Muslim scholars and clerics: suicide bombings are un-Islamic.

Suicide bombers in Afghanistan have shown little restraint: Wedding parties and even mosques and children have witnessed gruesome targeting by the Taliban against civilians.
But as attacks soared in the summer and fall, killing scores of civilians every week – including at least 40 Muslim devotees at a mosque in late October –public revulsion has turned into unprecedented condemnation.
For the first time in late January, Muslim scholars and clerics from around the world will come to Kabul specifically to condemn suicide bombings as un-Islamic. The conference will be the first to focus on suicide bombing, and its framers hope the result will reverberate beyond Afghanistan.
"Many times, scholars in Pakistan and Afghanistan have made statements but had no influence," says Mufti Shamsur Rahman Firotan, a religious scholar in Kabul. "This one will have influence, and will give the idea to the people that suicide attacks are forbidden. The message is for all: in Iraq, in Pakistan, all these [militant jihadist] groups."
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Senior United Nations officials have challenged religious officials to speak more loudly against attacks carried out in the name of Islam, while Afghan religious scholars have long decried suicide attacks, with little response by the ultra-conservative Taliban. An official gathering this summer resolved that suicide attacks "have no legitimate foundation in Islam."
It had little effect at the time. But those declarations have now been further bolstered. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, the highest religious authority in the birthplace of Islam and respected by the Taliban, explicitly condemned suicide bombing.
Yet since Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh issued such a high-profile public statement in late October, Taliban suicide attacks have continued, some with multiple bombers. But Afghan religious scholars say momentum is building against them.
One reason is because Mr. Abdulaziz “does have influence on the Taliban," says Mr. Firotan, who is a member of Afghanistan's Ulema Council of Islamic scholars, which has long campaigned against civilian deaths.
"The Taliban think we are their enemies, so they don't respect our declarations," says Mr. Firotan. "But Mufti Aziz is respected by them, and all around the Islamic world…. It has influence."
INVOKING MUHAMMED
The newsletter of Afghanistan’s religious scholars, called Al-Islam, publicized the Grand Mufti’s high-profile pronouncement against suicide bombing.
Invoking the Muslim prophet Mohammed, Abdulaziz noted that killing innocents has been forbidden for 14 centuries. He said justifying suicide attacks in the name of religion was a "misuse" of Islam.
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"Attacks, suicide attacks, and killing of the innocent have no place in Islam, and whoever conducts these are not just deprived of Paradise, but they will go to hell," Abdulaziz said according to Al-Islam. "There is jihad in Islam, but it is very different from killing of the innocent and suicide attacks [which does] not benefit the people and humanity."
The Taliban claims it has not "officially" received Abdulaziz's fatwa (or religious decree), says Firotan, but only heard about it.
'THIS IS NOT THE WAY'
The Quran makes clear that self-defense is acceptable, says Firotan, providing "there is no other way to live, but that is not the situation now."
For those who want to fight US forces, says Firotan, there are methods. "But this is not the way – to go to mosques, banks, bazaars, or shops. There, are 100 percent, some Taliban who are [also] against these actions."
As the Taliban has waged its insurgency in recent years, it has also increasingly targeted civilians, along with US and NATO military forces, Afghan security, and the government. By early summer, the toll caught the attention of the UN Special Representative Jan Kubis, who lamented in a speech that every morning started with “very sad news” of civilian deaths.
Addressing an Islamic cooperation conference in June, he said the previous “typical” week had 200 civilian casualties, with 57 dead. The week before registered 244 casualties, with 90 killed. One day saw three suicide bombings; another single day left 107 casualties.
Such a soaring toll was "unacceptable," Kubis said. "We keep hearing reports of suicide bombings, intimidation, targeted killings, assassination of elders, religious leaders, teachers, and scholars, burning of schools – all done in the name of Islam."
Yet Kubis noted that different interpretations are also heard, based on the Quran, that show such acts to be un-Islamic. The result has been confusion and questions in the minds of many Afghans.
"They are not anymore sure what is the truth, what is right, what is wrong, what is Islamic, what is non-Islamic," said Kubis. He challenged the religious scholars to magnify their voices: "You have a major role, a major responsibility to help."
That message has been transmitted many times by many religious scholars and officials, over many years. But it has yet to break through to those who favor such attacks, as “religious” as their ideology is meant to be.
EASIER SAID, THAN DONE
Even the writ of Taliban chiefs is limited, as shown by the example of fugitive leader Mullah Omar. In 1998 he condemned the use of anti-personnel landmines as "un-Islamic" and "anti-human."
Despite that, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) notes that improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed by Taliban operatives are "by far the biggest killer of civilians" in Afghanistan. In the first nine months of this year, they caused 340 deaths – a nearly 30 percent increase from the same period the previous year.
Likewise, suicide attacks remain a pernicious killer, despite the volume of religious scholarship against it.
"Practically every family has suffered some form of attack by these suicide bombings or IEDs, and they don't look at it very kindly," says Massoumeh Torfeh, the director of strategic communications for UNAMA in Kabul.
Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a former Taliban ambassador to the UN who is now a member of the High Peace Council, tasked by the government of President Hamid Karzai with talking to the Taliban, says the opinions of religious figures can have an impact.
"Afghanistan is a religious country, and absolutely the majority are listening to their religious scholars," says Mr. Mujahid. About the Taliban, he says: "They are human beings, and also they have their religious scholars."
Mujahid quotes the Quran, saying: "You have to fight against those who are fighting against you. But do not cross the limit."
That limit is beyond "proportional reaction," says Mujahid: "It means that when someone is fighting against you with their fists, you should not use a Kalashnikov."
The Taliban see themselves as "being attacked, that war is being waged against [them]," adds Mujahid. The High Peace Council is "trying our best to convince them that war is not to the benefit of any party [and to] settle everything by negotiations, not by fighting."

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Letters To God: Kenyans appeal for peaceful election

Five years after a disputed presidential election unleashed interethnic violence that scarred this East African nation, Kenyans are bracing for a new election amid fears of a fresh outbreak of bloodletting.
But a growing number of Kenyans are challenging that fear with hope, with thousands taking up the call to “Write to God” with prayers that upcoming March 4 elections will be peaceful.
One of the best known Kenyans to join the effort is Sarah Onyango Obama, the US president’s step-grandmother. From her home in the western village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, Mrs. Obama wrote that Kenya had to take a path much different than that of Rwanda and its horrific 1994 genocide.
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"But when I see conflicts on TV, I keep wondering if Kenyans value peace," she said in her letter which was posted in English and a local dialect on a Facebook page created for the letter drive.
The participation of the 90-year-old Mrs. Obama, who is Muslim and is the third wife of President Obama’s grandfather, is seen as important for the effort, according to organizers, who include business leaders, nongovernmental organizations, and interfaith groups. Mrs. Obama is regarded as a minor celebrity in her home district for her relationship to the American president and for her charity work: a foundation to help children orphaned by AIDS has been started in her name.
As the elections approach, Kenyans face serious social and economic hardship. Unemployment in the country of 42 million is about 40 percent, up from 12.7 percent in 2006, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Prices for food and other staple commodities have skyrocketed: corn, for example, has doubled in price in recent years, rising to about 60 Kenyan shillings (about 70 cents) a kilogram.
As many as 55 percent of Kenyans are worried about the political environment and potential violence, according to a poll by Strategic Research and Communication Consultants for Africa. The Dec. 17-19 poll surveyed 1,500 Kenyans in face-to-face interviews. No margin of error was given.
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Hence the letter-writing campaign.
“Social studies show that writing is therapeutic, and when one writes to a higher power, a natural sense of peace is created in the person,” said Sr. Brahma Kumaris Vedanti, the regional director of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, which is helping to organize the campaign. She spoke to reporters in Nairobi on Dec. 1 at a news conference to launch the initiative.
The campaign is considered unusual for Kenya, where about 82 percent of the country considers itself Christian, while about 11 percent are Muslim: most church-going Kenyans make their appeals to God in prayer, not in written form. But organizers say this is a peace initiative for all religions and ethnic groups.
FIVE YEARS OF RECONCILIATION EFFORTS
The election violence of five years ago was sparked after incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the victor in 2007 and his challenger, Raila Odinga, now prime minister, rejected the results, saying they were rigged. The dispute triggered riots and clashes that resulted in more than 1,000 people being killed and tens of thousands displaced. The brutality dented Kenya’s image as a stable nation in East Africa and set back its economy.
Since that time, Kenyan and international organizations have undertaken numerous peace and reconciliation efforts, particularly in the Rift Valley and the Nyanza, Western, and Central provinces, which were the sites of the worst spasms of violence. More than 600,000 people who were displaced have returned, and for many villages, there is little outward sign of violence or strife.
Many of the initiatives have been led by the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya, as well as the Protestant National Council of Churches, especially in the Rift Valley. Church groups have helped to organize “peace committees,” getting people who stole property or burned houses during the violence to come forward and confess to their crimes, and offer repayment or compensation.
The government also set up a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission in 2008 to investigate not only the violence, but larger, historical injustices and human rights violations. The TJRC, which has yet to give its final report, has been criticized as lacking credibility, due to a leadership struggle involving its chairman, Bethuel Kiplagat. He has been accused of being a member of a government team whose orders led to the notorious 1984 Wagalla Massacre, when Army and police troops rounded up members of the Somali community protesting against the government. Thousands were tortured and are believed to have died, according to human rights groups.
There have also been several criminal prosecutions stemming directly from the post-2007 election violence. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has charged four Kenyans, including Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, with crimes against humanity, and local prosecutors have charged several others for involvement in the violence. Many, however, believe that the main perpetrators and organizers have so far gone unpunished.
Serious tensions remain in other provinces. At least 39 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern part of the country early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, according to The Associated Press.
The tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, the US humanitarian coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said in late August. On the surface, however, the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture, and other resources, according to the Associated Press.
With fears of renewed violence, many citizens have welcomed efforts that can help sustain peace. By Friday, more than 6,000 letters had been written, with some coming from senior politicians, the clergy, and local businessmen. In addition to mailing them, participants are being encouraged to post them on Facebook or Twitter.
More than 14 million people have registered to vote, of an anticipated 18 million. President Kibaki, who is not standing for reelection, has tried to assure Kenyans that the March vote will be free, fair, and peaceful, as has Odinga, who is a front-runner in a growing field of at least four other candidates.

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Egypt finishes constitutional vote, but irregularities delay final results

Egyptian judges were investigating opposition accusations of voting irregularities today before declaring the result of a referendum set to show that a contentious new constitution has been approved.
President Mohamed Morsi sees the basic law, drawn up mostly by Islamists, as a vital step in Egypt's transition to democracy almost two years after the fall of military-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak.
The opposition, a loose alliance of liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians, says the document is too Islamist, ignores the rights of minorities and represents a recipe for more trouble in the Arab world's most populous nation.
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Critics have also said the vote, conducted over two stages in a process that ended on Dec. 22, was marred by a litany of irregularities, and have demanded a full inquiry.
"The committee is currently compiling results from the first and second phase and votes from Egyptians abroad, and is investigating complaints," Judge Mahmoud Abu Shousha, a member of the committee, told Reuters.
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He said no time had been set for an announcement of the final outcome, but it appeared unlikely to be today.
A tally by the Muslim Brotherhood, which lifted Mr. Morsi into the presidency, indicated a 64 percent "yes" vote, although only a third of the 51 million eligible Egyptians took part. An opposition count was similar, but they said the ballot had been marred by abuses in both rounds.
By forcing the pace on the constitution, Morsi risks squandering the opportunity to build consensus for the austerity measures desperately needed to kickstart an ailing economy.
Highlighting investor concerns, Standard and Poor's cut Egypt's longterm credit rating today and said another cut was possible if political turbulence worsened.
The low turnout also prompted some independent newspapers to question how much support the charter really had, with opponents saying Morsi had lost the vote in much of the capital.
"The referendum battle has ended, and the war over the constitution's legitimacy has begun," the newspaper Al-Shorouk wrote in a headline, while a headline in Al-Masry Al-Youm read: "Constitution of the minority."
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
If the "yes" vote is confirmed, a parliamentary election will follow in about two months, setting the stage for Islamists and their opponents to renew their battle.
Under the new constitution, legislative powers that have been temporarily held by Morsi move to the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament until a new lower house is elected.
The make-up of the Supreme Constitutional Court, which Islamists say is filled with Mubarak-era appointees bent on throwing up legal challenges to Morsi's rule, will also change as its membership is cut to 11 from 18.
Those expected to leave include Tahani al-Gebali, who has described Morsi as an "illegitimate president."
The head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Saad al-Katatni, wrote on Facebook that the group's members were "extending our hands to all political parties and all national forces," adding: "We will all start a new page."
But the opposition National Salvation Front says the new basic law deepens a rift between the liberals and Islamists who combined to overthrow Mubarak, and will extend the turbulence that has taken a heavy toll on society and economy.
The opposition said they would continue to challenge the charter through protests and other democratic means.
"We do not consider this constitution legitimate," liberal politician Amr Hamzawy said yesterday, arguing that it violated personal freedoms. "We will continue to attempt to bring down the constitution peacefully and democratically."
The run-up to the referendum was marred by protests, originally sparked when Morsi awarded himself broad powers on Nov. 22. At least eight people were killed when rivals clashed in protests outside Morsi's official palace in Cairo. Violence also flared in the second city, Alexandria.

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Lebanese border means little in Syria's civil war

The four rain-filled bomb craters all visible within 100 yards of Mahmoud Ismael’s house starkly illustrate how Lebanon’s northern border has become an active frontline in Syria’s civil war, drawing in rival Lebanese Shiite and Sunni factions.
A fifth shell had struck the edge of the roof, knocking out chunks of concrete and sending heavy steel shrapnel scything into the cement parapet and the soft earth below.
“It was a terrifying night. We all thought we would be killed,” says Mr. Ismael, surveying the damage.
The Lebanese government, which follows a policy of neutrality towards the war in Syria, has found itself almost powerless to prevent pockets of north Lebanon becoming either bastions of support for the Syrian regime or de facto safe havens for the armed Syrian opposition.
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Tensions between Lebanon’s Sunni and Shiite communities have been running high for several years. But they have been aggravated further by the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict in Syria, which has pitted the majority Sunni opposition against the Alawite minority, a subsect of Shiite Islam which forms the backbone of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Nourat al-Tahta, like other Sunni-populated villages along the border in the northern Akkar province, is deeply supportive of the Syrian revolution and shelters refugees and Free Syrian Army militants alike. The villages in the area have been subjected to Syrian artillery shelling on a near nightly basis since May. The shelling is intended to hit FSA members who slip across the border into Syria at night as well as to punish those Lebanese who provide assistance and a safe haven for the militants.
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Until recently, it was confined mainly to the scrubland outside the village, but in the past week, the bombardments have focused more closely on inhabited areas.
“If it carries on like this we will have to leave,” Ismael says.
According to a Lebanese member of the FSA who lives in the area, Nourat al-Tahta was the starting point three weeks ago for 20 Lebanese Sunni volunteers who set out to cross the border and join a rebel group. The volunteers fell into an ambush on the Syrian side of the border and 14 of them were killed, according to the militant. The shelling, he said, was the Syrian regime’s punishment on the village.
The Syrian shelling and clandestine FSA activities underline how little state control exists in the northern Akkar. The Lebanese Army has sent some additional reinforcements to the border, but its ability to contain the violence is limited. Returning artillery fire into Syria is politically impossible for the Lebanese army, while chasing after FSA militants operating in Lebanon risks incurring the anger of local Lebanese Sunnis.
Further east along the border, on the other side of 6,500-foot forested mountains that last week were lashed by torrential rain and capped in snow, lies the stony flatlands of the Shiite-populated northern Bekaa Valley, an area of strong support for the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, an ally of the Assad regime.
On a recent afternoon, the steady crump of artillery explosions and the sharp pop of outgoing mortar rounds just inside Syria reverberated through the border town of Qasr as Hezbollah vehicles – SUVs with tinted windows and no license plates – raced through the narrow potholed streets of the town.
Some 25 small villages populated by Lebanese Shiites lie just across the border from Qasr, in Syria. They have been the focus of repeated clashes in recent months, pitting the FSA against Syrian troops allegedly backed by Hezbollah militants.
The fighting is expected to grow more intense in the coming days because the FSA’s Omar al-Farouq brigade, one of the largest and most successful Syrian rebel units, has redeployed much of its manpower from the border area opposite north Lebanon to Damascus, according to Syrian opposition sources. Lebanese and Syrian FSA militants, who had been resting in the Bekaa, are said to be heading into Syria to reinforce the rebels’ depleted ranks.
The residents of Qasr believe that the Syrian rebels are seeking to empty the Shiite villages just over the border to create a corridor linking Sunni areas to facilitate movement across the top of north Lebanon.
“Those villages won’t go down easily. They will defend them to the last bullet. They are willing to fight to the end,” Abu Ali, a member of Qasr’s municipality, says.
The residents tell lurid tales of atrocities committed by the rebels whom they accuse of being Islamic extremists and many of whom they say are not even Syrians.
“There is no Free Syrian Army, they are all Salafists who are attacking us and robbing our homes,” says Minjad al-Haq, a resident of Safsafah, one of the Shiite villages inside Syria who moved across the border in September to escape the fighting. “They are decapitating their prisoners. They say Allahu Akhbar three times then cut off their heads.”
The emergence and growth of radical Islamist groups in Syria – such as Jabhat al-Nusra, which was recently proscribed by the US as a terrorist organization – and indications of Sunni radicalization in Lebanon have unnerved Lebanese Shiites who worry they could be targeted by triumphant Sunnis once the Assad regime falls. Some of those Sunni militants exist in the northeast corner of the Bekaa Valley, which has become a safe haven for the FSA and a conduit for militants to slip into Syria. All that separates Hezbollah and its Shiite supporters in the northwest pocket of the Bekaa from their Sunni FSA enemies in the northeast corner of the valley is a no-man's land of flat, stony earth.
Although Hezbollah has fought the FSA just north of the border inside Syria, a tense calm exists south of the frontier.
“The Shiites in Syria are in a defensive mode and the Sunnis are in attack mode,” says Abu Ali. “But if the Sunnis attack us here [inside Lebanon] we will attack them here.”
But the sense that the Assad regime’s days are numbered is emboldening some Sunnis to cast their mind toward the next conflict.
Khaled, a portly Lebanese Salafist from the Bekaa Valley who has fought with the FSA for 18 months, predicted that the Assad regime would collapse within eight weeks.
“When we are done there, we will come after Hezbollah here,” he says. “We are going to finish them completely. The Free Syrian Army will come and clean Lebanon of Hezbollah then leave, just like we helped them clean Syria of Assad.

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Could the US learn from Australia's gun-control laws?

Almost two weeks after a shooting spree stunned Australia in 1996, leaving 35 people dead at the Port Arthur tourist spot in Tasmania, the government issued sweeping reforms of the country’s gun laws. There hasn’t been a mass shooting since. Now, after the recent shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, Australia’s National Firearm Agreement (NFA), which saw hundreds of thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons bought back then destroyed, is being examined as a possible example for the US, to mixed reaction in Australia.
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Australians have been following the Connecticut tragedy closely, and many say the US solution lies in following Australia’s path, or at least reforming current laws. But a small but vocal number of Australia’s gun supporters are urging caution.
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Just 12 days after the 1996 shooting in Port Arthur, then-Prime Minister John Howard – a conservative who had just been elected with the help of gun owners – pushed through not only new gun control laws, but also the most ambitious gun buyback program Australia had ever seen. Some 650,000 automatic and semi-automatic rifles were handed in and destroyed under the program. Though gun-related deaths did not suddenly end in Australia, gun-related homicides dropped 59 percent between 1995 and 2006, with no corresponding increase in non-firearm-related homicides. Suicides by gun plummeted by 65 percent, and robberies at gunpoint also dropped significantly. Many said there was a close correlation between the sharp declines and the buyback program.
A paper for the American Law and Economics Review by Andrew Leigh of the Australian National University and Christine Neill of the Wilfrid Laurier University reports that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80 percent, "with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates. The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise.”
Perhaps the most convincing statistic for many, though, is that in the decade before the Port Arthur massacre, there were 11 mass shootings in the country. Since the new law, there hasn’t been one shooting spree. In the wake of the shooting, polls indicated that up to 85 percent of Australians supported the measures taken by the government.
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, several Australian politicians are now suggesting that the US adopt Australia’s gun laws. “I implore you to look at our experience,” Labor Member of Parliament Kelvin Thomson wrote in an open letter to US Congress that he also posted on his official website. “As the number of guns in Australia reduced, so too did gun violence. It is simply not true that owning a gun makes you safer.”
MIXED VIEWS
But the nation still has some steps to take before becoming the perfect example, cautions Queensland Member of Parliament Bob Katter.
“I think we are absolutely reprehensible, we have done nothing, not one single overt act, to separate the guns from the people who are mentally unhinged," he told reporters recently. Although the laws imposed strict licensing rules, critics here point out that Australia has yet to actually ban semi-automatic handguns completely – they are still available for police and hunters – and that there are other loopholes. They also note that most of the guns used in violent crimes, both before and after the 1996 law, were unregistered.
“There weren’t that many deaths in the first place,” says President of the Sport Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) Bob Green, cautioning against taking the causal link many draw between the NFA and a steep drop in gun deaths at face value. “Gun deaths were declining for the past 30 years before they brought the laws in.”
Though many point to declining gun violence statistics as further evidence of the effectiveness of Australia's 1996 law, gun supporters also use it to support their case: In 1979, there were 689 gun related deaths in Australia, or about 4.71 per 100,000 Australians. That rate began to decline in the 1980s and reached 2.82 per 100,000 Australians in 1996, with 516 killed that year. The number of deaths by firearms and the rate per people continued to drop until 2010, when 231 died and the rate was 1.04 per 100,000 people, according to the University of Sydney’s GunPolicy.org.
Still, says Mr. Thomson who was “horrified and disgusted” by the killing of so many small children, an Australian-inspired solution might be workable.
“There have been always been great differences between the number of weapons that Australians and Americans own – that is precisely why there are so many more deaths, on a per capita basis, in the United States. It is also true that there are differences in the way Americans and Australians view weapons – nevertheless … our experience is relevant and potentially informative – we had massacres, we acted, we no longer have massacres.

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Tax Deeds Deal Making Book for Real Estate Published Online by Ted Thomas

Tax deeds deal making book is now published online for real estate investors at TedThomas.com. This new book is written for beginners and includes advanced concepts for closing deals on tax deed sales that can help investors to purchase a property for a substantial discount from the market price.

Provo, Utah (PRWEB) December 27, 2012
Ted Thomas has authored a new tax deeds deal making book for real estate investors. This new book explores the concept of the tax deed and how it can be used effectively to purchase real estate. New investors that have an interest in this method of investing in properties could benefit from this information. This new book and video series can be accessed online at http://www.tedthomas.com/step2.
Real estate is one of few investments that men and women make that can appreciate in value annually. Market data has estimated that appreciation is about 8 percent for each year of property ownership. Men and women that purchase property as an investment could benefit from learning about the tax deed investing that is now included in the new book available.
“Local, state and federal taxation legislation has helped to ease the path for investors that purchase deeds,” said Ted Thomas inside of his new book. Taxation for real estate is updated annually at all levels of government to help with budget planning and revenue collection.
The new book includes a companion audio CD and DVD that helps to explain important concepts in greater detail. All of this information has been researched, arranged and used by Ted in his own real estate investments. This book and subsequent discs provides beginners and advanced real estate investors with little known information about tax deeds.
Apart from this new book release, over 30 books have been authored by Ted Thomas during his 25 years of teaching mortgage-free real estate methods. The new web store online at TedThomas.com includes the majority of the available books to help those interested in becoming educated about a range of topics. This new web store can be accessed at this link http://www.tedthomas.com/products.
About Ted Thomas
Ted Thomas is the author of more than 30 educational books and numerous DVDs about alternative forms of real estate investing. This educator and public speaker has used the past 25 years of his life to help others to succeed. Thousands of men and women in the U.S. and some foreign countries have attended Ted's in-person events. The concepts of tax certificates and tax deed sales are methods that Ted Thomas has perfected and studied to ensure that real estate beginners and professionals can learn to use these strategies effectively.

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Vacant Jacksonville, FL Rental Properties Now Added Online at ForRentJacksonville.com

Vacant Jacksonville, FL rental homes are now added online for renters to search at ForRentJacksonville.com. This property management company website is now listing its available properties in North Florida to help renters to find affordable housing quickly.

Jacksonville, Florida (PRWEB) December 27, 2012
The ForRentJacksonville.com website now has vacant Jacksonville, FL rental properties listed to help renters to find an available home. These company owned properties represent the two, three, four and five bedroom homes that are now available for lease in North Florida. These new listings are designed to remove the legwork involved with researching a property and going through the application process. More information can be found at http://www.forrentjacksonville.com.
Bankruptcies, poor credit and past foreclosures could complicate the approval process when someone applies for a mortgage. Banks and other lenders generally require an in-depth overview of personal credit to ensure that the loan amount can be repaid successfully.
Those that have been turned down in the past for a mortgage could find that the new property listings now available online provide easier to obtain occupancy due in part to new changes to the company application process.
The new elimination of the credit check policy with submitted rental applications is one way that the ForRentJacksonville.com website is helping to build more communities in and around Jacksonville. Applicants that do not have perfect credit no longer have to go through the process of credit approval upon submission of a completed application. A single background check for all that plan to live in an available property has taken the place of the credit review process.
The properties that are now offered online are easily accessed using the new search feature added to the company website. Instead of a simple list of property basics, this new search system is helping renters to filter out data that does not apply to a search. This system now makes it possible to search by rental price, bedrooms and other criteria that would normally be completed by a realtor. This new search tool can be accessed at http://www.forrentjacksonville.com/homes-for-rent.
To speed up the rental application process, a new 15-minute or less showings form is now installed on the company website. This form is designed for renters to use before an application is submitted. The basic information that this form requires renters to submit can secure a showing in 15 minutes or less for any available property guaranteed. This new showings system is helping more people to perform a walk through much faster when seeking vacancies.
About For Rent Jacksonville
The For Rent Jacksonville company is a subsidiary of the Peace of Mind Rental Homes company. This North Florida property management firm restructured its business in 2012 and now solely offers properties that are owned outright. This new business move has eliminated third party investors and other owners that complicated the rental process for renters. The For Rent Jacksonville company now provides affordable homes with short and long-term lease agreements for individuals and families. This company was recently named one of the fastest growing companies in Jacksonville.

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GMC Sierra 5.3 Engine Now Discounted Online at RemanufacturedEnginesforSale.com

GMC Sierra 5.3 engine for pickup trucks is now discounted online at RemanufacturedEnginesforSale.com. This price reduction is designed to help dealerships, mechanics and truck owners that purchase these motors for replacement in the GM truck series.

Hartford, Connecticut (PRWEB) December 27, 2012
The RemanufacturedEnginesforSale.com company is now offering a discount online for its GMC Sierra 5.3 engine. This variant of the Vortec series is designed to fit inside of the Silverado and the Sierra pickup truck series. The new online discount is expected to help dealerships, vehicle owners, mechanics and warranty companies that purchase rebuilt motors for installation or for resale. More information can be found online at http://www.remanufacturedenginesforsale.com/gmc-gm/gmc-sierra-engine.
General Motors has one of the leading engine development programs in the world. New manufacturing plants are routintely constructed to help build the next generation variants that will be used in the GM vehicle lineup. The Vortec series and its V8 editions are popular with truck owners and SUV owners that depend on these daily in preowned vehicles. The new discounted engines that have been added online are now available for immediate shipment.
The process of rebuilding an engine has been enhanced since the early 1970s. Mechanics that are trained with technological developments are typically the ones that perform the rebuilding work to recondition a used engine. The mechanic staff at the RemanufacturedEnginesforSale.com company is trained in the GM Vortec technology and recent upgrades have made it possible to offer this engine in the OEM state.
The distribution of engine pricing is an additional element that has been changed on the company website. While toll free telephone number quotes are still provided, a new investment into a website quotation system is designed to help those seeking pricing to obtain it faster. This brand new online price generation system provides immediate pricing for any in stock engine during and after business hours.
The 5.3 engine and its different variants now in stock are in addition to other automaker brands that have been acquired by this company this year. The Dodge, Jeep and Ford series have been added to the online inventory and these motors now come complete with unlimited mileage warranties. This measure was created in the fall of this year to provide an extra layer of protection for buyers that purchase these types.
The news release online of this warranty announcement can be found at this link http://www.prweb.com/releases/remanufactured-dodge/engines-for-sale/prweb9854325.htm.
About Remanufactured Engines for Sale
The Remanufactured Engines for Sale company offers a complete line of rebuilt motors from domestic and foreign automakers online. This company has built its engine department for decades and is one of the leading suppliers to the automotive industry for a replacement engine. New warranty programs and discounted pricing have helped this company to reach new buyers online and offline. The Remanufactured Engines for Sale company is staffed by industry experts that provide the professional knowledge that is required to grow an engine company in the 21st century. As of the year 2012, sales are made from this company in all 50 U.S. states and Canada.

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Reverse Phone Search for Cell Phones Now Added by Phone Detective

Reverse phone search for U.S. based cell phones has been added online by PhoneDetective.com. The online database now includes cell phone numbers to help adults that are verifying or searching for a specific number to receive information about who owns a cell phone number.

San Francisco, California (PRWEB) December 27, 2012
Phone Detective has added a reverse phone search tool for cell phones to its website online. This new tool is meant for adult use and can search almost any U.S. phone records entirely online. The public records that are offered can include phone carrier information, first name, last name and other identifiable information that searchers can use.
The standard Caller ID systems that are offered with an average cell phone offer records that are included in telecom databases. While these resources can contain useful data, those that know how to opt-out of these lists can make a phone number private. This method of privacy control has created the need for a new search system for cell phone numbers online.
The new search tool available from PhoneDetective.com is designed to offer the public records that cannot be found using other sources online. There are now millions of mobile phone records that are included in the new online search system.
Text messaging is one form of communication that users of cellular phones often use apart from making actual calls. A person that receives a text message from an unknown cell number could use the new tool offered online to help locate the owner of the number. This alternative search method is designed to help more people find information that is not accessible through other sources.
A new annual plan is now offered with the reverse phone lookup services. A person that is interested in conducting unlimited searches any day of the year could sign up for the annual plan. This plan offers a complete guarantee of the information that is provided using the searching tool.
About Phone Detective
The Phone Detective company launched online in 2009 and allows immediate access to its public records databases. More than one database is used to provide the most updated information available. This company is one of the first of its kind to offer consumers access to information that was normally reserved for private detectives or search companies. The Phone Detective system provides online access in a secure area for adults that lookup landline or mobile phone numbers to help verify or identify the identity of a user attached to a U.S. phone number.

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Dodge Dakota 5.2 Engine Now Sold Online at RebuiltEngines.co

Dodge Dakota 5.2 engine in Magnum series is now sold online at RebuiltEngines.co. This remanufactured motor is offered at a discount price to installers, mechanics, vehicle owners and other companies that purchase these Chrysler OEM units.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) December 27, 2012
The RebuiltEngines.co company is now selling its Dodge Dakota 5.2 engine online at a discount. This reconditioned motor series is now part of the expanding Chrysler inventory now offered online. The acquisition, rebuilding and new price structure for this engine series is designed to help those that own the Dakota vehicle or that replace motors to save money. More information can be found online at http://www.rebuiltengines.co/dodge-engines/dodge-dakota-52l-engines.
The Chrysler corporation manufactured the Dakota pickup truck from the mid 1980s until 2011. Millions of these vehicles were sold to buyers in the U.S. and Canada and the closure of this brand can make it difficult to find a replacement engine. The inventory addition of this motor online is helping to provide a trusted resource for buyers to use to locate a 5.2 V8 in restored condition.
Mileage is one element that can destroy the reliability of an engine that is not cared for properly. One of the drawbacks that owners of used vehicles face is the wear and tear that is put on the motor block during use. Owners of these vehicles generally have three options to select when a replacement is needed. These motor options are new, used or rebuilt.
The high price of new units and the unreliable nature of used ones has made the remanufactured editions more popular according to research. The technologies that are now used to rebuild motors is one way that the lifespan of use is extended. The RebuiltEngines.co company offers its mechanic expertise during the rebuilding phase to provide a low cost alternative without sacrificing reliability after installs are completed.
The new addition of the 5.2 engine is one way that this company has used this year to expand its operations. The integration of a new 3-year parts warranty has helped restore the customer assurance in reconditioned motors. This new extension now protects the labor and the OEM parts that are exchanged during the building process. Customers that purchase online or offline are now eligible to receive this new warranty contract.
The launch earlier this year of the company website has helped to promote this company to all 50 U.S. states. New pages are now added daily to the company website to ensure customers can find the right replacement. The original news announcement for the launch of the website can be found at http://www.760kfmb.com/story/20238038/rebuilt-engines-for-sale-website-launched-at-rebuiltenginesco.
About Rebuilt Engines Co.
The Rebuilt Engines Co. launched its website in 2012 and has earned its reputation offline selling motors for decades. A technologically advanced facility is where all of the work that is put into each motor is completed to ensure the highest quality standards are offered to customers. A complete inventory of Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler and import units are offered by the Rebuilt Engines Co. Through price discounts and other incentives, this company has been able to expand its operations to reach more buyers that search for replacement units for cars, trucks and SUVs.

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Ross, Diamondbacks agree to $26 million, 3-yr deal

 Cody Ross and the Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to a $26 million, three-year contract Saturday that includes a club option for 2016.
Ross, who turns 32 on Sunday and lives in nearby Scottsdale, adds to the abundance of outfielders on the Arizona roster, leading to speculation a trade might be coming. Ross batted .267 with 22 home runs and 81 RBIs last season for the Boston Red Sox. He's a .267 career hitter in nine big league seasons with six teams.
"Could not be happier to be in the Dbacks family! Truly Blessed!" Ross posted on his Twitter account.
The addition gives the Diamondbacks four veteran outfielders — Ross, Justin Upton, Gerardo Parra and Jason Kubel — along with two youngsters the organization has deemed ready for the majors: Adam Eaton and A.J. Pollock.
That would indicate a trade could be in the works, with Kubel the center of that speculation. In his first season with Arizona last year, the left-handed slugger hit .253 with 30 home runs and 90 RBIs. He was hitting .300 on July 22 but batted .176 with 19 RBIs the rest of the season.
Ross, who throws left-handed and bats right-handed, was a fourth-round draft pick of Detroit out of Carlsbad, N.M., High School in 1999. He had brief major league stints with the Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati before becoming a full-time big leaguer with the Florida Marlins.
Ross was claimed by San Francisco off waivers in August 2010 and was MVP of that year's NL championship series, hitting .350 with three home runs and five RBIs against Philadelphia. He also homered against Texas in the World Series and batted .294 (15 for 51) with five homers, five doubles and 10 RBIs in 15 postseason games for the champion Giants.
He committed one error in each of the last two seasons.
The Diamondbacks also announced that infielder Gustavo Nunez cleared waivers and was returned to Detroit, opening a spot for Ross on the 40-man roster. Nunez was claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh in October after the Pirates selected him from the Tigers in the 2011 Rule 5 draft.

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AP source: Ibanez, Mariners agree to $2.75M deal

 Raul Ibanez and the Seattle Mariners have agreed to a $2.75 million, one-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday night.
The deal allows Ibanez to earn an additional $1.25 million in performance bonuses, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been announced.
Ibanez returns to the team he began his big league career with from 1996-00, then rejoined from 2004-08.
Now 40, Ibanez spent the past season with the New York Yankees and became popular with fans for his late-game home runs. He had hoped to remain with New York, but the Yankees have moved slowly during the offseason.
Ibanez hit .240 with 19 homers and 62 RBIs in 384 at-bats, his pull swing making him a natural for the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium. He batted just .197 with five RBIs in 61 at-bats against left-handers.
Including the playoffs, Ibanez hit five home runs that tied the score for the Yankees and eight that put New York ahead, according to STATS. He homered twice after entering as a pinch hitter on Sept. 22 in a 10-9, 14-inning win over Oakland. And with New York fighting for the AL East title, he delivered a tying, pinch-hit homer against Boston in the ninth on Oct. 2 and then singled in the winning run in the 12th.
Then in Game 3 of the division series against Baltimore, he became the first player in major league history to homer twice in a postseason game he didn't start. He pinch-hit for Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning and hit a tying home run, then hit a winning shot in the 12th.
Three days later his two-run homer in a four-run ninth inning tied the AL championship series opener against Detroit, a game the Yankees lost 6-4 in 12 innings as the Tigers started their way to a four-game sweep.
Ibanez had a $1.1 million base salary last season and earned another $2.05 million in performance bonuses.
He joins a Seattle team that added power-hitting Kendrys Morales earlier in the week in a trade that sent left-hander Jason Vargas to the Los Angeles Angels. Former Yankees prospect Jesus Montero started 77 games at designated hitter last season for the Mariners and 55 behind the plate, so Ibanez's acquisition by the Mariners could make catcher John Jaso expendable. Jaso made 39 starts behind the plate and 44 at DH.
In 17 major league seasons that also included time with Kansas City (2001-03) and Philadelphia (2009-11), Ibanez has a .278 career average with 271 home runs and 1,116 RBIs.
With Ichiro Suzuki likely to see most of his time in a corner outfield spot because New York hasn't attempted to re-sign Nick Swisher, Ibanez's departure leaves the Yankees searching for a left-handed bat for a part-time designated hitter role. New York's priority before filling that spot appears to be a right-handed bat because Andruw Jones left for Rakuten in Japan after a subpar season and all three starting outfielders — Suzuki, Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner — are left-handed hitters.

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AP source: Swisher, Tribe reach $56M, 4-year deal

 The Indians' pitch to bring Nick Swisher "home" worked.
Two people familiar with the negotiations said Swisher has agreed to a $56 million, four-year contract with the Indians, who used the free agent outfielder's deep Ohio connections to convince him to join the club. The people spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because Swisher must take a physical before the deal can be finalized. The Indians are expected to announce Swisher's signing after Christmas, one of the people said.
The Indians will not comment until Swisher completes his physical.
"Wow! What a crazy few weeks," Swisher said on Twitter. "Hey Cleveland! Are you ready? Because I'm coming home!"
Swisher's deal includes a $14 million option for 2017 that could become guaranteed based on plate appearances the previous year.
Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis was excited about the club's newest addition.
"Welcome to the Tribe (at)nickswisher, pumped to get ya," Kipnis tweeted.
The 32-year-old Swisher spent the last four seasons with the New York Yankees, taking advantage of the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium. A switch-hitter, Swisher hit .272 this season with 24 homers and 93 RBIs.
Swisher will fill an outfield hole for the Indians, who traded Shin-Soo Choo to Cincinnati. Swisher will play right, with recently acquired Drew Stubbs likely taking over in center with Michael Brantley shifting from center to left field.
Swisher, who was born in Columbus and played at Ohio State, visited the Indians earlier in the week. The club used Swisher's ties with the Buckeyes to convince him to join a team that won just 68 games last season following an historic collapse in August.
During his tour of Progressive Field, Swisher watched a video presentation on the stadium's giant scoreboard that featured messages from current Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer and basketball coach Thad Matta, who urged him to sign with the Indians. Later, Swisher and his wife, actress JoAnna Garcia, had lunch with former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who was at the school when Swisher played there.
Swisher's signing is a significant win for the Indians, who have been in the market for an outfielder throughout the offseason. During the winter meetings in Nashville, Tenn., they offered Shane Victorino a $44 million, four-year contract before he agreed to a $39 million, three-year deal with Boston.
Seattle, Texas and Boston were believed to be interested in Swisher, an All-Star in 2010 who was regarded as the second-best free agent hitter this offseason behind Josh Hamilton. The Indians have been desperate to add power and Swisher, who has hit at least 22 homers in each of the past seven seasons, will bolster the middle of new manager Terry Francona's lineup.
Swisher's value may have been damaged by several poor postseasons with the Yankees. He batted .162 in the postseason for New York with seven RBIs and 38 strikeouts in 130 at-bats.
Swisher spent four seasons with Oakland and one with the Chicago White Sox before joining the Yankees.
The Indians will lose their second-round pick in next year's amateur draft as compensation for signing Swisher, and the Yankees will get an extra selection following the first round.
It's been a busy offseason for Indians general manager Chris Antonetti, who is trying to fix a team that has lost at least 93 games in three of the past four seasons.
Antonetti fired manager Manny Acta and replaced him with Francona, the former Boston manager who has spent the past few weeks meeting with his new players. Antonetti also signed free agent first baseman Mark Reynolds and was part of a three-team, nine-player deal that sent Choo to the Reds for Stubbs and brought Cleveland prized pitching prospect Trevor Bauer from Arizona.
The signing of Swisher will take some pressure of Antonetti, who has been criticized by fans for several moves in recent years.
His agreement was first reported by the New York Daily News.
Now that they've landed Swisher, the Indians are expected to focus on improving their starting pitching. The club agreed to terms with left-hander Scott Kazmir to a minor league deal this week, pending a physical. The Indians still need to add a designated hitter and there remains interest in Travis Hafner, who was limited to just 66 games last season because of injuries and remains an unsigned free agent.

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Baseball: Indians sign Swisher to four-year, $56 million deal

 Free agent outfielder Nick Swisher has agreed to a four-year, $56 million contract with the Cleveland Indians, Major League Baseball's website said on Sunday.
The deal, which is pending a physical, makes the 32-year-old Swisher the highest paid free agent ever signed by the Indians, who are trying to recover from a 94-loss season in 2012.
Swisher, who spent the past four seasons with the New York Yankees, hit .272 with 93 runs batted in and 24 home runs while playing in 148 games last season.
"Hey Cleveland! Are you ready? Because I'm coming home!" Swisher, an Ohio native, wrote on his Twitter account.
Cleveland had the second worst record in the American League last season at 68-94 and hired former Red Sox skipper Terry Francona to manage the club and signed slugger Mark Reynolds to play first base earlier this postseason.

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Former Braves player arrested on battery charge

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — Former Atlanta Braves star center fielder Andruw Jones was free on bond after being arrested in suburban Atlanta early Tuesday on a battery charge, according to jail records.
Around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to a call for a domestic dispute between Jones and his wife in Duluth.
Gwinnett County Detention Center records say Jones was booked into the jail around 3:45 a.m. and had been released on $2,400 bond by 11 a.m.
Once one of the premier players in the big leagues, Jones broke into the majors with the Atlanta Braves in 1996 and won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1998-07 as their center fielder. He has 434 career home runs over the span of 17 seasons in the majors.
Jones earlier this month signed a $3.5 million, one-year contract with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan's Pacific League.

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NYT: Windows 8 fails to excite, sales off to slow start

Windows 8 has failed to draw the excited masses that some earlier versions of Microsoft’s (MSFT) PC operating system had attracted, according to a report published Sunday by The New York Times. Microsoft and its partners hoped the new platform would be a catalyst in a weak PC market, but earlier reports suggested Windows 8 might not have a real impact on sale for quite some time. Now, Acer’s president for the Americas region Emmanuel Fromont tells The Times that Windows 8 sales are off to “a slow start, there’s no question.” Acer is not the only Microsoft partner that has publicly complained of slow sales. Speaking with The Times, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst A. M. Sacconaghi predicted that global PC shipments declined 3% in 2012.

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Sprint salesman refuses to sell iPhone to customer, says his ‘fingers are too fat’ to use it

We’ve known for a while now that some mobile carriers have been instructing their sales staff to start pushing their customers away from Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and toward Android or Windows Phone devices. The reason is simple: carriers pay a lot more to subsidize Apple’s popular smartphone than they do with other devices and they’d prefer to have higher gross margins at the end of each quarter. But now a Tom’s Hardware reader reports that a Sprint (S) representative has taken pushing non-iPhone products to a whole new level and is actually insulting people who insist on buying the device.
[More from BGR: Online retailers caught using ‘discriminatory’ practices to target shopping discounts]
When the customer told the Sprint representative that he wanted to get an older iPhone 4 for free as part of his upgrade, the representative called the device “a piece of s—” that breaks too easily and is too small for many users.
[More from BGR: First photos of BlackBerry 10 ‘N-Series’ QWERTY smartphone leak]
Instead, the salesman recommended that the customer by a Samsung (005930) Galaxy S III. When the customer again refused, the salesman took things a step farther and told the man that his fingers were simply too fat to use the iPhone and that he’d need a larger screen to use a smartphone properly.
Needless to say, these up-sell-by-insult tactics weren’t exactly effective for the salesperson and the customer angrily stormed out of the store without buying a new phone.

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Instagram furor triggers first class action lawsuit

Facebook's Instagram photo sharing service has been hit with what appears to be the first civil lawsuit to result from changed service terms that prompted howls of protest last week.
In a proposed class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court on Friday, a California Instagram user leveled breach of contract and other claims against the company.
"We believe this complaint is without merit and we will fight it vigorously," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an e-mail.
Instagram, which allows people to add filters and effects to photos and share them easily on the Internet, was acquired by Facebook earlier this year for $715 million.
In announcing revised terms of service last week, Instagram spurred suspicions that it would sell user photos without compensation. It also announced a mandatory arbitration clause, forcing users to waive their rights to participate in a class action lawsuit except under very limited circumstances.
The current terms of service, in effect through mid-January, contain no such liability shield.
The backlash prompted Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom to retreat partially a few days later, deleting language about displaying photos without compensation.
However, Instagram kept language that gave it the ability to place ads in conjunction with user content, and saying "that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such." It also kept the mandatory arbitration clause.
The lawsuit, filed by San Diego-based law firm Finkelstein & Krinsk, says customers who do not agree with Instagram's terms can cancel their profile but then forfeit rights to photos they had previously shared on the service.
"In short, Instagram declares that 'possession is nine-tenths of the law and if you don't like it, you can't stop us,'" the lawsuit says.
Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who had criticized Instagram, said he was pleased that the company rolled back some of the advertising terms and agreed to better explain their plans in the future.
However, he said the new terms no longer contain language which had explicitly promised that private photos would remain private. Facebook had engendered criticism in the past, Opsahl said, for changing settings so that the ability to keep some information private was no longer available.
"Hopefully, Instagram will learn from that experience and refrain from removing privacy settings," Opsahl said.
The civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Lucy Funes, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated vs. Instagram Inc., 12-cv-6482.

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New iOS Device for the holidays? Download these games first!

Congratulations on your new iPhone or iPad! The first few days with a new iOS device can be daunting if you’re new to Apple’s walled garden. There are literally hundreds of thousands of apps available, and when it comes to gaming, there are a great many that aren’t worth your time, your hard drive space, or your $0.99. Wading through all those games can be tough, especially when user reviews are unreliable.Fortunately, instead of letting you spend the holidays doing a bunch of research on which games are great and which aren’t, we’ve made a handy list for you. These are the games you should download first. These are games that are the most fun, maximize your hardware, and are the best the platform has to offer.

Walking Dead: The Game (Free, all episodes for $14.99)

It’s not a stretch to say that Telltale Games’ Walking Dead: The Game might be the best game of the year, on any platform. It took top honors at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2012 as the best game of the year for its versions on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It’s gory and full of adult content, but it’s also one of the best-written video game stories out there, period.

Based on Robert Kirkman’s comic series of the same name (and not the AMC TV show), The Walking Dead is an adventure game, so the focus is often on talking with other survivors, making moral decisions, and keeping your frazzled group from tearing itself apart. But there are also plenty of zombie outbreak moments, too. In all, The Walking Dead is an action-packed, brilliant and emotional game, and you should absolutely play it on any device.

Infinity Blade II ($6.99)

ChAIR and Epic Games’ sword-dueling action-adventure game is still a standard on the iOS platform in terms of graphics and gameplay. The second entry in the franchise upped the game of the original Infinity Blade significantly, increasing the amount of story included in the game and regularly receives content updates to give you plenty more bad guys to beat, and in more interesting ways.

Infinity Blade II supports a multiplayer mode that lets players join together in battles to earn rewards as a group, and there have also been lots of weapons, levels and bad guys added to the game since its launch. Infinity Blade II is worth the investment and will impress you with the power of your iOS hardware.

Angry Birds Star Wars ($0.99)

Angry Birds Star Wars takes the familiar tropes of Angry Birds – flinging birds to break stuff and pop pigs – and expands them in great new ways to make what’s probably the best game in the series so far. The great thing about Angry Birds Star Wars is that, first, it continues to play on the new rules and physics added with Angry Birds Space, so it includes gravity wells and space combat.

The addition of Star Wars-influenced material includes levels based on the planets Tatooine, Hoth, Dagobah, and the Death Star. The birds brandish new weapons and abilities like  lightsabers, blasters, the Force, tractor beams and more, all of which greatly change the formula of the game and make it feel very fresh. It’s also rather satisfying to see the cast of birds dressed up like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2D2, and C3PO. Plus, if you like Star Wars, it can be pretty funny, too.

Grand Theft Auto 3 ($0.99)

This controversial classic game has made the jump from the Playstation 2 to your iPhone or iPad. Grand Theft Auto 3 is another fairly adult-themed game, what with the ability to pick up ladies of the night and shoot down police helicopters, but it’s also a smart satire and a fun open world to explore, exploit, and blow up.

There are a myriad of missions and other things to do in Grand Theft Auto 3, which means you get hours of gameplay for one dollar. Rockstar Games has done a pretty great drop of porting the game to iOS devices, as well, making the controls feel solid even on a touchscreen interface. You can also check out the newer Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ($4.99) or less affordable Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars ($9.99) if you hunger for more indiscriminate video game carnage and complex missions.

Letterpress – Word Game (Free)

No crop of iOS games would be complete without an asynchronous multiplayer word game thrown into the mix, and Letterpess is a great one. It’s a newer addition to the iOS market, and is a bit more like Boggle than Scrabble, like most games in the category. Each game starts with a random grid of tiles, each with a letter on them. The goal is to tap those tiles to make words, and each time you make a word with tiles, they change to your color. Then your opponent takes a turn, makes a word, and turns tiles to their color – like some of your tiles. You win if you can manage to color all the tiles by making words out of them, and have the most tiles with your color at the end.

You can play as many games at a time as you want in Letterpress, and you can take as much time for your turns as you like. The cool thing about the game is that it’s less about making good words (although that certainly helps) as it is about using letters strategically and at the right moments to win.

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Mattel and Hasbro said to be ‘terrified’ as more kids seek high-tech Christmas gifts

Back in the old days, American kids only wanted a Barbie doll or a G.I. Joe action figure for Christmas and all was right with the world. But times have changed, and today American children are looking to get more high-tech Christmas gift such as tablets, the Financial Times reports. In fact, today’s children are so interested in tablets and smartphones that major toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel are said to be worried sick about their futures.
[More from BGR: Sprint salesman refuses to sell iPhone to customer, says his ‘fingers are too fat’ to use it]
“The top two guys, Mattel and Hasbro, they are terrified,” Sean McGowan, managing director of equity research at Needham & Company, told the Financial Times. “They should be terrified, but the official party line is they’re not terrified.”
[More from BGR: First photos of BlackBerry 10 ‘N-Series’ QWERTY smartphone leak]
These anxieties are compounded by the fact that Mattel’s top-selling product this year isn’t any kind of traditional toy, but a plastic cellphone case. And as the Financial Times notes, tablets aren’t just something that children use every now and then out of boredom, since “the amount of time children are spending with technology devices has skyrocketed” because they can “watch free content online and play free video games for hours on end.”

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Critics pan "charmless" Spice Girls musical

They came, they saw, but sadly Britain's music critics largely failed to enjoy Tuesday night's revival of girl power at the world premiere of the Spice Girls' musical "Viva Forever!"
Reviewers panned a production loosely based on the band's meteoric rise to fame in the 1990s, complaining that its "charmless" script failed even as a basic invention for folding nostalgic pop hits into a West End stage show.
Independent newspaper critic Paul Taylor said the show "only achieves the kind of deliriously silly and joyous lift-off" at its encore and blamed scriptwriter Jennifer Saunders.
"Not only does her script rarely give you that necessary gleeful sense of expectancy about where the songs are going to be shoe-horned in, but it's embarrassingly derivative of 'Mamma Mia!' and looks way past its sell-by date in its utterly surprise-free satiric swipe at X Factor."
"Viva Forever!" was the brainchild of producer Judy Craymer, whose Mamma Mia! musical based on the hits of ABBA has earned nearly $2 billion worldwide and spawned a hit movie starring Meryl Streep.
She teamed up with British comedian Saunders of "Absolutely Fabulous" fame to create a story about the central character, Viva, a sprightly teenager who, along with her friends, gets into the final stages of a TV singing contest closely resembling Britain's "The X Factor".
To boost flagging audience figures - a nod to "The X Factor"s real-life ratings woes in Britain this season - their mentor springs a surprise and throws out three members of the band to leave Viva on her own.
What follows is part morality tale examining what is more important - friends, family or fame - and part satire on reality television, including a callous producer bearing an uncanny resemblance to X-Factor's Simon Cowell.
EMPOWERMENT
Both the Mirror and the Daily Mail delivered damning criticism of a production, which the Mirror's Alun Palmer said particularly failed to deliver on the grand message that formed a key part of every Spice Girl's identity: "girl power".
"There is more female empowerment at a Taliban finishing school than in this show," Palmer wrote.
The Spice Girls, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton and Melanie Chisholm, who together stormed the charts in the 1990s and put girl power on the map were all on hand at the Piccadilly Theatre for the London premiere.
British tabloids made a good deal of noise out of the fact that Beckham arrived after her ex-bandmates and sat with her soccer star husband David and three sons, who clapped along to the music during the final medley.
Now all young mothers in their late 30s and early 40s, The Spice Girls are still affectionately known by their nicknames they adopted in the band - Posh (Beckham), Scary (Brown), Baby (Bunton), Sporty (Chisholm) and Ginger (Halliwell).
They were hailed as modern-day feminists by some and dismissed as vacuous pop princesses by others, but their success is beyond doubt. They sold 55 million records, had nine British No. 1 singles and three back-to-back Christmas No. 1s.
Unabashed fan Poppy Cosyns, was one of the few critics to gush enthusiastically about the show in her review for the Sun.
"As a true fan, I was worried that the jukebox musical formula might not work with their songs but Jennifer Saunders has done a great job with the script and the show flows really well," she wrote.
The band broke up around 12 years ago, their bickering eagerly chronicled by Britain's celebrity-obsessed tabloids.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the bust-ups and hissy fits, the group has been united in its backing of the new musical, and underlining the Spice Girls' lasting popularity, they played a major part in the closing ceremony at the London Olympics.
The Guardian's Alexis Petridis compared it favorably only to the "baleful shadow" of Ben Elton's Queen-themed "We Will Rock You" musical.
"It would be nice if, metaphorically speaking, it pinched Prince Charles's bum a few more times," he wrote. "Still, it zips along cheerily enough, and compared with We Will Rock You, it's a work of untrammeled genius."
Despite its flaws, Petridis said the show's success will lie in the hands of the legions of fans who propelled the Spice Girls to the top of the charts in the first place.
"Faint praise perhaps, but never mind: judging by the crowds of thirty-something ladies leaving the theatre singing 'Stop and Say You'll Be There', Viva Forever! is critic-proof."

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Taylor Swift reclaims top spot on Billboard 200

Country-pop star Taylor Swift reclaimed the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with her hit album "Red," keeping three new entries from the No.1 position.
"Red" landed back at No. 1 for the fourth time after selling 167,000 copies last week according to Nielsen SoundScan, ousting Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire," which fell to No. 7 this week.
New entries this week include rapper Wiz Khalifa's sophomore record "O.N.I.F.C.," which debuted at No. 2 after selling 141,00 copies. Pop star Ke$ha's new album "Warrior" landed at No. 6 with sales of 85,000 while country band Florida Georgia Line's debut album "Here's To the Good Times" came in at No. 10.
Ahead of the holidays, festive albums featured heavily in the top 10, with Rod Stewart's "Merry Christmas, Baby" at No. 3, Michael Buble's "Christmas" at No. 5 and Blake Shelton's "Cheers, It's Christmas" at No. 8.
Bruno Mars' latest single "Locked Out of Heaven" topped the Billboard Digital Songs chart for the first time with 197,000 copies sold, coming in ahead of Rihanna's "Diamonds" at No. 2 and will.i.am and Britney Spears' "Scream & Shout" at No. 3.

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Britney Spears, Taylor Swift are top-earning women in music

 Pop star Britney Spears edged past Taylor Swift to claim the title of top-earning woman in music after bringing in an estimated $58 million from her album, endorsements and a perfume in the past year, Forbes said on Wednesday.
Country-pop singer Swift, 22, was a close second with an estimated $57 million paycheck thanks to her tour - which made more than $1 million each night - a contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, her own line of fragrances and her new album "Red."
R&B star Rihanna, 24, earned an estimated $53 million to put her at No. 3, two places up from last year, followed by Lady Gaga, 26, who slipped from No. 1 in 2011 to fourth place with $52 million.
Katy Perry, 28, the only musician other than Michael Jackson to produce five No. 1 hit singles from one album, rounded out the top five with about $45 million in earnings.
"I think people love the comeback story - Britney never really finished her run as a superstar," Steve Stoute, marketing expert and author of "The Tanning of America" told Forbes.
Spears, 31, who was No. 10 last year, earned most of her money from her latest album "Femme Fatale" and her tour, according to Forbes, which compiled the list with estimated earnings from May 2011 to May 2012.
In September, Spears became a judge on the reality TV singing show "The X Factor," reportedly for $15 million.
Despite their huge incomes, only eight of the top women music earners were among the 25 best-paid musicians, which Forbes attributes in part to career breaks to have children.
Madonna made the list in ninth place with an estimated $30 million in earnings, which did not include profits from her latest tour because it was outside the time period considered for the ranking.
Forbes compiled the list after estimating pretax income based on record sales, touring information merchandise sales and interviews with concert promoters, lawyers and managers.

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Mick Jagger love letters fetch $300,000 at auction

A collection of love letters written by Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to American singer Marsha Hunt, believed to be the inspiration for the band's hit single "Brown Sugar", sold at Sotheby's on Wednesday for 187,250 pounds ($301,000).
The 10 letters, dating from the summer of 1969, had been expected to fetch 70-100,000 pounds, according to the auctioneer.
"The passage of time has given these letters a place in our cultural history," Hunt said after the London sale.
"1969 saw the ebbing of a crucial, revolutionary era, highly influenced by such artists as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown and Bob Dylan.
"Their inner thoughts should not be the property of only their families, but the public at large, to reveal who these influential artists were - not as commercial images, but their private selves."
Hunt, with whom Jagger had his first child, Karis, told Britain's Guardian newspaper last month that she was selling the letters, written in July and August 1969, because she had been unable to pay her bills.
"I'm broke," Hunt, who lives in France, told the newspaper.
Jagger wrote them to Hunt while filming the Tony Richardson movie "Ned Kelly" in Australia.
They showed a sensitive side of the then-young singer, who wrote about the poetry of Emily Dickinson, meeting author Christopher Isherwood and an unrealized multimedia project.
Jagger's relationship with Hunt, who is African-American, was kept under wraps until 1972.
Hunt has said she was the inspiration for Brown Sugar, which Jagger wrote while in Australia.
The rock star also cites in the letters the disintegration of his relationship with singer Marianne Faithfull, whom he was also dating at the time, and the death of Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones.
There has been a surge in interest in the rock band this year, as Jagger and his three surviving bandmates celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stones with a series of concerts, a photo book and a greatest hits album.

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Music, comedy strike defiant tone at Sandy concert

Musicians were so intent upon helping victims of Superstorm Sandy that they didn't seem to want their benefit concert in New York to end.
The final notes of Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" closed the star-studded show at 1:19 a.m. Thursday, nearly six hours after Bruce Springsteen set a roaring tone with "Land of Hope and Dreams."
In between, the Madison Square Garden stage hosted a mini-Nirvana reunion with Paul McCartney playing the part of Kurt Cobain, a duet between Coldplay's Chris Martin and former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, Kanye West wearing a leather skirt and enough British music royalty to fill an old rocker's home.
The sold-out show was televised live, streamed online, played on the radio and shown in theaters all over the world. Producers said up to 2 billion people were able to experience it live. The audience's stamina may have depended on their time zone.
"I know you really wanted One Direction," Martin, speaking onstage at 12:15 a.m., said of the popular British boy band. "But it's way past their bedtime. That's why you get one-quarter of Coldplay." Stipe joined him for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion."
The participants, many natives of the area and others who know it well, struck a defiant tone in asking for help to rebuild sections of the New York metropolitan area devastated by the late-October storm.
"When are you going to learn," comic and New Jersey native Jon Stewart said. "You can throw anything at us — terrorists, hurricanes. You can take away our giant sodas. It doesn't matter. We're coming back stronger every time."
Jersey shore hero Springsteen addressed the rebuilding process in introducing his song "My City of Ruins," noting it was written about the decline of Asbury Park, N.J., before that city's renaissance over the past decade. What made the Jersey shore special was its inclusiveness, a place where people of all incomes and backgrounds could find a place, he said.
"I pray that that characteristic remains along the Jersey shore because that's what makes it special," Springsteen said.
He mixed a verse of Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl" into the song before calling New Jersey neighbor Jon Bon Jovi to join him in a rousing "Born to Run." Springsteen later returned the favor by joining Bon Jovi on "Who Says You Can't Go Home."
Adam Sandler hearkened back to his "Saturday Night Live" days with a ribald rewrite of the oft-sung "Hallelujah" that composer Leonard Cohen never would have dreamed. The rewritten chorus says, "Sandy, screw ya, we'll get through ya, because we're New Yawkers."
Sandler wore a New York Jets T-shirt and mined Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg, the New York Knicks, Times Square porn and Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez for laugh lines.
The music lineup was heavily weighted toward classic rock, which has the type of fans able to afford a show for which ticket prices ranged from $150 to $2,500. Even with those prices, people with tickets have been offering them for more on broker sites such as StubHub, an attempt at profiteering that producers fumed was "despicable."
"This has got to be the largest collection of old English musicians ever assembled in Madison Square Garden," Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger said. "If it rains in London, you've got to come and help us."
In fighting trim for a series of 50th anniversary concerts in the New York area, the Stones ripped through "You've Got Me Rockin" and "Jumping Jack Flash" before beating a quick retreat — perhaps not to upstage their own upcoming Pay-Per-View show. Actor Steve Buscemi later made light of that, saying producers made room for him by cutting the Stones short. "I said, 'if they play more than two songs, I'm out of here.'"
Jagger wasn't in New York City for Sandy, but he said in an interview before the concert that his apartment was flooded with 2 feet of water.
The Who weaved Sandy into their set, showing pictures of storm devastation on video screens during "Pinball Wizard." Pete Townshend made a quick revision to the lyrics of "Baba O'Riley," changing "teenage wasteland" to "Sandy wasteland." The Who and West didn't follow the Stones' lead, and played lengthy sets that disrupted the show's momentum.
Keys, a New York native, asked the audience to hold their cell phones high for her song, "No One," triggering a sea of light that is the modern version of an earlier generation's holding cigarette lighters in the air. "We love you," Keys said, "and we'll make it through this."
Keys' "Empire State of Mind" is this century's most indelible song about her hometown. Billy Joel performed one of the last century's favorites, "New York State of Mind." Joel's "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" sounded prescient, with new Sandy-fueled lyrics smoothly fitting in. He was also the only artist to mark the season, working in a little of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
Liverpool's McCartney has strong New York ties, including a Manhattan office, Hamptons summer home and a third wife, Nancy Shevell, who spent a decade on the board of the agency that oversees New York's public transit system. Backed by Diana Krall, McCartney performed "My Valentine," a song he had written for Shevell.
Otherwise, McCartney kept things lively. His James Bond theme "Live and Let Die" set off a light show and he opened his set with the Beatles' screamer "Helter Skelter." His big surprise was inviting Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear — all ex of Nirvana — to jam on a punky new song.
An energetic West worked up a sweat in a hoodie, black leather pants and a black skirt. He told the audience that he had friends displaced by Sandy who were staying at his house, before getting the crowd swaying with a version of "Gold Digger." He ended his set by shouting, "I need you right now!" tossing his microphone and stalking off stage.
Eric Clapton switched from acoustic to electric guitar and sang "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and "Crossroads." New York was a backdrop for Clapton's personal tragedy, when his young son died after falling out of a window.
Roger Waters played a set of Pink Floyd's spacey rock, joined by Eddie Vedder for "Comfortably Numb." Waters stuck to the music and left the fundraising to others.
"Can't chat," he said, "because we only have 30 minutes."
The sold-out "12-12-12" concert was being shown on 37 television stations in the United States and more than 200 others worldwide. It was to be streamed on 30 websites, including YouTube and Yahoo. The theaters showing it included 27 in the New York region.
Proceeds from the show will be distributed through the Robin Hood Foundation. More than $30 million was raised through ticket sales alone.
The powerful storm left parts of New York City underwater and left millions of people in several states without heat or electricity for weeks. It's blamed for at least 140 deaths, including 104 in New York and New Jersey, and it destroyed or damaged 305,000 housing units in New York alone.
Many of the artists told personal stories of friends or family affected by the storm, like Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi.
"I had to hold back the tears really," he said about visiting the devastation in New Jersey. "My mom's house (in Point Pleasant, N.J.) got trashed. They had to evacuate her. She's living with me until we fix it up."
E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt said backstage that musicians are often quick to help when they can.

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