Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has dealt a blow to the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s efforts to begin mass production of millions of notebook computers for poor children in developing countries around the globe.

Last year, as formal ties between the United States and Libya were restored, OLPC Foundation founder Nicholas Negroponte announced that Gaddafi had ordered 1.2 million of the devices, making him the non-profit group’s first major customer.

Last week Nicholas Negroponte told Reuters in an exclusive interview that the Gaddafi Foundation had cut its order for the inexpensive laptops by 700,000 units to 500,000, possibly delaying the launch altogether.

Gaddafi’s decision to more than halve his order means that Negroponte is scrambling for business in other countries around the globe. 

Negroponte didn’t give a reason for the change. But the dropped order came as the laptop’s price rose to $176 - from an original target of $100.

Nicholas wasn’t the only Negroponte, who was disappointed by Gaddafi. Earlier this month his brother John, who is a U.S. deputy secretary of state, traveled to Libya as the highest-ranking American official to visit the country in half a century. But he left without meeting the Libyan leader.

Prior to his trip U.S. senators had urged Negroponte to hold Gaddafi responsible for “acts of terrorism” during his visit.

Without those 700,000 laptops, Negroponte estimates that only about 2.5 million orders will come in. (That’s only an estimate because he won’t formally start taking orders until next month). 

Economies of scale require Negroponte to produce at least 3 million of the devices in their first run. Otherwise he’ll have to postpone their launch. So he said he’s going to spend the next month traveling the globe trying to drum up business.

Negroponte said that one option would be to sell the laptops to impoverished school districts in the United States, reversing a policy that he’d never give American youngsters access to the devices. 

Here’s an excerpt from the interview, which was conducted after an analyst briefing on the project. Transcripts of that briefing are available at the Website of OLPC News.
(Reuters coverage of the project)

Updates with links to Reuters coverage and OLPC News

Fabien Barthez: will he be remembered as an eccentric genius, or as just plain eccentric?

The former France keeper looks to have played his last game after he was attacked in his car by drunken supporters on Saturday, and ended up punching one of them. It happened after Nantes lost 2-0 to Stade Rennes, a result meaning the eight-times champions will almost certainly be relegated for the first time after a record 44 consecutive years in the top flight.

The next day, Barthez handed back the keys to his Nantes home and drove off for good. He’s 35 and a flamboyant career marred by controversy looks all over.

Some French fans would forgive him anything, as they remember the fantastic saves that helped France become world champions for the first time in 1998.

Others will have a less kind view. This is a man who was suspended for five months for spitting at a referee in 2005, and never apologised. The list of his recent antics includes hurting a team mate with a dangerous tackle in training and saying afterwards he had had fun.

What did Barthez have in mind when he decided just before Christmas to come out of retirement to help Nantes in their relegation struggle? He was probably missing a game he truly loves but soon enough he was making embarrassing blunders reminiscent of his worst days at United.

Then came trouble with his team mates. An individualist, which I suppose you have to be, up to a point, when you’re a goalkeeper, he never won acceptance from the rest of the team. And the atmosphere, already bad before he came along, reportedly became rotten.

Now Barthez is gone and Nantes are getting ready for Ligue 2. “When we see our Beaujoire stadium three-quarters empty next season, it’s going to hurt”, a distraught Nantes fan said. At least the Canaries might have a more reliable, if less recognisable, goalkeeper.

Patrick Vignal is a Reuters sports correspondent based in Paris

There was a time when people could prove how smart they were by solving the Rubik’s Cube puzzle in, say, less than a month, but the world moves on. Today we have “speed cubers,” who not only solve it in a matter of seconds, but are able to do it blindfolded, one-handed or even with their feet.

The really serious puzzle-solvers now even lubricate their cubes with silicone spray, or loosen the screws to speed them up, in their frantic race to give each face of the cube a solid color. This has prompted me to lay claim to three Rubik speed records, until somebody else takes them away: 

• Solving the puzzle with a cube and six colors of spray paint
• Solving the puzzle on the “honor system,” using blindfolded judges
• Coming pretty darned close to solving the puzzle, and getting a government contract to finish the job when I feel like it

Come and get me, smart guys… Reuven Fenton reports:

Oddly Enough Blog

A model works on a Rubik’s Cube backstage before the Cynthia Rowley fall collections 2007 during New York Fashion Week February 8, 2007. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favor of better-educated reptiles, and I donate money to those charities that give scholarships to very bright lizards and tortoises. 

Still, I am conflicted over this photo from China. As a person trying to guide young people into the better professions, I have to say if a job description dictates that you will be sitting in an enclosure reading books to slithering snakes while a bunch of gawkers take pictures outside, then maybe you should have majored in something other than art history or film studies in college.

The thing to ask yourself is, how do snakes let you know that they’re getting bored with what you’re reading, and it’s not a pretty answer.

Oddly Enough Blog

A trainer reads a book as she sits inside a glass house containing boas at a zoo in Jinan, China,  April 28, 2007. The performance with the snakes is being held to attract visitors during the May Day holiday. REUTERS/China Daily

This one goes out to those of you who think that the suits are always out to make a killing.

Some of Tribune Co.’s top executives will limit or decline their share of a $6.5 million bonus pool, the Chicago Tribune reported on Saturday. The pool was set up to reward Trib executives who worked really hard on a transaction that will see the company go private in an $8.2 billion deal funded by a boatload of debt and financing from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. The company will be employee-owned, and is hoping to pay down its debt even as the outlook for the newspaper business worsens.

Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons already forfeited his share, but he apparently is not the only one. For at least one exec, it just didn’t seem like the right thing to do when the publisher and broadcaster is trying to thin the ranks to save its shekels.

From the article: “FitzSimons opted out of the pool, which was set up to pay $6.5 million to 32 unnamed executives if the transaction closes as planned. And the company’s latest filings show that Scott Smith, president of Tribune Publishing, has also forfeited his $400,000 bonus.”

More from the Tribune: “With Tribune going through a difficult period and ‘making tough decisions about staffing,’ [Smith] said, it would be better for him to ‘focus on what was best for the company.’”

Other execs limiting their shares: “Donald Grenesko, senior vice president for finance and administration, and John Reardon, president of Tribune Broadcasting, will receive smaller bonuses than the company indicated in an earlier filing. Grenesko will receive $400,000 instead of $600,000; Reardon will get $200,000 instead of $350,000.”

That doesn’t mean a future of penury, we should note. The pool is now worth $5.2 million and will be spread among more top executives than previously planned, the Trib reported.

Where’s been the best place to watch football this season? The Leagues in England, Spain and Italy have the lion’s share of the money, almost all the best known players and, between them, seven of the eight semi-finalists in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

But from the point of view of the fans there are other, more modest leagues with competing claims. Below, I set out a case for the Bundesliga, while soccer editor Mike Collett says you have to dig a bit deeper to find the real drama in England.

What do you think? Where do you get the best combination of quality and excitement? Where do the fans get the best deal? Read the two pieces and let us know what you think in the comments section on this post.

The idea struck me again this weekend as a nail-biting title race grew ever more tense, with defeats for Schalke and Werder Bremen seeing Stuttgart sneak up to second with three games to go.

Germany’s league seems like a paradise for fans, with highly competitive, attacking football played in front of packed crowds at some of the world’s best stadiums, and with tickets still priced sensibly (look at what Schalke are charging, for example).

The ratio of goals per game is consistently higher than in the other big leagues and the national team plays with real panache. Only the stale form of Bayern Munich has been disappointing, although, as Erik Kirschbaum wrote last week, a lot of people see that as the best news of all.

There are no galacticos here — and how Bayern have missed the only one they did have, Michael Ballack — but there are plenty of classy players, including Dutch playmaker Rafael van der Vaart and eye-catching Brazilians like Diego and Lucio, not to mention most of Germany’s World Cup squad.

Germany has been left behind by England, Italy and Spain, where TV revenues dwarf what the Bundesliga brings in. The fans here will have to watch the Champions League semi-finals on TV this week but if that’s the trade-off for such an enjoyable domestic experience is it such a bad deal?

Kevin Fylan, Berlin

* Please leave comments back here

While the Premier League boasts some of the world’s greatest players, displaying their superlative skills in state-of-the-art stadiums, the really dramatic title chase in England this season has been elsewhere.

The Premier League has been a two-horse race all season between Manchester United and Chelsea, while Liverpool and Arsenal have been either third or fourth since December. In fact, only seven clubs have finished in the top four of the Premier League over the last 11 seasons — this season’s top quartet plus Newcastle United, Everton and Leeds United.

That predictability is nowhere to be found in Division Two — currently known as the Coca-Cola Championship, but still the Second Division to the purists.

Cardiff City, Preston North End, Derby County, Sunderland, and Birmingham City have all led the league at some stage — while Leeds, English champions in 1969 and 1974, European Cup runners-up in 1975 and Champions League semi-finalists in 2001, are about to be relegated to the third division for the first time in their history, along with Southend United and Luton Town.

Sunderland, who came down last year, began the season with four straight league defeats and looked to be heading for the third division themselves. Then Roy Keane took over as manager, guided them to an unbeaten 17-match unbeaten run earlier this year, restored their pride and this weekend saw their Premier League status restored with automatic promotion.

The difference between the Premier League and the Second Division is that there are so many genuinely big clubs who are real contenders for honours.

The likely playoff quartet: Derby County, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton, have all recently been in the Premier League. Clubs like Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Stoke City, Norwich City, Leicester City, Coventry City and Queens Park Rangers regularly attract crowds of over 20,000 in generally superb stadiums that would be a credit to most other top divisions anywhere in Europe.

It might not be the elite division, but in almost every other way it’s first class. The tickets are cheaper too.

Mike Collett is Reuters soccer editor, based in London

* Please leave comments back here

Palestinians attend a demonstration against violence in Gaza April 23, 2007. REUTERS 

A Reuters’ stringer is credited for this hilarious armed “demonstration against violence” picture, but, how stupid is Reuters in captioning it and running with it?

Priceless

A “demonstration against violence?” Come again???

2X2

Quite a few readers commented on these photos of heavily armed people demonstrating against violence. Our captions should have explained the contradiction more clearly, but we certainly were not taken for a ride. Our correspondent in Gaza, Nidal al Mughrabi, writes:

“It is very common here to have armed men in Gaza rallying against internal violence or against anarchy, while it may appear to be odd in the world outside Gaza. We see rallies here including armed men firing into the air, urging the restoration of law and order. It is some kind of paradox but it is Gaza and it is happening all the time.”

GBU Editor

Keep an eye out for McCain — on YouTube

In 2000, the loquacious McCain did not have to worry as much about some of his more zanier performances being available for mass instant replay at the click of a mouse.

“More zanier?” Good grief! The standards of English grammar in today’s news media are bad enough as it is. Can’t we at least teach our reporters - or our editors! - how to employ the comparative degree of adjectives? I hope this story will be corrected in the next few minutes. It makes Reuters look rather silly.

Philip T.

We corrected: GBU Editor