Trading houses lured by African growth despite hazards

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - Commodity trading houses are expanding aggressively in Africa as they look to add volume and take on assets that promise to benefit from a continent achieving some of the highest economic growth in the world.

Merchant traders have historically been mostly concerned with shipping Africa's oil onto global markets but are now viewing Africa as a destination market for fuels and are investing in the storage and retail networks the continent needs to develop.

But their growing involvement in a region where several top firms have faced legal problems or payment delays may worry would-be investors at a time when the firms, typically privately owned, are scouting for new forms of capital.

While several firms have ruled out following commodity trading house Glencore in a public listing of shares, some are issuing bonds or partial sales to fund their quest for assets.

Some of the most alluring assets are in Africa's fuel market, which is set to grow by 40 percent by 2020 to 4.3 million barrels per day, according to Ecobank Research.

"If you want to be in Africa, you have to be prepared to invest. Sub-Saharan Africa is growing at a very decent rate and the highest regional area in the world today," said Graham Sharp, co-founder of oil trader Trafigura and a senior adviser to consultants Oliver Wyman.

"There are some great opportunities there, but it's not in the traditional trading business."

Trafigura and commodity firm Vitol have both bought huge networks of oil service stations from oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell over the past few years.

Trafigura is now considering floating its subsidiary Puma Energy, an energy distribution company that has invested over $800 million in Africa over the past 10 years.

IMPORT DEPENDENT

One reason the fuel business is so attractive is that African countries have made slow progress in building their own refineries, leaving them increasingly dependent on imported fuels and the traders that can source and deliver them.

Trading houses have spotted this deficiency and, using their newly acquired service stations and storage assets, are extending their reach to landlocked interior countries such as Zambia and Uganda.

"Intra-regional flows of petroleum products in Middle Africa represent a major growth area, particularly with the advent of new oil producing countries ... and the increasing energy demand of Middle Africa's consumer markets," said Rolake Akinkugbe, Ecobank's head of oil and gas research.

Trading houses are also using their growing cash reserves to start exploring and pumping oil, a sector long dominated by listed oil majors.

"They want deals that put more oil on their books to build trading mass, and that's what they've always done," said Gary Still, an executive director at UK consultancy CITAC.

"But we're also seeing trading houses like Glencore and Vitol becoming very interested in the upstream. I think they've got the money for these projects and will go for it," he added.

Glencore has signed a contract to export Chad's oil in 2013 after it agreed to invest more than $300 million in the central African country's Badila and Mangara oilfields to boost oil exports via the Cameroon pipeline. Its warehousing and logistics unit Pacorini has also made its first break into Africa.

Vitol also signed a long-term contract with former French colony Gabon to export its oil.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS

In the more traditional business of trading, low margins are pushing traders to seek out higher oil volumes by negotiating for contracts with African governments and state oil firms.

Know-how and connections through local staff or "fixers" can give a firm a competitive advantage.

Jean Claude Gandur, chairman of AOG, stunned the industry when he completed a sale of his upstream business Addax Petroleum to China's Sinopec Group for $7.2 billion in 2009.

Now he plans to invest $400 million in the African oil sector and aims to buy Nigerian acreage. The group's expansion in Nigeria may benefit from having a former executive Afolabi Oladele of state oil company NNPC on its board.

Swiss-based Mercuria also employed a son of the former Nigerian opposition leader Moshood Abiola to help with business development in west Africa.

But deals do not always go according to plan in a region plagued by corruption and oil-fuelled civil strife.

Gunvor, historically strong in Russian oil markets, hired a team of traders from Addax Petroleum in 2009-2010 to expand in west Africa.

It now accuses a former employee of fraud and embezzlement with respect to a Republic of Congo oil contract after Swiss authorities launched a money laundering probe. Gunvor itself is not subject to the investigation and is a plaintiff in the proceedings.

Trafigura, which corporate filings show gets nearly 30 percent of its oil turnover from Africa, was locked in a legal dispute last year after buying a cargo of oil the South Sudanese government said was looted by its northern neighbour.

The proceeds from the cargo, worth around 58 million euros, were later seized by an English court to establish ownership.

A court document dated November 7 and seen by Reuters showed that a settlement had been reached, though some of the details remained confidential. Trafigura declined to comment

Even so, Trafigura has agreed to begin exporting Dar Blend crude, it said on Wednesday.

Glencore was the first to secure an agreement to market newly independent South Sudan's oil, but the deal was later scrapped after opposition from some South Sudanese officials.

In Nigeria, top trading houses like Mercuria and Glencore are owed dozens of millions of dollars for fuel deliveries that in some cases date back over three years.

"Africa can be a minefield," said Akinkugbe at Ecobank.

"You have to do your homework and have a local champion who can help bridge the knowledge gap."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trading-houses-lured-african-growth-despite-hazards-151044184--sector.html

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New way to lose weight? Changing microbes in guts of mice resulted in rapid weight loss

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Scientists at Harvard may have new hope for anyone who's tried to fight the battle of the bulge.

New research, conducted in collaboration with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, has found that the gut microbes of mice undergo drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery. Transfer of these microbes into sterile mice resulted in rapid weight loss. The study is described in a March 27 paper in Science Translational Medicine.

"Simply by colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight -- about 20% as much as they would if they underwent surgery," said Peter Turnbaugh, a Bauer Fellow at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, and one of two senior authors of the paper.

But as striking as those results were, they weren't as dramatic as they might have been.

"In some ways we were biasing the results against weight loss," Turnbaugh said, explaining that the mice used in the study hadn't been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand. "The question is whether we might have seen a stronger effect if they were on a different diet."

"Our study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss and that finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity," said Lee Kaplan, director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at MGH and the other senior author of the paper.

"We need to learn a good deal more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population changed by gastric bypass exert its effects, and then we need to learn if we can produce these effects -- either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes -- without surgery," Kaplan, an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, added. "The ability to achieve even some of these effects without surgery would give us an entirely new way to treat the critical problem of obesity, one that could help patients unable or unwilling to have surgery."

While the results were exciting, Turnbaugh warned that it may be years before they could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn't be viewed as a way to lose those stubborn last 10 pounds without going to the gym. Rather, the technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.

"It may not be that we will have a magic pill that will work for everyone who's slightly overweight," he said. "But if we can, at a minimum, provide some alternative to gastric bypass surgery that produces similar effects, it would be a major advance."

While there had been hints that the microbes in the gut might change after bypass surgery, the speed and extent of the change came as a surprise to the research team.

In earlier experiments, researchers had shown that the guts of both lean and obese mice are populated by varying amounts of two types of bacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. When mice undergo gastric bypass surgery, however, it "resets the whole picture," Turnbaugh said.

"The post-bypass community was dominated by Proteobacteria and Proteobacteria, and had relatively low levels of Firmicutes," he said. What's more, Turnbaugh said, those changes occurred within a week of the surgery, and weren't short-lived -- the altered gut microbial community remained stable for months afterward.

While the results may hold out the hope for weight loss without surgery, both Turnbaugh and Kaplan warned that future studies are needed to understand exactly what is behind the weight loss seen in mice.

"A major gap in our knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss," Turnbaugh said. "There were certain microbes that we found at higher abundance after surgery, so we think those are good targets for beginning to understand what's taking place."

In fact, Turnbaugh said, the answer may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.

In addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids. Other studies, Turnbaugh said, have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.

Going forward, Turnbaugh and Kaplan hope to continue to explore those questions.

"We think such studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet," Kaplan said. "To some degree, what we're learning is a comfort for people who have an issue with their weight, because more and more we're learning that the story is more complicated than just how much you exercise and how much you eat."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University. The original article was written by Peter Reuell.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. P. Liou, M. Paziuk, J.-M. Luevano, S. Machineni, P. J. Turnbaugh, L. M. Kaplan. Conserved Shifts in the Gut Microbiota Due to Gastric Bypass Reduce Host Weight and Adiposity. Science Translational Medicine, 2013; 5 (178): 178ra41 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005687

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/living_well/~3/55s2_HYwLsA/130327144124.htm

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Simulations uncover obstacle to harnessing laser-driven fusion

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A once-promising approach for using next-generation, ultra-intense lasers to help deliver commercially viable fusion energy has been brought into serious question by new experimental results and first-of-a-kind simulations of laser-plasma interaction.

Researchers at The Ohio State University are evaluating a two-stage process in which a pellet of fusion fuel is first crushed by lasers on all sides, shrinking the pellet to dozens of times its original size, followed by an ultra-intense burst of laser light to ignite a chain reaction. This two-stage approach is called Fast Ignition, and there are a few variants on the theme. In a recent paper, the Ohio State research group considered the long-discussed possibility of using a hollow cone to maintain a channel for the ultra-intense "ignitor pulse" to focus laser energy on the compressed pellet core. Drawing on both experimental results from studies at the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and massively-parallel computer simulations of the laser-target interaction performed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) in Columbus, Ohio, the research team found compelling evidence that the cone-guided approach to Fast Ignition has a serious flaw.

"In the history of fusion research, two-steps-forward and one-step-back stories are a common theme," said Chris Orban, Ph.D., a researcher of the High Energy Density Physics research group at Ohio State and the lead theorist on the project. "But sometimes progress is about seeing what's not going to work, just as much as it is looking forward to the next big idea."

Since the ultra-intense pulse delivers energy to the fuel through relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser interaction, the Ohio State study focused on the coupling of the laser light to electrons and the propagation of those electrons through the cone target. Rather than investigating how the interaction would work on a high-demand, high-cost facility like the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is also based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the largest scientific operations in the world, the researchers considered experiments just across from NIF at the Titan laser, which is much smaller and easily accessible.

Despite its size and despite having lower total energy, for a brief moment the Titan laser is many thousands of times more intense than NIF, which makes it a decent stand-in as a second-stage ignitor pulse. The OSU-led experimental team focused the Titan pulse on hollow cone targets attached at the tip to copper wires and observed the burst of X-ray photons coming from the copper as a measure of the laser energy to relativistic electron conversion efficiency.

The X-ray signal was much lower from the hollow cones with thicker cone walls. "This was strong evidence to the experimental team that the typical approach to cone-guided Fast Ignition wouldn't work, since thicker cones should be more realistic than thin cones," said Orban. "This is because electrons are free to move around in a dense plasma, much like they do in a normal metal, so the thicker cone target is like a thin cone embedded in a dense plasma."

These intuitions were tested in simulations performed at OSC. Whereas earlier efforts to simulate the laser-target interaction were forced to simplify or shrink the target size in order to make the calculations more feasible, Orban used the LSP code to perform the first-ever, full-scale 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations of the entire laser-target interaction using fully realistic laser fields.

These simulations also included a sophisticated model for the pre-heating of the target from stray laser light ahead of the ultra-intense pulse developed by collaborators at the Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago.

"We were delighted to help Chris use the FLASH code to provide realistic initial conditions for his Particle-In-Cell simulations," said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center. "This is an outstanding example of how two groups can collaborate to achieve a scientific result that neither could have achieved alone."

To conduct the simulations, the Ohio State researchers accessed OSC's flagship Oakley Cluster supercomputer system. The HP-built system features 8,300+ Intel Xeon cores and 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Oakley can achieve 88 teraflops, tech-speak for performing 88 trillion calculations per second, or, with acceleration from the NVIDIA GPUs, a total peak performance of 154 teraflops.

"The simulations pointed to the electric fields building up on the edge of the cone as the key to everything," said Orban. "The thicker the cone is, the further away the cone edge is from the laser, and as a result fewer energetic electrons are deflected forward, which is the crucial issue in making cone-guided Fast Ignition a viable approach."

With both the experiment and the simulations telling the same story, the evidence is compelling that the cone-guided route to Fast Ignition is an unlikely one. While other studies have come to similar conclusions, the group was the first to identify the plasma surrounding the cone as a severe hindrance. Thankfully, there are still many other ideas for successfully igniting the fusion pellet with current or soon-to-be-constructed laser facilities. Any future efforts to spark fusion reactions with these lasers using a two-stage fast-ignition approach must be mindful to consider the neutralizing effect of the free electrons in the dense plasma.

"We could not have completed this project without the Oakley Cluster," Orban noted. "It was the perfect combination of speed and RAM and availability for us. And thanks to the profiling I was able to do, the compute time for our production runs went from two weeks in November 2011 to three or four days as of February 2012."

"Energy and the environment is one of the primary focus areas of the center, and this research fits perfectly into that domain," said Brian Guilfoos, the client and technology support manager for OSC. "Many of our systems were designed and software packages selected to best support the type of computing required by investigators working in fields related to our focus areas."

###

The paper describing the study, "Coupling of high-intensity laser light to fast electrons in cone-guided fast ignition," was recently published in Physical Review E, a journal of the American Physical Society.

Ohio Supercomputer Center: http://www.osc.edu

Thanks to Ohio Supercomputer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127477/Simulations_uncover_obstacle_to_harnessing_laser_driven_fusion

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Gut-Microbe Swap Helps with Weight Loss

A bacterial transplant in mice has been shown to provide some of the benefits of gastric bypass surgery without putting the animals under the knife

By Nicola Jones and Nature magazine

Here the taxonomy of gut bacteria in mice that have received gastric bypass (red) is compared to that of mice kept at the same weight (blue) and of others that were not kept on a diet (green). Image: Science Translational Medicine/AAAS

Obese people considering gastric bypass surgery to help trim their fat might one day have another option: swallowing a new supply of gut bacteria. A study in mice suggests that weight loss after bypass surgery is caused not by the operation itself, but at least in part by a change in the amounts of various species of microbes in the gut.

A bypass operation separates off a small part of the stomach and connects that directly to the intestines. Recipients tend to feel less hungry, fill up more quickly and burn more calories at rest, and they often lose up to 75% of their excess fat. Counter-intuitively, this is thought to be caused by a change in metabolism, rather than by the reduced size of the stomach.

Gut microbes are thought to be part of this picture. People who have had bypasses are known to experience changes in the selection of microbes in their guts. Fat people have been shown to host a different selection of gut bacteria from people who are obese, and transferring the gut bacteria of fat mice into thin ones can cause the thin mice to pack on extra weight. But no one knew whether the microbes in bypass patients changed because they got thin, or if the patients got thin because the microbes changed.

Chop and change
To investigate, Lee Kaplan, director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and his colleagues gave about a dozen obese mice bypass surgery. As expected, the mice lost about 29% of their body weight, and kept it off despite a high-fat diet. New conditions in their bodies ? such as a change in bile acids ? allowed a different set of gut bacteria to thrive.

The researchers then took faecal samples from the mice that had been operated on, and put bacteria from them into the guts of mice specially bred without any gut flora. These mice, which were not obese, lost 5% of their weight without any changes to their diet. The results are reported in Science Translational Medicine.

The effect is impressively large, says Randy Seeley, an obesity researcher at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, particularly given that sterile mice almost always gain weight when given any kind of gut flora. The fact that the mice getting the second-hand bacteria did not lose as much weight as those that had surgery suggests that other factors are also at work; these could include hormonal changes.

The results are promising for obesity treatments, but there are still hurdles to overcome. ?You can?t just take a pill of the right bacteria and have them stick around,? says Seeley. If the gut?s environmental conditions don?t change, then the original microbes come back, he says. Kaplan says that the next steps are to isolate the four bacteria types that the study found to be at play and introduce them into obese mice or people. Antibiotic treatments might help the new bacteria to stick. ?I believe it?s possible,? says Kaplan.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on March 27, 2013.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b5aeffc26bd0cbb192e4e92698c948d7

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Indians greet with colorful fashion

A Hindu devotee, face smeared with colored powder, leaves the Banke Bihari temple during Holi celebrations in Vrindavan, India, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. Holi, the Hindu festival of colors that also ... more?A Hindu devotee, face smeared with colored powder, leaves the Banke Bihari temple during Holi celebrations in Vrindavan, India, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. Holi, the Hindu festival of colors that also marks the advent of spring, is being celebrated across the country Wednesday. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/india-s-festival-of-colors-slideshow/

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David Petraeus apologizes for conduct, affair

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? David Petraeus apologized Tuesday night to an audience of veterans for the conduct that led to his resignation as head of the CIA following the disclosure of an extramarital affair.

"Needless to say, I join you keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago," Petraeus said. "I am also keenly aware that the reason for my recent journey was my own doing. So please allow me to begin my remarks this evening by reiterating how deeply I regret ? and apologize for ? the circumstances that led to my resignation from the CIA and caused such pain for my family, friends and supporters."

Dressed in a civilian's dark suit and red tie, Petraeus gave his first public speech since his resignation to about 600 people, including many uniformed and decorated veterans at the University of Southern California's annual ROTC dinner. The hero of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has remained largely in seclusion since resigning. His lawyer, Robert B. Barnett, has said that Petraeus has spent much of that time with his family.

While the speech was peppered with jokes about USC and UCLA's longstanding rivalry, he mostly talked about getting better treatment for veterans and soldiers, but stopped short of criticizing current practices.

"While our country continues to improve its support and recognition for all of our veterans and their families, we can and must do more," he said.

Petraeus received applause and a standing ovation before he began the evening's program by cutting a cake with a sword in military tradition, a task reserved for the highest ranking person in the room.

The retired four-star general's affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was discovered during an FBI investigation into emails she sent to another woman she viewed as a rival for his attention.

"I know I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and a number of others," said Petraeus, in a somber tone to the audience that included his wife. He also mentioned their children.

At the time the affair was made public, Petraeus told his staff he was guilty of "extremely poor judgment."

"Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours," he said.

On Tuesday night, Petraeus noted the challenges of transitioning from military life to civilian life, a path he is currently navigating.

"There's often a view that because an individual was a great soldier, he or she will naturally do well in civilian world," Petraeus said. "In reality, the transition from military service to civilian pursuits is often quite challenging."

As the military leader credited with reshaping the nation's counterinsurgency strategy, turning the tide in the U.S. favor in both Iraq and Afghanistan and making the U.S. safer from terrorism, Petraeus had a friendly audience at the ROTC dinner.

At least one expert in crisis communications said that if his apology comes across as heartfelt and sincere, the public will indeed be seeing much more of him.

"America is a very forgiving nation," said Michael Levine who, among dozens of other celebrity clients, represented Michael Jackson during his first child molestation investigation.

"If he follows the path of humility, personal responsibility and contrition, I submit to you that he will be very successful in his ability to rehabilitate his image," he said.

Another longtime crisis communications expert, Howard Bragman, said Petraeus has handled the situation perfectly so far and he expects he'll continue to do so. He noted that unlike former President Bill Clinton, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards and other public figures caught in extramarital affairs, Petraeus didn't try to lie his way out of it, immediately took responsibility and moved on.

"I think the world is open to him now," said Bragman, vice chairman of the image-building company Reputation.com. "I think he can do whatever he wants. Realistically, he can even run for public office, although I don't think he'd want to because he can make more money privately."

Ahead of the speech, Petraeus drew lavish praise from USC's president, C. L. Max Nikias, who called him "arguably the most effective military commander since Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower."

"In our post 9/11 world, Gen. Petraeus' influence on our military is unmatched, and his contributions to the CIA are far-reaching," Nikias said.

While at USC, Petraeus also planned to visit faculty and students at the Price School of Public Policy, which administers the ROTC program, and USC's School of Social Work, which trains social workers in how to best help veterans returning from war.

Petraeus was presented with a gift of silver cuff links by Nikias after his speech.

___

Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/david-petraeus-apologizes-conduct-affair-050721900--politics.html

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Rand Versus Lewis: It?s No Contest (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Just Kidding, Google Is Now Disqualifying Some Winners of the Google Glass Contest

After letting people know that they owe Google $1500 for the honor of getting Google Glass early, Google busted the ol' elementary school Indian Giver on them. Meaning, some of those "winners" won't be able to get Google Glass because they've been disqualified by Google. I wonder who those people are. More »

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Ford prepares for Mustang's 50th birthday

Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 16 hrs.

It may be a year away, but Ford Motor Co. is saddling up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original ?pony car,? the Mustang.

It?s getting plenty of help, with 50 companies planning to join the celebration by producing products to commemorate the occasion, from Mustang-emblazoned jackets to watches to videogames. They?ll use a new black-and-white logo featuring the familiar galloping horse over the words, ?50 Years.?

The Mustang is ?a timeless statement,? says Ford Chief Creative Officer J Mays, who oversaw the creation of the new logo and who is crucial to the development of the next-generation Mustang expected to come to market sometime next year, closer to the official golden anniversary.

The automaker revealed the first coupe on April 17, 1964, just a few days before it officially made its public debut at the 1964-65 New York World?s Fair. It was an instant hit and landed Ford?s then-boss, Lee Iacocca, on the covers of Time and Newsweek.

Ironically, while the free-roaming horse has been the image Ford associated with the original Mustang, the car?s original designer, John Najjar, was actually a fan of the most successful fighter plane of World War II, the P-51 Mustang. Company officials liked the name but thought the equine image was more appropriate.

Introduced as a 1964-1/2 model, the first Ford Mustang was available for as little as $2,368. The coupe wasn?t nearly as spirited as it appeared, however, with its compact, 170-cubic-inch engine and three-speed manual transmission. That changed when the automaker rolled out an increasingly powerful series of engine packages and, in subsequent years, a procession of new bodies.

The need to put some pep into the pony created a partnership that lasted for decades: Iacocca turned to race car driver-cum-entrepreneur Carroll Shelby to offer some help pumping up the performance ? and to lend his name to a special edition version of the Mustang. With only a brief time out during a short association with Chrysler ? following Iacocca to the smaller maker ? the tall Texan continued to work with Ford on a procession of ever-more-powerful Mustangs, including the current, 662-horsepower Shelby GT500.

(Carroll Shelby died last year. Nearly a year after his death, his Las Vegas-based ?tuner? house, Shelby American, plans to introduce a new 1,200-horsepower custom version of the Mustang at this week?s New York Auto Show.)

While Ford hopes to ride high in the saddle as Mustang approaches its 50th birthday, the pony car has struggled. After decades leading the pack in the muscle car segment, Mustang has been tripped up by the reborn Chevrolet Camaro, a lead the General Motors division hopes to widen when it also introduces an updated version of its own pony car at the New York Show.

That puts pressure on Ford to get it right when it launches the next-generation Mustang. The company has not set an official date for the big event, but most industry observers are expecting to see it coincide with the original car?s debut.

Related on The Detroit Bureau:

Honda Hopes to Clean Up With New Odyssey; 1st Minivan With Built-In Vacuum

Car Buyers Crave Connectivity

Big Week in the Big Apple as NY Auto Show Reveals Over Two Dozen New Vehicles

New NHTSA iPhone App Lets You Track Recalls, Crash Tests, Even Helps With Child Seats

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

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CA-BUSINESS Summary

TSX drops to near one-month low after Cyprus deal

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell to its lowest point in nearly a month on Monday as investors reconsidered their initial relief over a bailout deal for Cyprus, while shares of BlackBerry dropped 4.5 percent after a downgrade by Goldman Sachs. Stocks initially rose after Cyprus reached a deal with international lenders for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout, averting a collapse of its banking system.

Icahn opens door to Blackstone tie-up on Dell bid

(Reuters) - Two of the most prominent U.S. investors could upset Michael Dell's $24.4 billion buyout bid for Dell Inc , after billionaire Carl Icahn opened the door to an alliance with Blackstone Group to wrest control of the computer maker from its founder. Icahn said on Monday he has started preliminary talks with Blackstone. Both sides have made bids that could be superior to the offer on the table from Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake.

BlackBerry shares drubbed, just days before key results

TORONTO (Reuters) - Reports of a lackluster launch of its pivotal new smartphone in the U.S. market cost BlackBerry an influential downgrade on its stock on Monday and a 4 percent drop in its share price, just days ahead of quarterly results that will offer the first concrete gauge of how its new phone is being received. The results, due on Thursday, will offer a glimpse of sales of the new Z10 device in Britain, Canada and several other markets, where it has been available for more than a month.

Cyprus girds for run on banks after sealing bailout

NICOSIA (Reuters) - The president of Cyprus assured his people a bailout deal he struck with the European Union was in their best interests and would end anxiety, but he also announced "very temporary" capital controls to stem a run on the island's banks. Returning on Monday from fraught overnight negotiations in Brussels, the conservative leader said the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) rescue plan agreed there in the early hours of the morning was "painful" but essential to avoid economic meltdown.

Analysis: Cyprus rescue raises new questions about euro's long-term survival

LONDON (Reuters) - The messy deal to bail out Cyprus has averted the latest threat to the break-up of the euro but at the cost of raising new questions about the single currency's long-term viability. Savers in other euro zone banks appear so far to be taking the freezing of balances over 100,000 euros in Cyprus's two biggest lenders in their stride. Perhaps they judge that events in a tiny, far-away island with outsize banks and a reliance on deposits from Russian oligarchs hold little relevance for them.

Boeing 787 takes to sky in first flight check

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner took to the sky on Monday in the first of two flights aimed at showing that the plane's new lithium-ion battery system meets regulatory safety standards, a key step toward ending a two-month, worldwide grounding of the high-tech jet. Monday's two-hour flight test, if successful, would allow Boeing to go ahead with a second flight test "in coming days" that would gather data to be submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said.

Rajaratnam's brother pleads not guilty to insider charges

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rengan Rajaratnam, the younger brother of imprisoned hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, pleaded not guilty on Monday to insider trading charges. The younger Rajaratnam entered his plea in Manhattan federal court, one day after his arrest at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Vinoo Varghese, an attorney for Rajaratnam, said his client arrived in New York early Sunday morning, accompanied on a flight from Brazil by an FBI agent.

Best Buy founder Schulze rejoins as chairman emeritus

(Reuters) - Best Buy Co Inc founder Richard Schulze, who left the board last year and later failed in his effort to take the company private, will rejoin the retailer as chairman emeritus and add two of his former colleagues to the board. The news helped dispel rumors the top investor in the world's largest consumer electronics chain was contemplating selling his stake in the company he founded in 1966. Best Buy shares rose as much as 3 percent on Monday.

U.S. approves Nasdaq payback plan for Facebook IPO, UBS unhappy

(Reuters) - Regulators approved Nasdaq OMX Group's $62 million compensation plan for firms that lost money in Facebook Inc's glitch-ridden market debut, a victory for the exchange operator that also set the stage for potential lawsuits from firms seeking more. The Nasdaq plan will give retail market makers far less than the $500 million in estimated losses from Facebook's initial public offering. Nasdaq said in a note to traders on Monday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the plan, and that firms had one week to submit requests for compensation.

Canadian advisers see gains, pitfalls in social media

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian financial adviser Will Britton is the quintessential success story of social media in the industry. He's active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and when someone needs a financial planner, Britton's contacts are quick to send a "here's my guy" link. Presto, a new client. "I'm probably doing it wrong according to what social media experts may say," said Britton, a certified financial planner in Kingston, Ontario, and member of Advocis, the Financial Advisors Association of Canada.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-business-summary-000511153--finance.html

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The Week in Pictures (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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New book by Carnegie Mellon roboticist suggests humans brace themselves for robo-innovation

Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University

'Robot Futures' foresees society that will be shaped by ubiquitous robots

Robots already vacuum our floors, help dispose of bombs and are exploring Mars. But in his new book, "Robot Futures," Illah Nourbakhsh, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, argues that robots are not just wondrous machines, but a new species that bridges the material and digital worlds. The ramifications for society are both good and bad, he says, and people need to start thinking about that.

In the book, published by MIT Press, Nourbakhsh contemplates what might happen in the not-so-distant future as robots become both ubiquitous and highly capable. Some robots no doubt will display annoying behaviors what he calls "robot smog." Robots, in turn, will bring out the worst in some people, who will see robots as targets for bullying and other abuse. Robots will serve as physical avatars, enabling people to interact simultaneously with others in farflung locations and circumstances. They may even enable people to assume new and different forms. Robots may well change perceptions of what it means to be human.

Nourbakhsh interweaves fictional scenarios illustrating the possible futures that robots may create with explanations of the real technology that underlies those scenarios. In much the same way as the Internet has sometimes coarsened society and shifted power, robots could reduce accountability of individuals and strengthen the power of corporations and other large institutions, he says. But he also lays out his vision for using robots to empower individuals and communities and counteract many of robots' unwanted side effects.

"My hope is that this book will help us envision, discuss and prepare for change, so that people and communities can influence how the robot future unfolds," Nourbakhsh said.

In a companion blog to the book, http://www.robotfutures.org, Nourbakhsh tracks and comments on news stories regarding robotics.

Nourbakhsh is director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab and head of the Robotics Masters Program in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. He formerly led the Robotics Group at NASA's Ames Research Center. A CMU faculty member since 1997, his research includes educational and social robotics and the use of robotic technologies to empower individuals and communities.

###

The Robotics Institute is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University

'Robot Futures' foresees society that will be shaped by ubiquitous robots

Robots already vacuum our floors, help dispose of bombs and are exploring Mars. But in his new book, "Robot Futures," Illah Nourbakhsh, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, argues that robots are not just wondrous machines, but a new species that bridges the material and digital worlds. The ramifications for society are both good and bad, he says, and people need to start thinking about that.

In the book, published by MIT Press, Nourbakhsh contemplates what might happen in the not-so-distant future as robots become both ubiquitous and highly capable. Some robots no doubt will display annoying behaviors what he calls "robot smog." Robots, in turn, will bring out the worst in some people, who will see robots as targets for bullying and other abuse. Robots will serve as physical avatars, enabling people to interact simultaneously with others in farflung locations and circumstances. They may even enable people to assume new and different forms. Robots may well change perceptions of what it means to be human.

Nourbakhsh interweaves fictional scenarios illustrating the possible futures that robots may create with explanations of the real technology that underlies those scenarios. In much the same way as the Internet has sometimes coarsened society and shifted power, robots could reduce accountability of individuals and strengthen the power of corporations and other large institutions, he says. But he also lays out his vision for using robots to empower individuals and communities and counteract many of robots' unwanted side effects.

"My hope is that this book will help us envision, discuss and prepare for change, so that people and communities can influence how the robot future unfolds," Nourbakhsh said.

In a companion blog to the book, http://www.robotfutures.org, Nourbakhsh tracks and comments on news stories regarding robotics.

Nourbakhsh is director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab and head of the Robotics Masters Program in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. He formerly led the Robotics Group at NASA's Ames Research Center. A CMU faculty member since 1997, his research includes educational and social robotics and the use of robotic technologies to empower individuals and communities.

###

The Robotics Institute is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/cmu-nbb032513.php

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Police: No sign of 3rd party in Berezovsky death

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2000 file photo Russian tycoons Boris Berezovsky, left, and Roman Abramovich, then both lawmakers, walk after the session of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, in Moscow, Russia. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - A Wednesday, July 18, 2007 photo from files showing Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, a close friend of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by Polonium 2-10, speaking to the media in a news conference in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

FILE - A Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 photo from files showing Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky talking to the media after losing his case against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich as he leaves the High Court in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

LONDON (AP) ? There was no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the death of Boris Berezovsky, the self-exiled Russian tycoon who went from Kremlin kingmaker to fiery critic, British police said Sunday.

With an investigation under way, police are treating the death of Berezovsky ? who fled to Britain in the early 2000s after a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin ? as unexplained. But the former oligarch survived assassination attempts and recently faced financial difficulties, prompting speculation as to whether his death was part of a conspiracy ? or suicide.

Police said Sunday it would be wrong to speculate on Berezovsky's cause of death pending the results of an autopsy, but said they had no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved.

"We are at the early stages of the investigation and we are retaining an open mind as we progress," said Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Brown. "The investigation team is building a picture of the last days of Mr. Berezovsky's life, speaking to close friends and family to gain a better understanding of his state of mind."

Police released some details on the circumstances that triggered their investigation into his demise and a subsequent check for hazardous materials at a home he stayed at in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London where Berezovsky's body was found on Saturday.

A call came into police from the local ambulance service at 3:23 p.m. GMT (11:23 a.m. EDT) Saturday saying a man had been found dead, Thames Valley Police said in a statement on Sunday.

The police said an employee of Berezovsky told how he had called an ambulance after becoming concerned for Berezovsky's welfare and forced open a bathroom door locked from the inside to find the tycoon's body on the floor.

The employee was the only person in the house when Berezovsky's body was discovered, police said. Members of the ex-oligarch's family arrived at the home while the paramedic was on scene.

After a paramedic declared Berezovsky dead and left the scene, a device measuring the paramedic's exposure to radiation was triggered, police said. This is why chemical and radiations experts were called to examine the home, they said.

"Officers found nothing of concern in the property and we are now progressing the investigation as normal," a statement from police said earlier, adding that the majority of the cordon put in place around the property has now been lifted.

Berezovsky ? who had survived a number of assassination attempts ? amassed a fortune through oil and automobiles during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Once a member of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, Berezovsky fell out with Yeltsin's successor, Putin, and fled Britain in the early 2000s to escape fraud charges that he said were politically motivated.

He became a strident and frequent critic of Putin, accusing the leader of ushering in a dictatorship, and accused the security services of organizing 1999 apartment house bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that became a pretext for Russian troops to sweep into Chechnya for the second war there in half a decade.

Putin's spokesman acknowledged Sunday that the Russian president considered Berezovsky an enemy.

"We know for certain that he spared no expense in support of processes, within Russia and beyond, that could be said to have been directed against Russia and Putin," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the independent cable television channel Rain. "He definitely was Putin's opponent, and unfortunately not only his political opponent, but most likely in other dimensions as well."

In recent years, Berezovsky fended off legal attacks that often bore political undertones ? and others that bit into his fortune.

Russia repeatedly sought to extradite Berezovksy on a wide variety of criminal charges, and the tycoon vehemently rejected allegations over the years that he was linked to several deaths, including that of slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya and ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Berezovsky won a libel case in 2010 against a Kremlin-owned broadcaster that aired a show in which it was suggested he was behind the poisoning of Litvinenko, who had fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

He took a hit with his divorce from Galina Besharova in 2010, paying what was at the time Britain's largest divorce settlement. The figure beat a previous record of 48 million pounds ($73.1 million) and was estimated as high as 100 million pounds, though the exact figure was never confirmed.

Last year, Berezovsky lost a multibillion-pound High Court case against fellow Russian Roman Abramovich and was ordered to pay 35 million pounds ($53.3 million) in legal costs.

Berezovsky had claimed that Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, cheated him out of his stakes in the oil group Sibneft, arguing that he blackmailed him into selling the stakes vastly beneath their true worth after he fell from Putin's good graces.

But a judge threw out the case in August, ruling that Berezovsky was a dishonest and unreliable witness, and rejected Berezovsky's claims that he was threatened by Putin and Alexander Voloshin, a Putin ally, to coerce him to sell his Sibneft stake.

It also recently emerged that Berezovsky ran up legal bills totaling more than 250,000 pounds in just two months of a case against his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children and who claimed the businessman owed her millions.

Earlier this week, The Times of London newspaper reported that Berezovsky was selling property ? including an Andy Warhol portrait of the former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin ? to settle his debts and pay expenses owed to lawyers.

News of Berezovsky's death has prompted conspiracy theories along with speculation as to his state of mind, given his recent financial setbacks.

Ilya Zhegulev, a journalist with the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, said he spoke with Berezovsky the day before he died and discussed the tycoon's decision to flee Russia in 2000.

The journalist quoted Berezovsky as saying that during his years in London life had lost meaning.

"I no longer want to be involved in politics," Zhegulev quoted Berezovsky as saying in a story published Saturday on the Forbes.ru website.

He said Berezovsky told him that he wanted nothing more than to return to Russia. The former oligarch said he had changed his views on Russia, saying he now understood that it should not look to Europe as a model.

"I had absolutely, idealistically imagined that it was possible to build a democratic Russia. And idealistically imagined what democracy was in the center of Europe. I underestimated the inertia of Russia and greatly overestimated the West. This took place gradually. I changed my understanding of Russia's path," he quoted Berezovsky as having said.

___

AP writer Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report. Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-24-Britain-Berezovsky/id-8325a255bcff4097b7753c9fb578a899

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Members of Syrian leader's sect backing rebels

CAIRO (AP) ? Dozens of people from Syrian President Bashar Assad's own minority sect met in Cairo on Sunday to send an unusual message to their fellow Alawites back home: Join the opposition before it is too late.

The Alawites have long been seen as a backbone of the Assad regime, and a decision to support the rebel force in Syria is complicated by the fact that many see their own futures interlocked with Assad's survival.

The pressure on Alawites who dare oppose Assad comes not only from the regime, but also from within their own families. Nearly all of the 50 Alawites at the opposition conference have been arrested, abused or threatened for their political views. One participant said he received an email threatening his life if he attended the conference.

The Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, are a tiny sect, representing roughly 12 percent of Syria's population. Many live in towns and villages along the mountainous Mediterranean coast. Most have either rallied behind Assad or stayed quietly on the sidelines of the 2-year-old civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people.

The opposition meeting ? the first of its kind for Alawite Syrians since the war began ? reflects fears that they would fall victim to revenge killings and assassinations should Assad's regime fall. Some are particularly worried about the influx of foreign jihadist fighters into Syria who view Shiites as heretics.

Many minority Alawites see the war in Syria as a fight for survival against the Sunni majority. Alawites hold key posts in the army alongside some Sunnis and members of other groups that have been given top government and military positions to foster loyalty to the regime.

A statement by the Alawite opposition group said "the Syrian regime has no identity except that of tyranny."

"The Syrian regime lies when it says it protects minorities, particularly the Alawites ... in an attempt to portray to the world that it is fighting Islamic extremists and terrorism," the statement said.

Rita al-Suleiman, 29, said she had to flee Syria last year after her brother told her that he had been questioned in prison about her anti-regime activities in Homs.

"I was at first careful not to attend meetings, but then my family said they have nothing to do with me so I grew bolder," she said. "It's been very hard to leave them behind."

Like others at the conference, she said many Syrians are no longer afraid to voice their opinions, but that Alawites are under greater pressure from members of their own community not to speak out.

Bashar Aboud, 40, said his relatives warned his parents they would burn their house down if he continued defying the regime. The 40 year-old father of two, who now resides in Cairo after fleeing Syria during a 2001 crackdown on opposition figures, said his parents were forced to go on Syrian TV and disown him.

Those at the conference stressed that Alawites have long been and want to continue to be a part of the fabric of Syrian society.

"In the end we are all on the same boat and it's sinking," Aboud said, referring to Syria's precarious situation. "We are part of the team that is trying to save this boat."

One participant described the conferees as a real opposition movement that does not want to be separated from the homeland. He said he opposed dividing Syria along sectarian lines or the possibility of a breakaway enclave for Alawites as was the case under French mandate for a few years in the late 1930s.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals against his family in Syria.

Despite efforts by the participants to frame the conflict as a despotic regime against its people, signs of sectarian warfare are rife in Syria.

The army is being reinforced by pro-regime militias, packed with Alawites who have been accused of conducting massacres in which hundreds of civilians, including women and children, were killed.

The Syrian government claims gunmen driven by the agendas of foreign countries are responsible for the killings, but the United Nations and other witnesses have confirmed that at least some were carried out by pro-regime vigilante fighters.

Another Alawite participant at the conference said his two sons were forced out of work last year to serve in one of the national security branches, and were deployed to areas of heavy fighting, including the outskirts of Damascus.

He claimed that his sons, ages 28 and 30, had witnessed severe beatings and killings by the regime. The participant, a long-time opposition activist who wrote under the pseudo name Sami Saleh, said he and his two sons relied on Sunni fighters in the rebel Free Syrian Army to help them escape through Turkey.

He also spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal against relatives still in Syria.

Some three-fourths of Syrians are Sunni Muslims, but the country is also home to other Muslim groups, as well as Christians and ethnic communities of Kurds, Armenians and others. All coexisted with varying degrees of ease under Assad's regime, founded more than four decades ago by his father, Hafez, and inherited by Bashar in 2000.

The Alawite opposition conference was funded by rich businessmen from the sect, according to its organizer Bassam Youssef, who was detained for 11 years under Hafez for his communist activities against the ruling Baath Party.

A large green-striped Syrian rebel flag draped the speaker's podium and a banner in the back read: "We are all Syria. We are with a united Syria."

Several members of the main Sunni-led Syrian opposition coalition also attended the Alawite conference in solidarity. They too have struggled, coalescing around a unified voice. Its president, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned Sunday citing frustration with the level of international support and constraints imposed by the body itself.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/members-syrian-leaders-sect-backing-rebels-220201294.html

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BlackBerry shares rally on AT&T launch, takeover hopes

By Euan Rocha

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry shares rose 12 percent on Monday, fueled by takeover speculation and news that AT&T Inc will start selling the new BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen smartphone in the United States on March 22.

The CEO of China's Lenovo Group Ltd told a French newspaper on Monday that the personal computer maker might consider an acquisition of Canada's BlackBerry at some point in the future.

"External growth remains a question of opportunities," Yang Yuanqing told Les ?chos in an interview.

"As for BlackBerry, the file could eventually make sense, but I must first analyze the market and understand the exact weight of this company," he said in response to a question about whether the company would make a move on BlackBerry.

BlackBerry, a one-time smartphone pioneer, has bled market share to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy line and other devices powered by Google Inc's market-leading Android operating system.

In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced the new smartphone to much fanfare in January, and said it was abandoning its old name, Research In Motion, and renaming itself BlackBerry.

A spokesman for Lenovo in Canada downplayed the CEO's comment, saying, "in no way was this an indication of activity or strategic direction."

Another Lenovo executive had made a similar comment when asked about BlackBerry in January. That remark also sparked a rally in BlackBerry shares, but Lenovo said at the time that the executive was only speaking broadly about M&A strategy.

BlackBerry shares were up 11.7 percent at $14.59 on the Nasdaq on Monday afternoon, while the Toronto-listed shares were up 11.7 percent at C$14.99.

AT&T LAUNCH

BlackBerry is hoping the new devices, already on sale in Canada, Britain and more than 20 other countries, will help it win back market share in the United States, which was once a stronghold for the smartphone industry pioneer.

The U.S. launch of the new devices has been delayed due to a longer carrier-testing phase in the country. AT&T said pre-sales of the devices will begin on Tuesday.

BlackBerry says sales of its new smartphone have been outpacing its expectations so far, but investors are keen to see how it fares in the United States.

As expected, AT&T said it would sell the devices for $199.99 with a two-year contract. T-Mobile USA said on Friday it planned to start selling the BlackBerry Z10 to its business customers in the United States on Monday.

Verizon Inc , the biggest U.S. wireless carrier, has yet to say when it will start selling the Z10. The Z10 and the soon-to-be-launched Q10, which will come with BlackBerry's traditional physical keyboard, are powered by the new BlackBerry 10, or BB10 operating system.

"We believe the Street is pricing in such a weak fiscal 2014 that BB10 does not need to be an outstanding success to surprise," Scotiabank analyst Gus Papageorgiou said in a note to clients on Monday.

Papageorgiou, who has a "sector outperform" rating on the stock, said he expects the company sold about 1 million BlackBerry 10 devices in the quarter ended March 2.

"Gross margins should begin to move higher as more Z10s enter the mix," he said. "Next quarter will be the true test as BB10 launches in the U.S."

($1 = 1.027 Canadian)

(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Peter Galloway and Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/t-start-selling-blackberry-z10-devices-march-22-142542342--finance.html

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