MADRID (AP) ? The driver of the train that derailed and killed 79 people in Spain was on the phone and traveling at 95 mph (153 kph) ? almost twice the speed limit ? when the crash happened last week, according to a preliminary investigation released Tuesday.
The train had been going as fast as 119 mph (192 kph) shortly before the derailment, and the driver activated the brakes "seconds before the crash," according to a written statement from the court in Santiago de Compostela, whose investigators gleaned the information from two "black box" data recorders recovered from the train.
The speed limit on the section of track was 50 mph (80 kph).
The crash occurred near Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, and was the country's worst rail accident in decades. Some 66 people are still hospitalized for injuries, 15 of whom are in critical condition.
The driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was talking on the phone to an official of national rail company Renfe when the crash happened and apparently was consulting a paper document at the time, the statement said. Garzon was provisionally charged Sunday with multiple counts of negligent homicide.
The driver received a call on his work phone in the cabin, not his personal cellphone, to tell him what approach to take toward his final destination. The Renfe employee on the telephone "appears to be a controller," the statement said.
"From the contents of the conversation and from the background noise it seems that the driver (was) consulting a plan or similar paper document," the statement said.
Investigators from the Santiago de Compostela court, forensic police experts, the Ministry of Transport and Renfe examined the contents of the two black boxes recovered from the lead and rear cars of the train.
The investigation is ongoing. The next steps include measuring the wheels on the cars and examining the locomotive, the statement said without providing an explanation for those checks. Sniffer dogs will also be used to search for human remains in the wreckage, it said.
The train was carrying 218 passengers when it hurtled off the tracks last Wednesday evening. It slammed into a concrete wall, and some of the cars caught fire. The Spanish rail agency has said the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese magazine on Tuesday provided fresh details about the charges against former senior leader Bo Xilai, saying he had accepted bribes while mayor of a northeastern city and prevented an investigation into his wife's murder of a British businessman while local Communist Party boss in the southwest.
Prosecutors charged Bo with bribery, abuse of power and corruption last week, capping the country's biggest political scandal since the 1976 downfall of the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Caijing, a respected business magazine, said the allegations of embezzlement and bribery against Bo, 64, occurred while he was mayor of the port city of Dalian in Liaoning province. The charge of abuse of power was related to Bo's time as party chief in the sprawling southwestern city of Chongqing.
Caijing also said that Xu Ming, a plastics-to-property entrepreneur whose long association with Bo extended over two decades, was the "biggest briber", without elaborating.
Xu, founder of a company named Dalian Shide group, was detained last year, the day before the government announced Bo's removal, and has not been seen in public since. Forbes estimated Xu was worth $650 million in 2010.
Bo's lawyer, Li Guifang, declined to comment on the Caijing report when contacted by Reuters.
The government is also investigating other mid-level officials in Chongqing, including the former director of the General Office of Chongqing, Wu Wenkang, and the former secretary of Chongqing's Nan'an district, Xia Zeliang, Caijing said.
The charge of abuse of power against Bo was related to him "preventing" his former police chief, Wang Lijun, from investigating the case of Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, Caijing said.
Gu and Wang have both been convicted and jailed over the scandal. Prosecutors last year accused Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up the murder.
An official account of Wang's trial last September said Wang had fled to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, southwest China, last year after Bo beat him and stripped him of his police job following Wang's decision to confront Bo with the murder allegations against Gu.
Bo has been accused of receiving more than 20 million yuan ($3.26 million) in bribes and embezzling another 5 million yuan, Caijing said, confirming a report last week in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
Caijing, citing Chinese law, said the earliest date that the trial could start would be early August.
Bo is certain to be found guilty. China's prosecutors and courts come under Communist Party control and they are unlikely to challenge the party's previous accusations.
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ron Popeski)
It'll be a while before MediaTek's true octa-core SoC makes its glorious arrival, but for the time being, the company's unveiling something just as interesting -- and perhaps more practical. The new MT8135 announced today is a "quad-core" SoC aimed at "the middle- to high-end tier of the tablet OEM market." We quote "quad-core," because it actually consists of two clusters: dual Cortex-A15 cores and dual Cortex-A7 cores. But the good news is that unlike the original big.LITTLE configuration where only one cluster can operate at any given time (depending on how heavy the workload is), MediaTek's confirmed that it has implemented big.LITTLE MP ("MP" as in multi-processing) in the MT8135, meaning both the A15 and the A7 clusters can operate simultaneously.
Another highlight of this MT8135 is that it'll be one of the first SoCs -- alongside LG's H13 (which we've seen first-hand), Renesas' APE6 and Renesas' R-Car H2 -- to come with Imagination Technologies' almighty PowerVR Series6 GPU. Specifically, this is the PowerVR G6200 which, as part of the MT8135, can apparently deliver "up to four times more ALU (arithmetic logic unit) horsepower" than the Series5XT GPU on the cheaper, quad-A7 MT8125. And unsurprisingly, the MT8135 gets the same Miracast wireless video goodie given to the MT8125; though it's also worth noting that the latter only supports LPDDR2 RAM instead of the more powerful LPDDR3.
Sadly, there's no further information regarding availability, but you can kill some time by checking out more technical details in the video (with benchmarks) and press releases after the break.
Lawrence Livermore engineering team makes breakthrough in solar energy researchPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ken Ma ma28@llnl.gov 925-423-7602 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LIVERMORE, Calif. The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics (PV) --- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells --- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The LLNL Materials Engineering Division (MED) research team has made breakthroughs experimenting with black metals. These nanostructured metals are designed to have low reflectivity and high absorption of visible and infrared light. The MED research team recently published their black metals research results in a cover-page article in the May issue of Applied Physics Letters titled "Plasmonic Black Metals in Resonant Nanocavities."
Authored by MED physicist and research team member Mihail Bora, the article details the work of the Nanophotonics and Plasmonics research team led by LLNL Engineer Tiziana Bond.
It describes the team's concept of black metals, which are not classic metals but can be thought of as an extension of the black silicon concept. When silicon is treated in a certain way, such as being roughened at the nanoscale level, it traps light by multiple reflections, increasing its solar absorption. This gives the silicon a black surface that's able to better trap the full sun's wavelength spectrum.
Similarly, black metals are produced by some sort of random nanostructuring -- either in gold or silver -- without guaranteeing a full, reliable and repeatable full solar absorption. However, Bond's team developed a method to improve and control the absorption efficiency and basically turn the metals as black as they want, allowing them to increase, on demand, the absorption of a higher quantity of solar wavelengths. Her team built nanopillar structures that are trapping and absorbing all the relevant wavelengths of the entire solar spectrum.
"Our article was picked for the cover story of Applied Physics Letters because it represents cutting-edge work in the area of plasmonics, the broadband operation obtained with a clear design and its implication for the photovoltaic (PV) yield," Bond said.
This new LLNL technology could one day be used in the energy harvesting industry such as PV. By incorporating metallic nanostructures with strong coupling of incident light, broad spectral and angular coverage, the LLNL team is providing a path for more efficient photovoltaics and thermovoltaics (a form of energy collection) by means of plasmon-exciton conversion, according to Bond and Bora.
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The article can be view at this link: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v102/i25/p251105_s1
The teams' black metal research will also be featured in the September issue of Nature Photonics.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Lawrence Livermore engineering team makes breakthrough in solar energy researchPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ken Ma ma28@llnl.gov 925-423-7602 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LIVERMORE, Calif. The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics (PV) --- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells --- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The LLNL Materials Engineering Division (MED) research team has made breakthroughs experimenting with black metals. These nanostructured metals are designed to have low reflectivity and high absorption of visible and infrared light. The MED research team recently published their black metals research results in a cover-page article in the May issue of Applied Physics Letters titled "Plasmonic Black Metals in Resonant Nanocavities."
Authored by MED physicist and research team member Mihail Bora, the article details the work of the Nanophotonics and Plasmonics research team led by LLNL Engineer Tiziana Bond.
It describes the team's concept of black metals, which are not classic metals but can be thought of as an extension of the black silicon concept. When silicon is treated in a certain way, such as being roughened at the nanoscale level, it traps light by multiple reflections, increasing its solar absorption. This gives the silicon a black surface that's able to better trap the full sun's wavelength spectrum.
Similarly, black metals are produced by some sort of random nanostructuring -- either in gold or silver -- without guaranteeing a full, reliable and repeatable full solar absorption. However, Bond's team developed a method to improve and control the absorption efficiency and basically turn the metals as black as they want, allowing them to increase, on demand, the absorption of a higher quantity of solar wavelengths. Her team built nanopillar structures that are trapping and absorbing all the relevant wavelengths of the entire solar spectrum.
"Our article was picked for the cover story of Applied Physics Letters because it represents cutting-edge work in the area of plasmonics, the broadband operation obtained with a clear design and its implication for the photovoltaic (PV) yield," Bond said.
This new LLNL technology could one day be used in the energy harvesting industry such as PV. By incorporating metallic nanostructures with strong coupling of incident light, broad spectral and angular coverage, the LLNL team is providing a path for more efficient photovoltaics and thermovoltaics (a form of energy collection) by means of plasmon-exciton conversion, according to Bond and Bora.
###
The article can be view at this link: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v102/i25/p251105_s1
The teams' black metal research will also be featured in the September issue of Nature Photonics.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Docker,?an app container service from the co-founder at DotCloud, and Salt,?an open DevOps platform from the founder of Salt Stack, were mentioned this past week at OSCON as two of the most exciting new open-source efforts. Complexity comes with the cloud and it fit with enterprise data centers. The Docker team calls this new world of services and devices the matrix of hell. The Salt folks see salvation in speed -- perhaps to save us all from the hell that comes with heavyweight systems that require extensive resources and are slow due to being built when distributed systems were not as common as they are today.
The Pending home sales index (PHSI) for June fell 0.4% month-over-month. This was better than expectations for a 1% fall.
Meanwhile, on the year, pending home sales were up 9.1%, beating expectations for an 8.3% rise.
May's numbers were revised lower to reflect a 5.8%? MoM decline and an 11.2% YoY rise. This compares with an initial reading that showed a 6.7% MoM rise and a 12.5% YoY rise.
"Mortgage interest rates began to rise in May, taking some of the momentum out of contract activity in June," Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said in a press release. "The persistent lack of inventory also is contributing to lower contract signings."
The 30-year rate stands at 4.31% according to Freddie Mac's primary mortgage market survey. Yun added that some homebuyers sign contracts with floating mortgage interest rates, and these can be locked 10 - 14 days before closing. "So some homebuyers may change their minds if the rate rises too much, which apparently happened with some sales scheduled to close in June."
Ahead of the report, Bank of America's Michelle Meyer expected a decline of 2% on the month. She expected some of the decline to be on accounts of a "give-back following a 6.7% surge in May."
Here's a look at the regional breakdown:
In the Northeast the PHSI is up 12.2% from a year ago.
In the Midwest it fell 1% on the month, but is up 19.5% from a year ago.
In the South the index was down 2.1% on the month, but is up 9.5% from a year ago.
In the West it climbed 3.3% on the month and is up 4.4% from a year ago.
Investors watch this number because it is considered a leading indicator of the housing market. The PHSI looks at all homes where a contract has been signed but the sale is not complete.
In this Friday, July 26, 2013, photo released on Saturday, July 27, by Egyptian army, opponents of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi protest at Tahrir Square during a protest in Cairo, Egypt. Security forces clashed with supporters of Egypt's ousted president early Saturday in the country's bloodiest incidence of violence since the military deposed Morsi. (AP Photo/Hossam Diab, Egyptian army)
In this Friday, July 26, 2013, photo released on Saturday, July 27, by Egyptian army, opponents of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi protest at Tahrir Square during a protest in Cairo, Egypt. Security forces clashed with supporters of Egypt's ousted president early Saturday in the country's bloodiest incidence of violence since the military deposed Morsi. (AP Photo/Hossam Diab, Egyptian army)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? As violence in Egypt turned increasingly deadly Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the Mideast nation was at "a pivotal moment" more than two years since the uprising ousted the longtime President Hosni Mubarak.
Clashes between security forces and supporters of democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi in eastern Cairo early Saturday left at least 65 protesters dead. The Islamist-led protests over Morsi's removal earlier this month followed nationwide rallies on Friday that drew millions in support of military-backed authorities.
In 2011 a revolution ended Mubarak's rule and brought Morsi to power last year as Egypt's first democratically elected leader. Military authorities toppled Morsi last month, calling into question the future of democracy in Egypt and the nature of the U.S.-Egyptian partnership in the region.
The U.S. has not taken sides but for weeks has called for peaceful protests and calm responses.
The Obama administration has avoided defining the ouster of Morsi as a coup. Under federal law, U.S. assistance must be suspended if a country's democratic government is overthrown by military force. Egypt received $1.5 billion a year in aid from the U.S., nearly all of it for the military.
"This is a pivotal moment for Egypt," Kerry said in a statement. "Over two years ago, a revolution began. Its final verdict is not yet decided, but it will be forever impacted by what happens right now. In this extremely volatile environment, Egyptian authorities have a moral and legal obligation to respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Both are essential components of the inclusive democratic process they have publicly embraced."
Kerry said the continued violence sets back efforts of "reconciliation and democratization," and affects regional stability. The U.S. is urging "an independent and impartial inquiry" and that political leaders must help their country "take a step back from the brink," he said.
"A meaningful political dialogue, for which interim government officials have themselves called, requires participants who represent all the political parts of Egyptian society," Kerry said. "To enable such a dialogue, the United States reiterates our call for an end to politicized detentions and the release of political leaders consistent with the law."
On Saturday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by phone with Egypt's defense minister to express deep concern over the violence and to encourage restraint, a Pentagon spokesman said.
"The United States believes that the current transition needs to be marked by inclusivity, that Egyptian authorities should avoid politicized arrests and detentions, and take steps to prevent further bloodshed and loss of life," Pentagon press secretary George Little said. "It is in the short- and long-term interests of the Egyptian people to renew their path toward democratic transition, and to emphasize tolerance across the political spectrum."
Sienna Miller?and?Tom Sturridge?were spotted with their 1-year-old daughter?Marlowe?in Rome on Thursday (July 25). While enjoying an Italian holiday, baby Marlowe was seen crawling alongside her doting mom and dad.
The following day, the family-of-three were seen taking in the sights as they strolled around?the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.?
The?Alfie?star, 31, recently opened up about expanding their family.
?I want an army, yeah. I want a full army,? Sienna?said. ?It?s insurance for when I get older. I?ve got to have one whom I don?t irritate too much that will just take care of me. I love a big heaving, bursting Christmas table. I want that table full.?
Asked how motherhood has affected her, she added, ?It?s definitely more overwhelming than you can ever imagine. It?s completely life-changing in the most wonderful way. It reshapes your heart and you can?t really describe it or prepare for it, but it?s magical. It?s sort of the reason to live, I think.?
BERLIN (AP) ? German engineering giant Siemens AG says it will be replacing its chief executive, who has drawn the ire of shareholders by failing to meet profit targets.
Siemens said in a statement late Saturday that its board will meet Wednesday to "decide on the early departure of the president and CEO" Peter Loescher.
A replacement will also be named.
Loescher, an Austrian, became CEO of Siemens six years ago. His hold on the job has grown shaky, especially in recent days after the company again issued a profit warning.
It was not immediately clear whether he would offer his resignation or be forced out.
Siemens is a heavyweight in Germany's engineering industry with interests in high-speed rail, advanced medical technology, robotics and power generation.
Beginning with its 2014 financial audit, Ypsilanti Community Schools' books will no longer show an operating deficit.
The Ypsilanti Board of Education Thursday authorized school officials to consolidate and refinance the unified district's $18.8 million debt and to proceed with an agreement with the Michigan Finance Authority to pay back that debt over a 13-year period.
The Michigan Finance Authority met Thursday morning in Lansing to approve the agreement and repayment period from its end. The district called a special board meeting for Thursday evening to set the wheels in motion on its side as well.
The new unified district inherited $18.8 million in debt from the former Willow Run Community Schools and Ypsilanti Public Schools. About $11.2 million of that total is the combined operating deficits from Ypsilanti and Willow Run, which began operating in the red during the 2009-10 and 2005-06 academic years, respectively.
The other approximately $7.6 million in debt YCS has an obligation to pay back is owed to the Michigan Finance Authority for money each district borrowed in 2012 to address cash flow issues and make payroll at certain low points in the year.
Because of the way Michigan disburses its per-pupil foundation allowance payments and because many districts no longer have fund equities or reserves to float money from to cover bills and pay staff in between aid payments, many districts have to borrow money from the state finance authority at the beginning of the year to ensure teachers and administrators won't go without pay during periods of low cash flow.
YCS Superintendent Scott Menzel said there are 240 Michigan districts that participate in the MFA's state aid note borrowing program.
Menzel originally had hoped for 15 years to pay back the $18.8 million debt. However, the Michigan Department of Treasury and the Finance Authority had their sights set on 10 years. So the 13-year repayment period was a compromise.
The MFA is issuing bonds rather than notes to pay off Ypsilanti's maturing debt and to raise the cash upfront that's needed to run the district. The difference between selling notes and selling bonds are the terms of maturity, YCS' legal counsel explained Thursday. Bonds generally are long-term investments.
The interest rate on the debt will be fixed once the bonds are sold. YCS officials are expecting an interest rate in the range of 3 to 6 percent.
YCS will pay off the debt in the amounts of $1 million the first year, $1.5 million the second year and $2 million in years three through 13, Menzel said.
The money for paying off the debt will be taken off the top of the district's state aid payments and will go directly to the treasury department.
Per the MFA agreement, the money for the loan will come from the district's state aid payments for January through July of each school year. There are seven state aid payments during that period.
Despite having the $18.8 million in outstanding debt, this agreement will make it look like the new unified district is operating in the black and will remove YCS from Michigan's growing list of school district's operating with a budget deficit.
Brian Marcel, the assistant superintendent of finances and operations for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, who has been assisting YCS with this arrangement, essentially said the agreement turns the $18.8 million ? from the state's standpoint ? into more of an outstanding bond, rather than an outstanding debt.
The $18.8 million will be recorded in the district's budget as a revenue source and immediately will give YCS a $7.6 million positive fund balance.
"You are only guaranteed that for the one year," Marcel said to the board. "The financial decisions the district makes beyond the one year impacts whether that $7 million goes up or down."
The YCS Board of Education asked many questions Thursday night about the MFA agreement and about the future financial stability of the district. A few trustees expressed concerns about the money to pay back the debt being taken off the top of the district's per-pupil foundation allowance seven months of the year.
President David Bates stressed how the board and the district must work together to be intentional about attracting new families to YCS and increasing student enrollment.
Both Ypsilanti and Willow Run struggled in the past eight years with losing students to charter schools and nearby districts. Data reports compiled by school officials show that, together, the districts lost nearly 2,400 children in that time period.
For the 2013-14 academic year, YCS will receive $7,563 per pupil from the state. Taking $1 million from the district's per-pupil foundation allowance to pay down the debt essentially is the equivalent of 132 students more the district will have to attract to maintain its budget, Menzel said.
Stanford University is asking users to reset their passwords following the discovery of an attack that has left users and staff vulnerable to?potential identity theft.
?Stanford treats information security with the utmost seriousness and is continually upgrading its defenses against cyber attacks,? the university said.??Like many institutions, the university repels millions of attempted attacks on its information systems each day. In recent months, a range of large organisations have also reported attacks involving their information systems.?
The company is currently unable to provide details on the scope and range of the attack, though the breach is believed to be confined to the university's campus and is related to a series of security breaches on US companies.
A hallmark of the US education system, Stanford has emerged as a top source of information technology entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The university has produced technology leaders including Sergei Brin, Jerry Yang and Larry Page among other.
The hack comes in the wake of numerous other high profile data thefts and password breaches at numerous firms. Earlier this week UK retailer Lakeland admitted hackers had accessed two databases, forcing the firm to reset all user passwords.
In response the government has issued letters to the top FTSE 350 companies offering them the chance for a free cyber security audit against their peers to see how they are performing.
Market research firm Harris Interactive conducts a fairly extensive poll each year in the area of consumer electronic brands. This year, Apple again took the top spot in three major categories, named the best brand of tablet, computer, and mobile phone. The iPad, Mac, and iPhone scored the best across an array of specific brand markers, like brand recognition, emotional response to the brand, and purchasing consideration.
The survey measured the perceptions of over 38,500 US consumers across more than 1,500 brands in over 155 categories. Whew. Apple blew past the competition, which included HP, Dell, and Sony in the computer category, as well as Google and Samsung in the tablet category. Apple also won the top brand spot over HTC, Samsung, and LG in the mobile phone category.
which measures the perceptions of 38,500+ American consumers on more than 1,500 lifestyle, product and service brands across over 155 categories.
?Americans continue to give Apple brands strong ratings,? said senior vice president Manny Flores in a statement. ?And while their Consumer Connection scores are strong within their respective categories, what really stands out is that in all three of the categories Apple brands are measured ? Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone ? its Brand Momentum scores are in the top 30 of all 1,500 brands evaluated in the study, showing that consumers see this as a brand of the future.?
HP did win the best printer category, while Newegg.com topped the list as the best computer retailer. Verizon won best mobile network and best pre-paid mobile carrier in the poll, beating out AT&T and TracPhone (in the second category).
Now, of course, we all know why the stock is behaving so poorly: Apple is making its customers pretty darn happy.
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Burundi's tax revenue fell 20 percent in the first five months of 2013 due to an economic slowdown and a fire that destroyed a major marketplace in the capital, the finance minister said after parliament approved a revised budget on Thursday.
The revised 2013 budget projects tax revenues of 547.5 billion Burundi francs, well down from an initial forecast of 621 billion francs.
Burundi's government has already cuts its growth forecast for 2013 to 4.8 percent from 6.6 percent in the wake of the January blaze that razed Central Market, which also drew traders from neighboring Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Finance Minister Tabu Abdallah Manirakiza said the fire had also led to a fall in tax collection.
"The government was not able to collect expected taxes on businesses," he told reporters.
To plug a growing deficit the central African nation has introduced a 10 percent value-added tax on various food imports as well as taxes of 5 to 20 percent on vehicle documents, flight tickets, telephone calls, liquor and imported clothes.
Under the revised budget, the government has also trimmed its spending plans to 1.369 trillion francs from 1.389 trillion francs.
Despite a decline in external budget support, Burundi's government expects grants of 711.9 billion francs by the end of the year, up from an earlier projection of 645.3 billion francs.
Burundi's $2.5 billion economy relies on coffee and tea for 85 percent of its exports, but the landlocked nation runs a large trade deficit, worsened by a weakening franc currency.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The lies parents tell themselves usually have an element of truth to them. Steve and I are going to unpack them and reveal the truth hidden behind them.
Google Inc. has announced new versions of its Nexus 7 tablet computers. It has better features and a higher price tag.
The new models are available in the U.S. starting Tuesday through Google's online Play store and the following retailers: Best Buy, Gamestop, Walmart, Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Amazon, Home Shopping Network, Radio Shack, J&R and B&H Photo. A version with cellular capability is coming later with support for T-Mobile and Verizon.
Here's a look at how the new Nexus 7 compares with last year's model and other tablets with comparable screens.
Google Inc.'s Nexus 7
? Price: $229 with 16 gigabytes of storage, $269 for 32 GB. Add $80 for 32 GB model with cellular capability.
? Screen size: 7 inches diagonally
? Screen resolution: 1920 x 1200 (323 pixels per inch)
? Size: height: 7.87 inches; width 4.49 inches; thickness: 0.34 inch (200 by 114 by 8.65 millimeters)
? Weight: 10.2 ounces (290 grams) for base model, 10.5 ounces (299 grams) for cellular version
? Cameras: 5 megapixel rear camera, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera
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Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
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