Pakistan bomber kills 8, including local official

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber shot his way into the residence of a provincial government minister in northwestern Pakistan, killing the official and seven others in an explosion, police said.

The blast Wednesday near the town of Dera Ismail Khan also wounded more than 30 people, senior police officer Mohammad Jan said. The minister of law for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Israullah Gandapur, was meeting with people at his house to celebrate the Muslim Eid holiday when the bomber struck, Jan said.

The attacker first shot dead the guard at the house before blowing himself up inside the guest room of the minister's residence, the officer said. The minister died on the way to the hospital.

The suicide bomber got very close to the minister before the blast and carried about 8 kilograms (17 pounds) of explosives on his body, Jan said.

Hameedullah Khan, an aide to the slain minister, said about 50 people were in the room at the time of the explosion.

"Some were enjoying tea and sweets, others were meeting and greeting," Khan said. "I was meeting with the minister's brother Ikramullah when suddenly there was a big bang followed by smoke, (the) explosive's smell and noise of crying people."

Khan said the blast knocked him senseless until he saw the minister lying in a pool of blood with others. Khan suffered minor injuries. The minister's brother, also wounded in the blast, was in stable condition, Khan said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion likely will fall on the Pakistani Taliban and their allies. The Taliban repeatedly have targeted government officials and security personnel, as well as civilians.

Gandapur was elected to the provincial assembly in May as an independent. He later joined the ruling provincial party led by former cricket star Imran Khan and became law minister. He oversaw the office tasked with drafting provincial laws.

Khan has been a strong proponent of peace talks with the Taliban, but several officials from his party have been killed in attacks since the May election.

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Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-bomber-kills-8-including-local-official-142304783.html
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Will Eno play to hit Broadway with some big stars

NEW YORK (AP) — A play about four people who share the same last name is coming to Broadway with some awfully big names attached.

Michael C. Hall, Toni Collette, Marisa Tomei and Tracy Letts are set to star in Will Eno's play "The Realistic Joneses" early next year. Previews are set to begin in February and an opening scheduled at a theater to be announced for late March.

In the play, two couples both with the surname Jones discover they have more in common than just their names. Eno, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his one-man show "Thom Pain (based on nothing)," also wrote "Middletown," ''Title and Deed" and "Oh, the Humanity and other exclamations," a collection of five short plays.

Collette has a Golden Globe and Emmy Award for "United States of Tara," Hall earned a Golden Globe with "Dexter," Tomei won an Oscar with "My Cousin Vinny" and Letts has won Tony Awards for acting in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and for writing "August: Osage County."

"The Realistic Joneses" first ran at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 2012 with Letts aboard. Sam Gold also returns to direct the Broadway version. Producers include Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jam Theatricals, Stacey Mindich and Susan Gallin and Mary Lu Roffe.

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Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-16-Theater-The%20Realistic%20Joneses/id-124144368b714e97ae1f6a6f04b61679
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You Can Use Square to Give Cash to Friends Now

Friend buy you a coffee when you had no cash? Now you can pay her back on the spot with Square's new mobile payment system, Square Cash.

You can already do this with a lot of services like Venmo or PayPal, but now Square—one of the most popular and easy to use services for merchants—is opening up an insta-payment system for everybody. Through a mobile app for Android and iOS, you type in an amount, and Square will send it directly to your friend's email address. Square Cash is tied to your debit card, so the money goes directly to your bank account. There are no fees, either. So easy, so simple, and such a good reason to never owe money to anyone ever again. [Square Cash]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/you-can-use-square-to-give-cash-to-friends-now-1446364218
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Electronic Make-Up Lets You Activate Gadgets By Blinking

A cheeky wink can say an awful lot—but now it can do an awful lot, too. A new range of conducting cosmetics means that you could soon be activating electronics with the blink of an eye.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/x9e5y_hZlmg/electronic-make-up-lets-you-activate-gadgets-by-blinkin-1446288892
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Fitch warns it may cut U.S. credit rating from AAA

By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday it could cut the sovereign credit rating of the United States from AAA citing the political brinkmanship over raising the federal debt ceiling.

"Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default," the firm said in a statement.

Fitch is the only one of the three major credit rating agencies to have a negative outlook on the U.S. sovereign credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded the rating to AA-plus in August of 2011 during the last debt ceiling impasse.

Fitch reiterated that the delay in increasing the borrowing capacity of the United States raises questions about the full faith and credit of the United States to honor its obligations.

The U.S. Treasury has said that on or about October 17, the U.S. will have run out of cash to pay its bills.

A U.S. Treasury spokesman said Fitch's decision is a reminder for U.S. lawmakers that the United States is dangerously close to defaulting on its obligations.

Last week Fitch said that it would only consider the United States in default if it failed to make payments due on interest or principal of U.S. Treasuries.

(Reporting By Daniel Bases and Caryn Trokie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fitch-warns-may-cut-u-credit-rating-aaa-210121106--finance.html
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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=234887653&ft=1&f=1032
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gamesGRABR Launches Equity Funding Campaign To Be 'Pinterest ...

You’ve seen “Pinterest for X” style startups before I’m sure. Well, gamesGRABR is a new style “social network for gaming” which is aiming to become a sort of ‘Pinterest you games’. But before you turn away, take a look, as this is more than just an interface, it allows the user to curate games collections, discover, engage, play and share them with other users, on any gaming platform. Today it’s launched an equity crowdfunding campaign, to raise £150,000 for startup capital.

Led by serial gaming entrepreneur Tony Pearce, the campaign aims to raise interested investors for equity in parent company TeePee Games. Funding will be supplemented by an additional £200,000 raised by Pearce and his team from existing investors. The company closed a seed funding round of £250,000 in March 2013, used to develop and launch the site as it is today.

He tells me: “I suppose Pinterest could be a competitor but no gamers would be seen dead on Pinterest. We are still the only company to focus 100% on games in a pinboard style UI with social and cross platform discovery and recommendations. Other gaming sites such as Playfire you can see what your friends are playing but just on console games.”

Since a beta launched in June it’s been gaining traction and claims to have hit 100,000 uniques, continual growth and an average of 35% returning. The platform has over 50,000 games across all platforms and new features such as platform and genre filtering, the ability to play, buy or download any game in one click plus more social integration.

It’s also interesting that they chose Crowdcube which is essentially a much quicker way to raise equity funding – assuming they make it of course.

Pearce has in the past raised over £15m in VC funding, starting 3 companies with 2 successful exits. He co-founded Player X, Europe’s largest mobile games distribution company in Europe that was acquired by Spanish mobile content company Zed in April 2009.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/gamesgrabr-launches-equity-funding-campaign-to-be-pinterest-for-games/
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