MPs to give verdict on Murdochs

LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch and his son James will be in the firing line on Tuesday when a parliamentary committee issues its verdict on a phone-hacking scandal that has convulsed the family media empire and undermined the British government.

Committee members have said they were obstructed and put under surveillance by Murdoch's News Corp during their five-year investigation into the illegal hacking of the phones of celebrities, murder victims, politicians and soldiers for salacious newspaper stories.

Their report could force James Murdoch to sever his last ties with Britain's biggest satellite TV firm BSkyB, which News Corp had sought to take over before the scandal broke.

It will also embarrass Prime Minister David Cameron, who has acknowledged that politicians had been in thrall to the Murdochs and whose Conservative Party faces local elections across much of Britain on Thursday.

The committee is likely to criticise James Murdoch for failing to get to the bottom of the scandal, and Rupert Murdoch for the wider culture at the company, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters, adding that Conservative members on the committee were reluctant to criticise James Murdoch any further.

Media regulator Ofcom will take the report's findings into consideration in its assessment of whether BSkyB's owners and directors are "fit and proper" persons to hold a broadcast licence.

James Murdoch recently stepped down as chairman but remains on the board of BSkyB, which is 39 percent owned by News Corp.

"We'll all be looking at the wording in terms of the fit and proper test," said Charlie Beckett, founding director of the Polis journalism and society think-tank at the London School of Economics.

"If it says there was a systematic lack of due diligence at News International or News Corp, that might impinge on future fit and proper tests for Ofcom."

Cameron was summoned to parliament on Monday to explain why he would not investigate emails revealing that a ministerial aide had assured News Corp its bid for BSkyB would be approved.

He insisted there was no need to refer the case to his independent adviser on ministerial conduct, noting the emails had been handed to a separate judicial inquiry into press ethics, but did concede that politicians had been too keen to please the media.

"I am perfectly prepared to admit that the relationship between politicians and media proprietors got too close," he said during a rowdy debate, blaming politicians of both main parties for the failing.

The scandal over phone hacking has laid bare collusion between ministers, police and News Corp, strengthening long-held concerns that the ties between big money, the media and power are too close in Britain.

PARLIAMENT MISLED

Committee Chairman John Whittingdale opened the hearing with James and Rupert Murdoch last year by saying his committee had found it inconceivable that only one reporter at their News of the World Sunday tabloid had been involved in the hacking scandal.

"In the last few weeks, not only has evidence emerged that I think has vindicated the Committee's conclusion, but abuses have been revealed that have angered and shocked the entire country," he said. "It is also clear that Parliament has been misled."

Audiences around the world witnessed the 81-year-old Rupert Murdoch - whose newspapers claimed the power to make or break British politicians - saying it was the most humble day of his life and saw him hit with a foam pie at the height of the scandal last July.

He answered many of the questions in monosyllables, sometimes flummoxing the committee members, while James Murdoch infuriated them at times with lengthy management-speak.

The committee is expected to say James Murdoch was incompetent at best for asking few questions about a payoff he approved of more than half a million pounds to a hacking victim who had evidence the practice was widespread.

Its report, which may run to 100 pages, is also expected to criticise Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp, for allowing a culture of illegality to flourish. Murdoch shut the News of the World last year.

Les Hinton, former head of News Corp's British newspaper arm, Tom Crone, a legal executive at the News of the World, and the paper's former editor, Colin Myler, will also come under the spotlight, the source said.

James Murdoch resigned last month as chairman of BSkyB, saying he did not want to be a "lightning rod" for damage from the phone-hacking scandal.

He admitted last week he had raised the issue of the takeover with Cameron at a Christmas dinner in 2010.

The committee will present its report to parliament, which is likely to hold a debate on its findings, and the government then has 60 days to respond.

A previous critical report by the committee came before last July's revelation that people working for the News of the World had hacked into the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, which fuelled public anger and led to more revelations.

Relations between News Corp and Cameron, who once employed an ex-News of the World editor as his spokesman, will face more scrutiny in the coming months when Rebekah Brooks, a former Murdoch confidante and News Corp executive, reveals her text messages and emails with Cameron, a neighbour and former friend, as part of a separate judicial press inquiry.

As the committee has to be careful not to prejudice any criminal trials of figures involved in the scandal, it has focused more on the Murdochs and others who have not been arrested.

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby, Mohammed Abbas and Adrian Croft; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and David Holmes)

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Microsoft puts Windows Phone 7 app developers on notice of four new Marketplace policies

As the poet once said, "Mo' apps, mo' problems", or something like that. The Windows Phone Marketplace continues to grow and with more eyeballs on it, Microsoft is making sure devs know the rules that will keep their apps in the store instead of on the sideline. Trademark and copyright issues headline the new areas of enforcement, followed up by making sure bulk published apps are in the right categories, packaged with tile images and branding that make it clear which one is which and what they do. Rounding out the list are keywords -- pepper your app with popular, but unrelated terms at your own peril -- and apps that currently overstep the allowed boundary "racy" content. In the end only you, the users, can report if these policies are making it easier to navigate the ever expanding amount of apps so let us know -- are things clogged up with intentionally mislabeled crapware, or is it smooth sailing?

Microsoft puts Windows Phone 7 app developers on notice of four new Marketplace policies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Blind Chinese dissident escapes

>>> secretary of state hillary clinton leaves tonight for china. a previously scheduled trip that now has an important new goal. protecting the fate of one man, a chinese dissident who made a remarkable escape from house arrest a week ago and is now thought to be under u.s. protection in beijing . nbc's ian williams has our report from there tonight.

>> the fate of this man has become the biggest test for u.s./china rilgzs in years. a challenge delivered white littery to the use doorstep. friends of chen said they then drove him the 300 miles from his village to beijing and he's now in what they describe as the only safe place in china. the u.s. embassy here. no sign of extra security at the embassy today, but the issue is so delicate that there's been no comment from officials here, chinese or american, including the state department 's pointman for asia.

>> can you tell us what you're here in beijing for?

>> this men's crime in the eyes of the chinese government was to expose forced abortions and sterilization under the country's one child policy. the 40-year-old self trained lawyer, blind since childhood, was jailed in 2006 and then put under house arrest . he says he and his wife were beaten. his young daughter harassed. his every movement was monitored, visitors prevented from meeting him, yet he was able secretly to plot his escape. after a tunnel was discovered, he stayed at home for weeks, pretending to be sick, hoping jailers would drop their guard, and they did. and he snuck over the border. secretary clinton due here witness for previously scheduled talks has been critical of the house arrest .

>> i can certainly guarantee that we will be discussing every matter, including human rights , that is pending between us .

>> one big sticking point may be chen's stated preference to stay in china and fight for justice instead of accepting a one-way ticket to exile. another is the fate of his family, now under virtual hosarrest themselves and supporters, some of whom have been detained since his escape.

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Coke says not in talks to buy Monster Beverage

(Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co took the unusual step of shooting down a report on Monday that said it was in talks to buy energy drink maker Monster Beverage Corp, valued at more than $11 billion.

The statement from the world's largest soft drink maker came in response to a story in the Wall Street Journal that said Coke was in discussions to buy the fast growing energy drink maker, whose brands include Monster Energy and Java Monster.

Coke and Monster had discussed a possible deal as recently as last year, according to two sources familiar with the matter. However, it is unclear whether the two have been in talks since then.

The Journal's report that the two companies were in current talks, posted on its website Monday, sent Monster's stock up 28 percent to $83.96, an all-time high. Coke later issued a statement disputing the report, and Monster stock fell, closing down 1 percent.

"At this time, we are not in discussions to acquire the Monster Beverage Corp," Coke said in its statement. "We continue to review the best ways to maximize the value of our relationship."

Should it happen, an acquisition would give Coke a bigger footprint in the energy drink market, which is growing faster than traditional soft drinks. Coke's own energy drink, Full Throttle, is small compared with Monster and rivals Red Bull and Rockstar.

"We think Monster is an attractive takeout candidate given it is the fastest-growing brand in one of the fastest-growing global beverage categories," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Mark Astrachan.

UBS analyst Kaumil Gajrawala estimated a fair takeout offer for Monster would range from $84 to $100 per share. Based on the number of shares outstanding as of February 24, that multiple implies a deal value ranging from $14.6 billion to $17.4 billion.

Coke already distributes a large portion of Monster's drinks in the United States and in some international markets. Monster has a similar distribution deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

In its statement, Coke said the two companies were looking at ways to wring more profit out of their existing relationship. That could include placing Monster in more retail locations, doing additional co-marketing with other Coke brands, or working together to market new products, according to Ken Harris, chief executive of Kantar Retail Americas Consulting.

However, the dueling statements on a possible acquisition left some doubt about whether a deal might be in the works.

Following Coke's denial of acquisition talks, the Wall Street Journal updated its story to say the companies had been in talks recently and that Coke pulled out after the Journal report was published.

A Coke spokesman denied that claim.

A Monster spokeswoman said the company does not comment on market speculation.

INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Monster Beverage, earlier known as Hansen Natural, was taken public by current CEO Rodney Sacks in 1992. Sacks, now in his 60s, still has a 7.3 percent stake in the company, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Speculation about whether Coca-Cola would buy Monster has surfaced in the past due to Monster's growth, the companies' distribution relationship, and the fact that Coke does not have a very strong-selling energy drink.

Last year, Monster's sales rose by nearly a third to $1.70 billion. Sales are seen rising a further 21 percent this year.

For Monster, getting bought by Coca-Cola would greatly expand its presence, since it would have access to Coke's sizable international distribution system. For Coke, buying Monster would give it the full profit stream from the product.

Analysts have said buying Monster would give Coke a good brand in North America, where sales of traditional soft drinks have been weak, as well as a good product to sell overseas.

Monster's shares nearly doubled over the past year. As of Friday's close, the company's market capitalization was about $11.4 billion based on the latest number of share outstanding.

Monster shares closed down 0.8 percent at $65. Coke shares closed down 0.4 percent at $76.32 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller, Michael Erman and Soyoung Kim in New York and Mihir Dalal in Bangalore; Editing by Alwyn Scott, Phil Berlowitz, Bob Burgdorfer and Bernard Orr)

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A Most Peculiar Sunset

NASA/JPL-Caltech

You wouldn't know it, not right away, but there is something strange about this picture. It's a sunset, yes, but notice the blush of color right above the sun. It's blue. And as you look up, the blue fades into a faint rose or pink.

Now think about the sunsets you've seen, how often the sky can turn golden, or orange, sometimes pink, red, but when you look up, away from the setting sun, those colors fade back to a pale, twilight blue? It's rare to see a sunset dipped in blue.

So this photo is a puzzle: it's blue where the red should be and red where the blue should be. Why?

Because we're not on Earth. This is a Martian sunset. On May 19, 2005, the camera on NASA's little robot, the rover named Spirit, took this picture while sitting in the Gusev crater on Mars. NASA snapped the photo, says the press release, "around 6:07 in the evening of the Rover's 489^th Martian day."

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Apparently, Mars has blue sunsets all the time. Earth doesn't.

NASA admits that there's a color filter on Spirit's camera that exaggerates the colors slightly, but they say the blues you see here "are similar to what a human would see" on Mars. Not so much the pinks. Pinks are slightly more pronounced in these photos, but the blues are true colors.

So here's our question: Why are Martian sunsets blue?

The Air On Mars Is Different From The Air On Earth

On Earth, the air is mostly nitrogen and oxygen. We've also got moisture, dust particles, smoke, aerosols, pollen, salt from the ocean. The atmosphere on Earth is denser ? meaning there are more molecules per cubic inch in our air.

Martian air, by contrast, is much, much thinner, about 1percent the density of air on Earth, plus the gasses are different: they've got CO₂, nitrogen and argon, but most important, says Mark Lemmon, associate professor of planetary sciences at Texas A&M University, air on Mars is rich with teeny, teeny particles of dust. Their dust is smaller than our dust, and they've got more of it in the Martian sky. Dust is the key to why the two sunsets look different, so we'll be keeping our eye on Martian dust.

NASA/JPL

Light Scatters Differently On Mars Than It Does On Earth

Let's stand facing the sun on Mars. It's early evening. The sun is setting. Light is streaming toward our eyes, moving through the dusty air. What happens?

Sunshine, as you know, contains many different wavelengths of light. If you catch a beam of light in a prism (Newton did this) it breaks into a rainbow of colors ? reds, violets, blues. When the sunshine on Mars hits the clouds of fine dust floating through the air, it also breaks into different colors. Martian dust is exactly the right size to absorb the blue wavelengths of light and scatter red wavelengths all over the sky. That's why if you are standing on Mars and look away from the setting sun, most of the sky is rosy, pink, and various shades of red.

But now look straight at the setting sun. On Mars, the beams of light streaming toward you, having lost their red waves, show the wavelengths that haven't scattered off. That remaining light is predominantly blue. So when you look straight at the sun on Mars, you see a haze of blue. Look away from the sun, and the light is red.

It's exactly the opposite on Earth.

Here, when the sunshine hits our atmosphere, the waves that scatter are blue in color. That's why everywhere we look, our sky is blue ? except when we look straight at the setting sun. There, the blue light is missing, so the remaining wavelengths predominate, and they are mostly the reds, the golds, the oranges.

Our atmosphere scatters blue; Mars' atmosphere scatters red.

Our sunsets feature reds. Mars' sunsets feature blue.

That's because our air is different from Martian air.

What About That Blue Halo Around The Sun?

Take a look at this short animation from NASA. Called "I'm Dreaming of A Blue Sunset," It's a reconstruction from still photographs, where you can see a bright blue halo around the sun as it sinks to the horizon. Why is that halo there?

According to Professor Lemmon, when sunshine hits Martian dust, the blue light doesn't bounce far. It sticks near the dust, pingponging around at close range. That's why if there's a dust storm on the horizon, (and that's what seems to be happening in the video), the area around the sun traps a lot of blue light, and the sun seems to glow blue.

Red light, as we've said, ricochets much farther off, so in the video, the reddish patches are some distance from the sun, the blue is tucked in close.

The point being, if you happen to be camping out on Mars and see an intense blue sunset like the one in the video, make sure the wind isn't blowing in your direction, because a few hours from now, that sandstorm might blow your tent down. (You did remember to bring a tent, no?)

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Video: New details on bin Laden death (cbsnews)

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