Portugal president says government should stay to tackle crisis

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's President Anibal Cavaco Silva on Sunday ruled out a snap election and said he wanted the centre-right coalition government to stay in place to end a weeks-old political crisis and keep an international bailout on track.

The crisis has threatened to derail Lisbon's planned exit from the EU/IMF bailout, especially after talks on a broader political deal between the two coalition parties and the opposition Socialists collapsed on Friday.

"As the national salvation compromise was impossible to achieve, I consider that the best alternative solution is for the present government to remain in its functions, with reinforced guarantees of cohesion and solidity of the coalition, until the end of its term (in 2015)," the president said.

In a televised address, he said the coalition, which has overcome an internal rift that triggered the crisis in early July, had presented him "guarantees of a solid understanding" on how to successfully complete the bailout program and allow Portugal to return to full market financing.

He did not refer in his speech to a cabinet reshuffle that had been proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to resolve the rift in the coalition.

"I think it's a positive decision to calm down investors that removes uncertainty and maintains the drive of meeting the bailout goals," said Rui Barbara, an economist at Banco Carregosa.

"In the eyes of investors, Portugal should return to the situation before the political crisis."

The government has a solid majority in parliament and last week easily defeated a no-confidence motion.

The main ruling Social Democrats (PSD) has said the government will press on with meeting fiscal goals for Lisbon to exit the rescue program by mid-2014 as planned.

The austerity measures pursued under the bailout has stoked the worst recession in Portugal since the 1970s.

(Reporting By Andrei Khalip and Sergio Goncalves, editing by Shrikesh Laxmidas and Gareth Jones)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/portugal-president-says-government-stay-till-end-term-200145052.html

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First Manhattan's point man on Vivus: Doctor and Buffett disciple

By Jessica Toonkel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Dr. Sam Colin was an intern at the Yale School of Medicine, he often gave up the chance to catch a few minutes of sleep between shifts to read the latest investment insights from Warren Buffett.

"I had read everything that Warren Buffett had written up until that point," Colin told Reuters in an interview. "I used to get teased a bit by the other interns."

His medical expertise and fascination with Wall Street ultimately led to a job at investment firm First Manhattan Co. There he has used them to inform a campaign to replace the leadership of Vivus Inc, a drugmaker whose handling of the launch of its diet pill Qsymia angered shareholders.

Qsymia was the first diet drug to reach the U.S. market in more than a decade.

Late Thursday night, First Manhattan won what had become an increasingly bitter proxy battle at Vivus, where it is the largest shareholder with a 9.9 percent stake. First Manhattan gained a six-person majority on a newly reconstituted board and the right to bring in a new chief executive to run the drugmaker.

First Manhattan billionaire founder, David "Sandy" Gottesman, hired Colin fresh from Yale. Now a managing director at the firm, Colin has been leading the charge at Vivus. He waged a previous shareholder battle at Aspect Medical Systems Inc in 2009, and the two battles represent First Manhattan's only forays into activism in nearly 50 years.

First Manhattan, which managed $15 billion as of June 30, is known for the same kind of long-term, value-oriented investment style employed by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. In fact, the firm owned 2.08 percent of Berkshire Hathaway's shares as of last March and Gottesman sits on that company's board.

Some industry watchers have deemed the Vivus proxy battle one of the ugliest fights in biotech, a sector that has been a repeated target for activism from the likes of billionaire Carl Icahn. Colin's replacement team at Vivus includes Alex Denner, formerly Icahn's top lieutenant for biotech proxy fights.

A Vivus spokesman declined to comment for this story.

People who know Colin say that if he feels strongly that the company needs a new direction, it means he has done his homework.

"First Manhattan seems to only take an activist approach as a last resort," said Anthony Cambeiro, whose firm at the time, Downtown Associates, was a fellow investor involved in First Manhattan's last proxy fight. "At the end of the day, the rationale for what they are looking to do has to make sense to folks or else they aren't going to be successful, and they were very good at establishing their case."

LONG-TERM INVESTORS

When Colin first walked into the office of Ed Fritzky in the fall of 1994, the CEO of Seattle-based biotech Immunex Corp expected the meeting to be about an hour as First Manhattan was not even an investor in the company.

Two hours later, Colin was still asking questions, not just about the company's balance sheet and market share, but about its drug development and clinical research.

"I was absolutely amazed at how much Sam knew about our company," Fritzky said. "He asked some of the more insightful and challenging questions that any analyst had ever asked at that point about our drug development programs."

When First Manhattan first took an activist stance in 2009, the target was Aspect Medical, a Norwood, Massachusetts-based company specializing in brain-monitoring technology.

Aspect's revenues had started to decline and its stock fell. The company was planning to spend a lot of money to increase sales and marketing of its technology, leading First Manhattan and other investors to believe Aspect needed a new direction.

In the end, Aspect settled with First Manhattan and replaced three of its nine directors. Five months later the company was sold to healthcare-products maker Covidien Plc for $210 million.

In the latest case, one of Colin's biggest criticisms was that Vivus tried to launch Qsymia, a promising drug that has met with skepticism from some doctors, without the help of a marketing partnership with a major pharmaceutical company. Colin had recommended the move as far back as 2008, when First Manhattan first invested in Vivus.

After talks between the two sides failed in recent days, Vivus accused First Manhattan of sending deliberate misinformation to fellow shareholders. First Manhattan sued Vivus for postponing its annual shareholder meeting by three days, alleging the delay was a tactic to appeal to investors who had given First Manhattan enough votes to gain control of the board.

Calling this "one of the ugliest biotech proxy fights in recent memory," Cowen and Co analyst Simos Simeonidis predicted an outright victory for First Manhattan in shareholder balloting. And he called the proxy fight run by First Manhattan, "a textbook activist campaign run by a non-activist."

But even with First Manhattan's successful campaign behind it, people close to the firm don't expect it to become a regular presence among activist investors.

"It is still more the exception than the rule," said one person familiar with First Manhattan who wished to remain anonymous.

(Additional reporting by Sam Forgione, Bill Berkrot; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Claudia Parsons and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-manhattans-point-man-vivus-doctor-buffett-disciple-144026824.html

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Turkey's Taksim Square: From tree-hugging to civil war?

Thanassis Stavrakis / AP

A pedestrian walks past a barricade, with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, near Taksim Square in Istanbul on Monday June 10.

By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News

ISTANBUL, Turkey ? Fatma, a 24-year-old trained nurse, thought ?here we go again? when she learned on Twitter that the Istanbul Municipality had plans to modernize the city?s iconic Taksim Square, which includes one of the few green parks left in the urban sprawl.?

?There was lots of talk about making the square better, but I was very worried,? said Fatma, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. ?We?ve seen the government destroy other parks in Ankara and other cities.?

A few weeks ago, local papers published the plans with no public debate or discussion. But what she saw shocked her. ?They were going to pull out many trees and build this huge shopping mall around the park, covering most of it with concrete!? Fatma said.

The plans included an Ottoman-style military barracks, and a cultural center, including an opera house. If the plans are implemented, the park?s modest forest of trees would be reduced to garden-size.

Fatma rushed to Taksim to join a few friends already sitting-in to protect the trees. At dawn, without warning, riot police attacked her and other sleeping protesters with tear gas and water cannons. Several protesters were injured.

No one could have imagined then that the raid would incite days of rioting and turn a local ?green? issue into a nation-wide protest, killing three and injuring at least 4,000 in some 78 cities.?

Fatma is still in the park, but now she is treating the sick and injured in a makeshift health clinic. ?This is not just any park,? she said. ?It?s a historic park, and it doesn?t need a shopping mall at all.??

Protests that started as an outcry against a local development project in Taksim Square have snowballed into widespread anger against what critics say is the government's increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda.

But many Turks ? indeed about half the population ? would disagree.

?The Taksim project is good for Turkey and for the people,? said middle-aged Zulfu Aycil, outside a mosque in Kasimpasa, the neighborhood where Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan grew up.

Aycil, who voted for Erdogan?s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the last election two years ago, likes the Taksim redevelopment plan a lot, because it moves all throughways beneath the square, freeing it from Istanbul?s endemic traffic jams.

?Pedestrians will be able to shop more easily and spend more money, and that will help tourism and the economy,? said Aycil, who works in a store near Taksim.?

But the square?s battle lines now go far beyond the initial standoff between local environmentalists and city planners. The riot police?s wanton aggression struck a nerve, and Erdogan is facing his biggest political crisis since coming to power 10 years ago, when he promised to bring Turkey into the 21^st century with trappings of its Ottoman glory days.?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticizes groups protesting his leadership on Sunday.

Under Erdogan?s leadership, most here agree, Turkey has become an economic success and a force to be reckoned with in the region.? But his construction mania and a series of new laws have angered secular Turks, even as they have pleased his growing power base ? the conservative, Islamist middle-class. ?

?People are fed up with Erdogan?s approach,? said Ali Orcunos, a 64-year-old pensioner who was protesting in Taksim Square with a group younger than his own children. ?Which is 'I decided this, so I will do it this way because the 50 percent who support me want it so; and the other 50 percent don?t count.'??

In recent months Erdogan has imposed restrictions on the sale of alcohol, a drawing down of social security, the separation of boys and girls in primary and secondary schools, and an emphasis on religious ? over national ? holidays.

And after the initial clashes, Erdogan, rather than seek a conciliatory tone, skewered the protesters, calling them looters who were ?arm in arm with terrorists.?

?I was stunned,? said Begum Uzun, one of the protesters on the square. ?I expected Erdogan to say something that would slow down the protest, to be more rational.?

Jim Maceda / NBC News

Zulfu Aycil, a supporter of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, likes the plans for the redevelopment of Taksim Square.

Instead the rioting went viral. ?This went from something small to something huge not just because of the police actions,? explained Fatma, the medic. ?It was more a last-straw reaction by people across Turkey to Erdogan?s arrogance and policies.?

Fatma said the protest is still growing, and that protesters ? who?ve built a tent city in the leafy park inside Taksim Square ? won?t leave until Erdogan and his government resign.? But fellow volunteer medic, Gokhan Safak, 40, disagreed with his colleague.

?I don?t think this protest is going to go anywhere. It will die out,? he said. ?But we?ve already scared Erdogan ? it?s been a wake-up call. And that?s already a victory.?

Perhaps. But Erdogan shows no signs of changing course ? much less resigning. He?s said that the plans for Taksim Square will push through, and he?s now added a mosque as well. ??

During a fiery speech from the top of a bus on Sunday, he condemned the protesters.

Turkish political analyst, Cengiz Aktar, who?s known Erdogan for years, says the AKP leader isn?t capable of backing down.

?Turkey can still turn things around, despite this setback,? he said. ?But unfortunately Erdogan isn?t flexible enough to do that. It?s not his style. He?s acting increasingly like a lonely autocrat, surrounded by yes-men, and no women.?

Jim Maceda / NBC News

A banner saying "You Gassed Us," hangs over a halted construction site in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

Meanwhile, the tunneling under the square ? which began in November ? stopped after protesters barricaded all access roads to Taksim and covered the stalled construction sites with graffiti.

One banner reads, ?You Gassed Us.? And a court injunction filed by protesters has temporarily halted the pulling out of trees at the park.?

Feeling more confident, people are digging in at Taksim. Burnt-out vehicles from the first violent days have been painted over in bright colors.

But analysts like Aktar are more pessimistic. ?This national crisis could turn into a real conflict. A kind of civil war.?

Triggered by a grove of sycamores.

NBC News' Jim Maceda is based in London. He?s on assignment in Turkey.

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Exiled dissidents claim Iran building new nuclear site

PARIS (Reuters) - An exiled opposition group said on Thursday it had obtained information about a secret underground nuclear site under construction in Iran, without specifying what kind of atomic activity it believed would be carried out there.

The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in 2002 exposed Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak. But analysts say it has a mixed track record and a clear political agenda.

In 2010, when the group said it had evidence of another new nuclear facility, west of the capital Tehran, U.S. officials said they had known about the site for years and had no reason to believe it was nuclear.

The latest allegation comes less than a month after the election of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as Iran's new president boosted hopes for a resolution of the nuclear dispute with the West, and may be timed to cast doubt on any such optimism.

Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and rejects accusations by the United States and Israel that it is seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons.

But its refusal to curb sensitive nuclear activity, and its lack of full openness with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, have drawn tough Western sanctions and a threat of pre-emptive military strikes by Israel.

The NCRI said members of its affiliated People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) inside the country had "obtained reliable information on a new and completely secret site designated for (Iran's) nuclear project".

The NCRI which seeks an end to Muslim clerical rule in Iran, is the political wing of the PMOI, which fought alongside Saddam Hussein's forces in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The NCRI said the site was located in a complex of tunnels beneath mountains 10 km (6 miles) east of the town of Damavand, itself about 50 km northeast of Tehran. Construction of the site's first phase began in 2006 and was recently completed, it said.

The group released satellite photographs of what it said was the site. But the images did not appear to constitute hard evidence to support the assertion that it was a planned nuclear facility.

A spokesman for the dissidents said he could not say what sort of nuclear work would be conducted there, but that the companies and people involved showed it was a nuclear site. The group named officials it said were in charge of the project.

"The site consists of four tunnels and has been constructed by a group of engineering and construction companies associated with the engineering arms of the Ministry of Defence and the IRGC (Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards force)," the NCRI said.

"Two of the tunnels are about 550 meters (600 yards) in length, and they have a total of six giant halls," its statement added.

Iran said in late 2009 that it planned to build 10 more uranium enrichment sites in addition to its underground Natanz and Fordow facilities, but has provided little additional information.

Refined uranium can provide fuel for nuclear power plants, which is Iran's stated aim, but can also be used to make atomic bombs, which the West fears may be Tehran's ultimate goal.

(Reporting by Nicholas Vinocur and Leigh Thomas; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exiled-dissidents-claim-iran-building-nuclear-042453029.html

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Rooted Firmware For T-Mobile Samsung Exhibit(Rebranded Samsung Galaxy iii mini)

XDA Developers was founded by developers, for developers. It is now a valuable resource for people who want to make the most of their mobile devices, from customizing the look and feel to adding new functionality. Are you a developer?

Source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2357034&goto=newpost

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Friday Fourplay: Beer Berries, Yogurt Liqueur, Sushi Donuts, and ...

Flavorful World?s Friday Fourplay offers up a bite-sized tidbit of info on each of the four food- and drink-related things we found most interesting each week.

Photo credit: Moonstruck Chocolate Co.

Beer Berries

These candies from Moonstruck Chocolate Company?are not so-named because they possess any alcohol (there is, in fact, no beer in them). To create them, malted wheat berries of the sort used when brewing dark beers get tumbled in dark chocolate. Moonstruck suggests pairing them with a nice stout beer, marking the first of two examples you?ll be getting from Flavorful World today (you lucky goose, you) of ways to combine chocolate with beer. Read on.

Via Tasting Table

Photo credit: Maggie Hoffman / Serious Eats

Yogurt Liqueur

Let?s see if I can make it through this one without any punny, yogurt-themed references to drinking up some cultures. Damn. So close. Anyway, Lucas Bols Amsterdam has released a liqueur made with fresh yogurt. Depending on your tolerance for sugary, dairy-based libations, this product promises either to make your smoothies a bit smoother or offend you horribly. Speaking for myself, the phrase ?Challenge accepted!? springs to mind.

Via Serious Eats

Photo credit: Buzzfeed.com

Sushi Donuts

The day I discovered a cake that cut a thoroughly convincing figure posing as a bowl of ramen was what cemented my knowledge that Japan excels at food catfishing creating impossibly delicious foods that masquerade as other foods. The latest gustatory ?Gotcha!? I?ve uncovered comes to us from Mister Donut, a U.S.-founded, Japan-headquartered franchise whose Thailand?branch is selling donuts visually fashioned after sushi. These ?Sushido? have actually been around a few years, but recently had their popularity surge via Twitter. Viewing the pictures I found over at Buzzfeed, it?s not difficult to see why (he wrote, as a Homer Simpsonesque hunger sound erupted low in his throat?)

Via Buzzfeed

Photo credit: Foodiggity.com

Chocolate Peanut Butter Beer

Sure, its flavor profile sounds like the newest addition to the Three Broomsticks Inn?s beverage menu, but Sweet Baby Jesus! is something else entirely. Unlike our top entry in this week?s FF, this porter brew is, for better or worse, exactly what it sounds like: a beer flavored to taste like peanut butter and chocolate. One can?t help but smile at thought of all the ?You?spilled beer all over my Reese?s Peanut Butter Cup!? vs. ?You dropped your Reese?s Peanut Butter Cup in my beer!? arguments just begging to be played out among drinkers who know where to find this new product of Maryland-based Duclaw Brewing.

Via Foodiggity

*Mention of a product, good, or service in a Friday Fourplay posting should not be interpreted as an endorsement either from Anthony Beal or Flavorful World food and drink blog. Vendors are not notified ahead of time that their products/services will be featured, thus Flavorful World will at the time of posting have had no related interactions with said vendors or any sample of their products/services by which to judge them. As such, we have no idea what these vendors are like to work with, or about the quality of their merchandise and are unqualified to vouch for them as reputable. Our Friday Fourplay lists are posted in the simple spirit of our having come across something that looks and sounds engaging, and thinking that perhaps our readers will think so too; no more, no less. With that in mind, patronize these establishments and vendors at your own risk.

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Source: http://flavorfulworld.com/2013/06/28/friday-fourplay-beer-berries-yogurt-liqueur-sushi-donuts-and-chocolate-peanut-butter-beer/

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Mandela family feud over where he should be buried

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? As Nelson Mandela remained in critical condition in hospital Friday, a family feud over where the 94-year-old former president should be buried went to the courts, according to South Africa's national broadcaster.

Mandela's oldest daughter, Makaziwe, and 15 other family members have pressed a court application to get Mandela's grandson to return the bodies of three of Mandela's children to their original graves in the eastern rural village of Qunu, according to the SABC.

The grandson, Mandla Mandela, acknowledges having reburied the three bodies 20 kilometers (13 miles) away in the Mvezo village, where he plans to create a Mandela shrine, hotel and soccer stadium, according to the South African Press Association.

Grandson Mandla Mandela has until Saturday to respond to the court filing, reports said.

The anti-apartheid leader built his retirement home in Qunu and was living there until his repeated hospitalizations which started at the end of last year. Nelson Mandela attended the burial of his son at the family plot in Qunu in 2005, and it was widely expected that the leader himself will be buried there.

But his grandson exhumed the bodies of Mandela's three children and moved them to nearby Mvezo, which is the former president's birthplace and where the grandson holds authority as chief.

Eldest daughter Makaziwe and other Mandela family members want the family bodies returned to their original graves in Qunu, according to the reports.

The family court struggle came as Mandela's ex-wife said that he had improved in recent days, but remained critical.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela gave the update Friday while speaking to journalists outside Mandela's former home in Soweto.

"I'm not a doctor but I can say that from what he was a few days ago there is great improvement," said Madikizela-Mandela, who is a member of South Africa's Parliament.

Madikizela-Mandela pleaded with the media to "understand the sensitivities and the feeling of the family."

His daughter Makaziwe Mandela was among the family members who arrived at the Pretoria hospital on Friday. The ministers of health and defense also visited, the South African Press Association reported.

Outside the Pretoria hospital on Friday, a man flying a drone-like object with a camera attached was led away by several policemen, adding to an already heightened atmosphere where well-wishers continue to gather to pray for Mandela.

Mandela was taken to the hospital on June 8 to be treated for what the government said was a recurring lung infection. South Africans have held prayers nationwide, and many have left flowers and messages of support outside the hospital as well as his home in Johannesburg.

On Thursday, the office of South African President Jacob Zuma said Mandela's health had improved overnight, and that his condition was critical but stable.

___

Associated Press writer Wandoo Makurdi contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mandela-family-feud-over-where-buried-190835192.html

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