America Movil to get control of Brazil's Net (Reuters)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? Cell phone company America Movil, owned by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, said on Friday it had approval from Brazil's telecom watchdog Anatel to take control of cable television company Net Servicos de Comunicacao.

Under terms of the deal, America Movil's Brazilian unit Embratel Participacoes will buy Grupo Globo Participacoes shares currently held by Net.

Once the deal closes, Embratel and its affiliates will have control of Net, the Mexican company said in a statement. No financial terms or share stakes were disclosed.

(Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/tc_nm/us_americamovil_net

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'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' Is 'Mind-Blowing,' Says Mary Elizabeth Winstead

In MTV News' recent visit to the set of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," we learned that the movie will be anything but a traditional look back at the life of our 16th president. Most biopics about Lincoln don't involve Honest Abe utilizing his own custom form of axe-centered martial arts. "It's a very unique take," Mary [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/27/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-mary-elizabeth-winstead/

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Video: The Roadmap: Dimon on Greek Default, The Fed Boxed In?

The Squawk on the Street news team breaks down the day's market moving headlines including monster earnings results from Caterpillar, Jamie Dimon speaking out on the Greek default, and post-game analysis on the Fed's move.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46147470/

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Durable goods data points to economic momentum (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? New orders for U.S. manufactured goods rose in December and a gauge of future business investment rebounded, showing the economy ended the year with more momentum than previously thought.

Other reports on Thursday showed new claims for jobless benefits rose moderately last week, suggesting the labor market was healing only slowly, while new U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in December.

The Commerce Department said orders for durable goods climbed 3.0 percent last month, boosted by a surge in aircraft orders. Economists had forecast orders rising 2.0 percent.

"There's some momentum here," said Jacob Oubina, an economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York. "Heading into the first quarter, the momentum is going to be pretty decent."

Durable goods range from toasters to big-ticket items like aircraft which are meant to last three years and more.

The data suggested U.S. companies could be growing more willing to invest the $2 trillion pile of cash they amassed in recent years. The U.S. Federal Reserve warned on Wednesday that business investment had cooled.

Orders for capital goods outside defense and excluding aircraft, which are a proxy for business spending plans, climbed a steeper-than-expected 2.9 percent. They had declined the previous two months.

Also, shipments of orders within that category, which go into the calculation of gross domestic product, rose 2.9 percent after declining 1.0 percent in November.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Graphic on jobless claims:

http://link.reuters.com/xah36s

Graphic on durable goods:

http://link.reuters.com/heh36s

Graphic on new home sales:

http://link.reuters.com/juh36s

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SLOW HEALING

The overall increase in orders was buoyed by an 18.9 percent jump in orders for civilian aircraft. Boeing received 287 orders for aircraft during the month, according to the plane maker's website, up from 96 in November.

Investors in U.S. stocks appeared to take little notice of the data, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index (.SPX) off slightly in early afternoon. U.S. Treasury debt prices rose as fears grew that the European debt crisis was heating up again.

In a separate report, the Conference Board said its index of future U.S. economic activity rose to a five-month high in December as labor market conditions improved.

The Labor Department data showed new U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose last week but the underlying trend continued to point to improving labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment aid increased 21,000 to 377,000. The four-week moving average for initial claims, which provides a better view of trends, fell 2,500 to 377,500.

"We're still very much established below 400,000, continuing to suggest that there is modest improvement in the labor market," said Lindsey Piegza, an economist at FTN Financial in New York.

On Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank could do more to help growth if the economy falters, and the Fed indicated interest rates would likely remain near zero until late 2014.

Among the darker clouds looming over the U.S. economy is a sovereign debt crisis in Europe that is widely seen triggering a recession in the euro zone.

Greece was due to resume tortuous negotiations on a debt swap with private creditors in Athens on Thursday, with the European Central Bank thrown into the mix after IMF chief Christine Lagarde said public sector holders of Greek debt may need to take losses too.

Increased consumer spending and efforts by companies to restock their shelves likely led the U.S. economy to accelerate at the end of 2011 although many economists expect some of that strength to wane early this year.

A report due Friday is expected to show the economy grew at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from 1.8 percent in the previous period.

The Commerce Department also released a report showing new U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in December for the first time in four months, while the median home price dropped, dampening some of the hopes the housing sector will boost the economy this year.

The housing market remains constrained by high unemployment, falling prices and an oversupply of unsold homes following a bust that triggered the 2007-09 recession.

Still, there were a record low 157,000 new homes on the market last month. That could fuel additional speculation the housing sector was on the cusp of a recovery.

(Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani in Washington and Emily Flitter and Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_economy

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3 bodies found in Rio buildings collapse (AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO ? Three bodies were pulled from the rubble of three collapsed buildings on Thursday, an official with the Rio de Janeiro Fire Department said. Another 21 people were still missing after the buildings went down in the city's historic center.

Mayor Eduardo Paes said a structural problem may have caused a building of about 20 stories to collapse at about 8:30 p.m., and that apparently caused the collapse of two smaller buildings nearby. Officials were still investigating the causes, however.

In addition to the dead and missing, at least six other people were treated for injuries caused by the accident, which left rubble and thick dust strewn over a wide area near Rio's famed Teatro Municipal and the Fine Arts Museum.

One of those pulled out alive was Marcelo Moreira, a janitor in an eight-story building that fell.

"He stayed behind to finish a little bit of work," said Rosalvo Alves, the building's main doorman, who had spent the night in a local hospital with his friend. "We shut down at 8. I left, and he was supposed to come too. Now this; he's hurt, our jobs are gone, everything is gone."

Alves worked in the building for 38 years, and said he had never noticed any problems.

A cloud of dust was still drifting from the building the next as rescue crews dug through tons of brick and twisted metal, hoping to find survivors.

"Firefighters and others are working to find the missing," said Moises Torres, a spokesman with the Fire Department who confirmed the numbers of dead and missing. "We have hopes of finding people alive."

Relatives and friends of the missing gathered inside a nearby government building, taking shelter from from the scorching sun as they waited for news.

Francisco Adir was trying to get information about a friend who had been attending a computer course in the in the largest of the three buildings.

"We think he's alive. At 3 a.m. he managed to call his girlfriend and say, 'Hello, love," before his phone went dead," Adir said. "The rescuers haven't given us any information, but the family is hanging all their hopes on that phone call."

A building inspector told the Globo television network that a survivor from the collapse was a worker on a construction project being performed in the first building that went down, and that illegal projects could have led to the collapse.

"Two projects were happening in the building, on the 16th floor," said Luiz Cosenza, head of the accident prevention unit of Rio's Regional Council of Engineering, in charge of building inspections. "They were illegal works; they were not registered with the council."

He didn't provide details on what sort of construction work was being carried out, but said that it was not being supervised by any registered professional.

Shortly after the collapse, there was a strong smell of natural gas in the area, but Mayor Paes said that probably did not cause the problem.

"There apparently was not an explosion. The collapse occurred because of structural damages," he said. "I don't think there was a gas leak."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_building_collapse

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IPhone thieves find Apple support helpful to them, too (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? When Apple Inc set up its customer service plan for the iPhone, it seems to have had the best intentions of humanity in mind -- any phone under warranty can get serviced because it's the phone that's tied to the warranty, not the owner.

So you don't have to show up in person at an Apple store to get your phone fixed, which allows the common scenario of the boss sending his or her assistant to get repairs. Similarly, someone who bought their phone from someone else can get a repair without a hassle.

This approach thrills many Apple owners, who have boasted on message boards of how generous some stores have been in replacing broken iPhones. But that same approach has apparently rewarded a lot of thieves. The ease of trading in stolen iPhones and selling their replacements makes them nearly as tempting as grabbing cash.

In cities from coast-to-coast, reports of iPhone thefts are common. While some thieves sell the phones through the traditional channels of fencing stolen goods, examples abound of stolen iPhones being brought back to Apple, as if broken, for either replacement or a discount on a new unit.

"Apple seems to have not considered stolen devices and instead is relying on the honor system," says Robert Siciliano, a consultant for Intel Corp's technology security unit McAfee and an identity theft expert. "The honor system is devised with the mindset that we are all sheep and there are no wolves."

Siciliano says he has known of this problem for a while, but doesn't see any immediate solution. "Until consumers scream loud enough about this issue, Apple probably won't do anything about it."

MIT graduate student Kayla Menard is among those who wants her voice to be heard screaming. She was sending a text from her 3-month-old iPhone while waiting for a train at Boston's Park Street Station last month when someone snatched it from her hand and ran.

Days later she received an automated email that her damaged phone was repaired at an Apple Store. She went to the store to try to get back her phone, but they wouldn't hand it over to her, and she was told there was nothing they could do. "Because I don't have possession of the phone, they won't help me at all," she says.

Menard says she was astonished to find out that Apple wouldn't help, even though they had her phone. Because someone else had brought in the phone, she was told, the store could not return it to her. She says she believes the thief was sold a new phone at a discount.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the issue of stolen iPhones being turned in at Apple stores, where they are either replaced or turned in for discounted replacement phones. The cost of an iPhone 4s starts at $199 and goes to $399, depending on how much memory it has, when a purchaser also gets a two-year contract with a carrier. The cost is considerably higher without a contract.

Just how popular are iPhones for thieves? An internal New York City Police report found that cell phones and other gadgets were the target of half of the 16,000 robberies reported in New York between January and October 2011 and that 70 percent of all phones taken from subway and bus passengers were iPhones, according to the New York Daily News, which obtained the never-released document.

That's not a surprise to Michele Bosler, claims supervisor for gadget insurer Worth Ave. Group, who explains that it has always been the case. "They are the most commonly stolen phone, but that has not increased in volume since they first came out onto the market."

Frustrated with Apple's role after the theft of her phone, Menard says she found her carrier, Verizon Wireless, to be sympathetic. She had already reported the device stolen and had it disabled. Employees of Verizon Wireless -- a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc -- expressed their frustration, she says, that the Apple store never checked to see whose phone they had.

Verizon Wireless spokesman Paul Macchia declined to comment, saying the questions should be directed to Apple. Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T Inc, which until last year was the only carrier supporting iPhones, responded similarly and would not discuss the problem or what the company tells customers who have their phones stolen.

Meanwhile, the continuing problem of iPhone thefts has spurred the growth of applications intended to help users protect their data and catch thieves. Perhaps the most notable one is called iGotYa, which takes a photo of anyone who incorrectly types in the password on a locked phone. The photo is then emailed to the owner's email address along with the location where the photo was taken. It's probably not the solution, but it is an amusing idea.

(Editing by Beth Pinsker Gladstone and Gerald E. McCormick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/tc_nm/us_iphone_thefts

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Toyota global sales forecast rises on green demand (AP)

TOKYO ? Toyota raised its global sales target for this year to 8.58 million vehicles, up 21 percent from the previous year, as incentives for ecological cars lift demand in Japan.

Toyota Motor Corp., which struggled from production interruptions last year caused by Japan's tsunami and flooding in Thailand, raised its forecast for Japan sales Wednesday to 1.63 million vehicles from an earlier 1.53 million. The latest forecast marks a 36 jump from the previous year.

Toyota has been aiming for a comeback and had said in December that it plans to sell 8.48 million vehicles in 2012.

The Japanese automaker behind the Lexus luxury car and the Camry sedan sold 7.95 million vehicles in 2011, down 6 percent from 2010.

Even with the improved forecasts, Toyota is unlikely to be back as the world's top automaker. Last year, General Motors Co. regained that spot, selling 9.03 million vehicles, the crown it had for seven decades before losing it to Toyota in 2008.

Toyota finished fourth in 2011 with 7.9 million vehicles sold. Its sales were hurt last year because the March earthquake in Japan slowed its factories, and dealers ran short of cars to sell.

Auto industry analysts predict a tight race this year between GM, Volkswagen AG of Germany, Toyota and the joint venture between Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA.

In 2011, Volkswagen took second place with record global sales of 8.16 million, up 14 percent from the year before. The French-Japanese alliance of Renault and Nissan was third, selling 8.03 million vehicles.

Toyota's Prius gas-electric hybrid and other ecological cars have been a hit with Japanese consumers despite a languishing auto market overall because of government-backed subsidies. The Prius was Japan's top-selling vehicle in 2011 for the third straight year.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_toyota

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Rebel leader demands new Papua New Guinea gov't (AP)

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister Peter O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor.

The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Michael Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month.

"Both Sir Michael Somare and O'Neill have seven days to implement the Supreme Court's orders to resolve the current political impasse or I will be forced to take actions to uphold the integrity of the Constitution," Sasa told reporters in Port Moresby.

The government called on Sasa and his supporters to surrender and said the mutiny did not have support from the broader military.

Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah told reporters that about 30 soldiers were involved in the mutiny and 15 of them have been arrested. Namah said Sasa could be charged with treason, which carries the death sentence.

The new crisis comes during a turbulent period for the South Pacific's most populous island nation, where both O'Neill and Somare claim to be the rightful prime minister.

Rebel soldiers overpowered guards at the Taurama Barracks in Port Moresby before dawn. They then moved to the military headquarters at Murray Barracks and placed the head of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force, Brigadier General Francis Agwi, under house arrest. There were no reports of bloodshed.

Sasa, who last served as Papua New Guinea's defense attache to Indonesia before retiring from the military, told reporters he had been legitimately appointed defense chief by Somare.

Somare's spokeswoman Betha Somare told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that his ousted cabinet had confirmed Sasa's appointment several days ago. Betha Somare, who is also Michael Somare's daughter, did not immediately reply to The Associated Press' request for comment on Thursday.

Namah said Somare had "no sanity" and was using "rogue soldiers to pursue his own greed and selfishness."

O'Neill had told Australia ? Papua New Guinea's former colonial master and main provider of foreign aid ? that "authorities were taking steps to manage the situation," Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Somare was Papua New Guinea's first prime minister when it became independent in 1975, and was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Papua New Guinea's Parliament replaced him with O'Neill in August, while Somare was getting medical treatment outside the country.

Last month, the country's Supreme Court and Governor-General Michael Ogio backed Somare, who the court ruled was illegally removed. But Ogio changed his mind days later, saying bad legal advice had led him to incorrectly reinstate Somare.

Australia, which has the largest diplomatic mission of any country in Port Moresby, called for Agwi to be reinstated.

"We urge that the situation be resolved as soon as possible, and that the PNGDF chain of command is restored," the foreign affairs department said in a statement.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_as/as_papua_new_guinea_mutiny

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Add a Weight-Stabilizing Hook to Your Camera Tripod [Photography]

Add a Weight-Stabilizing Hook to Your Camera TripodShooting from a camera mounted to a tripod rather than handheld usually results in better images as the camera is more stable and less likely to move during the shot. A heavier tripod generally is more stable, but you don't want to lug one around on an outdoor shoot. Instead, attach a weight-bearing hook to the center column of your tripod. Now you can hang your camera bag, your backpack, or even a workout weight onto the the hook and enjoy the stability provided by a heavier tripod.

Instructables user Andrew Axley came up with the design. Simply drill a hole through the center column of your tripod, use a bolt and nut to fit the hole you've drilled, bend the top of an S-hook to fit inside the center column, and hang the S-hook from the the bolt. Of course, complete directions and step-by-step photos can be found at the source link below.

This mod gives you a sturdy hook that you can attach any convenient object to stabilize your tripod. It's definitely a nice upgrade for a cheap tripod.

Tripod Stabilizer Weight Hook | Instructables

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/XxjnfD8VOpc/add-a-weight+stabilizing-hook-to-your-camera-tripod

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