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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/dqOo-sEVM90/story01.htm
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
iPhone 4 attempts self combustion on a passenger flight in Australia
An iPhone 4 caused a major scare on an Australian passenger flight when it appeared to commence self combustion. The iPhone 4 belonging to one of the passengers on Regional Express flight ZL319 operating from Lismore to Sydney started to emit a significant amount of dense smoke...
Breast Cancer Awareness Bullets? | Center for Media and Democracy
Every October's push for "breast cancer awareness" brings another example of egregious pinkwashing, and this year was no exception. As if pink toasters, pink beer pong tables and even a pink Smith and Wesson handgun weren't enough, October, 2011 brought us pink, breast cancer awareness 12-gauge shotgun ammo, courtesy of Federal Ammunition. Advertised with the slogan, "Tough Enough to Shoot Pink," Federal said the pink bullets were "part of an important mission to find a cure," and promised that a portion of the sale of the pink bullets would "go directly to the search for a cure." We called Federal Ammunition to find out what portion of the sales went to charity, and which charity got the funds. Days later, a woman named Lynn at Federal returned the call and said that 5 percent of each sale gets donated to the "Network for the Cure." When I asked if she meant Susan G. Komen for the Cure, she reaffirmed that the correct name of the charity was "Network for the Cure." A search for a breast cancer-related charity called "Network for he Cure" turned up nothing.
A 2005 study in the Journal of the American Medical Womens Association reported that American women who are killed by their intimate partners are more likely to be killed with guns than by all other methods combined. Another study by the Violence Policy Center, "When Men Murder Women: An analysis of 2003 Homicide Data" (pdf), found that firearms are also the most common weapons used by males to murder females, all of which make guns and ammo particularly offensive and inappropriate products for pinkwashing.
Source: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11154/breast-cancer-awareness-bullets
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Video: Ballots cast in Egypt
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/45466327/
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FEATURE - Surging gold prices push Indians to rein in, recycle (Reuters)
MUMBAI (Reuters) ? Simone Bora is contemplating the unthinkable -- an Indian wedding without lavish amounts of gold after record high prices and a sinking rupee have dimmed her hopes of sparkling at the party.
"We need to think whether to buy gold or not because nearly 30,000 rupees for 10 grams is too much," Bora said in a jeweller's shop in Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, one of the world's biggest gold markets. Thirty-thousand rupees is $580.
Indians are usually the biggest buyers of gold in the world and from October to December, the calendar is full of festivals and weddings, creating many opportunities for people to flaunt their finery.
But international prices of spot gold have risen 21 percent on the year, their 11th straight year of rises, and a weakening rupee is also increasing domestic prices.
The higher prices have taken some of the sheen off Indians' age-old fascination with gold as an investment against inflation -- currently near double-digits -- particularly as a lot of cash is tied up in laggard equities and real estate markets.
Things are looking dull for jewellers, with demand yet to pick up from a fall last quarter, and gold peaking at 29,212 rupees for 10 grams on Nov. 15. Gold hit a record around $1,920 per ounce on global markets in September.
"This sudden rise (in gold prices) has made people wait for some time to buy," said Kumar Jain, vice-president of the Mumbai Jewellers' Association, adding that his gold business has dropped some 40 percent in volume since the start of the year.
Now expectations are growing for prices to slip towards 27,000 rupees around the end of the year, spurring those who can to delay purchases and those who have hoarded gold to cash in.
"Imports (of gold) will be down 20 to 25 percent in the last (December) quarter and it will have a negative impact on global prices," said Prithviraj Kothari, president of key trade body the Bombay Bullion Association, which has about 400 members.
Reuters market analyst Clyde Russell expects that there should be interest for gold as a hedge, as long as inflation in India remains high, but that demand could be affected by further gains in global prices.
Industry players polled by Reuters expect exactly that -- predicting prices could hit as much as 31,500 rupees by the end of June next year.
Q3 SLIDE IN JEWELLERY DEMAND
In a report this month, the World Gold Council (WGC) said Indian jewellery demand slid 26 percent in the third quarter, while total imports were down 20 percent.
The WGC expects demand to pick up in the last three months of 2011, pushing imports to a record of more than 1,000 tonnes, but in the narrow streets and family-run market shops of Zaveri Bazaar there was little to support that optimism.
"Diwali festival buying was slow and winter buying for weddings has also been slow," said Gargi Shah, metals analyst with GFMS, a unit of ThomsonReuters, referring to the Hindu festival of light in October, when gold is traditionally bought.
She said many buyers bought in the first half of the year, when the gold price corrected at a time they feared more future highs.
Demand in the second quarter was 38 percent up on the year earlier, but in the July-to-September period, it slid 23 percent to 203.3 tonnes, according to the WGC.
"Many people brought forward their purchases to the first half in the expectation prices would go higher," Shah said.
TURNING TO SCRAP?
With prices near 30,000 rupees -- viewed as the current ceiling because price charts indicate a stiff resistance level there after the Nov. 15 record of 29,212 rupees -- Indians are turning in gold jewellery to melt down, temporarily reversing a long-term trend of falling scrap supply.
"Current rupee prices provide an excellent opportunity for someone to melt or recycle their gold hoardings," Shah said, adding that all the scrap is old-fashioned or worn, implying people are not cashing in for quick profits.
One 50-year-old man took his grandmother's 280-gram necklace to be melted down and found it worth 630,000 rupees.
"As far as the wedding season is concerned, people are getting their old gold, or if they have invested in 24-carat gold, they are converting that gold into ornaments," said Jain, who himself wears a gold chain and gold-plated watch.
The WGC said in the third quarter Indians re-used about 15 tonnes of gold, up from 10 tonnes in the second quarter. That's still down from 22 tonnes in the third quarter of 2010 but Shah pointed out that it bucked a long-term trend of declining scrap.
Shah said the lack of more recent purchases coming into the scrap market showed the long-term mood remained bullish.
"Longer term, scrap is trending down because of positive price expectations. As of now, people have only been talking of 30,000 rupees and until you have a higher number, you'll see this kind of liquidation in the market," she said.
DULLED BY DEPRECIATION
The rupee's fall to record lows against the dollar has driven domestic gold gains, which continued after global prices peaked, and has fed volatility, and nervousness, among buyers.
The rupee hit a record low of 52.73 to the dollar on Nov. 22. Gold futures on the MCX exchange are around 28,688 rupees per 10 grams with global prices near $1,713 per ounce.
Rajan Venkatesh, bullion managing director at ScotiaMocatta, said a depreciation of one percent in the rupee meant a rise of 0.7-0.8 rupees in the price of gold.
"Demand is not that buoyant right now, due to price increases, and the bigger problem is the rupee, which has depreciated significantly," he said.
Spending is squeezed by India's inflation, now close to 10 percent in a seemingly never-ending climb, while base lending has risen 13 times since early 2010 to stand at 8.5 percent.
Consumers had funds tied up in underperforming assets, said Jain, whose association groups 10,000 jewellers.
"The easy liquidity has stopped as people's money is stuck in property and stock markets," he said.
Sales in Mumbai, India's biggest property market, are down more than a quarter this year, as rising prices and high interest rates deter buyers. India's stock market has fallen nearly 25 percent since the start of 2011.
Bora, whose family hails from the western Indian state of Gujarat, said her budget for wedding jewellery had dropped to 250,000 rupees ($4,800) -- about half what she spent on her sister's wedding eight years ago. ($1 = 51.9600 Indian rupees)
(Additional reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Writing by Jo Winterbottom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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5 UAE convicted reform activists freed from jail
With a view of towers along the Sheikh Zayed highway in background, an Asian laborer fixes new fence around a horse race track which was divided to two parts by a new road construction at Al Barsha district Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
With a view of towers along the Sheikh Zayed highway in background, an Asian laborer fixes new fence around a horse race track which was divided to two parts by a new road construction at Al Barsha district Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
With a view of towers at Marina district in background, Asian laborers fix new fence around a horse race track which was divided to two parts by a new road construction at Al Barsha district Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? Five United Arab Emirates political activists received presidential pardons on Monday and were released after eight months in prison, just a day after they were convicted of anti-state crimes.
The activists, including a prominent blogger and an economics professor, were convicted on Sunday of insulting the UAE's top leadership, endangering national security and inciting people to protest at time when uprisings against authoritarian rulers raged across the Middle East.
The UAE has not been hit by the Arab Spring unrest that has spread across much of the rest of the Middle East, including neighboring Bahrain. Authorities moved aggressively against any signs of dissent that could pose a challenge to the tight political controls in country.
Ahmed Mansour, a prominent blogger was sentenced to three years in prison. The other four activists, including an economics professor who has lectured at Paris' Sorbonne university in Abu Dhabi, Nasser bin Gaith, received two-year jail terms on Sunday in the Gulf country's security court in the capital Abu Dhabi.
On Monday, they were pardoned and released.
"I feel happy because I am back with my family, but I also feel ashamed and have deep sorrow for my country," bin Gaith told The Associated Press in an interview after his release. "All I can say is that it's a sad moment for our homeland, a beginning of a police state that has tarnished the image of the UAE forever," bin Gaith said.
The UAE state news agency said in a brief report that the five were ordered released by the Gulf union's president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The presidential pardon was issued "on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the UAE national day," the WAM report said.
Presidential pardons for convicted criminals and others offenders before major national or religious holidays are part of governance in the traditional and deeply conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Their legal system is deeply rooted in tribal laws of the Arabian Peninsula.
Defense attorney Mohammed al-Roken said the charges against all five remain, despite the pardon.
Bin Gaith told the AP that the five would continue the struggle to clear their names.
"We have just spent eight months in jail for crimes we have not committed. This is not the end. It's a beginning," bin Gaith said.
In addition to teaching at the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi, bin Ghaith is a decorated air force pilot and has served as a legal adviser to the UAE armed forces until he was taken into custody by federal security agents from his Dubai home in April.
The five were arrested in April after signing an online petition demanding political reforms, including free elections for parliament. UAE's current parliament serves as an advisory body, and its 40 members are either directly appointed by the ruling sheiks or elected by voters hand-picked by the rulers.
The charges against the five also included urging a boycott of the existing, limited form of elections. The last vote, held in September, was only the second election since the founding of the UAE 40 years ago.
The UAE has faced an outcry from rights groups over the trials, which were held in the country's highest court that normally tries terrorism suspects and has no recourse for appeal.
Political activity is severely restricted in the UAE, an oil-rich alliance of seven semiautonomous states, each ruled by a hereditary sheik. There are no official opposition groups in the country and political parties are banned.
In an unprecedented move for the politically quiescent country, 130 people in March signed a petition demanding constitutional and parliamentary changes, free elections and a more equitable distribution of the country's oil wealth.
The five activists in custody were among those who signed the petition.
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday Links (Theagitator)
Startups: Silicon Valley Vs. The Emerging World
Being from Jordan and having visited Silicon Valley on a number of occasions, this visit (along with others) continue to show how the realities of the Valley stand in stark contrast with what an emerging world founder, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, face to start and scale a Web business. I believe the lack of a well-developed ecosystem (funding, mentoring, risk culture, lawyers, human resources) puts the burden tenfold on the entrepreneur in the emerging world. In many cases, foreign entrepreneurs have to do ten times the lifting of an American startup -- for a much longer period of time to boot -- in order to succeed.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Qeehr3JHXI8/
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Pakistan retaliation leaves NATO drivers in limbo
A Pakistani border security guard stands alert as authorities close border down the Torkham border for NATO vehicles in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair)
A Pakistani border security guard stands alert as authorities close border down the Torkham border for NATO vehicles in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair)
Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces parked as authorities close border at Torkham border in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)
Pakistan army soldiers carry coffin of Saturday's NATO attack victims for funeral in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Afghanistan-bound containers carrying supplies for NATO forces parked as authorities close Chaman border in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Shah Khalid)
Pakistani soldier pay tribute to their colleagues lost their live in a Saturday's NATO attack, during their funeral in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? (AP) ? Hundreds of trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan backed up at Pakistani border crossings Sunday, leaving them vulnerable to militant attack a day after Islamabad closed the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.
As Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani attended the funerals of the victims, including a major, the U.S. sought to minimize the fallout from the crisis, which plunged Washington's already troubled relationship with Islamabad to an all-time low.
Pakistan also ordered the U.S. to vacate an air base that is used by American drones to target al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the country's tribal region along the Afghan border. The U.S. has relied heavily on drone strikes in the past few years, partly out of frustration with Pakistan's refusal to target militants using its territory to stage attacks against American and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
There are forces working against a total rupture in the relationship. Pakistan still relies on billions of dollars in American military and civilian aid, and the U.S. needs Islamabad's help to push Afghan insurgents to engage in peace talks.
But tensions could rise further if militants unleash attacks against the stranded trucks ferrying NATO supplies to Afghanistan.
Suspected militants destroyed around 150 trucks and injured drivers and police a year ago after Pakistan closed one of its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies for about 10 days in retaliation for a U.S. helicopter attack that accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers.
The situation could be more dire this time because Pakistan, outraged at the alleged NATO attack before dawn Saturday, has closed both its crossings. Nearly 300 trucks carrying coalition supplies are now backed up at Torkham in the northwest Khyber tribal area and Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan province. Last year, Pakistan only closed Torkham.
"We are worried," said driver Saeed Khan, speaking by telephone from the border terminal in Torkham. "This area is always vulnerable to attacks. Sometimes rockets are lobbed at us. Sometimes we are targeted by bombs."
Khan and hundreds of other drivers and their assistants barely slept Saturday night because they were worried about potential attacks, he said.
Some drivers said Pakistan had sent paramilitary troops to protect their convoys since the closures, but others were left without any additional protection. Even those who did receive troops did not feel safe.
"If there is an attack, what can five or six troops do? Nothing," said Niamatullah Khan, a fuel truck driver who was parked with 35 other vehicles at a restaurant about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Chaman.
NATO ships nearly 50 percent of its non-lethal supplies to its troops in Afghanistan through Pakistan. The trucks are periodically targeted by suspected militants as they travel through the country, and their drivers are sometimes killed. NATO has said these attacks do not significantly impact its ability to keep its troops supplied.
An official closely involved with the Afghan war said there will likely be no immediate negative effect from Pakistan's decision to close its border crossings. NATO has built up a large stockpile of military and other supplies that could enable operations to continue at their current level for several months, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
NATO has reduced the amount of non-lethal supplies it ships through Pakistan from a high of around 80 percent by using routes through Central Asia. The northern logistics link could be expanded to make up for the Pakistani closure, but it would leave NATO heavily dependent on Russia at a time when ties with Moscow are increasingly strained.
Some critical supplies, including ammunition, are airlifted directly to Afghan air bases.
Pakistan eventually relented and reopened Torkham last year after the U.S. apologized. But the number of alleged casualties is much higher this time. The relationship between the two countries has also severely deteriorated over the past year, especially following the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Islamabad was outraged because it wasn't told about the operation beforehand.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday that the alleged NATO attack negated all progress in improving the tattered alliance between the two countries.
She told Clinton in a phone call that the alleged NATO attack was unacceptable, showed complete disregard for human life and sparked rage within Pakistan, according to a press release issued by the Pakistani prime minister's office.
In addition to closing its border crossings, Pakistan gave the U.S. 15 days to vacate Shamsi Air Base in Baluchistan. The U.S. uses the base to service drones when they cannot return to their bases inside Afghanistan because of weather conditions or mechanical difficulty, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The Pakistani army said Saturday that NATO helicopters and fighter jets carried out an "unprovoked" attack on two of its border posts in the Mohmand tribal area before dawn, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.
Pakistan held funerals for the soldiers Sunday at the army's headquarters in Peshawar, the most important city in the country's northwest. Mourners said prayers in front of caskets wrapped in green and white Pakistani flags.
A spokesman for NATO forces, Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, said Saturday that Afghan and coalition troops were operating in the border area of eastern Afghanistan when "a tactical situation" prompted them to call in close air support.
Afghan officials said Sunday that the call was made after Afghan soldiers came under fire. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the incident.
Jacobson told BBC television that it was "highly likely" that the airstrikes caused Pakistani casualties, but an investigation is being conducted to determine the details.
U.S. officials have expressed their sympathies over the incident and have promised to work closely with Pakistan as NATO carries out its investigation.
NATO's top official, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, offered his "deepest condolences" and said the coalition was committed to working with Pakistan to "avoid such tragedies in the future."
"We have a joint interest in the fight against cross-border terrorism and in ensuring that Afghanistan does not once again become a safe haven for terrorists," Rasmussen said in Brussels.
___
Abbot reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, Matiullah Achakzai in Chaman, Deb Riechmann and Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.
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