The actress and her hubby step out in style! Check out more pics of Hollywood's tightest twosomes.
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
Why Won?t the FBI Tell the Public About its Drone Program?
Today we?re publishing?for the first time?the FBI?s drone licenses and supporting records for the last several years. Unfortunately, to say that the FBI has been less than forthcoming with these records would be a gross understatement.
Just yesterday, Wired broke the story that the FBI has been using drones to surveil Americans. Wired noted that, during an FBI oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller let slip that the FBI flies surveillance drones on American soil. Mueller tried to reassure the senators that FBI?s drone program ?is very narrowly focused on particularized cases and particularized leads.? However, there?s no way to check the Director on these statements, given the Bureau?s extreme lack of transparency about its program.
EFF received these records as a result of our Freedom of Information lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the licenses the FAA issues to all public entities wishing to fly drones in the national airspace. As detailed in prior posts and on our drone map, we have already received tens of thousands of pages of valuable information about local, state and federal agencies? drone flights.
However, unlike other federal agencies, including the US Air Force, the Bureau has withheld almost all information within its documents?even including the dates the FAA?s Certificates of Authorization (COAs) were issued. As you can see from the two examples linked below?the first from the Air Force and the second from the FBI?the FBI is withholding information, including something as basic as the city and state of the Bureau?s point of contact, that could in no way be expected to risk circumvention of the law (the applicable test under FOIA, 5 U.S.C. ? 552 (b)(7)(E)).
The FBI has even withheld information from standard documents that all agencies file with the FAA to support their COA applications, many of which come directly from the drone manufacturer. (Compare, for example, the Air Force?s ?LOST_LINK_MISSION? or ?AIRCRAFT_SYSTEM? documents with the FBI?s versions of the same documents.)
One interesting fact is that the Bureau has withheld most of the records under several statutes and regulations related to the arms exports and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) (see statutes and regulations here, here, and here.) This is surprising because, although ITAR does apply explicitly to drones, not even the US Military has claimed these statutes in withholding information from its drone records.
Given the FBI?s past abuses and the information recently revealed about how the Bureau exploits specious interpretations of federal law to help out the NSA?s spying program, we have good reason to be concerned about the FBI?s lack of transparency here. We hope Senator Feinstein will follow up on her concerns about the FBI?s apparent lack of ?strictures? in place to protect Americans? privacy in connection to FBI drone use and demand a full accounting of how, when, where and why the Bureau has been using drones to monitor the public.
Download the zip files of the documents here, here, and here.
Reproduced from the Electric Frontier Foundation under Creative Commons license. Image by Oleksiy & Tetyana under Creative Commons license.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/why-won-t-the-fbi-tell-the-public-about-its-drone-progr-529095768
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Friday, June 21, 2013
Video on Instagram: Facebook's New Vine-Like Video Sharing
You're about to be able to cloak short video clips in the Valencia filter. Facebook just added video to Instagram, similar to Twitter's Vine app.
Here's how it works:
Source: http://gizmodo.com/video-on-instagram-facebooks-new-vine-like-video-shar-518952358
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Friend: Stricken Gandolfini found by family member
ROME (AP) ? A friend of "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini said Thursday the actor was discovered by a family member in his hotel room in Rome before he was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at a hospital.
Michael Kobold, who described himself as a close family friend, read a short statement to reporters, but said little more about the circumstances of Gandolfini's death on Wednesday night.
He did not say who discovered Gandolfini, 51, but NBC quoted Antonio D'Amore, manager of the Boscolo Excedra hotel, as saying it was the actor's 13-year-old son, Michael.
Gandolfini had appeared in advertisements for Kobold's company, Kobold Watches.
Gandolfini was pronounced dead at 11 p.m. Wednesday in Rome after being taken by ambulance to the Policlinic Umberto I hospital.
Dr. Claudio Modini, head of the hospital emergency room, said Gandolfini arrived at the hospital at 10:40 p.m. (2040 GMT; 4:40 p.m. EDT) and was pronounced dead after resuscitation efforts in the ambulance and hospital failed.
An autopsy would be performed starting 24 hours after the death, as required by law, Modini told The Associated Press.
The actor, known for his portrayal of the tortured Italian-American mob boss Tony Soprano, was to have received an award and taken part in the closing ceremony Saturday of the Taormina Film Festival, which takes place against the backdrop of Taormina's spectacular Roman amphitheater.
He also was to have given a special class Saturday morning at the festival, as was done by actor Jeremy Irons earlier in the week.
Festival organizers Mario Sesti and Tiziana Rocca said instead they would organize a tribute "to celebrate his great achievement and talent." They said they had heard from Gandolfini a few hours before he died, and "he was very happy to receive this award and be able to travel to Italy."
"The Sopranos" was a hit when it first aired in Italy in 2001, with critics giving it rave reviews, despite some criticism from Italian-Americans across the Atlantic who thought it stereotyped them.
"Rarely does one see fiction so intelligent, ironic, full of psychological and narrative subtleties. And the dialogue! The photography!" Italy's most prominent TV critic, Aldo Grasso, gushed in the leading daily Corriere della Sera after the first episode aired. "Trust me, don't miss 'The Sopranos!'"
The daily La Repubblica called the show a "masterpiece." The paper deplored that it was being "hidden" from viewers by being aired at the unenviable 12:30 a.m. timeslot and urged it to be moved up ? something former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset network eventually did, showing it at 11:30 p.m.
Gandolfini's death was one of the top news stories in Italy on Thursday, with American tourists outside his hotel well aware of the tragedy.
"I thought he was a great actor," said William Capece, visiting Rome from Houston, Texas. "Pretty sad because it is a big loss to the field of acting."
The U.S. Embassy in Rome, which said it had learned about the death from the media, said it would be available to provide a death certificate and help prepare the body for return to the United States. The embassy said it can often take between four and seven days to arrange for it to be sent outside of Italy.
The embassy spokesman declined further comment, directing inquiries to the family.
It isn't yet known yet what caused his heart to stop beating. Sudden cardiac arrest can be due to a heart attack, a heart rhythm problem, or a result of trauma. The chance of cardiac arrest increases as people get older; men over age 45 have a greater risk. Men in general are up to three times more likely to have a sudden cardiac arrest than women.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/friend-stricken-gandolfini-found-family-member-133113816.html
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Sunday, May 5, 2013
Bangladesh toll 547; search becomes more gruesome
A young lady wails over the phone as she tells her family that she had identified one of the many bodies at a morgue to be her relative, Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. In the aftermath of a building collapse that killed more than 530 people, Bangladesh's garment manufacturers may face a choice of reform or perish. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A young lady wails over the phone as she tells her family that she had identified one of the many bodies at a morgue to be her relative, Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. In the aftermath of a building collapse that killed more than 530 people, Bangladesh's garment manufacturers may face a choice of reform or perish. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
People look at portraits of missing garment workers from the collapse of a garment factory building plastered on the doors of a school-turned-morgue Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The death toll in the accident rose to more than 530 on Saturday, a day after the country's finance minister downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, saying he didn't think it was "really serious." (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A young woman covers her nose to block out the stench from rotting bodies at a morgue where bodies recovered from the garment factory collapse are kept for identification Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The death toll in the accident rose to more than 530 on Saturday, a day after the country's finance minister downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, saying he didn't think it was "really serious." (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Workers at a school-turned-morgue place the body of a victim from last week's collapse of a garment factory building into a coffin, Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The death toll in the accident rose to more than 530 on Saturday, a day after the country's finance minister downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, saying he didn't think it was "really serious." (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Workers at a school-turned-morgue place the body of a victim from last week's collapse of a garment factory building into a coffin, Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The death toll in the accident rose to more than 530 on Saturday, a day after the country's finance minister downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, saying he didn't think it was "really serious." (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ? Ten days after the horrifying collapse of a garment-factory building, life has become still more gruesome for crews working to recover bodies at the site. The death toll rose to 547 on Saturday and the stench of decaying flesh was sickening evidence that the work is not yet done.
Rescue workers said some bodies have deteriorated so badly that they have found bones without flesh. Since the April 24 collapse in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, high temperatures have generally been 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) or above, and lows have rarely dipped below 27 C (80 F).
"The bodies are smelling. We are using air freshener to work here," said Mohibul Alam, a firefighter at the collapse scene. The odor of decay is overpowering just the same.
Bodies have decomposed beyond recognition, Alam said, but he added that some could still be identified because the victims' identification cards were found with them.
Some of the victims who had been closest to escaping appear to be among the last to be recovered. Only now have rescuers dug deep enough, using cranes and other equipment, to approach the stairs of the ground floor.
The official death toll from the collapse reached 547 Saturday and was expected to climb. The official number of missing has been 149 since Wednesday, though unofficial estimates are higher.
The disaster is likely the worst garment-factory accident ever, and there have been few industrial accidents of any kind with a higher death toll. It surpassed long-ago garment-industry disasters such as New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in 1911, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that same year that killed 112.
Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry supplies retailers around the world and accounts for about 80 percent of the impoverished country's exports. The collapse has raised strong doubts about retailers' claims that they could ensure worker safety through self-regulation.
Five garment factories operated in the Rana Plaza building that collapsed, and many brand labels have been found in the wreckage, but only two retailers, Britain's Primark and Canada's Loblaw Inc., have acknowledged that their clothes were being made there at the time. Loblaw's CEO has decried the "deafening silence" from what he said were more than two dozen other international retailers who used garment factories in the collapsed building.
Mainuddin Khandkar, the head of a government committee investigating the disaster, said Friday that substandard building materials, combined with the vibration of the heavy machines used by the five garment factories inside the Rana Plaza building, led to the horrific collapse. Because of a power outage, heavy generators were turned on about 15 minutes before the building fell, he said.
The building developed cracks a day before the collapse, and Rana Plaza owner Mohammed Sohel Rana called engineer Abdur Razzak Khan to inspect it. Khan appeared on television that night and said he told Rana the building should be evacuated.
Police also issued an evacuation order, but witnesses say that hours before the collapse, Rana told people that the building was safe and garment factory managers told their workers to go inside.
Rana has been arrested is expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, crimes punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added.
On Thursday, Khan was arrested as well, on a charge of negligence. Police said he worked as a consultant to Rana when three illegal floors were added to what was supposed to be a five-story building.
The Bangladesh High Court also has ordered the government to confiscate Rana's property and freeze the assets of the owners of the factories in Rana Plaza so the money can be used to pay the salaries of their workers.
Savar's mayor and another local official have been suspended in an apparent effort by higher levels of Bangladesh's government to fend off accusations that it is in part to blame for the tragedy because of weak oversight of the building's construction.
In New Delhi on Friday, Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, which is by far the country's biggest source of export income.
"The present difficulties ... well, I don't think it is really serious ? it's an accident," Muhith said. "And the steps that we have taken in order to make sure that it doesn't happen, they are quite elaborate and I believe that it will be appreciated by all."
The government made similar promises after the November garment factory fire that killed 112 people, saying it would inspect factories for safety and pull the licenses of those that failed. That plan has yet to be implemented.
Retailers have been drawn to Bangladesh as a source of clothing largely because of its cheap labor. The minimum wage for a garment worker is $38 a month, after being nearly doubled this year following violent protests by workers. According to the World Bank, the per capita income in Bangladesh was about $64 a month in 2011.
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Thursday, May 2, 2013
Analysis: Wall Street to Best Buy - Now, get out of China
By Dhanya Skariachan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Best Buy's move to exit Europe has many on Wall Street hoping the big box retailer does the same in China.
The company sold its stake in a European joint venture to Carphone Warehouse Group this week for less than half of what it paid five years ago. Despite the loss, investors welcomed the news and sent shares up to their highest level in a year.
Many are betting that the next move for the world's largest consumer electronics chain will be out of China, where it has struggled to fend off local rivals and failed to carve a niche in a cluttered market. That unit has also been without a leader for more than a month.
"They are really struggling in China, much more so than they were in Europe," said BB&T Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba, who predicted the company could divest its assets there later this year. "There are no strategic benefits to them being in China."
Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly said in a statement on Tuesday that the European deal "should not suggest any similar action" in other overseas markets, but he has emphasized since starting last fall that he wants to focus on the United States.
Best Buy declined to comment on whether it eventually would sell its Chinese operations, which accounted for only 3.5 percent of its sales in the most recent financial year. China contributed to 4.1 percent of annual sales in the prior year. Best Buy would not break out China's contributions to the bottom line.
The company told Reuters on Wednesday that it has hired a Chinese national to replace Nicolas Wang, who had been CEO of Best Buy's Five Star business but left in March. It plans to make the formal announcement soon. But the appointment may not be enough to win over support of the overseas business.
"I think that they would still be better off getting out of China," said Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser. "The less distraction they have in turning around the U.S. business, the better off they are."
Pulling out of China would leave Best Buy without access to one of the world's premiere growth opportunities.
But it would enable Best Buy to focus on the United States, something for which investors have lobbied. The move also could give the retailer more cash to invest in businesses with better growth prospects such as mobile and e-commerce.
"China has never been particularly profitable for them, and if they feel they can't make that happen, then of course it would be better to try to monetize that holding rather than for them to continue to lose money," said Jerry Bruni, portfolio manager of JV Bruni & Co, which owns Best Buy shares.
In 2012, Best Buy had 1.8 percent of the Chinese market, while local rivals Suning and Gome had 10.6 percent and 10.3 percent respectively, according to Euromonitor International.
STUGGLING IN CHINA
Best Buy went into China in 2006 by taking a majority stake in Nanjing-based retailer Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co for $180 million. A few years later, it bought out the local company, and opened its own brand stores too.
The operation struggled from the beginning. During the U.S. recession, Best Buy's former management did not invest enough time integrating Five Star into Best Buy "primarily because the U.S. started to fall off a log" said Robert Willett, a former CEO of Best Buy International.
Best Buy and Five Star initially had higher costs because they had separate IT, finance and sourcing, said Willett, who retired from Best Buy in 2009.
Another problem was that the retailer's own-brand stores never adapted to the local market or succeeded in wooing the Chinese customer, who often shops on e-commerce sites like 360buy.com.
Chinese customers "are either going to get the best price online" or use that price to negotiate the best price in stores, said Franklin Yao, managing partner of Shanghai-based consulting firm SmithStreetSolutions.
The company also failed to customize its stores to the local market. For example, Best Buy had an equal number of washers and dryers on display, but many Chinese consumers consider dryers harmful to clothing and don't use them, making that a waste of floor space, said James Roy, a senior analyst with consulting firm China Market Research Group.
Two years ago, Best Buy shuttered its own-brand megastores to focus on Five Star, which is an established name and has smaller stores in cities where the Chinese middle class is emerging.
But its market share continued to fall, dropping 14.3 percent during the last five years, according to data from Euromonitor International, while local rival Suning boosted its share by 29.3 percent.
Best Buy would not be the first to leave China. Europe's largest electronics chain, Media Markt, closed its Chinese stores in March because of pricing pressures.
Last year, U.S. retailer Home Depot abandoned its big boxes in China and decided to focus on selling goods online in the world's most populous country.
Foreign retailers who have managed to stay have not had it easy in China, with some such as Britain's Tesco and Germany's Metro AG applying brakes to their Chinese expansion.
Some believe pulling out of China would enable Best Buy to focus on competing more effectively with Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Amazon.com Inc in the United States.
"If you don't control your core market, you don't control anything," said former Best Buy executive Willett.
(Reporting By Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Leslie Gevirtz)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-wall-street-best-buy-now-china-050555507.html
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