National / International News

Online gambling is poised to go interstate, thanks to a fast-tracked bill in Nevada that Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) signed in to law on Thursday. Not only does the bill legalize some forms of online gaming within the state, it also allows Nevada to negotiate online gambling agreements with other states. 

The bill was signed in to law in the same room where, 80 years ago, Nevada legalized gambling at good old fashioned brick and mortar casinos. Now, the state hopes to get an early advantage within the online frontier. 

“Online gaming is a multibillion dollar industry. We've been missing out for years on that revenue and we hope to start benefitting from it,” said the bill’s sponsor, Nevada state Assemblyman William Horne (D) in an interview with television station KTVN in Reno.

Lawmakers hope online gambling license fees, which will cost $500,000 a pop, will bring new revenue to the state. Prof. Richard McGowan, a gambling industry expert at Boston College, says Nevada is betting that online gaming will not cannibalize the state's real world casinos, but instead help the industry recruit new gamblers. 

“I guess their rationale is that people will like to learn to gamble online, but will want to come to the real thing in Nevada,” he says. 

A federal bill to legalize online gaming across the country failed in congress last year, so for the time being states are tackling the issue piece meal. Besides Nevada, Delaware is the only other state that's legalized online gaming. New Jersey is expected to take action soon. 

As a checkerboard of states emerges, there will be new challenges for online gaming companies required to keep track of who is logging on where, and that could be a lucrative opportunity for geo-tech companies.

“None of these operators want to find out that there’s somebody playing from Idaho, but makes it look they’re in Nevada,” says online gaming consultant Sue Schneider.

Also keeping a close eye on the trend toward legalization are social gaming companies like Zynga, that already have Facebook games where you can use real money to buy credits on virtual slot machines, but -- at least, currently -- can't cash out. As online gambling becomes legal in more parts of the U.S., those companies could start allowing users to bet real money. 

“The way is already paved, and this is going to complete the journey and make it possible to directly gambling online,” says Natasha Dow Schull, a professor at MIT.  Schull worries Facebook could become a potent “gambling gateway,” for its more than 100 million users in the U.S.   

She warns that if you think Facebook is addictive now, think of what it could be like if you could gamble there with real money. 

Winter Storm Q has dumped up to 17 inches in parts of Kansas but brings much-needed relief to the region's drought-stricken farmers.

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England's easy-going forward Geoff Parling calls for more consistency ahead of the crunch clash with France

I described one of my friends as being exactly like her avatar.

Her little 48 x 48-pixel photo features her wry smile and the kind of glasses you wish you wore. It conveys her mien of earnest, disappointed cheerfulness that brightens the lives of everyone she knows. Her avatar captures her perfectly.

How rare is that? Not only do few of us look like our avatars on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, few of us even know what our avatars are supposed to do. Generate interest? Radiate professionalism? Spark a smile?

The avatar is our post-post-everything combination of a logo, a business card, a wallet-size photo, and a refrigerator magnet. It's a distillation, your essence in an image that flashes for a second and takes up a tiny fraction of a screen that is itself smaller than a candy bar. "This is me," it says. "It's the size of the nail on your pinkie, but it represents my soul."

My friend chose what you might fall the winsome approach, and it suits her. But the web abounds with other choices not nearly so successful. "Mugshot Modern" seems always to show an expression not nearly as fetching as people think it is, though it outperforms "Ironic Me," which is usually ironic for much different reasons than its users think it is. For my own avatar I've chosen "Someone Drew Me Once," which works for those of us who just don't look good in photos, but it doesn't convey much. Actual logos can work, if you can figure out what they mean, though I rarely can. More intimate avatars -- "Look at My Children," say, or "Here Is My Kitty" -- barely merit discussion.

In fact, if there's any theme among avatars it's that they betray more of our fears than our hopes, which makes my friend's successful avatar even more of a treat. I'll have to tell her about it.

If I ever see her in person.

I described one of my friends as being exactly like her avatar.

Her little 48 x 48-pixel photo features her wry smile and the kind of glasses you wish you wore. It conveys her mien of earnest, disappointed cheerfulness that brightens the lives of everyone she knows. Her avatar captures her perfectly.

How rare is that? Not only do few of us look like our avatars on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, few of us even know what our avatars are supposed to do. Generate interest? Radiate professionalism? Spark a smile?

The avatar is our post-post-everything combination of a logo, a business card, a wallet-size photo, and a refrigerator magnet. It's a distillation, your essence in an image that flashes for a second and takes up a tiny fraction of a screen that is itself smaller than a candy bar. "This is me," it says. "It's the size of the nail on your pinkie, but it represents my soul."

My friend chose what you might fall the winsome approach, and it suits her. But the web abounds with other choices not nearly so successful. "Mugshot Modern" seems always to show an expression not nearly as fetching as people think it is, though it outperforms "Ironic Me," which is usually ironic for much different reasons than its users think it is. For my own avatar I've chosen "Someone Drew Me Once," which works for those of us who just don't look good in photos, but it doesn't convey much. Actual logos can work, if you can figure out what they mean, though I rarely can. More intimate avatars -- "Look at My Children," say, or "Here Is My Kitty" -- barely merit discussion.

In fact, if there's any theme among avatars it's that they betray more of our fears than our hopes, which makes my friend's successful avatar even more of a treat. I'll have to tell her about it.

If I ever see her in person.

David Price believes Saturday's fight against Tony Thompson could prove to be a defining moment in his boxing career.

Italian voters go to the polls this weekend. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in the running to replace the technocratic government that was meant to bring stability to the financially troubled country. But as the election nears, Italy faces an even tougher euro zone economy than it thought.

Today, the European Commission said the euro zone will shrink another 0.3 percent in 2013, which is deeper and longer lasting than originally expected. Growth is not forecasted to return until the end of the year.

"It does confirm that I think that austerity is perhaps having a negative effect on the major economies of the euro zone and indeed the small economies of the euro zone," says Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics.

Growth in France has flatlined. Italy will contract by a full one percent this year -- twice the estimate just three months ago.

Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy says the euro zone needs a change in policy away from cutting government spending and cutting taxes.

"Europe is condemning itself to years of sub par growth after an extremely brutal and savage downturn," Spiro says.

But not all of the euro zone countries are in the doldrums. Germany should grow by a half a percent this year. And optimism among German businesses is on the rise.

A protester struck by a tear gas canister fired by police in Bahrain last week has died, opposition officials say, the third death in a week of unrest.

News photos over 24 hours: 22 February

It’s a story that sounds straight out of Hollywood: professional thieves disguised as police officers, big guns, an airplane about to take off, and $50 million in diamonds -- stolen. But the thieves are unlikely to walk away with all that money. By some estimates, they’ll get about 20 percent of the value when they resell the stones.

That number got us thinking about our own diamonds sparkling on our fingers. Just how much are they actually worth if we wanted to sell them?

Probably not as much as you might think.

 Jeweler Sam Chamsi has been selling diamonds in Los Angeles' jewelry district for nearly 25 years. In all that time, he says, he’s only had a couple of gents (and their diamond engagement rings) get rejected by their chosen ladies. And when they do, he tries to return as much of their money as he can. The first time it happened, he said, he gave it all back. The suitor was just too sad.

But love, and diamond ring resales, can go wrong in other ways.

Take Josh Opperman. He had a broken engagement. He tried to sell his ring back, and, he says, “the place I brought it from would only give me store credit.” (Rarely valuable for a man out of love.) So he took it around to a few other places, and, says Josh, “the highest I was offered was 35 percent of what I paid for it.”

So Josh turned his heartbreak into a business. He started a website called I Do…Now I Don’t. It’s a place to resell second-hand engagement rings and jewelry. He says he was able to sell his $10,000 ring for about $7,000.

Jewelry appraiser Neil Beaty says when it comes to the resale value of diamond rings, people need to keep their expectations in check.

“Diamonds as an investment almost always fail,” Neil says. The cost -- and appraisal value -- of a piece of jewelry isn’t just the value of the diamond plus the value of the gold or platinum. You’re also paying for the cost of making the piece, and selling it to you, the rent, the middlemen, the intimidatingly clean jewelry cases. Just like a new car or a couch, the resale value often falls once you get your hands on it. “People don’t think of diamonds as a consumer purchase,” Neil says. “They are.”

Now depending on the diamond, there are some exceptions to this. Diamond values fluctuate based on supply and demand (And no, the diamond heist was too small in the scheme of things to change those prices).

But, Neil says there is still value in these purchases. When your wife looks at her ring and is reminded that she is loved, that matters.

The investment is just in the relationship, not the stone.

Police confirm that a three-year-old old boy who was injured in an incident at a house in Falkirk has died.

India's Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde visits the sites of the two explosions in Hyderabad which killed 16 people and injured 117.

The Olympic and Paralympic sprinter is accused of premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of his girlfriend. He says it was a horrible accident. Prosecutors say he knew what he was doing.

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A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a man accused of decapitating a 60-year-old grandmother in a Tenerife supermarket.

The new data service is due to launch in March but will not be available to North Korean citizens

The Orange Order says comments by its Grand Chaplain over restrictions on parades "are indicative of a growing feeling of discontent among members".

Actress Megan Fox is reuniting with director Michael Bay to star in the updated film version of 90s big screen hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Also: The U.K. issues Jane Austen postage stamps; in the U.S., biographer Paula Broadwell's promotion in the Army Reserves is suspended; it's Edward Gorey's birthday; and an anti-bullying poem goes viral.

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Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini swears when asked about the speculation over his future at the Etihad Stadium.

The Belfast Trust has pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety of staff at Belfast City Hospital in an incident linked to asbestos.