Amnesty International: Venezuela Prison Riot Should Be Investigated

CARACAS, Venezuela ? The human rights group Amnesty International urged Venezuelan authorities on Wednesday to determine whether troops used excessive force during a clash with prison inmates that left at least 58 dead.

The government said the violence in Uribana prison erupted last week when armed inmates fired at National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection. Nearly all those killed were prisoners.

"It's unacceptable that an inspection, which should be a routine operation, should lead to so much violence," Amnesty International said in a statement. "This clearly shows once again the crisis in the Venezuelan prison systems, which has reached truly alarming levels."

The group said Venezuela should conduct "an independent, objective and impartial investigation" to find out who was responsible for the slayings.

The chief prosecutor has begun an investigation, as has the National Assembly.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also expressed concern on Tuesday about "an alarming pattern of violence in Venezuelan prisons, which is a direct consequence of poor conditions."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua called the appraisal by the U.N. human rights office "hasty." He said on television Wednesday that the government will provide the U.N. agency with all relevant information, and insisted that the government has been complying with recommendations made by U.N. officials in an annual review of prisons.

"It's part of a complex battle, a difficult battle, but it's being confronted every day," Jaua said.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela renewed pledges to build more prisons.

Critics and government opponents say that despite previous pledges the government has failed to build more prisons or get a grip on rampant violence in the country's overcrowded penitentiaries.

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/amnesty-international-uribana-prison-riot_n_2585764.html

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Facebook?s Mobile App Ads See Early Traction With 20% Of iOS? 100 Top Grossing Devs Using Them

About one-fifth of iOS’ top grossing developers are testing out Facebook app install ads, showing some early traction for the new product. Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s COO, mentioned this on today’s fourth quarter earnings call. Launched last fall, Facebook launched new kind of ad unit that doesn’t involve a friends’ like or recommendation. These ads send users to the iOS app store, where they can download promoted apps. They’re going to be an important prong of Facebook mobile monetization efforts. Why? Facebook can’t derive fees or virtual currency revenue from mobile apps, because they exist on platforms operated by the company’s frenemies Google and Apple. As users have migrated to mobile devices, Facebook’s payments revenues has stalled because of this. “We continue to face headwinds in payments revenue, since our games revenue is essentially from desktop computers,” said Facebook’s CFO David Ebersman on today’s earnings call. So mobile ads are going to be the key way that the company earns revenue from its developer ecosystem on mobile devices. Given that Facebook reaches 680 million users every day on mobile devices, it really isn’t surprising at all that a significant fraction of top developers are testing this out. Early anecdotal feedback from developers I’ve talked to has been mixed, but many developers acknowledge that it will be an important user acquisition channel in the future. Anil Dharni, who is a senior vice president at the $3.5 billion Japanese mobile gaming company GREE, told me in an interview last week (which I have yet to publish) that, “Some of the test results that are coming in are pretty good actually. They’re really premium spots and the ROI is definitely there.” He said it will almost certainly be one of the top handful of marketing channels the company uses going forward. Perry Tam, who is the CEO of Storm8, a game developer that sees 10 million users every day, told us last month that Facebook campaigns were four times as effective as other channels in acquiring users with “exceptional” conversion rates. (It’s worth noting though that Tam is a former Facebooker, who left the company to start Storm8.) It’s quite common for any single one of top 50 grossing iOS developers at to spend at least a few million dollars every month on user acquisition. I moderated a panel earlier this week with Terry Angelos, who is CEO of longtime Facebook partner Trialpay.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BtT3nvHunmk/

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Southeastern N.C. under tornado watch until 2 a.m.

Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 8:35 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 8:35 p.m.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for several counties in Southeastern North Carolina, including New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender.

Josh Weiss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Wilmington office, said by phone about 8:25 p.m. that a squall line was heading toward Columbia, S.C., creating an environment that is favorable for tornadoes.

?Right now, we think the tornado threat is low,? he said. ?The primary threat looks like damaging straight line winds.?

The watch is in effect until 2 a.m. but could be extended depending on how the squall line evolves, Weiss said.

Meanwhile, a wind advisory issued earlier for the region is in effect until 6 a.m.

Winds of 20 mph to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph are expected overnight, according to the National Weather Service.

The winds might be capable of downing trees and power lines and isolated power failures are likely, the weather service said.

Those driving tall vehicles should use caution, especially when traveling on bridges and overpasses.

Wednesday night, showers are likely and severe thunderstorms are possible.

? From staff reports

Source: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130130/articles/130139955

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Removing Colombia's landmines, one by one

Since 1990, more than 10,000 Colombians have been wounded or killed by landmines, including 982 children. Britain's Halo Trust expects to be one of the first NGOs to start clearing mines in the next several months.

By Anastasia Moloney,?AlertNet / January 30, 2013

A woman practices searching for landmines during a training session involving mock landmines in El Retiro, Colombia. The HALO Trust is establishing a program to begin clearing large areas of the country of mines that have been set by both the government and rebels during a long civil war.

Albeiro Lopera/Reuters

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Civilian demining organizations are training staff to start clearance in Colombia, one of the most mine-scarred countries in the world.

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Two years ago, Colombia passed a law allowing local and international nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to carry out demining operations employing civilians.

Before then, insecurity and violence stemming from nearly five decades of armed conflict meant only the Colombian military was allowed to carry out mine clearance.

The British-based Halo Trust, a demining group, expects to be one of the first international NGOs to start mine clearance within the next several months, employing civilians using mine detectors.

?We are only going to work in areas that are considered safe by the government,? Grant Salisbury, Colombia program manager for HALO, told AlertNet.

?The first group of 14 Colombian civilians has been trained. We hope to increase that figure by 200 by the end of year.?

It is expected that humanitarian demining groups from Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway will also start operations in Colombia within a year.

Colombia has one of the highest rates of landmine victims in the world.

Since 1990, more than 10,000 Colombians have been either wounded or killed by landmines, of which 982 have been children, according to the latest government figures.

The government says Colombia?s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is responsible for planting the majority of landmines and unexploded ordnance littered across the country, mostly in rural areas.

Using a tin of tuna and costing just $5 each, the rebels often use homemade mines as a cheap weapon of war to repel government troops. The drug-running FARC rebels also plant mines in and around coca fields ? the raw ingredient of cocaine ? to protect their valuable crop.

Colombia's challenging terrain makes mine clearance slow going.

?The terrain is going to be difficult. It?s mountainous and jungle. The daily clearance rate will be slow because of the terrain. It?s slow, but it?s essential work, and it?s possible,? said Salisbury.

Another big challenge facing demining operations in Colombia is a lack of information about where and how many mines are planted, meaning it is impossible to gauge the size of Colombia's mine problem.

As a signatory of the Mine Ban Treaty, Colombia has agreed to clear the country of mines by 2021.

?It?s way too early to say whether that obligation can be met and how much terrain remains to be cleared,? said Salisbury.

In recent years, demining in Colombia has focused on clearing all mines placed by the state military around 35 of their bases to hold off rebel groups.

Humanitarian demining in Colombia is still in its early stages and is largely confined to areas where government troops have secure territorial control.

Despite these challenges, the Colombian government is looking to step up demining operations across the country.

Under historic laws passed in 2011, the government hopes to return millions of hectares of land stolen by armed groups to their rightful owners and to encourage the return of up to 4 million Colombians forced off their land because of the conflict.

However, a key obstacle in giving back stolen land and encouraging uprooted families to return is that some of it remains mined and therefore unsafe for people to return to.

?Both danger and perception of mines is a major obstacle in Colombia?s development. A government plan that envisions the return of IDPs [internally displaced persons] will have to take into account demining,? Salisbury said.

In addition, with peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC rebels under way in the Cuban capital, Havana, the issue of demining is becoming ever more urgent.

If the two sides reach an agreement, demand for humanitarian demining operations run by the Colombian military and foreign and local NGOs will grow significantly.

? This article originally appeared at AlertNet, a humanitarian news site operated by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Hl715Pc6Nck/Removing-Colombia-s-landmines-one-by-one

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Remember CLOs, CDOs? They're Back Signaling Return to 2004

Last week, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that Germany's Deutsche Bank had recently launched a CDO worth $8.7 billion, citing sources it did not identify. The German newspaper said the investors ? who were all institutional ? would receive interest of between 8 percent and 14 percent.

"To us, those high yields indicate why we think CDOs will be in demand, but also illustrate the heightened level of risk involved for the financial system," Reynolds wrote in a research note on Monday, commenting on the deal.

"The story noted that Deutsche established its non-core operations unit last week with $125 billion of assets, ranging from securitized positions to a Las Vegas casino, and plans to reduce that to under $70 billion by March, as part of its efforts to raise its capital ratios," Reynolds said.

"The story doesn't explicitly say so, but we believe that means there are more CDOs to come from this bank."

On Thursday, Deutsche Bank released full-year earnings, posting a major loss following writedowns. But shares were 2.5 percent higher after the lender reported better than expected capital ratios.

At its annual press conference following the results, co-CEO Anshu Jain was asked to confirm whether the bank had issued a CDO in order to improve its capital ratio.

Jain replied: "The deal to which I think you are referring, is one where we chose to de-risk our existing assets, to be sold to a highly sophisticated hedge fund, purpose-built to purchase investments like these.

"And the structure that was used, was, I believe, a CDO."

He added: "CDOs themselves are not illegitimate investments. They were the cause of significant losses in the 2005-2008 period, specifically in conjunction with sub-prime CDOs, and some of the selling practices, and who bought them."

While few reports of CDOs from other banks have emerged, several CLOs - which are similar in structure to CDOs, but securitized purely against loans - were launched in January by the likes of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Citi. The CLOs ranged in size from $515 million to $1.3 billion.

According to Reuters Loan Pricing Corporation (LPC), CLO issuance in the U.S. reached $6.4 billion this month (as of January 28), versus a monthly average of $7.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, London's Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Pramerica and Cairn Capital are vying to be the first to launch a CLO deal in Europe since 2007. Both institutions were major participants in the leveraged loan space prior to 2007.

Pre-crisis, CLOs were often used to fund leveraged buyouts (LBOs), particularly in Europe where the high yield credit space was less developed than in the U.S.

While LBO-related loan volumes remain low, the still-unconsummated leveraged buyout of Dell is seen by some as a precursor to a revival in jumbo-sized deals.

(Read More: Microsoft May Invest $1-$3 Billion in Dell Buyout)

According to a note from Steven Miller, the head of leveraged research at Standard & Poor's Capital IQ, Dell's purchase price will be around $22 billion, based on market capitalization, meaning the proposed deal will be the largest since 2008.

"While Dell may be an outlier in terms of size (due to Michael Dell's large ownership stake and a potential $1-3 billion investment from Microsoft), arrangers say the pace of front-end activity for deals of $5 billion or more has quickened," wrote Miller in a note last week.

"Players are increasingly optimistic LBO activity will trend higher in the months ahead, making 2013 a more fruitful year for deal-making than 2012."

Outside the LBO space, Reynolds said banks might want to use collateralized deals to shed poor quality assets, in order to meet the higher capital ratios required by regulators since the crisis.

"We are confident that regulators never figured on Deutsche improving their capital ratios by 'selling their assets' by stuffing them into CDOs, an asset class that has been virtually dead for five years," said Reynolds in Monday's note.

"When other banks see how easy it was for Deutsche to raise their capital ratios by stuffing items from the closet into a CDO, they will follow suit."

- By CNBC's Katy Barnato

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100422439/Remember_CLOs_CDOs_They039re_Back_Signaling_Return_to_2004

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This Dash Mounted Nexus 7 Takes KITT on the Road with You

This dash-mounted Nexus 7 (and it's brilliant Knight Rider-themed custom launcher) looks great, was a DIY labor of love, and definitely is a great way to take Google Music, navigation, maps, and all your favorite apps with you on the go on a nice large screen.

Ross Mclardy, over at Land of Technology walks through his project step-by-step at the link below, and you can see the results in the video above. Obviously it's not a project for everyone, but the end result is hard to argue with, and the whole project, Nexus 7 included (Ross used a broken Nexus 7 he picked up from eBay) actually cost him less than an aftermarket full-dash system. He had to take the N7 apart and connect it to his head unit so the audio worked, and then connect it to power so it would stay charged.

The other awesome part of this build is the Knight Rider launcher Ross built. The whole thing was done with Nova Launcher Prime, Ultimate Custom Widget, and Tasker. The buttons correspond to apps and features he uses frequently, including Google Music, Maps, Waze, Navigation, and more. Ross actually has an entire post just on how to build the UI, if you want to try it on your own Android phone or tablet.

We should note though, a shiny in-dash unit like this doesn't excuse using it while you drive?be safe and keep your eyes on the road. Let your passenger pull up maps or directions, or pull over and use it yourself. Also, we can't totally suggest buying a Nexus 7, broken or not, just to mount it in your dash, and the parts required vary across vehicle models. Your mileage may vary: What was an easy fit for Ross may be more difficult for your car if you want to give this a try, so plan before you jump in. Still, the N7 fit a standard double-din slot, so it should technically work with any vehicle. At the very least, you can recreate the launcher on your own and feel like you're riding with KITT the next time you commute to work.

Dash Mounting a Nexus 7 | Land of Technology via Android Police

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/znPh3h3d49k/this-dash-mounted-nexus-7-and-custom-launcher-takes-kitt-on-the-road-with-you

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Use a Wooden Spoon to Know When Oil Is Ready for Frying

You've got a big pot of oil on the stove, some chicken or fries to deep fry, but no clip-on thermometer to tell when the temperature is just right. No problem. Your wooden spoon can clue you in on when it's time to add your food.

In a great guide to fearless deep frying, Food 52 notes that if you insert a wooden spoon into the oil, the oil will bubble around the stick when it's ready for frying. (Alternatively, you can use a popcorn kernel, which will pop somewhere between 325 and 350 degrees Fahrenheit?a tip Lifehacker reader Faslane offered when we mentioned a similar trick with a grain of rice).

Check out the full article for lots more tips on frying?wisely and safely.

Deep Frying Without Fear | Food 52

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2eP5hK55_7A/use-a-wooden-spoon-to-know-when-oil-is-ready-for-frying

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