C.Wizard News: 10/02/14

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Thursday 2 October 2014

TECHNOLOGY NEWS Exclusive: Facebook plots first steps into healthcare

By Christina Farr and Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) already knows who your friends are and the kind of things that grab your attention. Soon, it could also know the state of your health.

On the heels of fellow Silicon Valley technology companies Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Google Inc (GOOGL.O), Facebook is plotting its first steps into the fertile field of healthcare, said three people familiar with the matter. The people requested anonymity as the plans are still in development.

The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles.

In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, the people said.

Healthcare has historically been an area of interest for Facebook, but it has taken a backseat to more pressing products.

Recently, Facebook executives have come to realize that healthcare might work as a tool to increase engagement with the site.

One catalyst: the unexpected success of Facebook's "organ-donor status initiative," introduced in 2012. The day that Facebook altered profile pages to allow members to specify their organ donor-status, 13,054 people registered to be organ donors online in the United States, a 21 fold increase over the daily average of 616 registrations, according to a June 2013 study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

Separately, Facebook product teams noticed that people with chronic ailments such as diabetes would search the social networking site for advice, said one former Facebook insider. In addition, the proliferation of patient networks such as PatientsLikeMe demonstrate that people are increasingly comfortable sharing symptoms and treatment experiences online.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg may step up his personal involvement in health. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, a pediatric resident at University of California San Francisco, recently donated $5 million to the Ravenswood Health Center in East Palo Alto.

Any advertising built around the health initiatives would not be as targeted as it could be on television or other media. Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, are prohibited from using Facebook to promote the sale of prescription drugs, in part because of concerns surrounding disclosures.

PRIVACY CONCERNS

Privacy, an area where the company has faced considerable criticism over the years, will likely prove a challenge. This week, the company apologized to users for manipulating news feeds for the purposes of research.

But Facebook may already have a few ideas to alleviate privacy concerns around its health initiatives. The company is considering rolling out its first health application quietly and under a different name, a source said. Market research commissioned by Facebook found that many of its users were unaware that photo-service Instagram is Facebook-owned, the source said.

Facebook's recent softening of its policy requiring users to go by their real names may also bolster the company's health plans. People with chronic conditions may prefer to use an alias when sharing their health experiences.

"I could see Facebook doing well with applications for lifestyle and wellness, but really sick patients with conditions like cancer aren't fooling around," said Frank Williams, chief executive of Evolent Health, a company that provides software and services to doctors and health systems.

People would need anonymity and an assurance that their data and comments wouldn't be shared with their online contacts, advertisers, or pharmaceutical companies, Williams said.

It remains unclear whether Facebook will moderate or curate the content shared in the support communities, or bring in outside medical experts to provide context.

Facebook declined to comment on its health care plans.

(Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Google to launch own mobile chat app: Economic Times

(Reuters) - Software giant Google Inc plans to launch a mobile messaging app it is likely to test in India and other emerging markets, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Friday, citing sources.

The daily said Google was in the early stages of development of the app, which will not make it mandatory to use a Google login.

If launched, the mobile app will compete in the mobile chat space with the likes of WhatsApp, Line and Hike.

The Mountain View, California-based company is also looking at localization, by adding Indian language support and voice-to-text messaging, the newspaper said.(http://bit.ly/1mXn7Kj)

A Google spokeswoman said the company did not comment on speculation.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Mumbai; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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TOP NEWS Islamic State committing 'staggering' crimes in Iraq: U.N. report

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used child soldiers in what may amount to systematic war crimes that demand prosecution, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In a report based on 500 interviews with witnesses, also said Iraqi government air strikes on the Sunni Muslim militants had caused "significant civilian deaths" by hitting villages, a school and hospitals in violation of international law.

At least 9,347 civilians had been killed and 17,386 wounded so far this year through September, well over half of them since the Islamist insurgents also known as ISIL and ISIS began seizing large parts of northern Iraq in early June, the report said.

"The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein.

In a statement, he called again for the Baghdad government to join the International Criminal Court, saying the Hague court was set up to prosecute such massive abuses and direct targeting of civilians on the basis of their religious or ethnic group.

Islamist forces have committed gross human rights violations and violence of an "increasing sectarian nature" against groups including Christians, Yazidis and Shi'ite Muslims in a widening conflict that has forced 1.8 million Iraqis to flee their homes, according to the 29-page report by the U.N. Human Rights Office and the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

"These include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms."

FEMALE "SEX SLAVES"

In a single massacre on June 12, the report said, about 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and security officers from the former U.S. Camp Speicher military base in Salahuddin province were captured and killed by Islamic State fighters.

However, the bodies have not been exhumed and the precise toll is not known. No one disputes that Iraqi military recruits were led off the base near Tikrit unarmed and then machinegunned in their hundreds into mass graves by Islamic State, whose fighters boasted of the killings on the Internet.

Women have been treated particularly harshly, the report said: "ISIL (has) attacked and killed female doctors, lawyers, among other professionals."

In August, it said, ISIL took 450-500 women and girls to the Tal Afar citadel in Iraq's Nineveh region where "150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIL fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves".

Islamic State pushed on with its assault on a Syrian border town on Thursday despite coalition air strikes meant to weaken them, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict.

Islamic State and allied groups have attacked and destroyed places of religious and cultural significance in Iraq that do not conform to its "takfiri" doctrine, the U.N. report said, referring to the beliefs of Sunni militants who justify their violence by branding others as apostates.

But the report also voiced deep concern at violations committed by the Baghdad government and allied fighters, including air strikes and shelling that may not have distinguished between military targets and civilian areas.

(additional reporting by Ned Parker in Baghdad; Editing by Louise Ireland)

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Facebook plans stricter scrutiny for accessing user data

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans a stricter review of requests to access information on its 1.32 billion active users after a psychological experiment on unwitting users in 2012 created a furor on social media.

There will be a stricter review of requests for research, for internal work or academic purposes, that deals with personal content or specific groups of people, Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer wrote. (http://bit.ly/1E5aAtA)

He did not elaborate on the new guidelines.

Facebook said new engineers will be educated on the company's research practices during training.

Any academic research that Facebook undertakes will now be published on a single site. (https://research.facebook.com/)

A Facebook spokesman acknowledged in July that an experiment on nearly 700,000 users in 2012 had upset users and said the company would change the way it handled research. (http://reut.rs/1vB5EYt)

In the study, Facebook experimented with the emotional states of users to prompt them to post either more positive or negative content on their news feeds.

"Although this subject matter was important to research, we were unprepared for the reaction the paper received when it was published," Schroepfer wrote on Thursday.

(Reporting By Anya George Tharakan and Subrat Patnaik in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)

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TOP NEWS Chaotic scene outside White House a challenge for Secret Service

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If James McGinley had his way, he would take his message around the world, but he does not have the money and instead is sitting cross-legged in Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House with the words "Wage Love" tattooed across his face.

McGinley, a well-spoken man, is trying to talk over the piercing din of a man shouting into a bullhorn, as tourists on Segways whiz by and Secret Service guards push people off of Pennsylvania Avenue for some unknown security reason.

This is the scene on a typical day outside the White House's wrought-iron fence, the one Iraq war veteran Omar Gonzalez climbed over to get inside the executive mansion on September 19. The security breach prompted a series of disclosures that led to the resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson this week.

Every day in front of the White House creates its own set of challenges for the guards. The type of protest often depends on which foreign leader is there to meet with President Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, a knot of protesters shouted slogans about India's handling of Kashmir to greet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Wednesday, schoolchildren carried signs welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was inside with the president.

But on Thursday, with Obama in Chicago, there was the usual menagerie of people with a message, hoping to get the attention of the tourists taking selfie photos with the White House as their backdrop.

The challenge for Secret Service guards is separating the innocent from the potential troublemakers. Riding mountain bikes through Lafayette Park to keep an eye on things, they are constantly on the lookout for suspicious packages and people.

McGinley, who held a placard saying Israel should not occupy Palestinian territories, said the Secret Service has a hard job.

"People come and taunt them. There could be terrible attacks on the White House. There's a risk of someone jumping the fence, and they are held to a high standard of civility to the people here, which they should be and which they seem to take great pride in," he said. "I do not fault them for what happened at the White House."

McGinley's words can be barely heard over Jorge Pina, who is preaching the gospel to anyone within earshot, which as it turns out is quite a wide distance with the aid of his battery-powered bullhorn.

He is passing out handbills with a biblical theme that are the shape of American paper currency.

"Why am I here?" Pina says, pausing briefly from the bullhorn. "This is where the crowds are. This is where the people are. This is the center of our nation, the center of our city, Washington, D.C."

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

TOP NEWS France urges Israel to call off East Jerusalem settlement plans

PARIS (Reuters) - France called on Israel on Thursday to drop plans for new settlements in East Jerusalem, joining the United States and Berlin in criticism of the move.

"We condemn the Israeli authorities decision to build 2,610 homes in Givat Hamatos," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement, adding that it would be the first new colony in East Jerusalem in 15 years.

"We urgently call on the Israeli authorities to reverse this decision," he said.

Fabius said the settlements threatened a "two-state solution" - meaning an independent and democratic Palestinian state living alongside Israel.

"One cannot claim to support a solution and at the same time do things against without consequences being drawn, including at the European Union level," Fabius said without elaborating.

The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that reports that Israel had moved forward with settlement plans would call into question Israel's commitment to peace.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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TOP NEWS Japan's Obuchi: Political 'princess' could be first female PM

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - With a telegenic presence, powerful ruling party mentors and a talent for avoiding making political enemies, Japan's new trade and industry minister, Yuko Obuchi, may have what it takes to become the country's first female prime minister.

In Tokyo's male-dominated corridors of power, where seniority still matters, Obuchi's gender and youth would in the past have made her a long-shot - at best - to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But a shortage of popular male rivals and lingering doubts over the success of "Abenomics" mean the 40-year-old daughter of a prime minister is increasingly seen as a contender when her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) goes shopping for a new leader.

For now, Abe's support rates are respectable at more than 50 percent, but his popularity depends mostly on whether he can keep promises to fix Japan's long-stagnant economy.

Even if Abe's direct successor turns out to be a man, Obuchi - dubbed the "next premier but one" by some Japanese media - is clearly on a career path that could take her to the top job.

"Her faction wants to push her forward. They want to nurture her as a future leader," said Nihon University professor Tomoaki Iwai. "Trade and industry minister is an important post, so you could say she has climbed a step up the ladder toward premier."

One of the first tests of Obuchi's skills as minister is the tricky task of selling an unpopular policy of restarting nuclear reactors to a public wary about safety after the 2011 Fukushima crisis.

Abe appears to be hoping that the popular Obuchi's soft-spoken ways and status as the mother of two boys, aged seven and four, will soften the blow for the many Japanese voters, women especially, who oppose restarts.

"As soon as I get home, I become a housewife so things like shopping, childcare, going to the doctor - I realize there are many things needed for daily life," Obuchi, tall and slim in a black pants suit with her short hair swept to the side, told women last week in the village of Kawauchi, about 20 km (12 miles) from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

Many villagers fled after Fukushima meltdowns sent radiation spewing, and still worry about going back to deserted neighborhoods despite the lifting of evacuation orders.

POLITICAL PRINCESS

It was her father Keizo's sudden death from a stroke suffered while in office in 2000 that persuaded Obuchi to run for parliament at the age of 26.

Politics, like small businesses, is often a family affair in Japan, where there is a tradition of offspring succeeding a parent in elected office.

"I grew up watching my father and the path that he followed as a politician, and somehow I wanted to continue that," Obuchi said in a TV interview just days before she was appointed in a cabinet reshuffle in early September.

Those who know Obuchi agree she entered politics mainly to take over the legacy of her father Keizo rather than to pursue a specific policy agenda. "I think if her father had been a fishmonger or a shop owner, she would have carried on his work," said a Japanese journalist who has followed Obuchi's career.

The youngest of three siblings, Obuchi had previously worked at a TV broadcaster and as her father's private aide.

One of a record-tying five women appointed by Abe in his re-jigged cabinet, Obuchi stands out as a moderate compared with other ministers who mostly share Abe's hawkish agenda.

She hails from an LDP faction that favors warm ties with China and South Korea, and is one of only four ministers in the 18-member cabinet not associated with nationalist lobby group Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), political analysts noted.

She does belong to a separate group of MPs that advocates visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, but she typically sends a staffer rather than go in person, an aide said.

When Abe outraged Beijing and Seoul by visiting Yasukuni in December, Obuchi was in China with a group of lawmakers, whose appointments were abruptly canceled.

Obuchi was also the youngest post-war cabinet minister when she took the portfolio for gender equality in 2008, at the age of 34, and the next year became the first to become pregnant in office. She has also served as deputy finance minister.

A quick study with a sharp mind and a talented speaker, Obuchi has few signature policies other than urging good ties in Asia and steps to make it easier for women to work and raise kids. Like her father, who parlayed an image as a likeable "Everyman" into popularity, Obuchi seems to have few political enemies - a factor that may be key to her career success.

"She has potential but it is still only potential," Mieko Nakabayashi, a former lawmaker from the rival Democratic Party and a professor at Waseda University.

"She can be likeable, she doesn't stick out, she doesn't carry any strong beliefs. Her father was the same way. It's not a very global type of women's leadership ... but it is very much the LDP-style."

(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Alex Richardson)

TOP NEWS Exclusive: North Korea envoy says door is open on nuclear issues, rights, abductees

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea is ready to resume six-party talks on its nuclear program but must maintain its readiness in the face of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, a senior envoy in Geneva said on Thursday.

So Se Pyong, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told Reuters that his country was not planning a nuclear or missile test.

In a wide-ranging interview, he said that reports about the ill health of its leader Kim Jong Un were "fabricated rumors" and that it was not clear whether the United States was willing to negotiate the release of three detained Americans.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with North Korea's foreign minister in Moscow on Wednesday that he saw a possibility that stalled talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program could resume, but it would take time.

"For the six-party talks we are ready, and as far as I think, China and Russia and the DPRK are ready," So said in the rare interview in the DPRK's mission overlooking Lake Geneva.

"But America, they don't like that kind of talks right now. Because America does not like that, so that's why the countries like South Korea, Japan also are not ready for those talks."

North Korea promised to abandon its nuclear program in 2005 but appeared to renege on the agreement when it tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.

Already heavily sanctioned by the world body for its missile and nuclear tests, it has completed a major overhaul of its rocket launch site, a U.S. thinktank said on Thursday, enabling it to fire larger, longer-range rockets.

So, without being specific, linked North Korea's military preparations to "very serious" U.S.-South Korean exercises earlier this year that he said had deployed nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines and B-52 bombers.

"We have to be alert also, we have to be prepared to make counter measures against that military exercise which are against us."

Asked specifically whether North Korea was preparing a nuclear test or to fire a missile, he replied: "No, no.

"In case, in case, if they do that kind of joint military exercise, the joint nuclear military exercise against my country continuously, we have to, also."

North Korea's nuclear weapons program protected it from the United States, So said.

"In case if we give (the weapons) up like other countries, then of course I think they would have attacked us already," he said.

North Korea is not believed to have mastered the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead small enough for any of its existing rockets, although analysts say subsequent nuclear tests increase the chance of refining its existing nuclear technology.

It has previously threatened to turn Seoul and Washington into a "sea of flames".

"PARTY POLICY"

Asked whether North Korea's leader Kim was committed to decentralization, So said: "It is the party's policy."

Kim failed to appear at the Supreme People's Assembly last month and state media said he was suffering from "discomfort". He had been seen walking with a limp since an event in July.

Asked about the nature of his ailment, So said: "That is rumors, fabricated rumors."

He said that media reports Kim may have had surgery on his ankles were wrong.

Three Americans are currently being held in North Korea on charges of crimes against the state. A pro-North Korean daily published in Japan on Thursday quoted one of them appealing to the U.S. government to help to secure their freedom.

"It is true that three Americans are detained in my country now...They came into my country illegally and also they committed some crimes against my country, that is why they are on trial and then they were sentenced," So said.

He added: "I was told that they asked for the government of America to have negotiations on those problems, but I don't know whether America is ready or not to release them or have some understandings or the recognition of those crimes they made."

U.S. special representative for North Korean policy Glyn Davies said on Monday that North Korea has rejected U.S. efforts to discuss the detentions, adding that the secretive state was missing a chance to build relations with Washington.

So disclosed that North Korea has sought closer cooperation on human rights, first with the United Nations for technical assistance, and also through dialogue with the European Union.

"Actually we just gave a hint to have that kind of dialogue to one of the EU member countries, but still they don't give us any feedback, any answer," So said, noting that the EU has taken the lead in criticizing North Korea at U.N. rights forums.

A report by U.N. investigators this year denounced its system of labor camps holding political prisoners. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in New York last week, called on North Korea to close its camps.

"Of course every country has prisons. That is true. We have also prisons. But not labor camps they are talking about," So said. "That is a totally fabricated discrimination."

On the politically-charged issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea over the years, So said that he did not know how many abductees there had been, but noted there had been recent contacts on the issue.

"Whether it is a hundred, or 200 or 500, I don't know exactly. We don't know the exact numbers, those are very difficult problems there," So said.

In 2002 North Korea admitted kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies. Five abductees and their families later returned to Japan.

Officials from North Korea and Japan have met in China on the issue, and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has made resolution of the dispute a top priority, said this week that North Korea had invited Japanese representatives to Pyongyang.

So said he did not know if a trip would take place.

"I was told also there were some more contact last week," So said. "So anyway, we are ready to solve that problem because we are very frank."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Tom Miles and Sonya Hepinstall)

TOP NEWS U.S. commander in Afghanistan says recent Taliban gains fleeting

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghan military casualties have spiked in recent weeks amid an increase in Taliban attacks, but the top U.S. commander in the country said on Thursday that rebel gains were fleeting and he was confident Afghan forces could stop them from holding ground.

"The last couple of weeks, there has been an uptick (in casualties), with the Taliban trying to make a statement as they close out the fighting season," U.S. Army General John Campbell, the commander of international forces, told a Pentagon briefing.

Campbell, the head of the International Security Assistance Force, did not have an exact tally of Afghan casualties for this year, but said it was in the range of 7,000 to 9,000 killed or wounded. He said the number was slightly higher than in 2013 because of the recent spike in combat in Helmand and elsewhere.

The ISAF chief downplayed the significance of the surge in attacks.

"There's nowhere that we have Afghan security forces that the Taliban can get the terrain and hold the terrain," he told reporters.

"The Taliban may take over a district center or something, but only temporarily. Once the ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) understands that piece of it ... they get the terrain back."

Campbell's remarks via teleconference from Afghanistan came just two days after Afghan and U.S. officials signed a bilateral security agreement that would keep up to 9,800 U.S. troops in the country after the end of the year to advise and support Afghan security forces and carry out counter-terror operations.

Final approval of the accord came after months of delay because then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai refused to sign the deal. The agreement had to await the conclusion of contested presidential elections, which were only recently finalized.

Campbell, who took over as ISAF commander in August, said his six weeks in Afghanistan had been characterized by "one word ... transition, transition, transition."

International forces are in the process of drawing down from about 40,000 currently to 12,500 by the end of the year. Of that number, the U.S. military has 24,050 troops in Afghanistan and is drawing down to 9,800.

"We're on a very good glide path to make that by the end of December," Campbell said.

He said since he last served in Afghanistan in 2011, the presence of coalition forces has consolidated from 300 command outposts and forward operating bases countrywide to just under 30.

Campbell said the international mission after the end of the year would be "fundamentally different," with coalition forces providing advice and assistance at the level of a military corps or government ministry. Previously, troops were with smaller units, down to the battalion level.

"We're not out on patrol with the Afghans. They've taken over the fight," he said.

Instead, international troops will be helping Afghan forces develop higher-level capabilities, such as logistics, gathering and using intelligence, improving the aviation wing and learning to provide close-air support for ground troops, Campbell added.

(Reporting by David Alexander. Editing by Andre Grenon)

TOP NEWS Swiss Red Cross worker killed by shell in Ukraine's Donetsk

By Maria Tsvetkova

DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - A Swiss Red Cross worker was killed by a shell that landed near the international organization's office in Ukraine's separatist-held city of Donetsk on Thursday.

Both the pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government forces they have been fighting blamed each other for the attack which smashed windows, scattered shrapnel and left a crater in the pavement.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said Laurent DuPasquier, a 38-year-old administrator in its Donetsk office, had been in Ukraine for six weeks before he was hit.

"We understand that there were other civilian casualties in Donetsk today. Indiscriminate shelling of residential areas is unacceptable and violates international humanitarian law," ICRC Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart said in a statement.

The agency's other staff, including about 20 Ukrainian and international employees based in Donetsk, were "now in safety", the statement said. "We're deeply distressed by this loss," ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told Reuters.

The ICRC offices in Donetsk are in a three-storey building less than one kilometer from the state security headquarters which has been occupied by separatist rebels along with other strategic points in the city since April.

The incident will bring fresh strain to bear on a fragile ceasefire called by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko which came into force on Sept. 5.

Poroshenko said last week the ceasefire was holding. But it has come increasingly frayed in the past few days with increased fighting going on around the main international airport of Donetsk, from where separatists are trying to dislodge government forces.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin blamed the separatists for Thursday's attack. "I have only one question: do the terrorists have any idea of what humanity is all about when they shell the Donetsk office of the ICRC, whose only aim is to help people?" he said.

Rebel leader Andrei Purgin said the Ukrainian government forces shelled Donetsk constantly and that the attack had come from one of their areas.

"The Red Cross worker was killed by a rocket from a multiple rocket launcher," he told Reuters.

Seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a single strike by tank fire on their armored personnel transporter on Monday.

On Wednesday at least 10 people were killed when shelling hit a school playground in Donetsk and a public transit mini-van in a street nearby.

(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles in Geneva and Thomas Grove in Moscow; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

TOP NEWS Up to 100 possibly exposed to U.S. Ebola patient; four isolated

By Lisa Maria Garza

DALLAS (Reuters) - Up to 100 people may have had contact with the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, and four people were quarantined in a Dallas apartment where sheets and other items used by the man were put in sealed plastic bags to prevent infection.

Health officials said on Thursday that 12 to 18 people had direct contact with the patient, who flew to Texas from Liberia via Brussels and Washington two weeks ago, and they in turn had contact with scores of others.

None of those thought to have had contact with the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, were showing symptoms of Ebola, Dallas County officials said at a news conference. Duncan had been staying in an apartment in the northeastern part of the city for about a week before going to a Dallas hospital.

"The sheets were placed in a sealed plastic bag and have been in the bag, as well as the belongings of Mr. Duncan, those were also in a bag," said Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top political official.

Ebola can cause fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva. It has killed at least 3,338 people in Liberia and two other impoverished West African countries, Guinea and Sierra Leone, in the worst such outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976.

In Liberia, the head of the country's airport authority, Binyah Kesselly, said the government could prosecute Duncan for denying he had contact with someone who was eventually diagnosed with Ebola.

The government said Duncan failed to declare that he helped neighbor Marthalene Williams after she fell critically ill on Sept. 15. Williams died.

Kesselly said Duncan was asked in a questionnaire whether he had come in contact with any Ebola victim or was showing any symptoms. "To all of these questions, Mr. Duncan answered 'no,'" Kesselly said.

Officials have said the U.S. healthcare system is well prepared to contain the hemorrhagic fever's spread by careful tracking of those who have had contact with Duncan, and employing appropriate care.

Dallas County officials said the problem was very localized. "When I say local, I don't mean Dallas. I mean a very specific neighborhood in the northeast part of Dallas," Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters.

HOSPITAL SENT PATIENT AWAY

Duncan initially sought treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on the night of Sept. 25 but was sent back to the apartment, with antibiotics, despite telling a nurse he had just been in Liberia. By Sunday, he needed an ambulance to return to the same hospital after vomiting on the ground outside the apartment complex.

He was in serious condition on Thursday, no change from Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police and armed security guards were keeping people about 100 yards (meters) away from the apartment, with orange cones blocking the entrance and exit. Maintenance workers scrubbed the parking lot with high-pressure water and bleach.

Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the four people under quarantine did not have a fever and were healthy.

Lakey said monitoring included fever checks twice a day. At the apartment, "there is a law enforcement person there in case individuals leave," Lakey told reporters on a conference call.

U.S. officials initially described the number of people potentially exposed as a handful, and on Wednesday said it was up to 18. Then on Thursday, the Texas health department said there were about 100 potential contacts.

CNN reported that a Dallas woman who had a child with Duncan said he had sweated profusely in the bed they shared at her apartment. The woman, whom CNN identified only as "Louisa," is quarantined in the apartment with one of her children, who is 13, and two visiting nephews in their 20s (Health officials described them as relatives of Duncan.)

They were all in the home when Duncan began showing signs of illness, the report said. The woman said she mentioned twice to hospital staff that he had come from Liberia.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, told reporters on Thursday that the agency had interviewed most of the 100 people who may have had contact with Duncan and "there are a handful who may have had exposure and who therefore may be monitored."

Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh, said contact tracing is "bread-and-butter public health," and something health officials do regularly to track tuberculosis, measles and sexually transmitted diseases.

Adalja said the most disturbing part of the U.S. incident is that Duncan was sent home from the hospital with antibiotics.

"This really is something that shouldn't have happened," he said. "It just reinforces that taking a travel history has to be an essential part of taking care of patients."

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu and Toni Clarke in Washington, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Lisa Maria Garza and Marice Richter in Dallas, Jim Forsyth in San Antonio and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Felix Bate in West Africa; Writing by Jim Loney and Grant McCool; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis)

TOP NEWS Hong Kong leader refuses to resign but offers talks with protesters

By Clare Baldwin and John Ruwitch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying defied pro-democracy protesters' demands to step down by Friday, and repeated police warnings that the consequences would be serious if they sought to surround or occupy government buildings.

Leung, speaking to reporters just minutes before an ultimatum for him to resign expired, also said that Chief Secretary Carrie Lam would hold a meeting with students soon to discuss political reforms. He gave no time frame.

Some of the thousands of people massed outside Leung's office voiced disappointment, although the atmosphere was calm.

"The request is very simple. We want real democracy. When you ask for an apple you should get an apple. You don't get an orange made to look like an apple," said Howard Hu, a 35-year-old engineer.

Others suspected that Hong Kong authorities were trying to buy time and wait for demonstrations to dwindle.

"The government says it wants to talk to us but we can predict the outcome," said Isaac Chan, a private music tutor, as he sat on the road wearing a paper face mask.

"The government already has an answer in its heart. They will not let us have real universal suffrage. We think this is a tactic being used to cool the crowd because (Friday) is a work day, not a holiday," added the 22-year-old.

As he spoke, the crowd around him began thinning out, and only about 1,000 people remained by 3 a.m. Several thousand more were still in the streets in other parts of the city.

Student groups welcomed the offer of talks, but they urged followers to stay where they were to keep up the pressure on the government. The "Occupy Central with Love and Peace" movement reiterated its demand that Leung step aside.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in the last week to demand full democracy, including a free voting system when they come to choose a new leader in 2017.

China decreed on Aug. 31 that it would vet candidates wishing to run for the post of Hong Kong's chief executive, and residents have aimed their anger at Leung, who enjoys Beijing's support.

A front-page editorial on Thursday in the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, lauded Leung's leadership and the police response to the protests.

"The central government fully trusts Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and is very satisfied with his work," it said.

"SERIOUS" CONSEQUENCES

The protests, the worst to hit Hong Kong since China resumed its rule of the former British colony in 1997, have brought parts of the Asian trading hub to a standstill.

Last weekend police used teargas, pepper spray and batons to quell the unrest, but since then the clashes have subsided as both sides appeared ready to dig in for a protracted stand-off.

Student leaders had demanded that Leung resign by midnight on Thursday, and called on their followers to occupy government buildings if he refused.

"I won't resign because I must carry out the universal suffrage work," Leung told a brief news conference, referring to electoral reforms. His decision had been widely anticipated.

"In any place in the world, if there are any protesters that surround, attack, or occupy government buildings like police headquarters or the chief executive's office ... the consequences are serious," he said, reflecting warnings from the police that their response to any such action would be robust.

The "Occupy Central" movement presents one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Universal suffrage is an eventual goal under the "one country, two systems" formula by which China rules Hong Kong. Under that formula, China accords Hong Kong some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

China has dismissed the protests as "illegal", but cracking down too hard could shake confidence in market-driven Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from the rest of the country.

Not reacting firmly enough could embolden dissidents in mainland China.

A top Chinese envoy has warned that the unrest could tarnish the city's reputation as one of the world's leading financial centers if they continued for a prolonged period.

China's ambassador to Germany, Shi Mingde, told Reuters that the city's reputation as a financial hub was not under threat for now. "But if shares fall, if the unrest continues, then the social order and (Hong Kong's) role as a financial center will be in danger," he said in an interview in Berlin.

The markets were closed on Thursday for a holiday, but Hong Kong's benchmark share index, the Hang Seng Index, plunged 7.3 percent in September. Spooked by the protests, some banks and other financial firms have begun moving staff to back-up premises on the outskirts of the city.

ENDGAME UNCERTAIN

Now that Leung has refused to meet the demands of protesters, they are pondering their next step.

Student leaders have vowed to keep up their campaign, but the government's patience could eventually run out, or alternatively demonstrations could lose momentum.

"It seems that the protesters are now divided into two parts: those that want to occupy the (streets) and those that don't," said Edwin Leung, a 19-year-old studying social sciences. "The movement has no leader."

Fashion designer Crystal Chung said the demonstrations had achieved something at least.

"They (the authorities) avoided us for so many days, but offered to talk after we came and surrounded the government building," she said.

But the 25-year-old shared the concerns of many around her.

"Will we get real universal suffrage? We are facing the Chinese government which is very powerful, and I really doubt that they will listen to our demands. But as Hong Kong citizens, we are here to do what we can."

(Additional reporting by Charlie Zhu, Yimou Lee, James Pomfret, Anne Marie Roantree, Irene Jay Liu, Farah Master, Diana Chan, Twinnie Siu, Kinling Lo, Diana Chan and Jason Subler in HONG KONG and Noah Barkin and Andreas Rinke in BERLIN; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

TOP NEWS Turkey steels for action as Islamic State advances on Syrian border town

By Ayla Jean Yackley and Alexander Dziadosz

SURUC Turkey/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament authorized the government to order military action against Islamic State on Thursday as the insurgents tightened their grip on a Syrian border town, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey.

The vote gives the government powers to order incursions into Syria and Iraq to counter the threat of attack "from all terrorist groups", although there was little sign that any such action was imminent.

The mandate also allows foreign troops to launch operations from Turkey, a NATO member which hosts a U.S. air base in its southern town of Incirlik, but which has so far resisted a frontline role in the military campaign against the insurgents.

"The rising influence of radical groups in Syria threatens Turkey's national security... The aim of this mandate is to minimize as much as possible the impact of the clashes on our borders," Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told parliament.

Islamic State fighters advanced to within a few kilometers of the mainly Kurdish border town of Kobani on three sides on Thursday, extending their gains after taking control of hundreds of villages around the town in recent weeks.

Smoke rose behind hills to the south of Kobani as the insurgents continued their shelling into the night. Dozens of anti-tank missiles with bright-red tracers flashed through the sky as darkness enveloped the town.

Kobani's electricity supply was cut after militants bombarded a local power grid, a Kurdish fighter told Reuters.

In neighboring Iraq, which also borders Turkey, the insurgents have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used children as fighters in what may amount to war crimes, the United Nations said.

They took control of most of the western Iraqi town of Hit early on Thursday in Anbar province, where they already control many surrounding towns, launching the assault with three suicide car bombs at its eastern entrance.

U.S.-led forces, which have been bombing Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, hit a village near Kobani on Wednesday. Sources in the town, which is known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, reported strikes further south overnight.

The U.S. Central Command reported that U.S. and other forces in the coalition had conducted four strikes on Wednesday and Thursday in Syria and seven in Iraq. Targets included buildings, tanks and other armed vehicles.

But such strikes seemed to have done little to stop the Islamists' advance.

"We left because we realized it was only going to get worse," said Leyla, a 37-year-old Syrian arriving at the Yumurtalik border crossing with her six children after waiting 10 days in a field, hoping the clashes would subside.

"We will go back tomorrow if Islamic State leaves. I don't want to be here," she said.

Kurdish militants in Turkey warned that peace talks with Ankara, meant to end a three-decade insurgency, would collapse if the Islamist insurgents were allowed to carry out a massacre.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's war, said Islamic State militants were clashing with Kurdish fighters hundreds of meters from Kobani, raising fears they would enter the town "at any moment".

It said it had confirmed the deaths of 16 Islamic State fighters and seven Kurdish militants but that the true toll was likely to be higher.

About 20 explosions were heard in the areas of the Tishrin dam and town of Manbij 50 km (30 miles) south of Kobani overnight, resulting from missile strikes believed to be carried out by the coalition, the Observatory said earlier.

Asya Abdullah, a senior official in Syria's dominant Kurdish political party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said there were clashes to the east, west and south of Kobani and that Islamic State had advanced to within 2-3 km on all fronts.

"If they want to prevent a massacre (the coalition) must act much more comprehensively," she told Reuters by phone from Kobani, adding that air strikes elsewhere in Syria had pushed Islamic State fighters towards the border town.

TURKEY HESITANT

The Turkish parliamentary vote extended a mandate initially intended to allow Ankara to strike Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and to defend itself against any threat from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

But it does not necessarily signal imminent action. President Tayyip Erdogan insists U.S.-led air strikes alone will not contain the Islamic State threat and is calling for the removal of Assad, an aim not shared by the U.S.-led military coalition for the current military campaign. Ankara is unlikely to act alone.

The Turkish army has, however, vowed to defend the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, in a Turkish enclave in northern Syria, telling its troops there that it would rush to their defense if needed.

"One call and we will immediately be at your side," Chief of the General Staff General Necdet Ozel said in a statement.

Ankara is also reluctant to take action that may strengthen Kurdish fighters allied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group that has fought the Turkish state for three decades and with which it is conducting fragile peace talks.

"If this massacre attempt achieves its goal it will end the process (with Turkey)," PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan said in a statement released by a pro-Kurdish party delegation which visited him on Wednesday in his island prison near Istanbul.

"I urge everyone in Turkey who does not want the process and the democracy voyage to collapse to take responsibility in Kobani," he said in the statement.

Kurdish forces allied to the PKK, the People's Defense Units (YPG), are fighting against the Islamic State insurgents attacking Kobani. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

A spokesman for the YPG said a U.S. citizen, Jordan Matson, had joined Kurdish forces in their fight in Syria.

"EXISTENTIAL THREAT" TO TURKEY

Islamic State has carved out swathes of eastern Syria and western Iraq in a drive to create a cross-border caliphate, terrifying communities into submission by slaughtering those who resist.

Iraqi Kurdish troops drove Islamic State fighters from a strategic border crossing with Syria on Tuesday and won the support of members of a major Sunni tribe, in one of the biggest successes since U.S. forces began bombing the Islamists.

The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq against the militant group - which is commonly known by its former acronym of ISIS - since July and in Syria since last week with the help of Arab allies. Britain and France have also struck Islamic State targets in Iraq.

But Islamic State fighters on the border with Turkey have yet to be dislodged.

"(Islamic State) is Turkey's greatest existential threat since 1946, when Joseph Stalin demanded that Ankara cede control of the Bosphorus and other territory to the Soviet Union," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.

"Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu know that only the United States has the necessary military hardware and intelligence assets to defeat ISIS in the long term," he said, forecasting that while Turkey would offer logistics and intelligence support, it was unlikely to back wholeheartedly a military strategy that does not target Assad.

Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey's priority was also to enable the 1.5 million refugees it has taken in from Syria's conflict to return home. He has been pushing for a no-fly zone enforced by the U.S.-led coalition to protect a safe haven on the Syrian side of the border where refugees could be sheltered, an idea that has yet to gain support in Washington.

More than 150,000 refugees have fled Kobani over the past two weeks alone. Officials from Turkey's AFAD disaster management agency said 4,000 crossed on Wednesday, and a similar figure the day before.

(Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun and Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara, Daren Butler in Istanbul, Stephen Brown in Berlin, Rahim Salman and Yara Bayoumy in Baghdad, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Anna Willard, Giles Elgood and David Stamp)

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: FAA gets more applications for drone use exemptions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration has received nearly a dozen new applications to allow commercial use of unmanned aircraft over the past week, and it plans to publish draft rules to allow broader use by the end of the year, the top agency official for the program said on Wednesday.

The agency has received a total of 57 exemption applications and approved six for film and TV production companies last week, leaving 51 pending, Jim Williams, manager of the FAA's office of unmanned aircraft systems integration, said at an industry conference.

That's up from 40 applications that the agency said were pending when it approved last week the first exemptions for commercial use in the continental U.S.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Apple's iOS 8 causing Bluetooth connectivity issues: MacRumors

(Reuters) - Apple Inc's new mobile operating system iOS8 is causing significant issues for some users who connect their phones to cars via Bluetooth, reports Apple news blog MacRumors, citing reports on Apple's Support forums and its own user forums.

It appears that following an upgrade to iOS 8, or after purchasing a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, users seem to be having trouble pairing their phones to their car audio systems, MacRumors posted in a blog. (http://bit.ly/1rMJLpd)

Several issues faced by users include the devices refusing to pair entirely, neglecting to play audio over the speakers, or disconnecting when a call comes in.

The Bluetooth pairing problems are not just limited to cars, as iOS 8 users have also reported issues pairing their devices with headphones, speakers, headsets and more.

MacRumors had also posted on Monday that a bug in iOS 8's 'Reset All Settings' option could erase iCloud drive documents, citing user reports.

Apple has been plagued by problems following the September release of its iPhones and iOS8, with iPhone 6 Plus buyers discovering their phones can bend when placed in back pockets, and the company pulling a botched iOS8 update after reports of dropped cellular service.

Apple could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting By Sai Sachin R; Editing by Don Sebastian)

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TECHNOLOGY Philips Electronics loses $467 million patent verdict to Masimo

(Reuters) - A federal jury on Wednesday said Philips Electronics NA should pay $466.8 million to Masimo Corp (MASI.O) for having infringed two patents for technology used to help measure blood oxygen and track pulse rates.

Shares of Masimo closed 12.9 percent higher, rising $2.74 to $24.02 on the Nasdaq.

Jurors in Wilmington, Delaware needed less than a day of deliberations before ruling in favor of Irvine, California-based Masimo, following a two-week trial.

They also said Philips, a unit of Amsterdam-based Koninklijke Philips NV (PHG.AS), did not show it more likely than not that Masimo had infringed one of its own patents.

"We are very disappointed in the verdict and will appeal," Philips spokesman Steve Klink said in an emailed statement. "We remain convinced that Philips has not infringed any valid, enforceable patent claims of the two asserted Masimo patents."

The case concerned technology for pulse oximetry, a non-invasive procedure to measure the level of oxygen saturation in a patient's blood.

Philips, which has offices in Andover, Massachusetts, had conceded having infringed Masimo's patents, but claimed the patents were void because they were "obvious" and described inadequately. The jury said Philips did not prove those claims.

Masimo had sued Philips in February 2009. A Masimo spokesman declined to comment on the verdict, and a lawyer for the company could not immediately be reached.

The case is Masimo Corp v. Philips Electronics NA et al, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware, No. 09-00080.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Twitter grants $10 million to MIT for social data analysis, new tools

By Christina Farr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc on Wednesday gave $10 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research that would explore how people use and achieve shared goals using social networks.

Over five years, the university's researchers will organize a vast quantity of content from Twitter, Reddit and other online forums and build new communication tools that journalists, policy experts and researchers can use to uncover new patterns and trends.

The new MIT lab is called the "Laboratory of Social Machines."

MIT will access data from Gnip, a Twitter-owned website that stores a vast database of historic tweets. Twitter has previously awarded smaller sums of funding to academic institutions in a program known as "Twitter Data Grants", but the MIT grant is significant due to its size and scope.

There is an "openendness" to the research, said Deb Roy, an associate professor at MIT's Media Lab, which is dedicated to projects at the convergence of technology, science and design. Roy said he has a close relationship with Twitter, in part because his former company Bluefin Labs was acquired by Twitter in 2013.

"Twitter has a special role to play in this concept of social change," said Roy.

Roy said he hopes to understand how far certain messages travel online, and the origins of rumors, opinions and ideas. The research could yield new tools for the press as well as people working on "gender equality and speech in the public sphere," he said.

"Twitter is seizing the opportunity to go deeper into research to understand the role Twitter and other platforms play in the way people communicate, the effect that rapid and fluid communication can have and apply those findings to complex societal issues," said Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo in a statement.

A Twitter spokeswoman said the company plans to invest more funding into academic research and stressed that the data will not be traced back to individual users.

(Reporting By Christina Farr; Editing by David Gregorio)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Large U.S. wireless carriers, Dish to bid in airwaves auction

By Alina Selyukh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three of the four largest U.S. wireless carriers and satellite provider Dish Network Corp plan to bid in the Federal Communications Commission's November auction of airwaves, according to initial applications released on Wednesday.

As expected, the largest U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc, No. 2 AT&T Inc, No. 4 T-Mobile US Inc and Dish appeared to be the largest companies to indicate an interest in bidding in the upcoming auction of frequencies known as AWS-3.

A total of 80 entities submitted initial applications. Interested parties, which may or may not actually bid for wireless licenses in the auction, included smaller U.S. companies such as Bluegrass Wireless LLC and Big River Broadband, Guam-based wireless company Docomo Pacific Inc and individual spectrum investors.

Scheduled to begin on Nov. 13, the auction is expected to raise at least $10 billion and will include airwaves previously occupied by multiple federal users, including the Department of Homeland Security.

AT&T's initial application appeared to be incomplete, which can be caused by small bureaucratic omissions. Of the 80 applications, 47 were deemed incomplete and have to be properly finished by Oct. 15 to allow the companies to participate.

All initial applications have to put down an upfront payment by Oct. 15 to confirm participation.

Dish applied to bid in the auction as American AWS-3 Wireless I L.L.C.

Sprint, the No. 3 mobile carrier, said last month it would sit out the AWS-3 auction to save firepower for the potential purchases of spectrum in a major sale of low-frequency airwaves scheduled for next year.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh. Editing by Andre Grenon)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: WiLan says loses LTE patent case against Apple

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian patent licensing company WiLan Inc (WIN.TO) on Wednesday said a U.S. judge had ruled in favor of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) in a litigation case against it.

"WiLan has been advised that Judge Dana M. Sabraw has issued a ruling today that grants Apple's motion for summary judgment," the company said in a statement, referring to Apple's move to have two patent infringement claims relating to LTE wireless telecom technologies ruled invalid and not infringed.

WiLan said it is currently reviewing the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California with its trial counsel, and said it has a separate case against Apple in the same court for five other LTE patent infringement claims.

It launched the litigation in December 2012 against Apple, HTC Corp (2498.TW) and Sierra Wireless Inc (SW.TO), with the latter pair signing licensing deals to settle the dispute.

Shares in the company last traded down 2.7 percent at C$3.93 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

WiLan, whose primary business is acquiring ownership of intellectual property and then seeking to charge fees to companies that make use of it, plunged late last year after a jury ruled that Apple had not infringed one of its patents in another case.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Andrew Hay)

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Philips Electronics loses $467 million patent verdict to Masimo

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: HP sees low-power servers making inroads in niche data centers

By Noel Randewich

SAN JOSE California (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co's vice president of server engineering expects new lower-power servers made with technology from ARM Holdings to make inroads in niche data centers over the next year in a market dominated by Intel Corp.

"Penetration is very low right now because we're starting from zero. But the take-up is pretty encouraging," Tom Bradicich said.

HP this week launched new servers made with chips designed by Applied Micro Circuits with intellectual property licensed from ARM, whose energy-efficient technology is ubiquitous in smartphones and tablets.

While so-called microservers have yet to be meaningfully adopted, proponents including HP say some data centers can be made more cost effective and energy efficient by using them instead of Intel's brawny server chips.

Bradicich told Reuters that HP's new 64-bit ARM-based servers are ideal for handling specialized data-center workloads like search and scientific analysis.

Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Utah plan to use HP's new servers for scientific analysis and high-performance computing, while PayPal plans to use another version of the servers.

Intel, which dominates the server market, stands to lose if server chips based on rival ARM's architecture catch on, even if only a few percentage points of market share.

With Advanced Micro Devices and other chipmakers working on their own ARM server chips, variety is a key factor for customers that have long depended on Intel, Bradicich said.

In response to the threat from ARM, Intel has launched its own line of "Atom" low-power server chips. HP offers servers made with Atom chips but they have so far not sold in significant numbers.

"We don't take any competition lightly, but we have a strong roadmap for the data center spanning a broad range of customer needs and requirements," said Intel spokesman Bill Calder.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich)

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Thursday 2 October 2014

TECHNOLOGY NEWS Exclusive: Facebook plots first steps into healthcare

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Google to launch own mobile chat app: Economic Times

TOP NEWS Islamic State committing 'staggering' crimes in Iraq: U.N. report

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Facebook plans stricter scrutiny for accessing user data

TOP NEWS Chaotic scene outside White House a challenge for Secret Service

TOP NEWS France urges Israel to call off East Jerusalem settlement plans

TOP NEWS Japan's Obuchi: Political 'princess' could be first female PM

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TOP NEWS Turkey steels for action as Islamic State advances on Syrian border town

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: FAA gets more applications for drone use exemptions

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Apple's iOS 8 causing Bluetooth connectivity issues: MacRumors

TECHNOLOGY Philips Electronics loses $467 million patent verdict to Masimo

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Twitter grants $10 million to MIT for social data analysis, new tools

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Large U.S. wireless carriers, Dish to bid in airwaves auction

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: WiLan says loses LTE patent case against Apple

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Philips Electronics loses $467 million patent verdict to Masimo

TECHNOLOGY NEWS: HP sees low-power servers making inroads in niche data centers