Moderate quake rattles Dominican Republic (AP)

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic ? A moderate 5.3-magnitude earthquake rattled the southern coast of the Dominican Republic just before dawn Thursday, resulting in cracks in several buildings but no injuries or evacuations.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was six miles deep (10 kilometers) in San Jose de Ocoa province, 34 miles (55 kilometers) west of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

The pre-dawn temblor sent hundreds of jarred islanders running out of buildings in the Dominican Republic, located near the intersection of the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates.

Civil defense official Alberto Pinales said minor cracks were reported mostly in houses and public buildings in San Jose de Ocoa, also the name of the province's capital city.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_dominican_republic_earthquake

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Barnes & Noble Mulls Splitting Nook Business And Selling ?Dead Tree? Publishing Company

scaledwm-img_40191Two bits of news crossed the wire this morning, neither of them good for traditional publishing. First, Barnes&Noble has reportedly put their publishing arm, Sterling Publishing, up for sale, a company it bought in 2009 for $115 million. Sterling produces puzzle, game, and crafts books for kids and adults. Not as big a deal as it sounds, but it still points to a reduced interest in paper-based sudoku. Second, B&N is mulling the spin-off of the Nook business, a move that will shelter the burgeoning epub business and, more important, pull it out of the listing ship that is B&N proper. The company reported a loss of $6.6 million this quarter, down about half from last year, but the Nook business has thus far been quite lucrative, leading the company to "pursue strategic exploratory work to separate the NOOK business."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kb2MLyUNFBU/

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Firebomb fails to go off at Seattle bank's ATM

(AP) ? Seattle police released surveillance images Friday of a person they suspect may have left a firebomb under an ATM inside a foyer at a Chase bank branch.

The firebomb, which never ignited, was discovered by a couple at the cash machine. The device had two clear bottles, a lighter in the middle and was wrapped in tape and wires, Ericson Gonzales told TV and radio reporters at the scene.

"I thought it was a movement-activated device, that might blow-up, so I told my wife, 'get away, right away,'" Gonzales said. "I'm scared for my wife's safety."

Gonzales flagged down an officer and police responded at about 6:30 a.m. Friday to what was initially described as a suspicious package. A bomb squad used a robot to render the device safe, police said.

Police called the case an attempted arson. The surveillance images released Friday afternoon were shot at 3:16 a.m. Friday. The person was carrying a black satchel and wearing a blue hooded jacket, gray hooded sweat shirt, baseball cap, black mask covering the face below the eyes, blue jeans, dark shoes and black gloves, Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said.

The incident blocked Martin Luther King Jr. Way in south Seattle and shut down the nearby Othello station on the Sound Transit light rail line, which operates between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport. Traffic was rolling again by 9 a.m.

Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot, spokeswoman for Chase Bank, said the bank was cooperating with police and the FBI.

Investigators were also looking at who used the ATM previously or entered the foyer, which is outside the main part of the bank and requires a card swipe to enter the area.

Gonzales also said he saw a gray Ford Ranger pickup speed off just after they found the device.

The incident follows a suspicious fire in November that damaged an ATM at a Bank of America branch in the Madison Park area of Seattle.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-06-Suspicious%20Seattle%20Package/id-fdf31874e8a94fa69d913f40c617159f

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Mexican cartel kingpin pleads guilty in US court (AP)

SAN DIEGO ? Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money, avoiding the spectacle of a trial for the leader of a cartel that once smuggled hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States and dissolved bodies of its rivals in vats of lye.

Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, Arellano Felix, 58, can be sentenced to no more than 25 years in prison ? a lighter punishment than ordered for lower-ranking members of his once-mighty, Tijuana-based cartel.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss other charges that could have brought 140 years in prison if he was convicted.

The half-hour hearing was an anticlimactic finish to the U.S. government's pursuit of one of the world's most powerful drug bosses during the 1990s. His cartel, with its iron-tight grip on the drug trade along California's border with Mexico, was portrayed in the Steven Soderbergh film "Traffic" but has struggled in recent years as other cartels have become more ruthless than ever.

Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in San Diego who built much of her career on the case, said Arellano Felix will likely spend the rest of his life in U.S. prison but did not elaborate on the reasoning for the plea deal.

"Today's guilty plea marks the end of his reign of murder, mayhem and corruption, and his historic admission of guilt sends a clear message to the Mexican cartel leaders operating today: The United States will spare no effort to investigate, extradite and prosecute you for your criminal activities," Duffy said.

Arellano Felix stood attentively in court, acknowledging his guilt as U.S. District Judge Larry Burns recited parts of a 17-page plea agreement. He told the judge that he has been suffering migraine headaches almost daily but that the problem didn't impair his judgment to accept the plea agreement.

Anthony Colombo Jr., Arellano Felix's attorney, said his client could be released from U.S. prison in 20 years if credited for time served in this country and good behavior, assuming he gets the maximum 25-year sentence. As a Mexican citizen, he would then be deported to Mexico, where he still has nine years left on a sentence for related crimes.

Colombo said the government may have agreed to the deal to avoid having to bargain with 21 potential government witnesses for reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony. They also may have wanted to avoid a lengthy trial.

"They have to consider years and years of litigation, plus the expense, is avoided by this resolution," Colombo told reporters.

John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor who co-wrote the 2003 indictment against Arellano Felix, said the case rested entirely on cooperating witnesses, instead of wiretaps or physical evidence. He said those cases weaken over time as witnesses die, get into more trouble or change their minds about testifying.

"This kind of case is based solely on witness testimony, and it slowly disintegrates," Kirby said. "Maybe from the time when we put it together and now, it's not such a great case anymore."

The cost of a trial was unlikely to have influenced prosecutors, Kirby said.

"The government doesn't care about the expense, the government cares about winning," he said.

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, a younger brother who led the cartel after Benjamin was arrested in Mexico in 2002, was sentenced in San Diego to life in prison in 2007, a year after he was captured by U.S. authorities in international waters off Mexico's Baja California coast. Jesus Labra Aviles, a lieutenant under Benjamin Arellano Felix, was sentenced in San Diego to 40 years in prison in 2010.

Benjamin Arellano Felix was extradited from Mexico in April 2011 to face drug, money-laundering and racketeering charges, one of the highest-profile kingpins to face prosecution in the United States.

The U.S. indictment said Arellano Felix was the top leader of a cartel he led with his brothers, going back to 1986. It says the cartel tortured and killed rivals in the United States and Mexico as it smuggled Mexican marijuana and Colombian cocaine.

"He was the top of the chain," Kirby said. "The brothers were at the top, and he was at the very top. He had the final say ... He was like the CEO of the operation."

The cartel began to lose influence along California's border with Mexico after Arellano Felix was arrested in 2002. A month earlier, his brother, Ramon, called the cartel's top enforcer, died in a shootout with Mexican authorities.

Benjamin Arellano Felix was incarcerated in Mexico after his 2002 arrest and was later sentenced to 22 years in prison on drug trafficking and organized crime charges.

Arellano Felix also agreed to forfeit $100 million, a figure that will be difficult for the government to collect.

"Whether there is anything out there that (the government) can seize, I don't know," Colombo said.

Sentencing was set for April 2.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_war_arellano_felix

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Siri causes iPhone 4S users to gobble twice as much mobile data (Yahoo! News)

New iPhone users take up 400% more data than BlackBerry owners

When Apple?unveiled its iPhone 4S in 2011 ? and we realized that our dreams of a proper?iPhone 5 were at least a year off ? the biggest new feature was undoubtedly the built-in virtual assistant?called Siri. Siri allows users to simply ask for things like directions, weather reports, or message dictation, and the robotic voice takes care of all the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, it seems that Siri's intelligent ways can weigh heavy on monthly data caps, and network analyst firm Arieso estimates Siri users take up twice the bandwidth of a non-4S iPhone owner.

Every time you ask Siri to gather information for you ? be it a forecast, the definition of a word, or the quickest route to the mall ? the phone streams that data from the network. This data piles up on top of all the apps, songs, and video content you download using your carrier's network, and could potentially push you over your monthly data limits.?To help put this in perspective, Arieso's data shows that on average, an iPhone 4S user downloads five times the amount of data as the average BlackBerry user.

But it's not just your wallet that is feeling the strain from the new wave of data-chomping smartphones; carrier networks are also straining to keep up.?AT&T ? which has been highly criticized for its lack of data network integrity in the past ? could potentially buckle under the weight of millions of phones using double the data as before, but so far it's been holding fast. Likewise,?Verizon and?Sprint appear to be handling their iPhone data load without issue ? aside from that?odd Verizon hiccup in December ? but we'll have to wait and see what issues the 4S's data-hogging ways create over the long haul.

(Source)

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120106/tc_yblog_technews/siri-causes-iphone-4s-users-to-gobble-twice-as-much-mobile-data

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Pelosi ???glad??? Obama made ???bold??? recess appointments while Congress in session [VIDEO] (Daily Caller)

Brushing aside criticism of President Obama?s recess appointments made while Congress was in session, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told The Daily Caller that his decision was ?bold? and said Democrats are ?glad? the president ?took the lead? on the appointments.

Watch:

?Let that be the public debate with the Senate but fortunately, or unfortunately for us we do not have a role in the confirmation process but we?re glad that the president took the lead, went out there, it was bold and made the appointments,? Pelosi said on Thursday when asked by TheDC about criticism of the president?s actions.

House Speaker John Boehner called the President?s recess appointment of Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau an ?unprecedented power grab,? noting that Congress was still in session.

?This action goes beyond the President?s authority, and I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate,? he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Obama also appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board.

As the Daily Caller previously reported, Obama?s Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal said before the Supreme Court, ?The recess appointment power can work in ? in a recess. I think our office has opined the recess has to be longer than three days [to make an appointment].?

Despite this, Pelosi said she?s ?very proud of the President of the United States and the appointments that he made yesterday.?

Follow Nicholas on Twitter

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

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Olby lawyers up

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20120105/pl_dailycaller/pelosigladobamamadeboldrecessappointmentswhilecongressinsessionvideo

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Tapatalk optimized for Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1; available for free on Samsung Apps

Tapatalk

When not browsing the Android Central Forums from a computer, many folks use the popular app Tapatalk. And now, a special version of Tapatalk is available exclusively from Samsung Apps free for a limited time. The special version was built for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab Tab 10.1 so if you own either of those devices, you can open up Samsung Apps and grab your free copy now. Once downloaded, let us know how it's working in the Android Central Forums.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/QPkUheDRHDg/story01.htm

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US envoy visits China after Kim Jong Il's death (AP)

BEIJING ? China and the United States will maintain "very close contact" concerning developments in North Korea following the death of leader Kim Jong Il, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is the highest level U.S. official to visit the region since Kim's death last month raised new concerns about poor, nuclear-equipped North Korea's stability and U.S.-North Korean talks that were disrupted just as they were making headway.

His comments followed four hours of talks with Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai and other senior Chinese officials and scholars on issues including a possible resumption of talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament and deliveries of U.S. food aid to the hunger-stricken nation.

"I think the United States and China share a strong determination to maintain peace and stability," Campbell told reporters at Beijing's airport ahead of a flight to South Korea.

"I think we both underscored how important it will be over the course of the coming months to maintain very close contact between Washington and Beijing, and I indicated that we would be closely monitoring the situation there and that we urged all parties to cautiously deal with the situation and to refrain from any provocations," he said.

China is North Korea's most important diplomatic ally and provides important economic assistance to the country. It has frequently been called on by the U.S. and others to use its influence to moderate North Korean behavior.

Following Kim's death, and with a leadership transition to his son Kim Jong Un under way, senior Chinese officials have urged Washington not to take any actions that might provoke or destabilize Pyongyang.

In the past two years, tensions spiraled in the region as North Korea conducted a nuclear test and shelled a South Korean island, among other provocations. With tensions easing slightly, Washington and Pyongyang have held quiet negotiations and were nearing an agreement to resume U.S. food aid when Kim died on Dec. 17.

That agreement was seen as a first step toward restarting the stalled six-nation disarmament talks, which also include China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. But Pyongyang has cast doubt over whether those negotiations will be quickly restored. Its powerful National Defense Commission released a hardline statement last week saying North Korea would never deal with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Campbell, who said his visit to China had been planned before Kim's death, also discussed the Obama administration's warming relations with Myanmar, which has relied heavily on Chinese trade, investment and diplomatic support.

He said they also discussed Chinese allies Pakistan and Iran, as well as Taiwan's upcoming presidential election and a visit to the U.S. this year by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at a "time of mutual convenience."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120104/ap_on_re_as/as_china_us

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It's not just Google TV ... it's LG's 3D Google TV

LG Google TV

Just when we thought we were done with tihe 3D thing, LG and Google TV drag us back in. Google announced LG as a new Google TV partner today, and LG responded with its own release that shows us the TV you see above.  Looks like it's got a tweaked version of the UI we're currently enjoying with Honeycomb on GTV. And the display itself uses the kind of 3D glasses that don't have to be plugged in. (Aka the lesser of two evils.)

LG's TV will come with a "Magic Remote Qwerty," which we assume is code for a keyboard/remote combo. We'll get our first real look first thing Monday morning. Be sure to join us.

Source: LG

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/66F8X9gUudE/story01.htm

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Man arrested for Fla. abortion clinic fire

An Alabama man was arrested Thursday on federal charges that he set fire to a Florida Panhandle abortion clinic New Year's morning, authorities said.

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Bobby Joe Rogers of Tuscaloosa was charged with violating federal explosives laws and is being held at the Escambia County Jail pending indictment, the state fire marshal's office said. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The office said tips from the community led to Rogers' arrest.

The two-story clinic that was gutted by flames early Sunday has been site of violence and protests for 30 years. It was bombed on Christmas Day in 1984, and in 1994 a doctor and a volunteer who escorted patients to and from the clinic were shot to death as they arrived. The gunman, Paul Hill, was executed in 2003.

No one was hurt in Sunday's fire, which was reported around 1 a.m.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45887654/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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