Wikipedia joins web blackout in Sopa Act protest
Wikipedia plans to take its English-language site offline on Wednesday as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US.
The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing have also said they will take part in the "blackout".
The sites' webmasters are opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) being debated by Congress.
However, Twitter has declined to take part in the shutdown.
Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, told the BBC: "Proponents of Sopa have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy.
"But that's not really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."
Veto hint
Sopa's supporters in the House of Representatives say the legislation is designed to stop revenue flowing to "rogue websites".
It would give content owners and the US government the power to request court orders to shut down sites associated with piracy.
It could also force US-based internet service providers, search engines, payment processors and advertising networks to stop doing business or offering links to foreign sites suspected of involvement with the illegal activity.
A similar law, Pipa, is making its way through the US Senate.
On Saturday the White House issued a statement that appeared to side with critics of the Acts.
It said: "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet."
'Broader problem'
Despite the hint of a presidential veto, Wikipedia said that the English site's administrators had decided to stage its first ever public protest because the bills "would be devastating to the free and open web".
It added: "We don't think Sopa is going away, and Pipa is still quite active. Moreover, Sopa and Pipa are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we're seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms."
However, when asked whether Twitter would join the blackout, its chief executive, Dick Costolo, tweeted: "Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish."
In a Twitter conversation with Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Wales, Mr Costolo later clarified that his comment was not meant to be read as a "value judgement" about other organisations involvement in the action.
The anti-piracy legislation still has high profile supporters including News Corporation's chairman, Rupert Murdoch.
Over the weekend he tweeted: "So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery."
He later added: "Seems like universal anger with POTUS [President of the United States] from all sorts of normal supporters... Whole entertainment industry employs 2.2 million [on] average salary $65,000. Good jobs and expanding foreign earnings. Made in America, too!"
Sites taking part in the shutdown plan to go offline for 24 hours from midnight Eastern Standard Time (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Clinton Meets With Ivory Coast President
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has held talks with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara about challenges that remain in the country following its disputed presidential election.
Clinton met with Mr. Ouattara Tuesday at the presidential palace in Abidjan during the first visit to Ivory Coast by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 25 years.
The trip is part of a four-nation tour of Africa that began Monday in Liberia. Clinton is also scheduled to visit Togo and Cape Verde.
Mr. Ouattara won the November 2010 election, but former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede authority. The resulting power struggle ignited a firestorm of violence that left at least 3,000 people dead.
President Ouattara took office in April of last year after pro-Ouattara forces backed by U.N. and French troops forcibly removed Mr. Gbagbo from power.
Samsung to invest record 41.7 bln USD in 2012
South Korea's largest conglomerate Samsung Group said Tuesday that it planned to invest a record 47.8 trillion won (41.7 billion U.S. dollars) this year in a bid to secure new growth engines.
Samsung Group, which controls tech giant Samsung Electronics, planned to invest in facility investment, research and development (R&D) and capital investment, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
The figure was the largest in the company's history, up 12 percent from the previous record of 42.8 trillion won in 2011.
The company's facility investment will reach 31 trillion won in 2012, up 11 percent from a year earlier, while R&D investment will expand 13 percent on-year to 13.6 trillion won this year. The remaining 3.2 trillion won will be spent on capital investment.
Meanwhile, Samsung planned to hire a record 26,000 new employees in 2012, up 4 percent from the previous high of 25,000 jobs created in 2011.
Eurozone Sees Drop In December Inflation Rate
The eurozone saw a slightly larger than expected drop in the December inflation rate, down to 2.7 percent.
Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, predicted the December rate would drop to 2.8 percent from November's rate of 3 percent for the 17 eurozone member nations.
The Eurozone Central Bank has a target of less than 2 percent inflation. The ECB maintained its benchmark interest rate at just 1 percent.
Meanwhile, Germany's investor confidence rose in January, suggesting the German economy remains strong and economic activity should stabilize in the first half of 2012.
Britain – which is not a part of the eurozone – had it's rate of inflation fall in December by the largest margin since 2009. Economic statistics released Tuesday indicated a drop from November's 4.8 percent down to 4.2 percent.
China GDP Grows at Slowest Rate Since 2009
China's economy grew at its slowest pace in two-and-a-half years during the final quarter of 2011, as Beijing fought chronically high inflation and faced weakened demand for its exports.
The growth of China's gross domestic product in the fourth quarter slowed to 8.9 percent – the slowest expansion since the second quarter of 2009. But the figure still exceeded many analysts' expectations, suggesting a soft landing for the world's second largest economy.
Overall, China's economy grew 9.2 percent in 2011. That is down from the previous year's figure of 10.4 percent. While growth is slowing, many experts say that China's economy is showing surprising resiliency to the global economic downturn.
National Statistics Bureau Chairman Ma Jiantang said the slowdown was in line with government plans to cool China's overheated economy. But he also warned that growth was likely to slow further, as Beijing prepared for “unexpected situations” in 2012.
“All the circumstances, including the domestic and international environment, increase many uncertainties in China's economic operation in 2012.”
Many analysts also predict that China's economy will continue to slow during the first six months of 2012.
But some say the stronger than expected fourth quarter growth may give Chinese policy makers the ability to delay any further moves to ease monetary policy.
Meanwhile, Ma said figures released Tuesday indicate China's urban population has surpassed the number of those living in rural areas for the first time.
“The portion of urban population to rural population rose to 51.27 percent, which for the first time put the urban population over 50 percent…this was 1.32 percentage points higher than that of the previous year.”
Formerly an agrarian society, China has experienced rapid urbanization as farmers continue to leave their fields and factory jobs in search of higher salaries in the city.
Official figures suggest that China's rural population fell by 14.6 million in 2011.
China, which has the world's largest population, is now faced with providing jobs, supplies and infrastructure and for its rapidly expanding number of city dwellers.
Philippine Police Arrest Suspect in Kidnapping of US Missionary Couple
Philippine police say they have arrested an Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of an American missionary couple.
Security officials said Tuesday the man, known as “Abu Ismael,” was captured on the remote southern island of Basilan.
They said he is a member of the Abu Sayyaf terror group, which is linked to al-Qaida and blamed for a series of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.
Officials say Abu Ismael was one of the armed guards during the captivity of Gracia and Martin Burnham, fellow American Guillermo Sobero and a number of Filipinos.
Sobero was beheaded, and Martin Burnham was later killed in a raid by Philippine forces that freed Gracia Burnham.
Authorities also said the suspect was trained in bomb-making and helped carry out advanced planning for other kidnappings.
11 sentenced to prison after billionaire burns himself to death in N China
A Chinese court Tuesday sentenced 11 people to prison for illegal financing, eight months after their billionaire boss burnt himself to death in Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
Altogether 11 people, all employees of the Baotou Huilong Trading Co., Ltd., were given sentences from one to seven years for illegal financing of up to 2.22 billion yuan (353 million U.S. dollars), according to a statement released by the People's Court in Jiuyuan District of Baotou city, where the company was based.
In addition to the 11, another employee was found guilty but was not sentenced to prison as she helped pay back investors.
For the same reason, Liu Mei'e, who was among the 11 and sentenced to three years in jail, was given a three-year reprieve.
Jin Libin, born in 1967, late chairman of the company, lit himself on fire in a car on April 13. Subsequent investigations showed the company was 943 million yuan in debt when Jin killed himself.
Police later found that Jin's company had raised 2.22 billion yuan from the public and took 217 million yuan in bank loans from June 2004 to April 2011.
The company initially could make ends meet, but later, in order to polish its image and go public, it borrowed continuously and thus became shackled with huge interest repayments.
At Tuesday's trial, the company was fined 500,000 yuan. Most defendants also received fines ranging from 80,000 to 20,000 yuan.
After the trial, some of the sentenced said they would file an appeal.
Statement from RBC Royal Bank, Providenciales
“We are dismayed that another serious incident has occurred at our branch and concerned at the rising level of bold crime in our community.
Our first concern is always for the safety of our clients, staff and other visitors to our premises.
We take the security of our operations very seriously and regularly review the security strategy at all of our locations with a view to continuously enhancing safety.
In addition, we are working closely with the police to support them in their difficult fight against such bold crimes in our community.
Our thoughts are with the persons impacted by this incident along with their families and colleagues.
RBC values its operations in Turks and Caicos and wishes to assure clients that we are committed to being a part of the Turks and Caicos Islands community. We are enhancing the security at our current location even more but understandably we cannot give specifics. Our entire network of branch locations in the region is under regular review to ensure that they meet the needs of our clients in terms of safety and convenience.
As this is an ongoing police investigation, we cannot provide any information specific to the incident at this time.”
The new CEO to announce this week the proposed five new Ministries and which PS will head them
TCIG Chief Executive Patrick Boyle is expected to host a news conference this week during which he will announce the proposed five new Ministries and which Permanent Secretary will head them. The press conference is scheduled 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 18th January in the NJS Francis Building, Grand Turk and is the first occasion since their appointments that all six PS’s have
formally gotten together and will give media representatives an opportunity to interview Mr. Boyle and meet the five new PS’s as a group for the first time.
48 Hour Crime Recap – Providenciales
Police in Providenciales this afternoon officially confirmed an armed robbery that occurred at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) over the weekend, which landed one young man in the hospital.
Media relations officer, detective Inspector Calvin Chase in a media release to RTC News, reported that three security guards from a security firm were making a deposit at RBC on Leeward Highway
on Friday night 13th January 2012 when one of the security guards was shot by one of two masked bandits,one of whom was armed with a firearm. The bandits got away with a quantity of cash.
The security guard that was shot received serious, but non-life threatening injuries. That officer who RTC News can confirm is Dwayne Fulford, a.k.a. “Footy” of South Caicos, was taken to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre in Providenciales, where he underwent surgery late Friday
night and later taken to the high dependency unit.
An InterHealth Canada spokesperson told RTC News this evening that Fulford received a gunshot wound to his stomach which exited through his trunk area. She noted that while he has now been
moved to the general ward, he is still not allowed to eat or drink, but is being fed intra-vaneously.
She said he is however making progress.
Meanwhile, on Saturday night 14th January 2012 two masked bandits armed with firearms robbed a restaurant and patrons of cash plus personal belongings. Shots were discharged by the bandits
during the robbery. No one was injured. The incident took place in Lower Bight Providenciales.
Chase also reported during the past forty-eight hours (48) Police in Providenciales responded to ten (10) reports of serious nature. Five (5) Burglaries – Leeward Highway, South Dock, Blue Hills, Kew Town & Kingston the Bight. Three (3) Thefts— Leeward Highway, Blue Hills & North West Point, including the Two (2) Robberies— Outside Royal Bank of Canada & Lower Bight. Five males were arrested on suspicion of Robbery in connection with the robbery outside of RBC on Friday night 13th January 2012. A male was arrested on suspicion of Burglary which occurred on Friday 13th January 2012. Two males were charged for Handling Stolen Goods.