Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Kanye West goes Gospel with Easter prayer track


NEW YORK | Rap superstar Kanye West is showing his religious side by releasing a prayer in the form of a Gospel track to celebrate Easter.

Entitled “Ultralight Prayer,” the Easter song consists of inspirational spoken word by leading Gospel artist Kirk Franklin set to snippets of a church choir, with only passing resemblance to mainstream hip-hop.

“Father, this prayer is for everyone that feels they’re not good enough,” Franklin says, building up to a rousing, “That’s why we need a little more — faith!”

Franklin’s prayer first appeared in condensed form on West’s song “Ultralight Beam,” which opens his latest album “The Life of Pablo.”

“Ultralight Beam,” which featured prominent Chicago artist Chance the Rapper, blends mellow hip-hop and Gospel as West reflects on his faith, with the title an apparent metaphor for a connection to Heaven.

West — best known in pop culture for his flamboyant self-confidence and marriage to reality television star Kim Kardashian — has often spoken of his Christianity, with his first album “The College Dropout” featuring the hit “Jesus Walks.”

West gave out his latest track for free on SoundCloud, a frequent outlet for the prolific rapper who recently vowed to record three albums a year.

But West put out “The Life of Pablo” exclusively on streaming service Tidal and, in a sharp break with the conventional concept of an album release, has continually fine-tuned it since it went live.

source: interaksyon.com

Monday, March 28, 2016

Sweden limits mortgage loans to...105 years


STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Swedish lawmakers adopted Wednesday a law limiting mortgage loans to 105 years as the Scandinavian nation seeks to come to grips with high property prices and debt levels.

There had previously been no legal limit on the duration of mortgages, and in fact many Swedish homeowners have been taking loans which only their grandchildren would have a chance to pay off.

The practice developed as a strategy to cope with high property prices as a longer term means monthly payments are lower. But inheritors are left with repaying the balance of the mortgage, often by selling the home.

Swedish regulators calculated in 2013 that the average mortgage term was around 140 years.

Nearly one-third of mortgages issued in 2014 allowed borrowers to repay only interest.

New mortgages will have a 105-year repayment limit as borrowers will be required to reimburse a minimum amount of the loan capital each year, after a five-year grace period on loans for new homes.

"It is important that we have a solid culture" of repayment, the chairman of the parliament's finance committee, Social-Democrat Fredrik Olovsson, was quoted as saying by the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Swedish banks opposed the law.

"It isn't good for the finances of households as it will make mortgages more expensive and the terms not as good. And it isn't good for financial stability," the head of Swedish Bankers' Association, Hans Lindberg, told the financial daily Dagens Industri.

Housing price inflation has resulted in Swedish households being among the most indebted in Europe. Mortgage holders on average have a debt that is 366 percent their annual income.

source: interaksyon.com

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Tinder's Swipe the Vote gives users political 'match' in US presidential campaign


WASHINGTON DC - Tinder made a name for itself by getting users to "swipe" right or left to find a date. Now it wants to use that idea in the US presidential campaign.

The mobile dating app on Wednesday launched a feature called "Swipe the Vote" that allows users to respond to questions and find a political "match."

Questions include "Keep same-sex marriage legal?" and "Drill for oil and gas in the US?" and users are asked to swipe right or left depending on their answer.

The feature, developed with the nonprofit group Rock the Vote, aims to boost political engagement among young Americans and help them learn more about key issues. Those who want more information can tap on a question and see the details.

"Once you've swiped through ten of the hottest issues, you'll be matched with the candidate who best matches your views," Tinder said on its blog.

"We'll also show you how you compare with other candidates, too! From there, you can share who you matched with on social and -- most importantly -- easily register to vote with Rock the Vote."

The launch comes as some grassroots political activists, notably young women, are reportedly using Tinder to send messages to their matches promoting candidates such as Democrat Bernie Sanders or Republican Marco Rubio, who has now suspended his campaign.

"We've been amazed by the amount of users expressing their political views with matches during this presidential campaign," Tinder said on its blog.

"That's why we decided to build Swipe the Vote."

source: interaksyon.com

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl backs teenage band in neighborhood conflict over noise


LONDON, United Kingdom - US rock star Dave Grohl weighed in to support an unsigned English teenage band on Wednesday after they were prevented from practicing in a family garage due to local noise restrictions.

The Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer penned a letter to the local council in Cornwall, southwest England, after the four members of rock metal band Black Leaves of Envy appealed for his support.

"That's the story of Nirvana basically, young musicians starting off in a garage," 17-year-old Adam Jones, lead guitarist and singer with the group, told AFP.

"It's pretty surreal, we sent the letter off to ask for his support... We were all shocked when we got the reply."

Jones said the band members, all aged between 15 and 17, had been unable to practice for months as letters from the council threatened steep fines if they broke a noise limit of 30-40 decibels -- about the level of a fridge humming.

In his letter, which was published on Foo Fighter social media accounts and quickly shared by thousands, Grohl stressed the importance of allowing young musicians to practice and urged Cornwall Council to reconsider the rules.

"My name is Dave Grohl, and I'm writing on behalf of the local music group Black Leaves of Envy," he wrote.

"It has been brought to my attention that the band is having difficulty functioning within the current noise restrictions placed upon them by the Cornwall Council."

Grohl recalled the importance of music of a creative outlet that helped him through "difficult years" growing up in Springfield, Virginia.

"For musicians that lack the resources to rehearse in professional facilities, a garage or basement is the only place they have to develop their talent and passion," he wrote.

"For the sake of your local band Black Leaves of Envy, and for the generations of young musicians that they may eventually inspire, I ask you reconsider the restrictions put upon the volume of their private rehearsal space."

Cornwall Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman previously told local press that "certain activities are not appropriate for the area in which they occur" but that it would work with all parties to resolve any issues.

Black Leaves of Envy released their first record, an EP of four songs, in late 2015 and have played some small shows around their town of Helston.

"It's amazing to have someone with Grohl's weight back us," Jones said.

"We wrote our first EP in that garage and without having that rehearsal time and space we'd be nowhere."

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

No red carpet for ‘Batman v Superman’ London premiere after Brussels attacks


Movie studio Warner Bros went ahead with Tuesday’s London premiere of “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” its new superhero movie, but skipped the traditional red carpet press interviews following the attacks in Brussels.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of recent terrorist attacks, their families and the communities impacted around the world. Rather than yield to terror, we’ve decided to join the film’s fans and move forward with the London premiere of ‘Batman v. Superman’ this evening,” Warner Bros. said in a statement.

The movie, which stars Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, is due to open in movie theaters around the world this weekend.

It is one of the biggest movie launches so far this year and is expected to bring in some $300 million at the global box office on its opening weekend, according to analyst predictions.

The London premiere took place in the city’s Leicester Square entertainment hub where Affleck, Cavill and other stars turned up, posed for photos, and signed autographs for hundreds of fans.

At least 30 people were killed and some 230 injured in suicide bomb attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Britain, along with other European states, announced extra security measures on Tuesday following the Brussels attacks.

source: interaksyon.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

At least 13 dead, 35 hurt in Brussels airport blasts



Brussels, Belgium - At least 13 persons have been reported dead and 35 others injured after two explosions were heard at Brussels Airport on Tuesday, Belgian media reported, even as Maalbeek train station staff also reported explosions, as Belgian authorities raised the country's terrorism alert from three to the maximum four.

Initial reports indicate one person dead at the airport blast scene. An airport source told journalists that staff have reinforced security at the airport.

Meanwhile, an explosion occurred at a metro station close to the European Union's institutions in the Belgian capital, subway staff told AFP. At least 15 persons were initially reported as injured.

The Belgium crisis center broadcast an advisory telling Brussels residents to "stay where you are".

The blast occurred shortly after 0800 GMT, in the morning rush hour, at Maalbeek station. TV images showed black smoke billowing from the station entrance.

The metro operator later said the service was being closed down.

The airport blast occurred shortly after 0800 GMT, in the morning rush hour, at Maalbeek station. TV images showed black smoke billowing from the station entrance.

The explosions in Brussels Tuesday are "an attack against democratic Europe," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said.

"It is an attack against democratic Europe. We will never accept that terrorists attack our open societies," he told news agency TT in a statement, while his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen denounced the blasts on Twitter as a "despicable attack".

Dutch counter-terrorism officials said Tuesday they were boosting security at national airports and tightening controls on the southern border with Belgium amid a series of blasts in Brussels.

"Out of precaution we are taking a number of additional measures in the Netherlands," the Dutch coordinator for terrorism and security said, adding there would be "extra police patrols at Schipol, Rotterdam and Eindhoven and border controls on the southern border".

Security measures have been reinforced at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris following Tuesday's bombings in Brussels, an airport source told AFP.

A full deployment of security officials was underway at all eight terminals of the international airport and its two railway stations, with reinforced checks on trains arriving from Brussels, said the source.

Images on the website of public broadcaster RTBF showed smoke rising from the terminal building, where the windows had been shattered.

The broadcaster said the airport blasts hit shortly after 8:00am (0700 GMT) and that regional authorities had gone into emergency mode, with all flights in and out of the airport halted.



Image (above) posted on Twitter by The Telegraph (@Telegraph) shows smoke rising from the terminal building at Brussels Airport.

There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the blasts or of any injuries, but RTBF cited a witness who said they had seen several wounded people.

Images showed people fleeing from the terminal building.

The blasts come days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels on Friday of Saleh Abdeslam, prime suspect in the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people in November, after four months on the run. Watch this video below, compiled by Chad de Guzman, InterAksyon.com:

source: interaksyon.com

Citing new lead, US govt draws back in battle with Apple


LOS ANGELES - The US Justice Department on Monday filed a request to postpone a crucial hearing with Apple on accessing the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino attackers, citing new leads in the case.

"On Sunday, March 20, 2016, an outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking (Syed) Farook's iPhone," prosecutors said in a filing.

"Testing is required to determine whether it is a viable method that will not compromise data on Farook's iPhone.

"If the method is viable, it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple Inc. set forth in the All Writs Act Order in this case."

Prosecutors requested that Tuesday's hearing before a federal judge in California be cancelled in order to allow time for testing the new method, and proposed filing a status report with the court by April 5.

The high-stakes case has pitted Apple against the FBI, which sought the tech giant's help in unlocking the iPhone of Farook, who, along with his wife, was behind the December 2 terror attack in San Bernardino that left 14 people dead.

source: interaksyon.com

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Suicide bomber kills four, wounds 36 in Istanbul shopping district


ISTANBUL - A suicide bomber killed four people on Saturday in a busy shopping district in the heart of Istanbul, pushing the death toll from four separate suicide attacks in Turkey this year to more than 80.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the blast was "inhumane" and would not stop Turkey, which has been targeted by Kurdish and Islamic State militants, from fighting "centers of terrorism".

Israel said two of its citizens died in the attack, Washington said two Americans had been killed and a Turkish official said one victim was Iranian, suggesting that some of the dead may have had dual nationality.

The blast, which also wounded at least 36 people, was a few hundred meters from an area where police buses are often stationed. It sent panicked shoppers scurrying into alleys off Istiklal Street, a long pedestrian avenue lined with international stores and foreign consulates.

"There is information that it is an attack carried out by an ISIS member, but this is preliminary information, we are still checking it," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters, using another name for Islamic State.

He said a third Israeli may have died. Israel also said 11 of its citizens had been wounded while Ireland said "a number" of Irish were hurt.

The attack will raise further questions about the ability of NATO member Turkey to protect itself against a spillover of violence from the war in neighboring Syria.

Turkey is battling a widening Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, which it sees as fueled by the territorial gains of Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria, and has also blamed some of the recent bombings on Islamic State militants who crossed from its southern neighbor.

"No center of terrorism will reach its aim with such monstrous attacks," Davutoglu said in a written statement. "Our struggle will continue with the same resolution and determination until terrorism ends completely."

Three suspects

Germany had shut its diplomatic missions and schools on Thursday, citing a specific threat. US and other European embassies had warned their citizens to be vigilant ahead of Newroz celebrations this weekend, a spring festival largely marked by Kurds that has turned violent in the past.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Two senior officials said the attack could have been carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), fighting for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast, or by an Islamic State militant.

A PKK offshoot claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings in the capital Ankara over the past month which killed 66 people. Islamic State was blamed for a suicide bombing in Istanbul in January which killed at least 12 German tourists.

One of the officials said Saturday's bomber, who also died in the blast, had planned to hit a more crowded location but was deterred by the police presence.

"The attacker detonated the bomb before reaching the target point because they were scared of the police," the official said, declining to be named as the investigation is ongoing.

Another official said investigations were focusing on three possible suspects, all of them male and two of them from the southern city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border. There was no further confirmation of this.

Armed police sealed off the shopping street where half a dozen ambulances gathered. Forensic teams in white suits searched for evidence as police helicopters buzzed overhead.

"I saw a body on the street. No one was treating him but then I saw someone who appeared to be a regular citizen trying to do something to the body. That was enough for me and I turned and went back," one resident told Reuters.

Istiklal Street, usually thronged with shoppers at weekends, was quieter than normal as more people are staying home after a series of deadly bombings.

Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said 36 people had been wounded, seven of them in serious condition. At least 24 of the wounded were foreigners, according to Istanbul's governor.

International condemnation


Turkey is still in shock from a suicide car bombing last Sunday at a crowded transport hub in the capital Ankara which killed 37 people and a similar bombing in Ankara last month in which 29 died. A PKK offshoot claimed responsibility for both.

The latest attack brought widespread condemnation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on an official visit to Istanbul, said it showed "the ugly face of terrorism". France condemned it as "despicable and cowardly".

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg described it as "another terrorist outrage against innocent civilians", while the U.S. State Department said it was the latest "indefensible violence targeting innocent people throughout Turkey".

The Kurdish-rooted opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) condemned the bombing. The PKK's umbrella group said it opposed targeting civilians and condemned attacks on them.

A 2-1/2-year PKK ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence in the southeast since the 1990s. Hundreds have since died.

Separately, a police officer and a soldier died in clashes with militants in the southeastern city of Nusaybin, security sources said.

In its armed campaign in Turkey, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces but recent bombings suggest it could be shifting tactics.

At the height of the PKK insurgency in the 1990s, the Newroz festival often saw clashes between Kurdish protesters and security forces. (Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun, Asli Kandemir, Humeyra Pamuk, Daren Butler, Parisa Hafezi in Turkey, John Irish in Paris, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Hans-Edzard Busemann in Berlin and Idrees Ali in Washington)

source: interaksyon.com

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam captured in Brussels


BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, Europe's most wanted man, was wounded and captured in a dramatic raid by armed police in the Belgian capital on Friday.

Abdeslam, 26, and four other suspects were arrested in the gritty Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, where the Franco-Moroccan allegedly helped plan the November 13 attacks in which 130 people died and 350 were injured.

Abdeslam was lightly wounded in the leg, prosecutors said. France said it would swiftly seek his extradition.

"The battle against terrorism does not end tonight, even though this is a victory," French President Francois Hollande told a news conference in Brussels with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

"I think of the victims of November 13, because Salah Abdeslam was directly linked to the preparation, the organization and unfortunately the perpetration of these attacks."

Hollande, whose embattled presidency will be defined by his response to the worst terror attacks on French soil, said Paris would request Abdeslam's extradition from Belgium "as rapidly as possible."

Michel, who rushed out of an EU summit for a crisis meeting with Hollande, said Abdeslam's capture was "extremely important in the battle for democracy against this abominable form of extremism."

The two leaders received the congratulations of US President Barack Obama who reaffirmed a "shared commitment" to "degrading and destroying" Islamic State.

Also arrested was a man known under the fake name of Amine Choukri who also used a false Syrian name, Monir Ahmed Alaaj.

Abdeslam and the so-called Choukri were fingerprinted by police in Germany on October 5, one month before the attacks.

Choukri could also be a so-called Soufiane Kayal who was pulled over by police on the Austrian border with Hungary in September, again with Abdeslam.

The only man known for sure to be still be on the run is Mohamed Abrini who was filmed with Abdeslam two days before the attacks at a filling station on a motorway close to Paris.

Last survivor
Former small-time criminal Abdeslam is believed to be the last surviving member of the 10-man jihadist team that carried out attacks on the Bataclan rock venue, restaurants, bars and the Stade de France stadium.

He apparently fled by car to his hometown Brussels the day after the rampage, having refused to blow himself up, and is believed to have spent much if not all of the subsequent four months in the city.

His brother Brahim carried out one of the suicide bomb attacks in Paris and was buried in a quiet ceremony in Brussels on Thursday, the day before Salah was captured.

Prosecutors said special forces raided a house in Molenbeek on Friday because of evidence found in an operation in Brussels on Tuesday, in which a Paris-linked suspect died in a gun battle with police and two other people escaped.

One of Abdeslam's fingerprints was found at the scene of Tuesday's raid, sparking the huge manhunt that led to his capture.

A witness told AFP the operation began at around 1530 GMT when dozens of police cars swooped into the rundown Molenbeek neighborhood.

"I heard about three or four shots fired, but they were muffled, as if taking place indoors," said Karim, an Oxfam charity employee who lives in the largely Muslim Molenbeek.

Footage in Belgian media appeared to show a white-hooded Abdeslam being dragged to a waiting police car by armed special forces officers.

Belgium has been at the centre of the investigation into the Paris attacks almost from day one, and has been criticized for alleged blunders that let the perpetrators slip under the radar.

Paris network 'much wider'
With Belgium having arrested a series of people over links with Abdeslam, Hollande said many more were involved in the Paris attacks than originally believed.

"We realize that there were many more people than we at first thought," Hollande said.

Investigators believe Abdeslam hired one of he cars used in the attacks and then used it to drive suicide bombers to the Stade de France with the task then of blowing himself up.

But he apparently backed out, and an explosives-filled suicide vest was later found in Paris in a region that mobile phone signals indicated he had been in.

Police believe he fled across the border the next morning. Several people have been arrested on suspicion of helping him and one of his fingerprints was found in December at different Brussels apartment.

The ringleader of the attacks, IS member Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was also from Brussels. He was killed in a raid in Paris in November.

Another of the Paris attackers, Bilal Hadfi, was last week buried quietly in the same cemetery as Abdeslam's brother.

Both had links to Molenbeek, a largely immigrant district which has been a hotbed of Islamist violence for decades.

Abdeslam and his brother had run a bar in the area until it was shut down by the authorities a few weeks before the Paris attacks.

Belgian authorities have meanwhile identified the man killed in the raid on Tuesday linked to Abdeslam as Algerian national Mohamed Belkaid, 35, who was living illegally in Belgium.

Police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, extremist Islamic literature and an IS flag near Belkaid after he was shot.

He was reportedly on a list of IS fighters leaked last week as a volunteer to commit a suicide bomb attack.

Prosecutors also said he was wanted in connection with the Paris attacks.

source: interaksyon.com

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Pennsylvania man to plead guilty to hacking celebs’ email, iCloud accounts


LOS ANGELES | A Pennsylvania man has agreed to plead guilty to a felony computer hacking charge after authorities said he illegally accessed private phone and email accounts of celebrities such as Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence to leak information including nude pictures.

The U.S. attorney for the Central District of California charged Ryan Collins, 36, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.

Collins signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He faces up to five years in federal prison, with a recommended prison term of 18 months and a fine of $250,000.

The case has been transferred from California to the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where Collins is expected to surrender and plead guilty. He will be sentenced at a later date.

While no victims were named in the court documents, Lawrence and other celebrities such as actresses Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union and model Kate Upton addressed the leak and online dissemination of their nude photos in interviews.

Representatives for Lawrence, Dunst, Union and Upton did not return Reuters’ requests for comment on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said in court documents that between November 2012 and September 2014, Collins “knowingly, intentionally, and in furtherance of criminal and tortious acts” accessed at least 50 Apple iCloud accounts and about 72 Google Gmail accounts belonging to more than 100 people.

Known as a ‘phishing’ scam, Collins used fraudulent email disguised to impersonate legitimate security services, such as “email.protection318@icloud.com,” and requesting usernames and passwords from the victims, according to prosecutors.

By doing so, Collins accessed the iCloud accounts, used for online data storage, for 18 celebrities and downloaded the backed-up data that included nude pictures and videos, court documents said.

It is not the first time a suspected hacker has been charged with leaking celebrity nude photos.

A Florida man was sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in prison for hacking into email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera to leak private information and nude photographs.

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Clinton, Trump move closer to White House nominations


CLEVELAND -- Hillary Clinton took a monumental step toward clinching the Democratic party's White House nomination Tuesday, while Donald Trump's seemingly unstoppable rush to victory hit a bump in Ohio.

Trump won key Republican primaries in Illinois, North Carolina and Florida -- where he thumped home state Senator Marco Rubio, who immediately announced he was suspending his presidential campaign.

"This was an amazing evening," a buoyant Trump told supporters. "We're going to win, win, win and we're not stopping."

Rubio's loss was a major setback for Republicans trying to stop the bellicose businessman, whose populist anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim stance they fear will split the party.

The 69-year-old Trump was clinging to a narrow lead in Missouri with nearly all of the votes counted, but was denied a clean sweep by Ohio Governor John Kasich, who carried his home state, a key general election battleground.

Trump may now struggle to reach the 1,237 delegates necessary to avoid a challenge at the party's nominating convention in July in Cleveland.

"The bottom line after tonight: it looks like Trump will not have a majority of delegates in July," said Paul Beck, a professor of political science at Ohio State University.

Big night for Clinton

There were fewer problems for Clinton, who defeated her rival Bernie Sanders in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois. She also had a slight edge in Missouri, according to vote tallies.

Sanders now faces an almost impossible task to catch up with Clinton's formidable delegate advantage.

"We are moving closer to securing the Democratic party nomination and winning this election in November," said Clinton, casting one eye on the general election -- and at Trump.

"When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering the United States -- when he embraces torture, that doesn't make him strong. It makes him wrong."

Republicans will now have to decide whether to rally behind one candidate or siphon votes away from Trump as a team.

The scope of Trump's victory against Rubio in Florida will shock the Republican establishment as much as it will raise hopes the party can challenge in the one-time swing state come November 8.

President Barack Obama carried the state in both the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Rubio bowed out, saying: "While it is not God's plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I've even come this far is evidence of how special America truly is."

Kasich meanwhile openly called for a contested convention and vowed to campaign on.

"I want to remind you, again tonight, that I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land," he said.

Ted Cruz, an ultra-conservative senator from Texas, also remains in the Republican race.

Projections by US media showed him just behind Trump in Missouri, and in second place in Illinois and North Carolina.

Cruz made a call for Republicans to unity against Trump behind him.

"Donald may be the one person on the face of the earth that Hillary Clinton can beat in the general election," he said, telling Republicans they now face "a clear choice."

'Vulgar and divisive'

Trump's incendiary attacks on immigrants, threats of mass deportations and a proposal for a wall on the border with Mexico have ignited the campaign trail and drawn condemnation in some quarters -- the latest being from President Barack Obama.

Without pointing the finger directly at Trump, Obama professed to being "dismayed" at some of the comments during campaigning.

"We have heard vulgar and divisive rhetoric aimed at women and minorities -- at Americans who don’t look like 'us,' or pray like 'us,' or vote like we do," said the president, who along with his wife Michelle cast absentee ballots in their home state of Illinois.

But Trump's populist message has resonated -- even with some Democrats like 69-year-old Katharine Berry.

"We don't need all these illegals," she told AFP outside a polling station at the Zion Lutheran Church in Canton. "They're taking our jobs, they've got all these rights, Americans don't have rights.

"I voted Democrat today. But if Trump wins, then I'm going to vote for him in the general election."

source: interaksyon.com

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Xiaomi Mi 5: Smartphone beast for cheap


Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi unveiled their latest flagship handset last Feb. 2 and started shipping the devices last week. We managed to grab one to review and check how this P15,000 smartphone will fare.

There are three variants of the Mi 5 with slight differences in their hardware configuration. The base configuration has 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage, followed by a 3GB RAM and 64GB storage with slightly faster Snapdragon 820 processor. The third variant, labeled as the Mi 5 Pro, comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage. What we got is the base configuration with 3GB/32GB combo that costs about P15,000 as sold in China.

Xiaomi has been known to make really great phones at an affordable price. The first time they officially entered the Philippines, the Xiaomi Mi3 sold really well that people were buying them and selling them for a higher price due to heavy demand.

The Mi 5 brings that same great design and solid hardware at an affordable price tag. The design was inspired from the bigger Mi Note that was released last year, only smaller, with just a 5.15-inch display. The glass front and back panel sandwiched in a metal frame is very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 especially with the tapered back and material design.

At only 7.24mm thin, Xiaomi managed to pack the Mi 5 with a lot of great features like the home button that serves as a fingerprint scanner, a 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization that does not show any ugly protrusion at the back like the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S, dual nano-SIM tray and a new USB Type C charging port.

The 5.15-inch display has a full HD resolution and 428ppi pixel density that looks gorgeous and very bright. The edge-to-edge glass display makes it seem that the Mi 5 is almost bezel-less along the sides. While other flagship handsets like the Galaxy S7 and LG G5 have much higher screen resolution (2560x1440 pixels), the 1080p screen resolution of the Mi 5 is still at par and even gave the handset an advantage by pulling higher scores in device benchmarks.


While there is dual-SIM capability, there is no option to expand storage via microSD card so you’re stuck with about 25GB usable space when you pick up the base 32GB model.

Very few flagship handsets these days come with USB Type C – the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, OnePlus 2 and the LG G5. The Mi 5 adds to that very short list. Nevertheless, the device supports superfast charging, which translates to around 80 to 90 percent charge in just an hour for the 3,000mAh internal battery.

The Xiaomi Mi 5 runs on MiUI 7.2.5, which is basically a customized version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It is a simple UI but very nice and clean with tons of themes available in the App Store.

Xiaomi has once again made good on their promise of a really great-looking phone, topnotch hardware configuration at a very cheap price. If only they would release this device in the Philippines very soon. We’re not keeping our hopes up, though.

Xiaomi Mi 5 specifications:
5.15-inch full HD display @ 1920 x 1080 pixels, 428ppi

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor

Adreno 530 GPU

3GB / 4GB LPDDR4 RAM

32GB, 64GB / 128GB UFS 2.0 internal storage

4G+ LTE Cat12, up to 600Mbps

VoLTE support

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Bluetooth 4.2

NFC

IR Blaster

GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS

Fingerprint sensor

USB Type-C

16-megapixel Sony IMX298  PDAF rear camera w/ dual-LED flash, 4-axis OIS

4-megapixel front camera

3000mAh battery w/ Quick Charge 3.0

Android 6.0 Marshmallow w/ MIUI 7

144.54 x 69.20 x 7.24 mm

129 g

Black, White, Gold

source: philstar.com

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Magnitude-6.3 quake strikes off Alaska


SAN FRANCISCO -- A strong earthquake struck off Saturday Atka Island in southwest Alaska, the northern most US state.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the tremor, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, hit about 32 km deep at 8:06 local time, some 65 km off Atka in the Andreanof Islands, or 1,815 km west of Anchorage, the biggest city of Alaska.

Andreanof Islands are part of the Aleutian Islands.

There have been no reports of injuries from the sparsely populated islands.

The US Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the quake was not strong enough to generate a tsunami.

source: interaksyon.com

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Rare Ming dynasty Buddhas sold at French auction for over 6 million euros


BORDEAUX, France - A set of three Buddha sculptures from the 15th-century Ming dynasty went under the hammer in France on Saturday for more than 6.2 million euros, over 10 times the estimated sale price, the auction house said, in a flourishing market for Chinese art.

An Asian collector snapped up the three gilded bronze pieces, which had initially been expected to fetch between 400,000 and 600,000 euros.

The three seated Buddhas were offered for sale along with other pieces from a private collection originating in China and Tibet between 1910 and 1925, the auction house in Bordeaux, southwestern France, said.

"These works of great rarity aroused much interest from... international collectors including many Chinese," it said.

"They were acquired for a sum of 6,292,000 euros ($6.9 million) by an Asian collector who was present at the auction," it added.

In June 2015, an 18th-century Chinese scroll attributed to the painter Gu Quan sold for 5.5 million euros at Christie's in Paris.

In April 2013, a 17th-century painting on Chinese silk was sold by Briscadieu for 3.3 million euros.

source: interaksyon.com

Friday, March 11, 2016

IPHONE MINI? | Apple to unveil new product on March 21


Apple Inc sent an invite to reporters on Thursday for an event at its Cupertino, California headquarters on March 21, possibly signaling the unveiling of a new, smaller iPhone.

The world’s best-known technology company often reveals new products at such events. It is expected to update its flagship iPhone and iPad products soon.

Some Wall Street analysts expect the company to use the event to unveil a four-inch (10-cm) screen phone, reintroducing the smaller size after enlarging screens with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014.

Apple shares have risen in the past two weeks as Wall Street bet the company will launch a less expensive iPhone this month to boost sales in developing countries like China.

With U.S. consumers upgrading their smartphones less often, manufacturers have been relying on China for growth.

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Preorders for Galaxy S7 phones stronger than expected — Samsung


SEOUL — Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has seen stronger-than-expected preorders for its new flagship Galaxy S7 smartphones launching this week, a senior company executive said on Thursday.

Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s handsets business, did not give a figure or disclose sales targets during a press briefing for the phones, which go on sale in South Korea and other markets on Friday.

But he said Samsung expects the S7s to help revive sales in China, the world’s top smartphone market where researchers say the Korean firm is lagging its competitors.

The Galaxy S7s offer incremental upgrades, leading some analysts to predict sales in the first year will be weaker than last year’s Galaxy S6s.

source: interaksyon.com

Solar eclipse begins sweeping across Indonesia


TERNATE, Indonesia - A solar eclipse began sweeping across the vast Indonesian archipelago on Wednesday, with hordes of sky gazers set to watch the spectacle, which will be marked by parties, prayers, and tribal rituals.

The moon began to move between the Earth and sun at 6:19 a.m. (2319 GMT Tuesday), the official Meteorology, Climate and Geophysics Agency said.

A rare total solar eclipse will be visible in a broad arc across the country about an hour later.

All direct sunlight will be blocked for a short time from the western island of Sumatra, to the spice-fringed Maluku Islands thousands of miles to the east, before the total eclipse sweeps out across the Pacific Ocean.

From a festival featuring live bands, to fun runs, and traditional dances, events are being organized across the country for an estimated 10,000 foreign visitors and 100,000 domestic tourists who will be witnessing the phenomenon.

Hotels in the best viewing spots filled up weeks ago -- in the city of Ternate, in the Maluku Islands, officials have had to find extra space for tourists on boats.

"It's an extraordinary spectacle that only takes place about once a year in one part of the world," said Arnaud Fischer, a 33-year-old French tourist, who has witnessed several eclipses and was set to watch Wednesday's in Ternate.

I Gde Pitana, the government's head of foreign tourism, described the phenomenon as "a tourism attraction created by God."

However there are concerns that clouds could obscure the view in some places, as it is currently the wet season in Indonesia.

It will be a deeply spiritual experience for many in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, with the faithful being urged by Islamic authorities to perform special eclipse prayers.

"Our Prophet Mohammed said the prayer signifies the greatness of Allah, who created this wonderful phenomenon," said Ma'ruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country's top Islamic clerical body.

Tribal rituals

Some of Indonesia's tribespeople are fearful of the phenomenon, however. Members of the Dayak tribe in one part of Borneo island will perform a ritual to ensure that the sun, which they view as the source of life, does not disappear entirely.

The total eclipse will sweep across 12 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia, which stretches about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometres) from east to west, before heading across the Pacific Ocean.

It will be visible for between just one and a half to three minutes in most places.

Partial eclipses will be visible in northern Australia and parts of Southeast Asia.

Before hitting Sumatra, the eclipse sweeps across Sulawesi and Borneo, then moves over the Malukus and heads out into the ocean.

One of the most popular events for foreign tourists will be a festival close to Palu, in Sulawesi.

Among those coming to Indonesia is Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who recently hit the headlines after a $40,000 toilet custom-built for her visit to Cambodia went unused.

She will be watching the spectacle in Ternate, although officials insist that no luxury commode has been built for her on this occasion.

The last total solar eclipse occurred on March 20, 2015, only visible from the Faroe Islands and Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago.

Total eclipses occur when the moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, and the three bodies align precisely.

As seen from Earth, the moon is just broad enough to cover the solar face, creating a breath-taking silver halo in an indigo sky.

source: interaksyon.com

Monday, March 7, 2016

WORLD’S FIRST LIQUID-COOLED LAPTOP | Republic of Gamers pushes gaming to the extreme

MANILA, Philippines — Republic of Gamers (ROG), the World’s undisputed No. 1 gaming laptop, celebrates its 10th Anniversary with a bang with the much-anticipated launch of its most powerful laptop yet, the ROG GX700.

With unmatched specs and industry-leading innovations, the Republic of Gamers rocks the entire gaming industry with the ROG GX700′s liquid-cooled design — a world’s first — guaranteeing users a gaming experience like never before.

With such an incredible feat, the Republic of Gamers makes another unprecedented move by inviting only a select few to get to experience for themselves just how powerful and one-of-a-kind this gaming laptop is.

Only 20 of the country’s most avid and top gamers and hardcore users will only be able to exclusively get their hands on this limited-edition beast of a machine as it set to hit the Philippine shores. These very few, lucky individuals – collectively, the “Legendary 20” – will surely make history as one of the first people to experience the powerhouse gaming device that is the ROG GX700


The perks and the works: The ultra-exclusive ‘Legendary 20′

For the Legendary 20, the ROG GX700 is packed with an arsenal of accessories and items that will further highlight the exclusivity of this elite gaming group: an ROG Sica Gaming Mouse, ROG Command Case (a premium black luggage case that not only ensures that the ROG GX700 is kept safe, but also for the user to bring the ROG GX700 wherever you want in absolute comfort and style); a Personalized Legendary 20 Luggage Tag (a stylish bag tag that proudly displays the name of the respective owner) and finally, a Legendary 20 Jacket (a decked-out Legendary 20 signature-style jacket tailor-fit to the Legendary 20 member).

Aside from owning these items and the bragging rights of being one of the very few to own the majestic ROG GX700 not only in the Philippines, but also in the entire world, members of the exclusive Legendary 20 are also automatically entitled to top-notch perks and privileges including: VIP-access to any and all ROG-related events in the country, and participation in exclusive Legendary 20 activities, which includes a private DOTA tournament with an ROG endorser.


GX700 – Desktop class performance in a laptop 

The flagship GX700VO being the world’s first water-cooled gaming laptop is capable of overclocking because of its exclusive hydro overclocking system.

Powering up this beast is a powerful Intel Core i7-6820HK (Overclocking Unlocked) Quad-Core processor. When the laptop is docked to its water-cooling station, the said CPU can be overclocked to a remarkable 4GHz in stable voltage. In addition, the onboard 32GB DDR4 RAM at 2133MHz can also be overclocked as high as to 2800 MHz.

Of course graphics is also Best in Class. The ROG GX700VO is equipped with a desktop class NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 that has 8GB of GDDR5 VRAM. When water-cooled, it allows the chip to run in its full potential, thereby eliminating the bottleneck of low thermal headroom. Speed is not only in processing but also in storage on the GX700VO, which is packed with two 256GB NVMe PCIe SSD set-up in RAID0, allowing up to 3.5GB/s read/write speeds.

And highlighting the trump card of this notebook, the “Hydro Cooling System,” which made this notebook the world’s first water-cooled notebook, is the pinnacle of this year’s innovation for ASUS and ROG. Featuring two radiators, and a behemoth of fans with variable speed control through the built-in ROG Command Control Center software; the cooling module allows for the system to run cooler in idle, and be overclocked as wanted, or needed, and allows for a full desktop replacement for all those wanting to lug around a system that’s highly capable of Full-HD gaming.

source: interaksyon.com

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Trump, Cruz in 2-way Republican race; Sanders still in race in Democratic contest


WASHINGTON DC - Donald Trump kept a firm grip on his lead in the Republican race for the White House on Sunday but Senator Ted Cruz emerged as his strongest challenger in weekend primaries with mixed outcomes.

Hillary Clinton extended her frontrunner status in the Democratic contests but Senator Bernie Sanders showed he is still in the race with a few victories.

Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses, according to US media projections.

Clinton and Sanders also faced off in a televised debate in Flint, Michigan, just two days before a crucial primary in that delegate-rich northern industrial state.

They tackled the scandal surrounding the lead-contaminated water in the city, with Sanders railing against the "disgrace beyond belief" and both calling for more accountability.

Republicans saw a stormy week in which panicked party leaders trained their biggest guns on Trump, the billionaire who has galvanized disaffected voters with an anti-immigrant, anti-free trade campaign filled with insults, attacks on minorities, and mockery of the political establishment.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio won by a whopping 71 percent the Republican primary election in Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth where residents do not vote in November's general election.

But the victory -- only the second, after Minnesota, for Rubio -- hands the youthful Cuban American contender the 23 party convention delegates at play.

Trump now has 384 delegates to 300 for Cruz and 151 for Rubio. Kasich has 37 delegates.

To win the Republican nomination outright, a candidate must win 1,237 delegates.

Failure to hit that number would result in a Republican nominating convention in July that could require multiple rounds of voting by delegates, something not seen in decades but which could conceivably throw the race to someone other than Trump.

Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee who denounced Trump as a "phony" and a "fraud" this week, said he expected to endorse one of the three other candidates before the party convention.

Asked if he would reject the nomination if drafted, Romney said such a scenario would be "absurd" but left the door open to it, in an interview with CBS's Face the Nation.

Pressure on Rubio
On Saturday, only ultra-conservative Cruz scored victories against Trump -- in Kansas and Maine. Trump won in Louisiana and Kentucky, but Cruz picked up more delegates overall.

Rubio picked up only a few delegates, unable to capitalize on the establishment assault on Trump, who called on Rubio to step aside.

"I would love to be able to take on Ted one on one," Trump said in Florida, minutes after winning in Kentucky on Saturday. "That will be easy."

Cruz also urged Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich to drop out, arguing that the anti-Trump vote will be split as long as they remain in the race.

"If we're divided, Donald wins," he warned. "The field needs to continue to narrow."

But both Rubio and Kasich were expected to stay in at least until the primaries in their winner-take-all home states.

The next big day on the electoral calendar is Tuesday, when Michigan and Mississippi have Democratic and Republican primaries.

Republican-only nominating contests also are being held that day in Idaho and Hawaii. Puerto Rico also holds a Republican primary on Sunday.

Clinton nearly halfway there

After Saturday's contests, Clinton had 1,121 delegates, nearly half the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination.

The former secretary of state won in Louisiana, the biggest prize of the night, but Sanders won in Kansas and Nebraska, pushing his total to seven victories in 18 contests.

Clinton was favored in Louisiana thanks to overwhelming support from African-American voters, while Sanders has tended to do best in states with largely white voters.

"What we are seeing in many cases is not just a racial divide but a generational divide. We are doing better and better with younger people whether they're black, Latino, or white," Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union" show.

"If the turnout is high in Maine today, I think we have a good chance of winning there as well. So I think we're showing strength all across this country."

End

source: interaksyon.com

UFC 196: Tate dethrones Holm, McGregor stunned by Diaz


Miesha Tate scored a sensational victory over reigning bantamweight champion Holly Holm in Las Vegas, choking her out late in the fifth round to win the title Holm took from Ronda Rousey in November.

After a cagey first round in which few significant blows were landed, the 34-year-old Holm was in trouble in the second round but managed to survive by keeping Tate at bay with her longer reach.

Tate managed to get Holm back on the mat late in the fifth and final round, but despite an acrobatic attempt to escape by the champion, Tate clung on to render her unconscious and claim the title.

“She went out like a champion. I have so much respect for this woman,” the 29-year-old told the octagon announcer as she received the belt.

McGregor stunned

Meanwhile, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor was choked into submission by Nate Diaz in a stunning reverse at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

McGregor, who was denied a chance to become the first fighter to hold two UFC belts at the same time when lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos pulled out with a foot injury, struggled in the second round after Diaz landed a heavy blow.

McGregor had landed some heavy shots of his own in the first round but couldn’t put the 30-year-old away, and an effort to take the fight to the mat backfired when Diaz got behind him to apply the rear naked choke hold that ended the fight.

source: interaksyon.com

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Criminals like Apple iPhones because of encryption — Police


Some criminals have switched to new iPhones as their “device of choice” to commit wrongdoing due to strong encryption Apple Inc has placed on their products, three law enforcement groups said in a court filing.

The groups told a judge overseeing Apple’s battle with the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday that, among other things, they were aware of “numerous instances” in which criminals who previously used so-called throwaway burner phones had switched to iPhones. They did not list a specific instance.

The brief by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and two others also cited a jailhouse phone call intercepted by New York authorities in 2015, in which an inmate called Apple’s encrypted operating system a “gift from God.”

The government obtained a court order last month requiring Apple to write new software to disable passcode protection and allow access to an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December killings in San Bernardino, California.

Apple asked that the order be vacated, arguing such a move would set a dangerous precedent and threaten customer security.

Tech industry leaders including Google, Facebook and Microsoft and more than two dozen other companies filed legal briefs on Thursday supporting Apple. The Justice Department received support from law enforcement groups and six relatives of San Bernardino victims.

The law enforcement groups said in their brief that Apple’s stance poses a grave threat to investigations across the country.

The FBI says Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were inspired by Islamist militants when they shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 at a holiday party. The couple later died in a shootout with police and the FBI said it wants to read the data on Farook’s work phone to investigate any links with militant groups.

In a filing on Thursday, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said at least two 911 calls from the time of the shooting reported three assailants, not two.

Even though those reports were “not corroborated,” if in fact there were three attackers it would be important to crack open the iPhone “to identify as of yet unknown co-conspirators,” the District Attorney’s filing stated.

Apple has said it respects the FBI and has cooperated by turning over data in its possession.

The latest request is different, Apple says, because it requires them to crack a phone with a software tool that does not currently exist.

source: interaksyon.com

Friday, March 4, 2016

US payrolls surge, bolster Fed rate hike prospects


WASHINGTON - US employment gains surged in February, the clearest sign yet of labor market strength that could further ease fears the economy was heading into recession and allow the Federal Reserve to gradually raise interest rates this year.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 242,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate held at an eight-year low of 4.9 percent even as more people piled into the labor market.

"This is the best news the Fed could have expected going into the meeting. With jobs bouncing back, you can be sure that rate hikes are just around the corner," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.

The economy added 30,000 more jobs in December and January than previously reported. The only blemish in the report was a three-cent drop in average hourly earnings, but that was mostly because of a calendar quirk.

The average length of the workweek also fell last month.

Economists had forecast employment increasing by 190,000 last month and the jobless rate holding steady.

The employment report added to data such as consumer and business spending in suggesting the economy had regained momentum after growth slowed to a 1.0 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. Growth estimates for the first quarter are around a 2.5 percent rate.

Fears of a recession in the wake of poor economic reports in December and slowing growth in China sparked a global stock market rout at the start of the year, causing financial market conditions to tighten.

Financial markets have priced out bets of a rate rise at the Fed's March 15-16 policy meeting and see a roughly 50 percent chance of a hike at the September and November meetings, according to CME FedWatch.

Economists, however, believe the strong jobs market and improved growth outlook, together with signs that inflation is creeping up, could prompt the Fed to lift borrowing costs in June.

The Fed raised its key overnight interest rate in December for the first time in nearly a decade.

Prices of U.S. Treasuries fell after the data, while U.S. stock index futures rose. The U.S. dollar gained against the euro and hit session highs against the yen and Swiss franc.

Slower wage growth
Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said the economy needs to create just under 100,000 jobs a month to keep up with growth in the working-age population.

The labor force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, increased two-tenths of a percentage point to 62.9 percent, the highest level in just over a year.

Adding to the report's strength, a broad measure of joblessness that includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 9.7 percent.

The employment-to-population ratio also increased to 59.8 percent last month, the highest since April 2009, from 59.6 percent in January.

While wage growth weakened in February, it was largely payback for January's jump, which was driven by a calendar quirk. Growth in wages is seen accelerating as the labor market settles into full employment.

The drop in average hourly earnings lowered the year-on-year gain in earnings to 2.2 percent from 2.5 percent in January. The average workweek fell to 34.4 hours from 34.6 hours in January.

In February, job gains were almost broad-based, though manufacturing and mining employment fell. The services sector created 245,000 jobs after adding 153,000 jobs in January. Mining lost a further 18,000 jobs after shedding 9,000 positions in January.

Mining payrolls have declined by 171,000 jobs since peaking in September 2014, with three-fourths of the losses in support activities. More losses are likely after oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. said last month it would cut a further 5,000 jobs because of a prolonged slump in oil prices.

Manufacturing employment lost 16,000 jobs, reversing some of January's surprise increase. Private education jobs rebounded after plunging in January. Construction payrolls increased 19,000 and government added 12,000 jobs.

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Bob Dylan sells treasure trove of archive material


Bob Dylan has sold his personal archive of notes, draft lyrics, poems, artwork and photographs to the University of Tulsa, where they will be made available to scholars and curated for public exhibitions, the school said on Wednesday.

The 6,000 item collection spans nearly the entire length of Dylan’s 55 year-long career, and many have never been seen before. The collection was acquired by the George Kaiser Foundation and the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

The collection also includes master recording tapes of Dylan’s entire music catalog, along with hundreds of hours of film video.

The Foundation and the university did not say how much the Bob Dylan Archive cost, but the New York Times, which was given an exclusive preview, said it was sold for $15 million to $20 million.

Tulsa is also the home of a museum dedicated to folk singer Woody Guthrie, one of Dylan’s early influences.

“I’m glad that my archives, which have been collected all these years, have finally found a home and are to be included with the works of Woody Guthrie… To me, it makes a lot of sense and it’s a great honor,” Dylan said in a statement.

Despite being regarded as “the voice of a generation” for his influential songs of the 1960s and 1970s, Dylan, now 74, has mostly kept his items out of the public eye, resulting in high prices when they occasionally come up for auction.

A handwritten copy of the song “Like a Rolling Stone” sold for a record $2 million at a New York auction in 2014, while the electric guitar he played at 1965 Newport Folk Festival sold for nearly $1 million in 2013.

The archives handed over to the University of Tulsa include two notebooks with lyrics from the 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks,” and Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to his 1964 song “Chimes of Freedom” scrawled on hotel notepaper dotted with cigarette burns. There is also correspondence between Dylan and the late beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

source: interaksyon.com

Peugeot Citroen reveals ‘real-world’ fuel consumption


GENEVA, Switzerland — Leading French automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen published Tuesday “real-world” fuel consumption figures for three of its diesel cars, seeking to win over wary customers after the Volkswagen pollution cheating scandal.

Peugeot Citroen said the initiative was a world first, launched in the aftermath of German rival Volkswagen’s admission last year that it had fitted 11 million diesel engines worldwide with devices that fool official pollution tests.

“We were obviously shocked by what happened with Volkswagen-gate and in some way, like the profession, the whole automobile industry, we were affected by the situation and deeply upset,” Carlos Tavares, chairman of the group’s managing board, said on the sidelines of the Geneva International Motor Show.

“It was important to safeguard our customers’ trust in relation to knowing their automobiles’ consumption,” he told a conference.

The French car maker said the results were based on tests designed by two environmental groups, Transport & Environment and France Nature Environment.

The cars were driven on public roads in town, outside town and on motorways near Paris in “real-life” driving conditions with passengers, luggage, roads with hills and the air conditioning switched on, Peugeot Citroen said in a statement.

“Peugeot Citroen is the first car maker to adopt such an approach,” the company said.

Peugeot Citroen promised to reveal the real-world fuel consumption results for 30 models “before summer 2016″.

Learn from past mistakes
As expected, all the “real-world” fuel consumption figures exceeded the results of the existing official laboratory-style New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) tests, which were thrown into question by the Volkswagen scandal.

The “real world” tests showed:

- A medium-sized sedan Peugeot 308 consumed 5.0 litres for 100 kilometres, compared to just 3.2 litres in the NEDC tests;

- A Citroen C4 Picasso people carrier drank 5.6 litres for 100 km, compared to 4.0 litres in the NEDC tests;

- And the premium subcompact DS 3 used 4.9 litres over 100 km, compared to 3.6 litres in the NEDC tests.

All three cars were equipped with 1.6-litre, 120-horsepower engines with manual gearboxes.

New official tests called the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedures, aimed at better measuring real-world fuel or energy consumption and pollution emissions are being defined for introduction in 2017.

For now, the official NEDC tests are the only recognised thermometer for car performance in Europe, said Gilles Le Borgne, head of research and development at Peugeot Citroen.

“If others want to join our initiative we would be delighted,” he said, adding however that no other manufacturer had shown interest in doing so.

Peugeot Citroen first announced the real-world testing initiative in November last year, two months after the Volkswagen cheating scandal broke.

Volkswagen admitted the existence of the illegal cheat software on diesel engines which limits the output of toxic nitrogen oxides during emissions tests by regulators.

But when the vehicles are in actual use, the software allows them to spew poisonous gases far above permitted levels.

Volkswagen chief Matthias Mueller called in Geneva on Monday for his company to “learn from past mistakes”.

In 2015, VW’s own-brand sales fell five percent to 5.82 million vehicles worldwide, the first decline in 11 years, the company has revealed. On top of lost earnings, VW is facing a barrage of legal complaints related to the scandal.

source: interaksyon.com