Malians express dismay at intervention timeframe

Malians living under the grip of al-Qaida-linked militants expressed dismay Friday that it could be nearly a year before a regional military intervention to oust the Islamists from power.
The U.N.'s most powerful body on Thursday authorized an African-led force but made no mention of size and set no timeline for military action.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said recently he does not expect a military operation to begin until September or October of next year.
"We want rapid military action to liberate our cities," said Alphadi Cisse, who lives in Timbuktu. "There is no school, there is no work and no money. We are fed up with this situation."
The mayor of Timbuktu, which is controlled by the Islamist group Ansar Dine, has described conditions there as "a living hell." The al-Qaida-linked militants have imposed their version of strict Islamic law known as Shariah.
They have stoned to death a couple accused of adultery, hacked off the hands of thieves and have recruited children as young as 12 into their ranks. Heavily armed men also have attacked bars that sell alcohol, and banned men and women from socializing in the streets.
The turmoil has decimated the economy of Timbuktu, once a thriving tourist town.
Thursday's resolution adopted unanimously by the U.N. Security Council welcomes troop contributions pledged by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS and calls on member states, including from the neighboring Sahel region, to contribute troops to the mission.
Council diplomats say the best-trained African troops in desert warfare are from Chad, Mauritania and Niger.
The resolution stressed that there must be a two-track plan — political and military — to reunify the country, which has been in turmoil since a coup in March. Islamist groups were able to take hold of northern Mali, an area the size of Texas, after the March coup created a power vacuum.
Coup members created new political turmoil earlier this month when they arrested the country's prime minister and forced him to resign — a move that raised new concerns about the ability of the Malian military help regain control of the north.
The U.N. resolution also emphasizes that further military planning is needed before a force could be sent and it asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to "confirm in advance the council's satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation."
France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters Thursday that it's premature to say when the military operation will take place because African and Malian troops must be trained and much depends on the political process and the country's extreme weather.
Northerners in Mali say the longer the world waits, the more entrenched the militants are becoming.
Hamadada Toure, a teacher from the city of Gao, urged the international community to follow through swiftly on its pledges to help free the north.
"If the resolution is not acted upon to chase the Islamists out of towns, all the comings and goings of diplomats and the mobilization of the international community are a bluff," he said from southern Mali where he sought refuge earlier this year.

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Talks adjourn between Congo government and rebels

Uganda's defense minister says that talks between the Congolese government and the M23 rebels are being put on hold for two weeks.
Crispus Kiyonda said Friday that the talks will resume on Jan. 4.
Critics say the talks, which began earlier this month, have failed to make much progress as tensions deepen in eastern Congo.
Uganda's defense minister, though, said progress had been made toward finalizing procedural rules and the agenda for the talks.
He also said he would continue to consult with both sides by phone until negotiations resume next month.
The rebels accuse Congo's government of failing to honor the terms of a 2009 peace deal that incorporated them into the national army. Rwanda is believed to be backing the rebels, a charge its government denies.

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Sierra Leone diamond strike ends after 2 killed

 Officials say a deadly strike at a Sierra Leone diamond mine is now over.
Two people were killed in the violence at the mine in Koidu in eastern Sierra Leone, where workers went on strike over bonuses and work conditions.
Government officials condemned the violence, saying people also beat up miners who tried to work during the strike.
OCTEA diamond mining company spokesman Ibrahim Kamara said Friday that the company is increasing the year-end salary bonus for workers from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Sierra Leone's diamond wealth fueled a decade-long civil war that ended in 2002. Despite the West African country's mineral wealth, it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, where some 60 percent of people get by on $1.25 a day.

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Kenya Red Cross: 39 people killed in clashes

At least 39 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern Kenya early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, a police official said.
Thirteen children, six women, 11 men and nine attackers were killed said police official Anthony Kamitu.
Forty-five houses were set on fire during the attack, Kenya Red Cross spokeswoman Nelly Muluka said.
Kamitu who is leading police operations to prevent attacks in the region, said that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the semi-nomadic Orma herding community at dawn in the Tana River Delta. He said the raiders were armed with spears and AK-47 rifles.
At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in August and September.
The tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said late August. However, on the surface the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture and other resources, he said.
Dhadho Godana, a member of parliament from the region and Defense Minister Yusuf Hajji have been accusing each other of involvement in the fighting. The two have testified before a commission of inquiry led by a High Court judge investigating the clashes
Political tensions and tribal animosities have increased due to competition among potential candidates in the March election.
Violence after Kenya's last general election, in late 2007, killed more than 1,000 people. Officials are working to avoid a repeat during March's presidential election, but episodes of violence around the country are raising fears that pockets of the country will see violence during the voting period.
The Tana River area is about 430 miles (690 kilometers) from the capital, Nairobi.
The utilization of the Tana River water has been at the middle of a conflict pitting the Pokomo against the Orma, according to research by the Institute of Security Studies in 2004, following clashes in the Tana River area in 2000 to 2002.
The Pokomo claim the land along the river and the Orma claim the waters of the river, said the research by Taya Weiss, titled "Guns in the Borderlands Reducing the Demand for Small Arms." At least 108 people died in the 2000-2002 clashes, according to the parliamentary record.
The longstanding conflict between the two tribes had previously resulted in relatively low casualties but the increased availability of guns has caused the casualties to escalate and more property to be destroyed, said the report.
It said a catalyst to the conflict was the collapse of three irrigation schemes at Bura, Hola, and Tana Delta, which influenced residents' lifestyles in terms of employment and sources of income.
"The collapse of these schemes forced the nomadic pastoralists to move during the wet season, while the farmers remained along the river. During the dry season the pastoralists move back to the river in search of water and pasture," it said.
The Tana River area has the characteristics of any other conflict-prone area in Kenya: underdevelopment, poor infrastructure, poor communication and social amenities, and social marginalization, according to the report.
"Communities are arming themselves because of the need to defend against perceived attacks," said the report. "They feel that the government security machinery has not been able to effectively respond to violence. Isolation has led to increased demand for guns.

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Liberian children pay tribute to Conn. victims

Twenty Liberian schoolchildren from a school sponsored by the Newtown Rotary Club in this West African nation on Friday gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia to give their condolences over the Connecticut school tragedy.
Each child from the Caroline Miller School in Monrovia deposited a flower on a poster bearing the name of a victim of the deadly shooting.
"Life is so sweet, and our friends wanted to live and enjoy it; but death could not permit them," said 10-year-old Frances Komoyan. "Their deaths were too sudden and unexpected; it could have been you or me; this is why we have come to say sorry."
The pupils arrived one after another calling the name of a child killed in the shooting and depositing a flower on a poster bearing the name of the deceased. They also presented to U.S. Embassy officials individual sympathy cards.
One card presented by a 9-year-old in memory of 6-year-old Benjamin Wheeler read: "Why this time, Lord? We are so sorry for the loss of lives."
Math and Science teacher Philemena Tolbert of the Caroline Miller school urged their families "to take heart; we share your pains."
"We have been very touched by the outpouring of support and sympathy that we have received from Liberians across the board," U.S. Ambassador Deborah Malac said.
In addition to sponsoring the Caroline Miller School, the Newtown Rotary Club helped to repatriate Liberian children from Ghana at the end of the 1989-2003 Liberian civil war, according to Robert Dolo, founder of an organization that has a partnership with the Rotary club.

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Nintendo’s amazing triumph in Japan may doom the company internationally

According to Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, Nintendo (NTDOY) 3DS sold 333,000 units in the week ending December 16, while Sony’s (SNE) PS Vita limped along at 13,000 units, the new Wii U did an okay 130,000 units and the PlayStation 3 managed to sell 46,000 units.  The utter hardware domination of the 3DS is reshaping the Japanese software market. Franchises that were thought to be fading have been revitalized in their portable versions. The 3DS version of the ancient Animal Crossing series, famed for being the game where nothing happens, hit a staggering 1.7 million units last week in Japan. Inazuma Eleven sold 170,000 units in its launch week, up from 140,000 units its DS version managed in 2011.
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Nintendo’s portable console 3DS had a muted start in its home market in the spring of 2011. Many thought that Sony would have a fair shot at competing with Nintendo once Playstation Vita launched at the end of 2011. But once Nintendo executed an aggressive price cut for 3DS in the summer of 2011 and then launched a large-screen version of the console in mid-2012, the gadget has grown into a Godzilla in Japan, demolishing both Sony Vita and aging tabletop console competition.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
3DS is doing well also in America, where its lifetime sales are moving close to the 6 million unit mark this holiday season. According to NPD, the 3DS sales in the United States topped 500,000 units in November. That’s a decent number, though far from the torrid volume the portable is racking up in its home market. The U.S. November video game software chart was dominated by massive home console juggernauts: new installments of Call of Duty, Halo and Assassin’s Creed franchises shifted more than 13 million units in retail. At the same time, the Japanese software chart remains in a ’90s time warp, dominated by Nintendo’s musty masterpieces: Super Mario Brothers, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, etc.
Japanese and American tastes have always been different. But what we are witnessing now is a particularly fascinating divergence. American consumers are spending more of their time and money on smartphone and tablet games, while console game spending is increasingly focusing on massive, graphically stunning blockbuster titles on Xbox360 and PS3. The casual gamers are shifting to mobile games, while hardcore gamers remain attracted to sprawling epics on home consoles. The overall video game spending in America keeps declining month after month, as casual titles and mid-list games slide. But the Triple A whales like the Call of Duty series are doing better than ever.
In Japan, Nintendo has been able to battle back iPhone and Android game invasion with a nostalgic series of portable games that basically recycle the biggest hits of ’80s and early ’90s. Mario, Pokemons and other portable heroes are slowly losing their grip on U.S. and European consumers. But in Japan, some form of national nostalgia is keeping Nintendo on track.
The problem here is that the Japanese success of the 3DS may now be convincing Nintendo that it does not have to reconsider its business strategy. The smartphone and tablet game spending continues growing explosively across the world. Unlike console games, mobile game sales in China are legal. The global gaming spending is shifting towards new hardware platforms even as console mammoths like Halo still reign in America. At this critical juncture, Nintendo has managed to cocoon its home market in a web of nostalgia, turning the 3DS console and its Eighties left-over franchises into epic bestsellers yet again.
This means that there is no sense of urgency to push Nintendo into rethinking its long-term plans. The company may continue simply ignoring the smartphone and tablet challenge, designing new portable consoles and the 28th Mario game to support it. Twenty years ago, Japan’s insularity doomed its chances to succeed in the mobile phone business. And now the idiosyncratic nature of Japan may be leading its biggest entertainment industry success astray.

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European Commission wades into global tech patents war

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU regulators are poised to accuse Samsung of breaking competition rules in filing patent lawsuits against rival Apple, in the EU's first formal challenge to the consumer electronic industry's patent wars.
"We will issue a statement of objections very soon," the European Union's competition chief Joaquin Almunia said on Thursday, referring to the Commission's charge sheet.
Technology companies are increasingly turning to the European Commission as the EU's competition authority, to resolve their disputes, with the EC also investigating Google and Microsoft.
Apple and Samsung, the world's top two smartphone makers, are locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win over customers with their latest gadgets.
The filing of competition objections is the latest step in the Commission's investigation. After notifying Samsung in writing the company will have a chance to reply and request a hearing before regulators.
If the Commission then concludes that the firm did violate the rules, it could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of the electronic firm's total annual turnover.
Other current cases under investigation by the EC involve Google-owned phone maker Motorola Mobility, Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft has also complained about Google while Google has complained about MOSAID, a so-called patent enforcement company which makes money by licensing the use of acquired patents.
PATENT WAR
Patent lawsuits can result in a competitor being barred from selling its products in a jurisdiction while the case in investigated and can yield huge fines.
In August Apple won a major victory in the smartphone patent war when a jury in a California federal court ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion in damages.
The court found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPad and iPhone. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.
On Tuesday, Samsung said it was dropping an attempt to stop the sale of some Apple products in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, though it did not say it would halt its court battle for compensation.
But Samsung has also had successes. U.S. patent authorities rejected Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" touch screen patent case in an initial ruling on Thursday, and Samsung also won a preliminary invalidation of Apple's "rubber-banding" patent in October.
That patent allows a user with a touch screen to bounce back to the image on the screen if the user goes beyond the edge.

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Acer will beat Google to market with its own $99 tablet

The Nexus 7 is still an amazing value at $249. But word around the block is that Google (GOOG) and ASUS (2357) are working on a $99 Nexus tablet. But now, per PhoneArena, it’s apparent that Acer (2353) is preparing to beat Google to the punch with a 7-inch Android 4.1 2Jelly Bean-powered tablet that will reportedly sell for $99. Naturally, a lower-priced tablet will come at the expense of less powerful specs. Acer’s Iconia B1 looks to have a Mediatek dual-core 1.2GHz processor, PowerVR SGX 531 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, microSD card and SIM card slot. For $99, its display also has a much lower resolution than the Nexus 7: 1024 x 600 pixels. The Iconia B1 has already cleared the Federal Communications Comission and will likely make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

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Arris rises on plans to buy Google's set-top unit

 Arris Group's stock rose to its highest level in more than five years on Thursday following news that it is buying Google's TV set-top business for $2.35 billion, which could be a transformative deal for the relatively small company.
But not everyone was upbeat about Arris' ability to benefit. One analyst cut his rating on the company, saying it may have paid too much.
THE SPARK: On Wednesday Google Inc. said it was selling the division, which it had swallowed up in its acquisition of Motorola Mobility earlier this year, to Arris in a cash-and-stock deal.
THE BIG PICTURE: The transaction gives Arris Group Inc., a provider of high-speed Internet equipment, an opportunity to become a bigger player in the delivery of video.
In the past year ending in September, Motorola's set-top operations generated $3.4 billion in revenue. That makes it twice as big as Arris, whose revenue totaled $1.3 billion during the same period.
If the deal wins regulatory approval, Arris expects to take over the division before the end of June.
THE ANALYSIS: Arris may have overpaid for the Motorola business, said Jefferies' James Kisner in a client note Thursday. He had anticipated a sale price between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, given his worries that the division's revenue will decline.
While he acknowledged that the deal could hold some benefits for Arris, such as providing a new, strong influx of cash from the business, Kisner said that buying the set-top business "dramatically tempers" Arris' growth rate.
Kisner cut Arris to "Hold" from "Buy" and reduced its price target to $14 from $17.
SHARE ACTION: Shares of Arris Group Inc. rose 47 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $15.01 in afternoon trading. The stock hit $15.90 earlier in the session, its highest point since July 2007.

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Competition hots up for 4G mobile phone airwaves

 Seven companies were named on Thursday as bidders for the superfast 4G mobile broadband radio frequencies to be auctioned off in Britain next month by industry regulatorOfcom.

Existing mobile network operators EE, Vodafone, O2 owner Telefonica and Hutchison, which is behind Three, will be vying with O2's former owner BT, managed networks firm MLL Telecom and Hong Kong's PCCW Limited, the regulator said.

EE, the UK's biggest mobile network operator, is a joint venture between France Telecom andDeutsche Telekom and has already launched 4G services in some major British cities by reallocating its existing airwaves.

Ofcom calculated that giving EE a head start this year would put an end to the networks seeking to delay the auction further in a squabble over who should be offered what spectrum and therefore give Britain a chance of catching up with the United States and other European countries in the deployment of superfast mobile networks.

"I think you'll find the UK's position in relative terms transformed very fast," said Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards.

The auction has been designed, he said, to deliver maximum benefit to consumers by getting mobile broadband networks built, which are capable of operating at five to seven times the speeds of 3G, while ensuring that operators pay the right amount of cash rather than the most possible to the government.

The sell-off of 3G airwaves in 2000 raised 22.5 billion pounds for state coffers, but left the operators saddled with debt, prompting complaints that they could not afford to invest in all the infrastructure needed to roll out new services.

"The backdrop to this is utterly different," Richards said. "When the 3G auction was done you were still at the height of the dotcom boom. We are in the so-called age of austerity now."

Earlier this month the government budgeted for a 3.5 billion-pound windfall from the auction next year, but Richards said that prediction had not come from Ofcom.

"The real economic benefit here is in the benefit to consumers and the economy from the deployment of these highly valuable services," he said. "If we were to calculate the estimated economic benefit of that it would massively dwarf the revenues from the auction."

Analysts at Espirito Santo said they were not surprised by the bidders, and they did not expect an overheated auction as was seen in the Netherlands, where 3.8 billion euros were raised in a 4G spectrum sale last week.

They noted that fixed line operator BT had previously said it only wanted to pick up niche amounts of spectrum to support its existing strategy and the other two potential new entrants were also likely to bid on a speculative or opportunistic basis.

"The way the auction is designed ... ought to allow the incumbent mobile network operators and niche players to pick up what they need without going head to head," they said.

"We remain comfortable with the 1 billion pounds ... we have pencilled in for each licence into our Vodafone, France Telecom/Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica models."

MLL Telecom said it was bidding to complement its existing spectrum allocation, and to increase the infrastructure it has available for its mobile operator customers. "We are not looking to supply a consumer or enterprise service," chief commercial officer Karl Edwards said.

SPECTRUM COMBINATIONS

Ofcom said a mix of 28 blocks of bandwidth were up for grabs this time, whereas only five licences were available for 3G.

Operators need to use a combination of different blocks to provide superfast coverage across the country, typically using 800 megahertz radio frequencies to serve rural areas and high-capacity 2.6 gigahertz frequencies for urban areas. The lower-frequency 800 MHz band was freed up when analogue terrestrial TV was switched off.

One portfolio of spectrum has been reserved for a fourth national operator, whether Three, which is the smallest operator today, or another, Richards said.

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