Newspapers Online Overnight 02-03-2014 |

The Japanese electronics and media giant called the report inaccurate while acknowledging that it was looking at various possibilities for the unit.

"Sony continues to address various options for the PC business, but the press report on a possible PC business alliance between Sony and Lenovo is inaccurate," the company said in a statement.

Sony has said it plans to revise its product and manufacturing strategy for the Vaio unit as it faces a slump in its PC business, hit by the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

Sony, which will release results next week, had previously predicted its PC business would be in the red for the year to end-March, without disclosing figures.

Moody's Investors Service cut Sony's debt rating to junk status last week, highlighting challenges in its television and PC businesses and pressure on profitability at its entire core consumer electronics operation.

Lenovo earns about 80 percent of its revenue from personal computers but has been aggressively diversifying into more promising markets.

In what the company called its "best-ever prices," AT&T said a family of four can get unlimited talk and text with 10GB of shared data for $160 a month. The discounts are available to any customer, including small businesses with up to 10 lines, and customers of other carriers who switch to AT&T.

The cuts follow recent price adjustments at all four U.S. wireless providers as they attempt to sustain growth in a mature market built on stealing growth from competitors.

AT&T and T-Mobile U.S. have been competing fiercely. After T-Mobile spent several quarters directly marketing to AT&T customers, AT&T recently offered to pay T-Mobile customers to switch to its service.

As part of its new effort, AT&T, for a limited time, is offering new and existing customers a $100 credit for each new line of service. While it does not have an ad Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast, the company plans to run existing advertising the same day in hopes of generating interest in its plans.

Opposition leaders, addressing the crowd on their return home from meeting European and U.S. officials, said they hoped for international mediation in negotiations with the government and for constitutional change to limit presidential power.

Calling for a complete change of leadership after weeks of crisis that have divided the country and set the West against Yanukovich's Russian allies, opposition figures who attended a security conference in Munich told supporters they would secure international economic aid if they were able to take power.

Yanukovich, who angered opponents in November by spurning a trade pact with the European Union and turning instead to Moscow for financial support, announced on Thursday he was on sick leave and has not been seen in public since.

Critics saw in that a tactic to deflect pressure for political compromise. On Friday, he signed legislation revoking unpopular new restrictions on protest meetings that has, however, failed to appease opponents who are demanding the release of dozens of people arrested in recent weeks.

On Sunday, a presidential statement said Yanukovich planned to return to work on Monday after an acute respiratory infection: "After undergoing required treatment, the president of Ukraine feels well and his health is satisfactory," it quoted a state medical official, Oleksandr Orda, as saying.

PROTEST

On the capital's Independence Square, focus of a sprawling, barricaded protest camp throughout the winter, thousands of people gathered to listen to opposition leaders despite a freezing wind and Arctic temperatures which helped keep attendance well below those of major rallies in recent weeks.

Vitaly Klitschko, a former world champion heavyweight boxer-turned-politician, said they had discussed with senior Western officials in Munich bringing in international mediators in talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

"The democratic world has understood that there is no trust in the Yanukovich regime," he told the crowd.

"So we spoke about international mediation in negotiations with Yanukovich, so that afterward there will no differing interpretations of obligations."

Reid, a Democrat, is the senior member of Obama's party in Congress. On Wednesday, Reid said he was "against fast track" and urged a slow approach to trade negotiations.

"Look, I respect Harry Reid. I've worked with him for a long time, obviously," Kerry, a former U.S. senator, said during remarks at a security conference in Munich.

"I've heard plenty of statements in the Senate on one day that are categorical, and we've wound up finding accommodation and a way to find our way forward. So this should not be a deterrent, and I hope nobody will let it stand in the way," Kerry added.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama asked for fast-track trade negotiation authority. Legislation before the House of Representatives and Senate would grant the White House power to submit free trade deals to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendments.

This authority would allow the Obama administration to speed up the negotiations for two massive free trade pacts that would cover about two-thirds of the world's international trade - a pan-Pacific trading bloc and a U.S. agreement with the European Union.

"I think that everyone would be well-advised just to not push this right now," Reid said on Wednesday.

Kerry on Saturday said that "there's a lot of room here still" despite Reid's comments. Also in Munich, another member of Obama's Cabinet, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, underscored Kerry's comments on trade.

"I would hope that this would get done by the United States Senate. It's clearly in everyone's interest," said Hagel, also a former member of the Senate.

"Let's be smart and let's be wise and let's be collaborative and use all of the opportunities and mechanisms that we have to enhance each other - culturally, trade, commerce, exchanges," the Pentagon chief added.

Fast-track authority is seen as a litmus test of political support for free trade deals, which have been opposed by some of Obama's power bases - unions, environmentalists and consumer groups concerned about lost jobs and weaker labor and pollution restrictions.

Top Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday called on Obama to "get his own party in line" behind the fast-track trade negotiation authority.

Local brewery Lakemaid was testing a new drone delivery system to airlift frosty cases of beer to fishermen holed up in ice shacks on Mille Lacs Lake. After spotting a Lakemaid YouTube video that went up last week of one of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on a test run, the Federal Aviation Administration contacted Lakemaid and told the company to stop.

Unfortunately for Lakemaid fans and anyone else dreading a walk to the corner store, it's currently against the law to fly drones for commercial purposes or above 400 feet in the United States. The FAA is working on a comprehensive set of rules and regulations that will pave the way for commercial drone flight, but the legislation won't be ready until at least 2015 and drones might not be in the skies until 2017. Until then, thirsty fishermen must obtain their beverages through old-fashioned terrestrial delivery methods.

The great beer grounding of 2014 might just be the issue that will turn Americans into pro-drone advocates. A WhiteHouse.gov petition has already gone up, asking the Obama administration to issue Lakemaid an airworthiness certificate. So far, 183 thirsty UAV advocates have signed the petition (only 99,817 signatures to go!). Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has previously expressed his support of aerial beer delivery on Twitter.

In August he said "Perhaps I am not against ALL drones!" and linked to a news story about a drone delivering beers during a music festival in South Africa. Only amateurs are allowed to fly drones at this time, and they're limited to small vehicles under 55 pounds. They can only operate the aircraft for fun, not for profit, and they must adhere to local and federal laws. For example, drones are not allowed to cruise over populated areas.

Some groups have received exceptions to test drones for research purposes. "While we are evaluating many potential uses of [UAVs] as we move toward their safe integration into the nation's airspace, commercial operation of such aircraft is not yet allowed," said FAA spokesperson Elizabeth Cory in an e-mail.

Announcing plans to deliver goods by drone has been a popular publicity stunt for U.S. companies over the past year. On a recent "60 Minutes" segment, Amazon demonstrated a drone delivery system it's working on for packages. The company conducted the tests outside the country to avoid breaking U.S. law. In June, the Domino's pizza chain said it was developing a drone capable of delivering up to two pizzas.

Organizers and police expected tens of thousands of people to join the marches against the Socialist government's "Marriage for All" law.

Ahead of the protests, Interior Minister Manuel Valls vowed that any violence against police would be dealt with severely.

Some 1,500 police officers were deployed in Paris and 600 in the central city of Lyon.

President Francois Hollande's government has dismissed speculation that it plans to increase access to medically assisted procreation and surrogacy for gay couples - which is nonetheless one of the protest themes.

The introduction of an "Equality ABC" program to French elementary schools has also spawned outrage among traditionalists, amid internet rumors that small children are to be taught gender theory.

The protests are organized by "Demonstration for All", a right-wing umbrella group that emerged in response to the gay marriage law, passed last year.

"We are witnessing the constitution of a Tea Party à la francaise," Valls said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, referring to the right-wing U.S. political grouping.

France's moderate right "has a duty to distance itself from movements that refuse to accept the democratic decisions of parliament", the minister said.

Geoffroy Didier, deputy secretary general of the opposition center-right UMP, blamed the government for "pulling the pins on social grenades" during an economic crisis.

"More and more of our compatriots indeed want to preserve their economic, social and societal model," he said on RCJ radio, while adding that he would stay away from the protest.

"I wouldn't want to find myself alongside a minority whose positions are dubious or even quite problematic," he said.

The protests come amid heightened tensions over an upsurge in racist incidents that have blighted French public life and drawn condemnation from across the parliamentary spectrum.

Christine Taubira, the black justice minister behind the gay marriage law, was compared to a monkey by a National Front politician and depicted on the cover of right-wing Minute magazine with a headline pun about a banana.

In a sign of the thawing climate between the Islamic Republic and the West, Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif said he had held bilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as with other ministers from the six powers negotiating with Tehran, during a three-day security conference in Munich.

His talks looked forward to negotiations starting in Vienna on February 18 when Iran and the six powers will attempt over a period of six months to build on an interim agreement on Tehran's nuclear activities to reach a definitive deal.

"What I can promise is that we will go to those negotiations with the political will and good faith to reach an agreement because it would be foolish for us to only bargain for six months," Zarif told the conference after his meeting with Kerry.

"That would be a disaster for everybody - to start a process and then to abruptly end it within six months," he said.

Zarif said Iran and the West had an historic opportunity to improve relations. "I think we need to seize it," he said.

Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western countries have long suspected Tehran of seeking the ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

Under a landmark preliminary deal with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany sealed last November, Iran agreed to halt its most sensitive nuclear operations in return for winning some relief from sanctions.

The deal has lessened the risk of Israel or the United States launching a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran acquiring a nuclear bomb.

SANCTIONS

Kerry stressed to Zarif the importance of both sides negotiating in good faith and of Iran abiding by its commitments under the November deal, a U.S. State Department official said.

The United States and the European Union have suspended some sanctions on Iran under the interim deal, but Kerry told Zarif the United States would continue to enforce other sanctions.

Kerry and Zarif have met several times since the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, last June paved the way for the thaw in ties with the West after years of confrontation and hostile rhetoric.

Voting was disrupted in about a fifth of the country's constituencies, but no major violence was reported, despite armed clashes between supporters and opponents of embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that wounded seven people on the eve of the ballot.

Voting ended at 3 p.m. (0800 GMT), but no results will be announced on Sunday, meaning little change to an uneasy status quo. Yingluck will remain caretaker premier for weeks, facing continued anti-government protests and the prospect of a slew of legal challenges aimed at invalidating the poll.

The usual campaign billboards, glossy posters and pre-election buzz were noticeably absent this time, as were many voters fearful of violence or bent on rejecting a ballot bound to re-elect the political juggernaut controlled by Yingluck's billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Former premier Thaksin, 64, is loved and loathed, but his parties have won every poll since 2001. His opponents say he is a corrupt crony capitalist who tailored policy to enrich himself and ruling by proxy from exile in Dubai, where he lives to evade jail time for graft.

Further voting is already scheduled for February 23 after problems with advance balloting last Sunday, while polls in nine southern provinces where candidates were unable to register may not happen for weeks.

"To those of you who went out and prevented ballot boxes from being delivered, thank you," protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said in a speech at one of seven rally sites in Bangkok, where anti-Thaksin sentiment is strong.

Voting was disrupted in 18 percent or 69 of 375 constituencies nationwide, the Election Commission said, affecting 18 of 77 provinces, where demonstrators calling for an appointed government succeeded in sabotaging the vote.

With the main opposition Democrat Party boycotting the poll, Yingluck's Puea Thai Party is expected to win comfortably.

Its leader said the election showed the public believed in democracy.

"The people are not afraid and they came out to vote today," said Jarupong Ruangsuawan, who is also Interior Minister. "We've fought hard for democracy in Thailand and we proved that most Thais believe in the democratic process."

The agreement announced on Friday comes after International Business Machines Corp accused Twitter in November - on the eve of its high-profile initial public offering - of infringing three of its patents. At the time, it underscored how few patents the six-year-old social media company possessed in relation to more established rivals.

A cross-licensing agreement will help safeguard Twitter against similar claims in the future.

IBM is one of the industry's largest research spenders and stockpilers of intellectual property, a consistent leader in U.S. patent filings and the owner of some 41,000 patents.

Twitter is following on the heels of Facebook, which itself faced similar claims before its own 2012 IPO. The world's largest social network has since gone on a patent-buying spree, acquiring intellectual property from tech bellwethers, including Microsoft Corp and IBM.

"When all other students will quietly listen to what I would teach, he will ask a lot of questions - 'why does it have to be like this, why can't we do it like this?'," said Harishchandra Hebbar, who taught digital electronics to Nadella at Manipal University.

"Sometimes it felt like he was just testing my patience," said Hebbar, laughing.

That questioning nature has served Nadella well in his 22-year career at Microsoft, the world's largest software company. Last year he was promoted to run the company's fast-expanding cloud, or Internet-based, computing initiatives.

His elevation to the top spot at Microsoft would end a five-month search for a tech-savvy heavy-hitter to lead the company co-founded by Bill Gates. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday that Nadella's appointment was likely, although the board had not yet met to finalize it.

Nadella grew up in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, a technology hub that is home to the biggest Microsoft research and development center outside of the United States.

His father was a member of the elite Indian Administrative Service and a member of the Planning Commission during 2004-2009 under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His father, B. N. Yugandhar, who still lives in Hyderabad, declined to speak with Reuters when reached by phone.

Born in 1967, Nadella attended the prestigious Hyderabad Public School, where he met his future wife. Nadella studied electronics and communication engineering, at Manipal University, where people who knew him at the time described him as friendly, modest and well-spoken.

Manipal is a mid-ranking private institution, and does not have the cachet of the elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) where many of India's global power players were educated.

GLOBAL INDIAN

If he gets the top job at Microsoft, Nadella would join the growing list of Indian-born executives to head a major global corporation. They already include PepsiCo Inc CEO Indra Nooyi and Deutsche Bank co-CEO Executive Anshu Jain.

After graduating in 1988, Nadella, like many ambitious Indians, moved to the United States to study, earning a master's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Oxford-based NaturalMotion has had a string of mobile game hits, such as CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja. Its purchase gives Zynga an entry into the lucrative mobile games market.

As news of the deal emerged, Zynga also reported a loss of $25m for the fourth quarter.

It said it would trim its workforce by 15% - equivalent to about 314 jobs.

Mobile help "We believe that bringing Zynga and NaturalMotion together is the right step at the right time," said Zynga chief executive Don Mattrick in a statement.

"Our acquisition of NaturalMotion will allow us to significantly expand our creative pipeline, accelerate our mobile growth and bring next-generation technology and tools to Zynga that we believe will fast-track our ability to deliver more hit games."

In a note to employees, Mr Mattrick highlighted that with the acquisition, Zynga will now have five top gaming brands: Farmville, Casino, Words with friends, CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja in the "people" category.

NaturalMotion's Clumsy Ninja has been rated more than 78,000 times in the US and UK version of Apple's App Store - the vast majority of them positive.

New leadership Mr Mattrick also told employees the acquisition gives Zynga access to NaturalMotion's Euphoria technology, which helps create realistic motion for characters in movies and games.

The takeover of the 13-year-old firm is being interpreted by some as Mr Mattrick's bet on character-driven intellectual property.

As part of the terms co-founder of NaturalMotion, Torsten Reil, will stay on and report to Mr Mattick, and new games will continue to be released under the NaturalMotion brand.

Zynga has struggled to replicate the success it has had with desktop games Farmville and Mafia Wars and has been unable to generate new hits on smartphones.

This is seen as a crucial weakness, as more and more consumers play games on their phones.

NaturalMotion is the biggest acquisition for the firm, and it comes after Zynga bought OMGPOP for $180m in 2012, only to see that firm's flagship game, Draw Something, shed users.

In June, the company announced it would cut 18% of its workforce and then a month later, it was announced that Mr Mattrick would take over from Zynga founder Mark Pincus.

The $25m loss actually represents good news for Zynga: it is 43% lower than the same period last year.

Known as Horizon 2020, the programme is worth nearly £67bn (80bn euros) and covers the next seven years.

The funds are allocated through a competitive process, in which Britain traditionally fares very well - second only to Germany.

If this performance is maintained, UK universities, research centres and businesses could expect to receive £2bn in the first two years of Horizon 2020.

Such an allocation would equate to just over a fifth of the total British government spend on science.

"My challenge to the UK's researchers, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large companies is to apply in huge numbers to participate in the programme," said EU Research Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn.

"The competition will be fierce but I also believe that the excellence of the projects and the proposals coming from the UK means it will do very well out of Horizon 2020."

Frontier research The European bloc's 28 member states approved the implementation of Horizon 2020 last autumn, leading to the first grant applications call in December. The opening day of the process saw 70,000 forms being downloaded every hour.

As with the previous "Framework Programmes", the old name given to EU science and research budgets, the intention is that the hefty investment can act as a kind of innovation growth factor, bringing on the next-generation high-value services and products that keep Europe at the forefront of world markets.

And as with those previous programmes, a large segment of the funding will be focused on some key areas of societal need or impact, such as health, climate change, the environment, energy, security, and transport.

But Horizon 2020 plans to put an even greater emphasis this time on basic, or frontiers, research.

The European Research Council, the EU's "blue riband" funding agency, has had its own pot increased 60% to £10.7bn.

The ERC's sole criterion in judging grant applications is excellence, and UK-based scientists have been by far the biggest beneficiaries of its awards.

A fifth of all the grants have gone to British science, representing an investment of some £1.4bn to date.

Business partnerships Sir Paul Nurse is president of the UK's Royal Society, which hosted Friday's launch event.

He told BBC News: "European money is really important and it's very good that it is going up by 30%. I think also driving collaboration across Europe is really good because we get access to 350 million people - it's one of the reasons [science] works so well in the United States.