Sweden arrests 4 on terror allegations

Swedish police said they arrested four terror suspects in the western city of Gothenburg early Sunday.

The TT news agency said the country's National Task Force, a specialized police unit, swept into a part of the city and cordoned it off around midnight.

An art gallery hosting an opening party was ordered evacuated as barriers were erected in the vicinity, the report said.

Police released no details of the arrests.

Sara Kvarnstrom, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Security Services, was also tight-lipped about the operation.

"There's no cause for the general public to be concerned," she said.

In October, after two people were arrested on charges of plotting a bombing in Gothenburg, federal security officials said some 200 Islamic militants were known to be in the country, CNN said.

The arrests came on the 10th anniversary of four al-Qaida suicide aircraft attacks on the United States.

Girly Inspiration: {Hermès, Heels, Sequins and Perfumes}

{... hopelessly addicted to all things girly, the endless perfume bottles, layers and layers of sequins and crystal encrusted shoes... but mostly love Hermès scarves, so pretty... I think a shopping spree is in order!}

♥



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Wall St gains in choppy trade ahead of Obama speech

Stocks edged higher in choppy trade on Thursday, led by gains in the technology sector ahead of a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama laying out a major jobs package.

Indexes seesawed between modest gains and losses throughout the morning session. Technology stocks were the day's top gainers, supporting the Nasdaq, which outperformed other indexes. The Philadelphia semiconductor index <.SOX> was up 1.4 percent.

Banks were the biggest decliners after sharp gains in the previous session. The KBW Bank Index <.BKX> was down nearly 1 percent.

"We're seeing a lot of action in the Nasdaq and technology stocks. Those are flush with cash and have the least amount of risk," said Phil Streible, senior market strategist with MF Global in Chicago.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added 20.51 points, or 0.18 percent, at 11,435.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 0.76 points, or 0.06 percent, at 1,199.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> put on 8.16 points, or 0.32 percent, at 2,557.10.

Obama will lay out a $300 billion plan to include tax cuts for the middle class and businesses and new spending to repair deteriorating infrastructure. Obama, scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. EDT, (2300 GMT) is staking his re-election hopes on a call for urgent bipartisan action.

Boosting the Nasdaq, Sandisk Corp jumped 5.6 percent to $39.74.

Among bank shares, Bank of America Corp fell 1 percent to $7.40, the second largest decliner on the Dow. The S&P 500 financial sector index <.GSPF> lost 0.7 percent.

Earlier, data from the Labor Department showed weekly jobless claims rose to 414,000 from an upwardly revised 412,000 in the prior week.

Separately, the trade deficit narrowed considerably in July, a positive signal for growth in the third quarter after a sluggish first half.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak on the U.S. economic outlook to the Economic Club of Minnesota at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Fashion Inspiration: {Neon, Studs + Midweek Musings}

{... absolutely love the combination of this neon green yellow trench and black clutch stylishly embellished with studs... how has your week been so far? For me, it has been endless interesting meetings, getting caught up on my files at work and best of all wearing my work clothes!  Have a great evening and talk to you soon!}

♥




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Fashion Inspiration: {Fall Fashion + Catching Up}

{Hello again! It has been hectic since my last post, i.e., returning to work after four months french language training, the birth of my second grandchild, beautiful Léa, seen here, here and here and finally with her big brother, Zachary. Zachary, Léa and her parents (my oldest daughter, Amanda and her boyfriend) are living with us until my their new home is finish being built, sometime mid-November... so family life has been terrific to say the least... and now for this post, I absolutely love hats and graphic prints so couldn't resist posting this editorial... p.s. welcome to September, my favourite month of the year (has nothing to do that my birthday falls on the 14th!) hope your long weekend is going along beautifully so far, xoxo}

* Sasha Pivovarova, for Reserved's Fall Winter 2011-12 Campaign, discovered via Duskjacket Attic.



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LG ties up with Philips, Sharp for smart TV apps

South Korea's LG Electronics said Thursday it has tied up with Dutch giant Philips and Japan's Sharp to ramp up production of applications for Internet-powered televisions.

The three TV vendors will jointly create software development kits, which will be distributed to third-party developers to write TV applications, LG said in a statement.

It is the first such collaboration in the smart TV sector, LG said, adding the three would complete software development kits by the end of this year.

They will use different operating systems for their smart TVs, but the applications will become interchangeable once they adopt a common technology standard for building applications, LG said.

It said the tie-up would have a substantial impact on TV makers, app developers and users.

LG has seen flagging sales of mobile phones and televisions this year because it failed quickly to roll out smartphones to rival Apple's market-leading iPhone and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S.

Internet Explorer usage to plummet below 50 percent by mid-2012

According to new data posted this week from a company called Net Applications, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer appears to be continuing a downward spiral. Over the last ten months, Microsoft has lost five percent of the web browser market while Google’s Chrome has gained about six percent. The amount of people using Internet Explorer is expected to fall below the 50 percent mark around late May of 2012. One bright point for Microsoft is that usage of its latest version of Internet Explorer, IE9, increased by about two percent from July to August. However, IE9 is limited to usage on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows XP users are limited to Internet Explorer 8 until upgrading.

Across all operating systems, Internet Explorer 8 is the most popular browser at a bit over 30 percent of the market. Google Chrome 13 followed in second place at about 11 percent of the market and the aging, third place Internet Explorer 6 clocked in at about 10 percent. This version of Internet Explorer is often reviled by web designers and developers, but it seemed to hold fairly strong over July to August and barely dropped in usage. The ability of Google Chrome to quietly upgrade without bothering the consumer seems to have helped Google keep its user base consistently using the latest version of the browser.

Mozilla’s Firefox has remained fairly stagnant over the last 10 months, but has only lost about one percent of the browser market. Mozilla recently switched to an upgrade cycle identical to Google Chrome as the inability to roll out quick updates made the browser seem stale in comparison to Chrome. Apple’s Safari browser slowly gained market share over the last year to the tune of one percent and the Opera browser seems to be slowly fading away. Opera’s share dropped from 2.42 percent in September 2010 to 1.68 percent in August 2011.