gamesGRABR Launches Equity Funding Campaign To Be 'Pinterest ...

You’ve seen “Pinterest for X” style startups before I’m sure. Well, gamesGRABR is a new style “social network for gaming” which is aiming to become a sort of ‘Pinterest you games’. But before you turn away, take a look, as this is more than just an interface, it allows the user to curate games collections, discover, engage, play and share them with other users, on any gaming platform. Today it’s launched an equity crowdfunding campaign, to raise £150,000 for startup capital.

Led by serial gaming entrepreneur Tony Pearce, the campaign aims to raise interested investors for equity in parent company TeePee Games. Funding will be supplemented by an additional £200,000 raised by Pearce and his team from existing investors. The company closed a seed funding round of £250,000 in March 2013, used to develop and launch the site as it is today.

He tells me: “I suppose Pinterest could be a competitor but no gamers would be seen dead on Pinterest. We are still the only company to focus 100% on games in a pinboard style UI with social and cross platform discovery and recommendations. Other gaming sites such as Playfire you can see what your friends are playing but just on console games.”

Since a beta launched in June it’s been gaining traction and claims to have hit 100,000 uniques, continual growth and an average of 35% returning. The platform has over 50,000 games across all platforms and new features such as platform and genre filtering, the ability to play, buy or download any game in one click plus more social integration.

It’s also interesting that they chose Crowdcube which is essentially a much quicker way to raise equity funding – assuming they make it of course.

Pearce has in the past raised over £15m in VC funding, starting 3 companies with 2 successful exits. He co-founded Player X, Europe’s largest mobile games distribution company in Europe that was acquired by Spanish mobile content company Zed in April 2009.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/gamesgrabr-launches-equity-funding-campaign-to-be-pinterest-for-games/
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BBC Strikes Deal to Create U.K. Theme Park Area Based on Kids Channel

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BBC headquarters in London

LONDON – The BBC's commercial arm has reached a deal with the most-visited U.K. theme park to create a themed area that will feature rides and other offers based on shows and characters of the British public broadcaster's pre-school channel CBeebies.

While financial and creative details weren't disclosed, the Guardian reported that the planned CBeebies Land will include features based on such characters as Postman Pat, as well as Upsy Daisy and Igglepiggle from In The Night Garden.

STORY: BBC Director General Tony Hall Aims to Create a More 'Bespoke' Broadcaster

The themed area will be part of Alton Towers, a theme park and resort in Alton, England operated by Merlin Entertainments. In 2012, it drew 2.4 million visitors, making it the top U.K. theme park. Merlin also operates such U.K. attractions as Madame Tussauds and Legoland.

The deal with BBC Worldwide is expected to lead to the launch of CBeebies Land in the spring. The companies said the themed area will include rides, "immersive play areas," live experiences, character appearances and seasonal events.

"CBeebies Land will be a fun and exciting way for children and adults to immerse themselves in and explore the CBeebies environment and to enjoy their favorite characters," said Marcus Arthur, managing director U.K. at BBC Worldwide.

Joe Godwin, director BBC Children’s, added: "CBeebies has long been the number one TV channel for pre-school children and their families, but we also know that these days they want to be able to have days out and happy memories with their favorite characters in the real world as well.”

E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/international/~3/xjKPOe8r2QY/story01.htm
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9 teens reported missing as New Mexico investigates ranch for ...

By Tom Winter, Andrew Blankstein and Daniella Silva, NBC News

New Mexico officials confirmed that two of the nine boys who were reported missing from a New Mexico ranch for troubled youth have been returned to their families, after the FBI volunteered their help in the search.

Federal investigators offered their help late on Friday night regarding the incident at the Tierra Blanca High Country Youth Program, but so far local and state authorities have not asked the FBI to participate, a law enforcement source in New Mexico told NBC News. A search warrant was executed at the Tierra Blanca ranch on Friday amid an abuse investigation, the Associated Press reported, and the boys aged 13 and 17 were found not to be on the property.

New Mexico State Police issued a release Saturday afternoon that said they “have visibly confirmed” that two of the boys, Ryan Sibbett and Michael Rozell, are in the custody of “one or more of their parents.” 

“There is also progress being made with the status of several of the other missing boys,” New Mexico state police said in the release. “As previously released, they will remain part of the active Amber Alert until we can confirm their individual well-being.”

“It’s a very active investigation. We are treating it with the utmost urgency,” State Police spokesman Emmanuel Gutierrez told NBC News earlier on Saturday.

A spokesman for the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department said that at least one boy had been returned to his family by Saturday morning, and said that the agency was working closely with the state police.

New Mexico Police via Reuters

Scott Chandler, program director for the Tierra Blanca Ranch

An Amber Alert was issued on Friday evening for the missing boys, who were last seen at the ranch in Sierra County, N.M. The ranch serves “troubled or at-risk youths,” according to its web site. Sibbett and Rozell have since been removed from the current active Amber Alert.

Scott Chandler, the program’s operator, is a person of interest, according to authorities. The ranch sprawls over 30,000 acres, according to a Dun & Bradstreet business report, and lists two employees. An attorney for the ranch, Pete Domenici, Jr., did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News on Saturday.

Domenici issued a statement on Friday in which he said that the teenagers had been “on a previously scheduled activity away from the ranch for several days. They are safe and have already been picked up by their parents, or their parents are en route to pick them up,” according to the AP.

Police said that until they were in a position to physically confirm the well-being of the missing boys, the Amber Alert will remain active.

“When we issue an Amber Alert, you can’t just cancel it or remove people from it based on a phone call. We as officers are obligated to make that decision on our own,” Gutierrez said.

The Amber Alert is still active for 7 boys: Charlie Lamb, 13; Bryce Hall, 17; Mayson Myers, 13; Peter Adams, 16; Oscar Ruiz, 17; David Easter, 17; and Evan Kogler, 16.

Gutierrez said they are requesting the parents of the missing boys to contact the State Police by calling 575-382-2500.

“It’s so important that they call, so that we can start getting this case resolved and get statements from the children missing from the ranch,” he said. “The more they can help us with that the better we can help the investigation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/12/20928262-9-teens-reported-missing-as-new-mexico-investigates-ranch-for-troubled-youth
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Thousands Of Miles From Shutdown, Mars Rovers Keep Working

A photo released by NASA this summer shows a photo composed of nearly 900 images taken by the rover Curiosity, showing a section of Gale Crater near the equator of Mars. The rovers are continuing to work through the U.S. government shutdown.

NASA/AP

A photo released by NASA this summer shows a photo composed of nearly 900 images taken by the rover Curiosity, showing a section of Gale Crater near the equator of Mars. The rovers are continuing to work through the U.S. government shutdown.

NASA/AP

The budget negotiations in Washington are not front-page news on Mars. There, millions of miles away, NASA's rovers continue to operate, taking photographs and collecting data as they prepare for the coming Martian winter.

NPR's Joe Palca has this report for our Newscast unit:

"NASA's newest rover, called Curiosity, is on the move. It's headed to the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain that towers three-and-a-half miles above the floor of Gale crater where the rover landed. Scientists hope the foothills of the mountain will reveal some of the ancient geologic history of Mars.

"The other rover called Opportunity is studying something similar at the rim of Endeavor crater. In January, the rover that was designed to last 90 days will mark its tenth year on Mars.

"Some of Opportunity's instruments have stopped working, but it's still taking pictures and still roves across the surface, albeit quite a but slower than its newer partner on the other side of the planet."

The two rovers are taking in data and getting into strategic locations before winter arrives on Mars in a few months.

The scarcity of sunlight shouldn't pose a challenge for Curiosity, whose systems are powered by heat generated by the radioactive decay of plutonium. NASA hopes that the older Opportunity, which powers itself with solar panels, will be aided by its position on a north-facing slope.

As the Planetary Society website notes, this will be Opportunity's sixth winter:

"Harsh beyond belief, winters on Mars are life threatening, even for robots. Opportunity must endure constant, sometimes radical fluctuations in daily temperatures, not to mention survive temperatures as low as 100 degrees below freezing, all of which is really tough on her metal parts. Of course, the veteran rover has proved its resilience many times over while exploring this sub-freezing planet."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/14/234256158/thousands-of-miles-from-shutdown-mars-rovers-keep-working?ft=1&f=
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Libyan arrives in US to face terrorism charges

FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a weeklong interrogation aboard a U.S. warship, a Libyan al-Qaida suspect is now in New York awaiting trial on terrorism charges, U.S. officials said Monday.

Abu Anas al-Libi was grabbed in a military raid in Libya on Oct. 5. He's due to stand trial in Manhattan, where he has been under indictment for more than a decade on charges he helped plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, confirmed that al-Libi was transferred to law enforcement custody over the weekend. Al-Libi was expected to be arraigned Tuesday, Bharara said.

President Barack Obama's administration took criticism years ago when it decided to prosecute admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York, rather than at the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay. After reversing course, however, the government has successfully prosecuted several terrorism cases in civilian courts.

A federal law enforcement official and two other U.S. officials said al-Libi arrived in New York on Saturday. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

Intelligence officials interrogated him for a week aboard the U.S.S. San Antonio in the Mediterranean. Interrogations at sea have replaced CIA black sites as the U.S. government's preferred method for holding suspected terrorists and questioning them without access to lawyers.

Al-Libi's al-Qaida ties date back to the terrorist group's early years, according to court documents. That would make him a valuable source of information about the group's history.

It's unclear whether he could offer fresh intelligence on the group, the core of which has been battered and fragmented.

Al-Libi has longstanding health issues and will get medical testing while in custody to determine whether he needs treatment, U.S. officials said. Where exactly al-Libi is being held and where that testing would take place is unclear.

Al-Libi, whose full name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, used to be on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. His family denies he was in al-Qaida.

Known as one of al-Qaida's early computer experts, al-Libi is believed to have used an early-generation Apple computer to assemble surveillance photographs in Kenya before a bombing there killed more than 200. That information was presented to Osama bin Laden, who approved the bombing, a former federal law enforcement official has said.

___

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes and Tom Hays contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-14-Terror%20Trial/id-014b3259b9d244cc92aadbea50c846a2
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AU official: ICC treating Africa with disdain

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — African leaders should not allow the International Criminal Court to continue treating Africans "in a condescending manner," an African Union official said Friday during the start of a meeting to discuss the continent's relationship with the court.

Far from promoting justice and peace, the ICC has become a political tool used to target Africans, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chairman of the Executive Council of the African Union and Ethiopia's foreign minister.

The ICC has also come under strong criticism from other African leaders. The international court has indicted only Africans so far.

Foreign ministers met Friday at AU headquarters in Ethiopia to deliberate the continent's relationship with The Hague, Netherlands-based court. African heads of state and government meet on the issue Saturday.

"This unfair and unjust treatment is totally unacceptable and that's why we have been expressing serious concerns against the ICC," Tedros said.

Tedros said the AU's concerns about the fair treatment of Africa have been ignored. The request to the United Nations Security Council to defer the ICC proceedings against Sudan President Omar al-Bashir — who is wanted by the ICC for war crimes — has neither been heard or acted upon, Tedros said

The ICC also rejected the AU's request for postponement of the ICC investigation and prosecution of Kenyan leaders suspected of instigating the postelection violence.

President Uhuru Kenyatta faces crimes against humanity charges for Kenya's 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died. His trial starts next month.

Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto and broadcaster Joshua Sang also have been charged with crimes against humanity. Their trials, which began last month, continued Friday.

Kenya's parliament last month voted to withdraw from the ICC. Kenya requested the convening of the special summit, Tedros said.

In the build-up to the summit political insiders in Kenya's government have said that African countries may decide to sever ties with the ICC in solidarity with Kenya. Uganda's Deputy Foreign Minister Okello Oryem said recently that Uganda would be compelled to quit the Rome Statute that created the ICC court if a "summit-level" recommendation is made.

Kenya Foreign Minister Amina Mohammed denied that Africa is trying cut ties with the ICC and said that the continent, whose countries make most of members of the ICC, wants its concerns heard.

Any withdrawal from the ICC would send the wrong signal about Africa's commitment to protect and promote human rights and to reject impunity, 130 human rights groups said in a statement this week.

"Considerations of withdrawal risk grave consequences for civilians in Africa, who tend to bear the brunt of serious crimes committed in violation of international law," the groups said.

Kenyatta has pledged to cooperate with the court. But privately several members of his government have told The Associated Press they do not believe Kenyatta will report to The Hague.

If Kenyatta decides not to attend his trial, Kenya could become politically isolated and be sanctioned. But in the wake of the Sept. 21 mall attack in Kenya by Somali terrorists, international repercussions may be lighter because of Kenya's importance to the West as a counterterrorism partner.

"The recent terrorist attack in Nairobi has further reinforced our request thereby underscoring the need for Kenyan leaders to be front and center in the fight against terrorism and not be distracted in anyway by the court," Tedros said.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, said the ICC is "tone deaf" to the growing public perception that the tribunal has it out for Africans.

Pham said Kenya also faces a challenge getting the AU to go along with its desire for a mass exit from the Court.

"With the exception of possibly some leaders who may themselves feel that they might be targeted in the future, the question is simply not a priority with many other African countries - to say nothing of regional powers like Nigeria and South Africa, which have a number of issues of direct national interest with which they are otherwise preoccupied," he said.

___

Associated Press reporter Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/au-official-icc-treating-africa-disdain-094140923.html
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Lt. Gov. Dan Forest to speak at Economics Society meeting | News ...

The Economics Society, a student organization based in the NC State Poole College of Management’s Department of Economics, is hosting Lt. Gov. Dan Forest at a University Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, October 22. The meeting will be held in 2405 Nelson Hall, beginning at 4:30 p.m., and is open to NC State students.

Forest will discuss why he supports eliminating the corporate income tax and reducing personal income taxes for the NC economy. He also will discuss the role of small business in job creation and how regulations impact job creators.

Students are encouraged to bring their questions and join in the discussion. Refreshments will be served. 
 

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