News 24 Hour: August 2013

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos buys Washington Post for $250m

The BBC's Michelle Fleury in New York: "They have turned to one of the innovators in the internet world"

The boss of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has agreed to purchase the Washington Post newspaper for $250m (£163m).

Mr Bezos is buying the paper and its other print properties in a personal capacity.

The Post has been owned by the Graham family for 80 years.

"Years of familiar newspaper-industry challenges made us wonder if there might be another owner who would be better for the Post," said Post chief executive, Donald Graham.

"Jeff Bezos' proven technology and business genius, his long-term approach and his personal decency make him a uniquely good new owner for the Post."

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We've all been broadsided by the acquisition”

Rebecca LiebIndustry Analyst, Altimeter Group

The Washington Post Company also owns Kaplan, a test preparation company, in addition to other properties. Those will stay under the ownership of the Grahams as part of a yet-unnamed entity.

The sale is expected to be completed in the next 60 days.

Declining circulation

The flagship paper, known for its coverage of the Watergate scandal, has suffered in recent years as the internet has hurt advertisement sales and it has struggled to adapt its print coverage to the web.

Analysis

Leo KelionTechnology reporter

Jeff Bezos's latest move helps expand his role as one of the most influential content creators in the United States.

Amazon's e-book publishing unit recently scored its first million-copy hit when sales of the Hangman's Daughter series crashed through the seven-figure mark. Last week, Amazon Studios announced five new video-on-demand programme pilots. Meanwhile, its new video games wing is currently advertising for more than a dozen posts.

The Washington Post is different though, as Mr Bezos will personally own the business outright and has said Amazon has no role in the purchase. He has written a memo to the Post's staff saying he will not lead the paper's day-to-day operations, but his note was striking for the emphasis he placed on its need to "invent" and "experiment". Business as usual is clearly not an option.

Industry watchers will also be interested to see how he plans to use his increased political influence. Amazon has recently found itself on the same side as the Justice Department in an e-book competition probe and the Senate in its bill to impose a sales tax on online retailers. How Mr Bezos will act when his interests do not align with government could prove telling.

The Post has been "declining in circulation especially among young readers," Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate told the BBC.

Nonetheless, he added: "I always thought this would be a newspaper that would be able to withstand the digital tide because of the name and the prestige. It is, next to the New York Times, the most prestigious paper in the country."

According to the Alliance for Audited Media, a newspaper auditing firm, the Washington Post was the seventh most popular daily newspaper in the US this year, with a total circulation of 474,767 - a 6.5% decline on last year.

In an open letter posted on the Washington Post's website, Mr Bezos said he would not be leading the paper on a day-to-day basis and sought to reassure nervous employees, but saying he would not seek to change "the values" of the paper.

However, he added: "There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years...The internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs."

Mr Bezos said he did not have a plan yet for what exactly he thought those changes would be.

Faded glory

The sale took many by surprise.

"We've all been broadsided by the acquisition. There are few things that come as a surprise any more but this one did," said Rebecca Lieb, an industry analyst at the Altimeter Group.

The Washington Post's circulation has declined markedly in recent years

"However, when you really start thinking about it, it makes sense - all because of digital," she said, citing Mr Bezos's experience with digital delivery and personalisation at Amazon.

In a filing with regulators, the company said, however, that Mr Bezos was not purchasing its other notable online properties: Slate magazine, TheRoot.com, and Foreign Policy.

This is the second sale of a major US newspaper in as many days.

Over the weekend, the New York Times announced it had sold another iconic newspaper, the Boston Globe, to John W. Henry, the owner of the baseball team the Boston Red Sox, for $70m - a fraction of the $1.1bn the company had paid for the paper in 1993.

Kashmir: Five Indian soldiers 'killed in shooting'

Indian army soldiers patrol near the Line of Control (LOC), the line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in Silikot some 130 Kilometers (81 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013.

Both Pakistan and India claim Kashmir in its entirety

Five Indian soldiers have been shot dead in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, the chief minister of the disputed region says.

India's army accused Pakistan over the incident, saying troops had "entered the Indian area and ambushed" an army patrol in the Poonch area.

A Pakistani military official told the BBC that "no fire took place" from their side.

Claimed by both countries, Kashmir has been a flashpoint for over 60 years.

In January, several deadly cross-border attacks plunged the neighbours into the worst crisis in relations in years.

The latest incident comes as the two sides are preparing for peace talks, the first since a new Pakistani government took office.

The chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, said such incidents "don't help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pakistan and call in to question the Pakistan government's recent overtures".

A top Indian army officer told the BBC that a group of "elite commandos" from the Pakistani army breached the line of control on Tuesday morning and ambushed an Indian army patrol in the Poonch sector of Jammu region.

The officer said one Indian soldier was injured in "unprovoked firing" by Pakistani soldiers in a separate incident in Udhampur region on Monday.

A Pakistani military official described the Indian allegations as "baseless" and said there was no firing from the Pakistani side.

India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire along the line of control, which divides the region, in November 2003.

But both sides have blamed each other for occasional cross-border fire, as a result of which several soldiers and civilians have been killed or wounded on both sides.

After the January incidents, relations between the sides deteriorated so sharply that there were fears that a fledgling peace process under way since February last year could unravel.

Although both sides denied provoking the clashes along the border, eventually both India and Pakistan agreed to de-escalate tensions.

Thousands of people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir since an armed revolt against Indian rule erupted in 1989.

US orders citizens to leave Yemen

The US State Department has ordered citizens and non-emergency government staff to leave Yemen "immediately" due to security threats.

It comes after the sudden closure of 20 US embassies and consulates on Sunday.

This was prompted by intercepted conversations between two senior al-Qaeda figures, including top leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, US media said.

The US earlier said the closures in North Africa and the Middle East were "out of an abundance of caution".

A number of US diplomatic posts in the region - including in the Yemeni capital Sanaa - will remain closed until Saturday.

A state department global travel alert, issued last week, is also in force until the end of August.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Macabre meeting with Pakistan cannibal

By M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Darya Khan, Punjab

Mohammad Arif Ali, the younger of the Ali brothers, at the abandoned family house in Khwawar Kalan village, Darya Khan

What Mohammad Arif Ali and his brother did shocked Pakistan

Tracking down the two brothers convicted following a notorious act of cannibalism in Pakistan is no easy task - the duo are keeping a low profile after being released from prison.

We began by following an oxcart-rutted dirt track for as far as it would go in Punjab province. Then we walk another kilometre or so through humid maize and sugarcane plantations to reach the farmhouse.

The brothers are not there, their uncle, Wali Deen, tells me. He is also not happy to see me.

"Interview the corpse-eaters? They didn't eat corpses. They are just the victims of their neighbours' jealousy," he says defiantly.

Mohammad Farman Ali and Mohammad Arif Ali were sentenced to two years in jail for stealing a corpse from a grave and using it to make meat curry.

Wali Deen, uncle of Mohammad Farman Ali and Mohammad Arif Ali

Wali Deen insists that his nephews are not cannibals

Because they killed no one and there is no law relating to cannibalism in Pakistan, the pair only served about two years in jail for desecrating a grave following their arrest in April 2011.

The overwhelming evidence of cannibalism created a serious law and order situation in the area around the small desert town of Darya Khan, located along the western fringes of Punjab, some 200km (124 miles) south of the capital, Islamabad.

In June, people of the town were stunned when the brothers were released from jail. Angry protesters set tyres on fire on a major highway in the area, blocking traffic for several hours.

The police had to take the brothers into protective custody to prevent them from being lynched. Their whereabouts since their release have been largely unknown.

Room of horror

We decide to search another of the family's abodes - an abandoned house in a semi-urban locality near to Darya Khan town.

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It still gives me the creeps; they had chopped off one of her legs below the knee, and the other one near the shin”

Inspector Fakhar BhattiPolice officer

It is here we find the younger brother, Arif Ali, lying in a charpoy cot under a thatched shed in one corner of the courtyard.

Breaking into a cold sweat at being discovered, he has few answers for the atrocity he committed and appears to be more concerned for his own safety.

"It happens you know, that [people get killed]," he tries to explain in an unsteady tone, "so [I am afraid] I could get in trouble."

In fact Mr Ali, who is in his early 30s, does not have a coherent answer to a single question I put to him. I can't decide whether he is mentally unstable, or just nervous. He does express hope, though, that such a grisly incident "will not happen again".

"Everything will be alright… God willing," he says, as if to comfort himself.

But the state of the house does not suggest this hope will be fulfilled. It is strewn with dried branches and debris from crumbling walls.

One end of the courtyard comprises a storeroom and two rooms. Another room is locked and another contains only two pieces of furniture - an aging rope-woven charpoy on which some clothing is dumped, and a steel framed swinging crib for babies.

This is Arif Ali's room. He once lived here with his wife and a baby boy.

It turns out that the next room, which is locked, is where the horror unfolded two years ago.

Stale smell

It all started after a 24-year-old woman, Saira Parveen, died of throat cancer and was buried by her relatives. The next morning, some women of the family visited her grave and found that it had caved in.

The house where the cannibals ate their meal has been all but abandoned

"We opened the grave, and were horrified to discover that the body had gone. We called the local elders, who called the police," says Aijaz Hussain, the dead woman's brother.

Police investigations led them to the house of the Ali brothers.

"We raided the house in mid-morning in the presence of local elders," says Inspector Fakhar Bhatti, the police official who led the raid.

"Arif was sleeping in his room. His father and one of his sisters were there. Farman was absent. We searched the house, and then asked for the key to Farman's room, which was locked."

When they opened the room, a stale smell of cooking and dead flesh hit them.

"In the middle of the room, I saw a cooking pot which was half full of meat curry. Nearby was a wooden board, a butcher's axe and a large kitchen knife. Bits of fat clung to the board and the blade of the axe."

The food had attracted a colony of ants; their line vanished under a bed.

"We followed the ants. There were a couple of sacks of fertiliser under the bed. We pulled them out, and behind them, inside a gunny bag, we found the body," says Inspector Bhatti.

"It still gives me the creeps; they had chopped off one of her legs below the knee, and the other one near the shin. The rest of the body was intact. The curry was made from those parts. We got it analysed at a laboratory in Multan."

When questioned by the police, the brothers admitted to having dug up and devoured several other dead bodies from the local graveyard. They said they had been doing it for a couple of years.

'Sorcerer'

The question is, how did they get into such a macabre business?

Aijaz Hussain, the brother of the woman the Ali brothers dug up from grave in 2011

Aijaz Hussain discovered that his sister had been dug up from her grave

Inspector Bhatti says the police came across leads that the Ali brothers had been in touch with a man accused of being a sorcerer who locals caught stealing a body from a grave some years earlier.

"We couldn't follow up on that lead because the man disappeared without a trace," he says.

During interrogation, Farman Ali admitted that he had written "certain verses of the Koran in reverse as a way of casting a spell on his neighbours", said Inspector Bhatti.

"He said for the spell to be effective, the brothers had to remain unclean and eat human flesh."

Farman Ali was not always like this, says Tanvir Khwawar, a local resident who studied with him in the same school for 10 years.

"He was intelligent, and studied science in the 10th grade, whereas I was just an ordinary student who went for humanities.

"But after the 10th grade, he gave up studies, and became increasingly secluded. We seldom saw each other after that."

Both brothers got married and had children. But their wives left them a couple of years prior to their arrests.

Inspector Bhatti, who traced both women and questioned them, says they complained that their husbands did not work, beat them and locked them up in the house when they went out, often at odd hours.

A sister who lived with them was mentally disabled and was found drowned in a canal a few days after their arrest.

The brothers were never examined by a psychiatrist for any personality disorder.

Defence lawyer Rao Tasadduq Hussain said his job was only to secure a minimum jail term for them, which he did successfully.

"They are not insane, they are just fools," he told me.

Poonam Pandey cries foul

MUMBAI, AUG 03 -

Poonam Pandey feels that she has been given a raw deal. While her debut film "Nasha" is doing well in single theatres, the model-turned-actress says the film has deliberately been kept out of multiplexes.

"It is sad that our film is not playing in any multiplex in Mumbai. The director Amit Saxena had packaged the film for multiplex audiences! We are a victim of the politics of other big production houses," she said.

"We haven't got theatres in multiplexes. Still our film was housefull wherever it was released, although we got fewer shows than expected. Our film got the best opening among all the releases last week," added the actress.

A source from one of the leading multiplex chains in Mumbai let the cat out of the bag admitting that "Nasha" was boycotted.

"There were too many releases this week. And 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' is still doing well. We just didn't have any slots for 'Nasha'," said the source.

Little Wars: How HG Wells created hobby war gaming

By Trevor TimpsonBBC News

HG Wells war gaming, from the Illustrated London News

Illustrated London News picture from 1913, showing Wells measuring a move with string

In today's Magazine

It is a century since HG Wells published the first proper set of rules for hobby war games. There's a hardcore of gamers who are still playing by his code.

Pine tips are stuck in the grass to represent trees. Roads are laid out with trails of compost.

This is the Battle of Gettysburg, with Union soldiers on one side and Confederates on the other. But the soldiers of this new Gettysburg are 54mm (2in) tall and mostly made of plastic.

The battle is taking place between a group of enthusiasts in a garden at Sandhurst military academy under the rules of Little Wars, devised by HG Wells in 1913.

War was then looming in Europe and Little Wars was both an expression of Wells's passion for toy soldiers and to his fears over the coming slaughter. The science fiction author even believed that war games could change attitudes.

"You only have to play at Little Wars three or four times to realise just what a blundering thing Great War must be," wrote Wells.

Herbert George Wells, 1866-1946

Made his name with science fiction classics like The Time Machine and War of the Worlds
Predicted tanks in 1903, atomic bombs in 1914 and WWII (to within four months) in 1933
Had two sons with his second wife and two children from a succession of relationships outside marriage
As well as war gaming, roped his guests in for boisterous hockey and handball games where he made up the rules

The game is a forerunner of modern formats like the Warhammer system sold by Games Workshop.

Sandhurst chaplain Paul Wright has updated Wells's rules - retitled Funny Little Wars - and says about 100 people in the UK still play it. A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, Wright has been war gaming since he was a child.

"As an army chaplain, having buried a lot of people and had friends of mine killed, I'd hate to think I was trivialising war but I don't think I am," he says.

For a lot of people, says Brian Carrick, one of the Union "generals" at the Sandhurst recreation, the fun of war gaming is "about the rules and recreating history and experiencing command in a battle - but for me it's simply about playing with my soldiers. I collect them, I paint them, I enjoy them and this gives me something to do with them."

The actual firing of miniature artillery pieces is at the heart of the Wells school of war gaming.

A Funny Little Wars game sees rival commanders bombard their adversaries with matchsticks, fired with little spring-loaded triggers in the tiny cannons. Careful measurements from where the matches land decide the number of victims.

But this is looked on with disapproval by some modern war gamers, who prefer theoretical bombardments worked out with distance tables.

Phil Barker, a celebrated deviser of modern games, acknowledges Wells's role in "showing it could be done - and giving grown men an excuse to play with toy soldiers".

But he adds: "Combat was based on shooting solid projectiles at the figures. Today, this would be discouraged because of the risk of someone getting a projectile in the eye, but it was the chance of damage to the finish of lovingly home-painted figures that led to the switch to less lethal dice."

Collectors take great pride in their soldiers' detailing. So much so that some war gamers treat them "like their wife's jewellery"

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Wells was not bothered by casualties to his soldiers. He fired inch-long wooden dowels from his favourite toy cannons, models of 4.7in (120mm) naval guns, and they could take the head off a fragile hollow-cast lead soldier.

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Hopelessly damaged soldiers were melted down in an iron spoon on the schoolroom floor”

Mathilde MeyerWells family nurse

Modern toy soldiers are beautifully sculpted and coloured and some war gamers treat them "like their wife's jewellery", says Little Wars player Dr Anthony Morton. In Wells's day "they were not regarded as works of art - they were bland in detail and very cheap to replace".

The author's sons' nurse Mathilde Meyer once wrote: "Hopelessly damaged soldiers were melted down in an iron spoon on the schoolroom floor, and others had a new head fixed on by means of a match and liquid lead."

When the forces in Little Wars get close enough to exchange small arms fire things get complicated, with tables consulted and dice rolled to decide how many soldiers must be taken off the field.

Still ready for action

HG Wells's lead soldiers and his beloved 4.7" cannons are still in the possession of his family
His great-grandson Prof Dominic Wells (above) remembers many day-long games with them against his father
Illustrated London News picture of HG Wells war gaming was "remarkably similar to what we were doing," he says
Artillery fire was the heart of the game and hand-to-hand melees were "fairly bad news" he adds

Wells laid down that a gun is captured "when there is no man of its own side within six inches of it", and at least four opponents have "passed its wheel axis going in the direction of their attack".

There are rules about how much forage the cavalry need every six moves and how many moves it takes engineers to rebuild a railway bridge.

At Sandhurst, the early stages of the battle bring success for the Confederates. The Yankee side deployed a lot of men to receive an expected attack from the west.

But when they get close, the Confederate flags on that side turn out to be dummies, and the blues are left underprepared for a mass grey assault from further north.

For Wells, the horror of WWI and what he called the "almost inconceivable silliness" of the top brass had a great effect on him.

"Up to 1914 I found a lively interest in playing a war game, with toy soldiers and guns... and I have given its primary rules in a small book," he recalled.

"I like to think I grew up out of that stage somewhen between 1916 and 1920 and began to think about war as a responsible adult should."

That makes it sound as though Wells cashiered his toy soldiers. But he did not.

The writer Colin Middleton Murry later recalled a war game on a childhood visit to Wells in the 1930s.

"He rushed round frantically, winding up clockwork trains, constructing bridges and fortifications, firing pencils out of toy cannons. It was all quite hysterical - quite unlike any grown-up behaviour I had ever known."

War gaming is fun but is also a pointer to the true horror of war, Wright says. He agrees with Wells, who wrote of his game: "How much better is this amiable miniature than the Real Thing!"

MNS threatens to disrupt release of Chennai Express

IANS
Mumbai, August 01, 2013

First Published: 10:47 IST(1/8/2013)
Last Updated: 10:52 IST(1/8/2013)

Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone are back together with Rohit Shetty's comedy Chennai Express after five years.

more photos »

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has threatened to disrupt the release of the Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer Chennai Express. The party's film unit is upset over reports that the Rohit Shetty-directed movie has demanded prime slots in single cinemas across the state at the expense of

some Marathi movies that are being screened.

"If the producers of Chennai Express attempt to dislodge any of the ongoing or forthcoming Marathi movies, we shall not tolerate it and deal with it in MNS style," warned Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Karmachari Sena (film wing) chief Amey Khopkar.

He specifically referred to the hit Marathi movie Duniyadari, running to full houses since July 19 in single screen cinemas in non-metro cities and small towns.

Khopkar said his party had written to owners of all single cinema halls and other cinemas seeking a commitment they would not take out Duniyadari from their screens to accommodate Chennai Express.

"If the Chennai Express producers attempt to do this, we shall not let the movie be exhibited in cinemas of the state. We shall also remove their publicity posters from Thursday," Khopkar declared.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same title by the late Suhas Shirvalkar, 'Duniyadari' has been a major commercial success with critical acclaim.

With Swapnil Joshi and Urmila Kanitkar in the lead roles, it shows the journey of a modern affluent youngster's life.

Koirala's India visit begins tomorrow

KATHMANDU, AUG 03 - At the official invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala is set to visit New Delhi on Sunday. He will be accompanied by two secretary generals of the party--Prakash Man Singh and Krishna Prasad Sitaula--and his aide Laxman Dhakal.

This is Koirala's first official visit to India after his election as the party president in September 2010. "This is a political visit focussed on improving Nepal-India ties and also party-to-party relations," said Sitaula.

The visit is expected to strengthen ties between Nepali Congress and the Indian establishment and political parties, said Sitaula. Unlike three former Prime Ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Madhav Kumar Nepal, who have visited India recently, Koirala will not be conferring with any think tank in Delhi. He will travel to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and meet the chief ministers.

The Indian side has been stating that these visits are part of the Indian government's policy to expand talks and consultations with the Nepali political parties to strengthen bilateral ties.

The NC president will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, National Security Advisor Shiv Shanker Menon and leaders from the ruling and opposition parties. He will meet Singh on Monday and Gandhi on Tuesday.

In July 2011, Koirala made an unofficial visit to India on his way back from the United States and Europe. He had met Pranab Mukherjee (the Indian president who was then finance minister), Singh, Gandhi and other Indian leaders and officials.

After Koirala, Delhi is said to be planning to invite another former PM and CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and some Tarai party leaders.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos buys Washington Post for $250m

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“Start Quote

Analysis

Kashmir: Five Indian soldiers 'killed in shooting'

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US orders citizens to leave Yemen

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Macabre meeting with Pakistan cannibal

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“Start Quote

Poonam Pandey cries foul

Little Wars: How HG Wells created hobby war gaming

Herbert George Wells, 1866-1946

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Still ready for action

Koirala's India visit begins tomorrow