Morocco crash leaves 16 royal guards dead

SIXTEEN members of Morocco's royal guards have died in a road accident as they were headed north on a bus to prepare for a visit by King Mohammed VI, medics say.

The pre-dawn accident took place near Al-Hoceima in northern Morocco and wounded 42 other guards, a hospital source said.

They were on board a bus which plunged into a ravine, the source and a local official said, without giving a cause for the accident.

The king sent a messages of condolences to the families of the victims and decided to take on all the costs for the burials as well as the medical fees of those injured in the accident.

Mohammed VI, Morocco's ruler since 1999, was on Saturday also to chair a traditional annual ceremony in Rabat marking the anniversary of his accession to the throne.

Known as "Celebration of loyalty and allegiance", the ceremony is an elaborate event during which senior government officials and representatives from across the North African country pay allegiance to the king.

But opposition activists are opposed to the event and have called for its cancellation in statements posted on Facebook.

Opposition activists have said the annual event perpetuates a "backwardness" and "servitude" in Morocco that is out of touch with the times.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Israel drone killed Sinai militants: group

AN Egyptian militant group says a strike that killed four of its members in the Sinai peninsula was Israeli.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said four of its members belonging to Sinai Bedouin tribes had been killed by Israeli drones on Friday.

Egypt's military denied on Friday that there had been any Israeli strikes inside Egyptian territory.

The group accused the Egyptian army of co-ordinating the attack with Israel, and threatened more strikes against the Jewish state.

"How can the Egyptian army allow the Zionist unmanned planes to cross into Egyptian territory," the statement said.

A funeral was held for the militants on Saturday, with the bodies of the four driven through several border towns in north Sinai.

Dozens of men on pick-up trucks flying the jihadist black flag paraded through the towns, in an act of defiance to the army, witnesses said.

Militants based mainly in north Sinai near Israel's border have escalated attacks on security forces and other targets since July 3, when the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and installed a new government in Cairo.

But the army has been reluctant to confront the militants inside towns in order not to provoke the tight-knit tribes, military sources say.

There have been conflicting reports about the source of Friday's attack.

Officials said the strike came from the Egyptian military, as part of their campaign to curtail a surge in violence and rein in militant activity in the lawless Sinai.

The state owned al-Ahram newspaper and the official news agency MENA reported on Saturday that Egyptian military aircraft conducted the strike, quoting anonymous security officials.

Witnesses said Egyptian military helicopters hovered above the site after the blasts.

On Friday, the Egyptian military said two explosions were heard in the Sinai Peninsula, close to the border with Israel, and that it would investigate their cause.

"There is no truth whatsoever to any Israeli strikes inside Egyptian territory and the claim that there is Egyptian and Israeli co-ordination on the matter is utterly baseless," military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement on Friday.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

US stocks mostly lower despite China data

US stocks have opened mostly lower despite Chinese industrial production data that showed strength in the world's second-largest economy.

Five minutes into trade on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 25.40 (0.16 per cent) at 15,472.92.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 1.72 (0.10 per cent) to 1,695.76, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was essentially flat at 3,669.16, up 0.04 of a point.

The US economic calendar remained devoid of major releases, leaving the spotlight on Chinese data that showed industrial production rose 9.7 per cent, well above analyst expectations of 9.0 per cent.

Still, Briefing.com cautioned that "a couple of monthly releases aren't sufficient to conclude that a major shift in the slowing Chinese growth trend has occurred".

US stocks have fallen three of the last four days.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama met US IT, telecoms chiefs: report

US President Barack Obama met with leaders of IT and telecoms giants, including Apple, Google and AT&T, to discuss controversial electronic surveillance programs, a media report says.

According to a report on the Politico website, Obama met on Thursday at the White House with Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T chief Randall Stephenson, and with Vinton Cerf, a renowned technologist considered one of the "fathers" of the internet and currently a Google employee.

The subject of the meeting, which also included representatives of privacy rights groups, was the secret National Security Agency programs revealed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Wanted on espionage charges, Snowden has taken refuge in Russia, which last week granted him temporary asylum, infuriating the US.

Asked about the meeting, the White House declined to confirm it took place and it did not appear on Obama's official agenda.

According to Politico, the White House had previously invited business leaders and interest groups to a meeting on Tuesday with senior administration officials to discuss the issue.

Since Snowden's revelations, Obama has insisted that the surveillance programs are legal and have helped to save lives by preventing attacks.

He also has assured the public that no one is listening in on their telephone calls.

The programs routinely scoop up the phone records of millions of US citizens and monitor internet and social media exchanges for foreign intelligence purposes.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on June 11 that Obama welcomed a debate on the surveillance but that it was necessary to strike a balance between security and privacy.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

US probes spike in dolphin deaths

MORE than 124 bottlenose dolphins have washed up along the Atlantic coast since July, a startling number that has prompted US officials to launch an investigation into the mysterious deaths.

Scientists are working to find out if an infectious pathogen may be to blame since some of the dolphins appeared to have lesions in their lungs.

An "unusual mortality event" has been declared due to the "unexpected and significant die-off" that has spanned the coasts of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia since early July, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries unit.

Eighty-nine were found in July and another 35 have washed up so far this month.

"Several dolphins have presented with pulmonary lesions," NOAA said in a statement.

"Preliminary testing of tissues from one dolphin indicates possible morbillivirus infection, although it is too early to say whether or not morbillivirus may be causing this event."

However, NOAA scientists say an "infectious pathogen is at the top of the list of potential causes".

Morbillivirus is similar to a marine mammal form of distemper, which in dogs attacks the central nervous system and causes breathing problems, vomiting, diarrhoea, brain swelling and often death.

Most of the dolphins were already dead when they were found, scientists said.

A small number have been stranded alive, only to die soon after.

Typically an average of seven dolphins wash up in Virginia in July, so the 45 animals found last month is a significant increase.

"It is an important issue," said NOAA spokeswoman Connie Barclay.

The last time morbillivirus was implicated in a mass dolphin die-off was in 1987-1988 when more than 740 bottlenose dolphins died from New Jersey to Florida.

According to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, which has been collecting and studying the dolphin carcasses, most of them have been male.

Spokeswoman Linda Candler said they have been found in "all conditions from very fresh to badly decomposed, all ages and sizes".

She added that a dolphin that had recently died came in for analysis on Thursday and samples were sent off for analysis, which may take up to two weeks.

Other potential causes for mass dolphin deaths could include stormy weather, ship strikes or pollution.

Scientists "don't want to speculate, but the researchers feel comfortable in saying they do not believe that this is a result of human interaction, that it is some sort of biological event," Candler said.

If it is a disease, there is little that wildlife officials can do, she added.

"It has to run its course," Candler said. "You can't immunise a wild population, unfortunately."

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

French farmers go on egg-breaking spree

A GROUP of rogue French farmers has gone on a furious egg-breaking rampage, destroying tens of thousands on roads and pledging to smash many more in protest against low prices.

"More than 100,000 eggs were destroyed in the Cotes d'Armor (a department in the northwestern region of Brittany)," a spokesman for the unnamed collective of angry poultry farmers, told AFP.

Poultry farmers in France have for several months complained of rock-bottom egg prices due to overproduction - a problem that also affects other countries in the European Union.

They say current prices do not make up for a rise in production costs or investments they had to make as part of an EU directive that came into force in January 2012 to protect the well-being of laying hens.

The spokesman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said masked farmers had broken the 100,000 eggs overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday near a Lidl supermarket and on a roundabout - an act that was also reported in local media.

"We will continue to destroy 100,000 eggs a day until Sunday," the spokesman said, after which he said the protest movement would become more radical "with inevitable collateral damage" if the group's demands are not met.

He said destroying 100,000 eggs a day equated to "five per cent of the production" of poultry farmers involved in the collective.

The group called for France's entire egg production to be reduced by five per cent to help raise prices, and asked the government to set up a specific area for eggs to be destroyed.

According to Yves-Marie Beaudet, head of the egg section of a union that represents poultry farmers in Brittany, producers currently get paid 75 cents ($A1.12) for a kilogram of eggs - whereas the cost price is 95 cents.

The UGPVB union says the European Union has "15 to 20 million" excess laying hens out of a total of around 350 million.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

US kidnap victim watches house demolition

ONE of three women held captive, beaten and raped in an Ohio home for more than a decade watched as the house of horrors was demolished.

"For the love of the missing people," Michelle Knight, 32, shouted as a small crowd joined her in releasing yellow balloons on Wednesday before a wrecking crew reduced the white ramshackle home to rubble.

The demolition in Cleveland came days after her tormentor, Ariel Castro, was sentenced to life in prison plus more than 1,000 years.

Lured into the car of a man they knew as the father of a friend or classmate at the ages of 20, 16, and 14, the women suffered beatings and repeated rapes.

The case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbour for help through a locked front door on May 6.

More than 42 kilos of chains were found in the filthy, darkened home where the women were kept in locked rooms with boarded up windows.

"I feel very liberated that people think of me as a hero and a role model and I would love continuing to be that," Knight told reporters as she held a sign she'd made for other missing people declaring "you are loved never forgotten."

Victim Gina DeJesus, 23, was represented by an aunt who manned the excavator controls for the first dig into the two and a half storey wooden home in a working class neighbourhood of Cleveland.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

European stocks close mixed

EUROPEAN stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares falling 1.41 per cent to 6,511.21 points.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 lost 0.47 per cent to 8,260.48 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris finished 0.15 per cent higher at 4,038.49 points.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Chaos as huge fire guts Nairobi airport

A DEVASTATING fire has caused chaos at Nairobi's international airport, forcing scores of flight cancellations at east Africa's biggest transport hub.

After being shut down for most of Wednesday, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) will reopen for international flights early Thursday, officials said.

While Kenya's national carrier will land international services, it was not clear whether other airlines would also land as early as Thursday.

Cargo and domestic flights out of Nairobi resumed early evening Wednesday.

The inferno, which started before dawn, sent dramatic plumes of black smoke billowing out of the main arrivals terminal.

But by 9am (1700 AEDT) firefighters had succeeded in stemming the raging flames, despite being hampered by a lack of water and equipment.

"Everything is being done to resume normal operations," presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu told reporters outside the gutted arrivals hall.

International passengers were given priority to fly to Kenya's second city Mombasa to connect to onward flights from there, while Nairobi's domestic terminal was being prepared to handle international flights starting Thursday.

The airport serves as a regional hub for east Africa, with 16,000 passengers passing through each day.

About 250 flights take off and land at the airport each day, regional aviation sources said, adding some six million passengers used the airport last year.

The fire was reported to have begun at the immigration section at arrivals, but the cause is not yet known.

No casualties have been reported, but two people - an airport worker and a passenger - were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation, Kenya Airways' chief Titus Naikuni said.

The interior ministry was forced to issue public appeals for Nairobi's notoriously congested traffic to give way to trucks ferrying water to the airport after firefighters tackling the blaze ran "dangerously low on water".

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Usher's ex-wife gets custody hearing

USHER'S ex-wife has asked for an emergency custody hearing after one of the couple's sons nearly drowned in a pool at the singer's Atlanta home.

A lawyer for Tameka Foster Raymond filed the request in court on Tuesday. It says the boy "suffered a near-death accident" while left unsupervised.

A judge has set a hearing for Friday.

Atlanta police have said five-year-old Usher Raymond V on Monday fell to the bottom of the pool and became stuck in the drain.

Police say he was alert and conscious when he was pulled out and taken to a hospital.

The singer was awarded primary physical custody of his two sons last year.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Belfast mayor jostled by loyalist mob

BELFAST'S Lord Mayor has been forced to flee an official engagement after being mobbed by loyalists.

Sinn Fein's Mairtin O Muilleoir, 53, required a police escort to evade angry protesters at the re-opening of a park in the staunchly unionist Woodvale area in the north of the city.

The high-profile businessman and city councillor claimed he was kicked and punched during the altercation.

Police said nine of their officers were injured during the incident, although none required hospital treatment.

O Muilleoir did go to hospital after the incident, where he was treated for bruising and given pain relief medication, but later resumed his official duties.

Community tensions are high in Woodvale after a summer that has already seen serious loyalist rioting over a decision to prevent Orangemen parading past the nearby nationalist Ardoyne area.

Loyalists have accused Sinn Fein of waging a cultural war against their community.

O Muilleoir accused the protesters of "hijacking" a community event, insisting they were a "small minority" that did not represent the people in the Woodvale/Shankill area.

"When the lord mayor gets invites there must be no 'no go' areas in Belfast," he said.

"I want to be mayor for all the people.

"We just have to keep going building a peace and not be dragged back. I do not think what happened is representative of the people of the Shankill.

"My message for the people who kicked and punched me is: I will not be giving in to violence, or giving in to yesterday's men."

O Muilleoir was heckled as he arrived at the event, which was subsequently cut short.

The main trouble flared as he left the venue.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bombings kill 12 in Baghdad: officials

A SERIES of bombings hit the Iraqi capital has killed at least 12 people, officials say.

The four car bombs and three roadside bombs on Tuesday also wounded more than 40 people.

Iraq is struggling to contain the worst violence to hit the country since 2008 when it was emerging from a bloody sectarian conflict.

Security forces have launched major operations targeting militants in multiple provinces including Baghdad.

A car bomb and a roadside bomb each exploded in three different areas of the capital, while another car bomb hit a fourth.

Violence has increased markedly this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni anti-government protest site that sparked clashes in which dozens died.

Protests erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012, amid widespread discontent among Sunnis who accuse the Shi'ite-led government of marginalising and targeting their community.

Experts say Sunni anger is the main cause of the spike in violence this year.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bush has surgery on blocked artery

FORMER US president George W Bush has undergone surgery to clear a blocked artery in his heart but plans to resume his normal schedule this week, his office says.

Doctors detected the problem during a routine check up on Monday on the 67-year-old ex-president and successfully implanted a device called a stent to unblock his artery in an operation carried out in Texas, the office said.

"President Bush is in high spirits, eager to return home tomorrow and resume his normal schedule on Thursday," the office said in a statement on Tuesday.

Bush, the nation's 43rd president as he served from 2001 to 2009, lives in Dallas.

Son of former president George HW Bush, his two terms in office were largely shaped by the September 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks by al-Qaeda and their aftermath.

After leaving office and retiring to Dallas, he has for the most part kept out of public view and policy debates for the past five years.

There was no immediate comment from the White House on Bush's surgery.

Campaigning for the presidency in 2008, President Barack Obama lashed out repeatedly at the war-torn legacy of the Bush years.

But Obama spoke kindly of Bush when the Bush presidential library opened in Dallas in April, praising what he called the Republican's strength and determination in serving the country.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fatal building explosion in Argentina

A POWERFUL blast has ripped through a 10-storey building in Argentina's third largest city, leaving at least one person dead and 15 injured.

Firefighters said apparently a furnace in the downtown apartment building in Rosario exploded on Tuesday, setting the property ablaze and shattering windows in other buildings.

The blast wiped away the front of the edifice, leaving the insides of people's homes and gutted balconies visible from the street below.

Scenes of panic abounded as sirens wailed and people ran through the streets or gawked at the ruined structure, some of them crying.

Rosario's top health official, Leonardo Caruana, said one person had been killed and 15 others injured.

The deceased was a 21-year-old woman who lived in the building, a medical source told AFP.

Mayor Monica Fein said 17 ambulances were on the scene to help people burned in the fire, which she said stemmed from a gas leak.

As it was not immediately possible to cut off the gas supply to the building, people within a radius of two kilometres of it had been evacuated.

"The shock wave was tremendous," the superintendent of a building 200 metres from the site of the explosion, told the TV station C5N.

The blast sent flames roaring through the building, as fire truck sirens sounded and traffic clogged the city centre.

Windows shattered in buildings in a radius of several hundred metres from the site.

Rosario is home to 1.1 million people and is located 300 kilometres north of Buenos Aires. It is Argentina's main port for farm exports.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

European stocks lower on US stimulus fears

EUROPEAN stocks finished lower on Tuesday as Wall Street took a beating from a drop in the US trade deficit which fuelled fears the Federal Reserve's stimulus program may soon be wound up, dealers said.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares slipped 0.23 per cent to end at 6,604.21 points, weighed down also by heavyweight miners retreated in value, which offset news of a strong rebound for British manufacturing.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 lost 1.17 per cent to 8,299.73 points despite the release of official data showing that German industrial orders had risen by 3.8 per cent in June.

In Paris, the CAC 40 finished 0.43 per cent lower at 4,032.57 points.

"Despite the economic backdrop continuing to brighten, investors appear reluctant to drive share prices significantly higher, on the basis of uncertainty about the timing or otherwise of continued central bank stimulus measures," said CMC Markets UK analyst Michael Hewson.

The euro climbed to $1.3306 from $1.3255 late in New York on Monday. The dollar eased to 98.16 yen from 98.22 yen.

Sterling retreated against the European single currency, coming in at 86.77 pence against a euro, while it advanced to $1.5371 from $1.5352 on Monday.

Britain's manufacturing output rebounded with a bang in June, official data showed, providing further evidence of the country's broad-based economic recovery.

Output jumped 1.9 per cent in June from May, when it had fallen by 0.7 per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

Traders also digested further earnings updates, which along with improving European and US economic data, have helped to lift stock markets over the past month.

The DAX and CAC indices have each rallied by about 8.0 per cent in value since the start of July.

On Tuesday, shares in InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) jumped 6.4 per cent to 2,030 pence after the company announced a 25-per cent increase in first-half net profits thanks to a strong showing by its American operations.

Profit after tax jumped to $US340 million ($A381.98 million) in the six months to the end of June compared with net earnings of $US271 million in the first half of 2012, said the company that owns the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotel chains.

IHG added that it would pay shareholders a special dividend totalling $US350 million.

In France, shares in Credit Agricole fell 0.93 per cent to 7.77 euros in an overall lower market despite the bank, free of big millstones in Greece and Italy, having said its second-quarter net profit jumped to 696 million euros compared with 111 million euros in the same period of last year.

US stocks traded lower in the face of fresh data showing an improving US trade balance - seen as more evidence that the Federal Reserve's $US85 billion a month stimulus program could be scaled back in the coming months.

In noon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.68 per cent to 15,506.53 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.59 per cent to 1,697.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 0.77 per cent to 3,664.43.

The Commerce Department's trade data for June showed a narrowing trade deficit, which analysts said points to a likely upward revision to the growth estimate for the quarter, and firm growth in the current quarter.

Asian stock markets closed mixed on Tuesday as investor concerns lingered over a potential tapering of US monetary stimulus, analysts said.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, the price of gold slipped to $1,280.50 an ounce on the London Bullion Market from $1,304.75 on Monday.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Simpsons to get a Lego series

WANT to build a new home for Homer or try out a new hairstyle for Marge?

Danish toy company Lego on Monday confirmed it will launch a special series themed on The Simpsons family globally in 2014.

Lego spokesman Roar Rude Trangbaek wouldn't give any details about what characters would be included, but said the company hopes the series will "appeal to fans of The Simpsons family."

Lego, a privately held Danish company, has seen its sales soar in recent years after it started making series based on popular movies such as Star Wars and Ninjago.

The Simpsons has been on the air for 22 years, becoming the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program and a cultural phenomenon with colleges devoting courses to studying it.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Norway closes Saudi, Jordan embassies

NORWAY has closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the public due to threats of attacks by Al-Qaeda, the foreign ministry says.

The Scandinavian country has also raised the security level at other diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as sensitive locations such as Nairobi, the ministry said.

"We have limited public access by closing down, for example, the consular sections (in Riyadh and Amman)," ministry spokesman Frode Andersen said on Monday.

"The embassies are not closed down. We keep working, and communicate by telephone and mail."

The United States has closed down 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa until August 10. France, Britain and Germany have also temporarily closed their embassies in Yemen.

This came after the United States issued a worldwide alert late last week warning of plans by al-Qaeda to launch an attack in the Middle East or Africa in August.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Clashes in north Nigeria kill 35

CLASHES between Nigeria's military and Islamist extremist group Boko Haram in two northeastern towns have left at least 35 people dead, most of them insurgents, the army says.

A clash in the town of Bama sparked by an attack on a police base "led to the death of one policeman and 17 Boko Haram terrorists", a military statement said on Monday.

Fighting in the town of Malam Fatori after an attack on troops "led to the death of two soldiers and 15 Boko Haram terrorists", it said. Both incidents occurred on Sunday.

According to the military, the insurgents were armed with "sophisticated weapons" and explosives during the attacks.

Both Bama and Malam Fatori are located in Nigeria's Borno state, Boko Haram's home base.

Borno, badly hit by insurgent attacks as well as heavy-handed military raids, is one of three states currently under a state of emergency while security forces pursue an offensive aimed at ending Boko Haram's four-year insurgency.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

European stocks close mixed on data

EUROPEAN stocks ended Monday's session in mixed mode as markets digested positive eurozone data amid a drop in retail sales and weaker-than-expected profits at global banking giant HSBC, dealers said.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell 0.43 per cent to end at 6,619.58 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 slipped 0.10 per cent to 8,398.38 points.

The CAC 40 in Paris finished 0.11 per cent higher, meanwhile, at 4,049.97 points.

In Monday's foreign exchange trading, the euro slipped to $1.3257 from $1.3279 late in New York on Friday. The dollar dropped to 98.60 yen from 98.89 yen.

On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold fell back to $1,304.75 an ounce from $1,309.25 on Friday.

The eurozone recession seems to be fading out at last, with key growth indicators giving a surprisingly strong showing, economics experts said on Monday.

A key leading indicator of activity, the Markit Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index for July switched to give a growth reading for the first time for 18 months.

But eurozone retail sales, a key indicator of demand in the economy, slipped by 0.5 per cent in June from the previous month, official data showed Monday.

On the corporate front, shares in HSBC finished 4.37 per cent lower to close at 721.7 pence after half-year net profits at Europe's biggest bank came in below expectations.

Profit after tax jumped to $US10.28 billion ($A11.59 billion) in the six months to the end of June compared with the first half of 2012 on lower costs and bad-debt charges, the British lender said in an earnings statement.

The result came in slightly below analysts' consensus forecast of profit after tax totalling $US10.52 billion, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

Meanwhile in France, utilities group Veolia Environnement reported a six-month profits slump to just 4.0 million euros owing to provisions and warned that its activities in China were slowing.

However shares in the group which provides water and waste management services in many countries rose by 3.41 per cent to 10.62 euros as the company held to its targets to cut costs and debt this year.

In midday trading on Wall Street, US stocks were lower as investors adjusted to a lighter economic calendar following the busy pace of recent weeks that pushed the Dow and S&P 500 to record highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.13 per cent to 15,607,67 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.14 per cent to 1,707.32, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.03 per cent to 3,688.53.

Asian stock markets closed mostly lower on Monday after lower-than-expected US jobs growth sounded a warning about the recovery of the world's biggest economy, traders said.

The release at the weekend of a slightly improved Chinese non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI), compiled by HSBC bank, also failed to give Asian stocks a boost on Monday.

Last week, Wall Street closed at record highs despite the job figures indicating that growth remains sluggish.

Official data on Friday showed that the US unemployment rate fell to a better-than-expected 7.4 per cent in July from 7.6 per cent in June, but jobs growth disappointed.

The Labor Department reported that the United States added 162,000 jobs last month, well below the 175,000 expected on average by analysts.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tablet shipments slow with no new iPad

WORLDWIDE shipments of tablet computers slowed down in the second quarter because Apple didn't release a new model of its trend-setting iPad, research firm IDC says.

Shipments totalled 45.1 million units in the April-June period, down nearly 10 per cent from the first three months of the year.

Still the second-quarter total is up nearly 60 per cent from a year ago, a sign that the market continues to grow.

"A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors," Tom Mainelli, a research director at IDC, said on Monday.

"With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors."

Apple normally releases a new iPad in the northern spring, but it has moved toward updating products in autumn to take advantage of the lucrative holiday shopping season.

That means people who want iPads may be holding out for a new model.

Samsung and other rivals have released new tablet models this spring, but IDC says those launches didn't get the spillover boost that a new iPad would have provided.

Mainelli said he expects weakness to continue in the July-September period, but tablet shipments should pick up again in the holiday quarter, when Apple and others are expected to release new products.

Besides a new iPad, Amazon.com Inc is likely to refresh its Kindle Fire line, while Google Inc is expected to come out with a new 10-inch Nexus model.

The company released a new 7-inch Nexus last week.

Apple remains the leading maker of tablets, with 14.6 million shipped in the April-June period. But as disclosed in the company's earnings report last month, shipments fell 14 per cent from a year ago.

IDC says Apple's market share fell to 32 per cent in the second quarter, compared with 60 per cent in the same period in 2012.

Samsung Electronics Co, maker of the Galaxy line of phones and tablets, saw shipments nearly quadruple to 8.1 million in the second quarter. That gave Samsung a market share of 18 per cent, up from 7.6 per cent a year earlier.

AsusTek Computer Inc, which makes the Nexus 7 for Google along with its own branded tablets, was No. 3 with 2 million tablets.

It was followed by Lenovo Group with 1.5 million and Acer Inc. with 1.4 million. Microsoft Corp, maker of the Surface tablets, dropped out of the top five after coming in at No. 5 in the first quarter, according to IDC.

Amazon also lost its top-five status. It had been No. 4 in the first quarter.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Retirees more worried about finances

AFTER consistently topping the list of those who feel most financially secure, retirees are starting to worry.

A survey by ME Bank shows Australian households recorded an overall financial comfort level of 5.5 out of 10 - up from 5.29 six months ago.

But while all other households feel slightly better about their finances, retirees were the only group to turn more pessimistic.

The financial comfort of retirees - in particular those propped up by government payments - deteriorated by five per cent.

They reported feeling increasingly worried about their investments, living standards and income stability.

This is the first time retirees have not topped the list of most financially comfortable since ME Bank's survey began in 2011.

The report suggests lower borrowing rates has relieved pressure on those with mortgages, but done little for low-debt retirees.

Meanwhile, a stronger share market and housing market helped empty nesters - parents whose children have left home - assume the top spot, with their comfort levels up by 12 per cent.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hot-air balloons fill sky above France

A MASSIVE gathering of hot-air balloon enthusiasts in northeastern France has set two world records, filling the sky with 408 of the colourful craft at one time and lining up 391 of them for takeoff.

But organisers of the Lorraine Mondial Air Ballons festival near the city of Metz, which drew upwards of 350,000 people, lamented capricious weather conditions and bad behaviour by some of the participants.

"In 25 years it's the year with the fewest flights (because of) very uncertain weather, too much wind some evenings as well as storms," founder Philippe Buron Pilatre said on Sunday.

Fewer than half of the 19 mass flights planned over the 10 days of the festival could be held, he said.

Pilatre also regretted "forms of incivility" among some participants, notably around 20 pilots who deliberately landed their balloons on cropland instead of on roads and lanes, drawing the ire of local farmers.

A total of 1207 pilots, nearly 2000 crew and 983 hot-air balloons took part in the festival, which ended on Sunday.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Zeppelin takes to skies near Paris

TOURISTS seeking an original way to take in France's famed countryside have a new way to do it - in a helium-filled Zeppelin.

Airship Paris' 76-metre-long, five-storey airship has begun flights over the forests and villages northwest of Paris.

The company says it's received "lots" of reservations for flights. It says it's the first commercial airship in the Paris region for 30 years.

The Zeppelin has room for 12 passengers, who can move about the large-windowed cabin during the flight.

On clear days like Sunday, the Eiffel Tower was visible in the distance.

Tourists can also see the Seine river and the Chateau de Versailles from 300 metres up.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mars rover hoping to yield more secrets

THE dazzling success of NASA's rover Curiosity has paved the way for a human conquest of Mars, scientists say, almost one year after the groundbreaking probe first touched down on the Red Planet.

Since it successfully alighted on the Martian surface on August 6, 2012, Curiosity has gathered and beamed back to Earth a treasure trove of information expected to be vital when a manned mission to Mars eventually takes place.

Curiosity, roughly the size of a small 4x4 vehicle and weighing around a ton, has already ticked one of the most important boxes of its mission - establishing beyond doubt that Mars' environment was capable of supporting microbial life in the distant past.

That breakthrough in March means the rover's mission is likely to be extended beyond its provisional two-year mandate.

"Successes of our Curiosity - that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the science findings since then - advance us toward further exploration, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

"Wheel tracks now will lead to boot prints later."

Curiosity's nerve-jangling touchdown last year - when the six-wheeled robot landed in the Gale Crater, roughly 10 kilometres from the foot of the planet's 5000-metre high Mount Sharp, had also provided crucial encouragement for those hoping to one day mastermind a successful human mission.

The complex nature of the landing showed that successfully landing heavier loads on the planet is possible.

Since it's arrival on Mars, Curiosity has provided more than 190 gigabits of data - equivalent to around 45,600 songs stored in MP3 files - while beaming back some 36,700 full images and 35,000 thumbnail images.

The rover has also fired more than 75,000 laser shots to investigate the composition of the Martian surface while collecting and analysing sample material from two rocks.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Terror threat 'most serious' in years

THE top Republican on the US Senate Intelligence Committee says the weekend closures of nearly two dozen US embassies and consulates in the Muslim world are "the most serious threat" he's seen in recent years.

Senator Saxby Chambliss said on Sunday "the chatter" intercepted by US intelligence agencies led the Obama administration to order the weekend closure of 21 diplomatic facilities and to issue a global travel warning to Americans.

He told NBC's Meet the Press that the intelligence was "very reminiscent of what we saw" before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

"The one thing that we can talk about is the fact that there's been an awful lot of chatter out there," Chambliss said.

"We didn't take heed on 9/11 in a way that we should, but here I think it's very important that we do take the right kind of planning."

Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has told ABC's This Week that the threat intercepted from "high-level people in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" was about a "major attack".

The congressman didn't provide details of the threat, other than to say it came from "people at a high level".

Pete King, a Republican who chairs a panel on counterterrorism and intelligence, also spoke to ABC and said that the threat included dates but not locations of possible attacks.

"The threat was specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also that certain dates were given," King said.

He added that while authorities assume any attack is likely to come in the Middle East, warnings to state and local authorities in the US were warranted because of the uncertainty.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More