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Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Where the Toys Come From: Inside Hasbro?s Model Workshop
Taliban attacks kill 9 people in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Insurgents shot six police officers dead at a checkpoint and a suicide bomber killed three civilians at a shopping bazaar in two attacks in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday.
The attacks came during a surge in hostilities as Afghanistan's spring fighting season begins. This year's is being closely watched because Afghan forces must operate with less support from the international military coalition. With foreign forces due to hand over combat responsibilities to the local forces next year, the current fighting is a test of their ability to take on the country's insurgency.
Reflecting the surge in violence, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office reported Sunday that insurgent-initiated attacks increased by 47 percent during the first quarter of 2013, compared to the same period last year. The U.S.-led NATO coalition has stopped releasing statistics on insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said the Afghan army carried out 2,209 military operations during a monthlong period ending Sunday. During that time, 467 insurgents and 107 soldiers were killed, and 362 militants were arrested, the ministry said in a report issued Sunday.
April has been the deadliest month this year for security forces and Afghan and foreign civilians. According to an Associated Press tally, 222 people have been killed in violence around the nation this month, including Sunday's nine fatalities.
The Taliban assault on the checkpoint came early Sunday in the Dayak district of Ghazni province, killing six police officers, wounding one and leaving one missing, said Col. Mohammad Hussain, Ghazni's deputy police chief. One of many Afghan local police forces was running the checkpoint. The forces are recruited at the village level to protect their townships from insurgents and other fighters, including criminals. The local forces are nominally under the control of the Afghan Interior Ministry.
On Friday, Taliban insurgents attacked a local police checkpoint in Andar, a district of Ghazni province neighboring Dayak. They killed 13 officers, according to Sidiq Sidiqi, the Interior Ministry spokesman.
The second Sunday attack hit Paktika province, which borders Ghazni. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a shopping bazaar around midday, killing three people and wounding five civilians and two police officers, said Mokhlis Afghan, the spokesman for the provincial governor. Among the dead was Asanullah Sadat, who stepped down as the district's governor two years ago.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. In an email to reporters, he said Taliban used the bomber to target Sadat because of his close relations with the Afghan government and the U.S.
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AP writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.
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Online: The ANSO report: www.ngosafety.org
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Follow Thomas Wagner on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/tjpwagner .
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-attacks-kill-9-people-afghanistan-120103968.html
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Monday, April 22, 2013
App Developer? Take the Vision Mobile Developer Economics Survey!
Developer? Take a 10-minute online survey and you could win great prizes! Results will be freely available in June via @visionmobile.
Our friends at Vision Mobile reached out to let us know they're once again running their Developer Economics survey.?
The Developer Economics research series, now in its 5th year, examines top mobile platforms, app monetization & many more key issues for developers today. The results from the surveys are released as publicly available reports.
If you're an app developer, take the new Developer Economics 10-minute survey, have your say on the latest trends in mobile development and you can also win great prizes! ?
Prizes this year include a Samsung Galaxy SIII, a BlackBerry Z10, Lumia 920, AR Drone, Nest thermostat and Nike Fuel band up for grabs!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/aFkK9QgGc3Y/story01.htm
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Finally, Revis a Buc (almost)
Getty ImagesWith the NFL Draft approaching, we?re taking a team-by-team look at the needs of each club. Up next is the team with the No. 30 overall selection, the Atlanta Falcons. They have a total of 11 picks, and aren?t afraid to make bold moves, so their picking somewhere north of 30 is a real possibility.
Defensive end: There?s already noise about the Falcons wanting to move up in the order, and it makes sense that their target would be a pass-rusher.
John Abraham was still producing right up until the time they released him, and they have to find someone to replace that production other than Osi Umenyiora, who has not produced at the same consistent level. If they can get into the top half of the first round, they can find someone in the Abraham mold, before the run starts.
Cornerback: This would be the other drastic need that could be the target for a move-up. It seems like forever ago they were three-deep with excellent players. But with Brent Grimes gone to Miami and and Dunta Robinson released and resurfaced in KC, they?re down to Asante Samuel and a bunch of guys.
Linebacker: You could probably run down the list of defensive positions, and the Falcons could stand to upgrade. Sean Weatherspoon is quite good, but the rest of their linebacking corps is fairly ordinary.
Tackle: The thinking is the release of Tyson Clabo opened the door for Lamar Holmes to start at right tackle, and that could work. But they still need cover here, particularly if newly rich left tackle Sam Baker goes back to the 2011 version instead of the 2012 salary-push version.
Guard: The retirement of Todd McClure leaves a big hole, but they could slide 2012 second-rounder Peter Konz over from right guard. But that leaves another vacancy. They have some in-house candidates, but need depth here.
As good as they are, they?re not as well-covered as you?d think. They have nothing to speak of in terms of depth on defense. Heck, they don?t even have a full complement of starting-caliber players on that side of the ball.
But their offensive skill-position talent is so good, it might not matter. As long as Matt Ryan, Steven Jackson, Julio Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez are together, the Falcons are going to be among the best in the NFC.
But until they get at least a little bit better on defense, it?s going to be hard for them to make the next step.
Their offseason efforts have focused on retaining their own, and making a few surgical signings of veterans who came looking for rings. Their team is good enough that 11 draft picks aren?t making their 53-man roster, so they might as well make some moves, and see if they can plug some starters in on defense.
Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/21/revis-deal-done-pending-physical/related/
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Sunday, April 21, 2013
Iraqis vote in first local ballot since U.S. withdrawal
By Patrick Markey
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A dozen small bombs exploded and mortar rounds landed near polling centers in Iraq on Saturday, wounding at least four people during voting in the country's first provincial elections since the departure of U.S. troops.
Two mortar rounds injured three voters and a policeman at a school used as a voting centre in Latifiya, south of Baghdad, soon after the start of the ballot that will measure parties' political strength before parliamentary elections in 2014.
Attacks have surged since the start of the year with a local al-Qaeda wing and Sunni Islamists stepping up their campaign to undermine the Shi'ite-led government and stoke confrontation among the country's combustible sectarian and ethnic mix.
Small bombs exploded in Tuz Khurmato, Tikrit and Samarra in the north and six more mortar rounds landed in a town near the southern city of Hilla, without causing any injuries, said police.
Iraqi politics is deeply split along sectarian lines with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government mired in crisis over how to share power between majority Shi'ite Muslims, Sunnis and Kurds who run their own autonomous enclave.
For Maliki, a strong showing by his Shi'ite State of Law alliance may open the way for a shot at a third term in 2014 elections when he has hinted at plans to abandon Iraq's unwieldy power-sharing deal to form a majority government.
Sunni rivals, deeply divided over how to work with his government, and the premier's Shi'ite rivals, anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the ISCI movement, will look to chip away at Maliki's sway over provincial councils.
Security was tight across Iraq with more than 8,000 hopefuls running for nearly 450 seats on provincial councils which select local governors. More than a dozen candidates, mostly Sunnis, were killed during campaigning.
Early turnout at polling stations in Baghdad, and cities like Basra, Tikrit and Baquba appeared light, according to Reuters reporters.
Many Iraqis are frustrated with insecurity, unemployment, rife corruption and the lack of basic services a decade after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein and helped trigger sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007.
Attacks on a Sunni and a Shi'ite mosque on Friday killed at least eight. A suicide bomber killed 32 people in a blast at a popular cafe in a mostly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad a day before.
Since American troops left in December 2011, Iraqi politics has been paralyzed by infighting over power-sharing agreements with Maliki's rivals accusing the Shi'ite premier of consolidating power at the expense of Sunni and Kurdish partners.
"I took part in past elections, but all those we elected did nothing for the people," said Ali Hussein Sharqi, voting in the southern oil hub of Basra. "We want people who will offer jobs to the jobless."
SUNNI DISCONTENT
Three provinces in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, run by ethnic Kurds since 1991, and the ethnically mixed, disputed city of Kirkuk, will not be voting on Saturday.
Washington weighed into the election process, asking the government not to alienate Sunni voters after the Cabinet postponed voting in two mostly Sunni provinces because local officials warned they could not provide security there.
Since December, tens of thousands of Sunni Muslim protesters have taken to the streets each week to demonstrate against what they say is the marginalization of their minority sect.
Election authorities say suspended voting in Anbar and Nineweh provinces may go ahead in a month.
But ten years after the invasion, many Iraqi Sunnis feel they have been sidelined by the country's majority Shi'ite leadership and discriminated against by Iraqi security forces and tough anti-terrorism laws.
"Suspending elections was the coup de grace for the demonstrations. We've as lost everything," said Maitham Jalal, a college student in Anbar province. "Elections are a legitimate right which was taken away by the government without any fear."
Sunni-backed Iraqiya block has struggled to stay united with its leadership split over how to manage relations with Maliki. Those divisions are likely to play out in the provincial election results.
"Overall the elections are likely to see Iraq stumble further along the trajectory on which is has already been headed for some time: to stratified, sectarian politics," Eurasia Group analyst Crispin Hawes wrote in a report.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Raheem Salman in Baghdad; Aref Mohammed in Basra; Editing by Stacey Joyce and Andrew Heavens)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraqis-vote-first-local-ballot-since-us-withdrawal-052956218.html
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No light at end of tunnel yet for euro zone
By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - An early peek this week at how the euro zone economy performed in April could cement the case for the next installment in an unprecedented campaign of monetary easing by the world's major central banks.
A preliminary survey of purchasing executives from the 17-country bloc is likely to furnish the new evidence of economic weakness that Jens Weidmann, the president of Germany's hard-line central bank, says is needed for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates.
The composite index derived from the survey by data providers Markit is likely to be unchanged at 46.5, well below the 50 threshold denoting expansion.
The euro zone economy, in short, remains dead in the water.
"We need more monetary stimulus. What that means to me is lower interest rates," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.
Weidmann is among those who believe the ECB's exact stance matters less than the fact that monetary policy is not being transmitted to all corners of the euro zone.
Borrowing costs on the struggling southern rim are thus much higher than in countries at the euro's core.
Zandi agreed that cutting the ECB's main 0.75 percent policy rate would not revive lending by banks, which badly needed strengthening. But lower interest rates would weaken the euro.
That would help exports, especially in Germany, which in turn was key to preserving popular support for emergency measures to stop the euro from breaking up, Zandi argued.
"The most important thing for keeping the euro zone together in the very near term is to make sure that the German economy remains solid and that unemployment remains low. You need the German population to be committed to the euro zone," he said.
EXPORT HEADWINDS
Germany's export-orientated economy has held up better than most of its euro zone peers, but a monthly business survey by the Munich IFO economics institute is likely to show a dip, according to economists polled by Reuters.
"When you look at the latest signals from China and the United States, the export growth prospects of German companies have deteriorated significantly," said Tobias Blattner, an economist with Daiwa Capital Markets in London.
As such, the ECB would be paying close attention to the latest purchasing managers' indexes not just from the euro zone but from the bloc's main partners. On a trade-weighted basis, these have fallen in the past couple of months.
Blattner expects a rate cut at May's ECB meeting. Although most ECB policymakers doubt it would make much difference, he said the symbolism would fan expectations of additional, less conventional steps to spur lending to the periphery.
"They all know that it needs to be accompanied, at the same time or possibly a month later, by some further non-standard measures," he said. "That's important. You cut rates and people say the next step must be something that will have an impact."
QUESTION MARKS OVER U.S. GROWTH
A pair of unexpectedly soft regional Federal Reserve surveys last week reinforced the view that yet another spring slowdown - the fourth in as many years - is unfolding in the United States.
That prospect is likely to take the shine off what promises to be a robust first-quarter GDP report on Friday.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the economy to have expanded at a 3.0 percent clip, up from 0.4 percent in the last three months of 2012, despite the drag of higher payroll taxes and looming across-the-board cuts in federal spending.
The consensus on Wall Street is for full-year growth of around 2 percent, but Jason Ware, chief analyst at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City, is penciling in an outcome closer to 2.5 percent.
"The economic pick-up, combined with sustainable gains in housing and business investment, should help propel the expansion through these government budget cuts that we're going to be dealing with," he said.
After a puny 88,000 increase in non-farm jobs in March, Ware expects the monthly pace of hiring to climb back to a range of 150,000 to 200,000.
The other big U.S. growth driver will be housing. The annual rate of housing starts jumped 7 percent in March to more than 1 million - a figure Ware called 'mind-boggling' given the depths from which the market is recovering - and sales of both new and existing homes are expected to post increases this week.
"Hiring and housing is the story so far," Ware said. "Those two events together help to repair household finances and that makes us reasonably sanguine about the outlook for the rest of the year."
(Editing by Toby Chopra)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-light-end-tunnel-yet-euro-zone-190208945--business.html
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Tom Cruise's best role: Maverick or Maguire?
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY
Maverick, or Jerry Maguire? The toothy "Top Gun" pilot, or the toothy sports agent who wants to show Cuba Gooding Jr. the money?
TriStar Pictures, Getty file
Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire," at left, and "Top Gun."
?
Tom Cruise has been playing heroes and hunks since the 1980s -- it's as natural to him as the daily commute is to us. He'll tackle another role this week, playing drone repairman Jack Harper in the futuristic world of a shattered Earth in the new movie "Oblivion."
But what's his #1 best role, the iconic character that simply screams Cruise? Let's run through the contenders.
Jon Furniss / AP
Early roles: Sometimes you just have to say ...
Sometimes, a first encounter never fades. Cruise had roles in "Taps," "The Outsiders," "All the Right Moves" and even "Endless Love" before he hit it big as high-schooler Joel Goodson in "Risky Business." But there's no doubt that it was Joel, with his Ray-Bans and his encounter with Guido the Killer Pimp, who cemented the image of Cruise as a handsome smoothie with charm to spare.
Serious drama, from brothers in arms to a new brother
Cruise didn't just reach for the easy, crowd-pleasing roles -- sometimes he played men who were struggling, internally and externally. In "Rain Man," he played car dealer Charlie Babbitt, who must come to terms with the autistic brother (Dustin Hoffman) he never knew. In "Born on the Fourth of July," he hid his magazine-cover looks to portray Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, confined to a wheelchair and disillusioned by the war he fought. And in "Magnolia," Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for the role of Frank, written especially for him by Paul Thomas Anderson. In his dramatic roles, Cruise found a new path -- the handsome guy who has to fall down before he can get up again stronger and smarter.
Poking fun at himself?
Is that Tom Cruise? Really? The star proved he could laugh at himself, and steal every scene he was in, when he played balding, dumpy Les Grossman ?in "Tropic Thunder." This image will never be the first mental picture we keep of Cruise, but it went a long way towards bringing back some fans who'd been turned off by the actor thanks to his Oprah couch-jumping and other public missteps. (Watch Grossman's famed dance here, note explicit lyrics in background.)
Action hero
There's no question Cruise looks like an action hero -- all except for his 5-foot-something height. But he measured up when he took on the "Mission: Impossible" franchise and the role of Ethan Hunt. Cruise especially shone in the sequel, "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," which featured some terrifying stunts off the world's tallest building, Dubai's?Burj Khalifa. And Cruise acquitted himself admirably as drifter hero "Jack Reacher" in the 2012 film based on Lee Child's books, although his height was an issue to fans of Child's novels, in which Reacher's height is a big part of his character.
Maverick vs. Maguire
Yet when it comes right down to it, two roles rise above the rest.
In 1986's?"Top Gun," Cruise's model looks and boyish charm helped him create headstrong Maverick, the naval aviator with the need for speed. A tragedy involving a friend shakes his world, but he battles back, with the help of new love Charlie (Kelly McGillis) and unexpected friendship from an unlikely corner (Val Kilmer's Iceman). In a way, the Maverick role was everything Cruise did best -- he was handsome, daring, reckless, beaten down by tragedy and resurrected by courage under fire. It's hard not to hear Cruise's name and picture the cocky thumbs-up pose from the "Top Gun" poster.
But a full decade later, Cruise took on the title role in "Jerry Maguire," and while he was just as cocky and handsome as ever, something had changed. This was a more adult Cruise, breaking out on his own as a sports agent due to a sudden attack of conscience. Cruise managed not one, not two, but three strong relationships in this film. Cuba Gooding Jr. demanded Cruise "show him the money," Renee Zellweger assured him "you had me at hello," and little Jonathan Lipnicki brought out his fatherly instincts.
Would Maverick have turned into Jerry Maguire 10 years down the line, with a different career under his belt and a little boy in his life? Maybe. Cruise is nothing if not consistent, and his roles, from the self-parodying Les Grossman to the boyish Joel Goodson, always somehow reflect the movie star and the man. Vote and tell us if Maverick, Jerry Maguire, or another role is Cruise's absolute best.
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