Apple Compensates User Over IPhone Tracking
SEOUL – US technology giant Apple said Thursday it had made its first compensation payment in South Korea over a feature on its iPhone that can track the location of users.
Apple Korea said it had paid one million won (US$950) to Kim Hyung-Suk, complying with a compensation order from a court in the southern city of Changwon.
Kim, a 36-year-old lawyer, filed the suit on April 26. He said the smartphone's location recording infringed on his constitutional rights to privacy and freedom and caused psychological stress.
He demanded one million won, and the court ordered Apple to pay the sum for violating his privacy. Apple Korea said it had not raised an objection to the order.
The settlement was expected to trigger an array of similar lawsuits since South Korea has about three million iPhone users.
Kim vowed to invite other iPhone users to lodge a joint suit against Apple.
“Amassing location data without iPhone users' consent constitutes an apparent legal violation,” Kim told Yonhap news agency.
About 300 people have signed up to join Kim's campaign so far through a website that he opened Thursday, Yonhap said.
In April, 29 other iPhone users in South Korea filed a joint suit against Apple, following claims that the US company traced and stored geographical data from its mobile device users in countries including France and Germany.
British security researchers have said the position-logging feature was contained in iOS 4, the operating system for the iPhone and iPad.
They said iOS 4-equipped iPhones and iPads store latitude and longitude coordinates along with a time stamp, probably through cell-tower triangulation.
The company in May released updated software for iPhones to fix “bugs” that resulted in location data being unencrypted and stored for up to a year.
- AFP/ir
Channel News Asia
Multiple Blasts Rock Mumbai In “terror Strike”
MUMBAI: Three bombs ripped through India's commercial capital Mumbai on Wednesday, killing 21 people and injuring more than 100 in the deadliest attack in the city since the 2008 assault by Islamist militants.
The coordinated blasts hit busy districts in the south of the city, the same area targeted two and half years ago by Pakistan-based militants who caused mayhem and bloodshed during a 60-hour siege that left 166 people dead.
“It is another attack on the heart of India,” said the chief minister of Maharashtra state, Prithviraj Chavan, who hinted at possible foreign involvement by saying it was a “challenge to Indian sovereignty.”
The Home Ministry said at least 21 people had been killed and 141 injured, many of them seriously.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that it was “a coordinated attack by terrorists,” adding that “the entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert.”
The targets included a predominantly middle-class residential area, a wholesale gold market and a district housing diamond traders and jewellery shops, which is also home to Mumbai's abandoned opera house.
All three explosions went off within a 15-minute period, starting at around 6:50pm (1320 GMT).
Fashion photographer Rutavi Metha heard a “massive” explosion and ran towards the site of the bomb in the gold market area known as Zaveri Bazaar — one of targets for explosions in 2003 that killed 52 and injured more than 150.
“There were bodies on the ground and a lot of blood. Local people were trying to help, picking up the injured and putting them in cars to drive them to hospital,” she said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed for calm.
No group claimed responsibility, though suspicions initially fell on two Islamist groups that have targeted India in the past: the home-grown Indian Mujahideen and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
US President Barack Obama was among the first to condemn the “outrageous” bombings and said the United States was closely monitoring the situation.
“The American people will stand with the Indian people in times of trial, and we will offer support to India's efforts to bring the perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice,” Obama said in a statement.
In November 2008, 10 militants from the LeT attacked multiple targets in Mumbai, including five-star hotels, in an assault known as “26/11″ in India and often compared to the September 11 attacks on the United States.
India broke off a peace dialogue with Islamabad afterwards, blaming it for failing to crack down on the militant group. Talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this year.
The Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers are scheduled to hold talks in New Delhi in the last week of July.
Eyewitnesses outside the diamond trader building in south Mumbai said a car bomb had exploded when the area was packed with office workers heading home.
Fire brigade floodlights showed the full extent of the damage in a claustrophobic side street in the Opera House area.
Sandals were abandoned among the muddy puddles and potholes overflowing with steady monsoon rain; roadside food stalls were overturned in the gutter, and the mangled remains of a car stood with its doors hanging off.
“More than 5,000 people pass through here every minute,” said Jayesh Labdhi, a committee member of the Mumbai Diamond Merchants' Association near the wreckage of a white car.
“There was a huge big blast. We didn't know what it was but after a couple of minutes we saw so much smoke everywhere. There were so many people lying on the ground just crying out and wanting help,” Labdhi told AFP.
The last major bombing in India was in February last year in the western city of Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant killed 16 people including several foreigners.
In 2006, a series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban trains in Mumbai killed 187 commuters and left 800 injured — an attack that India also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
- AFP/ir/ac
Channel News Asia
Killer Bacteria Cases Reported In 12 Countries: WHO
COPENHAGEN – Twelve countries have so far reported cases linked to a still unexplained outbreak of a lethal bacteria that has claimed 18 lives, mainly in Germany, the World Health Organisation said Friday.
“Countries continue to report cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC),” the WHO's Europe division said in a statement, adding it had received reports of cases in 12 countries.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) can cause bloody diarrhoea and potentially fatal liver damage, as well as full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a serious kidney ailment.
As of 2 June, 502 people in total had contracted HUS while 1,064 had contracted EHEC, according to the WHO count.
An AFP toll compiled from national health authorities meanwhile showed more than 2,000 people in total had fallen ill.
In addition to Germany, the epicentre of the outbreak where 17 people have died, cases of HUS and/or EHEC, had by Thursday been reported in Austria (HUS 0, EHEC 2), Britain (3,4), the Czech Republic (0,1), Denmark (7,10), France (0,6), the Netherlands (4,4), Norway (0,1), Spain (1,0), Sweden (15,28), Switzerland (0,2), and the United States (2,0), the WHO said.
“All these cases except two are in people who reside in or had recently visited northern Germany during the incubation period for the infection (typically three to four days post-exposure), or in one case, had contact with a visitor from northern Germany,” it explained.
The health organisation said Thursday the strain of a lethal bacteria was “very rare” and had never been seen in an outbreak form before.
- AFP/ir
Channel News Asia
Casino Regulatory Authority Gets New Chief, Lau Peet Meng
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) will have a new chief executive from June 15.
He is Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Lau Peet Meng, who is currently the senior director of the Policy & Operations Division in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The current chief executive of the CRA, Mr T Raja Kumar, will return to the Singapore Police Force where he will be appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police (Policy).
The Singapore Police Force has also announced changes at the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
Mr Tan Boon Gin, will be appointed its director, on July 1.
He will take over from Mr Ong Hian Sun, who will return to the Attorney-General's Chambers on the same date.
- CNA/cc
Channel News Asia
A Great SHOW Like No Other
SINGAPORE: With a name like Show, the expectation is always for a stage presence that makes it a show like no other. And Show Luo certainly lived up to both his name and expectations.
The night of 100% pure entertainment opened with the star literally descending on his fans who gathered at the Singapore Indoor Stadium for Show Luo's “2011 Show Encore World Live Tour”.
Back for the third time in two years, it was certainly an encore for the more than 10,000 fans who were treated to three hours of pure entertainment, including special visual effects such as indoor fireworks.
With a hard-to-miss neon jacket over a dazzling silver jumpsuit, Luo kept the tempo up with dance tracks like “Only You”, “Wu Fa Wu Tian” and “Jing Wu Men”.
The “Asia Dance King” from Taiwan also proved his claim to the title, being rarely out of breath whilst dancing and singing live throughout the night.
In fact the “100% Entertainment” host was even entertaining when he was bad.
“Those who bring their girlfriends, your eyes only me!” said the mega star as he fluently fumbled in English, reminding the audience to keep their eyes on him for the night as he went to declare, “Your girlfriend is me!”
As a dancer offered a quick word in his ear, Luo did a quick re-take without dropping a beat. “Your girlfriend is mine!” he said amidst laughter from the crowd.
When Luo went for a costume change, fans were kept engaged with video montages of his acting career from the 2004 “Outsider II” to hit show “Hi! My Sweetheart”in 2009.
The screen theme continued even when Luo re-appeared, as he launched into his famous melodramatic theme songs including “Hui Se Kong Jian”, “Ai Zhuan Jiao”, “Xing Fu Bu Mie” and “Ai Bu Dan Xing”.
“I like doing idol dramas as they will leave a lasting impression” Luo said of his role as a big-haired nerd in “Hi! My Sweetheart”, which became one of the highest-rated dramas in Taiwan and Singapore.
It was an interactive show with Luo getting his audience on their feet in “Twinkle”
Annie Yi Lashes Out At Tabloid Over Explicit Article
TAIPEI: Clips from a video DVD, showing a young girl singing nude in a see-through dress, have gone viral on the Internet in recent weeks.
Taiwan tabloid “Next” last week claimed the girl in the video, which looks to have been recorded in 1986, “closely resembled” Taiwan singer-actress Annie Yi in her teenage years.
Yi, who normally ignores such reports, took the unusual step of holding a press conference to clarify matters in Taiwan on Saturday, reported Taiwan media.
“I am very sure that (the woman in the video clip) is not me,” Yi told reporters.
Yi said the article in “Next”, which contained screenshots from the clip, violated her rights as it linked her to the woman in the clip and tarnished her reputation.
She explained that it may have also violated child protection laws because the woman in the video clip appeared to be under-age.
The 42-year-old singer-actress, who separated from ex-husband, Taiwan singer Harlem Yu in 2009, expressed that she had since instructed her lawyers to send a letter to the tabloid.
She left after speaking for just three minutes, leaving her lawyers to answer queries from the media.
When asked why she left so quickly after speaking, Yi said it was simply because she was too angry and did not want to act out in front of the media.
“There was this anxiety borne of rage. I was very afraid I would disgrace myself in public,” Yi later told Chinese media.
“I have decided not to overlook hurtful reports about me. Regardless of how remote the possibility of it harming me, I will seek legal redress.”
In addition to her own rights, Yi said she decided to speak out in order to defend the rights of the girl featured in the video.
Responding to the statements Yi made at the press conference, a “Next” spokesperson said Yi had “no basis for claiming the girl was underage since she (Yi) is not the girl in question”.
The spokesperson re-iterated that the publication “only suggested that the girl
Channel News Asia
IMF Chief Arrested In New York
NEW YORK: International Monetary Fund (IMF) director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested Saturday minutes before he was to leave for France, after being accused of a sexual attack on a hotel maid in New York, The New York Times reported.
Strauss-Kahn, widely expected to be a candidate for president of France in 2012, “was taken off an Air France flight by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and turned over to Manhattan detectives, according to a Port Authority spokesman cited by the Times.
“He was accused of a sex attack on a maid at a Times Square hotel earlier in the day,” the report added citing the same authorities.
Strauss-Kahn, who has not announced whether he will seek France's presidency, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International as he waited for his flight to France to depart.
In Washington, an IMF spokeswoman had no immediate comment.
Strauss-Kahn's stint at the helm of the International Monetary Fund in Washington does not officially end until September 2012, several months after the scheduled date of France's vote.
But the French political world has been buzzing with speculation that the man popularly known as DSK would bring a premature end to his tenure and throw his hat in the ring.
Some opinion polls have suggested he would win the vote if he were to run.
-AFP/wk
Channel News Asia
Irresistible IPad2
What is more cool than the iPad? The iPad2 of course.
The lines are back and the impatient waiting to be among the first to lay hands on the device have returned with a vengeance as the iPad gets unceremoniously and unjustifiably dumped into the trade-in and ignore section of the mind and stores.
Is the madness justified?
Well, if a colleague who took an iPad2 out to a recent election rally and ended up becoming news in the Straits Times alongside the Prime Minister's speech, it pretty much sums up just how much attention is focused on the new device.
At the same time, it can't be denied that the iPad2 is as intelligent as it is irresistible.
Skeptical by nature and by calling, anything new and improved is hardly ever quickly embraced, being a firm believer in the home truth of my American friends who would say “if it ain't broke, why fix it?”
But of course the Americans at Paolo Alto probably don't subscribe to that dictum a hundred per cent, and thank goodness for that!
The iPad2 is now very much lighter and slimmer.
“It can fit into my handbag!” my colleague gleefully declared as she trotted off to her first PAP rally with instructions to snap photos and videos with the new device which now comes with two cameras.
The main camera on the back of the device shoots HD (720p) videos and offers a 5x digital zoom lens that produces sharp photos.
The other which is a subtle VGA pinhole on the front of the device, serves for FaceTime connections via WiFi or 3G.
Would you be taking your iPad2 with you wherever you go even if you are not a slave to fads? In short, yes.
What Apple does, and does well, is in the ergonomics of its products.
While the iPad had no major shortcomings in its original design, there was no doubt that it would serve users better if it were lighter and thinner.
That's seen in the 2011 version which is 8.8mm thick and 601 grams (607 grams for the WiFi and 3G version) in weight, making it 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter compared to the original iPad.
What the numbers work out to is a handheld that is way easier to handle for reading, carrying and general handling and use. After all, what is the point of a device that only looks pretty?
The design and function of the iPad2 also puts it at the top of its class in terms of handheld devices, along with the little smart 'extras' from Apple, such as the Smart Cover which lives up to its name in every way.
Not always the one who was top of my class, and being one who reads instructions only as a last option, the Smart Cover had me puzzled when it fell out its protective bag.
Before my mutterings of pretty but useless accessories could form into a logical sentence, the moment of puzzlement lifted as the Smart Cover which was hovering near the iPad2 snapped into place thanks to the strategically placed magnets.
The cover which comes in leather so thin and pliable it feels like strong paper, has been designed to not just protect the iPad2 but also serve as a stand.
If you are not sure about folding it and don't usually read instructions, you can safely try folding it in the way you think it should go and find that the Smart Cover will take over and fold itself into a triangle that will fit neatly as a stand to read off the iPad or type, as I am doing for this feature.
The iPad2 types way better than on a Mac or MacBook with the on-screen keyboard being well spaced and responsive for quick, accurate typing whether with one finger or with both hands.
The auto suggest is both handy and annoying, but easy to get used to.
It is not impossible to do serious work on this device that could easily and mistakenly pass off as a frivolous up-size of an iPhone.
The iTunes app store offers downloads that makes it possible to work on a document, as I am with this piece, with free apps such as Evernote or the paid, but still affordable Pages app.
The default Notes also does the job as you can email your jottings.
Those who want to do number crunching can use Numbers, while Keynote will take care of presentations.
While working, it's easy to appreciate the robustness of the iPad2 as it doesn't run out of battery life quickly and neither does it heat up easily.
The device has also been designed in such a way that when the Smart Cover snaps shut, the device hibernates but will instantaneously launch itself when then cover is lifted.
In fact, the iPad will continue clicking under the Smart Cover as you carry it around as if to annoy you into turning it back on, soon.
As the test set came with a set of HDMI cables and a Digital output connector, it was hard not to put the iPad2 through the paces.
It was a no-brainer getting the device linked to a LED TV and though a video shot on the iPad was slightly grainy and pixelated when played on the large screen, HD videos on YouTube were rather flawless in playback and picture quality.
This is due largely to the improved processor, a 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 chip that was custom-designed to offer high-performance as well as multi-tasking while consuming less power, so that the device doesn't heat up and the 10 hour battery lasts.
Like the earlier version, the basic starts at 16GB and there is the WiFi and 3G version as well as the plain WiFi model which can be linked to an iPhone that can used as a modem should the need for connectivity suddenly arise.
The iPad2 comes in two colours and the white, makes it strikingly attractive – just don't drink wine and eat pizza around it.
- CNA/sf
Channel News Asia
UN Panel Praises Singapore For Progress Made In Human Rights
GENEVA: Singapore has received praise from a United Nations panel for progress it has made in several key areas of human rights.
A government delegation has been meeting with UN officials and ambassadors in Geneva as part of a compulsory review of human rights in all member states.
During three hours of talks, there was broad support for strides taken by Singapore on issues ranging from the well-being of women and children, to the promotion of racial and religious harmony.
But some countries expressed concern over human rights in Singapore, and urged the country to establish a national institution to deal with the issue.
In all, 16 nations are getting their human rights report cards during two weeks of gatherings in Geneva.
Friday was the turn of Singapore.
The delegation said the country had balanced increased human rights protections for women, children, migrant workers and the disabled, while maintaining stability as its main priority.
Ong Keng Yong, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “Trade-offs between different kinds of rights are inevitable. Our top principle is pragmatism. Our focus is on the practical implementation of rights and how to balance them with economic imperatives and social stability.”
Several diplomats at the gathering raised issues concerning the treatment of foreign workers in Singapore, and called for steps to improve conditions for migrants.
Kshenuka Senewiratne, Sri Lanka Ambassador, said: “We believe that measures adopted to educate foreign workers in their native languages of their rights and responsibilities, and avenues for assistance would further improve their conditions, especially in understanding local legislation and recommend that these measures be implemented.”
Ambassadors from some countries pressed Singapore to end its use of the death penalty for certain crimes. But the government cites low crime rates as a indicator of the success of capital punishment.
There were also calls for Singapore to establish a national human rights institution, a step the country is reluctant to take.
Ong Keng Yong added: “We don't need to establish a special body because our judicial system, our policies in Singapore, and the way that Singaporeans have approached this issue, basically allow us to use what we have currently in Singapore to promote and protect human rights.”
Singapore is currently a signatory to international treaties on the rights of women and children.
At the gathering, Singapore was asked to sign up on other human rights treaties – something the government says it is considering.
The Universal Periodic Review session is part of an ongoing process of assessments by the UN Human Rights Council.
Singapore says it welcomes the process as a vital opportunity for UN member states and stakeholders to exchange views.
The Council's full report on the review of Singapore's human rights situation is due out next Tuesday.
- CNA/de
Channel News Asia
GE: Ballot Boxes Moved To Counting Centres
SINGAPORE: Ballot boxes across polling stations in Singapore have been sealed and moved to counting centres, after polling closed at 8pm on Saturday.
The votes would be counted in the presence of the candidates and agents from the political parties.
Once counted, the ballot papers, together with all the relevant records, as well as unused ballot papers will be sealed and transferred to the vault at the Supreme Court where they are kept for at least six months.
At the end of six months, the sealed boxes will be transferred to an incineration plant for destruction.
The whole procedure is witnessed by candidates and agents from the political parties.
-CNA/wk
Channel News Asia