Wendie Tomsic blog

5 Ways to Get Live Info about Egypt Protests Online

Theto the Internet early Friday morning, affecting about 88 percent of the country's online networks.While blackouts of selected sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google are common in countries with autocratic and totalitarian governments, this appears to be the first time a government tried to shut down all Internet access.

Internet monitoring firm Rensys was first to notice the digital blackout a little after midnight Friday Egypt time.The network shutdown appears to affect Egypt's four major ISP providers, including Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, and Etisalat Misr.Rensys called Egypt's near-total Internet blackout "."

Vodafone hasabout Internet service in Egypt saying, "All mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it. The Egyptian authorities will be clarifying the situation in due course."

It's not clear why the Egyptian government decided to cut off Internet service, but presumably it was done to stifle communication among people who have taken to the streets demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak's regime.The recent revolution in Tunisia that led to the ouster of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was credited at least in part to Tunisia's Net-savvy youth who traded information about protests, riots, and the police's response on Facebook and Twitter. Egypt's government may have hoped to avoid mass protests by cutting off access to the Internet, butit appears taking most of the country offline has only inflamed government opposition.

Even though Internet access in Egypt is blacked out, you can still find a fair amount of live information about the protests online.Here are five ways to still find out what's going on in Egypt from people who are close to the action:

Live Video Stream

Al Jazeera English has ashowing the latest video shots and still images from protests that are rocking the North African country.

Live Blog

Theabout events in Egypt and around the Middle East.

Twitter

Associated Press reporter Diaa Hadid () has been able to send out tweets on a limited basis from Cairo.It's not clear how she's able to do this or how long this access will last.A recent tweet: ""

() based in Cairo, also appears to be able to get the word out via Twitter.Recent tweet: "."

Jan 25 Voice ,laims to be talking to people on the phone inside Egypt and then relaying those eyewitness reports via Twitter. January 25 refers to the first days of protests in Egypt, and has now become a Twitter hashtag to report on news coming out of that country.You can follow the .Recent tweet: "."

Connect with Ian Paul () andon Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

N. Korea in fresh call for talks with S. Korea

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea has made a fresh call for talks with South Korea to discuss ways to ease tensions, its official news agency reported Friday.

A group called the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland sought dialogue between legislators from both sides "to seek ways to move forward together as a people while overcoming the grave situation between North and South Korea", it said.

The two sides on February 11 are expected to have their first contact -- a military meeting -- since the North shelled a South Korean island on November 23, killing four people including two civilians.

Tensions have been high for almost a year, after Seoul accused its neighbour of torpedoing a warship last March with the loss of 46 lives. The North denies the ship attack.

After months of fiery rhetoric, Pyongyang changed tack this year and has made frequent appeals for dialogue.

The Front, which is dominated by the North's ruling communist party, selects candidates for the rubber-stamp legislature known as the Supreme People's Assembly.

The working-level meeting expected to be held on February 11 is designed to set the time and agenda for high-level military dialogue.

But the South says it will demand that the North take "responsible measures" over last year's attacks and pledge not to repeat them as a precondition for any high-level meeting.

Stocks, euro hit by Irish bailout, gov't turmoil

LONDON – Stocks and the euro fell Monday amid mounting political turmoil in Ireland following the government's request for a massive bailout package and worries that Europe's debt crisis could spread to other countries, most notably Portugal and Spain.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed down 52 points, or 0.9 percent, at 5,680.83, while France's CAC-40 fell 41.27 points, or 1.1 percent, to 3,818.89. Germany's DAX ended 21.50 points, or 0.3 percent, lower at 6,822.05.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 75.07 points, or 0.7 percent, at 11,128.48 around midday New York time while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.79 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,192.94.

And in the currency markets, the euro was trading 0.8 percent lower on the day at $1.36.

Stocks and the euro had been in far better shape earlier Monday — Asian markets closed mostly higher and the euro had traded as high as $1.3786 — as investors breathed a sigh of relief that some sort of aid package for Ireland was finally being cobbled together. The Irish government confirmed Sunday it was formally requesting financial aid to shore up its debt-laden banking sector.

The actual details of the package, something short of euro100 billion ($137 billion), are not expected for a few days yet as Irish officials sit down with counterparts from both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The country will likely be forced to make further massive spending cuts and might have to raise its very low rate of corporate tax.

The relief rally following the Irish government's request didn't last long, as investors worried about whether another Irish austerity program will pass, especially after a junior partner in Ireland's shaky government threatened Monday to withdraw from the coalition unless early elections are held in January.

"The relief ... (about) the coordinated rescue package has vanished following the onset of political turmoil," said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers.

And overarching everything is the worry that another troubled euro country will be targeted by the bond markets in the same way that Ireland and Greece have been.

The hope among EU policymakers is that the response to Ireland's crisis has been far clearer than the prevarication that surrounding Greece's similar woes earlier this year and that as a result, the risk of contagion will be minimized.

Whether they have managed to corral the problems will become evident in the days and weeks to come, but the early signs are not particularly positive.

The clearest guide will come from the bond markets — specifically whether yields on Portuguese or Spanish debt start rising towards levels — about 8 or 9 percent — that forced both Greece and Ireland to seek financial support.

At the moment, the yield on ten-year Portuguese government bonds stands at 6.70 percent while Spain's is 4.75 percent.

Both rates are manageable, when put in the context of Irish and Greek debt, but analysts warned that it wouldn't take much of an increase for Portugal, in particular, to stoke bailout concerns.

Portugal's government insisted Monday that it wasn't in the same boat as Ireland. Prime Minister Jose Socrates said Portugal "doesn't need anybody's help" and claimed his government's planned spending cuts and labor reforms will ensure debt reduction and growth.

Socrates added he hoped assistance for Ireland would halt the spread of market fears to other euro members.

The stakes are not just massive for the countries involved but for the whole 16-nation euro currency project.

"Now Ireland has fallen, we suspect that the markets will quickly turn their attention to the other embattled peripheral countries, particularly Portugal and Spain," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of private client research at Charles Stanley stockbrokers. "It hardly needs saying, but if Spain were to fall, the eurozone crisis would have ratcheted up to such a degree that the region's continued existence as an economic area could be called into serious question."

Even if there are no more bailouts, the scale of austerity being pursued in a number of eurozone countries will highlight the divisions in the single currency bloc. While Ireland and Greece, and possibly others, face years of retrenchment, the eurozone's No. 1 economy — Germany — will likely continue to prosper due to its exporting prowess.

"Even assuming the best case scenario of no further bailouts, the necessary adjustments required to rectify internal imbalances in the eurozone are deeply deflationary and will quickly become evident by the underperformance of the eurozone economy," said Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency research at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubish UFJ.

Earlier in Asia, investors had been cheered by Sunday's aid request from Dublin.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average closed 0.9 percent higher, or 92.80 points, at 10,115.19 while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2 percent to 1,944.34. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3 percent to 4,643.5.

But Hong Kong bucked the trend, with the Hang Seng index falling 0.4 percent to 23,524.02 amid losses in property stocks after new measures to stem speculation. Singapore's benchmark also fell.

Chinese shares closed mixed in weak trading, as investors awaited further policy moves from the government after inflation last month hit a 25-month high.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.2 percent to 2,884.37. The Shenzhen Composite Index for China's smaller, second exchange climbed 1.2 percent to 1,313.57.

In the oil markets, benchmark crude for January delivery was down 57 cents to $81.41 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

___

Associated Press writer Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Dow, S&P fall on debt worries

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Dow and S&P 500 fell on Monday as enthusiasm over a bailout package for Ireland faded and investors worried that further steps would be needed to combat euro zone sovereign debt problems.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund began to thrash out details of a loan package to Ireland to resolve its banking and budget crisis.

Concerns that Ireland's debt crisis might spread to other euro zone countries has hung over U.S. stocks in recent weeks. World shares pulled back from an early rise, while European markets fell 0.7 percent on Monday.

U.S.-listed shares of Bank of Ireland (IRE.N) tumbled 16.1 percent to $2.24, and Allied Irish Banks Plc (AIB.N) lost 1.6 percent to $1.21.

"A Band-Aid is not what is needed, major surgery is what is needed. Money is not going to solve the problem," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.

"All you are doing is buying time. You are kicking the can down the road. We are finally coming to terms with the fact you can't keep kicking the can down the road."

The euro fell 0.4 percent against the dollar on fears about possible contagion to other highly indebted euro zone nations.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dropped 51.84 points, or 0.46 percent, to 11,151.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) lost 4.50 points, or 0.38 percent, to 1,195.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 6.17 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,524.29. The Nasdaq was boosted by strength in the semiconductor sector after Robert W. Baird upgraded SanDisk Corp (SNDK.O) shares to "outperform" from "neutral.

SanDisk gained 5.6 percent to $42.26, while the PHLX Semiconductor index (.SOX) rose 0.7 percent.

Trading volume is expected to be tepid this week due to the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday.

No. 1 U.S. meat producer Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on a big jump in gross margins and said its current quarter was off to a strong start. Its shares gained 3 percent to $16.11.

Quarterly results are due from Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) and Analog Devices Inc(ADI.N) after the close.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

TJ Maxx Offers Reduced-Price iPads

T.J. Maxx confirmed viathat it has gotten into thefray. The discount store has begun selling 16GB Wi-Fi iPads for $399; that's $100 less than the going rate of $499.

The T.J. Maxx Twitter feed reads like , but from what I can gather, the iPads are currently available in undisclosed stores across the country. The sale was initially thought to be a Black Friday specific deal, but it wasthat a number of stores are already selling the devices.

Regardless, if you frequent T.J. Maxx (like Mashable's ), or live in close proximity to one and are willing to risk life and limb to confirm more stores, please let us know whether these fire sale iPads are showing up in your area.