US GI in SKorea gets 10 years in prison for rape (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? A South Korean court sentenced a U.S. soldier to 10 years in prison Tuesday for raping a teenage girl ? the second harshest punishment handed down to a convicted American soldier here in nearly 20 years.

Uijeongbu District Court convicted the 21-year-old private of sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl numerous times after breaking into her small boarding room near Seoul in September, court spokesman Lee Sang-yup said.

The soldier committed many "sadistic and sexually perverted acts" while threatening the girl with a pair of scissors, a knife and a lighter, Lee said. The soldier robbed the girl of 5,000 won ($4.50) as well, he said.

The court verdict said the girl felt "terrified and sexually humiliated," according to Lee.

The case, along with a separate rape allegation by a teenage girl against another U.S. soldier, prompted top U.S. military and government officials to offer public apologies.

The court ordered the soldier to undergo 80 hours of counseling and his personal information to be made public on a South Korean government website for 10 years, Lee said. The court didn't immediately release the soldier's name.

Prosecutors had demanded a 15-year prison term. The court, however, decided on only a 10-year sentence because the soldier had repented, was still young and the rape was his first crime, Lee said.

Both prosecutors and the soldier have one week to appeal, he said.

About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, and crimes involving them have fired anti-American sentiments among many South Koreans.

In 2002, the acquittals of two American soldiers whose armored vehicle ran over and killed two South Korean schoolgirls during training prompted massive nationwide protests against the U.S. military presence in the country.

Tuesday's sentencing is the longest prison term for an American soldier stationed in South Korea since 1993, when a U.S. soldier was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a South Korean bar employee, according to the Foreign Ministry. His life sentence was later reduced to 15 years, and the soldier was eventually released in 2006.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111101/ap_on_re_as/as_skorea_us_soldiers_rape_cases

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2011/11/01/halloween-hangover/

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Hat trick lifts Messi past 200 goals

Lionel Messi

By ROB HARRIS

updated 9:44 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2011

Lionel Messi broke the 200-goal barrier for his Barcelona career with his second straight hat trick in a 4-0 win at Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday night that advanced the club to the Champions League knockout stage.

AC Milan also advanced with a 1-1 tie at BATE Borisov, but Arsenal and Chelsea were held to draws and will have to wait until their final two games to earn a spot in the second round.

Jonas scored the second-fastest goal in Champions League history, 10 seconds into Valencia's 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Messi converted a penalty kick in the 24th minute after he was fouled by Marian Cisovsky, who was given a red card. Messi scored off a one-two with Adriano in first-half injury time and got his third from Gerard Pique's backheel pass in second-half injury time. Messi has 202 goals in his Barcelona career, including 22 in 17 games this season.

"I'm happy, but not just for the result but for how we played," Messi said.

Messi got his 14th career hat trick and second in the Champions League. His 42 Champions League goals already are ninth on the career list.

"A phenomenal player," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said after his 200th game in charge. "At 24, he has broken so many records."

Cesc Fabregas got a goal on a header in the 72nd minute from Isaac Cuenca's cross. Barcelona has outscored opponents 26-0 in its past nine games, and in the 38th minute goalkeeper Victor Valdes set the club scoreless streak record, breaking the mark of 824 minutes held by Miguel Reina since the 1972-73 season.

Defending champion Barcelona (3-0-1) leads Group H, and AC Milan (2-0-2) also advanced. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in the 22nd minute for the Rossoneri, but Renan Bressan's penalty kick after a foul by Ignazio Abate tied it in the 55th.

Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri and his team had wanted to win for teammate Antonio Cassano, who has been in a hospital after falling ill on the flight back to Milan following its 3-2 win at Roma on Saturday.

Visiting fans had banners showing their support for the stricken forward, and Kevin-Prince Boateng celebrated Ibrahimovic's goal with a shirt of Cassano's.

"We made a lot of mistakes, and when you do that then it can happen that you concede a goal or penalty," Allegri said. "It's normal that you have to be more clinical in finishing a game off, but we didn't do that."

Group F leader Arsenal (2-0-2) missed out on advancement with a 0-0 draw at home against Marseille (2-1-1). Borussia Dortmund (1-2-1) won 1-0 over visiting Olympiakos (1-3) on Kevin Grosskreutz's goal from 20 yards in the seventh minute.

Chelsea (2-0-2) extended its Group E lead to two points despite being held to a 1-1 tie at Genk (0-2-2) as second-place Bayer Leverkusen (2-2) lost 3-1 at Valencia (1-1-2).

"It gets a little bit tighter," Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Ramires scored for the Blues in the 26th minute after being set up by Fernando Torres, but Jelle Vossen tied it in the 61st minute.

At Valencia, Levekusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno tried to clear a back pass but delivered the ball for Jonas to sidefoot in a left-footed shot from outside the area. After Stefan Kiessling tied it in the 31st, the hosts got goals from Roberto Soldado in the 65th and Adil Rami in the 74th

APOEL (2-0-2) retained its surprise lead of Group G with a 2-1 victory over visiting Porto (1-2-1), staying a point ahead of Zenit St. Petersburg (2-1-1), which won 1-0 at home over Shakhtar Donetsk (0-2-2).

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Hat trick lifts Messi past 200 goals

Lionel Messi broke the 200-goal barrier for his career with his second straight hat trick, and Barcelona won 4-0 at Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday night with its ninth straight shutout to advance to the European Champions League knockout stage.

'Cheap'?

Landon Donovan said the New York Red Bulls were the most unsporting team he had played against in Major League Soccer after a post-match melee on the field Sunday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45125276/ns/sports-soccer/

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Tempers flare on front lines of Thailand's floods (AP)

BANGKOK ? Tempers flared along a flood barrier protecting Thailand's capital from a record deluge surging into the city, with angry residents scuffling with security forces Monday in an attempt to force open a floodgate that left their homes swamped.

The confrontation came as Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she hoped that the floodwaters could be drained through Bangkok more quickly now that peak high tides that sent the city's main river to record heights have passed. Although much of the city is still dry, the situation remains grim in northern and western neighborhoods where water levels fed by the country's worst flooding in more than a half century are continuing to rise.

The tensions at the Klong Sam Wa floodgate in the city's northeast illustrate the rising anger in some neighborhoods that have been sacrificed to keep Bangkok's central business district and historic heart dry.

The residents grew increasingly agitated as the water levels climbed, and asked authorities to increase the amount of water being let through the gate. They used hammers and pickaxes on Monday to break through an earthen dike around the floodgate to let water out, and pushed and shoved security forces who tried to stop them.

Authorities had warned that allowing too much water through the gate could threaten an industrial estate downstream and raise the level of a main canal leading to inner Bangkok. Yingluck said the government had agreed to open the gate wider, but ordered officials to make sure the greater flow would not cause problems elsewhere.

Higher than normal tides pushing into the Chao Phraya river from the Gulf of Thailand in recent days have complicated efforts to drain floodwaters flowing from the country's central heartland, where vast areas have been submerged for up to two months. The runoff has put extreme pressure on pumps, sandbags and dikes protecting Bangkok, though they have largely held.

"If there is no more additional water, the current runoff might not cause heavy flooding in Bangkok," Yingluck said, though she noted that a massive amount of water still needs to pass through the capital's complex network of rivers, canals and tunnels as it makes its way to the sea.

While that was welcome news to people in Bangkok's dry downtown core who had braced for possible flooding all weekend, it was little relief for those in 15 of Bangkok's 50 districts that have already flooded. People in six of those districts have been told to evacuate.

"The water that came in our neighborhood was massive and had immense power," said Yibporn Ratanawit, 29, who lives in Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the capital's central area. "As we were stepping out of our gate to evacuate, one of our walls totally collapsed to the neighbor's side and the water rushed into their house. It was like a nightmare."

"I think the Thonburi side will all be gone eventually because the water has not stopped rising," she said.

As the government has focused in recent days on protecting the capital, there have been growing complaints that provinces north of the capital, some of which have been underwater for weeks or months, have been forgotten.

Yingluck sought to address those concerns Monday with a post on her Facebook page.

"The government is concerned about every individual who has experienced flooding, as well as those facing a lengthy period of floods," she said. "The government has emphasized with the provincial governors to exhaustively take care of the people."

The floods, which began in late July and were fed by unusually heavy monsoon rains and a string of tropical storms, have killed 381 people and affected more than a third of the country's provinces. The water has destroyed millions of acres (hectares) of crops and forced thousands of factories to close.

Yingluck said Monday that she hoped seven submerged industrial estates would be running again in about three months. The parks house the factories of global companies including Honda, Toshiba and Western Digital.

She said it would probably take another week or two for the water at the parks to drain and then the recovery and rebuilding effort could begin.

___

Associated Press writer Vee Intarakratug contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_floods

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Obesity and depression independently increase health costs

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rebecca hughes
hughes.r@ghc.org
206-287-2055
Group Health Research Institute

Even without depression, obesity raises health costs in Group Health study

SEATTLE, WA -- Obesity and depression both dramatically increase health care costs, but they mainly act separately, according to a study published in the November 2011 Journal of General Internal Medicine by Group Health Research Institute scientists. Gregory Simon, MD, MPH, a Group Health psychiatrist and Group Health Research Institute senior investigator, led the research.

"Previous research shows that both depression and obesity are associated with higher health care costs," he said. "But depression and obesity often occur together, so it was important to know if the relationship between obesity and cost is really due to depression -- or vice versa."

Simon and his colleagues tested whether depression confounds the increase in health care use that is associated with obesity. Confounding means an apparent connection -- such as the link between increased health care costs and obesity -- is influenced or even caused by a third factor. In this study, the authors tested if depression confounds the increase in health care seen in obese patients.

The study used telephone interviews to determine obesity and depression, and Group Health's extensive medical records to calculate health care costs for 4,462 women aged 40. All were enrolled in Group Health Cooperative, a nonprofit health care system in Washington and northern Idaho. Obesity was measured as body mass index (BMI), a standard obesity measure that is calculated from height and weight. A BMI below 25 is considered normal weight, 25-30 considered overweight, and over 30 is considered obese. Depression was measured with a 9-item American Psychiatric Association questionnaire.

The researchers found:

  • In middle-aged women, health care costs increased with obesity. Specifically, costs increased 65 percent in women with a BMI of 30-35, and 157 percent in women with a BMI higher than 35, compared to women of normal weight.
  • The trend was similar for all types of health care that the researchers examined: primary care, outpatient prescriptions, specialist visits, inpatient care, and mental health care.
  • Health care costs increased with higher depression scores, but depression was a not a major confounder of the obesity results.
  • Even accounting for depression, health costs increased with every rise in BMI category.

The study concluded that in this population of women, obesity is associated with higher health care costs, but not because of co-occurring depression. Similarly, depression is associated with higher costs, but not because of co-occurring obesity. These higher costs have an economic impact. Increased costs associated with depression were spread across all types of health care, not just mental health care.

"Obesity and depression are both very common," Dr. Simon said, "so the increased costs we find add up to a very large amount in the general population." The relationships among obesity, depression, and chronic illness related to obesity are complex, as are the effects of depression on behavior and health. But one thing is clear, the study's authors said: Effective obesity prevention is a crucial factor in tackling our rising health care costs.

###

The National Institute of Mental Health funded the work.

Dr. Simon's co-authors were David Arterburn, MD, MPH, Evette J. Ludman, PhD, and Belinda H. Operskalski, MPH, of Group Health Research Institute; Paul Rohde, PhD, of Oregon Research Institute, in Eugene, OR; and Jennifer A. Linde, PhD, and Robert W. Jeffery, PhD, of the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, in Minneapolis. Drs. Simon, Arterburn, and Ludman are also on the faculty of the University of Washington.

Journal of General Internal Medicine

Journal of General Internal Medicine is the official journal of the Society of General Internal Medicine. It promotes improved patient care, research, and education in primary care, general internal medicine, and hospital medicine. Its articles focus on topics such as clinical medicine, epidemiology, prevention, health care delivery, curriculum development, and numerous other non-traditional themes, in addition to classic clinical research on problems in internal medicine.

Group Health Research Institute

Group Health Research Institute is the research arm of Group Health Cooperative. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative is a Seattle-based, consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rebecca hughes
hughes.r@ghc.org
206-287-2055
Group Health Research Institute

Even without depression, obesity raises health costs in Group Health study

SEATTLE, WA -- Obesity and depression both dramatically increase health care costs, but they mainly act separately, according to a study published in the November 2011 Journal of General Internal Medicine by Group Health Research Institute scientists. Gregory Simon, MD, MPH, a Group Health psychiatrist and Group Health Research Institute senior investigator, led the research.

"Previous research shows that both depression and obesity are associated with higher health care costs," he said. "But depression and obesity often occur together, so it was important to know if the relationship between obesity and cost is really due to depression -- or vice versa."

Simon and his colleagues tested whether depression confounds the increase in health care use that is associated with obesity. Confounding means an apparent connection -- such as the link between increased health care costs and obesity -- is influenced or even caused by a third factor. In this study, the authors tested if depression confounds the increase in health care seen in obese patients.

The study used telephone interviews to determine obesity and depression, and Group Health's extensive medical records to calculate health care costs for 4,462 women aged 40. All were enrolled in Group Health Cooperative, a nonprofit health care system in Washington and northern Idaho. Obesity was measured as body mass index (BMI), a standard obesity measure that is calculated from height and weight. A BMI below 25 is considered normal weight, 25-30 considered overweight, and over 30 is considered obese. Depression was measured with a 9-item American Psychiatric Association questionnaire.

The researchers found:

  • In middle-aged women, health care costs increased with obesity. Specifically, costs increased 65 percent in women with a BMI of 30-35, and 157 percent in women with a BMI higher than 35, compared to women of normal weight.
  • The trend was similar for all types of health care that the researchers examined: primary care, outpatient prescriptions, specialist visits, inpatient care, and mental health care.
  • Health care costs increased with higher depression scores, but depression was a not a major confounder of the obesity results.
  • Even accounting for depression, health costs increased with every rise in BMI category.

The study concluded that in this population of women, obesity is associated with higher health care costs, but not because of co-occurring depression. Similarly, depression is associated with higher costs, but not because of co-occurring obesity. These higher costs have an economic impact. Increased costs associated with depression were spread across all types of health care, not just mental health care.

"Obesity and depression are both very common," Dr. Simon said, "so the increased costs we find add up to a very large amount in the general population." The relationships among obesity, depression, and chronic illness related to obesity are complex, as are the effects of depression on behavior and health. But one thing is clear, the study's authors said: Effective obesity prevention is a crucial factor in tackling our rising health care costs.

###

The National Institute of Mental Health funded the work.

Dr. Simon's co-authors were David Arterburn, MD, MPH, Evette J. Ludman, PhD, and Belinda H. Operskalski, MPH, of Group Health Research Institute; Paul Rohde, PhD, of Oregon Research Institute, in Eugene, OR; and Jennifer A. Linde, PhD, and Robert W. Jeffery, PhD, of the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, in Minneapolis. Drs. Simon, Arterburn, and Ludman are also on the faculty of the University of Washington.

Journal of General Internal Medicine

Journal of General Internal Medicine is the official journal of the Society of General Internal Medicine. It promotes improved patient care, research, and education in primary care, general internal medicine, and hospital medicine. Its articles focus on topics such as clinical medicine, epidemiology, prevention, health care delivery, curriculum development, and numerous other non-traditional themes, in addition to classic clinical research on problems in internal medicine.

Group Health Research Institute

Group Health Research Institute is the research arm of Group Health Cooperative. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative is a Seattle-based, consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/ghri-oad103111.php

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Qantas returns to the skies after fleet grounding (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia ? Qantas Airways planes returned to the skies Monday after an Australian court ruled on a bitter labor dispute that had prompted the world's 10th-largest airline to ground its entire fleet.

A flight from Sydney to Jakarta, Indonesia, took off shortly after Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority gave the "Flying Kangaroo," as the Australian flag carrier is known, the all-clear to resume flying.

Qantas said in a statement it still expected some delays as it worked to clear the backlog of customers affected by the nearly 48-hour grounding. The airline is adding extra flights and expects its schedule to return to normal within one or two days.

The grounding disrupted the travel plans of tens of thousands of people across the world, and Qantas passengers were gathering at airports in Australia, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the hopes of finally getting to their destinations.

The airline's resumption of flights comes around 12 hours after an emergency ruling by an arbitration court ended weeks of strikes and canceled a staff lockout.

The court ruling was a major victory in the airline's battle with unions representing pilots, aircraft mechanics, baggage handlers and caterers, whose rolling strikes have forced the cancellation of 600 flights in recent months, disrupted travel for 70,000 passengers and cost Qantas 70 million Australian dollars ($75 million).

But some aviation experts said the surprise grounding of all 108 planes on Saturday, at a cost of $20 million a day, has hurt the Australian flagship carrier's reputation around the world. Moody's Investors Service said it could downgrade the airline's credit ratings as the weekend's events could hurt bookings, profits and the value of the Qantas brand.

Still, the stock market welcomed the weekend developments as allowing the airline to focus on its long-term strategy. Qantas shares on Monday jumped 4.3 percent to AU$1.61 on the stock exchange in Sydney.

Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst in San Francisco, predicts the shutdown will do long-term damage to the Qantas name by hurting its reputation for reliability.

"A lot of travelers won't take a chance and will book away to Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and other airlines," Harteveldt said. "Brand loyalty in the airline business is very low, and there is so much competition."

Before the court ruling, Virgin Australia said it was scheduling extra flights and offering 20 percent fare discounts to help stranded Qantas passengers through Thursday.

If Qantas loses customers, that could also hurt partners in its alliance of global airlines, including American Airlines. A rival alliance that includes Air New Zealand and is led by United Continental Holdings Inc. could benefit, as could a third group of airlines that includes several major Asian carriers and is led by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM.

CEO Alan Joyce praised the court ruling, which prevents unions from taking any further strike action over their demands for pay hikes and job security clauses under news contracts being negotiated. The strikes have been blamed for a sharp decline in the airline's future bookings.

"The important thing is that all industrial action is now over and we have certainty," Joyce told reporters in Sydney.

"We will be returning to business as usual over the next 24 hours," he said.

Other industry veterans said the lockout was a daring move that will pay off for Qantas, which wants to expand the low-cost, low-fare model that it uses at its Jetstar Airways subsidiary.

Jetstar has extensive routes to Southeast Asia and Japan, and lower costs than Qantas. But Qantas unions fear that expansion of low-cost airlines will result in Australian jobs being sent overseas. Joyce hopes to bend the unions closer to the company's vision for growth by tapping into Asian markets.

"It was a very shrewd move by their CEO to force the issue and stop the potential deterioration of the brand," said Mo Garfinkle, an airline consultant who has worked for Qantas rival Virgin Australia. "In the end, it will benefit Qantas financially."

Garfinkle said the short duration of the fleet grounding will help Qantas get back up to full speed quickly, cutting its losses.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday described the grounding as "extreme," while Transport Minister Tony Albanese has sharply criticized Joyce for giving the government only three hours notice of his plans.

The Australian government, angered by a lack of warning of the grounding, had called an emergency court hearing on Saturday night to end the work bans for the sake of the national economy.

The three judges heard more than 14 hours of testimony from the airline, the government and unions. Workers have held rolling strikes and refused overtime work for weeks out of worry that some of Qantas' 32,500 jobs would be moved overseas in a restructuring plan.

The unions wanted the court to temporarily suspend the employee lockout so that strike action could resume if negotiations in the labor dispute failed to progress. But the airline said the strikes had devastated the airline's reputation for reliability and that the threat needed to be removed permanently before customers would return.

Tribunal President Geoffrey Giudice said the panel decided that a temporary suspension would still risk Qantas' grounding its fleet in the future and would not protect the tourism and aviation industries from damage.

Qantas is the largest of Australia's four national domestic airlines, and the grounding affected 108 planes in 22 countries.

About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily, and would-be fliers this weekend were stuck at home, hotels or airports, or even had to suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations. More than 60 flights were in the air at the time but continued to their destinations, and Qantas was paying for passengers to book other flights.

Qantas infuriated unions in August when it said it would improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based airline with its own name and brand. The five-year restructure plan will cost 1,000 jobs.

The airline also said in August that it had more than doubled annual profit to AU$250 million but warned that the business environment was too challenging to forecast earnings for the current fiscal year.

Qantas is the 10th-largest airline in the world by passenger miles flown, according to the International Air Transport Association, an airline trade group.

_____

Associated Press writers David Koenig from Dallas, Texas, and Andrew Dalton from Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_qantas

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iPhone 4S users charged up over battery life

Some users of the iPhone 4S say its battery life is drastically less than promised.

By Suzanne Choney

The iPhone 4S has been in users' hands for more than two weeks now, and some are complaining that its battery life is terrible, sometimes a matter of a few hours instead of the longer time periods stated in Apple's specs. Comments on Apple's own support forums are filled with gripes such as this one:

"I make a small, 10 minute call and it drops by nearly 8-10%. 3G is nearly always disabled. I even bought a external battery case and my iPhone will chew threw the battery + that case in less than 1.5 days, wrote "Limitin" on one forum thread, "iPhone 4S battery life?" that now has more than 161,000 views. "I normally use my phone for work, so this is unacceptable! I also use it when out (so some 3g or wifi, but only one active at a time). I disable all iCloud things besides contacts."

Live Poll

If you've got the iPhone 4S, the battery life is:

  • 165524

    Worse than projected

    33%

  • 165525

    Much worse than projected

    37%

  • 165526

    Surprise! Mine's better than expected

    10%

  • 165527

    It's about what I thought it would be

    20%

VoteTotal Votes: 570

Many users are trying to disable or minimize various functions that normally use up battery life more quickly, such as Wi-Fi, location services, brightness settings, fetching email every 15 minutes.

Another user, "Jules8823," posted: "I have 3 hours and 45 minutes of usage and my phone's battery is down to 30%. Location services off, icloud account deleted, mail fetch featured turned off, notifications are off... No phone calls have been made. This is terrible! Im returning this phone! How frustrating!"

Apple, which hasn't commented on the problem, is paying attention to it. Some users in the forum commented on their own dealings with tech support. "Joechurch" posted:

I was contacted by an apple support agent who worked with me to apply a power log diagnostic profile to my phone. After two days, I sent the logs to the rep and he assured me they were investigating the issue. I wasn't able to reproduce some very dramatic drain issues during the period I had the diagnostic profile installed, but hopefully they will get something useful from it ...? I got a real live person who called me and provided very friendly assistance.? After many charge cycles and tweaking some settings on my 4S the battery life seems better, but its still nowhere near what I got with my 4.

Another, "iphone 5 lover," wrote:

Im having all the same problems as you guys, losing 3-5% every ten minutes on light usage so i rang apple and they have gotten me to restore it and do some tests and if it's still bad they're going to give me a new one.

The Guardian, in Britain, says Apple "engineers are contacting some iPhone 4S owners to try to solve problems with battery life ... One owner has told the Guardian that Apple contacted him directly and asked him to install a monitoring program on the phone to try to diagnose the problem, which is so far unexplained."

The iPhone 4S battery should be getting these estimated times, according to Apple:

  • Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G?
  • Standby time: Up to 200 hours
  • Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-fi

If you have the iPhone 4s, are you noticing dramatically shorter battery life than promised? If so, let us know in comments here, or take our poll.

? Via Gizmodo

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/31/8565630-iphone-4s-users-charged-up-over-battery-life

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MGM, Boyd, Bwin.party in deals for U.S. online poker (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Casino operators MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming on Monday unveiled a plan to partner with online poker company Bwin.party Digital Entertainment, subject to the legalization of Internet gambling in the United States.

Gibraltar-based Bwin.party, the world's largest publicly traded online gaming company, was formed earlier this year through the merger of Austria's Bwin and PartyGaming.

Bwin.party would own 65 percent of a start-up company that would offer online poker to U.S.-based players, while MGM would own 25 percent and Boyd would have a 10 percent stake.

U.S. prosecutors earlier this year accused the owners of three of the largest Internet poker companies of tricking regulators and banks into processing billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds.

That crackdown scuttled a similar deal between online gambling operator PokerStars and Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts Ltd.

MGM closed its original Internet gambling operations in mid-2003, citing regulatory uncertainties.

"There is now an overarching opinion in Washington that this needs to be addressed," MGM Chief Executive Officer Jim Murren told Reuters in a telephone interview. "U.S. citizens are putting their financial assets at risk on sites that the U.S. government has no comfort over how they are being operated."

Wynn, MGM and other brick-and-mortar casino operators have been lobbying hard in recent years for U.S. legalization of online poker -- which they say is primarily a game of skill, rather than other forms of gambling where the customer is playing against the "house."

Their goal is legislation at the federal level, but legalization efforts are also underway in several states.

"Federal legislation is a vastly better solution ... to avoid any ambiguities in laws," Murren said.

Casino companies argue that millions of Americans are already playing online poker on web sites operated from overseas and legalization would bring that revenue to the United States, where it could be taxed, jobs would be created and integrity could be assured.

Opponents, including groups like the Southern Baptist Convention, say online gambling is an irresponsible way to raise revenue.

Boyd and MGM also said each has agreements to use Bwin.party's technology under its own brands.

MGM owns 10 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, ranging from Circus Circus to the Bellagio, as well as casino-resorts in Mississippi and Michigan and joint ventures in New Jersey and Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal.

Boyd, which runs Las Vegas properties that cater mainly to local residents rather than tourists, owns and operates 16 casino properties in six states.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; editing by Richard Chang)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/media_nm/us_casinos_online

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