CA-NEWS Summary

Five killed in Oklahoma tornadoes, storms move northeast

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Tornadoes killed five people in central Oklahoma including a mother and her baby and menaced Oklahoma City and its hard-hit suburb of Moore, before the storm system tracked northeast early on Saturday. The National Weather Service said the severe weather threat would shift into neighboring Illinois and Missouri, where Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Friday.

Turkish PM calls for immediate end to protests as clashes flare

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called for an immediate end on Saturday to the fiercest anti-government demonstrations for years, as thousands of protesters clashed with riot police in Istanbul and Ankara for a second day. The unrest was triggered by government plans for a replica Ottoman-era barracks housing shops or apartments in Istanbul's Taksim Square, long a venue for political protest, but has widened into a broader show of defiance against Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Fighting in Syria's Qusair; U.N. says world watching

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops and Hezbollah guerrillas besieging the border town of Qusair fought with rebels on Saturday as the United Nations warned all sides they could be held accountable for the suffering of civilians trapped there. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting was taking place inside Qusair and in villages around it, largely controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces who have cut off access to the town.

More than 1,000 killed in Iraq violence in May

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 1,000 people were killed in violence in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, the United Nations reported on Saturday, stoking fears of a return to civil war. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in the last two months as al Qaeda and Sunni Islamist insurgents, invigorated by the Sunni-led revolt in Syria and by Sunni discontent at home, seek to revive the kind of all-out inter-communal conflict that killed tens of thousands five years ago.

Rock guitarist May leads London march against badger cull

LONDON (Reuters) - Protesters dressed as badgers and led by Queen guitarist Brian May marched through central London on Saturday demanding that the government scrap a plan to cull badgers, aimed at slowing the spread of a cattle disease. About 5,000 of the nocturnal black-and-white animals are due to be shot by marksmen in the six-week pilot cull, authorized to begin on Saturday in two areas in southwestern England.

U.S. rebalance to Asia-Pacific gaining steam, Pentagon chief says

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The U.S. military will devote more air power, ground troops and high-tech weaponry to the Asia-Pacific region as it moves ahead with a strategic rebalance, the U.S. defense chief said on Saturday in a speech that accused China of cyber incursions. In remarks laying out his vision for regional security, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured allies and partners at the annual Shangri-La Security Dialogue in Singapore that the United States was fully able to continue its strategic pivot to the region despite budget constraints at home.

Russia to send nuclear submarines to southern seas

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow's military. The plan to send Borei-class submarines, designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere follows President Vladimir Putin's decision in March to deploy a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year.

Two drone strikes kill seven in southern Yemen: local official

ADEN (Reuters) - Two drone strikes killed seven suspected al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen on Saturday morning, a local official said, nine days after U.S. President Barack Obama said he would only use such strikes when a threat was "continuing and imminent". Washington views al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as the movement's most dangerous wing after it attempted to launch bomb attacks on international airliners.

Rajoy sees hope for Spain in jobless figures

MADRID (Reuters) - Jobless figures to be released next week in Spain will be encouraging and the recession-hit country has started to turn a corner, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Saturday. "I'm not counting chickens here, however I recommend that you pay attention to unemployment and social security numbers on Tuesday the 4th ... If the patterns we've seen are confirmed they will be clearly encouraging," Rajoy said at an economic conference.

Cyprus rescinds citizenship of Assad billionaire cousin

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus has rescinded citizenship briefly bestowed upon a Syrian billionaire suspected by the European Union of helping to bankroll President Bashar al-Assad's government, authorities said on Saturday. Rami Makhlouf, who is a maternal cousin of Assad, is widely considered part of the Syrian president's inner circle and one of the most influential men in Syria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-000647171.html

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Electric cars are getting as cheap as gasoline rivals

Forced by state regulators to sell more zero-emission vehicles, automakers are tripping over each other to offer consumers rock-bottom lease deals. For the first time, electric vehicles are penciling out cheaper than their gas-powered counterparts.

Honda joined the price war this week by dropping the lease on its Fit EV from $389 to $259 a month. It threw in collision and vehicle theft coverage, maintenance, roadside assistance ? even a charging station at your house. Factoring in a state rebate, a customer can drive off the lot with an all-in, three-year commitment of less than $7,000. That may make the Fit EV the cheapest $37,000 car in history.

Electric car comparison test: EV specifications

Still, the Honda will have to compete with recently announced $199-a-month leases on the Nissan Leaf, the Fiat 500e and the Chevrolet Spark. Ford is offering its Focus EV for $284 a month.

If you're looking to buy, state and federal incentives can shave as much as $10,000, nearly a third of the sticker price on a typical model. But automakers are promoting leases to ease consumer fears about maintenance costs and resale values.

Credit California's tough pollution laws for the EV price war. The California Air Resources Board has mandated that zero-emissions vehicles must account for 15% of all new vehicle sales by 2025, up from less than 1% now. That has automakers scrambling to get consumers into a set of green wheels, even though they are losing money on every car.

Video review: 2013 Honda Fit EV

So far, consumers have largely rejected battery-powered cars as expensive and impractical. Most run out of juice after about 80 miles; recharging takes hours.

Even in California ? where the Toyota Prius hybrid is now the best-selling car ? fully electric vehicles still sell in tiny volumes. Only about 15,000 have been sold in California since 2008, according to registration data from R.L. Polk & Co., the automotive consulting firm. Nationally, buyers have registered nearly 32,000 electric vehicles.

Palo Alto-based Tesla Motors Inc. has managed to carve out a successful niche selling high-end electric sport sedans ? its Model S can cost more than $100,000. But lower-priced models from major automakers barely register on sales charts. Before slashing its lease price this week, Honda had sold a mere 174 Fit EV hatchbacks since July, according to the automaker.

Up to now, most buyers of expensive electric cars have been motivated by social concerns such as energy independence or the environment, said John O'Dell, a green car expert for auto information company Edmunds.com. The spate of cheap leases represents a play for average consumers.

"The bottom line is that, for the mass market, money drives the decision ? what's in it for me?" O'Dell said. "If it's going to cost more for a vehicle that doesn't have the same utility, I'm not going to buy it."

From a public policy standpoint, the goal is to boost consumer demand in the nation's largest auto market, hoping that bigger sales can spur research and development to lower the technology's cost.

"As we move beyond early adopters to what we call 'fast followers,' economics and cost are going to play a bigger role," said Mike Ferry, transportation programs manager for the California Center for Sustainable Energy, a San Diego nonprofit that manages the state's zero-emission vehicle rebate program. "Engineering will get better, costs will come down, and consumer needs will be better met."

If most EV drivers are motivated by politics or finances, Matt Walton represents the exception. The Moorpark resident just loves their sharp handling and quick start off the line.

"I'm glad it's good for the environment," said Walton, 58. "But for me, I just like the driving experience. I had old British sports cars, and in the electrics, I really feel connected to the road in the same way those older vehicles were."

A retired medical equipment manager, Walton was willing to pay a staggering $850 a month back in 2009 to lease an electric Mini Cooper as part of a BMW test program. He moved on to a Honda Fit with a $389-a-month lease payment that was a bargain by comparison.

So Walker said he was "ecstatic" this week to learn Honda would automatically drop his payment to $259 to match what new customers will pay, and even more excited that Honda eliminated the 12,000 mileage limit.

"As a business decision, I have no idea why they did it," Walton said. "But I'm not complaining."

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/Vs2kdmZBdlM/la-fi-0601-hy-autos-electric-cars-20130531,0,251770.story

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HitFox-Incubated Mobile Games Marketing Platform AppLift Raises $13M Series A

As mobile gaming has exploded, it follows that startups helping to feed and in turn feed off the mobile gaming ecosystem are poised for growth. One such company is AppLift, the mobile games marketing platform co-founded and backed by games distribution incubator HitFox, which today is announcing that it's closed a $13 million Series A round from Prime Ventures.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ujXwRfm_vrc/

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What Sequester? D.C. Booms as a New Gilded Age Takes Root (WSJ)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/309720022?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Eurogroup head: Greece to wait on debt relief - Daily Herald

Eurozone countries will not consider possible debt relief for Greece until April 2014, the euro currency bloc's head said Friday on a visit to Athens.

Still, Jeroen Dijsselbloem said a landmark decision was likely next month on how Europe's new bank rescue mechanism will work.

Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs meetings of the 17-nation eurozone, met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras to discuss the debt-ridden nation's efforts to reform its economy.

"I am confident the Greek program is on a sound footing ... there are the first signals of a turn in the economy," Dijsselbloem said. "There is optimism that growth will pick up in the eurozone as well as in Greece next year."

Hammered by a prolonged financial crisis, Greece has been relying on funds from international rescue loans since May 2010. But austerity measures it agreed to in return for the loans have pushed Greece deeper into recession. Poverty has surged and unemployment is reaching 27 percent.

Greece restructured its privately-held bonds last year. But the country is still struggling to stabilize its national debt _ which is set to rise to 175 percent of its annual output this year _ and has been promised additional relief from the eurozone if Athens delivers its promise to balance its budget this year.

What form that relief will take remains unclear.

"We have said that in April next year we will take stock of the course of (Greece's) public debt ... I see no reason to start these discussions early," Dijsselbloem said.

However, he said discussions were to be completed by June 20 on how the eurozone's new rescue fund would pump money into troubled banks without adding to the national debt of host countries.

"The mechanism will be available ... hopefully in mid-2014," he said, adding it was still unclear whether Greece could benefit retroactively regarding its massive current bank recapitalization program.

"The retroactive use of direct recap is a sensitive subject on which discussions have yet to be finalized," he said.

The 47-year-old Dutch minister said he was not worried about a French-German proposal to turn his position into a more permanent post.

"I think (the current system) functions well. Personally, I think we have to be a little careful not to have too many institutions in Brussels," he said.

The IMF said Friday, meanwhile, that it will disburse a $2.26 billion tranche of a rescue loan after it completed a review of the country's performance under the economic program tied to the bailout agreement.

The payment will bring the total amount of IMF payouts to $8.55 billion since the March 2012 agreement. The contribution is part of the much bigger bailout package with European nations. So far Greece has received more than $250 billion.

___

AP writers Elena Becatoros in Athens and Marjorie Olster in Washington contributed.

Source: http://www.heraldextra.com/news/world/europe/eurogroup-head-greece-to-wait-on-debt-relief/article_182dbc58-20d5-5c09-ab1f-2af2d738daed.html

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Tracy Morgan to star in FX war-vet comedy pilot 'Death Pact'

By Tim Kenneally

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Tracy Morgan has lined up something to keep himself busy with after saying goodbye to "30 Rock."

Morgan will star in the upcoming FX comedy pilot "Death Pact," the network's executive vice president of original development and programming Nick Grad said Thursday.

The pilot, which is being executive produced and written by co-creators Rob Long ("Cheers") and Tad Safran ("The Long Weekend"), stars Morgan as a formerly lazy, pot-dealing assistant high school coach who returns to his hometown as a decorated war hero. He runs across three down-on-their-luck friends and former students and sucks them into his new radical self-help philosophy, which involves harsh consequences for failure.

Eric and Kim Tannenbaum are also executive producing.

"Needless to say anything starring Tracy Morgan could be off-the-charts hilarious and we're betting this one is," Grad said. "Rob Long, Tad Safran, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum have delivered a terrific starring vehicle for Tracy ... This is going to be fun."

Three other co-stars are yet to be cast.

The half-hour pilot will film this summer in either New York or New Jersey.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tracy-morgan-star-fx-war-vet-comedy-pilot-004528778.html

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EU seeks to abolish data roaming charges in Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) ? A top European Union official says mobile phone network operators should be forced to end charging customers for data roaming when traveling across the 27-nation bloc.

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told the European Parliament on Thursday the roaming fees should cease to exist by next year.

The Commission, the bloc's executive arm, has already cracked down on roaming charges for international cellphone calls. It has also mandated lower maximum ceilings for data roaming costs, but bills for using the Internet on smartphones or tablets when traveling in Europe still rise quickly.

Kroes said abolishing data roaming fees will be another step to accomplishing the bloc's single market, saving citizens and companies money.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-seeks-abolish-data-roaming-charges-europe-155408387.html

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