Chinese institute develops 100MP camera IOE3-Kanban

A Chinese institute claimed to have successfully developed a 100 megapixel camera which could produce high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems. 

The IOE3-Kanban camera was developed by the Institute of Optics and Electronics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences making it China's highest pixel camera, CAS said in a statement. 

The camera is capable of producing images with 10,240 x 10,240 pixels, the statement said. 

Moreover, it is small and light, with its widest part measuring only 19.3 cm, state-run Xinhua quoted the statement as saying, adding that it can be used at temperatures rangingminus 20 degrees centigrade to 55 degrees centigrade. 

Its high sensitivity and high dynamic range (HDR) features mean it will be useful in high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, city planning, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems, the statement said. 

Intelligent transportation system is aimed to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management, enabling various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks. 

The camera is equipped with advanced optical systems, camera control systems and high-capacity data recording systems, and it has proven successful in a recent trial use as a part of a national aerial remote-sensing system, it said. 

The institute also developed an 81-megapixel camera during the 10th Five Year Plan period (2001-2005), and the latest achievement took the researchers two years to develop. 

A megapixel is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays.

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First Apple computer auctioned for $387,000

The first Apple computer hand-built and signed by the company co-founder Steve Wozniak has sold for more than $3,87,000 in an online auction. 

The Apple I, one of roughly 200 made by the fledgling Apple Computer Company in 1976, was bought by an unknown buyer at Christie's auction house. 

The computer was designed and built by the American inventor, Wozniak, in Palo Alto, California. 

Steve Jobs came up with the idea of selling it and the pair went on to found Apple - one the world's most valuable technology company, The Times reported. 

The original device comprised a single motherboard mounted on a wooden base, but was without a keyboard, a transformer or a display. 

Though the device never took off, it was the precursor to Apple's breakthrough product - the Apple II, a machine that looks far moretoday's desktop PCs and considered one of the most revolutionary computers ever created. 

The Apple 1 sold a the auction is believed to be among the first 25 produced. It was inscribed with the serial number 01-0025 in black ink and was hand-built by Wozniak. 

Wozniak signed the computer work "Woz", the nickname that his friends and fans continue to call him. The date code on its processor is 1576, suggesting the chip was manufactured in the 15th week of 1976. 

An Apple I was sold at an auction in Cologne, Germany last month, for $6,71,400, breakingprevious records for sales of a personal computer.

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Nokia to bet on 41MP Lumia to beat Apple, Samsung

Nokia is expected to unveil a new smartphone with a 41MP camera on Thursday, banking on advanced optics to make up for meagre marketing resources and limited phone apps. 

Analysts, however, are skeptical that a new camera for the flagship Lumia smartphone will be enough for the Finnish company to regain market sharerivals Samsung and Apple. 

Several said that Nokia needs to market the handsets more aggressively - a tough challenge in the face of its dwindling cash reserves after years of poor sales and the decision this month to buy Siemens' stake in their equipment joint venture. 

"What I'm expecting to see is a powerful device that will differentiate itcompetitors' high-end handsets. But whether this will be enough to compete with Samsung and Apple? I doubt it," said Francisco Jeronimo, of research firm IDC. 

"They need to raise the level of awareness. They may have the best camera, the best maps, but if consumers don't really know what they can do, that's not enough." 

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop, hired in 2010 to revive the former leader in mobile phones, has bet the company's future in smartphones on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. 

While simpler feature phones still account for the majority of Nokia's handset sales, smartphones are viewed as crucial for its survival because of their higher margins and the increasing demand for internet access and consumers' growing tendency to switch to cheaper models made by Asian manufacturers. 

While existing Lumias have won positive reviewscritics and technology blogs, they have struggled against Samsung's handsets, which use Google's Android operating system, and Apple's iPhones, which run on iOS. 

IDC estimates that Android and iOS accounted for 92.3% ofsmartphone shipments in the first quarter of this year. 

Windows Phone, meanwhile, accounted for 3.2%, with a shortage of apps proving a major handicap. It has only 1,60,000 apps in store, while rivals offer about five times as many because developers prefer to make them for the higher-volume operating systems. 

The new phone to be unveiled on Thursday is expected to be the most advanced of the Lumia range. Nokia already has a 41MP camera on its 808 PureView phone, but that model runs on the Symbian platform, which is being phased out. 

Nokia has not given details, but a source confirmed that the camera technology would be its main selling point and the company's own website promises "41 million reasons" to tune into the event in New York. 

No silver bullet

While tech industry analysts say it is crucial for Nokia to boost marketing and promotions through its carrier partners, the company is likely to keep a wary eye on its marketing expenses. 

Nokia said last week that its net cash position at the end of the second quarter was between 3.7 billion euros and 4.2 billion euros ($4.7 billion to $5.4 billion), indicating that cash burn may have been as high as 800 million euros in the quarter. 

It also said that net cash would have been 2 billion euros to 2.5 billion euros had its deal to buy Siemens's 50% stake in Nokia Siemens Network closed in the quarter. 

Standard & Poor's downgraded Nokia by one notch on Friday to B+BB-, forecasting that net cash could fall as low as 1.3 billion euros at the end of the year. 

One portfolio manager for one of Nokia's top 10 institutional investors, who declined to be identified, said he is not in favour of Nokia boosting marketing spending too much and is happy with a slowly-but-surely approach. 

Alandsbanken analyst Lars Soderfjell, too, said Nokia should aim for modest marketing - enough to improve sales and buy more time for a turnaround without accelerating cash burn. 

"This is one of the most-anticipated models and it's important that they continue to renew their product portfolio... but I look at this as a very gradual turnaround. I don't see there being a silver bullet model," he said. 

"The most important thing, really, is to continue to gain market sharetheir current low level in smartphones, to achieve profitability. If it can gain a couple of percentage points in market share, then it can gradually recover." 

IDC's Jeronimo suggested that Microsoft should be doing more heavy lifting to market Windows Phone handsets. Without Nokia's commitment to Windows, Microsoft would have no leading handset partner - a reason the software giant is seen as the most probable buyer if Nokia were to sell its handset business. 

"I think Microsoft has relied a lot on Nokia to promote Windows Phone. That's not enough," he said. "It will be hard for Nokia to do the entire investment."

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Flipkart raises $200m, biggest in Indian e-commerce

Online retailer Flipkart has raised $200 million (about Rs 1,200 crore)its existing investors, the single largest round of investment in the Indian e-commerce space. The investment values the company at $1.5 billion, sources familiar with the development said.

The investors are Naspers, the South African internet major that recently bought out bus ticketing startup redBus, private equity firms Accel Partners and Tiger Global, and San Francisco-based family office Iconiq Capital. The total investment in the company, over five rounds of funding, is now over $380 million.

SachinBansal, co-founder and CEO of Flipkart, said the investment was a big validation of the Flipkart model and the Indian e-commerce growth story. "There have been skeptics on Flipkart and Indian e-commerce. Today's development should put to rest these arguments," he said.

The amount Flipkart has received and its valuation is one more indication of the interest that Indian technology startups are receiving globally. Japan's telecom and intenet company SoftBank invested $200 million in Bangalore-based ad network Inmobi in 2011. Last month, Naspers bought redBus for an estimated $120 million. A consortium led by General Atlantic invested $108 million in analytics services firm Mu Sigma in 2011.

Bansal said the annualized run rate of the total value of transactions on Flipkart was over $500 million, and the company was on target to hit $1 billion by 2015. Asked about profitability, he said the company was not profitable only because of the massive investments it was still making. "We can be profitable if we stop investing. But we want to be market leaders in a number of categories, and the market is almost doubling every year, so it's a strategic decision to invest. Binny (BinnyBansal, the other co-founder) and I are thinking very, very long term," he said.

He said the fresh money would be used for investments in technology, improving the supply chain, and developing talent. "One day last month we shipped 1.3 lakh items. That's 1.5 items a second, or, if you look only at daytime, about 4-5 items a second. In a few years, this will become several million shipments a day. The only way to handle that kind of volume is through automation, and that will require a lot of investment," he said.

The company, which started by selling books online, now is into numerous categories including electronics, apparel, watches, cameras, footwear, beauty & personal care, baby care and a host of others. It has 96 lakh registered users, up2.5 lakh two and a half years ago.

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TI names Bobby Mitra as worldwide director

After 12 years as MD of Texas Instruments India, Bobby Mitra is moving as worldwide director for the semiconductor company's industrial systems business, and will relocate to the US. Mitra will also be chairman of TI India. 

 

He is being succeeded in his India MD role by Santhosh Kumar, who joined TI in 1995 and started the performance audio team in India. The Calicut University and BITS Pilani alumnus was most recently responsible for leading TI's C6000 video and advanced driver assistance systems product teams based in the US. He has also held several R&D leadership roles in TI India and is a TI senior member technical staff. 

Mitra joined TI in 1986, becoming one of the first employees of the company that is credited with having brought global attention to Bangalore's technology capabilities by establishing an R&D centre here in 1985. He has led several activities in TI India and in Dallas, and was appointed MD of TI India in 2001 and was named president and MD in 2009. He is a past chairman of the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association. 

In his new role, Mitra is responsible for managing engineering, and marketing and applications for TI's industrial systems, with responsibility for creating and marketing system solutions designed to grow the company's position in the diverse industrial market.

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BlackBerry Z10 rollout was a disaster, investor says

Thorsten Heins, the president and chief executive of BlackBerry, acknowledged that the company's new line of phones, which he originally promoted as something that would revive its flagging brand, had a flawed release in the United States.

But Heins, speaking at the company's annual meeting, told investors BlackBerry just needed more time for a turnaround - and he again sought their patience.

Not everyone was biting. One shareholder, referring to one of the new phones, the BlackBerry Z10, told Heins: "My sense is that the rollout of the Z10 was a disaster."

"Were we perfect at the launch?" Heins responded. "Probably not. Was it a disaster? I don't think so."

After more than two years of development, the new phones and their new operating system were supposed to give BlackBerry smartphones capabilities similar to those of phones made by Apple and Samsung, the dominant forces in the market. But hopes have vanished that the new phones would swiftly increase market share in the United States - now just 0.9 percent, according to a surveyKantar Worldpanel ComTech.

Late last month, BlackBerry said that it had shipped just 2.7 million of the new models, about a million fewer than analysts expected. That disappointing news set BlackBerry's stock sharply downward and eliminated the possibility that the annual meeting would be a turnaround celebration.

When Heins introduced the company's new phones in New York this year, he spoke to an excited crowd, a situation that was repeated at a meeting this spring with enthusiastic developers. But Tuesday, when he faced a crowd of shareholders and questions about the weak sales of those phones, the reception was far more muted.

And maybe that is the best he could have hoped for. A few weeks ago, when the shipment numbers were released, the company also reported an $84 million loss in the latest quarter. BlackBerry shares still have not recovered - and a chorus of harsh questions about the direction of the business have not gone away.

Heins again warned investors to expect more losses during the current quarter, while the company increases its spending on marketing and other promotions for the new BlackBerry 10 line of phones. And although the company has spent the past two years saying the phones were the centerpiece to its future, Heins repeatedly said on Tuesday that "we are not a devices-only company," and he outlined his hopes for growth in its data services business.

He attributed the disappointing reception for BlackBerry 10 to the US market.

"It is really a challenge in the US," Heins said at the meeting, which was webcastthe University of Waterloo in Ontario. When another shareholder asked him why the company had been unable to win over US investors, particularly ones based in New York, he said: "I would absolutely admit that this is an uphill battle."

Richard Piasentin, the managing director of sales and marketing for the United States, left BlackBerry last month, Adam Emery, a spokesman for the company, said Tuesday.

Some of the problems with the release of the BlackBerry 10 seemed more related to the products than to advertising or lack of prominence in carriers' stores, which had been cited as problems.

Some buyers of the Q10, a model that includes BlackBerry's signature keyboard, have said they were disappointed to discover that it initially could not synchronize calendar and contact information with corporate systems that use Microsoft Outlook. Others discovered mail syncing issues that they had not had with previous BlackBerrys. And although BlackBerry continues to expand the apps offered for the phone, many important ones are missing, and assessments of their overall quality are mixed.

Among the disappointed was Mark R. McQueen, the president and chief executive of Wellington Financial in Toronto. While McQueen is a BlackBerry loyalist, his frustration with the Q10 became so great that he wrote two detailed posts enumerating its problems on his blog, which is widely followed in Canada's financial community. He wrote that the phone's shortcomings had prompted him to sell his BlackBerry shares at a loss.

"The sad reality is that BlackBerry management has failed to deliver on the incredibly modest expectations of someone who has held shares in the company, on and off, since the late 1990s," McQueen wrote.

Many technology reviewers praised several features of the new phones. Mike Gikas, the senior editor for electronics at Consumer Reports, said the new phones were "pretty good, but they don't have the pizazz of top-shelf performers. No one's dying for these phones."

He said that whenever he was asked for his thoughts about the new BlackBerrys, "the next question is: 'Do you think they're going to be around?' And that's a consideration for people on a two-year contract."

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Soon,charge your mobile with headphones

A pair of headphones that can harness solar power toge mobile devices when you are on the move has been designed in the UK. 

Andrew Anderson, a Glasgow-based designer, launched the OnBeat headphones on crowdfunding site Kickstarter and hopes to have them on sale by early next year. 

The headphone band is fitted with a flexible solar cell with age capacity of 0.55 watts. 

"The headphones have an integrated flexible solar cell that covers the full headband which capture solar energy whilst out and about," Anderson said on Kickstarter. 

"The energy is stored in two light-weight Lithium Ion batteries held within the two ear cups for a balanced weight and fit on the head. 

"For those rainy days we have also developed the headphones to be able to beged via USB directlyyour computer or mains socket," he said. 

Anderson hopes to raise 200,000 pounds to get the headphones into production. 

"We are still working on the design and prototype. We need to improve the headphones - people want to know about noise cancellation," he told the BBC. 

He admitted that his father Frank had come up with the idea. 

"It's really simple - you would think it had already been done. You can buy solargers for phones but the thing is it'syou're carrying two phones around," he said.

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'Patients' online privacy under threat‘

Patients searching for health-related information on the internet may find their privacy threatened, said a research letter published in a major US medical journal.

Marco Huesch, a researcher at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, searched for "depression," "herpes" and "cancer" on various health-related websites and observed that the data was being tracked.

"Confidentiality is threatened by the leakage of information to third parties" through trackers on the websites themselves or on consumers' computers, he wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Should someone living with depression, herpes or cancer research his or her condition online, as an increasing number of patients are doing, these search terms might not remain private, Huesch said.

Disclosure of any conditions could result not only in "embarrassment" but also "discrimination in the labor market," he added.

The scientist used freeware privacy tools DoNotTrackMe and Ghostery to detect third party entities on the websites he browsed and commercial software calledles to intercept any transmission of the information he generated to third parties.

Of what he called a "convenience sample" of 20 high-traffic sites, which include the official pages of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration as well as WebMD and Weight Watchers,had at least one third-party entity, and six or seven on average, he said.

Thirteen out of 20 websites contained third-party elements that tracked user data, said Huesch, highlighting the role of social media plug-ins, which appeared on five of those 13 sites.

Plug-ins such as the Facebook "Like" button "allow tracking on websites even if the online user is not logged into social media" and "the user does not actually press the social button," he said.

Seven of the 13 websites in question leaked Huesch's searches to tracking entities.

Huesch warned that the risk of personal or professional embarrassment could "reduce the willingness of some people to access health-related information online."

Currently, threats to privacy are "insufficiently addressed in current legislation and regulations," according to the scientist.

Until regulations on information-gathering are enacted, he advised patients and physicians to use free privacy tools for online browsing, or to search via websites maintained by professional societies or government researchers.

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No takers for over 30% iOS apps: Report

As software giant Apple celebrates fifth anniversary of its App Store, a tracking service has claimed that about two-thirds of the total number of apps are 'zombie apps' as they are barely ever installed by the users. 

According to BBC, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said that 90% ofthe apps in the marketplace are downloaded at least once a month and the customers have now downloaded 50 billion apps.

However, tracking service Adeven said that 5,79,001 apps out of a total of 8,88,856 apps in their database are zombies which never appear in Apple's master-list of the most downloaded apps worldwide, at which runs to over 3,00,000 places. 

The report said that Apple has paid out $10 billion to app developers for its App Store, which is three times more thanthe other app stores combined. 

Apple is celebrating the fifth anniversary of App Store which went live on July 10, 2008 as an update to iTunes and had reportedly offered free apps which were originally priced up to $20.

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Google Glass user records arrest in real-time

Google's wearable technology Google Glass was put to another test for its recording capabilities when one of its users taped an arrest in progress. 

Chris Barrett, founder of the website PRServe.com and a documentary filmmaker, posted video of the arrest while walking along the boardwalk in Wildwood New Jersey on July 4, ABC News reports. 

According to the report, Barrett encountered the end of a fight and two men being led away in handcuffs and recorded the incident with Google Glass. 

Barrett said that his recording demonstrates the potential of Google Glass adding that it is a case study to show how it will change citizen journalism. 

He further said that as the wearer is the own steady cam, there is less possibility of a shaky video and appears to be better than the typical video taken at night. 

The report said that Google Glass do not indicate to non-users whether it's currently taking pictures or recording video. 

Barrett added that if Google Glass takes off, the world may be scary for some people; however, with any new technology people are nervous. 

The much anticipated wearable technology has been debated upon by critics over its potential abuse of people's privacy.

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Nasscom sees exciting times ahead for Indian IT

ET Now caught up with R Chandrashekhar, president-designate, Nasscom, for his take on his new role as the Nasscom president and his outlook for the IT industry. Excerpts:

ET Now: You will soon be the president of Nasscom. Are you excited about this new opportunity?

R Chandrashekhar: Undoubtedly. It is a very exciting opportunity, it is a very exciting time for the Indian IT sector and the sector as a whole is about to embark on what could well turn out to be the most exciting phase of growth ahead.

ET Now: You have clearly a very key role to play in terms of staring the industry to achieve the target of becoming a $300-billion industry by 2020. But looking at the tough demand environment and the world moving to a very protectionist attitude, do you think it is going to be possible or do you think it is going to be a very challenging task?

R Chandrashekhar: Undoubtedly it is a challenging task because if you just look at the arithmetic of it, to grow to $300 billion by 2020 requires a sustained growth of around 15% on a compound basis year on year for eight years. That is an average. So if there are some yearsyou grow at a slower pace, then it has to be compensated. This in a scenariothe global GDP growth rate has dropped to around 3%. So clearly, this is going to be a challenge if you are simply looking at doing more of what is being done. The challenge, therefore, is to look at both new market openings across the globe and new areas and new domains as well as the opportunities offered by the newer technologies, andof these are bristling with opportunities.

Similarly in the domestic market, there are a number of dots that are already in place. If you look at the spread of mobile across the country, if you look at the broadband revolution, that is on the anvil. You look at the number of start-ups and entrepreneurial companies which are coming up. So there are really a lot of areas and the government itself has come up with a number of initiatives. I mentioned about the broadband plan. We have UID, DBT. So there are lots of possibilities over here. The key question is how do you connectthese dots and actually maximise the potential of the industry. Having said that, the other aspect is that there are undoubtedly significant challenges both on the global arena as well as on the domestic front. The excitement comestrying to capturethe opportunities while simultaneously dealing with many challenges surrounding those opportunities.

ET Now: So looking at the challenges then, Nasscom has given out a guidance of 12% to 14% growth for the industry for FY14. On Friday itself we are kick-starting earnings with Infosys. Do you see the bias for downward revision looking at the demand scenario?

R Chandrashekhar: As I said, there are a lot of different things which need to be done both in terms of looking at new markets as well as new opportunities and some of these are not things which can be done in a very short term. However, as I said, there are enough indicators that we are moving in the right direction, but there is a lot of work ahead.

ET Now: Somehow the IT industry in the past has criticised the Nasscom guidance. In fact, several IT companies have gone on record and have indicated that Nasscom now really needs to rework the way they will give their annual guidance. Why is that happening?

R Chandrashekhar: First, I must clarify on a small point of honour actually. I am not yet the President of Nasscom. So I would not reallyto speak on Nasscom at this moment. That would not be appropriate, but having regard to the point that you mentioned, yes, there are different perspectives within the sector and that is only natural when you grow to a size of $100 billion. There are different verticals within the sector which have different perspectives, which have different needs, which are looking for different things bothNasscom as well asthe ecosystem within the country. And as we go into different domains, be it financial services, be it health services or education or a whole range of services, then we also need to keep in mind the different perspectives of those domains as well. So the question is: how do you really putof these perspective together, distil out what is common, address that and also address the niche requirements of each segment to the extent that hey are differentiated? I do not see those different perspectives are in anyway a negative aspect. They are very positive aspects.

ET Now: Once you take over as a president of Nasscom, would you be seriously considering in revising the methodology in which Nasscom gives a guidance because the problem is that the guidance becomes a for analysts and investors to judge the growth rate for large cap IT stocks?

R Chandrashekhar: Well, that is something which would be premature for me to comment on now because it would also be not right without actually having gone into the depth of how these projections and guidances are given. But certainly these are areas which would need to be looked at having regard to some of the concerns which have been expressed.

ET Now: What is Nasscom's stand when it comes to the Immigration Bill? Do you expect some dilution in the bill when the House of Representatives and Republicans meet tonight?

R Chandrashekhar: Once again I do not wish to and at this point it would not be right for me to speak on behalf of Nasscom, but as far as the Immigration Bill itself is concerned, the fact is that this bill poses issues. There are many areas which the IT industry in India is not comfortable with and which could have implications in the short term as well as possibly in the medium term. But equally worrisome is the fact thatthis perspective, it does not look very good even for the US economy and since the Indian industry, as far as the US is concerned, would have to grow along with the US economy and not at the cost of the US economy, that is not good for maximising the potential of Indian and US collaboration and business in this sector. So I would certainly hope that these would be corrected, these aberrations would be corrected so as to maximise the potential for business between Indian and US industries in this area as well as to optimise the impact on the US economy because we would certainlythat the US economy should grow as well. Therein lies the best hope for the growth of IT industry in India.

ET Now: You have been an outsider. Soon you will be an insider of Nasscom. Which one change you are likely to incorporate as soon as you take over as the President of Nasscom? I am sure you have been thinking about it, it is a big role and I am sure you have prepared for that role?

R Chandrashekhar: Certainly I have been thinking and I will continue to think and it is going to be a little while before I actually take over. So the key areas are how do we really look at the different markets, what are the opportunities in both the existing marketsthe US and Europe. We are seeing some interesting signs that despite the downward trends in the economies in some of those countries, there are opportunities created by the very pressures of those economies. Similarly there are possibilities that in relatively newer marketsJapan, Africa, some parts of Europe and so on, those are certainly areas which one needs to evaluate very carefully in terms of what additional steps are required.

I know that Nasscom has already been a lot in these areas. So the question is what else can we be doing? There the corrective wisdom of the industry and especially those companies which have been working in these markets, which would be important. Equally within the country as we spread to different sectors, the experience within the government across sectors not just in IT but across different domains, the experience of working in different parts of India, especially including the rural areasa lot of opportunity would lie going forward especially when you look at broad band and the kind of services that it would have.

The last aspect is especially important which is that since a lot of growth behind the ambitious aspirations, that are now being set or looked at, lie in doing new things or doing things differently, promoting the whole culture of entrepreneurship of the start-ups and of innovation is absolutely critical. That is certainly significant areanot only I wouldto concentrate on, but wouldto bring whatever knowledge and experience I have to the table as well as to hearthe companies which are currently there in that area as to what their expectations are and that is an areaI hope to work together with the industry.

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Latin America: US spy programme‘s latest target

A US spy programme is widely targeting data in emails and telephone calls across Latin America, and is focusing on energy issues, not just information related to military, political or terror topics, a Brazilian newspaper reported. 

The O Globo newspaper said it has access to some of the documents released by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The American journalist who obtained the classified informationSnowden lives in Brazil and is helping write stories for the daily. 

O Globo published what it said are slides that Snowden released indicating the US effort is gathering information on energy in Mexico and oil in Venezuela. There was no information released about what information was obtained, nor any companies that were targeted. 

The report also said that Colombia, the strongest US military ally in South America, along with Mexico and Brazil, were the countriesthe US program intercepted the biggest chunks of information on emails and telephone calls during the last five years. Similar activities took place in Argentina and Ecuador, among others. 

Figures weren't published on how many intercepts occurred. 

O Globo also reported that the documents it's seen indicate the US had data collection centers in 2002 for material interceptedsatellites in Bogota, Caracas, Mexico City and Panama City, along with Brasilia. There was no information published about the existence of these centers after 2002. 

Snowden's disclosures indicate that the NSA widely collects phone and internet "metadata" - logs of message times, addresses and other information rather than the content of the messages. The documents have indicated that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of US phone customers, and has gathered data on phone and internet usage outside the US, including those people who use any of nine US-based internet providers such as Google. 

Earlier, O Globo reported that in Brazil, the NSA collected data through an association between U.S. and Brazilian telecommunications companies. It said it could not verify which Brazilian companies were involved or if they were even aware their links were being used to collect the data. 

The Brazilian government is investigating the alleged links with telecommunications firms with a Brazil presence. 

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said any such activity infringed upon the nation's sovereignty - and that Brazil would take the issue up at the United Nations. 

Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said that "we've asked for a formal explanationthe United States and we're awaiting that response." 

Leaders in Mexico and Colombia didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Argentina President Cristina Fernandez said she hopes leaders attending a meeting this week of regional trade bloc Mercosur "will take a strong stance against this and ask for explanations amid these revelations. More than revelations, they're confirmations of what we already feared was happening." 

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his nation wanted explanationsthe US. He demanded that the spying stop and said the UN should take up the matter. 

US officials in Brazil declined to comment other than to emphasize they were working directly with Brazilian officials to answer questions. 

In Washington, the US State Department said that "we have been clear that the United States does gather foreign intelligence of the type gathered bynations." 

The foreign relations committee in Brazil's Senate voted to invite US Ambassador Thomas Shannon to speak before them about the NSA program - though he is not legally bound to appear before the committee. 

The US Embassy said in an emailed statement that it will continue working with Brazil's Foreign Ministry to answerquestions, and that it would "conform our actions to only those channels specifically identified by the diplomatic relations between our two countries." 

Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at the University of the Andes in Bogota, said the Colombian government "isn't going to say anything" about the allegations, leading her to think that Latin American governments with strong US ties, such as Colombia and Mexico were aware of the program on some level. 

"It's very likely that the type of information that was being obtained through (the NSA program) is something that was being done with ... the authorization, or done with the knowledge, of the government," she said. 

Also Tuesday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said that his country received an asylum requestSnowden. Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have said they would grant asylum to Snowden. 

"We have decided to give political asylum to young Edward Snowden in the name of Venezuela for dignity, of an independent Venezuela," Maduro said hours after the announcement was made, and ratifying his earlier offer for safe haven. He said that Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the countries that have offered Snowden asylum "are not afraid" of the United States. 

"The United States has entered into a crazy phase," the president said at an event with the military. He also said that the "hysterical insanity of the elite who govern the United States, againstthe other countries of the world, practically provoked the assassination of (Bolivian) President Evo Morales." 

Maduro was referring to the uproar last week over the rerouting of Morales' presidential plane over Europe amid suspicions by some countries that Snowden was aboard the craft. 

Later Tuesday, Venezuela Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told reporters that Snowden "still hasn't ratified his intention to seek asylum in Venezuela." 

An official with the Foreign Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Venezuela has received a letter containing a request for asylumSnowden similar to what he has sent to other countries. But the ex-CIA agent hasn't ratified the offer of asylum Maduro made earlier. 

Jaua said that if Snowden confirms to them his intention to seek asylum in the South American country, Venezuelan authorities will contact the Russian government to come up with a "viable" process. 

The foreign minister said the fact that the NSA leaker is in the transit area of Moscow's airport "is a reality that limits the possibility of immediate asylum." 

Snowden arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on June 23 and at the time was believed to be headed for Cuba. But he did not board a flight he was booked on that day and hasn't been publicly seen since. He is widely believed to still be in the airport's transit zone.

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Obama faces flakMuslims over Ramadan tweet

Obama's tweet on Ramadan wishes has invited criticism from Muslims over forced feeding of Guantanamo Bay detainees during fasting.

LONDON: US President Barack Obama's tweet on Ramadan wishes has invited criticism from Muslims angry over drone strikes and forced feeding of Guantanamo Bay detainees during Ramadan fasting. 

The Guardian reports that Muslims have expressed outrage on Twitter calling Obama a hypocrite and insincere. 

According to the report, some Muslims have criticized the president for forced feeding of Guantanamo Bay detainees during Ramadan fasting, as well as drone strikes in the Middle East.

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