Google confirms notification by US Federal Trade Commission of investigation into dominance of search ad market Google has been formally notified by the US Federal Trade Commission of a wide-ranging investigation into its dominance of the search advertising market, the company confirmed on Friday . The widely trailed investigation is the most significant in Google’s 12-year history, on a par with the lengthy Department of Justice probe into Microsoft, which led to tighter regulation and from which the technology giant’s image has never fully recovered. Google, which had revenues of $29bn (18.1bn) in 2010, was given notice on Thursday that the FTC will issue “civil investigative demands” – a civil law equivalent to subpoenas – compelling the search giant to share information about its business practices. One area of concern is whether or not Google’s search results rank its own websites and services above those of rivals, which could be seen as anti-competitive. Many critics claim Google automatically places its own websites, such as Google Finance and Google Maps, towards the top of the list in search results. In a blog published on Friday, Google search engineer Amit Singhal confirmed: “Yesterday, we received formal notification from the US Federal Trade Commission that it has begun a review of our business. We respect the FTC’s process and will be working with them.” Google’s share price has been falling since Wednesday as news of the inquiry leaked to the financial markets. At the time of publication, it had dropped $19 from Tuesday’s closing price of $493, to just under $475. Google is facing similar probes by the European Commission and the Texas attorney general, but previous FTC inquiries have focused on more peripheral matters such as a proposed partnership with search rival Yahoo! and its acquisition of advertising technology group DoubleClick. The new FTC inquiry will focus on the heart of Google’s search advertising business, which provides most of its revenue. The search engine has a near monopoly position. Despite the best efforts of Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing, Google accounts for two-thirds of searches in the US, and close to 90% in the UK. Google has always maintained that access to its rivals is a mouse click away and switching search engines costs nothing. It counters arguments from some quarters that it should be regulated like a utility, and says competition comes from across the internet. “Using Google is a choice,” writes Singhal, “and there are lots of other choices available to you for getting information: other general-interest search engines, specialised search engines, direct navigation websites, mobile applications, social networks and more.” Google Internet Search engines United States Digital media Advertising Juliette Garside guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NATO’s bombing campaign has Moammar Gadhafi “seriously considering” getting out of Dodge—or in this case Tripoli—according to new US intelligence reports. It seems Gadhafi doesn’t intend to leave the country altogether, but he “doesn’t feel safe anymore” in the capital, an official briefed on the intelligence tells the…
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More cases of measles in first five months of 2011 than in the whole of 2010, according to Health Protection Agency There have been more cases of measles in the first five months of this year than in the whole of 2010, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). It says 496 cases of measles were reported in England and Wales up to the end of May, compared with 374 for the whole of 2010. Most cases were in London and the south-east, with children and teenagers most commonly affected. HPA data also shows a rise in children having the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Among two-year-olds quarterly figures show 90% were vaccinated – the highest level for 13 years. PA MMR Health Children guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …More cases of measles in first five months of 2011 than in the whole of 2010, according to Health Protection Agency There have been more cases of measles in the first five months of this year than in the whole of 2010, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). It says 496 cases of measles were reported in England and Wales up to the end of May, compared with 374 for the whole of 2010. Most cases were in London and the south-east, with children and teenagers most commonly affected. HPA data also shows a rise in children having the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Among two-year-olds quarterly figures show 90% were vaccinated – the highest level for 13 years. PA MMR Health Children guardian.co.uk
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Early morning deluge of applicants for 2.3 million tickets for London 2012 Olympic Games causes website to grind to halt Organisers of the London 2012 Olympics were forced to defend the event’s ticketing process again after an early morning deluge of applicants for the 2.3m tickets available to those who missed out in the first round caused the website to grind to a halt. Overwhelming demand for the remaining tickets caused many of the 1.2 million people eligible to apply for them to take to the airwaves, the internet and Twitter to register their anger after they were confronted with messages telling them to try again later. But protests from those who had risen at 6am to try to get their hands on the tickets available, of which only 600,000 were not for the football tournament, subsided within an hour as their transactions began to go through more easily. A spokeswoman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said transactions continued to be processed from 6am onwards but such was the demand that some were held back to avoid overloading the system. By mid-afternoon, the only tickets remaining were for football, volleyball, boxing, wrestling and weightlifting. The 40,000 remaining athletics tickets were snapped up most rapidly in this second first come, first served phase of ticketing. The second chance sale offered tickets for 310 sessions, including 44 medal events. The 1.2 million people eligible to apply during the current 10-day window were those who tried and failed to secure tickets in the first round ballot. During that process, which came in for criticism from the public and some consumer groups for its lack of transparency and for deducting money before buyers were notified what their tickets were for, 700,000 people secured 3m tickets. Those people will be offered another chance to buy any remaining tickets from 8 July, but look likely to be left only with tickets for football and a handful of other sports. Yesterday’s applicants face an anxious wait over the next 48 hours for confirmation from Locog that they have been allocated the tickets they applied for. Bradley Wiggins, the three times Olympic gold medal cyclist, criticised the ticketing system. “I think, as most of the public feels, it’s a bit of a shambles,” he told the BBC. “It’s a shame when you know what works so successfully in other Olympic Games, certainly Athens, that they couldn’t implement those here.” But the London 2012 chairman, Lord Coe, has said that while he understood the disappointment of those who have missed out, organisers have been satisfied with the way tickets have been distributed. Another tranche of around 1.2m tickets will go on sale from December once the final venue layouts have been finalised. Of the overall total of 8.8m tickets, 6.6m have been reserved for sale to the British public. Of the rest, roughly half are distributed overseas and the rest go to sponsors and the “Olympic family”. But for the biggest finals, fewer than half of the tickets have been made available to the general public owing to the demands of sponsors, the media and IOC officials. London Olympic Games 2012 Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk
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Early morning deluge of applicants for 2.3 million tickets for London 2012 Olympic Games causes website to grind to halt Organisers of the London 2012 Olympics were forced to defend the event’s ticketing process again after an early morning deluge of applicants for the 2.3m tickets available to those who missed out in the first round caused the website to grind to a halt. Overwhelming demand for the remaining tickets caused many of the 1.2 million people eligible to apply for them to take to the airwaves, the internet and Twitter to register their anger after they were confronted with messages telling them to try again later. But protests from those who had risen at 6am to try to get their hands on the tickets available, of which only 600,000 were not for the football tournament, subsided within an hour as their transactions began to go through more easily. A spokeswoman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said transactions continued to be processed from 6am onwards but such was the demand that some were held back to avoid overloading the system. By mid-afternoon, the only tickets remaining were for football, volleyball, boxing, wrestling and weightlifting. The 40,000 remaining athletics tickets were snapped up most rapidly in this second first come, first served phase of ticketing. The second chance sale offered tickets for 310 sessions, including 44 medal events. The 1.2 million people eligible to apply during the current 10-day window were those who tried and failed to secure tickets in the first round ballot. During that process, which came in for criticism from the public and some consumer groups for its lack of transparency and for deducting money before buyers were notified what their tickets were for, 700,000 people secured 3m tickets. Those people will be offered another chance to buy any remaining tickets from 8 July, but look likely to be left only with tickets for football and a handful of other sports. Yesterday’s applicants face an anxious wait over the next 48 hours for confirmation from Locog that they have been allocated the tickets they applied for. Bradley Wiggins, the three times Olympic gold medal cyclist, criticised the ticketing system. “I think, as most of the public feels, it’s a bit of a shambles,” he told the BBC. “It’s a shame when you know what works so successfully in other Olympic Games, certainly Athens, that they couldn’t implement those here.” But the London 2012 chairman, Lord Coe, has said that while he understood the disappointment of those who have missed out, organisers have been satisfied with the way tickets have been distributed. Another tranche of around 1.2m tickets will go on sale from December once the final venue layouts have been finalised. Of the overall total of 8.8m tickets, 6.6m have been reserved for sale to the British public. Of the rest, roughly half are distributed overseas and the rest go to sponsors and the “Olympic family”. But for the biggest finals, fewer than half of the tickets have been made available to the general public owing to the demands of sponsors, the media and IOC officials. London Olympic Games 2012 Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk
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Chicago court rules fallen press baron, 66, must serve another year in jail on charges of fraud and obstruction of justice Conrad Black will return to prison, a judge has ruled, after the fallen press baron lost his appeal on a fraud conviction. His wife, journalist Barbara Amiel, collapsed in court as the verdict was read. Black, 66, was convicted by a Chicago court in 2007 of defrauding investors in his media company Hollinger International and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail, and served over two years at the Coleman Federal Correctional prison in Florida. Judge Amy St Eve, who originally sentenced Black, said she had been impressed by letters sent on behalf of Black by his fellow inmates. But she ruled that he must serve 42 months, meaning Black, who was made a life peer in Britain in 2001, will serve another year in jail. As St Eve made her ruling in Chicago, Amiel collapsed, and had to be escorted out of the court. Black, whose international newspaper empire included the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, was freed on bail a year ago to pursue a partially successful appeal following a change in US law. Two of Black’s fraud convictions were thrown out last year, but the court upheld one conviction for fraud and one for obstruction of justice. Black arrived in court accompanied by Amiel, who looked pale and thin. His lawyer, Miguel Estrada of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, said the prosecution was being “vindictive” in attempting to get Black sent back to jail. Before his re-sentencing, Black quoted Rudyard Kipling’s If, and expressed gratitude for his “army” of supporters across the US, Canada and the UK. He said he regretted trusting his former business partner David Radler, who testified against him, and wished he had taken more seriously the corporate governance “zealots” who had pursued him. “I believe that life is a privilege and that almost all challenges are in part an opportunity,” Black told the judge. Black’s lawyers acknowledged that their client had not shown remorse for his crimes, but said had been a model prisoner. Black tutored fellow inmates in the general educational development (GED) and all his pupils passed, Black’s lawyers told the court. He also gave them advice on job interviews and got a standing ovation after giving a speech at the prison’s African-American history day. They dismissed claims that Black has lorded it over his fellow prisoners as a “fabrication.” According to sworn affidavits filed in court earlier this month, the peer treated fellow prisoners “like servants.” Staff at the Coleman prison claimed Black demanded special treatment, wished to be called Lord Black, got prisoners to mop his floor and was a poor tutor to his fellow inmates. In court his lawyers said the charges were not true and that fellow prisoners had organised a letter-writing campaign on his behalf. They said Black had spent his time in a three-man cell, never had servants, and was never called Lord or even Mr Black. Lawyers told St Eve that Black had high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. The prosecution said Black’s team were making an “overblown” case for their client’s behaviour, and that he remained convicted of fraud. But St Eve said she was impressed by the letters in support of Black. “You have been sentenced in other ways,” she said. “I am not concerned I will see you in court again, Mr Black,” she said. Black predicted earlier this week that he might return to jail. “If I am sent back, it will not be for very long,” Black wrote this week in an e-mail to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Conrad Black United States Canada Newspapers & magazines Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Chicago court rules fallen press baron, 66, must serve another year in jail on charges of fraud and obstruction of justice Conrad Black will return to prison, a judge has ruled, after the fallen press baron lost his appeal on a fraud conviction. His wife, journalist Barbara Amiel, collapsed in court as the verdict was read. Black, 66, was convicted by a Chicago court in 2007 of defrauding investors in his media company Hollinger International and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail, and served over two years at the Coleman Federal Correctional prison in Florida. Judge Amy St Eve, who originally sentenced Black, said she had been impressed by letters sent on behalf of Black by his fellow inmates. But she ruled that he must serve 42 months, meaning Black, who was made a life peer in Britain in 2001, will serve another year in jail. As St Eve made her ruling in Chicago, Amiel collapsed, and had to be escorted out of the court. Black, whose international newspaper empire included the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, was freed on bail a year ago to pursue a partially successful appeal following a change in US law. Two of Black’s fraud convictions were thrown out last year, but the court upheld one conviction for fraud and one for obstruction of justice. Black arrived in court accompanied by Amiel, who looked pale and thin. His lawyer, Miguel Estrada of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, said the prosecution was being “vindictive” in attempting to get Black sent back to jail. Before his re-sentencing, Black quoted Rudyard Kipling’s If, and expressed gratitude for his “army” of supporters across the US, Canada and the UK. He said he regretted trusting his former business partner David Radler, who testified against him, and wished he had taken more seriously the corporate governance “zealots” who had pursued him. “I believe that life is a privilege and that almost all challenges are in part an opportunity,” Black told the judge. Black’s lawyers acknowledged that their client had not shown remorse for his crimes, but said had been a model prisoner. Black tutored fellow inmates in the general educational development (GED) and all his pupils passed, Black’s lawyers told the court. He also gave them advice on job interviews and got a standing ovation after giving a speech at the prison’s African-American history day. They dismissed claims that Black has lorded it over his fellow prisoners as a “fabrication.” According to sworn affidavits filed in court earlier this month, the peer treated fellow prisoners “like servants.” Staff at the Coleman prison claimed Black demanded special treatment, wished to be called Lord Black, got prisoners to mop his floor and was a poor tutor to his fellow inmates. In court his lawyers said the charges were not true and that fellow prisoners had organised a letter-writing campaign on his behalf. They said Black had spent his time in a three-man cell, never had servants, and was never called Lord or even Mr Black. Lawyers told St Eve that Black had high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. The prosecution said Black’s team were making an “overblown” case for their client’s behaviour, and that he remained convicted of fraud. But St Eve said she was impressed by the letters in support of Black. “You have been sentenced in other ways,” she said. “I am not concerned I will see you in court again, Mr Black,” she said. Black predicted earlier this week that he might return to jail. “If I am sent back, it will not be for very long,” Black wrote this week in an e-mail to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Conrad Black United States Canada Newspapers & magazines Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Milly Dowler killer who hated women with blond hair may be to blame for 20 unsolved attacks say police Levi Bellfield refused to leave his prison cell to hear Mr Justice Wilkie sentence him to life without parole and condemn him as a “cruel and pitiless killer”. His refusal marked him out as a man who lacked the “courage to come into court to face his victims and receive his sentence”, said Wilkie, who told the Old Bailey that the former club doorman would never leave prison. He had robbed Milly Dowler, 13, “of her promising life” and taken her from her family and friends. “He treated her in death with total disrespect, depositing her naked body without even a semblance of a burial, in a wood, far away from her home, vulnerable to all the forces of nature thereby, as he clearly intended, causing her family the appalling anguish for many months of not knowing what had become of her.” Milly had become his victim “for no reason other than she was in the wrong place at the wrong time … a target of the unreasoning hatred which seem to have driven him”, said the judge. The “unreasoning hatred” evident from Bellfield’s previous convictions appeared to be directed at women, and young blonde women in particular. His explosive and random attacks on lone women at night earned him the nickname the “bus stop stalker” and made him one of the UK’s most dangerous serial killers. It also earned him a whole life sentence in 2008, when he was convicted of the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18. It is thought Bellfield is the first person to have received two whole life sentences. But, what the jury were never told was that he also harboured an unhealthy obsession with young schoolgirls and school uniforms. While under police surveillance, before his arrest for the Delagrange murder in 2004, he approached and made “highly sexually provocative” comments to two girls, cousins aged 14 and 16, at a bus stop. This was judged too prejudicial for the jury to hear. Three former girlfriends – he has fathered 11 children with five women, some of them pregnant at the same time – told police he would ask them to dress up in school uniform, which they declined. He would think nothing of driving around in his van, leering at girls in school uniforms and shouting abuse after them, said one former partner. “It’s an attraction which obviously has particular resonance when you consider the offences relating to Amanda [Milly] Dowler,” prosecutor Brian Altman said at a pre-trial hearing. Detectives believe he may have been responsible for around 20 attacks on women which were never solved, including rape. Bellfield particularly hated blondes. Acquaintances spoke of his loathing of women who dyed their hair blond, calling them “impure” and “sluts” who “deserved to be messed around with”. One girlfriend found a magazine in which all the faces of the blond women were scratched out with a knife. Bellfield told her he used to go into alleyways, wait for blond women to walk past, and feel the urge to “hurt then, stab them”. Despite lacking obvious physical charm, he thought himself a “ladies’ man”, with the gift of the gab. His job as a club doorman offered him plenty of opportunities to pick up girls, and ply them with drink and drugs before sexually abusing them. Inside his van there was a mattress, blankets and baseball bat, according to one former employee, who called Bellfield “an animal” and a “caveman”. Bellfield is said to have offered his friend the opportunity to buy sex with his then girlfriend, just 16, as well as her 14-year-old sister. The offer was refused. Born in Isleworth, west London, one of three boys and a girl. His father, a motor mechanic, died when he was eight. He was very close to his mother, described as a “strong-willed matriach”, and visited her regularly, including in the hours after he killed Milly. Perhaps his violent obsession with blondes had its roots in an incident at the age of 12, when his blonde girlfriend Patsy Morris, 14, was found strangled on Hounslow Heath. Nothing suggests he was responsible. There were convictions for burglary stretching back to when he was 13, and for possessing an offensive weapon in public. He had wild mood swings, took drugs, and admitted he was clinically depressed.. He was keen to brag to schoolfriends on the Friends Reunited website where he described himself as a “bit flash”, and asked for “any single girls out there to email me”. Milly Dowler Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Milly Dowler killer who hated women with blond hair may be to blame for 20 unsolved attacks say police Levi Bellfield refused to leave his prison cell to hear Mr Justice Wilkie sentence him to life without parole and condemn him as a “cruel and pitiless killer”. His refusal marked him out as a man who lacked the “courage to come into court to face his victims and receive his sentence”, said Wilkie, who told the Old Bailey that the former club doorman would never leave prison. He had robbed Milly Dowler, 13, “of her promising life” and taken her from her family and friends. “He treated her in death with total disrespect, depositing her naked body without even a semblance of a burial, in a wood, far away from her home, vulnerable to all the forces of nature thereby, as he clearly intended, causing her family the appalling anguish for many months of not knowing what had become of her.” Milly had become his victim “for no reason other than she was in the wrong place at the wrong time … a target of the unreasoning hatred which seem to have driven him”, said the judge. The “unreasoning hatred” evident from Bellfield’s previous convictions appeared to be directed at women, and young blonde women in particular. His explosive and random attacks on lone women at night earned him the nickname the “bus stop stalker” and made him one of the UK’s most dangerous serial killers. It also earned him a whole life sentence in 2008, when he was convicted of the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18. It is thought Bellfield is the first person to have received two whole life sentences. But, what the jury were never told was that he also harboured an unhealthy obsession with young schoolgirls and school uniforms. While under police surveillance, before his arrest for the Delagrange murder in 2004, he approached and made “highly sexually provocative” comments to two girls, cousins aged 14 and 16, at a bus stop. This was judged too prejudicial for the jury to hear. Three former girlfriends – he has fathered 11 children with five women, some of them pregnant at the same time – told police he would ask them to dress up in school uniform, which they declined. He would think nothing of driving around in his van, leering at girls in school uniforms and shouting abuse after them, said one former partner. “It’s an attraction which obviously has particular resonance when you consider the offences relating to Amanda [Milly] Dowler,” prosecutor Brian Altman said at a pre-trial hearing. Detectives believe he may have been responsible for around 20 attacks on women which were never solved, including rape. Bellfield particularly hated blondes. Acquaintances spoke of his loathing of women who dyed their hair blond, calling them “impure” and “sluts” who “deserved to be messed around with”. One girlfriend found a magazine in which all the faces of the blond women were scratched out with a knife. Bellfield told her he used to go into alleyways, wait for blond women to walk past, and feel the urge to “hurt then, stab them”. Despite lacking obvious physical charm, he thought himself a “ladies’ man”, with the gift of the gab. His job as a club doorman offered him plenty of opportunities to pick up girls, and ply them with drink and drugs before sexually abusing them. Inside his van there was a mattress, blankets and baseball bat, according to one former employee, who called Bellfield “an animal” and a “caveman”. Bellfield is said to have offered his friend the opportunity to buy sex with his then girlfriend, just 16, as well as her 14-year-old sister. The offer was refused. Born in Isleworth, west London, one of three boys and a girl. His father, a motor mechanic, died when he was eight. He was very close to his mother, described as a “strong-willed matriach”, and visited her regularly, including in the hours after he killed Milly. Perhaps his violent obsession with blondes had its roots in an incident at the age of 12, when his blonde girlfriend Patsy Morris, 14, was found strangled on Hounslow Heath. Nothing suggests he was responsible. There were convictions for burglary stretching back to when he was 13, and for possessing an offensive weapon in public. He had wild mood swings, took drugs, and admitted he was clinically depressed.. He was keen to brag to schoolfriends on the Friends Reunited website where he described himself as a “bit flash”, and asked for “any single girls out there to email me”. Milly Dowler Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
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