Newspapers online 06-27-2013 | ScienceTechno

While mainstream Turkish media largely ignored the protests during the early days of the unrest, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook emerged as the main outlets for Turks opposed to the government.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has described sites like Twitter as a "scourge" - although senior members of his party are regular users - saying they were used to spread lies about the government with the aim of terrorizing society.

Police detained several dozen people suspected of inciting unrest on social media during the protests, local reports said.

"We have told all social media that ... if you operate in Turkey you must comply with Turkish law," Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters.

"When information is requested, we want to see someone in Turkey who can provide this ... there needs to be an interlocutor we can put our grievance to and who can correct an error if there is one," he said.

While Ankara had no problems with Facebook, which had been working with Turkish authorities for a while and had representatives inside Turkey, Yildirim said it had not seen a "positive approach" from Twitter after Turkey had issued the "necessary warnings" to the site over the matter.

"Twitter will probably comply too. Otherwise this is a situation that cannot be sustained," he said, without elaborating, but stressed the aim was not to limit social media.

An official at the ministry, who asked not to be named, said the government had asked Twitter to reveal the identities of users who posted messages deemed insulting to the government or prime minister, or which flouted people's personal rights.

It was not immediately clear whether Twitter had responded.

In a statement, Facebook said it had not provided user data to Turkish authorities in response to government requests over the protests and said it was concerned about proposals internet firms may have to provide data more frequently.

"PROVOCATEURS"

Turkey's interior minister had previously announced the government was working on new regulations that would target so-called "provocateurs" on social media but there have been few details on what the new laws would entail.

Shinhan Investment Corp joined a number of brokerages in cutting its target price for the South Korean technology giant, forecasting smartphone shipments and earnings would be less than it had previously expected.

The updated Windows, which was signaled at the end of May, is aimed chiefly at soothing traditional computer users, many of whom were unsettled by Microsoft's shift towards a new 'tile'-based interface that works best on touch-enabled devices, but left fans of the old-style desktop confused.

"Since we announced and shipped Windows 8, suffice it to say, we pushed boldly and yet what we found was we got a lot of feedback from users of those millions of desktop applications," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, opening the company's annual developer conference in San Francisco.

"If I was to put it in coffee terms, 'Why don't you go and refine the blend here?'. Let's remix the desktop and your modern application experience. Let's balance them better," said Ballmer, summing up user feedback.

The result is the reinstatement of the 'start' button, and easier ways to find and access applications, along with a highly improved search function, some of which was announced last month.

Ballmer also promised a "rapid release cycle" for Windows in future, abandoning its previous policy of making new versions of Windows every three years, in an effort to match Apple Inc and Google Inc.

The response from the thousands of developers at the conference in San Francisco was broadly positive, although attendees tend to be Windows die-hards.

"Of course, they're playing some catch up (with Apple and Google). They have been lagging behind for years now," said Jorgen Nilsson, manager at UK-based Aveva AB, a firm that makes computer-aided design software applications. "But this release is driving it forward instead of catching up and making it work for business and personal use. This is looking really good now."

Part of Microsoft's problem has been persuading developers to create apps for Windows 8 and the little-used Windows Phone, given that almost all smartphone and tablet users are accessible with Apple's iOS or Google's Android system.

Microsoft made a big leap on Wednesday by announcing that Facebook Inc has finally agreed to work on an app especially for Windows, which should be available this autumn. That is one factor that might help attract the more than 1 billion Facebook users to Windows-based tablets.

Ecuador, where Edward Snowden has requested asylum, said a decision could take weeks and asked Washington to argue its case for extradition. Russia said Snowden, whose flight is proving a growing embarrassment for President Barack Obama, was still in the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong after leaking details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs, then flew on to Moscow on Sunday. There was no sign on Wednesday of him registering for onward flights out of Russia.

"They are not flying today and not over the next three days," an Aeroflot representative at the transfer desk at Sheremetyevo said when asked whether Snowden and his legal adviser, Sarah Harrison, were due to fly out.

"They are not in the system."

The logical route for Snowden to take out - and one for which he at one point had a reservation - would be an Aeroflot flight to Havana and a connecting flight to Ecuador.

The choice of alternative flights, while the United States presses other countries not to take him in or to arrest him on arrival, would appear to be be limited.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Putin's stated opinion that he should choose a destination and fly out as soon as possible, state-run Itar-Tass news agency reported.

But Ecuador's foreign minister indicated a decision on Snowden's asylum request could take two months.

"It took us two months to make a decision on Assange so do not expect us to make a decision sooner this time," Foreign Minister Richard Patino said in Kuala Lumpur, referring to the founder of anti-secrecy group Wikileaks, Julian Assange.

He added that Ecuador would consider giving Snowden protection before that if he went to Ecuador's embassy - but Russian officials say Snowden does not have a visa to enter Russia, and the United States has revoked his passport.

Snowden, with his surveillance information, remains within the grasp of a Russian state clearly not in a hurry to dispatch him from its territory. Ecuador, which has not in the past flinched from taking on Western powers, is similarly not rushing to banish the uncertainty now plaguing U.S. authorities.

As expected, however, the court fell short of a broader ruling endorsing a fundamental right for gay people to marry, meaning that there will be no impact in the more than 30 states that do not recognize gay marriage.

The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that denied benefits to same-sex married couples, and a voter-approved California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.

The court struck down Section 3 of DOMA, which limited the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits, as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The ruling was a victory for President Barack Obama's administration, which had decided two years ago it would no longer defend the law in court. Obama applauded the DOMA ruling and directed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review all relevant federal laws to ensure that it is implemented.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, 76, appointed to the court by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1988, was the key vote and wrote the DOMA opinion, the third major gay rights ruling he has authored since 1996.

In a separate opinion, the court ducked a decision on Proposition 8 by finding that supporters of the California law did not have standing to appeal a federal district court ruling that struck it down. By doing so, the justices let stand the lower-court ruling that had found the ban unconstitutional.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the Proposition 8 opinion, ruling along procedural lines in a way that said nothing about how the court would rule on the merits. The court was unusually split, with liberals and conservatives in both the majority and the dissent.

By ruling this way on Proposition 8, the court effectively let states set their own policy on gay marriage. This means a debate is set to continue in various states via ballot initiatives, legislative action and litigation potentially costing millions of dollars on both sides of an issue that stirs cultural, religious and political passions in the United States as elsewhere.

Senator Wendy Davis, a single mother by the age of 19 who now is a rising star of the Democratic party, drew national attention when she spoke for more than 10 hours to block a measure that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Her filibuster of the Republican supermajority in the Texas legislature was hailed by women's groups and abortion rights advocates, and streamed live on some national media websites.

Republicans managed to stop her about two hours ahead of the midnight end to the special legislative session citing parliamentary procedures, but they were unable to complete voting on the abortion bill before the deadline.

"I pledge to Texas one thing: this fight is far from over," David Dewhurst, the anti-abortion Republican Lieutenant Governor who presides over the Senate, posted on Twitter Wednesday.

Texas Republican political strategist Matt Mackowiak predicted that Perry will call lawmakers back for another special session to pass the abortion bill.

"An abortion bill passed both houses. The votes are there. There's no question the votes are there," he said.

The abortion restrictions passed the House earlier in the week and a version of the proposal that did not include the ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy passed the Senate.

If the measure ultimately passes, Texas would be the 13th state to impose a ban on abortions after 20 weeks and by far the most populous. In addition, the legislation would set strict health standards for abortion clinics and restrict the use of drugs to end pregnancy.

Republican backers said the regulation of abortion clinics would protect women's health and that the ban on late-term abortions would protect fetuses, based on disputed research that suggests fetuses feel pain by 20 weeks of development.

Opponents said it would force nearly all Texas abortion clinics to close or be rebuilt.

"We know this isn't the end of the fight to protect women's access to health care in Texas." said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Davis whittled away chunks of time by reading testimony and messages from women and others decrying the legislation, reciting previously suggested changes to the bill and tapping into her own past as a single mother at 19.

She said the bill would have choked off her own access to a local Planned Parenthood clinic.

The amendment approved by the Senate aims to double, to around 40,000, the number of U.S. agents patrolling the southwestern border, complete the construction of 700 miles of border fence and enable the purchase of high-tech surveillance and other equipment to detect illegal border crossings.

The Senate backed the border security amendment by a vote of 69-29, with 15 of 46 Republicans joining all 52 Democrats and two independents.

None of the top four Senate Republican leaders voted for the amendment, however, in a sign of continuing divisions within the party over immigration legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented residents.

"I don't know how any Republican could look a TV camera or a constituent in the eye and not say that this amendment strengthens ... the border and makes our border more secure," said Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who helped write the amendment.

Corker added that if a majority of Republicans voted against the bill, which it did, "Democrats are going to own the border security issue," which has long been argued by Republicans.

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa countered that he was skeptical that the 20,000 additional border security agents actually would be hired over the next 10 years.

He also said the amendment "makes bold promises that may throw more money at the border, but there's no accountability to get the job done."

Malkin Holdings LLC, which oversees the Empire State Building's investors and operations, said in a letter to investors that it was reviewing two unsolicited bids - one for $2.1 billion and the other for $2 billion - to buy the 102-story building. The letter was included in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We consider all matters, including unsolicited offers, consistent with our fiduciary duties, to form a judgment on what action is appropriate," Malkin Holdings said in the letter. "We do not intend to issue a comment until after our review."

Opened in 1931 during the Great Depression, the Empire State Building is one of New York City's leading tourist attractions - known for its Art Deco tower and its colored lights at night. The building, listed as a National Historic Landmark, has been featured in movies ranging from "King Kong" to "An Affair to Remember" and "Annie Hall."

Meister Seelig & Fein LLP, the law firm representing investors who oppose the REIT plan, disclosed a letter last week from privately held Cammeby's International Group offering to buy the building for $2 billion.

The second bidder's identity was not disclosed in the most recent SEC filing.

Malkin Holdings led the plan to put the Empire State Building and more than 17 other properties into a real estate investment trust called Empire State Realty Trust Inc, which would become publicly traded under the proposed symbol "ESB" on the New York Stock Exchange. Investors recently approved the REIT plan by a super majority.

Malkin Holdings, the Helmsley Trust and investors would have to approve a sale. The Helmsley Trust is the majority owner of the company that owns the building's master lease. The master lease expires in 2076.

The adviser backed the internet search giant's position that it cannot erase legal content from the internet even if it is harmful to an individual. But he rejected the view of many U.S. internet firms that they are not bound by EU privacy law.

"Requesting search engine service providers to suppress legitimate and legal information that has entered the public domain would entail an interference with the freedom of expression," the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement setting out Advocate General Niilo Jaaskinen's opinion.

While internet-based firms operating in the European Union must adhere to national data protection laws, that did not oblige them to remove personal content produced by third parties, the statement said.

"Search engine service providers are not responsible, on the basis of the (EU's) Data Protection Directive, for personal data appearing on web pages they process."

Lawyers agree that Google's search algorithms, which hunt and list weblinks based on how relevant they may be, would not be in a position to "know" whether data was personal or not.

"A search engine is just a tool," said Eduardo Ustaran, a London-based lawyer from Field Fisher Waterhouse. "The nature of that information is irrelevant. It is just ones and zeros."

A final judgment on the case is expected before the end of the year. Judges in the European Court of Justice are not bound by an advocate general's opinion, but follow such recommendations in the majority of cases.

The case stems from a complaint by a Spanish man that a public notice announcing that his home was up for auction after being repossessed infringed his privacy and should be deleted from Google's search results.

His case is one of 180 similar examples in Spain in which people have sought to have content deleted from Google searches. The other cases are on hold pending the EU court's decision.

The original auction announcement was from a Spanish newspaper, which said it was under a legal obligation to publish the notice.

Google welcomed the advocate general's opinion, saying it supported the company's view that deleting such content amounted to censorship.

Berkman, a Republican who ran for governor in 1994, admitted he told investors he had access to scarce pre-IPO shares of Facebook as well as LinkedIn Corp, Groupon Inc and Zynga Inc.

Instead, Berkman used investors' money to make payments to earlier investors - a classic Ponzi scheme - and to pay personal expenses, including $6 million in a personal bankruptcy case, Assistant U.S. Attorney John O'Donnell said at a hearing in federal court in New York.

Berkman pleaded guilty to one charge of securities fraud and one charge of wire fraud. Each carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

"I deeply regret my actions," a weeping Berkman, wearing beige jail scrubs, said at the hearing on Tuesday. "I've devastated my family." He apologized to his investors, saying some of them were "dear, dear friends."

"I'm very, very sorry," he said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox set sentencing for October 1.

As part of a plea deal, Berkman agreed to forfeit $13.2 million he raised from more than 120 investors.

Berkman had long been active in Oregon politics and served for a time as the head of the state's Republican Party. He lost in the Republican primary for governor in 1994. He explored a bid for governor in 2002, according to the newspaper The Oregonian.

Berkman was arrested in March at his home in Odessa, Florida.

"RECIDIVIST HISTORY"

Berkman's scam was similar to one perpetrated by former Florida fund manager John Mattera, who defrauded investors of $13 million by telling them he could invest their money in pre-IPO shares of Facebook and Groupon. Mattera was sentenced to 11 years in prison on June 21.

Berkman's guilty plea culminates what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had called a "recidivist history."

In 2001, the Oregon Division of Finance and Securities issued a cease-and-desist order and a $50,000 fine against Berkman for offering and selling convertible promissory notes without a brokerage license, according to the SEC.

The top U.S. bookstore chain reported another quarter of dismal results on Tuesday, led by a 34 percent drop in sales of Nook devices and e-books business, and said it expects sales to continue to decline this fiscal year at its bookstores.

Shares were down 17.5 percent to $15.53 in afternoon trading.

Barnes & Noble will still make and design black-and-white readers like the Nook Simple Touch, which it says are more geared to serious readers, who are its customers, than to tablets.

But it is looking for a partner to make its Nooks, acknowledging that competition is too fierce to fight alone.

"We want to move away from taking on all that risk ourselves," Barnes & Noble Chief Executive William Lynch told investors on a call. "It was very capital intensive to build our own tablets."

In the fiscal year ended April 27, Barnes & Noble lost $475 million on the Nook business and it repeatedly had to slash prices on the Nook tablets and accept returns from retailers unable to sell the devices.

The retreat raised fresh questions about Barnes & Noble's ability to sell its Nook Media subsidiary, created in early 2012 and made up of Nook and its college bookstore chain. The bookseller's ability to look at strategic alternatives and its position in the e-books market were also matters of concern.

Barclays Capital analyst Alan Rifkin said in a research note the losses "reduce the likelihood" Barnes & Noble will find a buyer for its digital business.

Last year, Microsoft Corp took a 17.6 percent stake in Nook Media, and British publisher Pearson Plc bought 5 percent. Barnes & Noble owns the rest.

Barnes & Noble shares shot up in May on unconfirmed reports that Microsoft wanted to buy Nook.

Barnes & Noble, the largest U.S. bookstore chain, launched the first version of the Nook e-reader in 2009 to take on Amazon.com Inc's market-leading Kindle and secure a place in the fast growing e-books market.

Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers by volume and sales, are embroiled in patent disputes in at least 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative and fast-growing mobile market and win customers with their latest gadgets.

The talks came after the European Commission, which acts as EU competition regulator, told Samsung in December that it was acting unfairly by seeking court injunctions against Apple over the use of its patents.

"Samsung has been involved in settlement discussions for several months now. Samsung wants to settle," said one of the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The sources said it was still too early to say if the discussions would result in a settlement. That would mean no finding of wrongdoing for Samsung and no fine, which could otherwise reach as much as $17.3 billion if the South Korean firm is found to be in breach of EU laws.

Both the European Commission and Samsung declined to comment.

Samsung came under EU regulatory fire last year when it began seeking injunctions in various EU countries in 2011 against Apple's use of its patents for the 3G UMTS standard despite pledging to license them on fair terms to rivals.

Asked why Samsung was seeking to settle instead of fighting the charges, Mario Mariniello, an analyst at think-tank Bruegel and a former Commission economist, said it was possible the company thought the regulator had built up a strong enough case against it.