Delhi High Court asks tax department to assess value of Nokia's Chennai plant

A court extended a hearing over local tax authorities' seizure of a Nokia factory by seeking information on the plant value, adding to concerns whether the company can transfer the property to Microsoft as part of the sale of its mobile phone business.
Nokia has offered to pay a 270 million euro deposit to authorities to unfreeze assets in a tax dispute, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Finnish firm has been trying to free up the assets, particularly its Chennai factory which is one of its biggest phone-making plants, ahead of the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the tax authorities to submit the value of the Chennai factory on Wednesday, when it is due to hear the case again, amid growing uncertainty about Nokia's exact tax liabilities in India.
A lawyer for the tax department said on Tuesday Nokia owed 78 billion rupees in tax payments.

The Times of India reported on Tuesday the tax department had informed the Delhi High Court that Nokia owned the authorities more than 210 billion rupees, which included penalty for a seven-year period beginning 2006.
The final sum of tax liabilities are not yet known. But in March, it was served with a tax demand of about 20.8 billion rupees for five fiscal years starting from 2006/07, according to a March 22 notice on the Delhi High Court website.
Nokia said it had not been served with any claim beyond that 20.8 billion rupee amount.
"In recent months we have seen and read about many claims from the tax authorities," the company said in a statement on Tuesday. "We feel they are without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously in court."
While Nokia has said it does not expect the dispute to affect its 5.4 billion euro deal with Microsoft, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, a lengthy asset freeze could complicate matters by preventing the transfer of ownership in the Chennai plant.
Nokia has said it wanted the assets to be released by December 12.

Microsoft's Android royalty

Microsoft's Android royalty earnings under threat due to Linus Torvalds email

Microsoft's been enjoying some reportedly handsome royalty payments from Android device manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Acer and HTC, based on its patents. So far however, Google (through its Motorola Mobility subsidiary) has avoided paying a dime to Microsoft. A very recent ruling however, may just turn the tide back in Google's favour.

As noted by intellectual property expert Florian Mueller, a German court (the Federal Patent Court of Germany, BPatG) on Thursday said that elements distinguishing Microsoft's 'common name space for long and short filenames' FAT patent from prior art (which includes a Linus Torvalds email) did not satisfy the 'technicity' requirement under European patent law.

Mueller added that Microsoft will probably appeal this decision at the country's highest court, the Federal Court of Justice, BGH. According to Forbes' Tim Worstall, if upheld, the ruling has implications that are wider in reach than German jurisdiction, becoming applicable across the European Union. With the current unspoken aim to try and normalise patent rulings between Europe and the US, it could very well set the trend across the Atlantic as well.

This would mean that a large part of Microsoft's rather convenient royalty earnings from Android, at least those derived from the FAT patent, will cease to flow in to the Redmond giant's coffers - something Microsoft will obviously try to contest. According to an earlier report by analyst firm Nomura, Microsoft was estimated to be earning a cool $2 billion a year from Android royalty payments.

Microsoft officially doesn't break up the amount it receives in royalty payments in its records, but Worstall estimates based on the volume of sales of Android devices, it receives roughly the same amount in Android royalties as it does for its Windows Phone licences, if not more.

 

China hackers target European foreign ministries

Chinese hackers spied on the computers of five European foreign ministries over the summer, according to research from US security company FireEye.

The hackers sent emails with malware-ridden attachments purporting to detail a possible US intervention in Syria.
The company has not revealed which ministries were targeted but said the malware samples were meant for individuals involved in the G20 talks.
In total nine computers had been compromised, the company told the BBC.
Network reconnaissance The computers had been targeted in the run-up to the annual summit of the G20 group of nations - which includes China - in St Petersburg, Russia, in September, FireEye said. The talks were dominated by the civil war in Syria.
For a week in August, the researchers said, they had been able to monitor one of the 23 computer servers used by the hackers, which they have dubbed the Ke3chang group after the names of one of the files used in its malicious code.
During the week the malware had been observed in action, no documents had been stolen, they said.
"At that stage it appeared to be about network reconnaissance," senior FireEye researcher Narottama Villeneuve told the BBC.
Carla Bruni The Ke3chang group has been active since at least 2010, according to the researchers.
Traditionally it has targeted the aerospace, energy and manufacturing industries but they have also delivered malware to hi-tech companies and governments, according to FireEye.
In 2012 it used a London Olympics themed attack and a year earlier used emails purporting to show nude pictures of the then French president's wife, Carla Bruni, researchers said.
But in their latest attack "they appeared to be specifically targeting foreign ministries", Mr Villeneuve told the BBC.
"The hackers were based in China but it is difficult to determine from a technology point of view how or if it is connected to a nation state," he added.
Mr Villeneuve explained how he had gained entry to the hackers' server.
"When they shift infrastructure, the servers are open. I just happened to check the servers when they weren't secured," he said.
However the glimpse into the inner workings of the hackers' command and control centre was short-lived, lasting for just over a week.
Tensions between China and the West over cyber-espionage have been increasing in recent years.
In June the US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel accused Chinese hackers of accessing secret US weapons programmes.

"sympathise" button as an alternative to the "like" button developed by Facebook

Facebook has devised a "sympathise" button as an alternative to the "like" button for use in certain situations.

If a user selected a negative emotion from Facebook's list of feelings in a status update then the "like" button would change to "sympathise".
A Facebook engineer said at a company event that the button had been created as part of an internal project.
But he later went on to say there were no plans to launch it at the moment.
Facebook were holding a "compassion research day" where members of the public and researchers are invited along to "improve [Facebook's] understanding of the driving forces and benefits of compassion".
Hackathon In a question and answer session an audience member asked if Facebook had thought about changing the "like" button when it felt inappropriate in relation to what a user had posted, for example when someone had written that their parents had died.
Dan Muriello, a software engineer at Facebook, said another engineer had worked on a hackathon project "a while back" to change the "like" button to "sympathise".
It would not work for every post he said but if you tag a status with certain emotions from a fixed list then the "like" button would change.
"A lot of people were very excited. But we made a decision that it was not exactly the right time to launch that product. Yet," he said.
Facebook hackathons are events where the company's engineers get together and brainstorm new ideas.
Facebook Chat and the "friend suggester" facility both were developed from work at these events.

Sensors used to monitor obesity

A range of hi-tech sensors that can measure food intake and activity in order to assess obesity risks is to be funded by the European Union.

Dubbed Splendid, the project aims to persuade youngsters to adopt healthier lifestyles and be more aware of their eating and exercise habits.
It is part of a push to use technology to create preventative healthcare.
Obesity causes an estimated 2.8 million deaths among adults around the world every year.
"The idea is that we try to investigate ways to prevent obesity and eating disorders," said Prof Anastasios Delopoulos, the project co-ordinator who works for the department of electrical and computer engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.
The system will be tested on around 200 secondary school students in Sweden and another set of children in the Netherlands.

One of the sensors will monitor how quickly people eat

Sensors will be used to measure the speed at which food is eaten as well as how food is chewed.
The time taken to consume food is one of the risk factors in obesity, according to Prof Delopoulos.
It will be measured using a mandometer, from Swedish firm AB Mando, which is currently used in a handful of clinics set up to treat eating disorders.
The sensor comprises a scale connected to a portable computer or a smartphone. A plate of food is put on the scale and the rate at which it leaves the plate is recorded, with an audible warning if it is being eaten too quickly for the person to realise they are full.
Swiss firm CSEM is developing the other two sensors that will be used in the project. ActiSmile is a wearable sensor, which rewards the wearer with a smiley face when enough exercise has been done.
The firm is also designing an acoustic sensor, which will take the form of a wearable microphone, and record how the user chews food.
Users will also input their own data, including how full they feel after a meal as well as daily intake and activity logs.
All the data will be processed and run through algorithms which will assess the risks for obesity and eating disorders.
In the later stages of the trial, the system will be used to help change the way at-risk youngsters eat and exercise.
"The goal is to modify eating and activity behaviour of individuals in a personalised way," said Prof Delopoulos.
"A medical expert will assign goals, such as to eat more slowly or adopt more activity and the sensors will monitor whether the individual succeeds," he added.
Daniel Kraft is a doctor and executive director of FutureMed, a healthcare education programme aimed at teaching medical professionals about new technologies.
He thinks that sensors will increasingly be integrated into healthcare.
"From connected scales to sensors that can track heart rate and activity levels... the patient can be empowered to understand their healthcare data," he said.
"It brings you to an era of healthcare rather than sick care," he added.

Cyber attack hits Natwest customers

A deliberate attempt to disrupt services at NatWest left some customers struggling to access online banking on Friday.

The surge of traffic - known as a distributed denial of service attack - was blamed by the RBS Group, which owns NatWest, for the access problems.
The disruption lasted for an hour from 11:30 GMT.
It came less than a week after a major computer failure left some customers unable to use cards and cash machines.
Details safe On Friday, a number of customers reported problems getting on to the bank's website, from which they normally access their accounts online.
The RBS Group - which includes RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank - said that NatWest was worst affected by the "deliberate" disruption.
"Due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the NatWest website, customers experienced difficulties accessing some of our customer websites today," a spokeswoman for RBS said.
"This deliberate surge of traffic is commonly known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. We have taken the appropriate action to restore the affected websites. At no time was there any risk to customers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused."
She stressed that the latest incident was not connected to Monday's IT failure and no customer information was compromised at any time.
The incident on Monday also affected cash machines and card payments and prompted an apology from the boss of the RBS group, Ross McEwan.

Latest cancer screening technology

The new mammography machine, which scans women for early signs of breast cancer, offers greater comfort for patients as well as enhanced image quality thanks to two new high definition reporting stations.
Lead for breast services at Hinchingbrooke Dr Penny Moyle said: “Patient experience is fundamental to everything we do here at Hinchingbrooke. This new equipment gives us access to the very latest in breast screening technology and ensures that we are able to continuously improve our service for the benefit of our local community.”