Microsoft to replace Xbox 360 wheel after reports of heat, smoke

Microsoft will send out replacement parts for its Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel after 50 reports that the video game controllers overheated and released smoke when plugged in, the software maker said today.The $130 steering wheel-shaped controllers mimic the physical sensations of race car driving for games such as "Forza Motorsport 2." About 230,000 have been sold to consumers, according to the company.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company said owners of the controller should stop plugging it in, but said it is safe to use with battery power.This is the second Xbox 360 problem this summer. In July, the company said it expects to spend more than $1 billion to repair hardware problems in the video game console.Microsoft Corp. didn't offer any estimate of the cost of fixing the controller problems.Gamers can register online to receive a "retrofit," which Microsoft would send with instructions "if necessary." The company would not say what replacement parts it plans to send to customers.Microsoft said it has not received reports of fire, injury or property damage as a result of the defect, and it is working with regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.The consumer product safety commission said the smoking controllers were only reported in Japan, but that it is monitoring the situation."Any time that a company is taking individual action to offer their consumers something to be proactive. . . we're big fans of proactive," said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the commission. "If the company is making recommendations to its consumers, by all means consumers should respond to it."In July, Microsoft extended the warranty to cover shipping and repairs for the Xbox 360 console to three years, from two. The company said it fixed production problems that caused consoles to lock up and display three flashing red lights, which gamers have referred to as "the red ring of death."Microsoft shares closed up 8 cents at $28.30, but slipped 3 cents to $28.17 in after-hours trading today.

NJ teen untethers iPhone from AT n T network

A 17-year-old hacker has broken the lock that ties Apple Inc.'s iPhone to ATnT's wireless network, freeing the most hyped cellphone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile's network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology. In a video posted to his blog, he holds an iPhone that displays T-Mobile as the carrier.Although the possibility of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile may not be a major development for U.S. consumers, it opens up the iPhone for use on the networks of overseas carriers.The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is sold only in the U.S.ATnT Inc. spokesman Mark Siegel said the company had no comment and referred questions to Apple. A call to Apple was not immediately returned. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday on his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. It takes him about two hours to perform. Because the details are public, it seems likely that a small industry may spring up to buy U.S. iPhones, unlock them and send them overseas."That's exactly, like, what I don't want," Hotz said. "I don't want people making money off this."He said he wished he could make the instructions simpler, so users could modify the phones themselves."But that's the simplest I could make them," Hotz said. The iPhone has already been made to work on overseas networks using another method, which involves copying information from the Subscriber Identity Module, a small card with a chip that identifies a subscriber to the cellphone network.The SIM-chip method does not require any soldering, but does requires special equipment, and it doesn't unlock the phone; each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone.Apple may be able to modify the iPhone production line to make new phones invulnerable. The company has said it plans to introduce the phone in Europe this year but it hasn't set a date or identified carriers.

Acer to buy Gateway for $710 million

Gateway Inc., the struggling Irvine-based personal computer maker, agreed Monday to be acquired by Taiwan's Acer Inc. for $710 million in cash. The company is best known for its commercials with chattering cows and its Holstein-print shipping boxes.

By snapping up Gateway, Acer would displace Apple Inc. as the U.S.' third-largest computer seller with nearly 11% of the market, according to research firm IDC.After operating at close to break-even for several years, Gateway would get access to lower prices for its components, boosting its bottom line almost immediately, said independent analyst Roger Kay."Gateway won't have to live hand-to-mouth anymore," he said.Acer's bid of $1.90 a share represents a 57% premium over Friday's closing price. The deal is expected to close in December.Teaming with Gateway would make Acer a serious player in the U.S. market. The Taiwanese company shipped 5.2% of all PCs sold in the U.S. in the second quarter, good for fifth place just behind Gateway with 5.6%, according to IDC. They trail Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple."Acer gets three big things out of this," Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder said. "They get the Gateway.com website, where they sell computers directly to customers. They also get shelf space in retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City, which is not easy to get. And they also get a brand name that's well recognized in the U.S."Gateway earned its reputation decades ago as a homegrown company. Ted Waitt, then 22, and his brother Norm founded the business in an Iowa farmhouse in 1985.They sold accessories for Texas Instruments computers and later added their own line of computers.Gateway decamped to Southern California in 1998 but kept true to its Midwestern roots by continuing to package its computers in boxes with the black-and-white print of a Holstein cow.Cutthroat competition from Dell, Hewlett-Packard and others soon whittled away at Gateway's profit margins and cash reserves. The company, which had more than $1.3 billion in cash and short-term investments in 1999, ended last year with $416.3 million. Its shares have followed a steeper descent, tumbling 98% from a high of $82.38 on Nov. 16, 1999.Gateway shares gained 61 cents to $1.82 on Monday after the companies announced the planned acquisition.Reflecting the declining fortunes of Gateway and the broader PC business, Acer's bid was roughly one-tenth of the $7 billion offer from Compaq Computer Corp. that Ted Waitt turned down in 1997. Compaq has since been acquired by HP."The PC business in the U.S. is hypercompetitive," IDC analyst Richard Shim said. "It's difficult for anybody to grow organically and squeeze out any major competition."In addition to boosting Acer's U.S. position, the deal would strengthen the company's presence in Europe, where it already gets more than half its revenue.Gateway holds the option to buy Packard Bell, a PC vendor based in the Netherlands, from Lap Shun Hui, who also founded budget PC maker EMachines Inc. and sold it to Gateway in 2004.Gateway said Monday it would exercise that right, which would keep Packard Bell out of the hands of Acer's Chinese rival, Lenovo Group. Lenovo has been in talks to purchase Packard Bell.Acer President Gianfranco Lanci said there were no plans to lay off any of Gateway's 1,645 employees.Combining the two companies' purchasing power alone would yield $150 million in annual savings, he said.Acer plans to retain the Gateway brand and export the distinctive cow-print logo to Europe and Asia, where Acer has an established distribution network, Lanci said in an interview."Gateway has strong brand value," he said.

XBOX 360 out of order?

Imagine your blender breaking down twice. The vacuum cleaner giving up the ghost three times. The espresso maker repeatedly going kaput. Then imagine replacing the item with the same model over and over while keeping your brand loyalty and sanity.
Stephano Nevarez can. Since he first bought his $400 Microsoft Xbox 360 in 2006, it has failed three times. Each time, he sent the game machine back to the company and waited weeks for a repair or a replacement.
“There’s nothing in the house that breaks down as much,” said Stephano, a 15-year-old high school student from Salem, Ore.
Yet he remains a devotee of his 360 console, the more so because he wants to play Halo 3, the latest iteration of a violent space epic due in stores on Sept. 25; it is available only for that game machine.
The game, published by Microsoft, could redeem the company going into the holiday selling season. Untold numbers of 360 owners have watched their machines break down, and then, in many cases, watched the replacement consoles do the exact same thing because of a severe and widespread manufacturing flaw.
But if the Xbox players keep coming back because of Halo 3, and if other gamers buy the console just for the game, then Microsoft could markedly improve its standing in its battle against rivals Sony and Nintendo.
“Halo 3 is Microsoft’s most important game,” said Dan Hsu, editor in chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly, a magazine for enthusiasts. Mr. Hsu, who has seen the game, said it delivers in spades, with one caveat: “Assuming your machine does work, it does what it sets out to do.”
The bar is high. Combined, Halo and Halo 2 have sold around 15 million units, making the series one of the most successful game franchises of all time. The game has spawned novels, comic books and a possible movie.
The $12.5 billion console and video game business is up for grabs this year. On the console side, Nintendo is off to an unexpectedly strong start with its Wii, a game system that makes its players get up off the couch and move their bodies to direct action.
It has well over 28 percent of the American console market, according to NPD Group, a market analysis firm. The Wii is currently selling at a faster pace than the 360, and the company is releasing its big games this fall, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, though neither is as popular as Halo.
Sony, with about 14 percent of the market, was hurt when the release date of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game it was counting on to increase console sales, was pushed back from October into the second quarter of next year.
Microsoft, which has 57 percent of the market, has declined to say what is causing some of its Xbox 360 to stop working, or how many machines have been affected. It has set aside $1.1 billion for repairs, a figure that suggests to industry analysts that the problem could affect a third of the 11.6 million 360s already in the hands of consumers.
Microsoft has said that it will fix any faulty Xbox 360 free of charge.
The most likely explanation of where the engineers went wrong is that the 360s are poorly designed to deal with the intense heat generated by game play and that computer chips and other electronics may be popping off the motherboard, said Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group, a technology assessment and market research firm.
Mr. Doherty said he thinks that Microsoft, in an effort to put is machine into the market a year ahead of the Sony PlayStation 3, had skimped on product testing. He said that the failure rate among 360s is almost unheard-of among consumer electronics, where having even 1 percent or 2 percent of machines fail is considered a major problem.
He has been doing surveys of video game consumers, and results suggest that their patience is waning and that news of the problems is dissuading some potential buyers, he said.
Even die-hard users, he said, are wondering why they cannot take their machine to a store to have it checked out, rather than wait for it to break.
“It’s dissipating a tremendous amount of momentum they built up prior to July,” Mr. Doherty said, referring to when Microsoft first publicly discussed its $1.1 billion repair fund. “This is going to get worse before it gets better.”
But some financial analysts said that the eventual damage to reputation and revenue may not be so profound. Evan Wilson, an equity analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said he thought that Microsoft’s fix-it-free policy had mollified many avid game players who have been among the first to purchase the 360.
Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, said the repair campaign is aggressive and that the company, while it is not discussing what has gone wrong, is not taking the failures lightly.

Sales of Ink and Laptops Push H.P. Past Forecast

The Hewlett-Packard Company’s third-quarter sales and profit breezed past Wall Street’s estimates as the company continued to cash in on healthy sales of laptop computers and lucrative printing ink. Shares rose more than 2 percent on a higher financial forecast.
H.P.’s net income for the quarter that ended July 31 was $1.78 billion, or 66 cents a share, a 29 percent jump from the $1.38 billion, or 48 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Excluding one-time charges, the company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., earned 71 cents a share, 5 cents above the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Sales were $25.38 billion, a 16 percent increase from the $21.89 billion recorded a year ago. Revenue was more than $1 billion above the $24.09 billion that analysts predicted.
The biggest sales jump came in the Personal Systems Group, which includes desktop and laptop computers and is H.P.’s biggest source of revenue. Bolstered by laptop sales that grew 54 percent over last year, revenue within the segment grew to $8.89 billion this year from $6.92 billion last year.
Last fall, while a boardroom spying scandal connected with H.P.’s investigation of unauthorized leaks to the news media was publicly unraveling, the company reclaimed the title of the No. 1 seller of PCs worldwide from its struggling rival Dell.
H.P. made use of its widespread presence in retail stores and consumers’ growing preference for laptop computers. The company commanded about 19 percent of the worldwide PC market in the second quarter, compared with Dell’s 16 percent, according to the market research company IDC, citing the most recent data available.
Analysts have been concerned about a potential slowdown in H.P.’s imaging and printing group, a closely watched division that includes the high-margin inkjet cartridges that have long been the company’s cash cow. They have worried that Eastman Kodak’s foray this year into the inkjet-printer market with lower-priced products could harm H.P.’s profitability.
But the H.P. operation delivered a strong showing in the third quarter. Its operating profit rose 11 percent from $884 million to $981 million. The unit provided nearly 40 percent of the company’s total operating profit.
Investors have strongly backed the leadership of the chief executive, Mark V. Hurd, whose cost-cutting measures have included jettisoning some 15,000 jobs since he was appointed in 2005, as well as streamlining operations and improving profit margins.
That support has been reflected in a doubling of H.P.’s market value since Mr. Hurd was named chief executive after the tumultuous tenure of Carleton S. Fiorina, who was fired in February 2005. H.P.’s market capitalization stands at nearly $121 billion today, reflecting the addition of nearly $60 billion in shareholder wealth under Mr. Hurd’s watch.
On Thursday, investors drove the stock up after the company upgraded its own outlook.
H.P. said it expected profit in the fourth quarter of 80 cents to 81 cents a share, excluding one-time charges, a few pennies higher than the 78 cents analysts were expecting. Sales are expected to be $27 billion to $27.2 billion, also higher than the $26.46 billion predicted by Wall Street analysts.
H.P. shares climbed 45 cents, to $46.50, in after-hours trading. Before the results were released, the stock had closed down 10 cents at $46.05.

I.B.M. and Sun to Cooperate in Technologies for Servers

Two longtime rivals in computing, I.B.M. and Sun Microsystems , plan to cooperate on server technologies, a move that could put pressure on their competitor Hewlett-Packard.
Sun’s chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, said the new “comprehensive relationship” brought “a tectonic shift in the market landscape.”
The collaboration announced yesterday will enable Sun’s Solaris operating system to run on International Business Machine servers. Among other things, that means customers that run Sun servers will be able to switch to I.B.M. hardware without having to rewrite any programs.
At first this will be possible on I.B.M.’s x series of servers, which also run Microsoft Windows or the open-source Linux system. But eventually I.B.M. hopes to bring Solaris to mainframes, the big multitasking machines that have been a core profit center for the company for decades.
I.B.M. has been expanding the kinds of programs that can run on mainframes, to encourage customers to consolidate multiple servers onto these bigger machines as a cost-saving move.
These steps threaten to take Sun servers out of action in favor of I.B.M. machines. But Sun can gain from this partnership by collecting Solaris service subscriptions from customers who run that operating system on I.B.M. hardware.
The arrangement is in keeping with Sun’s strategy to rebound from a devastating slump in the first part of the decade by broadening its role as a software vendor. This week, Sun and Google expanded their partnership as Google began distributing Sun’s StarOffice suite of word processing, spreadsheets and other desktop programs.
“Our view is when you make your products available on other people’s platforms, you just meet more customers, which just gives you more opportunities,” Mr. Schwartz said.
Hewlett-Packard is locked in a battle with I.B.M. for leadership in the worldwide server market. I.B.M. and H.P. each had 29 percent share in the most recent assessment by the market tracker IDC, while Sun and Dell Inc. were tied for third, with 11 percent each.

PM misled the parliament over US nuke deal :Indian Lawmakers

Lawmakers on Thursday accused Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of misleading parliament about a controversial civilian nuclear deal with the United States.MPs from four Communist parties, who prop up Singh's government in parliament, joined opposition lawmakers in alleging that he gave false information about the deal on Monday."Stop speaking lies. Stop selling the country and save India," shouted MPs from the upper house as they demanded Singh's resignation.Uproar in both the upper and lower houses of parliament forced its adjournment for the day.The MPs focused on Singh's statement on Monday in which he said the civil nuclear energy deal concluded with Washington last month would not curb India's right to test nuclear weapons.Singh's statement seemed to contradict remarks by a US State Department spokesman on Tuesday who said the accord had provisions allowing Washington to terminate the agreement if India tested atomic weapons.Hindu nationalists and the Communists piled pressure on Singh for going ahead with the accord, which permits India to buy atomic fuel, technology and plants even though it is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to allay MPs' concerns, saying "there is nothing in the bilateral agreement that the government has entered with the US that will tie the hands of a future government to undertake a nuclear test." But his promise that India retained the "sovereign right to test and would do so if it is necessary in the national interest" found few takers, with the Communists walking out and the opposition trooping to the well of the house to protest.Earlier, Communist lawmaker D. Raja warned the government not to take the support of the Left bloc for granted."The Left is a serious political force and reflects the concerns of the people. The government should understand this," he said."Despite this, if they go ahead with the deal, then we will decide what we can do."The Communists are to debate the agreement at a two-day meeting in New Delhi starting Friday.Tensions between the government and its allies mounted last week after Singh told the Communists the deal would not be renegotiated and dared them to withdraw support for the ruling Congress coalition.The deal also requires the approval of the US Congress before it becomes operational.

No progress in Taliban hostage talks

Talks Thursday between Afghanistan's Taliban and a South Korean delegation trying to free 19 hostages ended with the militants reporting no progress.The two sides met for three hours in the small town of Ghanzi, south of Kabul, said a Taliban spokesman and a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross that has been facilitating the meetings.Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that representatives of his militant movement had demanded the release of eight Taliban prisoners."But so far our demands have not been accepted and there has been no development in the negotiations," Ahmadi said.A Red Cross official said it was not immediately clear if there would be a new round of discussions on Friday.The Taliban have killed two of the 23 South Korean aid workers they abducted July 19 and threatened to kill more. On Monday they released two women hostages as a "gesture of goodwill."

US Bent upon Striking Pakistan But will Take Care!

The US State Department has said that Washington will not hesitate to hit ‘high-value’ Al Qaeda targets inside another country, but will do so in a way that it does not harm America’s relations with that state.“If there is actionable intelligence on high-value targets, wherever they may be, we are going to do everything that we can to act on that information,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington.“And we are confident that we will be able to do that in such a way that we don’t harm our relations with any states that may be in question, whether that’s Pakistan, Afghanistan or some other state,” he said.The debate over a possible US action against suspected Al Qaeda targets started late last month when a US intelligence report claimed that Al Qaeda had established a safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal territory.Later, several senior US officials said that if they had ‘actionable’ intelligence about suspected Al Qaeda hideouts inside Pakistan, they would launch direct military strikes at those targets.The statements caused a bitter reaction in Islamabad where both government and opposition leaders said that such an attack would violate Pakistan’s territorial integrity.Since then, Washington has softened its stance, with President Bush declaring earlier this week that the US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty but expects Islamabad to take immediate action against terrorist hideouts.

Remains found from Minn. bridge collapse

Human remains were found in two of four vehicles taken from the wreckage of the Interstate 35 bridge collapse since Wednesday evening, officials said Thursday.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that the first remains were found a vehicle recovered about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday. The second set of remains were found about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
All the vehicles were taken from the Mississippi River bottom, the release said.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office was working to identify the remains and notify their families.
The bridge collapsed Aug. 1. Officials have released the identities of nine people killed in the crash. Before the latest recovery of remains, four people were listed as missing

Recalled Chinese toys potentially fatal: EU

The EU Commission on Thursday called for greater vigilance from producers and national authorities after US toy manufacturer Mattel recalled Chinese-made toys some of which, Brussels said, have a potentially fatal flaw.The call came after US toy giant Mattel recalled 18 million Chinese-made products worldwide, citing serious concerns for children's safety due to the presence of lead in paint on some toys and magnets in others that were too-easily dislodged.The European Commission confirmed that Mattel Inc. had voluntarily recalled the faulty products in Europe and elsewhere.It was the second large-scale recall within two weeks of toys of Chinese origin, "highlighting the risks of lead pigments and those of magnets in toys," the Commission said in a statement.The EU's Consumer Protection Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, expressed her satisfaction that the danger posed by the toys was detected by the producer in its own audits and that the company acted responsibly.However she added that "cooperation among producers and authorities is key to product safety, and more vigilance is needed from both sides to live by the rule that no compromises are accepted in this area." One recall concerned the "Sarge" character from the "CARS" die-cast vehicle line, which contains illegal levels of lead. The other recall notification relates to magnetic toys including various Polly Pocket, Doggie Day Care and Batman toys."These toys may release small, powerful magnets that can then be swallowed or aspirated by young children or placed by a child in their nose or ears," the Commission said in a statement."When more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal.""Aspiration to the lungs requires immediate surgery. Magnets in nose or ears can cause swelling and be difficult to remove," the EU Commission said. "The majority of these toys have already been sold, hence the importance of consumer information".The Commission has the job of ensuring that the message reaches all EU member states "who have the responsibility of enforcing corrective measures if adequate voluntary steps are not taken," the statement said.China on Thursday hit out at the foreign press and "irresponsible people" for raising fears about Chinese-made toys and other exports that have been recalled due to safety concerns.The recall was the latest in a long line of Chinese export safety scares in recent months that have led to increasing anger and concern in the United States and elsewhere.

Massive Earthquake in Peru :Death toll 355 and rising

Rescuers struggled across a shattered countryside on Thursday to reach victims of a magnitude-8.0 earthquake that killed at least 355 people. More than 1,500 people were reported injured and the Red Cross said the toll was expected to rise.
The center of the destruction was in Peru's southern desert, in the oasis city of Ica and the nearby port of Pisco, about 125 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. Pisco's mayor said at least 200 people were buried in the rubble of a church where they had been attending a service.
In Ica, a city of 120,000 near the epicenter, a fourth of the buildings collapsed, at least 57 bodies were brought to the morgue and injured parents and children crowded into a hospital where they waited for attention on cots. Several Ica churches also were damaged, including the historic Senor de Luren church. Cable news station Canal N said 17 people were killed inside one.
The earthquake's magnitude was raised from 7.9 to 8 on Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey. At least 15 aftershocks followed, some as strong as magnitude-6.3.
The scope of the destruction became more evident as the frigid dawn broke, revealing thick stone and masonry walls in piles around the region. The quake knocked out telephone and mobile phone service between the capital and the disaster zone. Electricity also was cut, with power lines drooping dangerously into the streets.
The government rushed police, soldiers, doctors and aid to the area, but traffic was paralyzed by giant cracks and fallen power lines on the Panamerican Highway south of Lima. Large boulders also blocked Peru's Central Highway to the Andes mountains. Rescue flights from Colombia and Panama were being prepared, but it wasn't immediately clear when they could arrive.
In Chincha, a small town 20 miles north of Pisco, an AP Television News cameraman counted 30 bodies under bloody sheets on a patio of the badly damaged hospital. About 200 people were waiting to be treated in walkways and gardens, kept outside for fear that aftershocks could topple the cracked walls.
"Our services are saturated and half of the hospital has collapsed," Dr. Huber Malma said as he single-handedly attended to dozens of people.
Chincha looked as if it had been bombed. Large areas were completely leveled; dozens of homes made with adobe bricks had collapsed. Townspeople picked through the rubble of their homes, wrapped in sheets that made them look like ghosts in the early dawn.
"We're all frightened to return to our houses," Maria Cortez said, staring vacantly at the half of her house that was still standing.
The Peruvian Red Cross arrived in Ica and Pisco 7 1/2 hours after the initial quake, about three times as long as it would normally have taken because of road damage, said Red Cross official Giorgio Ferrario.
He said he expects the death toll to climb.
"The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets," Pisco Mayor Juan Mendoza told Lima radio station CPN.
"We don't have lights, water, communications. Most houses have fallen. Churches, stores, hotels — everything is destroyed," the mayor said, sobbing.
In Lima, about 95 miles from the epicenter, only one death was recorded, and some homes collapsed. But the furious two minutes of shaking prompted thousands of people to flee into the streets and sleep in public parks for safety.
"This is the strongest earthquake I've ever felt," said Maria Pilar Mena, 47, a sandwich vendor in Lima. "When the quake struck, I thought it would never end."
Antony Falconi, 27, was desperately trying to get public transportation home as hundreds of people milled on the streets flagging down buses in the dark.
"Who isn't going to be frightened?" Falconi said. "The earth moved differently this time. It made waves and the earth was like jelly."
Firefighters put out a fire in a shopping center. State doctors called off a national strike that began on Wednesday to handle the emergency. President Alan Garcia also said public schools would be closed Thursday because the buildings may be unsafe.
Peru's Civil Defense agency said that at least 355 were dead and 1,500 injured.
The earthquake hit at 6:40 p.m. about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 19 miles, when one of the region's two constantly shifting plates dove under the other quickly, according to Amy Vaughan, a USGS geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
The last time a quake of magnitude 7.0 or larger struck Peru was in September 2005, when a 7.5-magnitude earthquake rocked the country's northern jungle, killing four people. In 2001, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck near the southern Andean city of Arequipa, killing 71.
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Associated Press writers Monte Hayes, Edison Lopez and Leslie Josephs in Lima, Alicia Chang in Los Angeles and Sarah DiLorenzo in New York contributed to this report.

US threatens to scrap India N-deal

The United States is threatening to scrap its nuclear cooperation deal with India if New Delhi conducts a nuclear weapons test.The US State Department and India have given different interpretations of the operating portion of the deal, known as the 123 agreement after a US law with the same title.A US State Department spokesman told reporters in Washington that all cooperation would be terminated if a test took place.“The proposed 123 agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.There is also a “provision for return of all materials, including reprocessed material covered by the agreement,” he said.His comments came a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament that the agreement would not affect India’s military programme or any plans to test nuclear weapons.“The agreement does not in any way affect India’s right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is necessary,” Mr Singh said.“There is no question that we will ever compromise, in any manner, our independent foreign policy. We shall retain our strategic autonomy,” he added

US likely to declare Iranian guards a terrorist outfit

The Bush administration reportedly is about to add Iran's Revolutionary Guard to a “specially-designated global terrorist” list.The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has close ties to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the top echelon of his regime.Citing unnamed US officials, the Washington Post and New York Times reported that the administration is about to crack down on the IRGC. Designation under the post-9/11 executive order 13224 cuts off organisations and individuals from the US financial system and authorises the administration to freeze its financial assets.The US government can also confiscate assets of those who provide support to such groups and their subsidiaries, front organisations, agents and associates.Those blacklisted in recent years include Al Qaeda-affiliated groups and individuals in Libya and Southeast Asia, Saudi “charities” in Indonesia and the Philippines, radicals operating in the tri-border region between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and — just this week — the Lebanon-based Islamist group, Fatah al-Islam.If the terrorist designation of the IRGC goes ahead it will, significantly, target an agency of a foreign government.US Iran experts claim that the Iranian government is using subsidiaries associated with the IRGC to protect some oil projects from possible UN-backed sanctions.The IRGC, also known as the Pasdaran was set up as the “guardian of the Islamic Revolution” after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. Three years later, a 1,500-strong IGRC force was sent to Lebanon, where it oversaw the establishment of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that the following year was the principal suspect in deadly bombings of the US Embassy and US Marines barracks in Beirut.Over the past decade and more, that State Department's annual reports on global terrorism have consistently reported on Iran's key involvement in state-sponsored terror.Washington links the IRGC, estimated to be 120,000-125,000-strong, to much of that activity. They claim that its corps Quds Force oversees terrorism abroad.Recently, US officials also have begun to link the IRGC to anti-US violence in Iraq.In the State Department's annual terrorism reports covering 2005 and 2006, the IRGC is accused of supplying lethal assistance, including armour-piercing explosives, to Iraqi militant groups fighting US forces.US military experts blame the IRGC for supply Explosively Formed Penetrators to anti-US groups in Iraq.Armour-penetrating EFPs are a particularly effective type of improvised explosive device — a shaped charge capable of penetrating most armour used by coalition forces in Iraq, with deadly results.

Yazidis fear annihilation after Iraq bombings

Angry members of a minority sect in Iraq said on Thursday they feared annihilation after scores were killed in possibly the worst suicide bomb attack of the four-year conflict.
Frail clay houses in the centre of Kahtaniya, one of two villages targeted on Tuesday by garbage trucks packed with explosives, were flattened for several blocks.
Chunks of concrete and twisted aluminum lay in the street beside the destroyed homes of hundreds of Yazidis, a minority sect regarded by Sunni militants as infidels.
Estimates of the death toll varied from 175 to 500.
"Their aim is to annihilate us, to create trouble and kill all the Yazidis because we are not Muslims," said Abu Saeed, a grey-bearded old man in Kahtaniya.
Saeed told Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, who made a short tour of the devastated area, that 51 members of his extended family had been killed. About 100 angry Yazidi men gathered as Salih met local officials.
"It's like a nuclear site, the site of a nuclear bomb," Salih, a Kurd, told Reuters.
The U.S. military has said al Qaeda is the prime suspect for the bombings. It had said large-scale attacks were possible before a progress report on the conflict is delivered to Congress on September 15.
U.S. forces this week began a new nationwide security push, including operations north and south of Baghdad, targeting Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants and Shi'ite militias.
The U.S. military said on Thursday two soldiers had been killed and six wounded in combat north of the capital on Wednesday. A total of 3,701 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
U.S. President George W. Bush, under pressure to show results in the unpopular war, has said August could be a bloody month as troops move out of bases into smaller outposts and as al Qaeda attempts to influence debate in Washington.
"NO MORE YAZIDIS"
"Al Qaeda wants to kill all the Yazidis," said another Kahtaniya villager, who gave his name only as Hossein. "Another bomb like this and there will be no more Yazidis left."
Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect of several hundred thousand in northern Iraq and Syria who say they are persecuted for their beliefs.
In April, gunmen killed 23 Yazidi factory workers in Mosul in apparent retaliation for the stoning several weeks earlier of a teenaged Yazidi girl who police said had fallen in love with a Sunni Arab man and converted to Islam.
Angry Yazidis pleaded for help in the aftermath of the bombings. "We are thirsty. We have had no water for days," Naif Kudar Ismael said in Kahtaniya, a village of about 1,600.
Nineveh province governor Duraid Kashmoula said the blasts buried entire families. He put the death toll at 220.
Zairyan Othman, minister of health in neighboring Kurdistan, Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said 205 were killed and 235 wounded. Iraq's Health Ministry said on Thursday more than 150 were killed and more than 200 wounded.
The bombings were the worst coordinated attack in Iraq since November 2006, when six car bombs in different areas of Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City killed 200 people and wounded 250.
Major Rodger Lemons, operations officer for a U.S. brigade in the area, said rescue efforts were beginning to wind up.
"My assessment is there's probably no one left alive in the rubble," he said. He said about 600 people were homeless.
The U.S. military said between 175 and 180 people had probably been killed. "I don't know if we'll ever get to a point where we'll have an exact figure," Lemons said.
Rescuers dug through the rubble throughout Wednesday in scenes reminiscent of an earthquake zone. Bodies covered by blankets were laid in the street.
Lemons said it appeared two garbage trucks packed with explosives had been driven to each of the two villages.
In al-Jazeera, where about 800 live, Iraqi security forces shot and killed the driver of one truck outside the village.

The daughter of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah has asked an Indian court to grant her claim to a sprawling home built by her father in India before the country’s partition in 1947.Mr Jinnah constructed a European-style seafront bungalow in the late 1930s in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai, where he lived with his wife and only daughter before moving to the newly-created Pakistan at independence.For decades, Jinnah House, with its imposing columns, Italian marble and walnut panelling, was home to Britain’s deputy high commissioner but mostly fell into disuse after being vacated in 1982.On Tuesday, Mr Jinnah’s 88-year-old daughter, Dina Wadia, who lives in New York, approached the high court in Mumbai in a bid to gain ownership of the property, built on 2.5 acres of land, estimated to be worth about $400 million.“Being the only child of Mr Jinnah, she is the sole heir to his property,” Wadia’s lawyer Shrikanth Doijode said. “This is the only property in India which she is claiming and which is in the possession of the Indian government at present.”The historic house was the venue for watershed talks on the subcontinent’s partition between Mr Jinnah and Indian leaders.Pakistan has repeatedly requested New Delhi either to sell or lease the house to its government for use as a consular office. India has neither refused nor accepted that request. The house now remains locked and is in an advanced state of decay.After partition the Indian government appropriated immovable and movable property left behind by those who chose to go to Pakistan, designating such assets as evacuee property.But as a goodwill gesture, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, ensured neither Jinnah nor his daughter were declared evacuees. Nor was the Jinnah House registered as an evacuee property.

China's pollution ‘very, very bad’ as Olympics near: EU

The air quality in China is ‘very, very bad’ and EU officials have made proposals to Beijing on how to improve the situation ahead of next year's Olympic Games, a spokeswoman said Thursday."We are talking to the (Olympic) organisers, we have already proposed certain measures" to alleviate the situation, said Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.While not giving any details of the proposals delivered during "informal" discussions, the spokeswoman added that the Chinese government "is in the process of improving the situation" in Beijing and other cities.Helfferich stressed that the EU's executive arm "doesn't have any mandate or any way of meddling in the organisation of the games".Beijing 2008 Olympic organisers said Thursday they were confident that athletes would compete in clean air next year despite revelations that events could be postponed because of pollution."We are well aware of the challenges but we are confident that air quality will be good for the Olympics," organising committee spokesman Sun Weide told AFP.He was speaking in response to comments from International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge on Wednesday that events could be rescheduled at the Games if pollution was extremely bad.China's communist leaders have also come under fire recently from dissidents and foreign critics who say Beijing is flouting the humanitarian ideals of the Olympic charters with continued human rights abuses and political repression.Christiane Hohmann, spokeswoman for the EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, quizzed on concerns over China's human rights record, said Brussels was "watching the clampdown as far as human rights are concerned... at the moment"."This is something we voice our concerns regularly with the Chinese and we also use other diplomatic means of demarches vis a vis the Chinese government," Hohmann added.China on Wednesday held a spectacular celebration at massive Tiananmen Square to usher in the final year to the 2008 Olympics, which begin August 8, 2008.

Musharraf rejects state of emergency rule

President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday decided against imposing a state of emergency in Pakistan, a senior government official told AFP."The president has rejected the suggestions to declare a state of emergency as proposed by his political allies," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Private television channels meanwhile quoted the leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, as ruling out the possibility of emergency rule.President Musharraf met on Thursday morning with senior political aides to discuss whether or not to impose emergency rule, prompted by escalating security concerns and political instability in the country.Earlier, government sources had said the president was reluctant to impose an emergency but that he had been under pressure from key aides to do so.Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem had said that emergency rule had come under consideration because of "internal and external threats".The president had been considering imposing emergency rule since Tuesday, when he met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other senior aides, the official sources told AFP on condition of anonymity.President Musharraf is under pressure on many fronts, facing growing discontent with the autocratic nature of his government as well as an upsurge in militant violence in volatile tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.Among concerns raised at Tuesday's meeting were the deteriorating security situation in North Waziristan, which have become staging posts for Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, and threats by US officials and presidential hopefuls to take unilateral military action against the militant bases, the sources said.President Musharraf's aides had argued that Pakistan cannot afford further instability, especially with the capital's security already breached since security forces raided Lal Masjid that had been taken over by radicals.The July 15 operation at the Lal Masjid, which resulted in more than 100 deaths, was followed within days by a suicide attack at a political rally that claimed 15 lives.But emergency rule could have further exacerbated discontent, as it would automatically have extended the tenure of the current parliament for one year, derailing national elections that are scheduled for early in 2008.

KESC to buy power plants from Russia

Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has decided to purchase ten 100-MW power plants worth billions of rupees from Russia to generate an additional 1000-MW supply to overcome a serious loadshedding crisis in the city, sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday."KESC would be able to overcome power shortage after the installation of these power plants in different areas," sources said. The Board of Directors of KESC in its last meeting recommended to the corporation to make a deal with a Russian-based company to acquire the plants.Sources said that KESC administration was under severe criticism while the Supreme Court had also given clear-cut directives to the utility agency to improve its performance. "It was decided in the meeting that immediate steps would be taken in this regard to seek an end to power crisis," they said. A proposal, which was approved and highly appreciated in the board's meeting that 10 power plants, each plant of 100-MW capacity, would be obtained from Russia.Karachi will get a total of 1000-MW power supply from these power plants and it is hoped that with the installation of these plants the power crisis would end. KESC is evaluating and collecting data required for the installation of power plants from different parts of city in which Bin Qasim, Malir and Gadap are included.Sources said an agreement would be signed soon to make payment of these power plants. "Since KESC cannot pay the full amount, there are different options under consideration. These options include profit sharing with the concerned firm and purchase of plants on instalments," they added.Sources said a highly questionable performance of Siemens, the Management and Operation partner of KESC, had prompted KESC Corporate Management to explore other options.It may be noted that power requirement of the city is over 2400-MW. At present, KESC has failed to fulfil the demand despite the fact that Wapda and Kanupp are providing to it 750-MW and 75-MW, respectively.There are only two power plants in the city of which Bin Qasim power plant, consisting of six units, is providing about 900-MW to the city while Korangi Thermal power plant, consisting of four units, is supplying only 60-MW which is 190-MW less than its original capacity of 250-MW.Of the four units of power plant in Korangi, two units were declared retired while third is not working due to technical faults and only one unit of 60-MW is supplying power to the metropolis.According to an agreement, installation of two power plants of 488-MW should have been completed in August 2007. Board of Directors of KESC scraped this agreement in December 2006, due to allegations of corruption and bribe.