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রবিবার, ২৩ জুন, ২০১৩
Social media spreads and splinters Brazil protests
Social media 
10 hours ago
UESLEI MARCELINO / REUTERS
A demonstrator holds a sign next to street structures set on fire during a protest against the Confederations Cup and President Dilma Rousseff's government, in front of the National Congress in Brasilia June 20, 2013.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest protests in decades are a confusing, conflicting mix of people and messages. Blame Facebook.
Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter enabled mass protests of the sort that have not happened in Latin America's biggest country in more than two decades.
As a result of the speed, efficiency and anonymity of online activism, though, an amorphous, unwieldy movement has emerged that is beyond the control of any of those who first began pushing for change.
"Social media has helped us organize without having leaders," said Victor Damaso, 22, demonstrating on Sao Paulo's main Paulista Avenue on Thursday night. "Our ideas, our demands are discussed on Facebook. There are no meetings, no rules."
The demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but as more than a million Brazilians took to the streets on Thursday, vandals and looters cast a violent pall over some of the protests. Police and security forces have responded with teargas, rubber bullets and pepper spray.
Facebook pages set up for logistical coordination and Twitter hash tags have cropped up for protests in hundreds of cities across Brazil. Rival groups appear to be vying for control of one of the most-viewed organizing pages on Facebook and an associated Twitter feed.
"Any movement risks attracting unaffiliated groups and individuals," said Angela Alonso, a sociologist at the University of Sao Paulo. "It's a price of growth. In this case there is no centralized leadership, administration is more difficult and it is even becoming uncontrollable."
The Free Fare movement, a group of 40 activists who marched for - and got - lower transportation rates, said on Friday it was suspending any further marches for now because of mounting tension and violence.
Sparked by Free Fare's protests, the nationwide call for reform quickly evolved into what is now known online as Anonymous Brazil.
The group appears to use encrypted Web browsers that make it difficult to identify page administrators and has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol for the global cyber group of hackers known as Anonymous, as its mascot, although it is not clear if the two have a formal link.
While that opens the door to all sorts of fringe groups, the people at the core of the protests generally share a commitment to better public services. Their rallying cries, found on Twitter and Facebook and on traditional signs at the protests, range from ending political corruption to lambasting more than $12 billion being poured into soccer stadiums and other preparations for the 2014 World Cup.
The demonstrators, mostly educated, middle class and under age 30, want nothing to do with established groups that were behind the causes of their parents' generation.
Online organizing
Unlike Brazil's movement for redemocratization in the 1970s and 1980s and protests for the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in the early 1990s, today's demonstrations have no clear leadership or political affinity.
"The recent protests are not partisan, and they do not have centralized leadership," said Alonso, the sociologist. "This has to do with new technologies that allow for organization without centralization, and also with the fact that the activists are from a new generation that is no longer guided by ideals like socialism, and doesn't want state power."
Indeed, Brazil's protests do not target any specific leader or political party. That makes them different from the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against autocratic leaders in the past few years, or even this year's demonstrations in Turkey against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
While some of the Arab governments blocked access to the Internet to disrupt the planning of protests, Brazil's intelligence agency, Abin, has beefed up efforts to monitor calls for demonstrations online and on popular smart phone chat tool WhatsApp.
President Dilma Rousseff, a leftist guerrilla in the 1970s, has praised the protests as democratic.
Anonymous Brazil's Facebook page, which has nearly 1 million followers, briefly disappeared from the Web on Friday. The group later said via Facebook that its Twitter account had been "robbed" by one of its own members, generating conflicts on its linked Facebook platform.
The group says competing Twitter accounts like @AnonymousBr4sil and #AnonymousFuel are run by "usurpers."
Of the 53.5 million Brazilians online, almost a third of the population, 86 percent use some kind of micro blog or social media tool, according to polling firm Ibope.
(Additional reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Paulo Prada and Mohammad Zargham)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
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শনিবার, ২২ জুন, ২০১৩
Snowden in a 'safe place' as U.S. prepares to seek extradition
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Edward Snowden was in a "safe place" in Hong Kong, a newspaper reported on Saturday, as the United States prepared to seek the extradition of the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor after filing espionage charges against him.
The South China Morning Post said Snowden, who has exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs including new details published on Saturday about alleged hacking of Chinese phone companies, was not in police protection in Hong Kong, as had been reported elsewhere.
"Contrary to some reports, the former CIA analyst has not been detained, is not under police protection but is in a 'safe place' in Hong Kong," the newspaper said.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Andy Tsang declined to comment other than to say Hong Kong would deal with the case in accordance with the law.
Two U.S. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, which is part of China but has wide-ranging autonomy, including an independent judiciary.
The United States charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, according to the criminal complaint made public on Friday.
The latter two offenses fall under the U.S. Espionage Act and carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
America's use of the Espionage Act against Snowden has fueled debate among legal experts about whether that could complicate his extradition, since Hong Kong courts may choose to shield him.
Snowden says he leaked the details of the classified U.S. surveillance to expose abusive programs that trampled on citizens' rights.
Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies such as Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.
They also showed that the government had worked through the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gather so-called metadata - such as the time, duration and telephone numbers called - on all calls carried by service providers such as Verizon.
On Friday, the Guardian newspaper, citing documents shared by Snowden, said Britain's spy agency GCHQ had tapped fiber-optic cables that carry international phone and internet traffic and is sharing vast quantities of personal information with the NSA.
STEALING DATA
The South China Morning Post said on Saturday that Snowden offered new details on U.S. surveillance activities in China.
The paper said documents and statements by Snowden show the NSA program had hacked major Chinese telecoms companies to access text messages and targeted China's top Tsinghua University.
The NSA program also hacked the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which has an extensive fiber-optic network, it said.
"The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data," Snowden was quoted by the Post as saying during a June 12 interview.
President Barack Obama and his intelligence chiefs have vigorously defended the programs, saying they are regulated by law and that Congress was notified. They say the programs have been used to thwart militant plots and do not target Americans' personal lives.
Since making his revelations about massive U.S. surveillance programs, Edward Snowden, 30, has sought legal representation from human rights lawyers as he prepares to fight U.S. attempts to force him home for trial, sources in Hong Kong say.
The United States and Hong Kong signed an extradition treaty in 1998, under which scores of Americans have been sent back home to face trial.
The United States and Hong Kong have "excellent cooperation" and as a result of agreements, "there is an active extradition relationship between Hong Kong and the United States," a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters.
However, the process can take years, lawyers say, and Snowden's case could be particularly complex.
An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.
Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by James Pomfret, Venus Wu and Grace Li in HONG KONG, Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON; Editing by Eric Beech)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-files-espionage-charges-against-snowden-over-leaks-015108216.html
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Greyhound happy with pace on couch | Otago Daily Times Online ...
| Sarah Tweedale with greyhound Gabbie and Oscar the cat at home in Dunedin this week. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery. |
She might have been a dog on the racetrack, but now everyone thinks Gabbie is a winner.
The 2-year-old greyhound did not win any races on the track, but off it has certainly won hearts.
Dunedin couple Sarah and Mark Tweedale got the greyhound in December through the Greyhounds As Pets (GAP) programme for retired racing greyhounds.
''I really wanted to rehome an animal and thought greyhounds fitted the bill for what we wanted,'' Mrs Tweedale said this week.
''We both work, so we didn't want a puppy and we wanted a dog that didn't need a lot of exercise. She's really a couch potato. They're one of the best family dogs. They're fantastic with children and with older people, but she's a bit anxious of other dogs. She's very shy.
''I can't imagine life without her. I'm besotted with her. A lot of people start with one and then get a second one.''
However, the Tweedales' six cats, Oscar, Lucy, Isaac, Bella, Maggie and Tonks, were originally less than impressed with their new housemate.
''The cats were OK. They were a bit nervous at first, but Gabbie was more anxious about them. That's probably why she failed her racing career,'' Mrs Tweedale said.
''A lot of people think greyhound racing is cruel, but most trainers want to see their dogs retire in a family.''
GAP sells the dogs for $380, after giving them a complete health check, including desexing, microchipping, registration and training for a new life as a pet. There were 19 former race greyhounds living as pets in the Otago region, GAP southern regional co-ordinator Susan Sinclair, of Kaiapoi, said.
''That will go up to 20 this week, as we're about to send another one down there. They're very addictive. They always seem to have a worried look on their faces but, behind that, they're quite cheeky. They're a sweet-natured dog, but very cheeky and very funny,'' she said.
- nigel.benson@odt.co.nz
Source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/261944/greyhound-happy-pace-couch
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Scientists discover previously unknown requirement for brain development: Brain requires thalamic input as well as genetics
June 21, 2013 ? Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have demonstrated that sensory regions in the brain develop in a fundamentally different way than previously thought, a finding that may yield new insights into visual and neural disorders.
In a paper published June 7, in Science, Salk researcher Dennis O'Leary and his colleagues have shown that genes alone do not determine how the cerebral cortex grows into separate functional areas. Instead, they show that input from the thalamus, the main switching station in the brain for sensory information, is crucially required.
O'Leary has done pioneering studies in "arealization," the way in which the neo-cortex, the major region of cerebral cortex, develops specific areas dedicated to particular functions. In a landmark paper published in Science in 2000, he showed that two regulatory genes were critically responsible for the general pattern of the neo-cortex, and has since shown distinct roles for other genes in this process. In this new set of mouse experiments, his laboratory focused on the visual system, and discovered a new, unexpected twist to the story.
"In order to function properly, it is essential that cortical areas are mapped out correctly, and it is this architecture that was thought to be genetically pre-programmed," says O'Leary, holder of the Vincent J. Coates Chair in Molecular Neurobiology at Salk. "To our surprise, we discovered thalamic input plays an essential role far earlier in brain development."
Vision is relayed from the outside world into processing areas within the brain. The relay starts when light hits the retina, a thin strip of cells at the back of the eye that detects color and light levels and encodes the information as electrical and chemical signals. Through retinal ganglion cells, those signals are then sent into the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN), a structure in thalamus.
In the next important step in the relay, the LGN routes the signals into the primary visual area (V1) in the neo-cortex, a multi-layered structure that is divided into functionally and anatomically distinct areas. V1 begins the process of extracting visual information, which is further carried out by "higher order" visual areas in the neo-cortex that are vitally important to visual perception. Like parts in a machine, the functions of these areas are both individual and integrated. Damage in one tiny area can lead to strange visual disorders in which a person may be able to see a moving ball, and yet not perceive it is in motion.
Current dogma holds that this basic architecture is entirely genetically determined, with environmental input only playing a role later in development. One of the most famous examples of this idea is the Nobel Prize-winning work of visual neuroscientists David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel, which showed that there is a "critical period" of sensitivity in vision. Their finding was commonly interpreted as a warning that without exposure to basic visual stimuli early in life, even an individual with a healthy brain will be unable to see correctly.
Later discoveries in neural plasticity more optimistically suggested that early deprivation can be overcome, and the brain can even sprout new neurons in specific areas. Nevertheless, this still reinforced the idea that environmental influences might modify neural architecture, but only genetics could establish how cortical areas would be laid out.
In their new study, however, O'Leary and the paper's co-first authors, Shen-Ju Chou and Zoila Babot, post-doctoral researchers in O'Leary's laboratory, show that genetics only provides a broad field in the neo-cortex for visual areas.
When they created mouse mutants that disconnected the link between thalamus and cortex but only after early cortical development was complete, they found that the primary and higher order visual areas failed to differentiate from one another as they should.
"Our new understanding is that genes only create a rough lay-out of cortical areas," explains O'Leary. "There must be thalamic input to develop the fine differentiation necessary for proper sensory processing."
Essentially, if the brain were a house, genes would determine which areas were bedrooms. Thalamic input provides the details, distinguishing what will be the master bedroom, a child's bedroom, a guest bedroom and so on. "The size and location of areas within the overall cortex does not change, but without thalamic input from the LGN, the critical differentiation process that creates primary and higher order visual areas does not happen," says O'Leary.
Given that most sensory modalities -- -- sight, hearing, touch -- -- route through thalamus to cortex, this experiment may suggest why, when someone lacks a sensory modality from birth, that individual has a harder time processing restored sensory input than someone who lost the sense later in life. But in addition, as O'Leary says, "More subtle changes in thalamic input in humans would also likely result in changes to the neo-cortex that could well have a substantial impact on the ability to process vision, or other senses, and lead to abnormal behavior."
O'Leary says his lab plans to continue to explore the links between how cortical areas in the brain are established and various developmental disorders, such as autism.
Other researchers on the study were Axel Leing?rtner and Yasushi Nakagawa of the Salk Institute, and Michele Studer, of the Institute of Biology Valrose, INSERM in France.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Agence National de la Recherche 2009 Chaires d? Excellence Program, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/R5EH5b1wWdA/130621095328.htm
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Olympus Electronic Viewfinder VF-4
The Olympus Electronic Viewfinder VF-4 ($279.99 direct) is, without question, the best EVF that we've seen for digital cameras at this point. It's bundled with the Olympus PEN E-P5 as part of the standard kit, but can also be purchased separately and used on older Olympus PEN cameras with the AP2 accessory port.
The finder delivers 1.48x magnification?basically, this means that if you're shooting with a standard-angle lens (25mm in the Micro Four Thirds format), what you're seeing in the finder is going to be noticeably larger than it is in reality. And what you see is extremely crisp thanks to a 2.36-million-dot resolution. This gives you a clear view of what you're shooting, and overlay information is displayed so you also know what settings your camera is using.
It's an LCD finder, so it doesn't pack quite as much contrast as the OLED Sony Electronic Viewfinder that is compatible with the Cyber-shot DSC-RX1 and some other Sony cameras. Of course, because there's no cross-system standard for accessory ports, you can only use the Sony finder on Sony cameras, and you can only use this Olympus finder on Olympus cameras.
In addition to the sharp resolution, the finder delivers a very fast refresh rate when used on the E-P5. Older Olympus cameras require a firmware update to use this new finder. We also looked at it on the PEN Lite E-PL5. The finder seemed a little slower to refresh on that camera, even with an f/1.8 lens attached. Even on the E-P5, the refresh can get a little laggy if you are using a lens with a narrow maximum aperture in dimmer light.
The EVF itself is fairly large, which is necessary because of its magnification factor. It is hinged and can tilt up to 90?; there is a locking notch, so you won't accidentally tilt it. If you use it on an E-P5 the eye-sensor automatically switches between the rear LCD and the EVF, and for older PEN cameras there is a button to do so.
It's heads and shoulders better than the older VF-2, which was previously the top-end accessory viewfinder for Olympus cameras. The VF-2 features a 1.15x magnification factor and a 1.44-million-dot resolution, so the image it projects is not only smaller, it's not as sharp.
The Olympus Electronic Viewfinder VF-4 is more expensive than the older VF-2, but delivers a much better experience, even for occasional EVF use. We were blown away by the image quality that the EVF delivered, and are also quite happy with the asking price?it's $170 less expensive than the OLED EVF that Sony sells for some of its cameras. The VF-4 earns our Editors' Choice award, and is without a doubt the EVF to get if you're a PEN shooter.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/zVsaF9GxAik/0,2817,2420716,00.asp
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Google Makes Google News In Germany Opt-In Only To Avoid Paying Fees Under New Copyright Law
Google News in Germany will soon change. Starting August 1, it will only index sources that have decided to explicitly opt-in to being shown on the search giant's news-aggregation service. Google News remains an opt-out service in the other 60 countries and languages it currently operates in, but since Germany passed a new copyright law earlier this year that takes effect on August 1, the company is in danger of having to pay newspapers, blogs and other publishers for the right to show even short snippets of news.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gVK1wRfhIBk/
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শুক্রবার, ২১ জুন, ২০১৩
Egypt Islamists warn opponents with huge pro-Mursi rally
By Tom Perry and Alastair Macdonald
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood staged a show of strength in Cairo on Friday, rallying a huge crowd to demonstrate support for President Mohamed Mursi - and warn opponents who hope to force him out.
The opposition called it an attempt to "terrorize" them before mass rallies they plan for just over a week's time.
Crowds waving the flags of Egypt and Islamist movements, including hardline allies, packed avenues around a suburban mosque to back the elected head of state before anti-Mursi protests planned for June 30, when he completes a first year in office marked by division and economic problems.
"We promise them, they will be crushed on this day," Tarek al-Zumar, a Salafist former militant told the crowd, many tens of thousands strong, who had travelled from all over Egypt.
"It will be the final blow to anyone who claims that they have tens, thousands or hundreds of thousands with them," said Zumar, who spent 30 years in jail for his role in killing President Anwar Sadat and was freed only after the next Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, fell in 2011.
"God is great!" chanted the crowd, packing streets not far from where Islamists gunned Sadat down at a parade in 1981.
The opposition "Rebel!" alliance, campaigning to force Mursi to resign, said on its Facebook page: "These numbers, regardless of how big they get, represent all the strength and arsenal of the Brotherhood. They will not be able to add a single person."
Nonetheless, the rally, which started after noon prayers and lasted well into the evening, showed the Muslim Brotherhood's power to mobilize supporters that propelled Mursi to victory in the presidential election - the first time Egyptians had a chance to choose their leader freely.
It also pointed to the deepening ties between the Muslim Brotherhood and the harder line al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, the group to which Zumar belongs. This follows a year in which Mursi has been unable - or unwilling - to draw in non-Islamist parties and forge a consensus to reform a limping economy and stabilize the Arab world's most populous nation.
Mursi had come to power promising to be a president for all Egyptians, but his opponents have accused him of hijacking the 2011 revolution to entrench the power of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak. Hardships from power cuts, fuel shortages and rising prices have fuelled public discontent.
Mursi's opponents say they have gathered about 15 million signatures - more than the 13 million votes that elected the president a year ago - on a petition calling on him to step down; they say new elections could end the paralyzing polarization of society, though no obvious leader has emerged to build consensus.
But in a warning to the liberal and leftist opposition - and anyone in the state who might share their desire to remove Mursi early - another hardliner told the rally that Islamists would press for a pure Islamic state were Mursi toppled.
"Some who lost at the ballot box want to take power through anarchy," said al-Gamaa al-Islamiya's Assem Abdel Maged, who once shared a cell with al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
FEARS OF VIOLENCE
The opposition - which the Brotherhood says has consistently snubbed Mursi's offers of government jobs and political dialogue - has attracted support from many Egyptians who are less politically engaged but exasperated by economic stagnation.
Supporters of the Brotherhood feel their electoral success is under siege from vested interests rooted in the Mubarak era.
There was no trouble evident at the Cairo rally, though there were scuffles in Alexandria when Mursi supporters and opponents faced off briefly in Egypt's second city.
In Cairo, Brotherhood members armed with green staves said they were ready to protect demonstrators from "thugs", noting dozens of injuries in clashes across Egypt in the past week.
The last major wave of anti-Mursi protests was in January and coincided with the second anniversary of the anti-Mubarak uprising. Those provoked countrywide trouble. Diplomats in Cairo are expecting at least some violence come June 30.
"There are people seeking a coup against the lawful order," said demonstrator Gaber Nader, 22, his head protected from the burning sun by a green Brotherhood flag. "Dr Mursi won in free and fair elections like in any state in the world," Nader said.
ELBARADEI HOPE
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, most of whose members renounced violence more than a decade ago, was out in force at Friday's rally.
Mursi infuriated many Egyptians this week by appointing one of its members as governor of Luxor, a town where members of the group massacred 58 tourists at a pharaonic temple in 1997.
One woman, in black veil and green Islamic headband, said she feared the removal of Mursi would return Egypt to the army-backed rule under which her son was tortured: "They destroyed his mind," Zeinab Abdullah, 54, said.
Such fears among Islamists have led some to warn of civil war if the generals who oversaw the transition from Mubarak move against Mursi. Responding to calls for such an intervention, the head of the army signaled in May there would be no such move.
Opposition groups range from the young liberals who first took to Tahrir Square in January 2011 to challenge Mubarak, to conservatives yearning for the stability of army rule. Many in Egypt's 10-percent Christian minority also fear the Islamists.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a former top U.N. diplomat who is a leader of the opposition campaign, told Al-Hayat newspaper that economic problems were increasing support for a movement which he said hoped to end the "total polarization in Egypt".
ElBaradei said a united opposition push could bring an early presidential election that would unseat Mursi, though he himself would not run: "The division of the opposition put Mursi in power and I believe it has realized this mistake," he said.
Rhetoric has grown more toxic in recent days: one Islamist cleric referred to Mursi's opponents as "infidels" during a rally attended by the president last week. The opposition are billing it as Mursi's last days in office, hoping for a repeat of the uprising that toppled Mubarak two and half years ago.
"Mursi and the Brotherhood know they are in a predicament - the Egyptian people are revolting against them," Heba Yassin of the leftist Popular Current movement said of Friday's rally. "This is an attempt to terrorize the opposition."
(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Yasmine Saleh; editing by David Stamp)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-rally-legitimate-mursi-cairo-121751014.html
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All-women jury chosen for George Zimmerman's trial
Defense attorney Mark O'Mara questions potential jurors during George Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)
Defense attorney Mark O'Mara questions potential jurors during George Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)
Gracie Zimmerman, left, sister of George Zimmerman, his father, Robert Zimmerman Sr., second from left, his mother, Gladys, second from right, and wife Shellie Zimmerman, right, sit in Seminole circuit court during George Zimmerman's trial in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)
Attorney Don West, left, and jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn, right, stand with George Zimmerman as potential jurors enter the courtroom for Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)
Tracy Martin, right, and Sybrina Fulton, center, parents of Trayvon Martin, arrive with their attorney Benjamin Crump for the George Zimmerman trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)
Defense attorneys, sitting at the table on the left, and assistant state attorneys, sitting to the right of the podium, prepare to question potential jurors on the ninth day of the George Zimmerman trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman, sitting second from left, has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? A jury of six women was picked Thursday to decide the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer who says he fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in self-defense.
Prosecutors have said Zimmerman, 29, racially profiled the 17-year-old Martin as he walked back from a convenience store on a rainy night in February 2012 wearing a dark hooded shirt.
Race and ethnicity have played a prominent role in the case and even clouded jury selection. While the court did not release the racial makeup of the jury, the panel appeared to reporters covering jury selection to be made up of five white women and a sixth who may be Hispanic.
Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.
After Thursday's hearing, Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara was asked what he would say to people concerned there were no black jurors.
"People can look at it and have this response ? that there's no blacks on the jury, or no this or no that, or no men on the jury," he said. "Tell me that we did something wrong in the process and I'll agree with you."
Prosecutors refused to comment for the duration of the trial.
Two of the jurors recently moved to the area ? one from Iowa and one from Chicago ? and two are involved with rescuing animals as their hobbies.
One juror had a prior arrest, but she said it was disposed of and she thought she was treated fairly. Two jurors have guns in their homes. All of their names have been kept confidential and the panel will be sequestered for the trial.
Opening statements are scheduled for Monday.
The central Florida community of Sanford is in Seminole County, which is 78.5 percent white and 16.5 percent black.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys chose the panel of six jurors after almost two weeks of jury selection. In Florida, 12 jurors are required only for criminal trials involving capital cases, when the death penalty is being considered.
If convicted, Zimmerman could face a potential life sentence.
On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman spotted Martin, whom he did not recognize, walking in the gated townhome community in Sanford where Zimmerman lived and the fiancee of Martin's father also resided. There had been a rash of recent break-ins at the Retreat, and Zimmerman was wary of strangers walking through the complex.
The two eventually got into a struggle and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest with his 9mm handgun. He was charged 44 days after the shooting, only after a special prosecutor was appointed to review the case.
Martin's shooting death and the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman led to public outrage and demonstrations around the nation, with some accusing Sanford police of failing to thoroughly investigate the shooting.
The six jurors were culled from a pool of 40 candidates who made it into a second round of jury questioning. Two men and two women also were picked as alternate jurors.
Before selecting the jurors Thursday, O'Mara explored potential jurors' views on guns, self-defense and justifiable use of force.
Under Florida law, Zimmerman could shoot Martin in self-defense if it were necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm. O'Mara previously decided not to invoke a "stand your ground" hearing in which a judge alone would decide whether to dismiss the case or allow it to proceed to trial.
After the jury was picked, Judge Debra Nelson continued a hearing on whether to allow experts to testify about screams heard on 911 calls made during the struggle. Prosecutors want their expert to testify it was Martin screaming on the calls. An expert for Zimmerman's defense has said there is not enough audio to determine who the screams are coming from.
The judge said she would rule Friday on whether the prosecution's expert can testify.
___
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রবিবার, ২ জুন, ২০১৩
Saudi Arabia says 3 more die from new virus
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) ? Saudi Arabia has reported that three more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 24.
The Ministry of Health said Sunday the three deceased were among 38 infected in the kingdom with the respiratory virus called MERS.
It says two of the three whose deaths were reported Sunday were suffering from chronic diseases.
The World Health Organization said the new germ was first seen in the Middle East and that it had killed about 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003.
The WHO said Saturday prior to the latest Saudi announcement that it had been informed of 51 confirmed cases of the new virus since September and 30 of those cases were fatal.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-says-3-more-die-virus-081649542.html
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CA-BUSINESS Summary
Soft data, commodity prices take TSX to one-week low
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index retreated sharply on Friday as lower commodity prices triggered a slump in shares of natural resource companies and weak economic data out of Europe and the United States dampened investor sentiment. While almost every major sector declined, the index still looked on track for a gain in May, reversing losses in the previous two months.
DirecTV, two others bid over $1 billion for Hulu: source
(Reuters) - Satellite operator DirecTV
Bilfinger eyes takeovers in Asia, North America in expansion
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German construction and industrial services group Bilfinger SE
Digital currency firms rush to adopt anti-money laundering rules
NEW YORK/ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - These are unsettling times for digital currency businesses and the venture capitalists backing them. On Tuesday, authorities in Spain, Costa Rica and New York arrested five people at the digital currency firm Liberty Reserve, including its founder Arthur Budovsky, and seized related bank accounts and Internet domains.
RBS gives up fight, will hand over Libor documents to Canada
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
China May official PMI stronger than expected
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's official PMI rose to 50.8 in May from 50.6 in April, data showed on Saturday, beating market expectations and raising optimism that the world's second-largest economy may be stabilizing. Investors will get a fuller picture of the Chinese economy on Monday when the official services PMI is released along with the final HSBC survey that focuses on smaller private sector firms in the country.
SAC redemptions grow, as Magnitude Capital joins in
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investor redemptions from Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors continue to mount, with Magnitude Capital emerging as the latest outside investor asking to get money back from the $15 billion hedge fund. Magnitude Capital, a fund of hedge funds that manages $3.1 billion of client money, began redeeming funds in the first quarter of this year and intends to submit another withdrawal notice for the second quarter, according to a person with knowledge of the investment.
NYSE asks SEC to reinstate volatility curbs
NEW YORK (Reuters) - NYSE Euronext
Exclusive: Founders seek more time for ENRC bid - sources
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The three billionaire founders behind miner ENRC
Canada's CVTech says it rejected takeover bids in January, March
(Reuters) - CVTech Group Inc
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-business-summary-001139402.html
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শুক্রবার, ৩ মে, ২০১৩
Roelof Botha On Why Sequoia Isn't Giving Its Billion-Dollar Companies IPO Pressure [TCTV]
A funny thing has happened in tech in recent years. It used to be that you could expect a venture-backed company to file for an IPO soon after a few rounds of funding -- after, say, its Series C or Series D raise. But now we're seeing companies' venture capital investment go well into the hundreds of millions, and valuations cross over into the 10-figure range, with no S-1 filing in sight. Sequoia Capital, for instance, is said to have a dozen portfolio companies with valuations of more than $1 billion who are still private entities.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zRepdogKdPQ/
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Federal delegation seeks clarification from DEA
May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federal-delegation-seeks-clarification-dea-195413630.html
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An anarchic region of star formation
Thursday, May 2, 2013
NGC 6559 is a cloud of gas and dust located at a distance of about 5000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The glowing region is a relatively small object, just a few light-years across, in contrast to the one hundred light-years and more spanned by its famous neighbour, the Lagoon Nebula. Although it is usually overlooked in favour of its distinguished companion, NGC 6559 has the leading role in this new picture.
The gas in the clouds of NGC 6559, mainly hydrogen, is the raw material for star formation. When a region inside this nebula gathers enough matter, it starts to collapse under its own gravity. The centre of the cloud grows ever denser and hotter, until thermonuclear fusion begins and a star is born. The hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms, releasing energy that makes the star shine.
These brilliant hot young stars born out of the cloud energise the hydrogen gas still present around them in the nebula. The gas then re-emits this energy, producing the glowing threadlike red cloud seen near the centre of the image. This object is known as an emission nebula.
But NGC 6559 is not just made out of hydrogen gas. It also contains solid particles of dust, made of heavier elements, such as carbon, iron or silicon. The bluish patch next to the red emission nebula shows the light from the recently formed stars being scattered -- reflected in many different directions -- by the microscopic particles in the nebula. Known to astronomers as a reflection nebula, this type of object usually appears blue because the scattering is more efficient for these shorter wavelengths of light.
In regions where it is very dense, the dust completely blocks the light behind it, as is the case for the dark isolated patches and sinuous lanes to the bottom left-hand side and right-hand side of the image. To look through the clouds at what lies behind, astronomers would need to observe the nebula using longer wavelengths that would not be absorbed.
The Milky Way fills the background of the image with countless yellowish older stars. Some of them appear fainter and redder because of the dust in NGC 6559.
This eye-catching image of star formation was captured by the Danish Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (DFOSC) on the 1.54-metre Danish Telescope at La Silla in Chile. This national telescope has been in use at La Silla since 1979 and was recently refurbished to turn it into a remote-controlled state-of-the-art telescope.
###
ESO: http://www.eso.org
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128102/An_anarchic_region_of_star_formation
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HTC looks to boost One sales with new weekend promo, offers $100 to $375 for trade-ins
HTC has already gone the trade-in route to offer folks a discount on its new One smartphone, but it's now giving it another go this weekend with an expanded promo in the US and Canada. This new one is open to anyone that buys an HTC One between today and Sunday, May 5th (the previous promotion required folks to pre-register), and it now offers up to $375 for smartphones that you trade in. Unless you're looking to unload your brand new smartphone in a hurry, though, you may want to check around for the going rates first. The slightly better option is for folks who've been sticking with an aging phone; as before, HTC is guaranteeing at least $100 for your trade-in, so you may well get more from it than you would on the open market (assuming you want to buy a One, of course). Those interested can find all the fine print and check the value of their phone at the source link below.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC
Source: HTC
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ic1EB3qgvm8/
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Tiny flying robots! Meet the quadrotor
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128089/Tiny_flying_robots__Meet_the_quadrotor
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Gamblers get lucky at Genting's Singapore casino
By Anshuman Daga and Eveline Danubrata
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A stroke of bad luck. That's what casino operator Genting Singapore PLC blamed for reporting a sharply lower-than-expected quarterly profit, while also flagging a cautious outlook due to muted Chinese economic growth.
Genting Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa, one of two casinos in the island state that are the envy of the global industry since opening three years ago, said that its 35 percent fall in core earnings simply came down to so-called "premium" gamblers getting lucky.
Those figures were in stark contrast to Wednesday's quarterly earnings announced by Las Vegas Sands Corp, owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, which had been boosted by strong results in Singapore and Macau.
Genting Singapore's January-March adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell to S$249.7 million ($202.5 million) from S$381.4 million a year ago.
Five analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected a profit of S$359 million by the casino operator, which is more than half owned by Malaysia's Genting Bhd.
Sands' rolling chip volume, or betting volume by VIP players, at its Marina Bay Sands in Singapore rose 42.2 percent to $18.21 billion in the quarter, the highest quarterly volume in the property's history.
The two Singapore casinos are the world's most profitable, but concerns have risen about debts from Chinese high-rollers and China's economic uncertainty.
"Moving forward, looking at the economic situation around the world and also the noises that are coming out of China, we are cautious," Tan Hee Teck, president and chief operating officer at Genting Singapore, told an analysts' call on Thursday.
He expects Genting Singapore to write-off some of its debt this year. "We are not pulling back, but we are being a little bit more cautious," Tan said, when asked if the casino would scale down the amount of credit given to its VIP customers.
Sands said it wrote off $11 million in its Singapore property in the first quarter.
Despite Genting Singapore reporting record volume in its VIP business, Tan was cautious about the outlook for the rest of the year.
The company's shares ended up 4.9 percent on Thursday on expectations of strong results after Sands' performance.
NEXT: "BET ON JAPAN"
Genting Singapore said on Thursday premium gamblers got lucky and won more of their bets in the first quarter.
"Compared to the first quarter of 2012, the first quarter's performance was largely affected by a much weaker win percentage in the premium players' business despite a significant increase in the premium players' rolling volume," it said in a statement.
Genting Singapore, which is sitting on a cash pile of nearly S$4 billion, is keen to open a casino in Japan and is also interested in pursuing regional deals.
A pro-casino group of Japanese lawmakers has tapped an influential member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as its leader and plans to submit legislation this year aimed at opening the world's third-largest economy to casino gambling.
"If you ask me, if I were a betting man, I would say the chances of it going through this year would probably be like 70-80 percent," Tan said.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gamblers-lucky-gentings-singapore-casino-001630598.html
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২ মে, ২০১৩
Police arrest mother of baby abandoned Hawaii baby
HONOLULU (AP) ? A day after a woman reported finding an abandoned newborn crying in the sand on a Hawaii beach, police arrested her and revealed she's the baby's mother.
Keala Simeona, 21, of Honolulu, was arrested Tuesday for filing a false police report. Police don't expect to pursue additional offenses at this time. She posted $250 bail and was released.
She had told police she was parked at Sandy Beach in east Honolulu sometime between 11:30 p.m. Sunday and midnight when she heard several people screaming. After the screaming stopped, she said, she walked toward the ocean and found the naked newborn and took her to a hospital.
It's up to Family Court to decide whether to return the child to her family or whether parental rights will be terminated, the state Department of Human Services said in a statement. An initial hearing is scheduled for Monday.
To determine parentage, the department plans to ask the court to order the mother to submit to DNA testing. It will also seek DNA testing for the father, if a father is identified.
Department Director Patricia McManaman said Monday that the full-term, 8-pound baby was born immediately before she was found. However, officials couldn't pinpoint an exact time of birth. The baby was doing well and drinking formula at the hospital, McManaman said, while police investigated the case as child abandonment.
A woman who answered the phone at Simeona's home identified herself as her sister said she wasn't home.
A spokeswoman for the human services department said officials had just learned about Simeona's arrest and didn't yet have any comment. The department had planned to file a petition this week with family court, seeking custody if no family came forward to claim the baby.
Human services officials are informally calling her Baby Sandy.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-arrest-mother-baby-abandoned-hawaii-baby-013115839.html
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Want to slow mental decay? Play a video game
May 1, 2013 ? There may be a way for older people to prevent natural aging of their minds, and it could be as simple as playing a video game.
That's according to a study from the University of Iowa, which found that elderly people who played just ten hours of a game priming their mental processing speed and skills delayed declines by as many as seven years in a range of cognitive skills.
"We know that we can stop this decline and actually restore cognitive processing speed to people," says Fredric Wolinsky, professor in the UI College of Public Health and lead author on the paper published May 1 in the journal PLOS One. "So, if we know that, shouldn't we be helping people? It's fairly easy, and older folks can go get the training game and play it."
The study comes amidst a burst of research examining why, as we age, our minds gradually lose "executive function," generally considered mission control for critical mental activities, such as memory, attention, perception and problem solving. Studies show loss of executive function occurs as people reach middle age; other studies say our cognitive decline begins as soon as 28 years of age. Either way, our mental capacities do diminish, and medical and public health experts are keen to understand why in an effort to stem the inexorable tide as much as possible.
Wolinsky and colleagues separated 681 generally healthy medical patients in Iowa into four groups -- each further separated into those 50 to 64 years of age and those over age 65. One group was given computerized crossword puzzles, while three other groups were exposed to a video game called "Road Tour." Briefly, the game revolves around identifying a type of vehicle (displayed fleetingly on a license plate) and then reidentifying the vehicle type and matching it with a road sign displayed from a circular array of possibilities, all but one of them false icons. The player must succeed at least three out of every four tries to advance to the next level, which speeds up the vehicle identification and adds more distractions, up to 47 in all.
The goal, naturally, is to increase the user's mental speed and agility at identifying the vehicle symbol and picking out the road sign from the constellation of distractors (which are rabbits, by the way).
"The game starts off with an assessment to determine your current speed of processing. Whatever it is, the training can help you get about 70 percent faster," says Wolinsky, who has no financial stake in the game.
The groups that played the game at least 10 hours, either at home or in a lab at the university, gained at least three years of cognitive improvement when tested after one year, according to a formula developed by the researchers. A group that got four additional hours of training with the game did even better, improving their cognitive abilities by four years, according to the study.
"We not only prevented the decline; we actually sped them up," Wolinsky says.
Improving people's processing speed is considered important for a host of reasons. One widely accepted benefit is widening a person's field of view. "As we get older, our visual field collapses on us," Wolinsky explains. "We get tunnel vision. It's a normal functioning of aging. This helps to explain why most accidents happen at intersections because older folks are looking straight ahead and are less aware of peripherals."
Recognizing this, the National Institutes of Health in the late 1990s commissioned the largest cognitive training study of its kind, called ACTIVE. The national, multi-site trial, in which Wolinsky was involved, showed the elderly's memory, reasoning and visual processing speed could be improved with interventions, thus slowing the aging of their minds. But the ACTIVE study had its limitations: Among them, the control group didn't get any training and the primary goal was to assess the effects on seniors' field-of-view vision.
Wolinsky's team added an active control group -- those doing the crossword puzzles. The researchers found those who played the "Road Tour" game also scored far better than the crossword puzzle group on tests involving executive function beyond field-of-view vision, such as concentration, nimbleness with shifting from one mental task to another and the speed at which new information is processed. The improvement ranged from 1.5 years to nearly seven years in cognitive improvement, the study found.
"It's the 'use it or lose it' phenomenon," Wolinsky says. "Age-related cognitive decline is real, it's happening, and it starts earlier and then continues steadily. The good news is we can do something about it. The question is will we?"
The NIH funded the work, out of a Research Challenge grant from the NIH director's office as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (grant numbers 5 RC1 AG035546 02 and 1 RC1 AG035546 01).
Contributing authors include Michael Jones and Megan Dotson, from the UI's College of Public Heath, and Mark Vander Weg and M. Bryant Howren, from the Iowa City VA Health Care System.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa. The original article was written by Richard C. Lewis.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Fredric D. Wolinsky, Mark W. Vander Weg, M. Bryant Howren, Michael P. Jones, Megan M. Dotson. A Randomized Controlled Trial of Cognitive Training Using a Visual Speed of Processing Intervention in Middle Aged and Older Adults. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (5): e61624 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061624
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/MOCi3S4edRY/130501192918.htm
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UK mortgage approvals rise more than expected in March
LONDON (Reuters) - British mortgage approvals for house purchase bounced back more strongly than expected in March, in a further sign homebuyers are benefiting from the central bank's flagship credit scheme.
Lending to businesses fell last month, but at a slower pace than in February, Bank of England data showed on Tuesday.
The central bank has been hoping that its Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), opened in August and revamped last week, will boost the flow of credit to households and businesses, thus easing what it sees as a major drag on the economy.
Mortgage approvals numbered 53,504 in March, up from 51,947 in February and a thousand more than analysts had forecast.
Before the 2008 financial crisis, monthly mortgage approvals ran at around 90,000, but the number of home sales has slumped since then and is only slowly starting to recover.
Lending to non-financial businesses shrank for a second straight month, by a net 0.6 billion pounds. Within that, lending to smaller firms dropped by 0.1 billion pounds, erasing the previous month's gain.
Last week the central bank and the finance ministry retooled the FLS, giving banks greater incentives to lend to small and medium-sized firms which complain they are starved of credit.
The BoE's preferred gauge of money supply, M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations, rose 0.3 percent, taking the annual growth rate to 4.5 percent.
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova and Christina Fincher)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-mortgage-approvals-rise-more-expected-march-083137038.html
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বুধবার, ১ মে, ২০১৩
মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩
Mexican Congress passes telecoms overhaul in swipe at Slim, rivals
By Miguel Gutierrez
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Congress on Tuesday gave overwhelming final approval to an expansive overhaul of the telecommunications sector, which aims to boost competition in the industry and tame the likes of billionaire Carlos Slim and broadcaster Televisa.
The bill encourages more foreign investment in the telecoms industry and gives regulators the power to stop companies from controlling more than 50 percent of the market, a measure aimed directly at telecoms tycoon Slim and Televisa.
But forced asset sales will not be automatic if companies are declared dominant by the competition regulator.
The telecoms overhaul is part of President Enrique Pena Nieto's wider economic reform agenda. He is set to present major tax and energy sector revamps later this year, though the Mexican leader must first settle a political spat with the main opposition parties.
Slim's phone company, America Movil, controls some 80 percent of the fixed line business in Mexico and about 70 percent of its mobile market. Televisa has more than 60 percent of the TV market.
The legislation mandates the creation of a new regulator known as Ifetel to oversee the telecoms market. It also outlines the shape of a new federal competition commission, which will regulate all other areas.
Companies that are fined or told to sell off assets by the new federal competition commission would have the right to lodge appeals to suspend these decisions, a tactic companies have used to fight competition rulings.
However, Televisa and America Movil will be subject to Ifetel, not the federal competition commission, hampering any efforts to contest regulatory rulings.
The measure, which was first presented by Pena Nieto last month, won nearly unanimous approval from the Senate, with 108 votes in favor and three against.
Uncertainty over the final details of the bill has been dragging on the share prices of America Movil and Televisa.
(Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Simon Gardner and Paul Simao)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-congress-gives-final-approval-sweeping-telecom-reform-183755857.html
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