News : CNN Hero of the Year 2008

CNN Hero of the Year

Watch as Liz McCartney accepts the 2008 CNN Hero of the Year award.Click Image

News : The human face of robotics

We say so much without words and if a new research project in southwestern England is successful, so will tomorrow's robots.

In a scene worthy of a Philip K. Dick novel, "Jules" the robotic head is being taught to act more like a human as part of a research project at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.

Reuters Technology Correspondent Matt Cowan reports

News : Mother wants internet baby back

A Belgian mother who sold her baby to a couple on the internet says she wants her child back.

A dutch court is deciding whether or not to take the baby away from the Dutch couple.

They bought the baby around four months ago, and Belgian newspaper reported that they paid between 5,000 and 10,000 euros for it.

If the child is taken away from the couple it will be put into foster care, leaving it to the Dutch and Belgian courts to decide if it should be returned to its biological mother.

Basmah Fahim

News : Court says Internet baby to be taken into care

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Belgian baby bought over the Internet for adoption by a Dutch couple must be placed in the temporary care of the Dutch authorities, a court ruled on Thursday.

According to media reports, the couple bought the boy in July from a Belgian couple in Ghent. One TV report said between 5,000 and 10,000 euros (4,188 pounds to 8,376 pounds) was paid.

The Dutch couple denies buying the baby, saying on Dutch TV that they only paid the pregnancy costs incurred by the parents.

The court in the Dutch city of Zwolle said the couple had broken the laws for adopting foreign children, and had to hand the baby over to child welfare authorities.

The Council for the Protection of Children, part of the Netherlands' Justice Ministry, had asked the court to place the baby boy into temporary custody until a decision was made by the Belgian authorities on what to do with him.

"Clarity over your family history is of fundamental importance for a child growing up. Obscuring your true identity is harmful," the council said in a statement.

The public prosecution office in the Netherlands has started an investigation into the case, while Belgian authorities are also making inquiries, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby and Aaron Gray-Block)

News : Shuttle astronaut invents zero-gravity cup

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Future space travelers may be drinking their own urine, thanks to the International Space Station's new water recycler, but they can now do so with a touch of class.

Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit, a self-described tinkerer who served as the space station's flight engineer in 2003, invented a zero-gravity cup that wicks liquids along the sides of a piece of folded plastic, eliminating the need for a straw.

Because liquids typically form spherical blobs in weightlessness, astronauts drink from sealed pouches using straws. Pettit, a huge coffee fan, didn't like sipping his java, and created the cup from a sheet of transparent plastic used in overhead projectors by folding it into the shape of an airplane wing and taping it in place.

"The way this works is the cross-section of this cup looks like an airplane wing. The narrow angle here will wick the coffee up," Pettit explained in a video radioed to NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston and broadcast on NASA TV.

"We can sip most of the fluid out of these cups and we no longer have to drink our beverages sucking through a straw in a pouch," Pettit said.

On Thursday, Petit made another cup for crewmate Stephen Bowen and proposed a toast to the Thanksgiving holiday, space exploration and "just because we're in space and we can."

One of the Shuttle's main mission was to install a $250 million water recycling system enables the Space Station crew to recycle urine and other wastewater into drinking water.

The astronauts were scheduled to share a Thanksgiving meal of dehydrated turkey with their space station hosts before closing the hatches between the two ships in preparation for Endeavour's departure on Friday.

The shuttle, which delivered a water-purification system to the station among other gear, is due back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday after a 16-day mission.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

News : New, old media good for each other, Huffington says

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New media and old can clash and crowd each other out, but blogger extraordinaire Arianna Huffington argues in a new book that the two worlds are rapidly joining together to bring out the best in each other.

Traditional journalists are blogging, while bloggers are gaining credibility and stature in traditional media, Huffington said in a Reuters interview ahead of Tuesday's release of "The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging."

The blogging guide published by Simon & Schuster provides tips on getting started and noticed as well as Huffington's own views, having created one of the most influential websites to gain prominence during the 2008 White House race.

"There's this real convergence, where basically you found that the best and most accurate rose to the top, whether it originated from Time magazine or from Nate Silver's 538.com, which did not exist before the election," she said. The 538.com website collected and analyzed political and polling data.

"The convergence is going to keep growing, as we saw in this election period, two years and four years from now, I'm sure," she added. "They have to share the power."

THOUSANDS OF AMATEURS

The Huffington Post, or HuffPo as it is known, experimented with citizen journalism in its "Off The Bus" feature, in which thousands of amateurs wrote accounts from the campaign trail.

One of HuffPo's biggest moments came when a volunteer contributor recorded then-candidate Barack Obama at a fund raiser, closed to the press, saying people in small towns grow "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion."

"Blogging," Huffington wrote in the book's introduction, "has been the greatest breakthrough in popular journalism since Tom Paine." Paine's 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense" dramatically helped promote the cause of American independence.

The book has its lighter moments. A section on "Why Do You Blog?" answers with "to avoid the loony bin" and "as a substitute for therapy."

Although Huffington favors goodwill toward old media, she does take sides.

"The vast majority of mainstream journalists head in the direction the assignment desk points them," she wrote in the book's introduction. "In contrast, bloggers are armed with a far more effective piece of access than a White House press credential: passion."

IMMEDIACY, TRANSPARENCY

The book trumpets the immediacy and transparency of blogging over traditional media. It addresses some of blogging's troubles with standards and weak sourcing, but only lightly, concentrating instead on the personal and political benefits from the multitude of online voices.

The new cannot entirely replace the old nor produce the results of time-honored investigative journalism, she said.

Author and screenwriter Nora Ephron, one of several HuffPo contributors, wrote in the guide how she learned the difference between blogging and writing for magazines or books.

"One of the reasons for blogging was to start the conversation and to create the community that comes together to briefly talk about things they might not be talking about if you hadn't written your blog," Ephron wrote. "A blog was a soap bubble, meant to last just a moment or two."

Huffington wrote that she found "it was utterly liberating to find a place where the random thought is honored."

But most important, she said, "blogging allows anyone without access to Reuters or Time magazine to have a voice, and that is really what is significant.

"The new media will continue to allow people who otherwise would not have a voice to have a voice, and that's not something that's going to wear off," she said.

(Editing by Howard Goller)

News : Videogames to go on vacation

By John Gaudiosi

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - With the holiday travel season fast approaching, videogame makers are making sure they have games and consoles handy for trains, planes and automobiles -- and so are holiday destinations.

Nintendo is introducing two limited edition Nintendo DS bundles on November 28 which include a Mario Red Nintendo DS with the "New Super Mario Bros." game and an Ice Blue Nintendo DS with a matching carrying case and a copy of "Brain Age."

In Japan, Nintendo recently introduced its next generation portable, Nintendo DSi, which adds two cameras, an SD card slot, an online game store, advanced music capabilities, larger screens and a slimmer body to the dual-screen handheld player.

The Nintendo DSi will be released in North America and Europe in 2009, about five years since it debuted the Nintendo DS in North America of which it has shipped over 84 million units.

Sony Corp. has a new portable game offering, the PSP 3000, which adds a high-resolution screen and a built-in microphone to let users call friends between games or movies.

Since debuting the original PlayStation Portable in December 2004 in Japan, Sony has sold over 40 million PSPs worldwide.

Apple's iPhone 3G and iPod Touch have also become popular gaming devices for vacationers. There are over 13 million iPhone 3Gs around the globe and over 1,500 games available on the App Store.

DESTINATION WII

But videogames are not just becoming an integral packing item for vacationers on the move. Their end destinations as well have noticed the wider demand for gaming, way beyond just families.

Nintendo's Wii consoles, with its unique motion-sensing controller and simpler games, can now be found in select Marriott and Westin Hotels and on board many cruise liners with games like "Wii Sports" and "Endless Ocean" part of daily itineraries.

"We always have had PlayStations aboard our ships but we've upgraded recently to Wiis and integrated them throughout our ships for kids, teenagers and adults to play," said Jim Urry, vice president of entertainment for Disney Cruise Line.

Urry said next year, Disney will introduce a new videogame experience to passengers using motion-sensor technology designed by Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI).

A "Pirates of the Caribbean" game, which can be played by large groups on the ship's deck, lets players steer a course for Captain Jack Sparrow's ship by leaning in different directions.

The virtual characters and ship will be displayed on a giant outdoor screen used by the cruise line for some Wii tournaments.

Videogames are also influencing the work of WDI at Walt Disney World and Disneyland with both parks introducing a new ride this year, "Toy Story's Midway Mania," which plays like a next generation videogame with 3D glasses and special effects like air and water.

"We know kids come into our parks with Nintendo DSes and they're with them all day," said Sue Bryan, senior show producer and director, WDI, who oversaw development of the new ride.

"If we can involve them more in the theme park storytelling with that game technology, that's a great thing."

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

News : Blogs feed information frenzy on Mumbai attacks

By Melanie Lee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Bloggers across Mumbai fed live updates of the action after Islamist gunmen launched waves of attacks in the heart of India's financial capital, highlighting the emergence of citizen journalism in news coverage.

Some, including a blogger named Vinu, were furiously uploading photos of damage from the attacks that killed at least 101 people and injured 287, with scores of foreigners, including Westerners trapped in luxury hotels.

Images of the attacks also surfaced on photo-sharing website Flickr.

Some bloggers provided running descriptions and commentaries from near the action, while others vented emotions.

"I've been tweeting almost all night, too, from Mumbai. Upset and angry and bereft," said businesswoman Dina Mehta on her blog, www.dinamehta.com/blog .

Twitter, the wildly popular "micro-blogging" site where users communicate with short "tweets" of 140 characters or less, saw intense activity on Thursday.

Within five seconds at 0748 GMT, 80 messages were posted. Posts included offers of help for the media and updates on the situation.

"One terrorist has jumped from Nariman house building to Chabad house - group of police commandos have arrived on scene," one tweeter wrote.

Twitter came in for some criticism as well in the blogosphere for divulging too many details that could prove helpful to the gunmen holed up in the hotels with their hostages and who may have been monitoring blog sites.

"It's a terrorist strike. Not entertainment. So tweeters, please be responsible with your tweets," said one blogger identified as primaveron@mumbai.

Several local Indian news channels were reported to have carried a live feed of the twitter updates on the Mumbai attacks.

Trying to aid India's weak public services, Mumbai Met Blog, (www.mumbai.metblogs.com) posted the telephone numbers of hospitals on its website, encouraging readers to donate blood.

Blogs such as Mumbai Help (mumbaihelp.blogspot.com), offered advice to those with friends and family in the city. "Suggest you avoid calling. Lines are bound to be screwed."

New media analyst Cherian George said events such as the Mumbai attacks and the London bombings have spotlighted the emergence of citizen journalism and user-generated content.

"If the event is highly dispersed and affects very large numbers of people, it would be physically impossible for a very large news organization to keep track of every development," George said.

"Those kind of events show the great potential for all these user accounts to be valuable to the mainstream media," he said.

(Additional reporting and editing by Bill Tarrant)

News : Famous QE2 liner nears Dubai

The Cunard ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth II, made its final journey on Wednesday (November 26) ahead of its arrival into Dubai port to become a luxury hotel.

Escorted by naval vessels and over 60 local boats, the QE2 left Southampton, UK on November 11 and will be turned into a luxury hotel on the man-made island, Palm Jumeriah by developers Nakheel.

QE2 was lunched by Queen Elizabeth on September 20, 1967 and has crossed the Atlantic 803 times, travelling over 5.6 million nautical miles.

News : Shipwreck may hold key to Turks and Caicos' lineage

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - A pair of glass-eyed idols led marine archeologists to the wreck of a Spanish ship that once carried an illegal cargo of African slaves believed to be the ancestors of many of today's inhabitants of the British colony of Turks and Caicos.

The U.S.-funded archeologists said Monday they are confident the oaken timbers submerged under 9 feet of water off East Caicos island are the remains of the Spanish slave ship Trouvadore, which sank in the Atlantic archipelago south of the Bahamas in 1841.

"We have compelling circumstantial evidence that this is the Trouvadore," Donald Keith, president of the Ships of Discovery marine archeology institute, told journalists in a conference call sponsored by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Trouvadore carried 93 African captives and was headed to Cuba where they were to be enslaved in the sugar cane fields, historical documents indicated. It went down after hitting a reef and those aboard managed to wade ashore.

The crew shot and killed one African woman but the other 92 survived and were freed in the Turks and Caicos, where Britain had abolished slavery eight years earlier.

The incident was largely forgotten until 1993, when Grethe Seim, the late founder of the Turks and Caicos National Museum, visited the Smithsonian Institution in Washington with Keith.

They were surprised to find a letter written by an artifact salesman on Grand Turk Island in 1878, describing the sale of two African wooden idols with glass eyes. His letter said the dolls came from a Spanish slave ship that sank in 1841, and gave details about the shipwreck and the African passengers.

Researchers scoured historical archives in Britain, Cuba, the Bahamas and elsewhere to piece together the story.

"It really is a mystery. It's a detective story," said Toni Carral, vice president of Ships of Discovery.

When the Trouvadore sank, the importation of slaves had been internationally banned but still flourished via pirate ships and illegal slavers that eluded British and U.S. naval forces in the region. The ship's 20 crewmen were arrested and sent in chains to Cuba for trial on what was a hanging offense, though their fate is not known.

About 20 of the African passengers were resettled in Nassau in the Bahamas. The rest were apprenticed to work in the salt ponds in the Turks and Caicos for a year in order to pay for their rescue, and then freed.

The artifact salesman noted in his letter nearly four decades after the shipwreck that "their descendants form ... the pith of our present laboring population."

SPARED BY SHIPWRECK

Like their neighbors in the Bahamas and many Caribbean islands, most of the 30,000 modern residents of the Turks and Caicos are thought to be descended from African slaves. But the research suggests many could be descended from the Trouvadore passengers, who were spared enslavement by the shipwreck.

"The people of the Turks and Caicos have a direct line to this dramatic, historic event. It's how so many of them ended up being there," said Keith, who worked in the Turks and Caicos for 30 years.

The archeologists found the remains of a wooden brigantine, including one side of the hull preserved from keel to deck, about 2 miles from the site the artifact salesman described in the Smithsonian letter.

The current had carried it and salvagers stripped it but the researchers examined the well-preserved timbers and joints and said they were confident it was the Trouvadore.

"It's the only thing out there, the only wooden hulled shipwreck out there that is in the right place," Keith said.

The archeologists also found a U.S. navy ship, the Chippewa, known to have sunk near another island in the area in 1816. Although slavery persisted in the United States at that time, U.S. forces helped patrol the region to interdict pirates and slave ships.

"We have the two halves of a cat-and-mouse game of illegal slave ship trade," Keith said.

The researchers are still hunting for the document they consider the Trouvadore's holy grail. Records show that regional authorities ordered local officials in the Turks and Caicos to send a list of the English names they had given the African survivors. If it still exists, it could show which residents are their descendants.

Other loose ends remain. The artifact seller's glass-eyed dolls, which ended up in the Museum of Natural History in New York, turned out to be distinctive kava kava dolls produced only on Easter Island in the Pacific.

"Somehow or other, somebody on the Trouvadore had two kava kava figurines from Easter Island with them," Keith said. "That's another mystery."

(Editing by Bill Trott)

News : U2, Coldplay, Killers help launch digital magazine

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Some of the biggest names in music are contributing exclusive songs to RED(WIRE), a digital music magazine that launches on World AIDS Day (December 1).

U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are on board for the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the Bono-reared activist organization called (RED). All proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa; MSN.com will host a kickoff party December 1.

For $5, users will receive a new issue of RED(WIRE) every Wednesday, featuring an exclusive song from a major musician, a song from a performer who (RED) aims to showcase, a multimedia piece that could encompass video or photography and a look at how proceeds are benefiting Africans in need. The materials will be downloaded to a custom player and automatically loaded into iTunes.

Users can send two free issues to friends, and will be rewarded if they join RED(WIRE).

"Artists are already saying, 'I want to give you a track for those people who brought friends in,'" (RED)WIRE founder Don MacKinnon told Billboard.com. "That's the biggest idea: using social networking to actually change the world in a unique way."

U2's track was recorded just last Wednesday, while the Killers, Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant teamed up for the Christmas song "Joseph, Better You Than Me," which MacKinnon describes as "like a power ballad." This is the third year in a row that the Killers have penned a holiday song and donated proceeds to (RED).

Meanwhile, John Legend's take on Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" finds him eschewing piano for a stripped-down arrangement with guitar, bass and backing vocalists, according to MacKinnon.

Also on tap is the first new Dixie Chicks song since the group's Grammy sweep in 2007, "Lucky One," and Elvis Costello and the Police jamming on "Watching the Detectives" and "Walking on the Moon," taped during Costello's new Sundance Channel show, "Spectacle." Additional (RED)WIRE offerings will be announced in the coming weeks.

MacKinnon is particularly enthused about the creative directions open to (RED)WIRE, especially with such high-profile artist participation.

"I had a meeting with Jay-Z, and he wants to talk about artists to be featured in that spotlight slot," he said. "Big artists may curate an issue. The whole goal was to create a creative platform. When somebody says, 'I do all this photography and I want to put it in as an extra,' that's when I go, this is going to be really cool."

Reuters/Billboard

News : Mobile apps find a home on touchscreen devices

By Gabriel Madway

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Touchscreen phone users are discovering that much of the fun in their devices stems from applications -- those little nuggets of convenience, amusement and distraction available for download on the slightest whim.

A good example is Google Inc's newly updated Mobile App for Apple Inc's iPhone, which has been generating a lot of buzz for one main reason: voice search.

Want to find the nearest pizza place, showtimes for the James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace," or the latest Bruce Springsteen video? Google voice search is uncannily accurate.

But it has obvious limitations, particularly with names. Say "Barack Obama" and you get a full page of data. Try "Emile Zatopek," the famed Czech distance runner? Forget about it.

Of course, there are many applications available for download on all sorts of mobile phones, but touchscreen devices have emerged as consumer favorites.

While the mobile app race is still in its infancy, the iPhone is already well ahead of rivals such as Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry and T-Mobile's G1, which features Google's Android operating system.

But competition is going to get more intense. RIM's touch-screen Storm was launched last week, although its app store won't open until next year. The Android app store opened for business last month but so far hasn't generated nearly the momentum of the iPhone app store, which went live in July.

In the first two months, iPhone users downloaded 100 million apps, choosing from among thousands of options. The programs, the vast majority offered by third-party developers under the watchful eye of Apple, run the gamut from utterly frivolous time-wasters to the surprisingly useful.

In addition, many handy iPhone apps are available for free, not a small consideration in these troubled economic times.

FOR FOODIES, ECO-CONSCIOUS, MUSIC LOVERS

The free Shazam mobile app is now available on the Android platform, following its successful debut on the iPhone. The program has developed a devoted following among music lovers as it seeks to solve the age-old question: "What is the name of that song?"

If you hear a song playing -- on the radio, or blasting from a car stereo -- and want to know more, launch Shazam and the program will capture the song, check it against its database and display the song information.

Another popular free app for the iPhone is offered by UrbanSpoon, which features user-generated restaurant reviews, but with a twist. If you feel like trying something new, just punch in your criteria, shake your iPhone, and UrbanSpoon will pick a restaurant for you.

The clever interface looks like a slot machine, and is a good way to break out of a food rut.

Ever been at the supermarket and found yourself wondering how safe or green a certain product might be? The free GoodGuide app -- still an iPhone-only offering -- features ratings on more than 60,000 household and personal use products.

Just punch in the product name and GoodGuide gives you a ranking based on environmental safety, impact and labor policy.

Consumers can expect to see many more mobile apps in the coming months, as the sheer creativity of small, third-party software developers should keep the market buzzing for some time.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

News : Online networks a magnet for job-seekers

By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Janel Landon, who runs a small PR consultancy in Chicago, has long been aware of the potential of online networks: now in her mid-50s and facing a global recession, she's decided to sign up.

"Given the state of the economy, I recently decided to jump on board," Landon told Reuters. "Professional networking is a 'must do' during unstable economic times."

The economic crisis slamming firms across the globe has sparked a spike in usage of professional networks -- Xing and LinkedIn are key sites -- as people hedge against losing work and laid-off employees seek jobs.

U.S. unemployment hit a new 14-year high in October and according to online job advertising firm Monster, recruitment activity on the Web plunged to its lowest level in nearly three years. Jobless rates are also rising in Europe.

Traffic on the world's top professional Web networks has surged since the financial crisis started to make headlines, with top player, privately held LinkedIn, notching 25 percent more registrations in September than forecast.

"Nobody has ever seen anything like this before," said Kevin Eyres, head of LinkedIn's operations in Europe. "Now we are growing by almost one new user each second."

Membership on LinkedIn has jumped to more than 31 million from 18 million at the start of the year, growing fastest in the financial services, media, education and technology fields, Eyres said. The firm has not disclosed any financial details.

"Given that a lot of professionals are currently losing or are worried about losing their job, it makes sense that career-focused social networks such as LinkedIn should see a boost in traffic," said Martin Olausson, director of the digital media strategies unit at research firm Strategy Analytics.

He estimated the size of the online professional social networking market at about $170 million this year.

Professional sites seek to distance themselves from social networks such as Facebook with their more sober approach, and by giving members more control over their profiles.

Richard Evans, director at U.K.-based Sheridan Evans Executive Search, said he has seen a rising number of requests to connect on professional Web networks: these are increasingly about the need for a job.

Sheridan Evans uses both LinkedIn and Xing, but also Paris-headquartered Viadeo and the largest address-book site Plaxo, to identify potential candidates. It has directed many people to their new jobs using such networks, Evans said.

"The recruitment industry in general is being hit hard. In financial services it's clearly very bad. In construction it's bad. In retail it's getting bad," said Evans, adding a shortage of senior management was supporting the headhunting business.

Already an estimated 150,000 jobs have been lost globally in the financial sector alone, with more widely expected to go in investment banking and trading.

Arun Patre, a 25-year old analyst at a financial consultancy in India, said he has been looking for jobs on LinkedIn: "The economic situation has prompted me to widen my network as you would never know where things might turn lucrative."

GROWTH VERSUS PROFITS

LinkedIn said it had seen a slight fall in job offers, but no sharp declines, whereas smaller peer, Europe-focused Xing, reported increasing traffic toward job adverts.

But with the downturn hurting the recruitment business and advertising, social networks have struggled to find a balance between sharply rising usage and profitable growth. LinkedIn said last month it would cut 36 jobs -- 10 percent of its staff.

Both LinkedIn and Xing offer premium, paid-for services.

Hamburg-based Xing, which has 6.5 million users in total and whose half a million premium users pay 5.95 euros per month for extra services, has also seen a jump in registrations and connections to record levels, and believes the crisis could open opportunities to grow through acquisition.

"The crisis is very beneficial for us. We are debt-free, with over 40 million euros ($50.5 million) in cash, and the prices for competitors are dropping significantly," said Xing Chief Executive Lars Hinrichs.

Xing, the first online community to offer its shares to the public, is expected to report 2008 sales rising 77 percent to 34.7 million euros, with profits rising even faster, according to a consensus of analysts provided by the company.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests the macro slowdown might even boost subscriber growth and therefore Xing's core revenue source," HSBC analyst Dominik Klarmann said in a research note.

LOOKING FOR JOB

The fast-growing phenomenon of social networks has over the years attracted intense interest from investors and companies like Microsoft and News Corp, and earlier this year the largest U.S. cable service provider Comcast bought Plaxo.

Soumitra Dutta, professor at European business school Insead and co-author of a recently published social networking book "Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom," said new online ties could often lead to someone's next job.

"Networks are very good examples of weak ties. Traditionally it has been thought that we need strong ties to get jobs, but we often get jobs through weak ties, not strong ties," Dutta said.

This worked for Bryan Webb, a 57-year old sales manager with a manufacturing company in Canada. It took him a while to build up a network to find a job after he joined LinkedIn, but it paid off last year.

Webb started by sending an application in response to an advert, but later found three people from the firm including the head of operations in his LinkedIn network.

He asked his network friend to pass on a recommendation to a third person, who was connected to the chief at the new firm.

"I still don't know who it was ... but it really made the process smoother and got me the job," Webb said.

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

News : Financial crisis dominates APEC - Peru

Global financial crisis remains at the forefront of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima.

As the APEC meeting draws to a close 21 leaders from Pacific Rim economies backed free trade to help ease the economic crisis.

The leaders are meeting at a time when economies around the world are taking a slamming from the crisis.

The group includes Russia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada. Mexico and the U.S. The member states account for more than half of global output.

Basmah Fahim reports.

News : Winter comes to Sweden

The first winter storm of the year causes traffic problems, power outages and flight delays in many parts of Sweden.

The storm headed out to the Baltic Sea and about 2,300 households in around the capital Stockholm had lost power overnight.

At Sweden's largest airp

News : Scientists shed light on causes of epilepsy

By Martina Fuchs

LONDON (Reuters) - A breakdown in a reaction between immune cells and blood vessels in the brain appears to play a key role in epilepsy, Italian researchers said Monday.

The discovery could mean that some modern antibody-based drugs designed to modify the immune system used in other diseases may one day help fight the debilitating disorder.

A study of mice showed how immune cells sticking to blood vessels in the brain caused inflammation that contributed to epileptic seizures, Gabriela Constantin of the University of Verona in Italy and colleagues reported.

The finding could lead to new treatments to prevent the condition that affects about 1 percent of the general population worldwide, said Constantin, who led the study published in the journal Nature Medicine.

"This mechanism was not previously suspected in epilepsy," she said in a telephone interview.

Epilepsy is considered incurable but medicines can control seizures in most people with the common neurological disorder, although sometimes they can have severe side effects.

Many seizures -- which are caused by excessive electrical activity in the brain -- involve loss of consciousness, with the body twitching or shaking. People who have more than one seizure are considered to have epilepsy.

The researchers found that during a seizure the brain released a chemical that caused the white blood cells, or leukocytes, to stick to blood vessels. The immune cells protect the body from threats such as bacteria, viruses, and infections.

But when these immune cells stuck to the brain blood vessels they caused damage by releasing molecules that caused inflammation and contributed to seizures in mice, Constantin said.

"We found a lot of inflammation in this process in the generation of a new seizure," she said.

Mice that received monoclonal antibodies to block the immune cells from sticking to blood vessels had a dramatic reduction of seizures, in some cases 100 percent, Constantin said.

The treatment worked in a similar way to Elan Corp Plc's multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri and Genentech Inc's Raptiva for psoriasis, she added.

This means these kinds of drugs might also one day be used to treat epilepsy and the findings could also lead to new anti-inflammatory treatments for epilepsy, she said.

"We predict other inflammatory drugs can work and be discovered for use in humans," she said. "We have preliminary data on other inflammatory mechanism."

(Reporting by Martina Fuchs, Editing by Michael Kahn)

News : American youth trail in Internet use

By David Lawsky

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fewer young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Macao and Britain, a survey of 13 countries around the world showed.

Among 12 to 14 year olds, 100 percent of British youth use the Internet, followed by Israel at 98 percent, the Czech Republic and Macao and 96 percent and Canada at 95 percent, according to the World Internet report by the Center for the Digital Future.

By contrast, only 88 percent of Americans of the same age had access, trailed by Hungary and Singapore, where more than seven in 10 young people use the Internet.

Separately, a bulletin by a software company showed mobile phone access to the Internet burgeoning outside the United States, especially in Southeast Asia.

For the report by the Center for the Digital Future, headed by Jeff Cole at the University of Southern California, researchers in 13 countries talked to more than 25,000 people in Asia, Australia, North and South America and Europe in late 2007 and early 2008.

UNIVERSAL SERVICE LACKING

The Center report showed the United States trails other countries in older groups, too. U.S. Internet usage by those over 18 runs behind Sweden, New Zealand and Canada.

Recently, U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin unsuccessfully proposed a universal service fund to promote high-speed Internet access, similar to the one for telephone service.

Martin also advocates new spectrum for wireless in the United States to facilitate Internet access and held a joint news conference with Larry Page, a founder of Google Inc, to promote the idea.

The Center report, issued annually in the United States and for the first time worldwide, said mobile phones are used for Internet access "by a very small percentage of users, with the exception of the United Kingdom."

But that may be out of date. A monthly bulletin issued by Norwegian software maker Opera Software shows mobile phone Internet access exploding.

Opera said that, during 2008, use of its Mini browser on mobile phones more than tripled, reaching 5 billion page views in October. The increase is especially marked in Southeast Asia and also showed spikes in Africa and the Middle East.

In Indonesia, user growth tripled. Page views there increased eight-fold and in the Philippines by 10-fold.

"In many of these Southeast Asian countries the mobile Web exists not because it complements existing means of access, but rather because it replaces them," Opera added.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

News : Triple "Guild" play for Microsoft

By Andrew Wallenstein

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Microsoft will be filled to the gills with "The Guild."

The software giant has an exclusive lock on the long-awaited second season of the Internet cult hit, which will be the first to be distributed worldwide simultaneously across Microsoft's triple platform of Xbox 360's Live Marketplace, MSN and Zune.

Sprint has signed on to sponsor the 12-episode run, making it the first marketer to test Microsoft's new strategy to draw ad dollars with the combined reach of a gaming console, Internet portal and portable media player.

A scripted comedy chronicling the misadventures of a group of online gamers, "Guild" premieres Tuesday on Independent Video, Xbox's new channel devoted to original content. "Guild" will lead a collection of ad-supported and fee-based programs, including such other game-oriented fare as "The Jace Hall Show," "Red vs. Blue" and first-season episodes of "Guild."

Although launching with just five or six programs, Xbox has ambitions of expanding Independent Video beyond the gaming theme to embrace a broader audience. The channel is launching with the only other original deal it has done to date, the webisode "Horror Meets Comedy" from Safran Media Group, which is not gaming-related.

After reaching 9 million views with a 10-episode season financed from viewer contributions via PayPal, "Guild" emerged last year as one of the more buzzed-about webisodes. Its star, creator and writer-producer, Felicia Day, has become the face of the original Web production world, starring opposite Neil Patrick Harris in one of the few other success stories in online originals, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," created by Joss Whedon. "Horrible" also is syndicated on Xbox's Independent Video.

A key component of the deal allows for Day to retain the intellectual property rights to "Guild" while collecting an unspecified upfront license fee. A who's who of Web brands courted Day for rights to "Guild," from old-media companies to gamer-centric ad networks, though many insisted on retaining the traditional set of rights.

But Day had been holding out for more than a year in search of a deal that gave her control of the creative and business sides of "Guild." "I was adamant about holding on to the rights of my series," she said.

As a result, Microsoft will not participate in revenue should "Guild" eventually graduate to TV or film, though the corporation does hold on to any gaming-related extensions. Which is fine by Scott Nocas, group product manager at Xbox Live.

"We're a software and hardware company," he said. "If they want to do a movie deal, that's not our core business."

Four weeks after each episode of "Guild" airs, it moves into a second window on Watchtheguild.com, home base for the first season's episodes. However, Microsoft retains ad revenue in that window as well as in an unspecified split because episodes will air in an embedded MSN media player. Once the entire season is completed by the end of February, Day can make a new deal for a nonexclusive run beyond Microsoft.

An added plus for going with Xbox is that "Guild" will be distributed day-and-date in nine languages in 26 countries where Xbox Live operates, reaching 14 million users. "Guild" found unintended international appeal late in its run, according to Day.

Sprint will attach itself to "Guild" in various ways from preroll messaging to branded entertainment; mobile phone Sprint Instinct is shown being used by one of the series' characters.

Each "Guild" episode runs 4-7 minutes long. A separate holiday special is also covered under the deal, which will allow "Guild" to shoot in high-definition for its Xbox window.

Before the introduction of Independent Video, which was deployed last week as part of a relaunch of the Xbox Live Marketplace interface, all TV and film content was available on a transactional basis. "Guild" and "Horror," which is sponsored by the Air Force, will be Xbox's first free programs.

"Horror" also will be pushed through all three Microsoft distribution points but won't move to MSN and Zune until after its Xbox run.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

News : Apple sued over tech that helps iPhone surf Web

BOSTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc is the target of a lawsuit that claims a technology the iPhone uses to surf the Web infringes on a patent filed by Los Angeles real estate developer Elliot Gottfurcht and two co-inventors.

The lawsuit was filed by EMG Technology LLC on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas. EMG was founded by Gottfurcht, is based in Los Angeles with an office in Tyler, and has just one employee.

The suit alleges that the technology the iPhone uses to navigate and display some websites designed for small phone screens infringes on a patent obtained last month by Gottfurcht and his co-inventors and assigned to EMG.

Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that the Cupertino, California-based company does not discuss pending litigation.

EMG has not considered suing companies such as HTC Corp, maker of the G1 Google phone, and Research in Motion Ltd, maker of the BlackBerry, which also produce devices that can display mobile websites, according to Gottfurcht's lawyer Stanley Gibson, a partner with the Los Angeles law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro.

Mobile websites are essentially reformatted versions of ordinary websites, with their content manipulated to be easily viewed on tiny screens.

"We haven't looked at anything other than the iPhone," Gibson told Reuters. "That was the device that we looked at. Obviously it's very popular."

Gibson was one of several attorneys who prosecuted a recent patent infringement case against Medtronic Inc that resulted in a $570 million verdict for his clients, according to a statement issued by his law firm.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, editing by Richard Chang)

News : New Beatles song

Talk of the Town brings you the latest in news, music and celebrity talk

The latest showbiz news including a possible new release from the Beatles, another court case against Michael Jackson, and a deadly internet rumor about Miley Cyrus.

Bob Mezan reports.

News : Mammoth genome sequence may explain extinction

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have sequenced the gene map of a long-extinct, mummified woolly mammoth, using DNA taken from its hair.

The sequence shows that mammoths were more closely related to modern, living elephants than previously thought, and they found some elements, such as evidence of inbreeding, that may shed light on why the giant creatures went extinct, the researchers reported on Wednesday.

And it shows that it is possible to reconstruct the genomes of extinct creatures, they reported in the journal Nature.

"By deciphering this genome we could, in theory, generate data that one day may help other researchers to bring the woolly mammoth back to life by inserting the uniquely mammoth DNA sequences into the genome of the modern-day elephant," Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University, who helped lead the research, said in a statement.

"This would allow scientists to retrieve the genetic information that was believed to have been lost when the mammoth died out, as well as to bring back an extinct species that modern humans have missed meeting by only a few thousand years."

The sequence shows that mammoths, which died out around 10,000 years ago, evolved slowly.

"We discovered that individual woolly mammoths were so genetically similar to one another that they may have been especially susceptible to being wiped out by a disease, by a change in the climate, or by humans," said Schuster.

The researchers will have to analyze the DNA to pinpoint some of the precise sequences unique to mammoths, but have some hints.

"Our data suggest that mammoths and modern-day elephants separated around six million years ago, about the same time that humans and chimpanzees separated," added Penn State biologist Webb Miller, who directed the study.

CLOSE RELATIVES

But mammoths and elephants appear more closely related than humans and chimpanzees are. Miller said the findings can help scientists understand evolution.

The researchers have been pulling DNA out of mummified mammoths and their hair for more than a decade, but because it is so old, the DNA is broken down. It is also contaminated by bacteria and fungi.

Mammoths offer a better target than most extinct animals because many of their bodies have been frozen since death -- some so thoroughly that the meat is still edible.

The Penn State researchers believe they have about 80 percent of its genome complete.

The evidence suggests that woolly mammoths then separated into two groups around 2 million years ago, which eventually became genetically distinct. One went extinct 45,000 years ago, while another survived until 10,000 years ago.

Next in line -- perhaps Neanderthals, said Michael Hofreiter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

"The next draft nuclear genome of an extinct species likely to become available is that of our closest relative, the Neanderthal, following on from publication of a complete Neanderthal mitochondrial genome sequence," Hofreiter wrote in a commentary.

A fast sequencing machine made by 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, made the work possible, the researchers said. So far, 28 mammals have had their genomes sequenced, including humans, dogs, cats, rats and pigs.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and Sandra Maler)

News : Yahoo, T-Mobile announce mobile search deal

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc announced an expansion of its mobile Web portals to T-mobile, so its smart phone users who get data will have Yahoo search by default.

Yahoo started serving T-mobile, a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, in 10 European countries this year, sharing ad search revenue.

Yahoo will reach 105 million U.S. subscribers between its deal with T-Mobile and one with AT&T.

The long-scheduled announcement came hours after Microsoft Chairman Steve Ballmer told an audience that, while he has no interest in reviving any attempts to purchase Yahoo, he is interested in a partnership pegged to searches.

Yahoo shares closed down nearly 21 percent on the remarks after gaining on hopes Microsoft would revive its bid after Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang announced he would leave.

(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Andre Grenon)

News : "World of Warcraft" has rivals racing for new worlds

By John Gaudiosi

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - "World of Warcraft" has become a phenomenon among role-playing interactive online games with its unrivaled success leaving competitors racing to draw gamers into new virtual worlds.

Fans of the massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game by Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi Games, lined up outside stores around the world this month to get the game's second expansion pack "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King."

"World of Warcraft," which creates a vast interactive world, has about 11 million people worldwide registered as players, paying around $15 a month to explore the fantasy role-playing universe of Azeroth.

The second expansion pack gives players access to the forbidding continent of Northrend where the malevolent Lich King Arthas seeks to end life on Azeroth.

Michael Pachter, videogame analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, forecast the new pack would sell about five million copies, cementing "World of Warcraft" as the dominant MMO game over about 150 rival games on sale or in development.

"'World of Warcraft' is probably 60 percent to 65 percent of the market in the U.S. and Europe, and a smaller percentage in Asia," said Pachter.

The game has become an obsession for some players.

Dr Richard Graham, a child psychiatrist at the UK's Tavistock Center, was reported as warning last week that some young people were damaging their social and mental development by playing the game for up to 16 hours at a time.

"The problem with World of Warcraft is the degree it can impact and create a socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game and is largely dropping out of education, social opportunities," he told The Telegraph.

But its success among gamers has rival publishers struggling to get into the increasingly popular MMO market.

Brett Close, chief executive and president of 38 Studios, which is developing a new fantasy MMO game, said about 80 percent of MMO games fail but companies continue to try as the appeal is that players become part of that world and spend to stay there.

"You can either spend $20 million to $40 million on a traditional console game that well surpasses its cost over about a year, or double that to yield significantly larger annual profits for five-plus years with an MMO game," said Close.

Billy Pidgeon, videogame research manager at IDC, said it was tough to compete directly with 'World of Warcraft,' but Funcom's 'Age of Conan,' CCP Games' 'EVE Online,' and Electronic Arts' 'Warhammer Online' were doing fine.

CCP Games released its science fiction MMO game, "EVE Online," five years ago and the company has found a niche of 300,000 gamers which has grown with each of the eight free game expansions. The latest "Quantum Rising," came out last week.

"I expect companies to continue to try to get a piece of this growing market," said Pidgeon.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith )

News : McCartney, Guns N' Roses albums to launch on MySpace

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and Guns N' Roses released their biggest hits on vinyl records and compact discs, but on Thursday, their new albums will debut online on MySpace.

Users of MySpace, the world's largest social network on the Internet, will be able to listen for free to "Electric Arguments," the new album by McCartney's side-project group The Fireman, and "Chinese Democracy," the long-delayed album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, before the songs are in stores and at online shops like Amazon.com.

Members of News Corp-owned MySpace will be able to play the songs on the bands' MySpace pages, but they will not be able to download them onto their computers.

Geffen Records plans to exclusively release "Chinese Democracy" on November 23 in the United States at consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc. Most of its tracks have already shown up in various forms, including pirated versions on the Internet.

"Electric Arguments" is due to be released on November 25. Fans can also order songs from that album, but not songs from "Chinese Democracy", through MySpace Music.

MySpace Music is a joint venture with Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group.

Giving fans an early crack at the albums could be a big win for MySpace, which launched a music joint venture with several record labels this year to challenge Apple Inc's iTunes online music store.

MySpace has featured exclusives from other acts, but few as legendary as McCartney and Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose.

It is the third album for The Fireman, a collaboration between the former Beatles bassist and Martin Glover, better known as Youth, the record producer and founding bassist of British punk-industrial music band Killing Joke. Their last album, "Rushes," came out a decade ago.

McCartney, 66, has a reputation for crafting sugary pop ballads and rock standards, but has recorded more experimental music, during and after his Beatles years. They include two other Fireman albums, a collaboration with Youth and the group Super Furry Animals, and one-man band record "McCartney II."

"Chinese Democracy" has aroused interest because of its notoriety; it is the first album of new Guns N' Roses material in more than 17 years, and has taken nearly as long to finish.

The band built its reputation on its hit debut "Appetite for Destruction" and "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II," but tension among members led to all of the original members but Rose, 46, leaving.

Getting more members and advertisers is critical to MySpace, especially as the world financial crisis hammers corporate budgets.

News Corp cut its fiscal 2009 operating income forecast earlier this month to a low- to mid-teen percentage drop because of deteriorating ad sales, compared with a previous estimate of 4 percent to 6 percent growth.

It is hard to say how many new users will be attracted to MySpace by The Fireman and Guns N' Roses albums, MySpace president Tom Anderson said. He added that there have been millions of plays for launches of any significant band.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

News : Microsoft modifies Zune subscription model

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Thursday announced a new music subscription plan for owners of its Zune players, which would allow them to keep 10 tracks per month and add them to their permanent collection.

The Zune Pass subscription service currently gives consumers on-demand access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month.

Effective Thursday, the software company's modified subscription plan would allow owners of Zune to keep 10 tracks per month, which has an estimated value of $10. The users can also add those tracks to their permanent collection.

The company said agreements have been signed with the big four music labels -- EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group -- and also with a few independent distributors.

A Zune Pass would allow the user to download music and the downloaded content can be shared among up to three PCs and three Zune devices, the company said.

Zune Pass subscribers can retain digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3 tracks from Sony BMG and UMG.

The tracks can be burned to a CD or moved to other devices even if the subscription ends, the company said.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; ; Editing by Greg Mahlich)