Is the return of marines an Indian diplomatic win? - BBC News

22 March 2013 Last updated at 01:35 ET

Article written by Soutik Biswas Delhi correspondent

Massimiliano Latorre (R) and Salvatore Girone had returned to Italy before Christmas

Italy's decision to send back to Delhi for trial two marines accused of murdering two Indian fishermen is being described by many in India as a triumph for its diplomacy.

Considering the knotty situation both the countries had got in over the issue - India's Supreme Court barring the Italian ambassador from leaving the country and insisting that he had effectively surrendered his diplomatic immunity with his affidavit promising the marines' return - Rome's decision certainly defuses an unsavoury diplomatic row.

Indian foreign minister spokesman Syed Akbaruddin tweeted that "intensive diplomatic contacts in the last 24 hours led to Italy informing that the marines will return as per time line set up Supreme Court." His Twitter timeline is now littered with congratulatory messages hailing the development as a "victory" for Indian diplomacy.

But some, like former top diplomat Kapil Sibal, believe the decision to return of the marines is actually a "sorry commentary on the ineptness of Italian diplomacy" rather than a big triumph for the Indians.

"The Italians didn't consider the matter seriously. They underestimated the Indian response. Once they saw that the script was not moving as they had anticipated they began to review the matter after treating the marines as heroes," he told me.

"The fact that they decide to send them back projects Italian diplomacy in poor light. It also indicates sharp divisions in the government. Many in the government must have disagreed with Rome's decision not to send back the marines, otherwise they would not have reversed the decision."

Indian diplomats believe Rome did not want to escalate the crisis further after what they describe as the Supreme Court's "bold but questionable decision" to restrain the Italian ambassador from leaving the country in what was described as a violation of the Vienna Convention.

There was also rising concern about the fallout of this crisis on considerable Italian interests - defence deals, for example - in India.

Italy believes they have come out of the crisis with a face saver - it has reportedly received assurances from India about the marines' treatment and treatment, their human rights, and the fact that they are not at risk of receiving the death penalty, which in any case seemed highly unlikely.

But, as Indian diplomats are saying, "the stakes had become too high for Italy and they buckled".

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With PlayStation 4, Sony Aims for Return to Glory - New York Times

For the Sony Corporation, a tech industry also-ran, the moment of reckoning is here.

The first three generations of PlayStation sold more than 300 million units, pioneered a new style of serious gaming and produced hefty profits. PlayStation 4, introduced by Sony on Wednesday evening, is a bold bid to recapture those glory days of innovation and success.

The first new PlayStation in seven years was touted by Sony as being like a “supercharged PC.” It has a souped-up eight-core processor to juggle more complex tasks simultaneously, enhanced graphics, the ability to play games even as they are being downloaded, and a new controller designed in tandem with a “stereo camera” that can sense the depth of the environment in front of it.All of that should make for more compelling play for the hard-core gamers at the heart of the PlayStation market. The blood in “Killzone: Shadow Fall,” shown to an audience of 1,200 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, looked chillingly real.

The device, whose price was not immediately announced, will go on sale before the end of the year.

With PlayStation 4, serious gaming is about to become much more social. A player can broadcast his gameplay in real time, and his friend can peek into his game and hop in to help. Also, they will now be able to upload recordings of themselves playing and send them to their hardcore friends, who will possibly want to watch when they are not playing themselves.

The new features, however, cannot hide the fact that PlayStation 4 is still a console, a way of playing games on compact discs that was cool when cellphones were the size of toasters and browsers were people in libraries. It was a couple of lifetimes ago, or so it seems.

Much of the excitement in gaming has shifted to the Web and mobile devices, which is cheap, easy and fast. Nintendo’s new Wii, introduced in November, has been a disappointment. Microsoft’s Xbox, the third major console, is racing to turn into a home entertainment center as fast as it can.

“Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation,” Andrew House, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, told the crowd. He said the new device “represents a significant shift of thinking of PlayStation as merely a box or console to thinking as a leading authority on play.”Fine words, but the new PlayStation will have an uphill battle. Sales of consoles from all makers peaked in 2008, when about 55 million units were sold according to the research firm I.D.C. By last year, that was down to 34 million.

For 2014, Lewis Ward, I.D.C.’s research manager for gaming, forecasts a recovery to about 44.5 million.

“From peak to peak, we’ll be down about 10 million,” he said. “There was attrition to alternative gaming platforms like tablets, but the trough was exacerbated by the 2008-2009 recession. It did not permit as many people to buy who under normal economic conditions would have bought a console.”

That was reflected in Sony’s miserable financial results. The company has lost money for the last four years, hampered not only by slower console sales but also by a range of unexciting electronic products, a strong yen and the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Analysts have made dire comments about the one-time powerhouse’s viability. But Sony seems to have bottomed out, helped by a yen that has now weakened. Sony executives said earlier this month that they expected a profit in 2013.

Sony’s new chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, has a longtime personal connection to the PlayStation franchise and is making it one of the core elements of a more tightly focused company. Mr. Hirai became well-known for some of his more confident statements about the PlayStation, particularly a 2006 swipe at Microsoft: “The next generation doesn’t start until we say it does.”

Sony has teamed up with Gaikai, the online gaming company it bought last year, to store PlayStation content in the cloud. PlayStation 4 games can be streamed to the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s portable gaming device, among other features.

“The architecture is like a PC in many ways, but super-charged to bring out its full potential as a gaming platform,” said Mark Cerny, Sony’s lead system architect.

James L. McQuivey, a Forrester analyst, said that in order for the PlayStation 4 to succeed, Sony needed to think beyond gaming. The console will have to provide other types of digital content and services, like video conferencing, third-party apps and a TV service to create a deeper, long-term relationship with the customer.

By comparison, Apple, the world’s leading consumer electronics maker, does not just sell hardware. It also has an ecosystem of digital content including apps, music, movies and e-books to make people coming back for more Apple gear every year. Apple generally takes an enviable 30 percent cut of all media it sells. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are making similar moves to create ecosystems.

“Then and only then can Sony hope to learn enough about its users to overcome its own bias toward preferring to design products in response to engineering principles rather than customer needs,” Mr. McQuivey said.

Sony shares, which have risen by nearly a third this year, were little changed Wednesday before the event.

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Chavez's return to Venezuela raises questions - Houston Chronicle

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The announcement of President Hugo Chavez's return to Venezuela after a 10-week silence in Cuba is raising questions about his cancer treatments, his delicate health, and the political purposes that motivated his homecoming.

Three messages appeared on Chavez's Twitter account early Monday saying he was back, and the government announced that he had arrived at 2:30 a.m. and was taken to Caracas' military hospital to continue with his treatments. The government released no images of the president, though, and while his supporters threw street celebrations to welcome him, some also said they wanted to see him to get a better idea of how he is doing.

The government has said Chavez is undergoing "complex and tough" treatments for his illness but hasn't specified what sort of treatment. The government has said he is breathing through a tube inserted into his windpipe and therefore has difficulty talking, but officials haven't given a detailed medical report despite demands by the opposition.

Even as Vice President Nicolas Maduro has increasingly stood in for Chavez since the president's Dec. 11 surgery, he and other leading officials have insisted that Chavez remains in charge and has been signing off on government decisions.

Chavez's announced return to Caracas came less than three days after the government released the first photos of the president in more than two months, showing him in a bed looking bloated and smiling alongside his daughters. The lack of any images of Chavez on Monday underlined the many unanswered questions about where he stands in his prolonged struggle with an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas broke into song on television early Monday, exclaiming: "He's back, he's back!"

"Bravo," Villegas said, before state television employees joined him in the studio clapping and celebrating.

A giant inflated Chavez doll was placed beside a corner of the National Assembly building.

Villegas reiterated in an interview with Venezuelan radio station Union Radio that Chavez is going through a "difficult, hard and complex" recovery process, and that his return doesn't change the "difficult circumstances he has been in."

The vice president later presided over a televised Cabinet meeting at the presidential palace, though he didn't offer additional details about Chavez. "He will live and he will triumph," Maduro said at the end of the meeting, while on television an image of Chavez's face was superimposed on the oval-shaped table.

Hundreds of Chavez supporters celebrated his return in downtown Caracas, chanting his name and holding photos of the president in Bolivar Plaza. Supporters also gathered outside the hospital, wearing the red T-shirts of Chavez's socialist movement and chanting: "He's back!"

"I want to see my president," said Alicia Morroy, a seamstress who stood outside the hospital on the verge of tears. "I've missed him a lot because Chavez is the spirit of the poor."

Six hospital employees who were asked about the president said they hadn't seen him. Yusmeli Teran, a waitress who serves food to patients, told The Associated Press that the area where Chavez was being treated on the 9th floor is a restricted area guarded by police and soldiers. "No one has seen him at all," she said.

Chavez's precise condition and the sort of cancer treatments he is undergoing remain a mystery, and speculation has grown recently that he may not be able to stay on as president.

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer in Bogota, Colombia, said that given the government's accounts that Chavez is undergoing "complex" treatment, he thinks he likely will have to step down.

"Unfortunately, the cancer he has isn't going to go away, and he's returning to continue his battle. But I think he's conscious that he isn't going to win his fight against cancer, as much as he'd like to win it," Castro told the AP in a telephone interview.

The Venezuelan Constitution says that if a president dies or steps down, a new vote must be called and held within 30 days. Chavez raised that possibility before he left for Cuba in December by saying that if necessary, Maduro should run in a new election to replace him.

Chavez's return could be used to give a boost to his would-be successor and gain time to "consolidate his alternative leader" ahead of a possible new presidential vote this year, said Luis Vicente Leon, a Venezuelan pollster and political analyst.

Leon said that even if Chavez isn't seen in public, his presence will allow the government to keep up his emotional connection to his followers and rally support.

Even the state newspaper Correo del Orinoco referred to the possibility of a new election in its Monday edition. The top headline, published before Chavez's announced return, said a poll found Maduro would win a possible election.

Maduro and other Cabinet ministers held hands and prayed in a televised gathering on Monday night in which a priest and a minister offered words of thanks for Chavez's return.

Venezuela's opposition responded to the news by saying that it's natural for the president to be back in his own country and that creating a "spectacle" with his return serves no useful purpose.

"The government should tell the truth and dedicate itself to working to confront Venezuelans' serious problems," the opposition coalition said in a statement, citing problems such as violent crime, soaring inflation and worsening shortages of some foods.

The 58-year-old Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October, and his inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 10, was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers in a decision that the Supreme Court upheld despite complaints by the opposition.

Some speculated that with Chavez back, he could finally be sworn in. But government officials haven't yet addressed that possibility.

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Associated Press writer Cesar Garcia in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

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Fabiola Sanchez on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fisanchezn

Ian James on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ianjamesap

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