Government Heads Toward Shutdown

WASHINGTON—The nation braced for a partial shutdown of the federal government, as time for Congress to pass a budget before a Monday midnight deadline grew perilously short and lawmakers gave no signs Sunday they were moving toward a resolution.

Leaders of both parties said they wanted to avoid the first federal closure since 1996, but their public appearances seemed aimed more at affixing blame for the impasse.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) urged Senate leaders to pass legislation that the Republican-controlled House had approved early Sunday morning, which would fund the government through mid-December. But that prospect was remote, as the House legislation included a one-year delay of the new federal health law that Democrats have vowed to reject, as well as a repeal of the new law's tax on medical devices.

Democrats say Mr. Boehner himself could end the stalemate quickly by asking the House to pass the Senate plan for extending federal funding, which includes no provisions aimed at the health law.

Such a move would anger conservatives in Mr. Boehner's ranks and likely materialize only at the last minute, after keeping up the fight against the health law to the end. But it would bring relief to the many Republicans who fear that the public would hand their party the largest share of blame for a shutdown.

The tense maneuvering surrounded a bill that otherwise might be uncontroversial: an extension of current funding for the government for the early months of the new fiscal year, which begins Tuesday. But a determined faction of conservative Republicans has argued that the deadline gives the party its best opportunity for derailing the new health law before one of its central elements, health-insurance marketplaces for individuals, are launched Tuesday.

Some Republicans held out hope that the prospect of a government shutdown would pressure Senate Democrats to make even a symbolic concession to their demand for changes in the Affordable Care Act, perhaps by agreeing to the repeal of the medical-device tax intended to help fund the law.

"We will not shut the government down," said House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), speaking Sunday on Fox News. "If we have to negotiate a little longer, we will continue to negotiate."

But other Republicans are troubled that their party's most conservative flank is forcing the confrontation to the brink in their attempt to delay or defund President Barack Obama's prized legislative accomplishment.

"We're pretty much out of options at this point,'' said Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), criticizing the faction of the party most unwilling to compromise. "They're all giddy about it. You know who benefits the most here from a shutdown? The Democrats benefit and they know that."

A shutdown would prompt federal agencies to suspend a large range of activities and furlough at least 825,000 of the U.S. government's more than two million workers, according to plans filed with the White House. However, much of the public would be unaffected, as services deemed essential would continue, among them those related to national security, mail delivery, air traffic and law enforcement.

With federal agencies preparing for furloughs, Congress remained in recess Sunday after the House in the early morning hours passed its short-term funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) opted to keep the Senate in recess until Monday afternoon, in a hardball strategy aimed at pressuring House Republicans to abandon attempts to use the moment to scale back the health law.

Mr. Boehner denounced the Senate for refusing to reconvene Sunday, calling it an act of "breathtaking arrogance."

In response, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Mr. Boehner's strategy was "merely a subterfuge to lift the blame from his shoulders.''

White House officials met Saturday and Sunday to talk about the possible government shutdown and other matters. A senior administration official said no back-channel discussions were under way with congressional Republicans.

The official said Mr. Obama was willing to negotiate a broad budget agreement with the GOP, but would reject "paying a toll'' in the form of policy concessions as part of a short-term funding measure.

The stalemate was a monument to problems that have increasingly gripped U.S. politics, especially over the last three years of divided government. The growing polarization of the parties, a diminished willingness to compromise on spending and an epidemic of brinkmanship have made it more difficult for Congress to address even the most routine budgeting questions.

Mr. Obama and other Democrats have said that agreeing to GOP demands now would invite Republicans to press for more in the future, with each fiscal deadline. Next up is a battle over terms for raising the nation's borrowing limit, which the Treasury says must be approved by mid-October. Most economists predict that the financial consequences of failing to raise the debt limit would be greater than a government shutdown.

The endgame of the shutdown battle will begin Monday afternoon, when the Senate is expected to reconvene roughly 10 hours before the midnight deadline. The Senate is expected to take up the House bill to continue government spending through Dec. 15 and strip out GOP amendments to delay the health-care law for a year and repeal its new tax on medical devices. That would put the ball back in the House's court.

The simplest path to avoiding a shutdown would be for the House to immediately pass the Senate funding bill and send it to the White House. Mr. Nunes and others predict that there would be enough votes to pass such a bill, if brought up by GOP leaders, with Democrats joined by some Republicans willing to postpone the health-care fight in the interest of ending the showdown.

However, that route could pose political risks to Mr. Boehner, whose standing as speaker rests on retaining his party's support, including from a conservative wing that often has clamored for him to be more combative in fighting Mr. Obama's policies.

Rep. Matt Salmon (R., Ariz.) said Mr. Boehner's status among House Republicans could suffer if he forced a pared-down spending bill through the House. "There are too many people who campaigned on this issue, to do everything they could to get rid of this bad law or postpone it," Mr. Salmon said.

Others said Mr. Boehner could bring the Senate bill to a vote at the last minute, late enough to show he had fought for Republican priorities to the end. Mr. Boehner played a similar hand early this year when he crafted and voted for a compromise with Democrats to avoid the "fiscal cliff'' of impending tax increases.

GOP officials say another option being considered by Mr. Boehner is to bring the spending bill back to the floor with yet another amendment that might allow Republican lawmakers to claim they achieved something in the battle.

One possibility is an amendment to limit federal contributions to offset the costs of health-care premiums paid by lawmakers and their staffs. Because lawmakers and aides will be required under the new health law to obtain coverage through exchanges designed for people without insurance, their costs will increase dramatically without the U.S. contribution.

Limiting the federal contribution is privately opposed by many lawmakers. But it is considered a potential 11th hour move, because it would put the Senate in the position of defending a policy that benefits lawmakers themselves.

No survivors after plane hits hangar at Santa Monica Airport

A business jet crashed into a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport on Sunday. No one survived the crash and subsequent fire, but authorities did not immediately determine how many were on board.

The twin-engine Cessna Citation ran off the right side of the runway after landing at 6:20 p.m. Pacific Time, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.

The hangar collapsed and was too unstable for firefighters to enter, said Captain John Nevandro of the Santa Monica Fire Department.

"It was an unsurvivable crash," Nevandro said.

Various models of the Citation jet carry from seven to nine passengers, according to the manufacturer's website.

A witness, Charles Thomson, told CNN affiliate KCAL-TV a tire on the plane appeared to burst.

"It wasn't an emergency landing," Thomson said. "It was just a landing, and the tire popped afterwards."

The plane departed from Hailey, Idaho, an area popular for vacation homes, KCAL reported.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Sunday night, but they did not expect to be able to reach the plane until Monday, KCAL reported.

Baghdad hit by wave of deadly car bombs

A series of car bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 42 people and injured many more, officials say.

The blasts targeted markets and car parks in mainly Shia Muslim districts of the city.

There has been a recent upsurge in sectarian violence, sparking fears of a return to the bloodletting of 2008.

More than 5,000 people have been killed so far this year, according to United Nations data.

Monday's blasts struck during Baghdad's morning rush hour, with reports of 13 bombs, most of them in Shia neighbourhoods.

Groups of labourers gathering ahead of the working day were among the bombers' targets.

One of the deadliest attacks was reported from the eastern Sadr City district where seven people were killed and 75 injured in a crowded vegetable market.

Another six were reported killed in Shuala, a mainly Shia area of north Baghdad.

The city neighbourhoods affected also included New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour, Kazimiya, Shaab and Ur, as well as the Sunni districts of Jamiaa and Ghazaliya, the Associated Press news agency reports.

War goes on

No-one has claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but Sunni Muslim insurgents have been blamed for much of the most recent violence.

The interior ministry accused rebels linked to al-Qaeda of exploiting political divisions and regional conflicts to sow violence.

"Our war with terrorism goes on," interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AP.

The recent upsurge in violence was triggered in April by an army raid on a Sunni Muslim anti-government protest camp near Hawija, north of Baghdad.

Many in the country's Sunni Muslim minority complain of being excluded from decision-making and of abuses by the security forces. Recent raids in Baghdad on suspected al-Qaeda hideouts in mainly Sunni districts are thought to have worsened grievances.

One of the bloodiest attacks over the past few weeks was a double bombing in a funeral marquee in Sadr City on 21 September, which left more than 60 people dead.

Several dozen people died in a wave of attacks on Sunday, including another explosion at a funeral.

A suicide bomber attacked a Shia Muslim mosque south of the city, causing the roof to collapse. More than 40 people are now known to have been killed in that incident.

Irbil, the normally stable capital of Iraq's autonomous province of Kurdistan, was hit by a series of bombings on the same day, killing six members of the security services. Officials said that violence could be linked to fighting between jihadists and Kurds in Syria.

Breaking Bad Series Finale Review: Truth and Consequences

In 2008, in Breaking Bad's most clear and direct message of its intentions, high school chemistry teacher Walter White stood before his class in the show's pilot and told the dunces of the Albuquerque public school system that chemistry was all about change. To demonstrate this concept, he did some special voodoo magic on the flame of a Bunsen burner and put on a mini fireworks show, to prove to his students just how cool change can be. What he didn't show them was that gas won't last forever, and eventually the flame will die out. Breaking Bad's first 61 episodes were all about Walter White's transformation into Heisenberg the Big Bad Drug Dealer via neat, explosive moments where his inner flame burned bright; the show's 62nd and final episode, "Felina," was all about the flame burning out, no longer able to sustain itself. And so we said #goodbyeBreakingBad with Walter dying on the floor of a meth lab, his enemies vanquished and his family somewhat less stained for the decisions he made, surrounded by the scientific instruments that made him who he would become. And dammit, he had the inkling of a smile on his face, didn't he?

"Felina" was an entirely satisfying finale of Breaking Bad that answered many of the questions viewers had going in and put a period at the end of the series rather than an ellipsis. Unlike some other shows, there was no vagueness about Walter's ending; he died! He died right there in the meth lab that Jack's crew built, even if we never saw anyone take his pulse or heard him draw one last breath. It was perfect in the sense that it concluded all the main threads we were concerned about, and now we can all move forward with the feeling that Breaking Bad is over, for better or worse. 

But "Felina" wasn't the mind-melter that so many other episodes of Breaking Bad have been. It was actually rather straightforward for one of the most-anticipated episodes in television history, nearly as business-like in its plotting as the way Walter approached his laundry list of tasks to complete before he flamed out. This is largely in contrast to what we know Breaking Bad to be: daring, unexpected, visionary. There were no big tricks, no attempt to do something more than it should. It was almost non-Breaking Bad.

A quick look at the ol' internet and we can see what Johnny Twitter, Jimmy Facebook, and Bob Bloggerson thought about it, and the opinions obviously vary from over-hyped to perfect. As for me, looking at the final product and considering the alternative, I really, really liked it. But I didn't L-O-V-E it. I was totally satisfied with how "Felina" capped off the series, and entirely pleased with what transpired, but mostly, I'm glad it didn't fall on its face. 

Walter mopped things up as we expected him to. In fact, at times it felt like he was checking off items on a to-do list, making stops to say goodbye to Skyler, to get one last look at Walter Jr., to take care of Lydia, and to kill Jack and his crew. Nothing was spectacular or surprising about any of these visits: The ricin for Lydia was purposefully telegraphed via Lydia's obsessive tinkering with her sugar substitute, Walter's testing of the modified garage door opener in the desert made it pretty obvious what he was going to use it for, and Walter's talk with Skyler was subdued and kind of uneventful. Of course, that doesn't mean these scenes weren't great; they still felt like the right things to do given the amount of time Breaking Bad had left to finish its story. 

The only startling occurrence was in the way that Walter managed to fit Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz, those snotty and boring smack-talking billionaires, into his final act. Yeah, we thought he might go American Psycho on them when we first saw him sneaking into their mansion, but as I wrote last week, I wouldn't have been too happy if he did. Walter had mostly made peace with his decision to leave Gray Matter Technologies so many years ago. Sure, he was pissed that he'd left and sold his share for a thousand bucks, but he'd accepted the fact that he'd made that decision and didn't hold it against Elliott. He didn't like what the couple said on Charlie Rose, but what else would they do? They never owed it to Walter to stick behind him, particularly once he went criminal. So Walter found a better way to use them; they would launder his money into a charitable donation, to be delivered to Walter Jr. when he turned 18. And to make sure they did what he ordered them to, he made up some phantom assassins to keep them unnerved no matter what corner of the world they vacationed in. That was cool, even if the Schwartzes probably muttered, "Yeah, right" as soon as Walter left the room, calling him on his bogus sharpshooters. I like to think that they sent the money to Walter Jr. anyway, because it would make them look good and because whatever, it wasn't their money and they have enough smarts to see that a father's poor decisions shouldn't ruin his kid's life. Plus, that money buys a lot of bacon. Bacon party at Jr's on his 18th! 

Though Walter's goodbye to Skyler was mostly quiet, I appreciated how he finally owned up to doing all this for selfish reasons. "I did it for me. I liked it, I was good at it. And I was really alive," he said, the most honest he's been since he admitted to liking Boz Scaggs. Most of Walter's greatest celebrations didn't come from hauling in a ton of cash, they came from being a macho man. Like when he told the original A1 Car Wash owner Bogdan to suck his nuts and quit, or when he blew up Tuco's office with mercury fulminate and roared in his car while slamming on the steering wheel, or when he blew up the sweet new car he'd just bought and made people say his name and robbed a train full of methalymine. Walter had a blast while reinventing himself as Heisenberg; the money to pay for his kids' college tuition was just icing, and an excuse to keep going. Hearing Walter admit that everything he did was essentially an extreme mid-life crisis and reaction to terminal illness was the most important takeaway from the finale for me. Walter was no longer lying himself about his motivations, he was no longer using family and money as an excuse. He built an empire and he loved being the king, it was as simple as that.

Unlike some of Walter's past plans, the way he took out Jack's gang was entirely expected. But wow, was it awesome! My favorite part was when Kenny (OMG they killed Kenny! You bastards!) took a bullet through the brain that continued into his racist friend behind him.

Luck also gave us some special deaths for Jack and Todd, who somehow avoided the automated machine-gun fire. Jesse choked Todd out, which was so damn appropriate, and Walter put one in Jack from close range even as Jack tried the old "If you kill me you'll never find your money—" plea. Well guess what, Jack, Walter didn't care about the money anymore. So, *BANG*.

But I don't know, I did wonder a bit about the way Jesse's story wrapped up. Would Jack really have gone through all the trouble to have Todd haul Jesse in and prove that Jesse wasn't a partner when his plan was still to take Walter out back and shoot him? Was Jack that much of an egomaniac that he had to bring Jesse out to prove he wasn't lying, and was it really the best way to get Jesse in front of Walter? It saved Jesse's life and allowed Walter to grab his detonator keys, but ehh, Jack doesn't seem like that stupid of a person.

I was also kind of looking forward to more of a confrontation between Jesse and Walter. Not because I wanted it (nothing but hearts for Jesse over here), but because Walter had been written to despise Jesse so much in recent episodes. Instead, Walter dove on Jesse to save him, offered Jesse the chance to kill him, and then let him drive away. Maybe Walter'd had enough of a change of heart when he realized that Jesse had been held prisoner, but that didn't change the fact that Jesse ratted on him and teamed up with Hank. I guess I wanted all the tension that had built up between them to blow up instead of fade away.

I did love how Walter's life ended, though. He admired the meth lab while he bled out because it was the meth lab that allowed him to reach his potential, to be better at something than anyone else on the planet. Walter White was a good chemistry teacher and, before he broke bad, he was probably a good husband and great father, if Walter Jr.'s (former) affection for his dad were any indication. But Walter's biggest desire in life was to earn the recognition and respect for his talents and abilities that he thought he deserved, a chance he missed with Gray Matter. Walter was an AMAZING meth-maker, and making meth won him that recognition and respect. He walked among the vats and gauges in his last moments because that's where he was king. 

"Felina" never had to redeem Walter White, and it didn't. Breaking Bad never defended Walter's actions, and even Walter admitted the truth: He did everything for himself. But Walter did make efforts to clean up as much of his mess as he could and take care of his family, further exploring the idea that within every good person, there's bad, and within every bad person, there's good. However, in the end, even when he was dying, he chose to be where he most felt alive, and that was among the instruments that made him his greatest. 

Backups come up big again as Patriots hold off Falcon

ATLANTA — Two weeks ago, Kenbrell Thompkins was on the receiving end of Tom Brady's wrath.

Sunday night, the rookie was on the receiving end of several big fourth-quarter pass plays, including an 18-yard touchdown and a crucial 26-yard reception on third-and-19. Both catches were instrumental in New England remaining unbeaten, as the Patriots (4-0) defeated the Atlanta Falcons 30-23 in the Georgia Dome.

The Falcons fell to 1-3 on the season, falling for the second straight week to an unbeaten team from the AFC East.

"I've still got a lot of work to do," Thompkins said, "but it feels great to make big plays to help our team win."

Thompkins finished with six catches for 127 yards.

"He's an impressive young player," said Brady, who was visibly upset with mistakes the undrafted free agent wide receiver made in a sloppy victory over the New York Jets in Week 2. "It's really rare to see a young player step in with that kind of confidence to make plays and make things happen out there."

Seemingly cruising to a convincing win, New England nearly blew a 30-13 lead.

Atlanta stormed back to threaten overtime, thanks to the recovery of an onside kick and a fourth-down fumble by New England. Trailing by seven with 1:50 to play, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan found wide receiver Julio Jones for a stunning 49-yard strike down the left sideline. But on fourth down at the New England 10-yard line, Ryan threw incomplete for Roddy White, and the Patriots held on for the victory.

Brady threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns after only completing five passes in the first half. With starting wideout Danny Amendola and tight end Rob Gronkowski inactive, Brady spread the ball around to eight different receivers, including seldom-used tight end Matthew Mulligan, who caught Brady's first touchdown pass, a 1-yard strike between two defenders.

"My job is to get open on the backside of the end zone," Mulligan said. "Everyone else was covered, so I got to make the play."

New England also got key sacks from reserve defensive linemen Joe Vellano and Michael Buchanan. The deeper pass rush rotation was necessitated by an injury to All-Pro defensive tackle Vince Wilfork in the first quarter. Wilfork limped off with what appeared to be right ankle injury and didn't return.

A two-play sequence to begin the fourth quarter was decisive. On third-and-19 from his own 12-yard line, with the Georgia Dome crowd at full blast, Brady found Thompkins on a deep seam route for 26 yards, a gain compounded by a personal foul on Falcons safety William Moore. Thompkins made a good mid-air adjustment to corral the throw.

"It was definitely a big play," Thompkins said. "It was a little underthrown. The ball was in the air and my job was to go up and catch it."

On the next play, running back LeGarrette Blount, yet another Patriots backup to make an impact on the game, ran up the gut, broke left and outraced the secondary for a 47-yard touchdown that put the Patriots ahead 20-10.

Atlanta knotted the game at 10 just before halftime on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Ryan to tight end Tony Gonzalez, who caught three passes for 46 yards on the 80-yard drive. Gonzalez eluded safety Tony Gregory along the right sideline and snuck into the corner for the score, his first of two touchdowns on the night to go with a career-high 149 receiving yards.

Ryan finished with 421 yards passing to go with the two touchdown passes and an interception.

"We're really, really disappointed in this one," Gonzalez said. "Our offense can only get better. It's got to get better. Sooner or later, it's gonna happen because we've done it before."

Good red zone defense kept New England in the game early on. Ryan started fast, completing his first seven passes. But the Patriots secondary tightened up, forcing a short 23-yard field goal by Matt Bryant.

Later in the half, the Falcons moved inside the Patriots' 10-yard line again, but on fourth-and-2, Ryan rolled left and threw incomplete for White. New England took over on its own 8-yard line, and a 49-yard completion to Thompkins, after a fake handoff and fake reverse, set up a 48-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski that put the Patriots ahead 10-3.

The Patriots used brute force to take the lead. After a 24-yard screen pass to Steven Ridley started the drive, New England ran the ball on ten consecutive plays, often out of two- and three-tight end sets. After grinding out 50 yards on the ground, powering the ball to the goal line, Brady hit Mulligan in between two defenders for a 1-yard touchdown on third-and-goal.

New England will try to stay undefeated when it travels to Cincinnati to play the Bengals next Sunday.

Kenya Red Cross cites progress in tracing missing people from deadly Nairobi mall attack

NAIROBI, KENYA –  A spokeswoman for Kenya's Red Cross says "progress" has been made in finding some of the 59 people who were still missing after the Westgate mall attack.

Wariko Waita said Monday that some were being reunited with their families, although she gave no details about numbers or where those people were found.

She said a Red Cross team was counseling the victims at a triage center 600 meters (yards) away from the shattered mall where forensics experts are combing through the crime scene for evidence. Some bodies are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.

The Red Cross said Friday the number of missing people stood at 59.

Kenyan authorities have given few details about the Sept. 21 attack, urging patience.

Israel’s Netanyahu Tries to Get Between Obama and Iran

Winging his way to Washington on Sunday for a meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to deflate the new spirit of diplomacy that’s blossomed between the U.S. and Iran. A post appeared on his Twitter account, perhaps from 11,000 m in the air, perhaps from the desk of a PR functionary back in Jerusalem. It didn’t really matter. In the big picture, he was the dad standing at the top of the stairs, glowering at a pair of teenagers who had gotten a little too friendly too quickly on the davenport below.

“I will tell #truth in face of the sweet-talk and the onslaught of smiles,” the post read. “One must talk facts and one must tell the truth.”

The incipient rapprochement between Washington and Tehran has in its first flush the feel of a sudden new relationship that’s caught both sides a bit by surprise, taking off with a speed that carries a danger of overheating. After the wild weekend, enter the chaperone. Netanyahu stood stolidly by when Obama placed his call to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday, and held his peace while the words that passed between them were recounted with a breathless excitement associated with middle-school romance. Afterward, Rouhani (who has his own dad to answer to back in Tehran) was like a teenager gobbling breath mints — actually deleting posts put up in the flush of the moment.

“Things are going really, really fast — faster than expected,” the New York Times’ ace in Tehran, Thomas Erdbrink, quoted a conservative Iranian journalist as saying. Netanyahu’s job — at the White House, where he will meet Obama on Monday, and at the U.N., where he will speak on Tuesday, and in a great many media interviews all week long — is to slow things down. The method he appears to have in mind is weight, lots and lots of weight — the accumulated factual record about Iran’s nuclear program, the issue that brought Obama and Rouhani together. Until a couple of weeks ago, it was not a plot point in a rom-com but what historians call a casus belli, a justification for war.

The Israeli reality check will take the form of details — the number of centrifuges spinning in the underground Natanz plant and heavily fortified Fordow, the progress on the heavy water reactor being built at Arak, which will be able to produce plutonium. There’s no need to get into any new intelligence. To dissipate the frothy air of possibility that Rouhani left in his wake, the files posted online at the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say all most people need to know about an oil-rich country that, more than a decade ago and in secret, set out to master every element of the nuclear-fuel cycle.

In the hours before he left for Washington, Netanyahu was immersing himself in the data at length, Shimon Shiffer writes in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth: “He intends to share this information with Obama.”

And, on Tuesday, he’ll do the same with the global audience from the familiar green rostrum of the General Assembly, where Netanyahu will be the last speaker of the annual convocation. A year ago, Netanyahu stole the show by holding up a cartoon bomb — a gimmick, but one that succeeded in keeping control of the narrative of the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu (and then Defense Minister Ehud Barak) had done a remarkable job of bringing Iran’s ambiguous program to the top of the global agenda, most effectively by timing their own unsubtle threats of air strikes as a drumroll for the release of a damning IAEA report. The Iran of then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did its part too, galvanizing the world’s diplomatic community against it by allowing thugs to overrun the British embassy just a couple of weeks later.

But the rise of Rouhani, with the assent of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has taken control of the narrative away from the Jewish state. That matters, as the issue enters the realm of high-level diplomacy, because it’s not yet clear whether Israel and the U.S. share the same definition of an acceptable outcome. It’s a major reason for Israeli unease with the enthusiasm over the phone call and the momentum it brings.

All of which will feed a fresh round of speculation about Netanyahu’s relationship with Obama — a troubled one for the four years of the American’s first term, then recast as a “buddy movie” during Obama’s state visit earlier this year. The American President left Israel bewitched. But that was before he called the newly minted President of Israel’s worst enemy on the way to the airport. Afterward, the White House broadcast assurances that Israel was told the call would happen before it went through. But in Israel the Sunday papers hinted not all was well.

“Obama presented Netanyahu with a done deal,” wrote Yedioth columnist Nahum Barnea, widely respected and no apologist for Netanyahu. “The advance warning about the phone conversation with Rouhani, which was given to National Security Adviser Major General Yaakov Amidror prior to the conversation, was a joke. Obama neither consulted with Netanyahu nor did he take his position into account.”

So the table is set for more drama, if dramatic is how Bibi chooses to play it. Two-and-a-half years ago, he sat in the Oval Office and lectured Obama on the history of the Palestinian conflict as cameras rolled. The Premier has lost a noticeable amount of weight recently, but can still play the heavy. Given the extraordinary amount of cooperation between governments as a matter of routine, though — and substantial investment both leaders have made in improving their personal dynamic — look for a more restrained dynamic in the White House. From a concerned dad who everyone knows has #truth on his side, a raised eyebrow can work wonders.

Nigeria attack: Students shot dead as they slept

Suspected Islamist gunmen have attacked a college in north-eastern Nigeria, killing up to 50 students.

The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state.

North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency amid an Islamist insurgency by the Boko Haram group.

Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government to create an Islamic state, and has launched a number of attacks on schools.

Classrooms burned

Casualty figures from the latest attack vary, but a local politician told the BBC that around 50 students had been killed.

The politician said two vanloads of bodies had been taken to a hospital in Yobe's state capital, Damaturu.

A witness quoted by Reuters news agency counted 40 bodies at the hospital, mostly those of young men believed to be students.

College provost Molima Idi Mato, speaking to Associated Press, also said the number of dead could be as high as 50, adding that security forces were still recovering the bodies and that about 1,000 students had fled the campus.

A Nigerian military source told AP that soldiers had collected 42 bodies.

The gunmen also set fire to classrooms, a military spokesman in Yobe state, Lazarus Eli, told Agence France-Presse.

The college is in the rural Gujba district.

In May, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an operation against Boko Haram, and a state of emergency was declared for the north-east on 14 May.

Many of the Islamist militants left their bases in the north-east and violence initially fell, but revenge attacks quickly followed.

In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.

At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.

In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist militants attacked a school's dormitories with guns and explosives, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.

Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group's name translates as "Western education is forbidden".

Boko Haram is led by Abubakar Shekau. The Nigerian military said in August that it might have killed him in a shoot-out.

However, a video released last week purportedly showed him alive.

Other previous reports of his death later proved to be unfounded.

London Duck Boat Tours suspends boat trips on Thames after blaze

LONDON –  A British tour boat company has suspended its boat trips on the River Thames after a dangerous fire onboard one of its vessels forced the rescue of some 30 people.

London Duck Bout Tour said Monday its river operations will be halted until the cause of the fire has been established. It will be offering only land-based tours.

Passengers abandoned the amphibious "duck boat" after it was nearly engulfed by flames and heavy smoke and had to be rescued from the river Saturday. Three people were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.

The company says it is cooperating with investigators.

Laloo Prasad Yadav: India ex-minister convicted in 'fodder scam'

A former Indian minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, has been sent to jail after he was convicted in a long-running corruption case.

A court found him guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy in a notorious case known as the "fodder scam", which first came to light in 1996.

He was charged with embezzling state funds intended for cattle fodder while he was chief minister of Bihar state.

Yadav, who later became federal railways minister, denied the charge.

He will be sentenced on 3 October. He has been sent to Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

He is among 45 people convicted by a special court.

Lawyers present in the Ranchi court said Yadav could be jailed for between four and seven years.

Last March, a court framed charges against Yadav and two other senior politicians in the case which focused on the fraudulent withdrawal of funds by officials from treasuries in the districts of Banka and Bhagalpur between 1994 and 1996.

Yadav said he had been falsely implicated.

There were a total of 56 defendants in the case. During the trial, seven of them died, two decided to give evidence for the prosecution, one admitted to the crime and one was discharged, reports say.

Correspondents say Monday's verdict will be crucial for Yadav's political fortunes as a recent executive order protecting convicted MPs and legislators from Supreme Court ban on holding office is likely to be withdrawn.

In an uncharacteristic outburst last week, Rahul Gandhi, senior leader of India's ruling Congress, said the move by his government to protect convicted MPs was "complete nonsense".

In 2006, a court acquitted Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi - also a former chief minister of Bihar - in a case where they stood accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to their income.

Laloo Yadav is one of India's most colourful politicians. He leads a regional party in Bihar.

He resigned as chief minister of Bihar after the allegations of corruption arose. His wife Rabri Devi was installed in his place.

Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal party lost power in state elections in 2005.

Pilot struck, killed by helicopter blade at Pennsylvania fair

A veteran helicopter pilot giving rides at a Pennsylvania town fair was killed after he was hit by the chopper's spinning rotor.

Carl R. Enlow, 69, landed the helicopter at the Bloomsburg Fair grounds Friday to re-fuel and to allow a relief pilot to take over.

He left the chopper and was re-entering to speak to the replacement pilot when he was struck by the rotor, the fair association said.

He was airlifted to a hospital, where he died.

Enlow, of Reading, Pennsylvania, was a former military helicopter pilot, with more than 50 years of flying experience, the fair board said.

He worked as a chiropractor.

NYC cost per inmate almost equals Ivy League education; Expenses tied to Rikers boost cost

NEW YORK –  A recent report has found it costs almost as much to jail an inmate in New York City in a year as it does to pay for four years at an Ivy League university.

The Independent Budget Office found it cost $167,731 in 2012 to house each of the 12,287 daily New York City inmates. That's about $460 per inmate per day.

Experts say certain, expensive fixed costs in New York's system keep the figure high despite a large drop in incarceration that peaked in 1991 with about 22,000 inmates.

Another factor is the hundreds of millions of dollars spent a year to run Rikers Island, the 400-acre island located next to the runways of LaGuardia Airport that has 10 jail facilities, thousands of staff, its own power plant and transportation system.

PSP: Longtime Feud 'Likely Motive' in Ashville Shooting

State Police say a two-decade family feud came to a violent end Friday night when an Ashville-area man shot dead the two home invaders that killed his wife and son – not knowing the assailants included his long-estranged daughter.

Though the investigation into the shooting continues, authorities said it appears Josephine and Jeffrey Ruckinger planned to murder her family, but it remains unclear what exactly led to the deadly confrontation.

Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan says the pair parked at the bottom of the driveway and approached the home heavily armed. Josephine Ruckinger was armed with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun and her husband had a Derringer pistol and a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun.

John Frew, his wife Roberta, and their son John Jr. had just returned from dinner and were watching TV in the living room when there was a knock at the door – and then the shooting began. Roberta and John Frew, Jr. were shot and killed before John Sr. grabbed a gun and shot his daughter and husband.

Relatives say the daughter and mother did not get along. The investigation into the shooting continues.

Trial set in Ohio in Navy charity scam case

A one-time fugitive is headed to trial on charges of masterminding a $100 million multi-state fraud under the guise of helping Navy veterans.

The defendant headed to trial Monday calls himself Bobby Thompson, but authorities identified him as Harvard-trained lawyer and former military intelligence officer John Donald Cody, 67.

He was arrested last year in Portland, Ore., after two years on the run.

He's charged with defrauding people who donated to a reputed charity for Navy veterans, the United States Navy Veterans Association based in Tampa, Fla.

The alleged fraud spanned 41 states, including up to $2 million in Ohio. Authorities said little, if any, of the money collected by the charity was used to benefit veterans.

The defendant showered politicians, many of them Republicans, with political donations. His defense team had sought to force testimony by recipients to show his actions were legal, but a judge rejected the move last week.

His attorney said any fraud involved solicitors, not his client.

Authorities said the defendant used his VIP political connections to encourage donors to give to his charity.

While on the run, investigators tracked him through Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington and West Virginia.

U.S., Italian political risks spark flight to safety

Italian bond yields jumped and European shares fell on Monday as political tension in Italy rattled investors already fearful of a looming U.S. government shutdown.

Ten-year Italian government bond yields rose 31 basis points to 4.73 percent. It was their biggest one-day gain since June, although still far from the level that causes funding problems.

Low risk German bonds yields dropped 3 basis points to 1.69 percent. The euro hit a three-week low against the safer yen at 131.38 yen.

Investors are concerned Italy will be forced into new elections just seven months after the last inconclusive vote, following Silvio Berlusconi's move to pull his ministers out of the ruling coalition on the weekend.

"It seems like they're going to try their best to work out a new coalition government and if that doesn't happen its new elections, and if there's new elections there's going to be a lot of worries in the market," said Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital.

The market's worry is that an extended period of political uncertainty in the euro zone's third largest economy would delay much needed reforms and reignite the region's debt crisis.

"Markets have grown accustomed to Italy's dysfunctional politics, but there's a sense that things are now spinning out of control, with potentially dangerous consequences for both Italy and the euro zone," said Nicholas Spiro, who runs specialized consultancy Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

The political instability saw Milan's blue-chip FTSE MIB index .FTMIB fall 2.5 percent in early trade, though the broader FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 index was down a more modest 0.6 percent. .EU

Banking shares were being particularly hit.

US DEADLINE DAY

Aside from Italy, investor are focused on events in Washington where a deadline to avert a federal government shutdown is approaching, threatening to damage a fragile economic recovery.

U.S. law makers hardened their positions over the weekend making passage of a stop-gap spending bill for the new fiscal year by midnight on Monday, less likely.

The growing likelihood of a shutdown was being reflected in U.S. stock futures, where the S&P 500 contract shed 0.8 percent.

MSCI's world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 45 countries, had dropped 0.6 percent as political deadlock also raises fears over successful outcome to the debt ceiling deadline in October, which ultimately could lead to the U.S. government defaulting on its debt.

However, the MSCI index remains on course for its best quarter since March 2012 and its best month since January as the loose monetary policies by major central banks combined with signs of modest global economic recovery favor equities over alternative investments such as fixed income assets.

Earlier Asian stocks took a big hit from the U.S. fears with MSCI's broadest index of shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS down 1.2 percent at a two-week low. Still, this index has gained 5.7 percent for the month of September, and had its best month since January 2012. Japan's Nikkei .N225 fell 1.5 percent.

The mood lifted the yen across the board. The dollar dropped to 97.89 yen from 98.20 late in New York on Friday, though it falls were cushioned by hopes that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might unveil big fresh economic steps on Tuesday.

The tension also took a toll on emerging market currencies, with the Indonesian rupiah and Malaysian ringgit both weakening.

Gold edged higher as the possible U.S. government shutdown prompted safe-haven buying, rising 0.2 percent to $1,337.84 an ounce.

China Manufacturing Growth Slower Than Expected

Chinese manufacturing activity ticked up more slowly than expected in September.

A survey by HSBC Corp. released Monday showed that manufacturing activity in the world's No. 2 economy expanded slightly this month, rising to 50.2 from August's 50.1. The index uses a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate contraction.

The reading was lower than the expected number of 51.2 from a preliminary version of the survey earlier this month. It's a sign China's gradual recovery from an extended slowdown could be more fragile than thought.

But HSBC economists said the reading was still positive because it showed further improvement.

China's leaders are trying to reverse a slowdown that dragged down growth to a two-decade low of 7.5 percent in the latest quarter.

Your guide to Obamacare: Affordable Care Act to open Oct. 1

Although fierce battles over the healthcare plan continue, New York State has implemented an exchange that will let New Yorkers shop for comprehensive health plans. Many will get affordable health insurance they could not obtain otherwise. ‘Sixty-two percent of bankruptcies are caused by health bills,’ said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives for the Community Service Society of New York.

It’s finally here: Affordable health insurance.

After years of fierce battles on Capitol Hill — which are still not over as a government shutdown looms — the system of health insurance exchanges, created by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, is set to open on Oct. 1.

If you are currently uninsured, or are seeking to replace the coverage you have, you can soon start to compare and shop for comprehensive health plans on New York State's official marketplace, New York State of Health.

Many will be entitled to financial aid that will dramatically lower the cost of their plans.

Some 1.1 million New York State residents are expected to buy their health insurance on the state's exchange by the time it is fully implemented, including 615,000 individuals and 450,000 employees of small businesses, according to the New York State Department of Health.

"On Oct. 1, we start a historic time when people will have an opportunity to get very significant help so they can get health coverage," said Ron Pollack, executive director of nonprofit health care advocacy group Families USA.

For some, the exchanges could be a path toward improving their health and their finances.

"Sixty-two percent of bankruptcies are caused by health bills," said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives for the Community Service Society of New York, which has been chosen by New York State to set up a network to help New Yorkers enroll on the exchange.

"This is an important moment to get health security, and for many, economic security."

Open enrollment begins on Oct. 1 and extends until March 31, 2014. Coverage for those who enroll this year could start as early as Jan. 1.

But even as the curtain lifts on the new insurance marketplaces, many are still in the dark about what it all means.

According to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, four in 10 people believe the health law has been repealed or overturned. About half say they don't understand how it will impact their own families.

The Daily News is here to help.

This special report will give you a roadmap for understanding your new coverage options.

If you need personal guidance on how to choose a plan, we'll tell you where to find free help.

We'll also clear up some common misconceptions and answer some frequently asked questions.

First, you should know the basics.

As of next year, Medicaid in New York State will be covering more people, including low-income adults without children who had previously been excluded.

Anyone under the age of 65 with an income of less than 138% of the federal poverty level — $15,856 for an individual and $32,499 for a family of four — will be covered.

If your income ranges from 138% to 400% of the federal poverty level — up to $45,960 for an individual or $94,200 for a family of four — you may be eligible for financial assistance in purchasing coverage through the exchange.

Subsidies will be sent directly to the insurance company. You will not have to lay out that money and then wait to be reimbursed.

The level of financial aid you receive will be based on your income and your family's size. The savings could be thousands of dollars a year.

"A family won't have to spend more than a small percentage of their income to purchase a plan in the marketplace," said Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy at Families USA.

Let's say you are a family of three in Queens with an annual income of $39,000. If you choose a silver plan — one of the tiers on the exchange — that costs $8,772 a year, the cost of the plan to you will be $2,460 or $201 a month, according to the New York State Department of Health.

The remainder of the premium — $6,312 — will be covered by the subsidy.

Even individuals who don't qualify for subsidies could see lower premiums next year.

Approved 2014 health insurance rates on the exchange will be 53% less expensive than what is currently on the market because more people will be entering the insurance pool, New York State announced.

"Before, the cost of buying an individual policy, particularly in New York, was prohibitive," said Bertram Scott, president of Affinity Health Care, a not-for-profit local health insurance provider that will be participating in New York's insurance marketplace.

"Those who are uninsured will now have access to affordable health care like they never had before."

While the plans from the 16 insurance companies that will be selling on New York's marketplace will vary in cost and will have different doctors and providers in their networks, each must cover the same core set of ten benefits, including maternity care, prescription drug coverage and hospital stays.

Keep in mind that as of Jan. 1, most people, with exceptions, will be required to have health insurance or pay a penalty if they don't.

The penalty starts at $95 or 1% of your income — whichever is higher — in 2014, and is phased in over time to $695, or 2.5% of your income, by 2016.

No doubt that for many there will be work to be done in making the right decision.

Madeline Aviles, a 60-year-old Bronx resident, has already begun to research the health law and how it will affect her.

She was laid off from her job as a human resources manager at a local hospital in January and is currently uninsured.

When Aviles, who suffers from osteoarthritis in her hand, looked into buying a policy, she found the cost — $500 to $650 a month — prohibitive.

But after speaking to a counselor at Community Health Advocates, a consumer health care program operated by the Community Service Society, she learned that she could be paying as little as $75 to $85 a month for an exchange insurance plan.

"Now I will be able to treat my condition. That is really awesome," Aviles said.

"This program is not only assisting me, it's also going to support my fellow hard-working, tax paying American citizens."

----------------

You are not alone.

There are plenty of places to go to learn more about the exchanges and to get help in enrolling in a plan.

Here are some key resources you need to know about:

New York State of Health's customer service center

Trained reps are ready to take questions by phone from individuals and business owners.

Call toll-free at 1-855-355-5777.

Navigators

Face-to-face guidance will be available at offices set up throughout New York City. Trained experts will be on hand to walk you through the enrollment process.

To find an office near you, go to nystateofhealth.ny.gov.

Information

Do your homework. Check out the following websites to brush up on the insurance marketplace:

Nystateofhealth.ny.gov The official website for New York State of Health.

Healthcare.gov The federal government's official health insurance website.

Kff.org The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit focusing on major health care issues, offers a treasure trove of information and helpful online tools, including an animated video on the Affordable Care Act and a health insurance subsidy calculator.

In Person: Twitter CFO’s knack for explaining will be handy in IPO

Veteran of Microsoft-Yahoo negotiations and Zynga’s IPO is expected to be instrumental in the most anticipated stock offering since Facebook.

SAN FRANCISCO — Months after becoming Twitter’s finance chief, Mike Gupta is playing a key role in the most anticipated stock-market debut since Facebook.

The microblogging website filed preliminary papers this month for an initial public offering of stock, using new rules that allow it to keep many financial details secret until close to the IPO date.

Gupta, who joined Twitter last year, is expected to accompany Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo during an eventual cross-country, pre-IPO roadshow, explaining the company’s business to potential investors.

The former Yahoo finance executive will draw on an ability to communicate intricate ideas simply as he seeks to outline how the online-advertising business — set to reach $1 billion in sales next year — can sustain long-term growth, said Peter Fenton, a partner at Benchmark Capital.

“A lot of people are trying to understand, ‘How does this thing work? How does it make money?’ ” said Fenton, a Twitter director whose venture-capital firm is an early backer of the company. “He has a layman’s ability to simplify and express it in a way that’s not overly complicated.”

An alumnus of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Gupta, 42, has climbed the ranks of Silicon Valley companies over the past decade, becoming a trusted lieutenant to Yahoo co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang.

Gupta huddled with the pair as they haggled in an airplane hangar with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in 2008 over the software-maker’s proposed $44.6 billion takeover. He later helped hammer out Yahoo’s search pact with Microsoft and investment in Alibaba Group Holding.

Gupta also helped take Zynga public in 2011, leading the negotiations for an 11th-hour, $1 billion line of credit from banks including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group.

“He was instrumental during our earnings calls and during our roadshow” meetings to pitch investors, John Schappert, Zynga’s former operating chief, said in an interview. “He would do a great job of playing the other side and thinking through all the intricacies.”

His deals haven’t all ended well. Yahoo shares plummeted in the months after it rebuffed Microsoft’s offer, and the companies’ search pact fell short of sales projections in the past year. Zynga’s market value has plunged 70 percent since the company’s IPO as fewer users play its games on Facebook.

Yahoo’s holding in China’s Alibaba, by contrast, has proved lucrative.

Gupta will need to prove to investors and analysts that Twitter deserves a rich valuation. The company was valued last month at about $10.5 billion by GSV Capital, one of its investors, up 5 percent from a May estimate. Twitter will grow advertising revenue to $950 million in 2014, an increase of 63 percent from $582.8 million this year, eMarketer estimates.

Born and raised in New York City, Gupta got his start in investment banking in the 1990s at Merrill Lynch. In 2003, he joined Yahoo, where he held roles in finance and corporate development.

At the secret meeting in an Oregon airplane hangar in April 2008, Gupta was the only Yahoo executive alongside Yang and Filo to discuss the Web portal’s possible sale to Microsoft. The trio met with Microsoft CEO Ballmer and his deputy, Charlie Songhurst, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

Yahoo rebuffed Microsoft’s bid, but the negotiations eventually led to a search partnership, which Gupta helped clinch alongside former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Gupta also accompanied Yang on trips to China to secure Yahoo’s backing in Alibaba, an investment that has appreciated as the Asian e-commerce giant nears its own IPO.

Soon after Gupta was poached by Zynga in June 2011, he worked with bankers to draft the game-maker’s IPO prospectus, said David Wehner, Zynga’s ex- CFO, now at Facebook.

Twitter made its play for Gupta after an executive shuffle in the past few years.

Gupta’s low-key manner complements the duo in charge at Twitter, said Fenton, who recommended him. “There is a consistent style in that leadership team of humility as opposed to being arrogant or braggadocios.”

Grand Theft Auto Online to roll out October 2 in Australia

Southern Hemisphere won't benefit from later time zone

Grand Theft Auto Online will roll out on October 2 in Australia, Rockstar has confirmed.

While Australia sometimes enjoys early access to games due to the international date line, Rockstar has confirmed with CVG that the October 1 roll out for GTA Online applies to America's time zone. This means Australians won't get the game until October 2.

Specific launch times for that date will be detailed soon.

GTA Online will follow the release of GTA 5 earlier this month. The title made more than $1 billion within three days of release, and has attracted near animous critical praise.

Rockstar released new details on GTA Online last week, including specific information on micro-transactions and the in-game economy.

The company also warned that teething problems are likely when the online component is rolled out.

"There will be the typical growing pains for an online game, including but not limited to crashes, glitches, crazy bugs, gameplay modes and mechanics that need re-balancing and other surprises," a Rockstar representative wrote.

Valve shows off the Steam controller with haptic feedback

GAMING ON DEMAND OUTFIT Valve has given expectant gamers a first look at what a Steambox controller will look like.

The firm has slowly been delivering information about its Steambox consoles and spent a lot of last week poring over the possible hardware and software possibilities. It offered a staged announcement, in three parts, presumably so people might assume that one would be Half Life 3.

The last stage was announced this weekend and is the Steam controller. Valve faces stiff living room competition in the console space, and looks to be taking a different direction to rivals like the Xbox One and PS4. Its controller has trackpads, as opposed to thumbsticks, and haptic features, meaning that it can feed sensations back into the user's fingers.

This means that it should appeal to, and work with, those games and gamers that use a mouse and keyboard for control.

"The Steam Controller is designed to work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future. Even the older titles in the catalogue and the ones which were not built with controller support. (We've fooled those older games into thinking they're being played with a keyboard and mouse, but we've designed a gamepad that's nothing like either one of those devices.)," said Valve.

"We think you'll agree that we're onto something with the Steam Controller, and now we want your help with the design process."

Valve said that its controller is more sophisticated than the alternatives and will use the haptic feedback to improve the feelings that users get. It dismissed rival options.

"Trackpads, by their nature, are less physical than thumbsticks. By themselves, they are "light touch" devices and don't offer the kind of visceral feedback that players get from pushing joysticks around," it said.

"As we investigated trackpad-based input devices, it became clear through testing that we had to find ways to add more physicality to the experience. It also became clear that "rumble", as it has been traditionally implemented (a lopsided weight spun around a single axis), was not going to be enough. Not even close."

Touch does not end there and the Steam controller has a touch screen in the middle, that's the thing with the Valve logo in the middle.

"The screen allows an infinite number of discrete actions to be made available to the player, without requiring an infinite number of physical buttons," said Valve.

"In order to avoid forcing players to divide their attention between screens, a critical feature of the Steam Controller comes from its deep integration with Steam. When a player touches the controller screen, its display is overlayed on top of the game they're playing, allowing the player to leave their attention squarely on the action, where it belongs."

The controller has 16 buttons, and Valve has provided a map of which ones do what. They replace mouse button features, and other more traditional gamepad functions.

Valve will send out 300 hardware units to lucky registered punters who have expressed an interest in testing its console. The controller will join them, minus its touchscreen.

Apple Loop: iPhone Sales Record, iOS 7 And Motion Sickness, Martha Stewart's iPad Saga

Keeping you in the loop on some of the things that happened around Apple this week.

Back on track. Apple said opening weekend sales of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c topped 9 million, a new record, that more than 200 million Apple users are now running the new iOS 7 on their iPhones and iPads, and that more than 11 million unique listeners already tuned in to iTunes Radio in the first five days after it went live, with the most listened to song being “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake. It also said that sales and margins for the quarter ended in September will be at the high end of its forecast. The news was greeted with a lot of enthusiasm by investors and analysts, who said Apple is back on track after a year in which its stock performance has been lackluster on concerns it’s lost its innovation mojo. “The critics have told you Apple lost its magic,” said analyst Daniel Ernst of Hudson Square Research. “Customers are telling you something very different. Clearly, people like the product. That sentiment is almost more important than the number.” Well, the numbers still matter. Apple’s shares closed Friday at $482.75, up from $467.41 on Sept. 20. And by the way, if you want an iPhone 5s, you’re in for a wait. Apple’s website is still telling folks they won’t ship until October.

What does the iPhone cost to make? The iPhone 5s, with 16 gigs of memory costs $199 to make in terms of components costs and including an $8 manufacturing expense, according to IHS, which does teardowns of new devices to calculate the bill of materials. The entry-level iPhone 5c is $153, including $7 for manufacturing. The teardown shows while there a lot of similarity between the two devices, but there are notable differences inside. For example, the 5s has a new fingerprint scanner not found in the 5c, and that tech raises the cost of the user-interface segment to $15. The The A7 chip, produced for Apple by Samsung, in the iPhone 5s costs $19 — higher than the A6 used in the original iPhone 5 and 5c, which currently carries a cost of $13, IHS says. You can see videos of the teardowns and a breakdown of both iPhones here. The component list (who made what) is also an interesting read. In addition to Samsung, Apple to relies on Toshiba (Flash 0NAND), Qualcomm, Micron, Cirrus Logic, Dialog Semiconductor, STMMicroelectronics, Broadcom, Avago and RF Micro among others for the parts in its phones. By the way, the cost estimate for the 5s is close to last year’s iPhone 5, which IHS said cost about $207 to make.

iOS 7 motion sickness. The good news for iOS 7, the new version of the mobile operating system for the iPhone and iPad, is that loads of people are using it. Again, Apple said more than 200 million users are now running devices with this year’s software update and analysts say it’s the fastest adoption of any iOS they’ve seen. The not-so-good news is there are a few notable kinks to work out. For starters, Apple has already released version 7.0.2 to fix a bug that made it possible to bypass the Lock screen passcode. And the company had to update its Maps app after its directions sent some users through active runways at the Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska airport on their way to the main terminal. (That may explain why Apple is looking for a new Maps user interface designer to work on a next-generation Web platform for a new “secret project,” according to MacRumors, which first spotted the job posting on Apple’s website.)

And then there are reports on user forums of folks getting sick from the software, with zooms, floating icons and some of the animations reportedly causing headaches and motion sickness — particularly among folks with some neurological disorders. Dr. George Kikano, division chief of family medicine at UH Case Medical Center in Ohio, told FoxNews.com that the problem might not be the zoom animations but the new “parallax” function that causes the background to subtly move back and forth. “It’s no different than being in an IMAX theater,” Kikano said. “The inner ear is responsible for balance, the eyes for vision. When things are out of sync you feel dizzy, nauseous. Some people get it, some people don’t, and some people get used to it.”

The parallax effect. Apple’s design chief Jony Ive, by the way, talked about the parallax effect in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. “One of the things that we were interested in doing is, despite people talked about this being “flat,” is that it’s very, very deep. It’s constructed and architected visually and from an informational point of view as a very deep UI, but we didn’t want to rely on shadows or how big your highlights could get. Where do you go? I mean, there is only so long you can make your shadows. It wasn’t an aesthetic idea to try to create layers. It was a way of trying to sort of deal with different levels of information that existed and to try to give you a sense of where you were. But the idea of how we could create this sense of depth, that was just the most phenomenal collaboration which required everything from motion graphics to sensing in the hardware to the most remarkable sort of algorithms from a software point of view.”

Product philosophy. The interview in Bloomberg BusinessWeek is part of a conversation that also included a story with Tim Cook saying that Apple never intended to make a cheap iPhone because it doesn’t want to play in the “junk” part of the smartphone market. In Q&A released this year with Jony Ive and Craig Federighi, who oversees software, they talk about a lot of things that went into the new phones and software. I thought Federighi’s comments on the fingerprint scanner was among the most interesting: “…You decide you want to do something like, “wouldn’t it be great if you could use your finger to unlock your phone or to make a purchase?” It sounds like a simple idea. But how many places could that become a bad idea because you failed to execute on it? Well, that would be worse than never having done the feature at all if you did those things, right? And so you take that all the way to that spectrum, and we said, “My gosh, we’re going to have to build in our silicon a little island, a little enclave that’s walled off so that literally the main processor—no matter if you took ownership of the whole device and ran whatever code you wanted on the main processor—could not get that fingerprint out of there. Literally, the physical lines of communication in and out of the chip would not permit that ever to escape. It was something we considered fundamental to solving the overall problem.”

Not a good thing. Martha Stewart may know all about apple pie but when it comes to Apple care, she’s not as clued in. After dropping her iPad — which she says Steve Jobs gave her — Stewart tweeted, asking for advice on how to get it fixed. “I just dropped my iPad on the ground and shattered two glass corners. What to do? does one call Apple to come and pick it up or do I take it?” And it went on from their, with Stewart tweeting that she was “still waiting for an Apple rep to come pick up my iPad” and when nothing happened, “Maybe I have had a good entrepreneurial idea? Apple Now? Like same day delivery from Amazon? I think I am on to something. Same day fixit!!!” Well, the verbal barrage on Twitter apparently did not go so well for Stewart, who tweeted “I cannot believe that Apple Public Relations is mad at me for tweeting about my Ipad and how to get it fixed! steve jobs gave it to me!” Stewart then vowed to deal with the problem “silently” – but then when on to tweet about two more times, saying “Ipads addictive, awesome, expensive. Glass should /could be unbreakable” and then “to fix is time.” She also laments about all the jokes about her tweeting about her broken iPad and how she thinks Apple should handle the repair. You just can’t make this stuff up! The tweets start Sept. 25 if you’re interested in Stewart’s woes.

iPads in October? Speaking of iPads, the rumor mill is already churning out what Apple may have in store in terms of updating its larger-format iPad and the iPad mini. As far as the mini, the speculation is that Apple will front it with a Retina display since Google and Amazon already sport high-def displays on their rival Nexus and Kindle, respectively, tablets. As for the larger format iPad, currently in its fourth generation, it may be thinner and lighter and introduced at an event in October — a year after its predecessors were introduced by CEO Tim Cook. What else might Apple add, in addition to its faster A7 chip? Based on the popular response to the gold-toned iPhone 5s, some are saying they might offer the tablet in that color, too. Not exactly an amazing technological innovation, but if it gets people to buy, why not? The iPad, fyi, accounted for about 18 percent of Apple’s sales last quarter and is the second top-selling product after the iPhone. As for what else it might unveil at an October product event? An update to Apple TV, its MacBook notebooks and the Mac Pro desktop have long been rumored. Apple already announced a refresh to the iMac, with the new version of the all-in-one desktop this week adding faster Intel processors and faster graphics and storage technology. Those machines are already on sale.

Hoisted by his own petard. Steve Jobs original iPhone keynote, back in 2007, was used to invalidate an Apple patent in Germany over the bounce-back effect in the photo gallery on its smartphone. It comes down to what is allowed in the U.S. and other parts of the world regarding patent laws and an inventor’s own video demos, according to Foss Patents, which has the entire saga detailed here. Bottom line: Apple loses out in Germany, Google and Samsung win.

Dinner with Icahn. Billionaire investor Carl Icah, who tweeted that he had become an Apple shareholer after buying a big stake in August, followed that up with another tweet saying he was going to have dinner with CEO Tim Cook to talk about the another big stock buyback. Well, that dinner is reportedly set to take place in New York on Sept. 30. Icahn has been a vocal supporter of Apple, especially after the shares fell when the iPhones were released to less than enthusiastic investors who were expecting something more. Don’t know whether he’ll get Apple to spend more of its cash, but what I do know is that it still has a lot. It ended its fiscal third quarter in July with $146.6 billion in cash.

Seeing Red. U2 lead singer Bono said this week that Apple has raised over $65 million for his Product Red fund, a charity started in 2006 for AIDS and poverty relief. Bono also asked Apple’s Ive for some other help – on a Nov. 23 Sotheby’s auction in New York for Red. Among the items to be auctioned is a Leica digital camera co-designed entirely by Ive. There’s also a pair of Apple earbuds in “solid rose gold.”

iTunes Festival. Apple released about a video showing the best moments of its 30-day iTunes Festival in London. I’ve posted it above. Enjoy.