Apple Is Cracking Down on Free iPad, iPhone Giveaways

Thinking about giving away an iPad or an iPhone to promote your company or website? Think again. Apple prohibits third-parties from handing out itsmobile devices in giveaways, and although this rule has been in place since January, if not earlier, according to Fortune, the company has just begun to enforce it.

Apple's Guidelines for Third Party Promotions decree the following: "iPad, iPhone, and the iPhone Gift Card may not be used in third-party promotions; iPod touch is only allowed to be used in special circumstances and requires a minimum purchase of 250 units; you may not use the Myriad Set font on or in connection with websites, products, packaging, manuals, or promotional/advertising materials; the use of "free" as a modifier in any Apple product reference in a prominent manner (headlines, call-outs, etc.) is prohibited; you must submit all marketing materials related to the promotion of Apple products to Apple for review."

20 best beach getaways

Coastal getaways: Honolulu

Ride the bunny waves at Waikiki

Maybe you think you’re not a Waikiki person. Maybe you think you prefer something a bit more secluded and exclusive. But consider this: With its warm water, dependably gentle waves, and novice-nurturing surf schools, Waikiki Beach remains the most forgiving place in the world to learn to surf or steer an outrigger canoe.

The Sheraton Waikiki stands midway along the 2-mile-long beach, and while its high-rise architecture shouts 1970s, a $187 million renovation has given it 21st-century polish. And those Waikiki waves are timelessly perfect. From $225; 800/325-3535. — Peter Fish LINK

10 best hotel deals - June 2011

Napa, Aspen, or Maui at under $150 a night? Yes, it’s possible. Check out our fave bargain hotels that don’t skimp on style.

Figueroa Hotel, Los Angeles, CA. Moorish-romantic touches like ottomans, lanterns, and magic-carpet rugs give this 1920s hotel an Old World vibe. The theaters and sports arenas of the L.A. Live and Staples Center are right across the street, but it’s just as easy to stay put at the candlelit bar by the bougainvillea-shrouded pool. From $148.

New photos of spy plane launch Area 51 intrigue

Few things capture the public's curiosity like Area 51. The top-secret military base (which doesn't officially exist) has been the subject of conspiracy theories for decades. What actually went on there? Something tells us we'll never know for sure. However, a recently revealed series of photographs provides some tantalizing new clues.

The photos, which were published by National Geographic, show a titanium A-12 spy plane. In one image, the satisfyingly sci-fi-looking plane hangs upside down while it is prepared for radar testing. In another shot, a group of officials with heavy equipment "remove all traces of the A-12 spy plane" after it went down in the Utah desert in 1963. PHOTOS

Apple finally going after ipods.com domain

In October 2001 Apple introduced the now iconic iPod, and since almost the same time Apple has owned the ipod.com domain name. But in April of 2002, someone registered the plural of the ipod as a domain --ipods.com. For some reason or another Apple chose then not to go after the owners of the domain even though Apple typically shows no mercy when it comes to its trademarks appearing in domain names.

Fears of economic slowdown hammer stocks

NEW YORK – Fears that the economy is stalling sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 280 points Wednesday, erasing more than a quarter of the stock market's gains for the year. Treasury bond yields fell to their lowest level since December as traders put a higher value on safer investments.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 279.65 points, or 2.2 percent, to 12,290.14. It was the biggest point drop since June 4 of last year, and the largest percentage drop since August. The S&P index lost 30.65, or 2.3 percent, to 1,314.55. The Nasdaq composite fell 66.11, or 2.3 percent, to 2,769.19.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.95 percent. Bond yields fall when prices rise.

Doubts about the economy's strength that built in May were compounded by weaker-than-expected reports on manufacturing and jobs. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April. A reading of more than 50 indicates the manufacturing industry is growing, but the index had been as high as 61.4 in February. Private employers added just 38,000 jobs in May, down from 177,000 in April, according to payroll processor ADP. Analysts had expected 180,000 new jobs.

China says it's not behind Google email hacking

BEIJING – China denied it supports hacking activities and said it is part of global efforts to combat computer security threats Thursday, a day after Google disclosed some of its email users suffered hacking attacks that orginated within the country.

Google disclosed Wednesday that personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached.

Google traced the origin of the attacks to Jinan, China, the home city of a military vocational school whose computers were linked to an assault 17 months ago on Google's systems.

China is firmly opposed to activities that sabotage Internet and computer security, including hacking, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters Thursday.

'Avatar' gets top billing at Seattle museum

SEATTLE – A Seattle music and popular culture museum is banking on fans of the Oscar-winning film "Avatar" to populate a new exhibit on how director James Cameron brought Pandora and its inhabitants to the big screen.

The exhibit at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame opens at noon Saturday after a Friday event featuring Cameron, some of the movie actors, and Richie Baneham, who won the Academy Award for best visual effects.

Museum associate curator Brooks Peck says the goal is to educate and entertain, but not go so deeply into the "Avatar" world that it resembles an amusement park.

It will be the first of its kind to showcase artwork and props from the blockbuster film.

Google says Chinese hackers broke into Gmail

Computer hackers in China broke into the Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, Google Inc. said Wednesday.

The attacks aren't believed to be tied to a more sophisticated assault originating from China in late 2009 and early last year. That intrusion targeted the Google's own security systems and triggered a high-profile battle with China's Communist government over online censorship, which has made it more difficult for the company to do business in the world's most populous country.

The latest duplicity appeared to rely on so-called "phishing" scams and other underhanded behavior that hackers frequently use to obtain passwords from people and websites that aren't vigilant about protecting the information.

41 killed in deadly Yemen street battles

SANAA, Yemen – Street battles between Yemeni government forces and armed tribesmen killed dozens of people Wednesday in this country teetering on the brink of civil war, forcing residents to cower in basements or brave gunfire to fetch bread and water.

Nearly four months of mass protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster have exacerbated already dire poverty, shuttering businesses and forcing up prices of essential goods. It's a trend that does not bode well for long-term stability in this gun-ridden corner of the Arabian Peninsula, home to an active al-Qaida branch and other armed Islamist groups.

Yemen's mainly peaceful protests gave way to fighting last week between Saleh's security forces and fighters loyal to the head of Yemen's most powerful tribal coalition, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar. That was the tipping point that pushed the anti-government uprising toward civil war.

Top five Steve Jobs keynotes of the past decade

There’s nothing like a Steve Jobs keynote address to get the tech world buzzing.

To get you ready for next week’s main event, Network World is taking a look back at the top five “Stevenotes” of the past decade that have changed the tech industry in ways that even Jobs’s own Reality Distortion Field could never have predicted.Jobs, a rare breed of tech CEO who also doubles as a compelling public speaker, has used his keynote platforms to introduce his company’s most important products for years now. Over the past decade alone, so-called “Stevenotes” have brought us the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, which respectively brought portable digital music players, smartphones and tablet computers to the mass market. Jobs will also be on hand at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week to introduce Apple’s newcloud service, as well as the next generation of its iOS mobile operating system.

Why Windows 8 fails to learn the iPad's lessons

Wednesday at the Wall Street Journal’s D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., the big news was about Microsoft. The company’s Windows Division President, Steven Sinofsky, appeared on stage with the Journal’s Walt Mossberg, and he unveiled Microsoft’s official response to the iPad’s massive success. And there was a lot to be impressed by in the demo, but in the end it seems like an approach that is utterly poisoned by Microsoft’s old ways of thinking.

What Sinofsky showed Wednesday was a sneak peek at Windows 8 (code-name: Windows 8), a forthcoming version of Windows that will work on traditional desktop and laptop PCs as well as touchscreen tablets. Rather than creating a new operating system for tablets, or use the existing (and intriguing) Windows Phone 7 as the basis for a Microsoft-powered tablet, the company will instead use an update to the traditional Windows PC operating system.Now, I work for Macworld, and so it’ll be easy for people to write this article off as the ravings of a demented Apple cultist. But I’ve also covered Apple since before it was doomed, and have seen it execute a series of product decisions that have made it the top tech company around. I’d like to think I’ve learned some things about how Apple has done what it’s done, and perhaps I can apply those lessons to other companies that are trying to record similar successes.

Pentagon Looks to Double Its Unmanned Air Force

Think the U.S. military has a lot of drones now? Just you wait. The Pentagon has just released its 30-year plan for buying and developing warplanes. And in a development that should come as no surprise, the future the military anticipates for its Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps air fleets — together numbering more than 5,500 warplanes — is more robotic than ever.

The congressionally mandated Aircraft Procurement Plan 2012-2041 is, of course, filled with conjecture. Any number of factors — fiscal, strategic, industrial or technological — could change unexpectedly, sending ripples through the Pentagon’s carefully-laid plans, currently projected to cost around $25 billion per year.

U.S. Wants to Fight Afghan Corruption — With Chicken

The U.S. Air Force has identified an unlikely hero in the war-torn lands between the Hindu Kush mountains and the Kabul River. Warlords and opium farmers, I present to you: the humble chicken.

Operation Kentucky Fried is underway. In a request for information, the military service announced its interest in setting up a poultry operation for the Afghan Defense Ministry’s commissaries and chow halls. The chicken venture is just one of a series of American efforts to boost local Afghan industries and create economic opportunities beyond taking aid money and dealing drugs. This time, it’s just say No to drugs, and Yes to chicken.

New TVs will watch you and record your emotions

In Japan, NHK is testing out little cameras embedded in TVs that watch you watchingthem, analyzing your movements and facial expressions to figure out what programs and advertisements you like and what you don't. Is this a good idea or a terrible one? It could be both.

New robot can juggle better than any actor on the planet

Actors often like to use juggling as an expression of their creativity and free form thinking, but if this latest discovery is any indication, robots of the future won't just be faster and longer lasting than us, they will also be more talented.

Bizarre legal battle could result in TWO competing Superman pics

By the time Man of Steel comes out in 2012, it will be six years since the last Superman movie. But thanks to a bizarre legal battle, there could be TWO Superman projects up and running by 2013.
Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder and produced by Christopher Nolan, is scheduled to come out in December 2012. But less than a year after that, according to Variety, certain rights pertaining to the character will revert back to the families of Superman's original creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

U.S. Army had a real, working mini AT-AT robot walker

Did you know that in the 1960s, the U.S. Army worked with General Electric to build a four-legged, human-operated robot walker that could kick Jeeps out of its way and step on light bulbs without completely crushing them into a million shards? Now you do.
Called the "walking truck" or Cybernetic Anthropomorphous Machine (CAM), the walking machine was designed in 1965 as an experimental vehicle for rough terrain — either that or to take out Rebel forces on planet Hoth. Controlled by a bunch of hydraulic levers mapped to corresponding legs, the CAM and its 11-foot tall legs was capable of traveling at 35-miles per hour, but it had one flaw.

Photos from stolen laptop lead to man's arrest

SAN FRANCISCO – The images began arriving in Joshua Kaufman's inbox. The grainy photos are low-lit and intimate: a man curled up on a couch, sound asleep; the same man propped up against pillows on a bed, shirtless.

Who was this stranger sitting with Kaufman's stolen laptop?

Kaufman collected the images and took them to police, who did not help him. So he went online, publishing the pictures on Twitter and in a blog titled "This Guy Has My MacBook."

"People who followed me on Twitter retweeted it. It got picked up by social media and the press. It went super viral," he said. On the same day that he posted his website on Twitter, police came calling.

Police on Tuesday arrested a 27-year-old cab driver, Muthanna Aldebashi. On Wednesday, Kaufman picked up his laptop from the police.

BMW clad in leather is literally one hot car

Most folks love their German luxury cars fast, powerful, sleek and outfitted with only the finest Italian leather seats inside of their cars. This person loves cow skin so much, he decided to pimp the inside and outside of his BMW entirely with it.
Throughout the years, we've seen chrome cars, gold cars, carbon fiber cars, geek cars, green cars, junk cars and more, but we've never seen a leather car. That's right, some person on this planet decided having leather inside of their luxury car wasn't enough, so they had it skinned on the outside as well.
Now, I'm no super car expert, but wouldn't a leathered-up car scorch even more under a hot summer sun? I'd hate to have to touch this BMW's door handles or lift up its car hood for inspection should the whole thing overheat or conk out. And what about if it suddenly starts raining?
Tell us, would you be caught driving this around or is this just another case of excess? PHOTOS
Via Acid Cow

8 futuristic technologies that will help keep soldiers safe

Today is Memorial Day, and lots of people are are having to celebrate the holiday in dangerous places far away from home. Luckily, modern technology is doing its level best to keep soldiers as safe as possible, and future technology promises to do an even better job.
Here are eight up-and-coming battlefield systems that will, we hope, start keeping our troops even safer in the not too distant future.

Decoy Swarm Could Overload Enemy Defenses

Like nuclear submarines and heavy artillery, it’s one of those weapon systems you don’t read much about during peacetime — but which, during a major war, could prove decisive. It doesn’t help that this particular gadget, unlike Seawolf-class subs and Paladin artillery pieces, has an utterly forgettable name.

The Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, or “MALD,” is a cross between a cruise missile and an aerial drone, able to distract or confuse enemy air defenses to protect attacking U.S. jets. It was already on its way to becoming one of America’s most important unsung weapons when this happened: MALD-maker Raytheon figured out a way to “deliver hundreds of MALDs during a single combat sortie,” company vice president Harry Schulte announced in a recent statement.

Revisiting a revolution in beer-making

In 1965, when beer connoisseur Fritz Maytag first visited the struggling Anchor Brewery, which was set to close within weeks, he had no idea how to brew beer. But he was almost instantly sold on Anchor's traditional methods, and the idea of becoming a brewmaster sparked a revival of the Anchor Brewing Company. 

Over the next few years, Maytag devoted himself to learning traditional craft brewing from the ground up. 

Europe gets new broadband satellite option

Eutelsat Communications' KA-SAT satellite went into service today, opening up a new broadband option for homes and businesses in Europe and the Mediterranean area.

The satellite enables broadband speeds that are competitive with some land-based connections such as ADSL--at least for those in areas too far away from the network equipment--though it won't break any high-speed records. Eutelsat's Skylogic subsidiary offers a Tooway service with download speeds up to 10Mbps for residences; businesses get up to 40Mbps, with a 50Mbps option coming later.

T-Mobile announces HTC Sensation 4G launch dates, pricing

We don't know about you, but we've been chomping at the bit to get our hands (back) on the HTC Sensation 4G, and it looks like the time has finally come. T-Mobile announced this evening that the Sensation 4G is expected to be available as early as June 12 at select Wal-Mart stores and in T-Mobile stores by June 15 for $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

First introduced back in April, the HTC Sensation 4G's feature list reads like a dream, as the smartphone offers a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a 4.3-inch HD (540x960-pixel resolution) Super LCD touch screen, and an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording and playback. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread device also uses the latest version of HTC Sense and is the first handset to feature HTC Watch, the company's new video store.

Kodak offers cash for unwanted cameras, gear

Reduce, reuse, recycle is nice and all, but getting cash to do it is even nicer. Kodak, through a partnership with Smash Direct (owners of Used Camera Buyer and Used Cameras) , has launched a way for U.S. customers to safely and responsibly dispose of unwanted cameras, printers, and gear.

To get started, take a trip over to Kodak's trade-in site, register (name, e-mail address, and phone number), and enter your gear using a handful of drop-down menus. Once entered you simply click to get a quote. If you like what you see, you can accept on the spot and get free shipping, or pass on it altogether. You'll receive a check after they receive and inspect your things. If it turns out your stuff's not worth anything, you'll get no quote and instead be directed to Earth 911 for recycling options.

Former Google CEO 'screwed up' on Facebook threat

SAN FRANCISCO – If he had a another chance, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt would have pressed the Internet search leader to focus more on mounting a challenge to Facebook while he was still running the company.

"I screwed up," Schmidt said late Tuesday during a 75-minute question-and-answer session at the D: All Things conference in Rancho Palos Verdes. The Associated Press watched a webcast of the conference.

Schmidt's admission comes nearly two months after he ended his decade-long stint as Google's CEO and became the company's executive chairman. He was replaced by Google co-founder Larry Page, who is pushing the company's employees to develop more ways to connect people with their friends and family like Facebook already does

That was a priority that Schmidt said he started addressing in internal memos written about four years ago when Facebook had about 20 million active users.

Hero pilot is ready for new CBS News job

NEW YORK – Retired pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger expects a lot more from his new job at CBS News than waiting for a plane to crash so he can be a "talking head."

Sullenberger, who became a national hero two years ago when he landed a crippled U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River and saved 155 lives, is the network's on-air aviation and safety expert. He wants to keep a close eye on the industry where he worked for decades.

Sullenberger made his debut Tuesday on the "CBS Evening News," talking with anchor Harry Smith about the crash into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago of an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris. Over the past week, teams have pulled 75 bodies from the 2009 crash site.

"We can't assume that because aviation has continued to get safer — accidents are relatively rare now — that we're doing everything right," Sullenberger said in a recent interview. "We have to keep actively looking for continuous improvements, looking for systemic deficiencies and fixing them, and not just blaming individuals when there are systemic issues out there."

European food outbreak soars; mystery deepens

BERLIN – The number of people hit by a massive European outbreak of foodborne bacterial infections is one third higher than previously known and a stunningly high number of patients suffer from a potentially deadly complication than can shut down their kidneys, officials said Wednesday.

The death toll rose to 17, with German authorities reporting that an 84-year-old woman with the complication had died on Sunday.

Medical authorities appeared no closer to discovering either the source of the infection or the mystery at the heart of the outbreak: why the unusual strain of the E. coli bacteria appears to be causing so many cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, which attacks the kidneys and can cause seizures, strokes and comas.

"This particular strain we're dealing with now seems to be unique," said Dr. Hilde Kruse, program manager for food safety at WHO Europe:

Taiwanese Women “Plank” to Promote Tourism

Eschewing the dangerous behaviour that killed one man in Australia and left another seriously injured, Karren and Jinyu practice a safer version of the fast-growing global fad that involves lying face down stiff in often bizarre places for a photo op.

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REUTERS
Pujie Girls, Karren (L) and Jinyu, pose for a photograph outside Ximen train station while demonstrating planking during an interview with Reuters in Taipei May 25, 2011.

In fact, they use it to promote causes, such as planking with stray dogs to draw attention to the plight of the animals, or planking in famous tourist spots to promote travel.

"It's not really that difficult to plank and I really don't mind getting dirty," said the petite Karren, who wore a Japanese manga-inspired outfit and a red backpack, in an interview, her partner nodding beside her.

Calling themselves the Pujie Girls which literally translates to "falling on the street" in Mandarin, the name is also a pun on the Cantonese curse "Puk Gai" which means "may you drop dead".

Acer chides Microsoft over tablet maker restrictions

Microsoft is placing "troublesome" restrictions on hardware makers working on Windows 8 tablets, according to both Acer's president and its CEO.

Speaking yesterday at the Computex trade show in Taiwan, Acer President Jim Wong said Microsoft had chosen five chip manufacturers--Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments--to provide processors for the next generation of Windows tablets,according to The Wall Street Journal. Taking it a step further, Microsoft then decided to limit each chipmaker to supplying chips to no more than two hardware makers, a move that Wong sees as restrictive.

HD camcorder sunglasses let you secretly record people

We usually pass on the cheap gizmos peddled by Thanko, but every now and then they come up with something pretty cool, such as these sunglasses with a built-in HD camcorder.

With a camera lens tucked neatly into the middle of the nose piece, these glasses will shoot 720p video at 30 frames per second, and record it onto an MicroSD card in one of the earpieces. That's about the same resolution as an iPhone 4, but with the advantage that you don't have to hold your phone out in front of you. If all you want are still pictures, the glasses can shoot JPGs at up to 12-megapixels.

Radical new birth control for men: 100% effective for 10 years

When it comes to birth control, it's a lot harder figuring out how to stop a bajillion little sperm than one little egg, but a scientist in India has managed to develop an injection for men that has so far proven to be 100% effective and completely reversible with no side effects. Sign me up.

The injection is called RISUG, which stands for "reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance." Let's just get the uncomfortable bit out of the way first: you can't just be injected anywhere, the doctor has to stick a needle into your scrotum. Twice. Yeah, bad times, but you'll deal, and here's why: after two tiny injections taking all of 15 minutes, study after study has shown that the injection is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy. You won't suffer any side effects at all, it lasts a minimum of 10 years, and it's completely reversible with another few injections.

Solve the Mystery of a Check Engine Light

Perhaps the most mysterious warning light on your car's dashboard is the "check engine" light, which can illuminate seemingly for no reason whatsoever and lead to an unexpected bill just for diagnosing the cause. However, it is possible to diagnose, and sometimes even fix, the cause of this warning light without paying a mechanic.

Your car's check engine light is linked to its on-board diagnostic system, which measures functions such as engine speed, ignition timing, fuel mixture and sometimes, the timing of gear shifts. It then uses that information to identify problems in those functions that could affect emissions and performance. There is a wide range of problems that will cause the light to illuminate, ranging from minor to major, so it's important to determine the cause promptly.

Before you find yourself in a situation with the check engine light illuminated, read your owner's manual to understand why it may illuminate and if it has different warnings to help you understand whether the problem is minor or more serious. In many cars, a check engine light that flashes rhythmically -- not just flickers on and off -- indicates a severe problem that needs immediate attention, while a steadily illuminated light indicates a less serious problem.

Why the white working class is alienated, pessimistic

Almost no one noticed, but around George W. Bush's reelection in 2004, the nation crossed a demographic milestone.

From Revolutionary days through 2004, a majority of Americans fit two criteria. They were white. And they concluded their education before obtaining a four-year college degree. In the American mosaic, that vast white working class was the largest piece, from the yeoman farmer to the welder on the assembly line. Even as late as the 1990 census, whites without a college degree represented more than three-fifths of adults.

But as the country grew more diverse and better educated, the white working-class share of the adult population slipped to just under 50 percent in the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey. That number has since fallen below 48 percent.

Experts say cellphones are possibly carcinogenic

LONDON – A respected international panel of experts says cellphones are possible cancer-causing agents, putting them in the same category as the pesticide DDT, gasoline engine exhaust and coffee.

The classification was issued Tuesday in Lyon, France, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a review of dozens of published studies. The agency is an arm of the World Health Organization and its assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use.

Classifying agents as "possibly carcinogenic" doesn't mean they automatically cause cancer and some experts said the ruling shouldn't change people's cellphone habits.

"Anything is a possible carcinogen," said Donald Berry, a professor of biostatistics at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. He was not linked to the WHO cancer group. "This is not something I worry about and it will not in any way change how I use my cellphone," he said — from his cellphone.

Housing Prices Fell in March for Eighth Straight Month

Housing prices fell in March to their lowest point since the downturn began, erasing the last little bit of recovery from the depths achieved two years ago, according to data released Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 20 large cities fell 0.8 percent from February, the eighth drop in a row. Prices are now down 33.1 percent from July 2006 peak.

“Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S.& P. index committee.

Housing is in persistent trouble, industry analysts say, not only because so many people are blocked from the market — being unemployed, in foreclosure or trapped in homes that are worth less than the mortgage — but because even those who are solvent are opting out.

Horse virus locks down vital industry

PONDER — A nationwide quarantine of a group of cutting horses and their home stables meant to contain a deadly equine virus has other horse owners as skittish as their charges.

The state veterinarian has not recommended closing the borders or canceling or postponing events, but “the smart horses are staying home,” said Mary Gwinner, executive director of Riding Unlimited.

The Ponder-based nonprofit decided not to send its horses to Bryan for the Texas Special Olympics about a week before Special Olympics officials themselves are scheduled to determine the fate of this year’s equine events.

7 killed in attacks in Mexican resort of Acapulco

ACAPULCO, Mexico – Shootings and attacks in Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Acapulco left two police officers, three suspected drug cartel gunmen and two other men dead, police said Monday.

The confrontations on Sunday began when gunmen traveling in a convoy of eight vehicles opened fire on an Acapulco municipal police patrol car Sunday, killing two officers.

Federal officers responding to the reports of gunfire later located the convoy; in the ensuing gunfight, three suspects were killed.

Police in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, said in statement said that the three dead assailants were found with assault rifles, military-style uniforms and bulletproof vests.