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Sunday 20 October 2013
Verizon third quarter earnings, revenue beat Wall Street estimates
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc on Thursday posted stronger- than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue on strong wireless growth, sending its shares up 2.4 percent in early trade.
While the company's wireless customer growth numbers were slightly below Wall Street estimates, its Verizon Wireless venture with Vodafone Group Plc posted good profit and revenue growth as customers spent more on their services.
"The numbers were fine but it wasn't a blowout quarter. It was a good third quarter," said Hudson Square analyst Todd Rethemeier.
Verizon Wireless added 927,000 net retail subscribers in the quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of about 1 million customers, according to eight analysts, with estimates ranging from 900,000 to 1.2 million. Verizon has agreed to buy out Vodafone's 45 percent share of the mobile venture.
Verizon said it expects wireless customer growth to improve sequentially in the fourth quarter.
Verizon reported a third-quarter profit of $2.2 billion, or 78 cents per share, compared with $1.59 billion, or 56 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding unusual items, Verizon earned 77 cents per share in the quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of 74 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Its wireless profit margin was 51.1 percent, based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization(EBITDA) as a percentage of service revenue, and above its target range of 49 percent to 50 percent for the full year.
Rethemeier said the profit margin would likely come down in the fourth quarter due to steep holiday season costs, since the company kept its wireless margin target for the year despite the strong third-quarter number.
Revenue rose 4.4 to $30.28 billion from $29.01 billion. Wall Street expected $30.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
A 7.2 percent increase in wireless revenue for the quarter was offset by a slower 4.3 percent rise in wireline revenue.
Verizon shares rose 2.4 percent to $48.40 in premarket trading after closing at $47.25 in the regular New York Stock Exchange session.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verizon-posts-higher-quarterly-revenue-114734155--finance.html
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Zac Efron: Getting naked was truly awkward
Celebs
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/zac-efron-getting-naked-awkward-moment-was-truly-awkward-8C11408674
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3 hours ago
FRED THORNHILL / REUTERS
Zac Efron's new movie, "That Awkward Moment," lived up to its name for the actor.
Zac Efron has more than a few awkward moments in his new movie, "That Awkward Moment." In one, he's fully nude, stretched out horizontally on a toilet. In another, he wears an X-rated costume to a party where his date's parents are in attendance.
But being naked on-set came with its own strange costume, Efron said. "There was, like, a sock thing," he said Tuesday, according to People magazine. "It fell off. You just cup your hands."
"High School Musical" made Efron a teen idol in 2006, but fame hasn't been all smooth sailing since then. According to People, he completed a stint in rehab earlier this year.
Efron said that his family was what helped him get through tough times. "My family's my rock," he said. "I know they're not going anywhere."
Efron stars with Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan in the romantic comedy, which opens Jan. 31, 2014. Efron also stars as a young doctor in "Parkland," the new movie about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/zac-efron-getting-naked-awkward-moment-was-truly-awkward-8C11408674
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Jackson leads revamped Detroit lineup to 7-3 win
DETROIT (AP) — A revitalized Austin Jackson delivered in manager Jim Leyland's revamped lineup as the Detroit Tigers built a big lead and held on this time, beating the Boston Red Sox 7-3 Wednesday night to even the AL championship series 2-2.
Torii Hunter had a two-run double and Miguel Cabrera drove in two runs after Leyland dropped Jackson to eighth in the order and moved everyone else up a place following the Tigers' 1-0 loss in Game 3. Jackson drew a bases-loaded walk off Jake Peavy for the first run of Detroit's five-run second inning.
Doug Fister allowed a run in six innings, and after blowing a 5-0 lead in Game 2, Detroit kept the Red Sox at bay Wednesday.
Game 5 is Thursday night in Detroit. The Tigers' Anibal Sanchez faces Boston's Jon Lester in a Game 1 rematch won by Detroit.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jackson-leads-revamped-detroit-lineup-7-3-win-033859097--spt.html
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Syria's civil war plays out on social media
BEIRUT (AP) — Amid all the bloodshed, confusion and deadlock of Syria's civil war, one fact is emerging after 2½ years — no conflict ever has been covered this way.
Amateur videographers — anyone with a smartphone, Internet access and an eagerness to get a message out to the world — have driven the world's outlook on the war through YouTube, Twitter and other social media.
The tens of thousands of videos have at times raised outrage over the crackdown by the regime of President Bashar Assad and also have sparked concern over alleged atrocities attributed to both sides.
The videos have also made more difficult the task of navigating between truth and propaganda — with all sides using them to promote their cause. Assad opponents post the majority of videos, and nearly every rebel-held area or brigade has a media office that produces and disseminates them. To a lesser degree, regime supporters produce some videos — but they also pick apart opposition videos, trying to show they are fake.
In the Vietnam War, the 1991 Gulf War and the second Gulf War in 2003, foreign media directly covered the conflicts, often with reporters embedded with or accompanying the American military.
Media organizations, including The Associated Press, have sent teams to Syria to cover events directly, often at great risk. But they are for temporary stints and are limited both by government regulations and by war zone dangers, ranging from random bombardment to kidnappings. At least 28 journalists were killed in Syria in 2012.
That has forced international media to cover the war to a large extent from the outside, and the flow of videos is one element taken into account in the reporting.
The videos have undeniably ensured that details of a bloody conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people and ravaged the country do not go unnoticed, providing a look at the horrors of war: villagers digging with through destroyed buildings with their bare hands for survivors; massacre victims in pools of blood; children with grave wounds from heavy bombardment.
"In the past, if the media wasn't there to cover an event, it was like it never happened," said Yuval Dror, head of the digital communication program at Israel's College of Management Academic Studies.
The phenomenon of amateurs chronicling the war themselves "is changing the rules of war," he said. "There are no restrictions. It's cheap, it's easy and you don't need permission from anyone to do it."
Magda Abu-Fadil, veteran journalist and director of the Beirut-based Media Unlimited, said that while some professionals in the field have covered the war, it has mostly been "citizen journalists, activists, warriors and anybody with a mobile device, Internet connection or functioning telephone line."
"We're being bombarded with messages from every direction at breakneck speed, the likes of which we've never seen before," she said.
The world's response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria was driven in part by opposition activists documenting a suspected sarin attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, with images of choking, convulsing victims, as well as the bodies of victims, including children. The Syrian government denied it was behind the attack, blaming it on extremists among the rebels.
The U.S. and its allies used those videos to build a case against Damascus, at first threatening to bomb Assad regime targets in retaliation, then agreeing to a compromise by which Syria would join the international treaty banning chemical weapons and give up a toxic arsenal it long kept secret.
The White House assessment on the attack cited more than 100 videos and "thousands of social media reports from at least 12 different locations in the Damascus area," along with other U.S intelligence information. The report said the opposition "does not have the capability to fabricate all of the videos, physical symptoms verified by medical personnel and NGOs, and other information associated with this chemical attack."
Jamal Flitani, a 24-year-old video activist, was among those who rushed to Damascus suburbs of Zamalka and Ein Tarma to record the aftermath of the attack.
"I honestly never thought our videos would be adopted by the U.S. administration and Western governments. ... We were simply doing our duty," he said.
Flitani is an engineering student, but when the uprising against Assad began in early 2011, he and his friends began shooting video of protests with their cellphones.
"Only after we saw similar videos and photos being used on satellite TVs and international agencies, only then did we start realizing the importance of our work," added Flitani, who now heads an opposition media office in Douma.
Almost every opposition-held neighborhood now has a media center complete with high-definition cameras, satellite connections and software for secure uploading, many of them funded by Gulf Arab supporters. Syrian video activists regularly receive training from NGOs, with funds from abroad.
The government and its supporters regularly post images and videos of rebel bombings inside regime-held territory. State media even airs rebel video claiming to show regime massacres, bringing in analysts to dissect the videos and suggest forgery.
Government supporters challenged the video of the Aug. 21 attack. Mother Agnes Mariam al-Salib, a Catholic nun who has lived in Syria for decades, produced a detailed study after poring over dozens of the videos, citing alleged discrepancies she said showed they were staged. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov cited her report to back up claims rebels carried out the gassing.
Assad, who maintains a modern media machine that includes Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram accounts, ridiculed the U.S. reliance on such video.
"We're not like the American administration. We're not social media administration or government. We are the government that deals with reality," he said in an interview with CBS News last month.
The videos can be a double-edged sword. They provide a crucial glimpse into the war and sectarian massacres that may otherwise have remained secret, but they also are a potentially warped vision.
Several videos on social media sites turned out to be hoaxes, including one that purported to show soldiers burying a rebel alive, and another that alleged to show Assad supporters pouring fuel on prisoners, striking a match and burning them.
The news media's use of YouTube video as a primary source "is really unexplored territory," said Philip Seib, professor of journalism and diplomacy at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
"One of the biggest issues involves verifying the content because sometimes you don't know where these YouTube videos are coming from," Seib said. "There is a higher responsibility for the news organizations that decide to disseminate YouTube videos to verify before they disseminate it."
Asked if this is the first time a conflict is being mainly covered by YouTube and social media, Seib said, "In terms of the heavy reliance on YouTube, it probably is."
But he added that there should be caution about "overstating the influence of YouTube. I think it is a big factor but not the determinative factor in shaping opinion about the war."
YouTube, an arm of Google, Inc., did not immediately reply to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Like most news organizations, the AP runs user-generated content to supplement its own newsgathering. It only uses the material from channels that have proven reliable in the past, with video that has been authenticated and verified, and always works to ensure the content is aligned with its own reporting.
The AP also has a correspondent based in Damascus and uses a variety of other sources of information, including U.N. agencies, NGOs and relief and aid organizations, as well as journalists, doctors and others inside Syria. In addition, AP monitors Syria's state-run media for the government perspective and images, and AP teams have made numerous trips to Damascus when given permission from the Assad administration.
Elliot Higgins, author of the popular Brown Moses blog, which has tracked the civil war since March 2012, said he scrutinizes videos for potential problems, including comparing them to satellite imagery. From his home in England, he monitors 650 YouTube channels daily, looking for images of types of arms being used and the evolution of rebel groups.
Syria imposed a near blackout at the beginning of the uprising in 2011, expelling foreign journalists. The government continues to restrict the movements of local and foreign media, who have to go through a stifling process to get visas to Damascus. Journalists who sneak into opposition-held territory through Turkey face the threat of arrest, kidnapping, injury and death.
The proliferation of amateur videos is all the more striking in a country like Syria, which had been a closed society for so long. When Assad's father, Hafez, crushed a 1981-82 uprising in the city of Hama, killing thousands of civilians, he was able to keep it almost completely hidden from the world. To this day, the final death toll is not known.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Syria is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, with at least 28 killed and 21 abducted by various sides of the conflict in 2012 alone.
To Dror, the absence of more traditional media has compelled citizens to try to fill the void.
"It has almost become a survival mechanism for them. If the world didn't know, it wouldn't act," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Aron Heller in Jerusalem and Raphael Satter in London contributed this report.
- Politics & Government
- Unrest, Conflicts & War
- Bashar Assad
- YouTube
- Syria
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Saturday 19 October 2013
Tech Startups Face All The Usual Challenges And More In Gaza
Building an IT startup in the Gaza Strip isn't simple: Electricity is sporadic, there's no mobile 3G and even if you can sell your app outside Gaza's tightly controlled borders, it's difficult to get paid. Still, IT has some advantages in Gaza, and the possibilities have fostered a crop of devout entrepreneurs. At a first-of-its kind session to win seed money this week, Gazan entrepreneurs pitched, among other things, an app that uses music to help colorblind people dress well, a sports social network and 3-D printing for the masses.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
Building an IT startup on the Gaza Strip isn't simple: electricity is sporadic, there is no 3G network. You can sell your product outside Gaza's tightly controlled borders, but it can be difficult to move the money back into Gaza. Nonetheless, half a dozen entrepreneurs from Gaza recently pitched their ideas for consideration in a unique program, one that could catapult their businesses into the global marketplace.
NPR's Emily Harris reports.
EMILY HARRIS, BYLINE: Lina Shamia is a soccer fan. Real Madrid is her favorite team, and she and friends gather at a cafe or apartment in Gaza City to watch televised games whenever they can. She noticed that a lot of people in Gaza do the same.
LINA SHAMIA: After the end of the game, they have a social talk, discussing the game itself and analyzing it, and sharing their opinions of it. So we thought about translating this idea into an online world.
HARRIS: Specifically, an online social network centered around sports. Lina co-founded Datrios, a Gaza startup that just won $14,000 in seed funding from Oasis500, a Jordanian firm. Salwa Katkhuda is Oasis' investment manager.
SALWA KATKHUDA: There are several sports networks. But this specific company has certain unique selling points, like the Arabic interface, like allowing crowdsourcing, which is something that these networks don't have.
HARRIS: Another just-funded Gaza startup is developing an app to help people who are colorblind choose clothes. Color Vision takes a picture of what you want to wear, then tells you the colors using text, or music.
MANAL SLEEM: Every color has tune of a piano. So when red, do.
(SOUNDBITE OF A TONE)
HARRIS: Manal Sleem came up with this idea thanks to a friend who is colorblind, and uses a stand-alone device to help her distinguish between colors.
SLEEM: But this device is too expensive. It's from Germany. Yeah, but I get the same solution by one point nine nine dollars.
HARRIS: One dollar ninety nine cents.
SLEEM: One dollar - $1.99.
HARRIS: And even though it's hard for Manal herself to travel outside of the Gaza Strip, her app could be sold anywhere.
One hundred sixty four Gazan entrepreneurs applied for a chance to pitch their ideas to the Jordanian investment firm. Seven got a shot. Three, so far, have been chosen for funding. Salwa Katkhuda of Oasis500 says she's looking forward to working with these groups from Gaza.
KATKHUDA: They are hungry to start their own business. They are ready to work really hard. They are ready to beat the odds and they have that culture embedded in them.
HARRIS: In addition to the $14,000, each startup will participate in several months of intensive training then have a chance to pitch other investors for a lot more money. This business accelerator is a partnership with the humanitarian aid organization Mercy Corps.
John Ross directs Mercy Corps Digital Economy Program. He wants to build a blueprint from this experience in Gaza.
JOHN ROSS: A model that can be replicated in other countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa; we're looking at Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, West Bank and Gaza.
HARRIS: Young IT entrepreneurs in Gaza hope this recent chance to pitch outside investors won't be their last.
Emily Harris, NPR News
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
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Chinese Media Touts Need for 'De-Americanized' World Amid Washington Shutdown
China's official state news agency Xinhua has launched a fierce editorial broadside against the United States, saying Washington's current fiscal woes showed the need for "a de-Americanized world."
"As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world," ran the op-ed, which was carried in English, but widely reported in the Chinese-language media.
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China is run with an iron fist by the Communist Party, and dissent is not tolerated, and official Chinese official media have been quick to use the U.S. shutdown as evidence of the shortcomings of the democratic system.
At the same time, some of the spiky commentary comes out of China's fears that its debt holdings in American government bonds could be under threat because of the crisis on Capitol Hill.
"Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas, instigating regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies," said the commentary.
The op-ed ran in Sunday's (Oct. 13) Global Times newspaper, which is the official organ of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. The Global Times later reported on the follow-up to the article, saying that U.S. media were guessing as to the real intention of the article and saying that the piece had gotten Washington worried.
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Beijing is the largest overseas holder of U.S. government debt and has issued many warnings about the danger of a U.S. default. The Treasury reckons China holds some $1 trillion in Treasuries, and it also has additional U.S. agency debt.
Premier Li Keqiang told Secretary of State John Kerry last week (Oct. 10) that Beijing was "highly concerned" about Washington’s debt ceiling problem and its failure to resolve its debt crisis.
"The U.S. government has gone to all lengths to appear before the world as the one that claims the moral high ground, yet covertly doing things that are as audacious as torturing prisoners of war, slaying civilians in drone attacks, and spying on world leaders," it said.
"Under what is known as the Pax-Americana, we fail to see a world where the United States is helping to defuse violence and conflicts, reduce poor and displaced population, and bring about real, lasting peace."
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