Woman jailed for calling police 637 times

AN unemployed French woman has been jailed for calling the police 637 times in the space of 48 hours last week, French media is reporting.

THE 24-year-old was given a six-month jail sentence, half of which was suspended, on her twelfth court appearance on Tuesday in the central town of Bourges.

She has been charged with harassing the police.The woman, who was found by psychiatrists to be suffering from depression and severe personality disorders, had been given four months probation for a similar offence in July, Le Parisien newspaper reported.She had refused hospitalisation, reports said.The public prosecutor accused her of acting like a "punching ball"."The more we punish you, the more you keep coming back," he was quoted as saying.

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US parents to keep kids off Facebook

BEHOLD the cascade of baby photos, the flood of funny kid anecdotes and the steady stream of school milestones on Facebook.

IT all makes Sonia Rao, a stay-at-home mother of a one-year-old in the US, "a little uncomfortable".

At a time when just about everyone and their mother - father, grandmother and aunt - is intent on publicising the newest generation's early years on social media sites, an increasing number of US parents like Rao are bucking the trend by consciously keeping their children's photos, names and entire identities off the internet."I just have a vague discomfort having her photograph out there for anyone to look at," says Rao."When you meet a new person and go to their account, you can look them up, look at photos, videos, know that they are travelling."Reasons for the baby blackout vary. Some parents have privacy and safety concerns. Others worry about what companies might do with their child's image and personal data. Some simply do it out of respect for their kids' autonomy before they are old enough to make decisions for themselves."I have a no tolerance policy," says Scott Steinberg, a business and technology consultant. Steinberg says he shares no photos, videos or any information about his child.As for Rao, she stays active on Facebook. She's happy posting photos of her dog, but not the many snapshots of her daughter and the pet together - no matter how cute they are. Rao does share baby pictures, via email or text, but only with close friends and family.Facebook, for its part, encourages parents to use the site's privacy setting if they want to limit who can see baby photos and other posts. It's possible, for example, to create a group of close friends and relatives to share kid updates with. But that's not enough for some users.A big reason parents are wary, even if they use social media sites themselves, is that the companies "have not been very transparent about the way they collect data about users," says Caroline Knorr, parenting editor at the nonprofit Common Sense Media, which studies children's use of technology."Facebook's terms of service and privacy (policies) - no one reads it, it's too obscure."Some parents look back to their own childhoods, when they were able to make mistakes without evidence of those blunders living on - forever - online.People have shared baby photos since the dawn of the camera, and stories about kid's shenanigans long before that. Parents who decide to keep photos of their children and other data off social media say they still want to share those things, but are bothered by the idea of online permanence.Parents who enforce strict blackout rules are still in the minority. In a 2011 poll conducted at the University of Michigan, 66 per cent of Generation X parents (people born in the 1960s and '70s) said they post photos of their children online, while more than half said they have shared news about a child's accomplishment online.Aisha Sultan, a fellow at the Michigan institute where the poll was conducted, thinks the results might be different if the same questions were posed to respondents today."Back (then) there wasn't a lot of conversation about this," says Sultan, who is a parenting advice columnist."When parents first started joining Facebook in large numbers it wasn't the primary concern. We felt like we were in control of information we were sharing with friends and family."Facebook's privacy blunders over the years, not to mention frequent updates to its confusing privacy policies, changed all that. Now, Sultan says, parents are more aware of the little control they have over their personal data online.Politicians have begun to pay attention to the issue, too. A new California law requires online services, websites or apps that collect personally identifiable information to remove content that minors have posted, if requested. The measure goes into effect next year."It's a good start, but I don't think it replaces a lot of parental conversation, regulation and oversight," Sultan says.

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Tips for parents: To post or not to post?

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR PARENTS, RELATIVES AND FRIENDS WHEN IT COMES TO CHILDREN:

- ASK FIRST, POST LATER

If you don't know how a parent feels about having photos of their kids posted on Facebook, Instagram or elsewhere, ask before uploading a photo and before you tag the parents in a photo. This goes even for close relatives. Actually, it's not a bad idea to ask everyone you post a photo of if they're cool with it, especially if the snaps were taken at a party, swimming pool or any other less buttoned-up situation. It can prevent awkward conversations later.- LIMIT AUDIENCESFacebook's privacy settings are complex, but they also offer granular settings that let you pick who can see your updates. One way to do this: Create a "secret" group and add the members you want. The problem here is that anyone in the group can add new members to the group.Another way to limit the audience of each post you share is to click on the right tab under your update, which may currently say "friends" or "public." Click on "custom" and choose which of your Facebook friends you want to share with and which ones you'd like to exclude. It's simpler on Instagram, where you can either lock your account or set it to public.- TALK TO YOUR KIDSOpinions on the age at which parents should start talking to their kids about internet and social media use vary. Some parents start as soon as their child is old enough to use a smartphone, which can be as early as two or three years. Amy Heinz, who blogs about her kids, often talks to her eight-year-old about posts she writes about him, but says her younger children, who are five and three, know about the blog but "don't have a concept" of what it means exactly. Caroline Knorr, parenting editor at the nonprofit Common Sense Media, waited until her son was 15 before posting a photo of him on Facebook - and asked his permission first.- GO THE OLD-FASHIONED ROUTESome parents opt for emailing or texting photos to one person or to a small group rather than sharing them more widely on social media. Online storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox also let you distribute photos privately, as do photo-sharing sites such as Flickr. Of course, there's always the old-fashioned snail mail method, if you can still find a place to print snapshots.- DON'T EMBARRASS THEMThat photo of your little one with pea soup all over her face, or the one that shows her first time on the potty might be funny at the time, but think about what she may think of the photo if it's still online when she's a teen. Today's generation of parents did not grow up with the reality that their private moments growing up will be documented and often posted on the internet for all eternity. Before posting a photo or anecdote, take a moment to imagine a conversation about it with your child 10 or 15 years from now.

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Apple's stock bounces back; hits new high

APPLE'S stock has touched a new high, reflecting investors' renewed faith in CEO Tim Cook's ability to outwit the competition and expand the technological hit factory.

WEDNESDAY'S milestone represents a dramatic turnaround in sentiment since Apple's shares reached its previous split-adjusted peak of $US100.72 ($A108.97) in September 2012.

After peaking at $US100.77 on Wednesday morning, shares slipped three cents to $US100.50, giving Apple a market value of $US602 billion - far more than any other publicly held company.Apple's stock had fallen to a split-adjusted $US55.01 in April 2013 to wipe out about $US300 billion in shareholder wealth amid worries that the California company had run out of ideas without the late Steve Jobs as its mastermind.The anxiety escalated as sales of iPhones and iPads slowed amid the growing popularity of less expensive smartphones and tablet computers made by Samsung Electronics and other rivals relying on Google's free Android software.Now, there are signs that Samsung's devices are losing momentum while Apple prepares to release the next version of its iPhone and investors wait for Cook to deliver on his promise to introduce a product that will open up new opportunities.The breakthrough is widely expected to be a smartwatch that will include sensors to help people monitor their health.Hewing to its secretive ways, Apple hasn't provided details about its upcoming products.Cook, though, has been raising hopes that Apple is poised to create a new product category for the first time since the iPad's release four years ago."We've got some great things that we're working on that I'm very, very proud of and very, very excited about," he told analysts in April.

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Aussie injured in another Bali bike crash

A MAN who was left fighting for his life after a Bali motorcycle crash is speaking again, as a second Australian crash victim begins his recovery from massive injuries.

DOCTORS were uncertain Nicho White, 43, would survive his medivac flight from Bali to Melbourne, funded by friends and strangers who raised more than $123,000 online.

But one month after the collision with a 4WD - in which he suffered multiple injuries - he is in rehabilitation and talking.Mr White's progress comes as Jack McCord, 46, recovers in a Darwin hospital.The Bali DJ was riding home from work in the early hours of Friday when he crashed, shattering his pelvis and bruising his lungs.His family was faced with the same predicament as Mr White's - how to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a medical flight back to Australia.They've so far raised more than $70,000 on the website youcaring.com.Coincidentally, the families are known to each other.Mr White's brother-in-law is also a Bali DJ.Mr White's stepfather Ian McGill says when he heard the news he had to donate, even though his own family's ordeal is not over."I donated because I know how much it means," he told AAP."It's going pretty good with Nicho now, but it's going to be a very long process if he's going to walk again."Originally from Sydney where he was a DJ with the global house music outfit Hed Kandi, Mr McCord has a baby son with his wife Hilda.Bali police spokesman Hery Witanto says the two incidents highlight the dangers of riding motorcycles at night, and he urged all riders to take care.

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Swiss urge hikers to look for artefacts

SWISS scientists are urging mountain climbers and hikers to keep an eye out for lost items in melting ice patches lost hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

A PROJECT run by a Swiss cultural institute in the canton of Graubuenden aims to gather artefacts trapped long ago in glaciers that are now turning up with more frequency due to a warming planet.

The project encourages people to turn over things like wood or clothing they might run across in eastern Switzerland where the Swiss National Park is located.In recent years mountaineers have found everything from goat skin leggings in the Swiss Alps to a corpse in the melting ice of South Tyrol, each about 5000 years old.

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Sales of US existing homes up 4.9 percent

SALES of previously owned US homes in May posted the best monthly gain in nearly three years, providing hope that housing is beginning to regain momentum lost over the past year.

THE National Association of Realtors said on Monday sales of existing homes increased 4.9 per cent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million homes.

The monthly gain was the fastest since August 2011 but even with the increase sales are still 5 per cent below the pace in May 2013.Sales have been dampened by last year's rise in mortgage rates from historic lows and various other factors including tight supplies and tougher lending standards.The median price of a home sold in May was $US213,400 ($A230,890), up 5.1 per cent from a year ago.

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