Pope Benedict sends first tweet to over 1m followers

The Catholic pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet today signaling one of the most high profile endorsement of the social media revolution in recent times.
According to Guardian of UK, "future generations of theologians will look back on today with a mixture of awe and reverence. For on the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year of the millennium, Pope Benedict XVI made his foray on to Twitter."

Although the pope may not send out each tweet -- an assistant will do it for him -- the Vatican insists that these "sparks of truth" will all have his input and approval. The pope is expected to tweet weekly and during papal ceremonies and feast days.

The pope's first @Pontifex tweet -- which was typed by an assistant but sent by Benedict -- already has nearly 35,000 retweets. According to the Vatican, papal tweets will from here on out be typed and sent by assistants, but written with Benedict's guidance.

Egypt court jails blogger for blasphemy

Alber Saber

Associated Press reports that a Cairo court today convicted Alber Saber, a Coptic Christian blogger who shared an 'anti-Islam' film on social networking sites and sentenced him to three years in prison for blasphemy and contempt of religion.

The case of Saber is one of several seen by rights advocates as a campaign led by Egypt's ultraconservative Islamists to curb free expression. 

Many of those targeted in the campaign are Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 85 million.
Saber was arrested Sept. 13, after neighbors complained he had shared on Facebook the amateur film made in the United States that sparked protests across the Muslim world. His arrest came during a wave of public outrage over the film, produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.
At the time, an angry mob surrounded Saber's house, calling for his death and accusing him of heresy, atheism and of promoting the "Innocence of Muslims" – the short film that portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.

Ghana solar energy plant set to be Africa's largest

A UK firm has announced plans to build what it claims is the biggest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in Africa.
The Nzema project, based in Ghana, will be able to provide electricity to more than 100,000 homes.
Construction work on the $400m (£248m) plant is due to start within 12 months.

The developers say that they are optimistic that finance for the project will be confirmed within six months.

Fully cooked
The initiative is being developed by Blue Energy, a UK-based renewable energy investment company.

Dozens of solar projects have been announced across Africa in recent years but few have been on this ambitious scale says industry analyst Ash Sharma at IMS Research. He says the 155 megawatt plant will increase Ghana's generating capacity by 6%.
"It is the biggest single project that's going ahead at the moment," he told BBC News.

"It is not the biggest in the world, but if it goes ahead it will be the biggest in Africa."

He says that a key element in helping the project go ahead has been Ghana's renewable energy law under which the plant has been awarded a feed-in tariff for 20 years. These are premium prices, guaranteed for the working life of the site.

Groups want Boko Haram designated FTO

A coalition of civil society organizations and christian groups are putting pressure on the US Department of State to designate Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization as the Islamic fundamentalist group continues to unleash terror on innocent Nigerians.

Those who wantonly commit genocide against Christians solely because of their faith should not be tolerated when available steps can be taken to thwart this kind of terror

 "Boko Haram is responsible for killing an estimated 3,000 Nigerians and citizens of 11 other countries—primarily Christians—in the last three years and has acknowledged it has ties to Somalian terrorist groups and Al Qaeda," the coalition noted in a release.
“Those who wantonly commit genocide against Christians solely because of their faith should not be tolerated when available steps can be taken to thwart this kind of terror,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull. “Few organizations are as qualified to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization as Boko Haram is, and we encourage the State Department to make that designation as quickly as possible.”

Boko Haram grows more deadly

The radical Islamist fighters gather around piles of weapons and ammunition they've stolen and shout praises to God as they shoot into the expanse of the African desert.
Those depicted in this video don't come from long-lawless Somalia, nor from al-Qaida North Africa branch. These extremists are from Boko Haram, the Islamist group in Nigeria that turned to wide-scale violence in 2009 over local grievances and largely focused their assaults in Maiduguri, the city where the sect started.
Now, Boko Haram seems to be growing more violent with a record number of people killed this year and slowly internationalizing its stance, a possible danger for the rest of West Africa.

More than 770 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks so far this year making 2012 the worst year of violence attributed to the group.

"Weak border security as well as corruption — and even membership of immigration officials in Boko Haram — could facilitate the travel of militants between northern Mali and Nigeria," warned analyst Jacob Zenn in an October publication by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "The insurgency is likely to become more diverse and complex over time, which will limit the efficacy of negotiations."

Happy 20th birthday, text message

It was 20 years ago today that the first text message was sent. It was Dec. 3, 1992, and Neil Papworth, an engineer working in the UK, sent the world's first short message service or SMS. It read "Merry Christmas."
But while most are entering their prime at age 20, the text message might just be past its glory years.

The History -- In More Than 160 Characters 
Papworth, however, was in his prime when he hit the send button on that first text. At the age of 22, Papworth was working for a company called Semea Group Telecoms, which had been working on a mobile messaging project for Vodafone, a European cellular carrier.

"It happened that day that Vodafone wanted to try sending a message to Richard Jarvis, one of the directors there, who was at a Christmas party. So we sat at the computer and typed him a message and then sent him the message 'Merry Christmas,'" Papworth told ABC News. "For me it was just another day's testing, it didn't seem to be anything big at the time."

News Corps to stop iPad only publication The Daily

 The Daily, News Corp.’s attempt to create a newspaper for the iPad era, is shutting down after less than two years. The media giant said it will “cease standalone publication” of the app on Dec. 15.
It says that “technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into” News Corp.’s New York Post tabloid.

The app/newspaper has approximately 120 employees.

News Corp. made the announcement in the midst of other organizational changes in advance of the company’s upcoming breakup, which will spin off the company’s publishing assets into a new, separately traded company. Here’s Murdoch’s take on The Daily, via a press release:

From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily.

Jesse Angelo, The Daily’s editor-in-chief, will become publisher of the Post; Daily publisher Greg Clayman will get a job heading up digital at the new publishing company. Earlier this year, The Daily cut a third of its staff.