Microsoft to Unveil Its Smartphone Lineup - Wall Street Journal

Microsoft Calling: Microsoft will formally unveil Monday a lineup of smartphones using the revamped version of its mobile operating system, Windows 7. The phones will be available through AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

Kid Channel: Hasbro is set to launch a children's cable network today, as it tries to expand from a toy maker to an entertainment company.

Earnings Roundup: J.P. Morgan Chase, General Electric, Google, Mattel and Intel are among those reporting.

Columbus Day: The stock market and most commodity markets are open Monday, though bond markets and government offices are closed.

Foreclosures Halted: Bank of America said it's halting all foreclosure sales, the first bank to do so amid political pressure to examine documentation problems. BofA, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial and others already have postoned foreclosures in 23 states.

Obama Veto: President Obama plans to veto a bill whose opponents say would make it harder for homeowners to stop foreclosures.

Still Jobless: The unemployment rate stood unchanged at 9.6% in September, as small gains in the private sector failed to offset big cuts in government workers.

Home Sales Up: Existing-home sales rose 4.3% in September from August.

False Charges: Verizon Wireless said it will issue refunds to 15 million customers who were incorrectly billed for data services.

Settlement: Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $24 million and reduce the amount owed on certain loans to settle an investigation into the marketing of risky mortgages.

iPhone Expansion: Apple announced it's creating a version of the iPhone to be sold through Verizon Wireless starting early next year, ending an exclusive deal with AT&T.

—Wall Street Journal Sunday writers regularly contribute to the Journal's weekday "Your Money Matters" personal-finance podcast. Listen at WSJ.com/Podcasts

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Google tests driverless car - Telegraph.co.uk

The experiment, which was carried out in San Francisco, was almost incident-free. The sole mishap was when the driverless car was bumped from behind by another vehicle at a traffic light.

It is the latest development in trying to design accidents out of cars. Already many have sophisticated assisted parking systems and an array of other technology aimed at preventing collisions.

However the Google car – in reality a kitted out Toyota Prius – went a step further.

Although a driver was present to take control should the need arise, the car was left to drive itself with the help of video cameras mounted on the roof, radar sensors and a laser finder capable of detecting other traffic.

The routes were agreed in advance with the police and were first mapped out by by a driver.

According to Sebastian Thrun, a software engineer behind the project, a number of cars have taken part in the trials which have covered 140,000 miles.

The cars have successfully negotiated San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge as well as other parts of the city.

According to the World Health Organisation 1.2 million people are killed on the roads across the globe every year and the trials are intended to promote safety by removing some of the human error involved in driving.

"We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half," Mr Thrun wrote on his blog.

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Bronx Gang Claim Gay Recruit Torture Was Forced by Leader - ABC News

Members of a Bronx gang who allegedly beat and tortured a new recruit they thought was gay along with two other men in separate attacks early this week are claiming that the gang's leader threatened them into participating in the assaults.

Police told the New York Daily News that several members of the gang, known as the Latin King Goonies, claimed that the gang's leader, Ildefonso (Cheto) Mendez, orchestrated the assault and told them that they would be slashed and beaten as well if they did not participate.

Eight members of the gang are being held on charges of burglary, robbery, assault, menacing, unlawful imprisonment and criminal sex acts, which are being added as a hate crime, police said. One suspect, Rudy Vargas-Perez, 22, is also being sought in the incident.

The alleged attacks came amid heightened attention nationwide to anti-gay bullying after a string of suicides last month were attributed to harassment they had suffered.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the first of the alleged assaults occurred at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx.

In the first incident, gang members allegedly forced a 17-year-old potential recruit for the street gang to an empty apartment in the Bronx that they used for parties and sex, Kelly said.

"He was thrown into a wall, made to strip naked, hit in the head with a beer can, cut with a box cutter and sodomized with the wooden handle of a plunger," the commissioner said.

The alleged attackers, apparently angry he was gay, yelled anti-gay insults and questioned him about his contact with a 30-year-old man, according to police.

The teen was eventually released by the attackers and instructed not to tell anyone, police said. He then walked to a hospital where he was treated, but he reported that his injuries were from a robbery, according to police.

The gang members then attacked another 17-year-old also thought to have had a relationship with the 30-year-old and then the older man as well, police said. They allegedly lured both to the same apartment with a story that there was a party there.

The second teen was allegedly assaulted at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to police.

When the 30-year-old arrived about an hour later, the nine gang members allegedly stripped him to his underwear and tied him to a chair opposite the other teen, who they forced to burn the man with cigarettes, police said.

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