Thursday, April 11, 2013

Yum says bird flu hits China April sales; March down

By Lisa Baertlein

(Reuters) - KFC parent Yum Brands Inc warned that a new bird flu outbreak in China badly hit restaurant sales there this month, even as the company also reported a sharper-than-expected slide in March sales in the country caused by the lingering impact of a separate food safety scare.

"Within the past week, publicity associated with Avian flu in China has had a significant, negative impact on KFC sales," the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Yum did not quantify the impact.

The bird flu outbreak has already sickened 33 and killed nine, as Chinese authorities try to clamp down on rumors about the deadly virus and its potential spread.

Yum reaps more than half its overall sales in China, where most of its nearly 5,300 restaurants are KFCs. It was already struggling in the country after chemical residue was found in a small portion of its chicken supply late last year.

"This will set them back a little bit. If those (bird flu casualty) numbers go up, then the impact could be longer," said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo.

Sales at Yum's China restaurants open at least one year fell 13 percent in March, more than the 10 percent average drop expected by analysts polled by Consensus Matrix.

The March results included a 16 percent drop at KFC and a 4 percent rise at Pizza Hut.

The company plans to educate consumers, as it has done in the past, that properly cooked chicken is safe to eat, Yum said in Wednesday's filing.

In February, KFC's sales were flat in China, which had given analysts some hope a turnaround was already taking hold.

While the March results were disappointing, they may show that the effects of the timing shift of the all-important Chinese New Year holiday on January and February were bigger than expected.

"I don't think we should interpret this, necessarily, as a step back," Sanford Bernstein research analyst Sara Senatore said.

Yum shares fell more than 2 percent to $65.20 in extended trading following the report. Yum's stock traded around $72 in late March before reports of the first deaths from the novel strain of avian flu.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Phil Berlowitz, Matthew Lewis and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yum-says-bird-flu-hits-china-april-sales-000013486--finance.html

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Apple job posting hints at future iPhone with flexible display

(Adds teams) April 10 (Reuters) - Juventus 0 Bayern Munich 2 - Champions League quarter-final, second-leg result. Bayern Munich win 4-0 on aggregate At the Juventus stadium Scorers: Mario Mandzukic 64, Claudio Pizarro 90+1 Halftime: 0-0 Teams: Juventus: 1-Gianluigi Buffon; 15-Andrea Barzagli, 3-Giorgio Chiellini, 19-Leonardo Bonucci; 20-Simone Padoin (33-Mauricio Isla 69), 21-Andrea Pirlo, 6-Paul Pogba, 8-Claudio Marchisio (24-Emanuele Giaccherini 79), 22-Kwadwo Asamoah; 9-Mirko Vucinic, 27-Fabio Quagliarella (32-Alessandro Matri 66). ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-job-posting-hints-future-iphone-flexible-display-213039574.html

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Rick Santorum: Gay Marriage Support "Suicidal" For GOP

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Samsung Display HQ searched by police in probe over stolen LG OLED tech

We had hoped that the dispute between Samsung and LG over their OLED tech would be resolved soon but recent developments suggest that may not be the case. Bloomberg reports Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigators entered the Samsung Display HQ in Asan as they look into the possibility that LG partners may have leaked secrets of its technology. A Samsung spokesperson denied any involvement, and an LG spokesperson is quoted saying the police made the allegation themselves. This comes after Yonhap News reported last month that LG accused Samsung of illegally using its patented technology and demanded Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics pay for the rights. While these two continue to duke it out legally, we have yet to see an OLED HDTV from either arrive in the US and it seems like it may be quite some time until that happens.

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Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/10/samsung-display-hq-searched-by-police-in-probe-over-stolen-lg-ol/

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Concern Grows About Human Rights in Egypt (Voice Of America)

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Twitter Pushes Android App Update To Fix The ?Me? Tab Bug

169965622_50e47f80e9_zOver the weekend, we told you about an issue with Twitter’s Android update from last Wednesday. The issue centered around the “Me” tab not loading properly, just giving you a spinning wheel on a white screen. Users took to Twitter to complain about the bug, saying that they couldn’t access important features on the screen, like reading DMs and switching accounts. You could search for yourself and tap on your avatar to find your way to your profile, but that was a hack more than anything else. Most users just thought they had a bad connection and waited for the screen to load…forever. Today, the company released an update to the app that fixes the bug: v4.0.1 - Fixes “Me” tab loading issues - Improved UI on Honeycomb devices I’ve confirmed with multiple people who were having the problem that this update does indeed fix the issue, and the “Me” tab is now loading quickly. It didn’t seem to affect every Android device, but the folks it did affect have been pretty loud about it since last Wednesday. Here’s a tweet from just a few hours ago: https://twitter.com/Sumz__ox/status/321342582221328384 Consider the bug squashed. Twitter has been working on unifying the experience for the service on all platforms, including native apps. The main reason for pushing out updates to the mobile versions were to incorporate the new Twitter Cards that were announced last week. This was just a bump in the road for an otherwise beautifully redesigned app that now lets you cycle through your four tabs with a gesture. Now all four tabs work. [Photo credit: Flickr]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Qtqbw6qVLps/

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Google's Android target of new antitrust complaint

BRUSSELS (AP) ? A group of companies led by Microsoft have called on European authorities to launch an antitrust investigation into Google's dominance of Internet usage on mobile devices.

The complaint comes from the "FairSearch" initiative of 17 companies, including Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., and Oracle Corp. The group claims that Google is acting unfairly by requiring device makers using its free Android operating system to bundle an entire suite of Google's services to ensure they can include just one or two "must-have" apps, such as Google Maps and YouTube.

"Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a Trojan horse to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace and control consumer data," said Thomas Vinje, the group's Brussels-based lawyer.

Google does allow smartphone and tablet makers to sculpt Android to serve their own needs. In some instances, that has led to Android modifications that exclude Google's services. For instance, Amazon.com Inc. has largely locked out Google from its popular line of Kindle Fire tablets. There also have been periodic instances of Android smartphones with either Microsoft's Bing or Yahoo rather than Google as the built-in search engine.

Android operating systems are installed on about 70 percent of new smartphones, according to analyst estimates, handing Google the largest market share worldwide. Makers of Android devices include Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. Android is followed by Apple's iOS system, which powers the iPhone and the iPad. Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, Microsoft's Windows and others trail far behind.

"Google's predatory distribution of Android at below-cost makes it difficult for other providers of operating systems to recoup investments in competing with Google's dominant mobile platform," FairSearch said in a statement.

The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive arm and antitrust authority, must decide at some point whether to take up the case or drop it. A spokesman confirmed the complaint had been received.

Google Inc., which is based in Mountain View, California, did not address the complaint's charges in detail. "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission," Google spokesman Al Verney said.

The U.S. company is already under investigation by Brussels for practices related to its dominance of the online search and advertising markets.

That complaint, launched in 2010, alleges that Google unfairly favors its own services in its Internet search results, which enjoy a near-monopoly in Europe. Google has proposed a list of remedies to address the Commission's concerns to achieve a settlement. The Commission is currently examining the proposed changes.

"We have received some proposals by Google and we will soon launch a market test" of the proposed remedies, said Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. He declined to speculate on when the investigation would be concluded.

The EU Commission has often taken a harder line with U.S. tech companies than its American counterparts, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department.

Google settled a similar antitrust complaint on its search business with the FTC in January without making any major concessions on how it runs its search engine, the world's most influential gateway to digital information and commerce.

Microsoft, which has been a leading player in the complaints against Google, has had its own protracted run-ins with the EU Commission. The Redmond, Washington, company has paid 2.2 billion euros in various fines since investigations began in 1998.

The FairSearch complaint was announced on the same day that Microsoft launched the latest phase of its U.S. ad campaign. That campaign depicts Google as a duplicitous company more interested in increasing profits and power than protecting people's privacy and providing unbiased search results.

Google's new privacy rules, meanwhile, are also attracting the scrutiny of European authorities. Several data privacy regulators have launched an investigation, alleging the company is creating a data goldmine at the expense of unwitting users.

Last year, the company merged 60 separate privacy policies from around the world into one universal document. The European authorities complain that the new policy doesn't allow users to figure out which information is kept, how it is combined by Google services or how long the company retains it.

The policy allows Google to combine data collected as one person uses multiple Google's services, from Gmail to YouTube, giving the company a powerful tool for targeting users with advertising based on their interests and search history. Advertising is the main way the company makes its money.

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Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed reporting.

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Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/googles-android-target-antitrust-complaint-124420401--finance.html

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