Maple Leafs fire Brian Burke as general manager

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Maple Leafs fired President and General Manager Brian Burke on Wednesday in a shock move just days before the National Hockey League returns to action following a bitter labor dispute with players.
Assistant General Manager Dave Nonis will replace Burke, who is remaining with the Maple Leafs team as a senior advisor.
"This is a decision the board and myself made collectively," Tom Anselmi, president of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment told a packed news conference at the team arena. "It's not the product of any one incident or any one thing.
"The leadership change is more about a tone, a voice of leadership, than it is about changing gears and going in a different direction."
Burke arrived in Toronto to great fanfare in 2008, heralded as the architect who would rebuild the storied franchise to its former glory and bring the hockey-mad city its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
But in four seasons under Burke's watch the Maple Leafs failed to make the playoffs.
The Maple Leafs, who last year were rated by Forbes as the first ice hockey team to be worth $1 billion, have not made the playoffs since 2004 and are coming off a 13th place finish in the 15-team Eastern Conference.
Burke, who was also general manager for the United States national men's ice hockey team that won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, won a Stanley Cup as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.
He also served as general manager of the Hartford Whalers and Vancouver Canucks.
Unafraid to speak his mind, Burke brought a swagger and fondness for a physical, hard-nosed brand of hockey saying his teams would play with truculence and be held accountable.
CONTROVERSIAL TRADES
His managerial style was characterized by bold signings and controversial trades but ultimately could not build the winner he promised.
Burke's time in Toronto was also punctuated by feuds with the media and personal tragedy, as he dealt with the death of his 21-year-old son Brendan, who was killed in a car accident in 2010 shortly after revealing he was gay.
In the following years, Burke became an advocate for anti-bullying and gay rights committing more and more of his time to those causes.
With his team continuing to lose, Burke came under attack for a lack of focus that reached a peak two years ago when he paid a visit to troops in Afghanistan during the crucial trade deadline.
Anselmi made it clear that Burke's personal life played no part in his departure.
"The news is coming as a shock but the decision didn't happen overnight," said Anselmi. "This is a conversation myself and the board have been having for several months.
"Did the four years of missing the playoffs factor into the discussion with the shareholders? Sure it did ... but at the end of the day it was really looking for a different voice."
Despite Anselmi's insistence that the discussion had been ongoing for awhile the news came as surprise to everyone, including Burke, who learned of his firing as he was preparing to fly to New York for a Board of Governors meetings.
"It's a shock for a lot of people," said Nonis, who was general manager of the Canucks for four years prior to being brought in by Burke as his assistant in 2008. "We're not going to spend a lot of time grieving ... we have things to do."

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Samsung forced to reveal Galaxy sales data to Apple

Samsung (005930) was found to have infringed upon six of Apple’s patents this past August and ordered to pay the company $1.05 billion in damages. Apple (AAPL) is also seeking additional damages after its bid to blocks sales of eight Samsung devices failed. In order to asses the damages, Apple requested that Samsung hand over its sales data for its popular Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. The company refused, however, in an effort to protect its confidential pricing details and profit margins.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh recently ruled that Samsung must file an exhibit listing the total number of units of sold during certain time periods, Bloomberg reported. In a separate order, the Judge granted Samsung its request to delay the publication of part of a sealed document that showed per-unit operating profit for two of its phones.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Koh denied most of Apple’s and Samsung’s other requests to seal documents, noting that here isn’t a “compelling reason” that would require them to be sealed.

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Apple may have sold up to 4 million iPhones to businesses in Q4

As we’ve mentioned countless times, it’s a good thing that RIM (RIMM) will release BlackBerry 10 soon, because otherwise Apple (AAPL) and Android will continue to wreck its market share among enterprise users. Benzinga reports that Trip Chowdhry, a managing director at Global Equities Research, has put out a research note estimating that Apple sold between 3 million and 4 million iPhones to businesses over the past quarter, some of whom have switched over from BlackBerry.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
“This figure emerges from a combination of new purchase of iPhones and users switching to iPhones from Blackberry,” Chowdhry writes. “After the two-year contract expiration on Apple iPhone[s], [the] majority of the enterprises have replaced their employees’ current phones with the new iPhone 5.”
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
As for reasons why more companies are switching to the iPhone, Chowdhry says that salespeople for key enterprise apps such as Salesforce, Workday and VMware are increasingly “demonstrating their enterprise offering on iPhones, which is also acting as a trigger for enterprises to purchase iPhones for their employees.” Chowdhry also thinks that the advent of mobile device management software has boosted the iPhone’s security capabilities and has made it less risky for companies to adopt.

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Everything You Need to Know About Steubenville High's Football 'Rape Crew'

In the past 24 hours, the story of an alleged rape in the small, football-driven Ohio town of Steubenville has transformed from a local controversy with a curious social-media angle to an all-out Internet crusade, with potential cover-ups, allegations of prosecutors colluding with coaches, disgusting new video, and hackers to the rescue. Here's a primer on what looks like it may become one of the most emotional and controversial news narratives of the new year:
RELATED: Inside the Anonymous Hacking File on the Steubenville 'Rape Crew'
So there was a rape in this small town?
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Well, it's not that simple, but allegedly yes: Two 16-year-old boys from Steubenville High are each facing a rape charge for the assault in August of a 16-year-old girl apparently from across the Ohio River in Weirton, West Virginia.
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How come we're only hearing about this now?
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Because a lengthy New York Times story on the case last month got lost in the spotlight on the Newtown school shootings, maybe, or because the Anonymous hacking collective started calling major attention to it this week.
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But what makes this rape case different?
You see, Steubenville is the stuff of Friday Night Lights. The 19,000-person eastern Ohio town is a giant football community, and this alleged rape involves member of their storied Big Red team. "Everybody around here goes to games on Friday nights, and I mean everybody — people come for miles," a local told the Times's Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. "It's basically the small-town effect. People live and die based on Big Red because they usually win and it makes everybody feel good about themselves when times are tough."
So how did this assault take place?
Well, back on the night of August 11, the alleged victim was at an end-of-summer party and had a lot to drink, police said, when Trent Mays and Malik Richmond allegedly approached her: "Richmond was behind her, with his hands between her legs, penetrating her with his fingers, a witness said," reported the The Times.
And how is that different from all the other assaults against young women in this country?
Here's the chilling part: the alleged victim didn't know she was assaulted until she started to find out about it on social media the next day.
Really? That's pretty gross. How did she find out?
Instagram, YouTube, and some pretty disgusting tweets. And the girl's mother told The Times that her daughter didn't even know the full extent of the attack until a local paper wrote about it the next day. On August 22, Mays and Richmond (right) were arrested on charges of rape and kidnapping. (Defense attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from The Atlantic Wire.)
Why only those two? They were at a party, right? And there were all those tweets?
Well, word spread among the students at or around the party quickly, and as the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported, "Before the 16-year-old girl’s parents reported the crime to Steubenville police, many of the online posts had been deleted — or so students thought."
We live in an age when social media exists as evidence that can't just disappear, and Alexandria Goddard, who runs a crime blog called Prinniefied.com, turned up those deleted pictures from the night in question. Like this one:

What happened when that got out?
Goddard started posting on August 26, and attorneys for Mays and Richmond filed a defamation lawsuit October 25 — it was dismissed on December 27. But the local press had already picked up the story, and Goddard's site now carries the student Instagram photographer's apology:
“I deeply regret my actions on the night of August 11, 2012. While I wasn’t at the home where the alleged assault took place, there is no doubt that I was wrong to post that picture from an earlier party and tweet those awful comments. Not a moment goes by that I don’t wish I would have never posted that picture or tweeted those comments. I want to sincerely apologize to the victim and her family for these actions. I also want to acknowledge the work of several bloggers, especially Ms. Goddard at Prinniefied.com, in their efforts to make sure the full truth about that terrible night eventually comes out. At no time did my family mean to stop anyone from expressing themselves online – we only wanted to correct what we believed were misstatements that appeared on Ms. Goddard’s blog. I am glad that we have resolved our differences with Ms. Goddard and that she and her contributors can continue their work.” – Cody Saltsman
How come the other kids at the party didn't get in trouble? Isn't that aiding and abetting?
It's not like the cops didn't try: "The thing I found most disturbing about this is that there were other people around when this was going on," Steubenville Police Chief William McCafferty told the Times. "Nobody had the morals to say, 'Hey, stop it, that isn’t right.' ... If you could charge people for not being decent human beings, a lot of people could have been charged that night."
So what happened to the social media evidence? Isn't this supposed to be a case of our times?
That's where the investigation — a preliminary trial is scheduled for February 13 — runs into problems. Despite all the Instagramming and social media sharing, Chief McCafferty told the Times that witnesses failed to come forward:
The city’s police chief begged for witnesses to come forward, but received little response. In time, the county prosecutor and the judge in charge of handling crimes by juveniles recused themselves from the case because they had ties to the football team.
And, well, some of the evidence went "missing":
That player told the police that he was in the back seat of his Volkswagen Jetta with Mays and the girl when Mays proceeded to flash the girl’s breasts and penetrate her with his fingers, while the player videotaped it on his phone. The player, who shared the video with at least one person, testified that he videotaped Mays and the girl “because he was being stupid, not making the right choices.” He said he later deleted the recording.
Is anyone questioning the two boys' guilt?
Yes. About half the town of Steubenville, actually. Five months later, local students are still blaming the alleged victim for bringing the attack upon herself — she has been referred to on Facebook as "train whore":

And some, like one of Steubenville High's 19 football coaches, are blaming her for shaming the storied program:
"The rape was just an excuse, I think," said the 27-year-old Hubbard, who is No. 2 on the Big Red’s career rushing list.
"What else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that?” said Hubbard, who is one of the team’s 19 coaches. "She had to make up something. Now people are trying to blow up our football program because of it."
If not everyone believes the rape happened, aren't the town's football allegiances going to get in the way of a fair trial?
Well, yes, there's this from the Times report: "the county prosecutor and the judge in charge of handling crimes by juveniles recused themselves from the case because they had ties to the football team."
Wait, is this some sort of cover-up?
Well, that's why the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous — and, more specifically, one of its  cells known as Knightsec — got involved. The hackers, and their partners at the site LocalLeaks, are "giving a voice to the victim of this horrible crime" by rounding up new information that the police haven't been able to — or at least that hasn't been made publicly available in advance of next month's trial. They seem to believe that there are more people involved, that there are more victims, that the accused are getting special treatment because they are football players, and that there's a bigger group of boys involved, which Anonymous has dubbed the "Rape Crew." Oh, and they've set up Occupy Steubenville protests too.
Why do they think there's a cover-up, exactly?
For starters, Steubenville High head coach Reno Saccoccia didn't even bench the players involved. The Times wrote:
Saccoccia, pronounced SOCK-otch, told the principal and school superintendent that the players who posted online photographs and comments about the girl the night of the parties said they did not think they had done anything wrong. Because of that, he said, he had no basis for benching those players.
....
Approached in November to be interviewed about the case, Saccoccia said he did not "do the Internet," so he had not seen the comments and photographs posted online from that night. When asked again about the players involved and why he chose not to discipline them, he became agitated.
"You made me mad now," he said, throwing in several expletives as he walked from the high school to his car.
Nearly nose to nose with a reporter, he growled: "You're going to get yours. And if you don't get yours, somebody close to you will."
So is the country prosecutor trying to get her son and his teammates off the hook?
That's one of many new alleged details Anonymous and Local Leaks claim they have evidence of, in a document dump that started Wednesday, which they're calling The Steubenville Files. We detailed the findings already, and we're not sure of their sourcing, but their leaks suggest that the football coach and the country Sheriff are friends. And even though the boys will now be tried as juveniles, they allege that Saccoccia has ties in the juvenile court system.
Wait, how many moer people are involved in the assault?
The hackers allege that there are more than two boys who perpetrated the alleged crime. They also suggest that one of the parties that the unconscious girl was dragged to actually took place at the county prosecutor's house. The leaks read:
When the family of the victim went to file the charges, Jane Hanlin [the prosecutor] was present. She strongly discouraged them from filing. Hanlin frightened not only the victim, but the parents as well. Telling them that her name was going to be dragged through the mud, she will be in and out of court for well over two years, the press wouldn’t leave any of the family alone once the crime was made public. Scared out of their wits, the parents said they didn’t want that and Hanlin then said not to worry just leave it up to her and the detectives on the case.
And the hackers even dug up this video that had been deleted, which we showed and warned you about yesterday, of a former Steubenville student laughing about the attack:
Should we trust this new info?
Anonymous is notorious for doing borderline criminal fact-finding with good intentions. Just by bringing more Internet attention to the case, they've already pushed it forward. They continue to ask for the witness accounts that the town police chief has been asking for.
But the kid in that video up there will have his name attached to this case for years to come. And while he might deserve it, there's also a question of vigilanteism, since Anonymous has already published the personal information of certain other students it's convinced belong to this "Rape Crew":

How emotional should everyone get about all this before the trial?
Well, just this week Congress failed to pass the Violence Against Women Act, which is supposed to help protect women against assault and encourage them to come out in public when assaults do happen. The bill's failure, for the first time since 1994, is sort of poetic.

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Storm leaves Gaza man dead, Jerusalem snowed in

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. In Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said …more
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Gaza health official says a Palestinian man was electrocuted after being struck by a power cable snapped loose by ferocious winter winds, while a rare snowstorm paralyzed traffic in Jerusalem, its suburbs and the nearby West Bank.
Ashraf al-Kidra says the 24-year-old died late Wednesday in the accident, which left four others injured. While heavy rains have subsided, wind gusts continue to wreak havoc with the territory's electrical supply, and power has been cut off this week for up to 14 hours a day.
On Thursday, several inches of snow piled up in Jerusalem, its environs and the West Bank for the first time in five years, shuttering schools and crippling transportation.

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Iraqi officials say car bomb near bus stop kills 5

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi police say a car bomb explosion near a bus stop has killed five people and wounded 15 others in the capital, Baghdad.
The officials say the blast took place on Thursday morning near a bus stop in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah as commuters were gathering to catch rides to different parts of Baghdad. Five minibuses were damaged or burnt in the attack.
Medics in a nearby hospital confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.
Violence has ebbed in Iraq, but deadly attacks are still frequent.

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Bad weather strands released Iranians at airport

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Bad weather has stranded Iranians freed by Syrian rebels at an airport in Damascus.
A Syrian official says the Iranians left the Damascus Sheraton hotel early Thursday. But the plane to take them home after months in captivity could not take off because of strong winds from a fierce winter storm that has hit the Middle East in recent days.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to the media.
The rebels freed 48 Iranians on Wednesday in exchange for more than 2,000 prisoners held by Syrian authorities. It was the first major prisoner swap since the uprising began against President Bashar Assad nearly 22 months ago.

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Soccer-Krasnozhan sacked as Kuban Krasnodar coach

MOSCOW, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Yuri Krasnozhan has been fired as coach of Kuban Krasnodar following a "strategic" disagreement with the club's bosses, the Russian Premier League side said on Tuesday.
Krasnozhan's sacking came as a shock to most soccer experts after he had led modest Kuban to fourth place midway through the season - their best position in Russia's top flight.
"It was a tough decision but we have agreed to end our collaboration with Yuri Krasnozhan," Kuban's chief investor Oleg Mkrtchan told the club's website (www.fckuban.ru).
"The opinions of our sporting director and the head coach have become incompatible. The club is much more than just a line in the standings. We have strategic goals, and in this case, they're much more important than a place in the table."
Krasnozhan, 49, was appointed Kuban coach in August when he replaced former Romania and Chelsea defender Dan Petrescu, who left to coach fellow Russian Premier League club Dynamo Moscow.
Krasnozhan has now been sacked by three Premier League clubs in the past 18 months for reasons other than on-field performances.
He was hired by Lokomotiv Moscow before the 2011 campaign after guiding unfashionable Spartak Nalchik to a respectable sixth-place finish the previous season but they fired him a few months later despite being among the leaders at the time.
Lokomotiv said he was fired for "negligence in his job" following a controversial defeat by Anzhi Makhachkala.
Last December, Krasnozhan was named Anzhi coach but this time he lasted only five weeks before being sacked by the wealthy club from the volatile North Caucasus region.

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Soccer-Buonanotte spares Malaga's blushes against lowly Eibar

MADRID, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Diego Buonanotte saved Malaga from a potential King's Cup humiliation when he scored twice and created another in a 4-1 comeback win at home to third-tier Eibar that put them through to the last eight on Tuesday.
Eibar, who are second in their regional section of the Segunda B division and have never played in the top flight, took a surprise lead in the 12th minute of the last 16, second leg at Malaga's Rosaleda stadium for a 2-1 aggregate advantage.
Ruben Arroyo was quickest to the rebound from a long-range Mikel Arruabarrena effort and Malaga goalkeeper Carlos Kameni could only deflect his weak shot into the roof of the net.
The lowly Basque club held on comfortably until the 74th minute when Buonanotte exchanged passes with Javier Saviola and struck the ball high past Eibar keeper Xabi Iruretagoiena.
Two minutes later, Buonanotte set up Seba Fernandez to make it 2-1 on the night and substitute Francisco Portillo glanced a header into the net from a Nacho Monreal centre in the 82nd minute as Eibar's defences crumbled.
Their misery was complete when Guillermo Roldan was shown a straight red card four minutes from time and Buonanotte scored his second in added time to make it 5-2 on aggregate and set up a quarter-final meeting with holders Barcelona or Cordoba.
Barca have a comfortable 2-0 advantage from last month's first leg in Cordoba when they host the second-division side at the Nou Camp on Thursday.
Valencia will play 2011 winners Real Madrid or Celta Vigo in the quarter-finals if they can protect a 2-0 advantage at home to Osasuna in Tuesday's other last 16, second leg.
Real need to overturn a 2-1 deficit when Celta visit the Bernabeu on Wednesday.
Sevilla are virtually assured of a place in the last eight after they won their first leg at Real Mallorca 5-0 and host the Balearic Islanders on Wednesday before Real Zaragoza seek to maintain a 1-0 advantage at home to Levante.
Atletico Madrid have a 3-0 advantage over Getafe when they play their second leg on Thursday, while Real Betis and Las Palmas, another second-division side, drew 1-1 in the first leg and also meet on Thursday.

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Soccer-South African morale dented by loss ahead of Nations Cup

CAPE TOWN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - African Nations Cup hosts South Africa suffered a morale-deflating 1-0 defeat at home to a young Norway side on Tuesday in their penultimate warm-up international.
Norway, with a team of inexperienced home-based players, scored the only goal from captain Tarik Elyounoussi four minutes before half-time.
Elyounoussi took advantage of some slopping defending to net from close range in the only real attack of the first half for the visitors, who are using their off-season to expose younger players to international football.
The result will not help the crisis of confidence affecting Bafana Bafana, who were hoping for a change in fortunes but failed to deliver on pre-match promises of attacking play and flair from their coach Gordon Igesund.
Instead they were stymied by a well-organised Norway side and after a show of poor finishing they will have more to contemplate some 10 days before the Nations Cup kick off.
It will also leave the home public sceptical about the team's chances at the 16-team tournament, which South Africa kick off against Cape Verde Islands at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Jan. 19 (1600 GMT).
"I'm disappointed we lost the game, but we created a lot of good chances. We have to work now on using the possession better and not overelaborating so much on the ball," said Igesund.

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