Friday, October 26, 2012

HBT: MLB 'in discussions' to open '14 season in Australia

Dylan Hernandez and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times report that MLB ?is in discussions about the possibility of starting its 2014 season in Australia? and Australian promoters are pushing for the Dodgers to be one of the teams.

MLB spokesperson Pat Courtney denied the report, saying: ?We are not currently exploring the possibility with the Dodgers or any other team to play in Australia.? And even the report acknowledges that ?it appears the negotiations haven?t advanced to the point where specific teams are being included in the talks.?

However, according to the Sydney Morning Herald the Dodgers are being targeted because of Magic Johnson?s involvement and there?s already a report claiming that the Diamondbacks would be their ?likely opponents? for a three-game series at Sydney Cricket Ground.

Without commenting specifically on the possibility of playing in Australia Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall issued a statement saying that ?if the possibility existed for the D-Backs to play overseas, we would most certainly be interested.?

Time zones and travel would obviously be obstacles, but MLB has regularly played season-opening series in Japan and sending two teams to Australia would seemingly be similar.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/25/report-mlb-in-discussions-about-opening-2014-season-in-australia/related

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New York Times releases Windows 8 app for all the news that's fit to tile

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The newspaper of record announced today that it will be arriving on Windows 8 tomorrow, offering up full articles, videos, photos and blogs to subscribers. Non-subscribers, on the other hand, will just get access to the Top News section. Also new in the world of New York Times / Microsoft teamups is the arrival of a NYT channel in the Bing News app. More info on both after the break.

Continue reading New York Times releases Windows 8 app for all the news that's fit to tile

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Reverse brain drain: Poles circulate home and out again to Europe

In the global reverse brain drain, migrants begin to influence a frumpy, provincial Poland in everything from toilets to insurance coverage to workplace attitude.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / October 21, 2012

Wojciech Burkot, director of Google's R&D center in Krakow. Mr. Burkot, a high-energy physicist born in Krakow was given permission to open an office anywhere he wanted, but came back home. Burkot cites the area's high stress on education, science and math.

Robert Marquand / The Christian Science Monitor

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Warsaw and Krakow, Poland

When Wojciech Burkot was licensed by Google to open a research and development office anywhere on the planet, the wiry, high-energy physicist chose Krakow, Poland. And not just because he was born there.

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Mr. Burkot had worked all over the globe ? Europe, the United States, and Asia ? in jobs with prestigious research organizations like the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and in private industry at Motorola. But after his 2006 interview at Google's California headquarters, he decided to settle his R&D outfit in Krakow because of its ongoing information and technology boom, and for the chance to bring something home.

RELATED: Four reasons illegal immigration from Mexico to the US has dropped

Burkot hopes Google's creativity and openness ? "Crazy in a good way," he says ? will rub off in a nation still a bit frumpy and provincial in the aftermath of communism. He recently took his team sailing on the Mediterranean Sea, not a typical Polish workplace outing. Google's offices, located across from an 11th-century Orthodox church, are a model of everything cutting edge in the industry, with a pirate flag, a ping-pong table, 24-hour access, and a disregard for hierarchy.

Meanwhile, Burkot's R&D teams, including returning Poles, are in headlong pursuit of faster search engine speed with ever larger caches of information. "That's the hard problem ? speed plus size," he says, happy to be engrossed in his passion back in Krakow.

Steady 'circulatory' trickle of return

In some ways, Poland is the country in Europe most poised to benefit from a "brain gain" brought about by its returning migrants. For one, Poland's economy has boomed relative to those of its European neighbors: It grew 13 percent in the past five years while the rest of European economies shrank. For example, Poland is a top appliance and flat-screen-TV producer on the Continent, even as its identity as a manufacturing workshop is giving way to more R&D.

But second, and most crucial, is the large Polish diaspora. The Polish brain drain took human capital abroad for decades, partly because Poles enjoyed special visitation rights abroad under the Soviets; but largely because of the big explosion of emigration in 2004 when Poland joined the European Union. This marked the first generation of legal mobility, and the time is often spoken of in rapturous terms of new freedoms. Educated youth, many from rural areas, left in staggering numbers. Estimates of their exodus are sketchy, but 2 million departures may be in the ballpark, say experts. The vast majority landed in Ireland and England, feeding the rise of Europe's cheap-airlines phenomenon.

Burkot's return to Krakow with Google is a tidy example of the potential of brain gain in Poland after the global financial crash of 2008 and Europe's austerity. But analysts say there is not yet any mass U-turn to Poland ? just a steady trickle.

A critical mass of brain gain brought by returning Poles is largely still a hope or expectation, says Pavel Kaczmarczyk, vice director of the Center for Migration Research at the University of Warsaw and an adviser to Polish President Donald Tusk.

There is evidence some Poles have returned. For example, the number of Poles living in Ireland peaked in 2005 at 325,000 and has dropped now to 126,000, according to the recent Irish census.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/N3sZAqnihFM/Reverse-brain-drain-Poles-circulate-home-and-out-again-to-Europe

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Nokia seeks $1 billion from bonds to help drive fightback

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Nokia plans to raise 750 million euros ($980 million) by issuing bonds that can be converted into shares, seeking a cheap way to bolster its fragile finances as it battles to claw back market share lost to Apple and Samsung.

Once the world's biggest mobile phone maker, the Finnish firm has fallen far behind Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones in the lucrative smartphone market, and is pinning its hopes for recovery on new models that go on sale next month.

With its cash reserves falling and its credit ratings cut to junk over the past year, analysts have said Nokia needs to show a turnaround in the next several months if it is to survive.

Its shares fell over 7 percent to around 2 euros in Tuesday afternoon trade as investors worried the eventual conversion of the new bonds into stock would reduce earnings per share.

But analysts said the choice of convertible bonds - which normally pay lower interest rates than normal bonds because they offer investors the chance of making money when they are converted into shares - was a smart one.

"It is a rather cheap way to get extra financing," said Evli analyst Mikko Ervasti. "They need buffers (and) their 2014 bond also requires financing."

Nokia's net cash fell to 3.6 billion euros in September from 4.2 billion in June. It also finished the third quarter with 3.8 billion euros in interest-bearing liabilities, with 1.75 billion in bonds and loans maturing in 2014.

Additionally, the company owns half of network equipment venture Nokia Siemens Networks, which finished the quarter with 1.4 billion euros in liabilities.

The convertible bonds will be due in 2017 and will pay a coupon between 4.25 percent and 5.00 percent. The initial price for conversion into ordinary shares is expected to be 28-33 percent above the average price of Nokia shares between the launch and pricing of the offering.

PINNING HOPES ON LUMIA

Nokia's fortunes hinge on its top-of-the-range Lumia 820 and 920 models, which run on Microsoft's new Windows Phone 8 software. The phones, which come in vivid colors and have high-resolution cameras, will hit the stores in November.

On Tuesday, the group unveiled the lower price Lumia 510, which is an update of the Lumia 610 but does not use the newest version of Windows software. The 510 has a larger screen and will be sold for around $199, excluding taxes and subsidies.

ING analysts welcomed the convertible bonds plan as reducing uncertainty around Nokia's short-term debt maturities and bolstering its capital.

"It also shows that the company is taking the question marks around its credit quality seriously and is willing to take the steps necessary to improve this," they said in a research note.

Nokia's five-year credit default swaps were trading around 2.8 percent tighter in earlier trading, meaning lower costs of insuring the company against default.

The final terms of the convertible bonds, including the conversion price and maximum number of shares which may be issued upon conversion, will be announced later in the day. Trading in the bonds are due to start around October 26.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi and Deutsche are the joint bookrunners.

(Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tarmo Virki in Helsinki and Josephine Cox in London; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nokia-seeks-1-billion-bonds-help-power-fightback-093924937--finance.html

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Prolific teen drug kingpin faces sentencing

LEBANON, Ohio (AP) ? An Ohio teenager considered by authorities to be one of the most prolific drug dealers in the Cincinnati area is to be sentenced in a juvenile court on Monday.

Tyler Pagenstecher (PEG'-ehn-steck-er) of Mason pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges in juvenile court on July 31 and faces anywhere from probation to three years in prison.

Authorities accused Pagenstecher, who turned 18 earlier this month, of playing a major role in a drug ring that sold as much as $20,000 worth of high-grade marijuana a month to fellow students in and around his well-to-do suburb.

Authorities say they believe Pagenstecher began selling the drugs when he was at least 15 and managed to stay under authorities' radar for a long time by not selling pot at school, but largely out of his home ? a two-story, white-brick house on a spacious corner lot where he lived with his single mother and older brother.

Investigators said they found no evidence that Daffney Pagenstecher, a 50-year-old school bus driver, knew what her son was up to.

The Pagenstechers' home telephone number has been disconnected; both Tyler Pagenstecher and his mother have not responded to repeated requests for comment since his arrest over the summer, when he was 17.

Pagenstecher's attorney, Michael O'Neill, declined Friday to comment on the sentencing.

Authorities say that Pagenstecher took orders from adults who led the drug ring, but was in charge of six teenage lieutenants who helped sell the pot.

Seven adults, ages 20 to 58, also were arrested and were accused of growing the pot under artificial lights in a furniture warehouse and two suburban homes.

Four of the adults have pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and possessing, marijuana cultivation and engaging in corrupt activity, and are set for trial in November and December.

Three of the adults agreed to plead guilty to some of the charges in order to get other charges dropped. One of them, 31-year-old Stacy Lampe, was sentenced to two years in prison. The other two are set to be sentenced by the end of the year and also face years in prison.

As part of its investigation of the drug ring, the Warren County Drug Task Force seized more than 600 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $3 million, or $5,000 a pound. Investigators also found $6,000 in cash in Pagenstecher's bedroom.

Task force Cmdr. John Burke has called Pagenstecher a "little czar" in the drug ring and said that most of his customers were students at Mason High and Kings High, two highly ranked public schools about 20 miles outside Cincinnati.

Pagenstecher had been scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 18, but a judge agreed to postpone it so the teen could finish a substance-abuse program that required three meetings a week and regular drug screenings.

Friends and neighbors have described Pagenstecher as a seemingly typical teenager who liked to ride skateboards and bikes, and usually got As and Bs.

___

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/teen-helped-run-oh-drug-ring-faces-sentencing-103215259.html

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