FTC ends Google 'Street View' investigation without fines

(CNN) -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has called off its investigation of Google's "Street View" mapping program without issusing fines to the company, according to a letter sent from the FTC to Google on Wednesday.

The federal agency had been investigating the fact that Google collected communications, including passwords and e-mails, from people who used open Wi-Fi networks in their homes.

The data collections, which Google says were inadvertent, happened while Google was driving around taking pictures for the Street View function on Google Maps, the Mountain View, California, company said.

The FTC said Google has sufficiently addressed the problem.

"Google has made assurances to the FTC that the company has not used and will not use any of the payload data collected in any Google product or service, now or in the future," David C. Vladeck, the FTC's director for consumer protection, says a letter to Google, which was posted on the FTC's website.

"This assurance is critical to mitigate the potential harm to consumers from the collection of payload data. Because of these commitments, we are ending our inquiry into this matter at this time".

Google, which first mentioned the fact that it had "sniffed" this Wi-Fi data in May, said in a blog post last week that the data included more sensitive information than was previously thought.

CNN

European duo poised to topple Tiger

(CNN) -- Tiger Woods' unprecedented run as the world's No. 1 golfer will end on Sunday, with Europeans Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer in line to take over top spot.

Westwood, who is just 0.06 points behind the American, will become the first new name at the summit since June 2005 if Kaymer does not finish in the top-two at the Andalucia Masters in Spain.

The Englishman, hoping to be Europe's first No. 1 since compatriot Nick Faldo in 1994, is not playing at Valderrama due to the calf injury that has hampered him since before and after the Ryder Cup.

The 37-year-old plans to return to action at the HSBC-Champions tournament in China on November 4, when Woods will also next take to the tee -- meaning whoever takes his top spot might not be there for long.

CNN

Computer problem blamed for missile site malfunction

Washington (CNN) -- A malfunctioning launch control center for a portion of the nation's nuclear missiles remained offline Wednesday as investigations continued into a weekend computer problem that disrupted communications with more than 10 percent of America's land-based nuclear missiles.

Early indications are that Saturday's disruption to one of the launch control centers linked to Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming lasted longer than an hour, Lt. Col. John Thomas said. The problem appears to be very similar to glitches at two other nuclear missile sites in the late 1990s.

The United States has 450 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in its nuclear arsenal. The 50 Minuteman III missiles involved in Saturday's incident are all currently at "normal operating capability," said Thomas, the director of public affairs for the Air Force's Global Strike Command. But while those missiles are typically controlled by five underground launch control centers, only four are currently online, he added.

The fifth control center remains offline and is believed to be the source of a computer hardware problem that caused a communications disruption Saturday. It has been electronically isolated from the launch system while the problem is investigated and solved, Thomas said.

It's not unusual for a missile squadron to take one of its five launch control centers out of service to perform maintenance, Thomas explained. In fact, he said, an entire squadron of missiles can be controlled by just one control center or even from a command aircraft flying nearby.

CNN

15 shot dead at carwash in Mexico, officials say

(CNN) -- Fifteen people were killed Wednesday at a carwash in the western Mexican state of Nayarit, the state attorney general's office told CNNMexico.com.

The attack happened at a business called the Gamboa carwash in the capital, Tepic, and is presumed to be the work of a drug cartel, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing local police.

A man had been killed the night before in the same area, police said.

Initial reports by investigators said witnesses heard the gunfire Wednesday morning, only two blocks away from the offices of the federal police, Notimex reported. The federal police responded to the scene to find 15 people dead, including clients and employees of the carwash, the news agency said.

Investigators found hundreds of shell casings from assault rifles.

The mass slaying resulted in the closure of nearby businesses and schools.

CNN

Brother accuses ex-prosecutor of drug ties

CHIHUAHUA, Mexico, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The former top prosecutor in Mexico's Chihuahua state says her brother was coerced into making a video accusing her of ordering killings and taking payoffs.

Patricia Gonzalez told the Los Angeles Times she believes police angry at her efforts to end corruption in their ranks kidnapped her brother and forced him to make the video. The video, posted Monday on YouTube, shows Mario Gonzalez in shackles with guns pointed at him.

"During six years, I received threats from police, ex-state police and organized crime groups," Patricia Gonzalez said in an e-mail message to the Times. "The motive for the kidnapping, I believe, is related to revenge by the drug cartels and some state police or ex-police who resisted working with institutional transparency and a new model of justice".

Patricia Gonzalez stepped down this month as attorney general of Chihuahua, Mexico's largest and most violent state.

In the video, Mario Gonzalez says he served as a go-between for his sister and the Juarez drug cartel. 

He accuses his sister of ordering the killing of Armando Rodriguez, who had written about their family.

UPI

New date for Guinea presidential run-off poll

Guinea has scheduled its long-delayed presidential run-off vote for 7 November, according to a presidential decree read out on state TV.

The vote was initially due to be held in July, but street violence and political infighting have forced it to be postponed three times.

An inconclusive result in June elections forced the run-off.

Guineans has been subjected to 52 years of authoritarian rule since it gained independence from France.

Last weekend, the two rival presidential candidates - Alpha Conde and Cellou Dalein Diallo - appealed for calm following two days of violence in the capital, Conakry.

The pair had earlier accused each other's supporters of inciting violence.

BBC News

Mexico car wash shooting leaves 15 dead

Prosecutors in Mexico say gunmen have killed at least 15 people at a car wash in the west of the country.

At least two others were injured in the attack early on Wednesday in Tepic, Nayarit state.

Local media reported that the victims were mostly young men who lived at a drug rehabilitation centre.

Police say rehab facilities are increasingly being targeted by drug cartels who suspect the clinics of harbouring members from rival gangs.

Addicts targeted

The attack came only days after gunmen shot more than a dozen recovering addicts in Tijuana, in Baja California.

And in September, 28 patients were killed in attacks on two rehab clinics in Ciudad Juarez.

The victims in that attack were lined up against a wall and murdered in what police said were reprisal killings.

BBC News

Stosur stuns No. 1 Wozniacki in Doha; Clijsters makes winning return

(CNN) -- Samantha Stosur stopped Caroline Wozniacki from clinching the year-end women's No. 1 tennis ranking with a shock 6-4 6-3 victory at the WTA Championships in Qatar on Wednesday night.

The Australian romped to her second straight victory in the Maroon Group, following her revenge win over French Open champion Francesca Schiavone on Tuesday.

The Roland Garros runner-up's kick serve was a potent weapon against Wozniacki, with the triumph giving the 26-year-old every chance of reaching the semifinals ahead of her final group match against Russia's Elena Dementieva on Thursday.

It was her second victory over a top-ranked player this year, having beaten Serena Williams on the way to reaching the final in Paris.

CNN

Coca-Cola to invest $1 billion in beverage production in Russia in 5 years

The world's largest soft drink producer Coca-Cola plans to invest some $1 billion in developing its production in Russia, the president of the company's Russia, Ukraine & Belarus Business Unit said on Wednesday.

Zoran Vucinic also said at an international forum in the city of Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga that by 2020 Coca-Cola is to double the volume of its business in Russia.

Nizhny Novgorod has hosted a Coca-Cola drink plant since 1996.

Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, Georgia, sells its products in over 200 countries. The company entered the market of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. In 2009, the company said it intended to expand its business in Russia.

RIA Novosti

Schwarzenegger remains on sidelines

LONG BEACH, Calif., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- California Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger refused once again to take sides in the race to succeed him, calling Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown "great candidates".

Republican Whitman and her Democratic rival, a former governor, appeared Tuesday with Schwarzenegger at the annual women's conference hosted by the governor's wife, Maria Shriver, The Sacramento Bee reported. About 14,000 people attended.

Whitman was booed by many in the audience when she refused Brown's offer of a cease-fire on negative ads, one he made at the suggestion of Matt Lauer, the host of NBC's "Today".

After seven years as governor, Schwarzenegger's popularity is at its lowest ebb, so his endorsement might not help either candidate. The moderate Republican had kind words for Brown's performance as governor from 1975 to 1983 and for Whitman's as CEO of eBay.

"I think that both of them are great candidates," he said.

The race is the most expensive in California history with so many negative commercials Lauer called it a "blood-bath." Whitman has spent a reported $141 of her own fortune.

UPI

Teen charged in hiker's falling-rock death

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A teenage boy has been charged in the death of a girl killed by a falling rock while on a hike, Colorado prosecutors said.

The boy, a 15-year-old from Texas, is not being named because he is a juvenile. He was charged Tuesday with reckless manslaughter, the Larimer County district attorney told the Denver Post.

Audra Brownell, 17, of Sparta, Mich., was killed in Estes Park, Colo., on June 17.

She was on a backpacking trip with a youth group from the Rockford Reformed Church in Rockford, Mich., and died instantly from "multiple blunt force trauma," according to the Larimer County coroner, who initially ruled the death an accident.

District Attorney Larry Abrahamson told 9News the boy was with another tour group. He had gone up the cliff ahead of her and kicked rocks loose, causing a 30-pound stone to fall and hit Brownell on the head as she sat next to her boyfriend.

Abrahamson said he believed the act to be unintentional and hoped to reach a plea bargain.

UPI

Woman, 19, charged in UConn bomb threats

WEST HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A young woman is charged with making bomb threats that twice closed a University of Connecticut campus last week.

Kendriana Manning, 19, of East Hartford was arrested Tuesday, the Hartford Courant reported.

The Greater Hartford UConn campus in West Hartford got two e-mails Oct. 19 warning a bomb would explode, police said. Two days later university officials received another, more threatening, e-mail.

The campus was shut down, students evacuated and classes canceled on both days as police searched the buildings and grounds. No bomb turned up either time.

After tracing the e-mails' origins, police arrested Manning. She has been charged with falsely reporting an incident, second-degree breach of peace, first-degree threatening, second-degree harassment and an act of terrorism.

UPI

Chaos over restraint rules for deportees

The government's deportation policy has been thrown into confusion after it emerged that the Home Office banned private security firms from forcing detainees on to flights following the death of a refugee, then lifted the moratorium 10 days later.

The chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, said he had "huge concerns" over the government's apparent indecision about whether restraint could be used against deportees and accused officials of "flip-flopping".

His concerns were echoed by Ed Balls, the shadow home secretary, who said it was now "vital" for the Home Office to release details of the circumstances surrounding the death of Jimmy Mubenga, an Angolan refugee who collapsed and died on a British Airways plane preparing for take-off at Heathrow earlier this month.

A ban on forcing detainees on to commercial flights, which officials described as a precautionary but "unprecedented" measure, was introduced on 15 October, three days after Mubenga lost consciousness while being heavily restrained by three guards working for the security firm G4S.

The Metropolitan police have since arrested the guards, who have been released on bail.

The firm, which conducts the majority of the 10,000 forced removals each year, informed the Guardian that use of restraint at boarding by its guards had been halted at the advice of the Home Office.

All private security firms were instructed by the Home Office to halt using force while officials checked that the techniques used to restrain deportees, which are the same used in prisons, were safe.

Guards conducting deportations on charter flights, which are carried out on aircraft not shared with commercial passengers, were exempted from the ban.

The ban on the use of force was then lifted on Monday, after all escort guards were given new written guidance on how to conduct deportations safely. All escort staff were also given verbal briefings. The Home Office last night refused to release the new guidance, claiming it was "operational and sensitive".

David Wood, the UK Border Agency's strategic director for criminality and detention, said: "A minimum use of force is an absolute last resort, and would only ever be used when an individual becomes disruptive or refuses to comply.

"We did pause the use of restraint at boarding of scheduled removal flights as a precautionary and temporary measure. It has now been reinstated".

The department made no mention of the ban in the last week, despite releasing numerous statements about the use of force against deportees.

The Guardian

Bid to remake California state government finds major benefactor

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Sacramento — 

An eccentric, globetrotting multibillionaire who doesn't own a home in California — or anywhere, for that matter; he says he has little use for owning things — is about to breathe life into efforts to shake up Sacramento.

Nicolas Berggruen will give at least $20 million to a group of Californians who long to restructure state government so it is more responsive to voters, more responsible with public funds and ready to reposition the state to meet the challenges of today's economy.

On Wednesday, he will bring together a who's who of California public policy on the campus of Google — a symbol of California innovation — to announce that he is putting up his millions to help push forward whatever the group agrees upon in the next six months as changes needed to make state government work again.

Berggruen, 49, says he envisions a California government that is competent, flexible and efficient — able to close the innovation and entrepreneurship gap that is emerging between California and places such as Singapore and China.

The members he has chosen for the Think Long Committee for California run the ideological gamut. Reaganite George Schultz and Bush administration veteran Condoleezza Rice will weigh in, as will Democrats Willie Brown and Gray Davis. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad will also serve on the committee. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be a guest at the first meeting.

Los Angeles Times

Baby found in Ajman believed to be killed

The body of a five-month old baby was found near a mosque in Karama area of Ajman last Wednesday.

Ajman Police suspect the baby was killed and dumped at the site, reported 'Al Ittihad' newspaper.

Meanwhile, CID officials of the police department say the baby might have been a result of an illegal relationship. Alternatively, the mother may not have the means to bring up the child and, therefore, it was dumped.

The body has been transferred to the criminal lab to ascertain the causes of death.

The police, meanwhile, have alerted all hospitals in the UAE to check if a baby by this description, was delivered in any of them. They added the baby had Asian features.

Police have stepped up efforts to nab the culprits.

Emirates 24|7

SAGIA offers $500bn investment bonanza

DAMMAM: Saudi Arabia offers new investment opportunities worth $500 billion in energy, transport and industrial projects, Amr Al-Dabbagh, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, (SAGIA) announced here on Tuesday.

Speaking to businessmen at Asharqia Chamber, he said the Ministry of Finance has been giving tax exemption incentives to investors in underdeveloped regions of the Kingdom to woo investment and achieve balanced development of regions.

“These incentives are aimed at increasing investment projects in underdeveloped areas such as Jazan and the Northern Border Province,” he said. Al-Dabbagh also disclosed plans to establish new international economic cities in the Kingdom.

He, however, said there is no plan at the moment to establish the Kingdom’s fifth economic city in the Eastern Province. The government has established four economic cities in Rabigh, Madinah, Hail and Jazan.

“Our goal is to make Saudi Arabia one of the top 10 countries in the world in 2010 in terms of competitive investment climate by providing a healthy investment condition and establishing a knowledge-based society,” the SAGIA chief said.

The World Bank declared Saudi Arabia the 13th most competitive country in the world in its annual Doing Business report for 2009, thus ensuring the Kingdom is well poised to achieve its goal of becoming one of the top 10 most competitive countries by 2010.

For the fifth consecutive year, the report ranks Saudi Arabia as the best place to do business in the entire Middle East and Arab world, ahead of Bahrain (20th), the UAE (33rd) and Qatar (39th). The report also ranks Saudi Arabia ahead of advanced economies such as Japan, Germany, France, and Switzerland.

He said SAGIA has been working to speed up the Kingdom’s economic growth by promoting investments in strong areas such as energy. He said the Saudi share in joint investment projects reached SR574 billion ($153 billion) or 51 percent from a total of SR1.13 trillion ($300 billion). About 101,000 Saudis are working at foreign and joint investment projects, he said, adding they represent 27 percent of total workers. Saudization in national investment projects is at 9.9 percent.

He said the total exports of joint investments reached SR109.8 billion while exports from nonoil Saudi investments totaled SR78.1 billion. Joint and foreign investment projects pay monthly salaries worth SR29.3 billion while their total sales reached SR395 billion. Local purchase of these projects totaled SR225 billion.

Arab News

Serbia Aborts Bulgarian Tycoon's Privatization Deal

Serbia's Privatization Agency terminated its contract with Bultsvet, a company owned by controversial Bulgarian tycoon Hristo Kovachki, for the sale of a factory in the town of Leskovac.

The contract concerns the privatization of the Nevena cosmetics factory in the city of Leskovac.

The Serbian Privatization Agency has already terminated contracts it had with 13 of the total of 15 companies owned by Kovachki, the Nevena factory trade union informed. In May 2009 the Agency aborted Bultsvet's contract for the acquisition of metal working factory Metalac Ivanjica.

According to Serbian newspapers, the reason for the contract terminations is that Kovachki has not fulfilled the respective production schedule and welfare program. The Serbian Privatrization Agency had given Kovachki 15 consecutive deadlines before the termination.

"The termination of this contract put an end to the agony of 257 workers, who hadn' t been paid in months", explained Nebojsa Petrovich, Nevena factory union leader, as cited by the Serbian agency BETA.

Kovachki, whose political project in Bulgaria, a centrist party called LIDER, failed to win seats in July's parliamentary election, has diverse business interests, ranging from manufacturing to banking and from energy to retail.

This is not the first time the Bulgarian energy tycoon raises controversy in Bulgaria's neighbor Serbia. In May the Serbian newspaper Blitz mentioned his possible ties with alleged Balkan drug lord Sreten Josic.

Since 2008, Kovachki has been under investigation in Bulgaria for tax evasion estimated by the prosecution at BGN 16 M.

Novinite

Bulgaria Pays Compensations to Police Brutality Victims

Bulgaria's cabinet paid BGN 54 500 in compensations to two victims of police brutalitiy under the rule of the European Human Rights Court in Strasburg.

The largest amount went to the parents of Gancho Vachkov aka Ganetsa, who was killed in 1999 by a police anti-terrorist task force team.

According to the Court, the operation to arrest Ganetsa was wrongly planned while police used unnecessary force and fired shots without need; the following probe of the killing had many flaws such as failing to collect evidence from officers who were involved in the arrest and to even identify them, along with the coroner's report that suicide could have been a likely cause of death.

"All this shows the total lack of police obeying the law, and taking responsibility for their actions," the magistrates wrote.

The Bulgarian cabinet also ordered Wednesday a payment of EUR 18 000 incompensations to Vasil Petrov from the town of Velingrad. He was arrested during a robbery and shot by two policemen while attempting to escape. He received serious kidney and liver injuries and damage.

Two other people were awarded EUR 11 000 over the slow justice process in the country – Margarita Kotseva has been fired from a psychiatric ward in the city of Veliko Tarnovo in 1996 and her case against the employer is still dragging on; Dimitar Filipov spent two years behind bars on theft charges which have not been proven.

Novinite

Bulgarian President Accused of Criminal 'Octopus' Ties

Bulgaria's President, Georgi Parvanov, is the "Octopus" head and Aleksei Petrov's patron, Plamen Nikolov, parliamentary secretary of the socialist cabinet "Videnov"insists.

Nikolov claimed Wednesday that even before the summer 2009 general elections people within the President's institution mulled in a panic different scenarios for failing the future cabinet of the central-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party.

The former parliamentary secretary further maintains the now-deceased, Iliya Bozhinov, was pressured to assign the rights of his "Taxi C Express" business to Petrov under the secret orders of Parvanov. The President has been promised that in exchange for the favor, the "Octopus" would turn the cab company into a surveillance team serving the interests of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Iliya Bozhinov, founder and Chair of Bulgaria's alternative left-wing party "Bulgarian Left Wing," died suddenly in August 2010, while vacationing in a camping site in the Black Sea coast. The cause of death was listed as "serious stomach ailment".

The close ties between Petrov and Parvanov date from the end of the 90s of the last century, Nikolov says, adding one proof is the inclusion of the former undercover agent of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), Aleksei Petrov, in a BSPhigh-level delegation in China.

In April, 2010, the former Member of the Parliament from the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) party, Gen. Atanas Atanasov, stated the President was the one issuing an order to stop the pending dismissal of Petrov from the National Security Services where the latter was employed in 2003.

Aleksei Petrov aka the Tractor was arrested in February during a special police operation, codenamed "Octopus" on a number of criminal charges. Considered one of the top underworld figures after the fall of Communism, Petrov was recently released under house arrest.

Novinite

Mammoth storm system moves east

CHICAGO, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Tornado watches and thunderstorm warnings were posted in the mid-Atlantic region Wednesday as a massive storm moved east across the United States.

In the Washington area, the National Weather Service also warned of possible flash floods.

The storm wreaked havoc in the Midwest Tuesday with winds of more than 60 mph in parts of Minnesota.

The NWS reported the low-pressure system shattered records in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. A pressure of 28.20, the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane, recorded just after 5 p.m. Tuesday in Bigfork, Minn., not only set a record for the state but appears to be the lowest pressure ever recorded in the continental United States not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone.

By daylight Wednesday, much of northern Minnesota was blanketed with snow, with 9 inches reported in St. Louis County.

Tornadoes were reported in the Chicago area and in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. In a Chicago suburb, a woman survived when a tree uprooted by a tornado crashed into the windshield of her car, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Possible tornadoes hit in the south.

High winds forced airports across the Midwest to cancel hundreds of flights.

UPI