Jumat, 24 Juni 2011
Kamis, 23 Juni 2011
Pregnant Nigerian woman turns refugee camp tenant in Europe
Like many a Nigerian who had dreamt of a better living, 32-year-old Mrs. Madeline Adebisi and her husband sought a greener pasture in Libya. Presumably, they both had sweet tales to share there, until a few weeks ago. The North African country is at war.
The ongoing fierce attempt to force Libya’s strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi to relinguish his 41-year reign has since dragged the helpless woman among many others, through the valley of the shaddow of death. Now, she lives on tenterhooks in an Italian refugee camp in Lampedusa, a tiny Island South of Sicily.
Mrs. Adebisi live in utter agony, unsure of what the future holds for her. Worse still, her heart harbours a killing tempest: She may not see her beloved husband again, dead or alive!
Her predicament began two months ago with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombardments. Poised to fight dirty, Gaddafi made good his vow to ‘unleash an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration’ on Europe. And the ships have since been arriving from Libya.
Caught in the web, Mrs Adebisi, with her pregnancy, got on the emergency trip to “nowhere in particular” against her wish. The journey as Newsweek put it, “takes about four days and conditions on the ship are often horrific. There is little food and there are no toilets on board. Expectant women are often forced to insert catheters before boarding so that their urine won’t ‘poison’ the superstitious men.”
The woman was on the trip without her beloved husband who had left Tripoli in search of work after losing his job. She has since been left living with a group of other African women who, like her, had lost their jobs in a hospital when the war broke out. According to Newsweek, soldiers loyal to Gaddafi had forced them to relocate to a small house near the port. But after a few days, they were pushed into a boat with hundreds of others midnight and set to sea.
Three days later, after the ship failed to dock on the Island of Malta, it lost its rudder off Lampedusa’s shore. Unable to steer, its captain abandoned the wheel and the ship smashed onto the rocks, a stone’s throw to the Door to Europe, a statue erected as a memorial for immigrants who died at sea while trying to reach the continent.
“They just kept screaming and screaming, calling desperately for help. I was so worried we would lose some of those babies,” Lt. Marco Persi of Italy’s military police reportedly recalled.
At that moment, hapless Mrs. Adebisi must have said her last prayer hurriedly. “I thought I was dead that night when the boat crashed… I was sure my life was over,” she said in crass hopelessness. She has since been living in the refugee centre in La Spezia on Liguarian coast.
According to reports, “she is about to be delivered of a baby, but she has no idea as to whether her husband is alive or dead because she has not seen him or heard from him since April when he left Tripoli.”
Perhaps Mrs. Adebisi is lucky to still be counted among the living as many in her shoes never lived to tell their stories, which has left Lampedusa’s coastline marred carcasses of capsized boats; the ports filled with shipwrecks; some with blankets, children’s toys and jackets. Deaths in the Mediterranean waters are common to the extent that fishermen now snag bodies in their nets instead of fish.
But when the woman will have the opportunity to re-unite with the rest of her family here in Nigeria is a question left for destiny to decide.
The massive wave of perilous migration may not be surprising, after all. Libya is a key transit country for African immigrants trying to go to Europe for improved living. Records show that in the last five months, no fewer than 45,000 migrants, 10 times more than the figure last year, had made their ways to Lampedusa.
Libya is not the lone “donor” of such immigrants. Thousands of Tunisians have flooded into the Lampedusa after the fall of their President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in the heat of the uprising that engulfed the country in January.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that in the past two months, at least, 1,600 people have died at sea while fleeing their countries for European shores.
Rabu, 22 Juni 2011
iPhone 5 to Sport 'Radical' New Look
Still on our new iphone 5 updates. We bring you another report. This time, what to expect.
A larger, sleeker, faster iPhone 5 is coming this September, if a fresh wave of rumors is to be believed.
The latest phone from Apple will feature a brand new processor, a better camera, and could even sport a radical new look according to various media reports.
Bloomberg reports that the new device will include Apple’s A5 dual core processor, the powerful chip included in the iPad 2, as well as an upgraded 8-megapixel camera, over the iPhone 4’s 5-megapixel model.
The most drastic change though could come down to looks. Rumor has it that the iPhone 5 will be curvier and slimmer than its predecessor. “We have been told by a reliable source to expect a radical new design for the upcoming iPhone,” Boy Genius reported.
Apple has launched a new iPhone every June at its annual developer's conference ever since the smartphone's debut.
The company changed things up this year for what may have been a variety of reasons -- supply issues, the delay of the white iPhone 4, but the most likely factor is the launch of the new iOS 5 operating system which is to be released in the 3rd quarter of this year.
This generally falls in line with estimates of a September launch and also correlates to production estimates, according to Chris Caso at Susquehanna Financial.
"Our checks at multiple levels of the supply chain point to a one-to-two-month delay in the production start for the next-generation iPhone vs. our earlier view of a July production start.”
Keep the ring and Bentley, Hefner tells Crystal
Haha, Here is how OMG is reporting it.
The runaway bunny still has her engagement bling!
Crystal Harris might have dumped Hugh Hefner just five days before their wedding, but she still gets to keep her $90,000, 3-carat diamond sparkler -- and a nice set of wheels, too!
The 25-year-old stopped by the Playboy Mansion on Sunday to return the ring and Hefner's dog, Charlie, Hefner's rep confirms to Us Weekly. "It was the right thing to do," she told Radaronline.com of her attempt to return the jewelry.
While the 85-year-old mogul was thrilled to have his Cavalier King Charles spaniel back, he told Harris she could keep the engagement ring, along with the Bentley he'd given her, too, his rep confirms to Us.
Lol, Come on Crystal, you can see Hugh really has that old man love for you. lol, Why did you play him dirty.
Read more from OMG
The runaway bunny still has her engagement bling!
Crystal Harris might have dumped Hugh Hefner just five days before their wedding, but she still gets to keep her $90,000, 3-carat diamond sparkler -- and a nice set of wheels, too!
The 25-year-old stopped by the Playboy Mansion on Sunday to return the ring and Hefner's dog, Charlie, Hefner's rep confirms to Us Weekly. "It was the right thing to do," she told Radaronline.com of her attempt to return the jewelry.
While the 85-year-old mogul was thrilled to have his Cavalier King Charles spaniel back, he told Harris she could keep the engagement ring, along with the Bentley he'd given her, too, his rep confirms to Us.
Lol, Come on Crystal, you can see Hugh really has that old man love for you. lol, Why did you play him dirty.
Read more from OMG
Apple to unveil new iPhone in September, as court denies Samsung from geting a peek at unreleased iPhone
Bloomberg reports the tech giant will unveil a new version of the smartphone in September that will feature a faster processor and better camera.
Citing "two people familiar with the plans," the report says the upgraded iPhone will feature the same processor as the iPad 2 and an 8-megapixel camera.
Speaking of the iPad, Bloomberg also says Apple is testing a new version of the tablet featuring a higher resolution screen.
Still On Steve Jobs, Iphone and Samsung, a U.S. judge rejected Samsung's request for a peek at Apple's unreleased iPhone and iPad, which was brought in the course of high-stakes patent litigation between the two companies.
Apple sued Samsung in April, claiming Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets infringe several patents and trademarks. Samsung counter-sued, asserting its own patents against Apple.
Late last month, Samsung filed a request for Apple to hand over the unreleased versions of the iPhone and iPad, saying it would be "highly relevant" to its defense. A judge had already ordered Samsung to produce similar materials for Apple, Samsung attorneys argued in court filings.
Apple opposed the request, saying it was an attempt to "harass" Apple into disclosing extremely sensitive trade secrets.
In a ruling released late on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said Apple's legal claims are only based on its products that have already hit the market.
"Common sense suggests that allegations of copying are necessarily directed at Apple's existing products, to which Samsung has access and could potentially mimic," Koh wrote, "and not at Apple's unreleased, inaccessible, next generation products."
Representatives from Apple and Samsung could not immediately be reached for a comment.
Samsung's Galaxy products use Google's Android operating system, which directly competes with Apple's mobile software.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.
Selasa, 21 Juni 2011
The All New Nokia N9
Once the undisputed leader in hand phones, Nokia has rapidly lost ground in the smartphone market to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices, and at the low end of the market to Asian rivals such as China's ZTE and India's Micromax.
At a telecoms conference in Singapore, Elop reiterated that Nokia would launch its first smartphone using Microsoft's Windows platform later this year, even as he unveiled the new all-screen N9 smartphone, which uses a platform called MeeGo.
The model -- Nokia's first and last to use MeeGo -- can be navigated by a single finger swipe and comes in black, cyan and magenta colors in a polycarbonate design.
"It seems pointless to launch a phone like the N9 on a platform that has been cut by management," RBS analyst Didier Scemama in London said in a research note.
Elop said the N9 was part of Nokia's drive to introduce "an exciting experience around the user interface, the industrial design and the developer platform".
"Our primary smartphone strategy is to focus on the Windows phone," said Elop, who moved to Nokia from Microsoft last year.
"I have increased confidence that we will launch our first device based on the Windows platform later this year and we will ship our product in volume in 2012."
The MeeGo platform -- a newcomer in the market dominated by Google Inc and Apple Inc -- was born in February 2010 when Nokia and Intel unveiled a merger of Nokia's Linux Maemo software platform with Intel's Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-source software.
Nokia pulled back from the project four months ago.
"The N9 comes too close to the expected launch of Nokia's Windows Phone device to have any impact on its current smartphone woes," said Ben Wood, head of research at London-based mobile consultancy CCS Insight.
"The strength of rival ecosystems leaves little room for MeeGo powered devices. It's difficult to see the N9 being anything more than a niche device ... the N9 will be a tough sell."
Research firm IDC's analyst Melissa Chau said the N9 would probably be a prototype to showcase what Nokia can bring in future phones.
"I don't expect, and don't even think Nokia expects, this phone to turn around their fortunes," she said. "All it wants to do with the phone is to inspire some confidence in people that they are not out of the game yet."
Nokia's head of design Marko Ahtisaari, in a dig at Apple's iPhone 4, said the N9's polycarbonate body would give the phone "extremely good antenna performance, so unlike some competitor products, you do not need to hold it in special way to have reliable phonecalls".
FEW CLUES ON STRATEGY
Elop's speech in Singapore was billed by Nokia as "an update on progress in our new strategy", but he provided few details on how he planned to tackle the company's troubles.
Last month, Nokia said it had abandoned hope of meeting key targets just weeks after setting them, raising questions over whether Elop can deliver on a turnaround he promised in February.
Nokia's market value has plunged by more than half since February, after the leak of a memo from Elop that compared the company's market position to a man standing on a burning oil platform.
Nokia's market share has fallen in key markets. In China, for example, it has shrunk to 19 percent from 33 percent two years ago, research firm Gartner estimates.
So-called no-brand handset manufacturers -- small Chinese firms using low-cost chipsets -- control 45 percent of the market in the world's most populous country, Gartner said.
Nokia's woes bear a striking resemblance to troubles at Research In Motion, whose dismal results and failure to deliver exciting new devices on time pushed its shares more than 20 percent lower on Friday.
Shares in the Blackberry maker fell a further 7 percent on Monday after a marketing executive left the company, the second departure in four months and the latest news contributing to a halving in the company's market value this year.
IDC's Chau said Elop's presentation on Tuesday gave few clues on Nokia's future strategies to get back on track.
"From what they have announced today it is really hard to say because they left out so many details," she said.
"It will take a lot of cooperation between Microsoft and Nokia to do it and with this kind of business deal we only have a 50-50 percent (chance) to begin with."
Nokia also said it plans to launch up to 10 new smartphones using its own Symbian operating system. It introduced three affordable handsets which can use dual sim-cards, years after Asian rivals put such features into their phones.
"Any new products by Nokia will be a stop-gap ... until its first Microsoft phone is out in the market," said Seo Won-seok, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities in Seoul.
"It won't be easy for Nokia to aggressively market these products and even new product lineups will be limited given that it is spending heavy resources in developing Windows phones. Under such circumstances, I'm quite doubtful whether they'll get a strong response from customers."
In a research note this month, Nomura said Samsung Electronics would become the world's largest smartphone maker this quarter and Apple would take the number two spot next quarter, pushing Nokia to third place
[Reuters]
Bristol Palin Blasts the Mccains, talks 'Dancing with the stars'
In her memoir due out Friday, "Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far," the 20-year-old daughter of former Alaska governor/potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin reveals her true feelings about the father of her son, the daughter of her mother's 2008 running mate, and much more.
Palin writes that the first time she met the 26-year-old daughter of Sen. John McCain, she "ignored us during the entire visit." This was just before Senator McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin adds that she "had a sneaking suspicion I might need to watch my back."
"Every time we saw Meghan, she seemed to be constantly checking us out, comparing my family to hers and complaining," she writes. "Oh the complaining."
Cindy McCain, the senator's wife, also rubbed the eldest Palin daughter the wrong way.
"I'd never seen people with so much Louis Vuitton luggage, so many cell phones, and so many constant helpers to do hair and makeup," Palin writes, adding that the would-be first lady looked "like a queen" and held "herself like royalty."
Palin writes that she was shocked when the senator's wife offered to be a godmother to her unborn baby: "I had just met her and I wondered why she wanted any type of guardianship over my child."
Palin also shares not-so-fond memories of her 2010 stint on "Dancing With the Stars," where she and her professional partner, Mark Ballas, finished in third place.
"I noticed some of the contestants rolled their eyes when they realized we'd survived to dance another day," she writes, adding that some of the contenders voted off "literally would not speak to us or acknowledge our presence."
Bristol Palin Saves Most Biting Words for Levi Johnston
The most biting words in the book are reserved for Johnston, Palin's high school boyfriend and the father of her 2-year-old son, Tripp. Palin was drunk on wine coolers when she lost her virginity to Johnston while camping. She writes that she "didn't know that girly flavored wine coolers were just as likely to get you drunk as the hard stuff."Palin had vowed to wait until marriage to have sex, and when she confronted Johnston about the encounter, he said they would refrain from the act until after saying their vows.
But, Palin writes, they soon became intimate again and she got pregnant with their son shortly after. She writes that she was taking birth control pills at the time to treat menstrual cramps; she went through eight home pregnancy tests before she was convinced of the positive results
Palin refers to Johnston as a "gnat" and claims he "cheated on me about as frequently as he sharpened his hockey skates." She writes that while her parents accepted her pregnancy, he wasn't so supportive, saying the child "Better be a f**king boy."
Even when Tripp was born, according to Palin, Johnston's hands-off attitude persisted. She writes that "doctors tried to hand Levi the scissors to cut the cord but he backed away. He said it was too gross, an odd statement since he's been able to field dress a moose with one arm tied behind his back."
Motherhood is a constant theme of Palin's book. She writes that she was taking birth control pills to treat menstrual cramps when she found out she was pregnant in 2008. She went through eight home pregnancy tests before she was convinced of the positive results.
Now, though she's made hundreds of thousands of dollars lecturing to young adults about abstinence, she relishes her maternal instincts. While visiting Haiti on a humanitarian trip with her parents, Fox News host Greta Van Susteren and the Rev. Franklin Graham, Palin offered to take home a baby reeling from Haiti's 2010 earthquake.
Palin describes seeing an 8-month-old boy at a cholera treatment center whose mother had recently passed away. The baby's father was caring for him and six other children. She writes, "I could tell by his emotion and urgency that he was trying to give the baby up for a chance at life."
"I actually offered to take the baby home," she continues, "but you obviously can't just pick up a child and take him out of the country! (It felt wrong to leave him there, though, whatever 'the system.')"
[ABC]
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