Newspapers online. 08-01-2013 | ScienceTechnology

The meeting with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing was to discuss matters of cooperation, the Chinese firm told Reuters in an emailed statement. It gave no further details.

The talks could pave the way for a long-awaited deal for China Mobile to distribute Apple products on its vast network, benefitting both companies.

Apple said last week that its April-June sales in Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, slumped 43 percent from the previous quarter. Greater China accounted for 13 percent of Apple's quarterly sales, or $5 billion, down from nearly 19 percent in January-March.

Fewer than a fifth of China Mobile's customers have adopted 3G, lagging rivals China Unicom's 38 percent and China Telecom Corp's 50 percent, according to data from the three carriers. Analysts say China Mobile would attract higher-end 3G users if it strikes a deal to carry Apple's iPhone.

Low 3G adoption crimps China Mobile's profits as mobile users shift away from SMS messaging to data-reliant apps such as Tencent Holdings' WeChat, which now has more than 300 million users in China.

China Mobile's homegrown 3G technology - TD-SCDMA - is inferior to what is offered by China Unicom and China Telecom, which are based on international 3G standards.

Any deal between China Mobile and Apple, combined with the Chinese government issuing 4G licenses later this year, could turn around both companies' fortunes with wider product distribution and faster Internet speeds attracting new smartphone adopters.

Apple was not immediately available for comment.

Morgan Stanley estimates China's mobile Internet market could more than treble to around $30 billion by 2015, driven by a surge in demand for mobile gaming, advertising, and e-commerce.

Currently, 78.5 percent of Chinese Internet users access it through their mobile phones, according to data from the China Internet Network Information Centre. The total number of mobile netizens reached 464 million by the end of June, up 10 percent from the end of 2012.

By a 2-1 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said EA had no First Amendment defense against former football and basketball players, including onetime Arizona State University quarterback Samuel Keller, over the use of their images in its NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball video games.

The majority said EA "literally recreates Keller in the very setting in which he has achieved renown," and therefore violated his right of publicity.

In a separate decision, the 9th Circuit upheld the dismissal of Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown's lawsuit against EA over the use of his likeness in its Madden NFL video game.

The under secretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics will meet officials at the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, a spokesman for the U.S. military said. He will also visit the foreign affairs and defense ministries.

The three ministries are together considering guidelines on what weapons, and to whom, Japanese defense contractors could sell arms.

Almost half-century-old export restrictions have isolated Japan's defense contractors, keeping the industry small, fractured and cost heavy.

While dual-use equipment such as cameras, that are also sold for civilian use, are exempt, such devices are rarely sold directly to armies by their Japanese makers.

The U.S. military, for example, uses Panasonic Corp's rugged laptop computers to guide drones, but buys them through a third-party vendor.

Kendall's visit to the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, which regulates exports, could help the U.S. Defense Department build deeper ties with industry officials who will play a key role in formulating rule changes that may allow companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the maker of the World War Two-era Zero fighter, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, which builds submarines, become suppliers to the United States.

"We see the possibility of joint development as a major step," Tatsuhiko Nojima, executive vice president at Mitsubishi Heavy told a news briefing in Tokyo to announce the company's results for the quarter that ended on June 30.

"This represents a big business chance."

Kendall, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in October 2011, wants to visit the ministry because it regulates Japan's defense industry, said an official at the ministry, who declined to be identified. The meet-and-greet may include discussion of the export restrictions, he said.

GOING FOR JOINT DEVELOPMENT

Japan's government on Friday published a policy paper, its latest step away from the constraints of its pacifist constitution and part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's review of defense posture in the face of perceived threats from China and North Korea.

In it, the government said it would "aggressively promote joint international development production with the United States, Britain and other countries".

Dell shares fell 3 percent to $12.48, their lowest level since news of the takeover broke on January 14, highlighting uncertainty among shareholders about the deal's prospects.

The special committee, set up by Dell's board to assess whether shareholders were getting the best deal, refused to change the voting rules but said it would be willing to move the vote's record date forward.

Earlier, a person familiar with the matter said Michael Dell and Silver Lake expect their deal to collapse unless there is a change in how shareholder votes are counted.

At present, the buyout must be approved by a majority of all Dell shares, excluding those held by Michael Dell. The buyout group last week raised its offer by 10 cents per share on the condition that the deal goes through if approved by a majority of the shares that are actually voted.

This followed two adjournments of shareholder meetings, on July 18 and July 24, after it became apparent the buyout group did not have enough votes supporting the deal.

The consortium estimated that in the latest tally, about 27 percent of Dell's shares had not been voted and were therefore counted as "no" votes under the current voting standard.

Alex Mandl, the special committee's chairman, wrote in a letter to the buyout group, "The committee is not prepared to accept your (voting rules) proposal. We are, however, willing to establish a new record date for a vote on a $13.75 per share transaction under the existing voting standard."

The record date determines which Dell shareholders are entitled to vote on the deal. A person familiar with the matter said the special committee would be willing to push the record date to August 10 for the vote to be held on September 10.

A shareholder meeting to vote under the current system is scheduled for Friday.

The source familiar with the matter said the buyout consortium believes that changing the record date is not good enough. Unless the voting standard changes, this is the end of the road for the deal, the source said.

The world's largest social networking site saw its price rise 1.2% to $38.08 in early morning trading, giving the company a market valuation of $92bn,

The company's shares have been boosted since the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings on 24 July.

Investors have been encouraged by the fast growth of Facebook's mobile advertising revenue.

It now derives 41% of its total ad revenue from mobile.

Facebook's flotation in May 2012 got off to a disastrous start as shareholders took fright over the company's apparent lack of mobile strategy and slowing revenue growth.

Some accused founder Mark Zuckerberg of overhyping the company's growth forecasts.

Just three months after the flotation, the share price had collapsed to about $18, wiping $48bn off the company's stock market value.

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence released three declassified documents that authorized and explained the bulk collection of telephone data, one of the surveillance programs revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The declassification was made in the "interest of increased transparency," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement.

Much of what is contained in the documents has already been divulged in public hearings by intelligence officials as they sought to detail what was initially disclosed by Snowden.

Snowden's release of the secret surveillance information to American and European media sparked an uproar in the United States and abroad over revelations that U.S. intelligence agencies collected data on phone calls and other communications of Americans and foreign citizens as a tool for fighting terrorism.

Intelligence officials have said the programs helped thwart terrorist attacks, but lawmakers have called for greater oversight of the vast surveillance programs, which expanded rapidly after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Snowden's passport has been revoked and he has been charged under the U.S. Espionage Act. He is stuck in limbo at a Moscow airport while seeking asylum in Russia, which has pledged not to hand him over to the United States.

BULK COLLECTION

The documents released on Wednesday include 2009 and 2011 reports on the National Security Agency's "Bulk Collection Program," carried out under the U.S. Patriot Act.

In addition, they include an April, 2013 order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which directed communications company Verizon to hand over data from millions of Americans' telephone calls and described how that data should be stored and accessed.

The declassified documents were initially sent to congressional committees and included warning notes saying the information contained in them describes "some of the most sensitive foreign intelligence collection programs conducted by the United States government."

Thousands of supporters of the Islamist Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood have been staging sit-ins at two locations in the Egyptian capital for the past month, protesting against his overthrow by the army on July 3.

The Brotherhood says its supporters will stay put until Mursi is reinstated. At least 80 of them were shot dead by security forces at dawn on Saturday in the second mass killing of Mursi supporters since his overthrow.

Wednesday's statement by the cabinet raised the specter of yet more bloodshed.

In a televised statement, an interim cabinet installed by the military said the "terrorist acts" and traffic disruption stemming from the protests were no longer acceptable and "represent a threat to Egyptian national security".

"The cabinet decided to begin taking all necessary measures to address these dangers and put an end to them, commissioning the interior minister to do all that is necessary regarding this matter within the framework of the constitution and the law," it said.

Gross domestic product grew at a 1.7 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday, stepping up from the first-quarter's downwardly revised 1.1 percent expansion pace.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the economy growing at a 1.0 percent pace after a previously reported 1.8 percent advance in the first three months of the year.

A separate report showed private employers maintained a higher pace of hiring in July, adding to the brightening economic picture.

"We have an upside surprise in the GDP which speaks volumes for the job recovery that we're putting together. The recovery in the economy is starting to take root," said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lek Securities in New York.

U.S. Treasury debt prices fell on the data, while the dollar rallied against the yen and advanced against the euro. U.S. stock index futures were little changed.

A rebound in business spending, export growth and a sharp moderation in the pace of decline in government outlays boosted economic growth in the April-June period, offsetting a slowdown in consumer spending and a steady rate of inventory accumulation.

Still, the report marked a third straight quarter of GDP growth below 2 percent, a pace that normally would be too soft to bring down unemployment. But growth was poised to gain even more momentum in the second half of the year as the fiscal burden brought on by belt-tightening in Washington eases.

Federal Reserve officials, wrestling with a decision on the future of their $85 billion per month bond-buying program, will draw comfort from the pick-up in output last quarter. They wind up a two-day meeting later on Wednesday.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the central bank was likely to start curtailing the bond purchases later this year and would probably bring them to a complete halt by the middle of 2014, if the economy progressed as expected.

"The Fed's view is that the fiscal headwinds will dissipate in the coming months," said Thomas Costerg, U.S. economist at Standard Chartered in New York. "If you discount the fiscal drag, growth would be stronger, and I think that's what the Fed is looking at."

SILVER LINING IN REVISIONS

This is a 10% increase on the figures for 2011, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Nearly 600 charges were brought between January and May 2013, the figures show.

The revelations come as police say they are investigating abusive tweets sent to MP Stella Creasy.

Under the Communications Act 2003, a person is guilty of an offence if they send "a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character" by means of an electronic communications network.

But the CPS could not tell the BBC how many individuals these charges related to nor how many resulted in a successful prosecution.

A CPS spokesperson said: "We cannot disaggregate offences data centrally to indicate the number of people prosecuted or the outcome of the prosecution proceeding - it is often the case that a person is charged with more than one offence."

Reporting abuse

Ms Creasy received the abusive tweets after publicly backing feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who was also targeted by Twitter "trolls" following her campaign to have a woman featured on a UK banknote.

Both Ms Criado-Perez and Ms Creasy received rape and death threats via Twitter.

On Monday, Del Harvey, Twitter's senior director of trust and safety, blogged that the micro-messaging platform would extend the "report tweet" function, already available on its iPhone app, to Android phones and desktops.

But he did not give a timescale for the change.

Pressure has been building on Twitter to do more to combat abusive messages sent via the platform.

On Monday, Andy Trotter, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers' communications advisory group told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "They need to take responsibility as do the other platforms to deal with this at source and make sure these things do not carry on.

"They need to make it easier for victims to report these matters and, from a police perspective, they need to know that they can report these things to us."

A Change.org petition calling for Twitter to add a "report abuse" button to its service had attracted more than 71,000 supporters on Tuesday morning.

But while Twitter's rules "explicitly bar direct, specific threats of violence against others", the company says "manually reviewing every Tweet is not possible due to Twitter's global reach and level of activity".

In the first full quarter under a new Chief Executive Michel Combes, the smaller competitor to Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei posted a quarterly sales rise of 1.9 percent to 3.61 billion euros ($4.78 billion).

Demand for so-called IP products, which help direct data traffic inside telecom networks, grew sharply and pushed up profits, supporting Combes' decision to put them at the center of his strategy to deliver a rebound that has eluded his successors.

But recovery at Alcatel-Lucent, which has lost more than $10 billion since it was created through a 2006 merger, will depend in part on whether telecom operators increase overall spending in the coming years to build superfast mobile broadband or if they trim budgets elsewhere to compensate.

Alcatel-Lucent will have to duke it out with its bigger competitors, including Nokia-Siemens Networks and Ericsson, for contract wins.

Adjusted operating profit was 46 million euros or 1.3 percent of revenues. Analysts had predicted losses.

Shares in Alcatel-Lucent were up 8.8 percent at 0748 GMT(3.48 a.m. ET)

Combes said he would seek three to five partnerships like the Qualcomm deal in a bid to increase Alcatel's R&D firepower. The U.S. chip maker will take a less than 5 percent stake, he said, and the pact is worth some 100 million euros in research funding.

"Other discussions are underway... we hope to make announcements on in the coming quarters," said Combes.

Despite investors' euphoria, the group's second-quarter results were marked by a net loss of 871 million euros caused by a writedown of its sub-scale wireless business.

And Alcatel-Lucent consumed more cash - 248 million euros - in its operations than it generated, a perennial problem for the group.

Alexandre Peterc, analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said the quarterly results could lead to upgrades to consensus but cautioned that investors should avoid the risky stock.

"Alcatel shares remain extremely risky and volatile," said Peterc in a note. "Though Q2 is good, beating consensus, cash is still worsening faster than anticipated."

In June, Combes pledged to focus the group on high-growth products in IP networking and high-mobile and fixed broadband, while maximizing profits out of older products.

Negotiations between CBS and Time Warner Cable continued after midnight in New York, according to a spokeswoman for the cable operator. Time Warner said it had relented "at the request of CBS."

"There's progress being made and hopefully we don't go dark," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters on Monday night in Los Angeles.

"We still believe our content is worth a lot of money."

CBS, which is the No. 1 rated U.S. broadcast network with shows such as "The Big Bang Theory" and "N.C.I.S.," has never had a wide-scale blackout, it said.

A blackout would have blocked an estimated 3.5 million Time Warner cable subscribers in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Dallas from seeing shows like "Under the Dome" and "Big Brother." It would not affect CBS affiliate stations owned by other companies.

Initially, in a statement issued just after midnight, Time Warner said it would remove CBS and the company's cable channels, including the premium service Showtime. The action came after weeks of often contentious negotiations over increases in fees that CBS receives from cable and satellite operators.

"We offered to pay reasonable increases, but CBS's demands are out of line and unfair," Time Warner said in its initial statement. "They want Time Warner Cable to pay more than others pay for the same programming."

The threat of blackouts have become increasingly common as networks, which provide programming, square off against cable and satellite TV operators that pay retransmission fees to transmit programs into living rooms around the country.

Last summer, satellite operator DirecTV's 20 million customers were unable to receive Viacom's cable networks, including Nickelodeon and MTV, for 10 days after those companies failed to strike a new deal.

CBS's contract with Time Warner Cable expired in June, but the two sides have already extended the deadline twice. The two sides were agreeing hourly extensions as talks continue.

While the companies negotiated, they both ran TV commercials aimed at getting the public on their side.

Time Warner Cable's spot accused CBS of giving New York a "black eye", while CBS urged viewers to "say no to Time Warner Cable," and gave them Time Warner Cable's phone number.

Archaeologists working at the site in central England where Richard III's body was found underneath a parking lot are currently puzzling over a sealed lead coffin containing the remains of a yet-to-be-identified person. The lead coffin was found encased in a larger stone coffin.

The smaller coffin is intact "except for a hole at one end of the casket through which we could tantalizingly see someone's feet," said Mathew Morris, the fieldwork director at the site.

New discovery just as exciting

Last year, archaeologists unearthed a body buried beneath a nondescript parking lot in the city of Leicester. In February, they confirmed the body was that of Richard III, the last king of England to die on the battlefield. The news drew global attention and set off a debate over Richard's bloodthirsty reputation.

Archaeologists from the University of Leicester, who have been toiling away at the site this summer, say the discovery of the double coffin is just as exciting. They only uncovered the lead coffin last week after eight people hauled the heavy lid off the stone coffin. But figuring out who's inside looks set to be a much tougher task.

"This inner coffin is likely to contain a high-status burial, although we still don't know who it contains," Morris wrote in a blog post. "No writing was visible on the coffin lid but it does bear a crude cross soldered into the metal."

There are three main contenders for the identity of the coffin's inhabitant: a medieval knight named Sir William de Moton of Peckleton, and two leaders of the English Grey Friars order, Peter Swynsfeld and William of Nottingham.

Beneath the parking lot

The Leicester site is where a church, known as Grey Friars Friary, once stood. Over the centuries, the whereabouts of the friary's remnants were forgotten, but it remained in the records as the burial place of Richard III. Last year, experts began digging away at the area, which had taken on the less illustrious role of a parking lot. They went on to establish that it was part of the friary and that a skeleton, hastily buried in an uneven grave, was that of Richard.

The archaeologists who undertook a new dig this summer think the double coffin, located near Richard's grave, was buried during the 14th century, more than 100 years before Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.