Games company in administration

17 August 2010 Last updated at 12:48 ET

Pioneering Dundee-based computer games company Realtime Worlds has gone into administration.

The company, which was founded by the creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, is based in a former jute mill in the city.

It employs about 300 people and was seen as one of the biggest players in the global computer games market.

Its newest title, the online role-playing game APB, was launched just a few weeks ago.

Joint administrators have been appointed and a consultation process on the future of the firm is under way.

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Police: Shots fired at Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv AP

JERUSALEM Shots were fired Tuesday at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, wounding one person, Israeli police said.

Police would not confirm reports that a man entered the embassy and made demands. Anonymous Israeli officials said the attacker was a Palestinian who tried to seek asylum at the British Embassy four years ago and was turned away.

Israel Radio reported from the scene that rescue workers with stretchers tried to enter the seaside embassy compound but left without bringing out any wounded.

The radio report said Turkish officials were not allowing Israeli police or rescue workers to enter the embassy.

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American faces deportation from Turkey AP

ANKARA, Turkey An American detained for allegedly collaborating with Kurdish militants said Tuesday he was being targeted because of his writings about the war between Turkey and the guerrillas.

Turkish authorities detained the 25-year-old Jake Hess, of Hampton, New Hampshire, in a hotel in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir last week, months after his name appeared in a prosecutors indictment against a group of Kurdish activists who have been charged with links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

A public prosecutor ordered Hess deported after questioning him for three-hours Sunday, though it was not clear when that might happen. He now shares a room with five asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq at a detention center for foreigners in Diyarbakir, and is free to use his mobile phone.

Kurdish rebels are fighting for autonomy in Turkeys southeast. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

Hess, who has visited PKK bases in northern Iraq, wrote two articles critical of Turkish treatment of Kurds for the news agency of Rome-based Inter Press Service, which covers development, the environment and human rights issues. Its website says it changed its legal status in 1994 to that of a non-profit, international non-governmental organization.

Authorities questioned him on the content of his articles, Hess said.

I was told that I was harming Turkeys image, that I was waging a smear campaign against Turkey, he told The Associated Press during a phone interview from his cell. I have no doubt that I am being targeted for my writings.

Turkish officials have not commented on the case and no one answered calls at the Diyarbakir chief prosecutors office Tuesday. The U.S. Embassy had no comment.

Hess said he developed an interest in the Kurdish conflict while at high school when he was involved in an Amnesty International campaign to free Kurdish politician Leyla Zana, who spent a decade in prison convicted of separatism and links to the PKK.

He arrived in Turkey nearly two years ago to teach English at a language school in Diyarbakir and worked as a translator for activist groups.

Hess lawyer, Serkan Akbas, said the American was detained for his alleged ties to Kurdish activists who are accused of membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation � a group, prosecutors say, is an offshoot of the PKK. The activists have denied the claims, and the indictment does not make any accusations against Hess.

Hess said that despite the indictment he had traveled freely in and out of Turkey, until his two articles appeared in July and early August.

The timing is a little curious, he said.

In an Aug. 13 statement, Reporters Without Borders called for Hess immediate release.

Detaining a journalist should be an exceptional measure resulting from a thorough investigation establishing that he has committed a serious crime, the media rights group said.

Sanjay Suri, editor-in-chief of the Inter Press Service agency, said they had made inquiries to Turkish authorities but have not received an official statement.

In a July 13 article � Turks let Kurdish forests burn, � Hess wrote that residents of two Kurdish villages in Turkey were facing economic disaster and possibly displacement as Turkish soldiers set fire to their forests and crops.

Turkish authorities have denied such claims. Turkey systematically burned and forced the Kurdish villages to evacuate to cut supplies to Kurdish rebels in the early 1990s but abandoned the practice in the face of severe international criticism.

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SC police: Mom killed children before sinking car AP

ORANGEBURG, S.C. A South Carolina mother who claimed her children drowned when their car careened into a river was charged with murder Tuesday after authorities said she confessed to suffocating the two toddlers and then faking the accident.

Sheriff Larry Williams said 29-year-old Shaquan Duley told investigators she was distraught about money troubles and unemployment and that she killed her children by putting her hand over their mouths after a dispute with her own mother. He says Duley then strapped the children into her car and drove it into a river Monday morning.

This was a young lady that was in trouble, in trouble in more ways than she realized, Williams said. She was in trouble and she didnt know where to turn.

Williams said the responsibilities of being a mother were simply too much for Duley, who didnt show signs of remorse during an overnight interview with authorities.

Two-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Javan T. Duley were dead in their child seats by the time divers got to the car Monday near a rural boat landing on the North Edisto River in Orangeburg, some 35 miles south of Columbia, the state capital.

The Highway Patrol was notified around 6:15 a.m. Monday that a woman needed help getting her children out of a car. Duley, who did not have a cell phone, had walked some distance down the country road by the boat landing and flagged down a passing motorist to call the Highway Patrol.

Duley was to be arraigned later Wednesday.

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4th baby dies in Romanian hospital blaze AP

BUCHAREST, Romania A fourth baby died Tuesday and seven remained in critical condition following a fire at a Bucharest maternity hospital that the health minister called one of the darkest tragedies of Romanias health system.

Authorities launched an investigation to determine what caused the blaze late Monday at Giulesti maternity hospital. The accident provoked a wave of public indignation, throwing light on Romanias poorly funded and understaffed health system.

Health Minister Attila Cseke said the accident was one of the darkest tragedies in the history of Romanias health care system.

He said 53 babies and 61 women � some in labor � were evacuated to other hospitals.

Cseke said the hospital will stay closed until the investigation is finalized.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but Romanian media said it may have started due to a malfunctioning air conditioning unit.

Health ministry official Raed Arafat said authorities will confirm the identity of all babies through DNA samples, after the plastic bracelets they wore for identification melted in the fire.

Thousands of doctors have left Romania in recent years for better paid jobs abroad. Hospitals are understaffed and cannot hire, as the government � facing a sharp economic downturn � is trying to keep the budget deficit down.

Reports of hospital patients who have to buy bandages, medicines and syringes abound in the Romanian media. Even some doctors concede they lack things like surgical thread and so cannot perform surgery unless the patients buy it.

Gabriel Patrascu, a father visiting his wife at the hospital, told news channel Antena 3 no medical staff were in the intensive care unit when the fire broke out. Maternity hospital manager Bogdan Marinescu could not confirm the report.

This version CORRECTS name of health minister.

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15 people wounded in explosion in Russias south AP

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia A vehicle exploded outside a cafe in southern Russia Tuesday, injuring at least 15 people, police said.

Stanislav Belyayev, a spokesman for the Stavropol region police, said the explosion occurred just outside the cafe in downtown Pyatigorsk, a city in Russias North Caucasus. The powerful blast wounded at least 15 cafe customers and passers-by, he said.

Belyayev said the explosion appeared to be a deliberate terror attack, although an official probe had only just started.

Hours earlier, a suicide bomber killed a police officer and wounded two others in a neighboring Caucasus province.

Aslan Dzgoyev of the ministrys branch in North Ossetia, said the attacker blew himself up at a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Vladikavkaz. The bomber, who died in the explosion, was accompanied by two other men. One of them was captured after police had shot and wounded him, while the other escaped.

North Ossetia and other regions in Russias volatile North Caucasus have been plagued by suicide bombings and other violence stemming from two separatist wars in Chechnya and aggravated by widespread complaints of police abuses.

A rebel Chechen leader claimed responsibility for the March subway suicide bombings in Moscow that killed 40 people.

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3 die in floods in Spain AP

MADRID Three people were killed and two injured in flash floods in towns close to the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, authorities said Tuesday.

An Interior Ministry statement said one man was found dead in a car that had been washed away in torrential overnight rain in the small town of Aguilar de la Frontera. The ministry said the body of a woman who also had been in the vehicle was found some 150 meters 165 yards away.

Another man was killed when an exterior wall of his house collapsed on top of him in the nearby town of Bujalance.

Two people were injured when a wall fell on them in Aguilar, the ministry said.

Television images showed damaged cars piled together along mud-packed streets in Aguilar while people mopped out their houses.

Cordoba is one of several southern provinces on alert for heavy rains.

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Housing construction rises 1.7 percent in July AP

WASHINGTON New home construction edged up slightly in July but applications for building permits tumbled to the lowest point in 14 months, a sign of continued stress in housing.

Construction of new homes and apartments rose 1.7 percent in July, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Still, applications for building permits, considered a good sign of future activity, fell 3.1 percent.

A rebound in housing is considered critical for a sustained economic recovery. But builders continue to struggle with weak demand for new homes caused by high unemployment and a glut of foreclosed homes on the market.

The July increase in housing construction pushed total activity to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 546,000 units. Building activity in June was weaker than first reported. It fell 8.7 percent to an annual rate of 537,000 units, the slowest pace since October of last year.

Housing construction got a boost earlier in the year when the government offered buyers up to $8,000 in federal tax credits. But after the incentives expired at the end of April, sales and constructions activity slumped.

Driving the July increase was a 32.6 percent surge in construction of apartments and condominiums, which jumped to an annual rate of 114,000 units. The bigger single-family sector declined 4.2 percent, falling to an annual rate of 432,000 units.

The drop in building permits left applications for new construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 565,000, the slowest pace since May 2009.

Construction activity surged 30.5 percent in the Northeast and was up 10.7 percent in the Midwest. However, construction fell 6.3 percent in the South and was flat in the West.

In advance of the report on housing starts, the National Association of Home Builders reported Monday that its monthly index of builder sentiment dropped to 13 in August. That was the lowest reading in 17 months. Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the housing market. The last time builders index was above 50 was in April 2006.

Builders say consumers remain worried about the weak economic recovery and the sluggish jobs market. Among those who are buying, many are opting for deeply discounted foreclosed properties.

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Israeli says Facebook photo with Arabs thoughtless AP

JERUSALEM A former Israeli soldier who posted photos on Facebook of herself in uniform smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners says her actions were thoughtless.

Eden Aberjil told Israels Army Radio on Tuesday that she did not think through her decision to post the photos. But she says she doesnt understand why they caused outrage.

She says she removed the photos after realizing they offended many viewers.

The photos taken in 2008 show her posing cheerfully with Palestinian detainees and were accompanied by an exchange with a friend that included jokes and sexual innuendoes.

The army has denounced the photos and Palestinians said they were humiliating.

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Govt starts talks about new mortgage system AP

WASHINGTON Talk of shrinking the governments involvement in the mortgage market is growing. Just dont expect action any time soon.

A conference Tuesday at the Treasury Department is the first of many steps toward restructuring the nearly $11 trillion mortgage market. So far, rescuing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has cost the government more than $148 billion. That number is expected to grow.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will address the conference but is not expected to offer an exit strategy Tuesday. The administration has said it wont offer its plan until next year.

Officials are pledging dramatic changes to the structure of Fannie and Freddie, which profited tremendously during good times but burdened taxpayers with losses when the housing market went bust.

We will not support a return to the system where private gains are subsidized by taxpayer losses, Geithner said in remarks prepared for the conference.

With Republicans likely to pick up seats in Congress in November, however, the Obama administration will need support from both political parties for the changes it proposes.

Reflecting this reality, Geithner will say Tuesday that the failures that produced the system we have today were bipartisan. The solution must be as well.

Executives and mortgage experts are prepared to tell Obama officials that that the government must stay in the business of backing U.S. mortgages even if Fannie and Freddie disappear someday.

At the end of the day, the government will still have a very large role to play, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodys Analytics and a panelist at the event. Others include mortgage executives from Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co, plus Bill Gross, managing director of bond giant Pimco and Lewis Ranieri, one of the creators of mortgage bonds.

The Obama administrations management of Fannie and Freddie has been under fire for months from Republicans on Capitol Hill. In December, the Treasury Department eliminated a $400 billion cap on how much money it would give the mortgage giants to keep them from failing. Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., has called that a taxpayer-backed slush fund and called for the support to be wound down.

Many in the mortgage industry say thats not realistic.

There has to be a game plan, said Paul Leonard, vice president of government affairs at the Housing Policy Council, a mortgage industry group. You cant just pull the plug on them.

Fannie and Freddie buy mortgages and package them into securities with a guarantee against default. They have ensured that millions of Americans can get home loans � even after the housing market collapsed.

The two mortgage giants, the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration together backed about 90 percent of loans made in the first half of the year, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

At some point the government will have to scale back the level of support it provided the housing and mortgage markets during the recession and financial crisis.

The governments footprint in the housing market needs to be smaller than it is today, Shaun Donovan, President Barack Obamas housing secretary, said in prepared remarks.

Most of the plans being circulated to reshape the mortgage market call for the government to guarantee that investors who buy mortgage-backed securities receive their money even if borrowers default.

Under this system, Fannie and Freddie could either be returned to private ownership or phased out completely. Fannie and Freddie, or their replacements, would pay the government to insure the loans. That money could be tapped if the housing market collapses.

A government guarantee is both a desirable and necessary component of the countrys housing finance system, wrote John Gibbons, a Wells Fargo & Co. executive vice president, in a letter last month to the Treasury Department.

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