Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/FUG8k-8Nx7I/
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
See How Chad Lowe Celebrated the Oscars with His Family
The Pretty Little Liars actor shares an adorable photo of his family (wife Kim and daughters Fiona and Mabel) watching the Oscars together.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Helper Mayor resigns following DUI arrest
HELPER, Utah (ABC 4 News) Helper Mayor Dean Armstrong resigned his position Saturday after the previous night he was arrested for a DUI.
The Helper City Council held a special emergency meeting to discuss the arrest. Armstrong was present at the meeting and tendered his resignation effective immediately. The council accepted his resignation.
"The council also expressed appreciation to Mayor Armstrong for his service and best wishes to his family," read a statement from the city.
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The ultimate chimp challenge
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 23-Feb-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Smita Chandra
smita.chandra@zsl.org
020-744-96288
Zoological Society of London
Zoo chimpanzees get feel-good factor from brain teaser
A study, published today by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), shows that just like humans love getting stuck into a crossword, chimpanzees get the same feeling of satisfaction from completing tricky puzzles.
Scientists set up a challenge for six chimpanzees at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo using plumbing pipes from a DIY store. The challenge involved moving red dice through a network of pipes until they fell into an exit chamber. This could only be achieved by the chimps prodding sticks into holes in the pipes to change the direction of the dice. The same task was also carried out with Brazil nuts, but the exit chamber removed so that the nuts fell out as a tasty treat for the chimps.
The paper was published today in the American Journal of Primatology.
ZSL researcher Fay Clark says: "We noticed that the chimps were keen to complete the puzzle regardless of whether or not they received a food reward. This strongly suggests they get similar feelings of satisfaction to humans who often complete brain games for a feel-good reward."
The adult family group of chimpanzees at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo consist of two females and four males, three of which are half-brothers: Phil, Grant and Elvis. This study allowed them to solve a novel cognitive problem in their normal social grouping, by choice. In addition, the chimpanzees were not trained on how to use the device.
"For chimps in the wild, this task is a little bit like foraging for insects or honey inside a tree stump or a termite mound; except more challenging because the dice do not stick to the tool," Fay added.
The challenge, which only cost about 40 to make, was made more intricate by connecting many pipes together, and the level further increased by making pipes opaque so chimpanzees could only see the dice or nuts through small holes.
The chimps took part in the cognitive challenge as part of their normal daily routine and doing the brain teaser was completely voluntarily. As part of the Zoo's enrichment programme, they also receive tasty treats hidden in boxes, as well as pillows and blankets every night to make up their own beds. Chimps build their own nests every night in the wild, and this enrichment encourages the animals' natural behaviours.
This study suggests that like humans, chimpanzees are motivated to solve a puzzle when there is no food reward. They do so for the sake of the challenge itself. It also suggests that chimpanzee cognition can be measured on social groups under more naturalistic conditions.
###
Editors' Notes
Images and B-Roll
High resolution images of the chimps available here:-
https://zslondon.sharefile.com/d/s139da92379d4eec9
Media Information
For more information please contact Smita Chandra on 0207 449 6288 or email smita.chandra@zsl.org
ZSL
Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. Our mission is realised through our groundbreaking science, our active conservation projects in more than 50 countries and our two Zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. For more information visit www.zsl.org
Contact: Smita Chandra, 0207 449 6288 or smita.chandra@zsl.org
Interviews: Available with Fay Clark on request
Images of the chimps can be found at: https://zslondon.sharefile.com/d/s139da92379d4eec9
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 23-Feb-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Smita Chandra
smita.chandra@zsl.org
020-744-96288
Zoological Society of London
Zoo chimpanzees get feel-good factor from brain teaser
A study, published today by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), shows that just like humans love getting stuck into a crossword, chimpanzees get the same feeling of satisfaction from completing tricky puzzles.
Scientists set up a challenge for six chimpanzees at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo using plumbing pipes from a DIY store. The challenge involved moving red dice through a network of pipes until they fell into an exit chamber. This could only be achieved by the chimps prodding sticks into holes in the pipes to change the direction of the dice. The same task was also carried out with Brazil nuts, but the exit chamber removed so that the nuts fell out as a tasty treat for the chimps.
The paper was published today in the American Journal of Primatology.
ZSL researcher Fay Clark says: "We noticed that the chimps were keen to complete the puzzle regardless of whether or not they received a food reward. This strongly suggests they get similar feelings of satisfaction to humans who often complete brain games for a feel-good reward."
The adult family group of chimpanzees at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo consist of two females and four males, three of which are half-brothers: Phil, Grant and Elvis. This study allowed them to solve a novel cognitive problem in their normal social grouping, by choice. In addition, the chimpanzees were not trained on how to use the device.
"For chimps in the wild, this task is a little bit like foraging for insects or honey inside a tree stump or a termite mound; except more challenging because the dice do not stick to the tool," Fay added.
The challenge, which only cost about 40 to make, was made more intricate by connecting many pipes together, and the level further increased by making pipes opaque so chimpanzees could only see the dice or nuts through small holes.
The chimps took part in the cognitive challenge as part of their normal daily routine and doing the brain teaser was completely voluntarily. As part of the Zoo's enrichment programme, they also receive tasty treats hidden in boxes, as well as pillows and blankets every night to make up their own beds. Chimps build their own nests every night in the wild, and this enrichment encourages the animals' natural behaviours.
This study suggests that like humans, chimpanzees are motivated to solve a puzzle when there is no food reward. They do so for the sake of the challenge itself. It also suggests that chimpanzee cognition can be measured on social groups under more naturalistic conditions.
###
Editors' Notes
Images and B-Roll
High resolution images of the chimps available here:-
https://zslondon.sharefile.com/d/s139da92379d4eec9
Media Information
For more information please contact Smita Chandra on 0207 449 6288 or email smita.chandra@zsl.org
ZSL
Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. Our mission is realised through our groundbreaking science, our active conservation projects in more than 50 countries and our two Zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. For more information visit www.zsl.org
Contact: Smita Chandra, 0207 449 6288 or smita.chandra@zsl.org
Interviews: Available with Fay Clark on request
Images of the chimps can be found at: https://zslondon.sharefile.com/d/s139da92379d4eec9
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/zsol-tuc022213.php
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Lindsay Lohan Gets Nothing In 'Everything' Lawsuit Against Pitbull
Judge drops actresses' lawsuit against rapper over lyrics from his song 'Give Me Everything.'
Lindsay Lohan
Photo: Jason LaVeris/ FilmMagic
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702397/lindsay-lohan-pitbull-lawsuit-end.jhtml
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Get a job: Vicarious Visions and others hiring now on the Gamasutra jobs board
In the latest postings over the last seven days, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles in every major discipline, including opportunities at Vicarious Visions, Bethesda Softworks, SCEA, and others.
Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.
It will also be cross-posted for free across Gamasutra's network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on independent games and more.
Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:
Vicarious Visions: Senior Environment Artist:
"Vicarious Visions, developer of numerous award winning games, including Skylanders Spyro Adventure, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Tony Hawk, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is seeking a passionate, motivated, and experienced Senior Environment Artist to join our team of talented developers in creating next generation games for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii platforms."
Bethesda Softworks: Community Manager:
"Bethesda Softworks, one of the premier creators of entertainment software, has been producing quality games since it was first founded in 1986. As part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family, Bethesda has access to some of the most talented artists, designers, and programmers in the industry. Bethesda Game Studios is the award-winning studio that won 2006 Game of the Year awards for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and 2008 Game of the Year awards for Fallout 3."
Sony Computer Entertainment America: Senior Systems Administrator:
"The Senior Systems Administrator position is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining internal and customer facing environments and a heterogeneous IT infrastructure with concentration on Microsoft technologies. This position will also provide escalated level help desk support to local users."
Activision: Associate Producer - Call of Duty:
"Activision is seeking an Associate Producer to join our Call of Duty production team. Associate Producers are generally responsible for the day-to-day management of entire sections of the game's production with a key focus in project coordination and execution. These sections can be the management of particular work pipelines, including supporting development requests, legal clearances, external vendor management, user testing, QA, ratings board submissions, PR and PR asset support or localization."
Panic Button: Software Engineer (Multiple):
"Founded in 2007 by industry veterans, Panic Button is a video game studio doing a bunch of diverse work (console through mobile), and we're growing. At our core, we're a reputation-based studio that takes on challenging work, and we deliver on our commitments. We have a solid history as an agile game developer specializing in co-development, ports, full game production, and original IP. We have great relationships with the massive talent pool available in Austin and around the world, and that lets us grow quickly to meet project needs."
Orbotix: Game Programmer:
"Assist a small team to create games and gaming interfaces that utilize the Sphero API. Brainstorm new augmented reality gameplay elements and concepts. Create cutting edge augmented reality gaming experiences. You will work closely with both the others on the software development team as well as the hardware engineers during implementation. Assist in implementing new game mechanics that bridges the reality of Sphero with the virtual connected environment of the smartphone in a complementary way."
To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
Red Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 announced in Korea
We first heard about a possible red version of Samsung?s Galaxy Note 10.1 back in December, when a red Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, as well as a red Tab 2 7.0 have showed up. Now the Galaxy Note 10.1 has been officially announced in South Korea.
The freshly-painted Note 10.1 has LTE connectivity, and will be available starting tomorrow, February 14 (Valentine?s Day) via all major Korean carriers: SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+.
Save for the different color, the red Galaxy Note 10.1 is just like the original. Hence its features include Android Jelly Bean, a 10.1 inch display with 1280 x 800 pixels, S Pen stylus, dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, BLuetooth 4.0, 1.9MP front-facing camera, 5MP rear camera, quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, MicroSD card support, and a 7,000 mAh battery.
An LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 should be launched in the US, too. Verizon has officially confirmed this last month, but it has yet to unveil an exact release date for the tablet. We don?t know if the Note 10.1 will have a red edition for the US market, but we?re going to let you know when we find out.
Later this month, at MWC 2013, Samsung should showcase several new Android tablets ? including the Galaxy Note 8.0, and Galaxy Tab 3 Plus.
Via Samsung
If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:
? 5.5? LG Optimus G Pro gets shown in first official imageSamsung Galaxy S4 Mini in the making? ?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnwiredView/~3/Y8BSmAH9oSs/
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Little change in Honduras prison where 362 died
In this Jan. 24, 2013 photo, a part of the main patio sits empty inside the prison in Comayagua, Honduras. A year after one of the century's worst prison fires killed more than 350 people, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired. Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. (AP Photo/Alberto Arce)
In this Jan. 24, 2013 photo, a part of the main patio sits empty inside the prison in Comayagua, Honduras. A year after one of the century's worst prison fires killed more than 350 people, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired. Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. (AP Photo/Alberto Arce)
In this Jan. 24, 2013, inmates who survived the prison fire a year ago stand inside the new collective cell built for inmates at the prison in Comayagua, Honduras. A year after one of the century's worst prison fires killed more than 350 people, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired. Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. (AP Photo/Alberto Arce)
In this Jan. 24, 2013, an inmate in an isolation cell, right, talks to attorney Miguel Angel Ortiz, president of Conaprev, the national mechanism to prevent torture, at the prison in Comayagua, Honduras. A year after one of the century's worst prison fires killed more than 350 people, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired. Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. (AP Photo/Alberto Arce)
In this Jan. 24, 2013, a white board that lists the number of prisoners who have not been convicted yet and have to be transported to court hangs on the wall at the prison in Comayagua, Honduras. A year after one of the century's worst prison fires killed more than 350 people, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired. Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. (AP Photo/Alberto Arce)
In this Jan. 24, 2013, inmates who survived a deadly fire play cards at the prison in Comayagua, Honduras. A year after one of the century's worst prison fires killed more than 350 people, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired. Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. (AP Photo/Alberto Arce)
JUTICALPA, Honduras (AP) ? On the 14th day of each month, Jesus Garcia joins other relatives to hoist a cardboard coffin and carry it in a macabre procession down a road to the prison where two cousins died with 360 other inmates in the worst prison fire in at least a century.
It's their way to demand justice in the deaths of Antonio and Franklin Garcia, who were among many left locked in their cells as fire raced through the wooden barracks on Feb. 14 last year, and the handful of guards on duty ran for their lives.
"We go to the jail, in a symbolic procession with a casket, to ask for justice, but we get no answers," Garcia said. "We go to the minister of human rights and she passes it along to the president and he passes it along to the first lady, but then nothing gets done."
A year after the fire in Comayagua, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Tegucigalpa, the investigation remains open and prosecutors have filed no charges. The burned cells and electrical system are still being repaired.
While the government created a new agency told to replace the police in the prisons with specially trained guards, social workers and doctors, the three-person commission that started working last week was given no budget and has no office, according to its director, Agusto Avila.
Even the inmate who was the hero of the fire, finding keys and freeing hundreds of men, was never pardoned as President Porfirio Lobo had promised. Honduran law forbids commuting a murder sentence, so Marco Antonio Bonilla is still serving his time, working in the prison infirmary, where he was awakened that night by the screams of inmates as they were devoured by flames.
"There was no mechanism to extinguish fires, no evacuation plan. The firefighters were not allowed to get there quickly and the guards, instead of acting appropriately, only fired shots in the air, supposedly because that is the established procedure in case of escapes," said government human rights prosecutor German Enamorado, who led the investigation for the Attorney General's Office.
Garcia is in a position to know it can happen again. Besides being a relative of the dead, he is the warden of the Juticalpa prison northeast of the capital in rural Olancho state. A fire today in the Juticalpa facility of 500 inmates could cause similar devastation because it doesn't have running water to fight a blaze, despite the fact it is one of the country's modern facilities, built in 2007.
Human rights monitors have long criticized Honduras' prison system. Most of the 11,000 inmates in the country's 24 prisons have not yet been found guilty. More than half of the 800 prisoners in Comayagua at the time of the fire were still awaiting trial, according to a Honduran government report sent to the United Nations a year ago.
The Office of Human Rights' investigation into the disaster found "no evidence of criminality in the origin of the fire," Enamorado said.
It began with "a flame in one of the cells that spread in a few minutes," Enamorado said, referring to a report by the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, whose agents investigated the cause. "But there was negligence on the part of authorities in charge of prison security, whose actions could have avoided a death toll of this magnitude."
Despite that finding, the Attorney General's Office is keeping the case open for lack of evidence, he said, awaiting details including autopsy results, the exact number of inmates in the facility that day, whether there was an evacuation plan and the material of the mattresses that burned.
Three of the 362 victims still have yet to be identified; one as never claimed by relatives and two were burned beyond recognition.
The Legal Forensics Department and the Attorney General's Office didn't respond to interview requests to explain the delay.
Relatives of those who died say the government is just trying to avoid blame. "There's a policy on the part of the attorney general to conduct investigations in an obstructive manner in cases of human rights violations with an objective to keep the responsibility from falling on the state," said Joaquin Mejia, attorney for the Committee of Relatives of the Victims of Comayagua.
And Honduras' permanent state of fiscal, political and judicial crisis leaves few resources for improving prisons.
The national budget allocated around $15 million to the prison system for 2013. About 85 percent goes to pay salaries for prison officials and guards, according to the Security Department.
Honduran prisons receive the rest of their funding from taxes that inmates pay from the work they do inside. At Comayagua, prisoners grew corn and beans and raised fish and chicken on the 36 acres of farmland surrounding the facility.
Dani Rodriguez, a police inspector, was named director of Comayagua prison on Feb. 15, a day after the fire. He has not been able to change much.
"The state transferred 180,000 lempiras ($9,000), and by selling some of the scrap metal after the fire we got 32,000 lempiras ($1,500), and the TV show they did for our benefit left us with a huge plastic check which they used for the photo, but we haven't received the money yet," Rodriguez said.
As in all Honduran prisons, Rodriguez supplements scant government funds with the taxes he collects from inmates, who run their own businesses from inside. With his inmate population down by half after the fire, so is his budget, about $1,000 for food and maintenance.
Garcia knows the difficulties from running the Juticalpa prison.
"We receive water for a couple of hours a day thanks to a neighbor who lets us connect to his tank, but the water is not always clean. Sometimes a fire truck will supply some water as a donation from the mayor's office," said Gonzalo de Jesus, the prison administrator who works with Garcia.
Roberto Urquia, who works in the Juticalpa prison infirmary, brings his own water and boils it to make is safe.
"About 25 percent of the inmates have chronic gastrointestinal problems," he said.
On January 16, Honduras' Congress approved building a new prison at Comayagua with $60 million borrowed from a local bank.
"They had the ability to do such business while the inmates have no water or medication," said Odalis Najera, commissioner for the National Office to Prevent Torture, an organization created by the U.N. to monitor Honduran prisons. "The situation that each and every one of them is living is equivalent to torture."
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Soccer faces epic fight against match-fixing
Associated Press Sports
updated 12:15 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2013
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is part of a six-month, multiformat AP examination of how organized crime is corrupting soccer through match-fixing, running over four days this week.
Associated Press
ZURICH (AP) -Soccer is falling under a cloud of suspicion as never before, sullied by a multibillion-dollar web of match-fixing that is corrupting increasingly larger parts of the world's most popular sport.
Internet betting, emboldened criminal gangs and even the economic downturn have created conditions that make soccer - or football, as the sport is called around the world - a lucrative target.
Known as "the beautiful game" for its grace, athleticism and traditions of fair play, soccer is under threat of becoming a dirty game.
"Football is in a disastrous state," said Chris Eaton, director of sport integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security. "Fixing of matches for criminal gambling fraud purposes is absolutely endemic worldwide ... arrogantly happening daily."
---
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is part of a months-long, multiformat AP examination of how organized crime is corrupting soccer through match-fixing, running over four days this week.
---
At least 50 nations in 2012 had match-fixing investigations - almost a quarter of the 209 members of FIFA, soccer's governing body - involving hundreds of people.
Europol, the European Union's police body, announced last week that it had found 680 "suspicious" games worldwide since 2008, including 380 in Europe.
Experts interviewed by The Associated Press believe that figure may be low. Sportradar, a company in London that monitors global sports betting, estimates that about 300 soccer games a year in Europe alone could be rigged.
"We do not detect it better," Eaton said in an interview with the AP. "There's just more to detect."
Globalization has propelled the fortunes of popular soccer teams like Manchester United and showered millions in TV revenue on clubs that get into tournaments like Europe's Champions League.
Criminals have realized that it can be vastly easier to shift gambling profits across borders than it is to move contraband.
"These are real criminals - Italian mafia, Chinese gangs, Russian mafia," said Sylvia Schenk, a sports expert with corruption watchdog Transparency International.
Ralf Mutschke, FIFA's security chief, admits that soccer officials had underestimated the scope of match-fixing. He told the AP that "realistically, there is no way" FIFA can tackle organized crime by itself, saying it needs more help from national law enforcement agencies.
The growing threat has prompted the European Union's 27 nations to unite against match-fixing.
"The scale is such that no country can deal with the problem on its own," said EU Sport Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.
---
Gambling on sports generates hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and up to 90 percent of that is bet on soccer, Interpol chief Ronald Noble told the AP in an interview. Eaton, the former FIFA expert, has cited an estimated $500 billion a year.
The total amount of money generated by sports betting would equal the gross domestic product of Switzerland, ranked 19th in the world.
Match-fixing - where the outcome of a game is determined in advance - is used by gambling rings to make money off bets they know they will win. Matches also are rigged to propel a team into a higher-ranking division where it can earn more revenue.
FIFA has estimated that organized crime takes in as much as $15 billion a year by fixing matches. In Italy alone, a recent rigging scandal is estimated to have produced $2.6 billion for the Camorra and the Mafia crime syndicates, Eaton said.
Soccer officials are well aware that repeated match-fixing will undermine the integrity of their sport, driving away sponsors and reducing the billion-dollar value of lucrative TV contracts.
FIFA earned $2.4 billion in broadcast sales linked to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and already has agreed to $2.3 billion in deals tied to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The U.K.'s Premier League earned $2.8 billion in broadcast rights for Britain alone in its last multiyear contract. Membership in Europe's Champions League is worth nearly $60 million a year to each team, according to a lawsuit filed by the Turkish club Fenerbahce.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter has proclaimed "zero tolerance" for match-fixing, and FIFA has pledged $27 million to Interpol to fight it. Computer experts working for FIFA and UEFA - the European soccer body - monitor more than 31,000 European games and thousands of international matches every year, trying to sniff out the betting spikes that can reveal corruption.
So far, however, sports authorities are "proving to be particularly helpless in the face of the transnational resources" available to organized crime, according to a 2012 study on match-fixing. The report warned that the risk of soccer "falling into decay in the face of repeated scandals is genuine and must not be underestimated."
Some top soccer officials shy away from the dire warnings of academics and law enforcement officials. UEFA chief Gianni Infantino said in a statement that, on average, 203 games - 0.7 percent of the matches that UEFA monitors a year - show some signs of irregularities, "which does not mean they are fixed."
"It is a small problem, but it's like a cancer," Infantino said. "We don't say 0.7 is nothing. We say 0.7 is 0.7 too much. We can say generally that UEFA competitions are very healthy in this respect."
Match-fixing has been around for decades, of course, and is not limited to soccer. It has also infected sports like cricket, tennis, horse racing and even volleyball. The U.S. has its own sordid history of gambling scandals, from baseball's Black Sox in the 1919 World Series to a handful of point-shaving schemes in college basketball over the years, to an NBA referee taking money from a professional gambler for inside tips on basketball games, including some that he officiated in 2007.
Still, nothing approaches the scale of the match-fixing allegations now hitting soccer, because of the sheer number of games played and the enormous Asian betting interest in European games, according to David Forrest, an economist at the U.K.'s University of Salford Business School, one of the co-authors of the 2012 report.
In January alone, FIFA banned 41 players in South Korea from soccer for life due to match-fixing. That follows 51 worldwide bans last year - 22 of them for life - on players, officials and referees from Croatia, Finland, Guatemala, Italy, Nicaragua, Portugal, South Korea and Turkey.
FIFA bans include some elite figures in the sport. Antonio Conte, coach of the Italian club Juventus - a team whose winning tradition rivals that of baseball's New York Yankees - returned in December after a four-month ban for failing to report match-fixing.
Forrest's report said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., the war on terror relegated the fight against organized crime to a distinct second place, and that allowed gangs "to invest in new areas of the economy with relative impunity for nearly 10 years."
Eaton attributes the surge in match-fixing to an exponential rise in online gambling - "at least 500 percent, and likely far more" - in the last decade.
Criminals have targeted every level of the game: the World Cup, regional tournaments such as the Champions League, high-powered divisions like England's Premier League and Italy's Serie A, "friendly" exhibition contests between national teams, all the way down to semipro games in the soccer wilderness.
Criminals are always trying to find the sweet spot between how poorly the players are paid and how much bettors want to wager on a game, Forrest said. That's why fixers don't try too hard to target the Super Bowl, he says, because "the bribes would be so high to convince the athletes to join."
World Cup and European qualifiers that face uneven matchups are key targets because one team may "have no chance of getting into the tournament," Forrest said in an interview.
The same scenario applies to early rounds of major tournaments or late-season national leagues, where one team is desperately trying to either win a trophy or avoid being sent down to a lower league. Those situations propel teams upward into a whole new level of revenue or send them tumbling off a financial cliff.
Match-fixing has also branched out from traditional hotbeds of corruption - Asia and the Balkans - to places like Canada, Finland and Norway, which rank among the least corrupt nations in the world. Until recently, no one - including sports regulators - thought to look for corruption in lower-level leagues. Still, given the vast amount of soccer betting, there's plenty of money to be made.
"It's liquidity of the markets," Forrest said. "You can make serious money only if you can put on (bet) serious money. In most sports, the bet you can make is too small."
Goalkeeper Richard Kingson of Ghana says he was offered - but declined - $300,000 to lose a game to the Czech Republic at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
But prices have gone up. Italy's Calciopoli investigation found it cost up to $516,000 to fix a match in the top league of Serie A; $155,000 for a fix in the second division and $64,500 for a third-division fixed match.
In Croatia, court documents show that first-league games in 2010 could be fixed for as little as $25,600.
There is also a shift in the traditional match-fixing scenario in which players are paid to lose or referees are paid to make sure one team wins. With the rise of online spot betting - wagers made during the game - criminal gangs can predetermine not only the outcome of the match but also make money on bets like how many goals are scored, when they are scored, or who will take a penalty kick.
These live bets can "be particularly advantageous for criminals," according to Forrest's report, because they increase the number of wagers placed on the same fixed game.
---
As former Balkan warlords and Chinese businessmen have discovered, owning a club means players don't need to be paid extra to fix matches; they can just be ordered to lose. Corrupt team officials have also dangled career advancement instead of money before vulnerable young players.
"There is an increasing worry about gangs taking over football clubs as a way to further match-fixing ... and then they could also use the club to launder money," Forrest said. "It's quite cheap to buy a football club because so many of them are failing."
An American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks quoted the U.S. Embassy in Sofia as reporting that "Bulgarian soccer clubs are widely believed to be directly or indirectly controlled by organized crime figures who use their teams as a way to legitimize themselves, launder money and make a fast buck."
In 2011, Turkey's venerable Fenerbahce soccer club won 16 of its last 17 national league games to stay in the coveted Champions League - a benefit it estimated as worth $58.5 million a year. In July 2012, Fenerbahce President Aziz Yildirim was convicted of fixing four of those games and bribing to influence the outcome of three others. He did it by promising rival players a roster spot or arranging for referees who would favor his team.
Yildirim was one of 93 people who went on trial in Turkey last year for match-fixing - and only 14 of them were players.
Serbian player Boban Dmitrovic says he saw many instances in his home country where two clubs simply agreed on the outcome in advance.
"Right before the match, a note was handed to the players. They had to cooperate because their careers would be jeopardized," Dmitrovic told FIFPro, the soccer players' union.
This "chairman-to-chairman method" of match-fixing is still common in Russia, Albania and the Balkan nations, according to Forrest's sports corruption report.
---
The vast majority of the world's wagering originates in Asia, according to Forrest, but its own bettors shun that continent's games for those in Europe because Asian soccer has been so corrupt for years.
In 2011, China's main TV network refused to broadcast the country's soccer games because match-fixing was so widespread. Last year, two former heads of China's soccer federation were sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison.
In Finland, eight African players with ties to a Singapore crime gang were banned in 2012 for match-fixing. Their handler, Wilson Raj Perumal, was convicted of fixing games in Finland and is being investigated for allegedly fixing other matches in Europe and Africa. On Dec. 15, the South Africa Football Association said Perumal allegedly used tainted referees to manipulate games for betting purposes in 2010.
Experts say a typical scenario can go like this: Bookies set the odds for a game, not knowing it has been fixed. Right before the game starts, gangs unleash a torrent of bets, sometimes employing hundreds of poor workers on laptops. The wave hides the mastermind of the bet. If there is live wagering - on what the score will be at halftime or other topics - several bets can be made on the same fixed game.
Ninety or so minutes later, the bettors hand over their winnings to the boss.
---
In the past, the perception was that greedy players were behind match-fixing. Yet a study of eastern Europe released last year by the FIFPro union portrayed a region where players often are not paid for months but instead are intimidated, blackmailed or beaten up.
Many said they had been approached by match-fixers - an average of 11.9 percent across the region, with spikes in Greece (30 percent) and Kazakhstan (34 percent). In Russia - host of the 2018 World Cup - about 10 percent of players had been approached to throw a game.
In four nations - the Czech Republic, Greece, Russia and Kazakhstan - at least 43 percent of players said they knew about tainted games in their leagues.
Almost 40 percent of the eastern European players who reported being asked to fix a game also said they had been victims of violence.
Zimbabwe's national team players were threatened at gunpoint in the dressing room and ordered to lose matches by their own soccer officials in 2009, the country's new federation chief, Jonathan Mashingaidze, said in an interview in December.
Sometimes the threat comes from a teammate. In Italy, a goalkeeper under heavy pressure from organized crime to fix a game in 2010 resorted to drugging several of his teammates so they would play badly. They did - and one even crashed his car after the match, prompting a police investigation that uncovered the fix.
Former player Mario Cizmek of Croatia says he agreed to fix one match in 2011 after he and his teammates had not been paid by his club for more than a year. That led to repeated demands by the fixer, a well-known former coach who used to drink at the same bar as Cizmek's team. It was a classic case of a trusted acquaintance approaching a player to throw a match - a method that Forrest's report says is used often.
"As a sportsman, I know I destroyed everything, but at the time I was only thinking about my family and setting things right," Cizmek said in an interview.
Now broke, unemployed and divorced, Cizmek has been sentenced to 10 months in jail by a court in Zagreb.
---
Because scoring in soccer is so low, its referees have an outsized influence on the game. In a Jan. 22 memo, FIFA urged its members to demand that referees tell soccer authorities immediately about "any suspicious situations, contact or information."
"Our global experience is that referees and assistant referees are the primary target of match-fixers," the memo said.
FIFA has been trying to improve its referee ranks with more training and taking proactive measures such as paying referees with checks instead of cash.
Dmitrovic said when fixed games in Serbia were not going according to plan, corrupt referees would step in with questionable calls to "achieve the desired result."
"The referees always knew what was going on," he said.
Tainted referees also are believed to be at the heart of one or more games involving South Africa in 2010, with a FIFA report in December finding "compelling evidence" of match-fixing.
In 2011, two friendly matches in the Turkish beach resort of Antalya - one between Bolivia and Latvia, the other between Bulgaria and Estonia - appeared suspicious when all seven goals came from penalty kicks awarded by referees. The German magazine Stern later reported that $6.9 million was wagered on the Bulgarian game alone.
FIFA banned the six eastern European officials involved in those games for life.
---
Officials who govern the sport can't stop match-fixing by themselves and need the cooperation of law enforcement bodies and governments across borders, said Schenk of Transparency International.
Noble, the Interpol chief, agreed.
"It's definitely beyond and above the world of sport, above and beyond FIFA," he said. "It's fair to say we haven't caught up to the scale of the problem."
During the 2010 World Cup, police in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand arrested more than 5,000 people in Interpol-organized raids on nearly 800 illegal gambling dens. Interpol organized other raids in 2011 and 2012, but does not make arrests or conduct national investigations itself.
Schenk and the players' union say soccer authorities must also make sure their own ranks are free of corruption. One World Cup ticket scandal was linked to the family of a senior FIFA vice president while the former head of Zimbabwe's soccer federation is accused in a corruption scam.
"There is a strong link between good governance in the bodies that run sports and the sport organizations' credibility in the fight against match-fixing," Schenk wrote in a commentary. "Unless sport organizations are accountable and transparent, they will not have the authority to tackle the problem."
Both Schenk and FIFA chief Blatter say whistleblowers must also be protected better.
In 2011, Italian defender Simone Farina turned down a fixer's offer of $261,500 to throw a game and reported it to police, setting off an investigation that led to scores of arrests. Despite being honored by FIFA, he found himself shunned by many in Italy who considered him a snitch.
"I said no because my immediate thoughts were of my wife, son and daughter," Farina said. "How could I look them in the eye if I said yes? What kind of husband and father would I be?"
Cizmek - the Croatian player who said he took $26,100 but handed back all but about $650 to police - says his scars from match-fixing will last a lifetime.
"This turned my life upside down," he said. "I should have just taken my football shoes and hung them on the wall and said `Thank you, guys' and gone on to do something else."
---
John Leicester in Paris, Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Gerard Imray in Johannesburg, Mike Corder in Amsterdam and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.
---
Norman-Culp is AP's Assistant Europe Editor in London. Prior to that, she covered FIFA for AP in Zurich. Follow her at snormanculp(at)twitter.com
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Facebook faces lawsuit over infringing Like button patent
Tomic suffered a 6-3 3-6 6-3 first-round loss to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who ended a four-match losing streak.The match shaped as a clash between two of the best up-and-coming talents in world ...
Dutch pension funds need ?firm measures? to return to satisfactory funding levels
Firm measures are necessary to bring scheme funding levels of Dutch pension funds up to the minimum required funding ratio of 105 per cent within five years, warns De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in ...
Dutch pension funds sell off securities
EUR 26bn worth of securities were sold by Dutch pension funds in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to figures published by De Nederlandsche Bank. The funds carried out equities sales ...
Dutch tax authorities rule on landmark tax rebate for UK pension funds
UK pension funds are set to enjoy a ?100million rebate from the Dutch tax authorities following a tax ruling, says the UK branch of KPMG. The professional services provider?s test ...
Net worth of Dutch investment funds decreases further
The net worth of supervised Dutch investment funds fell by ?6.4bn (eight per cent) in the third quarter of 2008 (Q3 2008), with De Nederlandsche Bank attributing losses to investment ...
Dutch pension funds receive ?4.9bn in dividends over 11 months
Between April 2007 and March 2008, Dutch pension funds are reported as having received ?4.9bn in dividends on quoted shares, according to De Nederlandsche Bank. Pension fund holdings of ...
Netherlands streets ahead in use of Liability Driven Investment
Sixty-one per cent of Dutch pension funds are currently employing a Liability Driven Investment (LDI) strategy, an increase of 18 per cent on last year?s figures. Fiduciary manager SEI ...
Slight growth in Dutch mutual funds
Dutch mutual funds expanded their share in Dutch household investments from 54 per cent to 55 per cent in the first quarter 2008, according to De Nederlandsche Bank. The Bank said the increase ...
Dutch pension liabilities fall
The value of the Dutch pension funds? technical provisions stood at approximately ?493bn at year-end 2007, a drop in liabilities of ?14bn, according to De Nederlandsche Bank. ...
Dutch metal pension funds launch joint in SRI policy
The two Dutch pension funds for the metal industry, the ?33bn Pensioenfonds Metaalelektro (PMT) and the ?21.5bn Pensioenfonds Metaal en Techniek (PME), have launched a joint social ...
Holland must do more to promote itself as pooling hub
Holland must do more to promote itself as a centre for international asset pooling, says a new report from the Netherlands, while also preserving the strength of the Dutch pensions ...
Dutch financial confidence knocked by sub-prime crisis
Financial stability in the Netherlands is less favourable than it was six months ago, according to the DNB?s most recent assessment of the region. The Overview of Financial Stability ...
Leading Dutch funds allocate ?500m to clean technology
ABP and PGGM have re-inforced their commitment to sustainable investment with a joint mandate to invest in innovative, clean technology. The two largest pension funds in the Netherlands have ...
Dutch funds respond to SRI embarrassment
Dutch pension funds have been shamed into smartening up their investment decisions after a current affairs TV programme in the Netherlands revealed that two of the largest funds were investing in ...
Dutch fund returns down says WM
Average returns for Dutch Pension funds in 2006 halved - from 14.8% in 2005 to 7.4% in 2006 ? according to new performance figures by WM Performance Services (WM). Taking into account the ...
Tomic loses in Rotterdam
Bernard Tomic has crashed out of the Rotterdam World Tennis event in three sets.Tomic suffered a 6-3 3-6 6-3 first-round loss to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who ended a four-match losing streak.The ...
Federer on Nadal return His shirts looked good
AFP File Photo ROTTERDAM, Netherlands - Roger Federer welcomed the return to tennis of Rafael Nadal, but will not spend much time worrying about his long-time rival's progress as he ...
Our Nixon Rotterdam Review
A disarmingly jaunty peek into a notoriously dark era of recent American history, Our Nixon collages archival footage from various sources to provide fresh perspectives on the 37th president. Catnip ...
Tsonga Shocked In Rotterdam Opener
Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Bernard Tomic (Australia) 6-3 3-6 6-3Matteo Viola (Italy) beat Marcel Granollers (Spain) 5-7 6-3 6-1Gilles Simon (France) beat Daniel Brands (Germany) 7-6(3) ...
Sijsling ousts Tsonga in Rotterdam
Dutch wild-card entry Igor Sijsling beat eighth-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 on Monday in the first round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis ...
Federer muses about Nadal return Tsonga bows out
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AFP) - Roger Federer welcomed the return to tennis of Rafael Nadal, but will not spend much time worrying about his long-time rival's progress as he concentrates on his ...
Tsonga es eliminado en primera ronda en Rotterdam
ROTTERDAM, Holanda -- ROTTERDAM, Holanda (AP) El holands Igor Sijsling protagoniz el lunes la gran sorpresa al eliminar al francs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga por 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 en la primera ronda del ...
Source: http://www.amsterdamnews.net/index.php/sid/212512014/scat/ec440608e2050e3b
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Vatican: Pope too weary at his age for the job
LONDON (AP) ? When he became pope at age 78, Benedict XVI was already the oldest pontiff elected in nearly 300 years. He's now 85, and in recent years he has slowed down significantly, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences.
The pope travels to the altar in St. Peter's Basilica on a moving platform to spare him the 100-yard (-meter) walk down the aisle. Occasionally he uses a cane. Late last year, people who were spending time with the pontiff emerged saying they found him weak and too tired to engage with what they were saying.
The Vatican stressed on Monday that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict's decision to become the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. Still, Benedict said his advanced age means he no longer has the necessary physical strength to lead the world's more than one billion Roman Catholics.
That Benedict is tired would be a perfectly normal diagnosis for an 85-year-old pope, even someone with no known serious health problems and a still-agile mind.
He has acknowledged having suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 1991 that temporarily affected his vision, but he later made a full recovery. In 2009, the pope fell and suffered minor injuries when he broke one of his wrists while vacationing in the Alps.
A doctor familiar with the pope's medical team told The Associated Press on Monday that the pontiff has no grave or life-threatening illnesses. But, the doctor said, the pope ? like many men his age ? has suffered some prostate problems. Beyond that, the pope is simply old and tired, the doctor said on condition of anonymity.
According to the pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, the pontiff was told by his doctor not to take any more trans-Atlantic trips. In fact, the pontiff's only foreign trip this year was scheduled to be a July visit to Brazil for the church's World Youth Day.
Experts weren't surprised the pope's health problems were slowing him down.
"In someone who's 85 and has arthritis, the activities of being a pope will be a struggle," said Dr. Alan Silman, the medical director of Arthritis Research U.K. He said Pope Benedict most likely has osteoarthritis, which causes people to lose the cartilage at the end of their joints, making it difficult to move around without pain.
"It would be painful for him to kneel while he's praying and could be excruciating when he tries to get up again," Silman said, adding that for people with arthritis, even standing for long periods of time can be challenging.
Silman said some drugs could help ease the pain, but most would come with side effects such as drowsiness or stomach problems, which would likely be more serious in the elderly.
The doctor said it isn't clear whether the pope's arthritis would worsen with age. "It could be it's as bad as it's going to get," he said. "But it already sounds like he has it pretty bad and continuing with all the activities of being the pope won't help."
Joe Korner, a spokesman for Britain's Stroke Association, said having a mild stroke also could be a warning of a possible major stroke in the future. "I would imagine the pope has been warned this could happen and that he should make some changes to his lifestyle," Korner said, including reducing stress levels.
When he became pope, Benedict replaced John Paul, who died in 2005 at the age of 84. He was the Vatican's most-traveled pontiff, visiting 129 countries during his nearly 27-year papacy and had captured the world's affection like no other pope.
In the last year of his life, John Paul was forced to curtail his travels because of old age and illness, including trembling hands and slurred speech, an inability to walk or hold his head up, and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
____
Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-pope-too-weary-age-job-183231025.html
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Kate, Elizabeth and More Celebrate the Elle Style Awards in London
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The red carpet was rolled out at the Savoy Hotel in London for the UK Elle Style Awards today. The magazine usually holds their annual fashion celebration a day after the BAFTA Awards, which means some Hollywood stars are able to join in the fun with high-profile UK personalities ? this year Elizabeth Olsen was among the stylish guests who stayed on in London. Kate Hudson turned heads in a strapless red dress designed by her friend Stella McCartney, who also posed on the red carpet with her husband Alasdhair Willis. Chlo? Moretz chose a monochrome dress and almost blended in with the media wall, and pregnant Peaches Geldof was glowing in a pink lace gown. Click through to see the rest of the well-dressed celebrities.
? Back to StorySource: http://www.popsugar.com.au/2013-Elle-Style-Awards-Red-Carpet-Celebrity-Pictures-27892781
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Monday, February 4, 2013
What they said about the 47th Super Bowl
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A selection of quotes from Sunday's Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens:
Head coach of the Ravens, John Harbaugh: "I just knew with Jim Harbaugh being on the other sideline and all of those years we have been together that game was going to be a dog fight right to the end. Those guys were coming back."
- -
Head coach of the 49ers Jim Harbaugh: "We want to handle this with class and grace. Had several opportunities in the game. Didn't play our best game. Ravens made a lot of plays. Our guys battled back to get back in it. We competed and battled to win."
- -
Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis: "I was tested through this journey, it was an up-and-down rollercoaster, the injuries, the people, and we stayed together. And now, I get to ride off into the sunset with my second ring. Honestly, when God is for you, who can be against you? No weapon formed against us."
- -
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco: "I think it is fitting that we won that way. We are a tough, blue-collar city and that's the way our games kind of come down. We were up 28-6 and I'm sure a lot of people were nervous but were kind of like, 'This one might be pretty easy.' And the next thing you know, the Niners get right back into it and play great football and we had to grind it out."
- -
49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick: "I feel like I made too many mistakes for us to win."
- -
Ravens running back Ray Rice: "One thing about winning the Super Bowl is that you do everything you want and you finally realize that everything was worth it. No team is going to be the same. After the season is over and after we do all our stuff, next year the locker room is going to be different. This is the one thing that's not going to separate us for life. We'll forever be champions because we won the Super Bowl."
- -
49ers offensive tackle Joe Staley: "Five yards short, all the work we did in the offseason, the whole entire season, everything came down to five yards and we weren't able to get it done".
- -
Ravens full back Vonta Leach: "Ray Lewis is obviously the heart and soul of this team, but we have a lot of veteran guys that have played a lot of football. It's never one. You talk about a guy Ed Reed, Anquan Boldin, Matt Birk, Bryant McKinnie. These guys have been in the league a long time and never won. We wanted to win it for Ray and we wanted to win it for those guys."
(Compiled by Simon Evans; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/said-47th-super-bowl-081445961--nfl.html
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Build It + Home Improvement - March 2013 (HQ PDF) Download All ...
Build It + Home Improvement - March 2013
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