"Bennifer" buried as Ben Affleck's star soars

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It has taken 10 years of hard work and indie movies, but Ben Affleck finally has moved past his "Bennifer" nightmare.

Affleck, 40, once a tabloid staple who risked becoming a laughingstock during his romance with Jennifer Lopez and their movie flop "Gigli," is back on top in Hollywood, winning accolades for his work both in front of and behind the camera.

Fifteen years after Affleck shared an Oscar with Matt Damon for their first screenplay, "Good Will Hunting," buzz is building over a likely second Academy Award nomination next month. It would be Affleck's first since 1997.

"Finally, people now are ready to go, 'Wow! He's at the very top of the food chain,'" Damon told Reuters.

Affleck's latest film "Argo," a part-thriller, part-comedic tale of the real-life rescue of six American diplomats from Iran in 1980, this week picked up five Golden Globe nominations and a nod from the Screen Actors Guild for its top prize of best ensemble cast.

The film, which Affleck directed, produced and stars in, has also delighted critics and brought in some $160 million at the worldwide box office.

In "Argo," Affleck's clean-cut looks are hidden under a long, shaggy 1970s hair cut and beard as he plays CIA officer Tony Mendez, who devised a fake film project to spirit six hostages out of Tehran after the Islamic revolution.

The kudos Affleck is now receiving follows the embarrassing headlines he attracted over his 2002-2004 romance with Lopez.

"It was tough to watch him get kicked in the teeth for all those years because the perception of him was so not who he actually was," Damon said.

"It was upsetting for a lot of his friends because he's the smartest, funnest, nicest, kindest, incredibly talented guy. ... So that was tough. Now I'm just thrilled. ... He deserves everything that he's going to get," he added.

With a huge, pink diamond engagement ring for Lopez and gossip about matching Rolls Royces, the pair dubbed "Bennifer" starred in the 2003 comedy romance "Gigli," which earned multiple Razzie awards for the worst comedy of the year.

SELLING MAGAZINES NOT MOVIES

Damon, by contrast, was seeing his career surge with "The Bourne Identity," "Syriana" and "The Departed." But he recalls Affleck's pain.

"He said (to me), 'I am in the absolute worst place you can be. I sell magazines, not movie tickets.' I remember our agent called up the editor of Us Weekly, begging her not to put him on the cover any more. Please stop. Just stop," Damon said.

About a year after splitting with Lopez, Affleck married actress Jennifer Garner, had the first of three children with her, and started writing and directing small but admired movies like "Gone Baby Gone" in 2007 and 2010's gritty crime film "The Town."

Last month, Affleck was named Entertainment Weekly's entertainer of the year, largely on the back of "Argo."

The actor-turned-director said that managing the various tones of the film was his hardest challenge.

"I had to synthesize comedic elements and the political stuff and this true-life drama thriller story. ... It was scary and it was daunting," Affleck told Reuters, saying he powered through by "overworking it by a multiple of ten."

A trip to the Oscars ceremony in February is now considered a shoo-in by awards pundits, but Affleck is not convinced that success is sweeter the second time around.

"It's harder. On the one hand, coming from obscurity, you have a neutral starting place. Because of the tabloid press and over exposure, I was starting from a deficit," he said.

"It can be very unpleasant to be in the midst of a lot of ugliness. But I just put my head down and decided ... I was going to work as hard as I could, and I never let the possibility enter my mind that I might fail - at least consciously. Subconsciously, I knew I could fail and I was really scared, so it made me work harder."

(Additional reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Will Dunham)

12.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Norman Woodland, co-inventor of bar code, dies at 91

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Norman Woodland, co-inventor of the bar code, the inventory tracking tool that transformed global commerce in the 1970s and saved shoppers countless hours on the supermarket checkout line, has died, his daughter said.

Woodland, 91, died Saturday from complications related to Alzheimer's disease in Edgewater, New Jersey, said Susan Woodland of New York.

Today, five billion products a day are scanned optically using the bar code, or Universal Product Code, or UPC, according to GS1 US, the American arm of the global UPC standards body.

The handheld laser scanner inventories consumer products, speeds passengers through airline gates, tracks mail, encodes medical patient information, and is in near universal use across transportation, industrial and shipping industries worldwide.

Susan Woodland said her father and co-inventor Bernard "Bob" Silver were graduate students at an engineering school in Philadelphia when they devised the idea of the bar code.

Silver overheard a supermarket executive asking the dean of the school - now Drexel University - to assign engineering students the task of creating an efficient way to inventory products at the checkout counter.

"My dad really liked to think about interesting problems," Susan Woodland said.

Woodland devised a code based on Morse code - a series of dots and dashes - that he had learned as a Boy Scout, she said.

The pair applied for the world's first bar code patent in 1949. Woodland joined International Business Machines Corp in 1951, and in 1952 he and Silver received the patent.

But it would be more than two decades before laser technology would advance to the point where it could be applied to the bar code, IBM said in a statement.

Silver died in 1963, according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which inducted the two men in 2011.

"In some ways it was a disappointment to my dad that it took so long for the technology to catch up," Susan Woodland said.

The first bar code scan took place on June 26, 1974, in Troy, Ohio, when a cashier scanned a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum for shopper Clyde Dawson, according to IBM. Cost: 67 cents. A revolutionary technology was born.

The late 1970s were heady times for Woodland, known to friends as 'Joe.'

"My dad was a really sweet, friendly guy and he just got the biggest thrill about having invented the bar code," Susan Woodland said.

"He loved talking to the checkers at the supermarket, seeing what they thought about the bar code scanner, what were the problems with it and what they'd like to see changed," she said, laughing. "They always got such a kick out of him."

Susan Woodland said her father was enthusiastic about perfecting the technology he had invented.

"He was involved in with the whole design of the station - from how the person stood and how high the laser stood to how to protect peoples' eyes from the lasers," she said. "He was totally a perfectionist."

Woodland also served as an historian on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. effort to build the first atomic bomb.

But his bar code invention was closest to his heart, Susan Woodland said.

Woodland is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Woodland of New Jersey, daughters Susan Woodland and Betsy Karpenkopf, brother David Woodland and granddaughter Ella Karpenkopf, 16.

(This story was corrected in the last paragraph to fix the spellings of widow and daughter)

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Dan Burns and Nick Zieminski)

12.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

"Bennifer" buried as Ben Affleck's star soars

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It has taken 10 years of hard work and indie movies, but Ben Affleck finally has moved past his "Bennifer" nightmare.

Affleck, 40, once a tabloid staple who risked becoming a laughingstock during his romance with Jennifer Lopez and their movie flop "Gigli," is back on top in Hollywood, winning accolades for his work both in front of and behind the camera.

Fifteen years after Affleck shared an Oscar with Matt Damon for their first screenplay, "Good Will Hunting," buzz is building over a likely second Academy Award nomination next month. It would be Affleck's first since 1997.

"Finally, people now are ready to go, 'Wow! He's at the very top of the food chain,'" Damon told Reuters.

Affleck's latest film "Argo," a part-thriller, part-comedic tale of the real-life rescue of six American diplomats from Iran in 1980, this week picked up five Golden Globe nominations and a nod from the Screen Actors Guild for its top prize of best ensemble cast.

The film, which Affleck directed, produced and stars in, has also delighted critics and brought in some $160 million at the worldwide box office.

In "Argo," Affleck's clean-cut looks are hidden under a long, shaggy 1970s hair cut and beard as he plays CIA officer Tony Mendez, who devised a fake film project to spirit six hostages out of Tehran after the Islamic revolution.

The kudos Affleck is now receiving follows the embarrassing headlines he attracted over his 2002-2004 romance with Lopez.

"It was tough to watch him get kicked in the teeth for all those years because the perception of him was so not who he actually was," Damon said.

"It was upsetting for a lot of his friends because he's the smartest, funnest, nicest, kindest, incredibly talented guy. ... So that was tough. Now I'm just thrilled. ... He deserves everything that he's going to get," he added.

With a huge, pink diamond engagement ring for Lopez and gossip about matching Rolls Royces, the pair dubbed "Bennifer" starred in the 2003 comedy romance "Gigli," which earned multiple Razzie awards for the worst comedy of the year.

SELLING MAGAZINES NOT MOVIES

Damon, by contrast, was seeing his career surge with "The Bourne Identity," "Syriana" and "The Departed." But he recalls Affleck's pain.

"He said (to me), 'I am in the absolute worst place you can be. I sell magazines, not movie tickets.' I remember our agent called up the editor of Us Weekly, begging her not to put him on the cover any more. Please stop. Just stop," Damon said.

About a year after splitting with Lopez, Affleck married actress Jennifer Garner, had the first of three children with her, and started writing and directing small but admired movies like "Gone Baby Gone" in 2007 and 2010's gritty crime film "The Town."

Last month, Affleck was named Entertainment Weekly's entertainer of the year, largely on the back of "Argo."

The actor-turned-director said that managing the various tones of the film was his hardest challenge.

"I had to synthesize comedic elements and the political stuff and this true-life drama thriller story. ... It was scary and it was daunting," Affleck told Reuters, saying he powered through by "overworking it by a multiple of ten."

A trip to the Oscars ceremony in February is now considered a shoo-in by awards pundits, but Affleck is not convinced that success is sweeter the second time around.

"It's harder. On the one hand, coming from obscurity, you have a neutral starting place. Because of the tabloid press and over exposure, I was starting from a deficit," he said.

"It can be very unpleasant to be in the midst of a lot of ugliness. But I just put my head down and decided ... I was going to work as hard as I could, and I never let the possibility enter my mind that I might fail - at least consciously. Subconsciously, I knew I could fail and I was really scared, so it made me work harder."

(Additional reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Will Dunham)

12.23 | 0 komentar | Read More

Norman Woodland, co-inventor of bar code, dies at 91

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Norman Woodland, co-inventor of the bar code, the inventory tracking tool that transformed global commerce in the 1970s and saved shoppers countless hours on the supermarket checkout line, has died, his daughter said.

Woodland, 91, died Saturday from complications related to Alzheimer's disease in Edgewater, New Jersey, said Susan Woodland of New York.

Today, five billion products a day are scanned optically using the bar code, or Universal Product Code, or UPC, according to GS1 US, the American arm of the global UPC standards body.

The handheld laser scanner inventories consumer products, speeds passengers through airline gates, tracks mail, encodes medical patient information, and is in near universal use across transportation, industrial and shipping industries worldwide.

Susan Woodland said her father and co-inventor Bernard "Bob" Silver were graduate students at an engineering school in Philadelphia when they devised the idea of the bar code.

Silver overheard a supermarket executive asking the dean of the school - now Drexel University - to assign engineering students the task of creating an efficient way to inventory products at the checkout counter.

"My dad really liked to think about interesting problems," Susan Woodland said.

Woodland devised a code based on Morse code - a series of dots and dashes - that he had learned as a Boy Scout, she said.

The pair applied for the world's first bar code patent in 1949. Woodland joined International Business Machines Corp in 1951, and in 1952 he and Silver received the patent.

But it would be more than two decades before laser technology would advance to the point where it could be applied to the bar code, IBM said in a statement.

Silver died in 1963, according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which inducted the two men in 2011.

"In some ways it was a disappointment to my dad that it took so long for the technology to catch up," Susan Woodland said.

The first bar code scan took place on June 26, 1974, in Troy, Ohio, when a cashier scanned a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum for shopper Clyde Dawson, according to IBM. Cost: 67 cents. A revolutionary technology was born.

The late 1970s were heady times for Woodland, known to friends as 'Joe.'

"My dad was a really sweet, friendly guy and he just got the biggest thrill about having invented the bar code," Susan Woodland said.

"He loved talking to the checkers at the supermarket, seeing what they thought about the bar code scanner, what were the problems with it and what they'd like to see changed," she said, laughing. "They always got such a kick out of him."

Susan Woodland said her father was enthusiastic about perfecting the technology he had invented.

"He was involved in with the whole design of the station - from how the person stood and how high the laser stood to how to protect peoples' eyes from the lasers," she said. "He was totally a perfectionist."

Woodland also served as an historian on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. effort to build the first atomic bomb.

But his bar code invention was closest to his heart, Susan Woodland said.

Woodland is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Woodland of New Jersey, daughters Susan Woodland and Betsy Karpenkopf, brother David Woodland and granddaughter Ella Karpenkopf, 16.

(This story was corrected in the last paragraph to fix the spellings of widow and daughter)

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Dan Burns and Nick Zieminski)

12.23 | 0 komentar | Read More

McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala

MIAMI (Reuters) - Computer software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, arrived in Miami on Wednesday evening after he was deported by Guatemala, according to fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight.

After landing, McAfee, 67, was escorted from the plane by airport security officers, passengers said. Shortly afterward, he tweeted, "I am in South Beach," referring to the popular tourist area on Miami Beach.

"Some people felt uncomfortable that he was on our flight. ... We all knew the story," said Maria Claridge, 36, a South Florida photographer who was on the Silicon Valley entrepreneur's flight to Miami.

McAfee, who was seated in the coach section and had a whole row to himself, was wearing a suit and was "very calm" during the flight, she added.

"He looked very tired, he looked like a man who hadn't slept in days. I'd say he even looked depressed," said another passenger, Roberto Gilbert, a Guatemalan who lives in Miami.

McAfee had been held for a week in Guatemala, where he surfaced after evading police in Belize for nearly a month following the killing of American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's death, although the technology guru's lawyers blocked an attempt by Guatemala to send him back there.

Authorities in Belize say he is not a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee has denied any role in Faull's killing.

The goateed McAfee has led the world's media on a game of online hide-and-seek in Belize and Guatemala since he fled after Faull's death, peppering the Internet with pithy quotes and colorful revelations about his unpredictable life.

"I'm happy to be going home," McAfee, dressed in a black suit, told reporters shortly before his departure from Guatemala City airport on Wednesday afternoon. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days."

Guatemala's immigration authorities had been holding McAfee since he was arrested last Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

He said he had no immediate plans after reaching Florida.

"I'm just going to hang in Miami for a while. I like Miami," he told Reuters by telephone just before his plane left. "There is a great sushi place there and I really like sushi."

BELIZE STILL WAITING

Residents of the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, said McAfee and Faull, 52, had quarreled at times, including over McAfee's unruly dogs.

McAfee says Belize authorities will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. He has said he was being persecuted by Belize's ruling party for refusing to pay some $2 million in bribes.

Belize's prime minister has rejected the allegations, calling McAfee paranoid and "bonkers.

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said the country still wanted to question McAfee about the Faull case.

"He will be just under the goodwill of the United States of America. He is still a person of interest, but a U.S. national has been killed and he has been somewhat implicated in that murder. People want him to answer some questions," he said.

Martinez noted that Belize's extradition treaty with the United States extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to McAfee.

"Right now, we don't have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect," he said.

Residents and neighbors on Ambergris Caye said McAfee was unusual and at times unstable. He was seen to travel with armed bodyguards, sporting a pistol tucked into his belt.

The predicament of McAfee, a former Lockheed systems consultant, is a far cry from his heyday in the late 1980s, when he started McAfee Associates. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp.

McAfee was previously charged in Belize with possession of illegal firearms, and police had raided his property on suspicions that he was running a lab to produce illegal synthetic narcotics. He said he had not taken drugs since 1983.

"I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day. I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," he told Reuters before his arrest in Guatemala. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

(Writing by Dave Graham, Michael O'Boyle and David Adams. Reporting by Sofia Menchu and Mike McDonald.; Editing by Peter Cooney)

12.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Media mogul and banker Allbritton dies at 87

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Joe Lewis Allbritton, a media mogul and owner of the scandal-plagued Riggs National Bank, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Houston. He was 87.

Allbritton died of heart ailments, said Jerald Fritz, a senior vice president of Allbritton Communications.

Allbritton's media empire included newspapers throughout the U.S. Northeast and ABC network affiliates. Allbritton's son, Robert, recently founded the influential political publication Politico.

But Joe Allbritton, a Mississippi native, was famously known for owning and running Riggs, the Washington-based bank that had been a dominant force in diplomatic banking in the nation's capital.

Allbritton's banking career was tarnished when it was revealed that Riggs bank failed to report suspicious activity in the accounts held by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Equatorial Guinea officials.

Riggs bank pleaded guilty in 2005 to violating anti-money laundering laws and was fined a total of $41 million.

Allbritton did not seek re-election to Riggs' board of directors and the storied bank was eventually acquired by PNC Financial Services.

Allbritton is survived by his wife, son and two grandchildren.

(Reporting By Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Eric Beech)

12.23 | 0 komentar | Read More

McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala

MIAMI (Reuters) - Computer software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, arrived in Miami on Wednesday evening after he was deported by Guatemala, according to fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight.

After landing, McAfee, 67, was escorted from the plane by airport security officers, passengers said. Shortly afterward, he tweeted, "I am in South Beach," referring to the popular tourist area on Miami Beach.

"Some people felt uncomfortable that he was on our flight. ... We all knew the story," said Maria Claridge, 36, a South Florida photographer who was on the Silicon Valley entrepreneur's flight to Miami.

McAfee, who was seated in the coach section and had a whole row to himself, was wearing a suit and was "very calm" during the flight, she added.

"He looked very tired, he looked like a man who hadn't slept in days. I'd say he even looked depressed," said another passenger, Roberto Gilbert, a Guatemalan who lives in Miami.

McAfee had been held for a week in Guatemala, where he surfaced after evading police in Belize for nearly a month following the killing of American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's death, although the technology guru's lawyers blocked an attempt by Guatemala to send him back there.

Authorities in Belize say he is not a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee has denied any role in Faull's killing.

The goateed McAfee has led the world's media on a game of online hide-and-seek in Belize and Guatemala since he fled after Faull's death, peppering the Internet with pithy quotes and colorful revelations about his unpredictable life.

"I'm happy to be going home," McAfee, dressed in a black suit, told reporters shortly before his departure from Guatemala City airport on Wednesday afternoon. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days."

Guatemala's immigration authorities had been holding McAfee since he was arrested last Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

He said he had no immediate plans after reaching Florida.

"I'm just going to hang in Miami for a while. I like Miami," he told Reuters by telephone just before his plane left. "There is a great sushi place there and I really like sushi."

BELIZE STILL WAITING

Residents of the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, said McAfee and Faull, 52, had quarreled at times, including over McAfee's unruly dogs.

McAfee says Belize authorities will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. He has said he was being persecuted by Belize's ruling party for refusing to pay some $2 million in bribes.

Belize's prime minister has rejected the allegations, calling McAfee paranoid and "bonkers.

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said the country still wanted to question McAfee about the Faull case.

"He will be just under the goodwill of the United States of America. He is still a person of interest, but a U.S. national has been killed and he has been somewhat implicated in that murder. People want him to answer some questions," he said.

Martinez noted that Belize's extradition treaty with the United States extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to McAfee.

"Right now, we don't have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect," he said.

Residents and neighbors on Ambergris Caye said McAfee was unusual and at times unstable. He was seen to travel with armed bodyguards, sporting a pistol tucked into his belt.

The predicament of McAfee, a former Lockheed systems consultant, is a far cry from his heyday in the late 1980s, when he started McAfee Associates. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp.

McAfee was previously charged in Belize with possession of illegal firearms, and police had raided his property on suspicions that he was running a lab to produce illegal synthetic narcotics. He said he had not taken drugs since 1983.

"I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day. I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," he told Reuters before his arrest in Guatemala. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

(Writing by Dave Graham, Michael O'Boyle and David Adams. Reporting by Sofia Menchu and Mike McDonald.; Editing by Peter Cooney)

12.23 | 0 komentar | Read More

McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala

MIAMI (Reuters) - Computer software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, arrived in Miami on Wednesday evening after he was deported by Guatemala, according to fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight.

After landing, McAfee, 67, was escorted from the plane by airport security officers, passengers said. Shortly afterward, he tweeted, "I am in South Beach," referring to the popular tourist area on Miami Beach.

"Some people felt uncomfortable that he was on our flight. ... We all knew the story," said Maria Claridge, 36, a South Florida photographer who was on the Silicon Valley entrepreneur's flight to Miami.

McAfee, who was seated in the coach section and had a whole row to himself, was wearing a suit and was "very calm" during the flight, she added.

"He looked very tired, he looked like a man who hadn't slept in days. I'd say he even looked depressed," said another passenger, Roberto Gilbert, a Guatemalan who lives in Miami.

McAfee had been held for a week in Guatemala, where he surfaced after evading police in Belize for nearly a month following the killing of American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's death, although the technology guru's lawyers blocked an attempt by Guatemala to send him back there.

Authorities in Belize say he is not a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee has denied any role in Faull's killing.

The goateed McAfee has led the world's media on a game of online hide-and-seek in Belize and Guatemala since he fled after Faull's death, peppering the Internet with pithy quotes and colorful revelations about his unpredictable life.

"I'm happy to be going home," McAfee, dressed in a black suit, told reporters shortly before his departure from Guatemala City airport on Wednesday afternoon. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days."

Guatemala's immigration authorities had been holding McAfee since he was arrested last Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

He said he had no immediate plans after reaching Florida.

"I'm just going to hang in Miami for a while. I like Miami," he told Reuters by telephone just before his plane left. "There is a great sushi place there and I really like sushi."

BELIZE STILL WAITING

Residents of the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, said McAfee and Faull, 52, had quarreled at times, including over McAfee's unruly dogs.

McAfee says Belize authorities will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. He has said he was being persecuted by Belize's ruling party for refusing to pay some $2 million in bribes.

Belize's prime minister has rejected the allegations, calling McAfee paranoid and "bonkers.

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said the country still wanted to question McAfee about the Faull case.

"He will be just under the goodwill of the United States of America. He is still a person of interest, but a U.S. national has been killed and he has been somewhat implicated in that murder. People want him to answer some questions," he said.

Martinez noted that Belize's extradition treaty with the United States extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to McAfee.

"Right now, we don't have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect," he said.

Residents and neighbors on Ambergris Caye said McAfee was unusual and at times unstable. He was seen to travel with armed bodyguards, sporting a pistol tucked into his belt.

The predicament of McAfee, a former Lockheed systems consultant, is a far cry from his heyday in the late 1980s, when he started McAfee Associates. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp.

McAfee was previously charged in Belize with possession of illegal firearms, and police had raided his property on suspicions that he was running a lab to produce illegal synthetic narcotics. He said he had not taken drugs since 1983.

"I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day. I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," he told Reuters before his arrest in Guatemala. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

(Writing by Dave Graham, Michael O'Boyle and David Adams. Reporting by Sofia Menchu and Mike McDonald.; Editing by Peter Cooney)

12.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

Media mogul and banker Allbritton dies at 87

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Joe Lewis Allbritton, a media mogul and owner of the scandal-plagued Riggs National Bank, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Houston. He was 87.

Allbritton died of heart ailments, said Jerald Fritz, a senior vice president of Allbritton Communications.

Allbritton's media empire included newspapers throughout the U.S. Northeast and ABC network affiliates. Allbritton's son, Robert, recently founded the influential political publication Politico.

But Joe Allbritton, a Mississippi native, was famously known for owning and running Riggs, the Washington-based bank that had been a dominant force in diplomatic banking in the nation's capital.

Allbritton's banking career was tarnished when it was revealed that Riggs bank failed to report suspicious activity in the accounts held by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Equatorial Guinea officials.

Riggs bank pleaded guilty in 2005 to violating anti-money laundering laws and was fined a total of $41 million.

Allbritton did not seek re-election to Riggs' board of directors and the storied bank was eventually acquired by PNC Financial Services.

Allbritton is survived by his wife, son and two grandchildren.

(Reporting By Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Eric Beech)

12.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala

MIAMI (Reuters) - Computer software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, arrived in Miami on Wednesday evening after he was deported by Guatemala, according to fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight.

After landing, McAfee, 67, was escorted from the plane by airport security officers, passengers said. Shortly afterward, he tweeted, "I am in South Beach," referring to the popular tourist area on Miami Beach.

"Some people felt uncomfortable that he was on our flight. ... We all knew the story," said Maria Claridge, 36, a South Florida photographer who was on the Silicon Valley entrepreneur's flight to Miami.

McAfee, who was seated in the coach section and had a whole row to himself, was wearing a suit and was "very calm" during the flight, she added.

"He looked very tired, he looked like a man who hadn't slept in days. I'd say he even looked depressed," said another passenger, Roberto Gilbert, a Guatemalan who lives in Miami.

McAfee had been held for a week in Guatemala, where he surfaced after evading police in Belize for nearly a month following the killing of American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's death, although the technology guru's lawyers blocked an attempt by Guatemala to send him back there.

Authorities in Belize say he is not a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee has denied any role in Faull's killing.

The goateed McAfee has led the world's media on a game of online hide-and-seek in Belize and Guatemala since he fled after Faull's death, peppering the Internet with pithy quotes and colorful revelations about his unpredictable life.

"I'm happy to be going home," McAfee, dressed in a black suit, told reporters shortly before his departure from Guatemala City airport on Wednesday afternoon. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days."

Guatemala's immigration authorities had been holding McAfee since he was arrested last Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

He said he had no immediate plans after reaching Florida.

"I'm just going to hang in Miami for a while. I like Miami," he told Reuters by telephone just before his plane left. "There is a great sushi place there and I really like sushi."

BELIZE STILL WAITING

Residents of the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, said McAfee and Faull, 52, had quarreled at times, including over McAfee's unruly dogs.

McAfee says Belize authorities will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. He has said he was being persecuted by Belize's ruling party for refusing to pay some $2 million in bribes.

Belize's prime minister has rejected the allegations, calling McAfee paranoid and "bonkers.

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said the country still wanted to question McAfee about the Faull case.

"He will be just under the goodwill of the United States of America. He is still a person of interest, but a U.S. national has been killed and he has been somewhat implicated in that murder. People want him to answer some questions," he said.

Martinez noted that Belize's extradition treaty with the United States extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to McAfee.

"Right now, we don't have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect," he said.

Residents and neighbors on Ambergris Caye said McAfee was unusual and at times unstable. He was seen to travel with armed bodyguards, sporting a pistol tucked into his belt.

The predicament of McAfee, a former Lockheed systems consultant, is a far cry from his heyday in the late 1980s, when he started McAfee Associates. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp.

McAfee was previously charged in Belize with possession of illegal firearms, and police had raided his property on suspicions that he was running a lab to produce illegal synthetic narcotics. He said he had not taken drugs since 1983.

"I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day. I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," he told Reuters before his arrest in Guatemala. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

(Writing by Dave Graham, Michael O'Boyle and David Adams. Reporting by Sofia Menchu and Mike McDonald.; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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