AT&T to sell home automation, security packages

NEW YORK (AP) ? AT&T Inc. is launching its home security and automation service in 15 cities Friday, with an eye toward getting customers hooked on security cameras, thermostats and locks they can control from phones and tablets.

AT&T's "Digital Life" packages will be sold in cellphone stores in markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. The company plans to roll the offering out to 50 markets by the end of the year.

The home monitoring and automation field is dominated by security firms such as ADT Corp. Other phone and cable companies sell security packages, but AT&T is going further than competitors by developing its own technology and selling it nationwide, not just where it provides local phone service. It has set up monitoring centers, in Dallas and Atlanta.

The entire U.S. home security market is worth about $18 billion per year, said Glenn Lurie, who is in charge of expanding the reach of AT&T's network to new types of devices. That's small compared to AT&T's $127 billion in annual revenue. But only 20 percent of homes have security systems, so there's an opportunity to expand the market, Lurie said.

The initiative comes as the wireless industry has slowed after a decade of heady growth. Now that nearly everyone has a cellphone, wireless companies are looking for other sources of growth.

"We see huge opportunity here. This is a significant, billion-dollar opportunity for AT&T," Lurie said.

AT&T is also hoping to get customers to pay more than the typical $40 per month for home security alone, by providing connections to wireless cameras and other sensors.

AT&T will charge $250 for the equipment and installation of a home security package, plus $40 per month. Options include a camera package for $10 per month plus equipment and installation, climate control for $5 per month, and a remote water main shutoff control for $10 per month.

The equipment ties into a central control panel which can be programmed through the app or Web interface to, for instance, shut off the water main if the water sensor detects a leak.

A basic, security-only package will cost $150, plus $30 per month.

Ralph De La Vega, head of AT&T's wireless division, said employees who tested Digital Life in Atlanta and Dallas last year bought a lot more cameras than the company had been expecting. One of them set a camera to be triggered by motion sensor on the front porch, and nabbed a thief who had been stealing packages.

Only about 1 percent of homes have automation systems, and De La Vega said this could be a big opportunity as well. He's happy he can now check whether his garage doors are open and close them from his phone.

"It's just getting people used to living a different way ... We haven't even begun to tap into the available marketplace. I think the idea is huge," De La Vega said.

The central panel connects to AT&T's wireless network, but should also be connected to a wired Internet modem for redundancy, AT&T said. Any Internet connection will work ? it doesn't have to be AT&T's.

Two years ago, AT&T bought Xanboo, a smart-home technology startup. Last year, AT&T announced its plans to launch Digital Life nationwide, and ran trials with employees in Dallas and Atlanta.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-26-APFN-US-TEC-ATandT-Smart-Home/id-fd1e1dc4396447ec8e76b77fe8466189

chris anderson rondo suspended bay bridge band of brothers presidents george washington russell westbrook

Kendra Wilkinson Hospitalized After Car Crash

Kendra Wilkinson Hospitalized After Car Crash

Kendra Wilkinson was rushed to the hospital on Sunday after a car accident in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. The 27-year-old former Playboy model was rushed to Providence Tarzana Medical Center to be checked out by their medical team. Kendra was reportedly “in shock and really sore” following the accident, but thankfully was not ...

Kendra Wilkinson Hospitalized After Car Crash Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/kendra-wilkinson-hospitalized-after-car-crash/

kristen stewart Shirley Bassey adele Oscars 2013 barcelona vs real madrid renee zellweger catherine zeta jones

2nd man arrested in rape of 5-year-old Indian girl

NEW DELHI (AP) ? A second suspect was arrested Monday in the rape of a 5-year-old girl who New Delhi police say was left for dead in a locked room, a case that has brought a new wave of protests against how Indian authorities handle sex crimes.

Pradeep Kumar, a 19-year-old garment factory worker, was arrested Monday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from New Delhi, and was being brought to the capital, police said.

Police said questioning of the first man arrested in the case, Manoj Kumar, led them to the second suspect. Manoj Kumar, 24, was arrested Saturday in Bihar and flown back to New Delhi. Kumar is a common last name in India and the two men are not related.

The men are accused of abducting, raping and attempting to murder the 5-year-old, who went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by her attackers, police say.

The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said Monday that she was responding well and that her condition had stabilized.

"She is much better today and her wounds are healing well," Sharma told reporters.

The attack came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

For the third consecutive day, sporadic protests erupted in at least three places in New Delhi. Scores of supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party dodged a huge police cordon and managed to reach the gates of Parliament where they shouted slogans against the Delhi police's tardy handling of the case. About 100 BJP supporters were detained. Police said they would be held at a nearby police station and then released in a few hours.

Separately, about 100 women protested at another area near the Parliament building. Most of the protests were directed against the Delhi police officers who failed to act after the girl's parents told them she was missing.

The protesters have demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office and that police accused of failing to act on the parents' complaint be dismissed.

"The police must be held accountable for their shocking levels of apathy. They urgently need to review police processes to ensure that all cases of rape and sexual violence ? not just those highlighted by the media ? are fully and promptly investigated," said G. Ananthapadmanabhan, who heads the India chapter of the human rights group Amnesty International.

"Those who fail to do their job must be held accountable," he said.

Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar admitted Monday that police had erred in handling the case.

"There have been shortfalls, so the station house officer and his deputy have been suspended," Kumar told reporters.

However, he said that instructions given to police officers since the December gang rape case to report all complaints of rape and molestation had led to a "phenomenal rise" in the number of such cases registered in the city.

"This shows that the tendency earlier to dissuade women from getting their complaints registered has changed dramatically," he said.

He said the number of rape and molestation cases that police were able to solve and make arrests had also gone up drastically.

Despite the police chief's claims of tighter enforcement, sexual crimes against women and children are reported every day in Indian newspapers, and women often complain about feeling insecure when they leave their homes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for changes in attitudes toward women in India.

"The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society," Singh said at a meeting Sunday with civil servants.

The December gang rape on the New Delhi bus sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.

Activists say passing strong laws is not enough, and that the government must ensure that police and the justice system crack down on crimes against women.

"Mere changes in the law are not enough. Robust implementation is essential," Ananthapadmanabhan said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-man-arrested-rape-5-old-indian-girl-055919487.html

lra eric johnson eric johnson big east tournament ashley olsen new apple tv sun flare

Scientists cage dead zebras in Africa to understand the spread of anthrax

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Scavengers might not play as key a role in spreading anthrax through wildlife populations as previously assumed, according to findings from a small study conducted in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.

Wildlife managers currently spend large amounts of money and time to control anthrax outbreaks by preventing scavengers from feeding on infected carcasses.

The effort might be ill spent, according to results published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology by an international consortium of researchers led by Steven Bellan, an ecologist at The University of Texas at Austin.

Carrion produced by anthrax deaths feeds many scavengers, including jackals, hyena, vultures, marabou storks and occasionally even lions. These scavengers have evolved to be able to digest infected carrion without contracting the infection. Herbivorous animals more vulnerable to anthrax include zebra, springboks, elephants and wildebeest.

It has been thought that scavengers change the environment in which the anthrax bacteria are living by opening herbivores' carcasses, enabling more production of spores -- the infectious life stage of the anthrax bacteria.

"The hypothesis is that when a carcass is intact, the anthrax bacteria are forced into a kind of death match with putrefying bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract," said Bellan, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of biologist Lauren Ancel Meyers. "But when the body is opened to the air, either by a scavenger or the hemorrhaging from all bodily orifices that occurs at death, the anthrax bacteria can escape that competition and more successfully produce spores."

According to this hypothesis, the scavenging also allows the carcasses' bodily fluids to leak into the soil, leading to more spores contaminating the soil. Combined, this might increase the likelihood of spread to vulnerable herbivores as they move and eat among the grasses.

In order to test the hypothesis, the researchers found seven zebra and one wildebeest that had just died in the wild from anthrax infection. All of the carcasses were left where they fell, but four were protected from scavengers by electrified cage exclosures. The other four were left completely open to the elements.

"The goal was to allow the carcasses to exist in as natural a state as possible, while preventing scavenging," Bellan said.

Samples were then taken at regular intervals to see whether there was greater anthrax spore production in the scavenged carcasses and in the nearby soil.

The researchers found that anthrax sporulation and contamination happened to a similar degree at both the scavenged and unscavenged carcasses.

"It appears that the anthrax bacteria can survive for some time in the carcass even though it may be competing with other bacteria," said Bellan. "It also appears that fluids can escape from the carcass into the soil via mechanisms other than scavenging or through hemorrhages occurring at the time of death. It looks like bloating caused by gases produced during putrefaction and maggot feeding activity are capable of independently rupturing carcass skin."

Bellan cautions that the experiment was a limited one, conducted on a small number of samples. But he said it does suggest a need for some re-evaluation of practices aimed at keeping scavengers away from anthrax carcasses.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Texas at Austin.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. S. E. Bellan, P. C. B. Turnbull, W. Beyer, W. M. Getz. Effects of experimental exclusion of scavengers from anthrax-infected herbivore carcasses on Bacillus anthracis sporulation, survival and distribution. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00181-13

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/1UQFQ38fKCw/130422154927.htm

abraham lincoln Chris Dorner 1800 Flowers walking dead The Pope bruno mars the Grammys 2013

Israeli official: Syria's Assad used chemical arms

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) ? A senior Israeli military intelligence official said on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons last month in his battle against insurgent groups. It was the first time that Israel has accused the embattled Syrian leader of using his stockpile of nonconventional weapons.

The assessment could raise pressure on the U.S. and other Western countries to intervene in the Syrian conflict. Britain and France recently announced that they had evidence that Assad's government had used chemical weapons. Although the U.S. says it has not been able to verify these claims, President Barack Obama has warned that the introduction of chemical weapons by Assad would be a "game changer."

Israel, which borders southwestern Syria, has been warily watching the Syrian civil war since the fighting erupted there in March 2011. Although Assad is a bitter enemy, Israel has been careful not to take sides, partly because the Assad family has kept the border with Israel quiet for the past 40 years and partly because of fears of what would happen if he is toppled.

Israeli officials are especially concerned that Assad's stockpile of chemical weapons and other advanced arms could reach the hands of Assad's ally, the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, or Islamic extremist groups trying to oust him. The concern is that if Assad is overthrown, any of these groups could turn his sophisticated arsenal against Israel. Hezbollah battled Israel to a monthlong stalemate in 2006.

In his assessment, Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the head of research and analysis in Israeli military intelligence, told a security conference in Tel Aviv that Assad has used chemical weapons multiple times. Among the incidents were attacks documented by the French and British near Damascus last month.

"To the best of our professional understanding, the regime used lethal chemical weapons against the militants in a series of incidents over the past months, including the relatively famous incident of March 19," Brun said. "Shrunken pupils, foaming at the mouth and other signs indicate, in our view, that lethal chemical weapons were used."

He said sarin, a lethal nerve agent, was probably used. He also said the Syrian regime was using less lethal chemical weapons, and that Russia has continued to arm the Syrian military with weapons such as advanced SA-17 air defense missiles.

Brun appeared to lament the lack of response by the international community, saying the silence could encourage rogue groups that do not play by traditional rules of war.

"The fact that chemical weapons were used without an appropriate response is a very disturbing development because it could signal that such a thing is legitimate," he said. "I think we need to be very worried that chemical weapons will reach elements that are less responsible."

Brun did not elaborate or provide any of the additional evidence he had gathered.

He delivered his assessment as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was wrapping up a visit to Israel.

Reacting to Brun's comments, Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. "continues to assess reports of chemical weapons use in Syria."

"The use of such weapons would be entirely unacceptable," he added." ''We reiterate in the strongest possible terms the obligations of the Syrian regime to safeguard its chemical weapons stockpiles, and not to use or transfer such weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday repeated that Israel has the right "to defend itself" against any threat. He spoke at a meeting Hagel.

At a meeting with Hagel on Monday, Israel's defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, laid out a number of "clear red lines" to Syria that could trigger an Israeli response. Among them were transferring sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah and other "rogue elements" in Syria, cross-border attacks into Israel or "rogue elements" getting hold of Syrian chemical weapons.

The Israeli military has fired at targets inside Syria on several occasions in response to gunfire or mortar shells landing in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel has all but admitted that it carried out an airstrike in Syria in January that destroyed a shipment of anti-aircraft missiles believed to be headed to Hezbollah.

"We proved it. When they crossed these red lines, we operated, we acted," Yaalon said.

While Israel has focused on the dangers of militants obtaining chemical weapons, the West has expressed a broader concern about any use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Britain and France informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month that they have reliable evidence Assad's forces used chemical weapons that caused injuries and deaths. They cited soil samples and interviews with witnesses and opposition figures.

The two countries asked the U.N. chief to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations near Damascus on March 19, as well as in the city of Homs on Dec. 23. Ban has appointed a team of chemical weapons experts to investigate the allegations, but the Syrian government has largely blocked the team from doing its work. Syria, meanwhile, has accused rebels of using chemical weapons.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, acknowledged last week that he could not guarantee that U.S. forces could secure the chemical weapons caches within Syria. He said Syria has been moving the weapons between numerous sites.

Syria is believed to have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, a blistering agent, and the more lethal nerve agents, sarin and VX.

During a trip to Israel last month, Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer." He said if confirmed, "the international community has to act on that additional information," but did not detail what the next steps would be.

Amos Yadlin, a retired chief of Israeli military intelligence who heads the Institute for National Security Studies that hosted Tuesday's conference, urged the U.S. to intervene. He said the red line in Syria had been crossed and that the U.S. should act.

Not doing so would "strengthen the opinion of those, particularly in Israel, who are suspicious of America's commitment when red lines are crossed," he said. He suggested the U.S. impose a no-fly zone over Syria or even initiate a bombing campaign similar to the one conducted against the regime of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

"So far they haven't applied any leverage to Bashar, and this has allowed him to do what Gadhafi could never do," Yadlin told The Associated Press.

___

Associated Press writers Peter James Spielmann at the United Nations, Robert Burns in Amman, Jordan, and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-official-syrias-assad-used-chemical-arms-121237775.html

mitt romney mark zuckerberg mark zuckerberg maurice jones drew Yash Chopra George McGovern braxton miller

UK man convicted of selling fake bomb detectors

LONDON (AP) ? A millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors that were based on a novelty golf ball finder to countries including Iraq was convicted Tuesday of fraud in a British court.

Police investigators said the bogus devices put people's safety at risk.

James McCormick, 56, is said to have made an estimated 50 million pounds ($76 million) from sales of his detectors, which claimed to be able to find explosives, drugs and people from planes, under water, underground and through walls. They could purportedly detect at distance and bypass "all known forms of concealment."

But experts said the hand-held devices, which were sold for up to 27,000 pounds ($41,000) each, in fact lacked "any grounding in science" and were "completely ineffectual as a piece of detection equipment."

"The devices did not work, and he knew they did not work," prosecutor Richard Whittam said. One of the earlier models McCormick sold was based on a novelty machine for finding golf balls that could be bought in the U.S. for less than $20, he added.

The detectors were sold to military and police forces around the world, including Iraq, Niger, Georgia, Egypt and Thailand.

Nigel Rock, an investigating officer with the Avon and Somerset Constabulary ? the police force that arrested McCormick in 2010 ? said the businessman sold 6,000 devices to Iraq for more than $40 million between 2008 and 2010.

"The devices were used at numerous checkpoints within Iraq during this period. It is clear that both civilians and armed forces personnel were put at significant risk in relying upon this equipment," Rock said.

McCormick was found guilty of three counts of fraud at London's Central Criminal Court. He will be sentenced on May 2.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-man-convicted-selling-fake-bomb-detectors-131902046--finance.html

margaret sanger paul george eddie long ufc 143 weigh ins micron ceo glenn miller who do you think you are

Contact killing of Salmonella by human fecal bacteria

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Our gut is home to trillions of bacteria, numbering more than the cells in the rest of our body, and these bacteria help us to digest our food, absorb nutrients and strengthen our immune system. This complex bacterial ecosystem, called the gut microbiota, also helps to prevent bad bacteria from colonising our bodies and making us ill.

As part of the symbiotic relationship between the gut microbiota and our bodies, the bacteria derive nutrition from our food and convert it into compounds that we can't make ourselves. Some of these compounds are part of the arsenal that combats harmful bacteria. To date, these are the only identified defense mechanisms associated with gut bacteria.

Dr Carmen Pin, and PhD student Gaspar Avenda?o-Perez at the Institute of Food Research, which is strategically funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, have recently found a novel mode of interaction between Salmonella, a foodborne pathogen, and the gut bacteria that leads to the inactivation of Salmonella. This interaction relies on Salmonella and the gut bacteria being in close proximity, or through cell to cell contact. This new way of interaction between the "good" and the" bad" bacteria may contribute to prevent intestinal colonization and infection by foodborne pathogens.

The researchers collected faecal samples from several healthy human donors and used the experimental colon model facility of the Institute of Food Research to culture faecal bacteria together with Salmonella under conditions that mimicked those in the human colon. Gut bacteria effectively inactivated Salmonella in mixed culturesbut only when cell contact between both populations was possible. Salmonella inactivation was not observed when a membrane was included into the system to prevent cell contact between populations.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Norwich BioScience Institutes.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. G. Avendano-Perez, C. Pin. Loss of culturability of Salmonella Typhimurium upon cell-cell contact with human faecal bacteria. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1128/%u200BAEM.00092-13

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/XHUtlRbx_Gg/130423110817.htm

ireland vangogh yield crossbow airhead atherosclerosis steven tyler