Microsoft fined $715m for browser blunder

Microsoft has been fined for breaking its promise that it would give people a choice of web browsers. Source: News Limited

THE European Union Commission has fined Microsoft 561 million euros ($715 million) for failing to offer users a choice of internet browser.

The penalty imposed by the EU's executive arm, the Commission, is a first for Brussels: no company has ever failed to keep its end of a bargain with EU authorities before.

In 2009, Microsoft struck a broad settlement with the Commission to resolve disputes over Microsoft's abuse of the dominance of Windows, which had spanned more than a decade.

The company agreed to pay 860 million euros and promised to give Windows users the option of choosing another browser rather than having Microsoft's Internet Explorer automatically installed on their machines.

But Microsoft failed to stick to the deal for some 15 million installations of Windows 7 in Europe from May 2011 until July 2012. The company admitted the failure last year, adding that it was an oversight.

The Commission's top regulator, Joaquin Almunia, said at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, that the fine reflected the size of the violation and the length of time it went on. It was also intended to make an example of Microsoft and deter other companies from doing same thing.

"A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly," he said.

Almunia has advocated negotiated settlements since he took office in 2010, saying competition issues are best resolved quickly. He says slapping big fines on companies years after the fact does little to help consumers.

But he said the whole point of a settlement is undermined when companies then don't abide by its terms.

"They must do what they committed to do, or face the consequences," he said.

Almunia conceded that the Commission had been "naive" in appointing Microsoft itself to oversee compliance with the agreement, and said the Commission won't allow that in the future.

For its part, Microsoft was apologetic.

"We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologised for it," the company said in a statement. "We provided the Commission with a complete and candid assessment of the situation, and we have taken steps ... to help avoid this mistake - or anything similar - in the future."

The company is required to offer consumers a choice of browsers through 2014.

In all, Microsoft has now paid a grand total of 2.2 billion euros in fines to the Commission since 1998, when regulators opened their first investigation against the company. Some of those fines were for failing to obey the commission's orders, but this is the first time a company has admitted to breaking a promise made to the EU regulator.

The competitive landscape has changed greatly in recent years, however. Tech companies are now often more concerned about Google dominance in Internet search technology, Facebook's dominance in social networking, and Apple's dominance in mobile phones and software than Microsoft's Windows operating system, though it is still dominant on personal desktop computers.

Rival browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome have become popular, and software applications on mobile devices usually bypass browsers entirely.

In a sign of the times, Microsoft itself turned to the watchdog in 2012, asking it to investigate Google for anti-competitive practices.
 

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Woman denied CPR 'didn't want help'

A man walks near the main gate of Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield, California, where an elderly woman died after a nurse refused to perform CPR on her last week. Picture: AP Source: AP

THE company whose employee refused to administer CPR to a dying woman said that the employee wrongly interpreted its policy. But the elderly woman's family said she would not have wanted life-prolonging aid.

The family's statement to the Associated Press absolving an elder care home of blame came less than 1.5 hours before the company issued a statement saying the employee's failure to heed a 911 dispatcher's was the result of a misunderstanding of the company's emergency medical practices.

The developments were the latest twist in a controversy following release of a 911 tape that recounts a dramatic 7-minute conversation on Feb. 26 between a dispatcher and a nurse who refused to cooperate with pleas for someone to start CPR as firefighters sped to the scene.

The dispatcher insisted that the woman who identified herself as a nurse perform CPR or find someone willing to do it. Lorraine Bayless, an 87-year-old resident of Glenwood Gardens independent living home, later died.

Bayless' family said she was aware that Glenwood Gardens did not offer trained medical staff, yet opted to live there anyway.

"It was our beloved mother and grandmother's wish to die naturally and without any kind of life prolonging intervention," said the statement.

"We understand that the 911 tape of this event has caused concern, but our family knows that mom had full knowledge of the limitations of Glenwood Gardens and is at peace."

The family of the 87-year-old woman who died after a nurse refused to do CPR said she would not have wanted any intervention anyway, and wanted to die a natural death. Picture: AP

The home's parent company, Brookdale Senior Living, later said, "This incident resulted from a complete misunderstanding of our practice with regards to emergency medical care for our residents. Glenwood Gardens is conducting a full internal investigation."

The company said the employee was on voluntary leave during the process.

City fire officials say Bayless did not have a "do not resuscitate" order on file at the home. The family and the company have not commented

Glenwood Gardens is an independent living facility, and company officials say no medical staff is employed there. The woman who identified herself as a nurse to the dispatcher was employed at the facility as a resident services director, the company said.

The nurse's decision has prompted multiple state and local investigations.

The California attorney general was "aware" of the incident, said a spokeswoman, Lynda Gledhill. Bakersfield police were trying to determine whether a crime was committed when the nurse refused to assist the 911 dispatcher looking for someone to start CPR.

The nation's largest trade group for senior living facilities has called for its members to review policies that employees might interpret as edicts to not cooperate with emergency responders.

"It was a complete tragedy," said Maribeth Bersani, senior vice president of the Assisted Living Federation of America.

"Our members are now looking at their policies to make sure they are clear. Whether they have one to initiate (CPR) or not, they should be responsive to what the 911 person tells them to do."

Bayless collapsed in the Glenwood Gardens dining hall on Feb. 26. Someone called 911 on a cellphone asking for an ambulance to be sent and eventually a woman who identified herself as a nurse got on the line.

Brookdale Senior Living said in a statement that the woman on the 911 call was "serving in the capacity of a resident services director, not a nurse."

The Tennessee-based parent company also said that by law, the independent living facility is "not licensed to provide medical care to any of its residents." But it added later that it was reviewing company policies "involving emergency medical care across all of our communities."

Bayless' family said she was aware that Glenwood Gardens did not offer trained medical staff, yet opted to live there anyway.

"We understand that the 911 tape of this event has caused concern, but our family knows that mom had full knowledge of the limitations of Glenwood Gardens and is at peace," the family's statement said.

The death shines a light on the varying medical care that different types of elderly housing provide - differences that consumers may not be aware of, advocates say.

Even if independent living homes lack trained medical staff, some say they should be ready to perform basic services such as CPR if needed.

The California Board of Registered Nursing is concerned that the woman who spoke to the 911 dispatcher did not respond to requests to provide aid or to find someone who might want to help.

"If she's not engaged in the practice of nursing, there's no obligation (to help)," agency spokesman Russ Heimerich said.

"What complicates this further is the idea that she wouldn't hand the phone over either. So that's why we want to look into it."

The family said it would not sue or try to profit from the death, and called it "a lesson we can all learn from."

"We regret that this private and most personal time has been escalated by the media," the statement said.
 

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'Don't repeat Iraq war with Iran' - Blix

Former UN inspector Hans Blix talks to a small group of journalists at a press gathering in Dubai. Source: AFP

TEN years after the US-led invasion on Iraq, ex-UN inspector Hans Blix has warned against committing the same error by going to war against Iran.

World "memories are short," the now 82-year-old Swedish ex-diplomat told a small group of journalists at a press gathering in Dubai.

"Memories of the failure and tragic mistakes in Iraq are not taken sufficiently seriously," he said.

"In the case of Iraq, there was an attempt made by some states to eradicate weapons of mass destruction that did not exist, and today there is talk of going on Iran to eradicate intentions that may not exist. I hope that will not happen."

Mr Blix, former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq from March 2000 to June 2003, charged with finding the WMD that London and Washington were convinced former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was concealing.

Such weapons were never found, undermining the entire rationale for a conflict that left thousands of Iraqis and foreign soldiers dead.

Author of the book Disarming Iraq, Mr Blix had repeatedly called for further inspections before launching a war on Iraq.

Following the 2003 invasion, the White House dispatched a team of 1000 inspectors who failed to find any prohibited weapons.

Today, Mr Blix believes that the international community has even less evidence of the existence of atomic weapons in Iran, which is facing international pressures over its controversial nuclear program.

"It is true that diplomatic negotiations have dragged over the years with little results so far ... Some people assume that a war action will solve the problem," said Mr Blix.

"I think others should examine what is the merit of that and find that there is much more demerit," he said, adding that "a war could develop into a terrible conflagration in the region."

"If Iran has not made up its mind to make weapons of mass destruction before a war, I think they will come to that conclusion after a war," said Mr Blix, who wants international pressure on Iran to be eased.

"Threats can back up diplomacy but threats can also undermine diplomacy," he said.

The United States and Israel accuse Tehran of masking a weapons program under the guise of a civilian atomic drive, charges Iran denies.

US President Barack Obama's policy on Iran has stressed sanctions and covert sabotage while playing down possible military action.

However Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, has repeatedly warned it cannot rule out a military strike to prevent Tehran gaining the ability to produce a nuclear weapon.

Mr Blix believes Iran gave "positive signals" during last week's meetings with world powers - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1.

During the talks in Kazakhstan, the world powers put forward a proposal to ease biting sanctions if Tehran halts the sensitive work of enriching uranium.

Michael Elleman, senior fellow for regional security cooperation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), says the Islamic republic has taken a "very positive step ... by converting the 20 per cent uranium into fuel plates for the research reactors."

According to him, the Iranians have not yet taken any "substantive steps to weaponise the uranium they are enriching now or to militarise the program."

But "they are building more and more capacity to do it and do it relatively quickly," said Mr Elleman.

Nevertheless, with the talks in Kazakhstan's financial capital Almaty, "there is some reason to be slightly optimistic, more than six months ago."
 

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Dog saves woman from killing herself

A German Shepherd, like the one pictured here, has been credited with saving a woman's life. Picture: Bob Barker Source: The Daily Telegraph

A FRENCH woman's loyal German Shepherd dog saved her from committing suicide by knocking aside a rifle she tried to fire into her heart, local police said.

The 63-year-old woman had walked into her garden in the southern town of Sorgues in the Vaucluse region, fired several test shots of a 22-calibre rifle and then turned the gun on her chest.

"At the moment she pulled the trigger, her dog jumped on her and diverted the shot," a local police officer said, adding that the dog "probably sensed things and knocked into her to save her."

The woman was found by her husband, conscious but suffering from a chest wound. She was taken to hospital but her injury is not considered life-threatening.

For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or www.lifeline.org.au

For help with depression, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or at www.beyondblue.org.au

The SANE Helpline is 1800 18 SANE (7263) or at www.sane.org

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Tiniest Sandy victims hard to replace

Scientists lost thousands of important lab mice during Superstorm Sandy. Source: Supplied

MORE than 300 patients were saved from a flooded hospital in New York during Superstorm Sandy, however thousands of lab mice had a sadder ending.

A storm surge into the basement swamped some 7000 cages of mice used for studying cancer, diabetes, brain development and other health issues. Each cage held up to five of the little rodents, and even four months later, nobody knows exactly how many perished.

Now, about 50 scientists at the NYU Langone Medical Centre are going through the slow process of replacing them. What they lost in a few minutes one terrible night in October will take more than a year to recover, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.

That's because, for the most part, they can't simply buy the mice off the shelf. Most were tailor-made, engineered to carry specific genetic mutations to mimic human diseases and conditions like autism. Some breeds can be found only in a few labs worldwide. Others were too new to have been shared yet with researchers elsewhere and will take many months or even two years to recreate.

Besides the mice, researchers lost precious specimens and suffered damage to sensitive equipment from the blackouts and flooding from the nearby East River. The 700-bed hospital closed for almost two months; the emergency room is still shut down.

For researcher Sergei Koralov, the flooding meant the loss of about 600 mice. Gone, for example, were his animals that helped illuminate how genetic changes in white blood cells lead to lymphoma and those he used to study what triggers chronic lung inflammation in asthma. An experiment for improving lung function was also washed away.

"I was devastated," he recalls.

Mr Koralov has contacted scientists in the US, Switzerland and Germany in an effort to rebuild his mouse colonies. Scientists often share mice with other labs, which comes in handy at a time like this.

But it's not as easy as just shipping mice to New York. The mice at NYU live in a super-clean environment, and those imported from other labs carry a risk of contamination. So scientists use them to create a new generation of animals that are quarantined and checked for germs before they enter their NYU home.

Not all the mice in the basement died in the flood; those in about 600 cages were rescued about a week afterward. Their handlers had put extra food in their cages just in case before the storm. But because of contamination, new generations have to be created from them, too, in sterile surroundings.

When no mice with the right genetic makeup are available, researchers have to start from scratch. Mr Koralov works with mice that have many genetic modifications, perhaps as many as seven per mouse, and recreating such animals can require breeding over half a dozen generations.

In all, he figures it will take two years to recover the most complicated ones. But the storm has given him the chance to take a new look at his research.

"The silver lining of the whole storm, what little there is, is the fact it allows me to refocus myself," he said. Now he can "go after what is interesting to me now, not what was interesting to me two years ago."

Much of the effort to replace the mice is taking place elsewhere. The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbour, Maine, which distributes more than 6000 kinds of modified mice to labs around the world, is working on at least 200 types for the New York researchers, said the lab's Stephen Linnell.

So what can be done to prepare for the next big storm?

At NYU Langone, officials will consider waterproofing strategies for one building that houses mice underground and they are working on "an aggressive evacuation plan," said Dafna Bar-Sagi, the centre's vice dean for science.

A new science building is due to open in 2016, with one feature planned even before the storm: It will keep mice on the third floor.
 

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Divorce rush to avoid property tax

People crowd into the Nanjing Municipal Real Estate Trading Centre looking to sell property ahead of a new capital gains tax. Chinese couples are divorcing so they can sell their properties tax-free, and then remarry. Picture: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Source: Getty Images

CHINESE couples are flocking to divorce to avoid a new property sales tax imposed by the government, after it left open a loophole for those who end their marriages.

Government marriage registration offices - which also handle divorces - were swamped by scores of couples trying to untie the knot, with one newly-separated woman telling AFP Wednesday she was heading off to sell a property.

China's central government last Friday issued rules to rein in housing prices, including a nationwide capital gains tax of 20 per cent on profits owners make from selling residential property.

But the terms allow couples with two properties who divorce and put each house into one person's name to then sell them tax-free under certain conditions, after which they can remarry, state media said.

At a registry in Shanghai, China's commercial hub, a middle-aged woman checked her freshly minted divorce certificate before rushing off to complete a property sale.

"I'm heading to the property trading centre this afternoon," she said, declining to be identified.

Those divorcing included at least one pregnant woman, the Shanghai Daily said.

A worker walks past a property development billboard in Shanghai on March 6, 2013. Picture: AFP/ Peter Parks

"She told me she came here to avoid the possible loss in a property transaction, and I could say nothing," the newspaper quoted a harried official saying at another registry in the city, which had seen divorces double.

"I told all of them to come here again for remarriage registration," he added.

The southern metropolis of Guangzhou, northeastern city of Harbin and Ningbo in eastern China have also reported rising divorce rates after the tax was announced, reports said.

Sample calculations they cited showed the move could save a couple tens of thousands of dollars in tax.

"They (couples) appear to be in good moods... more than half said frankly that they wanted a divorce for the sake of property," an official was quoted as saying by the Ningbo Daily Newspaper Group website.

An exemption for the tax - which was previously only an option available to local governments, many of which did not impose it - is available for vendors who are selling their main home and have owned it for more than five years.

A Chinese man takes photos of buildings at the seaside city of Sanya, in China's southern Hainan province, which was billed as China's Dubai. Picture: AFP/Wang Zhao

The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau confirmed the planned tax had triggered a divorce boom, but declined to give a total for the city, the Shanghai Daily said. Couples were citing "lack of mutual affection" as the reason to separate, it added.

Divorce in China is typically handled by government offices and not through the court system, and if the two parties agree it is a simple and straightforward procedure.

An official cautioned wives to beware, however, warning that some unfaithful men might actually want a permanent divorce.

Failed marriages are on the rise in China with around 2.87 million couples divorcing in 2011, up 7.3 per cent from 2010, the latest government figures showed.

"Some men might trick their wives into getting a divorce using the tax as an excuse. But they might have a mistress and truly want a divorce," He Zhanbiao of Shanghai's civil affairs bureau told the Shanghai Daily.

Three years ago another set of rules introduced to control the property market, including limits on buying second homes, also sparked a trend of snap divorces so that both members of a couple could own a property.

Housing costs have recently rebounded, prompting the government to intervene again.

Home prices in 100 major Chinese cities climbed year-on-year for the third consecutive month in February, the independent China Index Academy said, with the national average rising 2.48 per cent to 9893 yuan ($1,548) per square metre.
 

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'Kate scandal' mag snoops on ex-pope

A man reads the Italian gossip magazine Chi with paparazzi pictures of retired "pope emeritus" Benedict XVI. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

AN ITALIAN gossip magazine has published paparazzi pictures of retired pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the grounds of the papal summer palace of Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

In the first glimpse of the 85-year old since he retired, Benedict is seen wearing what appears to be a white baseball cap and a white jacket over his cassock, walking with the aid of a black cane, accompanied by his faithful secretary, Georg Gaenswein.

Snapped from behind trees and bushes within the grounds of the vast villa, a second photograph in the magazine Chi shows Benedict being joined on his walk by a group of women identified by the magazine as the housekeepers who ran his household while he was pope.

Benedict is wearing dark shoes, having had to give up his famous red papal ones.

The ex-pontiff, whose expression is hidden, appears to be deep in conversation with Mr Gaenswein who will continue to live with Benedict but also serve the new pope as prefect of the papal household.

The Vatican has said Benedict will be allowed to continue wearing his papal white cassock but without the short cape that popes wear.

His official title is now pope emeritus but he is still to be addressed as Your Holiness.

The gossip magazine, owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, was the first to publish photos of Prince William's pregnant wife, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, in a bikini.

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Car thief kills baby left in vehicle

Ctizens gather together to mourn the death of a two-month-old baby killed by a car thief in Changchun, in northeast China's Jilin province. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

A CHINESE car thief strangled a two-month-old baby to death after stealing a vehicle with the infant inside, police say, provoking outrage across the country.

The boy was in an SUV stolen by Zhou Xijun, 48, in northeastern Jilin province on Monday, triggering a hunt involving thousands of police officers and taxi drivers until he handed himself in the following day and confessed, reports said.

Mr Zhou "discovered a baby in the back seat of the stolen car, stopped at the side of a road before strangling the baby to death and burying it in the snow," Jilin police said in an online statement.

The body of the little boy was identified by his parents yesterday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Early Wednesday morning, my wife and I identified the body of our son," the baby's father Xu Jialin said, according to Xinhua.

Mr Xu added that his son's death has dealt a severe emotional blow to his wife, who has been sent to a hospital for treatment.

Chinese media gave the case prominent coverage and the topic dominated social media websites, generating far more attention than the annual meeting of China's parliament, which opened in Beijing on Tuesday.

The parents left the child alone in the car for 10 minutes with the engine running before realising the vehicle was stolen, the state-run Global Times daily said, adding a family member had "fainted from grief" on hearing of Mr Zhou's confession.

Internet users expressed their disgust at the crime and many called for Mr Zhou to be put to death. "Killing him once would not be enough," one user of Sina Weibo, a website similar to Twitter, wrote.

"I would never have imagined that what people most feared would actually happen... the killer should be severely punished," wrote another user.

China had a murder rate of 1.0 per 100,000 people in 2010, according to the United Nations, among the lowest in the world.
 

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Surrogate offered $10k to abort

Surrogate Crystal Kelley holds 'Baby S', the girl she refused to abort for $US10,000, after an ultrasound showed the baby would have serious medical problems. Picture: CNN Source: Supplied

A US couple offered a surrogate $US10,000 ($9843) to abort a foetus with severe medical problems, setting off a bizarre ordeal after the woman refused and fled across the country.

Surrogate Crystal Kelley was hired to carry a married couple's fourth child for $US22,000. But when an ultrasound at five months showed the baby girl would have a cleft lip and palate, a brain cyst and a serious heart condition, the parents insisted she have an abortion, CNN reports.

Doctors said the baby girl would have just a 25 per cent chance at a "normal life". The genetic parents – who have two children born premature and with ongoing medial problems – said terminating the pregnancy would be the "more humane" option.

"They were both visibly upset. The mother was crying", Ms Kelley told CNN. "They said they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only for that child to suffer…They said I should try to be God-like and have mercy on the child and let her go."

However, Ms Kelley disagreed and refused to terminate the pregnancy, despite her surrogacy contract agreeing to "abortion in case of severe foetus abnormality".

The married parents offered her $US10,000 to have an abortion, but Kelley "in a moment of weakness" asked for $US15,000. Ms Kelley now says she instantly regretted her counter-offer and never would have been able to go through with the abortion.

In the next dramatic twist, the furious parents said they would exercise their parental rights and take custody of the baby once she was born – and then would immediately surrender her to the state of Connecticut, where the girl would spend her life in foster care as a ward of a state. Connecticut law allows parents to surrender their infants within one month of birth without charges of abandonment.

Ms Kelley, a single mum, says her "mama bear" instinct took over, and she fled to Michigan with her two daughters. There, Kelley was legally recognised as the baby's mother, and a family with special needs children agreed to adopt the baby when she was born.

Next, the baby's genetic parents filed for legal rights in Connecticut – dropping the bombshell that the embryo had been from an anonymous donour, not the wife. Just weeks after 'Baby S' was born, the parents and Ms Kelley struck a deal – the father gave up his parental rights in exchange for he and the wife being allowed to visit the girl, which they have since done.

'Baby S', born on June 25, suffers from even more extensive medical problems than the ultrasound first revealed. Her internal organs are in the wrong place, she has a cleft lip and palate, complex heart problems, and two non-functioning spleens. In addition, her head is very small and one ear is severely misshapen.

She's already had open-heart surgery and an operation on her intestines, and faces more complicated surgeries if she is to survive. Even then, there is a 50 per cent chance she will never walk, talk or use her hands normally, doctors say.

However, despite her medical problems, Baby S's adoptive parents say she has beaten the odds and is living a happy life.

"She wakes up every single morning with an infectious smile," they wrote to CNN. "She greets her world with a constant sense of enthusiasm. Ultimately, we hold onto a faith that in providing S with love, opportunity, encouragement, she will be the one to show us what is possible for her life and what she is capable of achieving."

Meanwhile, Ms Kelley, who has written about Baby S and her ordeal on her blog, believes she did the right thing.

"I knew from the beginning that this little girl had an amazing fighting spirit, and whatever challenges were thrown at her, she would go at them with every ounce of spirit that she could possibly have. No matter what anyone told me, I became her mother."

 

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