Choosing jury in Apple-Samsung case may be hard

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jury selection promised to be a challenge for the world’s leading smartphone makers as they continued their patent fight in federal court on Tuesday.

The trial in Silicon Valley marks the latest round in a long-running series of lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung, with the companies accusing each other of stealing ideas and features.

One reason choosing a jury could be difficult is because the federal courthouse in San Jose is just a 15-minute drive from the Cupertino headquarters of Apple.

Most prospective jurors said they were at least somewhat familiar with the dispute, including many who work for companies affiliated with either Samsung or Apple. Some locals had strong opinions.

“Neither company has been a particular favorite of mine. Both have been bullies with their patent libraries,” said prospective juror Armen Hamstra, a LinkedIn software engineer and patent holder who was not immediately excused from the jury pool despite requests from attorneys.

If Apple prevails in the current case, the cost to Samsung could reach $2 billion. Apple’s costs, if it loses the litigation, were expected to be about $6 million.

Whatever the outcome, it could be the consumer who ends up paying the ultimate price. Experts say the litigation could lead to more expensive smartphones and devices and slow the overall pace of mobile innovation.

“The most direct effect of this patent fight on consumers would be if the judge blocked one of these popular phones from the market,” said Rutgers Law School professor Michael A. Carrier.

Carrier said patent litigation costs businesses time and money.

“What’s even more worrisome for the effect on innovation is the impact on small innovators,” said Carrier. “Apple and Samsung can afford this litigation. The next upstart cannot.”

In the case in U.S. District Court, Apple is accusing Samsung of infringing on five patents on newer devices, including Galaxy smartphones and tablets. In a counterclaim, Samsung says Apple stole two of its ideas to use on iPhones and iPads.

The two tech giants have battled in litigation around the world. Less than two years ago, a federal jury in the same court found Samsung was infringing on Apple patents. Samsung was ordered to pay about $900 million but is appealing and has been allowed to continue selling products using the technology.

Throughout three years of litigation, Samsung’s global market share has grown. One of every three smartphones sold last year was a Samsung, now the market leader. Apple, with its typically higher priced iPhones, was second, with about 15 percent of the market.

Experts say the case underscores a much larger concern about what is allowed to be patented.

“There’s a widespread suspicion that lots of the kinds of software patents at issue are written in ways that cover more ground than what Apple or any other tech firm actually invented,” Notre Dame law professor Mark McKenna said. “Overly broad patents allow companies to block competition.”

In court filings, Apple said Samsung has “systematically copied Apple’s innovative technology and products, features and designs, and has deluged markets with infringing devices.”

Samsung countered that it has broken technological barriers with its own lightweight, ultra-slim phones.

“Samsung has been a pioneer in the mobile device business sector since the inception of the mobile device industry,” Samsung attorneys wrote. “Apple has copied many of Samsung’s innovations in its Apple iPhone, iPod, and iPad products.”

Specifically, Apple claims Samsung stole a tap-from-search technology that allows someone searching for a telephone number or address on the Web to tap on the results to call the number or put the address into a map. In addition, Apple says Samsung copied “Slide to Unlock,” which allows users to swipe the face of their smartphone to use it.

Samsung countered that Apple is stealing a wireless technology system that speeds up receiving and sending data.

Apple is demanding that Samsung pay a $40 royalty for each Samsung device running software allegedly conceived by Apple. The figure is more than five times more than the amount sought in the previous trial and well above other precedents.

___

Follow Martha Mendoza at https://twitter.com/mendozamartha

Choosing jury in Apple-Samsung case may be hard

Royal Mail Sell-Off 'Cost Taxpayer Millions'

Taxpayers lost out due to the Government’s low valuation of Royal Mail shares during its privatisation, the National Audit Office has found.

The public spending watchdog concluded ministers showed “deep caution” when pricing the shares last year.

The Government sold £2bn-worth of shares in October, amounting to 60% of the company.

The NAO points out that on the first day of trading alone, Royal Mail’s new shareholders benefited to the tune of £750m – money which could have gone to the public purse.

Twelve priority investors sold all or some of their holdings within the first few weeks of trading.

Royal Mail shares are now trading more than two-thirds higher than the price at which they were sold by the Government.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: “The department was very keen to achieve its objective of selling Royal Mail, and was successful in getting the company listed on the FTSE 100. Its approach, however, was marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer.

“The Government retained 30% of the company. It could have retained even more and allowed the taxpayer to participate further in the rapidly increasing share price and thus limit the cost to the taxpayer.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable is the minister under scrutiny and the report does partly vindicate his approach to the sale.

It says he was right to reject bankers’ gold-plated valuations of Royal Mail of more than £9bn.

Mr Cable said: “Achieving the highest price possible at any cost and whatever the risk was never the aim of the sale.

“The report concludes there was a real risk of a failed sale attached to pushing the price too high, and a failed sale would have been the worst outcome for taxpayers and jeopardised the operation of Royal Mail going forward.

“The report also comprehensively demolishes the argument that the government should have relied on the price valuations of some banks who were pitching for the contract to sell Royal Mail.

“The NAO confirms we have protected taxpayers from the risk of needing to offer ongoing support to the company as well as safeguarding the vital six-day-a-week service that customers and businesses around the country rely on.”

Critics of the sale have seized on the axing of 1,300 jobs and a hike in stamp prices in recent days as evidence of the folly of privatisation.

Unite national officer Brian Scott said: “This report is startling proof that the Government sold off the country’s family silver on the cheap.

“The privatisation of Royal Mail was wrong in every way. The loser is the UK taxpayer and the tragedy is that money that should be flowing into the Treasury for schools and hospitals is going into the pockets of private investors.”

Some 10% of Royal Mail was handed free to employees during the privatisation.

Taxpayers were left with a 30% stake that is now worth about £1.6bn.

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/royal-mail-sell-off-cost-taxpayer-millions-021847441.html

Royal Mail Sell-Off 'Cost Taxpayer Millions'

Twisty Mystery 'We Were Liars' Launches Submit-Your-Secret App

Cadence Sinclair is many things. A child of privilege. An heir to a dynasty. A pawn in the game nobody in her family will admit to playing. A girl with a trust fund, a broken heart, and a big, black hole where her memory of her fifteenth summer should be.

But most of all, Cadence Sinclair is a Liar.

And that’s about all we can tell you when it comes to the story of “We Were Liars,” the book by E. Lockhart that everyone will be reading, and re-reading, this summer. It’s twisty, it’s mysterious, and it’s got a surprise ending that’ll knock your socks off and which we wouldn’t dare spoil for ya.

However, we can tell you to how to start getting pumped for the book’s release in May: Through the “We Were Liars” filter app on Tumblr, where you can become a beautiful, privileged, damaged Liar yourself and add your own terrible fib — or terrible truth — to a Sinclair-style photo album that will give an elegant, old-money look to even your most heinous confessions. Upload yours here, and read on below for some exclusive secrets from E. Lockhart herself about the truth behind her Liars.

If we had to sum up this book in “x meets y” format, it might be something like “Rich Kids of Instagram meets King Lear meets Memento” — all set against the backdrop of a private island where generations of Sinclairs meet each summer.

Of her island setting and the family who lives there, the author said, “I was inspired by novels about self-mythologizing families, especially those in which houses loom iconically: Brideshead Revisted, for example. Howard’s End. Bleak House. Cadence is the most likely heiress — she is the first-born grandchild— to the fortune and real estate belonging to her grandfather. Granddad is a Lear-like figure, and his three daughters are competing for his favor.”

Competing, but only behind closed doors and in the most passive-aggressive way possible. The Sinclairs are the oldest sort of old money, born with silver spoons in their mouths and New England ice in their veins. And when it comes to the highly-publicized and overt machinations of, say, the Kardashians?

“They would not know who the Kardashians are,” Lockhart said. “And if forced to reckon with them, they would find them vulgar.”

Meanwhile, although she can’t (or is too discreet to) point to any one elite American family as the inspiration for the Sinclairs, Lockhart does know a bit about the playgrounds of young one-percenters, thanks to — what else? — some family history.

“My maternal grandparents built a modern house on Martha’s Vineyard in the early 1970s and I have been going there in the summers since that time. The Vineyard is actually diverse in quite a number of ways, but my grandparents’ friends were mainly Boston academics and old money,” she explained. “For the Sinclair family with their private island, I turned up the volume — they are richer, WASPier, and far worse-behaved than anyone I have ever known personally.”

So if you did have something to declare — be it a little bit scandalous, a little bit shameful, or maybe even a little bit shocking — you know who you can tell. The Sinclairs, among other things, are very good at keeping secrets.

Twisty Mystery 'We Were Liars' Launches Submit-Your-Secret App

Liberia confirms spread of 'unprecedented' Ebola epidemic

Aid organisation Doctors Without Borders said an Ebola outbreak suspected of killing dozens in Guinea was an “unprecedented epidemic” as Liberia confirmed its first cases of the deadly contagion.

Guinea’s health ministry this year has reported 122 “suspicious cases” of viral haemorrhagic fever, including 78 deaths, with 22 of the samples taken from patients testing positive for the highly contagious tropical pathogen.

“We are facing an epidemic of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution of cases in the country: Gueckedou, Macenta, Kissidougou, Nzerekore, and now Conakry,” Mariano Lugli, the organisation’s coordinator in the Guinean capital, said in a statement.

The group, known by its French initials MSF, said that by the end of the week it would have around 60 international field workers with experience in working on haemorrhagic fever divided between Conakry and the south-east of the country.

“MSF has intervened in almost all reported Ebola outbreaks in recent years, but they were much more geographically contained and involved more remote locations,” Lugli said.

“This geographical spread is worrisome because it will greatly complicate the tasks of the organisations working to control the epidemic.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) and local health authorities have announced two Ebola cases among seven samples tested from Liberia’s northern Foya district, confirming for the first time the spread of the virus across international borders.

Liberian Health Minister Walter Gwenigale told reporters the patients were sisters, one of whom had died.

The surviving sister returned to Monrovia in a taxi before she could be isolated and the authorities fear she may have spread the virus to her taxi driver and four members of her family.

The woman and those with whom she has come into contact are in quarantine in a hospital 48 kilometres (30 miles) south-east of Monrovia, Gwenigale said.

– Unstoppable bleeding –

Ebola has killed almost 1,600 people since it was first observed in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo but this is the first fatal outbreak in west Africa.

The tropical virus leads to haemorrhagic fever, causing muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.

The WHO said Sierra Leone has also identified two suspected cases, both of whom died, but neither has been confirmed to be Ebola.

No treatment or vaccine is available for the bug, and the Zaire strain detected in Guinea has a historic death rate of up to 90 percent.

It can be transmitted to humans from wild animals, and between humans through direct contact with another’s blood, faeces or sweat, as well as sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

MSF said it had stepped up support for the isolation of patients in Conakry, in collaboration with the Guinean health authorities and the WHO.

“Other patients in other health structures are still hospitalised in non-optimal conditions and isolation must be reinforced in the coming days,” it added.

The WHO said it was not recommending travel or trade restrictions to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone based on the current information available about the outbreak.

But Senegal has closed border crossings to Guinea “until further notice”.

Liberia confirms spread of 'unprecedented' Ebola epidemic

China's leader Xi in first visit to European Union

BRUSSELS (AP) — China‘s president is meeting with the top officials of the European Union to discuss the two sides’ close business ties and their wider diplomatic relations.

Xi Jinping on Monday became the first Chinese leader to visit the headquarters of the 28-country EU in Brussels.

The EU is China’s largest trading partner, while China is Europe’s second-largest, trailing only the U.S. China and Europe trade well over 1 billion euros worth ($1.37 billion) a day.

Xi was meeting with the head of the EU’s executive arm, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliament leader Martin Schulz and Herman Van Rompuy, who chairs the meetings of the EU’s 28 national leaders.

Xi visited Belgium as part of a wider European tour that also has taken him to France, Germany and the Netherlands.

China's leader Xi in first visit to European Union

OkCupid urges boycott of Mozilla, cites CEO's gay marriage views

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – OkCupid.com, the popular online dating site, called for a boycott of Mozilla Firefox to protest the world’s No. 2 Web browser naming a gay marriage opponent as chief executive.

OkCupid visitors who accessed the website through Firefox on Monday were told in a message to use other browsers such as Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer or Google Inc’s Chrome.

“Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples,” the message said. “We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.”

“Especially in the kind of modern hero culture, the CEO is equivalent to the company,” said Christian Rudder, an OkCupid co-founder. “We have users who are trying to find other people and we wanted to point out that this browser might be in conflict with their own values.”

The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation’s appointment of Eich as CEO on March 24 has attracted criticism from software developers, including its employees who have publicly called for Eich’s resignation on social media.

Eich, the inventor of the programming language Javascript and a Mozilla co-founder, donated $1,000 in 2008 in support of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state until it was struck down by the Supreme Court in June.

Eich has in recent days apologized for the “pain” he caused with his personal political views while vowing to uphold a culture of equality as CEO, including maintaining Mozilla’s health benefits for same-sex couples.

OkCupid’s move caught Mozilla by surprise.

“No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally,” a spokesman Mozilla said. “OkCupid never reached out to us to let us know of their intentions, nor to confirm facts.”

Three out of six Mozilla board members resigned late last week, which the company said was not related to Eich’s views on gay marriage. The board was divided over whether to bring in an outsider to helm Mozilla versus Eich, who had been serving as interim CEO, The Wall Street Journal reported.

(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Richard Chang)

OkCupid urges boycott of Mozilla, cites CEO's gay marriage views

Coach Wilson denies Voice makeover

Ricky Wilson has denied that he underwent a makeover after signing up to be a coach on The Voice.

The Kaiser Chiefs frontman, 36, looked slimmer and appeared to be sporting straighter teeth on his debut on the BBC1 singing contest.

But the singer dismissed reports that he changed his looks for his new TV job.

He told Radio Times magazine: “Everyone’s saying ‘You lost all that weight and had your teeth done for TV’ but I only got the job on The Voice two weeks before we started filming.

“If I’d done all that in a fortnight, people would want the number of my clinic!”

He also suggested that previous winners were to blame for not making it as stars, once they left the TV show.

“They didn’t see it through. That sounds harsh, but it’s not like you go straight to number one when you get a record deal,” he said. “That’s where the hard work starts.”

Wilson said he would not sign up for series four unless his fellow coaches – Kylie Minogue, Sir Tom Jones and Will.i.am – do.

“It totally depends on whether the other coaches sign up. I’m happy to wait and see what they decide,” he told the magazine.

Asked why he signed up to The Voice in the first place, he said: “I had a (Kaiser Chiefs) record coming out and I wanted people to hear it – it would be disingenuous to say otherwise. But I’ve ended up really enjoying it.”

Coach Wilson denies Voice makeover

BT 'given rural broadband monopoly'

BT has been given an effective monopoly by the Government to run a taxpayer-funded rural broadband programme, according to a powerful committee.

The communications giant has won all 44 contracts awarded under the £1.2 billion scheme to extended services to areas that are not considered commercially viable.

In a second highly critical report on the progress of the plans, MPs said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had ” failed to deliver meaningful competition”, which has put BT in a strong position and made it more difficult to insist on value for money.

BT’s position as a monopoly supplier should have raised a “red flag” but the department failed to act on previous warnings that higher standards of transparency around costs must be imposed to ensure that contracts were competitively priced and the company was ” not taking advantage”, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the PAC, said: “The Government has failed to deliver meaningful competition in the procurement of its £1.2 billion rural broadband programme, leaving BT effectively in a monopoly position. The scheme is designed to help get broadband to areas, mainly rural, where commercial broadband infrastructure providers currently have no plans to invest.

“Since our hearing in July last year, when 26 of the 44 contracts to deliver this were with BT, all remaining contracts have now also gone to BT. Despite our warnings last September, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has allowed poor cost transparency and the lack of detailed broadband rollout plans to create conditions whereby alternative suppliers may be crowded out.”

The PAC found there is still a dearth of information being published about planned rural broadband coverage and speed which makes it difficult for potential alternative suppliers seeking to plug the gaps in provision.

New DCMS guidance should mean that coverage plans for superfast broadband roll-out are published at postcode level but the committee said it was ” still not good enough that, despite £1.2 billion of public money being spent, it is taking so long to get this information out there”.

Mrs Hodge said: ” Whilst BT claims it is making further concessions, this is not impacting on rural communities. Local authorities are still contractually prevented from sharing information to see if they are securing best terms for the public money they spend. Communities can still not access the detailed data they need to understand whether they will be covered by BT’s scheme in their area. Other broadband providers might be squeezed out of the rural market by BT’s actions.

“BT’s monopoly position should have been a red flag for the department. But we see the lack of transparency on costs and BT’s insistence on non-disclosure agreements as symptomatic of BT exploiting its monopoly position to the detriment of the taxpayer, local authorities and those seeking to access high speed broadband in rural areas.”

She added: ” The department should collect, analyse and publish data on deployment costs in the current programme, to inform its consideration of bids from suppliers under the next round of funding. And before that next round of funding is released, the department should work with local authorities to ensure there is real competition and value for money.”

Communications minister Ed Vaizey said: “Britain has the best superfast broadband of all five leading European economies.

“The Government’s nationwide broadband rollout is ahead of schedule; multiple robust safeguards are already in place to ensure value for money, and thousands of homes and businesses up and down the country are already getting the benefits.

“We continue to promote competition and have insisted on enhanced transparency from both local authorities and suppliers.”

BT 'given rural broadband monopoly'

EXCLUSIVE: London's Iconic Big Ben Clock to go Digital

The clock on London’ iconic Big Ben is set to become digital clock with the hands replaced with LED numerals and the famous “bongs” at the top of the hour replicated with a state-of-the-art synthesizer, according to sources .

The controversial change will remove centuries of history as London tourism officials seek to inject new life into the ailing tourism industry after the 2008 recession. It will also raise funds by opening the clock to sponsorship by the highest bidder.

The famous chime of the Great Bell is set to be replaced with a new “beep” sound, similar to that of an iPhone or an alarm clock.

“After the Olympics, London officials just really wanted to revitalise the city with a big gesture. Turning Big Ben digital ticks all the boxes,” Abu az-Azamaan Snr, 60, the man who came up with the idea, told IBTimes UK. 

Azamaan has also been commissioned to build a giant sundial on the world’s tallest building, the Burj al-Khalifia in Dubai.

London mayor Boris Johnson has refused to comment on the clock change but Twitter has been abuzz with rumours of who is set to sponsor and create the clock.

Rolex, which sponsors Wimbledon’s scoreboards, is the frontrunner while Swiss manufacturers Breitling, TAG Heuer and Longines have all been mentioned in the running for what would be a primetime sponsorship position at the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world.

The move into the digital era is one of many that the landmark has been undergoing in recent years after being renamed in 2012 as the Elizabeth Tower for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. 

Big Ben, the definitive London landmark, was built in 1858. It holds the largest four-faced chiming clock and is the third-tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.

Historic London Paintings Remixed with 21st Century Google Street View Scenes

2012 London Olympics: The Games and the Diamond Jubilee, A Good Year [SLIDESHOW]

EXCLUSIVE: London's Iconic Big Ben Clock to go Digital

Murray's hotel welcomes guests

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray’s new luxury hotel opens its doors today.

The Scottish tennis star bought Cromlix, three miles from his home town of Dunblane, central Scotland, in February last year.

The Victorian mansion has been “extensively” refurbished and tourism chiefs believe the revamped hotel will prove to be a big draw for visitors from all over the world.

In a statement on the hotel’s website, Murray said: “By re-establishing Cromlix as a leading luxury hotel at the heart of the Dunblane community we will be able to attract new visitors to the area, create a number of new jobs and focus on supporting other local businesses. I’m pleased to be able to give something back to the community I grew up in.”

The 15-bedroom hotel has been renovated to show-off much of the building’s original heritage, including its own private chapel and loch.

The accommodation features 10 bedrooms and five suites which overlook manicured grounds and tennis courts.

It also boasts a restaurant called Chez Roux, overseen by legendary French chef Albert Roux and run by executive head chef Darin Campbell.

The hotel is being managed for the British number one by Inverlochy Castle Management International (ICMI).

Norbert Lieder, managing director, said: “Cromlix and Chez Roux combine to truly offer one of the best hotel and restaurant experiences in the country. The interiors, service, food and attention to every detail of the customer journey will make sure Cromlix becomes as well known for its service as it is for its famous owner.”

VisitScotland chairman Mike Cantlay said: “We are delighted that one of our greatest sportsmen, Andy Murray, has entered the tourism game and I’m sure he will be a terrific ambassador for the industry.

“The revamped Cromlix is bound to be a huge draw for visitors from all over the world, generating the kind of excitement that Andy creates on court.

“As a local boy, from nearby Callander, the hotel itself has a very personal, special place in my heart and to see such an amazing redevelopment is truly inspirational.”

The hotel is already fully booked for the Ryder Cup, which is being staged a short drive away at Gleneagles later this year.

Murray last year became the first British winner of the men’s singles title at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/murrays-hotel-welcomes-guests-232451704.html

Murray's hotel welcomes guests

Pharrell (And His Hat) Join 'The Voice'

“The Voice” fans have another reason to be happy now that Pharrell Williams has been announced as the new coach on the popular singing competition.

The show’s official Twitter handle dropped the first hint on Monday (March 31) when show reps posted a pic of four empty coach chairs, with Williams’ famous buffalo hat sitting atop one of the chairs. A few minutes later, they spilled the beans. (Not to brag, but MTV News called it last month.)

Okay, we can OFFICIALLY say it! WE ARE SO #HAPPY to announce PHARRELL WILLIAMS = #NewVoiceCoach for SEASON 7. pic.twitter.com/GayqbMeU1l

— The Voice (@NBCTheVoice) March 31, 2014

“Okay, we can OFFICIALLY say it! WE ARE SO #HAPPY to announce PHARRELL WILLIAMS = #NewVoiceCoach for SEASON 7,” read a tweet from @NBCTheVoice.

“This is going to be so fun,” the “Happy” singer and hit producer responded.

Williams will fill the seat left open by original show coach Cee Lo Green, who announced he will not return to the show in February. P will join Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine, who was the first to welcome Williams to the family.

“@Pharrell Welcome to the circus dude,” the Maroon 5 singer tweeted.

@Pharrell Welcome to the circus dude!

— Adam Levine (@adamlevine) March 31, 2014

Pharrell (And His Hat) Join 'The Voice'

Mail sale caution 'cost taxpayer'

The Government could have achieved better value for the taxpayer through its controversial privatisation of Royal Mail, according to a new report which revealed that most investors given priority to buy shares, sold them shortly after making a profit.

The National Audit Office (NAO) disclosed that 12 priority investors sold all or some of their holdings within the first few weeks of trading.

Critics of the privatisation said the spending watchdog offered “startling proof” that the Government sold off the country’s family silver “on the cheap”.

But Business Secretary Vince Cable said the report showed that the Government achieved what it set out to do – securing the future of the universal delivery service through a successful sale.

The NAO said Mr Cable’s department took a “cautious” approach to a number of issues which led to shares being priced at a level “substantially below” the initial trading price.

On the first day of trading last year, Royal Mail’s shares closed at 455p, 38% higher than their price sale, representing a first day increase in value of £750 million for the new shareholders.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO said: ” The Department was very keen to achieve its objective of selling Royal Mail, and was successful in getting the company listed on the FTSE 100. Its approach, however, was marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer.

“The Government retained 30% of the company. It could have retained even more and allowed the taxpayer to participate further in the rapidly increasing share price and thus limit the cost to the taxpayer.”

The Government could have retained 110 million more shares, worth £363 million, at the offer price, while still privatising the business, said the report.

The NAO revealed that six priority investors sold all their shares within weeks of trading, while a further six sold part of their holdings, and four others increased their holdings.

The 16 priority investors were allocated £728 million worth of shares, while another 94 institutions were given £570 million worth.

The Government of Singapore and the Children’s Investment Fund Management each have over 3% of total shares, but other priority investors have not been named.

Those which sold their shares made a “substantial” profit, said the report.

Three surplus properties with a market value of more than £200 million were disclosed in the privatisation prospectus, but the NAO said it did not believe the basis on which the company was sold recovered this value.

The NAO pointed to “shortcomings” in the sale process, which said made it difficult for the Business Department (BiS) to change the share price above 330p – the top of the range set by the Government.

Recommendations by the NAO included looking at alternative methods of accessing equity markets and reducing reliance on professional advisers, which the report said cost £12.7 million in the Royal Mail sale.

Mr Cable said: “We secured the future of the universal postal service through a successful sale of a majority stake in Royal Mail, predominantly to responsible long term investors.

“Achieving the highest price possible at any cost and whatever the risk was never the aim of the sale. The report concludes there was a real risk of a failed sale attached to pushing the price too high, and a failed sale would have been the worst outcome for tax payers and jeopardised the operation of Royal Mail going forward.

“The report also comprehensively demolishes the argument that the government should have relied on the price valuations of some banks who were pitching for the contract to sell Royal Mail.

“The NAO confirms we have protected taxpayers from the risk of needing to offer ongoing support to the company as well as safeguarding the vital six day a week service that customers and businesses around the country rely on.”

BiS permanent secretary and accounting officer Martin Donnelly said: “We remain strongly of the view that our course of action was appropriate given the significant risks at the time and the fact that the alternative of a failed sale would have been the worst outcome for the taxpayer.

“The sale price secured by the Government was based on a comprehensive process of preparation, in which we took extensive professional advice and consulted with more than 500 investors. We have raised almost £2bn for the taxpayers in the process.

“By retaining a 30% stake in the business we have made sure taxpayers have benefited from dividend payments and will continue to benefit from share price rises after the sale.”

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said: “This report delivers a damning verdict on the Tory-led Government’s botched Royal Mail fire sale, leaving the taxpayer disgracefully short changed by hundreds of millions of pounds. At the same time, stamp prices have shot up by 30% and vital services have been put at risk at a time when families are already being hit by a cost-of-living crisis.

“We now know definitively that far better value for taxpayers could have been possible had ministers adopted a different timetable for the sale. The NAO could not be clearer: the inflexible timetable set by ministers for Royal Mail’s privatisation resulted in the public losing out.

“When Royal Mail was privatised, Vince Cable described the huge rise in its share price as ‘froth’, but since then it has continued to rise. He and David Cameron have serious questions to answer on the hundreds of millions of pounds they have lost British taxpayers and cannot duck responsibility for what has happened.”

Unite national officer Brian Scott said: “This report is startling proof that the G overnment sold off the country’s family silver on the cheap.

“The privatisation of Royal Mail was wrong in every way. The loser is the UK taxpayer and the tragedy is that money that should be flowing into the Treasury for schools and hospitals is going into the pockets of private investors.”

Communication Workers Union general secretary Billy Hayes said: “Vince Cable can no longer hide behind his claims of ‘froth’. The froth has gone cold as report after report condemns the sale for what it was.

“This report finds the Government guilty by an independent body that shows it failed on a number of counts – it’s clear the Government should have listened to us when we called for alternatives to selling off Royal Mail. It was never about establishing a long-term shareholder base and all about making a quick buck for City investors.

“There are so many aspects to Royal Mail privatisation highlighted in this report that had appalling results. This further supports the view that the Government was desperate to get rid of Royal Mail because it fitted with their agenda. The sell-off was never about getting the best deal for taxpayers.

“The report reinforces that this was a fire-sale package created for political purposes which is simply not good enough and continues to put the future of Royal Mail at risk.”

Labour MP Adrian Bailey, who chairs the business select committee, said the report underlined allegations that the Government sold Royal Mail “at any cost”.

He told the Press Association: “The main priority was to get it off their hands rather than get value for money for the taxpayer.

“The Government said it entered into intensive research and negotiations to ensure the shares went to long term investors, yet 50% of them sold very quickly and made a very good profit.”

Mr Bailey said the whole sell off process was “questionable”, leading to the loss to the taxpayer of hundreds of millions of pounds.

“If that amount of money had been squandered in any other way there would have been a huge outcry.”

The select committee will soon be publishing its own report on the Royal Mail’s privatisation.

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mail-sale-caution-cost-taxpayer-232357432.html

Mail sale caution 'cost taxpayer'

Pharrell (And His Hat) Join 'The Voice'

“The Voice” fans have another reason to be happy now that Pharrell Williams has been announced as the new coach on the popular singing competition.

The show’s official Twitter handle dropped the first hint on Monday (March 31) when show reps posted a pic of four empty coach chairs, with Williams’ famous buffalo hat sitting atop one of the chairs. A few minutes later, they spilled the beans. (Not to brag, but MTV News called it last month.)

Okay, we can OFFICIALLY say it! WE ARE SO #HAPPY to announce PHARRELL WILLIAMS = #NewVoiceCoach for SEASON 7. pic.twitter.com/GayqbMeU1l

— The Voice (@NBCTheVoice) March 31, 2014

“Okay, we can OFFICIALLY say it! WE ARE SO #HAPPY to announce PHARRELL WILLIAMS = #NewVoiceCoach for SEASON 7,” read a tweet from @NBCTheVoice.

“This is going to be so fun,” the “Happy” singer and hit producer responded.

Williams will fill the seat left open by original show coach Cee Lo Green, who announced he will not return to the show in February. P will join Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine, who was the first to welcome Williams to the family.

“@Pharrell Welcome to the circus dude,” the Maroon 5 singer tweeted.

@Pharrell Welcome to the circus dude!

— Adam Levine (@adamlevine) March 31, 2014

Pharrell (And His Hat) Join 'The Voice'

Australia says no time limit on Flight 370 search

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Although it has been slow, difficult and frustrating so far, the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet is nowhere near the point of being scaled back, Australia’s prime minister pledged Monday.

The three-week hunt for Flight 370 has turned up no sign of the Boeing 777, which vanished March 8 with 239 people bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Ten planes and 11 ships found no sign of the missing plane in the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean, about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) west of Australia, officials said.

The search area has evolved as experts analyzed Flight 370′s limited radar and satellite data, moving from the seas off Vietnam, to the waters west of Malaysia and Indonesia, and then to several areas west of Australia. The search zone is now 254,000 square kilometers (98,000 square miles), about a 2½-hour flight from Perth.

Items recovered so far were discovered to be flotsam unrelated to the Malaysian plane. Several orange-colored objects spotted by plane Sunday turned out to be fishing equipment.

Those leading the effort remain undaunted, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying officials are “well, well short” of any point where they would scale back the hunt. In fact, he said the intensity and magnitude of operations “is increasing, not decreasing.”

“I’m certainly not putting a time limit on it. … We can keep searching for quite some time to come,” Abbott said at RAAF Pearce, the Perth military base coordinating the operation.

“We owe it to the families, we owe it to everyone that travels by air. We owe it to the anxious governments of the countries who had people on that aircraft. We owe it to the wider world which has been transfixed by this mystery for three weeks now,” he said.

“If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it,” Abbott said.

On Monday, former Australian defense chief Angus Houston began his role of heading the new Joint Agency Coordination Center, which will oversee communication with international agencies involved in the search.

Houston said Tuesday the plan was for 10 ships and 10 planes to return to the search area, despite deteriorating weather.

“Yesterday’s search revealed nothing that was seen or found that had any connection to the Malaysian aircraft,” Houston told Australia’s Seven Network television.

“If we can find any debris anywhere, that will enable the search to be focused much more precisely and the high technology can then come into play,” he added.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak plans to travel to Perth on Wednesday to see the search operations firsthand.

Abbott called the operation “an extraordinarily difficult exercise.”

“We are searching a vast area of ocean and we are working on quite limited information,” he said, noting that the best brains in the world and all the technological mastery is being applied to the task.

The Ocean Shield, an Australian warship carrying a U.S. device that detects “pings” from the plane’s flight recorders, left Perth on Monday evening for the search zone, a three- to four-day trip. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search, said it conducted sea trials to test the equipment.

Investigators are hoping to first find debris floating on the surface that will help them calculate where the plane went into the water.

In Malaysia, several dozen Chinese relatives of Flight 370 passengers visited a Buddhist temple near Kuala Lumpur to pray for their loved ones. They offered incense, bowed their heads in silence and knelt several times during the prayers.

Buddhist nuns handed out prayer beads to them and said: “You are not alone. You have the whole world’s love, including Malaysia’s.”

The family members later expressed their appreciation to the Chinese government and the people of Malaysia and the volunteers who have been assisting them. They bowed in gratitude but said they were still demanding answers.

The comments were seen as a small conciliatory gesture after relatives held an angry protest Sunday at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur, calling on the Malaysian government to apologize for what they called missteps in handling the disaster.

___

Wong reported from Kuala Lumpur. Associated Press writers Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.

Australia says no time limit on Flight 370 search

Sisi mocked in Egypt internet campaign

Opponents of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have launched an Internet campaign against his bid to become the Egyptian president, leading to calls from the pro-Sisi camp for a ban on social media.

The Twitter hashtag, roughly translated from Arabic as “Vote for the Pimp,” is being used on Facebook and Twitter in several languages to mock Sisi’s announced plans to run in the presidential poll set down for April.

According to the tracking website, Keyhole, the hashtag achieved more than 100 million impressions within days of creation, and generated tens of thousands of messages on Twitter. Keyhole states that 23 percent of the hashtag’s impressions came from outside Egypt.

“The power cuts four times a day, therefore #vote_for_the_pimp,” read one of the tweets.

The word “pimp” is extremely offensive in Egyptian culture, but its use also mockingly references the North American meaning: showy, impressive, the boss of a gang. 

It comes in response to pro-Sisi hashtags over the past months, including “I will vote for Sisi” and “Complete your good deed”, reflecting the general’s soaring popularity among many Egyptians.

The use of the phrase has also broken beyond the realms of the Internet: Footage taken by activists during Friday rallies in Egypt shows protesters chanting “Vote for the pimp, a president for Egypt.”

Graffiti has also appeared in Egypt carrying the phrase.

But calls were made by several talk-show hosts to condemn the campaign.

Khairy Ramadan, a CBC TV host, said it was a “character assassination… supported by the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood”, and called for Twitter to be blocked.

Emad Adeeb, another host, said Egypt should follow the example of Turkey, whose prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blocked Twitter and the video sharing website, Youtube, after leaks of sensitive information.

“Erdogan has shut down Twitter altogether simply because they described him a thief,” he said.

The presidential election will come almost 10 months after Sisi, as defence minister and army commander, led military efforts to remove from power the country’s first elected civilian president, Mohamed Morsi.

Sisi mocked in Egypt internet campaign

Charlie Brooks hid his 'smut' to protect wife Rebekah

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) – Charlie Brooks, the husband of Rupert Murdoch’s former British newspaper chief, told a London court on Monday he hid his porn collection from police investigating phone-hacking because he feared leaks to the press which would embarrass his wife.

Brooks’ wife Rebekah is on trial at London’s Old Bailey accused of conspiracy to hack phones and authorising illegal payments to public officials. They are both accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by hindering the police investigation.

Five others are also on trial over alleged criminal activity centred on Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World tabloid. They all deny the charges.

Rebekah Brooks was arrested in July 2011 at the height of a phone-hacking scandal that rocked Murdoch’s News Corp. empire and shook Britain’s political establishment.

On the day of her arrest, her husband Charlie, a former racehorse trainer, was caught on close circuit television footage hiding a brown bag and a computer behind bins in the car park of their flat in central London.

The jury has already heard that the bag contained DVDs of lesbian porn films.

Brooks, 51, said the DVDs were of “an embarrassing nature” and the computer “also had some smut on it” as well as items linked to a book he was writing.

“I imagined 20 policemen coming in and everything down and looking under every nook and cranny,” he said, saying he had acted “incredibly stupidly and rashly”.

He told the court he had what he described as a “Jacqui Smith” moment, a reference to a former Labour Home Secretary (interior minister). Smith suffered embarrassment when it was revealed she had claimed parliamentary expenses for two adult movies her husband had watched at their home.

“I didn’t want to embarrass my wife in the same way,” Brooks said. “My instinctive reaction was that the police could easily leak this sort of thing to the press.”

Brooks also told the court that before the arrest he asked the head of security at News International, Murdoch’s British newspaper arm which his wife had run, to look after a brown briefcase which contained his computer and an iPad he needed to “function” on a daily basis.

Prosecutors allege the couple had deliberately hidden evidence from them, fully aware that their properties were going to be searched.

However, Charlie Brooks said police had been able to take away a computer in the flat which belonged to his wife and other machines of his.

Such was the couple’s concern that no details of her arrest should be leaked, he said they did not even tell their security team at which police station she was been questioned.

The trial continues.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Charlie Brooks hid his 'smut' to protect wife Rebekah

U.S. ambassador to India resigns after diplomatic row

By Frank Jack Daniel and David Brunnstrom

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to India has resigned following a row over the arrest of a junior Indian diplomat in New York that pushed relations between the world’s biggest democracies to their lowest ebb in more than a decade.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf denied on Monday that Nancy Powell’s resignation was related to ongoing tensions after the December arrest and subsequent strip search of the Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade.

But analysts said it was clear the position of Powell, a career diplomat who has held several postings in South Asia and became the ambassador to India in 2012, had become untenable as a result of the affair.

The United States sees India as a natural ally on a range of issues and a potential counterbalance to China in Asia. In 2010, President Barack Obama declared that the U.S.-Indian relationship would be “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.”

Trade in goods was $63.7 billion (38.2 billion pounds) last year, and U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden last year called for that to grow to half a trillion dollars in five years.

But trade relations were deteriorating even before the diplomatic row and in India’s eyes, Powell’s tenure never recovered from Khobragade’s treatment. India took retaliatory measures against the U.S. embassy, including removing the ambassador’s exemption from airport security searches.

Many Indian officials felt Powell had mishandled the case, which was related to the low wages that Khobragade paid a domestic worker. Both the Indian government and Narendra Modi, the opposition candidate who is favourite to become India’s next prime minister after elections that end in May, saw the arrest as U.S. hypocrisy and arrogance.

In response, India clamped down on alleged legal infractions by the embassy, including the visa status of teachers at the American Embassy School, an institution central to the lives of many expatriate employees of U.S. corporations in Delhi.

Powell met Modi in February. The meeting ended a decade-long U.S. boycott of Modi and brought Washington’s policy in line with other major powers that had shunned him because of deadly religious riots that occurred on his watch, but have now warmed to a man who has overseen fast economic growth in his home state of Gujarat.

NOT GETTING MEETINGS

Powell’s meeting with Modi was delayed by two months because of the row over Khobragade, an aide to the candidate told Reuters. A U.S. congressional aide said this was a problem Powell had faced in dealing with other officials as well.

“I had heard she wasn’t really getting meetings with government officials after Khobragade. And that’s an important part of the job. My sense is that would likely only continue with a new government,” said the aide, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

However, Harf told a regular State Department briefing: “It is in no way related to any tension, any recent situations … This is the end of a distinguished 37-year career. I think after 37 years, she deserves to retire.”

After Khobragade’s arrest, officials in New Delhi said India had bristled at Powell as soon as she was appointed in 2012, since she was not seen as a political appointee close to Obama, despite her decades of knowledge of South Asia.

In a conversation with Reuters in January, one official close to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Powell as a “lemon” – a comment reflecting concerns in India that Obama was not serious about the relationship.

Persis Khambatta of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said it was clear Washington had underestimated the depth of feeling in India over the Khobragade affair.

Khambatta said it was important for the United States to replace Powell in a timely manner with “a heavy-hitter” to show it considered India a real strategic partner.

“If India is to be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century, we should send out diplomats that send that signal and carry that influence and gravitas that are needed.”

In spite of the diplomatic tensions, a Pew Research poll issued on Monday based on polling conducted in December and January found that most Indians had a positive view of America.

“Notwithstanding recent high-profile official frictions with the United States, more Indians express a favourable (56 percent) rather than unfavourable (15 percent) view of America. And 58 percent have a positive view of the American people,” the polling group said in a statement.

It said it conducted its survey between December 7 and January 12, among 2,464 adults in states and territories that are home to about 91 percent of the Indian population.

Harf said Powell would return to the United States before the end of May, which is the deadline for a new Indian government to be formed.

The United States revoked Modi’s travel visa following allegations he did not do enough to prevent at least 1,000 deaths during a spasm of Hindu-Muslim violence in 2002 in the state that he governs.

Modi has not yet been granted a visa, but Nisha Biswal, the U.S. assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs, has said he would be welcome to visit the United States if he became prime minister.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel in New Delhi and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Additional reporting by Shashank Chouhan in New Delhi; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Mohammad Zargham)

U.S. ambassador to India resigns after diplomatic row

Police chief praises officer restraint in protest

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A day after a peaceful protest over recent Albuquerque police shootings turned violent, the city’s new police chief commended officers for showing remarkable restraint.

Chief Gorden Eden says protesters hunted down police, threw rocks and bottles, and spit on them.

Eden says officials decided to disperse the crowd with tear gas late Sunday after one man pulled out an AK-47, other streamed onto Interstate 25, and unruly crowds trapped people and officers in cars and started attacking each other.

There was only one minor injury in the fracas, an officer who hurt his knee. Four protesters were arrested.

Albuquerque police have been involved in 37 shootings since 2010, 23 of them fatal.

Eden, who has been on the job for just a month, says he is working on reforming the department’s recruiting process.

Police chief praises officer restraint in protest

Karmin Are Ready To Sweat Like Gwen Stefani On Tour: Watch

Karmin‘s new album is finally here. And while the duo, Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan, can’t wait for you to hear their three-year-in-the-making debut, they’re even more excited for you to experience it live.

“I want [fans] to listen [to Pulses] and be like, this is really, I connect to so many different songs in this, this is amazing. It’s sonically … it’s different and it’s fresh but I am so curious about this I want to see them live and see what it’s really about,” Nick told MTV News. “Our live show still is our favorite part, we are … everybody that sees our live show is like, I did not expect that, so if you love the album, make sure to come see us live.”

So what exactly does a Karmin concert look like? Well, according to the pair, it’s very similar to the stage show of one of Amy’s idols: Gwen Stefani.

“It’s a high-energy show. If you remember No Doubt back in the ’90s, they also did push-ups onstage and a lot of sweating and jumping around and crowd participation, and that’s really what a Karmin show feels like. It’s almost like a rock show,” she said.

Also joining them for the second leg of their Pulses Tour in April is labelmate Bonnie McKee. Although both members of Karmin are pumped to have her as an opening act, Amy is especially looking forward to having a female friend along for the adventure.

“I’m a huge fan of her and her energy and personality is — I’m just excited to have another girl on the road with us, honestly,” she laughed.

Karmin Are Ready To Sweat Like Gwen Stefani On Tour: Watch

Chances 'Missed' To Prevent Baby's Death

Opportunities to prevent the death of an 11-month-old boy murdered by his mother were missed, an inquiry has found.

A serious case review has concluded Callum Wilson, who suffered broken bones, was blinded and sustained a brain injury, was let down by authorities. He died in March, 2011.

His 25-year-old mother Emma Wilson, from Windsor, Berkshire, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years in January for his murder.

The review, carried out by Windsor and Maidenhead Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), identified a number of missed opportunities to protect Callum and his brother and suggested the risks to them were underestimated by authorities.

As with her first child, Wilson showed no physical signs of pregnancy and was able to keep Callum’s birth a secret. He was put into foster care after he was born but returned to his mother’s home in November 2010.

The report said the pattern of two concealed pregnancies “should without doubt have led professionals to be curious about the mother’s personality and mental health, even if superficially she was offering good care”.

Other failings included not sharing key information with other professionals, and not recognising the “potential significance” of bruising and scratching on a baby.

Donald McPhail, chairman of the LSCB, expressed “collective regret” the risks to Callum were not identified and action taken to protect him.

A joint statement issued by Windsor and Maidenhead Council and health agencies, said: “Little Callum Wilson’s death in March 2011 was a terrible tragedy and all the agencies involved express our sincere sympathy to those who loved him during his very short life.

“Changes have been made to strengthen our policies and procedures, for example formal reporting of bruising in very young children and a new policy on concealed pregnancies.

“In the years since Callum’s death we have continued to strengthen our procedures beyond the recommendations of the report as we work in partnership to protect children.

“We can never guarantee the total safely of every child who comes into our care or seeks our help. However, we can work to ensure that, as far as possible, the mistakes made in Callum’s case will not be repeated and that staff are given all the necessary support, training and guidance to enable them to deliver the service that every child deserves.”

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/chances-missed-prevent-baby-death-131437469.html

Chances 'Missed' To Prevent Baby's Death

The Flaming Lips' New Album Isn't The Only Way You Can Remix 'The Wizard Of Oz'

It’s been 75 years since Judy Garland kicked down the Yellow Brick Road, which means that we have all of 2014 to celebrate that glory that is the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” based on the book by L. Frank Baum.

The Flaming Lips offered up a brand-new soundtrack with which to score the film mere hours ago and a fresh retelling drops in book form tomorrow — the nabbing of which are just two ways you can revel in the glory that is that otherworldly tale.

Get more details on the book and album, plus five more ways to remember the flick, below:

1. The Flaming Lips’ Flaming Side Of The Moon

Get ready for myriad layers, kids.

First, folks found that they could sync Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon with “The Wizard of Oz.” Then, the Flaming Lips covered that record with the likes of Stardeath And White Dwarfs, Henry Rollins and Peaches. Now, the Lips have taken things even further — they’ve created a new record, titled Flaming Side of the Moon, meant to be listened to in conjunction with The Dark Side of the Moon OR “The Wizard of Oz.”

I say just listen to everything all at once and wait for the sound tornado to carry you away.

2. “Dorothy Must Die,” by Danielle Paige

For a dark twist on the new tale, make sure to pick up “The Wizard of Oz” retelling “Dorothy Must Die” when it drops on April 1. The book imagines a world in which Dorothy and her crew are actually evil dictators, and a new girl on the Yellow Brick Road, Amy Gumm, has to liberate Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

You can check out three chapters right about here.

3. “Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return”

You’re going to have to wait until May 9 for this new 3D installment in Dorothy’s story starring the voice of Lea Michelle. Still, you could watch the above trailer a few times in anticipation. It features a giant owl, a man made of marshmallows and an evil jester. So that’s whimsical.

4. “Return To Oz”

Speaking of hitting the Yellow Brick Road (again), I highly recommend checking out the 1985 classic, “Return To Oz,” if you’re feeling nostalgic — and just a little dark. Basically, Dorothy ends up in a creepy hospital where she’s set to undergo electro-shock therapy — before she escapes to a creepily decaying Oz, that is.

Watch with the lights on, maybe.

5. “The Wiz”

This iteration of “Wizard of Oz” features Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Richard Pryor. Why are you not watching this already?

6. “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” Pink

Let’s travel all the way back to the beginning of the month, when Pink performed “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” at the Oscars, part of a tribute to the classic film. Ahh, and there go all our troubles: melting like lemon drops.

7. Oz-Stravaganza!

Start working on your costumes now! The Oz-Stravaganza! festival, which runs June 6 to 8 in Chittenango, New York, is hoping to break the Guinness World Record for most costumed characters in a movie gathered in one place. The current record is 446, according to Syracuse.com.

L. Frank Baum, author of the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” was born in the New York town, so thousands of people are set to make the pilgrimage this summer — many of which, I’m guessing, will be sporting ruby slippers and chanting, “There’s no place like home.”

The Flaming Lips' New Album Isn't The Only Way You Can Remix 'The Wizard Of Oz'

Six killed in blast in Kenyan capital - emergency services

NAIROBI (Reuters) – An explosion in an area of Kenya’s capital Nairobi that is popular with Somalis killed six people and wounded several others on Monday, the National Disaster Operations Centre said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. In the past, such attacks in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi have been blamed on Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group, which attacked a Nairobi shopping mall in September and killed at least 67 people.

“Police are securing the area for emergency response services,” the disaster organisation said on its official Twitter site.

Nine people were critically injured, it added.

Nairobi’s police commander Benson Kibui told Reuters the incident might have involved twin blasts. He confirmed the five dead and said he was seeking confirmation of a sixth killed.

Ambulances and private cars ferried injured to hospital, a witness said.

On Sunday, a man suspected of assembling a bomb was killed when it went off where he lived near Eastleigh, Kenyan newspapers reported.

The Standard daily, which cited police and witnesses, had said three men who lived with the victim fled in a car shortly after Sunday’s blast.

(Reporting by Noor Ali and Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Six killed in blast in Kenyan capital - emergency services

Osborne changes tone on economy with 'full employment' target

By William James

LONDON (Reuters) – Chancellor George Osborne on Monday sounded a brighter note on the economy as the country gears up for an election in just over a year, and set a target of “full employment”.

With economic policy likely to form a major electoral battleground in 2015, Osborne said he wanted Britain to have the highest employment rate of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialised economies.

The pledge, made in a speech to employers and recently hired workers, marked a change in tone from Osborne, who has previously sought to remind voters of the tough cost-cutting he plans for the years ahead, even as the economy recovers.

“We will not rest while we still have so much wasted potential in some parts of our country,” he said. “That’s why today I’m making a new commitment: a commitment to fight for full employment in Britain.”

Osborne also highlighted a range of new tax changes due to come into effect this week, including cuts to rates paid by businesses and larger tax-free income limits for voters.

Britain ranks fourth in comparisons of employment rates compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, behind Canada, France and Germany. Its employment rate of 15- to 64-year-olds is 70.8 percent, compared with 73.3 percent for Germany, which has the highest rate of any G7 state.

The Labour Party accused Osborne of not taking new steps to help people find work.

Since coming to office in 2010 in a Conservative Party-led coalition, Osborne has focused on cutting public spending to reduce a wide budget deficit. Opinion polls show his party are more trusted to handle the economy than any of their rivals.

While still stressing the need for fiscal discipline, and warning that other political parties could not be trusted to keep a tight grip on spending, Osborne’s said that public debt was now under control.

Full employment would be a “central goal” of his economic plans, he said, saying tax cuts for businesses and workers and a tightening of benefit rules to get more people working were the ways to achieve his target.

“Britain is starting to walk tall in the world again,” Osborne said. “There is no reason why Britain shouldn’t aim to have the highest employment rate of any of the world’s leading economies.”

(Editing by William Schomberg and Louise Ireland)

Osborne changes tone on economy with 'full employment' target

UK 'embracing digital lifestyle'

The UK has embraced the “digital lifestyle” faster than anywhere else and needs to take advantage of the pool of talent it has, according to the president of Samsung UK.

Andy Griffiths was speaking at the opening of a Samsung Digital Classroom at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The project will use the Korean firm’s products and the application of music to help improve children’s maths and science skills.

Mr Griffiths said: “In the digital age in which we are clearly living, the UK has very much embraced the digital lifestyle, and probably faster than a lot of other western European countries.

“If you look at the retail results from last Christmas, the UK now leads the world in what we call omni-channel shopping – mixing online choices with their in-store pick-ups.”

Mr Griffiths says that Samsung are keen to take advantage of this adoption in order to improve and modernise the education system by integrating their products into bespoke classrooms.

He added: “How that crosses over into the education space, therefore, is that you have a young generation, certainly the kids in mainstream eduction, whose lives are intricately linked to technology products, and the connectivity through smartphones or tablets means that that is a completely intuitive experience for them.

“We believe that we can help make sure that that is reflected in taking great education and making it more relevant, helping to modernise the approach of education, and therefore to improve the quality.”

The Digital Classroom will offer children aged between seven and 14 the chance to engage in a music-driven programme designed to help improve maths and science abilities.

One of the practical workshops sees Key Stage 2 students putting together a piece of music based on mathematical principles, using a range of Samsung devices.

Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock was also at the opening and said: “It’s fantastic to see Samsung combine its technology expertise with the Royal Albert Hall’s passion for music to help children learn maths and science in a fun and innovative way.

“This kind of initiative helps bring education and employment closer together – if children learn how to code, create computer programmes and understand how a computer works, they then have the opportunity to apply these skills in future careers.”

Any school in the UK is eligible for a session within the Digital Classroom, with an official email enquiry account having been set up by the historic London venue.

Mr Griffiths said: “The key topic that we’re launching with our friends at the Royal Albert Hall today is how music can be used to in the context of the digital classroom to enliven big subjects for kids.

“These topics are part of a key drive where our digital classroom campaign is being linked in with different partners, like the Albert Hall, really to make sure that education is more relevant to this generation; the digital generation that are coming through at the moment – with technology very much as their fifth limb, and it’s very much the way they want to learn.”

Mr Griffiths also spoke about where Samsung sees the industry moving over the next few years and how it could revolve around the “smart” home.

He added: ” There has been a huge change in the way the connected world is established, and so to take that forward 10 years it’s interesting to note that the main trend we believe by then will be the connected home.

“There is a level of acceptance that you’re seeing now about digital items in your life and that plots further forward to a home that is driven by machine to machine communication. Both for your energy needs – maybe for lighting, or locking the doors or switching the heating on.

“All the items do talk to each other, so this connected home and by 2024 this could be the standard or the expectation.”

UK 'embracing digital lifestyle'

Man Held After Woman And Girl Found Dead

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the deaths of a woman and 23-month-old girl who were found dead in east London.

Scotland Yard said police were called to an address in Oswald Mead, Hackney, shortly after 9.10am after receiving reports that three people had been injured.

The woman, 43, and the girl were pronounced dead at the scene.

The man was taken to an east London hospital for treatment and was later arrested.

His injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Police have not yet formally identified the victims.

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/man-held-woman-baby-found-dead-142158072.html

Man Held After Woman And Girl Found Dead

Australia's '5 Seconds of Summer' debuts in top spot in UK music chart

LONDON (Reuters) – Boy band “5 Seconds of Summer” shot to the top of Britain’s music charts on Sunday with their debut single “She Looks So Perfect”, the first time a group from Australia has been number one here for 14 years, the Official Charts Company said.

The group, whose average age is 18, came to global attention after posting two cover versions of other people’s tracks on YouTube. Rival boy band One Direction liked their work so much that they then invited them to support them on their world tour.

The Sydney band’s success pushed last week’s number one – dance track “I Got U”, by Duke Dumont and Jax Jones – into second place.

In the albums chart, Sam Bailey, a former winner of “X factor”, a TV talent show, and a former prison guard, took the top spot with her debut album “The Power of Love”.

The album has sold nearly 73,000 copies in the last seven days, the Official Charts Company said, making it the fastest-selling album of 2014.

George Michael’s album “Symphonica” fell one place to number two.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Australia's '5 Seconds of Summer' debuts in top spot in UK music chart

Nephew held without bail in rapper's shooting

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man has been ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to shooting his hip-hop artist and reality TV star uncle.

Gai (guy) Scott of Randolph was ordered held Monday pending a hearing to determine whether he’s a danger to society. That hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Police say Scott shot Benzino, whose real name is Raymond Scott, on Saturday on Route 3 in Duxbury as Benzino came upon his mother’s funeral procession.

Gai Scott was charged with assault with intent to murder. His lawyer says his client acted in self-defense and legally owned the gun.

Benzino was treated at a Boston-area hospital for a gunshot wound. He is a cast member of the VH1 reality show “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” and CEO of Hip-Hop Weekly magazine.

Nephew held without bail in rapper's shooting

Vodafone brings Africa's M-Pesa mobile money to Europe

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) – Vodafone brought the mobile money service that has revolutionised banking in Africa to Romania on Monday, offering M-Pesa text-message transactions to millions of customers in its first push into Europe.

Vodafone said it had chosen Romania to target the seven million people there who still mainly use cash rather than cards, and others with bank accounts who could still benefit from transferring money by text.

Customers can use M-Pesa to pay for goods, pay bills, make deposits and withdraw cash from authorised agents. Users will be able to transfer as little as one new Romanian leu or up to 30,000 lei ($9,200) per day.

“The majority of people in Romania have at least one mobile device, but more than one third of the population do not have access to conventional banking,” said Vodafone’s director of mobile money, Michael Joseph.

Services such as M-Pesa have helped Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile operator by customer numbers, to support revenues and grow customer loyalty at a time of falling prices for basic telecoms services such as calls.

The British group launched M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007 through its Safaricom operations. Since then the service has spread rapidly and in the last 12 months it has rolled the service out to its operations in Egypt, India, Lesotho and Mozambique.

About 16.8 million customers were actively using the service by the end of last year, making more than $1.2 billion worth of transactions per month.

Vodafone had 8.3 million customers in Romania at the end of last year.

PIECE OF PIE

“Vodafone believes that mobile money could reach around 10 percent of service revenues across its emerging markets businesses over time,” analysts at Espirito Santo said, of the company’s ongoing revenue stream that strips out one-off costs.

“The move in to Eastern Europe therefore is encouraging, though we do not expect any meaningful contribution from Western Europe at this time.”

While slow to take off in all parts of the world, global mobile payments are predicted to grow rapidly over the next few years, with telecoms groups, retailers and banks all trying to secure a piece of the pie.

According to a “Mobile Money for the Unbanked” report by mobile industry body the GSMA, the number of users actively using mobile money services globally hit more than 61 million at the end of June 2013, up from 37 million a year before. Around 220 services are available in 84 countries.

While the focus in emerging markets has been on text-based transactions, the focus in mature markets is on developing contactless payment systems to allow consumers to pay for goods by swiping their phones on a terminal in a store.

The use of smartphones has already enabled consumers in mature markets to transfer money and check their balance via banking software on their handsets.

In Europe Vodafone is likely to focus its mobile money service on east or central Europe. It also has operations in Hungary and Czech Republic and a presence through partnerships with other operators in Latvia, Poland and Austria.

In Romania, Vodafone customers will be able to transfer money via the text messaging technology once they have activated the service at a Vodafone retail store, participating retail outlets or through authorised agents.

(Editing by Pravin Char)

Vodafone brings Africa's M-Pesa mobile money to Europe

Loved 'Divergent'? Put These Films On Your Radar

After months of heated debate as to the box-office chances of “Divergent,” the statistics are in — and all the doubters who dissed the film’s potential, and by extension the entire concept of YA novels being brought to life on the big screen are eating crow. A lot of crow. Like, almost $100 million worth of flappy, embarrassing crow.

Although last year saw some disappointing performances by highly-anticipated franchises, most notably the movies based on “Beautiful Creatures” and “The Mortal Instruments,” the amazing numbers brought in by “Divergent” prove that people do love to see their favorite books go to Hollywood — and to see the resulting films in droves.

With the year not even half over, we have a half dozen more (hopefully) great movies based on YA novels to look forward to:

“The Fault in Our Stars“



Out June 6, this movie based on the massively bestselling book by John Green tells the story of two teenage cancer patients in love. With a vast audience of avid readers already crazy for central couple Hazel and Augustus — an audience that includes not just teenage “Nerdfighter” fans of Green, but a heck of a lot of adults, too — it’s a fair bet that this film will blow up at the box office in a way that leaves little room for doubt about the ability of YA to pay off in Hollywood.

“The Giver“



More than twenty years after its release in print, Lois Lowry’s award-winning book about a strict, structured futuristic society and the boy who becomes its memory keeper is finally finding its way to the screen. Though the dystopian premise might seem familiar, this story is both quieter and more frightening than action-packed franchises like “Divergent” or “The Hunger Games.” The movie hits theaters August 15.

“If I Stay“



Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, “If I Stay” follows 17 year-old Mia, who finds herself left in comatose limbo in the wake of an accident that kills her father, mother, and brother. Knowing what she’s lost, Mia must make a choice: return to the mortal world where her friends, her boyfriend, and what’s left of her family still live, or let go and move on to the afterlife. The movie is out August 22.

“The Maze Runner“



A sci-fi drama in a labyrinthine setting, this movie out September 19 has a thrilling premise that might sound familiar to fans of “The Hunger Games”: two dozen teenagers are trapped in the Glade, an elaborate prison seemingly designed to test their nerve, smarts, and survival skills.

But in addition to “Survivor”-style group dynamic drama and a maze full of lurking horrors, “The Maze Runner” has an added layer of mystery: none of the kids who wake up in the Glade remember who they are or how they got there.

“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1“



And speaking of the familiar: After “Catching Fire” posted record-breaking numbers at the box office last year, the penultimate film in the “Hunger Games” franchise is one hotly-anticipated piece of cinema. With perfectly-cast megastar Jennifer Lawrence leading the way, there’s no doubt that “Mockingjay” will deliver serious profits when it hits theaters November 21; the only real question is how we can possibly wait that long for our first peek at District 13.

Loved 'Divergent'? Put These Films On Your Radar

France's Hollande to name Manuel Valls as new PM

French President Francois Hollande is set to promote popular Interior Minister Manuel Valls to prime minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle, sources told AFP Monday.

Hollande, who was due to address the nation at 1800 GMT, has decided to replace the current Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault after his Socialist Party suffered humiliating losses in local elections on Sunday, sources close to the government said.

France's Hollande to name Manuel Valls as new PM

Ugandan president dismisses aid cuts at rally against gays

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA (Reuters) – President Yoweri Museveni told a rally of religious leaders, politicians and thousands of supporters on Monday that Uganda could live without aid that Western donors suspended or diverted in protest at an anti-gay bill that became law in February.

Western donors have halted or re-directed about $118 million (70.8 million pounds) in aid since Museveni signed the law, which toughened existing rules against gays and prescribed life in jail for what it called “aggravated homosexuality”, such as sex with a minor.

Despite the Western outcry, the thousands who turned out at Monday’s rally in a square in Kampala underlined public support for the law. Uganda now has of some of the toughest codes, yet it is only one of 37 African nations that outlaw homosexuality.

Museveni may have in part been prompted to back the law to shore up support, analysts say. He is widely expected to seek another presidential term in 2016. He has ruled since 1986.

“When you hear these Europeans saying they are going to cut aid … we don’t need aid in the first place,” Museveni said. “A country like Uganda is one of the richest on earth.”

Uganda still relies heavily on aid, including some direct support to the budget. But it has lived with aid disruptions before. In 2013, aid flows were cut over a corruption scandal. Growth slipped, but the economy still expanded about 6 percent.

With an annual per capita income of $440 a year according to the World Bank, Uganda has found commercial quantities of oil. But it remains at least two or three years away from production although initial finds were made in 2006.

Supporters applauded when Museveni declared homosexuality “unhealthy”.

Schoolchildren at the rally raised placards with the word “Sodomy” crossed out. Speeches by religious and political figures also received cheers and applause.

“The Lord has the power to help us Ugandans to overcome the battle against homosexuality,” said Stanley Ntagali, head of Uganda’s Anglican Church, the second biggest Christian group in the east African nation of 36 million people.

The anti-gay bill was initially drawn up in 2009, when it proposed the death penalty for those offences deemed most serious, such as having gay sex when HIV positive.

Museveni sent the bill back to parliament once and Western diplomats said they had received assurances from officials that the government would bury the law. When he signed, the United States called the law “atrocious” and said it would review ties.

The World Bank suspended a loan and nations such as Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands said they were halting or diverting aid away from the government.

Those at the rally brushed off Western attitudes.

“If you’re a homosexual you can’t give birth to children,” Steven Kabindi, 30, at the rally. “I am here to show support to our leaders in their fight against this evil.”

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alison Williams)

Ugandan president dismisses aid cuts at rally against gays

Amazon workers on strike in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Workers at one of Amazon.com’s German distribution centers are on strike in a dispute over wages.

The ver.di union said Monday that workers at the American online retailer’s logistics center in Leipzig were staging the short-term warning strike to try to get management to return to the negotiating table.

Ver.di says it may extend the action to other logistics centers, and is also threatening multiple-day strikes.

Amazon has offered Christmas bonuses to workers but the union says it also wants wage increases.

The union says Amazon workers receive lower pay than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees already earn wages on the upper end of that industry.

Amazon has about 9,000 fulltime employees in Germany.

Amazon workers on strike in Germany

It's #MCM, Baseball Edition: Meet The MLB's Hottest Hunks

Batter Up! Baseball season is officially underway and I can now go to the ballpark, grab a hotdog and get a front row seat so I can stare at all those sexy MLB players… I mean, totally watch every pitch, strike and out because I’m really interested in what’s going on.

It’s no secret that baseball has some of the finest men in sports, which is why this week, instead of picking one guy to have the honor as MTV News’ #ManCrushMonday, we are showcasing the many, many babes of baseball.

Take a look at the pictures below, along with some quick stats to get you up to speed, of these homerun hitters and heart-stealers and don’t forget to watch MTV2′s brand new show “Off The Bat from the MLB Fan Cave,” a show that takes you behind-the-scenes of baseball. It premieres Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET.

Matt Kemp

Babe Metrics: This 29-year-old L.A. dodger centerfielder has been catching fly balls and the hearts of many — including Rihanna back in 2010 — for eight seasons.

Robinson Cano

Babe Metrics: He’s a five time All-star, won the World Series and he’s pretty much besties with Jay-Z. This former New York Yankee recently signed with the Seattle Mariners under Hov’s Roc Nation Sports, making him really, really rich — like $240 million rich.

Huston Street

Babe Metrics: He’s a 30-year-old player for the San Diego Padres whose job is to close the deal on the games (he’s a closing pitcher) and in our hearts. Job well done!

Wil Myers

Babe Metrics: At just 23, Wil not only caught the eye of his fellow baseball players winning AL Rookie of The Year in 2013, but probably a lot of ladies in the stands at the Tampa Bay Ray Games.

Jose Fernandez

Babe Metrics: The NL Rookie of the Year honor went to this 21-year-old in 2013, and it seems like he’s picking up right where he left off, as he was named starting pitcher for the Florida Marlins on opening day. What makes that even sweeter for Jose? His grandmother, who hasn’t seen him pitch since he was 14, will be in the stands cheering him on. Let’s all say it together, “Awww.”

Derek “The Captain” Jeter

Babe Metrics: It wouldn’t be a list without the hottest babe in baseball, Derek Jeter. The captain of the New York Yankees brought tears to our eyes when he announced that he will be hanging up his pinstripes at the end of the 2014 season. Thank you, #2, for the memories and all those photos, including this one, that lined my school locker for many, many years.

It's #MCM, Baseball Edition: Meet The MLB's Hottest Hunks