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Deutsche Telekom is acquiring the 40-percent stake in T-Mobile Czech Republic from investors Mid Europa Partners (MEP) and Al Ain, the source said on condition that he not be identified because the matter is confidential, confirming a report in Germany's Manager Magazin Online.

Deutsche Telekom declined to comment.

The German telecom operator plans to offer an integrated structure of mobile-phone networks and landlines across Europe.

"Systems for anonymous payments and cyber currencies that have gained considerable circulation - including the most well-known, Bitcoin - are money substitutes and cannot be used by individuals or legal entities," the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on February6.

It added that Russian law stipulates that the rouble is the sole official currency and that introducing any other monetary units or substitutes was illegal.

Russia's central bank also said on January 27 that Bitcoin trade was highly speculative and that the unit carried a big risk of losing value.

"Citizens and legal entities risk being drawn - even unintentionally - into illegal activity, including laundering of money obtained through crime, as well as financing terrorism," it warned.

The Prosecutor's General Office said it was working with the central bank and other law enforcement agencies to tighten regulations and prevent legal offences committed with the use of pseudo-currencies.

The sprawling, waterfront compound is where notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone died after being released from Alcatraz and is said to have plotted the St. Valentine's day massacre in 1929.

The 10,000-square-foot baby blue mansion sits on exclusive Palm Island, sandwiched in Biscayne Bay between downtown Miami's skyscrapers and South Beach's hotel district.

The current owner, a Florida company managed by New York accountant Anthony Panebianco, purchased the home barely six months ago for $7.4 million, according to Miami-Dade property records.

The mansion was built in 1922 by Clarence Busch, a member of the Anheuser-Busch brewing family. Capone, who made a vast fortune importing and selling liquor during prohibition, bought it in 1928 for $40,000 after being chased out of Chicago and later Los Angeles, according Ron Chepesiuk, a journalist and author of the book Gangsters of Miami.

"A lot of the booze he was marketing was coming through Miami and south Florida," said Paul George, a leading Florida historian.

High-profile organized crime figures were a mainstay of Miami's early days, in part because of its proximity to Havana, a popular gambling and watering hole for Americans during the prohibition era.

A generation after Capone, Meyer Lansky - known as the "Mob Accountant" - owned a condominium on Miami Beach and in the 1950s operated casinos in Cuba before the communist revolution.

Capone's arrival in Florida caused an uproar. Newspapers followed his every move. Then-Governor Doyle Carlton ordered sheriffs throughout the state to arrest him on sight.

Capone attempted to charm the locals, promising not to break the law and giving sizeable donations to politicians. He also turned the property into a fortress, with heavy wooden doors, concrete walls and a gatehouse.

Bodyguards were a constant presence both at the home and as Capone traveled through Miami, spending $1,000 at a time on clothing in newly burgeoning downtown Miami or gambling at Miami Beach casinos and dog tracks.

The bodyguards' numbers doubled, according to Chepesiuk, after the Valentine's Day Massacre, when Capone's Chicago associates lured members of a rival gang into an ambush disguised as a liquor deal. Seven men were lined up against a wall inside a garage and executed by men dressed in police uniforms and in suits.

When Andrea Peterson wrote about Facebook users' growing frustration with oversharing, reader GaryEMasters cleverly wrote:

I do have a thought about this, but I had better not over share it. In response to my post on a Texas software engineer who accused Verizon of throttling his access to Amazon Web Services, reader Scott Moore wrote that he hadn't seen any problems from his end:

As an AWS engineer, I work in AWS everyday, while connected using Verizon FiOS. I have a hard time believing the Verizon rep is stating valid facts as truth. For one, I upload and download over 30GB of data on a daily basis, on a standard home account. 98% of this is pushing and pulling data, to and from AWS S3. I have never once, not once in 6 years had a degraded connection associated to connecting to AWS or another site.

And when Andrea Peterson wrote about why NBC exercises such tight-fisted control over its Olympic broadcasts, reader saul3 argued that NBC's corporate parent has no incentive to loosen its grip:

Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, 62, one of the few Islamists left in public life after a crackdown on the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies after Mursi was ousted by the army, said Egypt was not on a path to democracy as the government says.

"Our conscience does not let us participate in an operation to deceive the Egyptian people and act like there are elections when there are not," Abol Fotouh said, confirming his decision not to run for president this year.

Although he has not yet confirmed he will run, army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win after the army said it would back him. He has wide support among many Egyptians who were relieved to see an end to Mursi's rule, but is reviled by Mursi sympathisers as the leader of a coup.

Sisi deposed Mursi on July 3 after mass protests against his rule. Supporters of Mursi's removal say it was a revolution.

"This is a republic of fear," Abol Fotouh told a news conference convened to declare his final decision on whether he would run in the election that could happen as soon as April.

BROKEN THE FEAR

Popular leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the 2012 election, on Saturday became the first politician to clearly state he would run.

The government says it has charted a course to democracy after Mursi's overthrow. Abol Fotouh said: "There is no democratic path in Egypt".

Abol Fotouh pointed to what he said were 21,000 jailed activists and said a hotel manager had turned down a request to host Sunday's news conference not because of instructions from the authorities but because of his own fears.

"Any Egyptian who wants to express his opinion is afraid that he will be harmed, detained, that his house will be stormed, or a case against him will be fabricated, or it will be said that 'you are insulting the judiciary'," he said.

Abol Fotouh was a senior member of the Brotherhood until 2011, when the movement expelled him after he decided to stage an independent bid for the presidency.

A doctor who was jailed under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, Abol Fotouh was fiercely critical of Mursi during his one-year presidency and called for early presidential elections before the army's decision to remove him on July 3.

Activists from Abol Fotouh's Strong Egypt party were detained while campaigning against a new constitution approved in a referendum in January.

The development - although limited for now - marked a step forward in an international push to settle a decade-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program. Tehran says this is peaceful, while the West fears that Iran wants to develop atomic arms.

The deal could also send a positive signal to separate, high-stakes negotiations between Iran and six world powers which are due to start on February 18 in Vienna, aimed at reaching a broader diplomatic settlement with the Islamic state.

Efforts to end years of hostile rhetoric and confrontation that could otherwise trigger a new war in the Middle East gained momentum with last year's election of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as new Iranian president on a platform to ease Iran's international isolation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had agreed during talks in Tehran to take seven new practical measures within three months under a November transparency deal with the IAEA meant to help allay concern about the nuclear program.

For the first time, one of them specifically dealt with an issue that is part of the U.N. nuclear agency's inquiry into what it calls the possible military dimensions to Iran's atomic activities. Iran has repeatedly denied any such ambitions.

It said Iran would provide "information and explanations for the agency to assess Iran's stated need or application for the development of Exploding Bridge Wire detonators".

Although such fast-functioning detonators have some non-nuclear uses, they can also help set off an atomic device.

"It is an important issue and it is good that the agency can now tackle it," former chief IAEA inspector Herman Nackaerts said. But he made clear that much work remained in order to fully clarify the IAEA's concerns: "It is a first step in a long process."

Faced with deadlock last year in its attempts to get Iran to cooperate with its investigation, the IAEA changed tactics and now seeks to gradually build mutual trust by starting with some of the less sensitive issues, diplomats say.

About 20,000 demonstrators rallied on Kiev's Independence Square, focal point of the protest movement, as Yanukovich searched for a new prime minister and the currency of the heavily indebted economy, the hryvnia, remained under strain.

Russia piled further pressure on him at the weekend, linking

disbursement of the next tranche of its $15 billion aid package for Kiev to repayment of a hefty gas bill owed to Russian firms.

Opposition speakers addressed both Yanukovich's governing style and his decision to seek closer economic ties to Russia rather than sign a free trade pact with the European Union.

"We want the system changed in the country - we want a system in which the president serves the will of the people, a president who does not have dictatorial powers," former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk told the crowd.

Far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok attacked Russia's influence over Yanukovich, declaring: "Our struggle is not only against the regime of Yanukovich, but against those who support them - against the Kremlin's imperialistic policy."

Yanukovich met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Sochi Winter Olympics on Friday.

He has since returned to Kiev but no word has yet filtered out on what the two men discussed.

TIGHTER SECURITY

In an unusual move, the state security service placed anti-terrorism units on alert in what it called a preventive step to stop possible attacks on sensitive installations such as airports and power stations.

It said the new measures would apply to the blocking of approaches to state buildings and calls to seize installations where weapons are stored, a possible move against some radical protesters who have been in violent clashes with police.

The daily protests have complicated Yanukovich's search for a new prime minister to replace Mykola Azarov, who stepped down on January 28. Choosing one unacceptable to the protest movement - could lead to an explosion of anger on the streets.

Yanukovich sparked the protests last November by choosing the $15 billion lifeline from Moscow for Ukraine's ailing economy rather than the EU link that millions of Ukrainians see as their country's future.

The page now shows a winter sports competitor above each of the six letters in the U.S. Internet giant's name, set against backgrounds in the six colors on the gay pride flag - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

The page also includes a quote from the Olympic charter underlining the right to practise sport without discrimination.

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play," it says.

Google Inc. did not immediately comment.

The international outcry over the law, signed by Putin last year, threatens to undermine his hopes of using the Games to portray Russia as a modern state that has come a long way since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Putin says the legislation, banning gay propaganda among minors, is needed to protect young people. Critics says it fosters a climate of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups.

Telecoms company AT&T, a sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team, criticized Russia this week over the law, increasing pressure on other companies to speak out.

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights organization, praised Google for what it called a move to show solidarity with LGBT Russians and visiting athletes.

"Google has once again proven itself to be a true corporate leader for equality," HRC President Chad Griffin said.

"Alongside Olympic sponsors like AT&T, Google has made a clear and unequivocal statement that Russia's anti-LGBT discrimination is indefensible. Now it's time for each and every remaining Olympic sponsor to follow their lead. The clock is ticking, and the world is watching."

PRESSURE ON SPONSORS

Companies including McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble pay around $100 million each for rights to sponsor the Olympics over a four-year period and want to tap into a feel-good atmosphere during the Games.

These companies are also facing pressure to speak out over the "gay propaganda" law.

"These brands have spent millions to align themselves with the Olympics, but have repeatedly refused to support the founding principles of the Games," Andre Banks, one of the founders of gay rights group All Out, said earlier this week.

Hon Hai, better known by its trading name Foxconn, may invest in a manufacturing facility in North Jakarta, Eko Hariadi told Reuters on Friday. The letter was also signed by Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, he said.

Hariadi declined to give the potential investment value.

Hon Hai has asked for up to 200 hectares of land in North Jakarta, said Sattar Taba, President Director of the state-owned logistics and industrial parks developer.

It was a sore point for Republicans, who came out of that election vowing to nullify the Democrats' advantage in gleaning information from voter databases and social media to find potential supporters.

More than a year later that still has not happened. According to interviews with a dozen strategists from both parties, Democrats appear set to maintain their technological edge, potentially boosting their prospects in the 2014 midterm elections just as other factors - such as President Obama's sliding popularity - are likely to favor Republicans.

It is not that the Republicans are not trying.

The Republican National Committee is spending "tens of millions of dollars," spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski says, to "change the culture of our data and digital program" with new data analysis teams in Washington and Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, independent conservative groups funded by big-money donors such as the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch continue to have their own digital teams, typically focused more on issues - such as opposing Obama's healthcare overhaul - than on individual candidates.

But in a reflection of some of the divisions between the Republican Party's most conservative members and its more moderate establishment, campaigns and other groups often do not share information about voters and tactics.

And even as party leaders are aggressively pursuing a new digital game plan, Republican strategists acknowledge that some conservative candidates and their supporters remain wary of changing tactics they have used for years, such as reaching voters through television ads and door-to-door campaigning without much help from analyses of voter databases.

Some Republicans' skepticism was fueled in 2012 by the embarrassing failure of the Romney campaign's ORCA project, a data system that was designed to help get conservative voters to the polls and improve communication between campaign offices. ORCA crashed on Election Day, potentially harming Republican turnout.

"There's a fundamental cultural problem" in how Republicans have dealt with technology in recent elections, said Vincent Harris, a Republican digital strategist who this year is helping candidates such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The 'Geneva 2' peace conference, which had its first round of talks earlier this month, brought Syria's warring sides together for face-to-face negotiations for the first time since the nearly three-year-old conflict began.

State news agency SANA cited Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal as saying the government delegation would attend the talks and demand a discussion "article by article" of the Geneva Communique, the document agreed by the United Nations and world powers as the basis for talks.

Much of the talks were dominated by debate over the basis of negotiations outlined in the Geneva Comunique. The document calls for an end to violence in a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people and the formation of a transitional government.

President Bashar al-Assad's delegates want to focus on halting "terrorism", the term they commonly use to describe the rebels fighting to end four decades of Assad family rule. The opposition wants to focus on forming a transitional government which it insists must not include Assad.