Clinton’s high-profile swan song

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting with President Barack Obama, second from left, and Japan's …Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was supposed to be heading for the exit, even as the fight over who should succeed her escalated. Instead, America's top diplomat sped Tuesday to the Middle East on an urgent mission to douse flaring violence between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that controls Gaza.

Amid early, disputed reports of a possible truce, Clinton had several major goals: Ease the violence, bolster Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, and avoid an appearance of giving Hamas any sort of legitimacy on the world stage. The U.S. regards Hamas as a terrorist group and deals only with the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, which controls the West Bank but has been relegated to the sidelines of the latest deadly clashes.

As Clinton winged her way to the troubled region, President Barack Obama—en route to Washington from a trip to Asia—spoke by telephone to Morsi from Air Force One, their third such conversation in 24 hours.

Obama "commended President Morsi's efforts to pursue a de-escalation," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters aboard the presidential plane. "And he also underscored that President Morsi's efforts reinforce the important role that President Morsi and Egypt play on behalf of regional security and the pursuit of broader peace between the Palestinians and Israelis."

Morsi, whose country shares a peace accord with Israel and a border with Gaza, is thought to have sway with Hamas.

Clinton was to stop in Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Ramallah to meet with Abbas and in Cairo for discussions with Morsi. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton aimed for a "de-escalation of violence and a durable outcome that ends the rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns and restores a broader calm."

American officials have been leery of using the term "cease-fire," preferring variations on "de-escalation" of the conflict.

Clinton's visit came as the political battle over the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, clouded the debate over who will succeed her.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of covering up the role of suspected extremists in the assault, and questioned whether Clinton's State Department correctly handled requests for more security at the site. The president's foes have targeted Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who at the request of the White House in several television interviews incorrectly tied the attack to protests sparked by an Internet video that ridiculed Islam.

The Benghazi strike claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. It has also highlighted the uncertain fate of so-called Arab spring countries—like Egypt—where popular movements swept aside decades-old authoritarian regimes.

Ahead of Clinton's visit, the White House renewed its support for Israel's military operations but hinted at disapproval of a possible ground offensive. Netanyahu's government has called up thousands of troops in what could be preparations for such an onslaught.

Rhodes told reporters the U.S. would prefer to see the Israelis work "diplomatically and peacefully" to resolve the crisis, noting both Palestinian and Israeli civilians would be at risk in the event of a ground assault.

Clinton's stop in Ramallah underscored a diplomatic peculiarity of her trip: Top U.S. officials regard the Palestinian Authority as such minor players in the current crisis, neither Obama nor Clinton have spoken to Abbas since the violence escalated nearly a week ago.

While Clinton by Monday had reached out to leaders—including Jordan's King Abdullah; the foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt, France and Turkey; Egypt's prime minister; and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon—she had not spoken to Abbas.

By refusing to deal directly with Hamas and reaching out to the Palestinian Authority instead, Clinton appeared to be trying to resolve the conflict without involving one of the key participants.

Rhodes on Tuesday reiterated U.S. conditions for dealing directly with Hamas: The group must renounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist.

He also defended Clinton's trip to Ramallah, calling it a worthwhile investment "both as it relates to what's happening in Gaza and our efforts going forward to improve the situation in Gaza, but also in terms of our broader efforts to pursue peace between the Israelis and Palestinians."

Rhodes's message was implicit but unmistakable:  If the Palestinians want a lasting peace deal, they should align with the Palestinian Authority and not with Hamas or other extremist groups.

The U.S. has for years been steadfast in its posture toward Hamas. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a top contender for Clinton's job, did not talk to Hamas when he made a surprise visit to Gaza in January 2009.

Clinton headed to the Middle East after traveling to Asia with Obama on what aides to both expected would be their final joint trip overseas, including a history-making stop in Myanmar.

Aboard Air Force One on a flight between Rangoon and Cambodia, the one-time political rivals sat in Obama's private office sharing memories of their work together.

"As the president said, it wasn't just the last four years; they have been through a lot together over the last five or six years," Rhodes said. "But right now there is urgent business to be done."

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Aussie fake-bomb plotter sentenced to 13½ years

SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian investment banker who admitted chaining a fake bomb to a Sydney teenager as part of a bizarre extortion plot was sentenced to 13 years and six months jail Tuesday.

Madeleine Pulver, then 18, was studying at home alone in her family's mansion in August 2011 when Paul Douglas Peters walked in wearing a rainbow-striped ski mask and carrying a baseball bat. He tethered a bomb-like device to her neck along with a ransom note and then slipped away, leaving the panicked teen alone. It took a bomb squad 10 hours to remove the device, which contained no explosives.

At the sentencing, Judge Peter Zahra said Peters intended to put the fear into the young victim that she would be killed.

"The terror instilled can only be described as unimaginable," the judge said.

Pulver hugged relatives after the sentence was read. Her father, Bill Pulver, wiped away tears.

The judge gave Peters less than the maximum sentence of 20 years, acknowledging he'd pleaded guilty and was likely depressed at the time.

After attaching the device to the teen, Peters, 52, fled to the U.S., but police used an email address he left on the ransom note to track him down. Authorities arrested him two weeks later at his ex-wife's home in Louisville, Kentucky, and extradited him to Australia. He pleaded guilty in March to aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offense.

Defense attorneys had argued that Peters was depressed, drinking heavily and exhibiting wild mood swings before committing the crime. He had recently split from his wife, was separated from his children and had become obsessed with a book he was writing about a villain out for revenge, his lawyer Tim Game said during earlier sentencing hearings. A psychiatrist for the defense testified that Peters may have tried to become the evil protagonist in his book. Peters said he had no memory of the crime.

But prosecutors said there was a much simpler explanation for Peters' bizarre actions: money.

Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen said during an earlier hearing that Pulver was never the intended target of Peters' crime. The investment banker was having financial problems and originally traveled to Mosman — the wealthy Sydney suburb where the Pulvers live — to hunt down the beneficiary of a multimillion-dollar trust fund he had learned about, she said. When he arrived in Mosman, he bumped into a neighbor of the Pulvers whom he had met while doing business in Hong Kong. That man then became Peters' new target, Cunneen said.

But on the day of the attack, Peters walked into the wrong house. Madeleine Pulver was, in the end, just the unwitting victim of Peters' incompetence, the prosecutor said.

Embarrassed by his bungled extortion bid, Peters concocted a story about being delusional and not remembering the crime to save face, Cunneen said.

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New push for most in US to get at least 1 HIV test

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.

Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once — not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.

The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make HIV screening simply a routine part of a check-up, something a doctor can order with as little fuss as a cholesterol test or a mammogram. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has pushed for widespread, routine HIV screening.

Yet not nearly enough people have heeded that call: Of the more than 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, nearly 1 in 5 — almost 240,000 people — don't know it. Not only is their own health at risk without treatment, they could unwittingly be spreading the virus to others.

The updated guidelines will bring this long-simmering issue before doctors and their patients again — emphasizing that public health experts agree on how important it is to test even people who don't think they're at risk, because they could be.

"It allows you to say, 'This is a recommended test that we believe everybody should have. We're not singling you out in any way,'" said task force member Dr. Douglas Owens, of Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

And if finalized, the task force guidelines could extend the number of people eligible for an HIV screening without a copay in their doctor's office, as part of free preventive care under the Obama administration's health care law. Under the task force's previous guidelines, only people at increased risk for HIV — which includes gay and bisexual men and injecting drug users — were eligible for that no-copay screening.

There are a number of ways to get tested. If you're having blood drawn for other exams, the doctor can merely add HIV to the list, no extra pokes or swabs needed. Today's rapid tests can cost less than $20 and require just rubbing a swab over the gums, with results ready in as little as 20 minutes. Last summer, the government approved a do-it-yourself at-home version that's selling for about $40.

Free testing is available through various community programs around the country, including a CDC pilot program in drugstores in 24 cities and rural sites.

Monday's proposal also recommends:

—Testing people older and younger than 15-64 if they are at increased risk of HIV infection,

—People at very high risk for HIV infection should be tested at least annually.

—It's not clear how often to retest people at somewhat increased risk, but perhaps every three to five years.

—Women should be tested during each pregnancy, something the task force has long recommended.

The draft guidelines are open for public comment through Dec. 17.

Most of the 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. every year are among gay and bisexual men, followed by heterosexual black women.

"We are not doing as well in America with HIV testing as we would like," Dr. Jonathan Mermin, CDC's HIV prevention chief, said Monday.

The CDC recommends at least one routine test for everyone ages 13 to 64, starting two years younger than the task force recommended. That small difference aside, CDC data suggests fewer than half of adults under 65 have been tested.

"It can sometimes be awkward to ask your doctor for an HIV test," Mermin said — the reason making it routine during any health care encounter could help.

But even though nearly three-fourths of gay and bisexual men with undiagnosed HIV had visited some sort of health provider in the previous year, 48 percent weren't tested for HIV, a recent CDC survey found. Emergency rooms are considered a good spot to catch the undiagnosed, after their illnesses and injuries have been treated, but Mermin said only about 2 percent of ER patients known to be at increased risk were tested while there.

Mermin calls that "a tragedy. It's a missed opportunity."

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Online:

Task force recommendation: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org

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Gazans in survival mode: Change houses, avoid windows, stock up on food

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sleep away from windows, stock up on food, get the family car off the street — these are the lessons Gazans have learned in previous rounds of fighting between Israel and the territory's Hamas rulers.

This time, some are adding "change houses" to the list as Israel increasingly targets homes of Hamas activists, making it difficult to guess where missiles might hit. Over the weekend, Israeli airstrikes struck the homes of some two dozen Hamas activists, killing 24 civilians.

For ordinary Gazans, moving sometimes doesn't help.

Pediatrician Sami Dawood moved twice. On Sunday, he evacuated his wife and three children from their high-rise apartment in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood after a missile hit the roof. Fearing Israel would strike the building again, the family moved to the home of his father-in-law near the Palestine Stadium in the center of the city. Early Monday, while the family was asleep, missiles hit the stadium as a suspected rocket-launching site.

"Now we are back home again," said the 40-year-old doctor.

Gaza City housewife Amal Lubbad lives across the street from a house flattened in an airstrike Sunday. The blast, which killed 11 members of the Daloo family, including a Gaza policeman, also blew out the windows of her home.

The 39-year-old Lubbad, her husband and eight children spent a restless night, sleeping on the floor in the room farthest away from the Daloo house, but there was no airstrike.

"We were afraid," she said, adding that the family has nowhere else to go. On Monday, she and her daughters swept up the glass shards as bulldozers in the alley below cleared away the ruins of the Daloo home.

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Ola Hani, a 31-year-old mother of four, said that since the last Gaza war four years ago, she's kept a week's worth of food and other supplies in her house. "Even in normal days, I don't touch any of it, only when I have a chance to replace it," she said.

Her stash includes canned food, lentils, rice, milk powder, two small radios and candles. Her husband, a banker, is away in Jordan for a training course, and she asked a friend to drive the family car to another friend's yard, to keep it out of harm's way. The Hani family lives in a high-rise and does not have a parking garage.

At a bakery, bank teller Jibril Alawi bought 250 pieces of pita bread for his clan of 35 — his immediate family and the wives and children of his four brothers who all live in the same building. He said they take turns going on vital errands to minimize exposure to risk.

Like others in Gaza, the Alawis have moved mattresses into inner hallways and rooms away from windows.

Still, sound sleep is impossible in Gaza these days. The massive booms from the airstrikes, often just minutes apart, rattle windows. The wailing of ambulances and the buzz of unmanned spy planes, or drones, make up the background noise.

Hani said she and her children feel scared when they hear the bombardment.

"But a few minutes after that, we start to cheer and laugh when we see another rocket landing in Tel Aviv," she said of attempts by Hamas to strike Israel's main metropolis.

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Photographers in white lab coats hanging around the emergency room of Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, are part of a different type of Hamas battle: They are members of a Health Ministry team documenting deaths and injuries in the fighting.

The head of the group, Ashraf al-Kidra, keeps journalists updated with casualty figures — 106 dead as of Monday evening. In the long term, he hopes the information will serve as the basis for possible international legal action against Israel.

"We learned a lesson from the last war," said al-Kidra, referring to Israel's previous major offensive against Hamas targets in Gaza four years ago. Casualty figures at the time were hotly disputed, with Palestinians saying most of some 1,400 people killed were civilians, while Israel gave a lower figure and said most were militants.

In the chaos at the time, many Israeli attacks were not properly documented, al-Kidra said.

Now, he has two-member teams deployed at each of Gaza's 13 hospitals. They work in 12-hour shifts and update him with each new casualty. Equipped with two mobile phones and a walkie-talkie, the former physiotherapist and acupuncturist says he has barely slept since the offensive began Nov. 14.

One of his team members, Alaa Saraj, made the rounds in Shifa's emergency room Sunday. Amal Mattar, 38, was lying on a gurney, her face cut by shrapnel from an airstrike near her home in Tel al-Hawa, the Gaza City neighborhood. Saraj snapped her picture, and a doctor said she would need six stitches.

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After more than a decade of on-and-off fighting with Israel, Gazans are not easily shaken.

A warning in Arabic by Israel's military that "Hamas is gambling with your fate and playing with fire," delivered Sunday by briefly taking over the frequencies of local radio stations, elicited mostly amusement.

A group of men hanging around a Gaza City taxi office tried to outdo each other in making fun of the warning. "Let's get some warmth from the fire that Hamas is using to burn us," one of them joked.

Hamas appears to have solid popular support for continued rocket attacks on Israel, despite the new hardships it has brought. Many here expressed satisfaction that Israelis should get a taste of the fear Gazans know so well.

Scenes showing Israelis ducking for cover from rocket fire were discussed with relish, and jokes have popped up on social media, including Facebook. In one, an Egyptian broadcaster with a popular music program asks a listener what he would like to hear. Answer: "The sound of the air raid siren in Tel Aviv."

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Obama to speak at Myanmar campus scarred by past

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The soldiers began to shoot students at Rangoon University at 6:30 p.m. Hla Shwe watched, cowering in a nearby building, as his friends died. "I heard the shouting," he recalled. "They shot whoever they saw."

It was July 7, 1962, the day rage at the military's recent coup boiled over and a date now seared into the memory of Hla Shwe, who is 75 years old.

"I got the idea that if they used the gun against students, why shouldn't we use guns to fight them?" he said.

When President Barack Obama speaks at Hla Shwe's alma mater Monday, he will be treading on ground heavy with political and historical significance.

Since colonial times, the fight for change in Myanmar has begun on this leafy campus. It was a center of the struggle for independence against Britain and served as a launching point for pro-democracy protests in 1962, 1974, 1988 and 1996. Myanmar's former military junta shut the dormitories in the 1990s fearing further unrest and forced most students to attend classes on satellite campuses on the outskirts of town.

Today, few students walk the broken pathways of what was once one of Asia's finest universities. Birdsong fills the halls of cracked buildings. For many, the school — which was renamed University of Yangon in 1989 — has today become a symbol of the country's ruined education system and a monument to a half century of misrule.

"Obama knows very well about the history of Yangon University, I think. This is an enemy place for the authorities," said Hla Shwe, who fought with Communist insurgents and spent 25 years as a political prisoner. "The American government is trying to show in a delicate way that they are not only working for the government but will also take care of the Burmese people."

A movement has been building within Myanmar to reclaim the university's history and restore it to its former glory. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly stressed the importance of upgrading the country's feeble school system and has been fighting in Parliament to repair the campus as part of sweeping educational reforms. U Myint, an adviser to Myanmar's reformist president, Thein Sein, in May wrote an open letter urging the government to fill the campus's empty classrooms with students, reopen the dormitories and reconstruct the Student Union building, which the junta blew up the day after Hla Shwe watched his friends get shot.

"For those who have reservations about our students and young people forming associations like other members of our society, the question we need to ask ourselves is: when we are striving so hard for reconciliation on many fronts, even with foreigners who have not been particularly kind to us, then why not also with our own young people?" wrote U Myint.

The government ramped up education spending in the last budget but critics say it hasn't moved boldly enough to catch up after years of neglect.

"If there is one area where America can help most it is in education," said Thant Myint-U, another presidential adviser and a historian, who is the grandson of the late U.N. Secretary General U Thant. "Myanmar's university system has been decimated after fifty years of army rule. American universities are still second to none. There's no better way for the U.S. to project its soft power than through a real partnership to educate Myanmar's brightest students."

Some repair work on campus began about six months ago, but it is nothing compared with the frenzy of preparations for Obama's arrival.

Inside the school's Convocation Hall, where Obama will deliver his speech, is a riot of staple guns, buzz saws, sandpaper, hammers, spackle, drills, brooms, and fresh paint. But the facade of the building remains cracked with a black crust. Local superstition holds that scrubbing the building clean would unbalance the resigned calm that has settled on the campus and spark another round of unrest.

The curbs, lampposts and buildings that line the main road to the hall have been covered with fresh paint, but elsewhere the campus is a picture of moldering neglect. Broken desks lie stacked in the rain and shunted into unused cobwebby rooms. Teachers in bright blue sarongs walk past buildings sprouting weeds. Stray dogs nap in dilapidated corridors.

"This is a prominent place which taught students to love the truth and to fight for it," said Zaw Zaw Min, who participated in the 1988 student demonstrations and, like his father and his son, served time as a political prisoner. He said before the recent renovations, the state of the campus made him deeply sad. "It was like a damaged city," he said.

There is a real hunger for learning among many young people in Myanmar.

Aung Kaung Myat, 19, studies English at Yangon's University of Foreign Languages. "Everything is messed up," he said. "I don't want to blame my teachers. They are just the things in the system."

Literature class involves reading out loud and poetry is mostly memorization, he said. For books in English, he heads to the well-stocked library of the American Center, a cultural outpost of the U.S. Embassy in Yangon. He got so frustrated at the poor syllabus and teachers who seemed to know little about their subjects that he wrote an angry letter to the Ministry of Education, which he convinced a bunch of his friends to sign. His professor found out before he could send it, called his parents and threatened to expel him, he said.

Still, he'd like to pursue a master's degree at the University of Yangon.

"Maybe it's better than the Yangon University of Foreign Languages," he said.

July San, 23, is pursuing a master's in computer science at the University of Yangon. She said there are only 5 students in her class.

"We want more students. More and more and more! And we don't want to see this long grass anymore," she said, gesturing at the weeds behind her.

"We should thank Obama," she added. At least he managed to get the Convocation Hall spruced up in time for her graduation.

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Associated Press writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report.

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Android de Google resta cada vez más mercado a Apple

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

El sistema operativo Android funciona en casi tres de cada cuatro teléfonos inteligentes vendidos en el mundo en el trimestre que acaba de finalizar en momentos en que la plataforma móvil domina el mercado, de acuerdo con los analistas de la industria de la firma IDC.

“Android ha sido uno de los principales motores de crecimiento del mercado de teléfonos inteligentes desde su lanzamiento en 2008″, dice el gerente de investigación de teléfonos móviles de IDC, Ramon Llamas.

“Cada año desde entonces, Android ha desbordado el mercado y robado participación en el mercado de la competencia”, agrega.

En las tabletas, la cuota de mercado de Apple cayó a poco más del 50%, desde el 65% que registró en el segundo trimestre, mientras Android ha ganado terreno, de acuerdo con cifras de IDC.

“Tener una gran cantidad de personas que construyen un montón de cosas que cubren una gran cantidad de rangos de precio con múltiples marcas en varios lugares hace una gran diferencia”, dice el analista de NPD Group Stephen Baker.

“La variedad es la fuerza cuando se trata de artefactos móviles”, estima.

Los pedidos de teléfonos inteligentes Android aumentaron a 136 millones de dólares, superando los del mismo trimestre del año pasado por un poco más del 90%, de acuerdo con informes de IDC.

Galaxy S3 de Samsung superó al iPhone 4S de Apple en el tercer trimestre para dar a la empresa de Corea del Sur el modelo de teléfono inteligente más vendido del mundo por primera vez, según la firma de investigación Strategy Analytics.

“El ritmo de la innovación en Android es más rápido que el de Apple”, dice el vicepresidente de computación móvil de Gartner, Ken Dulaney. “Ellos están tratando de hacerlo más fuerte, Apple está muy por detrás en esa área”.

Android se está beneficiando de ser una plataforma “open-source” que los fabricantes de aplicaciones usan gratuitamente y mejoran a medida que lo estiman conveniente, proporcionando a Google conocimientos en el camino.

Apple, por su parte, supervisa muy de cerca sus productos desde el software al hardware, e inclusive la tienda online de música, libros, juegos u otro contenido.

“Lo que se obtiene con Android es este increíble circuito de retroalimentación con los desarrolladores, fabricantes de equipos, clientes y diseñadores”, dice Dulaney.

“En Apple, si bien tienen una gran visión interna que está bien, no tienen la retroalimentación que Android tiene”, añade.

Tener miles de diferentes dispositivos Android disputándose el dinero de los consumidores es un fuerte estímulo cuando se trata de participación de mercado pero pone a los fabricantes de hardware en un escenario altamente competitivo, según Baker.

“Aparte de Samsung, no sé si otros chicos (vinculados a) Android están haciendo dinero”, estima el analista.

Google ofrece Android de forma gratuita, pero la plataforma está diseñada para hacer que sea más fácil para la gente usar servicios de Google, como el de búsqueda o de mapas, entre otros, y hallar contenido en sus tiendas en línea Google Play.

El analista de Forrester Charles Golvin estimó que parte importante del éxito coyuntural de Android tiene que ver con cambios demográficos de los compradores de teléfonos inteligentes.

Los primeros usuarios de teléfonos multifunciones apreciaban más las nuevas tecnologías que el precio, pero los dispositivos se han vuelto imprescindibles y con un costo cada vez más importante para los compradores, según Golvin.

“La gente está más inclinada hacia la plataforma Android, porque hay más posibilidades de elección y la mayoría de las opciones que da es de bajo precio”, dice.

La naturaleza abierta de Android y la variedad de modelos ofrecidos por los fabricantes de dispositivos funcionan como un “arma de doble filo”, señala no obstante el analista.

Apple lanza anualmente actualizaciones del sistema operativo móvil iOS a sus dispositivos, mientras que las nuevas versiones de Android, aunque lo hacen más a menudo, deben obtenerse a través de los fabricantes de hardware y servicios de telecomunicaciones para llegar hasta los teléfonos.

“Tú tienes esta lenta cadena de intermediarios que están retrasando la instalación del nuevo software y sus innovaciones en los dispositivos existentes en el mercado”, advierte Golvin.

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Obama: Historic Myanmar visit underscores democratic progress

BANGKOK (AP) — On the eve of his landmark trip to Myanmar, President Barack Obama tried to assure critics that his visit was not a premature reward for a long-isolated nation still easing its way toward democracy.

"This is not an endorsement of the government," Obama said Sunday in Thailand as he opened a three-country dash through Asia. "This is an acknowledgement that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw."

Obama was set to become the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar, with Air Force One scheduled to touch down in Yangon on Monday morning. Though Obama planned to spend just six hours in the country, the much-anticipated stop came as the result of a remarkable turnaround in the countries' relationship.

The president's Asia tour also marks his formal return to the world stage after months mired in a bruising re-election campaign. For his first postelection trip, he tellingly settled on Asia, a region he has deemed the region as crucial to U.S. prosperity and security.

Aides say Asia will factor heavily in Obama's second term as the U.S. seeks to expand its influence in an attempt to counter China.

China's rise is also at play in Myanmar, which long has aligned itself with Beijing. But some in Myanmar fear that China is taking advantage of its wealth of natural resources, so the country is looking for other partners to help build its nascent economy.

Obama has rewarded Myanmar's rapid adoption of democratic reforms by lifting some economic penalties. The president has appointed a permanent ambassador to the country, also known as Burma, and pledged greater investment if Myanmar continues to progress following a half-century of military rule.

Obama's administration also reopened a USAID mission in Myanmar earlier this year. During his stop Monday, the president is expected to announce $170 million in funding over the next two years for a democracy program led by the mission.

Administration officials say the turnaround in Myanmar marks the most successful implementation of the type of engagement Obama pledged in his inaugural address, when he told rogue nations that the U.S. "will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

But some human rights groups say Myanmar's government, which continues to hold hundreds of political prisoners and is struggling to contain ethnic violence, hasn't done enough to earn a personal visit from Obama.

Speaking from neighboring Thailand, Obama said Sunday he was under no illusions that Myanmar had done all it needed to do. But he said the U.S. could play a critical role in helping ensure the country doesn't slip backward.

"I'm not somebody who thinks that the United States should stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there's an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country," Obama said during a joint press conference Sunday with Thailand's prime minister.

Even as Obama turned his sights on Asia, widening violence in the Middle East competed for his attention.

Obama told reporters Sunday that Israel had the right to defend itself against missile attacks from Gaza. But he urged Israel not to launch a ground assault in Gaza, saying it would put Israeli soldiers, as well as Palestinian citizens, at greater risk and hamper an already vexing peace process.

"If we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future," Obama said.

The ongoing violence is likely to trail Obama as he makes his way from Thailand to Myanmar to Cambodia, his final stop before returning to Washington early Wednesday.

Obama will meet separately in Myanmar with Prime Minister Thein Sein, who has orchestrated much of his country's recent reforms. The president will also meet with longtime Myanmar democracy activist Aung Sun Suu Kyi in the home where she spent years under house arrest.

The president, as he seeks to assuage critics, has trumpeted Suu Kyi's support of his outreach efforts, saying Sunday that she was "very encouraging" of his trip.

The White House says Obama will express his concern for the ongoing ethnic tensions in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, where more than 110,000 people — the vast majority of them Muslims known as Rohingya — have been displaced.

The U.N. has called the Rohingya — who are widely reviled by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar — among the world's most persecuted people.

The White House says Obama will press the matter Monday with Thein Sein, along with demands to free remaining political prisoners as the nation transitions to democracy.

The president will cap his trip to Myanmar with a speech at Rangoon University, the center of the country's struggle for independence against Britain and the launching point for many pro-democracy protests. The former military junta shut the dormitories in the 1990s fearing further unrest and forced most students to attend classes on satellite campuses on the outskirts of town.

Obama began his Asian tour on a steamy day in Bangkok with a visit to the Wat Pho Royal Monastery. In stocking feet, the president and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked around a golden statue of a sitting Buddha. The complex is a sprawling display of buildings with colorful spires, gardens and waterfalls.

Obama then paid a courtesy call to the ailing, 84-year-old U.S.-born King Bhumibol Adulyadej in his hospital quarters. The king, the longest serving living monarch, was born in Cambridge, Mass., and studied in Europe.

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Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

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Personal, strategic motivations for Obama in Asia

BANGKOK (AP) — For President Barack Obama, expanding U.S. influence in Asia is more than just countering China or opening up new markets to American businesses. It's also about building his legacy.

Fresh off re-election, Obama will make a significant investment in that effort during a quick run through Southeast Asia that begins Sunday. In addition to stops in Thailand and Cambodia, the president will make a historic visit to Myanmar, where his administration has led efforts to ease the once pariah nation out of international isolation.

The trip marks Obama's fourth visit to Asia in as many years. He kicks off his schedule in Bangkok. With a second term now guaranteed, aides say Obama will be a regular visitor to the region over the next four years as well.

"Continuing to fill in our pivot to Asia will be a critical part of the president's second term and ultimately his foreign policy legacy," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

The president's motivations in Asia are both personal and strategic.

Obama, who was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia as a child, has called himself America's first "Pacific president." The region gives him an opportunity to open up new markets for U.S. companies, promote democracy and ease fears of China's rise by boosting U.S. military presence in area.

The president, like many of his predecessors, had hoped to cement his foreign policy legacy in the Middle East. He visited two major allies in the region, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, on one of his first overseas trips as president and attempted to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

But those talks stalled, and fresh outbursts of violence between Israel and the Palestinians make the prospects of a peace accord appear increasingly slim. The Obama-backed Arab Spring democracy push has had mixed results so far, with Islamists taking power in Egypt and progress in Libya tainted by the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Obama hasn't been back to the region since 2009.

In Asia, however, Obama will be viewed as something of an elder statesman when he returns less than two weeks after winning re-election. The region is undergoing significant leadership changes, most notably in China, where the Communist Party tapped new leaders last week. Japan and South Korea will both hold new elections soon.

"Most of the leaders he'll meet with will not have a tenure as long as he will as president," said Michael Green, an Asia scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "So he'll go into this in a very strong position."

The centerpiece of Obama's whirlwind Asia tour is his visit to Myanmar. It will be the first time a U.S. president has visited the former pariah state.

Myanmar has become something of a pet project for Obama and his national security aides, who have cheered the country's significant strides toward democracy. Obama lifted some U.S. penalties on Myanmar, appointed a permanent U.S. ambassador and hosted democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House this year.

Many of the same strategic motivations behind Obama's larger focus on Asia are at play in Myanmar, which is known by the U.S. as Burma.

The country long has oriented itself toward China, but the easing of sanctions gives American businesses a chance to gain a foothold there. It's also an opportunity for the Obama administration to show other nations in the region, and elsewhere in the world, that there are benefits to aligning with the U.S.

Still, there's little denying that history has been a draw for Obama's team when it comes to its dealings with Myanmar. That's led to criticism from some human rights groups that say Obama's visit is premature given that the country continues to hold political prisoners and has been unable to stem some ethnic violence.

"This trip risks being an ill-timed presidential pat on the back for a regime that has looked the other way as violence rages, destroying villages and communities just in the last few weeks," said Suzanne Nossel, the U.S.-based director of Amnesty International.

But the White House believes that "if we want to promote human rights and promote American values, we intend to do so through engagement," Rhodes said Saturday as Obama flew to Asia.

He said it was important for Obama to convey the message about "the type of action we'd like to see locked in, in Burma as it relates to political reform, as it relates to economic reform, and national reconciliation."

Obama's other stops in the region also underscore the potential pitfalls of going all-in in Asia.

Thailand's 2006 coup, which led to the ouster of the prime minister, strained relations with the U.S. and raised questions in Washington about the stability of its longtime regional ally. Cambodia, where Obama's visit also marks the first by a U.S. president, has a dismal human rights record.

White House officials have emphasized that Obama is visiting Cambodia because it is hosting the East Asia Summit, an annual meeting the U.S. now attends. Aides say the president will voice his human rights concerns during his meeting with Hun Sen, Cambodia's long-serving prime minister.

Still, human rights groups fear Obama's visit will be seen within Cambodia as an affirmation of the prime minister and a sign to opposition groups that the U.S. stands with the government, not with them.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was also traveling to Thailand where she was going to join Obama. Clinton then was to fly to Myanmar with Obama on Air Force One. It will be the last joint trip for the president and his secretary of state, the once presidential rival who went on to become Obama's peripatetic chief diplomat. Clinton is planning on leaving the administration.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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Google Considering Wireless Network [REPORT]

Google is looking to cut out the middleman for its Android mobile devices and begin offering wireless service itself, according to a report.

The search giant met with reps from Dish Network to partner on a wireless service “that would rival” wireless networks like AT&T and Verizon, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited “people familiar with the discussions.” The talks, however, could amount to nothing, the article notes.

[More from Mashable: Google Updates Blogger Mobile Apps to Version 2.0]

Dish bought wireless spectrum in 2008 that it plans to build out into such a network. The company has met with other, unnamed companies aside from Google, according to the report. In an interview this week, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said potential partners include companies “who would like to be in the industry” and don’t offer wireless service. He did not name Google or any other of the companies. Despite the talk, there’s speculation that AT&T might partner with Dish on the spectrum offering.

Google bid on wireless spectrum in 2008, but lost to Verizon and AT&T. Google also took a $ 500 million stake in mobile broadband firm Clearwire, which it sold this year for $ 66.5 million.

[More from Mashable: Google Launches Mobile Game You Play in Real Life]

Despite being shut out of wireless for now, Google is offering wired broadband service in Kansas City. The company also diversified into the wireless handset business last year with its $ 12.5 billion purchase of Motorola.

Bonus Gallery: Hands-On: Verizon’s Droid DNA Wows With High-Def Display

Verizon’s Droid DNA

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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