Android's Privacy Game-Changer

Android's Privacy Game-Changer
Android's Privacy Game-Changer
It looks like the latest version of Android has an interesting little feature tucked away: granular controls for app permissions. The Android 4.3 feature, called “App Ops,” has just been flagged by Android Police on Friday, and it looks like it could be a game-changer when it comes to privacy.

By way of example, App Ops lets the user turn off various pieces of functionality in the Facebook (FB) app, such as location or the app’s ability to tap into the user’s phone contacts. It also informs the user when the app last deployed specific functions—a handy way of finding out what’s causing all that battery drainage. It’s all pretty buried, although some enterprising soul has already created an app to allow straightforward access to the feature.

For users, all this is great news. At the moment, when you install an Android app you get presented with a list of the permissions it requires but you don’t get to pick and choose—it’s all or nothing. I certainly know granular controls would make me feel more comfortable about using Facebook’s app; I never check in anywhere and I just want the feed. I want more control over what these services do, and App Ops looks like it may satisfy that need.

For many developers, however, it could prove an utter nightmare. In the quest for privacy or longer battery life, many users may turn off bits of functionality then later wonder why those elements of the app don’t work. Apps will break all over the place, unless developers change their mindset. And that’s possibly the best effect that could come out of this feature: Welcome to the concept of privacy by design.

Privacy by design is a set of principles promoted by data protection watchdogs, notably Ann Cavoukian of Ontario, Canada, that involve having privacy in mind right from the start of a system’s creation—it’s the opposite of what usually happens, where privacy controls are grudgingly tacked on in order to meet some regulation or calm users down after bad publicity, but without having privacy ingrained in the system.

The reason privacy is not baked into many apps in this way is that the concept runs counter to the developer’s current or potential business model—it’s that whole “if you’re not paying, you are the product” thing. So what happens when users get to stymie their own monetization by turning off the bits of the app that they don’t like? The app breaks from a business model point of view, that’s what.

In effect, this should lead many developers to be more upfront about what their apps actually do, and provide a better explanation of why the app needs to track you, and tap into your address book, and so on.

Right now it’s in the interests of the developer to show you a quick rundown of the permissions the app needs, so you just go “yeah whatever” and click install. If App Ops then raises the specter of broken apps and all-round support nightmares, it will be in the developer’s interests to make a more honest and thorough pitch at the installation stage, to save heartache down the line (and yes, I realize this will need to be reflected in Google Play’s installation procedure).

Even if the developer doesn’t choose to go that route, App Ops will certainly encourage the re-architecting of the app to make sure that the switching-off of one component, such as tracking, doesn’t break too many other parts of the app. In that scenario, too, users are the winner—they get to exercise control without being punished by a broken app.

All in all, this looks like a positive move on Google’s (GOOG) part, so let’s hope it gets unburied soon and made into a mainstream, easy-to-access Android feature. After all, good privacy practice is all about transparency and choice, and this could be a great way to deliver that.

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OnStar, Garmin Try to Keep Pace With Waze, Other Free Navigation Apps

OnStar, Garmin Try to Keep Pace With Waze, Other Free Navigation Apps
When Tim Nixon’s sons want to figure out how to get somewhere in their cars, they turn their iPhones sideways, attach them to their windshields with a suction cup, and turn on a free downloadable mapping app. For their father, that’s a sign that he has a problem. As chief technology officer of General Motors’ (GM) OnStar service, he sells dashboard navigational systems for $1,500 or more. “We’ve historically had these onboard, embedded nav systems,” he says. “That’s just not going to cut it anymore.”

Since the U.S. government made an accurate GPS signal available to civilians in 2000, navigation system makers such as OnStar, Garmin (GRMN), and TomTom (TMOAF) have enjoyed tremendous success. One in four U.S. cars now comes with a navigation system, according to consultant IHS Automotive (IHS), which estimates that global installations will hit 13.8 million this year. By bundling them with expensive options such as leather seats, sunroofs, and high-end audio systems, automakers charge from $500 to more than $2,000 for navigation systems.

Companies such as Garmin price their standalone products in the hundreds of dollars, but GPS devices at any price are vulnerable to smartphone and tablet apps that are easier to update, can provide more traffic information, and in many cases are free. Device companies and carmakers are scrambling to make their products more Internet-friendly and produce mobile apps that can compete.

U.S. downloads of map apps increased 11 percent in May from a year earlier, to 79.1 million, ranking them among the most used apps, according to data from market researcher ComScore (SCOR). “Smartphones and the software are becoming so advanced that they’re really changing consumer behavior in a profound way,” says Andrew Lipsman, a ComScore analyst. “So categories that may have really grown a few years ago all of a sudden have a new competitor.”

Most in-car navigation systems aren’t Web-connected. They use GPS data to orient the car and plot a course with preloaded maps that can become dated. “If you want to update the maps in your car, it’s an expensive and complicated process of having to go to the dealership,” says John Canali, who tracks the navigation business for Strategy Analytics. Users of Internet-based Google Maps don’t face that problem. Smartphone apps such as Scout and Navfree also pull data from the Web, and some add social networking: The 48 million users of Waze, bought by Google (GOOG) for $1.1 billion in June, report traffic jams or accidents so other users can switch routes. “The game has changed,” says OnStar’s Nixon, “and the bar has been raised by these always-connected devices that bring fresh information into the car.”

In this year’s annual survey by J.D. Power & Associates (MHFI), 47 percent of car owners said they used a smartphone map app while driving last year, up from 37 percent a year earlier. Satisfaction fell among car owners with built-in navigation systems, with poor user experience the biggest complaint. “Many people view their smartphone as having better processing speed, better points of interest, and better map data,” says Mike VanNieuwkyuk, J.D. Power’s executive director of global automotive research. Forty-six percent of car owners with a built-in navigation system told J.D. Power they wouldn’t buy one again if their smartphone app could play on a touchscreen in their dashboard.

GM’s OnStar division now offers a $50 map app for iPhones that can run on the dashboard touchscreen of a $12,170 Chevy Spark. On July 16, Garmin updated its $50 mobile app, launched in 2011; TomTom has begun selling a similar app for $36, plus a $16 yearly fee. Both companies charge more for traffic updates and other premium features. On July 8, Garmin announced a $150 heads-up display that projects directions from a phone’s screen onto a car’s windshield. “We realize that there are customers that prefer to use their smartphone for navigation,” says company spokesman Johan-Till Broer.

Conventional navigational device makers are confident they can keep drivers interested in built-in displays. IHS estimates that navigation systems will be installed in 32.7 million cars by 2019, when more than half of U.S. cars sold will carry them. Ford Motor (F) consumer tech marketing manager Michelle Moody and Marios Zenios, vice president of Chrysler’s (F:IM) Uconnect infotainment system, say built-ins still have advantages over phone-based navigation, notably a larger screen and a stronger GPS connection from a roof-mounted antenna. “The reality is, neither one is a perfect solution,” says Moody. “Together, they might be a perfect solution.”

That’s why automakers are also trying to link up with upstarts like Waze. “We’ve had conversations with everyone,” says Di-Ann Eisnor, head of Waze’s U.S. business, adding that a Japanese company will include the app in one of its cars starting later this year. (She declined to name the brand.) With access to data from cars’ internal systems, Eisnor says, Waze may one day be able to crowdsource rainstorm information when users turn on their windshield wipers. For now, though, price is the deciding factor, she says: “If you have a choice between paying a lot of money on an in-car nav system or a free app on your iPhone, which are you going to choose?”

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What Amazon's Hiring Announcement Doesn't Mean

What Amazon's Hiring Announcement Doesn't Mean
Amazon (AMZN) announced yesterday that it plans to hire 5,000 new full-time “fulfillment associates” at 17 warehouses around the country, along with 2,000 new workers in its customer-service department. Today President Obama is set to tour one of the company’s facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn. It’s no coincidence.

The company’s announcement is unsurprising and slightly cynical. Reading too much into it is like making a big deal about an increase in gross domestic product without accounting for inflation or population growth. The additional hiring isn’t a function of corporate philanthropy or Obama administration policies. It’s Amazon keeping up with the basic facts of its growing business.

Amazon’s growth has been fairly steady, and if it continues, sales during its busy holiday season will rise about 22 percent over the same period last year. The company currently employs around 20,000 people at its warehouses; a 5,000-person increase is a 25 percent bump, about in line with the expected growth in sales. It needs those workers at its rapidly proliferating fulfillment centers to deliver all those toys, clothes, and high-definition televisions.

The company is getting better at ballparking its staffing needs. In its earliest days, Amazon dispatched extra employees from Seattle to its fulfillment centers every fall to keep up with the holiday rush. Last year it bought robot purveyor Kiva Systems to help manage the flow. All the same, more customers buying more stuff still requires more staff.

The desirability of those jobs has come into question over the past couple years. Amazon’s reputation has taken a hit from complaints that its fulfillment associates endure unpleasant, unhealthy, even Orwellian conditions. Since Amazon is fighting sales tax efforts in several states—it has surrendered in states such as California and New Jersey-being seen as a job creator is vital for the company’s image. More than anything else, Monday’s announcement shows that Amazon, a renowned innovator, can also be creative when it comes to public relations.

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Stewardess Cause of Death Revealed As Wear iPhone Begin

Cause of Death Revealed As Wear iPhone
Stewardess Cause of Death Revealed As Wear iPhone BeginMa Ailun the cause of death (23 years) from Xinjiang, China, which was electrocuted when making phone calls of iPhone 5 is charge the battery began to unfold. Allegedly, Ma Ailun using a charger that was not made by Apple.

According to China's telecom experts, Xiang Ligang, she might wear a replica, not the original from Apple.

"Artificial fillers sometimes be a shortcut. Capacitor and the quality of the protective circuit may not be appropriate, and this may cause the capacitor strike and sends a 220 volt battery directly to the phone," said Ligang when the media interviewed CCTV.

Ailun Ma, a China Southern Airlines flight attendant, died in his home on July 11, 2013. Earlier reports said Ma Ailun iPhone 5 to use the phone. However, the results of the investigation said that the mobile phone is used is the iPhone 4 because the sides are made of stainless steel.

Another possibility, according to Ligang, a battery charger is used does not meet the standard electrical voltage in China. It may be that the device is intended for users in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Japan.

"Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, all using 110 volt electrical voltage. Meanwhile, Mainland China using 220 volts. If a battery charger is made only to accommodate 110 volts, it will cause damage or excess burden," he added.

Xiang statement is not entirely accurate because the Hong Kong using a standard 220 volt electrical voltage, although 120 volt outlet are provided at many hotels. Meanwhile, Japan using a standard 100 volt electrical voltage.

Ligang argues, electric current from a battery charger devices overload will make the phone so hot. This can damage the circuit on the inside and cause the device can not be used.

In the case of Ma Ailun, iPhone 4 so that the evidence can still be operated normally despite the burns on the back and sides. Meanwhile, other evidence such as a USB data cable and the charger is still intact.

So far the police are still investigating. Apple spokesman has expressed his condolences. Company promised to investigate the case and to cooperate with the local police.

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Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reports highest mobile advertisement revenue

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the leading search engine provider, reported the highest mobile advertisement revenues for the fiscal year 2012, rising by an overall 83 percent for all players in the market. According to the recent report released on Tuesday by IHS, a data and media consultancy firm, and by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the mobile advertising market at the international level generated around $8.9 billion in revenue for the fiscal year 2012, recording an increase of 83 percent from the previous year’s revenue for the market.

Markets with the highest mobile generation contributed the most to this revenue increase, with 111 percent growth in the markets of United States and 91 percent growth in Western Europe. Around 52.8 percent of the revenue for mobile advertising was primarily generated through mobile search, indicating that Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) contributed significantly to the revenues of this market, which seems highly attractive and promising with prospects for very high growth in the near future.

After reaching the intraday high price of $912.95, the share price of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) closed at $905.24 with an intraday low price of $897.98. The share price of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) rose by 0.02 percent, closing on Tuesday at $911.00. The 52-week high price of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is $920.60 and the 52-week low price stood at $562.09. With 331.77 million total outstanding shares, the market capitalization of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is $300.33 billion. The intraday share trading volume for yesterday was 1.98 million, whereas the average trading volume of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) heads up to 2.25 million. Institutional ownership in Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) records a contribution of 71 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares.

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Syria rebels reject Russia chemical weapons find

Syria rebels reject Russia chemical weapons find
Syria's main Western-backed opposition group on Wednesday rejected Russian accusations that rebels made sarin nerve gas and used it in a deadly chemical attack outside Aleppo in March. The Syrian National Coalition called the charges "desperate" and "fabricated."

Russia is a key ally of President Bashar Assad's regime. In the past the UK and France have both said that they have proof  the regime has used chemical weapons.

President Barack Obama called chemical weapons use by the Assad government a "red line," while such accusations against the rebels could reinforce Western misgivings about arming them.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin on July 9  blamed opposition fighters for the March 19 attack in the government-controlled Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal, which he said killed 26 people, including 16 government troops, and injured 86 others. Churkin delivered an 80-page report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday. He said Syria asked its ally Russia to investigate the attack because of the impasse with the UN.

The samples taken from the impact site were analyzed at a Russian laboratory, Churkin said, and "there is every reason to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal."

The rebels have blamed the government for the attack. "Evidence provided by parties that support Assad's tyrannical regime with money, weapons, and ammunition is false and clearly fabricated," said the statement by the SNC, a group made up mostly of exiled dissidents.

"The recent Russian analysis on the use of chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal is a desperate attempt by Russia to deceive the world and justify Assad's crimes," it added. "The Syrian people consider Russia (to be) Assad's partner in the murder of innocent Syrian civilians."

The US, Britain and France have said they have seen no evidence that the opposition has acquired or used chemical weapons. All three countries have in the past  year accused the Assad regime of using chemical weapons citing their own tests.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney replied, "We have yet to see any evidence that backs up the assertion that anybody besides the Syrian government has had the ability to use chemical weapons or has used chemical weapons."

The US says it has "high confidence" that Assad's forces have killed up to 150 people with sarin gas.

The Coalition invited the UN to enter areas under rebel control in Syria to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.

On Monday, the Syrian government also invited Ake Sellstrom, head of the UN fact-finding mission on allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria, and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane to visit Damascus for foreign minister level talks on conducting an inquiry into the Khan al-Assal attack alone. The UN has sought wider access.

But up to now the government and UN have not been able to agree on the scope of an inquiry, and there has been no independent investigation.

The war in Syria has so far claimed more than 93,000 lives according to the UN and clashes are continuing unabated.

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Egypt warrant for Muslim Brotherhood leader

Egypt warrant for Muslim Brotherhood leader
Egypt’s authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, and a number of other senior figures. The warrant is part of an escalation of the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
The authorities accuse Badie of inciting the violence that lead resulted in more than 50 deaths outside the Republican Guard headquarters on July 8.
Egypt warrant for Muslim Brotherhood leader

The Brotherhood does not accept the coup that deposed Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first president to emerge from free and democratic election in decades.

On Wednesday, 15 leading Egyptian human rights groups expressed their "strong condemnation of the excessive use of force" against Brotherhood supporters, and called for an independent investigation into Monday's violence.

Morsi was ousted by the army after millions of Egyptians took to the streets at the end of June to ask for his removal. They accused him of trying to islamise the country and of not delivering on his promises to revive the Egyptian economy.

On July 10 the country’s foreign ministry said that ousted Morsi is in a safe place and is being treated in a “very dignified manner.”

Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti told reporters on Wednesday that no charges have been levelled against Morsi. But he says "for his own safety and for the safety of the country, it is better to keep him ... otherwise, consequences will be dire."

Thousands of Brotherhood supporters are staging protests asking for his reinstatement.

Meanwhile, a transition timetable that would take the country to new elections in early 2014 announced by the Egyptian government on July 9 drew a positive response from the US.

While insisting that they have not taken sides in the crisis that has enveloped Egypt over the past week, US officials expressed satisfaction with the plan and urged all Egyptians to take advantage of the opportunity it presents to draft and vote on a new constitution, parliament and president over the next several months.

At the same time, the White House conceded it was struggling to deal with "the elephant in the room," which is balancing a legal requirement to cut off U.S. aid to countries where coups occur and the national security importance of supporting Egypt's military.

On July 10 Kuwait became the latest Gulf state to send a financial lifeline to the new regime. It said it will offer Egypt an aid package worth $4 billion.

The announcement follows a total of $8 billion in grants, loans and badly needed fuel offered from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both are strong critics of ousted President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

But Kuwait has closer ties with the Brotherhood, whose allies have a powerful political faction in the Gulf nation.

Sourche

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Apple faces patent infringement over Siri

Apple faces patent infringement over Siri
Apple faces patent infringement over Siri

Apple has begun a court case in Beijing after the Chinese company Zhizhen Network Technology claimed that Siri, US firm’s intelligent personal assistant, is a copy of their voice system “Xiao i Robot.”

According to Zhizhenm, five Siri-powered Apple products, including the one on iPhone 4S, are a copy of “Xiao i Robot” for iOS and Android, which was first patented in 2004, three years before Siri appeared.

The Chinese firm is not claiming monetary compensation, but it requested that Apple stops developing and selling products which include Siri in China.

Meanwhile, Apple maintains that despite both products work in a similar way, they use different technologies.

"One can achieve the same results through various means. Apple has its own technology for Siri, which is totally different from the plaintiff's,” said Apple’s lawyer.

"Our main goal at the current stage is to let the court validate our claim regarding the infringement,” explained Yuan Yang, a lawyer representing Zhizhen. "We are not ruling out the possibility of mediation or compensation, but they are to be considered in the future,” he added.

Last year, Apple paid $60 million to the paid Chinese computer maker Shenzhen Proview Technology to settle a dispute over the “iPad” name, which was claimed by both companies.

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153rd-ranked Michael Berrer of Germany beats 2009 winner Jeremy Chardy of France in Stuttgart

STUTTGART, Germany (AP)- Michael Berrer of Germany advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercedes Cup by beating third-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-3 Wednesday.
The 153rd-ranked Berrer, who received a wild card into the tournament, saved all four break points he faced against Cardy, who won the title in 2009.

He will next face Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who rallied to beat the eighth-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovakia 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4.

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First Apple computer sells for $387,750 in online auction, shy of $671,400 record

First Apple computer sells for $387,750 in online auction, shy of $671,400 record.
NEW YORK (AP) - An original Apple computer from 1976 has sold at auction for nearly $388,000.

Known as the Apple 1, it was one of the first Apple computers ever built.
It sold on Monday for $387,750 at a Christie's online-only auction. The auction house did not disclose the name of the buyer. The seller was a retired school psychologist from Sacramento, Calif.

The Apple 1 was built by Steve Wozniak. Vintage Apple products have become a hot item since Steve Jobs' death in October 2011. Jobs joined forces with Wozniak to build computer prototypes in a California garage.

Another Apple 1 was sold in May for a record $671,400 by a German auction house. It broke a previous record of $640,000 set in November.
Sourche

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Quebec rail disaster questions safety of oil transport

Quebec rail disaster questions safety of oil transport
A train derailment that devastated a Canadian town is raising questions about the safety of transporting crude oil by rail.
A runaway train that exploded and killed more than a dozen people in a Canadian town is raising safety questions about moving crude oil by rail — just as such transport is taking off in the United States.

To handle the boom in U.S. oil production, notably in North Dakota, the nation's seven major railroads moved nearly 234,000 carloads of crude oil last year. That's up from 66,000 carloads in 2011 and 9,500 in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads which represents large railroads. Another big jump is expected this year.

"We have a strong safety record of moving hazardous materials, including crude oil," says AAR spokeswoman Holly Arthur, adding that the Quebec disaster on Saturday involved a short line — not a major or Class 1 railroad.

Yet the tragic derailment of the train's 73 tanker cars, all but one of which were carrying crude oil from North Dakota, is intensifying the debate over whether President Obama should approve the 875-mile northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Backers says the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline, which would carry heavy crude oil known as tar sands from the Alberta region to the upper Midwest, would be a safer way to carry oil than rail. Critics say the Quebec accident shows neither mode is safe, so the nation should move away from oil.

"This has been an awfully sober reminder that moving crude oil is dangerous. ... The more you move, the more risk there is," says Martin Tallett, president of EnSys Energy, a Massachusetts-based consulting firm that is doing an updated market analysis of the Keystone project for the State Department. He expects the rail explosion will make "people extremely uncomfortable" about moving more crude oil.

Keystone backers say the tragedy underscores the benefit of pipelines. "If this oil shipment had been carried through pipelines, instead of rail, families in Lac-Mégantic would not be grieving for lost loved ones," wrote Diana Furchtgott-Roth in Toronto's Globe and Mail. She's a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, which is partly funded by the fossil-fuel industry.

From 2005 through 2009, Furchtgott-Roth says federal data show that rail has higher rates of serious incidents, injuries and fatalities than pipelines. She says rail had 2.08 incidents per billion ton-miles (a ton of weight moved 1 mile), compared with 0.58 for oil pipelines. In an issue brief released in May, she said Americans are more apt to be struck by lightning than be killed in a pipeline accident.

The State Department, which is reviewing the Keystone project because it crosses a national boundary, cited her findings in its draft environmental review in March. It said even if the pipeline were rejected, it's unlikely to "significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands" because developers could transport the oil by rail or other modes instead.

Arthur says rail may have more small incidents than pipelines, but the average pipeline spill is four times larger than a rail one. She says three-quarters of rail oil spills involved less than 5 gallons in the last decade.

Neither is safe, says Anthony Swift of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group opposed to the Keystone pipeline. He says while rail may be moving an increasing amount of U.S. oil, he says most of it is light crude — not the heavy tar sands extracted in Canada.

A Goldman Sachs analysis last month said that moving tar sands by rail is difficult and costlier, because it's heavier (rail cars have weight limits) and requires specially made rail cars that can heat the viscous oil.

Swift says the Quebec accident doesn't bolster the State Department's argument that rail is a feasible pipeline alternative for transporting tar sands. Obama is expected later this year to decide whether to approve the billion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline.

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IRS to cancel employee bonuses in 'cost-cutting'

Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel prepares to testify on Capitol Hill
The new head of the Internal Revenue Service told employees Tuesday he wants to eliminate employee bonuses in a cost-cutting move.

"In this unprecedented budget situation, I do not believe the IRS should pay performance awards this year to employees, managers or executives," acting Commissioner Danny Werfel told employees in an e-mail. He said the elimination of bonuses was not a reflection on the quality of work done by the agency, and that eliminating the bonuses could allow the IRS to avoid two furlough days this summer.

The IRS' largest bonus program gave performance-based awards to 55,643 employees in fiscal year 2011, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. The average award was $1,557, for a total of $86.6 million.

The nation's tax collection agency has been under increasing scrutiny amid a number of scandals involving the treatment of conservative non-profit groups, lavish spending at conferences and improper contracts.

The bonuses, too, have come under congressional scrutiny, in part because some of the officials responsible for targeting Tea Party groups continued to receive bonuses.

"While efforts to block the bonuses are welcome news, actions speak louder than words," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "In my view, the IRS should not be paying out bonuses especially now when it's under multiple congressional investigations for targeting conservative groups."

Werfel said he has already canceled bonuses for managers and is looking to eliminate them for senior officials as well. He said the agency is in talks with the National Treasury Employees Union to eliminate bonuses for unionized employees as well.

"IRS employees are dedicated and hard-working professionals who perform important and difficult work for our country," union President Colleen Kelley said in a statement. "Employees have already earned these awards. The awards that are due are based on employee performance evaluations for work already performed beginning in 2012."

The IRS is scheduled to be closed July 22 and Aug. 30 because of automatic government-wide spending cuts — commonly known as "sequestration" — enacted in 2011. "If the IRS cancels the remaining furlough days, all employees would be paid on those days," wrote Werfel, whom President Obama tapped to head the agency in May after the resignation of the previous acting commissioner. "Even more importantly, it would mean the IRS would remain open on those days to serve taxpayers and meet the needs of the nation's tax system."

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Media can't let Snowden drama overshadow substance

It was inevitable that as the Edward Snowden saga played out, media attention would shift from the former National Security Agency contactor's dramatic revelations to the leaker himself.

First came the flurry of stories debating whether Snowden was a heroic whistle-blower or a traitor. In recent weeks, attention has focused on his frantic attempts to find refuge: Leaving Hawaii for Hong Kong. Washing up in Russia. Languishing in Sheremetyevo airport. Weighing offers of safe haven from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua,

Worthy subjects, to be sure. The identity and character of the man who leaked so many secrets about the United States government's surveillance programs are certainly fair game. So is the fascinating cat-and-mouse maneuvering as Snowden tries to elude U.S. efforts to bring him to justice.

What's important is not to let the focus on Snowden the man and Snowden the fugitive overshadow the substance of his leaks. The documents Snowden has released reveal massive and covert government surveillance efforts. The gathering of "telephony metadata" and e-mails of so many U.S. citizens with absolutely no suspected links to terrorism is a significant erosion of privacy that desperately needs to be aired.

But to the surprise of absolutely no one, the Snowden screenplay has largely dominated the coverage as scrutiny of the substance has subsided.

A recent New York Times piece is a vivid reminder both of why the actual leaks shouldn't remain on the back burner, and how Snowden's actions have had an important impact by bringing the surveillance programs out of the shadows.

On Sunday, The Times' lead story reported that the supersecret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court "has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say."

The story said that the 11-member court, whose original focus was approving government wiretap requests case by case, had now become "almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said."

This is a huge deal. The court hears only the government's side before making its decisions. It almost always gives the government what it wants. Its proceedings are secret. And yet this body is shaping a body of law that affects the civil liberties of all Americans.

The far-reaching scope and power of this opaque outfit represent a massive departure from what has generally thought to be the American rule of law.

This is a subject that should receive prominent attention on the nation's front pages and home pages. It should be fodder for the endless pundit wars on cable, right up there with the latest hiccup in the George Zimmerman trial. It shouldn't be the sole province of the executive branch of government and pliant judges with no accountability.

There was an immediate frisson of reaction when Snowden's disclosures first appeared in Britain's Guardian newspaper and in The Washington Post. The Obama administration was forced to play defense, saying that a national debate over surveillance was in order and ordering up a review of the controversial programs.

But there has been nothing like the massive outpouring of national revulsion that would be needed to bring about immediate change. Polls show the public is decidedly mixed on the subject. In the wake of 9/11, if the government asserts giving up some of your freedom will make you safer, many people are OK with that.

Gene Roberts, the great journalist who was once managing editor of The New York Times and executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, likes to talk about stories that don't so much erupt as "ooze." And it may be that government spying is one of those.

While the issue is hardly at the top of the charts, it is now a matter of public discourse, which it certainly wasn't pre-Snowden. That New York Times lead story is no doubt a result of the new landscape the slacker/leaker has created.

And it's not over yet. On Tuesday, for example, a former member of the surveillance court, appearing before the board set up by President Obama to examine government surveillance, testified that the secret judicial process was deeply flawed. "Anyone who has been a judge will tell you a judge needs to hear both sides of a case," said ex-judge James Robertson.

Ya think?
More significant, it may well be that more disturbing disclosures loom. In response to a column by Politico's Dylan Byers suggesting that the surveillance story was fizzling out, the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who has broken many of the Snowden scoops, e-mailed Byers, "There are many more domestic stories coming, and big ones, and soon."

It's way too soon to consider this case closed.

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Investors eye Wednesday release of Fed minutes

The micro-analysis of what the Federal Reserve is thinking kicks into high gear Wednesday, with more Fed-speak that could offer clues about when it might start pulling back on its market-friendly stimulus.
The Fed will release minutes of its June 18-19 meeting, and Chairman Ben Bernanke is giving a speech. "All eyes should be on the Fed," says Karee Venema, an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

The Fed roiled markets the last time they released minutes, on May 22, when they first hinted at cutting back later this year on their aggressive bond-buying program, which has pushed borrowing costs lower and stock prices higher. On June 19, the Fed reiterated its plans to start "tapering" its $85 billion in monthly purchases of mortgage-backed bonds and long-term Treasury notes in coming months. Bernanke said it could be wound down completely by mid-2014 if the unemployment rate, now 7.6%, dips to 7%, as the Fed expects.

Friday's strong June jobs report has Wall Street expecting the Fed, which meets July 30-31, to start pulling back as early as its September meeting. Investors blinked at the initial thought of less Fed support, with stock market falling almost 6%. But strong job gains and recent signs of an improving economy have sparked a rally that has stocks back near record highs.

We're looking for "any hints of the exact timing and size of the tapering of the Fed's asset purchases," says Paul Dales of Capital Economics.

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Where new bank rules may go to die

Where new bank rules may go to die,Delamaide
It appears that the government office designed to make federal rule-making more efficient is one of the most inefficient agencies in Washington.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs submits major new regulations from executive branch agencies to a cost-benefit analysis on the basis of an executive order first issued by President Reagan in 1981.

In practice, this obscure department in the Office of Management and Budget has often become a back door for industry to obstruct safety, health and environmental rules it finds too costly.

A new report, "Down the Regulatory Rabbit Hole," describes how OIRA has failed to meet its 90-day deadline on 70 of the 120 rules it has under review.

Some rules have languished for months and even years with no explanation for the delay, according to the report, published in June by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards – a group of more than 150 labor unions, small business and consumer groups, and liberal think tanks.

And now, "bipartisan" legislation introduced into the Senate in June would bring even independent regulatory agencies under OIRA's baleful control, submitting them to a White House supervision that their designation as "independent" is supposed to block.

That would mean that key Wall Street regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) would have to clear even higher hurdles to rein in the banks and prevent another financial crisis.

The SEC in particular, working at its own glacially slow pace, has already missed many of the deadlines for rule-making set by Congress in the Dodd-Frank financial reform, and other agencies are struggling to keep to the timetable set by the law.

Requiring new rules from these financial regulators to undergo OIRA review would mean further delays — to the gratification of a banking industry that is already doing its utmost to sabotage regulatory reform.

The reason for delays in OIRA reviews, the CSS report suggests, is not hard to discern.

A rule that seeks to protect workers from silica dust, for example, was sent to OIRA in February 2011 and has yet to pass review. In that time, the agency has met with outside groups 11 times to discuss the rule — nine of those meetings were with industry groups opposed to the regulation.

The Senate bill, "Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act of 2013," introduced by Ohio Republican Rob Portman — who was touted as a potential vice presidential nominee in the 2012 presidential election — seeks to put new financial regulations through the same wringer.

Cosponsors are Maine Republican Susan Collins and Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, who made a fortune as a venture capitalist in telecommunications and who often sides with Republicans on economic issues.

Late last month, the Senate approved a new administrator for OIRA, Howard Shelanski, who has a doctorate in economics and a law degree and most recently has served as chief economist at the Federal Trade Commission.

Under questioning, Shelanski pledged to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., that he would do his utmost to reduce OIRA's backlog and that after his time at the FTC he cherished the independence of independent regulatory agencies.

But Shelanski also pledged to Portman that he would seek to reduce what the Ohio senator characterized as the exceptionally high cost of new regulations imposed by the Obama administration, and he did not demur when Portman mentioned his plan to bring independent agencies under OIRA review.

Even for the executive branch, agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are already subject to OIRA review. However, a cost-benefit analysis as a litmus test for new regulations is questionable.

"It systematically overestimates regulatory costs," Sidney Shapiro, a law professor at Wake Forest University and an expert on regulatory policy, wrote in a blog on the Shelanski hearing, "while underestimating — and even ignoring outright — important regulatory benefits, particularly those benefits — such as protecting human lives, children's health, and ecological integrity — that cannot be meaningfully reduced to dollar-and-cents terms."

In terms of financial regulation, how do you measure the benefit of preventing the lost jobs, lost savings, the foreclosures, the disrupted careers, even in some cases, the ruined lives caused by a severe financial crisis like the one that broke in 2008 due to the reckless behavior of a deregulated banking industry?

Lawmakers should give that considerable thought before submitting financial regulatory agencies to OIRA's tender mercies.

Even if the highly qualified Shelanski manages to improve the agency's efficiency and end its anti-regulatory bias, there is no justification for rule-making by independent financial regulators to face addititonal hurdles.

Darrell Delamaide has reported on business and economics from New York, Paris, Berlin and Washington for Dow Jones news service, Barron's, Institutional Investor and Bloomberg News service, among others. He is the author of four books, including the financial thriller Gold.
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YouHosting Job Offer

YouHosting is looking for staff!

We are expanding our hosting brand Hostinger worldwide and looking for new members to join our team. If you're looking for a challenging career in the web hosting industry, we are is the company for you.

How do we create such a dynamic and enjoyable work environment?
* We only hire great people.
* Our employees are dependable and reliable.
* We encourage learning additional skills.
* The management team actually cares.
* We all work from the comfort of our home

Sound like a team you'd like to be part of? Excellent - because we'd love to meet you!

We offer job positions if your native language is one of these:
- Japanese
- Greek
- Czech
- Hungarian
- Swedish
- Danish
- Finnish
- Slovak
- Norwegian
- Croatian
- Slovene
- Latvian
- Estonian
- Hebrew


General Requirements:
* Fluent in your native language.
* Good in English.
* Customer service skills.
* Love of helping people and love for the Internet!
* Phone & Computer Microphone for Skype.
* Responsible person who can work remotely and independently with little direct supervision.
* Good communicator and able to follow instructions.

Responsibilities:
* Copy write and translate texts, emails products etc. from English to your native language.
* Provide support to our shared, reseller, and vps web hosting customers via our ticket system.
* Assist our server managers with any stability and load related issues on servers.

Technical Requirements:
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* Basic experience with a broad set of web hosting topics and popular open source software (Wordpress, Drupal, phpBB, etc.)
* Basic experience with Apache, MySQL, PHP.

Salary:
The available position is part-time: 5-20 hours per week (it is 1-4 hours per day).
Monthly salary is offered in following intervals and depends of your work load:

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3 work hours per day: €300 or $390
4 work hours per day: €400 or $550

Additional bonus of 5% of all your country sales is available for the best employees, so you can double, triple, etc. your salary easy!

We also require you to word full time (8 hours per day) for first month and translate all texts into your native language for one time salary of €800 or $1100.

To apply, please send a motivational letter and CV (in English language) to hrm@hostinger.com with the name of your native language in Subject field. Your motivational letter does NOT have to be extensive, but it should tell us something about you and what sets you apart from the rest of the qualified candidates.

Only selected applicants will be contacted.

Thank you!www.youhosting.com

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Cyberattacks are the bank robberies of the future

Cyberattacks are the bank robberies of the future

Cyberattacks are the bank robberies of the future
Cybercriminals working in underground black markets can make money from buying and selling your bank account information long before it is ever used to steal money.

Bank robbers don't rob banks anymore. They don't need guns, and they don't wear masks. Instead, they hide behind their computer screens and cover their digital tracks.

In today's world, there are multiple ways for cybercriminals to make money long before cash is actually transferred out of a bank account. Robbing a bank has become one of the last cogs in a much broader operation.

Online theft is almost always part of a much grander scheme. Though sometimes a high-skilled individual or single group of cybercriminals will handle all parts of an operation, most cybercrime is split up into several steps, each handled by a different player, according to Vikram Thakur, a principal manager at Symantec Security Response.

Most bank account thefts begin with a single malware developer who sells malicious software on an underground black market to hackers.

On those dark channels of the Internet, criminal hackers can buy tools to steal users' bank account credentials, services to bring down websites, or viruses to infect computers.

"There's more variety and more choices than me going to my local Costco," said Raj Samani, a chief technical officer at the security company McAfee.

 It is easier than ever before to find and use these services, Samani said. Hiring a criminal hacker is easy, because today's malware requires hackers to have little technological knowledge to infect hundreds or thousands of computers.

And some services are fairly cheap. For instance, getting a hold of 1 million email addresses can cost just $111. That means there are more and more cybercriminals hoping to get in on an operation.

 Once unsuspecting victims' credentials or bank account information has been collected, hackers may resell that data to someone who repackages it in a useful way and redistributes it on the black market.

Not all information has equal value. Often criminals are looking for credentials of wealthy individuals with accounts at financial institutions where they are familiar with the security systems.

"All the mature, smart criminals sell the goods to somebody else and cut themselves out of the operation, out of the cross hairs," said Thakur.

Up to this point in the operation, no money has been stolen -- but thousands or millions of dollars have already exchanged hands.

The cybercriminal who ultimately buys the bank account information may use it to transfer money out -- but that's a much higher-risk endeavor.

At this stage of the heist, cybercriminals may hire a "money mule" to increase what distance still exists between them and the act of cashing out. Mules sometimes use international wire transfers, make online purchases with stolen credit cards or actually go to the ATM using a stolen PIN and a spoofed debit card.

Money mules are often given a small share of the takings for their work, despite the fact that they're the easiest targets for law enforcement.

"There's a huge shortage of those people because they're actually at risk of being caught," said Thakur.

 Most of us have at one time or another discovered our debit or credit card was used somewhere across the country. But even if the thieves take money from your account undetected, your financial institution typically covers the loss.

"Even though the threat is substantial, it does not always translate to people losing money," said Thakur.

And the banks are getting better at stopping breaches so that it's harder for criminals to successfully take money out at all.

The number of breaches have gone up slightly over the past year, but the trend is uneven. The Identity Theft Resource Center tracked 662 breaches at both banking and non-financial institutions in 2010, 419 breaches in 2011, and 470 breaches last year.

Financial institutions have gotten 10 times better at preventing data breaches since 1990, said Doug Johnson, vice president of risk management policy at the American Bankers Association.

"It's not a straight march forward," said Johnson. "But I think we clearly recognized that electronic fraud is going to increase."

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The four-day work week

The four-day work week

The four-day work week
What would you do with your time if you only had to work four, three, or even two days a week?

Decades ago, experts predicted we would all be working just 14 to 15 hours a week by now, and would have so much free time, we wouldn't even know what to do with ourselves.

 Instead, U.S. workers have been stuck with the official 40-hour workweek -- or even longer for many of us -- since 1938, in order to finance our ever-expensive lifestyles.

The predictions: Back in 1930, renowned economist John Maynard Keynes predicted technological advancements would mean we would all eventually work just 15 hours a week. That same year, evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley predicted the two-day work week. Both men warned that someday, we would have so much leisure time, we would be bored out of our minds.

"The human being can consume so much and no more," Huxley said in 1930. "When we reach the point when the world produces all the goods that it needs in two days, as it inevitably will, we must curtail our production of goods and turn our attention to the great problem of what to do with our new leisure."

More recently, a 1965 Senate subcommittee predicted we would be working 14 hours a week by the year 2000, with at least seven weeks of vacation time.

The reality: These great thinkers were right about one thing. Technological progress has made workers more productive than ever before.

Yet rather than cutting the work week gradually over time (like the Europeans did), productivity gains have fueled a consumerism boom in the United States. So instead of taking time off, Americans are just buying much more stuff.

Benjamin Hunnicutt, a historian at the University of Iowa, calls the shorter workweek the "forgotten American dream."

 "New marketing techniques of corporate America were able to convince us to buy things we had never seen before and had never needed before," he said. "Work was valorized -- elevated to the center of life more so than it ever had been before, and leisure was demoted and trivialized."

Meanwhile, income gains have been disproportionately distributed throughout the economy. Middle-class wages have largely remained stagnant since the 1980s, after adjusting for inflation, whereas the top 1% richest Americans have captured much of the wealth.

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World economy stuck in neutral: IMF

The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for world economic growth for a third time this year due to slowing emerging markets and a prolonged recession in the eurozone.

In an update to its World Economic Outlook, the IMF said Tuesday that it now expects world output to expand by just 3.1% in 2013, down from 3.3% in April. In January, it was forecasting growth of 3.5%.

 The revision means the global economy will have failed to pick up pace over the past two years, although the IMF expects a slight acceleration in growth in 2014 to 3.8%.

Since its last global report in April, the IMF has cut its 2013 growth forecasts for the U.S. and China to 1.7% and 7.8%, respectively. And it now expects the eurozone economy -- mired in its longest recession -- to shrink by 0.6% this year, double the rate of contraction forecast in April.

"While old risks remain, new risks have emerged, including the possibility of a longer growth slowdown in emerging market economies," the IMF said, pointing to slowing credit growth and the possibility that capital will return to the U.S. if the Federal Reserve begins to unwind its policy of buying government bonds to keep interest rates low.
World economy stuck in neutral

 The European Central Bank said last week it had a downward bias on interest rates and would maintain that stance "for an extended period," given the challenge the region faces in balancing the goal of further reducing government borrowing with the need to stimulate activity to bring down record levels of unemployment.

Germany, the region's biggest economy, provided a stark reminder Monday of the mountain Europe still has to climb. Its exports to the eurozone fell by 9.6% in May compared with the same month last year, and by 1.6% to countries outside Europe.

In a separate report on the eurozone last week, the IMF warned that fragmented financial markets and the high cost of borrowing in peripheral nations was depressing activity across the region.

It called on European leaders to do more to repair bank balance sheets, complete work on a banking union, provide further support to the economy via easy monetary policy and show more flexibility on austerity while preserving medium-term debt reduction goals.

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Investors pull $14.5 billion from PIMCO in June

Investors pull $14.5 billion from PIMCO in June
Investors at PIMCO, which manages the world's largest bond fund, yanked $14.5 billion from the Newport Beach, Calif.-based fund complex in June, according to Morningstar fund tracker.

PIMCO
Total Return, run by star manager Bill Gross, accounted for $9.9 billion of outflows -- about 3.5% of the fund's assets at the end of May. The fund fell 2.6% in June, Morningstar says, its worst monthly performance since 2008.

The redemptions were the biggest since Morningstar began keeping records in 1993, according to Reuters.

Bond funds have been hit hard since the May 2 low in the 10-year Treasury note yield. Bond prices fall when interest rates rise, and rates have risen a full percentage point since May 2 to 2.63%.

The scope of the bond outflows is huge. For example, iShares iBoxx $ Invesment Grade Corporate Bond fund, an exchange-traded fund, had $22.7 billion in assets the end of May. It has $19.3 billion now, a $3.4 billion decline. The fund's value has fallen 3.7% since May 30, including reinvested dividends.

Intermediate-term bond funds were the biggest losers in June, shedding an estimated $21.5 billion, according to Lipper, which tracks the funds. Investors pulled $13.5 billion from high-yield junk-bond funds.

Morningstar analysts Tim Strauts and Eric Jacobson, however, say that the turbulence in the bond market is no reason to sell PIMCO Total Return, as the fund has an excellent long-term track record and solid management.

Allianz SE, the European money manager, owns PIMCO. The firms' combined assets were $2.04 trillion. "PIMCO is a long-term investor and the Total Return Fund has been one of the top performing intermediate bond funds during the fund's 26-year history, delivering investor value over a myriad market cycles," says PIMCO spokesman Mark Porterfield.

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FTC hits debt collection agency with $3.2M fine

The Federal Trade Commission fined Expert Global Solutions, the world's largest debt collection agency, $3.2 million Tuesday for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The FTC's complaint says that Expert Global Solutions called consumers multiple times each day, morning and night, even when consumers asked them to stop. The company also called consumers' workplaces, even though their employers prohibited such calls, and left messages about the debt with third parties.

"The key practice we saw was calling too much," says Christopher Koegel of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.


The company also continued collection efforts, even when the consumer denied owing it. Under the order, the company must either cease collection efforts when a consumer contests the claim, or suspend efforts until it has completed a reasonable investigation into the consumer's claim.

The company must also:

    Stop falsely claiming that they will not call a number to collect a debt
    Not harass or abuse a person while trying to collect a debt
    Not contact third parties about a person's debt
    Not call a person's workplace if it's prohibited by employer
    Cease communications if a person has requested no further contact
    Record at least 75% of all their debt collection calls beginning one year after the date of the order, and retain the recordings for 90 days after they are made.

The complaint against Expert Global Solutions, based in Plano, Texas, should be a warning to other debt collection agencies against using aggressive tactics. "We receive more complaints about debt collection than any other industry," says Koegel. "The whole industry should sit up and take notice that the FTC is taking this very seriously."

Since 2010, the FTC has pursued about 15 debt-collection cases, collecting $52.5 million in judgments, Koegel says.

If you're curious about your rights when dealing with debt collectors, check out www.consumer.ftc.gov.

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IMF scales back world growth forecasts for 2013-14

The International Monetary Fund forecast slower global growth for 2013 and 2014, citing expectations of a more protracted recession in Europe and a slowdown in key developing countries such as China and Brazil.

The update of the IMF's World Economic Outlook issued three months ago now projects the world economy will grow at 3.1% this year, the same rate as last year and down from a forecast of 3.3% three months ago. The 2014 forecast was cut to 3.8% from 4.0%.

The IMF said new risks had emerged since April, including the possibility of a more drawn-out slowdown in developing country economies.


Another potential drag on global growth is the possibility that the U.S. will scale back its injections of cash to stimulate the economy in coming months. With markets already anticipating that, the IMF said some developing countries are already feeling the effects in the form of falling share prices and depreciating currencies.

A recession in the 17 countries that use the euro currency is shaping up to be deeper than expected, another factor pulling down the forecast, the IMF said. The eurozone is now expected to contract by 0.6% this year, compared to the April forecast for a 0.4% decline.

The U.S. economy also looks weaker than previously expected, the IMF said, citing tight fiscal and financial conditions.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde has been frequently criticizing the U.S. for cutting government spending, saying it has been slashing too much, too fast. She has blasted the so-called sequester — the automatic across-the-board spending cuts instituted in March because Congress could not agree at that time on a budget and debt deal.

The IMF lowered forecasts for U.S growth to 1.7% in 2013, down from 1.9% in April, and to 2.7% for 2014 down from 2.9%. One reason cited was the sequester remaining in place until 2014, longer than previously projected.

China and Brazil, among the developing countries, saw significant downward revisions. China's 2013 forecast was scaled back to 7.8% compared to 8.1% in April. For 2014, it fell to 7.7% from 8.3%. Brazil was lowered to 2.5% in 2013 from 3.0% in April and 3.2% for 2014 compared to 4.0% previously.

Some developing economies in the Middle East and North Africa are weighed down by difficult political transitions, the report said.

Japan bucked the trend. The IMF revised its 2013 growth forecast up to 2.0% from 1.5% in April.

The IMF advised wealthier countries to take advantage of stronger global growth to restructure their economies and bring debt down to sustainable levels.
Sourche

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10 Global 500 CEO strangers in strange lands

Only 14% of this year's Global 500 CEOs come from countries other than their corporate homelands. Meet 10 non-native Global 500 chief execs who have beaten the odds and climbed to the top of their org charts.
10 Global 500 CEO strangers in strange lands
Indra Nooyi was born and educated in Chennai, India, received an MBA at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and made her way to Yale to earn yet another MBA, which she completed in 1980.

After stints at Boston Consulting Group and Motorola, Nooyi joined PepsiCo's (PEP, Fortune 500) strategy and development team as an SVP in 1994. She moved her way up the ranks at the company and was named CEO in October 2006. PepsiCo has made major investments in India, China, and Russia. In 2011, PepsiCo acquired Russian yogurt company Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods for $4.2 billion, giving it a major opening into the Eastern European market.

Nooyi has also focused on bolstering PepsiCo's nutritional reputation abroad. "I grew up in an emerging market, and I cannot forget that," Nooyi told Fortune in 2004, when she was CFO of the company. "I have a basic belief that positive nutrition is important in developing markets."

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Crowdfunding for adoptions, fertility treatments

Crowdfunding buys $60,000
Crowdfunding buys $60,000
Hopeful parents to be are turning to crowdfunding sites to raise thousands of dollars from friends, family and even complete strangers.

Campaigns for adoptions and fertility treatments on crowdfunding site GoFundMe.com have raised nearly $1.1 million since the site's inception in May 2010, while this year alone, around 100 campaigns have been started on GiveForward.com.

Jessica and Sean Haley's one-year-old son, Landon, is often referred to as the first "crowdfunded baby." In a 2011 campaign on site Indiegogo, the Melbourne Fla., couple, raised $8,050 from more than 130 people that helped pay for their fertility treatments.

"Twenty years ago this wouldn't have happened," Jessica Haley said. "Because of the Internet, that's why we have Landon."

 Fertility treatments can range from an average of $865 for an intrauterine insemination (or IUI) cycle to around $8,158 for a round of the more complicated in vitro fertilization (or IVF), while the medications used between treatments can add thousands of dollars to the bill, according to non-profit RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.

Making matters worse, many couples undergo multiple procedures with no guarantee of success and insurance companies rarely pick up the bill.

Only 29% of couples polled in 2012 by RESOLVE said they had received insurance coverage to help cover infertility or adoption expenses in the past year, while more than 70% were dipping into their savings, and nearly 40% were using credit cards.

Brian Gibson and his wife Ashlee, spent close to $4,000 on doctor visits and fertility drugs before they decided to try IUI procedures, which doctors told them will cost between $1,500 and $2,000 per month.

"We didn't know how we could afford it," said Ashlee Gibson, an elementary school teacher. "I just remember going home and crying."

After a friend suggested crowdfunding, the Mesa, Ariz., couple created "Operation: Baby," a campaign on GoFundme.com in March. So far, the couple has raised $3,700 of their $10,000 goal.

 Couples who go the adoption route often end up paying even more, with costs ranging from $2,500 to more than $40,000 -- depending on the type of adoption, placement agency and the child's age and circumstances, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Typical expenses include home study costs, which entail family interviews and visits to the home, adoption agency fees and legal and court costs. International adoptions involve even more fees, as well as travel expenses.

There are ways to offset those costs. Some employers reimburse adoption expenses and there are nonprofits that offer grants. There's also a federal tax credit of nearly $13,000 per child for out-of-pocket adoption expenses. Yet many people are still intimidated by the expense, said Hank Fortener, a Los Angeles based pastor and adoption advocate.

 In January 2012, Fortener founded AdoptTogether, the first nonprofit crowdfunding site devoted to adoption. So far, the site has raised $1 million for 300 adoptive families.

Thanks to the 501(c)3 status of the site's parent organization, the Hoping Hearts Foundation, all donations are tax deductible. Run by volunteers, its expenses, such as web hosting and credit card transaction fees, are paid through separate fundraising efforts so that funds designated to families go directly toward adoption expenses.

Other, more mainstream crowdfunding platforms charge transaction fees, usually around 5%, and additional credit card processing fees can apply. Donations typically aren't tax deductible.
sourche

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New Twinkies will double their shelf life

New Twinkies will double their shelf life
Good news for Twinkies hoarders. Not only are Twinkies coming back to store shelves on Monday, but once there they'll have almost twice the shelf life the old Twinkies did.

The new Hostess Brands, which bought the rights and recipe to make Twinkies and other Hostess snacks out of bankruptcy court earlier this year, says that when Twinkies return they'll have a 45-day shelf life. That's significantly longer than the 26-day shelf life they previously had.

A long shelf life for the cream-filled sponge cake is part of the mythology of the iconic snack food. A 2012 Super Bowl ad for Chevy pick-up trucks made fun of predictions of the end of the world later that year, suggesting only Chevy trucks and Twinkies would survive the looming apocalypse.

Some Twinkies will have an even longer lifespan than 45 days. Hostess said it will start freezing about 10% of its shipments to retailers. However, shoppers won't be able to buy frozen Twinkies. Instead, retailers will store the frozen cakes then thaw them out for sale, stamping their own expiration date on the package.

Hostess spokeswoman Hannah Arnold said that only retailers who ask for frozen shipments will get them, that the rest will get the traditional "fresh" product. She said the freezing process will not affect the taste of the Twinkies.

Related: Start the countdown! Twinkies return to shelves July 15

The new Twinkies will also be found in significantly more stores. They were in about 50,000 stores nationwide when the company shutdown, but the target is now to reach 110,000 locations by the end of this year.

The former Hostess Brands shut operations and liquidated its various holdings after a strike by the bakers' union in November last year. The shutdown started a run on Twinkies and other products by its fans.

The longer shelf-life isn't strictly new -- the former Hostess Brands changed the recipe to extend the shelf-life on Nov. 1 last year. But those products were made for little more than a week before the company ceased operations. Hostess won't disclose the change in the recipe that allows it to extend the shelf life.

Other products that were made by Hostess before the shutdown, including Wonder Bread, Drake's snacks and other brands of bread, were purchased by other bidders during the auction overseen by the bankruptcy court. The details of when those products will return to shelves are not yet available.
Sourche

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NYSE operator takes over administration of LIBOR key bank lending rate

The company behind the New York Stock Exchange will take over running and restoring confidence in the scandal-hit London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, a UK committee has ruled.

The independent panel, set up by the UK Treasury, on Tuesday chose NYSE Euronext to take over LIBOR from the British Bankers’ Association, which had supervised the rate-setting for decades. The changeover is scheduled to be completed by early 2014, the panel’s chair, Baroness Sarah Hogg, said in a statement. The panel did not identify other bidders.


“This change will play a vital role in restoring the international credibility of LIBOR,” she said in a statement.

LIBOR underpins trillions of dollars of transactions all over the world. It is an average rate that measures how much they expect to pay each other for loans. The rate is also used in calculating borrowing costs of hundreds of trillions of dollars in loans and investments such as bonds, auto loans and derivatives.

But the rate was underpinned on trust — an honor system that relied on the banks to be honest. Revelations of its manipulation last summer both shocked the financial community and forced a reform in how it was administered.

The scandal emerged when authorities realized banks — including Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and UBS — were submitting false data to gain market advantages.

U.S. and U.K. regulators fined RBS more than $460 million for rate-rigging. Barclays’ role led to a $453 million fine and the resignation of chief executive, Bob Diamond. Swiss bank UBS was fined $1.5 billion.

After the scandal erupted, the government moved to restore confidence in LIBOR’s integrity, establishing the panel to review the rate and creating criminal penalties for those who violate the rules.

“We want to protect taxpayers and restore faith in financial services,” financial secretary to the Treasury Greg Clark said in a statement.

“The government is committed to developing a safer and strong banking sector. We want a financial sector that serves the interests of business and helps to drive economic growth.”

The rate will be administered by NYSE Euronext Rate Administration Limited, a new subsidiary of NYSE Euronext.

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George Zimmerman trial: Race is a subtext, not the focus

George Zimmerman
Thousands streamed into Fort Mellon Park, hard against the south shore of Lake Monroe, on that night in March 2012.

An unarmed African American teenager in a “hoodie” sweatshirt had been killed the month before in this central Florida city, but the agitated crowd felt echoes of another era. “Trayvon Martin is Emmett Till!” radio commentator Mark Thompson declared, evoking the name of an African American teen murdered in 1950s Mississippi after being accused of flirting with a white woman. “This is racism perpetrated by violence.”



An uncomfortable national conversation about race and justice had been touched off — in Sanford, at a “Million Hoodie March” in New York and when President Obama called for “soul-searching” and said if he had a son, “he’d look like Trayvon.”

Yet, 16 months later, this case that was so entwined with race has produced a murder trial in which race is a subtext rather than a central theme.

Prosecutors have portrayed George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch enthusiast who shot the 17-year-old Martin, as being many things: profane, mendacious, overzealous, violent. But they haven’t called Zimmerman, who is claiming that he acted in self-defense, a racist. Instead of becoming a meditation on race, the courtroom action is unfolding as a police procedural, a saga of guns and vigilantism, a glimpse of civic rage and frustration.

Outside the courtroom, the case is still widely perceived in racial terms.

Some here had hoped for more from this trial, which entered its seventh day of testimony Tuesday. They had envisioned a trial filled with testimony that more overtly deepened our collective understanding of race in America or placed the crime more squarely in a racial paradigm. “It makes you feel kind of angry and kind of bad that race is not a part of this,” said the Rev. Harrold C. Daniels, who has been attending the trial as part of a biracial group of Sanford pastors. “It’s a missed opportunity.”

The almost complete absence of race from the proceedings stems from practical and legal considerations. Attorneys for Martin’s family explored the possibility of pressing for a hate-crime charge against Zimmerman, Daryl D. Parks, who represents Martin’s parents, said in an interview. But they kept coming up empty.

“There was not enough evidence to say that [Zimmerman] made this decision based on race,” Parks said. “On the facts of this case, you can’t say it was based on race. . . . We strategically don’t want it to be about race. . . . It wouldn’t be wise to portray him as a racist.”

The role of race was limited by Judge Debra Nelson, who is overseeing the trial, which is playing out before a courtroom jammed with spectators who line up each morning for seats. Nelson ruled that prosecutors could not say that Zimmerman, who has white and Hispanic parents, “racially profiled” Martin. Instead, she said, they could only say he was “profiled.”

“That is not a racially charged term unless it’s made so, and we do not intend to make it a racially charged term,” prosecutor John Guy told Nelson, noting that a person could be profiled for many other reasons. “We don’t intend to say that he was solely profiled because of race.”

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Mandela family feud angers South Africa

Mandela family feud angers South Africa
Mandla Mandela, center, grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela, sits with the elders of Qunu during the funeral of his relative 97-year-old Florence Mandela on June 15, 2013 in Qunu. Nelson Mandela's family sought criminal charges of grave tampering against the former South African president's oldest grandson on July 2, 2013, amid an escalating row linked to the eventual.

It seems like a storyline from a lurid soap opera. The remains of an aging patriarch’s three deceased children are secretly moved from their graves in a family plot. Years later, other family members go to court to have the bodies returned. The messy fight — over legacy, money, and traditions — unfolds as the patriarch lies critically ill, unable to intervene.



Only this is not fiction, and the patriarch is Nelson Mandela.
As the anti-apartheid icon fights for survival in a hospital, his family is clashing over where and how he is to be buried. The squabble is playing out in newspapers, online and on TV, angering a nation gripped with grief and praying collectively for their beloved 94-year-old former president to remain with them longer.

The family feud is precisely the sort of drama Mandela had sought to avoid in his later years. He had withdrawn from public life to Qunu, a remote village where he grew up, eager to spend his last days in peace.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Edward Kutoane, 37, a security guard who was playing with his toddler son steps away from Mandela’s old house, now a museum. “It violates the very principles the old man lived by. He lived a peaceful life with respect for others. We expected his children and grandchildren to be the same, but they have forgotten where they come from.”

The fight over the graves is the latest chapter in a family saga over Mandela’s legacy and what he passes on. In recent months, two of his daughters have sued to gain control of companies set up by a Mandela trust that is reportedly worth millions of dollars, while other relatives have marketed Mandela’s name and image in other commercial ventures, even in a television reality show called “Being Mandela.”

A South African high court judge last week ruled that a group of 16 relatives and senior clan members of Mandela could exhume the remains of his three children and return them to Qunu. The plot there includes a grave prepared for Mandela, who has expressed that he wanted to be buried next to his children.

But Mandla Mandela, his eldest grandson, is contesting the court ruling. In 2011, he allegedly moved the remains to his home in Mvezo, a village about 14 miles from Qunu. Mwezo is where Nelson Mandela was born. Neither the family nor the elders of Mandela’s clan were consulted. The remains in question include Makaziwe, Mandela’s first daughter who died when she was nine months old; Thembekile, who was killed in a 1969 car accident; and Makgatho, Mandla’s father, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 2005.

The family fight grew more tense this week. Reports emerged that Mandela’s relatives have lodged a criminal complaint against Mandla, accusing him of illegal grave tampering.

Where Mandela is buried could determine who will lead Mandela’s family after his death. Mandla, who is the oldest male heir, is the local tribal chief of Mwezo as well as a lawmaker with the ruling African National Congress. Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe, who was given the same name as her deceased sister and is the elder of his surviving children, is widely seen as a leader of the family. In recent months, she has appeared more outspoken, giving interviews about her father’s condition and criticizing foreign media’s handling of the story.

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Rare mix of events may have overtaken 19 firefighters

Rare mix of events may have overtaken 19 firefighters
Cory Moser was battling the Yarnell fire when word came that the Granite Mountain Hotshots had been overrun by the flames. The Prescott Fire Department division chief sped to the scene, where he found a “moonscape” of bare ground, rocks cracked and chipped from the intense heat of the flames.
Moser, who wound up spending the night minding the bodies of close friends and co-workers, said the desolate scene is one clue that whatever killed the 19 elite members of his fire department may well turn out to have been an unexpected “black swan” event - a rare turn of the weather, conditions or luck that no one expected or could have prevented.



“For them to have been run over like that tells me that something spectacular happened, something really unusual,” Moser, 37, said Tuesday.


The investigation into the events that killed more firefighters than any incident since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has only just begun, and many fire professionals here are reluctant to speculate about what might have happened. But those who knew the Granite Mountain Hotshots, noting their superior physical conditioning and extensive training, and the ferocity of the blaze they were battling, said they believe the result may turn out to be, as some authorities have suggested, a sudden shift in the wind or something similar.

One of the few predictable things about wildfires, they said, is their unpredictability.

“The difference between a structure fire and wildland fire is that the wildland fire will come get you, as we found out in a terrible, terrible way the other day,” said Don Devendorf, another division chief with the Prescott Fire Department.

Only one Hotshot survived the blaze. Brendan McDonough, 21, escaped injury because he was serving as a lookout about a mile from where the rest of the crew was overrun, said Wade Ward, a spokesman for the Prescott Fire Department.

McDonough realized that a wind shift had made his position too dangerous and radioed that he was moving to safer ground, Ward said. His position was soon overrun by fire.

McDonough is “distraught,” “very emotional” and “confused” about why events unfolded as they did, Ward said.

Hundreds of firefighters from throughout the West continued Tuesday to battle the Yarnell fire, about 30 miles southwest of here, as the remaining 80 members of the Prescott Fire Department went about the awful business of preparing a memorial service for the dead and supporting their grieving families.

Aided by an increase in humidity, firefighters have made significant progress on the north and east sides of the Varnell blaze, Brad Pitassi, a spokesman for the Southwest Area Type 1 Incident Management Team, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

By Tuesday evening, crews had contained 8 percent of the 8,400-acre fire, the Associated Press reported. It was the first time authorities had reported any containment of the flames.

“We’re not experiencing the fire activity we’ve seen in recent days,” Pitassi said.

Firefighters from around the area have streamed into town to take all of Prescott’s calls for the next few days, including auto accidents and emergency medical calls, Moser said, as the department’s members adjust to the staggering loss.

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Beware the Internet and the danger of cyberattacks

If I could, I would repeal the Internet. It is the technological marvel of the age, but it is not -as most people imagine -a symbol of progress. Just the opposite. We would be better off without it. I grant its astonishing capabilities: the instant access to vast amounts of information, the pleasures of YouTube and iTunes, the convenience of GPS and much more. But the Internet’s benefits are relatively modest compared with previous transformative technologies, and it brings with it a terrifying danger: cyberwar. Amid the controversy over leaks from the National Security Agency, this looms as an even bigger downside.

By cyberwarfare, I mean the capacity of groups - whether nations or not - to attack, disrupt and possibly destroy the institutions and networks that underpin everyday life. These would be power grids, pipelines, communication and financial systems, business record-keeping and supply-chain operations, railroads and airlines, databases of all types (from hospitals to government agencies). The list runs on. So much depends on the Internet that its vulnerability to sabotage invites doomsday visions of the breakdown of order and trust.

In a report, the Defense Science Board, an advisory group to the Pentagon, acknowledged “staggering losses” of information involving weapons design and combat methods to hackers (not identified, but probably Chinese). In the future, hackers might disarm military units. “U.S. guns, missiles and bombs may not fire, or may be directed against our own troops,” the report said. It also painted a specter of social chaos from a full-scale cyberassault. There would be “no electricity, money, communications, TV, radio or fuel (electrically pumped). In a short time, food and medicine distribution systems would be ineffective.”

I don’t know the odds of this technological Armageddon. I doubt anyone does. The fears may be wildly exaggerated, as Thomas Rid of Kings College London argues in his book “Cyber War Will Not Take Place” (already published in Britain, due out this fall in the United States). In living memory, there are many threats that, with hindsight, seemed hyped: the “missile gap” in 1960; the Y2K phenomenon in 2000 (the date change was allegedly going to disable many computer chips); and, so far, the prophecies of widespread terrorism after 9/11.

Still, the Internet creates new avenues for conflict and mayhem. Until now, the motives for hacking — aside from political activists determined to make some point — have mostly involved larceny and business espionage. Among criminals, “the Internet is seen as the easiest, fastest way to make money,” says Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer for Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm. Recently, federal prosecutors alleged that a gang of cyberthieves had stolen $45 million by hacking into databases of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash from ATMs.

Stealing trade secrets likely dwarfs ordinary crime. From its clients, Mandiant identifies four industries as receiving the bulk of attacks: aerospace and defense (31 percent); energy, oil and gas (17 percent); pharmaceuticals (15 percent); and finance (11 percent). Mandiant identified one unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army that allegedly has hacked 141 companies and organizations since 2006, removing “technology blueprints, propriety manufacturing processes, test results, business plans.”

What’s unclear is how “infrastructure” systems (electricity grids and the like) have been penetrated and, on command, might be compromised. In the mid-1980s, most of these systems were self-contained. They relied on dedicated phone lines and private communications networks. They were hard to infiltrate. Since then, many systems switched to the Internet. “It’s cheaper,” says James Andrew Lewis, an Internet expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The architects of these conversions apparently underestimated the risk of sabotage.

As yet, there has been little. One publicized incident occurred in 2012 when hostile software (“malware”) infected an estimated 30,000 computers of Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s oil company. Business operations suffered, but oil production and delivery continued. More powerful was the Stuxnet virus, reportedly developed by the United States and Israel to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. The future could be more tumultuous. If the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, Lewis thinks it would retaliate with cyberattacks against banks and electricity networks. Press stories report that Iran has already increased its attacks. There’s a race between cyber offense and defense.

All this qualifies our view of the Internet. Granted, it’s relentless. New uses spread rapidly. Already, 56 percent of U.S. adults own smartphones and 34 percent have tablets, says the Pew Internet & American Life Project. But the Internet’s social impact is shallow. Imagine life without it. Would the loss of e-mail, Facebook or Wikipedia inflict fundamental change? Now imagine life without some earlier breakthroughs: electricity, cars, antibiotics. Life would be radically different. The Internet’s virtues are overstated, its vices understated. It’s a mixed blessing — and the mix may be moving against us.

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James Comey is a bad choice for FBI

It was probably the most famous hospital visit since Bob Woodward sneaked into the room of dying CIA Director William J. Casey in 1987. This time it was James Comey, a deputy attorney general, who in 2004 rushed to the bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft and implored him not to reauthorize the government’s warrantless spying program. Ashcroft stayed his pen — and Comey, having virtually committed an act of civil disobedience, became something of a Washington legend. He is now President Obama’s choice to head up the FBI. I applaud him with one hand.

Why the hesitation? Why, in this moment of warrantless everything, a government scooping up our e-mails and, it seems, nighttime dreams, would I not cheer the nomination of someone who insisted on constitutional and legal limits on such a program? Because this is also the era of leak investigations, in which the phone calls of reporters have been creepily noted. One of those reporters, James Rosen of Fox News, not only had his phone records filched but also was cited as co-conspirator in an investigation of a State Department leak. The criminalization of investigative reporting, even when it is done by Fox News, is a bad, bad thing.

Into this mix of government spying and leak investigations steps Comey. Who is this fellow? He is the quintessential “on the one hand and on the other hand” guy — the one who stood up to the George W. Bush administration on the Constitution (yay!) but also authorized his friend,U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, to investigate who leaked the name of Valerie Plame. She was the CIA operative who suggested sending her husband, a diplomat, to Africa to see if Saddam Hussein was really buying uranium there. Plame’s name was originally published in The Post in a column by Robert Novak. It was hardly noticed.

This, though, turned out to be the mother of all leak investigations. Several reporters were implicated and threatened with contempt if they did not cooperate with Fitzgerald. One reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, went to jail for 85 days. She would not reveal her source or sources. Although she knew about Plame, she had not written anything about her.

Miller had become reviled on the left because of her reporting on the run-up to the war in Iraq. Maybe for that reason, the outrage was muted. But her jailing was a classic example of a prosecutor running amok. Fitzgerald already knew the source of the original leak. Indeed, much of official Washington, including the odd crossing guard, knew it was Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, a much respected diplomat who could not resist feeding a columnist a tasty morsel of news. (Such people go to heaven.) Fitzgerald persisted nonetheless. He would not be trifled with. He wanted his questions answered.

Comey was Fitzgerald’s boss. He had appointed him and he should have reined him in. He did nothing of the sort. In fact, there is ample evidence that Fitzgerald was a prosecutor after Comey’s own heart. Comey, too, is a hard-charger. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page compiled an impressive list of Comey’s prosecutorial excesses, including the prosecution of two lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee under the 1917 Espionage Act. The case was finally dropped, but not before both men lost their jobs, a whole lot of money and, I would suspect, a whole lot of sleep.

Prosecutors have enormous, virtually unlimited, power. A mere inquiry can change a life, even wreck it. FBI directors have even more power. The bureau’s Washington headquarters is named for a man who exercised his power in highly questionable and certainly unethical ways. I used to write columns urging that J. Edgar Hoover’s name be removed from the building. Now I want it to stay — a reminder of Lord Acton’s wisdom: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Comey has exercised his power in disturbing ways. Just as Obama overlooked Eric Holder’s role in the 2001 Marc Rich pardon, the president is now overlooking the warning signs in Comey’s record — ticks of a disturbing zealotry. In a thoughtful article, Newsweek/Daily Beast writer Daniel Klaidman weighed the pros and cons of Comey and came down, a bit hesitantly I think, on the side of the pros. He finds Comey a man of absolute integrity, but rigid and moralistic. I agree with that, but subtlety and tolerance are needed as well in an FBI director. Comey is not a bad man, but this is a bad appointment.

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