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Premier League fans can buy cheap foreign TV coverage, EU rules

• European Union’s highest court rules it is not illegal for football fans to buy set top box decoder cards from foreign broadcasters • Ruling could have huge impact on the way BSkyB and other broadcasters buy rights to sport, movies and foreign TV shows Football fans will potentially be able to watch cut-price Premier League matches, after the European Union’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that it is not illegal for individuals to buy set top box decoder cards from foreign broadcasters. The European court of justice ruled that the FA Premier League cannot stop individuals from seeking better deals for TV sports subscriptions than that offered by BSkyB – which paid more than £1bn for the UK broadcast rights for Premier League matches – from foreign broadcasters. The ECJ said attempting to prohibit the “import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards is contrary to the freedom to provide services and cannot be justified either in light of the objective of protecting intellectual property rights or by the objective of encouraging the public to attend football stadiums”. However, the court ruled against the bid by Karen Murphy, the landlady of the Red, White and Blue pub in Portsmouth, to be allowed to use a Greek decoder card to show live Premier League matches to pub goers at much cheaper rates than BSkyB charges commercial premises in the UK on copyright grounds. The ECJ said the transmission in a pub is a “communication to the public”, which means that without the permission of the FA Premier League Murphy is in breach of the copyright directive. This directive would not stop individuals buying foreign decoder cards for domestic use. The FA Premier League, which sells TV rights exclusively to broadcasters across Europe on a territory-by-territory basis, has been clamping down on British pubs buying in live coverage from foreign broadcasters. The ECJ ruling could potentially have a huge impact on the way BSkyB and other UK and European broadcasters buy rights to sport, films and foreign TV shows. Sky’s share price was down by just over 3% to 635.50p at about 9.20am on Tuesday, as the City reacted to the European ruling. More details soon… • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Sports rights Television industry BSkyB Consumer affairs Premier League Household bills Consumer rights Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk

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Amanda Knox to fly home after being cleared of Kercher murder

• Meredith Kercher’s father says decision is ‘ludicrous’ • Knox family due to board scheduled flight home to Seattle • David Cameron says people should remember Kerchers’ pain Amanda Knox is due to fly back to the US after she and her former boyfriend were cleared on appeal of the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher four years ago. Knox, now 24, sobbed as the panel of judges delivered their verdict in a Perugia courtroom, ruling that she and Raffaele Sollecito should have their convictions overturned and ending a lengthy legal saga throughout which both maintained their innocence. Prosecutors had claimed the pair and Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born drifter, pressured Kercher into participating in a drug-fuelled sex game that culminated in murder. Guede, who was jailed for 16 years, is now the only person convicted over the killing. Following her formal release from the Perugia prison where she has lived the past four years, Knox spent the night with her family in Rome. Later on Tuesday, she will board a scheduled flight back to her home city of Seattle. Awaiting her is an uncertain future, expected to begin with negotiations over a lucrative TV interview and memoir about her experiences. And while US opinion has been significantly more supportive of the former language student than in Italy, where Knox has been variously portrayed by prosecutors and the media as a sex-obsessed temptress, a witch and a “she-devil”, resuming any semblance of normal life will be difficult. A friend and supporter of Knox, Corrado Maria Daclon, who heads a foundation that has championed her cause, said the Knox wanted to “reconnect with her family, take possession of her life”. The decision dismayed the family of Kercher, the 21-year-old student from Coulsdon, south London, found partly clothed with her throat cut, at the apartment she shared with Knox and others on 1 November 2007. Kercher’s parents and siblings had previously promised to respect the appeal court’s ruling, but her father, John, who did not attend the hearing, said afterwards that it was “ludicrous”. “How can they ignore all the other evidence? I thought the judge might play it safe and uphold the conviction but reduce the sentence. But this result is crazy,” he told the Daily Mirror . “There were 47 wounds on Meredith and two knives used. One person couldn’t possibly have done that. What happens now? Does that mean the police need to look for more killers? It makes a mockery of the original trial. We are all shocked, we could understand them reducing the sentence but completely freeing them, wow.” Amid the media frenzy over Knox and Sollecito, people should consider the feelings of the Kerchers, David Cameron told ITV1′s Daybreak programme. “I haven’t followed every part of this case but what I would say is that we should be thinking of the family of Meredith Kercher because those parents

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Ore. Bus Driver Kicks Mother, Baby Off Bus

A driver in Oregon’s largest public transit agency berated a woman and her crying baby into getting off a bus in a Portland suburb, saying “I can’t drive with that noise,” another passenger said Monday. (Oct. 3)

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Raw Video: Flooding Misery in Philippines

Floodwaters slowly receded in many parts of the northern Philippines after two typhoons killed nearly 60 people, but appeals continue for more boats to bring food and water to residents refusing to abandon inundated homes. (Oct. 4)

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Firmware update brings Google Talk integration, bug fixes to Archos G9 tablets

Listen up, Archos G9 owners, because there’s a hefty firmware update headed your way. The new upgrade, which only recently began rolling out, integrates Google Talk directly within the firmware and introduces a number of bug fixes to the freshly released Honeycomb slates. More specifically, version 3.2.46 brings enhanced volume controls, sharpened camera quality and Flash acceleration support to the eight- and ten-inch tablets, along with a host of other tweaks. For the full list of added features, check out the source link, below. Firmware update brings Google Talk integration, bug fixes to Archos G9 tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Infomercial Pitchman Found Dead In Jail

bigsteel99 says: PSP: Infomercial pitchman found dead in jail – http://t.co/baB34ael

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Yankees-tigers

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Yankees-tigers

2011 ALDS Game 2 Recap/Game 3 Preview (MrYanksfan) NYY Win Game 1 ALDS 2011 Tigers torch Yankees sflouis says: @ darthraige @ Line6ix who ya got? # Yankees # Tigers #Rays already loss 2-1 #rangers

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Foxy Knoxy

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Foxy Knoxy

Amanda Knox – Foxy Knoxy Is Free Amanda Knox- tribute Amanda Knox Is Free — Italian Court Did the Right Thing KydelMakes says: RT @ MarcusStead : Whether or not Amanda Knox is guilty, all this ‘ Foxy Knoxy ‘ nonsense is inappropriate. Have we forgotten Meredith Kercher was murdered?

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Defamation

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Defamation

Italian Jury Clears American Amanda Knox of Murder Italian Jury Clears American Amanda Knox of Murder Amanda Knox is FREE TtikNoh says: @ AshleyEv3 hope so > < yea i saw stupid ah beng. You can sue him for libel defamation

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Twelve die in Pakistan bus attack

Gunmen attacked a bus carrying Shiite Muslims in south-western Pakistan, killing 12 people and injuring six others Gunmen opened fire on Shiite Muslims travelling through south-western Pakistan on a bus on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding six others in the latest apparent sectarian attack to plague the country, police said. The gunmen were riding on motorbikes and stopped a bus carrying mostly Shiite Muslims who were headed to work at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, said police. The attackers forced the people off the bus, made them stand in a line and then opened fire, said police officer Hamid Shakeel. The dead included 11 Shiites and one Sunni, he said. The wounded included four Shiites and two Sunnis. Local TV footage showed relatives wailing at the hospital where the dead and wounded were brought. Shiites blocked the main highway on the outskirts of Quetta to protest the killings and set fire to the bus that took the dead and wounded to the hospital. Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in recent years, but the past couple weeks have been particularly bloody. Sunni extremists carried out a similar attack on Shiite pilgrims travelling through Baluchistan about two weeks ago, killing 26 people. Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state, with around 15% Shiite. Most Sunnis and Shiites live together peacefully in Pakistan, though tensions have existed for decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, Pakistan became the scene of a proxy war between mostly Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, with both sides funnelling money to sectarian groups that regularly targeted each other. The level of sectarian violence has declined somewhat since then, but attacks continue. In recent years, Sunni attacks on Shiites have been far more common. The groups have been energised by al-Qaida and the Taliban, which are also Sunni and share the belief that Shiites are infidels and it is permissible to kill them. The Sunni-Shiite schism over the true heir to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad dates back to the seventh century. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, one of the country’s most ruthless Sunni militant groups, claimed responsibility for the attack in Baluchistan two weeks ago. One of its alleged leaders, Malik Ishaq, was released from prison on bail in July after being held for 14 years on charges, never proven, of killing Shiites. Ishaq was re-arrested about a week ago after making inflammatory speeches against Shiites in the country. He was not charged but detained under a public order act, which means he can be held for three months. It’s not clear if Ishaq’s speeches have been connected to the recent wave of sectarian attacks. Pakistan guardian.co.uk

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