An iPhone priced below $200 would devastate RIM and Nokia – and Apple’s margins

Both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal now believe Apple (AAPL) is seriously considering launching a cheap iPhone. Speculation about this has been going on for years. But the probable price range mentioned by Bloomberg is a huge shock: The rumored retail price range of $100 to $150 is far below what had earlier been assumed. The iPhone 5 tends to sell for more than $700 in emerging markets. The 2-year old iPhone still costs more than $500. That is the reason why iPhone market share is fading below 5% in major markets like Brazil. But industry experts had widely assumed that the retail price of a low-end iPhone would be somewhere around $250 to $300. Even this would trigger radical changes in the handset markets around the globe.
[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $45 Straight Talk plan]
Anything under $200 would be an earthquake. Smartphones with capacitive touch screens and 1 GHz processors selling under $150 at retail cannot have operating margins above 15%. Nokia (NOK) has 70 million unit quarterly feature phone volumes and a lot of experience in tight cost control. Yet even Nokia cannot get the operating margins of its latest and most desirable Asha models costing less than $150 much above 10%. You can only lower touch screen quality or processing power of a low-end iPhone so far. Moving to a resistive touch screen or a 600 MHz processor would splinter the iOS app market.
[More from BGR: CES has sadly become a complete waste of time]
If Apple truly is willing to dive into the sub-$200 gutter, the impact on vendors from RIM (RIMM) and Nokia to HTC (2498) and LG (066570) would be devastating. The best-selling prepaid smartphone in the United Kingdom right now may be the Huawei Ascend G300, a device with 4-inch display, 5 megapixel camera and 2.5 GB of internal memory that sells for about $160. This is the sweet spot of the budget smartphone market from Europe to Asia. It is quite possible to do a cheap iPhone with these specs, priced at $150 in the fourth quarter of 2013 and shoot for maybe a 10% operating margin.
That device would sell a hundred million units in a year with no marketing, if the production can be ramped up fast enough. It would reverse the market share losses Apple has recently suffered from Brazil to Germany literally in a quarter or two. But would Apple really be willing to tolerate the massive margin hit such a product would trigger? Being the champion of the mobile software market is worth a lot. But a sub-$150 iPhone would carry the obvious risk of cannibalizing the $650 iPhone sales deeply and permanently. The performance requirements created by the iOS app market prevent Apple from constraining the budget iPhone with truly low-end components.
Of course, the strategic impact of a bargain basement iPhone would be momentous. Apple would get to play Attila the Hun and literally wipe out smaller rivals who couldn’t possibly undercut a $150 iPhone on price. It is worth noting that one of the best-selling Nokia feature phones, the Asha 311, costs about $140 in retail. If Bloomberg is right, Apple is preparing to attack with a smartphone priced to the level of a feature phone that was created specifically for Africa and India.
It is clear that Apple is being forced into a corner. Google (GOOG) Play app revenue growth is now far faster than iOS app revenue growth. Instat claims that the page views of Android smartphones have started soaring above page views of iPhones across various markets. Apple cannot allow Google to gain hegemony in mobile content consumption in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Something has to be done. But the plunge into deep budget territory that Bloomberg is describing is very difficult to believe.

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Mayor seguridad por violación en escuela de Ohio

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio, EE.UU. (AP) — Un distrito escolar en el este de Ohio agregó guardias de seguridad desarmados a sus edificios en momentos en que ha aumentado la atención sobre dos jugadores de fútbol americano de una escuela secundaria y que enfrentan cargos por violación.
Mike McVey, superintendente de las escuelas de la ciudad de Steubenville, dijo el martes que un guardia permanecerá afuera de cada uno de los cuatro edificios del distrito hasta nuevo aviso. McVey dijo a The Associated Press en una entrevista que la medida fue tomada "para mejorar la seguridad de nuestros estudiantes".
Dos jóvenes estudiantes de 16 años enfrentan juicio el próximo mes en una corte juvenil en Steubenville, una ciudad de aproximadamente 18.000 residentes, acusados de haber violado en agosto a una niña de 16 años. Abogados de los acusados Ma'Lik Richmond y Trent Mays han negado los cargos en la corte.
McVey señaló la decisión de incorporar guardias a los edificios escolares fue tomada el lunes, antes de que el distrito fuera puesto en alerta la mañana del martes debido a una posible amenaza.
Los maestros dejaron de impartir clases y cerraron las puertas de sus salones durante cerca de una hora y media mientras la policía determinaba si la amenaza era viable.
Según un reporte policiaco, un estudiante describió haber visto un mensaje por Facebook indicando una amenaza potencial, pero el mensaje no pudo ser recuperado. El mensaje se refería a personas no acusadas en el caso de violación y les ordenaba que acudieran a cierto lugar, o "voy a comenzar a matar gente", indicó el reporte.
Las redes sociales e internet han tenido un papel crucial en el caso. Piratas informáticos presentaron la semana pasada un video de más de 12 minutos de duración que supuestamente muestra a un hombre joven bromeando sobre la acusadora después de la presunta violación.
Los hackers que presentaron el video argumentan que estuvo involucrada más gente y deberían ser castigados por ello. El lunes, un fiscal dijo que el joven lamentó los comentarios, los cuales realizó estando ebrio.
Un abogado de la familia de la niña ha dicho que el comentario en internet sobre el caso ha dificultado más la situación.
McVey se negó a comentar sobre la elevada atención que ha recibió su distrito escolar. Agregó que no estaba preparado para comentar sobre la decisión de tener en la escuela guardias de seguridad sin armas en lugar de armados.
Los acusados Richmond y Mays están en arresto domiciliario y asisten a una escuela alternativa durante el día dentro del Centro de Justicia del condado que se encuentra al otro lado de una autopista muy transitada con respecto a la escuela secundaria en el centro de la ciudad.

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The FBI Is Now Investigating the Steubenville Backlash

It's probably fair to say that things have gotten a little out of hand in Steubenville, Ohio, where two high school football players are accused of raping a 16-year-old while she was drunk. If you've read anything about the investigation and court case that's now unfolding you'll know that what started out as a suspicious sexual assault has turned into a national outrage, and local authorities are dealing with some pretty serious backlash that includes death threats being made against their families. On Wednesday night, CBS News reported that the FBI had opened an investigation into such threats on local sheriff Fred Abdalla's family and a suspected computer virus that targeted the Steubenville police chief. It's unclear who the suspects might be, and the FBI isn't commenting on the probe.
RELATED: Why Nobody Trusts Steubenville
In a way, this new FBI investigation is a bit of a relief. The small football-crazed town of Steubenville has been obviously overwhelmed since scrutiny from Anonymous has been helping to elevate the rape investigation to viral status on the web. The firestorm of attention came to a head last weekend when 1,300 protesters descended on the town's city hall for an event dubbed Occupy Steubenville. Sheriff Abdalla even made an appearance, after having said on the radio that he was "coming after" Anonymous. (Since Anonymous doesn't take too well to threats, this might've had something to do with the death threats that he received over email and social media in the days after the rally.) Then, on Tuesday, police reported "some type of shooting threat" being made on social media prompting a lockdown on all local schools that lasted nearly two hours.
RELATED: Occupy Steubenville: Anonymous vs. the Sheriff
So you could say things have been tense. The more we learn about Steubenville and its long history of corrupt leadership, though, the more we can understand how this rape case pushed people over the edge. As recently as 1997, the Justice Department found the city's police department to have "have engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured and protected by the Constitution and the laws of the United States." And close ties between Abdalla and the Steubenville High football coach Reno Saccoccia -- think Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights, only more sinister -- have led many, especially those in Anonymous, to believe that the corruption never went away.
RELATED: Inside the Search for the Truth About Steubenville — 1,000 Tips at a Time
Who knows what the Feds will find when they take a closer look at the threats being hurled at Steubenville law enforcement. They might even find out something about the things the local cops are doing to attract such hatred. Then again, they might just be in the mood to arrest some more Anonymous members.

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$35 Raspberry Pi computer gets its own app store

DIY developers adore the $35 Raspberry Pi and huge communities have enabled the Linux-powered computer to do cool things like emulate Super Nintendo games and run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. What’s next for the cheap computer? The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced it’s launching the “Pi Store” – an app store created in partnership with IndieCity and Velocix. Anyone will be able to download and upload their own apps to the Pi Store for consideration according to Raspberry Pi’s website. The Pi Store will have 23 free apps at launch as well as paid content. As with the success of the Raspberry Pi itself, the Pi Store’s success hinges on the community’s support.

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Is the Christmas card dead?

Author Nina Burleigh says the holiday photo is dead — and the internet killed it
Every year around the holidays, countless Americans sit down at their dining room tables to thoughtfully scribble pen-and-paper updates about how they are and what they've been doing with their lives to a select number of friends. These messages are usually written on the back of a recent family photograph (sometimes with Santa hats), before they're sealed, stamped, and mailed around the country, where they're displayed like a trophy over someone else's fireplace.
Could that all be changing? This year, especially, there seems to be a dearth of dead-tree holiday cheer filling up mailboxes across the country. In a recent column for TIME, author Nina Burleigh says the spirit once distilled inside the Christmas card is dying, and a familiar, if fairly obvious perpetrator killed it: The internet. "There's little point to writing a Christmas update now, with boasts about grades and athletic prowess, hospitalizations and holidays, and the dog's mishaps, when we have already posted these events and so much more of our minutiae all year long," she writes. "The urge to share has already been well sated."
[Now] we already have real-time windows into the lives of people thousands of miles away. We already know exactly how they've fared in the past year, much more than could possibly be conveyed by any single Christmas card. If a child or grandchild has been born to a former colleague or high school chum living across the continent, not only did I see it within hours on Shutterfly or Instagram or Facebook, I might have seen him or her take his or her first steps on YouTube. If a job was gotten or lost, a marriage made or ended, we have already witnessed the woe and joy of it on Facebook, email and Twitter.
Burleigh says the demise of the Christmas card is deeply saddening. "It portends the end of the U.S. Postal Service," she writes. "It signals the day is near when writing on paper is non-existent." It's true, says Tony Seifart at Memeburn — "my mantle is empty this year. In fact I haven't received one Christmas card yet."
SEE ALSO: The perks and perils of our newly indexed society
Let's not get too nostalgic just yet, says Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic. Research firm IBISWorld anticipates that purchases of cards and postage will be the highest it has been in five years — $3.17 billion total. And Hallmark, the industry's biggest player, has seen revenue hold steady since the early 2000s despite the financial crisis. We could also think about this another way: That desire to share, the willingness to inform, could just be extending itself beyond the physical form of the holiday photo.
No matter what time of the year, people now write contemplative letters with weird formatting to an ill-defined audience of "friends"; these are Christmas letters, whether Santa is coming down the chimney or not. There are reindeer horns on pugs in July. And humblebrags about promotions in April. There are dating updates in November. And you can disclose that you were voted mother of the year any damn day you please... For good or for ill, perhaps we're seeing not the death of the holiday card and letter, but its rebirth as a rhetorical mode. Confessional, self-promotional, hokey, charming, earnest, technically honest, introspective, hopey-changey: Oh, Christmas Card, you have gone open-source and conquered us all.
The spirit of the Christmas card is indeed alive and well. It's just not necessarily in a Christmas card.

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Massive PC, Console Game Discounts Ring in Holiday Season

Black Friday, the day right after Thanksgiving, is normally the day associated with electronics sales. And while the proponents of "Cyber Monday" and "Small Business Saturday" have tried to get in on the action, it's still common knowledge that Thanksgiving weekend is the best time to upgrade your PC or console game arsenal. Right?
Not according to online game retailers. Discounts of up to 80 percent off a game's retail price are taking place across the web, especially in online stores which offer games in the form of digital downloads (which cost nothing to make extra copies of). Here's a look at just a few of the sales going on right now, for Windows and Linux PCs, Macs, game consoles, and mobile devices.
Steam (Windows, Linux, Mac)
The annual Steam Holiday Sale is under way, and it's not just blowing hot air. Complete collections of every Steam game from publishers including Valve are on sale for around the price of one retail title, and individual games can be bought from each bundle for only a few dollars. Each day new sales are available, and most of them are massive, percentage-wise. They're tied to a personal Steam account (which will always be linked to the original name they were created with), but can be bought as gifts for others.
Also check out: Amazon.com's PC download sales, many of which are fulfilled through Steam and are discounted about as much. Amazon's lineup also includes many casual games, of the "$10 store discount rack" variety.
Humble Indie Bundle 7 (Windows, Linux, Mac)
The Humble Bundle crew has been offering cross-platform, name-your-own-price bundles of indie games for several years now, and their seventh numbered offering is timed right for the holiday season. Bundles are giftable, the games can be played on Steam, and you can choose how much of your purchase price goes to game developers and how much goes to select charities.
PlayStation Network (PS3, PSP, Vita)
Console gamers aren't being left out. The PSN Holiday Essentials sale is putting "more than 40 titles" on sale over the next three weeks, with a new selection available every week and even lower prices available to PlayStation Plus members.
Also check out: The Xbox Live Countdown to 2013 sale, with a "Daily Deal" every day until the end of the year.
Other sales
Game publishers SEGA and Square-Enix are discounting many of their most popular titles. SEGA's holiday sale includes PSN, Xbox Live, Android and iOS titles, with most of its mobile games selling for $0.99. Meanwhile, the Square-Enix Winter of Mobile sale page lists huge discounts on iPhone and iPad games, while Android Police blogger Jeremiah Rice has put together a list of which Square-Enix Android games are on sale.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Red Hat shares up on acquisition and 3Q results

Red Hat Inc.'s shares jumped Friday on the software company's solid third-quarter results and plans to acquire cloud-based software company ManageIQ.
THE SPARK: Red Hat said late Thursday that it would buy privately held ManageIQ for $104 million in cash.
The Raleigh, N.C., company also reported that it earned 29 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter on an adjusted basis, up a penny from the prior year and in line with analyst expectations. Its revenue for the period increased 18 percent to $343.6 million, which beats the $338 million that analysts polled by FactSet had forecast.
THE BIG PICTURE: ManageIQ's software helps businesses deploy and manage private clouds. Red Hat said the deal will expand the reach of its public-private cloud setups for its customers. The acquisition is expected to have no material impact to Red Hat's revenue for its fiscal year ending in February.
THE ANALYSIS: Stifel Nicolaus analyst Brad R. Reback said that the company has been able to maintain momentum even in a difficult environment and he thinks the latest deal offers an interesting longer-term angle for its business. He thinks the company is well positioned to generate at least 15 to 20 percent billings growth in the future. He reiterated a "Buy" rating and a $65 price target on its shares.
SHARE ACTION: Shares gained $2.25, or more than 4 percent, to $54.86 in afternoon trading. Shares have traded between $39.19 and $62.75 in the past 52 weeks.

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Dozens of Android Games, Apps Discounted for Google Holiday Sale

The Google Play store -- that's the name of the Android "app store," or the "Android Market" for those of you new to the change -- is featuring dozens of game and app sales for Android smartphones and tablets. Well, actually, it's not; you can see some of the discounted apps on the front page, but there's no special section of the website or on-device market that says where the ones on sale are, or even how to find them. And the "Holiday Surprise" feature is only a handful of deals picked by Google itself.
Here's a look at some of the major game publishers' Android sales, along with discounted creativity apps and where to find more details.
Gameloft's "Android Christmas" sale
It may be too late for Hanukkah this year, but top-tier Android publisher Gameloft has put a dozen of its titles up for sale for Christmas just $0.99 . These games are normally in the $5-7 range, making them among Android's priciest.
Besides its licensed games based on movies -- like superhero films "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man," and (inexplicably) "The Adventures of Tintin" -- Gameloft is best known for creating mobile versions of popular PC and console games. Not in the sense that they are official ports, so much as that they're remarkably similar, to the extent that they arguably could be official ports if the serial numbers were filed off. With that in mind, several of its Modern Combat (which are totally not Modern Warfare) and N.O.V.A. first-person shooters (which are totally not Halo) are included in the sale, although the most recent installment of the former -- Modern Combat 4 -- is not.
Superhero fans may also want to check out Marvel Games' Avengers Initiative, which isn't a Gameloft title but is also on sale for $0.99 .
Square-Enix's "Winter of Mobile" sale
Best known for having invented the jRPG genre, Square-Enix has brought several of its most popular titles to Android, and most of them are discounted (from their extremely high launch prices) for the holidays.
Crystal Defender, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy have all received numerous 1-star reviews on Google Play for technical issues, and reviewers complain that the titles haven't been optimized for Android hardware. The Chaos Rings titles, however, fare much better with reviewers, and are much more steeply discounted as well, at $3.99 each compared to their usual price of $12.99. They're ports of the iOS originals, which were Square-Enix's first attempts at making "real" jRPGs for mobile devices.
SEGA's Holiday Sale
SEGA's games are on sale for the holidays across the board, on pretty much every platform. On Android, that mostly amounts to Sonic 4 (episodes 1 and 2) and Sonic CD, all of which are on sale for $0.99 . Strategy title Total War Battles and rollerblade platformer Jet Set Radio, meanwhile, are on sale for $1.99.
Creativity / productivity apps on sale
Android phones and tablets aren't just for gaming. If you didn't pick up Microsoft Office-compatible OfficeSuite Pro 6+ during Google's earlier $0.25 sale, it's discounted to $0.99 now from its regular price of $14.99. Autodesk's professional drawing apps, SketchBook Mobile and SketchBook Pro for Tablets, are $0.99 and $2.99 compared to $1.99 and $4.99 regularly, and the Jotter handwriting app -- which requires a Samsung Galaxy Note -- is half-off at $1.99.
Stay up to date
Many more Android games and apps are being discounted for the holidays. Apps such as (the aptly-named) AppSales can help keep you apprised of the latest additions. Meanwhile, the Android Police blog is maintaining an up-to-date "Enormous List" of all holiday sales.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Benitez demands more after Chelsea smash eight

LONDON (Reuters) - Rafael Benitez was still scribbling notes towards the end of Chelsea's 8-0 rout of Aston Villa on Sunday and after the game, the Spaniard said there was plenty of room for improvement.
As Chelsea made it 13 goals from two games since returning empty-handed from a 12,000-mile (19,312-kilometre) round trip to Japan for the Club World Cup a week ago, Benitez demanded even more from his players.
"I can see the team improving with the little things we wanted to improve," said Chelsea's interim manager after his team climbed to third in the English Premier League.
"But we can still improve some things. I say that after winning by eight."
Striker Fernando Torres, rediscovering the killer instinct he showed under Benitez at Liverpool, opening the scoring with a thumping header in the third minute at Stamford Bridge.
The goals kept flowing, Frank Lampard marking his 500th Premier League start with a sweetly struck fourth and Brazilian Ramires netting twice in an early Christmas stuffing of Villa.
"The players have been really focused since I arrived," Benitez, whose appointment angered Chelsea fans following last month's sacking of Roberto Di Matteo, said.
"They knew they had a new manager and they had to perform. We have to try to adjust things in every training session but I was impressed with the way we played.
"From day one, they were keen to learn and to improve," added the Spaniard, whose meticulous attention to detail are beginning to reap dividends for the Blues.
"Chelsea were a top side before I came here. They still are. You can see the team has confidence in themselves. They believe, they have good movement and they create chances."
Becoming the first holders to exit the Champions League at the group stage and then failing to compensate for it by lifting the Club World Cup, the pressure had been on Benitez.
Chelsea still trail Premier League pace-setters Manchester United by 11 points, and Manchester City by seven, albeit with a game in hand.
But Benitez, who has tinkered with his side to good effect since their gruelling trip to the Far East, believes Chelsea can climb back into the title race.
"Now we have to sustain this run and it will be easier for me to say we can compete," the Spaniard added.
Many of Chelsea's players had said while in Japan that having time away from the bearpit of the Premier League to work with and adapt to Benitez's style would bring its rewards.
"To win is always special, but the mentality of the players was good," said Benitez, game-by-game beginning to look the part in his official Chelsea suit.
Credited by the players for making the team more compact defensively, against a Villa side woefully out of their depth, Chelsea's attacking football was at times breath-taking.
"Even after we scored our sixth goal, we kept pushing forward for more," purred Benitez. "We had the balance we are looking for."

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Soccer-Van Persie has made same impact as Cantona, says Ferguson

MANCHESTER, England, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Robin van Persie's impact at Manchester United has been similar to the stunning transformation brought about by the signing of Eric Cantona, according to manager Alex Ferguson.
Dutch striker Van Persie has scored 15 goals since signing from Arsenal, drawing comparisons with Frenchman Cantona whose arrival at Old Trafford was the catalyst for United to win the league title for the first time in 26 years.
"I reckon here at Manchester United we got our Christmas present early - right at the start of the season in fact when Robin van Persie arrived at Old Trafford," Ferguson has written in the programme for Wednesday's home game against Newcastle United.
"I am reluctant to subscribe to the cult of an individual because I firmly believe the essence of a successful football team depends on teamwork, and neither are we a one-man team, but sometimes there really is a situation where you are lucky enough to find the last piece of the jigsaw."
Cantona was signed from Leeds United for 1.2 million pounds ($1.94 million) in 1992 with Ferguson's team languishing in eighth place in the table.
But he galvanised the side with his flair and a regular supply of goals, his arrogance and charisma inspiring a team who went on to win the 1993 title by 10 points, the first of Ferguson's 12 Premier League crowns.
"We did it when we brought Eric Cantona to Old Trafford where he proved to be the right player at the right club at the right time," Ferguson said.
"He became the catalyst and springboard for our surge to success.
"It doesn't have to be signing someone for a record fee. Cristiano Ronaldo was not a record buy either but he certainly made a difference as he prospered with us to the extent that he came to be regarded by a lot of people as the world's best player," added Ferguson.
Van Persie has formed a prolific attacking partnership with Wayne Rooney which has lifted United four points clear at the top of the Premier League and on course for a 20th English title.
They lost out to neighbours Manchester City on goal difference last season after the teams finished level on points at the end of the 38-match campaign.

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Soccer-Inter defender Chivu snubs calls for Romania return

BUCHAREST, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Inter Milan defender Cristian Chivu has refused to come out of international retirement to help Romania in next year's 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
"I was clear and concise two years ago and I do not know why every time I have to repeat the same thing," Chivu, capped 75 times by the Balkan country, told local media on Monday.
The versatile 32-year-old defender, who joined Inter from AS Roma for a reported fee of 16 million euros ($21.08 million) in 2007, quit the national team in May last year, saying that age and injuries were behind his decision.
This month, however, Romania coach Victor Piturca said he was planning to meet Chivu in Milan before Christmas or at the beginning of 2013, to try to persuade him to end his international exile.
"I miss the national team but I will not return," Chivu added. "The team can do without me, I liked how they played in Turkey (when Romania beat Turkey 1-0 in a world qualifier in October)."
Chivu has just recovered from a toe injury and played in Inter's 2-0 win over Verona in a Coppa Italia last-16 match on Tuesday and the 1-1 draw with Genoa on Saturday, his only appearances this season.
Romania are third in World Cup qualifying Group D with nine points from four matches, three behind leaders the Netherlands.
The Balkan side, who have not qualified for the World Cup finals since 1998, will resume their campaign in March with a much-anticipated visit to second-placed neighbours Hungary, who also have nine points.

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Van Persie has made same impact as Cantona, says Ferguson

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Robin van Persie's impact at Manchester United has been similar to the stunning transformation brought about by the signing of Eric Cantona, according to manager Alex Ferguson.
Dutch striker Van Persie has scored 15 goals since signing from Arsenal, drawing comparisons with Frenchman Cantona whose arrival at Old Trafford was the catalyst for United to win the league title for the first time in 26 years.
"I reckon here at Manchester United we got our Christmas present early - right at the start of the season in fact when Robin van Persie arrived at Old Trafford," Ferguson has written in the programme for Wednesday's home game against Newcastle United.
"I am reluctant to subscribe to the cult of an individual because I firmly believe the essence of a successful football team depends on teamwork, and neither are we a one-man team, but sometimes there really is a situation where you are lucky enough to find the last piece of the jigsaw."
Cantona was signed from Leeds United for 1.2 million pounds in 1992 with Ferguson's team languishing in eighth place in the table.
But he galvanised the side with his flair and a regular supply of goals, his arrogance and charisma inspiring a team who went on to win the 1993 title by 10 points, the first of Ferguson's 12 Premier League crowns.
"We did it when we brought Eric Cantona to Old Trafford where he proved to be the right player at the right club at the right time," Ferguson said.
"He became the catalyst and springboard for our surge to success.
"It doesn't have to be signing someone for a record fee. Cristiano Ronaldo was not a record buy either but he certainly made a difference as he prospered with us to the extent that he came to be regarded by a lot of people as the world's best player," added Ferguson.
Van Persie has formed a prolific attacking partnership with Wayne Rooney which has lifted United four points clear at the top of the Premier League and on course for a 20th English title.
They lost out to neighbours Manchester City on goal difference last season after the teams finished level on points at the end of the 38-match campaign.

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Soccer-Wiesinger and Reutershahn take over at Nuremberg

Michael Wiesinger and Armin Reutershahn were appointed joint coaches of struggling Nuremberg on Monday following Dieter Hecking's decision to take over at Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg at the weekend.
Wiesinger, 39, who has been working with the club's youth academy for a year and a half, and Reutershahn, 52, an assistant under Hecking, will take the reins for the second half of the season.
"In Michael Wiesinger and Armin Reutershahn we have two coaches from our own ranks that enjoy a great amount of trust and acceptance," sporting director Martin Bader said on Nuremberg's website (www.fcn.de).
Nuremberg are fifth from bottom in the table after drawing 1-1 at Werder Bremen on Dec. 16, their final match before the mid-season break.

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U.S. gun website sued for alleged ties to slayings

 A prominent U.S. gun control group on Wednesday sued a gun auction website it says is linked to a mass shooting at a Wisconsin spa in October and the stalker slaying of a woman near Chicago in 2011.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence alleges that the design of armslist.com facilitates illegal online sales to unlawful gun buyers with no background checks, and enables users to evade laws that permit private sellers to sell guns only to residents of their own state.
"We as a nation are better than an anonymous Internet gun market where killers and criminals can easily get guns," said Jonathan Lowy, the Brady Center's Legal Action Project Director, in a statement.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of Jitka Vesel, 36, an immigrant from the Czech Republic who was shot and killed last year by Demetry Smirnov, a stalker.
The suit, which the Brady Center says is the first of its kind, alleges that Smirnov illegally bought the gun from a private seller he located through armslist.com.
Vesel was killed in the parking lot of the Chicago-area Czechoslovak Heritage Museum, where she was a volunteer preparing for a celebration in memory of Czech-American Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.
Cermak was slain with a handgun during an attempted assassination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
A representative for website owner Armslist, LLC was not immediately available for comment. The company is based in Noble, Oklahoma, according to public records.
The website includes a "terms of use" page on which users must promise they are age 18 or older and will not use the site for illegal purposes.
The Brady Center said that the case does not infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms, noting that 74 percent of National Rifle Association members believe that no guns should be sold without a criminal background check.
A representative for the NRA was not immediately available for comment.
Radcliffe Haughton, who killed his estranged wife and two other women and wounded four others before killing himself in a shooting in a Milwaukee suburb on October 21, also got his weapon through armslist.com, according to Wisconsin officials.
Haughton, who was under a restraining order for domestic violence, avoided a background check through a "lethal loophole" by buying a gun through the website, according to a letter to Armslist sent by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Wisconsin U.S. Representative Gwen Moore on October 26.
Sales conducted over the Internet also have been linked to mass killings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. In 1999 eBay announced it was prohibiting online gun sales, according to the Brady Center lawsuit.
Craigslist did the same in 2007. Amazon.com and Google AdWords also prohibits the listing of firearms for sale, the suit says.
An undercover investigation of online gun sales by New York City last year found that 62 percent of private gun sellers agreed to sell a firearm to a buyer who said he probably could not pass a background check.

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Ten Commandments join Isaac Newton's notes online

A copy of The Ten Commandments dating back two millennia and the earliest written Gaelic are just two of a number of incredibly rare manuscripts now freely available online to the world as part of a Cambridge University digital project.
The Nash Papyrus -- one of the oldest known manuscripts containing text from the Hebrew Bible -- has become one of the latest treasures of humanity to join Isaac Newton's notebooks, the Nuremberg Chronicle and other rare texts as part of the Cambridge Digital Library, the university said on Wednesday.
"Cambridge University Library preserves works of great importance to faith traditions and communities around the world," University Librarian Anne Jarvis said in a statement.
"Because of their age and delicacy these manuscripts are seldom able to be viewed - and when they are displayed, we can only show one or two pages."
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nash Papyrus, was by far the oldest manuscript containing text from the Hebrew Bible and like most fragile historical documents, only available to select academics for scrutiny.
The university's digital library is making 25,000 new images, including an ancient copy of the New Testament, available on its website (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/), which has already attracted tens of millions of hits since the project was launched in December 2011.
The latest release also includes important texts from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
In addition to religious texts, internet users can also view the 10th century Book of Deer, which is widely believed to be the oldest surviving Scottish manuscript and contains the earliest known examples of written Gaelic.
"Now... anyone with a connection to the Internet can select a work of interest, turn to any page of the manuscript, and explore it in extraordinary detail," Jarvis said.
The technical infrastructure required to get these texts to web was in part funded by a 1.5 million pound ($2.4 million) gift from the Polonsky Foundation in June 2010.

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CERN students make "scientist fiction" zombie film

Murderous zombies are stalking the dark underground passageways of the renowned CERN physics centre near Geneva, hunting young scientists who have survived a devastating failure in its world-famous particle collider.
Gaunt men with peeling faces and stony-eyed women dripping blood from their mouths leer around corners and loom from behind wrecked equipment, impervious to the bullets from a gun wielded by one of their would-be victims.
And it is all happening right at the heart of the multi-billion dollar complex where, last July, physicists announced the discovery of what they think is the particle -- the Higgs boson -- which made life and the universe possible.
Well, happening at least on the Internet (http://www.decayfilm.com/). Scientists at the centre on Wednesday said they were pursuing their efforts to reveal the great mysteries of the cosmos and had not noticed anything unusual.
"But that does explain why my neighbor shouted: 'Watch for the Zombies,' when I left for work this morning," said one puzzled physicist who is part of one of the two large teams which jointly tracked down the Higgs.
The gory action comes in an 80-minute horror film, "Decay", shot in 2010 around open areas of the sprawling CERN complex at weekends by budding young scientists from Britain and the United States, without formal management approval.
"They asked for CERN's endorsement once the whole thing was in the can," said spokesman James Gillies. "Clearly we can't endorse such a thing, but nor were we going to stop it. After all, it's just students doing the kind of thing students do."
The movie burst onto the World Wide Web, itself invented at CERN 20 years ago. A notice on its site and a press release from the makers, H2ZZ Productions, declares: "This film has not been authorized or endorsed by CERN."
FLESH-EATERS
The cinematic mayhem follows a disaster in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), releasing the Higgs and its associated particle field which turn dozens of the technicians working around the subterranean complex into "living dead" flesh-eaters.
A group of scientists is isolated in the control room -- which the filmmakers move underground from its actual location on the surface -- and as they try to break out to safety they are picked off one by one by their zombie colleagues.
"It's a bit of fun in the best tradition of B-series Zombie movies," said a CERN researcher who followed the project. "It's well done, but I can't say the acting is Oscar quality."
"They wanted to make the film as unbelievable as possible, and the scientific 'facts' cited in it are laughable, so no-one could take it seriously."
The producers are at pains to underline that in making their technicolor epic they had no access to the actual 27-km (17-mile) circular tunnel where the LHC and the giant particle detectors and magnets are housed.
The writer and director of the film was Luke Thompson, who apart from his studies at CERN is a physicist and doctoral student at Britain's Manchester University, where the film had an early showing at the end of last month.
Co-producer and director of photography was Burton de Wilde, who holds a physics doctorate from Stony Brook University in the United States. The actors came from among CERN's several hundred doctoral or summer students.
The company set up to market the film says it has showings scheduled for several places in Britain, the United States and Europe.
"It might just turn out to be one of those off-the-wall successes," the CERN researcher said.

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Fandango launches Oscar-themed web series with Dave Karger

 Fandango is elbowing into the Oscar horse race.
The movie-ticket seller launched its first original digital video series Wednesday, "The Frontrunners," which will cover the major contenders for the top awards. The show will feature conversations with a star-studded group of Oscar hunters that includes Richard Gere ("Arbitrage"), Amy Adams ("The Master"), Hugh Jackman ("Les Miserables") and Ben Affleck ("Argo").
During the broadcasts, actors and directors will deconstruct key scenes from their movies, explaining how they crafted a moment of domestic conflict, in the case of Gere, or decided to intercut between a Hollywood script reading and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, as with Affleck.
However, commerce will be mixed in along with the art. Fandango will offer ticketing information along with the digital videos, with the hopes that the clips will inspire users to check out the movie being discussed.
The show, shot at Soho House in Los Angeles, will be hosted by Fandango's Chief Correspondent Dave Karger, the movie guru the company lured over from Entertainment Weekly in September. It's part of a bold bet that Fandango is making on original content.
To that in end, the company tapped former Disney digital executive Paul Yanover to serve in the newly created role of president and tasked him with creating a suite of programming for Fandango and its 41 million unique visitors.
"Our goal with Fandango is to make it the definitive movie-going brand across all platforms," Nick Lehman, the president of digital for NBC Universal Entertainment Networks & Interactive Media, told TheWrap in October. "We want to continue expanding in ways that entertain and inform and video is key to that strategy. Advertisers are clamoring for it because there is a dearth of high quality original video content on the web."
As TheWrap reported exclusively in October, Karger is also planning programs that will center on box office contenders and one program that will boast both A-List actors and below-the-line talent.

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Pope needs help sending out blessing in first tweet

After weeks of anticipation bordering on media frenzy, Pope Benedict solemnly put his finger to a computer tablet device on Wednesday and tried to send his first tweet - but something went wrong.
Images on Vatican television appeared to show the first try didn't work. The pope, who still writes his speeches by hand, seems to have pressed too hard and the tweet was not sent right away. So, he needed a little help from his friends.
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli of the Vatican's communications department showed the pontiff how to do it, but the pope hesitated. Celli touched the screen lightly himself and off went the papal tweet.
"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart," he said in his introduction to the brave new world of Twitter.
The tweet was sent at the end of weekly general audience in the Vatican before thousands of people.
The pope actually has eight linked Twitter accounts. @Pontifex, the main account, is in English. The other seven have a suffix at the end for the different language versions. For example, the German version is @Pontifex_de, and the Arabic version is @Pontifex_ar.
The tweets will be going out in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French. Other languages will be added in the future.
The pope already had just over a million followers in all of the languages combined minutes before he sent his first tweet and the number was growing.
PAPAL Q AND A
Later on Wednesday after the audience was over and the television cameras turned off, the pontiff answered the first of three questions sent to him at #askpontifex.
The first question answered by the pope was: "How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?"
His answer: "By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need."
The pope, who, as leader of the Roman Catholic Church already has 1.2 billion followers in the standard sense of the word, won't be following anyone else, the Vatican has said.
After his first splash into the brave new world of Twitter on Wednesday, the contents of future tweets will come primarily from the contents of his weekly general audience, Sunday blessings and homilies on major Church holidays.
They are also expected to include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.
The Vatican says papal tweets will be little "pearls of wisdom", which is understandable since his thoughts will have to be condensed to 140 characters, while papal documents often top 140 pages.
The Vatican said precautions had been taken to make sure the pope's certified account is not hacked. Only one computer in the Vatican's secretariat of state will be used for the tweets.
After Wednesday, Benedict won't be pushing the button on his tweets himself. They will be sent by aides but he will sign off on them.
The pope's Twitter page is designed in yellow and white - the colors of the Vatican, with a backdrop of the Vatican and his picture. It may change during different liturgical seasons of the year and when the pope is away from the Vatican on trips.
The pope has given a qualified welcome to social media.
In a document issued last year, he said the possibilities of new media and social networks offered "a great opportunity", but warned of the risks of depersonalization, alienation, self-indulgence, and the dangers of having more virtual friends than real ones.
In 2009, a new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, went live, offering an application called "The pope meets you on Facebook", and another allowing the faithful to see the pontiff's speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.
The Vatican famously got egg on its face in 2009 when it was forced to admit that, if it had surfed the web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.

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