National / International News

A national inquiry into child sex abuse opens in Australia, with more than 5,000 people expected to give evidence of suffering and trauma.

The president is trying to regain traction for federal gun control measures by visiting states that are moving forward on their own. Today he speaks in Colorado, where public outrage in the wake of mass shootings helped propel new legislation — and where opponents are promising political payback.

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Charlton boss Chris Powell says Paolo Di Canio must accept the consequences from his reported political views.

Finding work for spouses of forces personnel

Is fine for misleading customers too lenient, asks Robert Peston

US-listed firms can use Twitter, Facebook and other social media services to make key announcements, the country's financial regulator rules.

Two lorry drivers are arrested after a fatal 10-vehicle pile-up on the M25, Essex police says.

They say the walls have ears. But what if the floors could feel where you are walking and how you are walking? A New York City start-up called Tactonic Technologies has revolutionized the computer touch sensor, making them tough enough and cheap enough to turn an entire floor, maybe an entire gym or theme park into a surface that senses footsteps.

"It can be tiled, so we can take two sensors and seamlessly butt them together, and make a sensor twice as big," says Gerry Seidman, Tactonic's Chief Executive Officer. "In fact you can cover the entire area of a room."

Tactonic's technology can track people as they move through spaces, such as airports or shopping malls. The sensors can also detect more subtle balance and pressure information, which the company hopes to apply to the medical and physical therapy fields.

"We can tell about the posture, whether [a person is] improving in their therapy or maybe detect Parkinson's disease," says Seidman, who adds that the sensors are superior in some ways to video recording devices. "If you are getting ready to take a step, you telegraph to the floor that you are going to take a step, even before a camera could pick it up."

Click on the audio player above to hear more about Tactonic, its founding and its future. And tell us: How would you use a touch sensitive floor?

 

They say the walls have ears. But what if the floors could feel where you are walking and how you are walking? A New York City start-up called Tactonic Technologies has revolutionized the computer touch sensor, making them tough enough and cheap enough to turn an entire floor, maybe an entire gym or theme park into a surface that senses footsteps.

Gerry Seidman, Tactonic's Chief Executive Officer, joins Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio to explain how the sensors work and what they could be used for.

Tell us: How would you use a touch sensitive floor?

Didier Drogba feels Jose Mourinho may be tempted by a second stint at Premier League club Chelsea.

And finally today, a tale of two paycuts. One voluntary, the other involuntary.

President Obama's apparently decided he will give back 5 percent of his $400,000 salary. The White House says he's returning the money in light of all the federal workers furloughed by the sequester, those automatic across the board spending cuts. That's a sacrifice of about $20,000 a year.

The CEO of struggling JCPenney, on the other hand, got a 97 percent cut in compensation -- and that wasn't voluntary. That brought Ron Johnson down to about $1.9 million a year.

I think both gentlemen will survive.

Residents of an apartment building in Camden, N.J., racked up more than $1 million a year in hospital admissions and trips to the ER over about a decade. In response, a community group opened a doctor's office on the ground floor. But at first, residents weren't as eager to go as doctors had hoped.

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Schools across the UK are being encouraged to introduce more risk to the classroom as part of a project to make children more enterprising.

India's PM, Manmohan Singh says he is confident the country's economy will bounce back and that the current downturn is "temporary".

A vicar from Huddersfield who raised funds for his parish by handing out £10 notes and asking his congregation to invest it, has reaped a reward of £10,000 for church repairs.

Female octopuses go to extra lengths when stretching arms to reach food.

North Korea is blocking the entry of South Korean workers into a joint industrial zone, in a move seen as further escalating tension.

A £200m development with hotel, offices and shops is to be built in Edinburgh's Haymarket, following several years of delay.

The Texas Ranger was one out from a perfect game when Marwin Gonzalez of the Houston Astros grounded a clean single through the pitcher's legs. Texas beat the Houston Astros 7-0 Tuesday night.

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A GP surgery in Swansea responds to the measles epidemic by laying on extra clinics because of high demand for the MMR vaccine.