Tomorrow's Newspapers Online. 08-15-2013 | S

Merkel's chief of staff said on Monday that fears of mass U.S. spying on Germans were unfounded, and Washington had assured Berlin it had upheld German law. But with an election looming in less than six weeks, the government has come under pressure to do more to protect citizens' private data.

"We need a strong European information technology industry which can offer alternatives," said Economy Minister Philipp Roesler. Among ideas to be explored, he listed more secure cloud computing and better links between technology start-ups and established industry.

First results would be discussed at a IT summit in Hamburg in December, he said.

A former U.S. security contractor, Edward Snowden, set off an international furor when he told newspapers in June that the National Security Agency was mining the personal data of users of Google, Facebook, Skype and other U.S. companies under a secret program codenamed Prism.

President Barack Obama last week announced plans to limit the sweep of government surveillance programs and make them more transparent.

Snowden, facing espionage charges back home, has been granted a year's asylum in Russia.

The German cabinet also agreed to negotiate with the European Commission on tightening EU data protection laws, and to pursue a "no-spy deal" with Washington, whose details are as yet unspecified.

Troops opened fire on Islamist demonstrators in clashes that brought chaos to the capital and other cities and looked certain to further polarize Egypt's 84 million people between those who backed Mursi and the millions who opposed his brief rule.

In the streets around the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in northeast Cairo, where thousands of Mursi supporters have staged a sit-in for the last six weeks, riot police wearing gas masks crouched behind armored vehicles, tear gas hung in the air and burning tires sent plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Several television stations ran footage of what appeared to be pro-Mursi protesters firing automatic rifles at soldiers from behind sandbag barricades.

At a hospital morgue nearby, a Reuters reporter counted 29 bodies, including that of a 12-year-old boy. Most had died of gunshot wounds to the head.

Violence spread beyond Cairo, with Mursi supporters and security forces clashing in the cities of Alexandria, Minya, Assiut, Fayoum and Suez and in Buhayra and Beni Suef provinces.

The health ministry put the overall death toll at 95 people, including both police and civilians, with other sources saying at least 17 were killed in Fayoum province and five in Suez.

Mursi supporters besieged and set fire to government buildings and several churches were attacked, state media said.

Mohamed El-Beltagi, a leader of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood movement that has led the protests, said his 17-year-old daughter had been killed in the clashes.

He warned of wider conflict, and singled out the head of the armed forces who deposed Mursi on July 3 following mass protests calling for his resignation.

"I swear by God that if you stay in your homes, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will embroil this country so that it becomes Syria. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will push this nation to a civil war so that he escapes the gallows."

By 10 a.m. ET, only a few hundred protesters remained at the Rabaa site. A second, smaller camp near Cairo University was swiftly cleared in the early morning.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

The presidency announced a month-long state of emergency across Egypt and ordered the armed forces to help police enforce security. Rights activists said the move would give legal cover for the army to make arrests.

Any serious bidder would likely be hoping to get Watsa, the Fairfax founder and chairman who is often called Canada's answer to billionaire U.S. investor Warren Buffett, on their side, because he could join in on a private equity deal or at the very least be the bellwether for broader investment sentiment.

"I would imagine that if Fairfax says they are against a particular deal, that would carry a lot of weight, beyond just the 10 percent that they control," said Richard Steinberg, who heads Fasken Martineau's securities and mergers & acquisitions group in Toronto.

Although it remains too early to tell determined buyers from window-shoppers, sources familiar with the situation said some of the world's largest private equity firms, including Bain Capital LLC, KKR & Co LP and Carlyle Group LP, are expected to look at BlackBerry when the company launches a sale process.

Leo De Bever, the chief executive of Alberta Investment Management Corp, said he expected some of the largest Canadian pension funds, including his own, to look at any potential deals for the company.

Analysts said firms ranging from established mobile phone players like Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co to technology giants like Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc, Cisco Systems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp, may also be drawn to the beleaguered smartphone maker's assets such as patents or its network or instant messaging platforms.

Watsa stepped down from the BlackBerry board on Monday, citing a potential conflict of interest, as the company said it was exploring the sale of itself and other options.

Jefferies analysts have suggested that Fairfax could team up with Canadian pension funds and banks to take BlackBerry private, possibly for $15 per share.

Watsa hasn't said how much he would want for his stake in BlackBerry. But one guidepost would be $17 per share, the average price Fairfax has disclosed it has paid to build its 9.9 percent stake in the Canadian company over the last three years. BlackBerry shares closed up 1.4 percent at $10.93 in New York on Tuesday.

Fairfax and BlackBerry declined to comment. Representatives of the other companies and private equity firms either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

ABC News revealed how a couple in Houston, Texas, heard a voice saying lewd comments coming from the camera, made by manufacturer Foscam.

Vulnerabilities in Foscam products were exposed in April, and the company issued an emergency fix.

Foscam said it was unable to provide a statement at this time.

ABC reported that Marc Gilbert and wife Lauren were left shaken when they heard a "British or European accent" coming from the camera.

Mr Gilbert said the voice directed offensive, sexualised words at their daughter Allyson, who was asleep in bed.

The family believed the hacker was able to call the child by her name because it was spelt out on the bedroom's wall. The two-year-old is deaf, something the couple described as "something of a blessing" in the circumstances.

It is not clear whether the family had updated the camera with the latest software.

'Kids room'

The BBC has found evidence of hackers sharing information on how to access insecure Foscam cameras via several widely-used forums.

Using specialist search engines, people can narrow their results by location.

On one forum, internet addresses for cameras - not all made by Foscam - were listed with descriptions such as "school/daycare?" and "kids room".

In April, security firm Qualys uncovered a weakness in Foscam's devices.

The company said that various attack techniques exposed the camera's remote monitoring access - the simplest of which was simply scraping Foscam's website for unique identifying codes for each customer.

Around two out of every 10 Foscam cameras monitored by the researchers were insecure, Qualys said - using just "admin" to log in, and requiring no password.

Foscam is not the only company to find itself the target of hackers. Last year, camera company Trendnet had to rush out an update to fix a security hole that left thousands of cameras exposed.

Fix issued

In June, Foscam issued a fix for some of the issues raised by Qualys. In a blog post, the company said it appreciated the "constructive criticisms and advice".

Visitors to the firm's homepage do not see any notice of the critical upgrade.

The company did however publish a blog post to publicise the patch, and users who had signed up to a firmware update newsletter should have been informed by email. Discussion forums on the Foscam website show several other customers having security problems with their devices.

User pianomama00 wrote: "My husband heard something in babies room.

Organizers from FIFA and tournament sponsors have already started making mass hotel bookings for next summer, and private home owners in Brazil have responded, renting out apartments for the World Cup period, according to the Rio Times. Although projected numbers vary, approximately 600,000 foreign visitors and 3 million domestic tourists are expected to travel to or within Brazil for the World Cup.

A large percentage of those travelers are expected to be looking for alternative accommodations, such as private homes, bed and breakfasts and hostels. According to the Brazilian daily, some four-room penthouses in Ipanema are asking $150,000 for one month's rental.

A studio apartment in Copacabana is being rented out at $7,000 for four weeks, while a villa is using the deposit from a booking already made for next summer to renovate the house for more such rentals.

Read: Insider Guide: Best of Rio de Janeiro Hotel infrastructure for Brazil's most anticipated mega-event has been a concern, but the local hotel industry says it's confident it will be ready to face the onslaught of tourists.

The city also plans to berth six cruise ships as tourist accommodation. Marcelo Rocha e Silva Zorovich, a visiting researcher at the University of Miami, told the Los Angeles Times last month that providing enough hotel rooms for the event was a big concern.

The bloc's GDP grew by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2013, slightly ahead of forecasts, the Eurostat agency said.

The growth was widely expected after the German economy rose 0.7% between April and June.

However, the overall figure masks the mixed economic fortunes among the countries that make up the 17-country eurozone area.

Germany and France both posted stronger-than-expected growth, expanding 0.7% and 0.5% respectively.

Portugal, among the smallest and the weakest eurozone economies, showed the fastest growth, at 1.1%.

The country was one of three that had to take a multi-billion-euro bailout.

Obstacles

But Spain, which had to seek outside support for its struggling banking sector, saw its economic output fall by 0.1% on the quarter.

Italy and the Netherlands both saw output drop by 0.2%.

European Commission Vice-President Olli Rehn said the figures suggested the European economy was gradually gaining momentum, but added there was no room for complacency.

"There are still substantial obstacles to overcome: the growth figures remain low and the tentative signs of growth are still fragile," he said.

"A number of member states still have unacceptably high unemployment rates; the implementation of essential, but difficult reforms across the EU is still in its early stages. So there is still a very long way to go."

Analysts from Capital Economics said: "The return to modest rates of economic growth in the eurozone as a whole won't address the deep-seated economic and fiscal problems of the peripheral countries."

Locomotive

The figures reaffirm Germany's position as the powerhouse behind the eurozone.

The country narrowly avoided recession earlier this year, but GDP in the second quarter of 2013 was driven up by demand from both consumers and businesses. The improvement comes just weeks before a federal election that will see Chancellor Angela Merkel stand for a third term in office.

Her economic adviser, Michael Fuchs, said Germany had a great chance to be a "locomotive" that led European growth.

But he was also upbeat about the prospects of struggling eurozone members.

"I do believe that some of the countries in the periphery, I mean southern periphery, are doing better than expected," he said.

"I mean, if you see Spain... in Spain, the last three quarters, the unemployment rate went down. It's getting slightly better.

In fact, Bruno Iksil, who is cooperating with federal prosecutors, pushed back against the efforts of his former colleagues Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout to hide the mounting losses, according to court filings.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Wednesday charged Martin-Artajo and Grout, who both worked for JPMorgan's chief investment office in London, with wire fraud and a conspiracy to falsify books and records related to the trading losses.

The charges, the first to arise from the Whale scandal, say the two deliberately tried to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on trades in a portfolio of synthetic credit derivatives tied to corporate debt.

It is not clear when Martin-Artajo and Grout, who are both living in Europe, will be arrested and brought to the U.S. to be formally arraigned.

Lawyers for Grout and Martin-Artajo, who could not be immediately reached for comment, have previously said that their clients did nothing wrong.

Iksil earned the nickname "the London Whale" for the size of the derivatives trades he made in late 2011 and early 2012. Though initially blamed for the bad decisions leading to the losses, the charges against his former colleagues are now casting him in a more heroic light, at least according to federal authorities.

Iksil emerges in the criminal complaints as a pivotal voice during the escalating scandal, a dissenter who wanted to quickly exit the unwieldy trading positions and who at times tried to argue against hiding the group's mounting losses.

The criminal complaints include references to several conversations and email exchanges in which Iksil tells Grout he takes issue with Martin-Artajo's instructions to take steps to value the portfolio in such a way to minimize losses. In a conversation on March 16, 2012, authorities quote Iksil as telling Grout: "I don't know where he (Martin-Artajo) wants to stop, but it's getting idiotic."

Fusobacteria, commonly found in the mouth, cause overactive immune responses and turn on cancer growth genes, two US studies reveal.

The microbes had been linked with colorectal cancer before but it was not known whether they were directly involved in tumour growth.

The early findings are published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

In addition to potential new treatments, the discovery could lead to better early diagnosis and prevention, experts hope.

The first study, carried out by Harvard Medical School researchers, showed that fusobacteria were present in high numbers in adenomas - a benign bowel growth that can become cancerous over time.

The same researchers also did tests in mice showing that the bacteria speeded up the formation of colorectal tumours by attracting special immune cells that invade and set off an inflammatory response which can lead to cancer.

The second study, carried out by researchers at Case Western Reserve University, showed that fusobacteria had a molecule on their surface which enabled them to attach to and invade human colorectal cancer cells.

The molecule - FadA - then switches on cancer growth genes and stimulates inflammatory responses to promote tumour formation.

Higher levels

A synthetic compound which blocked FadA was found to completely halt the process, raising the possibility it could one day be used as a preventive treatment.

The Case Western team also confirmed that FadA levels were much higher in tissues from patients with adenomas and colorectal cancer compared with healthy individuals.

Dr Wendy Garrett, lead author of Harvard study, said: "Fusobacteria may provide not only a new way to group or describe colon cancers but also, more importantly, a new perspective on how to target pathways to halt tumour growth and spread."

She added that in the future the presence of the bacteria in a tumour may be used to guide treatment decisions.

Oliver Childs of Cancer Research UK said: "Our bodies contain many hundreds of microbes, many of which are beneficial and protect us against disease. But some can cause harm and this latest research gives compelling evidence that fusobacteria contribute to the development of certain bowel cancers by helping the cancer cells to grow.

Blake Larson, president of ATK Aerospace Group, gave no details on the size and scope of the contract, but told Reuters the deal was "certainly substantial".

"It further enhances and expands other commercial elements of our propulsion business," Larson said. ATK is seeking to take on more commercial projects to diversity its portfolio at a time when the U.S. military budget is set to flatten or decline.

There was no immediate comment from Orbital Sciences.

Allen's Stratolaunch Systems tapped Orbital Sciences in June to develop the new transport system which will use a large aircraft to launch satellites, cargo and possibly humans, into space.

Stratolaunch plans to launch test flights in 2016, and may fly its first mission in 2017 or 2018.

ATK said it would provide the first and second stage propulsion for the Air Launch Vehicle. The company will also design and develop and flight hardware for initial Stratolaunch missions.

ATK has built more than 1,600 commercial solid rocket motors for a wide array of launch vehicles, including Orbital Sciences' Pegasus, Taurus, Minotaur and Antares launch vehicles.

In an announcement on its website, Facebook said the feature would be available on its mobile pages for more than 20,000 OpenTable restaurant customers across North America.

It wasn't immediately clear if Facebook would receive any commission from OpenTable bookings.

More consumers are accessing Web services using smartphones and Facebook has been adapting its business to benefit from the trend.

The company posted a net loss of $11.5m (£7.4m) compared to a profit of $33.2m a year earlier, it said in a statement.

Many analysts were expecting a net profit.

Sina's micro-blogging service has more than 500 million users, with many increasingly looking to access services on mobile devices.

The service has become an important forum for the exchange of opinions and information in China, however, it has not generated huge revenues for Sina.

The company also faces increased competition from rival Tencent, which has launched a hugely popular mobile messaging service called WeChat.

In April, Sina looked to compete by way of a deal with China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba, giving them 18% stake in its Sina Weibo micro-blogging service for $586m. The partnership is expected to generate revenue from advertising and social commerce services for Sina.

However, that meant a one-time charge of $27.1m in stock-based compensation, in the second quarter.