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    Tuesday, May 26, 2009

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    Twitter has millions tweeting in public communication service

    It's tea time at Twitter. While that may evoke images of courtly discussion over Earl Grey and finger sandwiches, it's quite another thing at Silicon Valley's new "it" company.

    The idea is that any employee can step in front of the 43-person start-up and offer a no-holds-barred weekly critique on a Friday afternoon. Co-founders Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone often watch from the back, taking mental notes. Some employees recite poems; others make wacky slide presentations. The point is to express what the company means to them.

    PHOTOS: Behind the scenes at Twitter

    In another tradition, Alison Sudol, a musician with more than 500,000 followers on Twitter, this month spoke at headquarters, part of a monthly ritual in which artists and academics drop by to impart wisdom and entertain.

    Both events underscore the bottom-up culture fostered by Twitter's unassuming co-founders, who have become reluctant media stars. "Tech founders get a little too much emphasis," CEO Evan Williams says. "So many people here contribute to our success."

    Today, it seems everyone wants a piece of Twitter. There have been rumors of takeover overtures from Google, Facebook and Apple. Twitter, like Google, has become a verb (though the proper term is "tweet"). Twitter's co-founders have had a profound impact on how millions of people communicate. Yet, despite appearances on Oprah,The View and The Colbert Report, many refer to them as simply The Twitter Guys.

    "They've created a new way for people to communicate publicly and instantaneously," says Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who is on the company's six-member board and an investor.

    The trio, all in their 30s, are college dropouts with a modest track record of success. Each helped start a company before Twitter. Dorsey invented the service out of his deep fascination with taxi dispatches and city grids. Williams began reading business books for fun as a teenager. Stone wrote two books on blogging, and is Twitter's de facto public relations department.

    They're sitting on a potential gold mine. The 3-year-old firm raised $35 million in February alone $55 million to date and was recently valued at about $100 million.

    To be sure, behind the feel-good vibes, meteoric growth and nationwide fixation, Twitter's founders face issues of user retention, outages and persistent questions about monetization. Such are the challenges for a highflying start-up trying to live up to its considerable hype in the worst economy in more than 70 years.

    Yet, industry leaders such as Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh are convinced Twitter is up to the task.

    "All three (Twitter founders) have the belief that Twitter can change the world and the passion to make it actually happen," says Hsieh, a Web sales guru and fan of Twitter.

    No slam-dunk

    Millions of people use Twitter to trade short messages of 140 characters or less think haiku via the Web and cellphones. The free service is the fastest-growing major website in the U.S. It had 17 million registered users in the U.S. in April up 3,000% from a year ago, according to market researcher ComScore.

    Celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher (1.5 million followers) and athlete Shaquille O'Neal (950,000) have added to its popularity. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, an occasional adviser, believes the service will lead to new categories on the Web "from real-time journalism to the next generation of customer service and call centers."

    Before it gets there, however, Twitter must navigate several hurdles. Look no further than to Twitter Quitters, the cutesy nickname for users who quit after less than a month. Twitter's retention rate people who return the next month is about 40%, Nielsen Online says. Facebook and MySpace have rates of more than 60%.

    There also is chronic second-guessing from users and tech analysts about Twitter's occasional outages and what it should do next particularly, how it will make money in a sagging economy and whether it will be sold. (For the record, Williams says there is "no interest in selling.")

    "Twitter must have the most armchair quarterbacks of any start-up in recent memory, except possibly Facebook," says Laura Fitton, a consultant and co-author of Twitter for Dummies.

    Twitter experienced second-guessing full bore when it abruptly dropped a feature used by less than 3% of its users that removes some comments. "We screwed up," says Stone, who notes Twitter will soon have a solution. "There is so much going on here, we let it fall through the cracks."

    Adds Williams: "We did a poor job of communicating. When you evolve the service, you may upset people in the process. If you stand pat, you risk being stagnant."

    The challenges don't end there. Twitter, like its social media peers, must produce revenue. "Eventually, companies like Twitter are going to be forced to choose between huge user numbers or a smaller, truly active network of people willing to pay a nominal fee," says Sayles Braga, CEO of YellowPin, a social-networking service.

    Twitter's brain trust has heard it all before. "It took Google four to five years for revenue," says Dorsey, who was just in Iraq to help the government improve communications with citizens. "We will be patient, too."

    The usually chatty Stone and circumspect Williams are vague on how Twitter will evolve from hip technology to moneymaker. But Stone allows the company has plans for tools and services by year's end that will help businesses serve customers, and it may charge fees for such services.

    "The idea of taking money to run traditional banner ads on Twitter.com has always been low on our list of interesting ways to generate revenue," Stone mused in a blog post last week. "However, facilitating connections between businesses and individuals in meaningful and relevant ways is compelling."

    One new effort was announced Monday: an unscripted TV series based on the site that, according to the Associated Press, would "harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format."

    The brain trust

    The weight of all of the lofty expectations rests squarely on the slight shoulders of Williams, 37, who oversees daily operations. The Clarks, Neb., native succeeded Dorsey as chief executive in October. He has successfully navigated a start-up before. As co-founder of Blogger, one of the first applications for creating and managing blogs, he helped sell it to Google for an undisclosed amount in 2003.

    Following Blogger's sale, Williams was not long for Google. He eventually hooked up with a friend, Noah Glass, to start Odeo, at the time a podcasting company. It was there that the Twitter concept was born.

    "Ev is the total package," says Chris Sacca, one of Twitter's first investors and an adviser. "He reminds me so much of (Sacca's former Google bosses and co-founders) Sergey (Brin) and Larry (Page). They understand products and how they can fit in the future."

    The son of a now-retired farmer, Williams showed a predilection for commerce as a teenager. He read business books on real estate, marketing and publishing. "I realized I could buy books and learn something that people spent years learning about," says Williams, who dropped out of the University of Nebraska just as the Web was becoming a phenomenon, in 1994.

    While Williams bears the operational brunt of running Twitter, the tireless Stone is the marketing hub. On a typical day, he fields 100 media requests.

    "Ev is the technology builder, and Biz is the evocative and communicative one," says Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, the popular business-networking service.

    Their partnership was born of a close working relationship and friendship built after starting out as business competitors. In 2000, Stone co-founded Xanga.com, a website that hosts blogs and social-networking profiles. It "looked a lot like MySpace before MySpace," he says. Its rival was Williams' Blogger.

    After Google bought Blogger, Williams asked Stone to join Google to help reboot Blogger with a new design and features. "I didn't really know Evan then," Stone says. "We were just familiar with each others' work. There was a mutual admiration."

    By 2005, they left Google for Odeo. Stone's timing could have been better he gave up his Google stock options because he wasn't there long enough to be vested but Odeo was where Twitter was born.

    "Twitter is so many things: a messaging service; a customer-service tool to reach customers, as proven by Zappos, Comcast and others; real-time search; and microblogging," says Stone, 35.

    The least visible co-founder, Dorsey, 32, is rarely around the office and already onto his Next Big Thing. But the St. Louis native is the mastermind behind the notepad sketch in 2000 that led to Twitter. "My whole philosophy is making tech more accessible and human," Dorsey says.

    When an image of the sketch was uploaded on the Internet in 2006, Dorsey wrote: "I had an idea to make a more 'live' LiveJournal. Real-time, up-to-date, from the road. Akin to updating your AIM status from wherever you are, and sharing it. We're calling it twttr."

    "Jack's original vision was staggering for its potential, as well as its simplicity," Sacca says.

    These days, Dorsey is chairman of the company's board of directors and a strategic adviser, but is devoting his energies to a top-secret start-up. He won't say much about the new venture only that it involves tech and communications, and that it may make its debut this summer.

    In many ways, the boyish-looking Dorsey best captures the spirit and look of Twitter. He bears a forearm-length tattoo that he says represents an F-sharp, an integral symbol from mathematics, and a human clavicle the only bone, he says, with "free range of motion."

    "I'm a very low-level programmer," Dorsey says, chuckling. "This idea of a short, inconsequential burst of activity (Twitter) turned out pretty well."

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    Calif. Supreme Court upholds gay marriage ban

    The state Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.

    The decision Tuesday rejected an argument from gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval.

    The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling.

    "Today's ruling is a huge blow to Americans everywhere who care about equality. The court has allowed a bare majority of voters to write same-sex couples out of basic constitutional protections," said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the USA's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.

    "This ruling is painful, but it represents a temporary setback. There will be a groundswell to restore marriage equality in our nation's largest state, and HRC will not give up until marriage equality is restored in California."

    Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a conservative group that opposes gay marraige, said, "This is a great victory for the people of California and the millions of supporters around the country for traditional marraige. I am elated."

    However, he said he wishes the court would "not have validated" the 18,000 marriages conducted between last June and Election Day.

    "This is going to present another litigational mess. It's a conundrum. The court in their way wanted to provide an out, a win-win scenario at the end of the day, the other side will vigorously contest and try to repeal Prop 8 and we will fight them every step of the way."

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said, "I know today?s decision is a tremendous disappointment for many people. But I also know that the opinions of Californians are changing on this issue, and I believe that equal marriage rights will one day be the law in this state. This is already the case in Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. So, I believe this issue will come before the voters again, and I am very hopeful that the result will be different next time."

    Contributing: Andrea Stone and Steve Marshall in McLean, Va., and the Associated Press

    Reuters - Facebook has $200 million investment from Russian firm

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    Facebook has $200 million investment from Russian firm

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009 6:26PM UTC

    By Anupreeta Das

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook has received a $200 million investment from a Russian Internet investment firm that values the social networking site at $10 billion, seeking a cash buffer as it grows rapidly through the recession.

    Digital Sky Technologies, which has invested in leading Russian web properties like Mail.ru and Vkontakte.ru, will take a 1.96 percent stake in Facebook in exchange for preferred stock, the two companies said on Tuesday.

    Digital Sky also plans to buy at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing stockholders to provide liquidity for current and former employees with vested shares of Facebook stock.

    In recent months, Facebook has held discussions with several groups interested in investing in the company, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call.

    Digital Sky won because its founders Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger have strong experience running Internet properties in Eastern Europe and Russia, and "a deep, advanced understanding" of social networking technology, Zuckerberg said.

    "Ultimately (it was) this deal and my comfort with Yuri and the team," said Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in a Harvard University dorm room five years ago.

    In 2007, Microsoft Corp invested $240 million in Facebook, which valued the company at $15 billion at the time.

    GROWING COMFORTABLY

    Founded in 2005, Digital Sky has raised and invested more than $1 billion in over 30 companies, according to the firm's website.

    Milner, who attended Wharton Business School and was CEO of Russian web portal mail.ru, said Digital Sky hopes to bring its expertise in making money off other web properties to Facebook.

    It was "a very simple exercise of applying what we've learnt in other parts of the world to Facebook," he said, adding that he was comfortable with the $10 billion valuation.

    Facebook, which now has more than 200 million members, will use the $200 million as a "cash buffer" to help it grow comfortably, Zuckerberg said.

    He reiterated that the social networking company was on track to increase 2009 revenue by 70 percent year-over-year, and would become cash flow positive by next year.

    The Digital Sky investment will also give Facebook the flexibility to pursue strategic options, although the Palo Alto, California-based firm has not been very acquisitive so far.

    (Reporting by Anupreeta Das and Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Derek Caney and Gerald E. McCormick)

    CNN - Obama nominates Sotomayor to Supreme Court

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    Obama nominates Sotomayor to Supreme Court


    President Obama on Tuesday nominated federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Hispanic and third female U.S. Supreme Court justice if confirmed.

    Obama announced the nomination Tuesday morning in the East Room of the White House.

    "Thank you, Mr. President, for the most humbling honor of my life," Sotomayor said.

    "My heart is bursting with gratitude," she said. She gave special recognition to her mother, who was sitting in the audience.

    "I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences," Sotomayor said.

    Obama called Sotomayor "an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice."

    She "has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breath of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice," he added.

    Obama said Sotomayor "would bring more experience on the bench and more varied experience on the bench than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed."

    The president met with Sotomayor at the White House for an hour Thursday, according to senior administration officials. He was impressed with Sotomayor's personal story and professional qualifications after meeting her, but he did not immediately offer her the job, two senior administration sources added.

    Obama made his final decision Monday, the sources said.

    Sotomayor, a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was named a U.S. District Court judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, and was elevated to her current seat by President Clinton.

    Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, rose from humble beginnings at a housing project in the South Bronx and went on to attend Princeton University and Yale Law School.

    She has minimal personal assets compared with many of her judicial colleagues; a 2007 financial disclosure form showed her with a checking and savings account valued at between $50,000 and $115,000.

    Supporters say her appointment history, along with what they call her moderate-liberal views, would give her some bipartisan backing in the Senate.

    A senior White House official said that Sotomayor was "nominated by George Bush -- then Bill Clinton -- [and has] more judicial experience than anyone sitting on the court had at the time they were nominated."

    Another senior administration official said that Obama "was looking for someone with a balance of skills: very, very smart; independent thinker; highly regarded for integrity and commitment to the law."

    "He found all of those things with her, including his goal of selecting someone with the empathy factor -- real world, practical experience and understanding of how the law affects real people."

    Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, issued a statement calling Sotomayor's record "exemplary."

    "Judge Sotomayor has a long and distinguished career on the federal bench," Leahy said. "I believe [she] understands that the courthouse doors must be as open to ordinary Americans as they are to government and big corporations."

    Sotomayor, however, has suffered through recent stinging criticism in the media and blogs from both the left and right over perceived -- some defenders say invented -- concerns about her temperament and intellect.

    As she has risen through the judicial ranks, Sotomayor increasingly has drawn the ire and opposition of conservatives. A majority of Republican senators opposed her elevation to the appellate court in 1998.

    However, an official with the Republican National Committee promised that the GOP will be equitable toward Sotomayor.

    "The Republicans are going to strike a tone that's fair, that allows the vetting process to happen like it should, and that's in stark contrast to how the Democrats dealt with Judge Roberts when you look back a couple years ago," the official said, referring to the 2005 confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts.

    In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said that Senate Republicans "will thoroughly examine [Sotomayor's] record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences."

    McConnell said he trusts that the Democratic majority "will ensure there is adequate time to prepare for this nomination, and a full and fair opportunity to question the nominee and debate her qualifications."

    Conservatives point to, among other things, her authoring of a 2008 opinion supporting the city of New Haven, Connecticut's decision to throw out the results of a firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions.

    The Supreme Court heard an appeal of the case in April; a final opinion is pending.

    "Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written," said Wendy Long, counsel to the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network.

    "She thinks that judges should dictate policy and that one's sex, race and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench. ... She has an extremely high rate of her decisions being reversed, indicating that she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court."

    However, the senior White House official said Sotomayor has had "99 percent of her decisions" upheld by a higher court.

    Some Hispanic groups expressed concern after a skit last week on "Late Show With David Letterman" compared Sotomayor with a noisy Spanish-speaking judge on a popular TV courtroom show that settles petty legal disputes.

    Obama said Saturday he wants intellectual firepower and a common touch in the next Supreme Court justice and said he doesn't "feel weighed down by having to choose ... based on demographics."

    Obama's nominee will replace retiring Justice David Souter, who announced this month he would step down when the court's current session ends this summer.

    There had been wide speculation that Obama would name a woman to the court, which has one female justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

    Obama also had been under pressure to nominate a Hispanic justice to the court.

    Obama's nomination will have to be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate.

    The nominee is not expected to have difficulty being confirmed in the Democratic-controlled Senate in time for the new court session in October.

    The president has said he hopes to have hearings in July, with the confirmation completed before Congress leaves for the summer.

    Reuters - Asustek aims to be No.3 laptop vendor in 2011

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    Asustek aims to be No.3 laptop vendor in 2011

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:1PM UTC

    By Kelvin Soh

    TAIPEI (Reuters) - Netbook PC pioneer Asustek aims to double its market share to become the world's No.3 laptop vendor, riding the rising popularity of low-cost laptops among budget-conscious consumers during the global downturn.

    Asustek is currently No.5 in the world; Acer and Hewlett-Packard occupy the first and second positions.

    Asustek pioneered the wildly successful low-cost netbook PC in 2007, but has been gradually losing market share as other brands enter the market, and as it grapples with a reorganization following its fourth-quarter loss last year.

    Asustek will be introducing five new laptop models based on Intel's consumer ultra-low voltage chip (CULV) this year, as part of its strategy to grow its share of the market.

    "We call it the three-three policy, to be ranked third by market share in 2011," Asustek Chief Executive Jerry Shen told Reuters in an interview at the company's headquarters on Tuesday.

    "Our current market share is about 5 percent, and it would have to be about 10 percent to become number three."

    Shen gave a similarly bullish outlook for the company's prospects in China, where he said he expected to be on par with second-ranked Hewlett-Packard by market share in 2010.

    "We don't think Asustek can take first place in China, but to be on equal footing with the current No.2 player should be possible next year in the laptop PC segment," Shen said.

    Asustek and crosstown rival Acer now share fifth place in China by market share, according to research firm IDC. Both companies were included in a list of approved brands under a Chinese stimulus package that allows them to sell computers on the mainland.

    The two Taiwanese rivals had previously faced considerable headwinds competing in China, which is dominated by home-grown brands such as Lenovo and Founder.

    U.S. SURGES, EUROPE FLAT

    Shipments to the United States have increased multi-fold because of the growing popularity of the company's Eee PC line of netbook PCs.

    Demand in Europe, which provides the largest share of the company's revenue, is sluggish, as consumers cut back on their spending.

    "In the United States, we're shipping as many computers monthly as we used to annually," said Shen, who became Asustek's CEO last year. "But Europe isn't growing at all."

    Asustek is in the midst of a reorganization following its fourth-quarter loss in 2008, which it blamed largely on inventory write-offs and foreign-exchange related losses.

    Shen said the company would implement a new policy from 2010 where employees who are placed in the worst-performing 5 percent for two straight years will be asked to go, as part of the company's efforts to streamline operations.

    "The number will be higher than 5 percent this year because of the changes we are making internally, but that's what we're looking at from next year onwards," Shen said, but declined to elaborate on how many staff would be laid off this year.

    Shen repeated the company's previous comments that it should be able to turn in an operating profit in the third quarter, saying it had implemented the necessary measures to return to profitability.

    "It's actually a very conservative forecast, and in situations like this, it's better to be conservative and be able to meet the forecast than bullish and miss it," he said.

    The company announced a surprise first-quarter profit late last month despite an operating loss, largely due to earnings at its fully-owned subsidiaries and one-time foreign-exchange related gains.

    (Additional reporting by Roger Tung; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

    Reuters - Twitter eyes foray into TV

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    Twitter eyes foray into TV

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3:37AM UTC

    By Nellie Andreeva

    LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - How's this for a tweet? Twitter is coming to a television near you.

    The social-networking and micro-blogging service is developing the first TV series that incorporates Twitter into the action of the show.

    Created by novelist Amy Ephron, sister of Nora and Delia Ephron, the untitled show will feature ordinary people competing while on the trail of celebrities.

    Twitter has partnered on the project with production companies Reveille ("The Office") and Brillstein Entertainment Partners ("Samantha Who?").

    (Editing by Dean Goodman)

    Reuters - Obama to pick Sotomayor for Supreme Court

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    Obama to pick Sotomayor for Supreme Court

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:42PM UTC

    By David Alexander

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will nominate Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, a White House official said on Tuesday, selecting a woman who would be the court's first Latino to replace retiring Justice David Souter.

    Obama's choice of Sotomayor, a 54-year-old judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, was unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the high court because Souter, 69, was part of the panel's liberal wing.

    The court hands down rulings on such divisive social issues as abortion rights and the death penalty as well as deciding business and property rights cases. Its members are appointed for life but require Senate confirmation.

    Conservatives quickly moved to criticize the choice but political analysts said that, barring an unexpected scandal, there was little chance the nomination could be derailed.

    Sotomayor, a child of Puerto Rican parents, is most widely known for her decision as a trial judge in 1995 to bar Major League Baseball from using replacement players, ending a nearly year-long strike.

    An announcement of the nomination was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. (1415 GMT), the White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    Hoping to show a consultative approach, Obama had been meeting with key Democratic and Republican members of the Senate, which must vote to approve the nominee, as he weighed a short list of mostly women to replace Souter.

    CONSERVATIVE OBJECTIONS

    Analysts, noting that Obama, a former senator, voted against Republican President George W. Bush's two Supreme Court nominees, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, said it was unrealistic for him to expect conservatives not to resist his pick.

    Some Republicans indicated they planned a fight over the nomination, angered by Obama's decisions loosening limits on stem cell research and eliminating other Bush administration restrictions favored by abortion opponents.

    But Senate Republicans would need 60 votes to block the nomination with a procedural hurdle known as a filibuster. To do that, all 40 would have to stand together -- something that is far from guaranteed.

    Wendy Long, a counsel for the Judicial Confirmation Network, called Sotomayor a "liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written."

    Sotomayor has been a Court of Appeals judge in New York since 1998. Before that she served as a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York.

    She began her law career in 1979 as an assistant district attorney in New York County, and later practiced law at the firm of Pavia & Harcourt.

    Her focus at the firm was on intellectual property issues and international litigation and arbitration of commercial and commodity export trading cases, according to a court biography.

    Sotomayor grew up in a housing project in the Bronx in New York City. Sotomayor, who is divorced, excelled as a student and graduated from Princeton University and then Yale Law School.

    (Additional reporting by James Vicini and Ross Colvin; Editing by Bill Trott)

    Reuters - Mike Tyson's daughter critical after mishap: reports

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    Mike Tyson's daughter critical after mishap: reports

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3:18AM UTC

    PHOENIX (Reuters) - Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter is in critical condition after she was found with a cord around her neck following an accident, according to media reports on Monday.

    Exodus Tyson was playing near some exercise equipment when she accidentally got tangled in a cord or rope hanging from a treadmill, the Arizona Republic reported on its website.

    The Phoenix Police Department did not immediately return phone calls.

    ABC News reported that the child was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in central Phoenix, where she was listed in critical condition on life support.

    Police said that based on the initial investigation, the incident appeared to be "a tragic accident," ABC reported.

    Tyson is the subject of a new documentary by director James Toback. He was not in Phoenix at the time of the accident, but was shown later on television news arriving at the hospital.

    (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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