Facebook profile access 'leaked' claims Symantec

Access to hundreds of thousands of Facebook accounts may have accidentally been leaked because of a flaw in some applications.

Security firm Symantec discovered that programs were inadvertently sharing access tokens which could be used by advertisers.

It estimates that, as of last month, 100,000 applications were still enabling leaks.

Facebook said that it was improving authentication methods.

"We have been working with Symantec to identity issues in our authentication flow to ensure that they are more secure," Facebook's Naitik Shah wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
Spare keys

In his report, Symantec's Nishant Doshi explained how access tokens act "like spare keys" to a Facebook user's account.

These keys were typically given out, with the user's permission, to help applications on the Facebook platform function.

With the keys, applications could access a user's profile and photographs, as well as posting messages on their wall.

However, the newly-discovered weakness in the old authentication method would allow spare keys to be passed to further third-parties - likely to include advertisers - through referral data.


"The Facebook application is now in a position to inadvertently leak the access tokens to third parties potentially on purpose and unfortunately very commonly by accident," explained Mr Doshi.

"We estimate that over the years, hundreds of thousands of applications may have inadvertently leaked millions of access tokens to third parties."

But he downplayed the risk, adding: "Fortunately, these third-parties may not have realised their ability to access this information."

Facebook's director of developer relations Kevin Purdy disputed the findings.

In a statement, he said: "We've conducted a thorough investigation which revealed no evidence of this issue resulting in a user's private information being shared with unauthorised third parties."

"In addition, this report ignores the contractual obligations of advertisers and developers which prohibit them from obtaining or sharing user information in a way that violates our policies."
Less secure

By default, new applications on Facebook are required to authenticate using OAuth 2.0, a shared open standard co-authored by several sites including Google and Twitter.

While older applications are encouraged to change to the new system, it is not yet compulsory.

Facebook is now working with third-party developers help migrate them to the OAuth 2.0 system.

"Because of the number of apps using our legacy auth system, we need to be thoughtful about this transition," wrote Facebook's Naitik Shah wrote.

Paul Mutton, a security analyst at Netcraft, said that while the vulnerability could potentially be used for malicious purposes, no secure data such as passwords has been taken.

"Potentially someone else could post stuff to your stream or to your friends' streams - making you like things that you perhaps wouldn't have liked," he said.

Makers of Facebook applications have been given until 1 September by Facebook to make sure their application uses the OAuth 2.0 system.

"For some applications to continue working, the makers will have to make changes. It's about giving the developers time," added Mr Mutton.

"It shouldn't take too long to make the change. But in the cases of more commercial apps, it's going to be more convoluted."

Symantec has advised users to change their passwords if they are concerned about unauthorised third-party access to their profile.

READ MORE - Facebook profile access 'leaked' claims Symantec

Sony to restart its PlayStation Network by end of May

Sony is planning to restore its online PlayStation Network (PSN) in full by the end of May.

The company shut its online video game network on 20 April, after discovering a major security breach.

Spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka admitted the company had missed a self-imposed deadline of restarting a partial service by the weekend.

He said Sony continues to investigate the case, after personal details from 100 million accounts were compromised.

The company had originally hoped to restart some of the services on the PSN last week.

However, it then emerged that another large network - Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) - had also been compromised, potentially putting a further 25 million accounts at risk.

This is in addition to the 77 million accounts hacked on the PSN.

The discovery was a major set-back in the company's attempts to get the networks up and running again.

"We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers," Sony's Head of Communications Nick Caplin wrote in a blog post.

"We are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system."
'Frustrated and upset'

The extended downtime is causing headaches for businesses which rely on the PSN as a key distributor of their content.

Christian Svensson, Senior Vice-President of Capcom, shared his irritation with users on the Capcom-Unity forum.

"I'm frustrated and upset by it for a number of reasons," he wrote.

"As an executive responsible for running a business, the resulting outage [is] obviously costing us hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in revenue that were planned for within our budget.

"These are funds we rely on to bring new games to market for our fans."

He said the knock-on effect of the hack makes it "impossible to be sympathetic to their 'cause'".
War of words

The latest announcement comes after a war of words with hacker group Anonymous over who is responsible for the attack.

The collective has suffered its own hacking issues after one disgruntled user known as "Ryan" apparently attacked the Internet Relay Chat channel used by the group to co-ordinate its activities.

A list of usernames and corresponding IP addresses has been published by "Ryan" on the AnonOps site.

In a letter to the US Congress last week, Sony accused "leaderless" Anonymous of orchestrating a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack at the same time the data theft occured.

Sony claimed a file planted on the network bore the trademark Anonymous "We are legion" slogan.

The group retalliated, describing Sony as "incompetent".

"Whoever broke into Sony's servers to steal the credit card info and left a document blaming Anonymous clearly wanted Anonymous to be blamed for the most significant digital theft in history," the statement read.

Last month, US lawyers filed a lawsuit against Sony for negligent protection of personal data and failure to inform players in a timely fashion that their credit card information may have been stolen.

Mr Fukuoka declined to comment on the lawsuit.

READ MORE - Sony to restart its PlayStation Network by end of May

100,000 net champions recruited

More than 100,000 volunteers have promised to help a campaign to get more people on the internet.

Government digital champion Martha Lane Fox hopes they will "engage people with the joys of being on the internet".

It is part of the Race Online 2012 campaign which is trying to get millions more people using computers by the end of next year - 9m people in the UK have never used the internet.

A range of cheap computers is being made available to further entice them.

The low price recycled PCs will be available from Microsoft, among others, for about £95.

Ms Lane Fox was appointed as the UK's digital champion in 2009, at which time she was tasked with getting the poorest four million Britons online by the time of the London Olympics in 2012.

Race Online 2012, as the campaign is known, has changed its focus and now aims is to make the UK "the world's first networked nation".

Ms Lane Fox explained what she wanted the volunteer army to do.

"I'm not asking people to sit down and go through the complications of a presentation or train somebody in complex coding - I just want to enthuse people and inspire them and I think the rest will take care of itself," she told the BBC.

"For those people, it's a very simple task - they need to engage people with the joys of being on the internet," she said.

"It might be a parent on the school gates, it might be somebody in your GP surgery, it might be someone in your local pub or another network that you're in," she said.

The 100,000 formal volunteers are just the start.

"It will lead a ripple effect of informally people thinking 'oh yes, I know somebody I work with who can't use the internet,' so hopefully the 100,000 will become many, many more than that," she said.

Prime Minister David Cameron has backed the campaign.

"Today there are nine million adults in the UK who have never used the internet - and nearly half of them are among our most disadvantaged people. That's why the work Martha Lane Fox is doing as the UK's digital champion is so important," he said.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the majority - 7.3 million - of those are aged over 55.

Part of Ms Lane Fox's remit is to look at ways of making savings by putting more government services online.

Last year she conducted a review of current government online services and concluded that they needed to be revolutionised.

A new site has now gone live and will be tested for a couple of months to gauge public reaction.

"It is off the back of the report done by Martha Lane Fox. We accept that we need to make massive improvements and this is the result of three months work with a small team," said project director Tom Loosemore.

The site will be much simpler, more searchable and be based on the user's location within the UK.

Dozens of government services are now available online. Some 70% of tax returns are now done via the web and other services, such as renewing car tax, have proved popular.

The BBC is launching its own media literacy campaign, which like Race Online, aims to mobilise people to help a relative, friend or neighbour take the first steps online.

At the heart of the campaign is its First Click website which offers advice and tips on how best to support others.

The BBC's director general Mark Thompson is among a host of people lined up to speak at a conference in London tomorrow aimed at discussing the best way to get more people online.

READ MORE - 100,000 net champions recruited

Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype

Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy internet phone service Skype.

The deal will see Microsoft pay $8.5bn (£5.2bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition.

Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. In August last year it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold.

Internet auction house eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2006, before selling 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn.

This majority stake was bought by a group of investors led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit.

Other major shareholders include tech-firm Joltid and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Shares in Microsoft ended the day in New York down 0.5% at $25.68. In contrast, eBay - which owns a stake in Skype - saw its share price rally 2.5%.
'Defensive move'

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world.

"Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

Skype will now become a new division within Microsoft, and Skype chief executive Tony Bates will continue to lead the business, reporting directly to Mr Ballmer.

"It's a strategic asset and a defensive move [for Microsoft]," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial.

"If they can put it on Windows 8, it gives them an advantage. It helps them in the tablet market."

Other analysts say Microsoft's aim in buying Skype is to improve its video conferencing services.
Price concerns

Although the price tag of $8.5bn will not stretch the US giant, some experts have questioned whether it is paying too much for a company that has struggled to turn a profit.

Michael Clendenin, managing director of consulting firm RedTech Advisors, said: "If you consider [Skype] was just valued at about $2.5bn 18 months ago when a chunk was sold off, then $8.5bn seems generous.

"[It] means Microsoft has a high wall to climb to prove to investors that Skype is a necessary linchpin for the company's online and mobile strategy."

This view was echoed by Ben Woods, head of research group CCS Insight.

"The big unanswered question is how do Skype assets work for Microsoft... how do you justify the price?" he said.

Skype was founded in 2003.

Calls to other Skype users are free, while the company charges for those made to both traditional landline phones and mobiles.

READ MORE - Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype

Researcher: iPad, iPhone IDs can give away identities

(Wired) -- The unique string of numbers and letters assigned to your iPhone can potentially expose your real-life identity.

Security researcher Aldo Cortesi last week published his discovery of a flaw in the unique device identifier (UDID) stored on each iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

While this device identifier is well-known, it's not supposed to be connected to a person's actual identity. But Cortesi discovered that some apps can link the identifier to the phone owner's Facebook profile, which effectively puts a face behind that string of numbers and letters.

"It's like a permanent, unalterable tracking cookie that can't be changed and that the user is not aware of," Cortesi told Wired.com. "The UDID idea has got such deep flaws because it literally identifies the device."

Apple and iOS app programmers use the 40-character string of letters and numbers as a method to identify each device uniquely, and presumably anonymously. The UDID is permanently tagged to the device, and it can't be erased or changed.

By itself, the UDID doesn't expose personal data, but to the extent that it's tied to other information about the phone's user, it can function like a permanent, ineradicable "evercookie." In theory, that could allow advertisers or other parties to track a wide variety of your activities through your smartphone. Whether that constitutes a privacy invasion, an annoyance or a convenience depends on your perspective. Early concerns over Web cookies, for example, have faded as the business community has standardized privacy protocols, including allowing users to easily identify sites that use them, and to opt out if they so choose.

This identifier is at the center of criticism amid growing concerns about smartphone privacy. The Wall Street Journal last year conducted independent tests and found that out of 101 apps, 56 transmitted the device's UDID to other companies without user awareness or consent.

In reaction to WSJ's investigation, some customers in Aprilfiled a lawsuit against Apple and a handful of app makers, alleging that they invaded user privacy by accessing customer information without permission and sharing it with third-party advertisers. They argued that the UDID could be virtually stapled to other information, such as age and location, to personally identify a customer, and that advertisers can create profiles to track each customer for marketing purposes.

"They're permanent Social Security numbers in your phone that are freely transmitted and can't change," said Justin Brookman, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's consumer privacy project.

Cortesi said that Apple's UDID methodology is problematic because of the way it is designed. To track how apps transmit UDIDs, Cortesi created a tool called Mitmproxy.

In April, he found that OpenFeint, a gaming network integrated inside some apps to link players together, was transmitting UDID attached to personally identifiable information in some instances. When customers used their Facebook accounts to log in to OpenFeint, the game was transmitting UDID attached to the customer's Facebook ID, picture and occasionally GPS coordinates, he said.

OpenFeint claims to have 75 million registered gamers. Popular games that integrate OpenFeint include TinyWings, Pocket God, Robot Unicorn Attack and Fruit Ninja.

OpenFeint fixed the flaw after Cortesi notified the company. However, Cortesi explained that the issue is not isolated to the gaming network.

Apple explicitly tells iOS programmers that they "must not publicly associate a device's unique identifier with a user account" to ensure privacy. However, the fact that a network as big as OpenFeint managed to link UDIDs to Facebook accounts means that there are probably other apps linking UDIDs to personal data that have slipped past Apple's radar.

"By designing an API to expose UDIDs and encouraging developers to use it, Apple has ensured that there are literally thousands of databases linking UDIDs to sensitive user information on the net," Cortesi said.

Other than concerns about trading customer data with advertisers, an additional possibility is that app makers can peek at what a specific person is doing inside their apps, using analytics tools such as Flurry, Cortesi said.

Apple did not return a request for comment.

Charlie Miller, a security researcher who specializes in hacking smartphones, told Wired.com that the security issue raised by Cortesi is not a huge concern, but it does highlight some issues with the UDID. He said that a more secure design would be to have each app randomly generate a unique identifier for each device, so that a programmer can only track information relevant to his or her app.

However, Miller added that the erosion of privacy is inevitable in the always-connected age, and we have to sacrifice some privacy in exchange for app-powered services.

"The bottom line is traditional privacy has gone out the window with smartphones," Miller said. "You're carrying around always-on GPS-enabled, internet-enabled devices. You're downloading and running applications that are designed to share your thoughts and photos. [Cortesi] points out some things Apple could have done better to help protect your privacy, but basically, you voluntarily give up some of your privacy in order to use these apps and devices."

READ MORE - Researcher: iPad, iPhone IDs can give away identities

New 'Call of Duty' game, social network to debut this year

(CNN) -- Activision Blizzard is set to launch a new "Call of Duty" game for consoles alongside an ambitious digital platform later this year, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said on the company's earnings call Monday.

Executives have expressed an especially keen excitement about the new platform features.

They named "Call of Duty" as one of the two "significant investments" that Activision is making, which will include the company's largest marketing campaign, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said on the call. (The other investment is in PC developer Blizzard, which is working on "Diablo III" and a new massively multiplayer online game franchise unrelated to "World of Warcraft.")

"This year's 'Call of Duty' initiatives will result in the best 'Call of Duty' experiences we have created to date," Kotick said. In addition to paid features integrated into the platform, "You will see a lot of new services and capabilities that will be provided free of charge to all of our customers," he said.

The "Call of Duty" online service has been in development for two years under the name Project Beachhead, Hirshberg said. The company created a separate group, also called Beachhead, to focus full attention on the project, Kotick has said previously.

Activision will begin briefing reporters in San Francisco later this week about the project under nondisclosure agreements. The company plans to make a formal announcement in the next several weeks, Kotick said. Still more details are expected in June for the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

That a new entry in the "Call of Duty" series will be released this year isn't a bombshell. Activision has introduced a new game in that franchise each year since 2005. The most recent, "Call of Duty: Black Ops," was the top-selling game in the United States and Europe over the last three months.

"Black Ops" still draws fervent crowds for its multiplayer features and continues to sell well.

But that experience has been hampered by Sony Computer Entertainment's shutdown of the PlayStation Network, with the online gaming service approaching three weeks of downtime this week. Activision intends to release a download package for "Black Ops" in the next three months. "Hopefully the situation will be resolved by then," Hirshberg said.

Cliff Bleszinski, the design director for Epic Games, which makes another popular shooting franchise called "Gears of War," said he has doubts about "Call of Duty's" viability. "'Call of Duty' is doing well right now, but if I was one of the owners of that property, I'd be concerned about potential fatigue," he said in a recent interview.

This year's new installment may be called "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" and debut in November, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. "The game has exceeded every internal milestone," Hirshberg said on Monday's call.

READ MORE - New 'Call of Duty' game, social network to debut this year

What the Yuck: Am I having a panic attack?

Too embarrassed to ask your doctor about sex, body quirks, or the latest celeb health fad? In a regular feature and a new book, "What the Yuck?!," Health magazine medical editor Dr. Roshini Raj tackles your most personal and provocative questions. Send 'em to Dr. Raj at whattheyuck@health.com.

Q: My heart sometimes feels like it's racing in my chest - am I having a panic attack?

Anxiety can definitely cause palpitations (feeling like your heart is pounding or jumping in your chest). If you are about to do something nerve-wracking like give a speech, you may feel your heart beating a little faster, which is a normal response to stress hormones.

True panic disorder (aka panic attacks) is a form of anxiety disorder that occurs for no discernible reason. So if you get these symptoms only when you have something stressful going on (a blind date, a public speaking engagement), it's not a panic attack but a case of nerves.

However, if the chest symptoms come out of nowhere and you also feel intense fear or dread, feel faint, and are short of breath, trembling, or sweating, you could have panic disorder.

If you haven't been diagnosed with the disorder, get your symptoms checked out by a doctor. A racing in your chest could also mean there is something wrong with your heart - an abnormal rhythm, a heart valve problem, a heart muscle problem - all of which can be very dangerous if not diagnosed and treated. Your doctor will probably give you a test called a Holter monitor where you wear a machine for 24 hours that continually records your heart rhythm and rate; it's a continuous EKG.

Assuming your ticker is fine, ask for a referral to a therapist because panic disorder is one of the most treatable anxiety disorders. Options include talk therapy, prescription medication, including antidepressants or sedatives, or a combination of meds and psychotherapy.

READ MORE - What the Yuck: Am I having a panic attack?

Bin Laden's death ushers in whirlwind week as clues emerge

(CNN) -- The curtain is just beginning to rise on the scope and power of the world's most-wanted terrorist one week after U.S. Navy SEALs killed him during a daring nighttime raid.

New details have been released almost daily since a team of American commandos stormed bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Islamabad, killing him and four others.

For Americans, and much of the world, news of the killings brought a sense of relief, even satisfaction.

The pain, the frustration, the sadness elicited by the 9/11 attacks have never really left. How could they? For much of the past decade, Americans processed the world through the lens of the worst terrorist attacks ever committed on U.S. soil.

Since that attack, citizens of the United States, Britain, Spain and other countries had grown startlingly accustomed to terror strikes and near-misses. Adding to the pain was the ever-growing laundry list of indignities, the "fog of war," and the clarity to know that personal freedoms were eroding in agonizingly public ways.

Then it happened. Bin Laden was killed.

In announcing bin Laden's death, Obama called it "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda."

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties," he said.

Nearly 10 years and 7,000 miles from New York City, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs raided a complex in Abbottabad, shooting bin Laden and depositing his body into the sea.

The iconic image of the event? A White House photo of Obama and his aides monitoring via live video the capture of bin Laden.

It was personal

For Johnny Spann, father of the first U.S. victim in the Afghan war, the news was sweet.

"If you ask me if I am proud that he's dead, yes," Spann told CNN, in Winfield, a town in northwestern Alabama. "Am I glad he's dead? Yes. The guy was a monster. He was a killer."

Spann's son, Johnny Michael Spann, was a paramilitary officer for the CIA when he was killed during a riot among Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners on November 25, 2001.

For the nation's youth -- many of whom grew up with color-coded terror alerts and long lines at airport metal detectors -- bin Laden, their bogeyman, was finally gone.

How it happened was breathtaking -- redemption for a CIA dogged for years over real or perceived intelligence failures, some shine for the armed forces whose daily bravery rarely makes headlines and the signature moment of Barack Obama's presidency so far.

Yes, it was personal. Finally there was a solitary act that could boost our collective morale, even restore some sense of redemption. You can even call it revenge. Whatever. The swagger, just for a single, solitary moment, was back.

"We are ultimately going to defeat al Qaeda," the president told more than 2,300 troops who recently returned from Afghanistan. "We have cut off their head."

Head of the hydra has been cut off, what about the body?

A statement from al Qaeda on Friday acknowledging the death of bin Laden included renewed warnings of attacks against U.S. interests and suggested that a process to choose a successor was under way.

"Sheikh Osama didn't build an organization to die when he dies," the message said. It was posted on several jihadist forums known for carrying al Qaeda statements.

The Taliban quickly followed with a statement of its own on bin Laden's death, promising a fight for the U.S.

"Will the Americans be able -- through their media outlets, their agents, their instruments, soldiers, intelligence services and their might -- be able to kill what Sheikh Osama lived for and was killed for? How far! How impossible!" the statement said.

But support for radical Islam, after 10 years of infighting since 9/11, may have reached a tipping point.

The Muslim world was initially suspicious of U.S. intentions immediately following 9/11, with some even seeing bin Laden as a scapegoat.

"When 9/11 first happened, people in the Muslim world weren't entirely sure it was bin Laden who was behind it," said Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Michigan.

But as al Qaeda established affiliates throughout the Muslim world -- leading to deadly attacks that claimed Muslim lives in countries such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Morocco -- Muslim support waned.

"Terrorism went from being seen as something that happened 'over there' to something that affected Muslims themselves," said Cole.

Who will be the new public enemy?

The man to lead al Qaeda most likely will be Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian who was bin Laden's No. 2 in command. But Adam Gadahn, a U.S.-born spokesman for al Qaeda, may also have his hat in the ring. Like al-Zawahiri, Gadahn is on the FBI's most-wanted list.

The bylaws of al Qaeda, recovered by the U.S. military in Afghanistan after 9/11, set out clear guidelines on the replacement of bin Laden, requiring the Command, or Shura, Council of al Qaeda to "pledge allegiance to the deputy emir and elect him as emir in the event that the emir dies or is captured and there is no hope for his liberation."

The United States figures to have an edge on al-Zawahiri's whereabouts after the seizure by Navy SEALs of multiple thumb drives, storage devices and hard drives full of data from bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.

But al-Zawahiri is no bin Laden.

Whereas bin Laden's charisma inspired a generation of recruits, al-Zawahiri is a self-styled intellectual whose long-winded video and audio tapes must be tedious to even the most committed of al Qaeda members and whose arrogance has alienated many in al Qaeda ranks over the years. How bad must you be to irritate your fellow terrorists?

Also of concern to U.S. officials is al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, an arm of the umbrella terrorist organization that emerged in the years after 9/11.

From its bases in Yemen, AQAP has carried out some of the most audacious attempted terrorist attacks against the West, most notably Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009.

Although attacks by the Yemeni branch have failed, the group has come closer than other affiliates such as those in Iraq or in North Africa.

U.S. officials are working swiftly to dissect and act upon key information gleaned from the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

Intelligence officials on Saturday unveiled five videos of bin Laden that were confiscated from the Pakistan raid.

The videos, including one which shows the terrorist leader channel-surfing in front of a television, reveal a graying figure that effectively ran the world's terror organization like a home-based business.

With bin Laden gone, should Americans sleep more soundly?

The collective American psyche breathed a sigh of relief with the news of bin Laden's death. It made sense that the moment be one of celebration, said Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman.

The country has been experiencing emotional malaise, with a slow-moving economy and a decade of angst about the threat of terrorism.

Then in an instant, a late Sunday night announcement lifted that burden of pain and helplessness.

"In the blink of an eye, the gloom and doom and pessimism has dissipated," Lieberman said.

As with every free society, there was healthy debate about the way one should respond to the news of bin Laden's death. While many shouted in jubilation at the demise of a terrorist mastermind, others were appalled by what they perceived as a simplistic, even primal, reaction to mortality.

Josh Pesavento, 22, a journalism student in New York who photographed the cheering crowds in Times Square, said he felt conflicted about the celebrations he witnessed.

"I don't believe that any person has the right to kill anyone, and I don't think that we should be cheering for yet more loss of life. However, I tell myself that in this situation, these people may be cheering for the end of an icon who led to the death of far, far too many," Pesavento said.

Danielle Tumminio, an Episcopal priest, said she fought back tears as she digested the news that bin Laden had been killed.

"My first reaction was, 'I wish I was with them,' " Tumminio said of the scenes of revelers she saw on the news. "My second reaction was, 'This is disgusting. We shouldn't be celebrating the death of anybody.' It felt gross."

For others, those closer to the events of 9/11, there was a sense of personal gratification.

Michael Tuohey, an airport worker who checked in one of the 9/11 hijackers, said when he turned on his television and saw Obama announcing that bin Laden's death, "I got a little choked up, because just knowing, you can't help but reflect back," he told CNN.

More debate centered on whether the White House should release photos of bin Laden's body. Many thought death photos of bin Laden were the only way to confirm the most die-hard skeptics. Critics countered that the Obama administration would lose its moral ground.

In the days and weeks ahead, there will be more revelations -- and the release of intermittent details -- as U.S. officials continue to pore over materials taken from bin Laden's compound.

While there is no evidence Pakistani authorities knew bin Laden was living in the same town as one of its top military academies, U.S. officials are keenly aware that the terrorist leader must have had help remaining undetected in in a mansion complex for six years.

National security adviser Tom Donilon told CNN in comments aired Sunday, "We'll clearly be working with (Pakistani authorities) to understand how we got to this point," he said.

READ MORE - Bin Laden's death ushers in whirlwind week as clues emerge

Egyptian Copts, reeling from violence, want protection

Cairo (CNN) -- Muslim-Christian sectarian violence intensified in Egypt this weekend, spurring an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and public exhortations from Coptic Christians for international protection.

At least 12 people were killed and 232 others were wounded in sectarian clashes outside a Cairo church, according to state TV. Officials said violence began over rumors that a Christian woman who converted to Islam was being held at the church against her will.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf postponed a trip to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the church attack and hold the emergency meeting, according to EgyNews, Egypt's official news agency.

A small group of Coptic Christians gathering near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sunday called for international protection of Egypt's Christian community and condemned the government for not doing more to protect them.

Small groups composed of Christians and Muslims engaged in heated debate sectarian tensions mounted, but they were peaceful. Soldiers stood in a line across the road to prevent protesters from approaching the U.S. embassy.

In the Cairo neighborhood of Maspiro, violence erupted when several hundred people, predominantly Christian but also Muslims, demonstrated in favor of national unity in front of the TV building.

Stones were hurled and people threw bricks from rooftops on predominantly Christian protesters. Some people were injured.

Chants could be heard of "with our souls and blood we will sacrifice ourselves for the cross." Military riot police with red helmets and clubs separated mutually hostile crowds.

Problems between Egypt's Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority have been on the rise in recent months, with a number of violent clashes reported between the two groups. Tensions flared after a recently-published U.S. government report on international religious freedom detailed the hostility targeting the minority Copts in the predominantly Muslim society.

During clashes on Saturday, witnesses said an armed group of Muslims marched on Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church, one of the oldest churches in Egypt.

Witnesses said Muslims and Christians exchanged gunfire, sending people running for cover.

"With my own eyes I saw three people killed and dozens injured," said Mina Adel, a Christian resident. "There's no security here. There's a big problem. People attacked us, and we have to protect ourselves."

There were conflicting reports about who attacked the church.

Some witnesses said the group was made up of Muslim fundamentalists, known as Salafists. Others, including Interior Ministry spokesman Alla Mahmoud, said it was angry Muslims from a nearby mosque.

Mahmoud said the clashes were sparked by reports of a Christian woman who married a Muslim man and was allegedly being held inside the church.

Military, special forces and riot police were called in to try to break up the violence, firing warning shots in the air, according to witnesses.

At the same time, at the nearby Coptic Church of the Holy Virgin, firefighters responded to a blaze that witnesses said appeared to have been started by the members of the same group that attacked the other church.

Hundreds of residents in the working class neighborhood of Imbaba stood outside as the church burned and two men were seen jumping from a window of the building, according to witnesses.

Across the street, residents standing outside the Al Wehda mosque blamed "thugs" for the violence.

"It was thugs who burned the church, not Salafists (fundamentalists)," said Jamal El Banan. "We never had such sedition before the revolution."

Tensions were high in the neighborhood following the clashes, with soldiers firing shots into the air overnight to break up the crowd, witnesses said.

CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, based in Cairo, described the crowd as "very hostile," saying he was forced to leave the neighborhood after his vehicle was targeted with rocks.

A Coptic church in the town of Alexandria was bombed on New Year's Day, killing 23 people -- the deadliest attack on Christians in Egypt in recent times.

Ten days later, a gunman killed a Christian man and wounded five others on a train in Egypt.

In November, a group with ties to al Qaeda in Iraq announced that all Christians in the Middle East would be "legitimate targets," as the group's deadline for Egypt's Coptic church to release alleged Muslim female prisoners expired.

The group's claim that the Coptic Church in Egypt is holding female prisoners is based on widespread rumors of Coptic women in Egypt converting to Islam and being detained by the church in an attempt to compel or persuade them to return to their original faith.

About 9% of Egypt's 80 million residents are Coptic Christians. They base their theology on the teachings of the Apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt, according to St. Takla Church in Alexandria, the capital of Coptic Christianity.

The religion split with other Christians in the 5th century over the definition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan federal agency, last month added Egypt to a list of countries named as the worst violators of religious freedom.

"The Egyptian government engaged in and tolerated religious freedom violations before and after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2001," the commissioners wrote in the report. They cited violence toward religious minorities in Egypt including Coptic Christians and non-majority Muslim groups.

"Since February 11, religious freedom conditions have not improved and attacks targeting religious minorities have continued," the report said.

The group said Egypt was put on the list of "Countries of Particular Concern" for "a number of very specific reasons but one that was a particular concern to the commissioners was the issue of impunity," commission chair Leonard Leo told reporters at a Washington news conference about the report.

One benchmark the commission looked at for Egypt, Leo said, was the trial following the Naga Hammadi shootings, which involved a massacre on the day Coptic Christians celebrate their Christmas Eve services.

"That, for us, was a very important signal the impunity issue was getting worse and not better. When you combine that with other conditions that have existed, particularly various elements of state sponsored repression, we believe there was sufficient grounds for triggering the (International Religious Freedom) act standard, which is a systematic, egregious violations of the freedom of religion," Leo said.

Elizabeth Prodromou, a vice-chair of the commission, said the group noted "both a qualitative, as well as a quantitative, deterioration in religious freedom issues in Egypt."

"In particular, we saw a dramatic uptick in targeted religious violence, primarily against the Coptic Orthodox community, but also against the Roman Catholic community and other Christian communities," she said.

The commission recommended that the U.S. military direct some of the "existing military assistance" to protecting Coptic Christians and other religious minorities, in addition to diplomatic efforts to pressure the new government with reform measures.

READ MORE - Egyptian Copts, reeling from violence, want protection

‘Shut up and move on,’ Kerry says

Washington (CNN) – Democratic Sen. John Kerry said it is time to stop questioning the exact occurrences in Osama bin Laden’s house before his death in Abbottabad, Pakistan, at the hand of U.S. Navy SEALs.

“I thinks those SEALs did exactly what they should have done,” the senator from Massachusetts and 2004 presidential nominee said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And we need to shut up and move on about, you know, the realities of what happened in that building.”

Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the information gleaned from bin Laden’s compound underscores his active role in the terrorist network.

“He was, in fact, the center,” Kerry said.

He also praised the Obama administration’s handling of the situation, despite errors in initial information disseminated by the White House, something he said is “the nature of the beast.”

“Letting these folks know that we have this information is actually a way of deterring certain activities from taking place,” Kerry said. “So I think they’re (al Qaeda) on the defensive, significantly so. And I think strategically the administration has done very, very well.”

READ MORE - ‘Shut up and move on,’ Kerry says

Driverless van crosses from Europe to Asia

Beijing, China (CNN) -- A driverless van has completed the longest-ever trip by an unmanned vehicle, beginning in Italy and arriving in China, covering 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles), researchers said.

The van arrived at the Shanghai World Expo on Thursday, after leaving Italy on July 20.

The three-month trip took the van through Eastern Europe, Russia and Kazakhstan; across China through the Gobi Desert; and finally along the Great Wall, before arriving for a celebration at the expo. The driverless van relied solely on electricity.

See more of CNN's tech coverage

The vehicle weathered three months of rain, blizzards and sun, and arrived in Shanghai with no major problems, according to researchers tracking its progress. The van even stopped to pick up hitchhikers outside of Moscow.

"We are really happy. It's a real milestone in our field of vehicular robotics," said lead researcher Alberto Broggi.

The van, designed by Italian tech company Vislab, featured 12 refined sensors, including cameras, a carbon dioxide sensor, a GPS device and an off-road laser scanner.

"This driverless trip to China shows how science can capture people's imagination through achievements that would recently have been unthinkable ... [and] provide major environmental and economic benefits," said Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, head of research, innovation and science for the European Commission.

See more of CNN's special coverage of China

The record-setting journey comes in amid of major developments in driverless vehicle technology.

Earlier this month, Google announced that its self-driving vehicle had successfully traveled about 350 miles [563 kilometers] from its headquarters in Mountain View, California, to Santa Monica, California. Google, which engages in energy-related businesses along with its core Internet search-engine service, says its self-driving cars have logged more than 140,000 miles. General Motors, Volkswagen and Stanford University are also developing driverless vehicles.

No maps were used as Vislab's van traveled from Italy, then off-road through much of Siberia and China. The van topped out at 37 miles per hour and traveled about four hours a day to allow for adequate battery recharging.

As for human intervention during the van's three-month journey, "We had to intervene manually only on limited occasions, such as in the Moscow traffic jams and when passing toll stations," said lead researcher Broggi, who also is a professor at Italy's University of Parma.

Two engineers rode in the van to prevent dangerous situations. The vehicle was part of a four-vehicle caravan, which included a leading van that was occasionally driven by two engineers, but mostly operated without human guidance.

From Italy to Russia to China, the driverless van baffled onlookers. During a special demonstration on the outskirts of Moscow on September 10, a police officer approached the vehicle as it maneuvered in a pedestrian zone, only to find a driver missing.

"He realized there was no driver!" engineers wrote on the van's official trip blog. "He then looked around and tried to find a clue of what was happening. He really seemed puzzled!"

"We talked to him ... explained this is a big test," Broggi said. "It was extremely difficult, but in the end we avoided getting the first ticket to an autonomous vehicle."

Other challenges along the way included replacing a 430-kilogram battery in Moscow, lengthy and complicated border crossings due to customs clearances, and several frigid nights camping along the van's route in Siberia.

"We weren't worried about not making it," though, Broggi said. "This big trip was an intermediary step in a longer process. We have something new planned for 2012."

The European Research Council primarily funded the expedition, to develop technology to increase road safety and fuel efficiency by supplementing driver decisions at the wheel. The project used low-cost technologies that could be integrated in most current vehicles' chassis, researchers said.

More than 1.2 million people die annually in auto crashes, according to the World Health Organization.

READ MORE - Driverless van crosses from Europe to Asia

Site wants to make something of your 'aha!' moments

(CNN) -- Everyone has ideas. But only about 2% of us actually turn our "aha moments" into inventions, says Matt Crowe, founder of a new social website called Ahhha, which aims to fix that problem.

"It's like a little vision into the world of what people are thinking in their heads," he said of the site, which launched two weeks ago. "A lot of (the ideas) are really ingenious."

A question greets visitors to the site: "What's your idea?"

Those who submit ideas to the site get suggestions from Ahhha's community, which can vote the project up and down. Unlike other "crowdfunding" sites, like Kickstarter or RocketHub, Ahhha is "like 'American Idol,' " Crowe said. The best ideas, as voted on by the site's users and determined by Ahhha staff, will be given funding or connections to make the project a reality.

"It's not Ahhha's job to say your idea is a good idea or a bad idea. It's the crowd. It's the user community. That's the wisdom of the crowd: Organically, the best ideas bubble up, and we're able to skim the cream off the top."

Crowe said it's this link between idea and execution that's really missing in most peoples' lives. The site targets people who may have an idea but don't know what tools would help them act on their pipe dreams.

"What we've essentially done is greased those gears to help users get execution (on their ideas) in an easy way," he said.

This is particularly important, he said, because formal methods of applying for patents and seeking venture capital funding are confusing or inaccessible to most people.

Applications for patents can languish for months or even years at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which cannot keep up with its workload. Ahhha plans a "turbo" patent application feature, which Crowe says will help people work through that process.

Among the proposed projects currently on the site: a vending machine that sells only healthy food, such as protein shakes and granola bars; a trancontinental pneumatic tube system for shipping packages rapidly across the country; and a smartphone app that lets shoppers find the exact location of a product in a supermarket.

The site hasn't funded any projects yet and wouldn't release user numbers.

It also has been criticized for hosting primarily silly projects.

"A comparison voting system is supposed to help the good ideas bubble up, but currently non-serious and joke ideas flood the site, burying the few good ones on it," writes Rafe Needleman at CNET.

Less-serious ideas that have been floated on Ahhha include dental tools that don't make any noise, a "clear" red wine that does not stain your teeth and, um, a screen door for a submarine.

Crowe, 28, said the idea for Ahhha came to him over time, not in an instant. His first big idea: In elementary school, he created a rake that folds in half to help with yard work at his parents' home.

"I've had lots of ideas. Some are crap, some are good, and hopefully this one is a really great one. Ahhha!" he said.

READ MORE - Site wants to make something of your 'aha!' moments

A new tech solution for the social drinker

(CNN) -- The days of sliding a few coins into a vending machine and waiting for a can of soda to tumble down are now numbered.

Last week PepsiCo unveiled a prototype of a "social vending system" branding it as "the next generation in interactive vend technology."

The machine features a touch-screen that allows users to buy a drink as well as gift one to someone. By entering the recipient's name, mobile number and a personalized text message, the machine generates a code and instructions on how to redeem the beverage at another social vending machine.

There's also the option of personalizing the gift with a short video recording at the machine itself.

PepsiCo says users can even buy a drink for a complete stranger, calling it "Random Acts of Refreshment."

"With this machine, our goal is to transform a basic transaction into a unique experience," said Mikel Durham, chief innovation officer at PepsiCo Foodservice.

"The social vending machine is part of PepsiCo's responsibility to deliver brand experiences at every touch-point of people's lives and beyond the confines of their own devices. We're empowering our consumers to connect with their friends at yet another point of contact- right at purchase."

Decades-old rival Coca-Cola Co introduced a similarly forward-looking concept in 2009 when they started testing their "Freestyle fountain drink machine". It also had a touch screen that could dispense more than 100 flavored drink combinations. However

PepsiCo has gone further by incorporating a social element with its gift-sharing function.

"We began exploring social and mobile applications a few years ago with Loot, DEWmocracy and the Pepsi Refresh Project," said Durham.

"Now we see transforming our equipment as simply the next logical step." Durham says that the company plans to trial the social vending machine later this year.

Vending machines have come a long way since the first coin-operated vending machine that dates back to the early 1920s. The first modern beverage vending machine came along in 1937. Since then they've been used across the world to sell products ranging from luxury goods and gold to live crabs in China.

Nicco Mele, a social media expert and a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, said the release of a social vending machine was long overdue.

"The social vending machine makes sense as a device that is localized as people are now accustomed to connectivity everywhere with their mobile devices. It fits into the trend of being social in the space that you are in, in the same way social networking platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare do," he said.

With a recent Unity Marketing trend report pointing to gift buying as the second most popular reason shoppers turn to the web, Mele also feels that PepsiCo will benefit from the internet's well-established gift-giving economy.

However, with access to personal information, Mele outlines the concerns that could arise about privacy and the storing of personal information.

"It's a problem that's inherent with most social networking systems," he said.

"One way to tackle privacy issues would be to modify the 'terms of services' note that pops up before you go through with any online transaction. It's usually incomprehensible and useless but if it is written in a clear manner that is user-friendly, companies can be more open about the personal information they have access to and store."

Mele believes that computerized social vending machines may just be the start of everyday technology becoming more social.

"There will be more attempts to tie in any kind of technology, whether it's your vehicle, your photocopier or your vending machine into the social web because that's where people are spending their time and that's where brands are seeing a market," said Mele, adding that he would buy a drink from Pepsi's social vending machine and even engage in a "Random Act of Refreshment."

READ MORE - A new tech solution for the social drinker

Bin Laden news reinforces Twitter's strength, limitations

Editor's note: Chris Taylor is San Francisco bureau chief of Mashable, a popular tech-news blog and a CNN.com content partner.

(CNN) -- By some measures, these past four days have been the proudest in Twitter's history.

The news of Osama bin Laden's death was credibly confirmed first on Twitter, before President Barack Obama spoke.

Then a random IT contractor in Pakistan, realizing he had unknowingly tweeted about the raid on bin Laden's compound, became an international celebrity.

Then Twitter announced that the hour in which the president spoke was an hour of unprecedented tweeting, with 12.4 million tweets sent.

And yet there was one odd omission in all this good news for the company: Bin Laden's death did not move the needle on Twitter's record for the most tweets sent simultaneously.

So what holds that record? What great news event could be so important as to put the decade's biggest story in the shadows? Answer: New Year's Eve in Japan, which clocked in at more than 6,000 tweets per second.

It seems a perfect metaphor for everything that's right and wrong with the microblogging service. On the one hand, it has grown up fast and strong, becoming a respected news delivery service in its own right, chattering about bin Laden's death before the TV networks would even speculate that's what the news was.

On the other hand, it can sometimes seem highly regressed, full of messages that read like the products of 6,000 drunken New Year's Eve tweets.

Twitter is just been around five years, after all. And in the aggregate, it seems a lot like a 5-year-old -- prone to tantrums, spinning wild fabrications and repeating the same short sentences over and over. You could be forgiven for feeling uneasy that this anarchic toddler of a service has become part of the fabric of journalism.

That kind of dysfunctional ambivalence is something you find writ large in Twitter's story at the moment. It's a cultural phenomenon, but it doesn't make a profit yet. Founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company at a crucial moment, except he's still focused on his next venture, Square.

And the service he invented spreads both truth and disinformation at equal speed. As Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore famously said, "I learned that Michael Jackson died on Twitter. I also learned that Justin Bieber died on Twitter."

We saw that in the wake of bin Laden's demise, when a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. -- saying he wouldn't rejoice in the death of a single enemy -- got retweeted like crazy. Just one problem: MLK never said it. It was fabricated by a user on Facebook (there's more than enough disinformation for both social networks), and quickly hopped the barrier into Twitter.

And the original bin Laden tweet that preceded Obama's announcement? It came from Donald Rumsfeld's former chief of staff -- someone who might normally be considered the president's political opponent.

But the majority of Twitter users didn't know nor care who he was, and his statement was given little vetting.

We can expect, as the 2012 election heats up, that some campaigns will be tempted to unleash the power of Twitter's misinformation echo chamber on each other. You ain't seen nothing yet -- and you'll be best off turning to a second source for confirmation of anything you read on the service.

So as much as the bin Laden news was a confirmation that Twitter has arrived, it also revealed its limitations. In recent days, I've seen a number of power users talk with surprise that their favorite service couldn't supply all their news needs on Sunday night -- that they had to turn on a TV or go to a reputable news site.

Here's what one friend of mine, a CEO who obsessively tweets from multiple accounts, had to say in the wake of the news: "Truth be told, Twitter can't go into depth about a story, and people want depth -- the where, how, what, when and the intimate details of the WHY."

READ MORE - Bin Laden news reinforces Twitter's strength, limitations

Google Earth Optimized for Android Tablets

Google Earth for Android has been available for a year. Now, a version of Google Earth has been created specifically for Android-powered tablets.

Announced on Thursday, the Google Earth update adds textured 3D buildings, Street View tours, an Action Bar for easier navigation and the ability to fly to a location, similar to the way the desktop Google Earth app works.

Here’s how the Official Google Blog says the company adapted the smartphone version of Google Earth to tablets:

“Moving from a mobile phone to a tablet was like going from a regular movie theatre to IMAX. We took advantage of the larger screen size, including features like content pop-ups appearing within Earth view, so you can see more information without switching back and forth between pages.”

As illustrated in the graphic above, Google Earth’s tablet version features a clever way to fly around 3D models while simultaneously allowing users to browse photos that were taken at that location. It’s available for free download now, by either m.google.com/earth on a mobile browser or the Android Market.

READ MORE - Google Earth Optimized for Android Tablets

Ruling party returned to power in Singapore

(CNN) -- Singapore's ruling party was returned to power in general elections Saturday, despite the strongest challenge to date from the opposition.

The People's Action Party, in power since 1959, won 81 seats, while the opposition Workers' Party took six, according to the Elections Department.

Saturday's voting in general elections were to determine 82 seats of the incoming parliament; five seats were already decided as that slate ran unopposed in one district.

The economy took center stage in the election in the Asian city-state. Many voters said they were worried about the relatively high cost of living and the rise of low-wage immigrant workers.

Singapore is a prosperous nation but it remains an authoritarian nation with curbs on freedom of expression, assembly and association. Political activities are tightly controlled by the government, according to human rights monitoring groups.

A record 2.2 million people are eligible to vote, many for the first time, the government-backed Straits Times newspaper reported. In the last parliamentary election in 2006, 1.22 million people voted when 47 out of 84 seats were up for grabs, the newspaper said.

READ MORE - Ruling party returned to power in Singapore

U.S. officials unveil videos of bin Laden

Washington (CNN) -- Keenly conscious of his image, a graying Osama bin Laden no doubt never expected this video -- showing him hunched over, draped in a blanket and using a television clicker -- to hit the world's airwaves as it did Saturday.

Filmed by a confidant, the al Qaeda leader contrasts with the younger version of himself on a TV screen a few feet away. That man has a more youthful beard, a hand held up in resolve and a photo of the burning World Trade Center.

U.S. officials, who Saturday released five videos, emphasized the recordings and other materials seized at bin Laden's Pakistan compound show the terrorist still had a firm hand at the tiller, managing strategic and tactical control of his organization, even as he stayed out of sight in Abbottabad.

The undated videos make clear bin Laden "remained active in al Qaeda terrorist propaganda operations, especially in shaping his own image," said a senior intelligence official granted anonymity under the ground rules of a briefing at the Pentagon.

Four of the clips show bin Laden, who was killed along with four others Monday by U.S. commandos, in more formal attire. No audio of the terrorist leader speaking accompanied the images.

The intelligence official said the audio was removed because it would be "inappropriate to spread the words of terrorists and propaganda messages, especially Osama bin Laden."

Besides the missing audio, the videos, according to the intelligence official, were not altered in any other way.

Still, the release of the home movies sends a message to those who doubted bin Laden was killed: Navy SEALs got footage that likely could have been held only by bin Laden at his hideout.

It may also have accomplished something else: diminishing the bin Laden mythology of invincibility.

CNN national security contributor Frances Townsend said U.S. officials "picked these videos pretty deliberately."

Portions are unflattering of bin Laden and reflect his vanity, Townsend said.

Some of the videos indicate problems with production value. Bin Laden misses a cue in one and another shows him with a wrinkled backdrop.

The candid recording of an aging bin Laden, stroking his beard, reviewing news footage and calling up a DVD menu, portrays him as an ordinary man, not a terror mastermind. Bin Laden wears a dark wool cap, slightly rocking in his seat in the spartan surroundings.

Images on the TV screen include U.S. President Barack Obama, bin Laden handling an AK-47 rifle, troops and other scenes.

The videos lifted a corner of the tent on materials seized by U.S. commandos, including reams of documents, disks, thumb drives, computers and more. Analysts have pored over them for evidence of further plots or operations.

"The materials reviewed over the past several days clearly show that bin Laden remained an active leader in al Qaeda, providing strategic, operational and tactical instructions to the group," the intelligence official said. "Though separated from many al Qaeda members who are located in more remote areas of the region, he was far from a figurehead. He was an active player making the recent operation even more essential for our nation's security."

But U.S. officials would not describe any of that material in detail Saturday.

They did say that the intelligence reveals bin Laden and al Qaeda had a driving interest in taking on the United States and that the leader was involved in the details of plotting attacks.

One of the videos is a message to the United States officials believe was recorded in October or November and is entitled "A Message to the American People." In that video, which had not been broadcast by al Qaeda, bin Laden's beard has been dyed black and he was well-composed as he delivered his message.

The three other videos are practice sessions for videos he was planning to release to the world. In one, bin Laden stands in front of an armoire. Preliminary analysis suggests that the armoire matches one at the compound, the senior intelligence official told reporters.

The videos were shown amid the Obama administration's decision not to release photos of the slain bin Laden and bury the al Qaeda leader at sea.

The senior intelligence official briefing reporters said Monday's raid by U.S. forces yielded a significant amount of intelligence, and that a special federal task force -- including members of the CIA and FBI -- is combing through the material.

The official also said the DNA evidence unquestionably shows that the person shot and killed in the Pakistan compound was bin Laden.

The intelligence officials said they are trying to determine what bin Laden's death means to the future of al Qaeda and are trying to get clues to the locations of the other top al Qaeda leaders.

The No. 2 man in al Qaeda is Ayman al-Zawahiri; another top militant is Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. born militant who is a leader in the group's Yemen branch.

This week, al-Awlaki eluded a drone attack in southern Yemen as security personnel continue their hunt for him, Yemeni and American officials said.

READ MORE - U.S. officials unveil videos of bin Laden

Pakistan Warns US Against Future Unilateral Military Action

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Thursday lashed out at the United States for not consulting his government ahead of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

Bashir warned the U.S. there would be "disastrous consequences," if it carries out any other unilateral raids against suspected terrorists in its country.

He also dismissed suggestions that Pakistani security forces are complicit with al-Qaida, and said its counterterrorsim record is unmatched.

Bashir also said U.S. and Pakistani sources confirmed the man killed in Monday's raid was indeed bin Laden.

Bashir also said Thursday the United States is an important friend of Pakistan, and his country appreciates comments by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirming that relationship.

He offered some new details about the Pakistani military's response to the operation that killed bin Laden, saying that the military first knew something was happening when one of the U.S. helicopters crashed.

Pakistan's air force responded by sending two F-16 jets, he said, but by the time they arrived at the site the operation was over and the American forces were gone.

Also Thursday, Clinton said the battle to stop al-Qaida and its affiliates does not end with bin Laden's death, and that Pakistan is an important partner in counterterrorism efforts.

Speaking in Rome, Clinton said the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is not always easy, but is productive for both countries.

READ MORE - Pakistan Warns US Against Future Unilateral Military Action

Appeals court rules in favour of Facebook founder Zuckerberg

A court ruled Monday that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers who have accused Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for the social networking site from them, must accept a previously agreed upon $65-million settlement.

REUTERS - Mark Zuckerberg won the latest legal battle against former Harvard classmates who accuse him of stealing their idea for Facebook, a multimillion-dollar feud made famous on the silver screen.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss must accept a settlement with Facebook that had been valued at $65 million, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday. The twins argued that deal was unfair because Facebook hid information from them at the time.

But the Winklevosses were sophisticated negotiators aided by a team of lawyers, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote in a unanimous opinion.

"The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace," Kozinski wrote.

Attorneys for the twins did not respond to a request for comment.

The 6-foot, 5-inch (1.96-meter) brothers are Olympic rowers who participated in the 2008 games in Beijing, and their saga with Zuckerberg was dramatized in the film "The Social Network."

In the movie, actor Armie Hammer played both identical twins. Zuckerberg's character snidely called them on-screen the "Winklevi."

The twins, along with Divya Narendra, started a company called ConnectU while at Harvard. They say that Zuckerberg stole their idea. Facebook denies these claims.

The three had agreed to a settlement that had been valued at $65 million. But they argue that based on an internal valuation that Facebook did not disclose, they should have received more Facebook shares as part of the deal.

Facebook took in $1.2 billion of revenue in 2010's first nine months, according to documents that Goldman Sachs provided to clients to entice investors in a special fund set up to invest in the giant social networking firm.

The company was valued at $50 billion as part of that transaction.

A lower court had granted Facebook's request to enforce the settlement with the Winklevoss twins and Narendra. The 9th Circuit agreed on Monday.

"At some point, litigation must come to an end," Kozinski wrote. "That point has now been reached."

Facebook deputy general counsel Colin Stretch said the company appreciated the court's careful consideration of the case, and was "pleased" it ruled in their favor.

The case in the 9th Circuit is The Facebook Inc v. ConnectU Inc. 08-16745.

READ MORE - Appeals court rules in favour of Facebook founder Zuckerberg

Apple's quarterly net profit surges to $5.99 billion

Apple Inc's earnings beat market expectations Thursday, with revenues surging 83% on the same quarter last year. The company saw strong sales of their iPhone and Mac products, and struggled to deal with demand for its iPad.

REUTERS - Apple Inc’s results smashed Wall Street’s expectations after iPhone and Mac sales scaled new heights while iPad supplies could not keep up with roaring global demand.
Shares of the world’s most valuable technology corporation rose 3 percent after it said a record 18.65 million units of the category-defining iPhone - its flagship product - moved in the March quarter, outpacing the 16 million or so expected.

Apple sold just 4.69 million iPads - which command an 80 percent share of a burgeoning tablet market in which Motorola Inc and Samsung Electronics also compete - but investors argued that would not detract from strong long-term demand.

But investors largely ignored the lower-than-expected sales for iPads during the quarter as company executives said they were scrambling to meet “staggering” demand and were heavily backlogged for now.

“I’m not going to predict when supply and demand will come into balance,” Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said. “I can only be confident on supply side.”

Apple’s iPad 2 dominated the nascent market for tablets with competing products like Research In Motion’s PlayBook receiving poor reviews from customers and experts.

The stellar results on Wednesday came as concern is growing over how component supply constraints after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami would squeeze margins and restrain iPhone and iPad sales in coming months.

“Dynamite numbers across the board. The only hiccup is lower than expected iPad numbers,” said Capital Advisors Growth Fund portfolio manager Channing Smith.

“We can attribute some of the weakness to stocking issues at some of the retail outlets and obviously the supply chain issue in Japan. Unfortunately, the supply chain issue will likely persist for the coming months but once we get past summer and the supply chain issues are resolved it’s all systems go again for Apple.”

Apple executives told analysts on a conference call they foresaw a hit to revenue this quarter of about $200 million - less than 1 percent of projected global quarterly sales - but expected no cost impact.

The company, known for its tight relationship with Asian suppliers, stands at the head of the queue for electronics components even if the supply crunch continues. Japan accounts for an estimated 6 percent of overall revenue.

“We source hundreds, literally hundreds, of items from Japan, and they range from components such as LCDs, optical drives, NAND flash and DRAM, to base materials such as resins, coatings,” Cook said.

Apple did see some revenue impact from the crisis during the second quarter but it was not material to the results, Cook said, adding that he does not see any unsolvable problems related to the disaster.

On rising prices for memory chips, Cook said he felt “good” for the third quarter as the company does not typically buy in the spot market.

“Beyond Q3, I’m saying I’m not sure because it’s tough to see that far,” he said.

Ipad sales miss targets

The March quarterly report was Apple’s first under the stewardship of Cook after Chief Executive Steve Jobs went on his third medical leave in January.

Cook, who is known as an operations and supply chain maven, said his boss - who has undergone a liver transplant and survived a rare form of pancreatic cancer - still played an active role in important decisions.

“He is still on medical leave but we do see him on a regular basis. He continues to be involved in major strategic decisions. I know he wants to be back full time as soon as he can,” Cook told analysts.

Apple’s iPad sales in the quarter fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations: some analysts had projected shipments of closer to or even more than 6 million for the tablet computer launched on March 11.

But the lower-than-expected number could be attributed to the fact that Apple recognizes revenue from its stores when its customers receive the products. The initial wait time for the iPad 2 was four to five weeks.

“We sold every iPad 2 we could make and the demand was stunning,” Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters in an interview.

Apple’s results come as it prepares to build the next iPhone model with a faster processor, which will begin shipping in September, three people with direct knowledge of the company’s supply chain said on Wednesday.

Cook declined to comment on launch plans for the next iPhone.

It reported a net profit of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 a share, while revenue surged 83 percent to $24.67 billion. That surpassed expectations for $5.37 in earnings and $23.4 billion of revenue.

A large spike in sales of Mac computers, driven by the refreshed MacBook Pro, beefed up March-quarter earnings. Apple said it sold 3.76 million Macs, up 28 percent from a year ago.

Gross margins in the fiscal second quarter came to 41.4 percent, above Wall Street’s average forecast of 39.03 percent.

Apple, which generally provides an ultra-conservative forecast, said it expected June quarter earnings of $5.03 a share on revenue of about $23 billion.

“IPad shipments were significantly lower than my estimates I think because of supply constraints,” said Gabelli & Co analyst Hendi Susanto. “What impressed me was the gross margin.”

Shares of Apple rose 3 percent to $353.67 after hours, from a regular session close of $342.41 on Nasdaq. They had fallen about 3 percent since Japan’s quake.

The company’s stock—which is trading at roughly 18 times forward earnings, versus 19 times for Google and 10 times for Microsoft—is considered a must-have in any technology portfolio.

READ MORE - Apple's quarterly net profit surges to $5.99 billion

Japan approves $48.6bn reconstruction budget

Japan's government approved a budget of $48.5 billion Friday to help fund reconstruction efforts after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami left much of the country in ruins.

REUTERS - Japan’s cabinet approved on Friday almost $50 billion of spending for post-earthquake rebuilding, a downpayment on the country’s biggest public works effort in six decades.

The emergency budget of 4 trillion yen ($48.5 billion), which is likely be followed by more reconstruction spending packages, is still dwarfed by the overall cost of damages caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, estimated at $300 billion.

“With this budget, we are taking one step forward towards reconstruction ... and towards restarting the economy,” Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Financing the next packages will be much tougher, as they are likely to involve a mix of taxes and borrowing, which could strain Japan’s debt-laden economy.

If Prime Minister Naoto Kan, weakened by poor approval ratings and near-constant criticism, cannot steer those laws through parliament, he may be forced to step down, analysts say.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 15-metre (50-ft) tsunami that followed caused Japan’s gravest crisis since World War Two, killing up to 28,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of homes.

It also smashed a nuclear power plant which began leaking radiation, a situation the plant’s operator says could take all year to bring under control.

The budget will be submitted to parliament next week and is expected to be enacted in May.

"Caused great trouble"

Prime Minister Kan, who has been accused by opposition politicians, his own party and quake survivors of failing to take command of the country’s response to the triple disaster, has said the need to rebuild is an opportunity for national “rebirth”.

A Jiji news agency opinion poll showed Kan’s support rate stood at 20.5 percent, up a scant 1.6 points from the previous month, with more than three out of four voters saying he had exercised little or no leadership over the nuclear crisis. About 57 percent said they were supportive of a tax rise to finance reconstruction compared with 38.6 percent who were not.

In a Reuters poll of retail investors released on Friday, 83 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved or strongly disapproved of the administration’s handling of the crisis.

As well as trying to rebuild the ruined northeast of the country, Japan also has to contend with the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the wrecking of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) from Tokyo.

Radiation spilled out from the facility after a hydrogen explosion, and in their battle to cool melting fuel rods, engineers pumped radioactive water into the Pacific, a move that worried Japan’s neighbours about the spread of contamination.

Masataka Shimizu, the much-criticised president of facility operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) , visited an evacuation centre for the first time since the disaster struck, kneeling and bowing deeply to the evacuees.

“I want to work hard so that you can go home,” he said. Mostly subdued evacuees pleaded with him to bring the crisis to an end so they could return to their homes. “I want you to act as if it had happened to your own family,” said one man.

Earlier, dressed in blue work clothes, Shimizu apologised in person to Fukushima’s local governor Yuhei Sato .

“I apologise from the bottom of my heart for the great trouble caused to many people in society,” he said.

Shimizu’s company has been accused of downplaying the dangers and ignoring warnings about the risk of a quake and tsunami striking the plant, as well as reacting poorly to the damage.

Japan said this week it would ban anyone entering a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi.

Kan has instructed residents in some areas outside that zone to leave in order to avoid radiation, Japan’s top government spokesman Yukio Edano said on Friday, but it was unclear how many people this will affect.

“We don’t have the number. We will be working with local authorities in compiling this data,” an official with Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

READ MORE - Japan approves $48.6bn reconstruction budget

French brand Gaultier taken over by Spanish corp

Spanish group Puig has acquired control of France’s famed Gaultier fashion house after buying a majority stake for €16 million. Founder Jean-Paul Gaultier will remain in charge of the artistic management.

AFP - A Spanish firm Puig, owner of couture labels Nina Ricci and Paco Rabanne, said Tuesday it had taken a majority stake in French fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier, whose namesake creator retains artistic control.

Puig paid 16 million euros ($24 million) for Hermes' 45 percent stake while the flamboyant 59-year-old couturier, who owned 55 percent stake in his own brand, also sold an unspecified stake.

However Gaultier remains a key shareholder "in charge of creation and the image of the company that carries his name," said a joint statement by the designer and Puig.

Gaultier, who presented his first fashion collection 35 years ago, said he was "proud of this alliance with a family business that is growing strongly, allowing support for future development."

Sales for Jean Paul Gaultier, which employs 150 people, fell by 19 percent in 2009 to 23 million euros. The company earns its income from licences for ready-to-wear clothing for women and the sale of perfumes.

Hermes said the sale of its stake, together with a repayment of loans, would yield an accounting profit of 30 million euros in 2011.

"I am convinced that the alliance between Jean Paul Gaultier and the Puig family will take the house to new highs," Hermes chief executive officer Patrick Thomas said in a statement, recognising the designer's search for "fresh impetus".

Puig, the world's seventh biggest perfume company with names like Prada and Valentino, reported sales of 1.2 billion euros in 2010, up 22 percent from the previous year, and has set its sights on 1.3 billion euros for 2011.

The company, with 3,500 employees, saw its net profit rise 57 percent to 130 million euros from 2009 to 2010.

Created by Antonio Puig in Barcelona in 1914, three-quarters of its sales are abroad. Puig is not listed on a stock exchange.

READ MORE - French brand Gaultier taken over by Spanish corp

Is the bailout a 'good deal' for Portugal?

The EU, International Monetary Fund, and Portugal agreed Tuesday night on a 78-billion-euro aid package. The Portuguese PM is satisfied with the deal, but the bailout is unlikely to prevent Portugal from facing years of recession.

After two weeks of negotiations, Portugal, the EU, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed Tuesday night on a 78-billion-euro bailout. The aid is, however, less than the financial markets had anticipated.

The deal is generally being viewed as good for the Portuguese government, as Portugal is receiving less aid than the other two European countries that received bailouts (Greece and Ireland). “The government has obtained a good deal,” Portugal’s Socialist prime minister, Jose Socrates, said Tuesday in reaction to the news. He even suggested that the terms of the bailout were more lenient than those negotiated for Greece or Ireland. France24.com looks behind the sound bites takes a closer look.

Is 78 billion euros a lot?

The sum of money offered for three years is in line – give or take a few billion euros – with the expectations of Luxemburg’s prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who is heading the group of European ministers in charge of assessing the budget status of various countries on the continent. Juncker told FRANCE 24 on March 24th that he anticipated a bailout of roughly 75 billion euros if Portugal were to ask for it.

The amount decided upon, 78 billion, corresponds to exactly three times the sum of money that Portugal must pay back in debts this year (26 billion euros).

Is it really a good deal, as the Portuguese PM said?

“The deal is good, because the compromise reached shows that the EU validates the austerity measures enacted by Portugal,” Christophe Blot, an economist specialised in the EU, explained to FRANCE 24. The austerity measures that Portugal will impose on its population will be easier to swallow than those enforced in Ireland and Greece.

Indeed, Socrates said Wednesday that there would be no minimum wage cut and no elimination of a thirteenth and fourteenth month of salary for the public sector, for example – two measures imposed on Greece and Ireland. But, Blot said: “Portugal had already adopted several of these measures – like a reduction of the minimum wage.”

What does Portugal have to pay in return?

As in the Greek and Irish cases, the EU and IMF are asking Portugal to drastically reduce its deficit. In 2010, the deficit was 9.1 percent of the GDP and will have to be brought down to 5.9 percent this year, to 4.5 percent in 2012, and 3 percent in 2013. “It’s roughly the same as it was for Ireland and Greece, which means the bailout condemns Portugal to a recession for the coming years,” Blot said. “It may be a good deal, but it’s bad news for the Portuguese.” Portugal will have to prepare yet another series of austerity measures, complete with cuts in spending on social programmes and a probable tax increase.

The Portuguese prime minister has nevertheless expressed satisfaction. He had indeed set more drastic objectives for deficit reduction (4.6 percent of the GDP in 2011, 3 percent in 2012, and 2 percent in 2013). “But back then, it was essentially to reassure the financial markets and to avoid having to ask the EU for financial help,” Blot explained. According to him, the compromise reached Tuesday night sets more “realistic” objectives.

READ MORE - Is the bailout a 'good deal' for Portugal?

CIA Working on ‘Robust’ Trove of Material from bin Laden Compound

When American commandos left the compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, they took what a senior U.S. intelligence official calls "a robust collection of materials" that is expected to yield a trove of information about the al-Qaida terrorist network.
While U.S. military Special Forces troops systematically worked their way through the compound, finding and killing bin Laden and his associates, other members of the team were collecting everything they could that might contain useful information.

President Barack Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan talked about that part of the operation at a White House briefing on Monday.

"The people who were on the compound took advantage of their time there to make sure that we were able to acquire whatever material we thought was appropriate and what was needed. And we are in the process right now of looking at whatever might have been picked up," Brennan said.

READ MORE - CIA Working on ‘Robust’ Trove of Material from bin Laden Compound

Deadly Tornado Strikes New Zealand's Largest City

Two people are reported dead from a tornado that struck parts of Auckland, New Zealand Tuesday.

Authorities say the storm had winds of 200 kilometers an hour, and left a trail of damage at least five kilometers long as it moved across Albany, a suburb of New Zealand's largest city. Dozens of cars were tossed about and flipped over, trees were uprooted, and the roof was torn off a major shopping mall.

As many as 20 people have reportedly been injured. The Auckland city council has activated its emergency center to coordinate the response and relief efforts.

New Zealand has sustained a number of disasters over the last several months, including a massive 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February, which killed 181 people and caused about $11 billion in damage.

READ MORE - Deadly Tornado Strikes New Zealand's Largest City

Afghanistan: Pakistan Must Have Known bin Laden Was Living in Abbottabad

An Afghan official says Pakistan's intelligence agency must have known that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in a house close to a Pakistani military academy before U.S. special forces killed him in a raid on Monday.

Many questions

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said the location of the house in the military garrison town of Abbottabad would have ensured that Pakistani authorities knew who was living there.

Azimi said bin Laden's hideout would have been known not only to a "strong" intelligence agency such as Pakistan's ISI but even to a "very weak government with a weak intelligence service". He said the ISI faces many questions that need answers.

Pakistan's version
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said bin Laden's ability to live undetected in the compound, apparently for years, "is an intelligence failure of the whole world, not of Pakistan alone." He made the comment Wednesday during a visit to Paris.

U.S. officials also have demanded answers as to how the al-Qaida leader could have lived at a luxury complex in Abbottabad without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities or help from a support network inside Pakistan. The area around the compound remained sealed off Wednesday by Pakistani police and soldiers.

No prior knowledge

Pakistan says it had no prior knowledge of bin Laden's location. It also expressed "deep concern" that the United States conducted the raid in Abbottabad "without prior authorization" of Pakistani authorities and said such an "unauthorized unilateral action" should not set a precedent for other nations.

The White House released new details Tuesday about the U.S. special forces operation that killed bin Laden. Spokesman Jay Carney said bin Laden was not armed, but resisted the Navy SEALs who raided the compound where he was hiding. Carney said resistance does not require a firearm, but he did not give further details.

READ MORE - Afghanistan: Pakistan Must Have Known bin Laden Was Living in Abbottabad

Surprise! Online TV is billion-dollar biz

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As broadcasters and television networks try to figure out their Internet strategy, the TV content that actually is online is generating quite a pretty penny.

Online TV brought in $1.6 billion last year, up 34% from 2009, according to a data analysis by IHS. The largest contributor to that growth was a 65% rise in Internet TV advertising, which reached $719 million in 2010.


That's surprising, since Big Media has often been reluctant to throw its content online, thinking it would jeopardize their lucrative deals with cable providers. And the number of online television streams with ads rose by a measly 10% last year.

But some analysts say that the big players in online TV are actually making out pretty well.

"Even in this conflicted market, revenue was up, thanks to the proactive attitude of a handful of players, including Hulu and the CW Television Network, which have managed to expand revenue even as consumption growth has leveled out," said Dan Cryan, head broadband media analyst at IHS.

Hulu says it pocketed more than $200 million in ad revenue in 2010, doubling its 2009 intake. Though online TV views on Hulu rose just 10%, the company generated more revenue per stream thanks to greater advertiser interest in the Internet television market.

The TV website, which is co-owned by The Walt Disney Co. (DIS, Fortune 500), News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) and NBC Universal and rumored to be exploring the possibility of an initial public offering, led all online Internet video properties in terms of ads viewed with 1.2 billion last month, according to comScore.

Hulu displays a whopping 47 ads per viewer per month -- not too shabby, considering the next biggest video ad player shows just 14 ads per month to its viewers.

Another success story of 2010 is the online TV site of the CW, a network partially owned by CNNMoney's parent Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500). That website grew by 50% last year, but its revenue soared a whopping 300% to $16.5 million. That's because it sold 23 ads per show, on average, IHS noted.

With those kinds of numbers, broadcasters could lend greater support to a business that is potentially a much larger source of revenue, Cryan said. TV networks could do more to promote on air the fact that their shows can be viewed online.

"Consequently, broadcasters in the United States are at risk of ceding territory to Netflix (NFLX) as the go-to destination for television on the Internet," Cryan noted.

Meanwhile, TV networks are hedging their bets by partnering with Apple and selling ad-free, digital versions of their shows on iTunes. That gets them an additional source of revenue without giving it away for "free."

READ MORE - Surprise! Online TV is billion-dollar biz

AT&T starts capping broadband

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The days of all-you-can-surf broadband are vanishing.

AT&T this week began capping its Internet delivery service for broadband and DSL customers. The move comes 11 months after it placed similar caps on its mobile customers.

U-Verse -- AT&T's high-speed broadband, television and telephone network -- now limits customers to 250 gigabytes of Internet usage each month. DSL users are capped at 150 GB. Customers who exceed the limits will have to pay $10 for each additional 50 GB.

AT&T moved in June to set pricing tiers for its mobile customers, offering light users a plan that maxes out at 200 megabytes. The company also sells a pricier 2 GB plan. AT&T (T, Fortune 500) remains the outlier among the three major wireless companies, though Sprint (S, Fortune 500) and Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) Wireless are expected to follow suit with caps soon.

But AT&T isn't alone in instituting restrictions on residential broadband usage.

Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) -- by far the largest broadband provider in the U.S. -- also has a 250 GB cap, and Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) experimented with a tiered billing service in some markets in 2008. Though broadband caps are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, variations on Internet cap structures are quite common in Canada, Asia and in European countries.

AT&T's caps will affect just 2% of its customers, the company said. The restrictions are necessary, AT&T maintained, because those in the top 2% use up 20% of the network's bandwidth. The highest-traffic users download as much as 19 typical households, on average, which slows speeds for other users, AT&T said.

"Our approach is based on customers' feedback," said Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T. "They told us that the people who use the most should pay more, and they also told us we should make it easy for them to track their usage. We think our approach addresses these concerns."

Siegel called the caps "generous," and said that AT&T's DSL customers use just 18 GB per month on average. The company didn't provide similar statistics for its U-Verse high-speed Internet customers. Globally, broadband customers typically use 15 GB per month, according to Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500).

The caps are fairly forgiving. DSL customers would need to watch 65 hours of high-definition videos on Netflix (NFLX) to reach the limit, and high-speed customers would need to watch 109 hours.

Analysts see the move as a strategic one. AT&T, Comcast and many other broadband providers also sell cable TV service, which a growing number of customers are dropping in favor of video on-demand services like Netflix.

"This probably isn't absolutely necessary," said Vince Vittore, broadband analyst at Yankee Group. "It's mostly a move to prevent customers from cutting off video services."

Vittore believes Comcast and AT&T's caps are indicative of what will become a larger trend in broadband services throughout the country.

Cisco recently forecast that video on-demand usage will double every 2 1/2 years. AT&T said its customers are using more broadband as data-intensive video services like Netflix become more popular. Video currently makes up 40% of all Internet traffic and will exceed 91% by 2014, according to Cisco.

Though typical broadband users don't come close to approaching the caps now, the increase in average video consumption will undoubtedly cause a greater number of users to exceed their limits in the coming years.

That could force broadband providers to raise their caps in the future if customers begin to complain.

To head off a backlash, AT&T is sending customers alerts when they reached 65%, 90% and 100% of their data allotment each month. The company is also giving customers an undefined grace period before it charges them for another 50 GB. AT&T also is allowing customers to check their data usage online.

Still, data caps likely won't sit well with those who have called for broadband providers to improve their infrastructure and service.

The Obama administration has harshly criticized the state of the country's broadband infrastructure, noting that most other countries offer broader service with far faster speeds. The president even alluded in last year's State of the Union address to a study in which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the United States 31st in median broadband speed.

As part of its National Broadband Plan, the FCC has set out to bring 100-megabit-per-second speeds to 100 million Americans.

Some Internet companies fed up with the state of American broadband are taking matters into their own hands. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), for instance, is deploying a 1-gigabit-per-second network in Kansas City, Kan.

READ MORE - AT&T starts capping broadband

Le rapport d'audit met au jour de "graves dysfonctionnements" au sein de Renault

Un conseil d'administration extraordinaire de Renault se tient sur la fausse affaire d'espionnage. Pour la ministre de l'Économie, Christine Lagarde, le rapport d'audit évoque de "graves dysfonctionnements" au sein de l'entreprise.

AFP - Le rapport d'audit réalisé par Renault à la suite de la rocambolesque fausse affaire d'espionnage qui secoue le groupe pointe de "graves dysfonctionnements" au sein du management et désigne des responsables, ont affirmé lundi les ministres de l'Economie et de l'Industrie qui attendent que "des leçons" soient tirées.

"Les rapports montrent qu'il y a eu des dysfonctionnements évidents, qui incluent deux choses: la révision des règles de gouvernance, et des sanctions", a affirmé Christine Lagarde sur France Inter.

"J'ai donné instruction aux représentants de l'Etat au conseil d'administration de Renault de soutenir les recommandations du comité d'audit", a-t-elle précisé.

Le constructeur français, dont 15% du capital sont aux mains de l'Etat, tient ce lundi un conseil d'administation qui doit examiner ce rapport d'audit sur la genèse de cette fausse affaire d'espionnage.

Selon le ministre de l'Industrie, Eric Besson, "le rapport d'audit dit +il y a eu des dysfonctionnements graves dont il faut tirer les leçons+, et nous pensons effectivement qu'il faut tirer les leçons de ces dysfonctionnements graves".

Il a précisé sur LCI que les responsables de ce fiasco au sein du groupe "sont nommés dans le rapport d'audit", tout en refusant de révéler leur identité.

Quant à l'éventuelle démission du PDG de Renault, Carlos Ghosn, M. Besson a estimé qu'il revenait au conseil d'administration du groupe "de tirer les leçons". De son côté, le numéro deux du groupe Patrick Pélata avait proposé sa démission, qui avait été refusée par M. Ghosn.

"Il va y avoir un conseil d'administration, et je comprends que le président de Renault veuille tirer les leçons de cette affaire en proposant un certain nombre d'initiatives et de réorganisations au sein de son management", a-t-il indiqué.

Cette affaire "révèle un système de management et une façon de gouverner qui ne peut plus se perpétuer", a-t-il asséné.

Selon le Journal du Dimanche, deux autres responsables de Renault, Christian Husson, directeur juridique, Jean-Yves Coudriou, directeur de cadres dirigeants, sont également sur la sellette.

M. Besson a en revanche refusé de commenter le montant des indemnités réclamées par les trois cadres du groupe accusés à tort d'espionnage avant d'être licenciés, et qui selon l'hebdomadaire Marianne s'élevent à plus de 11 millions d'euros au total.

"Je ne sais pas. C'est au conseil d'administration aujourd'hui même je crois de l'évoquer", s'est contenté de dire M. Besson.

Il a en revanche estimé qu'il revenait à l'entreprise d'acquitter ces indemnités, même s'"il serait logique" que ses responsables y contribuent, a-t-il ajouté en rappelant que M. Ghosn s'était engagé à renoncer à une part de sa rémunération à la suite de cette affaire.

Mais selon le ministre de l'Industrie, "ça ne peut pas être des sommes astronomiques qui portent préjudice à l'entreprise elle-même" même s'il faut tenir compte du "préjudice moral" dans cette affaire.

Selon Marianne, Michel Balthazard, Bertrand Rochette et Matthieu Tenenbaum réclament respectivement 3,2 millions, 3,4 millions et 2,4 millions d'euros de dommages pour préjudice moral.

Ces sommes qui, ajoutées aux diverses indemnités de licenciement, feraient grimper l'addition à plus de 11 millions d'euros, selon les calculs de l'hebdomadaire.

READ MORE - Le rapport d'audit met au jour de "graves dysfonctionnements" au sein de Renault