SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The United States is prepared to hold direct talks with Iran in the standoff over its nuclear ambitions, Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday -- but he insisted that Tehran must show it is serious and Washington won't engage in such talks "just for the exercise." Washington has indicated in the past that it's prepared to talk directly with Iran, and talks involving all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Voter trust in political information from Facebook, Twitter and other social media services is now on par with that in traditional news sources, according to a new survey shared with POLITICO. Recent years have seen candidates increasingly devoting time and resources to developing their social media presences, with President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign widely admired by experts in both parties for its massive data and analytics operation. The George Washington University Graduate School of Political…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- As a job seeker, how active do you have to be on social media? If you aren’t, will hiring managers think you’re out of touch with the fast-paced social media world we live in and put your résumé at the bottom of the pile? Mark Crerar is searching for a sales role while he completes his executive MBA at Toronto-based York University’s Schulich School of Business. He has a well-developed LinkedIn profile but no…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- In many countries, the gunning down of unarmed civilians by security forces would normally result in the arrest of those responsible. But in South Sudan, such an incident seems to have led to the arrests of several members of the media instead. On December 9 in the town of Wau, at least nine civilians were confirmed killed when unarmed protesters were fired upon by unidentified men in uniform. Photographs and witness accounts of what…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Many owners of Apple’s iPhone returned to work after the festive period this week but the device may have inadvertently pressed the snooze button for some. Apple said yesterday that it will not fix a glitch with the “do not disturb” feature until the issue automatically resolves itself next Monday. The feature is designed to silence the phones for select periods ensuring that owners are not interrupted by unwanted calls or alerts during that time. But…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – About a week ago we reported on a rumor that the Samsung Galaxy S4 could be seeing a launch in April, and if you were already getting yourself mentally prepared for such a date, you might want to rethink that because according to Samsung, the Galaxy S4 will not be seeing a launch date before May 2013. This does not mean that the Galaxy S4 will launch in May, but it means that any…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Google and Yahoo, companies known for their anti-piracy stance, are among the top 10 organizations advertising on websites that receive the most complaints for copyright infringement, a study has revealed. The University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab used a bot to browse websites listed in the Google Transparency report as having received the most takedown requests under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The HTML source code for the site's ads revealed the network…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Does Google know something about Apple's stock that the rest of us don't? For at least a brief period this week, when users typed in "sell" in the search bar on Google Finance, Google automatically directed them to the page for Apple's stock, as pointed out in several blogs and a thread on Reddit over the weekend. Google, for its part, said the result was due to its algorithm rather than any concerted effort to…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Every week, the BBC Magazine presents 10 tweets to capture the spirit of the news commanding attention in North America. Now, as we bid adieu to 2012, a look back on the tweets that encapsulated the year. As always, some are more serious than others. 1. In a better world, Transvaginal Ultrasound would be a 12-member white funk band from Savannah known for their hit "Smooth You." 27 February: Comedian Sarah Thyre (@SarahThyre) wasn't the…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- There are stories that have enormous consequences on the lives of Americans but are regularly under-reported or misrepresented by the mainstream media.  Project Censored, the US media watchdog group, has released their annual report examining the shortcomings of reporting in 2012.   Amongst the key topics: the rising police state and the erosion of civil liberties, climate change and the destruction of oceans, and the rising disparity between the one percent and the 99…