Ford invests £190m in a plant for clean diesels
Ford has invested in the future of the UK car manufacturing by pumping £190 million into its Dagenham production facility, helping to secure another 318 jobs at the plant.
The funding has been provided for the development and building of new ultra-low emission 2.0-litre diesel engines for commercial vehicles, then passenger cars. We expect versions of this diesel to make their way into the all-new Mondeo and Focus family cars by 2018.
Ford says the investment is a response to London Mayor Boris Johnson's announcement of a planned 'Ultra-Low Emission Zone' in the capital and surrounding areas, meaning charges for anyone driving current diesels that are not Euro6 compliant.
With the pollution charges set to come in as early as 2020, Ford has sprung into action to invest in cleaner engines that will be exempt from the emissions zone fines.
The new diesel engines have been designed and developed at Dagenham and the Ford Dunton Technical Centre in Essex. The company claims the powerplants will have 'dramatically lower' NOx emissions, crucial in cities with high traffic levels.
The announcement is the second phase of investment in the new engine programme, with the original £287 million going to producing the clean diesels for Ford commercial vehicles around the world.
Both sums combine with funding from the UK Government's Regional Growth Fund to bring the project total to £475 million, showing long-term commitment to the East London plant and its workers.
Source- AutoExpress
Apple earnings beat expectations
Apple reported third-quarter earnings of $8.47bn (£5.24bn), a 13% rise from the same period a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations.
Profits at the technology giant were helped by sales of its new iPhone 6 models, which were on sale for ten days during the three-month period ending 30 September.
Total iPhone sales numbered 39.3m.
However sales of Apple's iPad disappointed, with 12.3m sold, down from 13.1m a year earlier.
"Our fiscal 2014 was one for the record books, including the biggest iPhone launch ever with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus," said Apple chief executive Tim Cook in a statement accompanying the earnings report. He added that he was optimistic for the crucial holiday quarter coming up.
Apple shares rose over 2% in after-hours trading after the earnings were released.
Pay for the future
The earnings were announced on the same day that Apple introduced its digital payment system, Apple Pay, at a host of US retailers including supermarket chain Whole Foods and pharmacy Walgreens.
Some analysts believe that alongside iPhone sales, Apple Pay could be one of the biggest drivers of revenue growth at the company in coming years.
The technology works by allowing users to scan their fingerprint using an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to access stored credit information to pay for goods at participating retailers.
However, while analysts are optimistic about ApplePay's potential, only a few stores are currently equipped to use the technology - and several large retailers, most notably Wal-Mart, have yet to sign on to the service.
Furthermore, the technology is only available on the newest model of iPhones.
Google changes 'to fight piracy' by highlighting legal sites
Google has announced changes to its search engine in an attempt to curb online piracy.
The company has long been criticised for enabling people to find sites to download entertainment illegally.
The entertainment industry has argued that illegal sites should be "demoted" in search results.
The new measures, mostly welcomed by music trade group the BPI, will instead point users towards legal alternatives such as Spotify and Google Play.
Google will now list these legal services in a box at the top of the search results, as well as in a box on the right-hand side of the page.
Crucially, however, these will be adverts - meaning if legal sites want to appear there, they will need to pay Google for the placement.
The BPI said that while it was "broadly" pleased with Google's changes, it did not think sites should have to pay.
"There should be no cost when it comes to serving consumers with results for legal services," a spokesman told the BBC.
The BPI made 43.3 million requests for Google to remove search results in 2013 (the US equivalent group, the RIAA, made 31.6 million)
Google removed 222 million results from search because of copyright infringement
Google's Content ID system, which detects copyrighted material, scans 400 years-worth of video every day
300 million videos have been "claimed" by rights holders, meaning they can place advertising on them
Source-BBC
Tech Reporter: David Lee
IBM pays $1.5bn to offload chip unit as profit falls
IBM is to pay $1.5bn (£930m) in cash to offload its loss-making chip manufacturing division to Abu Dhabi owned GlobalFoundries.
IBM, which wanted to avoid the cost of upgrading the unit's technology, said it would now focus on cloud computing, mobile and big data analytics.
IBM will take a $4.7bn charge in the third quarter as a result of the sale.
The sale came as IBM announced a 17% drop in third quarter profit,
IBM said it made $3.5bn profit for the three months to the end of September, with revenues down 4% to $22.4bn.
"We are disappointed in our performance," chief executive Ginni Rometty said.
Ms Rometty blamed a "marked slowdown" in client buying behaviour for the drop in sales, which were lower than analysts had expected.
However, she said the results also reflected "the unprecedented pace of change in our industry."
Reggae legend John Holt dies at 67
Reggae vocalist John Holt, who sang the original version of Blondie's hit The Tide is High, has died aged 67.
His manager Copeland Forbes told the Jamaica Observer he died in a London hospital on Sunday. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
Holt rose to fame in the 1960s as the lead singer of The Paragons, writing and releasing The Tide is High in 1967.
He went solo in 1970 and went on to become one of the biggest stars of reggae music in Jamaica.
Musicians paying tribute to the singer have included Jamaican rapper Shaggy, who tweeted: "We have lost a legend. Very instrumental part of our reggae history! You'll be missed."
Fellow Jamaican artist Sean Paul said: "RIP Sir John Holt. You have served your culture well. I salute you."
UB40 added that Holt was a "massive inspiration and will be sorely missed".
Born in 1947 in Kingston, Jamaica, Holt penned a number of The Paragons' hits including Tonight, I See Your Face and Ali Baba as well as The Tide is High.
Although the track was popular in Jamaica, it only went mainstream when US band Blondie topped the charts on both side of the Atlantic with their version in 1980.
It went on to be covered by a number of other artists including Atomic Kitten, Maxi Priest and Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall.
As a solo artist, Holt's 1972 track Stick By Me was the biggest-selling Jamaican record of the year.
His only success in the UK came with his 1974 cover version of Kris Kristofferson's Help Me Make It Through the Night, which spent 11 weeks in the top 40 and peaked at number six.
Holt went on to release almost 40 albums over his career, mostly through Trojan Records.
The record company paid tribute to the singer, calling him "a huge talent and a true gentleman".
His last solo album, Peacemaker, was released in 1993.
Martina Navratilova slams ITF 'silence' over Williams sisters
Martina Navratilova has criticised the "silence" of the International Tennis Federation after comments from one of its members about the Williams sisters.
Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpischev described world number one Serena Williams and older sister Venus as "brothers".
The Women's Tennis Association banned him for a year and fined him £15,500 but Navratilova wants ITF action.
"The silence from the ITF has been pretty deafening," Navratilova said.
"They are the ones who actually have the possibility of doing something as Tarpischev is head of the Russian Tennis Federation, which falls under the ITF and is also Fed Cup captain which falls under the ITF.
"This kind of bullying comment cannot be tolerated from anyone, but particularly from a high-up official in the tennis world."
Tarpischev, also an International Olympic Committee member, offered an apology on Saturday at the behest of the WTA, whose chief executive Stacy Allaster said the comments were "insulting, demeaning and have absolutely no place on our sport".
Serena Williams, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, has also won 13 Grand Slam doubles events with her sister and described the comments by Tarpischev as "very insensitive and extremely sexist as well as racist".
ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said: "Although Mr Tarpischev assured us that his comment was meant as a joke, we made it clear to him that what he said is inappropriate in any context.
Turkey Allows Iraqi Kurds to Join Fight
In a reversal of policy, Turkey said Monday it allow Iraqi Kurds to use Turkish territory to support the besieged Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani. The announcement comes after U.S. forces air-dropped military supplies into the city currently under assault by Islamic State militants.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Iraqi Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, can cross Turkey's border with Sryia to join the fight for Kobani.
"We are helping the Peshmerga cross into Kobani," he said, speaking through an interpretor. "Our discussions are still under way."
With Kobani under fire on three sides by Islamic State forces, the Turkish frontier is the only possible ground entry for resupplying the border city.
Cavusoglu refused to give any further details on how many fighters and weapons will be given the green light to cross the border. But he said Ankara wants to eliminate threats along the region and is assisting the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS jihadists.
"We are fully cooperating with the coalition with respect to Kobani," Cavusoglu said. "We want to eliminate all kind of threats in the region and we see the military and medical aid, outfitted by our Iraqi Kurdish brothers and airdropped by the United States to all groups defending Kobani, from that perspective."
In Kobani, Syrian Kurds, known as the PYD, are calling for heavy weapons, in particular anti-tank missiles, to counter Islamic State tanks.
Ankara has been hesitant in allowing Peshmerga into Kobani to help the PYD. That's because Turkey accuses the PYD of being linked to the PKK, a rebels that both Ankara and the United States describes are terrorists. The PKK has fought for greater Kurdish rights in Turkey for three decades. On Saturday, Turkish president,Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made clear it believes the two groups have strong ties.
“At the moment, the PYD is equal with the PKK for us. It is also a terrorist organization," Erdogan said.
Cease-fire Falling Apart
The cease-fire deal announced by the Nigerian government on Friday appears to be unraveling as fresh clashes between soldiers and Boko Haram militants are reported in the northeastern town of Damboa.
The news comes as the government prepares for more regionally mediated talks in Chad to discuss the release of 219 schoolgirls still held by the sect.
Residents of Borno state said that since the cease-fire was announced Friday, militants have attacked several communities - killing at least 40 people and hoisting their black flag over the border town of Abadam.
The government said those attacks were the work of “fringe groups” who hadn’t yet gotten word of the cease-fire.
However, a member of a civilian militia group allied with the government and an army officer in Borno state, told VOA that on Sunday night Boko Haram militants stormed the town of Damboa. A state intelligence official in Borno told VOA the army drove back the attack and killed 25 insurgents.
The fighting casts even further doubt on the cease-fire.
The spokesman for the Borno Elders Forum, Bulama Mali Guide, said leaders in the three most affected states were not part of the talks and have been given no details.
“This deal, as announced by the federal government, is very sketchy because nothing is being spelled out. We are not told of the nitty-gritty of the peace deal," Guide said.
"I think they should come here to find out from us how the Boko Haram are because the real Boko Haram we know who are killing us, who are burning our towns and villages, I'm sure are not the Boko Haram they negotiated with," he said.
Only one purported Boko Haram leader has confirmed the cease-fire, and many said they have never heard of Danladi Amadu, the man who claimed to VOA's Hausa news service to be Boko Haram’s secretary general.
Some northern leaders and analysts told VOA they worried the cease-fire announcement was politically motivated.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been criticized for not doing enough to stop Boko Haram, is soon expected to announce his candidacy for re-election in 2015.
Nigeria and Boko Haram 'agree ceasefire and girls' release'
Nigeria's military says it has agreed a ceasefire with Islamist militants Boko Haram - and that the schoolgirls the group has abducted will be released.
Nigeria's chief of defence staff, Alex Badeh, announced the truce. Boko Haram has not made a public statement.
The group has been fighting an insurgency since 2009, with some 2,000 civilians reportedly killed this year.
Boko Haram sparked global outrage six months ago by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls.
The girls were seized in the north-eastern town of Chibok in Borno state, and their continued captivity has led to criticism of the Nigerian government's efforts to secure their release.
Members of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign said in a tweet on Friday: "We are monitoring the news with huge expectations."
Air Chief Marshal Badeh revealed the truce at the close of a three-day security meeting between Nigeria and Cameroon. He said Nigerian soldiers would comply with the agreement.
Nigeria's chief of defence staff, Alex Badeh, announces the truce to the media
Nigerian presidential aide Hassan Tukur told BBC Focus on Africa that the agreement was sealed after a month of negotiations, mediated by Chad.
As part of the talks, a government delegation twice met representatives of the Islamist group.
Mr Tukur said Boko Haram had announced a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday and the government had responded.
New Turkish Ambassador to CARICOM
Sulé Oztunç has officially been accredited as Turkey’s Ambassador to CARICOM.
The move is part of what seems to be a larger push by Turkey to deepen its ties with the Caribbean region.
Accepting Oztunc’s credentials this week, CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque said Turkey had a growing commitment to ensure the “immense potential” of its relationship with the Caribbean was “fully realized.”
The two sides held their first ever cooperation meeting in Turkey in July, and Turkey has signaled its desire to set up a diplomatic outpost in the Caribbean.
LaRocque said CARICOM and Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board had recently concluded a Memorandum of Understanding to pave the way for the establishment of Turkey-CARICOM business councils.