How eBay Could Rescue Bitcoin From the Feds

bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency, has a big problem. Just ask David Spitzer.
On August 20, Spitzer sold a Bitcoin on Mt. Gox, the world’s best-known Bitcoin exchange, and immediately tried to move the money to his U.S. bank account. Twenty-one days later, he’s still waiting for the cash to appear. “It’s taking an extraordinary amount of time,” he says.
Earlier this year, after the feds seized its U.S. bank accounts — and $5 million in cash — Mt. Gox temporarily suspended transfers to the U.S. At the time, the company said, it was halting transfers in order to pull off a technology upgrade, but as far as U.S. customers like Spitzer are concerned, it hasn’t been much of an upgrade. It’s seriously hampering their ability to use the Bitcoin system.
Like other Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox is having a hard time with U.S. banks because there are big questions about whether it meets federal and state money transmission business regulations (the company did not respond to messages seeking comment). But there’s another operation that runs both a marketplace where Bitcoins are bought and sold and a fully compliant money-transmitting business that, observers say, could rescue Bitcoin from its biggest problem.
That company is eBay, and the money transmitter is its well-known subsidiary, PayPal.
“A licensed money transmitter who gets into the business of doing this is going to have a tremendous leg up on someone who is not a money transmitter because they have an accepted regulatory structure in place,” says Carol Van Cleef, a banking regulations expert and partner and with the Patton Boggs law firm in Washington, D.C.
The question is: Will eBay come to Bitcoin’s rescue? eBay doesn’t allow payments via Bitcoin, and the company does “not have any changes planned to our Accepted Payments Policy,” according to a note sent to WIRED last week by company spokeswoman Kari Ramirez. But you can still buy and sell Bitcoins on eBay’s marketplace and then pay for those transactions in dollars via PayPal — it’s a Bitcoin exchange by default — and eBay is showing some signs that it wants to do more with Bitcoin.
Last week, the company posted a Bitcoin explainer to one of its blogs, and it recently added a new “Virtual Currencies” section to its online marketplace, not too far down the page from “Hobo Nickels.” Hours after we asked eBay about it, the section was removed, and when we asked Ramirez to explain why, she said she’d look into it and then stopped answering our messages.

eBay recently removed this “Virtual Currencies” section from its website.

In April, eBay CEO John Donahoe said that the company was looking at ways to integrate Bitcoins into PayPal. “It’s a new disruptive technology, so, yeah, we’re looking at Bitcoin closely,” he told The Wall Street Journal. If eBay could figure out some way to become a working marketplace for Bitcoin, “they could dominate the space,” says Patrick Murck, legal counsel with the Bitcoin Foundation.
But there’s a problem, and it’s a big one: Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, but PayPal allows transactions to be reversed — something called a chargeback. That means that unscrupulous buyers could pick up a few Bitcoins on eBay and then claim that they were never delivered, initiating a chargeback that would leave the seller without Bitcoins or any money from PayPal. “You can get defrauded pretty easily selling Bitcoins on eBay,” says Murck.
That’s what happened to James Larisch when he tried to sell $225 worth of Bitcoins on eBay last month. Larisch was left holding the bag after buyers initiated chargebacks after taking his Bitcoins. “I don’t think it’s economically feasible for PayPal or eBay to announce their acceptance of digital currency like Bitcoin until they develop a way to facilitate transfers without risk of widespread fraud,” he says.
That may be a tall order for eBay, but on the other hand, if any company has the fraud-fighting experience to pull this off, they’re the one.
And there’s another good reason for eBay embrace Bitcoin. If someone solves David Spitzer’s problem, making it easy to move money between the Bitcoin world and U.S. bank accounts, PayPal could find itself up against a serious challenger. Embracing Bitcoin would be a “natural evolution” for PayPal, says the financial regulations lawyer Van Cleef. “Otherwise, they could very well find their business model outdated.”

Open-source project links Bitcoin with publishers

Ankur Nandwani is a news junkie who keeps hitting paywalls. He would pay for content, but not for a subscription. But he found a virtual solition.

Ankur Nandwani

Nandwani, 27, merged his interest in news with Bitcoin, a virtual currency that many people think will change the future of payments. With co-founders Bo Li and Valerie Chao, he developed Bitmonet, an open-source tool that lets publishers accept micropayments in Bitcoin for news stories.
Bitmonet is just a side project for Nandwani, who has a day job as a senior software engineer in San Francisco. He started analyzing Bitcoin about six months ago and wanted to grow interest in the virtual currency.
"It's all about encouraging bitcoin adoption," Nandwani said. "I think in the early stages of the bitcoin ecosystem.....it's better to increase bitcoin adoption. We can think of making money later."
News publishers have struggled to strike the right balance between generating online revenue and not alienating readers—already bouncing from one free online news outlet to another—with pay walls. Many tease users with free stories and gently nudge them to paid subscriptions when they hit a limit.
But charging one-off fees for news stories is a hassle: users don't want to create an account and enter their credit card details for a single news story. It's easier just to move on.

Pay on the fly with Bitcoin

Bitmonet leverages Bitcoin's strength as a digital substitute for cash. In a demonstration on Bitmonet's website, clicking on a story brings up a pop-up window offering a news story for 10 cents, a one-hour pass for 15 cents or a day-long pass for 20 cents
The one-hour pass costs 0.0012 of a Bitcoin. Clicking the "Pay with Bitcoin" button launches Bitcoin wallet software on a person's computer. Web-based wallet software can be used by copying the payment address, Nandwani said.
The transaction is painless: users don't have to enter their financial details or create an account with the publisher.

Bitmonet is an open-source software tool that lets publishers accept micropayments for news stories or other content in the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Bitcoin's peer-to-peer network uses a system of computers called miners to cryptographically verify that a transaction is legitimate. Usually, a transaction needs to garner six "confirmations" before it is considered complete, which at times can take up to three hours.
But Nandwani said merchants can accept as low as one confirmation to let people read the story as soon as possible.
If users choose to buy time-based access to a site, they will have to remember to keep their cookies, which are information files retained by a web browser that are used by websites to remember certain user information.
It's a small sacrifice, but one to keep in mind since many people configure their browsers to delete their cookies for privacy reasons. Nandwani said "we are trying to maintain a balance between creating an account and keeping it frictionless."
Bitmonet is configured now to use BitPay as a payment processor, but it can use different ones. BitPay, based in Atlanta, specializes in processing transactions for merchants. BitPay converts Bitcoin revenue to cash and wires it daily to a merchant's bank account.
Nandwani said Bitmonet plans to add a WordPress plugin in the coming weeks for micropayments on that publishing platform. Other development plans include creating SDKs (software development kits) for Android and iOS that would allow Bitmonet to be used for other things, such as virtual goods, he said.

Ex-Googler Gives the World a Better Bitcoin

 

Litecoin creator Charles Lee. Photo: Alex Washburn/Wired

Charles Lee was a software engineer at Google, spending his days hacking networking code for the search giant’s new-age operating system, ChromeOS. But in his spare time, he rewrote Bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency.
Early one October morning two years ago, Lee unleashed his project, Litecoin, onto an online universe that was still coming to terms with its more famous progenitor, and though Litecoin is still firmly rooted in the Bitcoin code base, it has found a place in the world, showing just how strong the appetite is for a new breed money.
Bitcoin has had an extraordinary run this year, but if you’d sunk your money into Litecoin instead of Bitcoin on January 1, it would have done better. Since then, Bitcoin jumped from just over $13 to its current value of more than $115. Back in January, Litecoin was trading in the $0.07 range. Today, it’s worth close to $2.40. In other words, while it took 200 Litecoins to buy a Bitcoin in January, today it takes only 50.
Government regulation may put the squeeze on Bitcoin — and perhaps Litecoin too. But digital currency will continue to evolve and grow. It’s what so much of the world wants.
Although its dwarfed by Bitcoin’s popularity, people seem to like Litecoin because it’s a more credible alternative to the growing list of Bitcoin imitators, which Lee saw as either technologically challenged or straight up pump-and-dump scams. “I wanted to create something that is kind of silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” says Lee, who left Google last month to seek his fortune in the wild west of alternative digital currencies.
He took the basic ideas behind Bitcoin — a currency created by a pseudonymous character who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto — and refined them. Litecoin was designed to pump out four times as many coins as Bitcoin, in an effort to keep the digital currency from becoming scarce and too expensive. It processes transactions more quickly, and discourages the kind of high-volume but very small transactions that have become a nuisance on the Bitcoin network. And it lets regular folks more easily “mine” coins — i.e. provide the online currency system with the computing power it needs, in exchange for digital money.
The result wasn’t a Bitcoin killer. But it was something that gave digital currency yet another stamp of approval.

Down the Silk Road

The Ivory Coast-born son of an entrepreneur, Charles Lee has long had an interest in economics. He describes himself as a gold investor, skeptical of the Federal Reserve. Like his dad, he graduated from MIT, having studied computer science and electrical engineering. And after kicking around in Silicon Valley for more than a decade, he was looking for something new in 2011.
He found that in Bitcoin: an open-source-software project that seemed to perfectly marry his passions for finance, cryptography, and technology. He first heard about it while reading an article about Silk Road, the online drug shopping mall, and soon, he started playing around with the peer-to-peer software that powers the digital currency. From there, the natural next step was to create his own.
He released one currency called Fairbrix — but it was a dud, plagued with technical problems. Litecoin was his second effort.
His Bitcoin fork was worthless the day he launched it, and it was hardly the only Bitcoin alternative out there. But Lee took a different tack from some of the other Bitcoin imitators. He released the currency to the world after mining a mere 150 Litecoins. That meant that the whole world could get in on the currency on the ground floor.
There was also a bonus for miners, who in October 2011 were engaged in an escalating technology race in the Bitcoin world. Bitcoin miners earned coins by participating in a kind of cryptographic lottery and the folks who could do the most mathematical calculations were rewarded with the most Bitcoins. But as Bitcoin surged in value, people started building complex Bitcoin mining rigs that could do more calculations and therefore earn more Bitcoins.
Litecoin leveled the playing field, using a technology called Scrypt to lower the advantage miners would get by switching to GPU rigs or custom-designed mining systems.

Mirror, Mirror

Thanks to a few small changes to the Bitcoin way, Lee succeeded where others couldn’t. Two years on, Litecoin has started to reproduce the Bitcoin ecosystem is many respects.
The Silk Road underground drug shopping mall gave Bitcoin a boost, and now Litecoin is accepted at an alternative to The Silk Road, called Atlantis. There’s a company in Utah called Casascius that mints its own physical Bitcoins, and Litecoin has got this too, only the Litecoin version is from Hawaii.
You may have a much harder time finding a pub in London or a taxi cab in San Francisco that will accept Litecoin, but hey, Jay’s Jerky and Goodies takes them. So does the online tech store BitElectronics.
Still, Litecoin is mostly a vehicle for investors who want to get in early on what could be the next wave in digital currencies. But there are a few signs that it’s continuing to strengthen its foothold. Earlier this year, Bitcoin’s most widely used exchange, Mt. Gox, said that it was going to start trading Litecoin.
To get a sense of how things have changed, consider this. About a year ago, Noah Luis — the guy who mints the Litecoin coins in Hawaii — convinced someone on the internet to buy him a pizza in exchange for 3,500 Litecoins, worth $30 at the time. At today’s valuation that medium-sized meat-lover’s pizza was worth $8,400.
Luis says he has no regrets.

Photo: Noah Luis

In May the project got a boost when Warren Togami signed on. A former software engineer at Red Hat, he’d founded the Fedora Linux project about a decade earlier.
Togami is now Litecoin’s lead developer and he’s creating a nonprofit foundation to manage the Litecoin software development and advocacy, much like the Bitcoin Foundation.
And just last month, a Bay Area startup called Coinbase hired Lee away from Google.
Lee says that he isn’t there to work on Litecoin. He’s written some code that allows Coinbase users to swap Bitcoins via SMS. But he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Coinbase adopting Litecoin.
Bitcoin’s story has been a bumpy ride. The currency has crashed and risen from the ashes. Bankers, regulators, and law enforcement agencies eye it with suspicion. In all likelihood, Litecoin will have many similar bumps ahead of it, if it continues ride in Bitcoin’s wake.
But even if it doesn’t survive, it’s serving an important purpose, says Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Bitcoin is “like any other open-source project where people are going to fork it,” he says. “That’s good in that people are going to take it in interesting new directions.”

Bitcoins: Will It Make A Difference?

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The Indian economy is in shambles and we're having a hard time trying to combat the global onslaught coming our way. The rupee keeps on falling and the sensex haven't seen days as worse as these. And while we're at this dark time and age, there remains one untouched entity in the cyberspace that is well above and beyond the economic warfare that embraces us. It is Bitcoins.

Wait, What?

© Images Bazaar
There are two bewildered faces out there; the ones who know such a thing exists and a few who're completely baffled by it. For beginners, Bitcoins is a virtual currency that is exchanged over the internet. What makes this truly stand out, you ask? Simple, it does not exist in the physical form, is completely encrypted, and cannot be traced. Bitcoin in a cryptocurrency that can be generated and traded on the worldwide web without any hassle. The Bitcoin market has a strictly finite supply of 21 million bitcoins that are exchanged over time by various users.
The system is designed in such a manner that it automatically regulates the generation of Bitcoins to ensure a steady growth of the currency with minimal inflation. Other than that, you can sign in to create your own bitcoin address for free and go around trading in them.

Will That Bring About A Change?

© preev.com
Think about it, bitcoins are solely traded on the online sphere, meaning there is no production cost of the notes and the coins and you can carry thousands of them on your smartphone without any hassle. The trading is encrypted guaranteeing that nobody can mess around and try to siphon off with your precious coins. This encryption is untraceable, which can work either way but proves to be a plus point for the ones trading in illegal activities. Because of the untraceable quotient, a person can transfer huge amounts without paying the tax and other legal payments necessary to do the transaction. Also, the fixed sum of 21 million coins guarantees that the inflation will be kept in check. Another important aspect is the value of bitcoins; it is usually determined by the supply and demand, equivalent to a precious metal like gold.
Unfortunately though, there is a dark side to this, as the supply and demand can never be comprehended. The pricing of bitcoins tend to drastically vary on a daily basis. For instance, the current rate of bitcoins as of today was 7191 Rupees but was half of this few months ago. This value may rise or fall depending upon the bitcoins in circulation. Also, since there is no central authority monitoring the supply and demand, the liquidity is at an all-time low.

What Does That Hold For Us?

© Images Bazaar
For starters, this happens to be a platform to transact money without having the fear of someone stealing it. It also acts as a failsafe place to store any money that you might need in desperate situations. Also, since you can access your account from anywhere on the earth means you can carry an ample lot of cash without the worry of someone flicking your wallet and you losing your money. Of course, the fluctuation does scare the living daylight as your investment might end up becoming its half and you may never know.
Maybe Bitcoins may not make sense as a mainstream form of currency, but the global economy can definitely take few pointers and change the way our economy flows. Google Wallet happened to be a hybrid of sorts, but never quite made it big. Hopefully, in another few years once we happen to have a world much more aware of the prowess of the internet can we truly incorporate this technology on a wider scal

Bitcoin aims to counter regulatory pressure

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epresentatives of companies that trade in Bitcoin are stepping up their efforts to promote the virtual currency in Washington, in an attempt to counter regulatory suspicion that they say will drive financial innovation away from the US.

Leaders of the Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group, are having meetings with US administration officials and on Capitol Hill this week, as the powerful Homeland Security Committee runs an investigation into potential threats from virtual currencies.
Bitcoin is a digital-only currency where transactions are processed through a network of volunteer computers spread across the world, outside the traditional banking system.

The total value of the currency in circulation has risen to $1.25bn, but its growth has led to heightened interest by federal and state authorities. The attention is being driven, in part, by suspicions that Bitcoin is being used for illegal activity such as money laundering, drug trafficking and tax evasion.

Foundation leaders are expecting to meet representatives from the Treasury and Department for Homeland Security, as well as staff from several Senate offices. The aim is to promote the potential social and economic benefits of decentralised currency, including cheaper and more secure payments processing, and to complain about a complex federal and state-by-state regulatory structure that they say is hampering the set-up of Bitcoin trading businesses.
Many early Bitcoin trading businesses, which help users switch their virtual currency for dollars, are struggling to turn themselves into regulated money services businesses.
“If the US can’t solve these problems, all these frustrated entrepreneurs will relocate and take their jobs and capital to places like the UK or Germany,” said Patrick Murck, general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee recently launched an inquiry into “threats and risks related to virtual currency” while earlier in August, Benjamin Lawsky, New York State’s chief financial regulator, subpoenaed 22 digital currency companies on grounds of potential illicit activity – referring to Bitcoin as “a virtual Wild West for narcotraffickers and other criminals”.
Suspicion of Bitcoin on Capitol Hill goes back to a 2011 denunciation by New York senator Chuck Schumer of the currency as an “online form of money laundering”.

In recent weeks, Bitcoin companies have acted to boost their presence with a new group called the Data Asset Transfer Authority (Data), which has been formed to serve as the self-regulatory body of the US virtual currency industry and is being advised by Promontory Financial Group, a consulting firm comprised of former top US financial regulators. It has also begun meeting the regulatory and law enforcement community in Washington, including officials at the Department of Treasury and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

The federal seizure this year of Liberty Reserve – the Costa Rica-based digital currency provider – and money laundering charges against its founders have complicated matters, said Constance Choi, a spokeswoman for Data. There is concern that a “guilt-by-association” mentality will cause regulators to react to virtual currencies in an ad hoc manner, she said.

“It’s really a PR problem for us. Everybody here is talking about Liberty Reserve, which didn’t even involve Bitcoin.

Bitcoin lobbyists meet US authorities amid growing focus on digital currency 

Bitcoin. Authorities have expressed concerns about potential money laundering abuses and its use in funding illegal activities. Photograph: Rick Bowmer/AP

Representatives of Bitcoin's largest lobby group met federal law enforcement and financial agencies on Monday as the US authorities increased their scrutiny of the controversial digital currency.
Patrick Murck, general counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, confirmed the group was meeting the Federal Reserve, FBI, Treasury Department, tax officials and members of the secret service among others.
Unlike traditional currencies, Bitcoin is not backed by a central government, but instead created by a computer program. It can be traded or used to buy goods and services. Authorities have expressed concerns about potential money laundering abuses and its use in funding illegal activities including drug purchases.
In an email, Murck said the agenda of the Washington meeting was to "help regulators, policymakers and law enforcement officials better understand the Bitcoin protocol and distributed finance so they can make better decisions and develop new methodologies for identifying and interceding illicit activity.
"Bitcoin and distributed finance is here to stay and our preferred path forward is a co-operative one, where we all can help ease each other's transition into an inclusive and distributed global financial system."
The meeting comes amid signs of a crackdown on Bitcoin. Earlier this month the Senate committee on homeland security wrote to Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, asking for details of any "plans or strategies regarding virtual currencies and information regarding any ongoing initiatives you have engaged in regarding virtual currencies and the name of the person most knowledgeable about any such plans, strategies, or initiatives."
Also this month, New York's department of financial services sent subpoenas to 22 companies involved with Bitcoin seeking information on their business practices. The Bitcoin Foundation clashed with California's regulators in July with the state's regulators accusing the foundation of being engaged in money transmission without proper authorisation – a charge vigorously denied by the Bitcoin Foundation.
Murck said he hoped the Federal meetings would clear up misunderstandings. "We view this as the beginning of a conversation about the appropriate role of government and law enforcement in this emerging space. Our hope is that this is the beginning of an open and transparent dialog between good-faith stakeholders to find common ground and develop public-private partnerships," he said.
"It is refreshing to see US regulators at the federal level take a responsible approach to working with the industry to understand these issues.
"Contrast that with what we are seeing at the state level: regulators seem more interested in rushing to conclusions and tripping over themselves to be first movers, without regard to the unintended consequences for the industry and US policy at the national level."

Showbiz James is dead

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Actor James Gandolfini is dead at 51. A source tells the Daily News he suffered a massive heart attack in Italy. the New Jersey-bred actor who delighted audiences as mob boss Tony Soprano in “The Sopranos” has died following a massive heart attack in Italy, a source told the Daily News.

“Everyone is in tears,” the source close to the 51-year-old TV tough guy said.
A press-shy celeb who got his start as a character actor and became famous relatively late in his career — thanks to his breakout role on “The Sopranos,” Gandolfini has largely avoided the spotlight since the last season of the beloved show aired in 2007.
The burly Westwood, N.J. native has appeared in several supporting roles since then, playing the director of the CIA in “Zero Dark Thirty” and the gruff blue-collar father of a wannabe rock star in “Not Fade Away” last year.
Gandolfini hit Broadway in 2009 with the Tony Award-winning comedy “God of Carnage.”
“I seek out good stories, basically — that’s it,” he told The Star-Ledger last December.
“The older I get, the funnier-looking I get, the more comedies I’m offered. I’m starting to look like a toad, so I’ll probably be getting even more soon.”
Gandolfini’s wife, former model Deborah Lin, gave birth to a baby girl last October. The couple married in Hawaii in 2008.
Gandolfini — who spent part of his early career supporting himself as a bartender and nightclub manager — also has a son with his ex-wife, Marcy Wudarski.
His first break came in 1992 when he landed a role in a Broadway version of “A Streetcar Named Desire” that starred Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange.
Smallish parts in major films followed — Gandolfini played a submarine crew member in “Crimson Tide” in 1995 and a gangland bodyguard in “Get Shorty” the same year.
Fame came for the Italian-American actor after 1999, as “The Sopranos” garnered critical acclaim and cult popularity on its way to becoming a TV classic.
Gandolfini won three Emmy Awards for his sparkling depiction of protagonist Tony Soprano, a mobster trying to balance the mundane stresses of family life and his unusual occupation: organized crime.

Bomb threats rattle Princeton U., Georgia state Capitol

Princeton University ordered the campus evacuated Tuesday due to a bomb threat to "multiple unspecified campus buildings."
A posting on the university website at 10:26 a.m. ET directed all students and employees to go home and "do not return to campus for any reason until advised otherwise."
The university said it is investigating the incident with "local, state and federal law enforcement agencies."
All employees except for essential public safety and facilities staff were told to go home or to evacuation centers and to not return to work until Wednesday. Students were directed to the Public Library and other buildings in the town of Princeton.
Regular classes have ended for the summer and commencement was last Tuesday, according to a tweet from the university. Most students left campus days or weeks ago.
The Ivy League school, located in central New Jersey about 50 miles southwest of New York City, is home to approximately 5,000 undergraduate students, 2,500 graduate students and 1,100 faculty. Its campus comprises 180 buildings on 500 acres. The Princeton area has about 30,000 residents.
About 98% of undergraduate students live on campus, according to the university website. It was not immediately known whether campus residence halls were being evacuated.
The Princeton threat was one of several incidents on Tuesday:
--A bomb threat near the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta forced the evacuation of five buildings housing the state attorney general's office and the state Supreme Court, WXIA-TV reported. Bomb-sniffing dogs did not find any explosives, and employees were allowed back inside around 11 a.m.
--A threatening phone call shortly after 6 a.m. prompted an evacuation at Virginia's Richmond International Airport. Flights were halted and canine units were brought in to sweep the terminals and the parking decks. Nothing was found, and by 9:45 a.m. ET the airport had reopened.

Childcare ratio plans 'in chaos', says Labour

Nick Clegg: "When the last [Labour] government changed the so-called ratios... it had almost no effect in reducing cost" 

Plans to allow childminders and nursery staff to look after more children in England are in "chaos", Labour says.

It follows Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg admitting he had doubts about whether it would cut costs for parents, and also concerns about child safety.
Labour's Stephen Twigg asked an urgent Commons question on plans he said faced "overwhelming opposition".
Education minister Elizabeth Truss told MPs the current system was not working and was unaffordable for many people.
According to leaked letters seen by the BBC's James Landale, Mr Clegg gave Ms Truss the clearance to press ahead with a consultation on the policy in December.
Some Tory sources have asked why Mr Clegg did not raise his concerns about safety and impracticality at the time - but the Lib Dems insist Mr Clegg signed up to a consultation, not a policy.
'Better value' Responding to Labour's urgent Commons question, Ms Truss said the government was now considering responses to the consultation and would make further announcements "in due course".

Read the letters 

Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader 

She said no nursery or childminder would be forced to look after more children, and the government was giving them the chance to exercise more professional responsibility.

"The current system of childcare is not working for parents, too many parents in the UK are struggling to juggle their work and childcare arrangements."
Ms Truss said the government spent £5bn on childcare and needed to get "better value for money for the investment the government puts in".
"At present, we have the tightest ratios in Europe for children under three and we also have the lowest staff salaries," she said.

Louise Stewart Political correspondent, BBC News

The government believes that by increasing the number of children that an adult can look after it will make childcare more affordable and more accessible.
But Nick Clegg has now spoken out to say he doesn't believe that policy will work. He doesn't think any savings will be passed on by the nurseries and believes the policy is unpopular with parents.
What is striking is there appears to be no attempt, particularly by the Conservatives, to play down the difference in the views between the two coalition parties.
So we have Nick Clegg making his views known on his weekly radio phone-in, and then, minutes later, Conservative minister Liz Truss giving a robust defence of the idea in the Commons.
She says the UK has some of highest adult-to-child ratios in Europe and without action, the high charges will stop some people getting back into work.
Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, insists the reforms to childcare ratios will still happen.
But the divisions between the two party leaders over one of the coalition's flagship policies - David Cameron has said sorting childcare out was the "holy Grail" of UK politics - could now put the policy in jeopardy.

She argued that without reform, "we are going to find that it becomes prohibitive for many parents to afford childcare and be able to go out to work".

"These policies are alive and well in France, Ireland, in Holland and in Germany. There is not a single country, including Scotland, where ratios are as low as they are in England."
The plans would allow nursery staff to look after four babies instead of three and six two-year-olds, instead of the current limit of four.
Home-based childminders would be allowed to look after two babies under one, instead of one as currently, and four one-to-five-year-olds, up from three.
But carers' qualifications would have to meet new standards.
The plans were due to be implemented in September but have been met with opposition from some parents' groups and charities.
BBC News Channel chief political correspondent Norman Smith said there appeared to be a rift between Lib Dem Mr Clegg and Conservative Education Minister Elizabeth Truss over the issue and it was difficult to see how the policy could proceed, unless David Cameron threw his weight behind it.
Mr Clegg told LBC similar changes for three- and four-year-olds under the previous Labour government had had "almost no effect" on childcare costs for parents.
He said the government was "grappling" with the issue and had to "get the balance right".
"We've been talking about this for weeks and weeks," he said.

Elizabeth Truss: "If we don't reform the supply of childcare, it will become prohibitive for many parents to afford childcare and go out to work"

"I'm absolutely passionate that we should do more as a country to make sure childcare is better quality but also more affordable."
Speaking in the House of Commons, shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said the split was "another example of chaos and incompetence at the heart of government, particularly in the Department of Education".
He said the scale of opposition to the plans had been "overwhelming" and told the BBC: "Nobody wants this, parents don't want this, the experts don't want this, the government's own adviser on childcare, Cathy Nutbrown, has said this isn't a good idea."
Conservative backbencher Peter Bone told MPs Mr Clegg should make his remarks in the Commons, not on the radio, and the government should "press on and ignore the Liberal Democrats" over the policy.

Prosecutors request new corruption trial for Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing 

Italian prosecutors have requested that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi face trial for allegedly bribing a senator to switch parties.

Mr Berlusconi is accused of paying a left-wing senator 3m euros ($3.9m) to defect to his right-wing People of Freedom party (PDL) in 2006.
Mr Berlusconi says he is a victim of a campaign by a left-wing judiciary.
On Saturday, he will lead a rally in the city of Brescia against a fraud conviction upheld on Wednesday.
In that case, Mr Berlusconi was convicted of artificially inflating prices of film distribution rights bought by his company, Mediaset, to avoid taxes.
The 76-year-old faces a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban from public office for that conviction, and is expected to appeal against the decision to Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation.

Silvio Berlusconi's trials

• Accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute: Verdict due
• Convicted and sentenced to a year in jail for arranging leak of police wiretap. Remains free while appeals process under way.
• Accused of tax fraud over deals his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films: Convicted in October 2012; Sentence upheld by appeals court in May
• Two other corruption cases involving tax evasion and bribery of a British lawyer: Expired under statute of limitations 

The corruption charges filed on Thursday relate to a payment allegedly made to Sergio De Gregorio, a senator from Naples.

His defection weakened the government of Romano Prodi, which collapsed in 2008, and triggered elections that returned Mr Berlusconi to power.
A judge will now decide whether there is sufficient evidence to put Mr Berlusconi on trial.
Mr De Gregorio has said he took the payments from Mr Berlusconi, and has also been charged.
Prosecutors had an earlier request for a fast-track trial turned down.
Mr Berlusconi is also on trial in Milan on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power.
His People of Freedom Party recently joined a coalition government led by centre-left Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

Slovenia unveils reforms as it seeks to avoid EU bailout

Slovenia's new Prime Minister, Alenka Bratusek, is hoping to avoid an EU bailout 

The government of Slovenia has announced a package of measures it hopes will help avoid an EU bailout.

The measures include a tax increase, a major restructuring of Slovenia's ailing banking sector, and a programme of mass privatisation.
Slovenia's mostly state-owned banking sector is suffering from mounting bad debts and the government has struggled to borrow money.
The European Commission will now consider the plan.
It is expected to deliver its verdict by the end of the month.
Slovenia has been in recession since 2011, and analysts have cited it as the most likely country to seek help from the EU following the bailout of Cyprus earlier this year.
European officials have expressed concern over the stability of the country's banking sector, which is struggling under billions of euros of bad debts.
Meanwhile the government's ability to borrow money was dealt a blow last week when Moody's, a ratings agency, cut Slovenia's bonds to "junk" status.
Despite this, the government was able to raise 3.5bn euros (£3bn; $4.6bn) from international bond markets last week, which has bought it some time.
State sell-off The package of measures was announced by Slovenia's recently installed Prime Minister, Alenka Bratusek, and her Finance Minister, Uros Cufer.
The measures include a 2% increase in VAT to shore up government finances.
A "bad bank" will also be created to allow the banking sector to offload its bad debts.
Meanwhile a total of 15 publicly-owned businesses will be sold off, including the second biggest bank, Nova KBM, the flag-carrying airline, Adria Airways, and Telekom Slovenia.
The biggest bank, NLB, has already announced plans to downsize.
Announcing the measures, Ms Bratusek said she expected the budget deficit to rise to 7.8% of GDP this year, but was forecast to fall to 3.3% next year.
She also said the VAT increase was decided on as the tax rise with the least impact on economic growth.
Slovenia is seeking to avoid becoming the latest in a strong of EU countries to seek a bailout from European authorities.
Earlier this year Cyprus agreed a 10bn euro bailout with the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after its banking sector faced near collapse.

Cleveland kidnap accused Mr. Castro in court

Prosecutor Brian Murphy said Mr Castro had used the women "in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit''. 

The man accused of imprisoning three women for about a decade in the US city of Cleveland has made his first court appearance.

Ariel Castro, 52, is charged with kidnap and rape. He did not enter a plea.
Bail was set at $8m (£5.1m), meaning in effect that he will remain in custody.
The women were abducted at different times and held in Mr Castro's house. One of those held, Amanda Berry, 27, escaped on Monday and raised the alarm.
The other women freed soon afterwards were Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.
'Premeditated, depraved' Mr Castro, handcuffed and dressed in blue overalls, remained silent and looked down while lawyers spoke to the judge at Cleveland Municipal Court on Thursday.

Ariel Castro's daughter breaks down as she apologises to the victims

County prosecutor Brian Murphy told the court: "The charges against Mr Castro are based on premeditated, deliberate, depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies from Cleveland West Side streets to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit."
He is charged with four counts of kidnapping, covering the three initial abduction victims and Jocelyn, Ms Berry's six-year-old daughter, who was apparently conceived and born in captivity.
The former school bus driver also faces three counts of rape, one against each woman. More charges may be added, officials have said.
Two of Mr Castro's brothers, Pedro and Onil, were also arrested, but police found no evidence they were involved in the crime.
They appeared in court alongside Ariel Castro on unrelated minor charges. Pedro Castro was fined $100 for public drinking, while two charges against Onil Castro were dropped.
Ariel Castro has been put on suicide watch and will be kept in isolation, his court-appointed lawyer Kathleen DeMetz told reporters.
'Wigs and hats' The three women were all abducted after accepting rides from Mr Castro, according to a police report leaked to the media.

Charges against Ariel Castro

• Four counts of kidnapping - one for each woman and one for a six-year-old girl police say was born in captivity
• Three counts of rape, one for each woman, representing what police say is years of sexual abuse
• Bail is set at $8m (£5m), $2m for each alleged victim
• Charges may be added as the investigation proceeds

On Thursday, Mr Castro's daughter, Arlene, who was one of the last people to see Gina DeJesus before she disappeared in 2004 aged 14, wept during a TV interview.

Describing herself as "disappointed, embarrassed, mainly devastated", she apologised to Ms DeJesus.
The women told officials they could only remember being outside twice during their time in captivity.
Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins said the women had told police they had only gone as far as a garage on the property, disguised in wigs and hats.
Mr Cummins, citing police information, said the victims had been kept apart inside the house until their captor felt he had enough control to allow them to mingle.
'Multiple miscarriages' A source told the BBC that one of the women was forced to help Ms Berry deliver her daughter, and was threatened with death if the child did not survive.

Listen to the moment an officer radioed "we found them, we found them" from the house in Cleveland

Her baby was born in a plastic inflatable children's swimming pool on Christmas Day 2006, according to a police report.
Ms Berry was not the only woman who became pregnant during captivity, Mr Cummins said. One of the three women had suffered at least five miscarriages.
Mr Castro is accused of having intentionally caused the miscarriages by starving her for weeks and beating her in the abdomen, according to the city councilman.
Police said more than 200 pieces of evidence had been taken from the home where the three women were held captive.
They said interviews with the women had yielded enough information to charge Mr Castro.
Police said he had been co-operating with them, waiving his right to silence and agreeing to a test to establish Jocelyn's paternity.
On Wednesday hundreds of cheering people welcomed home Ms DeJesus and Ms Berry and her daughter.
Ms Berry, whose disappearance in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday was widely publicised in the local media, escaped on Monday evening by kicking the door and screaming for help, while her alleged captor was out.
Ms Knight, who was 20 when she disappeared in 2002, remains in hospital.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports she had complained of chest pains during her rescue, but she is listed as in good condition.

Richie wants 'tramp stamp' gone

Nicole Richie has debuted her new AOL web series, titled "#CandidlyNicole." In the first episode, Richie says she's going to get her "tramp stamp" removed -- by "Big Brother" veteran "evil" Dr. Will Kirby, no less.
While in the waiting room, Richie makes friends with the other clients of "Dr. Tattoff," regaling them with the tale of the first tattoo she got -- the tattoo artist asked her friend to hold his gun while she got her tattoo.
Once in the exam room, Richie describes her tattoo as a cross "going down the crack" of her backside. Well, that's ... nifty.
The nurse describes the pain as being like when you fry bacon and the grease splatters on your arm. That doesn't sound too bad, actually, but Richie is interested in being put "completely under."
However, in the end, Richie doesn't end up getting her tattoo removed during this first webisode of her series. It turns out it could take several months to get the tattoo off and she thought it was an immediate, zap-like process.
"I'm hoping in 10 years, when it's really embarrassing, that they'll have new technology," says Richie.

Paris Hilton TRUCE with Lingerie Co. ... Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em

Exclusive

Paris Hilton has made it official ... she's dropping her lawsuit against a swimwear/lingerie company and going into business with her former enemy.

As we reported ... Hilton and Le Bonitas were embroiled in a bitter lawsuit last year over a product deal gone bad. Hilton signed a 5-year contract  to create a line of lingerie, PJs and swimwear, but the project went South.

LB sued Hilton for more than $200,000 for allegedly blowing off her obligations ... and Hilton (repped by Michael Weinsten) sued back for $1.5 million -- but now the two have made peace, agreeing to a totally new lingerie/swimwear deal.

Paris and LB are now saying their old beef is "water under the bridge."

See kids? Money fixes everything.

Call of Duty: Ghosts' Teaser Trailer

There's been a lot of rumors about Infinity Wards' next tour with the uber-popular Call of Duty series but it looks like we'll finally get a sneak peek today. Snipe the video after the break.

It's a bit short on content -- there's no gameplay -- but there seems to be a bit of a tonal shift for the franchise; perhaps moving away from the world shattering events for something more stealthy. We'll find out more as news gets released.
From the press release:

“Infinity Ward set the gold standard for first-person action for a generation, and they’re going to do it again with Call of Duty: Ghosts,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc. “Ghosts delivers an all-new story, all-new characters, an all-new Call of Duty world, all powered by a next generation Call of Duty engine, which is a leap forward for the franchise. Infinity Ward is going all-in to create the next generation of Call of Duty worthy of the world’s greatest fans."
“Everyone was expecting us to make Modern Warfare 4, which would have been the safe thing to do. But we're not resting on our laurels,” said Mark Rubin, executive producer of developer Infinity Ward. “We saw the console transition as the perfect opportunity to start a new chapter for Call of Duty. So we're building a new sub-brand, a new engine, and a lot of new ideas and experiences for our players. We can't wait to share them with our community."

Additionally, you can check out an exclusive first look at "Call of Duty: Ghosts" by tuning in 10AM PDT on May 21 for Microsoft's Next Generation reveal on Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE or SPIKE TV for the debut of the all-new game from Infinity Ward.
"Call of Duty: Ghosts" will release on Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation3 computer entertainment system and PC on November 5 as well as next generation platforms.

Lil Wayne hospitalized for seizure

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Lil Wayne performs in concert at the Cruzan Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, Florida on August 2, 

 

Rapper Lil Wayne was hospitalized Tuesday night after suffering multiple seizures and was released this morning. Not long after, his bodyguard found him unconscious in his room, TMZ reports.
Wayne, 30, was rushed back to Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles but was not stabilized and was shaking uncontrollably.
He has been placed in an induced coma and is breathing through tubes. Sources at the hospital told TMZ that Wayne is still in critical condition but is stabilizing.
The prognosis is still uncertain, but his mother flew to Los Angeles last night in case she had to make any health decisions for him. Several other family members and friends in the rap community visited the hospital.
Wayne was hospitalized in March for severe seizures as well, according to Examiner. The rapper said in a radio interview that he had suffered from seizures much of his life as a result of epilepsy.
Doctors tested Wayne and found high amounts of codeine in his system, and sources suspect that he might have overdosed after being released from the hospital Tuesday. His stomach was pumped three times to rid his body of any remaining codeine.
The National Institutes of Health website says that codeine is usually combined with other medication, and that the outcome of codeine overdose depends on how well doctors are able to treat overdose of the other medications. The site lists seizures as a symptom of overdose, and says that even with successful treatment shock and brain damage may occur.
Representatives for the rapper told People he was "doing well," and despite being comatose, messages continue to be sent from his Twitter account.

Keiser Report Psyops and Debt Diets

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert follow the ounces not the prices in the precious metals market and discuss the psyops of the gold war where sales of 1100 tons (45% of annual new supply) is sold into the market at once in order to alter behavior. They observe crowds stampeding in the East for more physical gold while in the West, people are put on a restricted debt diet controlled by their governments based on needs not wants. Finally, they discuss the conflicts of interest at the heart of CISPA and Max starts his own hashtag - #AmericaFatigue. In the second half of the show, they talk to Wolf Richter of Testosteronepit.com about gold smashes, wealth grabs and government and Wall Street corruption.

Amazon to pilot TV comedies and children's shows online

The pilot shows include Alpha House, which stars John Goodman 

Fourteen pilot shows - including Alpha House and Zombieland - are to be put to the public vote on Lovefilm and Amazon.com.

Viewers can submit feedback influencing which shows get made into full series.
The 14 shows are made by independent production companies and produced by Amazon Studios, the film and series production arm of Amazon.
"This is the first time Amazon Studios has done this," said Simon Morris, Lovefilm's chief marketing officer.
Eight adult comedies and six children's animation series will be put to the public vote.
The shows will be aired on Amazon's pay subscription services - Amazon Prime in the US, and Lovefilm in the UK - but Morris told the BBC they would be available to everyone and not just subscribers.
The adult pilot shows include Alpha House, about four senators who live together in a rented house in Washington DC and stars John Goodman, who was recently in Oscar-winning film Argo.
"Bill Murray has got a cameo in Alpha House, looking a bit older, a little bit more bedraggled, but definitely Bill Murray," Mr Morris added.
Onion News Empire is set behind the scenes of the Onion News Network, a satirical daily news service, and "shows just how far journalists will go to stay at the top of their game", according to Amazon Studios.
It stars Arrested Development's Jeffrey Tambor as the "egomaniacal lead anchor".
Musical comedy Browsers stars Cheers and Frasier actress Bebe Neuwirth as the "terrifying" boss of a news website in Manhattan.
Other pilot shows include Zombieland - based on the film of the same name - featuring four survivors attempting to outwit zombies, while animated comedy Dark Minions, written by Big Bang Theory's Kevin Sussman and John Ross Bowie, is about two "slackers" working on an intergalactic warship.
The children's shows include animations Sara Solves It, where Sara and Sam solve maths-based mysteries, and Creative Galaxy, an interactive art adventure series.

The Zombieland pilot is based on the film of the same name

"This isn't X Factor for some new titles where you get to vote and they're fairly gimmicky," Mr Morris said. "It has a unique position in the world in that it has a platform that's a pay platform, it has an entertainment platform."
He said that the "world of digital has been growing, driven in large part by the BBC iPlayer, from about 2008" and that he saw this move as the next stage.
"Mass-market digital consumption and streaming have come of age in the last few years," he added.
'Promotional tool' But Toby Syfret, TV analyst for Enders Analysis, was sceptical about the venture, describing it as a "gimmick" and said he did not think it would make much of a dent in the TV landscape.
"I think the success of this will have a huge amount to do with the publicity they can get for it."

Kevin Spacey's House of Cards was made and broadcast on Netflix

Amazon and Lovefilm were able to put pilots to the public vote because "they are not TV channels with set budgets", he said, adding that "you cannot sustain a programming operation if you let viewers decide - you're losing control of the purse strings".
He also queried whether programme-makers would want the public vote to potentially leave them "committed to the most expensive thing which is least good".
"Programme makers may end up saying 'we'll go with it, but it's a bit expensive so we'll cut the budget' - and then you've done what the public's asked but it's been slashed by half," he added.
"Ultimately, this is a promotional tool - Amazon's thinking that Netflix has done it this way [by broadcasting Kevin Spacey's House of Cards drama series] so we'll come at it from another way."
Earlier this year, the streaming TV and movie service Netflix made and broadcast House of Cards, and revealed plans to make at least five new shows a year.
YouTube, owned by Google, also recently launched its original channels initiative with 20 new channels coming from the UK.
Mr Morris said that the key thing that marked his venture out was that "the platform is open".
"Not everyone has the opportunity to go and pitch an idea to HBO in New York, not everyone can get on a plane to Cannes and pitch a script," he said.
"But there is now a vehicle whereby people are in a place that independent writers - whether they've got a track record or not - can put content through and it can be evaluated and brought to market. And that's the exciting thing about this."

McDonald's sees fall in global sales

McDonald's profits fell slightly short of Wall Street's expectations

McDonald's has reported a drop in first quarter sales and says it expects sales to fall in April as well.

The world's largest restaurant chain said net income was marginally higher at $1.27bn in the quarter, but underlying global sales fell 1%.
The company blamed a "challenging" environment, which included a harsh winter in both the US and Europe.
As consumers tighten their belts, McDonald's is coming under increasing pressure from its competitors.
Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, has changed its US menus recently to appeal to the thrifty spender. Burger King and Wendy's have also redesigned their offerings.
McDonald's has been heavily promoting its "Dollar Menu", which many analysts say is eating into the company's profit margins.
The sales and profit figures came in lower than expectations, and McDonald's shares were down 2% in morning trading on Wall Street.
McDonald's said that underlying sales in the US fell by 1.2% in the first three months of the year, with operating income down 3%. Despite this, it said it had "outperformed the competition and increased market share".
In Europe, comparable sales fell by 1.1%, which the company blamed on the "ongoing economic uncertainty" in the region.
"For the month of April, global comparable sales are expected to be slightly negative," said McDonald's president and chief executive officer Don Thompson.
"We are confident that we have the right plans in place to differentiate the McDonald's experience and strengthen our business momentum for the long term."

General Electric profits lifted by NBC stake sale

General Electric is refocusing on its industrial businesses, like making airplane turbines

General Electric has reported a 16% rise in first quarter profits, helped by a one-off gain from the sale of its stake in NBC Universal.

It made a profit of $3.53bn (£2.3bn) in the quarter, up from $3.03bn last year. Revenue was flat at $35bn.
The conglomerate has been trying to put its focus back on core industrial businesses, which include aviation and energy infrastructure.
It said orders for its aviation equipment jumped 47%.
Orders for oil and gas equipment and services, such as turbines and plant maintenance, rose 24%, said GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt.
"In growth markets, equipment and service orders grew 17%. We ended the quarter with our biggest backlog in history," he said. Orders grew to $216bn in the first quarter from $210bn in the fourth quarter of 2012.
In the first three months of 2013 GE was awarded a $620m maintenance contract for QGC's Queensland Curtis liquified natural gas plant off the east coast of Australia.
It also won a contract to provide power equipment for the Emirates Aluminum smelter complex in Abu Dhabi, and another maintenance contract for a LNG project in Russia.
But the company said it had been affected by weaker-than-expected sales in Europe, especially in sales of power and water equipment.
"GE's markets were mixed. The US and growth markets were in line with expectations. We planned for a continued challenging environment in Europe, but conditions weakened further with Industrial segment revenues in the region down 17%," said Mr Immelt.
"We always anticipated that the first half of 2013 would be our toughest comparison," he added.
During the quarter, the company sold its 49% stake in NBC Universal to Comcast for $18.1bn.

Huge manhunt for Boston bomb suspect

People across Boston and surrounding suburbs have been told to stay indoors amid a massive police manhunt for one of two men suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, remains at large after he escaped a shoot-out in which another suspect, his brother, died.
"Stay indoors with the doors locked," the Massachusetts governor has said.
Three people died and more than 170 were hurt when two bombs exploded near the finish line of Monday's marathon. Terror in Boston

• Thursday 22:20 (03:20 BST, 19 April) Police officer shot dead at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, near Boston
• Two men, later identified as the Boston marathon bomb suspects, hijack a car at gunpoint
• 01:00 (06:00 BST) Police chase the car as it heads to Watertown
• One suspect is fatally injured and the other flees after a shoot-out with police
• Police call for lockdown of Watertown and surrounding area as the manhunt continues 

The FBI released several images of two men they were hunting in relation to the bombing, one wearing a white cap, the other a black cap.

Police said "suspect number one" had been killed early on Friday, and they were looking for "suspect number two", the "white-capped individual", later named as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The black-capped suspect - widely named in the US media as Tamerlan Tsarnaev - was the fugitive's elder brother.
Both are said to be of Chechen origin, and are reported to have moved to the United States about 10 years ago.
Blast wounds The manhunt began late on Thursday when university police officer Sean Collier, 26, was killed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus.
Two men carjacked a driver at gunpoint and drove away with the driver still in the car. They later released the man unharmed.
Police chased the suspects, who threw bombs and exchanged gunfire with police, seriously wounding one officer.
In the Boston suburb of Watertown, officers and the men were involved in a gun battle lasting 10 minutes, according to witnesses.

Analysis Mark Mardell North America editor

A man and his 17-year-old daughter wander around the small shopping centre, now filled with TV trucks and journalists. She's clutching a puppy and is still dressed in pyjamas.
They'd gone out late at night to pick up their new pet and when they came back were told by police they couldn't return to their home in Watertown - there was a terrorist on the loose, with explosives.
We and they are on one side of the cordon. Inside those 20 blocks it must be terrifying - to be told to stay inside, behind a locked door. This is now the advice for the whole of Boston. The police obviously don't want to create panic but they would rather people were frightened than hurt.
America wasn't cowed by the bombings, but having one of its oldest cities shut down, in fear, may have a greater impact. 

The authorities in Massachusetts Bay have suspended the transport system and no vehicles are being allowed in or out of the Watertown area.

The warning to stay indoors was later extended to the whole of Boston, in what correspondents said was an unprecedented move.
"Stay indoors with the doors locked, and do not open the door for anyone other than a properly identified law enforcement officer," Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said on Friday morning.
Gunshot wounds Meanwhile, President Barack Obama was briefed on developments in the manhunt and investigation for about an hour in the White House Situation Room.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, also at the briefing on video link, said the authorities were "part of the way there" in bringing the Boston terror suspects to justice, AP reported.
Overnight, video footage emerged showing a fully-clothed suspect lying on the floor, surrounded by police. More video was shown by US media of a suspect being led into a police car after being stripped of his clothes.
But it is not clear who the men were, or what happened after their apparent arrests.
Dr Richard Wolfe, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said an individual was brought in with multiple blast and gunshot wounds to his upper body.
He was in cardiac arrest when he arrived at hospital and despite attempts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead at 01:35 (05:35 GMT), Dr Wolfe said.

Watertown resident describes explosions and gunfire

The authorities were investigating whether the dead man had a home-made bomb strapped to his body when he was killed, reports said.
Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said he believed the man being hunted in the Watertown area was a "terrorist".
"We believe this to be a man who came here to kill people," he said.
A grey Honda CRV vehicle, which reports said had been sought in connection with the suspects, was found on Friday morning in the Boston area, Connecticut police said.
The father of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said his son was a second year medical student in the US and was hoping to be a brain surgeon.
But Anzor Tsarnaev told the BBC that that he believed the secret services had framed his sons.
Monday's attack on the Boston Marathon killed Martin Richard, aged eight, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lu Lingzi, 23, a postgraduate student from China.