Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295037024?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Last day: Here's a last minute tax savings guide | Firstpost
With less than a week left for you to make tax saving investments for FY 2012-13, there is a good possibility you might just make the wrong investments in a hurry to avoid missing the deadline and keeping? in mind the sole objective of tax savings. After all as they say, ?Invest in a hurry, regret in leisure.? Here?s a quick guide for last minute tax savings instruments. So, you can make an informed decision, and not simply rely on your agent?s sales pitch.
For the sake on convenience, we will divide the instruments into two. Those which fall under Section 80 C and the others.
Section 80 C investments: Before, we begin keep in mind that your Employee Provident Fund (EPF) would make the major part of the Section 80 C deduction. The maximum deduction permitted under this section is Rs1 lakh.
1) Public Provident Fund: You get an 8.8 percent tax-free investment. Lock in period is 15 years and maximum amount Rs 1 lakh per financial year. Read more here.
2) Life insurance premiums: Premium amounts for self or wife and children. Premium paid before 31 March 2012 will get a deduction only to the extent of 20 percent of the actual capital sum assured. And policy issued after the 1st day of April 2012 will get a deduction only to the extent of 10 percent of the actual capital sum assured. We strongly recommend you buy only a Term Plan, as life insurance.
3) National Savings Certificate: Five-year NSC give?s 8.6 percent returns and for 10 years it?s 8.9 percent. Interest income you earn every year is taxable. But, as the interest is also reinvested, it becomes part of the overall section 80C contribution.
Representational image. Image courtesy: Moneycontrol
4) Five-year tax savings fixed deposit: The lock-in period is five years, without any pre-mature withdrawals. Rate varies from bank to bank. Interest earned is taxed, maximum investment limit is Rs 1 lakh.
5) Equity-linked savings scheme: This gives your money equity exposure and the returns here are market-linked. Keep in mind that this comes with a lock-in period of three years. The dividends you earn are tax-free.
6) Pension plans (traditional): Maximum deduction up to Rs 1 lakh for premiums paid for pension plans under Section 80 CCC.
7) Senior citizen savings scheme (SCSS): Only for senior citizens. They offer 9.30 percent as interest. Maximum investment allowed is Rs 15 lakh in a financial year, but only Rs 1 lakh will get benefit under Section 80 C.
8) Two important deductions are: Repayment of principal of your home loan gives you a deduction under 80C of up to Rs 1 lakh.? And, you also get under a deduction Section 80C for tuition fees paid for your children?s full-time education in India.
Non- Section 80 C deductions: Apart from Section 80 C investments options, here are a few more investment options which give you tax benefit.
9) Section 80D ( Medical Insurance policy) : Here you get tax benefits in the form of deduction for premiums you pay for medical insurance. The benefit is up to Rs 15,000 for self and family or if you buy policy for non-senior citizen parents. You can claim within the existing limit a deduction of up to Rs 5,000 for preventive health check-up. Read more here.
10) Section 80DDB (Medical treatment of certain illness): If you are less than 65 years old during the previous year, then the deduction limit is Rs 40,000. If you are a senior citizen (more than age 65), then the deduction limit is Rs 60,000. Read more here.
11) Section 80E (Interest paid for education loan): You can avail of this tax deduction as long an education loan is taken for the spouse, children or self. The deduction is permitted in the initial assessment year or the year in which you start paying the interest on the loan and seven more years immediately after the initial assessment year. Read more here.
12)? Section 24( Home loan interest amount): You get a tax deduction of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for the interest amount you pay towards home loan. The Rs 1.5 lakh limit on the interest amount is applicable when you?ve taken a loan for a self-occupied house. If it?s not a self-occupied house (rented out) there is not limit of Rs 1.5 lakh. Read more here.
13) Section 80 TTA (Savings accounts): Here savings account interest income up to Rs 10,000 will get a tax deduction. This deduction of Rs 10,000 on savings account interest income is all bank accounts put together. Read more here.
14) Section 80 G:? Donations to certain charitable organisations and institutions you get tax deduction under Section 80 G. The amount of deductions can be either 50 percent or 100 percent, depending upon the type of institution you donate to.
Now that you know about tax savings options, don?t blindly buy the insurance policy your agent wants to sell you as a tax saving tool. Remember, investments made in a hurry to save taxes are more likely to result in you becoming a victim of mis-selling.
Source: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/last-day-heres-a-last-minute-tax-savings-guide-673889.html
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Saturday, March 23, 2013
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe dies at 82
Afp/getty Images / AFP - Getty Images file
Author Chinua Achebe outside his home at Ogidi, eastern Nigeria, in 1999.
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By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor
Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist and poet whose 1958 novel "Things Fall Apart" addressed the effects of colonialism on African society, has died. He was 82.
Achebe died following a brief illness, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said Friday. He added that the author's family has requested privacy.
Brown University, where Achebe taught for the past four years, said the writer passed away Thursday night.
"We join the world in mourning Chinua Achebe's death," John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin Group, said in a statement. "He was a giant, and a wise and kind man. We are honored to have published his final book, which, like all of his books, will outlast us all."
Achebe?s breakthrough novel focused on the clash between Western and traditional values. It told the story of colonialism for the first time from an African perspective, and?has sold more than 10 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages.
Nelson Mandela has credited Achebe for bringing "Africa to the rest of the world" and called him "the writer in whose company the prison walls came down."
Achebe played a pivotal role in the development of African literature.?He is the author of more than 20 books, including novels, short stories, essays and poetry collections. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction.
Achebe was born Nov. 16, 1930 and raised in the village of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria. After graduating from college, he started a radio career that ended?abruptly?in 1966 during the national upheaval that led to Nigeria?s three-year civil conflict, known as the Biafran War. Achebe then joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions.
He was known as an outspoken critic of successive dictatorship governments in Nigeria, often refusing to accept literary honors from his home country in protest.
Last year, Achebe published his final book, "There Was a Country," a memoir about the three-year Biafran War.
Russell Perreault, publicity director for the writer?s earlier publisher, Random House, noted Achebe once said, "If you don't like someone's story, write your own."
"We are saddened by the death of the 'Father of African literature' Chinua Achebe," Perreault said. "We are grateful that he told his story and left us with a legacy of great literature and a better understanding of Africa."
At the time of his death, Achebe was a professor of Africana studies at Brown University. Among his activities at the school was the annual Achebe Colloquium on Africa, an international gathering of scholars, policymakers, and others who shared interest in current day African affairs.
"He was more than just a colleague, faculty member, and teacher at Brown. He was a gift to the world," said Corey D.B. Walker, chair of Brown?s Department of Africana studies.?"At a time like this we could draw many words of wisdom and comfort from the deep wells of various African cultures and traditions to honor him. The most fitting is the simple and elegant phrase, 'A great tree has fallen.'"
Prior to Brown, Achebe had taught for more than 15 years at Bard College. He moved there shortly after a car accident in 1990 left him paralyzed from the waist down.
He and his wife, Christie Okoli, had four children.
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Friday, March 22, 2013
LG accuses Samsung of OLED patent infringement, demands compensation
By Steve Keating ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy's decision to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational surprised the tournament host, who expressed his disappointment on Wednesday that the world number one was not at Bay Hill this week. The 83-year-old Palmer said he had jokingly suggested he might break McIlroy's arm if he did not show up but did not try to force the young Northern Irishman into making an appearance. "Frankly, I thought he was going to play, and I was as surprised as a lot of people when he decided he was not going to play," said Palmer. ...
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Best map ever made of universe's oldest light: Planck mission brings universe into sharp focus
Mar. 21, 2013 ? The Planck space mission has released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, contents and origins.
Planck is a European Space Agency mission. NASA contributed mission-enabling technology for both of Planck's science instruments, and U.S., European and Canadian scientists work together to analyze the Planck data.
The map results suggest the universe is expanding more slowly than scientists thought, and is 13.8 billion years old, 100 million years older than previous estimates. The data also show there is less dark energy and more matter, both normal and dark matter, in the universe than previously known. Dark matter is an invisible substance that can only be seen through the effects of its gravity, while dark energy is pushing our universe apart. The nature of both remains mysterious.
"Astronomers worldwide have been on the edge of their seats waiting for this map," said Joan Centrella, Planck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These measurements are profoundly important to many areas of science, as well as future space missions. We are so pleased to have worked with the European Space Agency on such a historic endeavor."
The map, based on the mission's first 15.5 months of all-sky observations, reveals tiny temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, ancient light that has traveled for billions of years from the very early universe to reach us. The patterns of light represent the seeds of galaxies and clusters of galaxies we see around us today.
"As that ancient light travels to us, matter acts like an obstacle course getting in its way and changing the patterns slightly," said Charles Lawrence, the U.S. project scientist for Planck at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The Planck map reveals not only the very young universe, but also matter, including dark matter, everywhere in the universe."
The age, contents and other fundamental traits of our universe are described in a simple model developed by scientists, called the standard model of cosmology. These new data have allowed scientists to test and improve the accuracy of this model with the greatest precision yet. At the same time, some curious features are observed that don't quite fit with the simple picture. For example, the model assumes the sky is the same everywhere, but the light patterns are asymmetrical on two halves of the sky, and there is a spot extending over a patch of sky that is larger than expected.
"On one hand, we have a simple model that fits our observations extremely well, but on the other hand, we see some strange features which force us to rethink some of our basic assumptions," said Jan Tauber, the European Space Agency's Planck project scientist based in the Netherlands. "This is the beginning of a new journey, and we expect our continued analysis of Planck data will help shed light on this conundrum."
The findings also test theories describing inflation, a dramatic expansion of the universe that occurred immediately after its birth. In far less time than it takes to blink an eye, the universe blew up by 100 trillion trillion times in size. The new map, by showing that matter seems to be distributed randomly, suggests that random processes were at play in the very early universe on minute "quantum" scales. This allows scientists to rule out many complex inflation theories in favor of simple ones.
"Patterns over huge patches of sky tell us about what was happening on the tiniest of scales in the moments just after our universe was born," Lawrence said.
Planck launched in 2009 and has been scanning the skies ever since, mapping the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the theorized big bang that created our universe. This relic radiation provides scientists with a snapshot of the universe 370,000 years after the big bang. Light existed before this time, but it was locked in a hot plasma similar to a candle flame, which later cooled and set the light free.
The cosmic microwave background is remarkably uniform over the entire sky, but tiny variations reveal the imprints of sound waves triggered by quantum fluctuations in the universe just moments after it was born. These imprints, appearing as splotches in the Planck map, are the seeds from which matter grew, forming stars and galaxies. Prior balloon-based and space missions learned a great deal by studying these patterns, including NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), which earned the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Planck is the successor to these satellites, covering a wider range of light frequencies with improved sensitivity and resolution. Its measurements reveal light patterns as small as one-twelfth of a degree on the sky.
"Planck is like the Ferrari of cosmic microwave background missions," said Krzysztof Gorski, a U.S Planck scientist at JPL. "You fine tune the technology to get more precise results. For a car, that can mean an increase in speed and winning races. For Planck, it results in giving astronomers a treasure trove of spectacular data, and bringing forth a deeper understanding of the properties and history of the universe."
The newly estimated expansion rate of the universe, known as Hubble's constant, is 67.15 plus or minus 1.2 kilometers/second/megaparsec. A megaparsec is roughly 3 million light-years. This is less than prior estimates derived from space telescopes, such as NASA's Spitzer and Hubble, using a different technique. The new estimate of dark matter content in the universe is 26.8 percent, up from 24 percent, while dark energy falls to 68.3 percent, down from 71.4 percent. Normal matter now is 4.9 percent, up from 4.6 percent.
Complete results from Planck, which still is scanning the skies, will be released in 2014.
NASA's Planck Project Office is based at JPL.
More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/planck, http://planck.caltech.edu and http://www.esa.int/planck.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Fukushima's Latest Near Disaster Was Caused By a Hungry Rat
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Turkey voices caution over rebels' truce call
Turkey voices caution over rebels' truce call
AP
Some thousands of supporters demonstrate waving various PKK flags and images of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, March 21, 2013, as Ocalan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending the fighting for self-rule for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies lasting nearly 30-years and costing tens of thousands of lives. (AP Photo)
Some thousands of supporters demonstrate waving various PKK flags and images of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, March 21, 2013, as Ocalan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending the fighting for self-rule for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies lasting nearly 30-years and costing tens of thousands of lives. (AP Photo)
In this photo taken Sunday, March 17, 2013, Kurds wave banners depicting imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Istanbul, Turkey. Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in a message relayed by Kurdish legislators who visited him on his prison island, said Monday, March 18 that peace talks with Turkey are making "positive progress" and that he plans to make a "historic" announcement to coincide with a Kurdish spring festival. (AP Photo)
FILE - In this file photo provided by the Turkish Intelligence Service on Feb. 18, 1999, Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan poses in front of Turkish flags before being interrogated by Turkish officials at the prison-island of Imrali , Turkey. Ocalan said Monday, March 18, 2013 that peace talks with Turkey are making "positive progress" and that he plans to make a "historic" announcement to coincide with a Kurdish spring festival. (AP Photo/Turkish Intelligence Service, File)
FILE - In this Monday Feb. 15, 1999 file photo provided by the Turkish Intelligence Service o the chief of the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, Abdullah Ocalan sits guarded aboard an aircraft en route to Turkey following his arrest by Turkish special forces in Nairobi, Kenya. Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said Monday, March 18, 2013 that peace talks with Turkey are making "positive progress" and that he plans to make a "historic" announcement to coincide with a Kurdish spring festival. (AP Photo/Turkish Intelligence Service, File)
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his lawmakers in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Erdogan said he hopes this week's Kurdish spring festival will herald the start of a peaceful resolution of the nearly 30-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels. Erdogan's remarks Tuesday came days ahead of the March 21 spring festivities when jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to reveal his plans for peace, including a possible cease-fire declaration and a timetable for his fighters' retreat from Turkey.(AP Photo)
AMSTERDAM (AP) ? Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the Kurdish rebel leader's call for a cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to leave Turkey.
Erdogan on Thursday also sounded a note of caution, however, saying Turkey wanted to see "to what extend it is implemented" by the rebels. Erdogan was speaking at a joint news conference with his Dutch counterpart.
Erdogan said Turkish security forces would cease operations against the rebels as soon as Ocalan's call is implemented.
The Turkish leader also lamented the fact that no Turkish flag was flown at festivities in Turkey's largest city in southeast Turkey, where imprisoned rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan's message was read.
Erdogan says the lack of a flag was a "provocative act" and contrary to spirit of Ocalan's message for peace.
Associated Press
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Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Mindless Behavior 'More Experienced' On All Around The World
Boy band released their sophomore album Tuesday.
By Christina Garibaldi
Mindless Behavior's All Around The World
Photo: Interscope
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1703468/mindless-behavior-all-around-world-album-release.jhtml
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Falkland Islanders vote overwhelmingly to keep British rule
By Marcos Brindicci and Juan Bustamante
STANLEY, Falkland Islands (Reuters) - Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum aimed at winning global sympathy as Argentina intensifies its sovereignty claim.
The official count on Monday showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favour of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day poll, which was rejected by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt. There only three "no" votes out of about 1,500 cast.
"Surely this must be the strongest message we can get out to the world," said Roger Edwards, one of the Falklands' assembly's eight elected members.
"That we are content, that we wish to retain the status quo ... with the right to determine our own future and not become a colony of Argentina."
Pro-British feeling is running high in the barren and blustery islands that lie off the tip of Patagonia, at the southern end of South America. Turnout was 92 percent among the 1,649 Falklands-born and long-term residents registered to vote.
Three decades after hundreds died when Argentina and Britain went to war over the far-flung South Atlantic archipelago, islanders have been perturbed by Argentina's increasingly vocal claim over the Malvinas - as the islands are called in Spanish.
Local politicians hope the resounding "yes" vote will help them lobby support abroad, for example in the United States, which has a neutral position on the sovereignty issue.
"We're never going to change Argentina's claim and point of view, but I believe there are an awful lot of countries out there that are sitting on the fence ... this is going to show them quite clearly what the people think," Edwards said.
The mood was festive as islanders lined up in the cold to vote in the low-key island capital of Stanley, some wearing novelty outfits made from the red, white and blue British Union Jack flag.
"We are British and that's the way we want to stay," said Barry Nielsen, who wore a Union Jack hat to cast his ballot at the town hall polling station in Stanley, where most of the roughly 2,500 islanders live.
PRESSURE ON BRITAIN
Argentina's fiery left-leaning president, Cristina Fernandez, has piled pressure on Britain to negotiate the sovereignty of the islands, something London refuses to do unless the islanders request talks.
Most Latin American countries and many other developing nations have voiced support for Argentina, which has stepped up its demands since London-listed companies started drilling for oil and natural gas off the Falklands' craggy coastline.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the referendum clearly showed the islanders wanted to remain a British overseas territory.
"All countries should accept the results of this referendum and support the Falkland Islanders as they continue to develop their home and their economy," he said in a statement.
"We have always been clear that we believe in the rights of the Falklands people to determine their own futures and to decide on the path they wish to take. It is only right that, in the 21st century, these rights are respected."
However, officials in Buenos Aires questioned the referendum's legitimacy. They say the sovereignty dispute must be resolved between Britain and Argentina and cite U.N. resolutions calling on London to sit down for talks.
"This (referendum) is a ploy that has no legal value," said Alicia Castro, Argentina's ambassador to London.
"Negotiations are in the islanders' best interest. We don't want to deny them their identity. They're British, we respect their identity and their way of life and that they want to continue to be British. But the territory they occupy is not British," she told an Argentine radio station.
Argentina has claimed the islands since 1833, saying it inherited them from the Spanish on independence and that Britain expelled an Argentine population.
The 1982 war, which killed about 650 Argentines and 255 Britons and ended when Argentina surrendered, is widely remembered in Argentina as a humiliating mistake by the discredited and brutal dictatorship in power at the time.
But most Argentines think the islands rightfully belong to the South American country and they remain a potent national symbol that unites political foes.
Falkland islanders, who are enjoying an economic boom thanks partly to the sale of oil and natural gas exploration licences, say they do not expect Monday's result to sway Argentina.
"Argentina's stance on the Falklands will stay the same," said Stanley resident Craig Paice, wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Our Islands, Our Decision" as he waited to vote on Monday.
"But hopefully the world will now listen and know the people of the Falkland Islands have a voice."
(Additional reporting by Magali Cervantes in Stanley, Helen Popper in Buenos Aires and Michael Holden in London; Writing by Helen Popper; Editing by Pravin Char)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/falkland-islanders-vote-overwhelmingly-keep-british-rule-022748765.html
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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Police: Delhi gang rape suspect kills self in jail
NEW DELHI (AP) ? A man on trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman aboard a bus in New Delhi committed suicide in an Indian jail early Monday, raising further questions about a criminal justice system already criticized for failing to protect the nation's women.
Ram Singh, who was accused of driving the bus on which the 23-year-old student was raped by a group of six men in December, was under suicide watch at New Delhi's Tihar Jail when he hanged himself with his own clothes at about 5:30 a.m., police officials said.
Singh and his four fellow defendants were facing the death penalty if convicted of the attack, which horrified Indians and set off national protests. A sixth accused is being tried and jailed separately because he is a juvenile.
A defense lawyer and Singh's family alleged foul play in his death and said he had been assaulted in jail prior to his death.
"What do you mean killed himself? He has been killed in prison," said A. P. Singh, a defense lawyer in the case. Lawyers for the defendants had previously accused police of beating confessions out of the men.
Ram Singh's father, Mangelal Singh, said his son had been raped in prison by other inmates and had been repeatedly threatened by inmates and guards. Nevertheless, he said he visited his son four days ago and the man appeared fine and gave no hint of the despair that could drive him to take his own life.
Ram Singh also had a badly injured hand and would have been unable to orchestrate a suicide, his father said, speaking from outside his small home in a New Delhi slum.
"Somebody has killed him," he said, insisting he would push for a top level investigation into the death.
Mangelal Singh said he feared for the safety of another son who is also on trial in the rape case.
The defendants were being housed in separate buildings on the jail grounds and were all under suicide watch, a jail official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Indian jails have a reputation for overcrowding, poor management and brutal treatment of inmates.
The rape victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding the bus Dec. 16 as they tried to return home after watching a movie, police say. The six men, the only occupants of the private bus, beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her, police say. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
The brutal attack set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them.
Singh's death comes as the trial was deep underway, with another hearing scheduled for Monday.
K.T. S. Tulsi, a former top lawyer in the office of the solicitor general of India, said the suicide should have no impact on the trail, which is being held in a closed courtroom under a gag order that prevents news organization from publishing details of the proceedings.
He said the death highlighted how important it was for society not to demonize people who have been accused of crimes but not yet been convicted.
"It is so unfortunate that the media goes on to presume that they are guilty and goes on to condemn them and demonize them to an extent that it makes the life of these people not worth living," he said.
___
Associated Press reporter Manish Swarup contributed to this report.
___
Follow Ravi Nessman on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ravinessman
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-delhi-gang-rape-suspect-kills-self-jail-023445604.html
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Dutch bankruptcies hit record in February
AMSTERDAM (AP) ? More Dutch companies declared bankruptcy in February than at any time since records began in 1981.
The country's Central Bureau for Statistics also says Monday that on a three-month average, bankruptcies are at their highest level on record: around 680 per month, not counting one-person businesses.
The Dutch economy is struggling as the government cuts spending and increases taxes to meet European budget rules that require countries to get their budget deficits down to 3 percent of their annual gross domestic product.
Real estate markets are especially weak, due to a glut in office space and cuts in residential mortgage deductions.
The country's economic forecasting office expects the Dutch economy to shrink for the second year running in 2013 before muted growth returns in 2014.
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Evernote for Mac gets redesigned Menu Bar Helper, now with Quick Note feature
Evernote may not have shared the best of news a few days ago, but that's not stopping the notetaking service from giving its Mac application a boost in the features department. Evernote's quick to point out that while this release might not be the biggest it's ever pushed out, it truly believes today's revamped Menu Bar Helper to be "one of these little things that we think you'll really enjoy." With the newly added Quick Note functionality, Evernote for Mac will make it extremely simple for users to create notes at any time, simply by clicking the renowned elephant that's living in the menu bar or by triggering a keyboard command (Control-Command-N, to be more specific). Better yet, Quick Note can handle more than just typed words, with items such as images and audio attachments also being able to be added and saved. Evernote says the App Store update should be coming as soon as it gets the stamp of approval from Apple, though folks eager to try it now can grab it straight from the source link below.
Filed under: Desktops, Internet
Source: Evernote
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/evernote-for-mac-quick-note/
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HBT: Manny Ramirez headed to Taiwan
Manny Ramirez was unable to get a chance with a major league team, so he is headed overseas.
CBS Sports? Jon Heyman reports that Ramirez ?will touch down Monday? in?Kaohsiung, Taiwan and will suit up this summer for the?EDA Rhinos of the four-team Chinese Professional Baseball League. His exact salary has not been disclosed, though ESPN Deportes? Enrique Rojas noted in February that the best CPBL players typically top out at about $12,000 a month. Which extrapolates to $144,000 a year.
Ramirez, 40, batted just .302/.348/.349 in 69 plate appearances last year for the Athletics? Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento, California. But he had a decent showing this offseason in the Dominican Winter League.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Family of Delhi gang rape suspect doubts jail suicide story
NEW DELHI (AP) ? A man on trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a 23-year-old student aboard a New Delhi bus committed suicide in an Indian jail Monday, police said, but his lawyer and family allege he was killed.
Ram Singh, who was accused of driving the bus during the December attack, was under suicide watch in a cell with three other inmates at New Delhi's Tihar Jail when he hanged himself with his own clothes about 5:30 a.m., police officials said. His death in custody raised further questions about a criminal justice system already under attack for failing to protect the nation's women.
"It's a grave incident," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said. "It's a major lapse."
The government had ordered a magistrate's inquiry and would take action after it received the report, he said.
Singh, 33, had been among five defendants facing the death penalty if convicted of the rape attack, which horrified Indians and set off national protests. A sixth accused is being tried and jailed separately because he is a juvenile.
Ram Singh's family and lawyer alleged foul play in his death.
"There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide. There was no mental stress. He was very happy," his lawyer V.K. Anand said. Lawyers for the defendants had previously accused police of beating confessions out of the men.
Indian jails have a reputation for overcrowding, poor management and brutal treatment of inmates.
Ram Singh's father, Mangelal Singh, said his son had been raped in prison by other inmates and had been repeatedly threatened by inmates and guards. Nevertheless, he said he visited his son four days ago and the man appeared fine and gave no hint of any despair that could drive him to take his own life.
Ram Singh also had a badly injured hand and would have been unable to hang himself, his father said, speaking from outside his small home in a New Delhi slum.
"Somebody has killed him," he said, saying he would push for a top-level investigation into the death.
Mangelal Singh said he feared for the safety of another son who is also on trial in the rape case.
The defendants were being housed in separate buildings on the jail grounds and were all under suicide watch, a jail official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
During a news conference, Shinde declined to say how Ram Singh could have managed to kill himself without alerting the other three inmates in his small cell or the guards who were supposed to be monitoring him under a suicide watch.
Vimla Mehra, the director general of the jail, declined to release details of the incident.
"The inquiry is being conducted and it would be premature to make any statement about the details of the incident," she said.
The rape victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding the bus Dec. 16 as they tried to return home after watching a movie, police say. The six men, the only occupants of the private bus, beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her, police say. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
The attack set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a package of laws to protect them.
Singh's death comes as the trial was deep underway, with another hearing scheduled for Monday. The four surviving defendants were produced in court, but left after a short time because of an attorney's strike.
Vivek Sharma, a lawyer representing another defendant, said he planned to ask the court to provide greater protection for his client.
"In a high-security jail, an occurrence of this kind is highly condemnable. It raises the serious issue of security of the accused persons in the jail," he said.
"My clients don't feel safe in Tihar jail," said another defense lawyer, A.P. Singh.
K.T.S. Tulsi, a former top lawyer in the office of the solicitor general of India, said the suicide should have no impact on the trial, which is being held in a closed courtroom under a gag order that prevents news organizations from publishing details of the proceedings.
He said the death highlighted how important it is for society not to demonize people who have been accused but not convicted of crimes.
"It is so unfortunate that the media goes on to presume that they are guilty and goes on to condemn them and demonize them to an extent that it makes the life of these people not worth living," he said.
In 2011, 68 inmates in India killed themselves and another eight were killed by fellow inmates, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.
Tihar Jail is badly overcrowded with nearly twice as many prisoners as it was designed to hold. Jail authorities have been working to soften its reputation in part by selling TJ's cookies baked by the inmates to the public.
___
Associated Press reporters Manish Swarup and Ashok Sharma contributed to this report.
___
Follow Ravi Nessman on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ravinessman
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-delhi-rape-suspect-kills-self-jail-111146023.html
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Officials: Alleged India gang-rape leader hangs himself
Manan Vatsyayana / AFP - Getty Images
Media representatives surround an ambulance as it leaves the main entrance of Tihar Jail in New Delhi on Monday.
By Annie Banerji and Anurag Kotoky, Reuters
NEW DELHI -- The alleged ringleader in the gang-rape and death of a young Indian woman in December hanged himself in jail on Monday, officials said, a dramatic twist in a case that has provoked outrage across India.
Ram Singh's lawyer said his client had been composed and calm when he spoke to him on Friday and that there were other inmates in his cell in New Delhi's Tihar jail, raising questions about whether it was a suicide and how it could have gone unnoticed by staff in India's highest security prison.
Officials at a prison in India say a man accused in the gang rape of a woman killed himself in his jail cell. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
The lawyer and a prison official said Singh had not been on suicide watch.
Police have described Singh as the ringleader of five men and a juvenile on trial for the December 16 attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist on a bus in the Indian capital. Singh was driving the bus.
All six accused have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder.
The assault triggered nationwide protests, a toughening of rape laws and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India.
Tihar prison authorities ordered a magisterial inquiry after Singh was found hanging in his cell at around 5 a.m. (7 p.m. ET Sunday), prison spokesman Sunil Gupta said.
Singh's lawyer, V.K. Anand, told Reuters that his client did not appear to be distressed when he spoke to him on Friday.
"I believe he was satisfied with the way the trial was proceeding because we had a very strong case against the prosecution's claims," he said.
"This is not suicide, this is something else. I know he had a few complaints of jail authorities torturing him, but nothing that would make him take his own life. We can't rule out foul play. Nothing is adding up," he said.
Manish Swarup / AP
The mother of Ram Singh cries as she speaks to journalists inside the family's home in New Delhi on Monday.
Anand has previously always denied that his client was being maltreated in prison. He did not elaborate on the "torture".
Singh had been kept in a cell with other inmates, he said.
A former director of the jail, Kiran Bedi, said Singh should have been kept isolated from the main prison population.
The trial of the five adult men started last month while the juvenile's trial began last week. Ram Singh's brother Mukesh Singh, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar are the other men on trial.
Under Indian law, the juvenile cannot be named.
The attack generated headlines around the world, but the case has since largely disappeared from public view, in large part because authorities have barred reporting on the trial, which was due to resume in a fast-track court on Monday.
Police allege the six attacked the woman and a male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching a movie on December 16. The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road.
The woman died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.
The police report used to charge the accused draws a picture of Ram Singh as the ringleader. On the night of December 16, the accused gathered at his house for dinner, where he came up with the plan of taking the bus out to look for a victim to rape, the report said.
The police say they found him sitting in the blood-stained school bus, wearing a bloodied T-shirt, the morning after the crime. A DNA test revealed that the blood belonged to the rape victim, the report said.
Related:
5 accused men plead not guilty in India gang rape
India gang-rape victim's father: Hang the 'monsters' responsible
India gang-rape victim dies in hospital; case focuses attention on sexual violence
This story was originally published on Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:22 PM EDT
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PFT: Panthers want Gross to take pay cut
APThe Steelers finally drew a line in the sand Saturday, and released outside linebacker James Harrison when he became too expensive.
But over the past few years, they?ve stretched out a number of contracts, willing to push money onto future caps to keep a core of players together.
According to Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Steelers have restructured 13 deals since the lockout ended in August 2011, pushing $54.7 million onto future salary cap ledgers.
During that span, they?ve adjusted the deals of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger three times, linebacker Lawrence Timmons twice; and once each for Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, Chris Kemoeatu, Harrison, Brett Keisel, LaMarr Woodley, Ike Taylor and Willie Colon once.
That works, as long as the group of players they?ve chosen produce together. But there?s an inherent risk as well, as it creates a top-heavy roster that?s hard to fix if a bad thing happens, especially with the salary cap flattening in the post-lockout world.
?They are trying to get as much flexibility as they can during the transition years,? said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts. ?(The fact that) they are engaging in this more than they have in the past is attributable to adjustments to the ? cap.?
Playing kick-the-can with the salary cap can lead to a disaster at some point. But the Steelers are able to get away with this institutionally for two main reasons.
One, they have a quarterback in Roethlisberger who is good enough to raise a team a level, from average to good or good to great.
Secondly, they have scouted and drafted well enough to have star players and also find contributors deep in drafts to replace players when they get too expensive.
If a Jason Worilds can replace Harrison?s production (as Harrison did when he replaced Joey Porter), and Roethlisberger never gets hurt again, it?s a system that can work, considering they have an excellent coach and general manager.
But it does leave one of the league?s most stable franchise vulnerable to the one thing even the smartest team can?t account for ? bad luck.
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iPhone 5 vs HTC One
Phil Nickinson from Android Central is busy looking at the HTC One, one of the first, big Android phones of 2013. Of course, that means he's putting it side-by-side with, and head-to-head against, Apple's 2012 iPhone 5.
They're both phones, and what's more, metal phones. I love that. One you've held a metal phone, it's really hard to go back to plastic-as-inpolycarbonate. That's about where the similarities end, though, as the HTC One has a huge, incredibly dense 4.7-inch 1080p screen, front facing stereo speakers, and, you know, runs Android Jelly Bean instead of iOS 6.
I've already explained why, for me, the frustrations associated with iOS are less annoying than the frustrations associated with Android, and why I won't be switching any time soon. But since I haven't been exactly thrilled with my Nexus 4, who knows, maybe I'll pick one up. I had the G1, and I liked the Nexus One quite a bit. HTC has, thus far, been my favorite Android hardware manufacturer. Sense might be a deal-breaker, but I'll give it a try before making up my mind.
In the meantime, check out the video above and the pictures below, and if you're interested in the HTC One, keep your browsers locked on Android Central as they have complete coverage coming your way.
Source: Android Central
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/s-FL__6KFyg/story01.htm
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Obama cracks wise at annual Gridiron dinner
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama blamed the budget battle if his jokes fell flat at Saturday night's Gridiron dinner: "My joke writers have been placed on furlough."
Always a target for digs, the president tossed out a few of his own during the Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner, an annual event where political leaders, journalists and media executives poke fun at each other.
The so-called sequester that struck the federal budget this month drew another observation from Obama: "Of course, there's one thing in Washington that didn't get cut ? the length of this dinner. Yet more proof that the sequester makes no sense."
The ambitions of 70-year-old Vice President Joe Biden? "Just the other day, I had to take Joe aside and say, 'Joe, you are way too young to be the pope. You can't do it. You got to mature a little bit.'"
During a pause in his remarks, Obama took a long, slow sip of water and then said, "That, Marco Rubio, is how you take a sip of water." Rubio took a much-discussed water break while delivering the televised GOP response to the State of the Union address last month.
Obama also mocked the criticism from some quarters that he takes time off from his job. "We face major challenges. March in particular is going to be full of tough decisions. But I want to assure you, I have my top advisers working around the clock. After all, my March Madness bracket isn't going to fill itself out. And don't worry ? there is an entire team in the Situation Room as we speak, planning my next golf outing, right now at this moment."
The dinner was the organization's 128th since its founding in 1885. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar represented the Democrats, while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal cracked wise for the Republicans.
Klobuchar joked that Obama had aged in office. "His Secret Service name used to be 'Renegade,'" she said. "Now it's '50 Shades of Gray.'"
Jindal jabbed at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, telling the audience that Romney had warned him that "47 percent of you can't take a joke." Referring to his own prospects for a presidential run, Jindal asked, "What chance does a skinny guy with a dark complexion have of being elected president?"
Political disputes and feuds between politicians and the news media provided plenty of fodder. There was Obama's sometimes frosty relationship with the news media, the internal struggles roiling the Republican Party, and journalist Bob Woodward's dustup with White House economic adviser Gene Sperling, who advised Woodward in an email that the veteran Watergate reporter would regret his reporting about the forced spending cuts called a sequester.
Welcoming the 650 attendees, Gridiron President Charles J. Lewis of Hearst Newspapers noted that the organization had promised to keep the evening short, "especially because Gene Sperling said that a late night is something we'd all regret."
With a nod to print reporters' complaints about dealing with the Obama administration, Lewis said he thought he'd overhead Obama say on the way to the dinner: "So many newspaper reporters. So many interviews to turn down."
Musical skits are a tradition at the Gridiron dinner. Using the Beatles song "When I'm 64," one skit featured a look at Hillary Rodham Clinton's future with the lyrics:
"Got a bit older/Growing my hair/Gained a pound or two
"Going home to vegetate in Chappaqua/ I just want to be a grandma
"It was more than a case of Benghazi flu/Still I'll be just fine
"Will you select me/Will you elect me/When I'm 69."
Noting the close relationship between the GOP and the National Rifle Association, Gridiron members sang a tune called "My Gun," a takeoff on the Temptations' "My Girl." The lyrics included:
"If you hate the NRA/Tell my Walther PPK
"You're flirting with disaster/With my Bushmaster
"And when pigs fly away/You can take me away
"From my gun."
The Gridiron Club and Foundation contributes to college scholarships and journalistic organizations. It limits active members to 65 journalists based in Washington.
Except for Grover Cleveland, every president since the Gridiron was founded has addressed it. The club is the oldest and most exclusive for Washington journalists. Its motto is, "Singe but never burn."
No TV cameras were allowed.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-cracks-wise-annual-gridiron-dinner-143933623--politics.html
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
A$AP Rocky Makes His 'Hottest MC' Debut At #8
Harlem's fashion-loving Young Lord penetrated the culture from all angles to land on our 'Hottest MCs in the Game VIII.'
By MTV News staff
A$AP Rocky
Photo: Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702920/hottest-mcs-2013-asap-rocky.jhtml
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Monday, March 4, 2013
Netanyahu says Iran using nuclear talks to "buy time" for bomb
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Renewed international efforts to negotiate curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear program have backfired by giving it more time to work on building a bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
His remarks on the inconclusive February 26-27 meeting between Iran and six world powers signaled impatience by Israel, which has threatened to launch preemptive war on its arch-foe, possibly in the coming months, if it deems diplomacy a dead end.
Senior U.S. diplomat Wendy Sherman flew in to brief Israel about the Kazakh-hosted talks, in which Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear arms, was offered modest relief from sanctions in return for halting mid-level uranium enrichment.
There was no breakthrough. The sides will reconvene in Almaty on April 5-6 after holding technical talks in Istanbul.
"My impression from these talks is that the only thing that is gained from them is a buying of time, and through this time-buying Iran intends to continue enriching nuclear material for an atomic bomb and is indeed getting closer to this goal," Netanyahu told his Cabinet in remarks aired by Israeli media.
Extrapolating from U.N. reports on Iran's enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade, Netanyahu has set a mid-2013 "red line" for denying the Islamic republic the fuel needed for a first bomb.
Iranian media reported on Sunday the country was building around 3,000 new advanced enrichment centrifuges, a development that could accelerate the nuclear project.
The prospect of unilateral Israeli strikes, and the likely wide-ranging reprisals by Iran and its regional allies, worries Washington, which wants to pursue diplomacy as it winds down costly military commitments abroad.
OBAMA VISIT LOOMS
In an attempt to make their proposals more palatable to Tehran, the United States and five other world powers appeared to have softened previous demands in Almaty - for example regarding their requirement that the Iranians ship out their stockpile of the higher-grade uranium.
A senior Israeli official said that while the Netanyahu government had hoped for a tougher line by the so-called P5+1, it was resigned to awaiting the results of this round of talks.
"At the end of the day, what matters is that the Iranians end their enrichment, whether it's through shutting down their facilities or through more nuanced technical safeguards," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
The official would not comment on how or if the latest diplomacy had affected the readiness of Israel, which is widely assumed to have the region's only nuclear arsenal, to go to war.
Iran may have warded off that threat by turning some of its 20 percent-pure uranium into fuel rods for a research reactor.
The international standoff and shifting timelines are expected to dominate U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Israel later this month. The Israelis urge a tougher posture on Iran from their ally, which has a hefty military presence in the Gulf and says it is poised to use force as a last resort.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a speech in Washington to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, echoed Netanyahu in voicing doubt that diplomacy would stop Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Therefore, all options must remain on the table," he told the pro-Israel lobby group. "We expect all those who say it to mean it. We mean it."
Israel's dovish president, Shimon Peres, sounded more upbeat after meeting Sherman last Thursday. Peres said he had "total faith in the Obama administration, in its commitment and its actions in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons".
Obama's Israel visit has been overshadowed by local politics too, given the rightist Netanyahu's failure so far to build a new coalition government after he narrowly won a January 22 ballot.
Appealing to potential party allies to rally to him in the name of national security, Netanyahu told his cabinet: "To my regret this is not happening, and in the coming days I will continue my efforts to unify and galvanize forces ahead of the major national and international challenges that we face."
(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington; Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Andrew Roche and Christopher Wilson)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-says-iran-using-nuclear-talks-buy-time-113406578.html
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