Police say iPad may prove key in Zimmerman marital altercation case

Zimmerman's wife calls 911 on him

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• "Unfortunately, the iPad is in several pieces," police spokesman says
• Shellie Zimmerman placed 911 call and said she and her father were threatened
• No gun was found in Monday's alleged incident

(CNN) -- An iPad used to shoot video of a confrontation that allegedly erupted Monday between George Zimmerman and his estranged wife, Shellie, and her father might prove key in determining whether charges will be filed, police said Tuesday in Lake Mary, Florida.

"Unfortunately, the iPad is in several pieces," police spokesman Zach Hudson told reporters about the device, which he said George Zimmerman had damaged.

The incident comes two months after Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death in nearby Sanford of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed youth.

Police have sent the pieces of the iPad for analysis, Hudson said. "We want to get all the information, the footage, off it."

Zimmerman's wife not pressing charges

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Zimmerman's wife files for divorce

Photos: Zimmerman trial

It was not clear who, if anyone, would be charged in the case, he said. "It depends on what the iPad has on it," he said. "What that footage looks like."

No charges were filed after the incident on Monday afternoon, when police answered a 911 call from Shellie Zimmerman during which she said her husband had threatened her and her father with a gun.

HLNTV.com: New details of Shellie Zimmerman's 911 call

"There was no gun found," Hudson said. "There was no weapon, nor was there any weapon involved. Nobody ever saw a gun. A gun is definitely not part of any evidence in this particular case."

Shellie Zimmerman's reference to a gun during her call to 911 is not likely to result in any charges, he said.

"Any time you have a divorce, emotions are going to run high," Hudson added. "In this case, obviously, that was happening and, unfortunately, you had an incident. We need to find out and determine if a crime was committed during that incident."

No one was injured at the house, he said. "They put hands on each other. I don't know if that was fists or pushing."

Shellie Zimmerman and her father, David Bryant Dean, had gone to the house she had shared with George Zimmerman to pick up some of her belongings.

The Zimmermans had texted Monday morning, and she told him she was going go the house, according to a person with whom the family shared the texts.

George Zimmerman and a friend also went to the house, where he got into a heated discussion with Dean, Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, told CNN on Monday. Police said it was then that Zimmerman broke the iPad.

"There was heightened emotion, and a disagreement took place," O'Mara said Monday. He added that Shellie Zimmerman no longer lives at the house, which is owned by her father.

O'Mara has since announced that he will no longer represent Zimmerman.

Shellie Zimmerman's divorce filing last week in Seminole County came after she pleaded guilty to perjury on August 28 for lying about the couple's finances during a bond hearing in April 2012. She had said she and her husband were broke, when they had collected about $135,000 in donations from supporters.

Since his acquittal on July 13, George Zimmerman has returned several times to the headlines. In late July, he helped a family escape from an overturned SUV. And he has been pulled over in traffic twice. The first time, he was given a verbal warning for a traffic violation in Texas and reportedly told officers he had a firearm in his glove compartment. The second time was in Florida last week, when he was issued a $256 ticket for speeding.

Under Florida law, it is up to police to decide whether to press charges for domestic battery.

HLNTV.com: Twitter tackles latest Zimmerman run-in

TMZ: George Zimmerman visits Florida gunmaker

CNN exclusive: George W. Bush on AIDS, Mandela, Snowden and his legacy

George W. Bush builds on legacy in Africa

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The former president tells CNN that Snowden has hurt U.S. security
• He refrains from criticizing Obama, who he says has a "hard job"
• Nelson Mandela's legacy "will last for a long time," Bush says
• He says he bears no grudge against Mandela for Iraq criticism

(CNN) -- Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are in Africa this week, where they renovated a cancer screening clinic in Zambia and commemorated the victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Tanzania.

The clinic, which is designed help women fight cervical cancer, builds on the former president's work fighting AIDS on the continent. While he was in office, Bush set up a plan that dramatically reduced the number of AIDS deaths in Africa.

"I'm really proud of the American people for their generosity," he told CNN in an exclusive interview. "I wish Americans knew how many lives were saved. Someday, they will."

Bush also told CNN why he respects Nelson Mandela, what he thinks about Edward Snowden and President Barack Obama, and how he's not going to be around when his legacy is finally decided.

Photos: Bushes renovate Zambian clinic

• On Snowden: "I think he damaged the security of the country."

• On Mandela: "His legacy will last for a long time."

• On Obama: "It's a hard job. He's got plenty on his agenda."

Bush talked about Snowden, the computer contractor who leaked details about secret U.S. surveillance programs, to CNN's Robyn Curnow in Zambia on Sunday.

He said he believes the Obama administration "will deal" with the fallout from the controversy unleashed by Snowden, who is now thought to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow airport after fleeing there from Hong Kong.

Snowden's disclosures about the programs carried out by the National Security Agency have shaken the U.S. intelligence community and put the Obama administration on the defensive over accusations of government overreach into citizens' privacy.

But Bush refrained from criticizing the current president.

"I don't think it does any good," he said. "It's a hard job. He's got plenty on his agenda. It's difficult. A former president doesn't need to make it any harder. Other presidents have taken different decisions; that's mine."

The White House has defended the surveillance programs as necessary tools to defuse terrorist threats. Obama has said he welcomes a debate over how to strike a balance between security and privacy.

"I think there needs to be a balance, and as the president explained, there is a proper balance," Bush said.

I made decisions that were the right decisions. History will ultimately judge.
George W. Bush

Asked about an NSA program that tracks people's Internet activity, Bush said, "I put that program in place to protect the country. One of the certainties was that civil liberties were guaranteed."

Snowden has said he leaked information to journalists about the surveillance programs in the hope of ending what he called an excessively intrusive system.

The Bushes were at a renovated health clinic in Livingstone, Zambia, scheduled to open Monday as a cervical cancer screening and treatment center. They hope this will save the lives of thousands of women.

In his comments, George Bush touched on the subject of Mandela, who is on life support in a South African hospital.

 

"Sometimes, there are leaders who come and go. His legacy will last for a long time," he said of the ailing anti-apartheid icon.

Reminded by Curnow that Mandela had criticized him publicly about the war in Iraq, Bush said he didn't bear a grudge.

"He wasn't the only guy," he said. "It's OK. I made decisions that were the right decisions. History will ultimately judge. I never held someone's opinion against him; I didn't look at him differently because he didn't agree with me on an issue."

Bush also initially said he wasn't bothered about his ratings in opinion polls, even if some of them now put him at a similar level to Obama.

"The only time I really cared was on Election Day," he said.

Then, drawing laughter from his wife, he checked himself and said, "You know, I guess it's nice. I mean, let me rephrase that: Thank you for bringing it up."

In any case, the former president said he doesn't expect a fair assessment of his legacy in his lifetime.

"I won't be around, because it will take a while for the objective historians to show up," he said. "So I'm pretty comfortable with it, I did what I did; I know the spirit in which I did it."

...........................................................................................................................................

Nasdaq resumes trading after technical glitch

Trading halted for nearly three hours, latest in flurry of high-profile glitches on US markets.

Nasdaq is the second-largest US stock exchange operator, listing about 3,200 shares [Reuters]

Trading in Nasdaq-listed securities has resumed after being halted for several hours because of a technical problem in distributing stock price quotes. All traffic through Nasdaq stopped at 12:14pm EDT (16:14 GMT), the exchange said on its website on Thursday. It resumed nearly three hours after trading in Apple, Google, Microsoft and more than 3,000 other US companies had been abruptly halted. "Any brokerage firm gets paid by executing orders," said Sal Arnuk, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "So yes, we are frustrated, and this hurts us, it hurts the market and it hurts public confidence." A source familiar with the matter described the problem as a "data feed issue". Earlier, rival exchanges, including NYSE Euronext's New York Stock Exchange, had halted trading in Nasdaq-listed shares. Trading of shares not listed on Nasdaq continued, but transactions could not be executed on the Nasdaq platform. Options trading was also halted. 'Level of automation' Nasdaq is the second-largest US stock exchange operator. In all, it lists about 3,200 shares. "I can't remember this happening in recent memory," said Christopher Nagy, president of consultancy firm KOR Trading and a former head of trading at TD Ameritrade. Before the halt, the Nasdaq Composite Index had been up 0.87 percent. Thursday's outage was the latest of a flurry of high-profile glitches that have become familiar to participants in US stock markets. "As we continue to eliminate human beings from the execution of security trading, this is the problem you run into," said Stephen Massocca, managing director of Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco. "These events are going to take place, given the level of automation." On Tuesday, a technical problem at Goldman Sachs Group Inc resulted in a flood of erroneous orders being sent to US equity options markets. Two weeks earlier, on August 6, stock exchange operator BATS Global Markets was hit with a nearly hour-long outage.

India firm buys stake in Mozambique gas field

ONGC secures 10 percent holding for $2.64bn in gas field with potential to become one of world's largest.

Demand for gas in India outstrips consumption, but prices have been kept low for strategic industries [Reuters]

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.NS) has agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in a gas field offshore Mozambique from Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp for $2.64bn. ONGC is aiming to offset diminishing supplies from domestic gas fields by buying overseas assets, according to the Reuters news agency. Anadarko's (APC.N) stake is the latest in a handful of overseas assets that ONGC Videsh, the overseas business unit of state-controlled ONGC, has bought in the past couple of years to boost India's energy needs. In June, ONGC and state-run Oil India Ltd (OILI.NS) signed a deal to buy a 10 percent stake in a Mozambique gas field from Videocon Group (VEDI.NS) for $2.48bn. "There is a lot of energy demand and whatever volumes of gas we are able to bring to the country are of utmost significance," A K Srinivasan, ONGC's group general manager for finance, told Reuters. "Mozambique will be a big LNG hub for the future." Anadarko said it would remain the operator of Area 1, with a working interest of 26.5 percent in the block, which is located in Mozambique's deepwater Rovuma Basin. Recent discoveries have turned the Rovuma field into a major draw for global energy producers and boosted Mozambique's natural gas reserves to around 150 trillion cubic feet or enough to supply Japan, the world's top LNG importer, for 35 years. Rovuma has the potential to become one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producing hubs by 2018, and is strategically located to supply gas to India at competitive prices. Internal cash balance ONGC, which expects the cash transaction to close by March 2014, is likely to finance the deal through internal cash balance and fresh borrowings, Srinivasan said, adding that financing details would be finalised over the next few months. The company's bonds were trading at marginally wider spreads on Monday, underperforming tightness in the market, and shares fell as much as 3.8 percent in the Mumbai market .NSEI that was trading flat, on worries about its higher debt levels. Analysts expect ONGC's two recent acquisitions to lead to higher debt levels, although a credit downgrade is unlikely. "Given current market conditions and uncertainty about India, financing may be a challenge and we think most of it will come from the bank market. That said, a potential bond activity cannot be ruled out," a U.S. bank said in a note. ONGC, which has struggled to maintain output from its ageing wells off India's west coast, will be interested in buying more overseas assets to feed the energy needs of Asia's third-largest economy, Srinivasan said, but declined to give details. "The country is starving for gas, for our power development and any other development," he said. Demand for gas in India far outstrips consumption, but prices have been kept low for strategic industries, deterring investment in the sector. India has few energy resources other than coal and is the world's fourth-biggest importer of fuel.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire

 

Investors dance as Steve Ballmer exits

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced Friday that he will retire within the next 12 months.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) soared nearly 7% on the news.

"There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time," Ballmer said. "We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing senior leadership team."
Microsoft unveiled its latest reorganization a month ago, hoping to better align the company's organizational structure with its new corporate strategy. Ballmer wants Microsoft to transition to a "devices and services" company, focusing on making hardware, online services and apps that work together seamlessly across multiple screens and gadgets.
Ballmer said he originally had planned to retire in the middle of the company's latest transition plan, but he felt the company needed a longer-term CEO who would be able to see Microsoft through its restructuring.
Read Steve Ballmer's letter to employees
No successor for Ballmer was named. Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder and chairman, will be involved in the hiring process.
"I'll work closely with the other members of the board to identify a great new CEO," said Gates. "We're fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties."
Investors have criticized Ballmer for failing to groom a successor. Virtually every Microsoft executive who was an heir apparent seemed to fly too close to the sun and ended up retiring or being forced out. Windows Chief Steve Sinofsky and Software Chief Ray Ozzie are recent prominent examples.
Though Devices Chief Julie Larson-Green seems to be an obvious CEO candidate, many analysts are clamoring for Microsoft to consider an external candidate who could help the company transition away from the PC.
Infographic: A tale of two Microsoft CEOs
Ballmer has had a rocky tenure as CEO, a role he took over from Gates in 2000. The company was once the most valuable in the world, but Microsoft has lost more than half of its market value over the past decade. During that time, the stock has failed to gain any traction, mostly wavering between $25 and $35 a share.
Investors have been critical of Ballmer for failing to anticipate the mobile computing revolution. Microsoft trails Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)in the world of mobile software and devices.
Its late-to-the-game attempts to get the company into the mobile arena have largely fallen flat: Windows Phone is critically acclaimed but has gained poor traction among consumers. The Surface tablet -- the first PC of Microsoft's own design -- sold so poorly that Microsoft was recently forced to take a $900 million writedown on excess Surface inventory.
Mobile is only the latest bust for Ballmer. There was the Zune, Microsoft's ill-fated attempt to get into the once-hot MP3 game dominated by Apple's iPod. Despite a search partnership with Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Microsoft still has been unable to generate profits from its Bing search engine and other online properties.
And of course, there was Windows Vista, a disastrously buggy PC operating system that tarnished the company's reputation. The latest version, Windows 8, has so for been poorly received, as consumers have found it difficult to master the completely redesigned operating system. But Microsoft responded to some complaints with an update, dubbed Windows 8.1, that is expected to launch in October.
Related: 13 killer Windows 8.1 features
But there have been many hits during Ballmer's tenure as well. Windows 7 was the fastest-selling operating system of all time. Xbox and Kinect did the unthinkable last year, taking the lead in the video game world. And Microsoft's cloud and enterprise businesses have remained strong throughout the past decade.
Microsoft supported Ballmer throughout. Gates and Ballmer are longtime friends, and Ballmer was one of the first 30 employees to join the company.
"This is an emotional and difficult thing for me to do," Ballmer wrote in a letter to employees. "I take this step in the best interests of the company I love; it is the thing outside of my family and closest friends that matters to me most."

Banks face $2 billion U.K. credit card scandal bill

British and other banks will take part in the scheme to compensate customers in the latest of a series of scandals concerning misconduct in the financial services industry.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Banks and credit card issuers will have to pay up to £1.3 billion ($2 billion) compensation to British customers who were sold identity theft and fraud protection policies they didn't need.

It's the latest in a series of fines, settlements and compensation payments in the industry as banks try to move on from a recent sorry history of manipulating interest rates, breaking money-laundering laws and selling individuals and businesses complex products that were inappropriate or not properly explained.

Regulators said they were setting up a program to allow seven million customers to claim compensation relating to 23 million insurance policies sold by Card Protection Plan (CPP), which was fined £10.5 million in November 2012.
"Customers were given misleading and unclear information about the policies so that they bought cover that either was not needed, or to cover risks that had been greatly exaggerated," the Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement.
Related: America's favorite credit cards
The policies cost between £30 and £80 per year and were widely mis-sold by CPP. Many customers were referred to CPP by the biggest names in U.K. financial services.
Thirteen banks and credit card issuers, including Barclays (BCBAY), HSBC (HBC), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and MBNA, will join CPP in the compensation program, which is open to anyone who bought one of the products since 2005.
Customers due compensation will be entitled to the amount they paid for the policy, less any payouts, plus 8% interest on the amount owed.
Other banks participating in the compensation program are Lloyds (LLDTF), Canada Square Operations Limited (formerly Egg Banking), Capital One (COF, Fortune 500), National Australia Group, Home Retail Group (HMRLF), Nationwide Building Society, Santander (SAN)and Tesco (TESO)Personal Finance.
Related: Ex-JPMorgan bankers charged over London Whale
The bill is small compared to the $20 billion the U.K. sector has already paid out to compensate buyers of payment protection insurance aggressively sold at inflated prices alongside mortgages and other loans for more than a decade.
But it comes as banks are still struggling to strengthen their balance sheets to make up for the cost of past misconduct and to meet new tougher rules on capital and liquidity introduced in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Barclays said last month it was looking to raise £7.8 billion by issuing new shares and debt to help plug a £12.8 billion cash gap identified by regulators. It is also shrinking its balance sheet.

Edinburgh Fringe: Comedy Shows 'Losing Edge'

As comedy makes up less of the programme every year, the popularity of theatre and international shows is increasing.

Comedy accounts for around a third of the programme at the Edinburgh Festival but for the last few years its share has actually been marginally falling.

It has long been the Mecca for all things comic, attracting some of the industry's biggest and brightest stars as well as being a launch pad for the up and coming, but since 2011 numbers have fallen by about 4%.
According to Kate Copstick, chief critic for the Scotsman, comedy at the Fringe is losing its edge.
"Everything finds its level and I think big prices in a big auditorium listening to people who are basically just serving you up a slice of their telly show cobbled together to make a bit of money (aren't working).
"People are maybe stupid one or two times but they're not perpetually, endlessly stupid and they're going to remember 'I paid £12 to see him last time and he was rubbish'," she said.

This year's Fringe festival runs until August 26

The Comedian David Baddiel has brought his stand up act to the Fringe for the first time in 16 years and believes the sheer volume of comedians could be the problem.
"One thing I notice after not being here for years is the bewildering amount of comedians here. There's always been quite a lot but now you walk along and it's like being in a zoo of comedians there's so many," he said.
Many people still come to Edinburgh to see comedy, to watch the big names or to discover someone new.
However the idea behind the festival is that people will also stumble upon something completely different that they had never expected to see.
Performers come to Edinburgh from all over the world and the variety is seen as impressive. For instance, Australia's most renowned contemporary circus has brought its show Wunderkammer to the Underbelly, a combination of circus, cabaret and vaudeville.

'The Amazing Bubble Man' from San Francisco rehearses for his performance

As the number of comedy shows falls, theatre has seen a marked increase over the last few years, proving there is a place for the thought-provoking as well as for the fun and frivolous.
One of the shows being talked about includes a play about the political prisoner Yulia Tymoshenko. Her daughter Eugenia has come to the festival to see the show and thinks a play can make a difference, particularly at the biggest arts festival in the world.
"I think it's quite painful for the authorities and the regime who put my mother in prison and others that people are not silent, that a play has been made about her and I think it's very hard to silence it.
"So for them it did make a difference, it made them realise the truth will be heard no matter what," she said.
The average visitor sees three shows while they are at the festival and it seems a punch line is no longer a pre-requisite for success.

Dustin Hoffman Undergoes Cancer Treatment

The Academy Award-winner's publicist confirms that Hoffman was treated for cancer and has been "surgically cured".

 

Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman has undergone treatment for cancer, the actor's publicist has confirmed.

Jodi Gottlieb did not reveal what kind of cancer the Tootsie star was diagnosed with, or when the diagnosis took place.
But Gottlieb said the cancer had been "detected early and he has been surgically cured".
"Dustin is feeling great and is in good health," she said, adding that he will be continuing with preventative measures to avoid a recurrence of the disease.
Hoffman, 75, who won the best actor Oscar for his roles in 1979's Kramer vs Kramer and 1988's Rain Man, made his directorial debut with the 2012 comedy-drama Quartet.
The legendary actor has starred in dozens of other movies, including Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, All The President's Men and Marathon Man.
He is set to star alongside Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr in the Jon Favreau-directed comedy Chef, which is set for release next year.

 

Remy Martin Pace Setters VIP party celebrates Tiwa Savage & Ibukun Shobowale

Remy Martin Pace Setters VIP party celebrates Tiwa Savage & Ibukun Shobowale

After a successful outing at the Road Runners debut edition of the Remy Martins Pace Setters party where Road Runners founder Ibukun Shobowale was celebrated, the fine Champagne Cognac topped its record by playing host to Tiwa Savage at The Place by Club Papas last Saturday.

The Remy Martin Pace Setters party celebration of both individuals is in line with the brand’s goal of celebrating Nigerian achievers across every walk of life. Tiwa Savage is currently one of the hottest female acts in Africa who just released her debut album ‘Once Upon a Time’ while Ibukun Shobowale is a co-founder of ‘Road Runners’ one of Lagos mainland’s fastest growing clubs.

 

As is with any Remy Martin gathering, the Pace Setter series has been blessed with the presence of highly influential individuals who were treated to good music, the finest of Remy Martin cocktails, food pairings and Remy Martin based desserts.  Some names off the guest lists include Dr Sid, Banky W, Paul O, Chris Ubosi, Sam Onyelukwe, Ramsey Noah, Kelechi Amadi-Obi, and Dj Jimmy Jatt. Others are Kcee, Ebuka, Iceberg Slim and Capital Femi.

The brand is currently working on the next edition of the Remy Martin Pace Setters VIP party slated to hold in August. See photos from the last party below...

 

Stay in the mix ! Like the official  Remy Martin Nigeria Facebook Fan Page -facebook.com/remymartinnigeria  and follow @remymartinNG for more interesting updates and exciting give aways.