Washington University in St. Louis — better known as WashU — is known internationally as a top university, but has another reputation it is looking to shed.

As David Leonhardt writes in The New York Times, WashU is "the nation's least economically diverse top college," meaning it has a particularly low number of students on financial aid. According to Leonhardt, only 6% of WashU undergraduates receive federal Pell grants, targeted at students whose families are usually in the bottom 40% of the income distribution.

The university is now making a sizable effort to change these numbers, announcing a plan this week to reach 13% of Pell-eligible students by 2020, detailed in student newspaper The Student Life. However, WashU isn't doing as well as its peer institutions. As The Student Life reports, WashU's competitors have a median of about 15% of Pell-eligible students.

This is not a new problem for WashU, which is ranked as the 14th-best university in America. In 2013, The Times reported that WashU"has an endowment similar in size, per student, to those of Emory and Vassar — between $300,000 and $400,000 as of mid-2012, wealthier than all but a few dozen colleges in the country," but enrolls a much less economically diverse class.

"A student at Vassar, for example, is three times as likely to receive a need-based Pell Grant as one at Washington University in St. Louis," The Times noted.

There are a number of reasons why this has historically been the case.

The Times reported in 2013 that John Berg, the vice chancellor for admissions at WashU, told the newspaper that "one reason its numbers are so low is that the disadvantaged students it admits usually have offers from other top colleges with better name recognition."

Another issue has been WashU's reliance on need-aware admissions, which administrators have long said is an economic necessity for the university. While most of the university's peers and competitors have need-blind policies — which state that a student's potential financial aid needs do not play a role in any admissions decisions — WashU is one of the few top colleges that accepts or rejects students based in part on their economic situation.

Unlike other colleges, WashU is up-front about its need-aware policies. According to a 2013 Student Life editorial:

Wash. U. officials, to their credit, have been transparent with their procedure from the beginning. A prospective student's ability to pay for Wash. U. is only taken into account when admissions officers are trying to reach the budget line for the incoming class. The University argues that it wants to ensure all students that are accepted are able to afford coming here, as opposed to dissuading applications from less-well-off individuals, although both potential methodologies result in fewer low-income students attending Wash. U.

There may be a simple reason why the university remains need-aware. It has tended to invest in resources that are tied to college rankings, a connection WashU has refuted. In the 2013 Times article, Berg "insisted" that at WashU "rankings are never discussed in the admissions office," according to the newspaper.

However, as Leonhardt reports, rather than previously expanding its financial aid offerings, "Administrators say they have instead been devoting resources to turning Wash. U. into a top university, by hiring faculty, building new facilities and taking other steps. And the university's rise has certainly been impressive, from a largely regional university a few decades ago to one that draws students from all over."

This echos remarks in 2012 from the university's Chancellor, Mark Wrighton, who at an open forum discussion on tuition"made clear that, while the University would like to give more need-based aid, the administration has prioritized investments in faculty, facilities and programs over increasing socioeconomic diversity," The Student Life reported.

We have reached out to WashU for comment on their new admissions policy and the New York Times report, and will update with any statement we receive.

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Earlier this month, two Americans were charged with violating the Neutrality Act for their participation in a Dec. 30, 2014, attempted coup that failed to topple the government of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, one of the most oppressive regimes on earth.

The Neutrality Act makes it illegal for Americans to plot the violent takeover of any country with which the US is not at war. The two men who were charged, Cherno Njie and Papa Faal, a successful businessman living in Texas and a former US Army officer living in Minnesota, respectively, were allegedly among a dozen or so conspirators who had plotted to topple Jammeh.

Another one of the alleged plotters was Njaga Jagne, a member of the Kentucky National Guard, who was killed at Jammeh's headquarters.

According to a federal criminal complaint, the plotters were able to transfer eight legally purchased M4 rifles to Gambia. They had hoped high-level collaborators inside of the Gambian military and presidential guard would effect a quick and orderly change in leadership.

A few of the plotters even made it inside the state house, the seat of government power in the Gambian capital of Banjul. But when the bullets started flying, the hoped-for defections didn't come. Although Njie and Faal fled to neighboring Senegal, and later surrendered to US authorities, four of the plotters were killed inside the state house.

One of them was Jagne, a captain in the 149th infantry battalion of the Kentucky National Guard. He had moved to the US in 1993 and was deployed to Iraq twice, between May 2006 and April 2007 and between December 2010 and June 2011. Jagne had served as a platoon leader during the second deployment, according to the Kentucky National Guard.

He was one of 75 service members to receive American citizenship during a ceremony in Baghdad on Nov. 11, 2006, Veterans Day. A photo from the ceremony published in the February 2007 issue of The Bluegrass Guard, the Kentucky National Guard's newsletter, shows him as a beneficiary of President George W. Bush's 2002 executive order expediting the citizenship process for service members, holding his certificate while standing next to Gen. George W. Casey, commander of the multinational force in Iraq.

A report on the ceremony in The Bluegrass Guard said that Jagne "feels he has achieved something equal to going to the moon."

"I am now part of a nation founded upon and guided by the principles of liberty, justice, equality, and humanity," Jagne told the newsletter. "Everything about [the ceremony] sends chills down my spine."

Jagne was an immigrant who by all accounts had fulfilled the American Dream. He had two sons and a stepdaughter and carved out a middle-class existence in Kentucky while serving his new country and earning the respect of his peers in the military.

But he was also drawn to the plight of his former home, which was increasingly disturbed by the abuses of Jammeh's government and the Gambian people's almost nonexistent ability to peacefully oppose the regime. 

The plot in Banjul was in some respects a shambles, funded to the tune of $221,000 and armed with eight semiautomatic weapons allegedly smuggled into West Africa from the US by container ship. The plan reportedly hinged on the dubious loyalty of a disgruntled officer who had been promoted to a top intelligence position just weeks before the coup attempt. And Jammeh was out of the country at the time, denying the putschists a chance to decapitate the regime in a single, swift blow.

But Jammeh had been the target of as many as eight coup plots since taking power. Only half of them ever got as far as a concrete attempt to overthrow the president, and none made it as far as the state house.

The events that ended in Jagne's death arguably brought the National Guard captain closer to overthrowing one of Africa's most oppressive regimes than anyone else has ever come.

The Situation In Gambia

The decision Jagne made is almost incomprehensible: He left a family and a stable life in the US to foment regime change in a country he had been born in but hadn't visited in over 20 years, joining a far-flung group of plotters that he may never have even met before.

As Sigga Jagne, Njaga's sister, emphasized in an interview with Business Insider, her brother's existence was centered on America, the country he lived in for two decades.

"He was willing to risk his life to help people where it didn't directly affect him," Sigga Jagne said. "He didn't live [in Gambia]. Most of his immediate family was here."

To Banka Manneh, the US-based chairman of the Civil Society Associations, Gambia, the relative security of Gambians' life in the US is proof Jagne and the other American plotters' sole motive was helping to free their country of origin from Jammeh's oppression. 

"We all have good jobs here, and this a country we love so much," he told Business Insider. "But the reason why we are running around and going to protests, going all over the place is because of everything we are seeing what is happening to people back home. That's the only kind of motivation there. These people should be celebrated as liberators." 

It's possible to see how frustration could begin to build, even on the other side of the Atlantic.

Gambia, which is home to 1.8 million people, is the smallest country in continental Africa. It's nearly surrounded by Senegal and largely consists of land along the banks of its namesake river. 

At less than half the size of New Jersey, it is tiny enough to be vulnerable to the sort of all-encompassing nationwide authoritarianism that more populous or unwieldy states can avoid. "By any standard, it's one of the most repressive environments in Africa," Jeffrey Smith, an advocacy officer for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, told Business Insider.

It's small and obscure enough for the rest of the world to comfortably ignore.

"Essentially it's a one-man show," Amadou Janneh, a former minister of information in Jammeh's government, told Business Insider of the regime and the president's grip over it. "You may have people with fancy titles, ministers, secretaries, all that. But everything revolves against Jammeh."

The story of Janneh, the former minister of information under Jammeh, highlights the difficulty of doing any kind of political organizing within the climate the regime has created over its two decades of rule. In 2011, Janneh was out of government and increasingly concerned over the regime's autocratic direction.

"At the height of the Arab Spring," Janneh said, he started an underground civil-society organization in the hopes of sparking the kind of change in Gambia that was sweeping through Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. His organization had a website and Twitter feed and had obtained radio-broadcasting equipment.

The group printed 100 antiregime T-shirts it had hoped to distribute, a modest first attempt at puncturing the government's aura of absolute control. "People said the 100 T-shirts would be some kind of a test — and that's what got me into trouble," Janneh said. He was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in January 2012, then freed and exiled after the American civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson traveled to Gambia that September to negotiate his release.

For Janneh, the episode had an unmistakable message: "All avenues of peaceful change have been shut in that country," he said.

Fatu Camara agrees. Once a well-known TV broadcaster in Gambia, as well as Jammeh's press secretary and liaison to the US embassy in Banjul, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2013 on trumped-up charges of "tarnishing the president's image." She was eventually released and exiled to the US. 

"We tried elections. They didn't work," she explained. "If people protest, they'll be shot down. If you ask for a rally permit, you won't get one. The radio stations only play music. It's just like North Korea."

Unlike Janneh and Camara, Njaga Jagne would have had no firsthand experience of Jammeh's government. But an event earlier this year galvanized the Gambian diaspora in the US and conveyed just how low the country's plight rated in the US government's roster of priorities.

Jammeh's Triumphant Photo-Op

In August of 2014, Jammeh attended the African Leaders Summit, the largest gathering of African heads of state ever assembled by a US president. The Obama administration framed the summit as a chance to highlight"America’s commitment to Africa’s security, its democratic development, and its people," so Jammeh's inclusion was puzzling to many of his opponents in the diaspora who had personally experienced his regime's abuses.

Jammeh's triumphant photo-op with the first family taken at the event, which was later reproduced on regime-distributed T-shirts back in Gambia, was similarly distasteful for many. But the Gambian president's trip to Washington at least gave Gambians in the US the chance to do something that their relatives on the other side of the Atlantic could not: safely protest against him, and organize to convey their growing frustration.

Jammeh's security detail attacked a crowd of protesters outside of Jammeh's hotel near the White House on Aug. 7, injuring several people, including Camara, who said members of the president's entourage had given her a concussion that required a $4,000 hospital bill to treat. Jammeh's guards had diplomatic immunity and were never punished under US law. Jammeh had been feted by the US at the same time that his regime's true nature was on display in the heart of the nation's capital.

That incident, along with the indictments of Njie and Faal after the attempted coup in December, was an embittering reminder of the US government's apathy toward the repressive Gambian regime. In Banka Manneh's mind, the US was "standing on the side of the oppressor" in prosecuting the two men while allowing Jammeh's guards to assault protestors with impunity on US soil.

Jammeh's regime has been accused of ties with the Lebanese Shi'ite terrorist group Hezbollah. Jammeh has also made homosexuality punishable with life imprisonment.

"As far as I am concerned, LGBT can only stand for leprosy, gonorrhea, bacteria, and tuberculosis, all of which are detrimental to human existence,"Jammeh said during a televised Independence Day speech in 2014.

In December 2014, the country's lack of progress on human rights cost it its eligibility to receive benefits under the US's African Growth and Opportunity Act.

But Jammeh isn't under any kind of additional US sanction, and the government considers him friendly enough to charge American coup conspirators Njie and Faal under the Neutrality Act.

The prosecutions, and the protection of Jammeh's security entourage in August, highlight a strong US bias toward the existing state system in west Africa. In the US' view, Jammeh's is a legitimate government in a region that's experienced frequent coups and civil war — in Mali, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso in the past five years alone.

And the US is avoiding policies that would act to undermine the Jammeh's government legitimacy. After all, the Neutrality Act covers all countries with which the US is not explicitly at war. During the crackdown in Washington, Jammeh's guards had immunity that their American hosts were loath to violate.

Gambia is just too distant from US interests for Washington to be willing to undermine such basic principles of diplomacy, especially over an arguably internal matter like human rights.

Back in Kentucky, Njaga Jagne watched the incident in Washington a growing sense of unease, according to his sister.

"He's a very calm person but I could see that he was getting more frustrated, more angry with everything," Sigga Jagne said of her brother's views on events surrounding Gambia over the past year. "You have to realize, this is 20 years of pain ... in this country he chose he was watching daily people in Gambia that didn't have any recourse and it was gradually getting to him."

Captain Jagne's Decision

A Facebook post made on the account of the Kentucky National Guard's field-maintenance shop on Jan. 2, shortly after Jagne's death, recalled him as "hard working, humble, respectful" and someone who "usually only spoke when it was absolutely necessary."

"But when he laughed it echoed through the entire facility," the post said.

Kerri Ashurst had similar memories of Jagne. A program organizer for the group Operation Military Kids: Kentucky, Ashurst met him at a Department of Defense-funded camp in August 2013 for families of members who recently returned from military deployments, and worked with him on programs that helped returning soldiers adjust to life in the civilian world.

"He was very introspective and quiet — kind of one of those people who didn't have a lot to say, but when he did it was always very thoughtful," Ashurst said.

Sigga Jagne remembered her older brother as intense and duty-oriented. He joined the National Guard in 2005 at the age of 34, a few years after earning a degree in criminal justice from Kentucky State University. At that time, a National Guard enlistment almost guaranteed a deployment to Iraq. Those deployments came in 2006 and 2010, as Sigga once worried they would.

"I was working in public health and I said to him, why not apply for some other job with the state? Why would you join the Army at this point?" Sigga, who also lived in Kentucky, recalled of a conversation with her brother shortly after he signed on. "I'm the one who would say 10 billion things and he would say only one word and smile. I still remember he shut me up by saying, sis, I can't believe they pay me to do this job."

Njaga immediately took to the military. Sigga believes her brother's experience of growing up in Gambia was part of the reason. His life before moving to the US gave him a firsthand understanding of the inherently unfair order of things in a country with weak rule of law, and with it a keen appreciation for what American democracy offered and meant, probably a keener appreciation than is possible for many lifelong citizens of stable, democratic countries. Before Jammeh took over in a coup in 1994, Dawda Jawara had governed the country for nearly 25 years, Njaga Jagne's entire life up to that point.

In Gambia, Jagne explained, "you see how little you are," and have an acute sense of the gaping distance between yourself and the unaccountable cliques that run the country. 

In America, in contrast, "You see great people in politics or with money get their comeuppance because they did something to the little person," Sigga explained. "That really spoke to him. That's just the kind of person he is." 

Sigga said the National Guard appealed to her brother's strong sense of justice and clarity. "He breathed the military," she said. "He loved the discipline. He loved the lessons he learned there. He loved the structure, and the black-and-white of it, where we're going to go fight for freedom. He just loved it." And he embraced the sense of mission, harboring no apparent bitterness about having to deploy to Iraq during a time when the campaign was at its bloodiest for US forces and when American society was at its most ambivalent about the war effort.

After returning from Iraq, Njaga Jagne worked as a support specialist for Yellow Ribbon, a reintegration program for returning soldiers. The summer 2009 issue of the Bluegrass Guard reported on a reintegration training seminar for members of the Kentucky National Guard's recently returned 223rd military police company and their families that Jagne helped run.

According to the newsletter, Yellow Ribbon had made "great strides in developing sound strategies for giving soldiers extra support after returning from a combat zone." In the article, Njaga Jagne was quoted as saying, "The family members must deal with these issue too," without the writer or Jagne making explicit what those "issues" were. "When soldiers come back from deployment, their family members are going to see these signs and symptoms," Jagne was quoted as saying with similar vagueness before expressing hope that "if the soldier doesn't seek help, the family might" after attending the event.

Contextually, Jagne seemed to be talking about the range of psychic effects from deployment that can create distance between a returning soldier and his or loved ones — ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression to the sense of aimlessness that overcomes some service members when they return to the banalities of the civilian world. Much of Jagne's post-Iraq professional life was dedicated to this kind of reintegration work, which is now recognized as critical and life-saving.

But Jagne himself would soon develop his new and inevitably fatal sense of purpose.

The Coup

The Jagne family was no stranger to the excesses of the Jammeh regime. As Sigga explained, a younger brother was shot in the leg while participating in protests in 2000; he recovered from the injury and now lives in the US.

Sigga Jagne said that it wasn't until the past 18 months that her taciturn older brother became especially outspoken about events in Gambia.

By late 2013, his tone online became increasingly strident and seemed to foreshadow some vague, future plot. "This is not an advocation for non-confrontational disposition of tyranny," Jagne wrote in an "open letter to Yahya Jammeh" that he posted on Facebook in October 2013.

"Far from it. The Gambia may actually have no choice at this point. All means necessary will be used to restore justice, universal human rights, democracy, and the law," he wrote, affirming his awareness — with what now seems like a disquieting, heartbreaking degree of accuracy — that "Justice is not always pretty and painless to the just."

Shortly before that post, he had changed his Facebook name to "Njaga SpeakUpForGambia Jagne," following the lead of his sister and other antiregime Gambians active on the site.

"I used to worry when I started seeing this talk," Sigga admitted. "I know he's not the kind of person who does things halfway."

In 2014, Njaga's interest in Gambia began to intensify. "Last year I saw him getting more vocal on Facebook, basically saying how we've been talking and talking and nothing's happening — that we're not really doing anything effective, how we've been talking for 20 years and nothing has happened," she said.

Njaga was especially disturbed by a story that broke during the first week of July 2014. A young Gambian woman claimed in newspaper and radio interviews that she had been held as a sex slave at one of Jammeh's compounds. Her story lent additional credence to long-running rumors of Jammeh's sexual predation, which included persistent allegations of pedophilia.

"Njaga is not the person to join something," Sigga said, "but once he goes in he does everything whole-hearted."

It's unclear just how Njaga Jagne met up with the other US-based coup plotters, who were based in different cities and were not known as particularly vocal members of the Gambian diaspora in the US. Amadou Janneh, the former information minister now exiled in the US, recalled meeting Njaga Jagne at only one protest, and had never heard of some of the US-based conspirators. Sigga Jagne, along with other observers consulted for this article, suspected Njaga came in contact with the other conspirators online.

There's little doubt that Njaga Jagne believed that Jammeh's ouster was the only solution to Gambia's predicament. "There's really not much you can do besides trying to remove him," Sigga Jagne said. "And I know that [Njaga's] the kind of person who goes all out. Once he gets involved there's no backing away."

The Aftermath

Whatever nobility Jagne's mission may have had is obscured for the time being by its messy and tragic conclusion: a violent death halfway around the world, a body held hostage, and two sons and a stepdaughter left fatherless.

The Jagne family is attempting to recover Njaga's body from Gambia. Their endeavor puts the US in an awkward position diplomatically. Njaga Jagne is a former service member and veteran entitled to a military burial on US soil.

But he was an accomplice to two people now charged with violating the Neutrality Act in attempting to overthrow a government "with which the US is at peace," and is someone who the Gambian government undoubtedly considers to be a criminal.

It isn't likely that the US will sanction a foreign state to recover the body of a US citizen, or that a regime like Jammeh's will turn over Jagne's body without exacting some concession in return. Perversely, Jagne's attempt to free the Gambia from Jammeh has turned him into the regime's prisoner even after death.

When reached for comment on Jan. 16, a State Department official told Business Insider that "we have been in touch with authorities of the Gambia concerning Mr. Jagne’s case."

"We will not discuss the details of our diplomatic conversations," the official said. "We have also been in contact with family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance. However, out of respect for those involved, we have nothing further at this time.”

Sigga Jagne believes her brother died in a heroic struggle against tyranny and that Jammeh's regime is weaker than it appears. "His legacy is that he stood up for people who had nobody to stand up for them," she said. "People who were daily being abused and tortured and abducted and killed. It was worth it for him."

Kerri Ashurst, of Operation Military Kids: Kentucky, remembered Jagne attending a Department of Defense-sponsored retreat for returning soldiers in August 2013 with one of his sons, who was 7 at the time.

Ashurst recalls Jagne and two other attendees playing jump rope with a group of kids — three clean-shaven soldiers who had experienced the intensity of foreign conflict zones awaiting an innocent flick of the rope from the children at either side.

The moment was captured in a photograph that has the warmth of a fresh homecoming, along with the unease of a happy memory suddenly turned bittersweet. Jagne wears a wide smile, and one gets the sense that everyone in the frame broke into hearty giggles just a second after the picture was taken.

Ashurst has a vivid memory of Jagne and his son chasing each other and then collapsing in laughter on the grass. It's a recollection of the kind of relationship Jagne enjoyed with the children who will never see him again. 

"Their fun-loving relationship as father and son was contagious and it just rubbed off on all the other families around him," she said.

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The Seattle Seahawks completed a comeback for the ages in the NFC Championship game, erasing a 12-point deficit with less than three minutes to play, and are now one win away from being the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in a decade.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson broke down into tears during his post-game interview with Fox's Erin Andrews, and understandably so.

Wilson threw four interceptions during the game and was on pace to have his worst game as a professional before finally turning things around, capped off by his 35-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse in overtime for the game-winner.

Here is the interview.

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With five minutes left in the NFC Championship Game, the Green Bay Packers had the ball and a 19-7 lead on the Seattle Seahawks. 

From that point on, everything that could possibly go wrong for the Packers went wrong, and they lost 28-22 in overtime.

After the game a lot of the blame was placed on Brandon Bostick, who flat-out dropped an onside kick with two minutes left that would have sealed the game for Green Bay.

But when you go back and look at it, the Packers had a bunch of other chances to win the game. It only would have taken one play to stop the collapse, and the Packers never got it.

Here's a minute-by-minute breakdown of how the Packers blew it in the final minutes:

5:04 left (Packers 19, Seahawks 7) — Morgan Burnett intercepted Russell Wilson to give the ball back to Green Bay with a 12-point lead. But for some reason he slid down at his own 43-yard-line instead of trying to run it back.

He had open field in front of him. Sure, he eliminated the possibility that he'd fumble it right back to Seattle, but he could have gotten his team into field goal range, or close to it:

You usually only see guys slide down like that when the game is pretty much over. As we know, this game wasn't over.

3:52 left (Packers 19, Seahawks 7) — The Packers punted after playing as conservatively as possible. After the interception, Green Bay ran the following plays:

• 1st and 10: Eddie Lacy run, -4 yards
• 2nd and 14: Eddie Lacy run, -2 yards
• 3rd and 16: Eddie Lacy run, 2 yards
• 4th and 14: Punt

They tried to run out the clock instead of trying to score more points. Aaron Rodgers is the best player on the field and the probably MVP of the league, yet coach Mike McCarthy didn't give him a chance to go and win the game. Instead, he gave the ball right back to Seattle.

2:09 left (Packers 19, Seahawks 14) — Russell Wilson scored a touchdown to make it 19-14. After the Packers punted with 3:52 left, it only took Wilson 1 minute, 43 seconds to engineer a 69-yard touchdown drive to pull his team within one score.

2:09 left (Packers 19, Seahawks 14) — Seattle recovers an onside kick after Brandon Bostick lets it bounce through and hands and off his head:

The worst part of it is that it wasn't Bostick's job to catch the punt. He told Rob Demovsky of ESPN after the game that he was supposed to block on the play, but he changed his mind and tried to catch it because it came right to him.

After he botched the catch, Seattle's Chris Matthews recovered it to give the Seahawks the ball back with 2:09 left.

1:25 left (Packers 19, Seahawks 22) — Marshawn Lynch completes the comeback by scoring a touchdown to make it 20-19 from 24 yards out. Three different Packers players had a chance to stop him:

To make matters worse, the Packers allowed a cheap two-point conversion. If they would have stopped the two-point conversion, Aaron Rodgers would have gotten the ball back with 1:25 left and had a chance to win the game with a field goal instead of just tying it.

Instead, the Seahawks hit this miracle conversion to Luke Willson to make it 22-19, with Packers safety HaHa Clinton-Dix unable to get there in time:

The Packers scored a field goal in regulation to make it 22-22, but Seattle won 28-22 on the first possession of overtime.

It should have never gotten that far.

If Morgan Burnett doesn't slide after the interception and runs it into field goal range instead, the Packers probably win.

If coach Mike McCarthy puts the ball in Rodgers' hands on the ensuing drive instead of running it three times, the Packers probably win.

If Brandon Bostick catches the ball on the onside kick, the Packers probably win.

If HaHa Clinton-Dix breaks up the rainbow throw on the two-point conversion, the Packers probably win. 

If any one of those things happen, the Packers are in the super Bowl.

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Mark Zuckerberg thinks that the media's portrayal of what it takes to start a company often discourages people from trying to do it themselves. 

At his most recent town-hall-style question-and-answer session, someone asked Zuckerberg to talk about "the exact moment" when he decided to build Facebook. 

Zuckerberg laughed and then explained that the idea for any company doesn't come in one moment, but through talking and thinking about something for a long time. 

He then added that one person's efforts are never enough. The media often simplifies what it takes to build a startup, he says, making it seem like it there's always one person with a genius idea who manages to build a great company.

Instead, he argues, you need a bunch of people working on an adaptive concept together for a long period of time. You don't need to be a prodigy to start your own cool company — you just need to be passionate and focused. Zuckerberg went as far as to say that the media's portrayal of startups actively discourages people from trying to create a business themselves. 

"It's not as crazy and challenging as the media makes it sound," he said. "It's more accessible." 

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Sure, every consumer-facing businesses should invest in an app. But executives struggle to decide how much to invest in maintaining their smartphone apps, particularly in ongoing updates. 

Is it worth updating an app frequently? Do customers notice? According to a new app-update study from BI Intelligence, more frequent updates tend to be associated with with higher ratings from app users, according to iOS App Store and Google Play statistics for a small sample of consumer-facing and account-management apps analyzed in a recent research note.   

We looked at the number of reviews, number of updates, and average rating for each quarter from first quarter 2012 through fourth quarter 2014 year-to-date for top apps in different categories, including telecommunications, car insurance, utilities, retail, social media and e-commerce.

Access The Full Report, Statistics, And Downloadable 2014 Data By Signing Up For A Trial Today >>

Here's what we found: 

• Across 2013 and 2014, no app earned above-average ratings with less than 9 updates in the year. Across our sample, more frequent updates are associated with higher ratings. 
• In 2013, the average cumulative rating was 2.8, and the average app in our sample saw 7.9 updates. Subscribers can access the 2014 data for our XX-app sample. 
• Throughout 2014 Amazon, Walmart, and Geico updated their respective apps between 20 and 25 times, and earned the highest average ratings. 
• In 2013 apps were updated less frequently overall, but companies that sent the most updates tended to receive the highest ratings (see chart, above). Amazon, Walmart, and Geico each updated 10 times or more (higher than average) and gained higher-than-average ratings, and more reviews. YouTube was atypical in that it updated more than 10 times and received below-average reviews.  

The report is full of charts and data that can be downloaded and put to use.

In full, the report: 

• Provides exhaustive 2012, 2013, and 2014 downloadable monthly data on app updates, app ratings, and reviews for a sample of top consumer-facing apps. 
• Includes three charts visualizing the performance of each app, benchmarked against an average and their peers. 
• Discusses how app ratings and app-update frequency were related in specific categories. 
• Digs into how consumer brands can boost their app ratings. 

For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts, data, and analysis on the mobile, e-commerce, connected devices, and digital media, sign up for a risk-free trial.

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Seattle (AFP) - Super Bowl champions Seattle earned a chance at an NFL title repeat with a stunning 28-22 overtime playoff triumph over the Green Bay Packers.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson shook off four interceptions and hit Jermaine Kearse with a game-winning 35-yard touchdown pass on the opening possession of the extra period Sunday to give Seattle the victory in the National Football Conference title game.

The Seahawks, who trailed 16-0 at halftime and 19-7 early in the fourth quarter, scored two touchdowns in less than a minute in the final period of regulation in their remarkable rally.

A year after humbling Denver in last season's Super Bowl they will return to the NFL's championship showcase in suburban Phoenix, Arizona, on February 1.

Seattle will play the winner of the American Football Conference championship tilt between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts.

"I'm honored to be on this team. We're going to the Super Bowl again" a tearful Wilson said as he was mobbed on the field.

"Four interceptions and just keep playing," Wilson added. "The guys just kept believing in me."

Wilson's one-yard touchdown dash with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter pulled the Seahawks within 19-14.

Seattle then recovered the ensuing onside kick, as Steven Hauschka's effort bounced through the hands and off the helmet of the Packers' Brandon Bostick.

Seattle's Chris Matthews seized the ball at midfield to launch the Seahawks on a drive capped by Marshawn Lynch's 24-yard touchdown run and Luke Willson's catch of a two-point conversion heave from a madly scrambling Wilson.

That gave the Seahawks a 22-19 lead -- their first of the game -- with 1:25 remaining in regulation.

The Packers responded, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers guiding a drive that ended with Mason Crosby's fifth field goal of the game, a 48-yarder that knotted the score at 22-22 with 14 seconds remaining.

Seattle won the overtime coin toss and Wilson capped their 87-yard opening drive with a textbook toss over the middle to Kearse, whose only catch of the contest was the game-winner.

Seattle, already the first Super Bowl champions to win a playoff game the following season since the 2005 Patriots, will now try to become the first team to win back-to-back NFL crowns in a decade -- since the Pats won Super Bowls 38 and 39.

Such were Wilson's struggles that the Seahawks' first touchdown pass wasn't even thrown by the quarterback.

Instead, it came on a fake field goal, when punter Jon Ryan -- who holds the ball on field goal kicks -- connected on a surprise 19-yard strike to backup offensive lineman Garry Gilliam with 4:44 remaining in the third quarter that made it 16-7.

- Packers' missed opportunities -

The Seahawks still couldn't really get rolling, however.

Early in the fourth, Green Bay stretched their lead to 19-7 with a 57-yard field goal from Crosby.

With less than three minutes left in regulation, the Seahawks' hopes of a Super Bowl return looked dim.

Then came their two quick strikes and the Packers, who got a solid game from Rodgers despite the quarterback's calf injury, were left to regret missed opportunities in the first half.

Green Bay wasted a scoring chance on the first possession of the contest when Rodgers was intercepted by Byron Maxwell in the end zone.

And the Packers settled for field goals on their next two possessions after Seattle turnovers before Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb on a touchdown pass that made it 13-0 as the first quarter ended.

"It's going to be a missed opportunity that we're probably going to think about the rest of my career," a dejected Rodgers said. "We were the better team today and we played well enough to win and we can't blame anybody but ourselves."

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Shanghai (AFP) - China's benchmark stock index plunged 5.88 percent Monday morning after regulators cracked down on rule violations for margin trading, which has fuelled a extended recent rally, analysts said.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumped 198.41 points to 3,178.09.

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, lost 3.39 percent, or 50.11 points, to 1,428.36.

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Paris (AFP) - Wealth accumulated by the richest one percent will exceed that of the other 99 percent in 2016, the Oxfam charity said Monday, ahead of the annual meeting of the world's most powerful at Davos, Switzerland.

"The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast," Oxfam executive director Winnie Byanyima said.

The richest one percent's share of global wealth increased from 44 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014, the British charity said in a report, adding that it will be more that 50 percent in 2016.

The average wealth per adult in this group is $2.7 million (2.3 million euros), Oxfam said.

Of the remaining 52 percent, almost all -- 46 percent -- is owned by the rest of the richest fifth of the world's population, leaving the other 80 percent to share just 5.5 percent with an average wealth of $3,851 (3,330 euros) per adult, the report says.

Byanyima, who is to co-chair at the Davos World Economic Forum taking place Wednesday through Friday, urged leaders to take on "vested interests that stand in the way of a fairer and more prosperous world."

Oxfam called upon states to tackle tax evasion, improve public services, tax capital rather than labour, and introduce living minimum wages, among other measures, in a bid to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth. 

The 45th World Economic Forum that runs from Wednesday to Saturday will draw a record number of participants this year with more than 300 heads of state and government attending.

Rising inequality will be competing with other global crises including terrorist threats in Europe, the worst post-Cold War stand-off between Russia and the West and renewed fears of financial turmoil.

France's Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and China's Li Keqiang will be among world leaders seeking to chart a path away from fundamentalism towards solidarity.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and US Secretary of State John Kerry are also expected.

Beyond geopolitical crises, hot-button issues like the Ebola epidemic, the challenges posed by plunging oil prices and the future of technology will also be addressed at the posh Swiss ski resort.

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Russell Wilson has efficiently captained the Seattle Seahawks offense during a seven-game win streak, in which they're averaging 23.5 points per game.

Wilson hasn't put up the gaudy stats of some other quarterbacks, but he has become one of the NFL's most dangerous players by mastering two skills.

Wilson's known for his ability to scramble and extend plays for big throws, but with some help from his coaches, Wilson's becoming an effective, high-speed pocket passer too.

And it's making him an even bigger weapon, as former quarterback Warren Moon points out.

"I think it really shows people around the league ... that this guy can throw it from the pocket so we better get pressure on him. But we still have to be leery that he can get outside of the pocket. In some ways, you try to rush him like a controlled rush to keep him in the pocket. But if he’s throwing this way, in rhythm like that, and you’re going to have a controlled rush, you won’t win because you won’t get to him.

"So, pick your poison."

In the Seahawks' 37-17 win over the Carolina Panthers last Saturday, Wilson went 15-22, throwing for 268 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. Wilson also posted a season-best 2.2 seconds between the snap and an attempted pass, more than half a second quicker than his NFL-worst season average of 2.85 seconds, according to Jayson Jenks of the Seattle Times.

As Moon describes, defenses can try to rush Wilson if he's hanging in the pocket making throws, but they have to hesitate because Wilson can escape so easily and make big plays down the field.

Eagles coach Chip Kelly described the difficulty in trying to bring too much pressure against Wilson:

"You thought you had him sacked, you could hear the crowd going crazy, you thought you had him down, then he comes out of it."

Wilson's made escapes from oncoming defenses one of his signature moves, like this scramble against the 49ers in Week 13:

Though Wilson's quick throws from the pocket are still a work in progress, Pete Carroll believes Wilson's improved his speed on throws in recent weeks.

When Wilson can combine both styles seamlessly, it'll give defenses a tough decision: hang back and let Wilson make quick reads from the pocket, or attack him and risk letting him slip away in one of his signature scrambles.

This is the ideal world for Carroll: "To have that at each end of the spectrum working for us makes us as tough as we can make it."

SEE ALSO: Russell Wilson Is About To Become The Highest-Paid Quarterback In The NFL

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Super Bowl 49 between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots is a pick 'em at most Las Vegas sportsbooks.

Seattle opened as a 2.5-point favorite, ESPN's Dave Tuley reports, but that number quickly disappeared as bettors put heavy money on the Patriots.

The point spread is now a pick 'em at most places, while some even have the Patriots as a one-point favorite.

The Seahawks needed a miracle comeback to make their second-straight Super Bowl, beating Green Bay 28-22 in overtime after overcoming a 12-point deficit in the final minutes.

They'd be the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the 2005 Patriots.

New England looked much more impressive in its conference title game, destroying the Indianapolis Colts 45-7.

These were the two best teams coming into the playoffs, and Vegas says there's nothing between them. If the point spread holds, it'd be the first time a Super Bowl was ever a pick 'em, according to David Payne Purdum.

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Sydney (AFP) - Australian beaches that had closed due to sightings of large sharks for a record nine days, reopened on Monday, officials said, but rough surf kept most swimmers away.

A five-metre (16 foot) great white estimated to weigh 1,700 kilograms (3,750 pounds) and nicknamed Bruce was first spotted off Merewether Beach near Newcastle north of Sydney on January 10.

Several other sharks, including tiger sharks feeding on dolphins, were also seen along the coast, prompting the closure of all six Newcastle beaches despite sweltering summer temperatures.

Authorities reopened the beaches on Monday after jetski patrols found no sign of the animals, said Henry Scruton, president of the Hunter branch of Surf Life Saving New South Wales.

"The big one is the monster," Scruton said, referring to Bruce. 

"Bruce, he has been sighted on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, definitely the Friday," Scruton told AFP.

"But I don't think they've sighted him again this weekend."

Sharks are a regular feature in Australian waters and swimmers and surfers have had their fair share of encounters with the animals this summer.

Some beaches to the north and south of Sydney were closed on the weekend due to shark sightings and a 17-year-old boy was hospitalised after he was bitten on the hand while spearfishing 230 kilometres south of Sydney on Friday.

Fatalities are rare in Australia but two teenagers died in shark attacks last month, one on the west coast and one on the east.

Scruton said there had been a number of sharks seen around Newcastle and the Hunter region this summer, with another large one taunting two fishermen on the weekend by circling and nudging their small boat.

"It felt like getting trapped in a room with an angry pit bull," one of those onboard, Tim Watson, told the Newcastle Herald. 

"It wouldn't leave us alone. You almost wanted to stop and admire it but it was being pretty aggressive.

"It was as big as a wagon car -- that's what it felt like looking at it," Watson said.

Scruton said he hoped that Bruce had enjoyed his holiday in Newcastle and had moved on for good.

"He's worn out his welcome. We want him to go," he said.

"We've never had one come that was so big and stay for so long."

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Melbourne (AFP) - Fifth seed Ana Ivanovic crashed out of the Australian Open in the first round Monday but rising stars Simona Halep and Grigor Dimitrov successfully kicked off their bids for Grand Slam glory.

The former world number one Serb came into the tournament full of confidence after a stellar 2014 that saw her race through the rankings.

But she began her year in the worst possible way, blowing her chances against unheralded world number 142 Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic after easily winning the first set.

Hradecka bounced back to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, leaving Ivanovic and her Australian fans stunned. 

Highly-rated Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic, who made the US Open quarter-finals last year, was another early casualty.

Seeded 32, Bencic, 17, lost 6-2, 6-1 to world number 73 Julia Goerges of Germany, who out-played and out-served her more fancied opponent.

Tournament big guns Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova play later Monday, while top seeds Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic and defending men's champion Stan Wawrinka are in action on Tuesday.

Women's champion Li Na of China has retired and is not taking part this year.

Halep opened the 2015 proceedings on a cool day with the wind swirling around Rod Laver Arena with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Italy's Karin Knapp in 88 minutes.

The Romanian, a quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park last year, is looking to build on a breakthrough 2014 when she reached the French Open final and the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

The 23-year-old admitted she felt anxious appearing in the first centre court match of this year's tournament and struggled to put away Knapp, ranked number 50 in the world.

"It was a tough match for me and I was very nervous before the match, but I'm very happy now and I'm sure that next time I'll play better," she said.

Despite the emphatic scoreline, Halep's display fell well short of the form she showed earlier this month to win her ninth WTA title at the Shenzhen Open.

"I started well in Shenzhen and won the tournament there but the first Slam is different and there's much pressure here and I feel that," explained the Romanian, who will now face Australian hope Jarmila Gajdosova.

- Windy conditions challenging -

Tenth seed Dimitrov, dubbed "Baby Fed" for his playing similarities to Swiss great Federer and a picture-perfect one-handed backhand, also progressed with an easy straight sets victory over German Dustin Brown.

The Bulgarian was never in trouble as he powered to a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win in just 69 minutes, impressing with his all court coverage and groundstrokes.

At the vanguard of the new order of younger players, the 23-year-old said he was happy with his start but the windy conditions on the outside courts were challenging.

"It was a good start for me. Of course, I expected it to be tricky," he said.

"I think it was just a little tough for everyone to get into that rhythm, to get used to the court. It was pretty windy today."

He will next face either Slovakia's Lukas Lacko or Argentine Maximo Gonzalez with world number six Andy Murray a potential fourth round opponent.

Other seeds through included China's Peng Shuai, who beat German qualifier Tatjana Maria in straight sets, and French men's 29th seed Jeremy Chardy.

But two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded 27 and playing in her 14th Australian Open, was eliminated in straight sets by France's Caroline Garcia.

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Dhaka (AFP) - Bangladesh police on Monday withdraw security stationed around opposition leader Khaleda Zia's office in Dhaka for the last 16 days to prevent her leaving and spearheading violent anti-government protests.

"We've withdrawn the additional security from her office after midnight," local police chief Rafiqul Islam told AFP, adding that the former two-time premier was now free to leave.

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Seattle (AFP) - Super Bowl champions Seattle stunned Green Bay 28-22 in overtime to book a return to the NFL championship showcase, where they'll face the New England Patriots.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson shook off four interceptions and hit Jermaine Kearse with a game-winning 35-yard touchdown pass on the opening possession of the extra period as Seattle rallied for the victory in the National Football Conference title game.

There was no such drama in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where superstar quarterback Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes and LeGarrette Blount rushed 30 times for 148 yards and three TDs as New England routed the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 to win the American Football Conference crown.

The Patriots took charge early, taking a 14-point lead in the first quarter. They broke the Colts with three touchdowns in the third quarter and added another early in the fourth.

Brady reached the sixth Super Bowl of his career -- surpassing the record five reached by John Elway as a starting quarterback.

Now New England will try to prevent the Seahawks from becoming the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the Pats themselves repeated 10 years ago.

"Unbelievable game today," Brady said. "My team-mates, I couldn't be more proud of them. We put a lot of work in, worked our tails off to get to this point. It's nice to close the deal.

"We've got one more to go," he added.

Super Bowl 49 will be played on February 1 in suburban Phoenix, Arizona.

For much of Sunday afternoon, it certainly didn't look like the Seahawks would get there.

Seattle trailed 16-0 at halftime and 19-7 early in the fourth quarter but scored two touchdowns in less than a minute late in the final period of regulation to keep their repeat dream alive.

"I'm honored to be on this team. We're going to the Super Bowl again" a tearful Wilson said as he was mobbed on the field.

Wilson's one-yard touchdown dash with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter pulled the Seahawks within 19-14.

Seattle then recovered the ensuing onside kick, as Steven Hauschka's effort bounced through the hands and off the helmet of the Packers' Brandon Bostick.

Seattle's Chris Matthews seized the ball at midfield to launch the Seahawks on a drive capped by Marshawn Lynch's 24-yard touchdown run and Luke Willson's catch of a two-point conversion heave from a madly scrambling Wilson.

That gave the Seahawks a 22-19 lead -- their first of the game -- with 1:25 remaining in regulation.

The Packers responded, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers guiding a drive that ended with Mason Crosby's fifth field goal of the game, a 48-yarder that knotted the score at 22-22 with 14 seconds remaining.

Seattle won the overtime coin toss and Wilson capped their 87-yard opening drive with a textbook toss over the middle to Kearse, whose only catch of the contest was the game-winner.

The Patriots and Seahawks have never met in the post-season. The teams last played on October 14, 2012, when Seattle notched a narrow 24-23 home win.

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It looks like we have our first box-office bomb of 2015.

Chris Hemsworth's new movie, "Blackhat," about hunting down cyberterrorists, made just $4 million over the holiday weekend so far.

The Universal film, from director Michael Mann, cost an estimated $70 million to produce.

What went wrong? 

For one thing, the R-rated movie was competing against Oscar-nominated film "American Sniper." Director Clint Eastwood's film about the deadliest US Navy Seal sniper debuted to a huge $90 million at theaters.

It broke a few records, becoming both the largest January opening weekend ever and Eastwood's biggest debut for a movie.

There were also a few other male-centric films competing for viewers including Liam Neeson's "Taken 3," which debuted to a $40 million opening the weekend prior, and Kevin Hart's "The Wedding Ringer" featuring "The Big Bang Theory" actress Kaley Cuoco. The comedy made $21 million opening weekend.

"Blackhat" reviews have also been less than stellar. The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan says the film is "visually unattractive," and filled with "lame dialogue." Chris Nashawaty over at Entertainment Weekly calls the film a dud with Hemsworth miscast in the lead. 

The film still has the opportunity of performing well overseas since it not only features Chinese actors including Leeholm Tang and Wei Tang, but also includes many scenes in Hong Kong. 

SEE ALSO: "American Sniper" has a monster weekend at the box office

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Global currency markets are roiling after Thursday's surprise decision by Switzerland's central bank to end a three-year-old policy that limited the franc from appreciating too much against the euro.

The move sent the franc soaring, triggering hundreds of millions of dollars of losses at banks including Barclays and Deutsche Bank and bankrupting several currency brokers overnight. Many financial observers have lambasted the Swiss central bank for failing to signal the move was coming.

Investor Jim Rogers, however, saw it all coming, and he wrote about it in his 2013 book "Street Smarts."

"I explained carefully and at length that it was coming and why," he said in an email to Business Insider. "I am still astonished they would ever have done something so foolish, but politicians throughout history have always done some amazingly foolish things."

Here's the excerpt from the book:

Some of Switzerland's most prestigious banks were established in the aftermath of the French Revolution, during the turmoil that gripped France under Napoleon. Bank people fled France and took their money over the mountains to Geneva, which was not very far away. You will see that some of the great old Swiss banks, the private banks, were founded in 1795, 1803, years like that. But by then Swiss banking traditions were already well established.

Switzerland has been an international center of finance since the end of the Renaissance. Known since then for its stability, sound economy, sound currency, and privacy in financial matters, it has long provided monetary refuge from the wealthy evading the consequences of political turmoil in Europe, from French nobility fleeing the guillotine to the Jews escaping Germany a century and a half later. It has, for the same reasons, in modern times, attracted the money of numerous despots, criminal organizations, and scoundrels.

Switzerland, traditionally, has been unconditional in its offer of bank secrecy. Of course, all banks are supposed to keep your affairs quiet. If you put your money in a bank in Chicago fifty years ago, you would have done so with the assumption that it was confidential. In America, as we have seen, that is no longer the case. The government can look into your bank account, your bedroom, your mail … anywhere it wants. And in much the way that our privacy has been taken away from us, the Swiss have recently surrendered some of theirs, succumbing to pressure from the United States. Bank secrecy in Switzerland is not as sacrosanct as it once was.

Nonetheless, the first thing people look for when seeking monetary refuge is safety. They want stability. They want the security of knowing they will get their money back, and that they will get back at least as much as they put there in the first place. That depends entirely on a sound currency. And that is something the Swiss franc has always offered. The question, now, is whether that is going to last.

I had opened my first Swiss bank account in 1970 in the face of coming turmoil in the currency markets. By the end of the decade, as the markets grew more volatile, people all over the world were trying to open Swiss accounts. And the same thing is happening today. The dollar is suspect, the euro is suspect, and again people are rushing to the franc. In 2011, the CHF (the Swiss franc) escalated to record highs against both the euro and the dollar, rising 43 percent against the euro in a year and a half as of August 2011.

It was a "massive overvaluation," according to the country's central bank, the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Under pressure from the country's exporters, the SNB announced that "the value of the franc is a threat to the economy" and said it was "prepared to purchase foreign exchange in unlimited quantities" in order to drive the price down.

A threat to the economy? It was the exporters who were doing the screaming, but everybody else in Switzerland was better-off. When the franc rises, everything the Swiss import goes down in price, whether it is cotton shirts, TVs, or cars. The standard of living for everybody goes up. Every citizen of Switzerland benefits from a stronger currency. Our dental technician down in Geneva is not calling up and moaning. She is happy. Everything she buys is cheaper. But the big exporters get on the phone and the government takes their call.

The franc went down 7 or 8 percent the day of the SNB announcement. Nobody, at least in the beginning, wanted to take on the central bank. But the bank's currency manipulation will turn out to be disastrous. One of two things is going to happen.

In the first scenario, the market will continue to buy Swiss francs, which means that the Swiss National Bank will just have to keep printing and printing and printing, and that will of course debase the currency. Now, there are major exporters in Switzerland who might benefit, but the largest industry in Switzerland, the single largest business, is finance. The economy rises or falls on the nation's ability to attract capital. And the reason people put their money there is their trust in the soundness of the currency- they not that their money will be there when they want it, and that it will not be worth significantly less than when they put it there in the first place.

But people will stop rushing to put their money into a country where the value of the currency is deliberately being driven down. After the Second World War and for the next thirty years, people took their money out of the United Kingdom because the currency plummeted. (Politicians blamed it on the gnomes of Zurich.) London ceased to be the world's reserve financial center because Britain's money was no good. Similarly, if you debase the franc, eventually nobody will want it. You will have eroded its value, not simply as a medium of exchange, but also a monetary refuge. The money will move to Singapore or Hong Kong, and the Swiss finance industry will wither up and disappear.

The alternative scenario is what happened in July 2010, the last time the Swiss tried to weaken their currency. They did so by buying up foreign currencies to hold against the franc-selling the franc to keep the price down. But the market just kept buying the francs, and the Swiss central bank, after quadrupling its foreign currency holdings, abandoned the effort. At that point, when the bank stopped selling it, the Swiss franc rose in value, all the currencies the Swiss had bought (and were now holding) declined in value, and the country lost $21 billion. In the end, the market had more money than the bank, and market forces inevitably prevailed.

In the late 1970s when everyone was rushing to the franc, the Swiss National Bank, to stem the tide, imposed negative interest rates on foreign depositors. The government levied a tax on anybody who bought the currency. It was their form of exchange controls back then. If you bought 100 Swiss francs, you wound up with 70 in your pocket. Today, with the rush on again, The Economist has described the Swiss currency as "an innocent bystander in a world where the eurozone's politicians have failed to sort out their sovereign-debt crisis, America's economic policy seems intent on spooking investors and the Japanese have intervened to hold down the value of the yen."

All of which is true, but I think the problem runs deeper than that. The Swiss for decades had a semi monopoly on finance. And as a result they have become less and less competent. The entire economy has been overprotected. The reason Swiss Air went bankrupt is because it never really had to compete. Any monopoly eventually destroys itself, and Switzerland, in predictable fashion, is corroding from within. As a result, other financial centers have been rising: London, Lichtenstein, Vienna, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong.

I still have those original Swiss francs that I bought in 1970, and since then the franc is up about 400 percent. Granted, it has been over forty years, but 400 percent is nothing to sneeze at. Plus I have been collecting interest. Had I kept the money in an American savings account, it would have gone down 80 percent against the franc.

Reprinted from "Street Smarts" Copyright © 2013 by JimRogers. Published by Crown Business, an imprint of The Crown Publishing Group, a division Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company.

NOW WATCH: We Did The Math: Should You Buy Or Rent In These Major Cities?

SEE ALSO: Jim Rogers Reveals The Key To Being A Successful Investor

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Shanghai (AFP) - The China flagship firm of French telecom equipment group Alcatel-Lucent confirmed Monday a human resources manager is missing, after media reports said he had accused some of the joint venture's top executives of corruption.

Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell said it had "lost contact" with Jia Lining and was helping police and his family to locate him, according to a statement on its official microblog.

The statement described Jia as a mid-level manager in the human resources department.

The influential magazine Caixin last week reported that Jia was head of HR and had in a social media posting accused "many" high-level executives at the company and its subsidiaries of corruption and abuse of power.

The company said Monday that the posting on messaging app WeChat was inaccurate.

"The content of the Jia Lining WeChat has clear discrepancies with the facts," it said, adding the posting contained "several" fabrications and distortions.

The original entry could not be found. A 3,500-word version circulating online, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, listed nine names -- all Chinese -- of former and current company officials.

Relatives and friends said they lost contact with Jia on Wednesday and his car was found parked on Shanghai's Yangpu bridge, Caixin reported. 

A police statement confirmed a car had been found, giving the owner's surname as Jia, and said it received a report of a possible suicide attempt.

Shanghai Bell, set up in 1984, was a pioneering venture, said to be the first foreign-invested stock company in China. Despite its partly foreign ownership it reports directly to the central government's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees major state firms.

The Chinese partner is China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Center, reports said.

Alcatel-Lucent said earlier this month that it had appointed a 26-year veteran of the group, Luis Martinez-Amago, as Shanghai Bell's chief executive officer.

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Tokyo (AFP) - Avalanches in and around Japanese ski resorts killed four people including two Argentine men over the weekend, police and media reported on Monday.

The two foreigners aged 50 and 54 were visiting the Ryuoo Ski Park in Nagano prefecture some 400 kilometres (250 miles) northwest of Tokyo on Sunday, police said.

They were together with a man from New Zealand and a man and a woman from Australia, a local police spokeswoman said.

"When they skied off-piste shortly after 2:00 pm Sunday, an avalanche occurred and engulfed the two Argentine men," she said.

"Their friends made an emergency call and rescuers found their bodies in the snow," she said, adding they were taken to a local hospital where they were confirmed dead.

The avalanche was 30 metres (100 feet) in width and 200 metres long, she said.

Over the weekend there were also two deadly avalanches in Niigata prefecture north of Nagano, reports said.

A Japanese man aged 48 died Saturday after he was hit by an avalanche as he snowboarded, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

Another Japanese man, aged 35, was found dead in an off-piste area of a ski resort in Niigata, it said, adding police believe he was also hit by an avalanche.

Separately, rescuers were searching for three Japanese in their 50s and 60s who went missing while mountaineering on skis in Nagano, police said Monday.

They were scheduled to return to the foot of the mountain by Sunday evening but failed to do so.

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Good morning!

Here's the tech news you need to know today.

1. Google is interested in investing in Elon Musk's SpaceX. The tech giant is keen on the idea of using satellites to bring the internet to people around the world.

2. Twitter has acquired Indian mobile marketing startup ZipDial. The company gives clients phone numbers for use in marketing campaigns. 

3. Samsung is considering a stock split. But the company hasn't made a final decision yet.

4. Online furniture company made.com is aiming for a London listing. That would value it at around £100 million.

5. Apple has stopped developers in Crimea from creating apps for the App Store. It follows new US sanctions.

6. Leaked documents reveal that British spy agency GCHQ intercepted emails from journalists. The emails were collected as part of a "test exercise." 

7. Amazon is going to start creating movies for release in movie theatres. It aims to make 12 movies a year.

8. British banks think that Bitcoin is risky and could help terrorists. Banks are worried about the threat to sterling posed by the virtual currency.

9. Plaxo cofounder Minh Nguyen has been charged with murder. He's accused of shooting dead his ex-wife's husband.

10. Apple could be about to produce a stylus for the iPad. The device could arrive in the second quarter of 2015.

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