Soccer-Lyon must sell and Gomis could go, says president

PARIS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Olympique Lyon need to continue cutting their payroll and are in talks to sell top scorer Bafetimbi Gomis, president Jean-Michel Aulas said on Friday.
Lyon, who have not taken part in the Champions League this season for the first time since 2000, already sold top players Hugo Lloris, Aly Cissokho and Kim Kallstrom during the last transfer window in a bid to cut costs.
They have still managed to challenge Paris St Germain and lie second in the Ligue 1 standings, level on points with their rich rivals, but are the only French club listed on the stock exchange and have yet to comply with financial constraints.
Aulas confirmed that Argentine full back Fabian Monzon, who signed from Nice in the off-season, has joined Brazilian side Fluminense on loan for six months.
Other players will leave in January.
"There will definitely be other moves during the winter transfer window," the club's owner told reporters.
"The ideal solution would be a big transfer (...) Otherwise, a couple of players will leave on loan.
"Our strategy is to cut the payroll. The club has to be well run ... so we will stick to our strategy, whatever the (sporting) price will be."
Lyon have been in talks with several clubs who have shown interest in France striker Bafetimbi Gomis, who has scored 11 goals in 19 league appearances so far this term.
"It will speed up in the last 15 days of the window," Aulas said, suggesting Lisandro Lopez's departure could be an option if Gomis was to stay at the club.
The Argentine striker has asked to relinquish the captain's armband.
Aulas also confirmed that Turkish side Besiktas have made an offer for France forward Jimmy Briand.
Lyon, eliminated as French Cup holders in the last 64 round when they lost on penalties at third tier Epinal last weekend, visit 19th-placed Troyes on Saturday.

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Soccer-Bulgaria keeper Stoyanov returns home to Ludogorets

SOFIA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Bulgaria goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov has headed home to join champions Ludogorets after three years with Moldova's most successful club Sheriff Tiraspol.
"I want to win everything with Ludogorets," Stoyanov told a news conference on Friday. "I return to the Bulgarian championship more mature and more experienced, with many matches in European competitions."
Stoyanov, 25, became Ludogorets's third new signing during the Bulgarian league's mid-season break after Serbian midfielder Nemanja Milisavljevic and Colombian midfielder Sebastian Hernadez.
Ludogorets, who won their maiden league title last year, top this term's standings with 38 points from 15 matches.

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Soccer-Boss Appleton joins Blackburn after 66 days at Blackpool

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Blackburn Rovers appointed Michael Appleton as manager on Friday with the 37-year-old leaving Blackpool after 66 days in charge.
Indian-owned Rovers, Premier League champions in 1995 but relegated from the top flight last season, confirmed the news on Twitter having sacked Henning Berg last month after 57 days.
Blackburn are 13th in the Championship (second tier), one place above north west rivals Blackpool who were in the Premier League two years ago.
Both clubs have seen long-running supporter unrest towards their respective owners while Blackpool fans on internet message boards slammed former Portsmouth boss Appleton for a perceived lack of loyalty after such a short stint in charge.

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Red Hat shares up on acquisition and 3Q results

Red Hat Inc.'s shares jumped Friday on the software company's solid third-quarter results and plans to acquire cloud-based software company ManageIQ.
THE SPARK: Red Hat said late Thursday that it would buy privately held ManageIQ for $104 million in cash.
The Raleigh, N.C., company also reported that it earned 29 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter on an adjusted basis, up a penny from the prior year and in line with analyst expectations. Its revenue for the period increased 18 percent to $343.6 million, which beats the $338 million that analysts polled by FactSet had forecast.
THE BIG PICTURE: ManageIQ's software helps businesses deploy and manage private clouds. Red Hat said the deal will expand the reach of its public-private cloud setups for its customers. The acquisition is expected to have no material impact to Red Hat's revenue for its fiscal year ending in February.
THE ANALYSIS: Stifel Nicolaus analyst Brad R. Reback said that the company has been able to maintain momentum even in a difficult environment and he thinks the latest deal offers an interesting longer-term angle for its business. He thinks the company is well positioned to generate at least 15 to 20 percent billings growth in the future. He reiterated a "Buy" rating and a $65 price target on its shares.
SHARE ACTION: Shares gained $2.25, or more than 4 percent, to $54.86 in afternoon trading. Shares have traded between $39.19 and $62.75 in the past 52 weeks.

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Dozens of Android Games, Apps Discounted for Google Holiday Sale

The Google Play store -- that's the name of the Android "app store," or the "Android Market" for those of you new to the change -- is featuring dozens of game and app sales for Android smartphones and tablets. Well, actually, it's not; you can see some of the discounted apps on the front page, but there's no special section of the website or on-device market that says where the ones on sale are, or even how to find them. And the "Holiday Surprise" feature is only a handful of deals picked by Google itself.
Here's a look at some of the major game publishers' Android sales, along with discounted creativity apps and where to find more details.
Gameloft's "Android Christmas" sale
It may be too late for Hanukkah this year, but top-tier Android publisher Gameloft has put a dozen of its titles up for sale for Christmas just $0.99 . These games are normally in the $5-7 range, making them among Android's priciest.
Besides its licensed games based on movies -- like superhero films "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man," and (inexplicably) "The Adventures of Tintin" -- Gameloft is best known for creating mobile versions of popular PC and console games. Not in the sense that they are official ports, so much as that they're remarkably similar, to the extent that they arguably could be official ports if the serial numbers were filed off. With that in mind, several of its Modern Combat (which are totally not Modern Warfare) and N.O.V.A. first-person shooters (which are totally not Halo) are included in the sale, although the most recent installment of the former -- Modern Combat 4 -- is not.
Superhero fans may also want to check out Marvel Games' Avengers Initiative, which isn't a Gameloft title but is also on sale for $0.99 .
Square-Enix's "Winter of Mobile" sale
Best known for having invented the jRPG genre, Square-Enix has brought several of its most popular titles to Android, and most of them are discounted (from their extremely high launch prices) for the holidays.
Crystal Defender, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy have all received numerous 1-star reviews on Google Play for technical issues, and reviewers complain that the titles haven't been optimized for Android hardware. The Chaos Rings titles, however, fare much better with reviewers, and are much more steeply discounted as well, at $3.99 each compared to their usual price of $12.99. They're ports of the iOS originals, which were Square-Enix's first attempts at making "real" jRPGs for mobile devices.
SEGA's Holiday Sale
SEGA's games are on sale for the holidays across the board, on pretty much every platform. On Android, that mostly amounts to Sonic 4 (episodes 1 and 2) and Sonic CD, all of which are on sale for $0.99 . Strategy title Total War Battles and rollerblade platformer Jet Set Radio, meanwhile, are on sale for $1.99.
Creativity / productivity apps on sale
Android phones and tablets aren't just for gaming. If you didn't pick up Microsoft Office-compatible OfficeSuite Pro 6+ during Google's earlier $0.25 sale, it's discounted to $0.99 now from its regular price of $14.99. Autodesk's professional drawing apps, SketchBook Mobile and SketchBook Pro for Tablets, are $0.99 and $2.99 compared to $1.99 and $4.99 regularly, and the Jotter handwriting app -- which requires a Samsung Galaxy Note -- is half-off at $1.99.
Stay up to date
Many more Android games and apps are being discounted for the holidays. Apps such as (the aptly-named) AppSales can help keep you apprised of the latest additions. Meanwhile, the Android Police blog is maintaining an up-to-date "Enormous List" of all holiday sales.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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El MIDI, la tecnología que le abrió la puerta a la música digital, cumple 30 años

Un pequeño teclado y un ordenador portátil: hasta que apareció la tecnología MIDI, hace 30 años, nadie imaginaba que sólo con ese equipo se podría dar un concierto. Dicen los entendidos que para apreciar realmente el tema Shine on you crazy diamond , de Pink Floyd, es mejor escucharlo en vinilo.
Las emisiones de los sintetizadores estallan a través del crepitar de la púa sobre el disco, mientras la guitarra y la batería marcan un ritmo ondulante. Es un sonido enorme que define toda una época, y uno puede sumergirse por completo en el espíritu de esos años con esa versión en vinilo.
Pero más allá de la impresionante creatividad de la música, el sonido evidencia una importante limitación en la forma en la que los instrumentos musicales electrónicos se controlaban en aquel momento.
"Una banda como Kraftwerk, por ejemplo, utilizaba 200 teclados analógicos distintos", explica el músico argentino Cineplexx.
Pero la tecnología de la Interfaz Digital de Instrumentos Musicales (MIDI, según sus siglas en inglés) permitió conectar los instrumentos a una computadora y entre sí, lo que supuso un cambio enorme.
"Yo cuando doy un concierto utilizo un teclado con 20 teclas y un ordenador portátil", cuenta Cineplexx .
Con estos elementos es posible componer, secuenciar, programar, modificar y reproducir el sonido de cualquier instrumento, como "un vibráfono o un sintetizador".
Un lenguaje común
El protocolo MIDI nació en California, de la mano de Dave Smith, un fabricante de sintetizadores, que convenció a sus competidores para que adoptaran un formato en común que permitiera controlar de forma externa a los sintetizadores, con otro teclado o incluso a través de una computadora.
MIDI pronto se convertiría en el estándar industrial para conectar diferentes instrumentos electrónicos, cajas de ritmo, samplers y ordenadores. Esta tecnología abrió una "nueva era de procesamiento musical".
"Lo que hizo MIDI es permitir el nacimiento de los primeros estudios de grabación caseros", cuenta Smith en conversación con Tom Bateman, de BBC Radio 4.
El Prophet-600 de Sequential Circuits en acción

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Analysis: Modi's Gujarat growth model might not work across India

SURAT, India (Reuters) - Turning a single Indian state with a long tradition of entrepreneurship and a solid political majority into an investor-friendly economic powerhouse is one thing.
Replicating that experience across a diverse country of 1.2 billion would be a tougher prospect for Narendra Modi, whose leadership of booming Gujarat state has led to his being touted as a potential candidate to become India's next prime minister.
While Modi wins praise even from critics for cutting red tape and making government more responsive and predictable, many ingredients for Gujarat's run of growth were in place well before he took office in 2001.
"It is like an icing on cake sort of thing. You have a nice cake and Modi has done a lot of good icing," said Rakesh Chaudhary, director of Pratibha Group, a textile manufacturer in Palsana on the outskirts of the Gujarat city of Surat.
Industry in Gujarat is helped by a long coastline and plenty of barren land that is easy to turn over to factory use.
The power that comes from a long-standing and heavy majority for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state also gives Modi an advantage that he would not enjoy on a national stage marked by fractious coalition politics.
Despite a controversial past - Modi is accused by critics of not doing enough to stop or of even quietly encouraging religious riots in 2002 that saw as many as 2,000 killed, most of them Muslims - he has established a reputation as an economic reformer in part by building on the strengths of Gujarat and marketing them heavily.
Modi's marketing savvy, aided by the Washington lobbying and public affairs firm APCO Worldwide, will be on display at the biennial "Vibrant Gujarat Summit" that begins on Friday.
Initiated by Modi in 2003 to attract investment after the violence and an earthquake in 2001, the event is attended by thousands of corporate officials who pledge billions in investment, although in reality only a fraction has seen the light of day. Of 12.4 trillion rupees ($225 billion) in investment proposed at the 2009 event, just 8.5 percent had been spent as of November 2011, according to state government data.
"Under Modi's regime, there has been significant improvement in infrastructure growth, significant improvement in industrialization, as well as agriculture," said Jahangir Aziz, senior Asia economist at JPMorgan. "But what has been overplayed is initial conditions were actually pretty decent in Gujarat."
HIGHER OFFICE?
The stocky Modi, who favors traditional Indian attire and a clipped white beard, plays down any prime ministerial ambitions.
But his popularity in Gujarat - the BJP won 115 of the state assembly's 182 seats in a December election - has fuelled speculation that he could lead his Hindu nationalist party in 2014 against India's ruling Congress party, which has been beset by corruption scandals and overseen a sharp economic slowdown.
"His economic record in Gujarat is obviously something which matters a lot to the middle classes. That, coupled with strong leadership," said Swapan Dasgupta, an analyst with links to the BJP who expects Modi to be the party standard-bearer in 2014.
Critics say that while Modi has indeed encouraged investment and helped bring reliable electricity and law and order, double-digit growth has not been shared broadly enough. In the five years through March 2010, some states - including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka - did better at bringing down poverty levels.
"Big business people get a lot from the government and scheduled caste people (minorities) get a lot, but people like us who are in between get nothing," said Bhupendra Thakkar, 50, who earns 6,000 rupees ($109) a month selling fruit near Surat's decrepit railway station.
FRIEND OF BUSINESS
Modi lured Tata Motors to the state in 2008 after the company's plans to build a factory for its low-cost Nano car were thwarted by farmers in West Bengal.
Ford Motor Co and Maruti Suzuki are also building plants in the western state - high profile investments that carry the added benefit of acting as marketing tools.
In the seven years through March 2011, Gujarat's economy grew an annual 10.08 percent at constant prices, against 6.45 percent in the eight years through March 2002 (Modi took office in October 2001), which was still ahead of the all-India average of 6.16 percent. A handful of states, including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, clocked bigger gains over the same recent period.
By comparison, policy gridlock at the national level has contributed to a drop-off in corporate investment, putting India on track to record its slowest annual growth rate in a decade.
Accustomed to getting his way, Modi, 62, could struggle to negotiate the coalition politics that have become the norm at the national level and have hindered attempts at reform by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led administration.
"Policymaking has benefited from the fact that the BJP has had absolute majority in the state legislature - an advantage it certainly will not enjoy in the federal parliament," said Anjalika Bardalai, an analyst with the Eurasia Group in London.
Modi has also been able to leverage the business acumen of Gujaratis, a group that has long been known for trading and entrepreneurship and includes a prosperous global diaspora as well as billionaires such as Adani Group chief Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, who controls Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company.

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Lawyer: 3 Delhi rape suspects to plead not guilty

NEW DELHI (AP) — Three of the suspects in the brutal rape and killing of a young woman on a New Delhi bus will plead not guilty, their lawyer said Thursday, hinting that police had tampered with evidence in the attack that has transfixed India.
"They are innocent," said Manohar Lal Sharma, who said he took the case in part to confront the police over "how manipulated evidence is placed for fixing the innocent people."
Five men have been charged with attacking the 23-year-old woman and her male companion on a bus as it was driven through streets of India's capital. The woman was raped and assaulted with a metal bar on Dec. 16 and eventually died of her injuries. Rape victims are not identified in India, even if they die, and rape trials are closed to the media.
Sharma spoke briefly to reporters on his way to a hearing for suspects in a New Delhi court complex. He says he represents bus driver Ram Singh, Singh's brother Mukesh, and another man, Akshay Thakur. Another lawyer, V.K. Anand, says he also represents the two Singh brothers. It's not yet clear if the other defendants have lawyers.
Thursday's hearing is expected to result in the case being sent to a special "fast-track" court. India's legal system is painfully slow, corrupt and inefficient, with many cases lasting years, even decades. But Indian officials have come under immense public pressure over the attack, accused of doing little to protect the country's women, and are eager to make sure the high-profile case moves quickly. Large protests have taken place across India since the attack, with women telling relentless stories of abuse — from catcalls to bus gropings to rapes — and of a police and judicial system that does little to stop it.
Authorities have charged the men with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring the death penalty. A sixth suspect, who is 17 years old, is expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.
Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said last week that a DNA test confirmed that the blood of the victim matched blood stains found on the clothes of all the accused.

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Storm leaves Gaza man dead, Jerusalem snowed in

• Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. In Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said …more 

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Gaza health official says a Palestinian man was electrocuted after being struck by a power cable snapped loose by ferocious winter winds, while a rare snowstorm paralyzed traffic inJerusalem, its suburbs and the nearby West Bank.

Ashraf al-Kidra says the 24-year-old died late Wednesday in the accident, which left four others injured. While heavy rains have subsided, wind gusts continue to wreak havoc with the territory's electrical supply, and power has been cut off this week for up to 14 hours a day.

On Thursday, several inches of snow piled up in Jerusalem, its environs and the West Bank for the first time in five years, shuttering schools and crippling transportation.

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Canadian Ryder Hesjedal leads 2013 Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda cycling team

Canadian Ryder Hesjedal leads a 2013 Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda team that will be without the suspended Tom Danielson, David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde until March.
Hesjedal, named the Canadian Press male athlete of the year this week, is the defending Giro d'Italia winner.
"We had our strongest season in the history of the team in 2012, with our first Grand Tour win at the Giro, and we'll be looking to build on that success in 2013,” Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports which runs the cycling team, said in a statement Friday announcing the squad.
Danielson, Zabriskie and Vande Velde are serving six-month suspensions after providing information to the U.S. Anti-Doping-Agency about the use of performance-enhancing drugs on Lance Armstrong's former team.
Slipstream called the 2013 team its youngest roster ever, with new faces Rohan Dennis, Caleb Fairly, Lachlan Morton and Steele Von Hoff.
Dennis was Australia's under-23 road race and time trial national champion in 2012. A former track cyclist, he finished fifth in the 2012 Tour Down Under.
Fellow Australians Morton and Von Hoff and American Fairly are graduates of Slipstream’s developmental program.
Veteran Nick Nuyens, winner of the 2011 Tour of Flanders, also joins the team.
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2013 Team Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda Roster
Jack Bauer, Tom Danielson, Thomas Dekker, Rohan Dennis, Caleb Fairly, Tyler Farrar, Koldo Fernandez de Larrea, Nathan Haas, Ryder Hesjedal, Alex Howes, Robbie Hunter, Andreas Klier, Michel Kreder, Raymond Kreder, Martijn Maaskant, Dan Martin, David Millar, Lachlan Morton, Ramunas Navardauskas, Nick Nuyens, Jacob Rathe, Sebastien Rosseler, Peter Stetina, Andrew Talansky, Christian Vande Velde, Johan Vansummeren, Steele Von Hoff, Fabian Wegmann, David Zabriskie.

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