Katie Holmes has cottoned onto the craze, jumping on the same bandwagon as Jessica Alba and Jay-Z, and even Rihanna who sampled the London Underground.
Katie Holmes was seen riding the New York subway on Wednesday, going incognito with her hair scraped back into a ponytail, opting to go make-up free beneath large sunglasses.
She also seemed to be prepping for winter, wearing a knitted cream sweater and dark blue jeans, carrying an oversized leather bag and the signature pose of a commuter – keeping her head buried
Using public transport is a stark change from her former life as a Cruise, when she relied not only on chauffeur-driven cars, but also on exclusive A-list travel methods of helicopter ferrying.
Katie Holmes rides the subway
It’s almost as if Katie Holmes’ ride on the subway was a metaphorical two fingers up at ex-husband Tom Cruise.
On Tuesday, Katie Holmes was seen with daughter Suri, arriving home from school by foot instead of a lift from a personal driver.
The six-year-old started at the elite Avenues school in New York last month.
Solenne San Jose from south-west France, who received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion euros, has had the real amount she owed waived – after Bouygues Telecom admitted its mistake.
Solenne San Jose, from Pessac outside Bordeaux, said she received a huge shock when she opened the bill for 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros.
This is nearly 6,000 times France’s annual economic output.
Solenne San Jose had requested her account be closed after losing her job last month.
The former teaching assistant said she “almost had a heart attack. There were so many zeroes I couldn’t even work out how much it was”.
The phone company, Bouygues Telecom, initially told her there was nothing they could do to amend the computer-generated statement and later offered to set up installments to pay off the bill.
In the end, the company admitted the bill should have been for 117.21 euros only, and eventually waived it altogether.
Bouygues Telecom has also apologized for the gaffe, which it says was down to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre.
US vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan are set to meet in their only debate, as polling suggests the election race is tightening.
Vice-President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, will clash for 90 minutes in Danville, Kentucky.
Democrats are hoping to change the campaign narrative after what was widely seen as a poor performance by President Barack Obama last week.
Barack Obama said on Wednesday he had been “too polite” to his rival, Mitt Romney.
The Obama campaign has since accused Mitt Romney, a Republican former business star and Massachusetts governor, of shifting his policy positions and of lying during their meeting in Denver, Colorado last week.
Thursday’s debate will be moderated by Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, and will cover both domestic and foreign policy.
It is set to begin at 21:00 EST at Centre College, a small liberal arts university about 80 miles from the city of Louisville.
The debate will be split into nine 10-minute segments.
Vice-President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan will clash for 90 minutes in Danville
The two vice-presidential candidates are tasked with keeping their respective campaigns competitive, as new polls suggest Barack Obama’s lead in several key swing states has been somewhat erased by Mitt Romney.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Thursday showed Mitt Romney making gains in three states said to be essential to his presidential hopes.
The two candidates are virtually ties in Florida and Virginia while Barack Obama still leads in Ohio, but by a decreased margin. The Romney campaign has added extra campaign stops in Ohio in the coming weeks, aware that no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.
Also on Thursday, a New York Times/CBS News poll suggested that likely voters in Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin – all states “in play” on 6 November – gave Mitt Romney stronger marks for leadership than previously.
However, the new poll showed no sharp movements in support for either candidates.
Joe Biden, 69, is known for his frank but folksy manner and foreign policy experience, while Paul Ryan, 42, is known as the Republicans’ budget hawk, serving in Congress for 14 years.
Both have kept lower profiles in the past week as they prepared for the debate.
“Joe just needs to be Joe,” Barack Obama told ABC News on Wednesday.
“Congressman Ryan is a smart and effective speaker. But his ideas are the wrong ones.”
The president played down the importance of his own first debate performance, saying: “What’s important is the fundamentals of what this race is about haven’t changed.”
Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod told CBS on Thursday that he believes “the big challenge for [Biden] is to pin Congressman Ryan down”.
“Right now the Romney campaign is running away from some of their positions like unwanted stepchildren.”
Mitt Romney expressed confidence in his running mate at a campaign stop in Ohio: “I think Paul Ryan will do great.”
The Wisconsin representative himself said he was not intimidated by Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden’s one of the most experienced debaters we have in modern politics,” Paul Ryan told reporters.
“But the Achilles’ heel he has is President Obama’s record.”
The debate is expected to focus on the federal budget plans Paul Ryan put forward as the chair of the House budget committee.
While the Obama campaign has sought to portray Paul Ryan’s place on the Romney ticket as an endorsement of the Ryan plan, the Romney campaign has worked to play down that impression.
“You have to remember that there is [a] Romney-Ryan ticket and there’s one presidential candidate,” Mitt Romney adviser Kevin Madden said.
“So the focus again will be on what Governor Romney’s plan is for reforming Washington.”
Joe Biden is said to have studied Paul Ryan’s most recent budget plan during his debate preparations.
The event is not expected to draw the approximately 70 million people who watched four years ago when Joe Biden debated Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
That debate did little to change the 2008 campaign but helped Sarah Palin after a series of disastrous interviews.
“Normally vice-presidential debates are good political theatre and sort of interesting from a talent scout standpoint, as you evaluate the up-and-comers on the political stage,” Alan Schroeder, author of a book on presidential debates, told the Associated Press.
“But this year could be different because of the negative reviews of Obama’s performance. That heightens expectations for this second debate.”
Latest official figures show that unemployment in Greece hit a record 25.1% in July, with the level among young people reaching 54.2%.
Greece’s statistical authority said 1.26 million Greeks were jobless in July, with more than 1,000 jobs lost every day over the past year.
With austerity cuts continuing and Greece likely to enter another year of recession, the level may rise further.
The worst-affected 15-24 age group, however, includes those in education.
According to Greece’s statistics agency the total unemployment rate rose from 24.8% in June. In July 2008, a year before Greece’s financial crisis broke, there were about 364,000 registered unemployed.
“This is a very dramatic result of the recession,” said Angelos Tsakanikas, head of research at Greece’s IOBE economic research foundation. He did not expect employment to pick up for at least a year.
The Greek economy is surviving on international bailouts, but Athens has been forced to impose tough austerity measures in return for the money.
Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras will hold talks on Thursday evening with representatives of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank about signing off the release of more funds.
There was some evidence on Thursday that the government’s strategy is working on one front, at least. Finance Ministry figures showed that the deficit-cutting effort is on track despite lower-than-anticipated revenues.
The ministry figures showed that the January-September deficit was 12.64 billion euros, lower than the 13.5 billion-euro target.
Lindsay Lohan and her mother Dina have been pictured hugging on the steps of their Long Island family home after getting into a violent fight in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, gave her mother an awkward hug despite the fact that only hours earlier, she had made a desperate phone call to her father Michael alleging her mother was “on cocaine”.
According to TMZ, Lindsay and Dina Lohan were in their limousine returning from a night out clubbing when Lindsay told Michael to call the police, fearing her mother was kidnapping her.
TMZ has an audio recording of the call where Lindsay Lohan is heard telling her father that the row erupted “over $40,000”, and claims Dina threatened to “call the cops on me”.
Lindsay Lohan is heard screaming: “Dad, she’s on cocaine. She’s like touching her neck, and s***. She’s saying disgusting things to me… I’m dead to her now.”
The website reports that Dina Lohan had drunk four glasses of wine but eaten nothing before the encounter.
The website also reports that Lindsay gave Dina $40,000 to help save her home from foreclosure. But last night, Lindsay Lohan wanted her money back.
Lindsay Lohan hugging her mother Dina on the steps of their Long Island family home after getting into a violent fight
Lindsay Lohan is overheard telling Dina: “This is what you do. You ruin people,” before telling her father: “She’s like the f***ing devil right now. I have a gash on my leg from what happened.”
She then gets increasingly hysterical, adding: “I asked her to give [the money] back and she’s like <<You’re sick, you don’t give me anything, you don’t do anything for child support>>.”
“You do everything for everyone,” Michael Lohan tries to reassure his daughter. And he adds: “She’s horrible Lindsay.”
Earlier, Lindsay Lohan can be heard trying to get the driver to pull over, while Michael insists Dina is “kidnapping” her.
Lindsay Lohan then tells her father: “She’s throwing your f****** kids out and she’s threatening everyone in the car.”
Meanwhile, the actress is also reported to have told her mother she “needs to go to rehab”, a source told Radar.
“Dina went absolutely ballistic when Lindsay said this to her and insisted that there was no reason for her to get treatment,” the insider added.
“Lindsay is very concerned about her mom though and tried to convey this to Dina, but she was very emotional and tired. Lindsay even told her mom that she shouldn’t be going out to clubs with her and should act more like her mother and less like her friend.”
A bracelet belonging to Lindsay Lohan is also claimed to have been broken in the fallout.
Law enforcement officers arrived at Dina Lohan’s home after receiving a complaint alleging that Lindsay was “being held against her will by Dina and her driver”.
Meanwhile, Michael Lohan told website Hollyscoop: “I called the police at Lindsay’s request. [Lindsay] even asked that I record the conversation because she was being held against her will by the limo driver at Dina’s instruction.”
The altercation happened after mother and daughter went to the Electric Room nightclub in the Dream Hotel in New York City together, leaving at 4:00 a.m.
Police took a Domestic Incident Report but made no arrests.
According to the New York Post, the 911 call drew a “small army” of police to the house around 8:15 a.m.
Witness John Scalesi told the newspaper: “She [Lindsay] was yelling <<I’ve had enough of this!>>”
Nassau police Inspector Kenneth Lack told the newspaper: “It was just a verbal dispute in the vehicle. It was an argument between Lindsay Lohan and her mother Dina. Lindsay called her father and her father called police.”
A photograph was taken earlier in the evening showing Lindsay Lohan in good spirits while posing with a random clubgoer at the club.
Lindsay Lohan, who appeared happy in relaxed in New York at the weekend, has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, despite trying to put her career back on track with Lifetime biopic Liz & Dick.
Most recently, she accused a fellow partygoer at a Manhattan nightclub of assaulting her after a late night out.
Walmart workers are threatening to strike on the busiest shopping day of the year – Black Friday.
The walkout, scheduled for next month on the day after Thanksgiving, is set to cause chaos across Dallas, San Diego, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Today, a meeting at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas was interrupted by 200 protesters waving placards and chanting.
Walmart is the world’s largest private employer and has long been a target of workers’ rights groups, who advocate higher wages, more flexibility in hours and an end to punishments, such as reduced shifts, which they claim are meted out to staff seeking to unionize.
Evelin Cruz, a department manager, told ABC News that for many years she kept quiet about what she views as the company’s unjust practices because she was afraid of being fired if she spoke out.
Evelin Cruz, who works at the Pico Rivera Walmart in California, is one of thousands of members of Our Walmart, an organization backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
Leaders of Our Walmart, the National Consumers League and other groups today said they will join Walmart workers outside stores on Black Friday if their demands are not met.
Walmart workers are threatening to strike on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year
National Organization of Women president Terry O’Neill said her group would join in the action on Black Friday, to show “solidarity with the workers who are walking off the job”.
Last Thursday, about 30 employees from the Pico Rivera Walmart demonstrated outside the store with signs that read “Stand Up, Live Better, Stop Retaliation” and “Stop Trying to Silence Us”.
The protest over working conditions was coordinated with actions at eight other Walmart stores across California protesting against working conditions and treatment.
It was the first-ever walkout in the company’s 50-year history, said Dawn Le, a spokeswoman for Making Change at Walmart, a coalition whose mission is to change the way the firm conducts business.
“Everyone else has a union,” said Dawn Le.
“Workers in every other country – Japan, the U.K., Nicaragua, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina – have been able to form a union, except the U.S. and Canada.
“We just don’t understand the double standard Walmart has. How come those in other countries get to have a voice, yet not in the U.S., its home country?”
Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman disputed her claims, insisting that most employees have “repeatedly rejected unionization”.
“They seem to recognize that Walmart has some of the best jobs in the retail industry – good pay, affordable benefits and the chance for advancement,” he said.
Walmart has hit the headlines on several recent occasions. In mid-September, warehouse workers in Southern California went on a 15-day strike that included a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage for safe jobs.
Around the same time, hundreds of people marched in Dallas and San Diego, demanding better work conditions.
On Monday, Chicago riot police arrested 17 peaceful protesters blocking the entrance to a warehouse that supplies Walmart stores in support of striking workers.
The company is also now facing another sex discrimination lawsuit, filed on behalf of 100,000 women in California and Tennessee.
Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, said: “Workers find how Walmart has tried to retaliate by cutting their hours and not scheduling them for certain shifts when they tried to speak out, and they’re tired of it.”
The $16 billion company, however, argues that the California rally was simply a “publicity stunt by the UFCW to seek media attention in order to further their political agenda and financial objectives”, according to Dan Schlademan.
Evelin Cruz, who started on $7.40 an hour and now makes $13.20, said: “We just wanted to be treated like humans, not robots. We do have health insurance, but in most cases, you’re not even making enough to live on, let alone take anyone to the hospital.”
Although she worries about losing her job, she didn’t see another option but to voice her anger.
“We are still worried that they might retaliate,” she added.
“We know exactly how they operate. They wait until you feel confident, or put down your guard, and then they come after you one way or another. But that’s how tired we are of what’s going on in the stores.”
Scarlett Johansson fills the role of Janet Leigh, who was famously “killed” in the shower scene for her Golden Globe-winning performance as Marion Crane in 1960 Alfred Hitchcock suspense/horror film Psycho.
In the first look at Hitchcock movie’s trailer, Scarlett Johansson’s feminine form is alluded to twice, once over a dinner meeting with Alfred Hitchcock [Anthony Hopkins] and again when the filmmaker speaks to his wife [Helen Mirren].
Scarlett Johansson, 27, swans into frame during the trailer wearing in a low-cut halter neck peach satin dress, before sitting across the table from Alfred Hitchcock to discuss the role.
As the New Yorker begins to gesticulate, she asks: “How exactly are you going to shoot this shower scene? Well, it’s only from here up I’m not exactly boyish.”
Towards the end of the footage, we also see Helen Mirren’s character Alma Reville tell her husband: “Ooh, you imp! You’ve got n****y in there.”
To which he responds: “Well, her br***ts were rather large. It’s a challenge not to show them.”
Scarlett Johansson fills the role of Janet Leigh in Hitchcock movie
As Hitchcock‘s trailer opens, Anthony Hopkins provides an eerie voiceover, revealing: “All of us harbor dark recesses of violence and horror, I’m just a man hiding in the corner with a camera, watching.”
Helen Mirren plays the long-suffering wife, seen in bed reading the script: “It was the knife, that a moment later cut off her scream and her head, charming Doris Day should do it as a musical!”
It then cuts to a business meeting, where the filmmaker is told: “No one respects the name Hitchcock more than Paramount, but even a talented man sometimes backs the wrong horse.”
After he’s told he can make it if he can finds the money himself, Alfred Hitchcock whips out his cheque book.
However, the movie becomes an obsession and a financial nightmare after film bosses try to ban the film from hitting cinemas, leading to domestic troubles at home.
Alfred Hitchcock is seen shouting at Alma Reville, saying: “I’m under extraordinary pressures on this picture and the least you can do is give me your full support.”
But she responds: “We’ve mortgaged our house. I am your wife, I celebrate with you when the reviews are good, I cry for you when they are bad.
“And I put up with those people who look through me as if I were invisible as all they can see is the great and glorious genius that is Alfred Hitchcock!”
Speaking of the film still that was released as a teaser yesterday of Scarlett Johansson behind the wheel of a car in the same pose as Janet Leigh, director Sacha Gervasi said: “When we took that still of Scarlett behind the wheel and put it up against the still of Janet behind the wheel in Psycho, it was eerie.
“The extent to which Scarlett was able to channel Janet [was] a real surprise. She brought it in such a way that no one really anticipated.”
Hitchcock movie, which hits screens on November 23, also stars Jessica Biel as Vera Miles.
The director notes that the beautiful Total Recall star faced the same challenges that Vera Miles did to get into character.
“Hitchcock dressed her up in a wig and did everything they could to make the beautiful Vera Miles look frumpy,” Sacha Gervasi said.
“What Hitch tried to do to Vera we tried to do to Jessica, and the results were equally ridiculous. It is not possible to make Jessica Biel dowdy.”
Vera Miles was an American actress who worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock, notably in Psycho, having played the sister of the Janet Leigh’s character, which she reprised in Psycho II.
Footage taken from Bobbi Kristina Brown’s reality show, entitled The Houstons: On Our Own, has allegedly confirmed that she is in fact engaged to Nick Gordon.
According to reports on E!Online in the exclusive clip Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of late singer Whitney Houston, shocks her family when she tells them of her plans to wed Nick Gordon.
The website claim that Bobbi Kristina Brown announces the news as she laughs, saying: “We’re engaged!”
In another trailer for the Lifetime show, family members of the Houston clan are seen worrying over Bobbi Kristina Brown’s relationship with Nick Gordon.
Bobbi Kristina Brown has allegedly confirmed that she is in fact engaged to Nick Gordon
During the clip Gary Houston, Whitney’ brother, appears to disapprove of their bond, as he has a heated discussion with Nick Gordon, 22.
Gary Houston says: “No one knew that from a godson you would turn into a boyfriend. No one knew that.”
With Nick Gordon stating: “The family has me out to be a bad person.”
And determined to make her family accept her blossoming romance, Bobbi Kristina Brown firmly asserts: “They want to see us fail. We won’t.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown and Nick Gordon lived together as siblings for more than a decade before Whitney Houston’s death in February, with Nick considered to be the superstar’s unofficial adopted son.
Whitney Houston took Nick Gordon into her home when he was just 12 after his father went to prison and his mother was unable to take care of him.
However, following Whitney Houston’s passing – having died at the age of 48 due to an accidental drowning complicated by heart disease and cocaine use – the controversial pair grew closer.
Set to premiere on October 24, the show follows the Houston clan including Pat, Whitney’s sister-in-law and manager, Pat’s daughter Rayah, Whitney’s brother Gary, Bobbi Kristina and Grammy Award-winning singer Cissy Houston in the aftermath of the pop superstar’s tragic death.
“Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law, manager and most trusted confidant, manages the business and estate of the beloved singer and her most prized possession, her daughter Bobbi Kristina,” said a Lifetime press release.
“The series will follow Pat and her husband, Gary, Whitney Houston’s brother, as they take on their greatest challenge, supporting and guiding Bobbi Kristina as she faces the world alone, without the one person she relied on the most, her Mother.”
Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen, is being transferred to a new military hospital with better facilities, officials say.
Malala Yousafzai, in critical condition two days after being attacked in the north-western Swat Valley, left Peshawar by helicopter for Rawalpindi.
The Taliban, who accuse the young activist of “promoting secularism”, have said they will target her again.
There have been widespread protests in Pakistan against the shooting.
Malala Yousafzai was being treated in an intensive care unit in Peshawar before doctors decided to move her to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology critical care unit in Rawalpindi.
“Doctors have decided to shift Malala to the Combined Military Hospital [CMH] in Rawalpindi where medical facilities are better,” said Maj Ishtiaq Ahmad.
One of the medical team treating her said “neurologically she has significantly improved” but that the “coming days… are very critical”.
Another doctor, Mumtaz Khan, told AFP news agency that she had a 70% chance of survival.
“Her condition is not yet out of danger despite improvement,” Masood Kausar, the governor of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was also quoted as saying.
Pakistani officials have offered a 10 million rupee ($105,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.
Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who visited Malala Yousafzai in hospital in Peshawar on Wednesday, said it was time to “stand up to fight the propagators of such barbaric mindset and their sympathizers”.
Malala Yousafzai wrote about suffering caused by Talibans who had taken control of the Swat Valley in 2007
Malala Yousafzai gained attention aged 11, when she started writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban.
Under the pen-name Gul Makai, she wrote about suffering caused by militants who had taken control of the Swat Valley in 2007 and ordered girls’ schools to close.
The Taliban were ousted from Swat in 2009, but her family said they had regularly received death threats.
They believed she would be safe among her own community, but on Tuesday, she was stopped as she returned home from school in Mingora, in north-western Swat, and shot in the head.
Two other girls were injured, one of whom remained in a critical condition on Wednesday.
Schools in the Swat Valley closed on Wednesday in protest at the attack, and schoolchildren in other parts of the country prayed for the girl’s recovery.
Protests were held in Peshawar, Multan and in Malala Yousafzai’s hometown of Mingora and in Lahore.
Those taking part praised the girl’s bravery, while many condemned the attack as un-Islamic.
Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature.
A prolific author, 57-year-old Mo Yan has published dozens of short stories, with his first work published in 1981.
The Swedish Academy praised Mo Yan’s work which “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”.
Mo Yan is the first Chinese resident to win the prize. Chinese-born Gao Xingjian was honored in 2000, but is a French citizen.
Mo Yan is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, won last year by Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer.
Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature
Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award – only given to living writers – is worth 8 million kronor ($1.2 million).
Born Guan Moye, the author writes under the pen name Mo Yan, which means “don’t speak” in Chinese.
He began writing while a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and received international fame in 1987 for Red Sorghum: A Novel of China.
Made into a film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, the novella was a tale of the brutal violence in the eastern China countryside where he grew up during the 1920s and 1930s.
Favoring to write about China’s past rather than contemporary issues, the settings for Mo Yan’s works range from the 1911 revolution, Japan’s wartime invasion and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
His other acclaimed works include Republic of Wine, Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out and Big Breasts and Wide Hips.
The latter book caused controversy when it was published in 1995 for its sexual content and depicting a class struggle contrary to the Chinese Communist Party line.
The author was forced by the PLA to withdraw it from publication although it was pirated many times.
After it was translated into English a decade later, the book won him a nomination for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
His latest novel, Frog, about China’s “one child” population control policy, won the Mao Dun Literature Prize – one of China’s most prestigious literature prizes – last year.
Forced evictions in China have risen significantly in recent years as local officials sell off land to property developers, Amnesty International says.
Many cases involve violence and harassment, in what the group called “a gross violation of human rights”.
Pressure on local officials to meet economic goals and vested interests were behind the coercion, it said.
These evictions are a rumbling cause of social discontent and have led to protests across the country.
All land in China is effectively controlled by the state, and laws allow local governments to claim land for urban development projects.
Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty’s senior director of research in Hong Kong, said that seizing and selling off land was how local authorities were paying back funds borrowed to finance stimulus packages during the economic downturn.
“The Chinese Communist Party promotes officials who deliver growth seemingly at any cost, and land development for roads, factories, residential complexes and so on is seen as the most direct path to visible results,” she said.
Amnesty said the system was open to abuse and evictees often received little notice, no consultation and only a fraction of the value of their home in compensation.
Such cases have led to violent clashes between residents and police or private security guards on several occasions, the report said.
Amnesty interviewed lawyers, housing rights activists and academics, both in China and abroad, for its 85-page report entitled Standing Their Ground.
It looked at 40 cases of forced eviction from January 2009 to January 2012, nine of which it said culminated in deaths of people who opposed their evictions.
“The forced eviction of people from their homes and farmland without appropriate legal protection and safeguards has become a routine occurrence in China, and represents a gross violation of human rights obligations on an enormous scale,” Amnesty said.
Many cases are “sudden and violent, sometimes resulting in death”, harassment and in one instance, someone being buried alive.
Nicola Duckworth said self-immolations caused by evictions were also on the rise.
“We documented 41 reports of self-immolations from 2009 to the end of 2012,” she said.
Amnesty cited the example of Wukan village in Guangdong province in 2011, where residents demonstrated on the streets after a village negotiator protesting against local officials over a land grab died in police custody.
As a result of protests, two local officials were removed from their posts and others punished in 2012. The villagers also won the right to fresh local elections as part of the deal.
But “optimism might be premature” on the Wukan case, Amnesty said.
“To this day, there has been no independent investigation into [village negotiator] Xue Jinbo’s death. The villagers still have not got any of their land back. And there are now reports that authorities have been harassing and spying on activists in Wukan.”
The group called on China to put an immediate stop to all forced evictions and ensure safeguards were put in place in line with international law.
It also urged China to implement new regulations it adopted in 2011 providing for proper land compensation and outlawing the use of violence in these cases.
China does have laws in place to protect farmers and local residents, but these are often ignored at local level. Leaders in Beijing have acknowledged the problems and pledged to improve the situation.
Premier Wen Jiabao, in his report to the National People’s Congress in March, said that problems related to land expropriation and housing demolition “are still very serious and the people are still very concerned about them”.
Lenovo has replaced Hewlett-Packard as the world’s top PC maker, according to preliminary figures released by research firm Gartner.
Gartner said Chinese PC maker Lenovo shipped 13.8 million units in the third quarter, compared with HP’s 13.55 million.
It said Lenovo’s “aggressive” price cuts had helped it gain substantial market share.
However, research firm IDC’s data put HP at the top, though it showed the gap between the two was closing.
According to IDC, HP shipped 13.9 million units, giving it a 15.9% share of the global market, compared with Lenovo which enjoyed a 15.7% share with 13.8 million units.
Analysts said Lenovo has been among the best performing PC makers in recent times and it was likely to gain further market share.
“Just the momentum that Lenovo has had, makes it inevitable that it will be the world’s number one PC maker across all charts,” said Andrew Milroy of Frost & Sullivan.
According to Gartner, Lenovo was the only PC maker, among the world’s top five, that increased its shipments to the US during the third quarter.
Both Gartner and IDC’s figures showed that global PC shipments fell more than 8% during the quarter, from the same period last year.
Demand for personal computers has been hurt by a slowing global economy as well as the growing popularity of tablet PCs such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy range.
Analysts said that consumers held back on purchases during the period in anticipation of the launch of new products as well as operating systems, including Microsoft Windows 8.
“PCs are going through a severe slump,” said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC’s Worldwide PC Tracker.
“The industry had already weathered a rough second quarter, and now the third quarter was even worse.”
He added that the industry was also struggling to find a product that may help it turn around its fortunes.
“The hard question of what is the <<it>> product for PCs remains unanswered. While ultrabook prices have come down a little, there are still some significant challenges that will greet Windows 8 in the coming quarter.”
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Spain’s credit rating, highlighting a deepening recession and mounting pressure on Madrid’s finances.
S&P cut Spanish debt from BBB+ to BBB-, one level above junk status, and warned of possible further downgrades.
Spain is struggling with high debt levels and the highest rate of unemployment in the eurozone.
Madrid has introduced drastic spending cuts and tax rises, but many think it will have no option but seek a bailout.
“The downgrade reflects our view of mounting risk to Spain’s public finances, due to rising economic and political pressures,” S&P said.
“The deepening economic recession is limiting the Spanish government’s policy options.”
Last month, the government unveiled its latest budget designed to make savings of around 13 billion euros ($16.7 billion) next year, by cutting public sector wages, education, health and social services.
The cuts were the latest in a series of austerity measures that have sparked angry protests across Spain.
Despite the cuts, tax rises, labor market and pension reforms, the Spanish government has said the country’s overall debt levels will rise next year to more than 90% of total economic output.
The country’s borrowing costs have remained high for months, leading many analysts to argue it is only a matter of time before Madrid is forced to ask its eurozone partners for financial assistance.
However, last week, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos denied his country would be asking for help.
The mother of US Navy Seal Glen Doherty killed in last month’s Libya consulate attack has said his death has been used by the Romney campaign for political purposes.
Mitt Romney has been citing his meeting some years ago with Seal Glen Doherty.
His campaign said the candidate would respect Barbara Doherty’s wishes and stop mentioning her son.
The attack on the consulate in Benghazi on 11 September has become a political issue ahead of the election.
Glen Doherty was killed in the attack in Benghazi along with Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two other officials.
“I don’t trust Romney,” Barbara Doherty told Boston news station WHDH.
“He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda. It’s wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” she said.
Campaigning on Tuesday in the state of Iowa, Mitt Romney said that instead of running away from danger during the Benghazi consulate attack, Glen Doherty had run towards it.
He reportedly used the anecdote as a metaphor for what Republicans must do to regain the White House in November’s poll.
“They didn’t hunker down where they were in safety,” the former Massachusetts governor was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
“They rushed there to go help. This is the American way. We go where there’s trouble.”
“We go where we’re needed. And right now we’re needed. Right now the American people need us.”
Mitt Romney is reported to have mentioned Glen Doherty at other events on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Romney campaign said in a statement on Wednesday: “Governor Romney was inspired by the memory of meeting Glen Doherty and shared his story and that memory, but we respect the wishes of Mrs. Doherty.”
A campaign official confirmed Mitt Romney would not re-tell the anecdote.
Friends of Glen Doherty have spoken publicly about his encounter with Mitt Romney at a Christmas party.
His friend, Elf Ellefsen, told a Seattle radio station: “He said it was very comical. Mitt Romney approached him ultimately four times, using this private gathering as a political venture to further his image.”
“He kept introducing himself as Mitt Romney, a political figure. The same introduction, the same opening line. Glen believed it to be very insincere and stale,” Elf Ellefsen added, according to ABC News.
Mice may have the ability to learn songs based on the sounds they hear, according to US researchers.
They found that when male mice were housed together they learned to match the pitch of their songs to each other.
Mice also share some behavioral and brain mechanisms involved in vocal learning with songbirds and humans, say the researchers.
But some scientists are skeptical, saying the evidence doesn’t support the claim.
Details of the study are published in the Journal Plos One.
Previous research in this field has shown that male mice can sing complex songs when exposed to females and these play an important part in courtship.
These murine serenades are ultrasonic. At between 50 and 100KHz, they are far above the hearing range of humans. When processed to make them audible to humans, they sound like a series of plaintive whistles.
It has long been assumed that mice were incapable of modifying the sequence or the pitch of these sounds. This ability, called vocal learning, is rare in the natural world. It is restricted to some birds such as parrots and song birds along with whales, dolphins, sea lions, bats and elephants.
But in these experiments, researchers from Duke University in North Carolina say they found that mice have both the brain circuits and the behavioral attributes consistent with vocal learning.
Dr. Erich Jarvis, who oversaw the study, said it had changed his understanding of the way mice make sound.
“In mice we find that the pathways that are at least modulating these vocalizations are in the forebrain, in places where you actually find them in humans,” he said.
He says the study does not have clear evidence that mice have the very same vocal abilities as birds and humans. He believes there is a spectrum where different species have vocal skills to different degrees.
“We think mice are intermediate in this ability between a chicken and a song bird or even a non human primate and a human,” Dr. Erich Jarvis said.
When male mice with different vocal pitches were housed together, the team found that the pitch of their songs gradually converged over a period of eight weeks.
Dr. Erich Jarvis argues that this is an important development: “When we put a female in the cage with two males, we then found that one male would change his pitch to match the other. It was usually the smaller animal changing the pitch to match the larger animal.”
But others are less certain. Dr. Kurt Hammerschmidt, an expert in vocal communication at the German Primate Centre in Goettingen, cast doubt on the study’s claim about the vocal behavior of male mice.
“The pitch convergence story is less convincing,” he says.
But Erich Jarvis refutes this, saying the skepticism is unfounded.
“His complaint was that we don’t have enough animals, but we found this in 12 mouse pairs and in every single pair… at least in our eyes it’s quite reliable and statistically significant,” he said.
A unique spiral structure encircling dying star R Sculptoris has been captured by scientists for the first time.
The spectacular picture is one of the first to come from the world’s most expensive ground-based telescope which produces images ten times sharper than Hubble.
It was built to study molecular clouds like the one around the red giant R Sculptoris which is 780 light years from Earth.
At 16,000ft up in the Chilean Andes the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is also the highest such machine on Earth.
The Atacama desert was chosen for its dryness and clarity.
A unique spiral structure encircling dying star R Sculptoris has been captured by scientists for the first time
The old red giant star R Sculptoris sits at spiral’s centre, ejecting dust and gas every 10,000 to 50,0000 years to form a shell of surrounding material.
Spherical shells have been seen around red giants before, but this kind of spiral is unique.
It is believed it is was caused by a previously unseen companion star carving through the material as it orbits.
Turkish fighter jets have forced a Syrian passenger plane suspected of carrying weapons to land in Ankara.
Military communications devices were confiscated, and the Airbus A320 was given permission to leave, reports say.
Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara was determined to stop any transfer of weapons to Syria through its airspace.
Tensions have been high since five Turkish civilians were killed by Syrian mortar fire last week, prompting Turkey to fire into Syria.
It was the first time since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 19 months ago.
Earlier on Wednesday, Turkey’s top military commander warned Syria that Ankara would respond with greater force if Syria continued its cross-border shelling.
The Airbus A320 airliner, which was travelling from Moscow to Damascus, was carrying 35 passengers and two crew – far fewer than its 180 passenger capacity.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told state-run television that Ankara had received information that the plane could be carrying “non-civilian cargo”.
The aircraft was escorted by two Turkish jets to the capital’s Esenboga airport for security checks.
Local media reports say that military communication devices were seized by the Turkish authorities for further examination and the aircraft was granted permission to leave.
Meanwhile, the Turkish authorities have declared Syrian airspace to be unsafe and are preventing Turkish aircraft from flying over the country.
Ankara clearly wants to show its own population and Syria that it is taking the threat posed by Syria extremely seriously.
If weapons are going to Syria, the Turkish government might worry that they will be fired back into its territory.
Meanwhile, the US has confirmed reports it has established a military task force in Jordan.
It is monitoring the security of Syria’s chemical and biological weapons as well as helping with the aid effort.
Apple’s iPad Mini has apparently been revealed in full for the first time in the best set of pictures yet leaked on the internet.
Sonny Dickson, a researcher for fansite 9to5mac.com, published the images on his Twitter feed yesterday, sparking a wave of excitement among Apple enthusiasts.
The images show a device that is significantly smaller than the regular iPad. According to rumors it boasts a 7.85 in liquid crystal display, making it a rival to Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The images also show the iPad Mini utilizes the controversial new connector introduced with the iPhone 5, which has made all accessories available to previous Apple gadgets obsolete at a stroke.
It emerged yesterday that Apple had instructed suppliers in China to manufacture 10 million of the new smaller tablet computers, showing faith in their product in the face of stiff competition.
Insiders say the iPad Mini will be announced on October 17, a few days from the releases of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Microsoft’s Surface tablets, and go on sale November 2.
As yet, however, Apple has not officially confirmed any of the reports, rumors of leaks about a smaller iPad.
Apple’s 9-inch device dominates the market, but smaller, cheaper tablets have been eating away at the iPad’s popularity. The iPad mini is expected to go on sale around the world on November 2nd, according to online speculation.
HOW SMALL?
The mini is thought to be 7 in diagonally, compared to the 9.7 in of the full-size iPad.
This would allow it to be used easily on public transport, and fit into a (large) jacket pocket.
TrustedReviews is predicting the mini – which some are dubbing the iPad nano – will use a 1,024 x 768 pixel panel.
The Mini launch comes as research suggests a quarter of us – 22% – own a tablet, with another 3% regularly borrowing someone else’s tablet for web browsing.
About 68% of the 9,5123 adults surveyed said they purchased their tablet within the last year.
The U.S. survey by the Pew Research Center also suggests the flood of cheaper tablets, such as the Google Nexus or Amazon Fire, are weakening Apple’s grip on the market.
A year ago, Apple had more than 80% of the market, but this has now dropped to less around 52%.
The Kindle Fire has 21% of the market, meanwhile Samsung’s Galaxy tablet has 8%.
Out of those surveyed, 44% of adults who said they have a smartphone, 46% have an Android phone, 38% have an iPhone and 10% have a Blackberry.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong’s team ran “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme the sport has ever seen” according to a report by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
USADA says it will deliver the full report in the doping case against Lance Armstrong, 41, later on Wednesday.
It contains testimony from 11 of his former US Postal Service team-mates.
Lance Armstrong has always denied doping allegations but has not contested USADA’s charges.
USADA chief executive Travis T. Tygart said there was “conclusive and undeniable proof” of a team-run doping conspiracy.
The organisation will send a “reasoned decision” in the Armstrong case to the International Cycling Union (UCI), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the World Triathlon Corporation.
The UCI now has 21 days to lodge an appeal against USADA’s decision with WADA or they must comply with the decision to strip Armstrong, who now competes in triathlons, of his seven Tour de France titles and hand him a lifetime ban.
Lance Armstrong ran the most sophisticated doping program in cycling history
Lance Armstrong, who overcame cancer to return to professional cycling, won the Tour from 1999 to 2005. He retired in 2005 but returned in 2009 before retiring for good two years later.
In his statement, Travis T. Tygart said the evidence against Lance Armstrong and his team – which is in excess of 1,000 pages – was “overwhelming” and “and includes sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team and its participants’ doping activities”.
Travis T. Tygart revealed it contains “direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding”.
He also claimed the team’s doping conspiracy “was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices”.
Among the former team-mates of Lance Armstrong’s to testify were George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for failing a dope test and was recently found guilty in a Swiss court of defaming the International Cycling Union for alleging they had protected Lance Armstrong from doping claims.
Travis T. Tygart said: “The riders who participated in the USPS Team doping conspiracy and truthfully assisted have been courageous in making the choice to stop perpetuating the sporting fraud, and they have suffered greatly.
“I have personally talked with and heard these athletes’ stories and firmly believe that, collectively, these athletes, if forgiven and embraced, have a chance to leave a legacy far greater for the good of the sport than anything they ever did on a bike.
“Lance Armstrong was given the same opportunity to come forward and be part of the solution. He rejected it.
“Instead he exercised his legal right not to contest the evidence and knowingly accepted the imposition of a ban from recognised competition for life and disqualification of his competitive results from 1998 forward.”
USADA confirmed that two other members of the US Postal Service team, Dr. Michele Ferrari and Dr. Garcia del Moral, also received lifetime bans for their part in the doping conspiracy.
Three further members, team director Johan Bruyneel, a team doctor Dr. Pedro Celaya and team trainer Jose Marti, have chosen to contest the charges and take their cases to arbitration.
Travis T. Tygart also called on the UCI to “act on its own recent suggestion for a meaningful Truth and Reconciliation programme”.
“Hopefully, the sport can unshackle itself from the past, and once and for all continue to move forward to a better future,” he added.
The amount of fish a woman eats while pregnant may affect her child’s chances of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Eating fish twice a week was linked to about a 60% lower risk of a child developing certain ADHD-like symptoms, according to research from the Boston University School of Public Health.
But the type of fish eaten is the key.
Elevated mercury levels, which can occur from eating certain types of fish, such as tuna and swordfish, were also tied to a higher risk of developing ADHD symptoms such as a short attention span, restlessness or being easily distracted.
“The really important message is to eat fish,” said assistant professor Sharon Sagiv, the study’s lead author.
Sharon Sagiv added that pregnant women should avoid “big” fish, such as tuna and swordfish, which typically contain the most mercury. Instead, they should opt for haddock or salmon.
The research was published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Past studies looking at the link between mercury and ADHD – a condition estimated to affect up to 5% of school-aged children – have produced conflicting results.
Most children are diagnosed between the ages of three to seven, with boys more commonly affected.
Many people with ADHD also have learning difficulties and sleep disorders.
For the new study, the researchers followed 788 children born in Massachusetts between 1993 and 1998.
They used hair samples taken from the mothers after delivery to test their mercury levels, and food diaries to see how much fish they had eaten.
Then, once the children were about eight years old, the researchers asked their teachers to evaluate the children’s behavior to see how many exhibited ADHD-like symptoms.
After taking all of the information into account, the researchers found that one microgram of mercury per gram of a mother’s hair – about eight times the average levels found in similar women’s hair in another analysis – was linked to a 60% increase in the risk of their child exhibiting ADHD-like behaviors.
But there was no link below one microgram of mercury per gram of a mother’s hair.
The children appeared to be 60% less likely to exhibit impulsive or hyperactive behaviors if their mothers had eaten two or more servings of fish per week.
Police were called after Lindsay Lohan got into a “violent fight” with her mother Dina in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
According to TMZ, law enforcement officers arrived at Dina Lohan’s Long Island home after receiving a complaint alleging that Lindsay was “being held against her will by Dina and her driver”.
Lindsay Lohan is alleged to have “sustained a cut on her leg” in the scuffle which happened after mother and daughter went to a nightclub together in New York City.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, and Dina, 50, left at 4:00 a.m. and “began arguing in the car”, before the row escalated and “became physical”.
TMZ also report that a bracelet belonging to Lindsay Lohan was broken and “some property damage” occurred in the fallout.
The 911 call was treated as a “domestic violence” call by police, who took a Domestic Incident Report but made no arrests.
Police were called after Lindsay Lohan got into a “violent fight” with her mother Dina
According to the New York Post, the 911 call drew a “small army” of police to the house around 8:15 a.m.
Witness John Scalesi told the newspaper: “She [Lindsay] was yelling <<I’ve had enough of this!>>”
Nassau police Inspector Kenneth Lack told the newspaper: “It was just a verbal dispute in the vehicle. It was an argument between Lindsay Lohan and her mother Dina.
“Lindsay called her father and her father called police.”
Michael Lohan confirmed to the newspaper that Lindsay and Dina had been arguing in the car, but added: “It was a hell of a lot more than that.”
A photograph was taken earlier in the evening showing Lindsay Lohan in good spirits while posing with a random clubgoer at Electric Room, nightclub.
Lindsay Lohan, who appeared happy in relaxed in New York at the weekend, has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, despite trying to put her career back on track with Lifetime biopic Liz & Dick.
Most recently, she accused a fellow partygoer at a Manhattan nightclub of assaulting her after a late night out.
Dina Lohan has not managed to escape controversy herself, recently appearing on psychologist Dr. Phil’s TV show, where she slurred her words and appeared agitated.
She even flipped her middle finger at the TV host after he became frustrated with her seeming inability to answer his questions directly.
Dina Lohan strongly denied the accusations, telling TMZ: “I don’t care what it looks like. I’m fine and I don’t care what anyone says.”
June Shannon has hired a 24-hour bodyguard to protect her youngest daughter, Honey Boo Boo.
The security measure is believed to be in response to an alleged plot to abduct seven-year-old reality star Alana Thompson.
While the network behind the hit show, TLC, has denied any suggestions of a kidnap plot, June Shannon, confirmed the full-time protection via Facebook.
June Shannnon wrote: “Alana doesn’t go anywhere without her bodyguard! We have one 24/7 everywhere we go ALL the time!”
According to The National Enquirer, Honey Boo Boo’s school received abduction threats from an anonymous caller.
June Shannon has hired a 24-hour bodyguard to protect Honey Boo Boo
A source told the tabloid: “June is terrified. With the threats on Alana’s safety increasing, security is being provided for her around the clock.
“There was a meeting with all the teachers at Alana’s school. They have been instructed to keep an eye on Alana, and they know to report anything suspicious immediately.”
An attempted break-in at the Honey Boo Boo household in rural McIntyre, Georgia on August 27 is also believed to have triggered concerns over their safety.
The source added that police told the clan it “may have been casing the place for a future kidnap attempt, by someone convinced that TLC would pay a huge ransom for their newest little star”.
Despite Here Comes Honey Boo Boo reality show attracting huge ratings since airing on August 8, the family has remained in the same neighborhood.
The National Enquirer reveals that the family has thought “about moving, but the problem is that TLC has them locked under contract to keep their lifestyle”.
However, TMZ previously reported that the network wanted to help the stars relocate to a larger and more secure home, but June Shannon declined the offer.
It also described that TLC boosted the family’s wage from approximately $5,000 per episode, to a sky-high $20,000 after seeing the success of the series.
President Barack Obama has enjoyed a surge in Facebook “likes”, thanks to a co-ordinated social media campaign.
His team paid for “Sponsored Stories” to appear in some users’ Facebook news feeds – regardless of whether they wanted to receive them.
President Barack Obama’s page received more than one million “likes” in a single day – compared with about 30,000 per day in earlier weeks.
But some observers warned the approach could frustrate and dissuade voters.
It comes at a time when both President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney are stepping up their efforts on social media.
The opponents each have a presence on a host of digital communities, including streaming music service Spotify, image-sharing network Pinterest and the Facebook-owned picture network Instagram – where Mitt Romney has been busy posting pictures of himself at home with his family.
But users were quick to voice their annoyance as President Barack Obama campaign advertisements and messages appeared within Facebook news feeds.
“Why is Barack Obama on my Facebook newsfeed?” wrote a young female user from Illinois.
“I’m getting really sick of those Obama ads sponsored on my Facebook page,” wrote another.
Barack Obama has enjoyed a surge in Facebook “likes”, thanks to a co-ordinated social media campaign
One user, in a message directed at President Barack Obama’s Twitter account, demanded: “Quit trying to promote yourself on my Facebook and Twitter feeds. I never <<liked>> or <<followed>> you.”
Dr. Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon, from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), said that this kind of campaigning was part of a transition period – which Facebook users may take some time to get used to.
“Before there were physical spaces where people discussed politics – the public sphere has been reconfigured,” she said.
The growth comes as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney look to ramp up their use of digital and social media ahead of November’s vote.
In 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was praised for its innovative use of social media to engage young, often first-time, voters.
This time around, the efforts have been stepped up a notch. Both candidates have invested in getting good placement on both Facebook and Twitter – with campaign teams placing ads that appear whenever a certain word, such as “debate”, is searched for by a user.
President Barack Obama took to answering questions on popular link listings site Reddit – a move that went down well with the site’s clientele but was dismissed as a quick-win publicity stunt by his detractors.
The president has even had his team place adverts within video games. The top-selling American Football title – EA’s Madden NFL 13 – had images advertising President Barack Obama’s website, voteforchange.com.
Other EA titles – including the classic Tetris – were also used to promote Obama’s campaign.
Mitt Romney’s campaign team told American broadcaster NPR they too had used video games for advertising.
Both campaigns would have hoped that swamping the digital world with their “message” was a surefire election hit. However, research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania suggested a different picture.
Of 1,503 internet-using American adults surveyed by the university’s school of communications, 86% said they did not want to receive political messages tailored for them, and 70% said seeing ads from a candidate they already supported would in fact decrease their chance of voting for them.
“The findings represent a national statement of concern,” said Prof. Joseph Turow, lead researcher on the study.
“We have a major attitudinal tug of war – the public’s emphatic and broad rejection of tailored political ads pulling against political campaigns’ growing adoption of tailored political advertising without disclosing when they are using individuals’ information and how.
“Our survey shows that in the face of these activities, Americans themselves want information.”
Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon said that politicians – and indeed anyone using social media to advertise – must be wary of a “red line” that should not be crossed when dealing with worries of intruding into people’s private digital lives.
She recounted an incident in 2004 when Italy’s then-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s office sent out text messages reminding people to vote in upcoming elections – causing a political row in the process.
“Receiving a text message on your mobile was a way more serious transgression of your private sphere than seeing a sponsored ad on Facebook,” she said.
Sponsored story spat
President Barack Obama’s campaign team used Facebook’s Sponsored Stories function to place their paid-for messages.
However one lawsuit, which the social network has been fighting since 2011, said the feature was violating Californian law by publicizing users’ “likes” without compensation or a way to opt-out.
Facebook’s proposed settlement in the case amounts to $20 million and would allow for individual users covered by the ruling to claim up to $10 each in compensation from the company.
The proposed settlement also outlines new ways of making it easier for children on Facebook to opt-out of the Sponsored Stories feature.
A Moscow court has freed Yekaterina Samutsevich, one of the convicted women from the punk band Pussy Riot, but upheld two-year jail terms for the other two.
There were cheers in court when the two-year jail term of Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was suspended.
Earlier the trio spoke defiantly at the appeal hearing, saying their protest song was political and not anti-Church.
In August they were jailed for staging an anti-Kremlin protest in Moscow’s main cathedral, Christ the Saviour.
Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”.
Their imprisonment sparked widespread international condemnation.
The judges on Wednesday accepted the argument of Yekaterina Samutsevich’s lawyer – that she had been thrown out of the cathedral by guards before she could remove her guitar from its case for the band’s “punk prayer”.
The other band members cheered and hugged Yekaterina Samutsevich when the decision was read out.
The two-year jail term of Yekaterina Samutsevich was suspended
One of the defence lawyers, Mark Feigin, said “we’re glad that Yekaterina Samutsevich has been freed, but we think the other two girls should also be released”. The appeal process would continue, he said.
Yekaterina Samutsevich’s father reacted with the words: “What happiness! But what a shame about the other girls – they don’t deserve such a harsh punishment.”
Earlier Maria Alyokhina told the hearing: “We’re all innocent… the verdict should be overturned. The Russian justice system looks discredited.”
Maria Alyokhina said that “of course we didn’t want to offend worshippers” when they protested at the cathedral’s altar.
She said the trio’s apologies had been ignored, but repentance was out of the question.
“For us to repent – that’s unacceptable, it’s a kind of blackmail,” she said, adding that repentance was a personal matter, unconnected with a legal case.
She added she had “lost hope in this trial”.
The three women sat in a glass cage in court, facing a three-judge panel.
The band performed an obscenity-laced song at the Moscow cathedral on 21 February.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova told the court “it’s as clear as daylight that this was a political act, not anti-religious… I ask you to quash this sentence”.
Maria Alyokhina warned that if they were sent to a penal colony for two years “we won’t stay silent – even in Mordovia, or Siberia – however uncomfortable that is for you”.
Their “punk prayer” – which implored the Virgin Mary to “throw out” President Vladimir Putin and sought, the band said, to highlight the Russian Orthodox Church leader’s support for the president – enraged the Church.
But while the Church hierarchy said the women’s action “cannot be left unpunished”, it added that any penitence shown should be taken into consideration.
Those comments followed a suggestion from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that a suspended sentence would have been sufficient punishment.
But Vladimir Putin last week defended the sentence, speaking on Russian NTV television.
“It’s right that they were arrested, it’s right that the court took that decision, because you can’t undermine the foundations of morality, our moral values, destroy the country. What would we be left with then?” Vladimir Putin said.
Opinion polls in Russia suggest a majority backing the sentence against Pussy Riot. One poll found 43% of respondents considered the sentence too lenient.
On Wednesday the judge rejected two motions from defence lawyers to call in experts for their opinions and more witnesses from the cathedral. The defendants’ plea to hold a fresh psychological and linguistic evaluation of their protest song was also rejected.
