congress, said Uighurs face close security scrutiny in Xinjiang and he does not believe an organised resistance movement exists there.

Beijing says its policies and investment in Xinjiang have brought tremendous development.

The region’s economy grew 10.8 percent to 570 billion yuan ($94 billion) in the first nine months of 2013 — 3.1 percentage points above the national rate and the ninth-highest increase in the country, according to the Xinjiang government news portal Tianshan.

Critics counter that the economic growth mostly benefits an influx of ethnic majority Han Chinese, millions of whom have moved to the resource-rich region.

Ethnic frictions have risen in Xinjiang as a result, and rioting in the capital Urumqi involving both ethnic groups in 2009 left 200 people dead.

China names Islamic group as 'supporter' of Tiananmen attack

Banksy's latest prank on New York art world hangs in thrift shop

By Elizabeth Dilts

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The renegade graffiti artist Banksy snubbed the art world again on Tuesday when he dropped off one of his paintings at a New York City thrift store.

The Housing Works thrift store, part of a chain that sells donated knickknacks to fund charities for AIDS and the homeless, began auctioning the Banksy original for $74,000 (46,165 pounds) on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, it was already going for $220,000.

“It could go for as high as a million dollars or even higher because there’s so much buzz about,” said Elizabeth von Habsburg, managing director at the art appraisal firm Winston Art Group.

The auction ends Thursday night and Von Habsburg, who has a client that collects Banksy works, said she expects the painting to sell for $600,000 to $1 million.

Banksy’s art has sold for as much as $1.87 million, according to Sotheby’s auction house.

The British artist, who has remained anonymous since his work debuted in 1993, has been treating New Yorkers to a new piece of art each day of October for his “Better Out Than In” series.

The artwork – including stencilled rats graffitied on a Brooklyn building wall and the large statues of McDonald’s Corp advertising icon Ronald McDonald getting a shoe shine displayed in the Bronx – pop up in unexpected locations and have attracted flocks of fans.

The thrift store’s oil painting is a commonplace landscape featuring a mountain and a bench that Banksy bought and then added to, painting a Nazi soldier sitting on the bench gazing at the scenery. He named it “The banality of the banality of evil.”

Store employees say the painting has received mostly positive reactions. It is currently hanging in the store’s front window on East 23rd Street above a tomato-red loveseat and a dated wooden coffee table.

“I’m just happy it’s going to our cause regardless of the image,” store employee Archer Brady said, adding that the painting will be taken down after the auction ends Thursday.

(This story corrects name of series title in the sixth paragraph)

(Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)

Banksy's latest prank on New York art world hangs in thrift shop

Chavez face 'appears in Caracas subway'

Hugo Chavez may have died in March, but his successor says the comandante is still around — most recently in an image of his face that appeared on a subway tunnel.

President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday workers in the tunnel saw the image come and go, and he showed a photo of the alleged visage in a rally in Caracas.

“Look at the figure, a face. This picture was taken by the workers,” he said, smiling. “Chavez is everywhere.”

Maduro, handpicked by the ailing Chavez to run for president upon his death, said during the election campaign in April that he had seen the populist leader incarnated as “a little bird.”

Since then in several speeches he has imitated the tweeting of a bird to allude to Chavez.

Critics have made fun of him. But Maduro brushed this off, and called on all Venezuelans to be “little birds” of the government he oversees.

Then, in June, Maduro said Chavez tends to appear to him in the mountains that overlook Caracas.

“Every time I see the mountain, I see Chavez appear on the mountain,” he said once.

Chavez face 'appears in Caracas subway'

Police have video of Toronto mayor, won't detail contents

By Cameron French

TORONTO (Reuters) – Police said Thursday they have obtained a video “consistent” with media accounts that it shows Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, but they would not confirm the contents of the video.

Ford, who has denied he smokes crack, said he could not comment on the matter because the video is evidence in a separate case before the courts. But he said he would not quit his job.

“I wish I could come out and defend myself. Unfortunately I can’t because it’s before the courts, and that’s all I can say right now… I have no reason to resign,” he told a raucous throng of reporters outside his office.

In the first official link between Ford and a high-profile Toronto drugs investigation, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair on Thursday identified the mayor as a subject in a video recovered during the probe.

“I can tell you that the digital video file that we have recovered depicts images which are consistent with those that had previously been reported in the press,” Blair said.

“I think it’s fair to say the mayor does appear in that video, but I’m not going to get into the detail of what activities are depicted on the video.”

Ford made international headlines in May, after U.S. media blog Gawker and the Toronto Star newspaper said their reporters had been shown a video that appeared to show him smoking crack.

Gawker raised funds to buy the video but said it was unable to re-establish contact with the seller. Blair’s comments offered the first confirmation that the video exists.

Ford said in May he could not comment on “a video that I have never seen or does not exist.”

Ford, previously a cost-cutting councillor on a divided Toronto city council, was elected mayor in 2010, and he insists he will run again when his term expires next year.

NO CHARGES AGAINST FORD

Blair said police had not interviewed Ford and the contents of the video itself did not support charges against the mayor.

“There is nothing on that video that would allow us to form reasonable grounds that would support the laying of a criminal charge,” he said.

But he admitted to some concern.

“This is an issue of significant public concern and I think that is a problem for the city,” he said.

Blair was speaking following the release of court documents detailing police evidence gathered in drug charges earlier this month against Ford’s friend and part-time driver Sandro Lisi.

The documents detailed hundreds of contacts between the two men in the weeks between the first reports of the video and Lisi’s arrest on drug charges on Oct 1.

Police said on Thursday they had added a charge of “extortive efforts to retrieve a recording” against Lisi, whose lawyer refused to comment, according to the Star.

The partially redacted 474-page file, released to Canadian media and published on their web sites, showed the reports on the alleged crack video in May had triggered the police drugs investigation, dubbed Project Brazen 2.

Ford gleans most of his support from the suburban regions at the edge of Toronto. But a poll released this week showed his approval rating has fallen to 39 percent from 49 percent in the last month.

(Reporting by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Peter Galloway and Cynthia Osterman)

Police have video of Toronto mayor, won't detail contents

Pizza Delivery Driver Killing: Two Arrested

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murdering pizza delivery driver Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, police have said.

Mr Peiris, 25, was found stabbed to death in his car in the Southey area of Sheffield on Sunday night.

He was making his last delivery on his final day working for Domino’s Pizza and was due to start a job in IT.

South Yorkshire Police said a 17-year-old man was arrested on Thursday evening and would soon be questioned.

A 25-year-old has also been detained on suspicion of murder.

Mr Peiris was found by colleagues slumped in a silver Toyota Yaris after he failed to complete his delivery.

They said he had been feeling unwell and was going to go home early but agreed to deliver one last order.

Mr Peiris came to the UK from Sri Lanka to finish an IT degree and graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2011.

His parents described him as “the most caring and loving son a parent could have”.

Speaking from Sri Lanka, his father Sarath Mahinda Peiris and mother Sudarma Narangoda said: “We sent our son to the UK to study so he can have a better life.

“Now we are left with only a broken heart.

“We were devastated and shocked to hear of our son’s tragic end and we are still unable to comprehend that he is actually gone.

“Thavisha was one of the most caring and loving sons a parent could have.

“He was full of life and always had a smile on his face. Anyone who met him immediately liked him.

“He was a deeply religious boy who would not even harm an ant.”

His family are to fly to the UK in the coming days, with Domino’s Pizza saying it will cover the cost of the flights.

A 50-strong police team has been working on the murder inquiry, with officers carrying out extensive house-to-house inquiries and examining CCTV footage.

Source Article from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/arrest-over-pizza-delivery-driver-killing-220108325.html

Pizza Delivery Driver Killing: Two Arrested

Young The Giant's 'Aggressive' Plan To Beat The Sophomore Slump? 'It's About Time'

To say that Young the Giant are growing up on their upcoming sophomore record, Mind Over Matter, seems a bit simplistic, if not cliché. But we can say — after checking out the hard-edged first single, “It’s About Time,” and talking with the guys about the album — they’re definitely in the proverbial experimental phase.

” ‘It’s About Time’ is probably the most aggressive track on the record, but in terms of the lyrics and thematically, I think it makes a lot of sense for the record,” frontman Sameer Gadhia told MTV News this week. “Sonically, we wanted to take a really contemporary spin on maybe an older rock song. … We just wanted to change things up a little bit and do something a little bit different.”

And for those familiar with the band’s self-titled 2010 debut record — with its velvety, anthemic hits “My Body” and “Cough Syrup” — something “a bit different” will ring true, indeed. From the very first notes, the crashing drums and equally aggressive guitars of “It’s About Time” make it a rock song, pure and simple. Gadhia even trades in his signature soaring vocals (praised by the likes of Morrissey) for more sneering tones, singing, “It’s about time/ Best to rewind/ You better blow,” before whispering “pistols, pistols.”

The song is harder than the band’s previous work, bordering on metal even. It’s a jam that would be wholly at home blaring from a car radio in the ’90s. The accompanying video also has a kind of throwback vibe, reminiscent of something that might be put out by former YTG tourmates Incubus in their heyday. It’s a stark black-and-white affair replete with superimposed images, a theme the guys say will continue throughout the record release.

“That song, in particular, I think is really a symbolic idea of how people use power,” guitarist Eric Cannata said. “The album touches on a lot of these different themes about times when you can’t block out this pressure that you’re feeling inside and the times that you kind of break free from that pressure and are able to do limitless things and express yourself in limitless ways.”

The album process, in a way, also reflects the themes therein. The band formed while still in high school in Irvine, California, from the ashes of previous act The Jakes, and their debut record was an undeniable hit. “My Body” went platinum, “Cough Syrup” went gold and their songs were covered everywhere from “The Voice” to “Glee.” The guys even performed at the 2011 Video Music Awards. The pressure to impress on their sophomore release was inevitable.

“There was this pressure to keep the level of connection that we had with the audience that we created during the first record,” Gadhia said, although he said it didn’t manifest as a pressure to write hits, per se. “It actually eventually led us into this small level of writer’s block where we were thinking too much about that connection and not really being able to just manifest it.”

The guys were able to break through the roadblock, however, by doing what they did on the first record: getting in a room together — with some “Planet Earth” on in the background — and just hashing it out. “Ironically, those times when we were really connected with ourselves are the times that we can really connect with our fanbase,” Gadhia said.

Gadhia counts the as-yet unheard title track as among the most organic tracks on the record, created in that previously mentioned familiar environment. “We thought we could go in further directions and not feel as limited by the stuff that we had done before,” he said. “We still have a lot of the elements that make Young the Giant in this new record, but we’re obviously evolving and aging.”

“We’re aging well, I think, pretty well,” guitarist Jacob Tilley added.

If “It’s About Time” is any indication of what’s to come when Mind Over Matter drops on January 21, we’d tend to agree.

Young The Giant's 'Aggressive' Plan To Beat The Sophomore Slump? 'It's About Time'

HS2: Rail Bill Passed Despite MPs' Rebellion

Seventeen Conservative MPs have rebelled in a House of Commons vote on plans to build a high-speed rail line linking London to the north of England.

MPs voted by 350 to 34 in favour of the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill, which will allow ministers to spend money planning the route and buying up property from residents and businesses.

It was a clear majority for the Bill at the third reading in the Commons late on Thursday, despite the rebellion from 17 Tory MPs.

Eleven Labour MPs also voted against the Bill, which will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny by peers.

There had been fears Labour could oppose the Bill, leading to the possibility that the project could be halted.

Outlining the Bill at third reading, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “This is the point when the debate starts moving from ‘if’ to ‘when’.

“Just this week with the storms that hit the south and the east, we have seen how crucial our railways are to national life.

“When trains are crowded and disrupted, life for hard-working people gets more difficult. That’s why the new north-south line isn’t some expensive luxury.”

Tory MP Cheryl Gillan, who has campaigned against the rail line as it would go through her Chesham and Amersham constituency, angered Conservative colleagues when she compared the project to Concorde.

She said: “I still think that HS2 is an expensive toy. I remember we once had something else that went fast – it was called Concorde – and look what happened to that.

“It is still not flying these days, I am afraid and it lost out to the jumbo jet.”

Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig said debate over the Bill “was pretty bitter and quite heated”.

“The battle now moves on to another piece of legislation. This will be what’s called a hybrid Bill … and is all about authorising the construction of phase one of the route,” he said.

“I think we might see bigger rebellions in the future … The battle goes on. This project is still a long way off and both parties are split.”

HS2: Rail Bill Passed Despite MPs' Rebellion

U.S. Senate panel passes plan to restrict but keep mass surveillance

By Patricia Zengerle and Joseph Menn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would tighten controls on the government’s sweeping electronic eavesdropping programs but allow them to continue.

In a classified hearing, the panel voted 11-4 for a measure that puts new limits on what intelligence agencies can do with bulk communications records and imposes a five-year limit on how long they can be retained.

Despite growing national concern about surveillance, the “FISA Improvements Act” would not eliminate programs that became public this year after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents describing how the government collects far more internet and telephone data than previously known.

“The NSA call-records program is legal and subject to extensive congressional and judicial oversight, and I believe it contributes to our national security. But more can and should be done to increase transparency and build public support for privacy protections in place,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the committee, said in a statement.

If approved by the full Senate and the House and signed by the president, the act would require the special court that oversees the collection programs to designate outside officials to provide independent perspective and assist in reviewing matters that present novel or significant interpretations of the law.

It also requires Senate confirmation of the NSA director and inspector general.

However, the bill ran into immediate opposition from technology companies, civil-liberties groups and another chairman in the majority Democratic Senate.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy and Republican Representative James Sensenbrenner this week introduced a bill to end what they termed the government’s “dragnet collection” of information.

Sensenbrenner and Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee which also oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, were the primary authors of the USA Patriot Act implemented after the September 11, 2001, which gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies much more authority.

CODIFY SERVEILLANCE PRACTICES

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, one of the four intelligence committee members voting against their panel’s legislation, said it would codify surveillance practices that are too broad.

“More and more Americans are saying that they refuse to give up their constitutionally guaranteed liberties for the appearance of security; the intelligence committee has passed a bill that ignores this message,” Wyden said in a statement.

A critical role in the debate may be played by Google Inc, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and other big technology companies, which have been whipsawed by intelligence agency collection of their data and the concerns of users, especially those overseas with little protection from U.S. spying.

On Thursday, those three companies, joined by Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and AOL Inc, wrote to Leahy and other members of Congress to “applaud” the contributions of his bill.

They repeated earlier calls that they be allowed to disclose the scope of their cooperation, adding that “our companies believe that government surveillance practices should also be reformed to include substantial enhancements to privacy protections and appropriate oversight and accountability mechanisms.”

The tech companies’ anger mounted after a report in Wednesday’s Washington Post that the NSA had intercepted massive internal transfers of Google and Yahoo data overseas.

In an unusually long response to that report and others this week, the NSA said it must collect information of foreign intelligence value “irrespective of the provider that carries them.”

It said it follows “minimization” procedures approved by the attorney general to avoid disseminating data on U.S. residents.

“In addition, NSA is very motivated and actively works to remove as much extraneous data as early in the process possible – to include data of innocent foreign citizens,” the agency’s public affairs office wrote.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Joseph Menn.; Editing by Christopher Wilson)

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U.S. Senate panel passes plan to restrict but keep mass surveillance

Ex-Madoff trader implicates other workers in decades-long fraud

By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former trader at Bernard Madoff’s investment firm described on Thursday how he helped create false trades with two other former employees to prop up Madoff’s $17 billion Ponzi scheme.

David Kugel, who joined the firm in 1970 and worked there for nearly four decades, said he provided historical data on stock prices to Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi, who then fabricated trades in client accounts.

“If someone looked at it, it would look potentially like a real trade, like something that had taken place,” he told a federal jury in New York.

Bongiorno and Crupi are among five former Madoff employees charged with aiding Madoff in a scheme that cost investors an estimated $17 billion. The other defendants are Daniel Bonventre, the firm’s director of operations, and two computer programmers, Jerome O’Hara and George Perez.

Kugel, who pleaded guilty in 2011 as part of an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors, is the first insider to testify at the trial. He did not offer testimony implicating Bonventre, O’Hara or Perez on Thursday.

Madoff, 75, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2009. He has said he perpetrated the fraud on his own.

Defence lawyers for the five employees on trial have argued that they were bewitched by Madoff’s brilliance and did not question whether his success was legitimate. They have not had a chance to cross-examine Kugel, who will continue to testify on Monday when the trial resumes.

In approximately five hours on the witness stand on Thursday, Kugel explained how he would use copies of the Wall Street Journal to provide a range of stock prices to Bongiorno beginning in the late 1970s and to Crupi years later.

They used the data to construct fake trades that would appear to be based on real stock prices and dates, he said.

Madoff himself didn’t handle the calculations, Kugel said, in part because he wasn’t good at basic math.

“Bernie Madoff couldn’t do long division, you said?” prosecutor Matthew Schwartz asked.

“That was my understanding, yes,” Kugel replied.

Kugel said he believed all along that Madoff was investing customer money elsewhere – in shopping centres or foreign currency, for instance – and using returns from those investments to pay clients.

That explained why he held almost his entire personal fortune in accounts at Madoff’s firm and helped his mother, sister, brother, daughter and son open their own accounts there, he said.

“Why, if you knew the trades were fake, did you allow your family to invest?” Schwartz asked.

“For the same reason I had an account – even though I knew everything was wrong, that he was fooling people and sending out fraudulent accounts, I thought he was investing it and the money was safe,” Kugel said.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the jury a little early on Thursday so any parents could go trick-or-treating on Halloween night. The trial is expected to last several more months.

The case is USA v. O’Hara et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-cr-0228.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Ex-Madoff trader implicates other workers in decades-long fraud

Syria meets deadline to destroy chemical production facilities

By Dominic Evans

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria has destroyed or rendered inoperable all of its declared chemical weapons production and mixing facilities, meeting a major deadline in an ambitious disarmament programme, the international chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which won the Nobel Peace prize this month, said its teams had inspected 21 out of 23 chemical weapons sites across the country. The remaining two were too dangerous to reach for inspection but the chemical equipment had already been moved to other sites that experts had visited, it said.

Syria “has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment for all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities and mixing/filling plants, rendering them inoperable,” it said, meeting a November 1 deadline for the work.

The next target date is November 15, by when the OPCW and Syria must agree to a detailed plan of destruction, including how and where to destroy more than 1,000 metric tonnes of toxic agents and munitions.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Damascus agreed to destroy all its chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to the killing of hundreds of people in a sarin attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.

It was the world’s deadliest chemical weapons incident since Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces used poison gas against the Kurdish town of Halabja 25 years ago.

The United States and its allies blamed the forces of President Bashar al-Assad for the attack and several earlier incidents. Assad has rejected the charge, blaming rebel brigades.

“This was a major milestone in the effort to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program,” Ralf Trapp, an independent chemical weapons disarmament specialist, said.

“Most of the sites and facilities declared by Syria to the OPCW have been inspected, their inventories verified, equipment for chemical weapons production disabled and put beyond use, and some of the unfilled weapons have also been disabled.”

Assad still has a substantial conventional arsenal. Israel declined comment on Thursday on reports its warplanes had struck a military base where Syrian opposition sources said his forces had stored powerful, Russian-made missiles.

WORKING IN WAR

The OPCW mission is being undertaken in the midst of Syria’s 2-1/2 year civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people. There had been concerns that the violence would impede the disarmament, but the OPCW says Syrian authorities have been cooperating with the weapons experts.

At one location it could not visit, the OPCW said it was able to verify destruction work remotely, while Syrian forces had abandoned the two sites it could not inspect at all.

Syrian authorities said that “the chemical weapons programme items removed from these sites were moved to other declared sites”, an OPCW document said. “These sites holding items from abandoned facilities were inspected.”

Trapp said it was “important to ensure that the remaining facilities can be inspected and their equipment and weapons inventoried and prepared for destruction as soon as possible”.

Amy Smithson, a chemical weapons expert at the U.S. Monterey Institute, cautioned that the work achieved so far had been relatively easy compared with the next stage, which will involve transporting and eliminating warfare agents.

The OPCW also remained reliant on goodwill from Damascus, said Smithson, noting that Saddam and late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had tried to pull the wool over inspectors’ eyes in the past.

“What is unknown at present is whether Assad has declared everything in his arsenal – remember, Gaddafi kept a stash and Saddam tried his best to do the same but was outmanoeuvred by savvy, determined inspectors – and to what extent Syrian cooperation will continue,” she said.

Under the disarmament timetable, Syria was due to render unusable all production and chemical weapons filling facilities by November 1. By the middle of next year it must have destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.

The OPCW has not said which locations it had been unable to inspect, but a source briefed on their operations said one was at Safira, southeast of Aleppo in the north of the country. The site itself remains under government control but has been emptied of equipment because of fighting nearby.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence in Syria, said forces loyal to Assad advanced towards Safira on Thursday and clashed with rebels on its eastern approaches.

The other site not inspected was at Tel Kurdi in Adra, northeast of the capital Damascus. Tel Kurdi is now under rebel control but has been empty since early 2013 when the equipment was moved to another site, the source said.

The site which was inspected remotely was Al Sukkar, also in Adra, which contained instruments, ammunition and other substances which were destroyed by Syrian officials. The OPCW monitored this operation by video because the site, although under government control, was dangerous to reach.

(Additional Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Will Waterman and David Stamp)

Syria meets deadline to destroy chemical production facilities

Israeli tank fire kills Gaza militant in clashes -Gaza sources

GAZA (Reuters) – A Hamas militant was killed and another critically wounded by Israeli tank fire in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, medical sources said.

Clashes broke out in the area after a number of Israeli tanks crossed the border fence into the Gaza Strip in an area close to where Israel earlier in October uncovered a tunnel that militants had dug under the border, a Hamas source said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces were carrying out “a pinpoint action” in the area of the tunnel in the Gaza Strip but did not have further details.

Hamas said the Israeli tanks had entered the Gaza side of the border and had remained there for several hours and clashes erupted as militants fired mortar shells at the tanks. It added that an Israeli helicopter had also fired a rocket in the area.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, a year after winning a Palestinian election, from forces loyal to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas. The movement is shunned by the West over its refusal to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

On October 13, Israel displayed what it called a Palestinian “terror tunnel” running into its territory from the Gaza Strip that it said militants had dug in the sandy soil with the aim of attacking Israelis. Hamas claimed responsibility for digging the tunnel.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Israeli tank fire kills Gaza militant in clashes -Gaza sources

'After Midnight' brings music of legendary Cotton Club to Broadway

By Patricia Reaney

NEW YORK (Reuters) – “After Midnight,” a Broadway musical featuring original arrangements by jazz great Duke Ellington, melds classic songs from the 1920s and 30s with dance to recreate Harlem’s Golden Age and the legendary Cotton Club.

The show, which includes a big band of 17 musicians chosen by Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, 25 dancers and singers and rotating guest stars, opens on Sunday.

It joins a list of Broadway productions showcasing music – from Motown hits and Beatles classics to 1960s tunes by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and rock’n'roll legend Janis Joplin.

“Beautiful,” a musical about singer-songwriter Carole King, will open early in 2014 and “The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream,” a hybrid concert/Broadway show featuring the ’60s group and hits such as “Groovin’ and “It’s a Beautiful Morning,” will return for a limited run later this year.

“After Midnight” director and choreographer Warren Carlyle said putting original arrangements from decades ago to dance posed unique challenges for him.

“I am such a fan of tradition and what came before us but I also feel we have a duty to carry jazz music forward and those orchestrations have really inspired me,” said Carlyle, who also choreographed “Follies” and “Finian’s Rainbow.”

“I wanted to honor what came before but also feel free to reinvent,” he added.

CELEBRATING AN ERA

The more than 20 songs in the show, set against a narrative of Langston Hughes poetry, harken to Harlem and the Cotton Club nightclub, which was immortalized in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 film of the same name.

“It is a celebration of jazz music done in a contemporary way with some really talented dancers, singers, actors and musicians,” said Carlyle.

Producer Scott Sanders described the Cotton Club in its heyday as the coolest place in the city, which attracted the leading talent of the day.

“Great performers would drop into the production show and do a couple of numbers, so you had the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Judy Garland and Fanny Brice all going to 125th Street on a Sunday night and doing their songs in this incredible institution,” he said.

“It was the Jazz Age and Prohibition and people wanting to get dressed up and have a good time.”

It’s that atmosphere that Carlyle tries to recreate with each song and the story told within it.

“After Midnight” originated from a production called “Cotton Club Parade.” The Broadway show will include a rotating list of guest stars including R&B singer and the winner of the third season of the American Idol singing competition Fantasia Barrino and pop and country singer-songwriter k.d. lang.

“It was the first spark of marrying Broadway and dancers and singers and performers with jazz and this music and the Ellington charts and the classic, timeless songs,” said Sanders about the original production.

Although songs such as “Cotton Club Stomp,” “Daybreak Express” and “Creole Love Call,” were written decades ago, Sanders said the tunes are put through the prism of 2013.

“It’s a great soup of incredible ingredients,” he added.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

'After Midnight' brings music of legendary Cotton Club to Broadway

Arrest Over Pizza Delivery Driver Killing

A 17-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murdering pizza delivery driver Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, police have said.

Thavisha, 25, was found stabbed to death in his car in the Southey area of Sheffield on Sunday night.

He was making his last delivery on his final day working for Domino’s Pizza and was due to start a job in IT.

South Yorkshire Police said the 17-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday evening and would soon be questioned.

Thavisha was found by colleagues slumped in a silver Toyota Yaris after he failed to complete his delivery.

They said he had been feeling unwell and was going to go home early but agreed to deliver one last order.

Thavisha came to the UK from Sri Lanka to finish an IT degree and graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2011.

His parents described him as “the most caring and loving son a parent could have”.

Speaking from Sri Lanka, his father Sarath Mahinda Peiris and mother Sudarma Narangoda said: “We sent our son to the UK to study so he can have a better life. Now we are left with only a broken heart.

“We were devastated and shocked to hear of our son’s tragic end and we are still unable to comprehend that he is actually gone.

“Thavisha was one of the most caring and loving sons a parent could have. He was full of life and always had a smile on his face. Anyone who met him immediately liked him.