CNN - Police: 'No known suspects' in 8 Georgia deaths

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Police: 'No known suspects' in 8 Georgia deaths

Authorities believe at least one person not in custody may have information about the deaths of eight people in a Georgia mobile home, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said Sunday.

"I'm confident to say that there's somebody, at least an individual, that we would like to know about that's not at the scene," whether or not they were directly involved in the case, Doering said.

Seven people were found dead Saturday at a residence in the New Hope mobile home park in Brunswick, Georgia. Two others were hospitalized in critical condition, and one of them died Sunday, authorities said.

Police have "no known suspects," Doering told reporters Sunday afternoon. "We are not looking for any known suspects. That doesn't say that there are no suspects. They're just not known to us."

One person, 22-year-old Guy Heinze Jr., was arrested Saturday night, Doering said. Heinze is related to one of the victims, he said, and was the one who called 911. He told police he discovered the bodies when he arrived home.

Heinze was being held on suspicion of having a controlled substance and marijuana, as well as evidence tampering and making false statements to a police officer, Doering said. He told reporters Heinze has been cooperative.

"We're still looking for anybody and everybody that may be related to this," he said. "That naturally includes [Heinze]. Of course we're looking at him." He stopped short, however, of calling Heinze a suspect in the deaths.

Autopsies on the victims were taking place Sunday in Savannah, Georgia, Doering said. Police have tentative identifications for the victims, who ranged from children to adults in their mid-40s, he said.

Police have been called to the home before, Doering said, but would not say why.

Doering remained tight-lipped Sunday about many aspects of the case, refusing to say how the victims died or to give a breakdown of male and female victims. All nine victims lived in the mobile home, he said, and police do not believe any of them conducted the assault.

He said police are making progress, and have narrowed down the timeline for when the deaths occurred.

Brunswick is about 300 miles southeast of Atlanta, on the Georgia coast.

Volunteers conducted an extended search of the area around the mobile home, but nothing was found, Doering said.

Meanwhile, police removed additional evidence from the mobile home. Authorities are examining surveillance video from nearby areas, but are not aware of any surveillance system in the mobile home park, he said.

"There is cause for concern," Doering said. "We just simply don't have a whole lot to go on, and I'm not going to sit there and tell everybody not to be cautious, because people need to be."

CNN - Michael Jackson's death was a homicide, coroner rules

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Michael Jackson's death was a homicide, coroner rules

The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled that Michael Jackson's death was a homicide involving a combination of drugs.

"The drugs propofol and lorazepam were found to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson's death," said a news release issued Friday by the coroner.

"Other drugs detected were: midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and ephedrine."

The release said Jackson died from "acute propofol intoxication," but it added "other conditions contributing to death: benzodiazepine effect."

Lorazepam, midazolam and diazepam are benzodiazepines.

The full and final autopsy report and the complete toxicology report "will remain on security hold at the request of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County district attorney," the release said.

"In accordance with this request, the Department of Coroner will not comment on its completed investigation."

Jackson was found dead on June 25.

Reuters - Bolt says he may take up long jump

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Bolt says he may take up long jump

Thursday, Aug 27, 2009 3:33PM UTC

By Brian Homewood

ZURICH (Reuters) - World 100 and 200 meters champion Usain Bolt is also fixing his sights on the long jump.

"I definitely want to try the long jump," the triple Olympic gold medalist told a news conference on Thursday. "I think I would be a really good long jumper.

"I've messed around with the long jump since I've been at school and I'm definitely going to give it a try."

American Mike Powell, whose long jump world record of 8.95 meters has stood since the 1991 world championships, said last Friday that Jamaican Bolt could jump nine meters in the event.

Bolt won the 100 and 200 at this month's world championships in Berlin, breaking the world records in each event.

The Jamaican, who is due to run in the 100 and 4x100 relay at Zurich's Weltklasse meeting on Friday, said he had not yet discussed the long jump seriously with his coach or set a date for when he could take up the event.

"It's just a case of me wanting to try it," he said.

Bolt, who spent an hour at Zurich railway station at lunchtime signing around 3,000 autographs, said the recent success of Jamaican athletes in sprint events was because many had stayed at home to train rather than move to the United States.

"When you go to the States you get a lot of injuries because you have to run week after week," he said. "I have a good coach who understands this.

"The guys who are doing well are the ones who stayed in Jamaica, they can decide when they want to run."

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)

Reuters - Sharp eyes niche between netbooks, phones

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Sharp eyes niche between netbooks, phones

Thursday, Aug 27, 2009 10:29AM UTC

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp said it plans to launch a paperback-sized mini mobile PC that features a quick start-up time, touch-screen display and full keyboard, targeting niche demand between smartphones and netbooks.

Smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, pack many computer functions in regular cellphones, and netbooks are smaller and cheaper than regular notebook PCs and optimized for simple computing tasks such as Web browsing and email. Both have enjoyed robust demand despite the global downturn.

"You can take cellphones anywhere with you, and they are always on. But you have to live with a small display. Notebook PCs offer a large display and full keyboard, but their battery life is short and it takes time to start them up," Sharp Executive Vice President Masafumi Matsumoto told a news conference.

"We are introducing a mobile device that you can take with you wherever you go and comes with all major notebook PC functions."

The new product, dubbed "NetWalker," has a high-resolution LCD screen and runs 10 hours on a single charge.

Sharp plans to launch the device in Japan in September and expects it to sell for about 45,000 yen ($480).

The company aims to sell 100,000 units by March 2010.

No specific timing was set for release overseas, Sharp said.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Reuters - Microsoft cuts high-end Xbox price by 25 percent

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Microsoft cuts high-end Xbox price by 25 percent

Thursday, Aug 27, 2009 12:29PM UTC

By Gabriel Madway

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp plans to slash the price of its high-end Xbox 360 video game console by $100, or 25 percent, stepping up the price war in the video game console market following a similar move by rival Sony Corp.

Effective Friday, Microsoft will drop the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.99, just days after Sony cut the rival PlayStation 3 to $299.

Analysts have said that the cuts would put pressure on Nintendo Co Ltd to lower the price of its best-selling Wii console, but for now the company is not changing the price.

"We don't have such a plan," Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said when asked if the company plans to cut prices on the Wii.

The Xbox is the No. 2 console in the U.S., behind the Wii, which sells for $249. But Xbox sales are up 17 percent in the U.S., the only console to show growth.

The price on the entry-level Xbox Arcade model will stay at $199.99, and Microsoft will phase out its mid-range Pro console, leaving it with two models. The Pro will sell for $249.99 until supplies run out.

Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the price cut was in the works for some time, and was not a response to Sony's move, which was announced last week at the Gamescom video game trade show in Cologne, Germany.

Rather, Dennis said the price reduction would attract new buyers and help simplify its product mix for manufacturers and retailers as well as customers.

"It really makes the decision for consumers a lot easier," he said. "They're either price conscious and they gravitate toward the Arcade or they the want the full Xbox 360 experience."

Game publishers such as Activision Blizzard have been clamoring for console price cuts, which help boost sales of software.

The industry remains mired in a slump brought on by a lack of big-name releases and a recession that has pinched consumer spending.

Despite the slump, Hirokazu Hamamura, President of Japanese game magazine publisher Enterbrain Inc, says that Nintendo may resist a Wii price cut.

He suggests that the more powerful PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 machines are not attractive to Wii shoppers, who enjoy a range of family and fitness-based games.

"The price cuts by itself won't stop people from buying Wiis. The users are too different," he said. "With Nintendo, the issue is not about the price so much as saturation and ability to grow in new markets."

Microsoft shares were down 8 cents to $24.47 in thin premarket trading.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Mayumi Negishi in Tokyo, and Franklin Paul in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Derek Caney)

Reuters - Nokia bets on Linux in iPhone battle: sources

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Nokia bets on Linux in iPhone battle: sources

Wednesday, Aug 26, 2009 10:35AM UTC

By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Oyj will try again to tackle Apple Inc's iPhone in the top-end of the handset market with a bet on Linux software, several industry sources told Reuters.

Top handset maker Nokia will show its first high-end phone running on Maemo, a version of Linux, next week at the annual Nokia World event in Stuttgart, Germany, the sources said.

But analysts said it would likely not become clear before next year at the earliest whether this would help Nokia achieve its aims.

The Finnish group has dabbled with Linux since 2005, using it in "Internet tablets" -- sleek phone-like devices used to access the Web that have failed to gain mass-market appeal in part due to their lack of a cellular radio.

"It looks like Maemo, or at least a Linux derivative of some description, will play a key role for Nokia in high-end (products) over the next year or two," said Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics.

Nokia's workhorse Symbian operating system (OS) controls half of the smartphone market volume -- more than its rivals Apple, Research in Motion Ltd and Google Inc in total.

Yet analysts said Linux-based products could have important advantages.

"Maemo is clearly far more flexible than Symbian, so it's a better option for advanced devices using various display technologies and rapidly evolving user-interface software," said analyst Tero Kuittinen from MKM Partners.

A Nokia spokesman said the company could not comment on future phone launches.

VALUE SHARE

High-end products are important for Nokia because the company has not only lost market share in this segment but its average selling prices have declined faster than the industry average.

Goldman Sachs expects Nokia's value share (a measure reflecting average prices as well as underlying market share) for phones costing more than $350 to decline to 13 percent this year from 33 percent just two years before.

"Maemo's got to be the best bet Nokia has in that battle." said eQ Bank analyst Jari Honko.

Linux is the most popular type of free or open source operating system. It competes directly with Microsoft Corp, which charges for its Windows software and opposes freely sharing its code.

Linux suppliers earn money selling improvements and technical services.

Nokia has already talked about its work with Linux-based systems.

"Maemo is taking the desktop Linux environment and making it mobile," Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia's key phone unit, told Reuters in a recent interview. "We have proven it really can be made, you can take desktop Linux and make it work on mobile."

Linux has had little success in cellphones so far but its role is increasing with Maemo and also with Google using it for its Android platform.

Nokia's bet on Maemo does not mean the firm would replace Symbian software -- at the same time it is moving Symbian extensively into its cheaper phones, expanding its target market.

Confirming the trend, Nokia on Tuesday unveiled a new touch screen smartphone, the 5230, which runs Symbian and is expected to sell for just 149 euros ($213.4), excluding operator subsidies and local taxes.

(Editing by David Holmes)

($1=.6983 Euro)

CNN - Sleepless night preceded Jackson's death

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Sleepless night preceded Jackson's death

Michael Jackson couldn't sleep.

Maybe it was anxiety over his upcoming comeback concert series in London, England. Perhaps his body was trying to process too many different medications.

The reason may never be known, but a sworn affidavit makes clear that the King of Pop couldn't get rest the night before he died on June 25.

The affidavit, from Detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department, outlines probable cause for search warrants on the offices of doctors who are thought to have treated Jackson.

Yet it also opens a window into Jackson's final hours, revealing information about the singer's treatment and the drugs given him by Dr. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, before his death.

Based on interviews, visits to Jackson's home as well as records and documents gathered during the investigation, the affidavit provides the following account of Jackson's last days:

In May, Jackson hired Murray, a cardiologist. The singer was spending long days rehearsing for concerts that he saw as crucial to reviving his career.

For six weeks, Murray told police that he treated Jackson for insomnia. He said he had been giving the singer an intravenous drip with 50 milligrams of propofol, diluted with lidocaine, every night to help him sleep.

Jackson was already familiar with propofol, a powerful anesthetic, Murray said. The singer even called it his "milk" because of its milky appearance, he said.

With the concerts approaching, Jackson started to need these drugs every night, Murray said -- and the doctor said he worried that Jackson was becoming addicted to propofol. He wanted to wean Jackson off the drug.

Three days before Jackson's death -- on June 22 -- Murray gave the singer a combination of drugs that he hoped gradually would move the singer off propofol.

That mixture involved propofol, the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam (known by its brand name, Ativan) and midazolam (known as Versed). It succeeded in helping Jackson to sleep for that night and the next, Murray said.

But by the night of June 24, Jackson again apparently was unable to sleep.

At 1:30 a.m. on June 25, Murray decided to forgo the propofol in favor of 10 milligrams of Valium. Half an hour later, with Jackson still awake in bed, Murray injected the singer with two milligrams of lorazepam.

It still wasn't working.

At 3 a.m., Murray gave the singer two milligrams of midazolam, pushed slowly into his IV. And two hours later, with Jackson still awake, Murray administered another two milligrams of lorazepam through Jackson's IV.

The drugs did nothing to help Jackson sleep.

At 7:30 a.m., Murray gave the singer another two milligrams of midazolam in his IV.

By that point, Murray wasn't even leaving Jackson's room anymore, let alone his bedside. The doctor told police he sat next to the singer in his bedroom, monitoring Jackson's pulse and oxygen levels.

More than three hours later, despite a night of medication and doctor's care, Jackson remained awake.

Jackson was repeatedly asking -- even demanding -- that Murray give him more propofol to help him sleep, the doctor told police. So Murray finally administered 25 milligrams of propofol diluted with lidocaine via Jackson's IV drip.

The singer now had his "milk," and it worked. After a restless night, Jackson was finally able to close his eyes and go to sleep.

Murray told police he watched Jackson sleep for about 10 minutes before going to the bathroom. It had been a long night for both of them.

The trip to the bathroom took less than two minutes, Murray told police. But when he came back, he said, he saw Jackson wasn't breathing.

He started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but it didn't work.

Jackson was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead later that afternoon.

According to court documents released Monday, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the chief medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles County, concluded Jackson died of an overdose of propofol.

Sathyavagiswaran reached that preliminary conclusion after reviewing toxicology results carried out on Jackson's blood, according to a search warrant and affidavit unsealed in Houston, Texas.

The coroner's office would not comment on the statements in the affidavit. But Ed Chernoff, Murray's attorney, took issue with some of the information included in the court documents.

"Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is police theory," Chernoff said, specifically referring to media reports the coroner would rule Jackson's death a homicide.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said it has not yet seen a police report on the case, and no criminal charges have been filed.

Reuters - Nokia to enter PC industry with first netbook

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Nokia to enter PC industry with first netbook

Monday, Aug 24, 2009 12:23PM UTC

By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia said on Monday it would start to make laptops, entering a fiercely competitive, but fast-growing market.

Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could hurt Nokia's profits further.

"We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world. We have gone into this with our eyes wide open," Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia's key phone unit, told Reuters.

Its first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft's Windows software and Intel's Atom processor -- offering up to 12 hours of battery life, and weighing 1.25 kilograms. Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimized for surfing the Internet and performing other basic applications. Pioneered by Asustek in 2007, other brands such as HP and Dell have also pushed out their own lines since then.

Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127 percent from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10 percent.

"Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.

"At present we see Nokia's foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business."

Nokia said it would unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of the device on Sept 2.

A source close to Nokia said the new netbook would use the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft says a stripped-down version of Windows 7 will be introduced to netbooks the same time as its general release on October 22

(Additional reporting by Kelvin Soh in Taipei; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

Reuters - Hollywood playing catch-up with videogames

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Hollywood playing catch-up with videogames

Friday, Aug 21, 2009 1:39PM UTC

By Scott Roxborough

COLOGNE, Germany (Hollywood Reporter) - Films and videogames would seem a match made in heaven, so why are games based on hit movies so bad? Despite sharing the same demographic of devoted fans, action, sci-fi and fantasy films rarely translate into branded videogame hits.

"Movie-based games almost never work. No matter how cool the movie, the game is almost always lame," said Philipp Dollinger, a gamer reviewer for German blog Pressakey.com and one of thousands of gamers swarming the halls of the gamescom trade fair, which runs until Sunday in Cologne.

"Most are just bad imitations of better games already out there," he added.

Hollywood has been burned before in the gaming space. Just ask Brash Entertainment, the U.S. group that raised $400 million to buy up film licenses and turn them into hit games. After two major flops -- an "Alvin and the Chipmunks" game and one based on Fox's sci-fi feature "Jumper" (2008) -- Brash folded. It was a similar story for Pandemic Brisbane, the Australian outpost of the Los Angeles-based game developer, which shuttered in February after a disastrous attempt to deliver an ambitious game based on Christopher Nolan's blockbuster "The Dark Knight."

Despite those warning signs, there are plenty of new A-list movie ties at gamescom, and plenty of developers saying they have learned their lessons.

LONG-TERM PROJECTS

"For a lot of movies, the game is an afterthought," said Jake Meri, a producer at LucasArts. "The filmmakers are close to finishing production and they say, 'Oh, what about the game?' But a good game takes years of development."

LucasArts put in the time for its new release, "Star Wars: The Old Republic," a game it is developing with Canadian outfit BioWare for games giant Electronic Arts.

"Star Wars"-based games have gotten mixed reviews in the past, but the buzz has been strong for "The Old Republic." LucasArts and BioWare have spent years designing the title, which will be a massively multiplayer online game similar to "World of Warcraft" -- a game intended to be played online by thousands of people simultaneously.

PC Gamer U.K. called "The Old Republic" "a credible 'World of Warcraft' killer," and the lineups to see the demo at gamescom have been longer than those at most movie premieres.

"We have a lot to live up to with this game, which is why we've spent so much time and money on it," Meri said. "It will be the first fully voiced MMO game in the world. Voicing this game has been the most ambitions voiceover project ever -- we have thousands of characters speaking more than 200,000 lines of dialogue."

LucasArts is famous for its obsessive protection of the "Star Wars" franchise, but the trend toward closer cooperation between film and games studio is one seen across the industry. James Cameron was hands-on for the more than three years France's Ubisoft took to develop "Avatar," a combat game based on Cameron's upcoming film.

"It was really unprecedented," Ubisoft developer Patrick Naud said. "We had full access to everything -- the story boards, the concept art, the sound, the voices, the animation. It wasn't a typical movie licensing, where you buy the license and go away and make the game. It was a much closer collaboration."

"Avatar" will be one of the first big tests of this kind of tight movie-game teamwork when it hits stores in November, ahead of the film's holiday release. "It might be too soon to say this, but James Cameron is a trendsetter, so maybe, in the future, this is the way everyone will be doing business," Naud said. "It would certainly make a lot more sense."

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

Reuters - MySpace to buy Web music service iLike

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MySpace to buy Web music service iLike

Thursday, Aug 20, 2009 12:41PM UTC

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp's MySpace said on Thursday it has agreed to buy music recommendation service iLike, as the once-hot social networking site tries to reinvent itself as an entertainment portal.

MySpace declined to disclose financial terms of an acquisition that brings iLike's twin brother founders Ali and Hadi Partovi and Nat Brown into the MySpace fold.

The site was backed by venture capital funds and Ticketmaster Entertainment. Several blogs, including AllThingsDigital, reported earlier in the week that iLike would be bought by MySpace for around $20 million.

iLike is best known as a popular social music discovery service on Facebook, the social networking site that has overtaken MySpace as the top Web destination for friends and family to share photos, messages, video clips and other media.

MySpace, which was once the most popular and fastest growing social networking site just two years ago, has lost ground with users who have moved onto Facebook or other sites.

"We think that integration of iLike should help drive stickier traffic and ultimately improve monetization of MySpace user base," said JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan.

The acquisition comes as News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch has pressed to reinvent MySpace as an entertainment portal, taking advantage of its continued strength in areas like music and movies.

While it is still one of the most popular video and music sites, data from Nielsen shows time spent by users on MySpace fell by 31 percent between April 2008 and April 2009. In the same period, user time on Facebook grew 700 percent.

MySpace Chief Executive Owen Van Natta said on a conference call that iLike's social discovery technology can be extended to other areas for MySpace users beyond music -- areas such as entertainment, video and games.

He explained this is why MySpace, rather than MySpace Music, made the acquisition. MySpace Music, which launched last September, is a joint venture between MySpace and the four major music companies EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing Bernard Orr)