Iraq vice president says bombs were inside job

Updated December 24, 2011 22:07:25

Iraq's vice president Tariq al-Hashemi has alleged that a series of bombings which killed scores of people in Baghdad on Thursday were organised from within the Iraqi government.

Mr Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim, is embroiled in a deep political row with the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has issued an arrest warrant against him.

The vice president says only government involvement could explain why the bombers were able to plant so many explosives unhindered.

"What happened yesterday, I'm sure, that body inside the government manipulated all these explosives and the damages," he told BBC Persian television.

"Nobody else could be qualified for that at all. And it's not the first time. This style of terrorist attack, it's well beyond even Al Qaeda to do it."

The BBC website quoted him as saying: "After Americans decided to pull out, time comes for him, he felt himself free to try to get rid of his political rivals and opponents and critics - this is why he started with me, in due course he will continue with others."

Mr Hashemi also says the United States should shoulder some of the blame, because of the style of management left in place after the withdrawal of the last of its troops.

"We don't have in fact a modern, transparent state of law, democratic country," he said.

"What we do have, unfortunately, is sectarian oriented, non-independent judicial system.

"We do have in fact a model which make us and the Americans not proud of what we have achieved."

Mr Maliki sought Mr Hashemi's arrest on terrorism charges this week.

After Friday prayers, with Sunni imams warning Mr Maliki was seeking to foment sectarian divisions, protesters turned out on the streets of Sunni-dominated Samarra, Ramadi, Baiji and Qaim, many waving banners in support of Mr Hashemi and criticising the government.

The crisis could scuttle a power-sharing agreement that splits posts among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders just days after the last American troops withdrew nearly nine years after the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

"What's happening in Iraq is settling political scores," Iyad Allawi, Mr Maliki's predecessor and head of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, told al-Arabiya television.

An emergency session in parliament among leaders of political blocs to debate the crisis was cancelled on Friday.

BBC/Reuters

Topics: world-politics, iraq

First posted December 24, 2011 21:51:14

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-24/iraq-vice-president-says-bombs-were-inside-job/3746714

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Kodak names a second president, agrees to sell gelatin operation

Rochester Business Journal

December 23, 2011

Eastman Kodak Co. announced two moves Thursday: the sale of a longtime operation and the promotion of its top lawyer to company president.

Kodak?s board elected Laura Quatela as president, effective Jan. 1, the company said Thursday after the market closed. Quatela, 54, is currently Kodak?s general counsel.

Philip Faraci also will continue as president, a position he has held since September 2007. Both report to Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez.

"Laura's election reflects her increasing role in the company, including the strategic importance of the intellectual property business,? Perez said in a statement.

Patrick Sheller, the company?s deputy general counsel as well as corporate secretary and chief compliance officer, is to succeed Quatela as general counsel. He will continue to serve as secretary to the board of directors.

Kodak also said it agreed to sell Eastman Gelatine Corp. to Rousselot, part of the Vion Food Group. Financial details were not disclosed. The company expects the deal to close within 30 days.

Some 95 Eastman Gel employees will continue with the business following the closing. The deal includes 575,000 square foot of production space in Peabody, Mass.

Kodak said the sale is part of its previously announced intention to sell non-core assets to sharpen the company?s focus on its digital growth initiatives and accelerate Kodak?s transformation to a digital company.

Eastman Gel has been successfully managing the transition of the photographic market by increasingly expanding its sales into non-photographic categories, such as the pharmaceutical, edible protein and food/confectionary categories, officials said.

Eastman Gelatine has been a Kodak subsidiary since 1930, when Kodak bought the plant of American Glue Co.

(c) 2011 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or email service@rbj.net.

Source: http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=189840

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Apple Takes One Small Step Against HTC, One Giant Leap Against Android

Apple has been duking it out with Android manufacturers for the past couple years, and very few are safe. Samsung has already suffered some big losses with the banning of its Galaxy Tab in Germany and Australia. HTC, however, has remained mostly safe from Apple's wrath. In July the Taiwanese manufacturer had a close call, as Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski ruled that HTC was infringing two of Apple's proposed 10 patents. Of course, before any serious action could be taken the ITC needed to have a look, which is exactly what's happened. Luckily for HTC, most of the infringement "charges" have been dropped, save for two claims in one patent, ruled the ITC.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/oh68_8daqpw/

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Filipino police rescue US boy from kidnappers (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? Philippine police stormed a kidnappers' hideout and rescued a 4-year-old American boy who was held for ransom for eight days, officials said Friday. Five suspects were arrested in the second recent case of a kidnapped U.S. minor in the Philippines.

The boy, who was living with his Filipino mother and American father, was seized in Manila on Dec. 6 by three gunmen who cut off the car he was traveling in with the mother, said Isagani Nerez, head of the police anti-crime unit.

A $13,600 ransom was paid three days later, but the kidnappers demanded $113,000 more before releasing the boy, whose identity has been withheld, Nerez told reporters. The father, an engineer, sought the help of the U.S. Embassy and FBI, who sent representatives to the national police headquarters to coordinate with local authorities in securing the victim's release, Nerez said.

He said police feared the boy would be harmed and traced his location to the kidnappers' hideout in Prieto Diaz town in eastern Sorsogon province. On Wednesday, police stormed the site, rescued the boy, who was unharmed, and arrested three of his alleged captors. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of two more suspects in Manila on Thursday.

"We were worried that the kidnappers would kill the boy if their demand was not met," Nerez said. "It was the reason why we decided to launch the assault on the kidnappers' lair."

After a medical checkup found the boy to be in good health, he was reunited with his family, Nerez said.

The boy's identity was withheld because of privacy concerns. Nerez said he was attending an international school in a Manila suburb.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Betina Malone told The Associated Press that the U.S. authorities were appreciative of the efforts of Philippine police in rescuing the boy. "It was the result of a great deal of hard work," she said, adding that U.S. authorities expected those responsible to be prosecuted and punished.

The five suspects were charged by the Department of Justice with kidnapping for ransom and are being held in police detention pending trial. If convicted, they face up to 40 years in prison.

"They are new faces," Nerez said, adding that the suspects have not been previously linked to kidnappings.

He said they could be linked to the communist rebel New People's Army, which has a strong presence in Sorsogon province.

Last week, 14-year-old American Kevin Lunsmann escaped from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines after five months in jungle captivity. His Filipino mother was freed two months ago, and their cousin escaped last month.

Kidnappings for ransom are more common in the impoverished, volatile south, home to a long-running Muslim insurgency. But abductions have also taken place in Manila, which was once notorious as the kidnapping capital of Asia. Children of wealthy Filipinos are often targeted and many cases go unreported to police.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_rescued_hostage

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Component shortage reportedly limiting iPhone 4S supplies (Appolicious)

At least one analyst is advising investors that supplies of the iPhone 4S are going to continue to be limited through the holiday season, citing low supplies on a ?key component? in the device.

Apple Insider has the story, in which analyst Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw explains in a note to investors to expect constrained iPhone 4S supplies through 2012, even as demand for the device remains very high. Kumar didn?t explain what the component was that is supposedly keeping iPhone 4S supplies low, however.

Kumar pegs the number of iPhone 4S units he expects to be sold in the last quarter of 2011 to be around 30 million, which he expects to come in below Wall Street expectations. Apple has had trouble meeting all the demand for the iPhone 4S even since it launched in the U.S. It has been reported that customers have been forced to wait weeks to receive the devices. AT&T and Sprint customers were said to have waited around three weeks, while Verizon customers had to wait as much as a month after the phone?s October 14 launch date to receive it.

Even so, demand for the iPhone 4S hasn?t slowed. All three U.S. carriers reported record pre-sales for the devices and Apple itself said it had sold 1 million units in the 24 hours after the device was released. Through October and much of November, customers were waiting for the iPhone 4S mostly because so many people wanted one.

Kumar also had a few other things to say on Apple?s smartphone handset. Currently, Apple holds 85 percent of the ?premium? smartphone market, which Kumar believes is probably the peak of its performance. Instead, he expects more growth to happen in smartphones at the other end of the spectrum, with lower-priced handsets. He said in his note to investors that Apple needs to consider a lower-cost ?purpose-built? device, although he also said that other smartphone makers don?t really have anything to compete in that sphere.

Apple does have something of a lower-cost iPhone model in the iPhone 3GS, which is currently available for 99 cents when users enter into a two-year contract with a cellular carrier. It?s also doing pretty well. As Apple Insider points out, the 3GS was the top-selling smartphone in the U.S. after the iPhone 4 in the third quarter of 2011, according to the NPD Group. That put it ahead of Android device makers such as HTC and Samsung, and head of Nokia, a long-time handset leader.

Despite reports of low supplies of the iPhone 4S, we?ll have to see how Apple?s devices actually fare during the holiday season. Expectations and demand for the 4S are still pretty high going into 2012; we?ll have to see if Apple has adequately prepared for the holidays.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10332_component_shortage_reportedly_limiting_iphone_4s_supplies/43756025/SIG=13a0das48/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10332-component-shortage-reportedly-limiting-iphone-4s-supplies

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