| Overheating
risk |
| Apple to
recall 1.8 million notebook batteries |
agencies
Apple
Computer Inc. will recall 1.8 million lithium-ion
notebook computer batteries after nine devices
overheated, causing minor burns to two users,
U.S. safety regulators said on Thursday.
The recall is the second-biggest in U.S. history
involving electronics or computers. Just last
week, No. 1 PC maker Dell Inc. recalled 4.1
million lithium-ion batteries.
In both cases, the batteries had power cells
made by Sony Corp. Apple, like Dell, said it
did not expect any "material" financial impact on its business.
Sony said in a separate statement that it did
not anticipate further recalls of batteries
using the potentially faulty cells. The Japanese
electronics company
said the Apple and Dell recalls would cost Sony between 20 billion yen and 30
billion yen -- or $172 million to $258 million.
Cupertino, California-based Apple will recall
1.1 million batteries sold with notebook computers
in the United States and 700,000 abroad, the
U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission said.
"Our No. 1 priority is to recall and replace the affected batteries free
of charge," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. The reported overheating
incidents were due to "contamination" in the Sony battery cells, he
added.
The batteries were sold with Apple iBook G4 and
PowerBook G4 computers from October 2003 through
this month, according to the safety commission.
None of
Apple's
most recent notebooks using microprocessors from Intel Corp. <INTC.O> are
affected, Dowling said.
Apple had said last week after the Dell recall
that it was reviewing its notebook batteries
to ensure they met its standards.
"The key message to consumers is these lithium-ion batteries can actually
overheat and pose a fire hazard," said Scott Wolfson, spokesman for the
Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington.
Shares of Apple were down 45 cents at $67.76
in afternoon trading on Nasdaq following the
recall announcement. Earlier, they had dipped
as low as $66.27.
"Sony clearly has a problem here," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst
at Creative Strategies in San Jose, California. "There's a problem with
the batteries overheating."
Bajarin noted, however, that in Apple's case
there were no reported notebook fires, while
several of the recalled Dell computers had
erupted in flames.
Dell said it had reports of six batteries overheating, but no injuries
were reported.
The recall follows a smaller Apple recall of
lithium-ion batteries in certain iBook G4
and PowerBook G4 notebooks sold worldwide
from October
2004, through
May 2005. Those batteries were made by LG Chem Ltd. of South Korea,
according to Apple's Web site.
Dell of Round Rock, Texas, last week began
a voluntary recall of 2.7 million batteries
sold in the United States and 1.4 million
sold overseas.
The
Dell-branded batteries were in computers sold from April, 2004, through
July 18 of this
year.
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| Oaxaca
city |
| Mexico
tourist city in grip of political unrest |
agencies
One
of Mexico's prettiest cities has been tainted
by blood and scarred with graffiti in a political
conflict raising tensions in a country already
on tenterhooks over a contested presidential
vote.
Months of protests aimed at toppling Oaxaca state
Gov. Ulises Ruiz spun out of control when gunmen
believed to be off-duty police opened fire on
protesters twice earlier this week, killing one
person. Five people have been killed this month
in the conflict.
Youths wielding sticks have barricaded roads
and burned buses, scaring residents and the few
tourists still left.
A favorite backpacker destination, state capital
Oaxaca city was quiet but a mess on Thursday,
its elegant old buildings spray-painted with
protest slogans and the air foul from piles of
garbage burned by protesters at road junctions.
Home to Spanish colonial buildings and colorful
Indian markets that draw millions of tourists
a year, the city streets now empty at nightfall,
except for protesters carrying tires to burn.
Government offices, banks and tour agencies in
the main Zocalo square have been closed all week,
and shops and cafes are empty.
Protesters, many of them from poor areas outside
the city, smashed up a hotel named after Spanish
conquistadors and painted it with slogans like: "Tourist
go home."
"
It's horrifying. It's terrible. We're in their
hands. I'm scared standing here talking to you," said
Ana, 49, a property executive of Spanish descent
who would not give her full name.
She said she had been jeered for being light-skinned
and well-dressed, reflecting a split along
class and race lines throughout Mexico.
The protesters took over several radio stations
and continued to control them on Thursday.
Despite healthy economic growth this year,
Mexico is blighted by a yawning gap between
rich and
poor. Tensions between these groups have been
aggravated by a bitter battle over who will
be the next president.
PRESIDENTIAL BATTLE
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched
street protests and sit-ins in Mexico City
to push his demand that conservative rival
Felipe
Calderon's narrow victory in the July 2 vote
be ruled fraudulent. A court will decide in
the next two weeks which of the two is president-elect.
The upheaval in Oaxaca began three months ago
with a strike of around 40,000 teachers over
pay but has since escalated with students,
Indian groups and left-wing radicals joining
the protests.
An attempt by police firing tear gas to dislodge
striking teachers from the Zocalo square in
June failed and just hardened opinions against
the
governor, from the Institutional Revolutionary
Party.
Human rights groups, land activists and journalists
say Ruiz, whose party ruled Mexico for 71 years
until 2000 often with a heavy hand, has ridden
roughshod over opponents and the media.
"
We want him out for being incompetent, corrupt
and an oppressor," said activist Feliciano
Caballero, 30. "We don't support any political
party. We want a government of the people."
A new militant group, the Oaxacan People's
Popular Assembly, or APPO, has emerged to
lead the protests. "They
are provoking us so that the federal government
sends in the army and everything ends in a blood
bath," said APPO spokesman Antonio Gomez.
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