A Chinese boss ordered nine employees to do his 12-year-old daughter's homework, a report said, as office tyranny meshed with a parent's desire to see his child score well in the competitive school system.

"The leader said, 'Do some homework, it will be like practising'," one of the suffering subordinates told the Qianjiang Evening News.

The boss in the eastern city of Jinhua, whose name and organisation were not given, regularly asked workers to do maths problems and build small models, typically requiring two people to work overtime to finish the assignments.

But over the Chinese New Year holiday, an assignment to show changes in one's home town required nine people to paint pictures, take photos, produce a video and write an essay.

The employees said they tried to imitate the work of an elementary school student, making the quality lower than if adults had done it.

One of them, a 35-year-old man surnamed Wang, said he put himself in the mind of a young girl to write the essay. "I forced myself into an imaginary state," he said.

The report did not mention any repercussions for the child or her father. But one teacher told the newspaper: "This has completely deviated from the original intent (of the assignment)."

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

via Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/employees-in-china-ordered-to-do-their-bosss-daughters-homework-2013-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Agence France Presse Business Insider johalputt

05:35

A Japanese court Thursday rejected a claim by Samsung that Apple stole its technology, in the latest round of a global legal battle between the smartphone giants over patents.

The Tokyo District Court ruled that Samsung has no rights over data transmission technology used in some of Apple's iPhone smartphones, said a spokesman for Samsung's Tokyo office.

The South Korean electronics giant had sought an injunction that would prevent the manufacture and sale of some of Apple's smartphones in a dispute over patent rights, the spokesman said.

In response to Samsung's claim made in 2011, Apple filed a lawsuit seeking a court ruling that Samsung does not hold patent rights and thus has no claim to damages over the issue, he said.

A statement issued by Samsung's Tokyo office said the company was "disappointed that our argument was not accepted by the court".

"After studying details of the court ruling we will take necessary measures to protect our property rights," it added.

Similar lawsuits over the same technology were heard in the United States and South Korea, with a US court finding for Apple in August last year while a South Korean court sided with Samsung, the spokesman added.

A spokesman for Apple Japan declined to comment on the case.

The verdict is the latest chapter in a long-running global patent war between the smartphone giants, who have each accused the other of stealing intellectual property for their own products.

In a separate case, the Tokyo District Court in August rejected Apple's claim that Samsung stole its technology over synchronising a smartphone's music data with that on a computer.

The two companies are waging the patent fight in about 10 countries, and in Japan there are about a dozen cases pending, the Samsung spokesman said.

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

via Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-court-rejects-samsung-patent-claim-against-apple-2013-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Agence France Presse Business Insider johalputt

05:05

US President Barack Obama marveled that playing golf with Tiger Woods was like teeing it up with someone from "another planet."

Obama was still shaking his head at the other worldly skill of the 14-times major champion, after meeting up with Woods for their first-ever round together on Sunday.

"He plays a different game than I do," said the president, an enthusiastic weekend golfer, whose scores are guarded like a state secret.

"He is on another planet," Obama told ABC7 television from San Francisco.

"I don't think either party was nervous, he knew that I wasn't a big threat to his world ranking and I knew that I better keep my day job."

Woods, the first African-American golfer to win a major title from his 1997 triumph at the Masters, and Obama, the first African-American to be elected as US President, teed off at a luxury golf resort in Florida.

The world number two told reporters in Arizona ahead of the WGC World Matchplay Championship in Arizona on Tuesday that playing with Obama was "pretty cool. He's just a wonderful person to be around."

Woods and Obama defeated US trade representative Ron Kirk and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, who also owned the resort course where the elite foursome played away from the eyes of the media, who complained about being ditched.

Woods, who is chasing the all-time record of 18 major crowns won by Jack Nicklaus, said he was asked to play alongside Obama during an off weekend in his PGA Tour play.

"There's a process that's involved and I was invited to play," Woods said.

"It was an invitation that certainly you don't turn down, especially being he's an avid golfer and so am I.

"He can certainly chip and putt. If he ever spent, after these four years, more time playing the game of golf, I'm sure he could get to where he's a pretty good stick."

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

Please follow Sports Page on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

via Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-says-tiger-woods-is-on-another-planet-2013-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Agence France Presse Business Insider johalputt

04:50

Microsoft said Tuesday it had begun switching Hotmail accounts to Outlook.com as it officially launches its revamped email service.

"Starting today, Microsoft will begin to upgrade every Hotmail user to Outlook.com.," the company said in a statement. "The upgrade is seamless and instant for Hotmail customers; everything including their @hotmail.com email address, password, contacts, etc., will stay the same."

Microsoft said last year it was overhauling its email service as it adapts for mobile users and social media.

The number of active accounts on Outlook.com grew to 60 million in just six months during its preview period, Microsoft said, adding it lets users connect to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Outlook.com is also "designed to make it easy to send hundreds of photos and videos in a single message," it said.

Launched in 1996, Hotmail was among the first Web-based email services.

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

via Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/rip-hotmail-2013-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Agence France Presse Business Insider johalputt

04:36

Iconic French chef Paul Bocuse got a rapturous welcome this weekend in the United States for the inauguration of a new restaurant bringing his culinary prowess to American palate.

Despite a bout of ill health last month, the 87-year-old chef, among the most accomplished in history, did not hesitate to cross the Atlantic for the launch of The Bocuse Restaurant.

The Culinary Institute of America last year closed its Escoffier Restaurant, named after "the king of chefs and the chef of kings" Auguste Escoffier.

After renovations, the menu was revamped to feature contemporary French fare after some of Bocuse's best recipes at CIA's first new restaurant in 40 years.

Escoffier had helped make haute cuisine available to family kitchens thanks to cookbooks and restaurants at the Ritz in Paris, London's Savoy and other distinguished institutions.

At the CIA's campus on the banks of the frozen Hudson River, hundreds of students attended Bocuse's lecture on Friday to hear him speak about his life and dole out both advice and encouragement.

"Cook the way you like, with local, quality products," Bocuse told the students. "This is very important."

Donning as always his chef's hat and apron, he was surrounded by several of the biggest names in French cuisine in New York -- Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller -- and his son Jerome.

They paid tribute before a packed audience to the storied chef during a talk on the future of French cuisine.

"All cuisines are created equal -- be they French, Italian, Chinese or American," said Bocuse, while also highlighting France's unique assets: "a huge aquarium, a huge orchard and a huge vineyard."

In honor of his birthday on Monday, the students had prepared a gigantic cake of five layers with a big "B" on top as a surprise.

Nearly a thousand people then launched into a happy birthday song, in both French and English.

Bocuse, a three-star Michelin chief since 1965 who the CIA named Chef of the Century in 2011, then autographed cookbooks and posters celebrating his restaurant's opening.

In the evening, he officially inaugurated the restaurant by breaking a replica of a very large soup tureen like that used for his famous black truffle soup VGE created in 1975 in honor of former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

"Paul Bocuse is simply stated, the most important chef in history," said CIA president Tim Ryan.

About a hundred guests -- many of whom had earlier posed to snap up photographs with Bocuse -- savored a dinner that mobilized the efforts of about 50 students in the kitchen and two dozen in the dining room.

The menu included a peach of foie gras, lobster with champagne and caviar and filet mignon of beef with marrow custard. And for dessert, the guests were treated to grapefruit sorbet with vodka, a plate of three chocolates by pastry chef Gaston Lenotre and mini-pastries.

"Mr Paul," who arrived on Thursday from Europe, could not stay until servers cracked open the 1926 Armagnac wine.

He had to travel to Florida with his son, who now heads up the Chefs de France restaurant at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park.

But the French chef said he was delighted by his new restaurant and the honors he had received.

"It's wonderful," he told AFP. "These 3,000 students who will introduce Bocuse cuisine to guests each year" and work on a menu "adapted from Bocuse and other French dishes."

The aging chef now walks with difficulty, and revealed that he can't hear very well, but those are small matters to him.

Asked about his legacy, he preferred to speak about the future.

"For me, it's not a problem," Bocuse said. "Because after me, there are still many very good chefs, so we still have some great moments ahead. Yesterday, we were with a group of friends in France and today, we're with a group of friends around the world."

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

via Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/chef-paul-bocuse-opens-ny-restaurant-2013-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Agence France Presse Business Insider johalputt

04:35