IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 15 April
15-04-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Mayor apologises for Facebook post | HP's Moscow offices raided
The Irish Independent reports that the mayor of Kilkenny city, Green Party councillor Malcolm Noonan, has apologised for using the word 'knobheads' in a Facebook post expressing his frustration over a U-turn about a one-way traffic system. Noonan said he was "exhausted and frustrated" when he made his Facebook comment expressing disappointment that the council had "caved in" on the one-way system. "It was a derogatory, off-the-cuff comment," he said. "I don't even know who I was referring to. I was probably referring to us as a collective."
The paper also says that members of the Garda Siochana are to be supplied with laptops, PCs and IT systems. Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said one of his first acts when he took over the top post was to appoint an executive director of IT from the civilian sector. He said the force was currently developing an IT strategy for 2010-2012 and he had directed that the focus should be on ensuring that the work of Gardai, even in the remotest stations, was fully supported and enhanced by technology. Last year the Garda spent more than EUR80 million on IT projects and services.
The same paper reports that a sailor who texted his girlfriend the location of his ship has been given a three-month jail sentence and discharged from the Defence Forces. Able Seaman Eoin Gray pleaded guilty to disclosing information without authority about the operation of state ships at sea between 4 and 14 December 2008. The charge of disclosing information was one of five laid against Gray, who initially pleaded not guilty to all charges. When he changed his plea to guilty for the charge of disclosure, the remaining four charges were dropped. They included charges relating to the importation of cocaine, the possession of cocaine and the possession of eight counterfeit hair straighteners.
The paper also notes that Three Mobile is gearing up to unveil a new brand identity, based around the concept of "3 your mind". The first teasers for the EUR2.5 million campaign are already featured on a handful of billboards around the country ahead of a TV campaign launching next Monday. Three has around 500,000 subscribers.
The paper also reports on the launch of insurance company Aviva's iPhone app, 'Health Mate'. The app works as a traditional pedometer but factors in BMI and gender to give calorie burn, and also features maps of walking trails all over the country. Four days after launch, Health Mate was the number one app in the iTunes Irish health and fitness store, and the number 15 app in the overall Irish store.
The Irish Examiner says that schools and parents have been urged to ensure young children are fully aware of the internet's dangers after a group of 11-year-old girls were e-mailed anonymous messages claiming their throats would be slit. The message was sent to three fifth class students at St Aidan's primary school in Enniscorthy, Wexford, on Monday, warning that the e-mail's recipients would be killed unless they forwarded the message. "You must send this on or you will be killed tonight at 12pm by Bloody Mary. This is no joke," the e-mail said.
The Wall Street Journal reports that US Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski has said his agency has the authority to push ahead with its plans to expand broadband access, as senators from both parties criticised his recently released National Broadband Plan. Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee urged Genachowski to push ahead with efforts to enforce 'net neutrality' rules that would prohibit broadband providers from favouring one form of web traffic over another. Committee chairman John Rockefeller said he supported the FCC's efforts on net neutrality and that Congress will rewrite the telecom laws if necessary. Most Republicans on the panel said less regulation would be better. Genachowski declined to say what he plans to do on the issue of net neutrality.
The paper also says that Fujitsu's battle with its former president turned nastier on Wednesday as the company called a news conference to accuse Kuniaki Nozoe of failing to heed a warning against associating with an investment fund that Fujitsu says has possible gangster ties. At the conference, a Japanese reporter asked why, if the company really considered the gangster allegations serious, Fujitsu's chairman had never spoken directly to Nozoe about the company's concerns. "We thought no matter how many times we warned him, he wouldn't stop," said company chairman Michiyoshi Mazuka. "If the fund's reputations were true, the risk for us would be huge. And such lack in the sense of risk makes a person unqualified to be a Fujitsu president." Nozoe's lawyer said that Fujitsu's argument was "arbitrary" and that the company should conduct a third-party probe of the circumstances of his client's departure last September.
According to the Financial Times, the offices of Hewlett-Packard in Moscow were raided by Russian investigators on Thursday looking into alleged bribery involving a sale of equipment to a Russian government agency. The US PC maker confirmed the raid but refused to comment on the details of the case. In a statement, HP said the raid involved "an investigation of alleged conduct that occurred almost seven years ago, largely by employees no longer with HP. We are cooperating fully with the German and Russian authorities and will continue to conduct our own internal investigation." The case concerns a contract for HP equipment signed in 2003.
Free! "In the papers" email newsletter -- get the full text to your in-box every business day. Email itp@enn.ie with 'subscribe' in the subject line.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 