Tuesday, April 30, 2013

New suburban dream born of Asia and Southern California

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 29, 2013

SAN MARINO, Calif. ? Beneath the palm trees that line Huntington Drive, named for the railroad magnate who founded this Southern California city, hang signs to honor families who have helped sponsor the centennial celebration here this year. There are names like Dryden, Crowley and Telleen, families that have lived here for generations. But there are newer names as well: Sun, Koo and Shi.

A generation ago, whites made up roughly two-thirds of the population in this rarefied Los Angeles suburb, where most of the homes are worth well over $1 million. But Asians now make up over half of the population in San Marino, which has long attracted some of the region's wealthiest families and was once home to the Western headquarters of the John Birch Society.

The transformation illustrates a drastic shift in California immigration trends over the last decade, one that can easily be seen all over the area: More than twice as many immigrants to the nation's most populous state now come from Asia than from Latin America.

And the change here is just one example of the ways immigration is remaking America, with the political, economic and cultural ramifications playing out in a variety of ways. The number of Latinos has more than doubled in many Southern states, including Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, creating new tensions. Asian populations are booming in New Jersey, and Latino immigrants are reviving small towns in the Midwest.

Much of the current immigration debate in Congress has focused on Hispanics, and California has for decades been viewed as the focal point of that migration. But in cities in the San Gabriel Valley ? as well as in Orange County and in Silicon Valley in Northern California ? Asian immigrants have become a dominant cultural force in places that were once largely white or Hispanic.

"We are really looking at a different era here," said Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California who has studied census data. "There are astounding changes in working-class towns and old, established, wealthy cities. It is not confined to one place."

Asians have become a majority in more than half a dozen cities in the San Gabriel Valley in the last decade, creating a region of Asian-dominated suburbs that stretches for nearly 30 miles east of Los Angeles. In the shopping centers, Chinese-language characters are on nearly every storefront, visible from the freeways that cut through the area.

Monterey Park, a middle-class city that began attracting Asian immigrants more than a generation ago, is still widely seen as the area's center and retail hub. But as Asians have continued to arrive in Southern California, they have moved into some of the most exclusive cities in Los Angeles County, making up more than 60 percent of the population in San Gabriel and Walnut, along the county's eastern edge.

Many of the immigrants come here from China and Taiwan, where they were part of a highly educated and affluent population. They have eagerly bought property in places like San Marino, where the median income is nearly double that of Beverly Hills and is home to one of the highest-performing school districts in the state. The local library now offers story time in Mandarin.

But the wealth is not uniform, and there are pockets of poverty in several of the area's working-class suburbs, particularly in Vietnamese and Filipino communities.

"This is kind of ground zero for a new immigrant America," said Daniel Ichinose, a demographer at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. "You have people speaking Mandarin and Vietnamese and Spanish all living together and facing many common challenges."

The children of the immigrants who began transforming the area a generation ago are beginning to come of age, becoming cheerleaders for the region, running for political office and creating businesses that cater to a distinctly American-born audience.

There are countless stores that display signs in Mandarin, sell restaurant supplies and Chinese herbs, or advertise acupuncture or brokerage services. But perhaps the most common storefront is the boba tea shop, where young patrons spend hours drinking cold milk tea with jellylike tapioca balls. Nearly every one of the region's hundreds of strip malls boasts a cafe ? or even two ? offering a dizzying number of variations on the sweet drink.

Andrew and David Fung, who grew up in Seattle, were surprised to see the pervasiveness of Chinese and Taiwanese culture in the San Gabriel Valley.

After moving to the area a couple of years ago to try to break into the entertainment industry, the Fung brothers created several hip-hop videos celebrating what they termed the "boba life," to embrace the area where, as their lyrics explain, "kids drink more milk tea than liquor." The videos became so wildly popular on the Internet that local leaders began showing them in official meetings.

"People here think it's normal, hanging out to drink boba all day long, but this culture doesn't exist everywhere, and we're trying to tell them to embrace it, to own it," said David Fung, 26. "We've got to teach ourselves to be proud of who we are and tell others about it."

The Fung brothers have helped create a local ethnic pride that would have been unimaginable a generation ago, said Oliver Wang, a professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach, who grew up in San Marino in the 1980s and returned to the area three years ago. The area could become central to Asian-American identity in the region in the way East Los Angeles is to Latinos or South Los Angeles is to African-Americans, he said.

"It wasn't cool to be Chinese or cool to be Asian," he said. "The idea that the San Gabriel Valley could be the locus of some kind of cultural movement or identity is fascinating. They are asserting cultural capital to create Asian-American identity that wasn't there before, and one that is homegrown, not imported from Taiwan or Hong Kong."

But the growth has not come without some backlash. While there is rarely overt tension in the area these days, there is a history of clashes over English-only ordinances, and some people still speak in hushed tones about Chinese immigrants taking over the region.

More recently, there have been renewed complaints of "maternity tourism," a cottage industry that brings Chinese women here to give birth so that their children can have American citizenship. Residents, including Asian immigrants, have complained to local officials about large houses that host dozens of pregnant women at a time.

Jay Chen, 35, a member of the Hacienda Heights school board in the San Gabriel Valley, recalled a 2010 controversy over a plan to create a Chinese-language class at a local middle school. Last year, when Chen challenged a longtime Republican congressman, Ed Royce, to represent a newly drawn district, he received a handful of messages using anti-Asian slurs.

"There's still this conservative element that said teaching Chinese meant you were teaching communism," said Chen, who lost the race. "Meanwhile, people are fighting to get into our district so their children ? of whatever ethnicity ? can take these classes."

Food often draws outsiders to the region, which is packed with mom-and-pop restaurants where a feast can cost less than $20.

Last summer, Jonny Hwang, 32, a son of Taiwanese immigrants, created the 626 Night Market. (Its name is play on the region's area code.) More than 15,000 people clogged the streets to get in. "It surprised everyone," Hwang said. "All of the sudden we had a community and something that even other people wanted."

Source: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/nyt/19040101_New_suburban_dream_born_of_Asia_and_Southern_California.html

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Eurozone inflation fall, record jobless point to ECB rate cut

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Inflation in the euro zone has fallen to a three-year low and unemployment hit a new record, cementing expectations of an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank later this week.

Inflation tumbled to 1.2 percent in April, the lowest level since February 2010 and the biggest monthly drop in more than four years, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday, reflecting an economy mired in recession.

That put the annual rate of increase in the cost of living well below the ECB's target of close to, but below 2 percent, and raises pressure on the central bank to act.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the inflation rate to edge down to 1.6 percent.

"It's a close call, but we expect a rate cut this week," said Sarah Hewin, a senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank.

"With inflation weaker than expected, unemployment rising yet again and signs of a longer recession, it would be a confidence boost," she said.

Eurostat figures put euro zone unemployment at a record 12.1 percent of the working population in March, calling into question the ECB's forecast that the economy will show signs of recovery in the second half of the year.

According to a Reuters poll last week, a narrow majority of economists expect a 25 basis point cut on Thursday at the ECB's meeting in Bratislava, taking the bank's main refinancing rate to a record low of 0.5 percent.

"Weakness appears to be increasingly spreading to the large core economies, including France and even Germany," said Barclays' economists Philippe Gudin and Thomas Harjes in a research note on the ECB's rate stance entitled "Ready to act".

But a modest rate cut is unlikely to be a game changer.

Spain's economy shrank for the seventh straight quarter in the first three months of the year, figures showed on Tuesday, suggesting its recession will stretch into 2014.

French consumer spending - the driver of its economy - fell in the first quarter having declined for the first time in two decades last year.

And survey evidence has suggested even Germany's economy has struggled early in the year. Figures on Tuesday showed unemployment in Europe's largest economy edged up but consumer morale reached its highest level in more than five years, with the prospect of healthy wage increases buoying sentiment.

Consumers in the GfK survey did turn more pessimistic about the overall economic outlook after three months of improvements.

Euro zone debt prices rose in anticipation of ECB action but traders refrained from putting on big trades before the meeting, denoting a measure of uncertainty.

HUMAN IMPACT

If the ECB feared inflation will fall too far, even flirting with deflation, its mandate would free it up to consider a range of extraordinary policy responses.

But many economists argue that action is also needed by governments to boost growth, after three years of focusing on cutting debt.

Europe's leaders are now rethinking austerity that some economists and politicians say creates a damaging cycle where governments cut back, companies lay off staff, Europeans buy less and young people have little hope of finding a job.

But there is also division on just how far to soften the targets, and while the European Commission will give Spain, France and others more time to reach its budget deficit targets, Berlin and the ECB want to see countries put public accounts on a better footing.

Highlighting the human impact of the debt crisis, some 19.2 million people are now out of work in the bloc, the highest level since the euro zone's inception in 1999 and also since Eurostat began monitoring the group of countries in 1995.

The 17-nation euro zone has little free cash to invest in the economy after a decade of borrowing swelled public accounts to unsustainable levels, but budget cuts are increasingly blamed for holding back a recovery.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott, editing by Rex Merrifield/Mike Peacock)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sharp-euro-zone-inflation-fall-joblessness-point-ecb-090520405.html

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Which would you rather have in your home..... - Mommysavers.com

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Mother in UK forced 14-year-old to get pregnant

LONDON (AP) ? A woman desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge said.

In a ruling reported for the first time Monday, High Court judge Peter Jackson said the mother had behaved in "a wicked and selfish way" that almost defied belief.

The judge said the woman, an American divorcee living in Britain with three adopted children, hatched the plan after she was prevented from adopting a fourth.

The scheme involved getting her oldest daughter to inseminate herself with syringes of sperm purchased over the Internet from a Denmark-based company, Cryos International.

Jackson said the daughter, identified only as A, "became pregnant at the mother's request, using donor sperm bought by the mother, with the purpose of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own."

In his ruling, the judge quoted the teenager as saying said she was shocked by the suggestion, but thought, "If I do this ... maybe she will love me more."

"My mum is a very determined person and she does her best not to let anything get in her way if she wants it," the teenager added.

The judge said the mother also made the teenager use douches of vinegar or lemon and lime juice in hopes of increasing her chances of having a girl.

The judge said it was likely but not certain that the daughter soon became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. After six more attempts with the donor sperm, she gave birth to a baby boy in July 2011, when she was 17.

But midwives at the hospital became alarmed by the odd behavior of A's mother. Her daughter wanted to breastfeed the baby, but her mother said: "We don't want any of that attachment thing."

The hospital alerted the authorities, and the children were taken into foster care. The mother is now serving a five-year jail term for child cruelty.

Details of the case were heard during proceedings at the family division of the High Court over the children's future last year. They were reported for the first time Monday after several British media organizations, including the publisher of The Guardian newspaper, challenged reporting restrictions.

A court order bars identifying the family members in order to protect the children.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mother-uk-forced-14-old-pregnant-131603990.html

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Young Gymnast Defies Comprehension With Crazy Routine: Watch!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/young-gymnast-defies-comprehension-with-crazy-routine-watch/

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Rick Steves: West Bank Necropolis

Across the Nile from Luxor is a valley with more ancient treasures than any place I've seen. I spent a long day visiting tombs and temples to find the best places for my upcoming TV episodes on Egypt. With the help of an excellent guide, I enjoyed Egyptian art and history more than I ever have. Here's a bit of what I learned:

Everything I saw was art for dead people and gods. Ancient Egyptians lived on the east bank (where the sun rose) and buried each other on the west bank (where the sun died each evening). In about 1600 B.C. there was a big change in the style of tombs. Until then, kings were buried in pyramids. A string of about 70 of them are scattered along the Nile between the border of the Sudan and the Mediterranean--all on the west bank. But these pyramids were consistently being robbed, which meant kings were waking up in heaven with none of their favorite stuff. So, rather than mark their tombs with big pyramids, they started hiding their tombs in the folds of these valleys.

2013-04-25-x10valleyofkings.jpg
The Valley of Kings: Where pharaohs hide out while awaiting eternity.

This coincided with a new age when Egypt became an expansionist power. The money and labor saved by not building pyramids could literally populate and fund armies. The pharaohs (that's the Egyptian word for king) buried near Luxor were aggressive leaders who conquered and ruled an empire stretching from the Sudan to Syria. Of 63 tombs found so far in the Valley of the Kings, only two were found intact. Most were plundered in ancient Egyptian times and then buried and forgotten for centuries until our age. Archeologists expect there are about a hundred tombs still awaiting discovery--and likely just a handful will be found intact.

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Sights generally mobbed by tour buses are empty in 2013. Ever since a horrible massacre of tourists by terrorists at Luxor back in the 1990s, police have been stationed at every ancient sight.

It's all about gaining eternal life. Eternity required an intact body and food for the soul's journey. The body was mummified and hidden in the Valley of the Kings. While commoners' tombs were simply gravel pits--traces of which you can see today--the fabulously rich and powerful kings had elaborate tombs. They were dug with long underground ramps elaborately painted, leading down to big tomb chambers deep in the mountain. The biggest fears were that a jackal would dig up and eat your body or that grave robbers would loot your stash before you made it to heaven. My guide explained, "When you fear something, you worship it. So the god Anubis is portrayed as a jackal. He's the god of embalmers, guardian of tombs."

2013-04-25-x12tombvalleyofkings.jpg
Tombs with their colorful paintings, hidden in the dark and dry desert of Egypt for over 3,000 years, are remarkably well-preserved.

The soul needed nourishment to make it to the goal line of salvation. Because the body was effectively hidden in the valley--and therefore couldn't be fed, each major tomb would have a correlating mortuary temple nearby, in full view between the hidden tombs and the Nile. This is where offerings of food were brought to the dead. While the most famous mortuary temple was that of Queen Hatshepsut, I found the much less famous mortuary temple of Ramses III, called Medinet Habu, far more visual and better for TV.

2013-04-25-x13rickandguideatpylonbytrish.jpg
With a guide to explain the symbolism--in this case, how great Ramses III was--you learn how meaningful every inch of this carved surface is. Photo by Trish Feaster (for her Egypt blog, see http://thetravelphile.com/).

There's a separate valley for kings, queens, and nobles. We toured tombs in each. One of my favorites was the Tomb of Ramses IV for its original colors and cosmic ceiling over the burial chamber. A portrait of the dead king greets the sun-god at the top of the ramp. There's a great shot looking down the ramp to the tomb chamber with its huge granite sarcophagus (the stone was quarried in distant Aswan). Another favorite was the Tomb of Ramses III. Judging by the glamorous attire on the figures painted on the walls of his tomb, Ramses III was more of a fashionista. But the walls are all covered with glass, which will be tough to film. The very best paintings I saw were in the Tomb of Amenherkhepshef, a son of Ramses III.

2013-04-25-x14tombpaintingforemanbytrish.jpg
The foreman of the workers who decorated the pharaoh's tomb got a cool perk--a very colorful tomb of his own. Photo by Trish Feaster (for her Egypt blog, see http://thetravelphile.com/).

?

Follow Rick Steves on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@RickSteves

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-steves/west-bank-necropolis_b_3156436.html

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Hollywood's 15 Most Expensive Divorces

Michael Jordan has remarried after a very pricey split in 2006. See more of the stars' most costly breakups!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/hollywoods-15-most-expensive-divorces/1-b-20893?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ahollywoods-15-most-expensive-divorces-20893

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Bob Hope items to be auctioned for Calif. charity

(AP) ? Hundreds of personal items, including antiques, artwork and furniture once owned by Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores, will be auctioned to benefit a Southern California charity.

The Daily News of Los Angeles reports (http://bit.ly/11tF2Zk) proceeds from the sale Saturday will help the family service center at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, where Dolores Hope was a member for 70 years.

The couple's daughter, Linda Hope, says memorabilia from Bob Hope's long show business career will also be up for sale.

Prices will range from $10 to several hundred dollars an item.

An auction of additional property from the couple's Toluca Lake estate will be announced by Julien's Auctions of Beverly Hills later this year.

Dolores Hope died in 2011. Bob Hope died in 2003.

___

Information from: (Los Angeles) Daily News, http://www.dailynews.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-29-US-People-Bob-Hope-Auction/id-f4d5bd7bb6b44e0aa799dd595d8897a3

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From the Editor's Desk: So many awesome people, so little time

Mobile Nations at #tm13

I'd say this behind-the-scenes picture just about sums up our week in New York City. Take a bunch of characters from Mobile Nations, toss them into a room with John P and Cali Lewis of GeekBeat.TV, and good things will happen. OK, a lot of craziness will happen, too. But also good things. 

While we haven't explicitly said what we were up to at #tm13 -- and don't worry, we'll take care of that fairly soon -- it also shouldn't be all that hard to figure out. It's been a few years since the last Smartphone Experts Round Robin (in fact, that was my first week on the job here in late 2009 after fleeing the newspaper business), and a follow-up was long overdue.

But a lot has changed since I first met the likes of Dieter Bohn, Kevin Michaluk, Rene Ritchie, Casey Chan, Matt Miller and Mickey Papillon and others for a week of smartphone nerdery in Orlando. (Lord, we looked so young.) Some of us have moved on to do other things. (I'm still proud to call each one of them a friend, though.) There's more parity among the platforms. Palm and webOS are no more. Nokia has ceded and switched (nearly exclusively) to Windows Phone. Microsoft's mobile OS has grown from awkward and clunky to attractive and graceful, if still underappreciated. Same could be same for Android, maybe. And BlackBerry is just beginning its second life. 

I can't spill the beans on everything we did in New York just yet. But it's safe to say that just as the mobile space has evolved a great deal in the past several years, so has our outlook of it as a whole. It's as much about getting the platforms to work together as it is any one of them "winning." I think that's what we all took into #tm13. And that's certainly what we got out of it.

We'll have an official announcement in the coming weeks, and you'll (hopefully) enjoy the fruits of our labor for a number of months the rest of the year. Those of us in this picture are just the front end. So many people have worked countless hours behind the scenes, and there's still a lot of work to be done. David Lundblad and Marcus Adolfsson and Rob Kao and the film crew and production folks. Our tech folks, whose work you see every day with little fanfare. And our husbands and wives and girlfriends and anyone else who support this ridiculously crazy and fun business and help us do what we do.

And to you folks reading this, too, for putting up with all the teasing. We really are excited about this. You'll be as much a part of it -- more, really -- than anyone else.

So thanks, everybody. Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.

read more

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ICb-wSkhW2M/story01.htm

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Bangladesh owner is at nexus of politics, business

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? When the cracks in the building appeared early Tuesday afternoon, a stocky man in his early 30s, a feared political operative who a neighbor says dropped out of school in seventh grade, quickly arrived at the scene in this crowded industrial suburb of the capital.

By then, fear had spread through the 3,200 people who worked in the five clothing factories that jammed the upper floors of Rana Plaza, and the handful of shops on the lower ones. Most of the workers had gathered in the street out front. Few wanted to go back in. Inspectors said the eight-story building should be closed until it could be inspected.

But Mohammed Sohel Rana scoffed.

"The building has minor damages," Rana, the building's owner, told gathering reporters. "There is nothing serious."

The next morning, many of the building's shops and a first-floor bank remained closed. But the factories' 8 a.m. shift began as usual. About 45 minutes into the shift, the building suddenly collapsed, killing at least 350 people in a fury of falling concrete. It was the worst industrial accident in the history of Bangladesh. More than three days later, rescuers are still crawling through the wreckage, hoping to find anyone who has managed to survive so long. By Saturday, nearly all the people being carried out were dead.

Rana, though, has disappeared. He hasn't been seen, according to local media reports, since he left his basement office in Rana Plaza and drove away, just before the collapse. Today, his political patron has abandoned him and authorities want to arrest him.

Rana sits at the nexus of party politics and the powerful $20 billion garment industry that drives the economy of this deeply impoverished nation. Experts say this intersection of politics and business, combined with a minimum wage of $9.50 a week that has made Bangladesh the go-to nation for many of the world's largest clothing brands, has created a predictable danger for factory workers.

Government officials, labor activists, manufacturers and retailers all called for improved safety standards after a November fire in the same suburb, when locked emergency exits trapped hundreds of garment workers inside amid spreading flames and 112 people died. But almost nothing has changed.

"Successive Bangladeshi governments have paid lip service to worker safety but in reality it is only the factory owners who have the ear of policymakers," Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "How many factory tragedies will it take before the Bangladeshi government ends its cozy relationship with powerful company owners and prioritizes worker safety?"

Before the collapse, Rana was little known outside of the few blocks of his tiny empire, a grid of poorly paved streets in the crowded industrial suburb of Savar, built up over the past decade or so around hundreds of garment factories.

The son of a local businessman with political connections, Rana became a neighborhood force by working as an organizer for the two political parties that have competed for power for decades in Bangladesh, according to local politicians, as well as someone who grew up near Rana and still lives in the area.

While Rana is currently a leader of the youth group of the ruling Awami League, he has also worked for that party's archrival, the Bangladesh National Party.

"He doesn't belong to any particular political party," said Ashrafuddin Khan Imu, an Awami League leader and longtime Rana rival. "Whatever party is in power, he is there."

In essence, these people say, Rana is a neighborhood political enforcer, regularly ordering thousands of people into the streets for rallies. Most recently, Imu said, he has been working for Awami League lawmaker Talukder Touhid Jang Murad. When Murad was asked about Rana after the collapse, Murad denied any connections. The next day, Dhaka newspapers printed photographs of Murad kissing Rana on the forehead after a successful rally earlier this year.

"He used to intimidate people whenever he needed them, like bringing people out for street marches in support of the lawmaker," said the neighbor, who spoke on condition he not be named, fearing Rana's wrath. "Neighbors would avoid him ... No one wanted to upset him."

Money came with his political connections, with wealth built upon a string of government-owned properties he acquired at reduced prices, according to local media reports. He built a small apartment building and a small commercial building, where a Bata shoe store is now on the ground floor. In 2010 he built Rana Plaza on land that had once been a swamp. He had a permit to erect a five-story building, but built three additional stories illegally.

Until Wednesday, he lived just a few blocks from Rana Plaza, in a five-story red-brick building he owns at the end of a narrow alley. The ground floor has a hand-painted medieval scene, with an aristocratic woman, or perhaps a bride, being carried by scowling bearers in a covered palanquin. The neighbor says he is married, and has two children. The buildings indicate he is a man of considerable stature locally, but is almost certainly not a member of the country's tiny elite.

After the cracks appeared in the building, witnesses say Rana quickly went to work. On Wednesday morning, he and a number of factory managers ordered nervous workers into the building shortly before the collapse, according to the neighbor, who was present at the scene, and local press reports.

"I was too afraid to go inside the building. But the factory officials assured us they would also be in the factory, so there should not be any problem," said Kohinoor Begum, a factory worker who survived but whose hands were injured.

By Saturday night, Rana was still nowhere to be found. Authorities say they detained his wife on Friday, apparently as a way to convince him to surrender.

What will happen to him? At first glance, the situation doesn't look good: He's on the run, his political allies have publicly abandoned him, Bangladesh's most powerful garment industry association says he ignored their warnings to shut the building, the prime minister has called for his arrest.

But in the streets of Savar, many people note that while three managers have been arrested in connection with the Tazreen fire, the factory owner remains free.

___

Sullivan reported from New Delhi, India. Julhas Alam in Dhaka contributed to the report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-owner-nexus-politics-business-051832391.html

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Former Madagascar president Ratsiraka to contest July election

By Alain Iloniaina

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's former president Didier Ratsiraka will contest national elections in July in a bid to become the Indian Ocean island state's leader for the third time, his supporters said on Saturday.

Madagascar has been in crisis since Andry Rajoelina, now president, led an uprising that ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana from office in 2009, triggering turmoil that scared off investors and devastated the vital tourism sector.

Both Rajoelina, a former disc jockey, and Ravalomanana, a wealthy businessman now in exile in South Africa, have said they will not contest the July 24 presidential election.

Regional powers put pressure on Rajoelina to stand aside, fearing fresh turmoil after this year's vote, while Ravalomanana was sentenced in absentia to life in prison after he was accused of ordering elite troops to kill Rajoelina's supporters.

Ratsiraka returned to Madagascar earlier this month after an 11-year exile in France. He left Madagascar in 2002 after refusing to concede the previous year's poll defeat to Ravalomanana.

Before he was ousted, Ratsiraka, known locally as "Deba", or the Big Man, had ruled Madagascar for 23 of the previous 26 years.

The 76-year-old first became president in 1975 when he seized power as a young naval officer, governing Madagascar until 1993. His second stint as president lasted from 1996 to 2002.

"It is a joy for us to know that we have filed (papers for) the candidacy for President of Didier Ratsiraka," said Monfort Razafimahefa, a member of the Ratsiraka campaign.

Ratsiraka is due to hold a news conference later in the day to explain his motives for contesting the election.

A Madagascan court had sentenced Ratsiraka to 10 years hard labour for embezzlement in 2003, but the current president, Rajoelina, often said the former admiral was free to come home.

Earlier this week Ravalomanana's wife put herself forward to run in July's presidential election, a move analysts say could be aimed at preparing a comeback by the fallen leader.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-madagascar-president-ratsiraka-contest-july-election-082511803.html

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N.J. Girls Murder Video: 12-Year-Olds Suspended For Online "Hit List"

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/nj-girls-murder-video-12-year-olds-suspended-for-online-hit-list/

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

WH: Anthony Foxx in line for transportation post (The Arizona Republic)

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Champagne celebrations turn to prosecco in frugal Britain - report

By Paul Casciato

LONDON (Reuters) - More than half of British consumers refuse to spend money unless it is "absolutely necessary" in a weak economy, with prosecco now more likely to mark a special occasion than champagne, according a new consumer trend report released on Friday.

Global research firm Mintel's annual "British Lifestyles" report said one day after the country skirted a "triple dip" recession that consumers have made paying their bills and saving for a rainy day their top priorities.

Britain's Office for National Statistics provided some relief for Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's government on Thursday when it reported that the economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year.

But the legacy of a sluggish economy that has flatlined since 2010 appeared clear in a report which showed that the top financial priority for 82 percent of British consumers was just keeping up with their bills.

"British consumers are adjusting to the new economic reality, with financial prudence and savvy shopping already the default for many," Mintel consumer analyst Ina Mitskavets said in a statement with the report.

Beyond paying the bills, Britons put saving up for rainy days and big ticket purchases as their other top priorities.

British consumers were also working longer hours, taking fewer holidays and more than a third said things have become more difficult in the past year.

In other trends highlighted in the report, more people were cooking and baking from scratch at home and beauty product sales remained strong because it was an affordable way for women to lift their mood, the so-called "lipstick effect."

In a sign of cooling interest in the high life for ordinary people, value sales of champagne dropped by 32 percent between 2007 and 2012 as drinkers reached for prosecco, cava and other sparkling wines instead when out in bars and restaurants.

"If you are out with all your friends celebrating your birthday you don't want to lose that celebration moment to pop the cork," Mintel drinks analyst Chris Wisson said.

"If you can save money while doing it, why wouldn't you? ... I think that's the rationalisation people have come to."

Mitskavets said other factors appearing on the horizon included a generation of youngsters who were taking on the parsimony of their parents after formative years spent watching the family struggle with the bills.

"The younger generation are also growing up extremely frugal because they came of age in that age of austerity," Mitskavets said. "The next generation is going to always have that in the back of their minds. We need to save as much money as possible."

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/champagne-celebrations-turn-prosecco-frugal-britain-report-164637975.html

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LivingSocial database hacked; 50 million customers impacted

By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

LivingSocial's customer database has been hacked, impacting the website's 50 million customers. The firm began sending emails to customers Friday afternoon telling them they would have to change their site passwords.

"We recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue," LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy said in an email to employees that was provided to NBC News by a company spokesman.

The memo said that customer credit card information was not stolen ? it was stored in a separate database. And while the hacker stole customer passwords, they were encrypted and "salted," or scrambled.

In the memo,?O'Shaughnessy included the text of the customer email. "Although your LivingSocial password would be difficult to decode, we want to take every precaution to ensure that your account is secure, so we are expiring your old password and requesting that you create a new one," read the email.

The company advised consumers who used their LivingSocial password at other sites to change the password at those sites, also.

The firm expects its customer service phone lines to be deluged, so O'Shaughnessy warned that he may decide to temporarily suspend telephone customer service. "We will be devoting all available resources to our Web-based servicing," he added.

O'Shaughnessy's message to employees concluded:

I apologize for the formality of this note, which the circumstances demand. We need to do the right thing for our customers who place their trust in us, and that is why we?re taking the steps described and going above and beyond what?s required. We?ll all need to work incredibly hard over the coming days and weeks to validate that faith and trust.

When Zappos.com had a similar incident last year impacting its 24 million customers, it also turned off customer service telephone lines temporarily.

The LivingSocial attack is among the largest ever, doubling the size of that Zappos attack, but still smaller than several other high-profile hacks, such as the 2011 attack on Sony's Playstation network, which impacted nearly 100 million users. Because the LivingSocial attack doesn't involve financial information, it doesn't rank among the most significant hacks, however.

Amazon is a part-owner of LivingSocial. A LivingSocial representative confirmed that Amazon accounts were not affected by the breach.

Follow Bob Sullivan on Facebook or Twitter.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2b3942ff/l/0Lredtape0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C260C179334660Elivingsocial0Edatabase0Ehacked0E50A0Emillion0Ecustomers0Eimpacted0Dlite/story01.htm

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Kanye West To Close Out 'SNL' Season

Ben Affleck will host the May 18 episode of 'Saturday Night Live,' where the rapper may debut a track from his upcoming LP.
By Nadeska Alexis


Kanye West
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706435/kanye-west-saturday-night-live.jhtml

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Smartphones overtake 'dumb' phones worldwide

NEW YORK (AP) ? Research firm IDC said more smartphones than "dumb" phones are being made this year, a milestone in a shift that's putting computing power and Internet access in millions of hands worldwide.

Manufacturers shipped 216 million smartphones worldwide in the first three months of this year, compared with 189 million regular cellphones, according to a study IDC released late Thursday. IDC said smartphones made up 51.6 percent of the 419 million mobile phones shipped.

In the U.S., smartphones overtook regular cellphones in 2011. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said Friday that the shift to a global majority of smartphones is now being driven by consumers in developing countries such as China, India and Indonesia.

Another firm, ABI Research, found that smartphones made up 49 percent of shipments in the first quarter. Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest phone maker, doesn't provide a breakdown of its phone shipments, and analysts vary in their estimates. Even going by ABI's numbers, it's clear that smartphones will solidly overtake the market this year.

The shift from phones primarily designed for calls, and perhaps texting, to ones with advanced operating systems and touch screens has roiled the cellphone industry. Finland's Nokia Corp. was for many years the world's largest maker of cellphones, but it has failed to translate that into success in smartphones. It's now the second-largest maker of phones overall, behind Samsung Electronics Co., but it falls far down the list of smartphone makers.

Cellphone pioneer Motorola Mobility, a U.S. company now owned by Google, has stumbled through the transition as well, while Apple Inc. has become the world's third-largest maker of cellphones, less than six years after launching the first iPhone. Samsung and Apple are the top makers of smartphones. LG Electronics Inc. of South Korea; HTC Corp. of Taiwan; and ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Ltd. of China jostle for the No. 3 position.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smartphones-overtake-dumb-phones-worldwide-192908040.html

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38 die in mental hospital fire outside Moscow

In this image taken from Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website, a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow is on fire early Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this image taken from Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website, a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow is on fire early Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Ministry for Emergency Situations workers and fire fighters work at a site of a fire of a psychiatric hospital Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev)

Map locates fire a psychiatric hospital outside of central Moscow

Ministry for Emergency Situations workers and fire fighters work at a site of a fire of a psychiatric hospital Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev)

Ministry for Emergency Situations workers and fire fighters work at a site of a fire of a psychiatric hospital Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev)

(AP) ? A fire swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow early Friday, killing 38 people, most of them in their beds, officials said.

Health Ministry officials said that the one-story hospital brick-and-wood building housed patients with severe mental disorders.

An emergency ministry official said the fire started in a wooden annex and then spread to the main brick building which had wooden beams.

The patients were under sedatives and most of them did not wake up, Yuri Deshevykh of the emergency situations ministry told RIA Novosti.

At least 29 people were burned alive, said Irina Gumennaya, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev said some of the hospital windows were barred.

Officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said they are looking at poor fire regulations and short circuit as possible causes for the blaze that engulfed the hospital in the Ramenskiy settlement, some 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of Moscow.

Investigators listed 38 people ? 36 patients and two doctors ? as dead. Only one nurse and two patients managed to escape, according to the health ministry. The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76.

A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee told Russian news agencies that most of the people died in their beds.

Belovoshin of the emergency ministry said that it took fire fighters an hour to get to the hospital following an emergency call because a ferry across the canal was closed and the fire fighters had to make a detour.

Vorobyev told Russian state-television that the fire alarm seems to have worked but the fire spread too quickly.

Russia has a poor fire safety record, with about 12,000 deaths reported in 2012. In January, a fire in an underground parking lot killed 10 migrant workers from Tajikistan who were working and living there. In a similar incident in September, 14 Vietnamese workers were killed by fire at a clothing factory near Moscow.

In one of the most high-profile case of negligence, more than 150 people died in a night club in the city of Perm after a pyrotechnic show ignited a wooden ceiling.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-26-Russia-Fire/id-b7c5144da9414ee0920641f7a6f05df6

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CSN: Nationals wake up, blow out Reds

Losers of four straight with a searching offense and erratic pitching, the Nationals? 8-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night was perhaps the perfect medicine for a team in an unexpected position as they near the end of the season?s first month. Their bats woke up, they got the breaks their opponents had been getting, and their starting pitcher was buzzing right from the first pitch. Finally, things were going the Nationals way.

Whether it was offense, pitching, or defense in the field: everything seemed to work out for the home team.

?That was a big day,? manager Davey Johnson said.??A lot of guys were saying to me, ?It?s been a long time since we were shaking hands.? I said no doubt about that.?

?It was just a good all-around game. That?s more like who we are: Good pitching, timely hitting.?

The Nationals broke out of their worst offensive slump of the season ? four runs total in their previous four games ? early with two scores in the second inning. Danny Espinosa, whose 26th birthday it happened to be, started things off with an RBI double to score Ian Desmond. He hit a long fly ball to right-center field that fell just beyond the reach of a sprinting Shin-Soo Choo.?

Espinosa hit a ball to nearly the exact same spot in the team?s loss on Wednesday that was reeled in, but this one dropped and bounced off the wall.

?I said it was cause it was my birthday that it fell today,? Espinosa said. ?It was nice to see it fall in. I know Choo can get after it out there. He can run balls down pretty well. So when I saw it fall in it was a big sigh of relief.?

Espinosa was then batted in by Denard Span with two outs who hit a slow chopper to shortstop Zack Cozart. Span beat the throw to first by a half-a-step, another close break for the Nats.

In the third inning the Nats would make their own luck. Bryce Harper led off with a towering home run to the lawn in dead center field, his eighth of the season. Jayson Werth then got on with a single and was moved to third because of a throwing error by Joey Votto that let Adam LaRoche reach second. A fielder?s choice on a groundout by Ian Desmond sent home Werth to bring Espinosa back to the plate. The Nats? second baseman then blasted a 2-2 sinker from Bronson Arroyo into the team?s bullpen in right field to put Washington up 6-0.

Three RBI on two extra base hits later and Espinosa was having a pretty good birthday. He was finally having fun and so were his teammates.

?It takes something like this to get a team going sometimes,? he said. ?Hitting's contagious, everybody knows that. You get a couple guys hot and everybody starts getting on base and it's kind of easier. You've got more holes to hit with and things start going the team's way and things start rolling.?

The six-run lead was plenty enough for starter Gio Gonzalez who, if it weren?t for the team?s recent offensive woes, would have been the story of the game. He put in his best start of the season allowing only one hit and two walks with seven strikeouts, redeeming himself after giving up 12 earned runs in his previous nine innings across two starts.

?I felt like I was more on top of the ball, again my team gave me confidence to go out there and pound the strike zone,? he said.?

?I was trying to make the adjustment to stop being so perfect, to just going out there and throw strikes.?

Gonzalez threw 112 pitches in eight innings with 78 of them strikes. He was particularly effective early in counts with 20 first strikes on the 27 hitters he faced.?

Gonzalez? one miscue was against Votto in the fourth inning. Having retired the Reds? first 11 batters, Gonzalez threw a 2-1 fastball that the former MVP took opposite field for a solo home run. It cleared the fence by just a few inches, but served as the only Reds? hit of the evening.

It was one hit and may have prevented the shutout, but overall Gonzalez was on his game and back to the form that helped him lead the majors in wins in 2012.

?Today was just get the ball and go,? catcher Kurt Suzuki said. ?He was rocking fire. That?s what Gio needs to do. That?s what Gio does. And when he does that, he?s successful most times out of not because his stuff is that good.?

Gonzalez? 112 pitches were a season-high and just at Johnson?s threshold for the lefty. The manager said he would have let him go one more inning and finish the game if it weren?t for his previous two bad starts.?

The Nats got two more runs across in the bottom of the eighth on a triple by Span. He scored Suzuki who had walked and Roger Bernadina who dropped his first hit of the season as Gonzalez? pinch-hitter.

Eight runs total and a game that was essentially over in the third inning gave the Nats a feeling they hadn?t felt in days and hope that maybe their recent struggles, particularly at the plate, have been solved. There were high fives and smiles, and music in the locker room, the type of dugout and clubhouse the Nats have become used to over the past year.?

?It's a different atmosphere when you win,? Espinosa said. ?It's a totally different atmosphere.?

?It was huge,? Suzuki said. ?No mystery last couple series, last couple games, especially the last six home games before this was tough. I think everybody was getting frustrated a little bit. You try to stay positive. We needed a game like this, to come out and click on all cylinders. Everybody was having fun, laughing in the dugout again. It was like back to normal.?

Source: http://www.csnwashington.com/baseball-washington-nationals/talk/everything-goes-right-nats-blowout-vs-reds

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Congress: Obamacare For Thee, But Not For Me? (talking-points-memo)

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This Reusable Coffee Cup Blends in at the Coffee Shop

How many coffee cups do you go through in a week? Probably way more than you should. JOCO's 12 ounce reusable cup will keep your guilt at bay. And it looks just like one of the ones you'd be tossing anyway. More »
    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hxGUYbJMFJ0/this-reusable-coffee-cup-blends-in-at-the-coffee-shop

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Judge denies Motorola?s demand for billions in patent fees from Microsoft

MADRID, April 25 (Reuters) - Playmaker Andres Iniesta has dismissed the idea Barcelona are at the end of an era following their 4-0 Champions League mauling by Bayern Munich. Barca, who lifted the trophy in 2009 and 2011, were the favourites to win the competition ahead of Tuesday's semi-final first leg but they were so outclassed by the Germans that many pundits believe their recent spell of dominance is over. "I think it is unfair to talk of a cyclical change," the Spanish World Cup winner told a news conference on Thursday. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-denies-motorola-demand-billions-patent-fees-microsoft-135504281.html

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UK designers Westwood, Hamnett join campaign to save bees

LONDON (Reuters) - Top British fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett joined bee campaigners outside the Houses of Parliament in London on Friday to urge the government to support a proposed European Union (EU) ban on pesticides which harm bees.

Britain is currently one of a group of countries blocking attempts to introduce a Europe-wide ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, neonicotinoids, arguing their impact on bees is unclear.

A vote takes place in Brussels on April 29 on whether to ban the poisons on flowering crops.

"If there's any chance that they're killing the bees as a precautionary measure they need to be banned," Hamnett, who has campaigned against pesticides for decades, told Reuters TV.

"The British government is committing political suicide I think by not supporting this ban."

Britain, Germany and three other countries abstained from a vote earlier this year.

Hamnett questioned whether this was because two major pesticide companies, Germany's Bayer and Swiss company Syngenta, which has operations in Britain, are lobbying against the ban, saying the impact of pesticides on bees is unproven.

"Are they in bed with Syngenta or Bayer or are they just stupid?" said Hamnett.

The companies have proposed a plan which includes planting more flowering margins around fields to provide bee habitats, monitoring to detect the neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for the decline, and research into the impact of parasites and viruses.

The fashion duo then handed in a petition to Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office, urging the government to put environmental concerns ahead of pressure from the agribusiness lobby.

"Why is government supporting big business because it doesn't help people at all? What is good for the planet is good for the economy," said Westwood.

Bees are currently suffering a sharp decline and colony collapse due to a variety of reasons.

Campaigners argue that bees are crucial for the planet as they perform a vital role in pollinating crops and their disappearance will have catastrophic effects on the world.

They want pre-emptive action taken on banning pesticides while more research is carried out to fully assess how seriously pesticides affect bees.

"This could become a really serious problem. There are parts of China where they have to pollinate fruit trees by hand because they have wiped out their insects through overuse of chemicals," said Quentin Gibon who joined the protest wearing a bee costume.

Earlier this year EU governments failed to agree a ban on three widely used pesticides linked to the decline of honeybees, but the European Commission is threatening to force such a ban through unless member states agree a compromise next week.

(Reporting by Georgina Cooper of Reuters Television, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/designers-westwood-hamnett-join-campaign-save-bees-152206807.html

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Samsung profit at record high on smartphone boost

Visitors operate Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphones at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2013. Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter net income jumped to a record high because sales growth in smartphones continued even before the launch of the Galaxy S4 during a typically slow season for the electronics market. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Visitors operate Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphones at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2013. Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter net income jumped to a record high because sales growth in smartphones continued even before the launch of the Galaxy S4 during a typically slow season for the electronics market. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Banners advertising Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphones are displayed at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2013. Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter net income jumped to a record high because sales growth in smartphones continued even before the launch of the Galaxy S4 during a typically slow season for the electronics market. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

(AP) ? Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first quarter profit jumped to a record high as smartphone sales remained strong despite the April launch of an updated version of its flagship Galaxy phone.

Sales of consumer electronics usually slow in the first three months of the year after the holiday shopping season, an effect that analysts thought would be compounded by this month's release of the Galaxy S4 smartphone since many delay buying until the newest model is available. Apple Inc. has cited the upcoming release of a new iPhone as a reason for a slowdown in sales of older models.

Samsung began sales of the S4 in its home South Korean market Friday and starts U.S. sales on Saturday. Analysts expect Samsung's profits to reach new highs in the second and third quarters if S4 sales are strong. Lee Don-Joo, head of sales and marketing at Samsung's mobile division, said sales of the S4 will outdo its predecessor, the Galaxy S III.

Samsung said January-March net profit surged 42 percent to 7.2 trillion won ($6.5 billion) from 5 trillion won a year earlier. That increase was despite booking a one-time charge against earnings related to settlement of its intellectual property battle with Apple. Analysts estimated the charge at $600 million.

Sales rose 17 percent to 52.9 trillion won. Operating profit was up 54 percent to 8.8 trillion won, in line with its preliminary results released earlier this month.

Profit was up 2 percent from the previous quarter's result, beating market expectations for a fall. Sales of the S III smartphone and the oversized handset called the Galaxy Note remained strong and shored up profit, Samsung said. It also spent less on marketing its mobile devices than it did in the previous quarter when competition heated up.

Samsung's IT and Mobile Communications division that makes smartphones, tablets, PCs and cameras reported 6.51 trillion won in operating income for the first quarter, up 56 percent from a year earlier and its highest since Samsung reorganized the division to merge PC and handset departments.

Samsung capitalized on global demand for smartphones with a range of mobile devices that come in a variety of screen sizes and prices, outpacing rivals including Apple Inc. and Nokia Corp.

As the S4 goes on sales several months before rival Apple introduces a new version of iPhone, analysts said Samsung's streak of record-setting profit will not stop any time soon.

"You can say it is like a snowball is rolling," said James Song, head of technology at Daewoo Securities. Song forecast Samsung's second quarter operating income to surpass 10 trillion won ($9 billion).

Market research firm IDC estimated that Samsung shipped 70.7 million smartphones during the first quarter, up 61 percent over a year earlier and capturing 33 percent market share. Apple, the second-largest smartphone maker, sold 37.4 million iPhones. Its market share fell to 17 percent from 23 percent a year earlier, IDC said.

Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, is also the world's largest maker of memory chips, televisions, mobile handsets and liquid crystal display panels.

The company's strong performance in the mobile market helped offset sluggish demand for TVs and a still weak recovery in display panel sales.

For the first time in recent years, Samsung refrained from increasing its annual capital expenditure on semiconductor and display panel production lines, a sign that it sees slower growth in demand for memory chips and display panels. Its annual capital expenditure for 2013 will be capped at 22.9 trillion won ($20.5 billion).

But Samsung said it will boost its spending on research and development even though it is already one of the largest R&D spenders. Its R&D expense was $2.97 billion during the first three months of this year, nearly three times more than Apple's $1.12 billion, according to financial information provider FactSet.

"Although market uncertainties from the European crisis and the slow global economic recovery are still lingering, we expect to increase R&D spending for strengthening our competitiveness ahead of planned new product launches," said Robert Yi, head of investor relations at Samsung.

Seo Won-seok, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said Samsung's businesses require heavy spending on research and development for future products, especially divisions that make electronic components.

At a Las Vegas trade show in January, Samsung showcased mobile handsets that use curved glasses, a first stage in what would eventually become flexible displays. Adopting more advanced technology is also crucial to lowering memory chip manufacturing costs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-26-AS-SKorea-Earns-Samsung-Electronics/id-a53caee6645d402895718e62c4d65f4f

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