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The "Gulf Jash" is in the Indian Ocean on its way to the western state of Gujarat after Vietnam and Bangladesh turned it away, said Gopal Krishna of the group Toxic Watch Alliance.

The ship is laden with asbestos, toxic PCBs, fuel and chemical residues, according to Krishna, who said he has been tracking it since 2006, when its owner first started trying to find a place to dismantle it despite the hazardous materials onboard.

Indian authorities have said they are awaiting a report from the Gujarat government before making a decision on whether to allow it to enter Indian waters.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said Wednesday that he had asked the Gujarat government for a "factual report" on the position of the ship.

The ship's owner, U.S.-based Global Marketing System, could not immediately be reached for comment.

India has one of the world's largest industries for breaking down old ships and oil tankers, but like most countries it does not accept ships with toxic materials.

However, lax enforcement of laws mean ships with toxic materials are accepted for dismantling by unscrupulous contractors and tens of thousands of laborers, working with bare hands or minimal protection are exposed to deadly hazardous substances.

International and local environmental groups have for years urged Indian authorities to enforce laws to regulate the industry, in which ships are dismantled largely by hand.

Ritwick Dutta, a lawyer with NGO Shipbreaking Platform, an environment group that tracks toxic ships, says in India ships are dismantled close to the shore, without using cranes or heavy machinery.

"The ships are broken down by hand, their structures cut open" with blowtorches, he said.

In 2009, India banned the dismantling of an US-flagged cruise liner Platinum II at the ship-breaking yard in Alang in Gujarat after technical experts examined the ship and found evidence of asbestos and some radioactive substances in the hull.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Electronic Arts Inc. launched an online game download service called Origin on Friday, another sign that big video game publishers are betting on a future where they sell content directly to customers instead of through stores and online retailers.

Rival Activision Blizzard Inc. also announced plans this week to launch an online service for its "Call of Duty" games; that service is due later this year.

Origin, a new, expanded version of what was previously known as EA Store, has 150 games available to buy and download. Users can also pre-order limited-edition copies of upcoming titles such as "FIFA Soccer 12" and "Battlefield 3."

The PC game downloads generally cost the same as they would in a brick-and-mortar store.

Origin isn't the first game download service. Bellevue, Wash.-based Valve Corp. has a popular download engine at its game platform Steam, where customers can buy such games as Half-Life and Team Fortress.

EA said Origin will be accessible on mobile devices and PCs and will let users create friend lists and import their Facebook contacts.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

8) Palms Hotel, Hugh Hefner Suite

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Price per night: $40,000+

Size: 9,000+ square feet

Features: There’s room for 250 visitors at this two-floor bachelor pad featuring an 8-foot round rotating bed with mirrored ceiling, the Playboy Jacuzzi pool with a glass wall overlooking the Strip, poker table, media room, terrace, private glass elevator, pop-up plasma TVs, and a private gym with sauna/spa treatment room.

9) President Wilson Hotel, Royal Penthouse Suite

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Price per night: $65,000 +

Size: 5,511 square feet

Features: One of the world's largest hotels suites (though Hef’s got this one beat), the eighth floor of the President Wilson Hotel features 12 rooms, 12 bathrooms, a billiards table, a grand piano, a gym, a private elevator, and a private terrace.

( Source: CNBC )

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1. Sony has been hit with yet another hack attack, this time targeting its Pictures website. Hackers LulzSec say they pulled off a standard SQL injection, and managed to gain access to one million passwords of the sites users, which were stored in plain text files allegedly. The hack was intended to expose Sony's "disgraceful" security, and Sony's now busily investigating the claims and its security setups...again.

2. Google's Gmail phishing scam apparently targeted people who work at the White House as well as other government figures, according to new reports. No official messages were compromised, the administration has promised, but the hackers--still being reported as originating in China, despite China's protestations--were most likely hoping to glean information about official business of government from private user email accounts.

3. Facebook has struck back against the ownership lawsuit filed by Paul Ceglia, alleging that Ceglia fabricated evidence to support his claims. Facebook has supplied "real" emails, pulled from Harvard's server archives, that relate to the business deals between Mark Zuckerberg and Ceglia, and they show a different relationship to the alleged deal by Ceglia. Facebook's legal team is even saying Ceglia was involved in land sales scams.

4. Adobe's CEO, speaking at the AllThingsD conference, has revealed that there is no "war" with Apple, and it's all about different business models--a very different story to Steve Jobs' allegations about Flash's ill performance and security. Unable to defend accusations that Flash doesn't work well on Android devices (one key sales pitch for Google's smartphone web experience versus the iPhone) Shantanu Narayen still suggested Android tablets will soon overtake the iPad.

5. The U.S. Senate is considering a new proposal that would end the free ride ecommerce has enjoyed in much of the nation in terms of collecting sales tax. The exemption was initially allowed to protect the fledgling online economy, but now that web-stores are established there's a feeling that sales tax should be collected. The main "target" is most likely Amazon, which has been rattling its saber in a few states that tried to independently enforce sales tax collection.

Life apparently is very different for Pamela Anderson than it is for Renee Zellweger.

It's not what you're thinking. It's all about their names.

My last name begins with a "W".

As a kid, I was usually at the back of the class, last in line, given opportunities only after everyone else had a chance.

As an adult, does that make me more eager to buy stuff?

Maybe.

The Journal of Consumer Research has published a study which claims that the further back in the alphabet the first letter of your last name is, the faster you make purchasing decisions. It's because you feel denied. Cupcakes run out in kindergarten before you got one? You spend THE REST OF YOUR LIFE MAKING SURE YOU GET A CUPCAKE!

The news could be very helpful for marketers.

"Society does not treat all names equal," say authors Kurt Carlson and Jacqueline Conard in what they call the Last Name Effect. "Many organizations (e.g., elementary and middle schools) rely on alphabetical order of surnames to determine the order in which children access various opportunities." Kids forced to wait hate it. They grow up vowing never to miss another opportunity again.

The authors conducted studies to try to prove this theory. In one, MBA students were sent emails offering four free tickets to a top-ranked women's basketball game. Students whose names were in the back half of the alphabet responded on average in 19 minutes, six minutes faster than those whose names start in the front half. (I wonder how quickly they would've responded if it had been a men's basketball game, just sayin').

The results were repeated in another study which offered free wine and $5 to students of legal drinking age in exchange for taking part in a survey. But in addition to students in the M-Z group replying faster than the A-L group, a large number of A-L's didn't even bother to reply. Getting a freebie was no big deal.

"Children with surnames that begin with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet enjoy privileged treatment," the authors write. "They are at the beginning of lines, they sit in the front of the class, and they often get first choice when opportunities arise." This apparently has lifelong implications.

So, by this reasoning, Pam Anderson figures if she misses one opportunity, another will come along. Renee Zellweger, however, is terrified there will be no second chances. "For marketers, this raises the important question of whether those late in the alphabet will be more likely to respond to a limited time offer."

Which brings me back to...me. As a "W", I generally make up my mind very quickly to buy something. My husband is the opposite. He is patient. He can walk away.

What does his last name start with? A? G? L?

No. He's a "W", too.

Maybe he's an exception to the Last Name Effect, but it turns out he is right in line with an earlier study called the "Name-Letter Effect". That research found people choose things which have a similar spelling to their own last names, including "one's choice of spouse." Bingo. The Hubbanator and I share four letters in our last names. Perhaps marketers should pay attention to "effect" as well. Still waiting for Wells Fargo to pitch me. Or a fund specializing in oil wells. Water wells. Wales. Walls. Shells. Hells bells.

Greece step forward towards getting a bail out help from Europe and might get it  in early July following further talks in the next few weeks on Athens' economic programme, the EU, ECB and IMF said on Friday.

The Greek government will create an independently managed privatization agency, they said in a joint statement.

The statement concluded a one-month inspection of Greece by European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank officials.

Greece had achieved significant progress but fiscal and structural reforms had to be stepped up, the statement said. The Greek government was committed to an ambitious medium-term budget plan, they added. Greek liquidity remains tight but policies are in place to ensure it is adequate for banks, they said.

Aid for Greece needs to be approved by euro zone finance ministers and the IMF's executive board before it can be released to Greece.

( Source: Reuters )

CPRX has a very low burn rate compared to most biotechs; management has been conservative and made substantial purchases of this stock. The 52-week high is $1.54 and with volume picking up and the shares only about 30 cents away from that level, it looks like these shares could be ready to make new highs soon. The chart for this stock looks good as well, with the 50-day moving above the 200-day moving average, the chart shows a new golden cross formation, which often indicates the start of a new upward trend.

Catalyst has some big players invested in its stock. Federated Investors owns nearly 12% of this company and FMR, LLC (Fidelity) owns about 6%. Late last year, Catalyst began a $10 million clinical trial, the majority of which (about $7.2 million) is being paid by the government. The trial is for CPP-109, "Vigabatrin," to treat cocaine addiction. The company also has CP-115, which it says "has the potential to address a broad range of diseases affecting the central nervous system beyond addiction, such as adult epilepsy and infantile spasms." What intrigues me most about this is the following portion:

In 2010, Reckitt Benckiser's Suboxone(R) and Subutex(R) became the first addiction drugs to achieve "blockbuster" status with combined U.S. sales of over $1 billion. Recognition of this milestone, along with the looming "patent cliff" faced by the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, has increased the number of companies interested in discussions about partnering opportunities for CPP-109 and CPP-115. While no definitive partnering agreements have been entered into to date, Catalyst's goal is to make significant progress on this front before the end of 2011.

An agreement to partner with a major pharmaceutical company would potentially send this stock soaring from current levels. CPP-109 has been granted fast track status by the FDA for the treatment of cocaine addiction, which indicates that the FDA has recognized that CPP-109 is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition for which there is no effective treatment and which demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs. With a market cap of only about $24 million and the potential to bring a blockbuster drug to market, it would not be surprising to see a major company takeover CPRX or announce a major partnership agreement, which is one of the company goals for 2011.

Evader Inc ( PINK: EVDR ), penny stock jumped more than 100 % with out specific news or announcements. Volumes are much stronger than daily average, Up move look convincing and stock might see further upside.



Our Call : Buy positions for Intraday trade, not to hold positions for even tomorrow.


Last news from the company was submission of a tender in the state of Tamil Nadu worth 110 million USD through its subsidiary Ascc Constructions.

He asked a federal judge to order Ceglia to immediately turn over the alleged original contract and emails, and for permission to inspect Ceglia's computers.

"Zuckerberg and Ceglia never discussed Facebook and they never signed a contract concerning Facebook," the filing said. "The contract is a cut-and-paste job, the emails are complete fabrications, and this entire lawsuit is a fraud."

Christopher "Kip" Hall, a partner at DLA Piper representing Ceglia, did not immediately return requests for comment.

Thursday's filing escalates the stakes as Ceglia, a wood pellet salesman from Wellsville, New York, tries to show he contracted in 2003 for 50 percent of Zuckerberg's interest in what became Facebook, which is privately held.

Forbes magazine in March estimated Zuckerberg's net worth at $13.5 billion. Analysts have said Facebook could be worth $70 billion should it go public, perhaps in 2012.

In Thursday's filing, Zuckerberg acknowledged signing an agreement with Ceglia, but that it concerned work Zuckerberg did for StreetFax.com, a website that posted photographs of traffic intersections for use in the insurance industry.

Zuckerberg hopes to use forensic testing on Ceglia's documentation. "When this testing confirms that all of these documents are forgeries, this lawsuit will end," he said.

Ceglia sued last July, saying he made a contract with Zuckerberg for an 84 percent Facebook stake.

After he changed law firms, Ceglia filed a complaint that discussed the alleged contract and emails from 2003 and 2004 when Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard University.

In a Feb. 2, 2004 email discussed in the complaint, Zuckerberg was said to have resisted a clause that could have given Ceglia a stake greater than 80 percent, and instead suggested "that we officially return to 50/50 ownership."

Zuckerberg said forensic examiners reviewed his Harvard email account and found none of the alleged emails.

He also called Ceglia allegedly forgetting about the contract for seven years "incredible on its face," and recounted his prior run-ins with law enforcement.

This included an instance in 2009 when New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accused Ceglia of fraud and shut his business.

Separately, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling that upheld their $65 million settlement with Facebook, which they accused of stealing their idea for the website. The twin brothers have said they were shortchanged in the 2008 accord.

The case is Ceglia v. Zuckerberg et al, U.S. District Court, Western District of New York, No. 10-00569.

( Source: CNBC )