Stockholm shopping blasts kill one and injure two #Shopping #blasts #Stockholm

Stockholm shopping blasts kill one and injure two

One person has been killed and two others hurt by two blasts in the centre of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, amid reports of a bomb attack.

A car blew up near the busy shopping street of Drottninggatan and another blast followed nearby minutes later.
Swedish press reported that the second blast was a suicide bomber, but police said no cause had yet been determined.
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said a "terrorist attack" which could have been "truly catastrophic" had failed.
Tweeting on the blasts, he described them as "most worrying".
A local news agency, TT, said it had received a threatening e-mail shortly before the blasts, which called for "mujahideen", or Islamist fighters, to rise up in Sweden and Europe.
Attacking the country over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks as well as Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan, the e-mail promised Swedes would "die like our brothers and sisters".
Sweden has some 500 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as part of the international military force.
In November, Sweden raised its terror alert level from low to elevated because of a "shift in activities" among Swedish-based groups thought to be plotting attacks.
'Pipe bombs'

Police forensics officers examined the area around the body

The two blasts both hit central Stockholm as the city's streets were busy with people out Christmas shopping.
The car exploded at 1700 (1600 GMT) on Saturday and the second blast occurred 10 to 15 minutes later on a street about 300m (300yds) away, police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said.
A man was found dead near the site of the second explosion. Two people with minor injuries were also found nearby.
Asked if the dead man had somehow blown himself up, Mr Lindgren said: "It is possible."
Unconfirmed reports in Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper said the man was carrying pipe bombs, as well as a backpack full of nails.
Another police spokesman, Ulf Johansson, told the BBC police would not rush to judgement.
"We need more investigation and of course we need more witnesses to give us the information of what actually has happened," he said.
He said the car had contained gas canisters and had "exploded with a series of minor explosions".
The identities of the dead man and those injured have not been released.
'Stomach injury'
A former employee of the Associated Press news agency, Gabriel Gabiro, was close to the second blast.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There was a man lying on the ground with blood coming out in the area of his belly”

End Quote Gabriel Gabiro Witness

"I saw some people crying, perhaps from the shock," he told the agency.

"There was a man lying on the ground with blood coming out in the area of his belly, and with his personal belongings scattered around him."
A trained medic named only as Pascal also said the man appeared to have a stomach injury.
"It looked as if the man had carried something that exploded in his stomach," he said on the website of newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
"He had no injuries to the face or body in general and the shops around were not damaged."

Zuckerberg (#facebook) to Give Away Half His Wealth

Zuckerberg to Give Away Half His Wealth.Warren Buffet and Bill Gates announced today that Mark Zuckerberg, among others, have signed up for the Giving Pledge, which commits signatories to giving away at least 50 percent of their wealth by the age of 65. Most of Zuckerbergs assets, of course, are tied up until Facebook goes public. To pledge to give away your billions before you even get it is impressive, if not slightly hubristic.

Other new members on the list include investors Carl Icahn and Michael Milken, as well as former AOL CEO Steve Case. The full list of new members is:

• Michael and Lori Milken
• Dustin Moskovitz
• Mark Zuckerberg
• Joe and Rika Mansueto
• Nicolas Berggruen
• Ted Forstmann
• Carl Icahn
• Sidney Kimmel
• Tom and Cindy Secunda
• Charles Zegar and Merryl Snow Zega
• Lee and Toby Cooperman
• Duncan and Nancy MacMillan
• David and Barbara Green
• Denny Sanford
• Lyda Hill
• George P. Mitchell
• Jean and Steve Case

At some point, those billionaires not on the list are going to start to look pretty suspect.

Airbus's Leahy 'investigated for insider trading' #Airbus

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Airbus's Leahy 'investigated for insider trading'

A top executive at European plane maker Airbus has been placed under formal investigation for insider trading by French authorities, reports suggest.
Commercial director John Leahy sold shares in parent company EADS before their price fell sharply in 2006, AFP and Reuters news agencies report.
French authorities are investigating whether the sale was triggered by inside information, they say.
Mr Leahy has denied the accusations in the past.
An independent investigation last year commissioned by France's financial watchdog, the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), looked into the allegations that a number of executives at Airbus and EADS profited from inside information.
The allegations suggested they sold shares ahead of an announcement there would be delays in deliveries of Airbus's A380 plane.
Once these delays were made public, shares in EADS fell sharply.
The AMF investigation cleared all 17 executives of insider trading.

 

UK govt site next on WikiLeaks radar

London, Dec 11: WikiLeaks supporters enjoyed media-attention when they successfully hacked the Swedish government's website. Now, they have threatened to hack the UK govt site. The hackervists, as they are called plans to bring down the govt site if WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange is extradited to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault charges.

The probable attacks have been named 'Operation Payback' and is heralded by close to 2000 dedicated hackers. This is soon after they sabotaged the websites of MasterCard, Visa and PayPal.

The hackers who call themselves 'Anonymous' intends to hack the British govt site and according to Gregg Housh, an American Internet activist and ex-WikiLeaks employee said: "They will go after the weakest links, because they want to see results. They will probably test a few sites and then decide."

Anonymous also plans to hack Amazon, the online retailer's website. They have already succeeded in hacking high-profile websites of U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman and former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

A 16 year old boy was arrested in Hague on Dec 10 and has confessed over allegations that he took part in the cyber attacks. Officials have been hounding people who are connected to WikiLeaks and are taking precautionary measures to curb the damage caused by the whistleblower site.

Julian Assange is expected to appeal for bail before the City of Westminster magistrate's court on Tuesday.

Microsoft and HP team up to introduce a slate computer #Microsoft #HP #ipad

Microsoft and HP team up to introduce a slate computer

 

 

At the CES, Steve Ballmer presented a tablet developed jointly with HP and has re-presentation of Natal Project.
The CEO also mentioned Microsoft Bing and promoted a HTC phone with Windows Mobile.

Nine years after unveiling the first Tablet PC, Microsoft renewed the attack on this market. This time, the tablet that Steve Ballmer presented using the term slate to better differentiate it from its predecessors, abandoned the pen for the benefit of multi-touch. With a size of 8 / 9 inches, the object in question runs on Windows 7 and uses both portrait and landscape that has various "modes": films, eBook and PC.

Steve Ballmer is believed to be almost as powerful as a PC. He said the device is "perfect for reading, surfing the web and view multimedia content on the go." He, then, demonstrated this slate.

While Ballmer insisted especially on the model of HP, there were two other aircraft on scene, including one from Archos. Microsoft has not said anything about the technical features of the slate of HP. It should arrive in the market in the middle of the year.

With this technology the player does not need any enhancement to control his avatar; his actions are analyzed by a camera placed on the screen and translated into movement on it. Strictly speaking, the tennis player for example can even seize his real racket.

 

The Brand New IOS 4.2 #Apple #imac #OS

The Brand New IOS 4.2

 

Despite a number of intermediate versions, the updated IOS is bringing major shows to the iPad.
This is a serious makeover ... even the iPhone and iPod touch also benefit!

Until now, it was separated into two branches, one for the iPhone and iPod touch, and one for the iPad. IOS 4.2 represents the reunification of the mobile operating system from Apple over its entire range mobile products. 

This is a crucial step for the tablet, which users suffered in silence, as it did not have the features of iOS 4!

The main novelties were destined for the iPad ... but luckily, Apple has kept it for everyone. The two main innovations concern all touch devices, and allow Apple to weave the fabric of its eco-system mobile even tighter.

AirPlay is a technology that allows for wireless transmission of audio and video on compatible devices.

Several manufacturers of speakers will offer their accessories that will be compatible with it, but Cupertino is throwing the case with the second generation of Apple TV!

Through an update of the housing in version 4.1, it is now possible to stream audio, video and photos from an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad on TV. AirPlay is available for any content using the media player IOS, including videos within the browser or YouTube.

WikiLeaks activists rally supporters in several nations

Pro-free-speech rallies are scheduled in several international cities Saturday to protest the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is being held in a prison on the outskirts of London on suspicion of sex crimes unrelated to his controversial website.

A Spanish website that supports WikiLeaks' cause urged protesters Saturday to gather in the capitals of Spain, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, the Netherlands and Colombia to demand Assange's release.
"We seek the liberation of Julian Assange in United Kingdom territory," the website said.
The website called on protesters to gather at 6 p.m. (noon ET) in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, and other Spanish cities.

Facebook privacy settings finally go mobile

Editor's Note: Amy Gahran writes about mobile tech for CNN.com. She is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and media consultant whose blog, Contentious.com, explores how people communicate in the online age.

(CNN) -- In response to user complaints about its privacy settings, Facebook in October debuted its privacy dashboard. But you could only use it from a computer.

This week, Facebook has made it easier for users to check and change their privacy settings from mobile devices, too.

In a December 8 blog post, Facebook product manager Rose Yao explained: "Now you can see a detailed view of the information you've shared with various applications and websites and adjust your settings on the go. A full list of all the applications you use, along with when they last accessed your information, is now available in the Applications and Websites section of your privacy settings."

This is an expansion of the mobile privacy controls Facebook rolled out this August, which apparently didn't give users quite as much control over privacy for specific Facebook applications as the updated mobile privacy controls do.

So far, this privacy control upgrade seems to be available only via theFacebook mobile web site and not through the popular Facebook smartphone apps. I just checked the Facebook app for Android and could not access my privacy settings there.

Hopefully later Facebook will roll out this feature to its smartphone apps, as it did for Facebook Places. Improving users' mobile access to their privacy settings is pretty important, since last month Facebook rolled out a single mobile sign-on for applications.

Inside Facebook's Josh Constine explained: "Apps which integrate with Facebook on iPhone and Android will query the Facebook for iPhone or Facebook for Android app to check to make sure a user is signed in. If they are, users simply need to click 'login' in the app to access it.

If they are logged out of Facebook via their phone's native app, they'll be prompted to log in to Facebook, but won't be making an app-specific Facebook login."

For example, "A big barrier to trying a Groupon is not wanting to sign-in or sign-up. Now users can quickly sign-in through Facebook and instantly buy a Groupon," wrote Constine.

Given that social media is one of the most popular things people do on their cell phones (both smartphones and web-enabled feature phones), it's important to be able to access and control your privacy settings wherever you are -- especially since Facebook is getting more integrated with other mobile apps.

Often the tradeoff for digital convenience is privacy. If privacy matters to you, it pays to know how to monitor and control your privacy as much as possible.

iPad 2 News: Next Generation to Include iPad Mini?

Several months ago, there were rumors from Taiwan that Apple was working on a mini-sized version of the iPad, but Steve Jobs scoffed at the idea. Now talk of a smaller iPad is heating up again.

Way back last summer, DigiTimes reported that some Asian suppliers of parts for Apple devices had taken orders for 7” screens that would presumably used for iPads. The Taiwan-based paper predicted that the second generation of iPads would include two models: the original model with the 9.7” display and a smaller version with a 7” screen. Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw made a similar forecast, seeing an iPad with a smaller screen and dual cameras.

Then in October, Jim Dalrymple of The Loop reported that Apple had already developed a 7” iPad at the same time as the 9.7” original model, but opted not to release the mini version at the same time, stating “it’s already done,” and adding: “Why did Apple choose to go with the larger model instead? Only Steve Jobs knows that for sure. Perhaps Apple didn’t want comparisons to the iPhone or iPod touch. Even though those comparisons were made with the larger iPad, they would have been even more prevalent with a 7-inch model.”

Now it’s obvious that the iPad has established an identity of its own, so 2011 might be the most opportune time to introduce an addition to the line. The popularity of small e-readers like the Kindle and the mini-sized Samsung Galaxy Tab prove there is a market for a smaller device. Now there are more reports from supply chain sources claiming that Apple is developing a device that is “about half the size of the current tablet computer, and will include front- and back-mounted cameras.”

So there are a bunch of rumors pointing towards Apple unveiling a pair of new iPads for 2011—but none of them are from Apple. Steve Jobs has scoffed at the idea of a mini-iPad, claiming the screen would be “too small to express the software.” Of course, he’s changed his mind before. And he’s also lied to throw us off the track of new products before they’re released.

10 Apps that make magic on your iPad

New York: When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad and referred to it as a magical device, lots of people snickered.

Star Walk for the iPad will label constellations if a user holds the iPad toward the night sky.

Silly people.

Most iPad owners will tell you that it can indeed inspire the kind of astonishment you might have felt while watching your first magic show -- that is, if the device is properly loaded.

Here are my 10 favorite apps, plus a few extras to make the iPad magic happen:

IWORK ($30, or $10 each for Pages, Keynote or Numbers): Since you can't type easily on an iPad, it may never replace your laptop. But with this software, which is made by Apple, you won't need to rush to your other computers to edit Microsoft Office files. The Pages app is great for revising and exporting text files; the Numbers app is good (and getting better) with spreadsheets; and Keynote is a serviceable complement to PowerPoint.

AIR DISPLAY ($10): Turn your iPad screen into an extra PC monitor with Air Display, and never again miss a new Twitter post, Facebook post or stock market move.

FLIPBOARD (free): Twitter and Facebook rely on "new stuff on top" layouts, with links that send you elsewhere to see what people are fussing about. Flipboard rationalizes this editorial insanity. The app plops your Facebook feed into a magazine format, showing all the stories your friends recommended, with photos and updates. You can create other personalized magazines from Twitter feeds, on topics of your choice.

STAR WALK ($5): A jaw-dropping astronomy app. Hold the iPad toward the night sky and it labels everything. You can also preview the movement of tonight's sky, or witness a particular night sky from centuries ago. Star Walk is billed as an educational app, but it's as entertaining as anything on the market.

SKETCHBOOK PRO ($8): Experienced artists can create masterpieces with this program. Hobbyists and children can happily lose themselves for hours. The app is powerful, yet fairly intuitive.

NETFLIX: (free, but requires a paid Netflix subscription): The iPad renders video beautifully, and Netflix streams a nearly limitless catalog of movies and TV shows to the device. Fast, easy, addicting.

FRUIT NINJA HD ($5): On the iPad's big screen, this game will give you more of a jolt than Angry Birds. (But do yourself a favor and download that one too.) The task: swipe your finger to slice flying fruit. Hit a bomb and your ninja days are numbered. A recent update added online multi-player functionality.

INSTAPAPER ($5): Great articles typically appear when you have no time to read them. Instapaper quickly stores links, so you can read the full articles later, from within the app. Instapaper also remembers articles you've saved with the free online version. Some will find setting up the service on an iPad frustrating, but it is worth it.

PANDORA RADIO (free): Fans of the personalized radio service will appreciate the big-screen format, which is great for reading liner notes and browsing artists and songs. The music selections and ads (if you don't pay for upgraded service) are the same as on the iPhone or online version.

EVERNOTE (free): Another bigger-is-better entry. Evernote stores notes, photos and voice memos, so you can retrieve them later on any Web-connected device. The service offers a fair amount of free storage, but you can skip the limit for $45 a year.

Honorable Mention

Reuters News Pro (free): Among the best news apps, it will cache articles for offline reading; Photoshop Express (free): Import your photos and crop, filter, rotate and change them to suit your tastes. Great for youngsters, too; Wikipanion (free): An iPad-centric approach to surfing Wikipedia pages; AirCoaster ($1): Design and ride 3-D roller coasters, with amazing graphics; Magic Piano ($2): Make music with whimsically elegant keyboards; Scrabble ($10): The wordsmith's standby, nicely rendered for the iPad. (Use your iPhone or iPod Touch as tile racks).

Orbital HD ($3): A game that will engage your brain, test your reflexes and kill many hours of your time; Weather HD ($1): No matter the forecast, it's a treat to read; Twitter for iPad (free): Twitter's official app delivers an efficient, simple experience; Skype (free): Make free (or cheap) calls with your iPad; Epicurious (free): Professionally tested recipes, in big-screen glory; Real Racing HD ($10): Take the wheel and steer the iPad to victory; NPR (free): Catch up on the news and your favorite NPR programs, or read top articles; TextPlus (free): Free texting; The Elements ($14): Could make you want to take high school chemistry again; Dragon Dictation (free): Speak your mind, and the app delivers a text message or e-mail, ready for sending.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/10-apps-that-make-magic-on-your-ipad-71972?cp

What would you want in a new iPad?

 

What would you want in a new iPad?

People are still waiting to unwrap their first-generation iPads for Christmas and news is already leaking about what features Apple plans to include on its next version of the popular tablet computer.

One of Apple’s component suppliers confirmed the retooled iPad will come equipped with two cameras, one mounted on the rear for photography and another on the front presumably meant to enable FaceTime video chatting. Another said the revamped model will be slimmer, lighter and boast a better resolution screen display.

Google Cr-48 Chromebook a peak into one-stop mobile solution

 

Google Cr-48 Chromebook a peak into one-stop mobile solution.

Huge tech companies like Google and Apple can do things that no other company can. They have enough money, resources, time to truly take a flutter. To try something new that the market hasn’t demonstrated an existing demand for. Even better, to tackle an idea that’s been kicking around for a long time but which no company could gamble on.

Google has taken the wraps off of the new Chrome Web Store and Chrome OS. We’re already familiar with the Chrome browser: it’s Google’s successful attempt to build a new browser built on speed and reliability. The new Store evolves Chrome into something more than just a container for content from your favorite websites. It turns this browser into a runtime environment for sophisticated desktop-style apps. And with Chrome OS, that simple browser window will become your entire operating system; your machine’s whole digital world.

But truly, Google’s big media event was all about the ambitious new Chrome OS. It’s not just a new operating system, but a new kind of operating system. It’s so different that it seems like it can only create a whole new form of popular computing, or fail miserably and blow away within a year of its release.

Which usually means that a company is truly on to something.

French President Sarkozy and his wife Carla visit Muslim Dargah and pray for son

French President Nicolas SarkozyFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla BruniCarla Bruni are in India on a 4 days' visit. They landed in Bangalore yesterday and from Bangalore they proceeded to Delhi. After visiting Taj Mahal in Agra on Saturday, they visited Fatepur Sikri today.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, who got married in February 2008, reached the Fatehpur Sikri dargah of saint Salim Chisthi at about 3:40 pm today and was welcomed by Peer Zada Rais Mian Chisthi, the Sajjadanashin of the dargah, along with his two sons. The dargah became famous after its peer Sheikh Salim Chisthi had blessed the Mughal King Akbar with a child.

Both of them walked barefoot to the dargah with their heads covered and prayed for a son just like Mughal Emperor Akbar did centuries ago.

The French First Couple do not have any child after their marriage in 2008. But, Sarkozy has three sons and Carla one through their previous marriages.