Twitter, NBC Form Partnership

By SHIRA OVIDE

As athletes parade into London's Olympic Stadium this Friday, Twitter Inc.'s Olympic hopes will play out in a spartan office in Boulder, Colo.

Twitter and NBC are forming a partnership for the Olympics, as the microblogging site hopes to use the Games as a way to build its following and prove itself as a money-making, sustainable business. Shara Tibken reports on digits. Photo: Getty Images.

There, a handful of people will spend 20 hours a day to help corral millions of Twitter messages from Olympic athletes, their families, fans and NBC television personalities into a single page on Twitter.com.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The London Eye Ferris wheel will light up each night based on tweets.

Twitter's Olympics hub, part of a partnership between the San Francisco company and Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal that will be announced as early as Monday, is one of the first times Twitter will serve as an official narrator for a live event. NBC will tout the website with on-air promotions and links to athlete interviews or video clips.

With the partnership, Twitter hopes to use the Olympics as a launch pad into a more sustainable business. Twitter, which allows people to post 140-character messages called tweets, has built up more than 140 million monthly users and has become a go-to resource for people to find news or to gab about "American Idol."

But executives want the six-year-old service to find a larger audience, especially amid doubts about Twitter's ability to become a serious money maker.

Research firm eMarketer Inc. estimates Twitter will generate $259.9 million from advertising this year?far less than Facebook Inc.'s $3.15 billion in 2011 revenue. Wider adoption can help Twitter expand its ad business, justify its $8.4 billion valuation and eventually pave the way for an initial public offering.

As a result, Twitter's Olympics bet is crucial. "This is a way for new users to sample Twitter," said Chloe Sladden, Twitter's vice president of media.

NBC said no money is changing hands in its Twitter partnership and that it won't share in revenue from ads that Twitter is selling to Olympics sponsors for its Games website. Brands such as General Electric Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. already have bought ads on Twitter to promote their association with the Olympics.

Tweet Peaks

A look at select peak moments for Twitter messages, or tweets.

Reuters

Michael Jackson's death, June 2009: 493 tweets per second

The White House/Getty Images

Announcement of the killing of Osama bin Laden, May 2011: 5,106 tweets per second.

Associated Press

Super Bowl, February 2012: 12,230 tweets per second

Twitter declined to comment on the money it hopes to generate from the Games. P&G didn't return a request for comment. GE said it expects "the 2012 Games to be a pinnacle of social activity."

"There's no way of knowing exactly how much advertisers will spend on Twitter during the Olympics, but there is no doubt they will be jockeying for ad space during some of the key events of the Games, when traffic on Twitter will explode," eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.

Twitter has prepared for the Games for months. The company has hosted dozens of sessions with athletes and national sports associations to pitch them on using its service. Twitter has courted companies to buy ads on Twitter to spread their Olympics marketing messages. The International Olympic Committee said well over 1,000 current and former Olympians are using Twitter or Facebook for the Games.

Advertisers said Twitter has pushed itself to them as an effective marketing vehicle. Athletes and Olympics organizations said that ever since the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, there has been an explosion of athletes embracing Twitter to talk to fans and occasionally trash talk to rivals.

During the Games, Twitter will use its Olympics events page to highlight insiders' views, and to encourage people to watch NBC's on-air and online coverage. Twitter will embed its own staffer with NBC's social media team in London to ensure fresh news, interviews and links to TV highlights will show up on Twitter. The Olympics "hashtag"?a way for Twitter to organize tweets about a single topic?will pop up on screen during television coverage, NBC said.

Twitter will be visible offline as well, not just on TV or online. The London Eye, a giant Ferris wheel dominating the skyline, will light up each night based on the sentiment of Olympic tweets, although Twitter said that isn't part of its campaign.

Some research shows social media is fueling viewership of live TV, as people want to interact over Kobe Bryant's dunk or Angelina Jolie's Oscar dress. Social-media analysis firm Trendrr said Twitter accounted for an average of three quarters of the "social activity" around broadcast TV programs in the first quarter of this year, vs. 16% for Facebook. For sports or other major televised events, Trendrr found Twitter has a near-lock on digital conversations.

Twitter believes the Olympics partnership with NBC is a chance to cement that status. It means "Twitter is really where the party is," Ms. Sladden said.

Facebook, which has a similar events page launched in conjunction with NBC, isn't selling ads there tied to the Olympics. Facebook declined to comment.

It is unclear if the interests of Twitter and NBC will always align during the Games. NBC plans to contain highlight clips and other Olympics video on its own websites and mobile applications, which won't necessarily appear on other digital services. Twitter also may tread on NBC's turf by essentially programming the Olympics on its events page.

Twitter and NBC said they aren't in competition. NBC's Olympics president, Gary Zenkel, said Olympics coverage anywhere helps NBC by stoking viewer interest.

"We're quite aware of and comfortable with the fact that [Twitter] is a place where news will surface, and in some cases the news will be made," said Mr. Zenkel. "At the end of the day, the only place you can watch the Olympics?which is what people crave?is NBC."

Meanwhile, Ms. Sladden said she would be in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters during the Games, closely watching the coverage. "I'll be consuming tweets and tweeting?and maybe trying to get some work done," Ms. Sladden said.

Write to Shira Ovide at shira.ovide@wsj.com

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444025204577543313839816248.html?mod=rss_Technology

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Ghana's President Atta Mills died at age 68

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) ? President John Atta Mills vowed to help spread the wealth from Ghana's newly discovered offshore oil fields, though his death Tuesday came before the 68-year-old could even finish his first term in this West African nation long held up as a model of democracy.

Ghanaian state-run television stations GTV and TV3 broke into their regular programming to announce the president's death, which comes three days after his 68th birthday.

Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman told the nation that Atta Mills had died Tuesday afternoon at the 37th Military Hospital in Accra but gave no details about the cause.

"It is with a heavy heart and deep sorrow that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the Republic of Ghana," Newman said.

Information Minister Fritz Baffour later confirmed that Atta Mills had died but also declined to comment further.

Louis Agbo, a university student in Accra, said the television stations interrupted regular programming to announce Atta Mills' death and he was shocked by the news.

"I could not even shout or cry," Agbo said. "I rushed outside and saw people crying and wailing on the street."

The nation stood by for a speech by Vice President John Mahama, who will become president under the nation's laws.

Chris Fomunyoh, the senior director for Africa for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, said that Ghana's democracy could weather the death of a president.

In other nations in West Africa, the death of a ruler usually spells a coup, as it did in neighboring Guinea following the 2008 death of longtime dictator Lansana Conte, and Togo, where the military seized power after the president's death in 2005 in order to install the leader's son.

"Ghanaian democracy has been tested and its institutions function well," said Fomunyoh. "There's no reason to think that Ghana and its democracy will not handle this event properly."

Ghana, whose economy has been fueled by gold, cocoa and timber exports in the past, hopes to put its oil money to good use, mindful of how nearby Nigeria suffered through military dictatorships and widespread corruption over its oil wealth.

Atta Mills was elected in a 2008 runoff vote ? his third presidential bid ? after campaigning on a platform of change, arguing that the country's growth had not been felt in people's wallets.

"People are complaining. They're saying that their standard of living has deteriorated these past eight years," he told The Associated Press in 2008. "So if Ghana is a model of growth, it's not translating into something people can feel."

Atta Mills even put up campaign posters of himself standing next to a cutout of U.S. President Barack Obama in an effort to emphasize that he too stood for change.

Atta Mills had traveled to the United States in March where he met with Obama. The Ghanaian leader also traveled to the U.S. in April as well, as rumors about his health began to circulate Ghana. Opposition newspapers had recently reported that he was not well enough to run for a second term.

A government official in neighboring Ivory Coast said that he saw Atta Mills around six months ago in Ethiopia during an African Union meeting.

"We are hearing that he died of cancer of the throat. I saw him in Addis Ababa ? not this meeting, but the one maybe six months ago," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. "He was walking slowly. I am surprised to learn that he is only 68. He looked much older."

Still, the official said no one suspected he was gravely ill. "Yes, his death is a surprise ? it's six months before the election, and he was a candidate."

Atta Mills won the 2008 second round ballot capturing a razor-thin victory with 50.23 percent of the vote ? or 4,521,032 ballots. His opponent, Nana Akufo-Addo, garnered 49.77 percent ? or 4,480,446 votes.

Atta Mills also served as vice president under Jerry Rawlings, a coup leader who was later elected president by popular vote and surprised the world by stepping down after losing the 2000 election.

Atta Mills spent much of his career teaching at the University of Ghana. He earned a doctorate from London's School of Oriental and African Studies before becoming a Fulbright scholar at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

___

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Sammy Ajei and Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria; Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal; and Laura Burke in Cape Coast, Ghana contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ghanas-president-atta-mills-died-age-68-173016672.html

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Audit says Bin Hammam enriched himself

FILE - A Tuesday, May 10, 2011 photo from files shows Mohamed bin Hammam, chief of the Asian Football Confederation, as he talks to local media in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam has won his case against a life ban from football for allegedly bribing voters during his challenge to Sepp Blatter. However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport says its panel upheld bin Hammam's appeal because of lack of evidence _ and was not convinced he is innocent of corruption. Still, the CAS ruling overturns FIFA verdicts which had exiled the 63-year-old Qatari. (AP Photo/Shirley Bahadur, File)

FILE - A Tuesday, May 10, 2011 photo from files shows Mohamed bin Hammam, chief of the Asian Football Confederation, as he talks to local media in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam has won his case against a life ban from football for allegedly bribing voters during his challenge to Sepp Blatter. However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport says its panel upheld bin Hammam's appeal because of lack of evidence _ and was not convinced he is innocent of corruption. Still, the CAS ruling overturns FIFA verdicts which had exiled the 63-year-old Qatari. (AP Photo/Shirley Bahadur, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? The man in charge of Asian soccer, once a candidate to oust FIFA President Sepp Blatter as the sport's leader, enriched himself and handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars to friends and relatives, according to an audit obtained by The Associated Press.

Mohamed bin Hammam, a 63-year-old Qatari whose life ban from soccer was overturned in a sports court this week, is accused of using the Asian Football Confederation bank accounts to conduct his private affairs.

The audit was prepared by the international accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and dated July 13. A copy of the report was obtained by the AP. Its contents were confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of the report who spoke on condition of anonymity because it hasn't been made public.

The report offered rare details of the usually secretive accounts of not-for-profit football bodies handling hundreds of millions of dollars. And it portrayed a man who was running Asian soccer like a family business, negotiating contracts on his own and mingling his personal and AFC bank accounts.

The audit was especially critical of bin Hammam's use of AFC accounts for personal expenses, although there was no evidence of direct payments to bin Hammam.

"It is highly unusual for funds (especially in the amounts detailed here) that appear to be for the benefit of Mr. Hammam personally, to be deposited to an organization's bank account," the audit said.

He received millions of dollars from individuals linked to AFC contracts, according to the audit, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on items like a honeymoon for his son and dental work, haircuts and cash payments for his family.

It found he spent $700,000 from AFC coffers on himself and his family, including $100,000 for his wife, $10,000 on a Bulgari watch for himself and nearly $5,000 for his daughter's cosmetic dentistry.

Payments were also made to Asian, African and Caribbean soccer officials, including $250,000 to Jack Warner, the longtime strongman of Caribbean soccer.

"The arrangement with Mr Hammam's use of the sundry debtors account is, in our view, highly unusual and reflects poor governance," the audit said. "This use by Mr Hammam of the sundry debtors account continued even after the external auditor's recommended that it be stopped. Our review indicates that it was common belief that this account was for Mr Hammam personally and all funds flowing through it were his personal monies.

"We question why Mr Hammam would conduct his personal financial transactions through the AFC's bank accounts when the documents we have seen indicate that he already has several personal bank accounts in various countries," the audit said.

The Asian governing body, which he has led since 2002 was advised to seek "legal advice in respect of ... whether the actions of Mr. Hammam, and other parties identified in this report, constitute criminal and/or civil breaches." Bin Hammam was suspended for 30 days by the AFC following receipt of the report last week.

Bin Hammam was not available for comment. His U.S. lawyer said the allegations were a FIFA tactic to block his return to world soccer.

"If there were ever any question about the political motives behind FIFA's vendetta against Mr. Bin Hammam, it has been answered by the outrageous and baseless new charges that FIFA and AFC are bringing against him," lawyer Eugene Gulland said in a statement.

The audit found that a contract for commercial rights with World Sports Group and its subsidiary World Sports Football were no-bid contracts that were "considerably undervalued." A $14 million payment from companies with stakes in WSG, Al Baraka Investment and Development Co. and International Sports Events Company, was made to the AFC for the "personal use of its president," the report said.

Bin Hammam also approved several lucrative, no-bid contracts for commercial rights, including one for Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera Satellite Network.

The audit said its review of the AFC accounts found that it routinely handed out tens of thousands of dollars in cash to federation presidents and their relatives. Most of it went to their personal bank accounts and none of it was for soccer-related expenses, it said.

Gaurav Thapa, whose father heads the Nepalese federation, received $100,000 while Filipino soccer official Jose Mari Martinez received $60,000 and had $11,226 in hospital expenses paid. Another $50,000 went to East Timorese soccer official Francisco Kalbuadi Lay, the audit found.

Another $25,000 went for tuition expenses for a Bangladesh soccer federation spokesman and $20,000 to cover the cost of cancer treatment for the federation's general secretary.

Also, nearly $2,000 was spent by Bin Hammam to buy 14 shirts for Blatter and nearly $5,000 went toward the purchase of suits for Issa Hayatou, the CAF president.

The acting head of the AFC called for an end to spending abuses.

"I think this development also makes one thing very clear to all of us ? there is no place for unethical practices anymore in AFC," Zhang Jilong said in his opening address Thursday to an executive committee meeting. "I ask this (committee) to prevent any abuse of power and misuse of privileges by any office bearer."

__

Dunbar contributed to this report from Switzerland.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects amount of hospital expenses.)

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-07-20-SOC-Asian-Soccer-Audit/id-59cbeb2ae4a747fab7451998c5ab075e

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Some of the deadliest mass shootings around world

Some of world's worst mass shootings:

__ July 20, 2012: At least 12 people are killed when a gunman enters an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, releases a canister of gas and then opens fire during opening night of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."

? July 22, 2011: At least 80 people are killed at a summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya. A man arrested also is suspected in a blast earlier the same day in downtown Oslo that killed seven. Anders Behring Breivik, 33, has admitted to carrying out both attacks. He awaits sentencing on Aug. 24.

? Nov. 5, 2009: Thirteen soldiers and civilians were killed and more than two dozen wounded when a gunman walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Texas, and opened fire. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

? April 30, 2009: Farda Gadyrov, 29, enters the prestigious Azerbaijan State Oil Academy in the capital, Baku, armed with an automatic pistol and clips. He kills 12 people before killing himself as police close in.

? March 10, 2009: Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people ? including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's deputy ? across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

? Sept. 23, 2008: Matti Saari, 22, walks into a vocational college in Kauhajoki, Finland, and opens fire, killing 10 people and burning their bodies with firebombs before shooting himself fatally in the head.

? Nov. 7, 2007: After revealing plans for his attack in YouTube postings, 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen fires kills eight people at his high school in Tuusula, Finland.

? April 16, 2007: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, kills 32 people and himself on Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va.

? April 26, 2002: Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, who had been expelled from school in Erfurt, Germany, kills 13 teachers, two former classmates and policeman, before committing suicide.

? April 20, 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves in the school's library.

? April 28, 1996: Martin Bryant, 29, bursts into cafeteria in seaside resort of Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia, shooting 20 people to death. Driving away, he kills 15 others. He was captured and imprisoned.

? March 13, 1996: Thomas Hamilton, 43, kills 16 kindergarten children and their teacher in elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and then kills himself.

? Oct. 16, 1991: A deadly shooting rampage took place in Killeen, Texas, as George Hennard opened fire at a Luby's Cafeteria, killing 23 people before taking his own life. 20 others were wounded in the attack.

? June 18, 1990: James Edward Pough shoots people at random in a General Motors Acceptance Corp. office in Jacksonville, Fla., killing 10 and wounding four, before killing himself.

? Dec. 6, 1989: Marc Lepine, 25, bursts into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college, shooting at women he encounters, killing nine and then himself.

? Aug. 19, 1987: Michael Ryan, 27, kills 16 people in small market town of Hungerford, England, and then shoots himself dead after being cornered by police.

? July 12, 1976: Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian in the library of California State University, Fullerton, fatally shot seven fellow employees and wounded two others.

? Aug. 20, 1986: Pat Sherrill, 44, a postal worker who was about to be fired, shoots 14 people at a post office in Edmond, Okla. He then kills himself.

? July 18, 1984: James Oliver Huberty, an out-of-work security guard, kills 21 people in a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif. A police sharpshooter kills Huberty.

? Aug. 1, 1966: Charles Whitman opened fire from the clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin, killing 16 people and wounding 31.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-20-Mass%20Shootings-Glance/id-6a4d6c9158bd4a449f06ece80c476cc3

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Instagram's first photo was of this puppy

12 hrs.

Helen A.S. Popkin

From an old-timey looking?picture of a puppy to a $1 billion buyout by Facebook, Instagram's come a long way from its first photo upload on July 16, 2010. The free photo-sharing program, originally called Codename, when public three months later, in October, recalls an Instagram blog post commemorating the anniversary.?

Now, "1 year and 9 months later, over 50 million people have shared more than 1 billion photos on Instagram," the post continues. "We?re humbled by the amazing photos shared every day on Instagram and the incredible community that?s formed around the application."?

That's a lot of pictures of food people are fixing to eat, along with everything else we now upload, with a vintage feel.?

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job? on? Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

Source: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/instagrams-first-photo-was-puppy-889450

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Thousands Protest Nuclear Power in Japan (Voice Of America)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Late wrestling coach Joseph Gicobbe leaves long legacy

Back in the 1980s, the wrestlers of North Miami High School squeezed into Joseph Gicobbe?s office at lunchtime. They didn?t visit for drills or discipline from their coach, but wanted to spend time with a man who never put them down.

?He had nicknames for half the guys on the team,? said Juan Reyneri, Gicobbe?s assistant coach in the 1994-95 season. ?All the guys just loved coming to practice. They loved wrestling for him. I?ve seen coaches, who have yelled and cursed and berated and belittled their wrestlers. Joe was not like that. Joe expected a lot from his wrestlers, demanded a lot from his wrestlers, and he was able to get the very best out of of them.?

Gicobbe passed away in the final days of June at age 58, leaving behind a long legacy of wrestling excellence.

He wrestled at North Miami and UCF and then returned to coach at his Miami alma mater from the early 1980s through 1998. He then moved to North Miami Beach High School until he put down the clipboard in 2007. Gicobbe became an official until a heart attack in 2010 forced him to stop.

He was inducted into the Florida Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005.

Gicobbe loved to read novels, had a great laugh and was always telling jokes. They weren?t always funny Reyneri said, but that never stopped Gicobee.

Rick Tucci, head of officials for USA Wrestling, knew Gicobbe for more than 30 years. Tucci said they went for chicken wings after matches and Gicobbe was always telling him about new Italian restaurants he found since they shared the heritage.

?If you didn?t know him you?d think he was tough,? Tucci said. ?He was always bam, bam, bam, let?s go, let?s go. Once he started he wanted to finish it. That?s the way he was.?

Tucci added that even while Gicobbe was in hospice, he held strong to optimism. He never acknowledged his sickness.

?At the funeral so many of his former wrestlers were there,? Reyneri said. ?A number of them spoke and there was this recurring theme that this was a great guy who inspired me and made a positive difference in my life, helped to shape me into the man that I am today.?

Steven Montero

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/14/2894853/late-wrestling-coach-joseph-gicobbe.html

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