JPMorgan Chase agreed pay $5.1 billion to settle litigation over mortgage assets sold during the housing bubble. The deal, announced late Friday afternoon, is to resolve claims the company misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing market crashed. It is part of a tentative $13 billion deal the company is trying to reach with federal and state agencies over its mortgage liabilities.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Novo Nordisk is recalling 3 million insulin products used for diabetes treatment in 13 European countries due to a production problem that can affect the strength of the drug.
The Danish drug maker says Friday's recall affects certain batches of the prefilled insulin pen NovoMix30 FlexPen in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway and Slovakia.
It also affects three batches of NovoMix30 Penfill cartridges in Britain and Ireland.
Novo Nordisk says a quality control showed 0.14 percent of the products don't meet the specifications for insulin strength, which could lead to high or low blood sugar levels.
Company spokesman Mike Rulis said there had been no reports of health problems from patients using the affected products, which were first shipped in March.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-10-25-Denmark-Insulin%20Recall/id-613cfb4cd1624306b6c924b87e3e9d5cBELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia's new national carrier, Air Serbia, has named its first plane after Novak Djokovic, the Balkan country's best-ever tennis player who is second-ranked in the world.
An Airbus A319 plane bearing a double-headed eagle logo in Serbia's national, red, white and blue colors is making its first flight Saturday to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, marking the company's official launch. Djokovic's name is printed in large letters at the front part of the plane.
Air Serbia was formed in partnership with Etihad Airways, which owns 49 percent of the successor to loss-making JAT Airways. The company says its future fleet will carry names of 14 important living Serbs.
Serbian media have quoted Djokovic as saying he was happy to help the new company.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/serb-carriers-first-plane-named-djokovic-123405310--finance.htmlFILE - In this Aug. 1, 2012 file photo, Jeffrey Zients testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Barack Obama is calling Zients to help correct problems with the new federal health care website. The White House says Zients will assist a team that is said to be working around the clock on the site, www.healthcare.gov. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2012 file photo, Jeffrey Zients testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Barack Obama is calling Zients to help correct problems with the new federal health care website. The White House says Zients will assist a team that is said to be working around the clock on the site, www.healthcare.gov. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — It should be working well by the end of November. That's the Obama administration's rough timetable for completing a long list of fixes to HealthCare.gov, the new, trouble-plagued website for uninsured Americans to get coverage.
Summarizing a week's worth of intensive diagnostics, the administration acknowledged Friday the site has dozens of complex problems and tapped a private company to oversee fixes.
Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant brought in by the White House to assess the extent of problems, told reporters his review found dozens of issues across the entire system. The site is made up of layers of components that are meant to interact in real time with consumers, government agencies and insurance company computers.
It will take a lot of work, but "HealthCare.gov is fixable," Zients declared.
The vast majority of the issues will be resolved by the end of November, he asserted, and there will be many fewer screen freezes. He stopped short of saying problems will completely vanish.
The administration also said it is promoting one of the website contractors, a subsidiary of the nation's largest health insurance company, to take on the role of "general contractor" shepherding the fixes.
Quality Software Services Inc. — owned by a unit of UnitedHealth Group— was responsible for two components of the government's online insurance system. One is the data hub, a linchpin that works relatively well, and the other is an accounts registration feature that initially froze and caused many problems.
HealthCare.gov was supposed to be the online portal for uninsured Americans to get coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law. Envisioned as the equivalent of Amazon.com for health insurance, it became a huge bottleneck immediately upon launch Oct. 1. The flop turned into an embarrassment for Obama and will likely end up as a case study of how government technology programs can go awry.
The briefing from Zients came a day after executives of QSSI and the other major contractor, CGI Federal, told Congress that the government didn't fully test the system and ordered up last-minute changes that contributed to logjams. Next week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is scheduled to testify.
Visiting a community health center on Friday in Austin, Texas, Sebelius said that "in an ideal world there would have been a lot more testing" but added that her department had little flexibility to postpone the launch against the backdrop of Washington's unforgiving politics. House Republicans trying to defund the nation's health insurance program precipitated a government shutdown.
Zients gave some new details about the extent of the problems, but administration officials are still refusing to release any numbers on how many people have successfully enrolled. Although 700,000 have applied for coverage through the new online markets, it's believed only a fraction of that number actually managed to sign up. Before the website went live, an administration estimate projected nearly 500,000 people would sign up in October alone.
The marketplaces are the gateway to obtaining health insurance under the new health care law, which requires most Americans to have coverage by Jan. 1. Middle-class people who don't have insurance on the job can purchase a private plan with new tax credits to make the premiums more affordable. Low-income people will be steered to an expanded version of Medicaid in states that agree to extend the safety net program.
The federal government is running the insurance markets or taking the lead in 36 states. The rest were set up by states themselves.
Consumers have until Dec. 15 to sign up for coverage to take effect Jan. 1. Under the law, pre-existing medical conditions will no longer be a barrier. But the markets also need lots of young, healthy customers to keep premiums affordable. Open enrollment season extends until Mar. 31.
Zients said almost daily fixes are already having an impact. For example, more than 90 percent of users can now complete one of the first steps, creating an account.
But the application process, which involves submitting and verifying personal information and income details, remains "volatile," he said. At one point, as few as one-third of users were getting through that part.
Zients said there are two big categories of problems. Performance issues involve the speed and reliability of the website. Functional issues are bugs that keep the software from working as intended. Among the high-priority issues is that insurers are getting enrollments with incomplete, incorrect or duplicative information.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-26-Health%20Overhaul-Problems/id-b31826f4860649f1bb5a11814acc3c95The Scosche RH1060 fits well into the current world of headphones, meaning that it shares some popular attributes, like Bluetooth wireless audio streaming, a detachable cable for optional wired listening, and, most notably, some powerful bass response. The $199.99 (direct) headphones are also quite comfortable, though their bulky design won't be for everyone. Bass lovers looking for a solid, powerful Bluetooth headphone pair have plenty of reason to read on—those who favor a more midrange-focused mix, or a lighter, more easily portable pair, probably don't need to.
Design
No one would call the RH1060 petite. The headphone frame is chunky, its earpads are large, and most of the surface of the outer panels and the headband is comprised of glossy black plastic. The earpads have some pivot to them at their connection point in the headband, so they can adjust to the shape of your head more easily. Ample padding on the underside of the headband and on the earpads themselves makes the fit of the RH1060 quite comfortable.
The Power button for the RH1060 is on the left earcup—it doubles as the Bluetooth pairing button. As with most Bluetooth headphones these days, the pairing process is simple and quick; our iPhone 4S found the RH1060 quickly and was soon streaming audio to it.
On the right earcup, there are three controls, for Volume Up, Volume Down (these buttons work independently of the volume controls on your mobile device or computer), and Play/Pause. They are large enough that it's fairly easy to memorize which is which, but you will be operating them blindly. Also on the right earcup: the connection ports for a USB charging cable and a 3.5mm audio cable, both of which come with the headphones.
The inclusion of an audio cable for wired, non-Bluetooth usage adds value to the RH1060—you can use it when the battery's dead, and you can even replace the cable should it falter down the road. The cable does not have an inline remote or microphone, however.
The RH1060 also ships with a sturdy zip-up hard case, which the headphones fold down into with ease (though the case is still bulky), as well as a cleaning cloth to shine the glossy plastic, and a carabiner that can fasten to a loop on the outside of the case.
It would have been nice to see a dedicated charger, and not just a USB cable, on a pair priced this high, but this is a common omission. Scosche estimates the playback time on a fully charged battery to be about 8 hours.
Performance
The RH1060 does not distort, whether in wired or Bluetooth mode, on tracks with serious sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout"—even at top volumes on both the headphones and the sound source (in this case, again, an iPhone 4S). Not only is the bass delivered cleanly, but with substantial rumble. There is significant bass boosting here, and fans of flat response sound signatures probably will find the low-frequency response too intense. Fans of big bass, however, should enjoy the RH1060's overall sound—there's enough mid-range and high frequency presence so that things don't become ridiculously weighted to the lows, but this is clearly their show.
On Bill Callahan's "Drover", it becomes apparent that these headphones are mostly geared towards the deep bass fans. Through the RH1060, his vocals lack the treble edge and high-mid clarity that help them stay out in front of the mix. Instead, the lows take over, boosting his baritone vocals a bit too much, and boosting the lows of the drumming too much. Some people will enjoy this sound, but it's almost as if the drums are competing with his voice for your attention. On a flat response pair, they'd be well in the background of the mix—somewhere in between the two is what most people will gravitate to.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" fares better with the RH1060's sound signature. The attack of the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid definition to cut through the mix, though it lacks the edge it often has on pairs with more mid-range and high frequency presence. And the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the drum loop are delivered with power, but not overwhelmingly so. Clearly, electronic music and hip-hop tracks with prominent low-end fare better on the RH1060 than more subtle singer songwriter mixes.
As for classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances", they sound crisper and brighter than the other genres tested, primarily because they tend to have more transparent, flat mixes to begin with. So, the high-mid presence of the higher register strings and percussion is already well intact and doesn't need much help from the RH1060 to stay out in the forefront of the mix, even when the lower register strings get some serious extra richness in the lows, as they do here. The large drum hits at the end of this piece have some extra thunder to them, but nothing is so over-the-top that it sounds unnatural.
This is nitpicking, but occasionally, we heard system noises in the headphones (when paired with the iPhone 4S)—very faint, and not really loud enough to interfere with the music. But it's notable because so many Bluetooth headphones and earphones do not suffer from any noises like these when paired. It's a very faint, brief higher pitched sound that isn't really loud enough to compete with the music and shouldn't be considered a deal-breaker for anyone still interested in this pair.
So, obviously purists seeking less bass boosting should look elsewhere, but fans of big bass and the genres that often employ it should enjoy the RH1060—and classical fans who don't mind a little added low-end presence might like these headphones as well. If you're looking for a more measured, balanced response with more high frequency definition, the Harman Kardon BT is a solid Bluetooth pair in this general price range. And if more low end is what you crave, the Beats by Dr. Dre Wireless brings it in droves. Sennheiser's MM 100 is another solid Bluetooth option, but geared more toward the exercise crowd—it has far less bass and a much more workout-friendly design. If you're looking to spend a lot less money, the Outdoor Technology DJ Slims manage to output a decent bass response and clarity despite their budget price—but don't expect fireworks. At $200, the RH1060 seems fairly priced, given that it's well-designed, can be used in wired mode as well, and delivers clean audio, but bass fans are clearly the target audience.
IN A GLOBAL FIRST FOR TELEVISION, "THE X FACTOR" LAUNCHES VOTING ON SHAZAM
Exclusive Partnership Extends Online SuperVote Features and Bonus Content Experience to Shazam's 105 Million U.S. App Users
THE X FACTOR Voting Via Online, Mobile and Tablet App, Toll-Free Phone Lines and Text Messaging
Begins Wednesday, November 6, on FOX
In a global first, FOX, FremantleMedia North America and Syco Entertainment are offering THE
X FACTOR fans the opportunity to vote for their favorite acts using Shazam, one of the most popular music and TV apps on the planet and one of the Top 10 most-downloaded apps on the App Store™.
Beginning Wednesday, Nov. 6, fans of THE X FACTOR can take advantage of FOX's patent pending SuperVote experience directly through the Shazam App, where they can also click to purchase songs performed by the acts, as well as the recording artists, featured in-show during the broadcast. In addition, THE X FACTOR fans using Shazam will now be able to vote for their favorite acts, as well as access additional show videos and content that complement the show's media-rich sync-to-broadcast experience available through the official The X Factor USA app during the live telecasts.
"THE X FACTOR is that perfect marriage of music and television that Shazam users love. We are thrilled to work with FOX, Syco and FremantleMedia North America in this first-of-its-kind chance for THE X FACTOR fans to use the Shazam App to vote for their favorite acts," said Shazam CEO Rich Riley.
Sponsored by Honda across all digital platforms, online voting for THE X FACTOR begins immediately after the first live Top 12 performance show on Wednesday, Nov. 6 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), on FOX. Viewers will be able to SuperVote – cast multiple votes at one time – via TheXFactorUSA.com, The X Factor USA app (data and message rates may apply) and the Shazam App. Fans with valid Facebook accounts can also SuperVote at
Facebook.com/TheXFactorUSA.
To SuperVote, fans can allocate any number of votes for one contestant or multiple contestants, for a total of 50 votes (across all online voting destinations), and in a unique interactive experience, they can adjust their vote selections as performances happen during the show. When the voting window officially opens, fans can submit their final votes – all at once. [Only fans with a registered Facebook account in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be able to cast their vote(s) online.]
In addition to online voting, fans will continue to be able to vote during the voting window via toll-free calling, as well as text messaging (standard text-messaging rates may apply). The first voting results will be revealed on the LIVE results show Thursday, Nov. 7 (8:00-9:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX. Please continue to visit www.TheXFactorUSA.com for voting information.
Welcome to Patentspin. I'll use this space to take a look at some strange or interesting patents related to the world of sports. I will then, probably, make fun of them.
     |
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/95395/bellator-105-preliminaries-start-at-7pm-et/
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said Friday during a hastily called conference call that Tito Ortiz suffered a fractured neck during training for his planned Nov. 2 bout against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, forcing the cancellation of the bout and moving the rest of the card off of pay-per-view and onto Spike TV.
The card now will be headlined by a lightweight title match between Michael Chandler against Eddie Alvarez as the main event in Long Beach, Calif. Chandler won the title from Alvarez in a spectacular 2011 fight.
Rebney said the remainder of the card will go on as planned. In addition to Chandler-Alvarez, the card will include a featherweight title bout between Pat Curran and Daniel Straus, a light heavyweight rematch between Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and Emanuel Newton and the Fight Master finale between Joe Riggs and Mike Bronzoulis.
Rebney said Ortiz's injury is long-term and that he won't be able to fight for several months, at least. Rebney said Ortiz "is devastated," and said the injury was unrelated to a previous neck surgery Ortiz had while he was fighting for the UFC.
Rebney said Ortiz called him several days ago and said he was in intense pain. Rebney arranged for Ortiz to see a doctor in Orange County, Calif., two days ago. The results of the MRI were then forwarded to Dr. William Smith in Las Vegas, who had performed surgery on Ortiz's neck previously.
"All kudos to Tito [because] Tito wanted to move forward, Tito wanted to progress, Tito wanted to fight," Rebney said. "His doctor said absolutely not. His doctor went so far as to say given the fracture and where it is located, if he were slammed on his head in the wrong way or hit in the wrong way that conceivably the fracture could go as far as to cause paralysis. And Tito was still interested in trying to figure out a way to move forward.
"I wasn't in favor of it. His doctor wasn't in favor of it. Life's too important. He's got two beautiful kids and you can live to fight another day, as they say. I've only had all the substantive information for about a day now and finally got everybody on the phone to make some decisions."
Rebney said he is hopeful of being able to get Jackson a fight as quickly as possible. He said he hoped Jackson would fight on Spike TV before Thanksgiving.
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/tito-ortiz-injured-bellator-cancels-ppv-moves-rest-214804022--mma.html
Anyone who's picked up an Ouya, or demoed one in-store, knows that the controller, with its sticky buttons and flimsy removable plates, could do with a lot of help. Company founder Julie Uhrman's aware of the issue and, in an interview with Polygon, she revealed that a new version of the Ouya controller is already on the production line. Taking the abundant consumer feedback into account, the company's phased out the old model and made some key fixes, including more secure triggers, improved thumbstick grips and buttons that (hopefully) don't get stuck in the controller's base. Whether or not you'll actually find one at retail is a bit of a crapshoot, however, as Uhrman said the packaging won't highlight the change. Uhrman also touched upon news of the Ouya 2, the release of which falls in line with previous reports of an annual update cycle. Specs for that next console haven't been finalized yet and, further, the company won't really be focusing on it until sometime in 2014. But when it does arrive next year, you can expect to see it receive an slight cosmetic update from designer Yves Behar.
The apps world brought us redesigns, updates, and brand new offerings this week, none of which are pumpkin spice flavored. Put on your touchscreen gloves and get apping!
| |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a stronger, single-ingredient version hydrocodone, the widely-abused prescription painkiller.
The agency said Friday it approved the extended-release pill Zohydro ER for patients with pain that requires "daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment" that cannot be treated with other drugs.
Hydrocodone is currently sold in combination pills like Vicodin to treat pain from injuries, surgery, arthritis and migraines. The new drug from Zogenix is the first pure hydrocodone drug approved in the U.S.
The approval came as a surprise since the agency's own panel of outside advisers gave the drug an overwhelmingly negative review last year. The panel of pain specialists voted 11-2, with one abstention, against approving the drug, questioning the need for a new form of one of most widely-abused prescription drugs in U.S.
Zohydro's approval was quickly criticized by patient safety advocates who had urged the FDA to reject the drug at the public panel last December.
"We're just going to kill more kids and then the FDA is going to come back and say, 'oh, we made a mistake,'" said Avi Israel of Buffalo, N.Y. Israel's son Michael committed suicide in 2011 while struggling with painkiller addiction. Israel is the founder of a group called, Save the Michaels of the World, which aims to combat painkiller abuse in young people.
In 2011, U.S. doctors wrote more than 131 million prescriptions for hydrocodone, making it the most prescribed drug in the country, according to government figures. Hydrocodone also consistently ranks among most-abused medicines in the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The drug belongs to a family of medicines known as opiates or opioids because they are chemically similar to opium. Others include morphine, heroin, oxycodone, codeine and methadone.
Friday's news was also blasted by lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have been trying to rein in prescription drug abuse in their home states.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., said the FDA should have required the drug to contain anti-abuse design features that would make it harder for users to crush the pills and snort or inject them.
"FDA not only approves this dangerous drug, but does so without requiring any abuse-deterrent features. This is outrageous," Keating said in a statement. "Abuse-deterrent technologies should not be the anomaly, they must be the norm."
In recent years, Purdue Pharma, Pfizer Inc., Endo Health Solutions Inc. and other drugmakers have developed tamper-resistant versions of popular opioid drugs.
The timing of the FDA announcement also drew criticism from safety advocates and lawmakers. Only one day earlier the FDA said it would support stronger restrictions on combination drugs containing hydrocodone, including Vicodin and dozens of other generic formulations.
The drugs currently available mix hydrocodone with non-addictive pain relievers like aspirin and acetaminophen. For decades these drugs have been subject to less rigorous prescribing limits than other prescription painkillers like oxycodone.
Late Thursday, the FDA said it would recommend moving hydrocodone combination drugs from the schedule III class to the schedule II class of medications. The switch means that the drugs can only be prescribed by a physician and cannot be refilled. Currently the drugs can be refilled up to five times by the patient can be and prescribed by nurses and other health care workers.
The DEA had first asked the agency to reclassify the drug a decade ago, and lawmakers and safety advocates had increased their pressure on the agency in recent years.
The FDA said in its announcement Friday that the newly-approved Zohydro would be regulated under the schedule II classification.
The agency is also requiring the drug's manufacturer to conduct studies of Zohydro's potential misuse and abuse when used longer than 12 weeks.
The most common side effects reported in company trials included constipation, nausea, drowsiness, fatigue, dizziness, dry mouth, vomiting and itching.
Shares of San Diego-based Zogenix, Inc. jumped in trading Friday, climbing 80 cents, or 36 percent, to close at $3.04. Earlier shares set a 52-week high of $3.45.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-10-25-Hydrocodone%20Painkiller-FDA/id-05411cf8cbf841608d3af3e938783914
According to @evleaks, what you're looking at here is a forthcoming iPhone gaming controller from mobile peripheral purveyor Moga. Like the simpler Logitech leak
| |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid incidents of pets dying from dog treats, the Food and Drug Administration is proposing long-awaited rules to make pet food and animal feed safer.
The rules stem from a sweeping food safety law passed by Congress almost three years ago. Like rules proposed earlier this year for human food, they would focus on preventing contamination before it begins.
The announcement comes as the FDA says it hasn't yet determined a cause of almost 600 dog deaths believed to be linked to pet jerky treats imported from China. The agency has been trying for six years to determine what exactly is causing those illnesses.
The proposed rules would require those who sell pet food and animal feed in the United States — including importers — to follow certain sanitation practices and have detailed food safety plans. All of the manufacturers would have to put individual procedures in place to prevent their food from becoming contaminated.
The rules would also help human health by aiming to prevent foodborne illnesses in pet food that can be transferred to humans. People can become sick by handling contaminated pet food or animal feed.
Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods, said the rules fit together with regulations proposed in July to create better oversight over imported food, including pet foods and animal feed. The idea behind all of the food safety rules is to make businesses more responsible for the safety of the food they are selling by proving they are using good food safety practices. They might do that by documenting basic information about their suppliers' cleanliness, testing foods or acquiring food safety audits. If they fail to verify the food is safe, the FDA could stop shipments of their food.
Currently, the government does little to ensure that companies are trying to prevent food safety problems but generally waits and responds to outbreaks after they happen.
Taylor said the new rules, once they are in place, could be helpful in investigating the jerky treat deaths if those illnesses are still happening. But they still may not be able to solve the mystery because the FDA has not yet been able to determine what ingredients are causing sickness. The rules generally ask manufacturers to focus on certain hazards and do their best to prevent them.
"We are really still trying to find out what the hazard is" in the jerky illnesses, Taylor said.
The FDA said the rule could cost industry $130 million annually to comply. Smaller businesses would have more time to put the rule in place.
The agency will take comments for four months before issuing a final rule and will hold a series of public meetings to explain the proposal.
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-25-US-Food-Safety-Animals/id-65f176864aab470182177577929238fbA recent Pew poll found that most Americans think it would be “bad for society” if people began to live to an average of 120. In Slate, William Saletan argued that that’s probably because those surveyed “picture spending much of that time feeling withered, afflicted, and debilitated.” In reality, Saletan says, “[B]eing 90 sucks. But that’s true only because of the current rate of physical decline.” If science can prolong life, it’s not unlikely that it can prolong health, too.
Also in Future Tense’s special series on longevity:
“The Jetson Fallacy: Much longer lifespans could explode the nuclear family,” by Liza Mundy.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, center, stands as the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court announces the decision in his second trial in Jinan, Shandong Province. The court upheld Bo's conviction and life sentence for corruption and abuse of power.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, center, stands as the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court announces the decision in his second trial in Jinan, Shandong Province. The court upheld Bo's conviction and life sentence for corruption and abuse of power.
China, Xinhua
We begin in China where a court rejected Friday an appeal by former politician Bo Xilai against his life sentence for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.
Bo, if you remember, was a rising star in China's political system before his career collapsed in early 2012 after his wife was linked to the murder of a British businessman. (She was handed a suspended death sentence in August). Bo himself was indicted in July and was convicted last month following a high-profile trial.
Here's how his sentence was broken down: He was found guilty of accepting bribes totaling about $3.3 million, embezzling about $820,000 and of abusing power. He was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes, his political rights were deprived for life, and his personal assets confiscated.
Also, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and had personal assets of about $165,000 confiscated. Bo was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for abuse of power.
Xinhua reported Friday on how Bo's appeals process worked:
"Bo submitted an appeal after the verdict was handed down. The Shandong Higher People's Court filed Bo's appeal and formed a collegial panel for the second trial.
"The collegial panel reviewed all the case files and video footage of the first trial, examined Bo's appeal documents and defence lawyers' opinions.
"The panel interrogated Bo several times and heard opinions of his lawyers, verified all evidence, comprehensively examined the facts confirmed during the first trial and legal applications to fully safeguard the litigation rights of Bo and the defence lawyers.
"After review by the collegial panel and deliberation of a judgment committee, Shandong Higher People's Court gave its decision."
Lebanon, Daily Star
Syria's civil war has sent refugees flooding into Lebanon. The war has also contributed to violence to the neighboring state.
At least seven people were killed in Lebanese city of Tripoli in overnight fighting between gunmen loyal to Syria's president and those opposed to Bashar Assad. Twelve people were also wounded, raising the number of people injured in the fifth consecutive day of fighting to more than 70.
Lebanese security sources told the newspaper the overnight battles were the fiercest since the fighting began Sunday.
"Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, has seen recurrent clashes linked to the crisis in neighboring Syria, namely between Jabal Mohsen, which backs Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Bab al-Tabbaneh, which supports his opponents," the newspaper reported.
Tripoli, the BBC reports, has a small Alawite community living amid a Sunni majority. Syria's Assad is Alawite; his opponents in the civil war are mainly Sunni.
Nigeria, Vanguard
More than half of all Nigerians live on $1 a day. That may be one reason why there's anger over a government minister's purchase of two bulletproof BMWs for $1.4 million for her ministry.
Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority says it ordered the two BMW 760 Li cars at the request of Aviation Minister Stella Oduah. The revelations, which were first made in Sahara Reporters, a U.S.-based website that covers the region, sparked outrage in Nigeria.
The country's House of Representatives is holding an inquiry into the purchases. Oduah did not attend Thursday's hearing before the House Committee on Aviation, prompting members of the panel to demand that she appear at the next hearing Tuesday or face sanctions.
Australia, Sydney Morning Herald
Australia won't make fridges after 2016: Swedish manufacturer Electrolux announced that it would close its plant in Orange, New South Wales, by 2016.
Some 500 people will lose their jobs, severely affecting the economy of the city in a rural part of the state in eastern Australia. The plant has operated in Orange for more than 70 years.
Here's more from the newspaper:
"The refrigeration plant in Orange has been under the microscope since February, when Electrolux announced a six-month investment study to see if Orange is globally competitive enough to make a new range of refrigerators and freezers. Reconfiguring the factory to build the new range would have cost more than $45 million.
"John Brown, managing director of Electrolux Home Products Australia and New Zealand, said the company understood the sensitivity of its decision, but the company's investment study concluded it could manufacture refrigerators more cheaply in other factories in Asia and Eastern Europe. He said the company had spoken to all levels of government before reaching its decision."
Europe
We didn't mean to leave out the fallout in Europe over the U.S. National Security Agency's reported surveillance in France and Germany. The controversy has pushed Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande to call for talks with the U.S. (You can read those stories by clicking on the links – or you can find NPR's coverage here.)
LONDON -- U.K. satellite pay TV operator BSkyB, in which Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox owns 39 percent, has reduced the cost to subscribe to its Internet streaming service, NOW TV, to a price close to those charged by rival services Netflix and Amazon's LoveFilm.
With the cut, NOW TV costs $14.50 (£8.99) a month to subscribe, down from $24 (£15) a month, and includes access to the extensive Sky Movies library.
Titles currently available to watch on NOW TV include Les Miserables, Vamp U, Flight and Argo.
STORY: BSkyB Quarterly Earnings Drop, TV Subs Grow
Netflix is priced at $9.68 (£5.99) per month while LoveFilm's basic online package costs the same.
The move is a clear signal that Sky is taking its Internet streaming competition seriously and wants to ensure it is in the game.
Sky will keep a close eye on whether or not its freshly priced service cannibalizes its other offerings.
Sky this week launched its NOW TV box, which allows consumers to access the streaming service without having a satellite dish.
J.D. Salinger wrote nine letters and postcards to aspiring Canadian writer Marjorie Sheard.
J.D. Salinger wrote nine letters and postcards to aspiring Canadian writer Marjorie Sheard.
Fans of the reclusive J.D. Salinger are in their element these days. The writer, who died in 2010, is the subject of a recent documentary and companion biography; there's word that five Salinger works will be published for the first time, starting in 2015; and now, the Morgan Library in New York is showing never-before displayed letters that a 20-something Salinger wrote, from 1941 to 1943, to a young admirer in Toronto.
For Salinger buffs, this is like a glimpse of the holy grail: seven letters and two postcards, mostly typed, two handwritten. Salinger's handwriting is slanted and spiky.
"He's writing quickly. He may have been writing this in a bar," says curator Declan Kiely. "The thing that jumps out at me is the way he forms 'I.' "
In a sea of cursives, Salinger prints his "I" — it looks like the Roman numeral one. He makes a strong vertical line and two horizontals.
Salinger, shown here in September 1961, comes off as both diffident and confident in his letters to Sheard.
Salinger, shown here in September 1961, comes off as both diffident and confident in his letters to Sheard.
"They're really emphatic," Kiely says.
And he underlines his name — sometimes with one line, sometimes two.
"You see Dickens doing this, you see Edgar Allen Poe doing this," observes Kiely, who is head of the Department of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library. "A lot of male writers have what I would call a sort of architectural support."
Salinger Before Catcher in the Rye
Salinger's first letter to Marjorie Sheard is dated Sept. 4, 1941.
"Dear Miss Sheard," he writes. "Your warm, bright letter just reached me. Thanks very much. It's unfair to authors that you write only to Aldous Huxley and me."
Sheard had written to praise stories of Salinger's that she'd seen in Esquire and Collier's magazines. Like Salinger, she was in her early 20s and wanted to write fiction. He gives her advice: "Why don't you try writing something for Mademoiselle or one of the other feminine magazines? Seems to me you have the instincts to avoid the usual Vassar-girl tripe those mags publish."
He put his parents' address (1133 Park Ave., on 91st Street in Manhattan) in the upper right corner. He has typed the letter neatly — no cross-outs or erasures.
"He would have made a great secretary," Kiely says, smilingly.
Salinger, clearly thrilled to get a fan letter this early in his writing career, ends his note this way: "I hope you'll always read my work with pleasure. So glad you liked the Esquire piece. I write for Marjorie Sheard and a few others. The fact that Esquire's circulation is 600,000, and Collier's is in millions is purely coincidental."
Kiely thinks these letters reveal who Salinger was before Catcher in the Rye made him a literary star.
"He's a combination of diffidence and confidence," he says. "He is right at the very beginning, but he knows that he's onto something."
He's also witty. Later in their correspondence, after Salinger has been drafted and is waiting to be shipped overseas from Army basic training in Georgia, this Upper East Side prep school fellow writes, "Can't you just picture me leading me little platoon over the top? You boys go ahead. I'll meet you at the Biltmore under the clock."
An Early Hint At Holden
And who was she, Miss Marjorie Sheard of Toronto? Only one of her letters to him survives. In a P.P.S. she provides some "vital statistics" — a list of her likes: "Drinking beer, also rum; Sunday afternoon cocktail parties; flirting; dancing in a too-high, too-crowded place; white evening gowns; men who are tall, dark and dangerous; writing letters to Jerry Salinger. My father's a lawyer who plays the cello and writes musical criticisms. My mother is extremely beautiful. My brother is crotchety and practical, but I like him."
Marjorie Sheard was only slightly older than Salinger. Only one of her letters to him survives.
Marjorie Sheard was only slightly older than Salinger. Only one of her letters to him survives.
Sheard was slightly older than Salinger. (His correspondence with teenage girls would come later). Her niece, Sarah Sheard, says Marjorie was quiet and shy. But she had a real writer's voice in that flirtatious P.P.S. A month after his first letter, Salinger is getting curious.
"Dear Marjorie," he writes. "Excuse the delay but I've been up to here and still am. Thanks for writing. What do you look like? Send a huge photo."
She does. In profile, the photograph reveals a nice straight nose and wavy dark hair that flows down her back.
On Nov. 18, 1941, Salinger writes, "Sneaky girl. You're pretty." That same letter also has news: After many rejections, The New Yorker magazine has accepted one of his stories. He tells her it's about a prep school kid on Christmas vacation.
"Let me know what you think of the first Holden story, called 'Slight Rebellion Off Madison,' " he writes. "Best, Jerry S."
Curator Declan Kiely says that November 1941 letter may be the most valuable in this collection.
"It could well be that Marjorie Sheard was one of the first people who learned of the creation of the character Holden Caulfield," he says.
The story was scheduled to run Christmas week, 1941. But it would be another five years before readers actually met Holden, the character who became the hero of Catcher in the Rye and one of the most beloved figures in fiction. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a month after Jerry wrote Marjorie about the New Yorker acceptance. Editors decided, given the circumstances, that the "Holden story" was "unpublishable."
A Coquettish Correspondent
Sarah Sheard says her aunt Marjorie never talked about her pen pal and mentor.
"She was a little coquettish about it," Sheard says. "She would sort of bat her eyes and say, 'Well, you know, I did have this brief, you know, exchange with J.D. Salinger.' Jerry Salinger, she called him."
She saved all the letters, and agreed the family could sell them to pay for the Toronto nursing home where she died last May, just before her 95th birthday.
Marjorie Sheard never published any fiction, but she did have a 30-year career writing advertising. Her young 1940s correspondent became one of the world's best-known authors.
A patient believed to be one of the National Guardsmen injured near the naval base in Millington, Tenn., was taken to The Med in Memphis, Tenn., early Thursday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2013. Two ambulances arrived carrying two injured men shortly after the shooting ocurred. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Karen Pulfer Focht)
A patient believed to be one of the National Guardsmen injured near the naval base in Millington, Tenn., was taken to The Med in Memphis, Tenn., early Thursday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2013. Two ambulances arrived carrying two injured men shortly after the shooting ocurred. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Karen Pulfer Focht)
Police Chief Rita Stanback and Fire Chief Gary Graves, second from left, of Millington, Tenn., brief reporters about a shooting near a U.S. Naval Support Activity Mid-South on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, in Millington, Tenn. The Navy said two soldiers were wounded, though neither had life-threatening injuries. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)
Locates site of U.S. Navy base shooting; 2c x 3 inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm;
MILLINGTON, Tenn. (AP) — A member of the National Guard opened fire at an armory outside a U.S. Navy base in Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by other soldiers, officials said Thursday.
Millington Police Chief Rita Stanback said the shooter was apprehended Thursday by other National Guard members, and that he did not have the small handgun used in the shooting in his possession by the time officers arrived. Stanback said two National Guard members were shot, one in the foot and one in the leg.
"I'm sure there could have been more injury if they hadn't taken him into custody," Stanback said.
Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Tennessee's adjutant general, said at a news conference that the victims were being treated at a local hospital and he expected them to be released.
The Tennessee National Guard late Thursday identified those shot as Maj. William J. Crawford and Sgt. Maj. Ricky R. McKenzie. The shooter's name has not been released.
In a news release, Guard spokesman Randy Harris said the two were shot while disarming the gunman.
Haston said all three of the men were recruiters. He said the shooter was a sergeant first class who had been in the Guard about six or seven years and that the victims were his superiors. He said the recruiters who were shot were based in Jackson, Tenn.
Haston characterized Thursday's activity as disheartening.
"You never think something like this is going to happen on your watch or in good old Tennessee here," he said.
Stanback said at an earlier news conference that the soldiers' conditions were not immediately known, though the Navy said on its official Twitter account that neither had life-threatening injuries.
The shooter was a recruiter who had been relieved of duty, said a law enforcement official briefed on the developments. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Asked about this at the news conference, Haston would only say that there were "administrative policies and procedures that we were going through with him." He did not elaborate.
Stanback said the shooting happened inside an armory building just outside Naval Support Activity Mid-South. There are more than 7,500 military, civilian and contract personnel working on the base, according to the facility's official website. The facility is home to human resources operations and serves as headquarters to the Navy Personnel Command, Navy Recruiting Command, the Navy Manpower Analysis Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Finance Center.
The Navy said the base was briefly placed on lockdown as a precaution, though the lockdown was lifted in the afternoon.
On Thursday afternoon, yellow crime scene tape remained around the front of the building where the shooting happened. Law enforcement had blocked off streets with access to the armory, which is across the street from the army base.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-24-Navy%20Base%20Shooting/id-2cdbd4a46e9b4cbebf6b74d52c1a71fbSen. Mike Lee, R-Utah (left), and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walk to the Senate floor on Oct. 16 to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah (left), and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walk to the Senate floor on Oct. 16 to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.
Two Tea Party-backed, defund-Obamacare-or-we'll-shut-down-the-government Senate leaders. Two very different outcomes.
Ted Cruz, who became the public face of the shutdown strategy with his 21-hour talkfest on the Senate floor, has gone back to Texas a conquering hero. He even got an eight-minute standing ovation at a San Antonio event over the weekend, and his not-quite-acknowledged 2016 presidential bid has only gathered momentum.
But Mike Lee, who actually circulated the letter demanding that the president's health care law be left out of any new government spending bill? Well, he's decided to avoid a lot of public events back in Utah for the time being.
It turns out there are many Republicans in Utah who think the shutdown was a bad idea, in part because the resulting closure of national parks cost the state's tourism industry money. Others are uncomfortable with the sharp and uncompromising ideological edge. The ill feelings could add steam to efforts to change the nominating process there to eliminate the party convention that currently has so much sway. It was the convention in 2010 where Lee and another challenger ousted incumbent Republican Robert Bennett. Lee then went on to win the subsequent primary.
If that convention is eliminated in favor of a stand-alone primary, it would diminish the influence of a small group of the most conservative activists and empower the broader, and more mainstream, conservative GOP electorate.
There's one bit of good news in this for Lee: His re-election cycle is still three years off.
And Cruz? He will be headlining the Iowa Republican Party's Reagan dinner Friday night.
Click here to listen to this podcast
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is furious about the U.S. eavesdropping on her calls. She is the latest to protest loudly to the U.S. as the EU gathers for a regular summit. The meeting should have focused on immigration and the economy, but will be sidetracked by the continued NSA spying anger.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. We begin this hour with the latest news about the extent of the National Security Agency's spying activities. The Guardian newspaper came out with a report this afternoon saying that the U.S. has monitored the phone traffic of 35 world leaders. The paper cites a document from 2006. The news comes after revelations yesterday that the NSA tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone.
The news further damages U.S. relations with Western Europe. German officials reacted to the news with deep concern.
THOMAS DE MAIZIERE: (Speaking foreign language)
BLOCK: That's the German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere speaking with German public broadcaster ARD. He called the allegations really bad. He also said that as long as America is Germany's best friend, it really can't work like this. Meanwhile, at the European Union summit in Brussels, many leaders are expressing indignation that the U.S., their strongest ally, is engaging in any spying on European officials and citizens.
For more, we're joined by NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. She is in Berlin. And Soraya, this is the latest in a series of revelations about the NSA's activities, including earlier revelations this summer about spying on Germany, but reaction now seems to be much stronger.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: Yeah, I mean, they've been pretty upset by this all along. I mean, you're looking at German history here where during the East German Communist times the Stasi did a lot of spying on people and certainly during the Cold War there was a lot of it and then go back to World War II.
But I think what's particularly outrageous to them now is the fact that this was done on the chancellor herself. This is arguably the strongest or most important leader in Europe and certainly in Germany and so there really is a feeling of betrayal.
BLOCK: This all led to Chancellor Merkel calling President Obama. He apparently assured her that her phone is not being listened to. So I'm a little confused. If the NSA was tapping Merkel's phone, what does that mean? They were tapping it, but just not listening to what she was saying?
NELSON: Well, I think what President Obama was trying to tell her was that it's not being listened to now and it's won't be listened to in the future, but he didn't address, in fact, what happened in the past. And this is the $64,000 question, if you will, and what people in Germany want to know is, you know, did this, in fact, happen and what happened before.
And it sort of leads to the whole issue of why Germans aren't placated by these assurances by the president. They don't feel he's taking these allegations seriously and they don't really like the, trust me, it's OK, don't worry about it approach that they're seeing.
BLOCK: And apart from Germany, Soraya, what other reaction has there been across Europe?
NELSON: Well, there's a lot of outrage being expressed by leaders. The French president, for example, who had also called the U.S. ambassador in Paris on the carpet to answer questions about spying allegations there, wants to see this on the EU summit agenda, that this whole matter be discussed.
And also, Annette Heuser who is the executive director of the Bertelsmann Foundation in Washington says some European leaders are calling for pulling the Transatlantic trade talks on hold.
ANNETTE HEUSER: Bottom line is, Europeans are not accepting this when it comes to the transatlantic relationship because you don't spy on your friends and I would say this NSA scandal is a political phenomena right now that is happening across the Atlantic.
NELSON: She adds that the proposed trade agreement is the only prestigious project that Europeans and Americans have in the pipeline so this is a real serious issue.
BLOCK: And Soraya, it got even more serious today with that report I mentioned from The Guardian newspaper which says the NSA was able to monitor the phones of 35 world leaders. What more can you tell us about that?
NELSON: The newspaper cites a memo from October 2006 that it said it got from Edward Snowden. Now, this NSA memo doesn't name the world's leaders who were spied and said that it didn't receive much in the way of useful intelligence. But what was interesting is that they were asking U.S. officials in other departments to handover - basically open up their Rolodexes and hand over foreign contacts, with the hopes that they would get more intelligence from those individuals.
BLOCK: From those phone numbers.
NELSON: From those phone numbers.
BLOCK: OK. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Berlin. Soraya, thanks.
NELSON: You're welcome, Melissa.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
