Sudan market bombing a "declaration of war": South

OUTSIDE BENTIU, South Sudan (Reuters) - Sudanese war planes bombed a market in the capital of South Sudan's oil-producing Unity State on Monday, residents and officials said, an attack the southern army called a declaration of war.

Sudan denied carrying out any air raids but its President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ramped up the political tension by ruling out a return to negotiations with the South, saying its government only understood "the language of the gun".

A Reuters journalist saw aircraft dropping two bombs near a bridge linking two areas of Unity's capital Bentiu, although it was not possible to verify the planes' affiliation. He saw market stalls ablaze and the body of one child.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office issued a statement saying he "condemns the aerial bombardment on South Sudan by Sudanese Armed Forces and calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all hostilities immediately."

Weeks of border fighting have brought the neighbors closer to a full-blown war than at any time since South Sudan split from Sudan as an independent country in July.

The two territories went their separate ways last year without settling a list of bitter disputes over the position of their shared border, the ownership of key territories and how much the landlocked South should pay to transport its oil through Sudan.

The disputes have already halted nearly all the oil production that underpins both struggling economies.

"Bashir is declaring war on South Sudan. It's something obvious," southern army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer said after the Bentiu bombing.

Aguer and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan said two people were killed in the air strike in Unity state where the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) operates blocks. China's CNPC leads this consortium, along with Malaysia's Petronas and India's ONGC Videsh.

"Early reports indicate the bombings started at 8.30 hours and that Rubkona market has been struck," the U.N. mission said in a statement, without spelling out who carried out the attack.

"These indiscriminate bombings resulting in the loss of civilian lives must stop," said Hilde F. Johnson, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan.

The mission said its officers had seen one bomb land on the market and three near a bridge. "A young boy burned to death as the hut he was in caught fire from the blast in Rubkona market area," it quoted one of its officers as saying.

Bentiu is about 80 km (50 miles) from the contested and poorly marked border with Sudan.

Sudan denied carrying out any air attacks in the area. "We have no relation to what happened in Unity state, and we absolutely did not bomb anywhere in South Sudan," the country's military spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khalid, said.

"LANGUAGE OF THE GUN"

In the worst fighting since the split, South Sudan earlier this month seized the disputed oil-producing territory of Heglig - then announced it had started withdrawing on Friday, following sharp criticism from the U.N. Secretary-General.

Bashir, dressed in military uniform, visited the Heglig region on Monday, descending from his plane to shouts of "Allahu akbar" - "God is greatest" - from soldiers and officials gathered on the tarmac.

Speaking to Sudanese army troops, he vowed not to negotiate with South Sudan after it had occupied the region.

"We will not negotiate with the South's government, because they don't understand anything but the language of the gun and ammunition," he said at a barracks near the oilfield along the contested border.

A Reuters journalist on an official tour of the region filmed bombed-out pipelines dripping oil in the widely damaged Heglig oilfield, as well as heavy damage to the central processing facility, power station and other infrastructure.

Abdelazeem Hassan Abdallah, an oil worker in Heglig, accused South Sudan's forces of attacking the oilfield.

"They know how to do the job completely. They destroyed our main power plant, and they destroyed our processing facilities," he told Reuters.

"MILITARY BUILD-UP"

General Kamal Abdul Maarouf, a Sudanese army commander who led the Heglig battles, said his troops had killed 1,200 South Sudanese soldiers in fighting in the area, an account South Sudan denied.

Journalists on the official trip said they saw bodies strewn on the road to the barracks. Some clearly had South Sudanese flags on their uniforms, but it was not always possible to verify their nationalities.

Aguer dismissed Maarouf's report. "The number of casualties the SPLA has suffered since the 26th or March doesn't exceed 50," he said.

South Sudan won its independence in a referendum that was promised in a 2005 peace accord that ended decades of civil war between Khartoum and the south.

South Sudan's armed forces have 10 helicopters but no fixed-wing aircraft, except for one Beech 1900 light transport aircraft, according to an International Institute for Strategic Studies report.

Sudan has 61 combat capable aircraft, including 23 fighter aircraft.

The Satellite Sentinel Project, founded by Sudan activists, said recent satellite imagery showed Khartoum had "dramatically increased the number of military strike aircraft at two airbases and that many are in range to fly deep into South Sudan."

The monitoring group said satellite imagery was consistent with reports that Sudanese forces bombed "an apparent civilian area" near a bridge in Bentiu. It also said it appeared the SPLA had looted a Sudanese military base in Heglig, which could be a violation of international law.

(Additional reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Alexander Dziadosz in Khartoum, El-Tayeb Siddig in Heglig, Yara Bayoumy in Juba; Writing by Ulf Laessing, Alexander Dziadosz and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Andrew Heavens and David Brunnstrom)

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Clicks Be Gone: AdTech Disrupter Moat Raises $12M Series B From Mayfield, Others

hanging miceAd-tech may not be the most obvious face of digital advertising, but in a world in which the role of big data is getting ever more essential to how things work, it is taking up an increasingly important role. One sign of that comes from the funding that ad-tech players are getting in this space: today, ad-tech startup Moat announced that it has picked up a $12 million investment led by the Mayfield Fund and including existing investors. The Series B investment takes the total amount invested in the company to $16.5 million with past investors including Ron Conway?s SV Angel, Founders Fund, Vast Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Founder Collective, and First Round Capital; as well as the WGI Group, an investment vehicle from Moat's founders, Right Media ex-CEO Mike Walrath and brothers Jonah and Noah Goodhart.

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Venezuela's Chavez calls home to squash death rumors

CARACAS (Reuters) - A healthy-sounding President Hugo Chavez called Venezuelan state television from Cuba on Monday to dispel rumors fanned by a nine-day silence that he had died undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital in Havana.

"It seems we will have to become accustomed to live with these rumors, because it is part of the laboratories of psychological war, of dirty war" the 57-year-old socialist leader said in the telephone call.

Since leaving for Cuba on April 14 to undergo radiation treatment for an undisclosed cancer, Chavez had only addressed Venezuelans by short messages on Twitter to cheer supporters and hail the advances of his socialist "revolution."

In the absence of photos or video footage from the tightly controlled island, Chavez's unusually long silence had stirred speculation about his health and doubts over his condition as he campaigns for re-election in an October 7 vote.

Chavez said the cancer therapy was "hard" and he needed to rest, but that he was recovering and planned to return to Caracas on Thursday - although he would need another radiation session.

"Some people would like to see me leave here sprinting ... not yet, let me recover. I have to rest and look after my diet, the treatment and the hours I keep," Chavez said. "These rumors sometimes are damaging."

He said the rumors about his health were so strong they even had his mother worried and he had to call her.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has complained that Chavez was running Venezuela remotely by Twitter from a Havana hospital bed. One of the president's first acts when he returns will be to sign a new labor law that takes effect on May 1.

Chavez's political ally and president of the National Assembly legislature Diosdado Cabello accused the opposition of having a "morbid obsession" with the former soldier's health.

"The truth is that these embittered people don't learn. They've been saying for days that the Comandante died," he said.

"The only thing that is lifeless here is that loser," Cabello added on Twitter, referring to Capriles, the opposition's best hope for ending Chavez's 13 years in power.

'GOVERNING BY TWITTER'

Chavez's opponents have criticized him for keeping the country in the dark about the extent of his illness, raising suspicions that his cancer may have spread from an initial baseball-sized tumor that was removed from his pelvis.

Before leaving for Cuba earlier this month, Chavez acknowledged that radiation therapy was physically tiring and he skipped the Summit of the Americas in Colombia this month on the advice of his doctors.

Despite his cancer, Chavez is seeking a new six-year term at an election that is shaping up to be the toughest political fight of his career due to his ill health and a serious opposition challenge.

"President Chavez seems to be in a paradoxical situation in which he cannot win the election unless he continues his campaign, but, if he continues, the stress could shorten his life expectancy, preventing him from being the final nominee," Barclays Capital said on Monday.

Capriles, a youthful state governor who is the opposition's "unity candidate" to face Chavez, sharply criticized the all-dominant leader for not doing his job properly.

"Governing by Twitter, approving laws by Twitter without consulting anybody, is an insult to our people. The country's problems cannot be resolved by Twitter," Capriles said.

Chavez's government faces potentially embarrassing accusations about links to drug trafficking from a former Supreme Court justice who fled the country and has reportedly become a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant.

Chavez remains very popular among poorer Venezuelans who have benefited from his social programs, which redistribute some of the country's vast oil wealth.

Almost all recent opinion polls have given Chavez a comfortable double-digit lead over Capriles, and his frequent trips to Cuba for treatment appear not to have changed that.

A survey released on Monday by local pollster Hinterlaces showed 53 percent of voters planning to back Chavez in October, versus 34 percent for Capriles, a 1 percentage point gain for the president since a similar poll last month.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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Casino News Media: Facebook drives growth of social gaming ...

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Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment PartyCasino.com PartyPoker.com World Poker Tour Casinos United States World Casino Directory Global Gaming Directory Facebook Gaming


The networking giant has put a British firm on route to Nasdaq...

London Riccardo Zacconi will always remember Christmas Eve 2003 ? it was when his company almost went bust.

Instead of jetting off to spend time with his family, Zacconi and his then business partner, Toby Rowland, son of the late Tiny Rowland, were hunched over the office fax machine waiting for a letter of fin-ancial support that would keep their online gaming operation afloat.

At the last minute, the vital document arrived, with the promise of backing from an old colleague. Nearly nine years later, that vote of confidence looks likely to prove a shrewd investment.

The company, King.com, has evolved into Britain's leading player in the fast-growing social gaming market, taking on the likes of Zynga, creator of Farmville, and other American rivals such as Electronic Arts. King.com could even emulate Zynga and pursue a lucrative listing on Nasdaq.

Social gaming is booming. It is estimated that the amount spent on such games will hit more than $8 billion (Dh29.4 billion) globally this year, and nearly $15 billion by 2015.

Many of the most popular games are played by Facebook users. Apple's App Store has become a centre for developers of smart phone applications. Similarly, the social network's huge worldwide membership makes it the prime destination for games creators.

It is this that has helped propel King.com to the front ranks of the industry. When Zacconi, a 44-year-old dotcom veteran, and Rowland started the company in 2003, it foc-used on internet versions of board games, word games and quizzes on its own website.

Funding hiccup

After the initial funding hiccup, it went well, turning a profit every year since 2005. By the summer of 2009, however, Zacconi realised the market was evolving. "People were moving away from large portals to play games on Facebook," he said. "Initially, the quality was low, but you could play with your friends."

King.com needed a new strategy to compete. The solution was to set up a team to develop products for Facebook in parallel with the existing website. The company calculated that many of the King.com games could be adapted for Facebook. The first to make the move was Bubble Saga, which quickly took off.

It was soon followed by a Facebook version of mah jong.

King.com went from about 300 million games played a month to more than 2.5 billion after joining Facebook. Bubble Witch Saga, launched last September, helped make it the fourth-biggest gaming company on the site. Zynga is comfortably on top, followed by Electronic Arts and Wooga.

On Zynga's trail

Zacconi has Zynga, which clocks up more than 50 million daily users, in his sights. "We are going after them," he said.

King.com has quite a way to go ? it attracts less than 20 per cent of the players Zynga has ? but it is growing fast. The most recent accounts for the London company show turnover of ?35 million (Dh169.59 million) and pre-tax profits of nearly ?1 million ? down from ?4 million in 2009 because of the investment required to expand into social games.

Zacconi is coy about discussing the group's latest figures, but they are up substantially. He expects revenues to top ?100 million this year, thanks to income from advertising and from players buying extra lives to help complete the games.

The stock market is likely to come calling, not least to provide an exit for two venture capital firms, Apax Partners and Index Ventures, that invested in 2005 ? an age ago in tech terms.

The business has already made Rowland, who left in 2006, and Zacconi wealthy ? they were able to take money off the table when the venture capitalists bought in. The deal valued King.com at ?75 million.

Zacconi would like to follow Zynga onto Nasdaq. The American firm was valued at $7 billion when it listed in December. "It's something we are thinking about. We have an option next year to go public," he said.

A sale is another possibility, particularly as social gaming companies are changing hands for big bucks. In 2009, Electronic Arts, famous for sports games such as Fifa 12, picked up Playfish for $300 million. In January, Double Down Interactive, which has a casino game, sold for about $500 million.

There could be increasing convergence between social gaming developers and their online gambling cousins. Bwin Party Digital Entertainment, which runs poker, sports betting, roulette and bingo, is examining the market and has helped set up an investment fund dedicated to social games.

"It's an area that is of great interest to gambling companies," one City leisure analyst said.

There is even talk that Zynga, or one of its ilk, could expand by buying an online gambling group. Either way, future Christmases promise to be rather less stressful in the Zacconi household.

PartyPoker And PartyCasino Owner bwin.party Digital Entertainment Plans Return to US Market...

Online gambling firm bwin.party are set to return to the US poker market after almost six years away following their application for a gaming licence with the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The Gibraltar-based company ? which owns online poker room PartyPoker ? have submitted their application to add their name to an ever-growing list of firms showing massive interest in taking advantage of the expected legalisation of online poker in the USA.

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment plc was formed in March last year following the merger of Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG and PartyGaming plc to create the world?s largest publicly traded online gambling company that is now listed on the London Stock Exchange.

PartyGaming Left US Market in 2006

This merger came almost five years after PartyGaming took the decision to suspend all real-money games in the USA, before then exiting the market three days after the US government?s passing of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) back on September 29, 2006.

In April of 2009, PartyGaming decided to reach a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in which they agreed to pay a $105 million penalty over four years as part of a non-prosecution agreement for providing online gambling to American customers before the UIGEA was passed.

As an element of the agreement, PartyGaming put its name to a ?statement of facts? in which it admitted that, before October of 2006, they had aimed to attract American citizens that resulted in the processing of transactions ?contrary to certain US laws?.

This deal ensured that PartyGaming were not prosecuted and also made sure that they could return to the US market if ? and when ? new laws are put in place to regulate all internet gambling in the North American nation.

Partnership Provided Opportunity to Return

Bwin?s merger with PartyGaming last year also paved the way for the new company to partner with Nevada-based gaming firms Boyd Gaming and MGM Resorts International late last year in what was considered an ?anticipatory? move ahead of the hoped-for legalisation of online gambling in the States.

The venture has resulted in bwin.party owning 65% of the company as they provide and maintain the software for both gaming businesses, while MGM ? which also runs hotels ? holds 25% and Boyd Gaming just 10%.

Boyd Gaming and MGM have previously applied for licences with the Nevada Gaming Control Board to operate as online poker providers.

PartyPoker Still World?s Second Biggest Poker Room

PartyPoker had been the world?s biggest internet poker brand ? if based on their number of players and cash game revenue ? before pulling out of the US market, although it still holds the position as the second biggest behind PokerStars.

While Jim Ryan, bwin.party?s chief operating officer, recently told media that the joint venture is unlikely to see them regain the 50% share PartyPoker enjoyed before the introduction of the UIGEA, he does expect to see a ?very meaningful liquidity pool? in what will be a highly competitive market.

Stay tuned as well follow up the story.

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Android 4.0.4 factory images hit the web for GSM Galaxy Nexus

Android 4.0.4Sure, pushing builds of Android 4.0.4 out over the air is great, but what if you want to keep that unblemished piece of Ice Cream Sandwich for posterity? You could download the AOSP files, but you'd be missing some vital ingredients from the official factory images. Thankfully, build IMM76I of Google's mobile OS is available to download in a simple archived format. With this release Big G is also introducing a second version of its software. In addition to the standard "yakju," there's now "takju," which includes Google Wallet and the necessary support files. If you're a safety first kind of guy or gal and like to keep a simple factory reset kit handy (you know, just in case that latest CM9 nightly doesn't work out so well), head on over to the source link to download the untainted Android images.

Android 4.0.4 factory images hit the web for GSM Galaxy Nexus originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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