Chavez heir Maduro wins Venezuela presidential election

Will Grant in Caracas: ''It's a questionable victory from the opposition's point of view''

Socialist Nicolas Maduro, hand-picked successor of the late leader Hugo Chavez, has won a narrow victory in Venezuela's presidential poll.

Mr Maduro won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
Mr Capriles has demanded a recount, saying Mr Maduro was now "even more loaded with illegitimacy".
He said there were more than 300,000 incidents from Sunday's poll that would need to be examined.

Announcing the results late on Sunday night, the National Electoral Council said they were "irreversible".

As the news emerged, celebrations erupted in the capital, Caracas, where Mr Maduro's jubilant supporters set off fireworks and blasted car horns. Opposition voters banged pots and pans in protest.
In a victory speech outside the presidential palace, Mr Maduro, wearing the colours of the Venezuelan flag, told crowds that the result was "just, legal and constitutional".
He said his election showed Hugo Chavez "continues to be invincible, that he continues to win battles''.
Mr Maduro said he had spoken to Mr Capriles on the phone, and that he would allow an audit of the election result.
He called for those who had not voted for him to "work together" for the country.

But Mr Maduro's margin of victory was far narrower than that achieved by Chavez at elections last October, when he beat Mr Capriles by more than 10%.
Almost immediately one member of the National Electoral Council who does not have government sympathies called on the authorities to carry out a recount by hand, a call later echoed by Mr Capriles himself.

At Mr Capriles' campaign headquarters the mood was sombre, as his supporters watched the results on television. Some cried, while others hung their heads in dismay,

Shortly afterwards, Mr Capriles emerged, angry and defiant.
"It is the government that has been defeated," he said. Then, addressing Mr Maduro directly, he said: "The biggest loser today is you. The people don't love you."
The new president faces an extremely complex task in office, says the BBC's Central America correspondent, Will Grant.
Venezuela has one of the highest rates of inflation in the region and crime rates have soared in recent years, particularly in Caracas. Food shortages and electricity blackouts are also common.

But perhaps Mr Maduro's biggest challenge will be trying to govern a country which is so deeply divided and polarised, and where the opposition say they have an increasingly legitimate stake in the decision-making process, our correspondent says.
The closeness of the race has also caused reflection inside Mr Maduro's own United Socialist Party (PSUV).
The man considered to be Mr Maduro's main rival, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, tweeted that the results "oblige us to make a profound self-criticism".

From BBC

Man City against Chelsea, tickets sold out in 15 minutes.

Tickets for an epic soccer match in May sold out within fifteen minutes of going on sale. It has been less than two weeks since it was announced that two rich English premier league clubs; Manchester City and Chelsea will clash in an exhibition match in St Louis Busch stadium at the end of May, but the tickets went out so fast as if people have been waiting for this game for years. St Louis has no soccer team in the MLS. This fact probably made the organizers to not anticipate how popular this game is going to be. Social media was filled with furious posts from the St louisans who could not purchase the tickets. The furry came from the fact that a lot of tickets have surfaced on the internet going for as much as $20,000. The fact that the game sold out so fast may be is going to help getting more soccer games in St Louis or even get St Louis it's own soccer team in MLS.
Sent via the HTC Vivid™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Syrian war planes carried attacks on Lebanon

It has been reported that the Syrian war planes have carried out raids across the border in Lebanon. I have no more details on the incident at the moment but if this is true, is it not time for the international community to take military action against Syria?

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Swali la kizushi

Eti Manchester United wanapolia Ba maana yake wamegeuka kondoo?

Beyonce, Jay-Z and Britney Spears have finances hacked

 
By Amelia Butterly
 Newsbeat reporter
   
 Beyonce and Jay-Z, one of the richest couples in hip hop, have been targeted

US celebrities including Beyonce and Jay-Z have had private details of their finances posted online.

Hackers have also put up information, but not credit reports, about US Vice-President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Los Angeles police say they are investigating how a police chief's private details, including his address and a credit report, ended up online.
Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith described the site as "creepy".
He said: "People get mad at us, go on the Internet and try to find information about us, and post it all on one site.
"The best word I can use to describe it is creepy."
He also confirmed that police would be investigating the posting of information about any celebrities living in Los Angeles.
 
Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and Kim Kardashian are all said to be affected

Other affected people include Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.
Some of the private financial information posted includes social security numbers, which could allow fraudsters to commit identity theft.
Actors Mel Gibson and Ashton Kutcher are also reported to have been targeted on the site.
Information about FBI Director Robert Mueller is thought to have been uploaded. The bureau says it is aware of the site but has not revealed whether they will be investigating.
More names were added throughout Monday, including Britney Spears and former presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
 
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is thought to have been hacked

The website uses an internet suffix assigned to the Soviet Union and includes some unflattering pictures of the people who are mentioned.
It did not state how it sourced the information but did include an anti-police message written in Russian.
One of the site's pages also made reference to the former police officer Christopher Dorner who apparently committed suicide during a large scale manhunt, after he killed four people.
So far representatives for each person targeted either declined to comment on the accuracy of the information that was posted, or they did not return messages seeking comment.
From BBC

Harlem Shake artists 'featured without permission'

 

Thousands of people per day are uploading videos of themselves dancing to the Harlem Shake

Reggae artist Hector Delgado and rapper Jayson Musson say the producer of the chart-topping hit Harlem Shake did not have permission to use their voices.

The pair are now asking for compensation from record label Mad Decent Records, which released the single, reports the New York Times.
Harlem Shake has become an internet sensation on video website YouTube.
Producer Harry Rodrigues, also known as DJ Baauer, and Mad Decent Records declined to comment.
Musson told the New York Times the record label had been "more than co-operative" but an agreement had not yet been reached.
The song has inspired thousands of people around the world to upload videos of themselves dancing along to the first 30 seconds of the track - up to 4,000 a day are currently being put onto YouTube, according to the website.
The song was initially released in 2012.
Rights issues Delgado can be heard at the beginning of the track singing, "Con los terroristas," a sample from a single he released in 2006.
Musson shouts, "Do the Harlem Shake," about 15 seconds in, which he says is taken from a rap by his group Plastic Little in 2001.
In the New York Times, Delgado's agent, Javier Gomez, described the situation as "a clear breaking of intellectual property rights".
Last month in an "ask me anything" session on website Reddit, Rodrigues was asked about the origin of a female Spanish vocal that also features on the track.
"Found it on the innerweb," he wrote in reply.
Barney Hooper, from PRS for Music, which represents the rights of music creators, told the BBC: "If one piece of music is sampled in another, then typically the creators of the original work would be entitled to a share of royalties when the new work is played, performed or reproduced," he said.
"A song can have a number of songwriters/composers and use samples of other works.
"If this is the case, all could have an ownership share in the new work and these would be registered with organisations like PRS for Music.
"We then pay out the royalties we collect based on the ownership shares registered with us."
However the situation was sometimes complicated, Mr Hooper added.
"There are often ownership disputes relating to popular works where others musical works are sampled," he said.

Japan extracts gas from methane hydrate in world first

 

 Methane hydrate is also known as burnable or flammable ice

Japan says it has successfully extracted natural gas from frozen methane hydrate off its central coast, in a world first.

Methane hydrates, or clathrates, are a type of frozen "cage" of molecules of methane and water.
The gas field is about 50km away from Japan's main island, in the Nankai Trough.
Researchers say it could provide an alternative energy source for Japan which imports all its energy needs.
Other countries including Canada, the US and China have been looking into ways of exploiting methane hydrate deposits as well.
Pilot experiments in recent years, using methane hydrates found under land ice, have shown that methane can be extracted from the deposits.

Offshore deposits present a potentially enormous source of methane but also some environmental concern, because the underwater geology containing them is unstable in many places.

"It is the world's first offshore experiment producing gas from methane hydrate," an official from the economy, trade and industry ministry told the AFP news agency.
A survey of the gas field is being run by state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).
Engineers used a depressurisation method that turns methane hydrate into methane gas.
Production tests are expected to continue for about two weeks.
Government officials have said that they aim to establish methane hydrate production technologies for practical use within five years.
A Japanese study estimated that at least 1.1tn cubic metres of methane hydrate exist in offshore deposits.
This is the equivalent of more than a decade of Japan's gas consumption.
Japan has few natural resources and the cost of importing fuel has increased after a backlash against nuclear power following the Fukushima nuclear disaster two years ago.

Methane clathrate - 'Fire ice'

• Hydrates are a frozen mixture of water and gas, primarily methane
• The methane molecules reside inside a water molecule lattice
• The methane will ignite in ice form - hence the "fire ice" moniker
• Clathrates tend to form under frigid temperatures and high pressures
• They are found in ocean sediments and under the permafrost on land
• Vast deposits are thought to exist, rivalling known reserves of traditional fossil fuels