World Newspapers. 6-03-2013 ScienceTechnology

The trial pits the maker of the popular iPad and iPhone against the U.S. Justice Department in a case that tests how Internet retailers interact with content providers.

"This case will effectively set the rules for Internet commerce," said David Balto, a former policy director for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The Justice Department filed its case against Apple and five of the six largest U.S. book publishers in April 2012. The lawsuit accused them of conspiring to increase e-book prices and break Amazon.com Inc's hold on pricing.

Apple is going to trial alone after the five publishers agreed to eliminate prohibitions on wholesale discounts and to pay a collective $164 million to benefit consumers.

The five publishers were Pearson Plc's Penguin Group, News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc, Hachette Book Group Inc and MacMillan.

The U.S. government is not seeking damages but instead an order blocking Apple from engaging in similar conduct. However, if Apple is found liable, it could still face damages in a separate trial by the state attorneys general and consumers pursuing class actions.

'DIRECT EVIDENCE'

Based on a comment by the presiding judge at the final hearing before the trial, Apple may face an uphill battle.

"I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books," U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who is hearing the case without a jury, said on May 23.

While those comments suggested Apple might be smart to seek a settlement, Chief Executive Tim Cook said in an interview Tuesday with All Things Digital that Apple was "not going to sign something that says we did something we didn't do."

Apple may be calculating that future damages claims by states and class actions make it worth going to trial, said John Lopatka, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Hulu board members, who are being advised by Guggenheim Partners on the auction, fielded at least seven buyout offers last week, the source said.

That number will be whittled down in the next two or three weeks, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the process was private.

It was unclear which two other bidders offered $1 billion for Hulu. The service has more than 4 million subscribers and generates revenue of about $700 million through subscriptions and a free ad-supported service.

The proposed price tag heightens the likelihood that News Corp and Disney will find an acceptable offer price, which was the sticking point of the 2011 round of buyout negotiations.

DirecTV spokesman Darris Gringeri declined to comment, as did Meredith Kendall, a spokeswoman for Hulu. Bloomberg first reported the news on Friday.

Sources have said the other bidders are Yahoo, former News Corp president Peter Chernin, private equity firm KKR, cable operator Time Warner Cable, Guggenheim Digital, and Silver Lake Management and talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment in a joint bid.

Draper Laboratory is teaming up with NASA, MIT and others to take on the challenge of making it easier for astronauts to move through space both inside and outside a spacecraft.

Their work centers around incorporating control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) into astronauts’ space suits and jetpacks.

But wait, what is a CMG?

I asked Draper to send me a video illustrating how a CMG works. They pointed me to one on YouTube, which shows how a swiveling chair can be turned using an attached, spinning bicycle wheel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aZlT26lF5Fw

An unstoppable efficiency drive spurred by EU regulations and national targets poses a dilemma for utilities.

Do they look for a profitable way to help consumers save energy or try to defend their traditional business model?

Products that reduce heating bills and therefore utilities' profits include heat pumps and condensing boilers from firms such as Germany's Vaillant or Viessmann, super-insulating materials from Belgium's Recticel or Ireland's Kingspan, and heat-retaining triple glazing from France's Saint-Gobain.

Bain & Company estimates that German households spend about 5 to 7 percent of their income - about 2,500 euros ($3,250) per year in today's money - on energy.

It's a percentage little changed since the 1970s but how the money is spent is changing, as consumers look to lower their gas or power bills through one-off investments in efficiency and small-scale, independent power generation such as solar panels.

"Total household energy spending has not changed. It just goes to different suppliers," Bain consultant Berthold Hannes said.

Bain estimates that in Germany, the big four utilities will lose about a third of their annual operating profits from generation, or about 2.5 billion euros, by 2020, due to the shift in spending.

Hannes believes new profits from independent energy generation sources and energy efficiency will amount to three to four billion euros per year by 2020, but utilities are likely to capture less than a third, with the rest going to energy service specialists. Utilities association Eurelectric makes similar estimates for Europe.

NO SCIENCE FICTION

But it is not all bad for European utilities as McKinsey expects their earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to grow to 138 billion euros by 2020 from 118 billion last year despite conventional generation profits sagging to 49 billion from 55 billion.

That's because utilities are expected to earn more from utility-scale renewables (14 billion euros), new energy services (10 billion) and smart grids (6 billion). "Utilities need to move away from selling megawatt hours, to selling full energy services, that is the only solution for them," said Eurelectric energy policy head Susanne Nies.

Among new services, McKinsey includes mini-combined heat and power generation (CHP), battery storage, electric vehicle charging stations, and "demand response" services that reduce demand during peak times.

Capriles is still disputing the election, which he lost to Maduro by a narrower-than-expected 1.5 percentage points. But if, as expected, the fraud claims get nowhere in Venezuela's courts, Capriles says other forces may sink the successor to the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

"I think this government, in the current conditions of illegitimacy added to a deep economic crisis it's showing no intention of addressing, is going to cave in," Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, told Reuters.

"What does that mean? Well, all the mechanisms are in the constitution: referendum, new election, resignation. But ... don't ask me for ways out that are not in the constitution. Our fight is a peaceful one," he added in an interview in a rural zone of the state on Friday.

Post-election street protests backfired for Capriles when some people were killed in the chaos, allowing the government to attack him as a destabilizer and killer.

Now he and other opposition leaders seem to be banking on a steady deterioration in Maduro's popularity and power. One possibility for opponents is a recall referendum, allowed in the constitution three years into a presidency.

That tactic was used unsuccessfully against Chavez during his 14-year rule of the South American OPEC nation.

Some opponents, though, say Venezuela's economic problems - slowing growth, untamed inflation, product shortages and hard currency bottlenecks - may prove too much for Maduro even before they can push for a recall referendum.

Capriles said a purported rivalry between Maduro and powerful Congress head Diosdado Cabello, also No. 2 of the ruling Socialist Party, was another factor to watch.

"They have an internal war ... and that person (Cabello) wants to be president but knows it's impossible via a popular vote. The only way, and this explains his game, is that things implode, break up, and he gets there by non-democratic means," said Capriles, 40.

Some opinion polls show Capriles a few points ahead of Maduro should a presidential election be repeated - an unlikely prospect, however, given the election board's multiple pronouncements that the results stand, including after an audit.

The undercover investigations have thrust the issue of lobbying into the limelight and had already forced a member of the lower house of parliament, Patrick Mercer, to resign from the ruling Conservative Party and seek legal advice.

The three House of Lords peers caught out by a Sunday Times sting operation are John Cunningham and Brian Mackenzie of the main opposition Labour Party and John Laird of the Ulster Unionist Party.

All three denied breaking the chamber's rules but their parties took swift action against them.

"Lord Cunningham and Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate have been suspended from the Labour Party pending further investigation," the party said in a statement.

Mike Nesbitt, leader of the Ulster Unionists, said in a statement he had called Laird after reviewing the media coverage and as a result of that call Laird had resigned from the party pending an investigation.

The trio were covertly filmed offering to ask parliamentary questions, lobby ministers and host events in prestigious House of Lords premises in exchange for payment by what they were told were lobbyists acting for companies.

The scandal will renew pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists, as promised in 2010 in the coalition agreement between his Conservatives and their junior partners, the Liberal Democrats.

Cameron warned more than three years ago that lobbying was "the next big scandal waiting to happen" but critics, including some Liberal Democrats, accuse him of dragging his feet.

SUSPICION

Sunday Times reporters approached Cunningham, a former minister under then Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 1990s, pretending to represent a South Korean solar energy company.

"Are you suggesting 10,000 pounds a month? Make that ... 12,000 pounds a month. I think we could do a deal on that," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper during a discussion about his fees for what was described as consultancy work.

Cunningham later sent a statement to the Sunday Times saying he had referred to "a fanciful 12,000 pounds a month" to test his suspicion that he was talking to undercover journalists.

"I deny any agreement to operate in breach of the House of Lords code of conduct and, in fact, recall that I made it clear that I would only operate within the rules," Cunningham said.

"I wrote recently to inquire about the status of my leave from the university, and the letter I got back began, 'Regrettably, Princeton receives many more qualified applicants for faculty positions than we can accommodate,'" Bernanke said in remarks prepared for delivery on Sunday to new Princeton University graduates in his commencement speech.

"Note to journalists: This is a joke," said a footnote attached to the text provided to reporters.

Behind the joke, and Bernanke's care in making sure journalists didn't miss it, is the mounting obsession over who may take charge of U.S. monetary policy for the world's largest economy after January 31, 2014, when Bernanke's second term expires.

Bernanke has said little about his future at the Fed, where he took over as chairman in 2006.

Talk that he is reluctant to accept a third term has been swirling for months, and speculation that he plans to leave the post got a boost in late April when the Fed confirmed he will skip the annual Jackson Hole monetary policy symposium in August due to a scheduling conflict.

Bernanke's absence would mark the first time in 25 years that a Fed chairman has not attended the conference, which draws top central bankers from around the world and is periodically used as a setting to preview important policy shifts.

Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen is most often mentioned as his likely successor.

Bernanke, who led the Fed's response to the financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, taught economics at Princeton before joining the Fed Board of Governors in 2002. His public service leave from Princeton expired in 2005. He became Fed chairman the following year.

Bernanke, who did not address monetary policy or the outlook for the economy in his speech, advised students to be on the lookout for the unexpected twists and turns in life.

"Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who thinks he or she knows where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination," he said. "Don't be afraid to let the drama play out."

Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said his government was building a "rehabilitation center" to house Yemenis who have been detained at the U.S. camp in Cuba for more than a decade.

Obama promised last month to end the ban on transferring Yemenis back home, one of the main obstacles to clearing out the detention camp, and altered the rules for U.S. drone strikes.

Qirbi said that Obama's announcement "brings hope to families of the detainees in Guantanamo and to the detainees themselves who for 12 years have been in prison and have lost hope of getting out of Guantanamo".

"Obama now has to really put his words into actions," he told reporters in the Saudi city of Jeddah. "We will take (up) with the authorities in Washington how we can start the process based, of course, on the conditions that may be set by the Americans."

Of the 86 detainees who have been cleared for transfer or release from Guantanamo, 56 are from Yemen where al Qaeda's regional wing is active. Most of them were captured more than a decade ago following the 2001 attacks on the United States.

Repatriation of Yemeni prisoners was halted in 2010 after a man trained by militants in Yemen attempted to blow up a U.S.-bound plane in 2009 with a bomb concealed in his underwear.

However, Obama laid out conditions on May 23 for removing the moratorium including the construction of a rehabilitation center for militants in Yemen.

Qirbi said the government was getting ready to take the detainees. "We are now in preparation of the rehabilitation center for the detainees," he said after a meeting with Gulf foreign and finance ministers.

In the same speech, Obama said drone strikes could be launched only when a threat was "continuing and imminent" and would primarily be directed by the Defense Department instead of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Qirbi said drone strikes against suspected al Qaeda figures were unpopular in Yemen due to civilian casualties. "But they are at times a necessity... I think the conditions he has set will make sure these drone attacks are used in a proper manner."

The decision to grant access was made by the New Zealand high court which said warrants used to grab the material were illegal.

The ruling is a victory for Mr Dotcom who said his defence was harmed because police could see evidence he could not.

Computers, hard drives and documents were grabbed in January 2012 during raids co-ordinated by US authorities.

They accused Megaupload of making massive profits from digital piracy by helping people share movies and music illegally. The raids, led by the FBI, forced Megaupload to close.

Mr Dotcom has denied the charges saying Megaupload was just a storage service that should not be held responsible for what its users did with it. He has fought a long-running legal battle over the case in New Zealand where he lives and has scored several victories. In September 2012 he won an apology from New Zealand's prime minister over the handling of the case.

The latest decision requires New Zealand police to comb through the evidence scooped up in the raid and return any data files considered "irrelevant" to the case. Clones of this information created by investigators must be destroyed.

In addition, copies of any information considered "relevant" to the ongoing case must also be handed over to Mr Dotcom's legal team.

Lawyers working for Mr Dotcom have long requested access to the information as they prepare for an extradition hearing scheduled for August. US authorities want Mr Dotcom to face charges in the US over alleged copyright theft.

This hearing may be delayed because of questions over whether the evidence being given by the US as justification for extradition was acquired illegally.

They've unveiled an electronic 'tattoo' that sticks to your skin. It has a circuit so gadgets can identify you.

Another experimental idea is a password pill you swallow - that transmits a signal to devices outside the body.

The pill doesn't need batteries because it's powered by stomach acid - but Motorola bosses say it won't be on sale any time soon.

Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management launched a counter offer for Dell earlier this month that would allow shareholders to keep their shares.

Dell shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Michael Dell/Silver Lake offer at a special meeting on July 18.

Dell's board said in a letter to shareholders that it had looked into the possibility of continuing with or modifying the PC maker's business plan, changing its dividend policy, selling to a strategic buyer, and selling or spinning off parts of the business. It did not mention the Icahn offer.

"A sale to the Michael Dell/Silver Lake group ... is the best alternative available — in a challenging business environment it offers certainty and a very material premium over pre-announcement trading prices," Dell said.

Southeastern Asset Management on Friday urged Dell shareholders not to take any action until they had received its proxy statement. It said it would make the statement available in the near future.

"We, along with Icahn Enterprises LP, believe that substantially greater value can be realized for Dell stockholders than what is reflected in the management buyout proposal," Southeastern said in a letter.

Dell shares were up 1.1 percent at $13.42 in afternoon trading in New York, below the Michael Dell/Silver Lake offer price of $13.65.

Icahn has warned that if his leveraged recapitalization proposal is rejected, he will rally shareholders to vote down Michael Dell's offer.

Icahn made several requests for information from Dell, including a request for data room access for a potential lender.

A top official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said investigators