Apple chief Tim Cook: I'm proud to be gay

Apple chief Tim Cook: 'I'm proud to be gay'

Mr Cook said he made his announcement to try to help people struggling with their identity

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has publicly acknowledged his sexuality, saying that he is "proud to be gay".

Mr Cook made his announcement to try to help people struggling with their identity, he wrote in a Bloomberg article.

He has been open about his sexuality, but has also tried to maintain a basic level of privacy until now, he said.

This week Mr Cook challenged his home state of Alabama to ensure the rights of gay and transgender people.

"I don't consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I've benefited from the sacrifice of others," he wrote.

"So if hearing that the CEO [chief executive] of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it's worth the trade-off with my own privacy," he added.

Mr Cook said that he had been open about his sexuality with many people, including colleagues at Apple, but that it still "wasn't an easy choice" to publicly announce his sexual orientation.

Terror "Wi-Fi signal" delays flight

'Terror' wi-fi signal leaves LA-London flight grounded
By Zoe Kleinman

Wi-fi networks appear when detected by mobile devices.

A wi-fi signal named "Al-Quida Free Terror Nettwork" (sic) has resulted in a long delay for passengers on a plane at Los Angeles airport.

A passenger alerted American Airlines cabin crew when his smartphone identified the network as one available nearby and police were notified.

After an investigation lasting several hours, police at the airport said no crime had been committed.

The flight from LA to London on Sunday was eventually rescheduled for Monday.

Many broadband subscribers re-name their home wi-fi network to personalise it.

When a device comes within range of the network, its name will appear on a list of potentially available wi-fi connections.

While some use their family name or the name of their house, others take a more satirical approach.

'Sometimes it's funny'
"It can be a kooky way of saying you support a local football team or you want to bait your neighbour who supports the opposing team," said Stuart Miles of tech review site Pocket Lint.

"Some people use it as advertising. It's an unwritten code of spreading a message that you're allowed to do - but obviously sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's not."

In a discussion about favourite wi-fi names on community site Reddit, users admitted to using titles like "FBI Surveillance Van", "ISIS HQ" and names that sounded like computer viruses to alarm passers-by.

The acronym LAN (Local Area Network) - the name given to a network linking a small group of computers in a home or business hub - has also been the subject of puns.

'Get off my LAN', 'the promised LAN' and 'WuTangLAN', a homage to US rappers Wu-Tang Clan, are popular choices.

Bale nominated for Ballon d'Or

Bale nominated for Ballon d'Or

                                     Gareth Bale scored 22 goals for Real Madrid last season

Wales forward Gareth Bale is the only player from the home nations on the 23-man shortlist for the Fifa 2014 men's world footballer of the year award.

Bale, 25, scored 22 goals for Real Madrid last season, as the La Liga side won the Champions League.

Five Premier League players in Thibaut Courtois, Diego Costa, Angel Di Maria, Eden Hazard and Yaya Toure have also been nominated for the Ballon d'Or.

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo will be looking to retain the award.

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, who has won the award three times in the last four years, is also on the shortlist, alongside team-mate Neymar.

The 23 shortlist will be reduced to three in December before the winners are announced on 12 January, 2015 in Zurich.

There is no place for Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, who played a crucial role in helping Uruguay qualify for the last 16 in Brazil but was suspended from all football-related activity for four months for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

In terms of Premier League clubs, Chelsea have the most players on the list with three - Courtois, Costa and Hazard, with Manchester United (Di Maria) and Manchester City (Toure) each supplying one.

Real Madrid and Bayern Munich players dominate the list, with each club supplying six players.

World Cup winners Germany have the most players nominated with six, with Spain and Argentina three apiece and France and Belgium two each.

Wales, Portugal, Sweden, Brazil, Netherlands, Colombia and Ivory Coast each have one of their players in contention.

Carlo Ancelotti, who guided Real Madrid to the Champions League, Super Cup and Copa del Rey last season, has been nominated for the coach of the year award.

Chelsea's Jose Mourinho, Manchester City's Manuel Pellegrini and Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal, who guided Netherlands to the third place in the World Cup, are also on the 10-man list for the coach award, alongside World Cup winning coach Joachim Low.

Fifa world men's player of the year shortlist: Gareth Bale (Wales, Real Madrid), Karim Benzema (France, Real Madrid), Diego Costa (Spain, Chelsea), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium, Chelsea), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid), Angel Di Maria (Argentina, Manchester United), Mario Gotze (Germany, Bayern Munich), Eden Hazard (Belgium, Chelsea), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, Paris St-Germain), Andres Iniesta (Spain, Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Germany, Real Madrid), Philipp Lahm (Germany, Bayern Munich), Javier Mascherano (Argentina, Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona), Thomas Muller (Germany, Bayern Munich), Manuel Neuer (Germany, Bayern Munich), Neymar (Brazil, Barcelona), Paul Pogba (France, Juventus), Sergio Ramos (Spain, Real Madrid), Arjen Robben (Netherlands, Bayern Munich), James Rodriguez (Colombia, Real Madrid), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, Bayern Munich), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast, Manchester City).

Fifa coach of the year shortlist: Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid), Antonio Conte (Juventus/Italy national team), Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich), Jurgen Klinsmann (USA national team), Joachim Low (Germany national team), Jose Mourinho (Chelsea), Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City), Alejandro Sabella (Argentina national team), Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid), Louis van Gaal (Netherlands national team/Manchester United).

10 Commandments smashed by "Agents of Devil"

Agents: Man says devil made him do it; 10 Commandments smashed
By Ben Brumfield

The damaged remains of a Ten Commandments monument are gathered on the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds.

Though he told authorities that the devil made him do it, Satanists disapproved, after a man allegedly shattered a stone copy of the Ten Commandments last week.

The man is accused of running his car on Friday into a controversial 6-foot-tall granite tablet of the Biblical edicts erected near Oklahoma City's Capitol, CNN affiliate KFOR reported.

He then left his car standing, along with the monument, which -- as photos showed -- was smashed asunder through the second commandment: "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain."

He walked into the Federal Building on foot, where he made threats against President Obama and the federal government, KFOR reported, citing U.S. Secret Service agents.

The man told the agents that the devil made him wreck the religious monument, which was placed at the capital in late 2012.

He also said that he was mentally ill and had stopped taking his medication. He has been detained at a mental health facility for evaluation.

Condemnation of the destruction came quickly from two sources that have railed against the monument -- the ACLU of Oklahoma and the Satanic Temple.

The ACLU filed suit last year against the presence of the monument on state property, and on Friday, said that it would keep fighting for its removal, because it feels it it violates the Constitution.

But organization was also "outraged at this apparent act of vandalism."

"The Ten Commandments constitute a strong foundation in our clients' deeply held religious beliefs," the Oklahoma ACLU said in a statement.

The Satanic Temple has demanded to have a monument of its own erected next to the Judeo-Christian one.

And it still wants it, but "only alongside the 10 Commandments," it said in a statement posted by KFOR.

"If our monument stands at the state Capitol, we want it to compliment and contrast the Ten Commandments, with both standing unmolested as a testament to American religious freedom and tolerance."

The Satanists could well have that wish fulfilled, but only in part.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has vowed to have the Ten Commandments monument rebuilt.

Ebola: U.S envoy condemns Ebola response

Ebola: Visiting envoy Samantha Power condemns response

Health workers in Guinea, which is Samantha Power's first stop

The US ambassador to the UN has begun a visit to the three nations worst hit by the Ebola outbreak, criticising the level of international support so far.

Samantha Power has landed in Guinea and will visit Sierra Leone and Liberia.

She told NBC some nations who offered backing "haven't taken responsibility yet" in supplying aid and doctors.

More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, with 4,922 deaths, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures.

All but 27 of the cases have occurred inside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

'Getting lapped'

Ms Power told NBC as she boarded her plane: "The international response to Ebola needs to be taken to a wholly different scale than it is right now."

She said: "You have countries at the UN where I work every day who are signing on to resolutions and praising the good work that the US and the UK and others are doing, but they themselves haven't taken the responsibility yet to send docs, to send beds, to send the reasonable amount of money."

                             Samantha Power has been critical of the international response

Ms Power told NBC the "mere fact of going as a member of the president's cabinet [shows] that we shouldn't be afraid", adding that her five-year-old son was "obsessed" with Ebola.

She will visit national Ebola coordination centres and meet US and UN workers, although it was not clear whether she would meet survivors of the outbreak.

Ms Power last week said the international community "isn't just losing the race to Ebola. We are getting lapped", and even praised Cuba - under a US embargo for decades - for its supply of doctors to Sierra Leone.

The Pentagon announced that a new commander, Maj Gen Gary Volesky, had taken over the US military mission to fight Ebola in West Africa.

It said that troops from the US 101st Division who arrived in Liberia 38 days ago had established two new laboratories and that a 25-bed hospital should be operational in the capital Monrovia by November.

The US has pledged 4,000 troops to build hospitals and to train health workers in West Africa, some 600 of whom have already arrived.

'Frightening'

However, new rules in some parts of the US on quarantining returning health workers have drawn criticism.

Strict quarantine rules were imposed after a US doctor tested positive for Ebola on his return to New York

A nurse put into isolation on her return from treating patients in Sierra Leone expressed anger at the way she was dealt with at Newark airport.

Kaci Hickox, of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, said the experience was frightening, and described seeing a "frenzy of disorganisation, fear and most frightening, quarantine".

She said she was kept in isolation at the airport terminal for seven hours and given only a cereal bar to eat.

New York, New Jersey and Illinois have imposed stricter quarantine rules than those at the federal level.

In the three states, anyone who has had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa now faces a mandatory 21-day quarantine period.

The White House said the states' stricter rules could put off aid workers and others travelling to West Africa to help mitigate the crisis at its source.

Although Ms Hickox tested negative in a preliminary test for the virus, she will remain under quarantine for three weeks and continue to be monitored by health officials.

The stricter measures were put in place in New York and New Jersey after a doctor, Craig Spencer, tested positive for the virus on his return from Guinea last week.

US President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and online address that Americans had "to be guided by the facts - not fear".


Ebola virus disease (EVD)
• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage

• Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva

• Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70%

• No proven vaccine or cure

• Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host

El Clasico honours: Real Madrid 3 - 1 Barcelona

Real Madrid took the El Clasico honours as they beat arch rivals Barcelona in a captivating game at the Bernabeu.

Luis Suarez started for Barcelona after a four-month ban for biting and set up Neymar to arrow in the opener.

Barcelona's Lionel Messi spurned a glorious chance before Cristiano Ronaldo equalised with a penalty.

A powerful header from Pepe put Real ahead before they added to their lead when Karim Benzema finished a brilliant counter-attack with an angled shot.

The Real fans roared their approval at the end as as the home side came out on top in a match-up between two of the world's most star-studded line-ups.

Real's celebrations following the 229th meeting between the two were also heightened with the victory helping them close the gap to one point on La Liga leaders Barcelona.

The visitors may have taken the lead but were ultimately disappointing as they failed to match the greater cutting edge in attack and solidity in defence of the home side as they suffered their first league defeat of the season.

A game between these two Spanish giants is usually one to savour and it was even more so this time considering the array of talent on show.

Real had the likes of Ronaldo, James Rodriguez and Benzema, while Barcelona had Messi, Neymar and Suarez in the opposition camp.

Suarez starting added to the spectacle as he played for the first time since his ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup came to an end.

The Uruguayan made an immediate impact when his crossfield pass found Neymar, and the Brazilian cut in from the left and curled in a low shot for the opener.

The goal only served to spark Real into action during a fast and furious opening. Barcelona keeper Claudio Bravo had not conceded a goal in his side's eight league games prior to the match and had to be at his best to keep his run going.

He got a left palm to a Benzema effort before the Real Madrid forward thumped a header from Ronaldo's cross against the woodwork and smashed the rebound wide.
The game was living up to the hype and Barcelona should have added to their lead when Suarez sent in a low cross for Messi only for the Argentine to uncharacteristically sidefoot wide from close range.

However, Real were level when Gerard Pique handled a low Marcelo cross and Ronaldo dispatched the penalty to score his 16th league goal of the campaign.

The home side started the second half brightly and their pressure eventually broke a vulnerable Barcelona defence when Pepe powered in a header from a corner.

The goal gave the Los Blancos a firm grip of the game as they sat back and comfortably soaked up Barcelona's pressure, while continually hitting the Catalan club on the break.

And, when Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta lost possession on the halfway line, Real lethally struck for their third. Isco, Ronaldo and Rodriguez combined before the latter slid a pass through to Benzema, who angled in a precise shot.

Does U.S have too much Oil in its reserves?

The U.S. has the world's largest emergency stockpile of oil.

Does America have too much oil in its reserves?

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon fired off a letter this week asking the Department of Energy to study the "size and make-up" of the U.S.' Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

It comes fresh on the heels of a report on Monday from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office that also called for a similar review.

The U.S. has the largest emergency stockpile of oil in the world. And now that the country's oil production is booming, there's questions if America needs to hold so much crude in reserve. The Department of Energy didn't respond to a request for comment.

Congress created the reserve in response to the 1973 oil embargo, which caused a supply shock and a recession.

But the United States is now on track to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world's largest energy producer next year. That's thanks in large part to new technologies such as hydraulic fracking, which has made the extraction of oil and gas from shale rock commercially viable.

"The recent shale boom is having a profound effect on United States energy policy," Wyden wrote to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

The talk of shrinking the oil reserve is a major shift from the political debates of the past years, when Americans were being squeezed by high gas prices.


In 2008, the Congress passed legislation that temporarily halted deposits of oil into the reserves.

Three years later, when the global economy was at risk of an oil supply shock due to the war in Libya, the United States and 28 other nations tapped their strategic reserves.

Fast forward to today, and the situation looks very different. Oil prices in the United States have tumbled to the lowest levels since 2012, and gas prices have fallen below $3 a gallon in many parts of the country.

Currently, there's enough oil in storage to meet the nation's needs for 106 days. In contrast, most oil consuming nations have 90 days of oil supply in storage.

Wyden says energy policies put in place as recently as 2007 are now "at best irrelevant, or at worst detrimental, to national environmental and economic goals."