The Federal Communications Commission did not look too kindly upon AT&T's bid to purchase T-Mobile, but the agency yesterday did approve AT&T's acquisition of spectrum from Qualcomm—with conditions.
The FCC voiced some competitive concerns about the deal.

"Post-transaction, AT&T would hold a significant proportion of the available spectrum suitable for the provision of mobile voice or broadband services, particularly below 1 GHz spectrum, that has technical attributes important for other competitors to meaningfully expand their provision of mobile broadband services or for new entrants to have a potentially significant impact on competition," the commission said in its order.

As a result, the FCC imposed a few conditions on the transaction, like requiring that AT&T's new spectrum doesn't stop rivals from using neighboring 700 MHz spectrum for broadband services and limiting AT&T's ability to use the Qualcomm spectrum in a way that would deprive rivals of the benefits of FCC's roaming rules.

In a statement, AT&T said it expects to close the transaction in the coming days.

"This spectrum will help AT&T continue to deliver a world-class mobile broadband experience to our customers," Bob Quinn, senior vice president of federal regulatory issues at AT&T, said in a statement. "We appreciate the FCC Chairman, the Commissioners and their staff for completing its review before the holidays."

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source article: pcmag.com
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For Amazon, it’s going to be hard to top 2011. After all, this was the year the gargantuan online retailer launched a cloud storage service, opened the doors on its own Appstore, and released a tablet, the Kindle Fire, that happens to be selling like crazy.

Looking at the bigger picture, this was the year Amazon moved to unify its several disparate services into a full-fledged platform in its own right. The site — though it’s not just a site anymore, is it? — already has a massive user base, and now its services are slowly turning more and more of them into something resembling loyal customers, or if Amazon’s lucky, “members.”

Although the company has momentum, it’s in danger of tripping over obstacles on the road ahead. Amazon has a presence in so many digital markets now, it’s easy to lose count, which means it’s competing in one form or another with pretty much every major technology company. From Google and Apple to Barnes & Noble and Netflix, Amazon has a lot of top-caliber enemies, which says a lot about how far the company has come.
What does 2012 hold for the company that businesses turn to for cheap cloud services, writers turn to for self-publishing, and everyone turns to for a cheap gift for mom? Here are Mashable‘s predictions for Amazon in 2012.

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source article: mashable.com
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“We’re going to call this ‘Hair Force One,’” Ann Romney said, eyeing her husband’s impeccably coiffed black hair and teasing: “In honor of you.”

Last week, the Romney campaign rolled out a campaign plane for the first time, to fly the candidate, his staff and the press from Sioux City, Iowa, to Greenville, S.C. And in those enforced close quarters, reporters got glimpses of a relaxed, thoughtful and self-deprecating version of the candidate — a side of Mr. Romney that his aides frequently talk about but that the press rarely sees.

Mr. Romney spent most of this year avoiding any kind of spontaneity, showing an almost-robotic discipline to his message about jobs and President Obama’s economic failures. He did few sit-down interviews, offered only limited opportunities for reporters question him on the campaign trail and generally kept the prying eyes of the press as far away as possible.

But his campaign has now entered into a new phase. On a logistical level, it now involves more chartered planes and bus trips, with a bigger pack of reporters in tow. And on a political level, he is no longer the remote front-runner, but instead, as his campaign would put it, a fighter seeking to prove he can “Earn It,” as his new slogan puts it – a status that demands more interviews and more interaction in general with the media types he once kept at a safe distance.

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source article: blogs.nytimes.com
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The Pakistani army on Friday rejected a U.S. investigation that concluded mistakes on both sides led to American airstrikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and severely damaged the already strained relationship between the two countries.

The response indicates the report will do little to ease tensions, a worrying development for the U.S. because Pakistan's cooperation is critical for the Afghan war. The Pakistani army has said its troops did nothing wrong and claimed the attack was a deliberate act of aggression.

Pakistan has retaliated by closing its Afghan border to supplies meant for NATO troops in Afghanistan and kicking the U.S. out of a base used by American drones. NATO officials have said the closure of the supply route has not affected operations so far, but it would eventually if not reversed.

The army "does not agree with the findings of the US/NATO inquiry as being reported in the media," the force said in a short statement sent to reporters shortly after midnight Friday. "The inquiry report is short on facts."

The army will provide a detailed response after officials receive the report, it said. Pakistan refused to cooperate in the investigation.

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source article: chron.com
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With an outpouring of grief, the people of the Czech Republic mourned the playwright, dissident and former President Vaclav Havel at a Mass attended by world leaders here on Friday, celebrating his life and honoring his contribution to the end of Communist rule in Eastern Europe.

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral, part of the sprawling Prague Castle that overlooks the city and the Vltava River, hundreds of mourners in dark overcoats listened to music by the composer Dvorak, a strong scent of incense hanging in the air. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright joined the funeral service.

Outside thousands of ordinary Czechs gathered in the December chill under large videoscreens and loudspeakers.

Martina Utikalova’s eyes welled up as she described why she chose to bid farewell in person to Mr. Havel, a leader whose international standing sometimes outshone his domestic image.

“He was a light, is a light and will be a light for many of us,” said Ms. Utikalova, a 47-year-old midwife from the town of Kladno. She wore a bright red heart-shaped pendant over her blue scarf, a signature symbol of the president. An air-raid siren and the ringing of church bells signaled the moment at noon when Mr. Havel’s memory was honored across this country of 10 million.

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source article: nytimes.com
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Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., maker of the Enfamil baby formula, fell the most ever after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pulled a batch of the powdered product after a newborn given it died. There is no evidence the second infant that was sickened was given the same formula, Mead Johnson said.

A scientific paper embraced by many chronic fatigue syndrome patients as a ray of hope is being retracted by the journal that published it after a tumultuous year that included allegations of data manipulation and the arrest of the study's lead researcher on a felony charge of possessing stolen property.

In the paper, published in 2009 by the journal Science, researchers reported they had found evidence of a retrovirus called XMRV in the blood of patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome much more frequently than in the blood of healthy peers. The paper caused a stir and led other scientists to try to confirm the findings.

Patients rejoiced at the possibility of an explanation for their illness, which has long confounded researchers. Some patients even began taking antiretroviral drugs designed to treat a different retrovirus, HIV.

At the same time, the paper's lead researcher, Judy Mikovits, then employed at the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, began linking XMRV to other frustrating disorders, including autism and Gulf War syndrome, without publishing data to support her statements.

Soon, independent teams of scientists began reporting they could not find evidence of the retrovirus in the blood of chronic fatigue patients or anyone else. Researchers hypothesized that lab contamination could have caused the original findings. Mikovits denied it.

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source article: latimes.com
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An Arab League mission is due in Syria today to prepare for monitoring of the accord Syria signed this week to end nine months of violence, as Al Arabiya reported that the crackdown on protests continued yesterday with 70 people killed.

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source article: businessweek.com
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While 2011 was a huge year for alien-planet discoveries, 2012 could bring something even more exciting: the first true "alien Earth."

This year saw the tally of confirmed exoplanets top 700, with NASA's Kepler space telescope flagging thousands of additional candidates that still need to be verified. And just this month, Kepler scientists announced two landmark finds — the first two Earth-size alien planets, as well as a larger world in its star's habitable zone, that just-right range of distances where liquid water (and possibly life as we know it) could exist.

These and other recent discoveries suggest that the prized quarry of many exoplanet hunters — an "alien Earth" — could be just over the horizon. In fact, such a planet may well pop up in the next round of Kepler candidates, which should be released next year, researchers said.

"I'm guessing that this next planet catalog is going to see, finally, some numbers of points that are really, truly Earth-sized and in the habitable zone," said Natalie Batalha, deputy leader of the Kepler science team at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "That's something that I really look forward to, is getting those candidates."

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source article: msnbc.msn.com
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At least 250 women with breast implants made by the French company at the centre of a cancer scare intend to sue at least six clinics in the UK.

The women are pursuing the action after the French government told all women there with the implants filled with an industrial silicone - believed to be made for mattresses - to have them out and said it would foot the entire bill in up to 30,000 cases.

Mark Harvey, a partner at Hugh James solicitors, which is pursuing the legal action, said: ‘We wanted to pursue claims against [makers] PIP or its insurers, [but as the company has since closed] it is quite clear that is not viable.

Instead he said the women would be pursuing action against the British clinics where they had the operations, and they will apply for the cases to be treated as a class action at a hearing in Cardiff next month.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that it had consulted with experts in nine countries over safety concerns surrounding the French-made implants.

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source article: dailymail.co.uk
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Volence erupted across Baghdad early on Thursday, as a series of explosions killed 41 people and wounded 151, according to security officials. The attacks were the most significant since United States troops withdrew and a political crisis unfolded.  The explosions rocked many areas around the city and the BBC said the authorities had identified 13 targets.

The apparently coordinated attacks came a day after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq threatened to abandon an American-backed power-sharing government created a year ago.
It was the worst violence to strike the capital since rifts opened between Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, and his Sunni rivals.

The prime minister’s words at a televised news conference on Wednesday threw a fragile democracy into further turmoil just days after the departure of American troops and potentially tarnishing what has been cast as a major foreign policy achievement for President Obama.

In a nearly 90-minute news conference broadcast on tape-delay on Wednesday, Mr. Maliki pushed back on all fronts in the crisis, threatening to release investigatory files that he claimed implicated his opponents in terrorism.

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source aricle: nytimes.com
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NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system, a milestone in the search for planets like the earth, the space agency said on Tuesday.

The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are the smallest planets outside the solar system confirmed around a star like the Sun, NASA said in a statement.

The planets are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface.

"This discovery demonstrates for the first time that Earth-size planets exist around other stars, and that we are able to detect them," Francois Fressin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in the statement.

The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth.

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source article: reuters.com
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French health authorities are considering whether to suggest that an estimated 30,000 women in France get their breast implants removed, amid warnings by leading doctors about risks of rupture and possible cancer risks.

The decision could have repercussions outside France, too. Tens of thousands of women in Britain and other countries also have the pre-filled silicone gel implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP. British health authorities say they see no reason so far to get them systematically removed.

Experts from the French Health Ministry will meet Friday to decide what to recommend for women who have the implants, ministry officials said Wednesday.

More than 1,000 of the implants have ruptured, according to the French health and safety agency AFSSAPS, and eight women with the implants have developed cancer. The implants were taken off the market last year after French authorities discovered the company misreported what form of silicon they contain.

Friday's decision will depend partly on guidance from the French National Cancer Institute, which is studying whether there are links between the implants and the cancer cases.

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 "I'd read the book years ago, and a lot of it stayed with me, and then I got the call," Craig explained about initially being offered the role "out of the blue." "Amy Pascal from Sony called me, and David [Fincher] said, 'Can we have dinner?' and they sent me the script. However much I wanted to work with David, I was a little concerned," he added. "Understandably, I thought that they'd maybe try to sanitize it — It's a big movie, and they have to make their money back — but they hadn't, and David was in charge, so it was a no-brainer."

When asked what he enjoys about playing more flawed, vulnerable characters, like Mikael Blomkvist, Craig said he appreciates their realness, which makes them more believable. 

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source article: mtv.com
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Kim Kardashian has spoken about her "life-changing and emotional" visit to Haiti earlier this month.

The reality TV star and her mother, Kris Jenner, visited Haiti - which was devastated by an earthquake in 2010 - to see the work of actress Maria Bello's charity We Advance. But Kim took to her blog to set the record straight after reports she attended a fashion show and pampered herself shopping for jewellery on the trip.

Kim, who posted photos of herself meeting children, wrote: "Our mission was to learn more about Maria's charity, meet the Haitian people who have made such amazing progress since the devastating earthquake in 2010, and celebrate the women of Haiti, who inspired me more than I ever could have anticipated."

She added: "While my experience was completely life-changing... a very emotional and surprisingly positive journey that I will never forget.

"I was at the Haitian Artisan Fair, where the amazing men and women who make their jewellery and crafts sell them to visitors to make a living, and I bought some of their beautiful jewellery after the fashion show!"

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A veteran sportswriter and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News was accused in a newspaper report Tuesday of molesting three girls and a boy in the 1970s, including his niece, who is now a prosecutor.

Authorities said no criminal charges would be pursued against Bill Conlin because the allegations of abuse happened too long ago.

Conlin, a Hall of Fame baseball writer and author, retired just ahead of the story's publication online by The Philadelphia Inquirer, his former editor said. Conlin's lawyer said his client would not comment about the story but would fight the claims.

"Mr. Conlin is obviously floored by these allegations which supposedly happened 40 years ago. He's engaged me to do everything possible to bring the facts forward to vindicate his name," said attorney George Bochetto.

The newspaper reported that the four accusers claim Conlin groped and fondled them in the 1970s, when they were ages 7 to 12.

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source article: csmonitor.com
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(Updates with share price in eight paragraph. For more on AT&T’s failed T-Mobile bid, see {EXT5 <GO>}.)

The International Trade Commission judge found there was no violation of six other disputed patents.

The ruling may aid Microsoft's efforts to chase licence fees from other Android-based handset makers.
Microsoft already charges HTC, Samsung and others royalties for technologies used in Google's operating system which it claims makes use of some of its innovations.

In October the Windows software-maker said it had struck licence deals with companies "accounting for more than half of all Android devices". Motorola Mobility was not among their number.

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source article: bbc.co.uk
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The Chicago Bulls announced on Tuesday night that the team will be making a "major announcement" at 11 a.m. on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference featuring point guard Derrick Rose, head coach Tom Thibodeau, vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman.

Rose wouldn't mention any specifics after Tuesday night's game against the Indiana Pacers, but it's expected that the presser will announce a five-year, $94.8 million contract that's reportedly been agreed upon already by the Bulls and their star point guard. At this point, the deal is being treated as effectively done, as Carlos Boozer made comments recently:

We're all very excited for him. He deserves it. He puts in a lot of effort. I wish the contract was for 10 years."

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source article: sbnation.com
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The defense of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the man accused of leaking classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, will begin Wednesday.

Manning's attorneys plan to call three witnesses in a hearing to determine if he will face a full military court-martial.

Manning is accused of stealing and leaking more than a quarter of a million classified documents from the State Department and the Defense Department, the biggest intelligence leak in U.S. history.

In earlier testimony, the prosecution called witnesses that characterized Manning as being troubled by Army discipline and that he allegedly bragged on the Internet about the leak of classified documents.

Army investigators also testified that they found evidence linking Manning to the leaked documents on computers used by Manning.

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source article: cnn.com
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PARIS — The European Union’s highest court on Wednesday endorsed a plan to begin charging the world’s biggest airlines for their greenhouse gas emissions from Jan. 1, setting the stage for a potentially costly trade war with the United States, China and other countries.

A group of United States airlines had argued that forcing them to participate in the bloc’s potentially costly emissions-trading program infringed on national sovereignty and conflicted with existing international aviation treaties.

But in its ruling, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg affirmed an opinion issued in October by its advocate general, who had rejected their claim.

The court’s decision comes amid increasing pressure from some of the biggest trading partners of the 27-member bloc to suspend or amend application of the legislation to expressly exclude non-E.U. countries — at least initially. Failing that, several governments have vowed to take their own legal action or retaliate with countervailing trade measures.

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source article: nytimes.com
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U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday as domestic home building jumped to the highest level in nearly two years and another successful Spanish debt auction buoyed investor sentiment.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 257 points, or 2%, to 12024, in morning trade. The blue-chip Dow dropped 100 points on Monday to close at the lowest level of the month.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 26 points, or 2.1%, to 1231. All 10 of the S&P 500's sectors rose, led higher by energy, material and industrial stocks. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 57 points, or 2.2%, to 2580.

Trading volume is light ahead of the holidays as many investors are closing their books for the year.
"Sentiment has been awful and volumes are thin," said Jim McDonald, chief investment strategist at Northern Trust. "Any good news can push stocks up pretty quickly in this kind of environment."

Still, the S&P 500 has opened higher in each of the previous six trading sessions. But the early gains have melted each time, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

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source article: wsj.com
source images: dailypolitical.com 

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has stated his support for Luis Suarez after the striker received an eight-game ban for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

Suarez was charged by the Football Association with abusing Evra and referring to his "ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race" in a disciplinary hearing last week.

Dalglish, though, has backed the Uruguay international since the incident took place on October 18, and continued to show staunch support after the verdict was handed down.

"Very disappointed with today's verdict. This is the time when [Luis Suarez] needs our full support. Let's not let him walk alone. KD," Dalglish said via Twitter.

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source article: espn.go.com
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MORRIS TOWNSHIP — State Police are reporting a plane crash on Interstate 287 in Morris County, near exit 35 in Morris Township.

Lt. Stephen Jones said three people may have died in the crash.

FAA spokesman Jim Peters says the single-engine turboprop had departed from nearby Teterboro Airport when it disappeared from radar. It was a Socata TBM-700.

Shona Sternberg of Hillsborough was about three cars behind where the plane went down.

She said the plane came from the west and smacked down on the highway. Sternberg said she didn't hear any noises but saw an explosion when the aircraft hit the highway.

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source article: nj.com
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Stocks rose on Tuesday in Europe and on Wall Street as a drop in Spain’s borrowing costs and unexpectedly positive data from Germany eased euro zone debt worries.

Short-term financing costs for struggling Spain more than halved as banks lapped up debt at an auction, with much of the purchasing power said to have come from cut-rate loans from the European Central Bank.

On the economic front, data showed United States housing starts surged in November and permits for future construction were the highest since March 2010 as demand for rental apartments rose.

In early trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 232.31 points, or 2 percent, to 11,998.57. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 2.1 percent and the Nasdaq composite index rose 2.2 percent.

Headlines and fluctuating bond prices out of the euro zone continued to cause high volatility. The market will be prone to large swings this week on expected low volume due to the upcoming Christmas holiday.

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source article: nytimes.com
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Apple scored a minor victory in its battle against Google Android, with the International Trade Commission (ITC) banning certain HTC smartphones from import in April 2012. However, observers believe HTC will have little trouble altering its devices in order to sidestep the ban.

The patent in question, considered a minor one by analysts, concerns the ability to dial a phone number in an email or text by tapping on it. “We believe there are workarounds available to HTC, and HTC has noted that it can quickly remove the feature,” Peter Misek, an analyst with research firm Jefferies & Co., wrote in a coauthored note Dec. 20. “A prior ruling that HTC was infringing one of Apple’s broader patents was overturned.”

In other words, Apple hasn’t exactly managed to cripple HTC’s efforts in the United States. “This ruling falls far short of anything that would force HTC out of the U.S. market in the near term,” patent expert Florian Mueller wrote in a Dec. 19 posting on his FOSS Patents blog. “Out of ten patents originally asserted, Apple finally managed to enforce one, and it’s one of medium value.”

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source article: eweek.com
source image: siliconangle.com

Maruti's latest
The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) launched the much awaited diesel variant of its SX4 sedan


The SX4 diesel is available at an introductory price of Rs 7.74-8.62 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

 
In Portugal's second city, Porto, crowds throng the main shopping streets, accompanied by the smell of roasting chestnuts and the twinkle of festive lights. Bacalhau, the dried, salted codfish traditionally eaten on Christmas Day, hangs in store windows framed by hand-painted wall tiles. Tourists wander past clutching maps and cameras.


But in Matosinhos, the fishing community that adjoins Porto, residents say the impression that all is well is far from the truth. Portugal's working families are feeling the impact of austerity measures imposed following a 78 billion euro ($104 billion) international bailout in May.

The country's austerity experience may signal what lies ahead for other European neighbors if the debt crisis that has shaken global markets is not resolved.

The government says the measures are needed to restore economic stability and will pave the way for Portugal's recovery. Meanwhile, among the Portuguese people, it is still unclear if the measures will put the country back on track and if the nation will continue to accept them.

Butcher Joaquim Barbosa, whose business has been in the family for more than half a century, says his trade today is a third less than it was a decade ago -- and as the latest cuts bite, his business is going downhill even faster.

"This is the worst year we've had -- and I expect next year will be even worse," he said.

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Source: cnn.com

Syria will execute anyone who participates in terrorist acts or distributes weapons, state television announced Tuesday, in the latest escalation against an uprising the United Nations estimates has claimed about 5,000 lives since March.


The announcement comes as two opposition groups claimed that more than 100 people were killed Monday, which would be the single deadliest known day of the protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that dozens of Syrian army defectors were gunned down as they tried to flee their posts in Idlib.

"On Monday there were 60 to 70 army deserters killed while they were trying to run away from their military positions," said the London-based group's Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said another 40 civilians were killed the same day "across Syria during house-to-house raids, arrests, and clashes between army defectors and the Syrian army."

"Monday may have been a day with the highest death toll in Syria, between 100 and 110 killed in total," he said.

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Source: cnn.com