Moscow Suburb Riot Shows Russia's Tense Ties With Migrants

Authorities in Moscow have rounded up more than 1,600 migrant workers after an ethnic riot took place over the weekend. Russian nationalists and soccer hooligans attacked a market area in a gritty industrial suburb of Moscow that's home to many migrant workers from the North Caucasus. The riot broke out after police announced that they were searching for a North Caucasian man suspected in the stabbing death of a young, ethnic Slav man. The situation highlights Russia's immigration problem — the country needs migrant labor, but fears what it perceives as foreign influence.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprProgramsATC/~3/8M79KUkY1qI/story.php
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Social Shopping Startup Shopcade Bags $4M To Fuel Mobile Growth & A Big Data Play

Social shopping and deals-focused startup Shopcade, which launched out of the U.K. in November 2011, has raised £2.5 million (circa $4 million) to accelerate its growth on mobile. Investors in the funding round include Pascal Cagni, formerly head of Apple’s European business from 2000 to 2012, and Michel Combes, CEO of telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent and ex-CEO of Vodafone Europe.

First order of business for Shopcade’s mobile push: expanding its app portfolio. Shopcade doesn’t currently have an Android app — but will be launching one next month, along with a refreshed-for-iOS-7 iOS app.

Shopcade’s ecommerce platform hosts products from more than 16,000 retailers and over 150,000 brands — with a focus on fashion, clothes and accessories but also incorporating other product categories such as books, media and electronics.

Its primary target is young females but it isn’t excluding men either…

The current Shopcade app lets users keep tabs on items they want to buy, informing them when something on their list goes on sale. It also pushes out personalised recommendations, and lets users follow each other to style stalk trendsetters (aka other users whose style they dig). Users can add items to their Shopcade list from any website, not just the items Shopcade hosts.

Last year the startup was focused on adding more game mechanics to its offering to ramp up user engagement — by, for instance, generating the Trendsetter score for each user to rank themselves against their peers. It also introduced a system of perks to reward its most influential shoppers.

This year it’s been focused on expanding its deals segment, introducing deals that are specifically tied to items users have added to their wish lists. Another focus has been on outreach: in June it launched a widget targeting fashion bloggers and publishers, allowing them to embed a showcase of product picks — or auto-populated products related to page contents — in a grid or carousel.

It’s also pushed into celebrity tie-ups, by allowing its users to have the chance to style a celebrity look under its ‘Stylist for a Day’ campaign.

Going forward, Shopcade evidently sees big data as its bread and butter, based on the intel it’s continually gathering about fashion-focused shoppers’ likes (and by implication dislikes) — and then selling that ‘trend spotting’ business intelligence back to large retailers so they can decide what to stock on their shelves.

Shopcade’s expansion into widgets helps with that, allowing it to cosy up to other fashion-focused communities. Mobile is another key data point to this big data play, furnishing Shopcade with more up-to-the-minute data on what its users are after.

As an example of the kind of trends it’s apparently able to call, Evan Adelman, Shopcade CTO, said funny pet costumes started to trend on the platform ahead of Halloween — and crucially ahead of marketing spending for Halloween — adding that the category is now highlighted on Amazon.com.

Commenting on the funding round in a statement, Pascal Cagni added: ”By identifying the game-changing opportunities in mobile commerce, Shopcade is set to become the leading mobile shopping platform targeting fashionable young females audience.”

Prior angel investors in Shopcade include Daniel Bernard, former CEO of European retailer Carrefour; Ian Livingston, co-founder of Eidos Games; and Lord John Birt, former director general of the BBC.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WTSrAvYaEOg/
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US lawmakers split despite October 17 debt deadline

Washington (AFP) - The United States is still facing a potentially devastating sovereign debt default, after senators failed to agree on terms to reopen the federal government and raise the country's borrowing limit.

Republicans and Democrats -- at war over the country's finances and ideological direction for more than two weeks -- tried to shed a positive light Sunday on a weekend of talks that despite the threat of global economic censure did not produce a solution.

The Senate convened a rare Sunday session to try and break the budgetary impasse that prompted the government to shut down on October 1, a move that has since damaged domestic confidence and undermined America's reputation as the world's leading economic superpower.

If the US debt ceiling is not raised by October 17, the Treasury would run out of money and could begin defaulting on its obligations for the first time in history, with likely dire consequences for the global economy.

Seeking to avert that outcome, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, talked up the dialogue with Republicans -- represented by top Senator Mitch McConnell -- though nothing concrete was disclosed.

"I'm optimistic about the prospect for a positive conclusion," Reid said.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has told the International Monetary Fund's policy steering committee that Washington understood its reputation as a safe harbor was at risk.

Stock markets are already factoring in a possible default if no deal is reached between President Barack Obama, his Democratic Party and rival Republicans by Thursday night.

But the threat of a global economic rebuke has so far done little to prompt an agreement.

Polls released during the shutdown have shown Congress's approval rating at record lows, with Republicans blamed most for the political gridlock in Washington.

Both parties in recent days indicated a deal must be done at all costs, despite the bitter bipartisan rancor.

"This is something that's wreaking havoc around the world and will affect economic growth, and I do hope that over the next week we'll reach a conclusion and I think we will," Republican Senator Bob Corker told "Fox News Sunday."

Obama rejected an offer by Republicans in the House of Representatives to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks while negotiations would continue on reopening the government, insisting on a longer-term solution.

Following talks with the top House Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, the president said they were not budging from their position.

Obama and Pelosi "reinforced that there must be a clean debt limit increase that allows us to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default," the White House said in a statement.

"The House needs to pass the clean continuing resolution to open up the government and end the shutdown that is hurting middle class families and businesses across the country."

Senate leader Reid had on Saturday turned down a second compromise proposal, offered by moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins.

It called for lifting the US debt limit for up to a year, reopening the government and repealing a tax on medical devices under Obama's signature health care law.

But Collins said her proposal could still become the basis of a deal, telling CNN's "State of the Union" she had support from a growing, bipartisan group of senators.

Senator Charles Schumer, a key Democratic power broker, said Reid and McConnell "were not that far apart" Saturday, when they held their first talks of the crisis.

"I'm cautiously hopeful, optimistic, that we can come to an agreement and open up the government and avoid default based on the bipartisan meetings that are going on," Schumer told CBS's "Face the Nation."

Democrats, meanwhile, have added a demand of their own -- that any deal also involve undoing the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester that went into effect earlier this year.

Schumer acknowledged it was a "sticking point."

Corker said House Republicans had gone too far in demanding that Obama's signature health care law be defunded, the initial cause of the government shutdown.

But "now the Democrats are on the verge of being one tick too cute," he said, referring to the bid to undo the sequester.

Global pressure for a deal in Washington is mounting.

"The standing of the US economy would, again, be at risk," International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said on NBC's "Meet the Press," comparing the effects of failing to raise the debt ceiling and reopening the government to the 2008 global financial meltdown.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-lawmakers-grapple-budget-impasse-under-default-cloud-164541542.html
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Bomb kills 27 in Syria as US steps up call for peace talks

Damascus (AFP) - At least 27 people died in a car bombing in rebel-held northwestern Syria as the United States stepped up its calls for a peace conference between the rebels and the Assad regime.

Also Monday, suspected jihadists freed four out of seven aid workers kidnapped in the increasingly volatile region.

The ICRC has not commented on the nationality of those abducted, though it has said most of the group were Syrian. There has been no claim of responsibility.

The United Nations said, meanwhile, that "the race is on" to make sure Syria keeps to deadlines to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal under the terms of a UN Security Council resolution.

The blast in the town of Darkush killed at least 27 people, including three children and a woman, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were in serious condition.

Activists said the blast targeted the market area of the town, which is a few kilometres (miles) from the border with Turkey, on the Orontes River.

Four of the kidnapped aid workers were meanwhile freed, International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Ewan Watson said, adding the organisation was awaiting further information about the others.

The Observatory said an Al-Qaeda-linked rebel group -- the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- kidnapped the six Red Cross staff and a volunteer from the Syrian Red Crescent.

The Red Cross, one of the few organisations able to deliver aid nationwide, said the team had travelled to Idlib on October 10 to assess the situation at health facilities and deliver aid.

"We don't have any intention of stopping our activities in Syria, but of course this situation makes us reflect and take a close look at our operations," Watson had earlier told Swiss radio.

Rebels control large swathes of Idlib, and kidnappings have become increasingly common in rebel-held parts of Syria, targeting both journalists and aid workers.

'Urgent' need for peace talks

The bombing and abductions came as the United States stepped up its calls for a peace conference between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its Western-backed opponents, who are divided over the initiative.

The United States said there was an "urgent" need to set a date for so-called Geneva 2 peace talks, despite a leading opposition group's rejection of the process.

"We believe that it is urgent to set a date to convene the conference and work toward a new Syria," US Secretary of State John Kerry said after meeting UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in London.

"There has to be a transition government," he said. "This will require all the parties to come together in good faith."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Washington to bring the opposition to the talks proposed for mid-November.

His call came a day after the Syrian National Council -- a key component of the National Coalition recognised by most Arab and Western governments -- ruled out attending any Geneva peace talks, and said it would quit the umbrella group if it participated.

The United States threatened strikes in response to August 21 sarin attacks that killed hundreds of people on the outskirts of Damascus, but the military action was averted by a US-Russian deal under which Syria is turning over its chemical arsenal for destruction.

SNC chief George Sabra said his group would boycott the Geneva talks because the international community had failed to punish the gas attacks or address the plight of civilians in besieged areas.

The United Nations said Monday the Syrian regime was providing "good cooperation" in the bid to destroy the country's chemical weapons by mid-2014.

However Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called Tuesday on Syria's warring groups and the international community to make aiding needy civilians as urgent a priority as dealing with chemical weapons.

"Influential countries gathered around a table, thrashed out an agreement on chemical weapons and put it into practice. They have shown it can be done, so where are the efforts to repeat this success with the burning question of access for humanitarian aid?" said MSF General Director Christopher Stokes in a statement.

The comments came as the Chemical Weapons Convention came into force for Syria.

The United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have been working in Syria since October 1 to eradicate the country's banned arms.

The OPCW says Syria's war is already holding up the work and has appealed for local truces to get access to weapons sites.

The appeal from MSF came four days after the OPCW won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work to rid the world of the devastating weapons.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bomb-kills-20-northwest-syrias-idlib-ngo-091425268.html
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Major 7.2 magnitude quake strikes Philippines: USGS

Manila (AFP) - A major 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck near one of the Philippines key tourist hubs on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey reported.

The quake struck at 08:12 local time (0012 GMT) some five kilometres (three miles) east of Balilihan, in the Bohol region of the archipelago, at a depth of 56 kilometres, the agency said.

The town lies across the Cebu Strait from the popular tourist destination of Cebu City, the country's fifth most populous city, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) away.

USGS issued a yellow warning, after the quake saying "some casualties and damage are possible and the impact should be relatively localised. Past yellow alerts have required a local or regional level response."

The temblor was followed by two aftershocks, each measuring more than 5.0 in magnitude.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a Pacific-wide tsunami threat and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The epicentre was 629 kilometres from the capital Manila.

Balilihan has a population of around 18,500, according to the town's official website.

The Philippines lies on the so-called Pacific ring of fire, a chain of islands that are prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/major-7-2-magnitude-quake-strikes-philippines-usgs-013512500.html
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Rodgers, Packers squeeze past Ravens 19-17

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers winds up to pass during the first half of a NFL football game against Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers winds up to pass during the first half of a NFL football game against Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy (27) is knocked off his feet by Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Josh Bynes (56) during the first half of an NFL football game in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh yells instructions to the field during the first half of a NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy (27) is brought to a sudden stop during the first half of a NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco passes the ball during the first half of a NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

BALTIMORE (AP) — For much of the afternoon, Aaron Rodgers was ducking oncoming linemen and misconnecting with hurried throws.

When it counted, however, Rodgers came up with the big plays.

Rodgers threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson, Eddie Lacy ran for 120 yards and Mason Crosby kicked four field goals as the Green Bay Packers beat the Baltimore Ravens 19-17 on Sunday.

Rodgers went 17 for 32 for 315 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He played most of the game without two of his top three receivers — James Jones hurt his left knee on a first-quarter play, and Randall Cobb left for good after being struck on his right knee on a tackle by Matt Elam.

And still, Rodgers was magnificent.

His 64-yarder to Nelson gave Green Bay a 16-3 lead late in the third quarter. After the Ravens closed to 19-17 on an 18-yard touchdown catch by Dallas Clark with 2:04 remaining, Rodgers clinched the victory with a 52-yard completion to Jermichael Finley on a third-and-3.

Rodgers completed only seven passes after halftime, yet those plays totaled 199 yards.

"Days like today remind you of why you love this game so much," Rodgers said. "Offensively, we're struggling a little bit, but we found a way to make enough plays to win."

The Ravens (3-3) had won 13 straight at home against NFC foes.

"Aaron made some really good plays out of the pocket in the second half," Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. "Early, he held it and took some sacks. Later, he held it and found some openings."

Rodgers received ample aid from a depleted defense. Despite playing without injured linebackers Clay Matthews and Brad Jones, the Packers limited Baltimore to 47 yards rushing and registered five sacks, including three by A.J. Hawk.

"It's kind of been our motto for a long time around here: 'Next man up.' We have to make it work," Hawk said. "We had a lot of young guys out there today who really did a good job."

It all added up to Green Bay's first road win following losses at San Francisco and Cincinnati.

"It's important to win on the road in this league if you want to make the playoffs," Rodgers said. "This was a tough environment. This is a team that's defending champs, a football team that's very well-coached, great players on both sides of the ball. This is a great team character-building win."

Green Bay went up 9-0 in the third quarter when Crosby kicked a 50-yard field goal to cap a drive that featured a 43-yard pass play from Rodgers to Jarrett Boykin.

Baltimore answered with its first score, a 23-yard field goal by Justin Tucker following a 59-yard completion from Joe Flacco to rookie Marlon Brown.

Harassed and hurried for much of the afternoon, Rodgers finally came up with a signature moment. He started to his left, then rolled right before lofting a perfect spiral to Nelson, who had gotten behind Lardarius Webb.

Down 16-3, the Ravens began playing with a sense of urgency. Flacco directed a 10-play, 80-yard drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones with 11:52 remaining.

Jones, who missed the previous four weeks with a knee injury, finished with two catches for 42 yards and had a 35-yard kickoff return.

Looking to enhance Green Bay's 16-10 lead, Rodgers and the Packers held onto the ball for just over 7½ minutes before Crosby kicked a 31-yard field goal with 4:17 remaining.

It turned out to be the game-winner.

Flacco went 20 for 34 for 342 yards and got no help from the running game — Ray Rice finished with 34 yards on 14 carries and was stuffed three straight times inside the 5 during the second quarter.

"We've got to be better on first and second down," Flacco said.

Baltimore accumulated only 36 yards of offense during the first quarter, zero on the ground.

In the second quarter, a peculiar sequence of events began when Green Bay's Ryan Taylor blocked a punt. The ball bounced beyond the line of scrimmage, was touched by John Kuhn of the Packers and recovered by Baltimore at its own 41-yard line. The Ravens subsequently got a first-and-goal at the Green Bay 4, but four straight runs failed to get the ball into the end zone.

Late in the half, Flacco was sacked and lost the ball. Green Bay's Datone Jones recovered and Crosby connected on a 31-yard field goal as time expired for a 6-0 lead.

Notes: Green Bay leads the series, 4-1. Baltimore's only win was 48-3 in 2005. ... Baltimore placed LT Bryant McKinnie on the inactive list. Eugene Monroe replaced him as a starter and made his Ravens debut. ... Ravens LB Terrell Suggs had his run of five straight games with a sack end. But he had 10 tackles to move into second on the Ravens' career list, behind only Ray Lewis.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-13-FBN-Packers-Ravens/id-51d0d1549f97433c9c8695053ab28cac
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All Children Are Heartless

Illustration by Peter Bagge

The third book in Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland series, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, comes out this month, adding another volume to the award-winning series, which critics have praised for its ambition and imagination, as well as its odd, dark beauty. The Fairyland books follow a girl named September who journeys to Fairyland, encountering wonders, making friends and enemies, and saving Fairyland—most often from itself. Time’s Lev Grossman described the series as “one of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century.”

But in conversations with other writers and editors, I’ve heard the books described as “inscrutable,” “too challenging for middle grade,” and “simply not for kids.” In the New York Times, Marjorie Ingall called the series “exhausting” and “ill fit for the publisher’s target audience.” And it’s true that Valente does tend to attract an older crowd of readers. At a recent Community Bookstore appearance in Brooklyn, the majority of her audience was twentysomething lit geeks whose questions for Valente were focused on her feminist outlook and background as a classics major.

Few would argue that there’s anything wrong with a challenging middle grade book—some might claim that Fairyland is popular because it’s challenging. But I suspect that the reason these detractors have difficulty categorizing the Fairyland series is because Valente is not trying to write middle grade fiction at all.

At the series’ start, the protagonist September is a keen and clever 12-year-old. This third book, The Girl Who Soared, begins with September at 14, worrying that she’s too old to return to Fairyland. But away she’s whisked nonetheless, to stop the disruptive moon-yeti Ciderskin from shaking the moon into pieces. She is joined by her friends from the previous books—the blue marid Saturday and the “harooming” wyverary A-Through-L (part wyvern, part library). Though their adventures are exciting enough, the book’s thematic core is September’s vulnerable adolescent state, and her future in Fairyland. Readers have seen her grow from a “Somewhat Heartless” preteen to a girl with a “new, red” heart, a heart that’s a “heap of tender and terrible wonders.” It is September’s heart that she fears will give her away in situations where she’d rather be “knowing and canny”—and which she also fears will get her kicked out of Fairyland.

This business about September’s heart is one of Valente’s most consistent nods to the classics of children’s fantasy. In the series’ first book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, we are told quite matter-of-factly that “all children are heartless.” September, being somewhat grown already, is only Somewhat Heartless. This notion is lifted straight from J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, the 1911 novel that most now simply call Peter Pan. The novel’s final line:

“Every spring cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to the Neverland. … When Margaret grows up, she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter’s mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.”

Returning with the seasons, growing up, and heartlessness are as integral to Fairyland as they were to Peter Pan, and just as emotionally resonant. The reference and its prominence in September’s story reads like a clear gesture of respect from Valente to Barrie for what he was able to accomplish. He created a novel for children that did not shirk from emotional complexity. Valente uses the familiar formula of Victorian children’s novels such as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, coupled with a decidedly arch Victorian tone. Playing within the bounds of this structure, she then creates a mishmash. Enter Greek mythology, epic poetry, folk legends, and fairy tales. She folds in nods to various cultures’ hero stories in order to complement and complicate the familiar Victorian form, and also takes the time to unpack and question certain elements of these classic books that she finds troubling.

Writing on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog last year, Valente stated that the impetus behind her writing is to take “the tropes of fairy tales and quests and folklore and portal fantasies and old school children’s books. Add complexity. Add emotional crunchiness. Add poking with a big stick.” Valente subverts her own referential formula by allowing this “emotional crunchiness”—complicated, frank interiority—to darken the books’ plot developments and characterizations.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/10/catherynne_valente_s_the_girl_who_soared_over_fairyland_reviewed.html
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