Memphis (AFP) - Australian Bernard Tomic fired nine aces past Alexandr Dolgopolov in ousting the fourth-seeded Ukranian 6-1, 7-5 to reach the ATP Memphis Open quarter-finals.

The German-born 22-year-old dispatched 23rd-ranked Dolgopolov in only 66 minutes to book a date in the final eight against Donald Young, who eliminated fellow American Denis Kudla 7-5, 6-3.

Tomic's win was the biggest upset of the $585,000 (512,000 euros) indoor hard-court event.

Second-seeded South African Kevin Anderson advanced on cue Thursday with a brisk 6-3, 6-2 victory over Australian Sam Groth.

Anderson set up a quarter-final meeting with sixth-seeded American Steve Johnson, who defeated Germany's Dustin Brown 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3).

Tomic, who ousted Dutchman Igor Sijsling in the first round, did not face a break point in ripping through the opening set and rescued seven of eight break-points against him in the second.

"I played pretty good the first set," Tomic said. "After that was a roller-coaster, but I managed to stay in it and winning the second set was important. I was down a break 4-1. I said to myself, 'It's only one break. Stay in there and have a shot' and it worked for me."

Tomic, ranked 49th, improved to 3-5 all-time against Dolgopolov. He had won their most recent prior matchup in last year's Sydney quarter-finals and in a five-set battle in the third round of the 2012 Australian Open.

Tomic has now reached the quarter-finals in three of his four tournaments in 2015.

"I'm focusing, I'm trying my best," he said. "I need to improve a lot -- I'm ready for that challenge."

The other two quarter-finals were set on Wednesday. Two-time defending champion and top seed Kei Nishikori of Japan will take on American qualifier Austin Krajicek -- who toppled fifth-seeded Ivo Karlovic in the second round.

And third-seeded American John Isner will face compatriot Sam Querrey.

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Wellington (AFP) - All Blacks stars Richie McCaw and Dan Carter will look to go out on a high when the final Super 15 competition starts on Friday as the World Cup approaches fast.

New Zealand's iconic captain and fly-half respectively appear set to bow out of Super rugby after this year's competition, which will be replaced by a new-look, 18-team version next year.

Both have been named for Canterbury Crusaders' tournament-opener against the Melbourne Rebels on Friday as the seven-time champions take aim at ending their seven-year title drought.

"There is something special about this season, with it being our 20th Crusade and Rugby World Cup year," Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder told the Super 15 website. 

"So there is a real buzz within the team at the moment, they are fired up for this season and ready to get it started."

Carter, 32, will play for France's Racing Metro next season, while 34-year-old McCaw is expected to reveal his plans for the future in the coming days.

Fellow thirty-somethings Conrad Smith and Ma'a Nonu have also signed with French clubs for next season, while Tony Woodcock and Keven Mealamu are expected to retire after the World Cup.

While it is goodbye to the New Zealand stalwarts, Super rugby is saying hello to an ambitious new era with teams from Japan and Argentina joining the expanded competition next year.

The World Cup starting in September will also raise interest in the valedictory Super 15, which wraps up in early July and can decide the ambitions of many players hoping to feature in England and Wales.

- 'Money' Bill -

Game-time for established players will be carefully monitored with South Africa's key men given rest periods as clubs heed the call of Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer.

Meanwhile serial code-hopper Sonny Bill Williams will look to write another chapter in his fairytale career by helping Waikato Chiefs win a third title in four years.

Williams, back from his latest stint in rugby league, helped the Chiefs win their first title in 2012 and he now stands to earn Super, World Cup and Olympic honours as he embarks on a two-year deal.

All rivals will have to wrest the Super Rugby Trophy from the New South Wales Waratahs, whose coach Michael Cheika will also lead Australia at the World Cup.

Cheika brought a first Super title to Sydney after building a side stacked with Wallabies including Benn Robinson, Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau.

Their main competition in Australia should come from the Queensland Reds, who have hired New Zealand-born code-switcher Karmichael Hunt and given another chance to wayward back James O'Connor.

Three-time champions the Northern Bulls look the best bet to end South Africa's five-year run without a title, with stand-in skipper Victor Matfield promising an attacking approach as club captain and influential number eight Pierre Spies starts on the bench against Western Stormers on Saturday after returning from injury.

"We want to go out and score tries -- if you don't score tries you won't win this competition," Matfield said. 

"If you look at the stats each year, it is almost always the team that scores the most tries that wins it."

"So it is about scoring tries and we've worked hard on that, especially playing from broken field, so hopefully we can score some nice tries this year."

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New York Times media columnist David Carr died on Thursday. He was 58.

The Times reported that Carr died at the office on Thursday evening, just hours after appearing at a conference with some of the team behind the film "Citizenfour," including former National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the film's director, Laura Poitras, and Glenn Greenwald, a journalist.

Carr's death comes a day after legendary CBS "60 Minutes" anchor Bob Simon was killed in a car accident in New York City.

Here is a portion of The Times' obituary honoring Carr for his decades of service:

David Carr, who wrote about media as it intersects with business, culture and government in his Media Equation column for The New York Times, died at the office on Thursday. He was 58.

For the past 25 years, Mr. Carr wrote about media. He joined The Times in 2002 as a business reporter covering the magazine publishing industry. His column appeared in the Monday business section and focused on media issues, including print, digital, film, radio and television.

Before joining the Times, Mr. Carr was a contributing writer for The Atlantic Monthly and New York magazine. In 2000, he was the media writer for Inside.com, a website focusing on the business of entertainment and publishing.

Before coming to New York, he served for five years as editor of Washington City Paper, an alternative weekly in Washington, D.C. From 1993 to 1995, he was editor of The Twin Cities Reader, a Minneapolis-based alternative weekly, and he wrote a media column there as well.

On Aug. 5, 2008, Mr. Carr’s book “The Night of the Gun” was published by Simon and Schuster. The book is a memoir of addiction and recovery that used reporting to fact-check the past. Much of the data he collected, including videos, documents and pictures, is available online.

Carr is survived by his wife, Jill Rooney Carr, and three daughters.

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San José (United States) (AFP) - Long-lasting mega-droughts could occur with increasing frequency in the western United States later this century if no action is taken to rein in climate change by curbing fossil fuel use, researchers said.

Mega-drought is defined as any drought as bad as the worst already seen in the 20th century, but lasting much longer, for 35 years or more.

The study is the first to predict that the coming intense dry spells could exceed the decades-long mega-droughts that occurred centuries ago and are blamed for the demise of certain civilizations in the late 13th century.

"I was honestly surprised at just how dry the future is likely to be," said co-author Toby Ault, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University.

"I look at these future mega-droughts like a slow moving natural disaster. We have to put mega-droughts into the same category as other natural disasters that can be dealt with through risk management."

The risks and dangers are worse today because of the larger population and greater dependence on water resources, scientists warned.

"We are the first to do this kind of quantitative comparison between the projections and the distant past, and the story is a bit bleak," said Jason Smerdon, a co-author and climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. 

"Even when selecting for the worst mega-drought-dominated period, the 21st century projections make the mega-droughts seem like quaint walks through the Garden of Eden."

Unfavorable forecast

Researchers applied 17 different climate models to analyze the future impact of rising temperatures on regions from Mexico to the United States and Canada. 

They also projected a continued rise in emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, and looked at a scenario in which actions were taken to cut back on greenhouse gases resulting in lower emissions. Both approaches raised concern for the future.

"The results... are extremely unfavorable for the continuation of agricultural and water resource management as they are currently practiced in the Great Plains and southwestern United States," said David Stahle, professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arkansas who was not involved in the study.

Currently the western United States has been experiencing a drought for about 11 of the past 14 years.

The dry area spans California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma and other parts of the region, directly affects more than 64 million people.

"Natural droughts like the 1930s Dust Bowl and the current drought in the Southwest have historically lasted maybe a decade or a little less," said Benjamin Cook of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

"What these results are saying is we're going to get a drought similar to those events, but it is probably going to last at least 30 to 35 years."

The research was presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, and published in a new AAAS online journal called Science Advances.

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Yangon (AFP) - Nearly 50 soldiers have been killed in recent fighting with rebels in a northern border area near China, Myanmar's state media said Friday, the latest blow to government hopes for a countrywide ceasefire.

The troops were killed in four days of clashes in Shan state with largely ethnic Chinese rebels from the Kokang region which broke out on February 9, the Global New Light of Myanmar said.

"So far, the fighting has left government forces with 47 dead, 73 wounded and five vehicles destroyed," said the report in its English language edition. 

A 200-strong force of Kokang rebels attacked a military base in the Kongyan area on Thursday, shelling the headquarters, the report said. The army has carried out five airstrikes in retaliation. 

The resurgence of conflict in the Kokang area of Shan state, which had been largely dormant for nearly six years, is an ominous sign for the government as it attempts to forge a comprehensive peace deal.

The state borders China's Yunnan province. Fighting there several years ago saw thousands flee over the border, sparking concern in Beijing -- a long-time ally of Myanmar's then military rulers.

Conflict between the military and armed ethnic minority groups is also raging in other parts of Shan and northern Kachin states, casting doubts over government efforts to ink a nationwide ceasefire deal.

Myanmar had hoped to sign the long-delayed agreement on Thursday, as the country celebrates its annual Union Day celebrations in Naypyidaw.

Instead, the government and ethnic groups penned a commitment to continue talks and referenced the concept of federalism.

Observers say the inclusion of the federal concept by the government marks a watershed in the tortuous negotiations, as it has resisted any deal on federalism until now.

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Natmauk (Myanmar) (AFP) - Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a crowd of thousands Friday in the biggest celebrations honouring her independence hero father in memory, underscoring her legacy months before leading the opposition to momentous elections.

In scenes reminiscent of her triumphant election campaign three years ago, Suu Kyi addressed a huge crowd in her father’s central Myanmar birthplace, with many supporters waving her party flag or portraits of the general as an earnest young revolutionary in a military cap.

"If we want to inherit from my father, we have to build a real democratic nation,” said an emotional Suu Kyi, adding that his "sincerity" had ensured his legacy endured.

Known affectionately as "Bogyoke", or General, Aung San is adored in Myanmar and credited with unshackling the country from colonial rule and embracing its ethnic minorities, in a vision of unity that unravelled catastrophically in the military-dominated decades that followed his 1947 assassination.

Suu Kyi was just two at the time of his death.

Thursday's rally marking the centenary of Aung San's birth in Natmauk -- a remote town nestled in the dusty plains of central Myanmar -- is the centrepiece of countrywide celebrations that are far more extensive than previous years.

People had camped out overnight to see "the Lady", as she is known, many sleeping on the ground in the local pagoda, on roadsides or in their cars in the farming town.

The celebrations come as Myanmar awaits a breakthrough general election later this year seen as a crucial test of the country's emergence from military rule.

Images of Aung San have been deeply entwined with the political rise of his Nobel laureate daughter since her release from house arrest over four years ago.

- Family affair -

Suu Kyi frequently referenced her family link while campaigning for the 2012 by-election that swept her into parliament for the first time.

"Being the daughter of Bogyoke Aung San is one of the reasons that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has reached the position she is in today. It's not the only reason, but it is one of them," Nyan Win, the spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, told AFP. Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.

Nyan Win said that with a poll date yet to be announced, campaigning has not officially begun and the party is not yet in election mode.

"It's logical for politicians to try to draw some kind of support or inspiration from what he did," said Trevor Wilson, an academic at Australian National University and former ambassador to Myanmar.

But he said no single party had "exclusive rights" to Aung San, who is also seen as the father of the country’s powerful army.

Public reverence for Aung San was kept muted under the junta that kept his daughter locked up for the best part of two decades, away from her two sons and dying husband.

But a quasi-civilian regime that came to power in 2011 has ushered in a new era of political openness, although a clause under the junta-era constitution currently bars her from the presidency.

Key figures from the ruling party and government have been keen to show that they share the public adoration of Aung San.

"The general is our general. He is our country’s leader… Because I am a retired soldier, I respect him more," immigration minister Khin Yi told AFP on Thursday in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw.

Born in 1915 under British colonial rule, Aung San became leader of the nationalist fighters in what was then Burma, joining the Japanese in their 1942 invasion of the country during World War II.

Unhappy with the new occupying force, he later switched allegiance to the Allies, leading to the return of the British.

The 1947 Panlong Agreement, a deal with ethnic groups and the British that paved the way for independence and promised political autonomy for minority groups, is seen as one of Aung San's crowning achievements.

But within just a few months he would be dead, gunned down in a murky assassination plot, and soon after independence in 1948 the country became entangled in a series of long-running civil wars.

"I love and respect his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi. I want her to be a president. Our country will develop so much if she becomes president," Yangon waiter Kyaw Ko Ko Latt told AFP.

But, he added, despite her many achievements, "she cannot match up to her father".

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Berlin (AFP) - Seventy years ago Allied bombing laid waste to the historic German city of Dresden, whose post-war image as a symbol of peace has been dented recently by anti-Islamic protests.

President Joachim Gauck will attend commemorations Friday in the eastern city's emblematic 18th-century Church of Our Lady, which has been rebuilt since it was reduced to rubble in the massive World War II raids.

Long left in ruins as a war memorial, the Lutheran church -- one of the architectural jewels of the Baroque city dubbed the "Florence on the Elbe" river -- was rebuilt with around 8,400 of the original bricks after German reunification and reconsecrated a decade ago.

From February 13, 1945, Allied forces unleashed a massive 37-hour bombing raid on Dresden, sparking a firestorm that destroyed much of the city centre.

Previously almost untouched by the Allied air assault on Nazi Germany, the city became a symbol of the horrors of war, even though others, such as the northern port of Hamburg, suffered far worse devastation.

In Dresden, up to 25,000 people died in the raids, which some critics said were strategically unjustified as Hitler's Germany was already effectively defeated and the bombs appeared to be aimed at civilians rather than military targets.

Far-right supporters sought for years to exploit the anniversary of the bombings, painting Germany as the victim. 

Annual neo-Nazi gatherings in the past drew up to 6,000 people and saw the staging of what they termed "funeral marches" through Dresden.

But the demonstrations have dwindled and only around 500 people joined last year's event, partly due to a strong anti-racist and pacifist counter-demonstration.

- 'Openness, tolerance' -

Anti-fascist organisations are again due to form a human chain in Dresden this year to pay homage to the victims of the massive bombing, as in past years, although no big far-right gathering is expected.

Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz has said that Friday's commemorations would be an opportunity to demonstrate the city's core values of "openness to the world and tolerance".

The city has hit international headlines for being the hub of an "anti-Islamisation" movement that emerged in October and brought thousands on to the streets for weekly protests.

At their peak just after the deadly Islamist attacks in Paris in early January, the PEGIDA marches saw 25,000 people take part.

But the movement has since fallen into disarray after its founder resigned when a picture of him looking like Hitler surfaced and other leading members subsequently quit.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the movement, which sprung up in a region where foreigners only make up around 2.5 percent of the population, mostly from Russia and eastern Europe.

Far-right groups had in the past claimed that up to 500,000 people were killed in the 1945 air assault on the Baroque city.

But an official commission of historians concluded in 2010 that about 25,000 people died in the raids.

After more than five years of research, the commission into the victims of the firestorm unleashed by British and US bombers aimed to resolve a bitter debate that had raged for decades.

It reviewed records from city archives, cemeteries, official registries and courts and checked them against published reports and witness accounts.

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Good morning! Here are 10 things you need to know in markets today. 

The German economy surged in the final quarter of 2014. Growth hit 0.7%, a very strong figure for the eurozone, and reached 1.6% year-on-year. That's almost twice as strong as economists were expecting. Analysts predicted 1% growth year-on-year and 0.3% in the final quarter of the year.

French GDP rose by 0.4% in 2014. That's in line with what analysts expected, and it's very, very slow by anyone's standards. In Q4 alone, the economy grew by 0.1%.

Greece will do "whatever it can" for a deal with Europe. Greece will make every effort to reach an agreement with its euro zone partners at Monday's meeting of euro zone finance ministers on how to transition to a new support program, its government spokesman said on Friday. "We will do whatever we can so that a deal is found on Monday," Gabriel Sakellaridis told Skai TV. 

European GDP figures are coming. Q4 growth figures for the whole of the eurozone are coming out this morning. Analysts are expecting 0.2% growth for the quarter, which would mean 0.8% growth for the whole period since Q4 2013. The figure for the whole of the eurozone is out at 10 a.m. GMT (5 a.m. ET).

29 sea ports on the west coast of the USA are partially shut down. Companies that operate marine terminals in major West Coast cities said they weren't calling workers to unload ships Thursday that carry car parts, furniture, clothing, electronics — just about anything made in Asia and destined for US consumers. Containers of US exports won't get loaded either. The partial lockout is the result of an increasingly damaging labour dispute between dockworkers and their employers.

Candy Crush maker King Digital surged after earnings beat expectations. Candy Crush maker King Digital just turned in a better-than-expected quarter and now the stock is surging. They're up by more than 15% in after hours trade on Thursday after the company reported earnings that beat expectations. In the fourth quarter, the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.57, topping estimates by $0.10 per share.

The World Bank is following the IMF with $2 billion (£1.3 billion) in aid to Ukraine. The World Bank said Thursday it is prepared to provide up to $2 billion in financial assistance to conflict-torn Ukraine this year, part of an international package of support. 

A Sharp executive says the company isn't planning on selling its display business. A senior Sharp executive said the Japanese company was not considering a sale of its ailing display business, after it warned it will likely book its third annual net loss in four years due to weak demand from Chinese smartphone makers. Sharp announced last week that it expects to book a net loss of 30 billion yen ($256 million) this fiscal year.

Brazil may end its free trade in autos with Mexico. Brazil wants to derail a pact that would allow unlimited imports of cars from Mexico, sources familiar with the situation say, in a move that could stoke trade tensions between Latin America's largest economies. A treaty between the two nations and auto manufacturers, which sets quotas on how many light vehicles Mexico and Brazil can sell each other, expires in March.

Asian markets are mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up 0.89%, and China's Shanghai Composite is up 1.01% just ahead of the close, but Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.37% on Friday. 

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Frankfurt (AFP) - The German economy, Europe's biggest, expanded by a surprisingly strong 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing full-year growth to 1.6 percent, official data showed on Friday.

"The German economy regained momentum at the end of last year," the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. 

"After the robust start in the first quarter and subsequent weakness in the second and third quarters, the economy stabilised again in the final quarter." 

In a preliminary estimate last month, Destatis had calculated that gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 1.5 percent in the whole of 2014 and that fourth-quarter growth was "around a quarter of a percentage point."

The main growth driver was consumer spending, the statisticians explained. 

Investment was also positive, particularly in equipment and construction. 

And both imports and exports also rose strongly, Destatis added. 

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Hong Kong (AFP) - Asian markets mostly rose Friday after European leaders and Russia agreed a plan to end Ukraine's 10-month war, while confidence Greece would reach a debt overhaul deal with its creditors boosted the euro against the dollar.

The upbeat outlook for both of the crises plaguing Europe provided a catalyst for an equities rally in Europe and the United States, a mantle picked up in bourses across Asia.

Sydney rallied 2.33 percent, or 133.90 points, to 5,877.5 as energy firms were boosted by a rebound in oil prices and the head of Australia's central bank said it was unlikely to cut interest rates to zero.

Seoul climbed 0.82 percent, or 15.87 points, to close at 1,957.50 and Shanghai jumped 0.96 percent, or 30.41 points, to 3,202.83. In late trade Hong Kong was 0.85 percent higher.

But Tokyo retreated from a seven-year high, slipping 0.37 percent, or 66.36 points, to close at 17,913.36.

After 17-hour talks the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany on Thursday hammered out a blueprint to end the conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels.

The ceasefire is to take effect at midnight Sunday (2200 GMT Saturday) in Ukraine and heavy weapons are to be withdrawn from frontlines.

But while the deal was welcomed on all sides, leaders remained cautious, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying "I have no illusions, we have no illusions" and that "much work" remained.

The news pushed European stocks higher, with Frankfurt up 1.56 percent, Paris adding 1.00 percent and London 0.15 percent higher.

On Wall Street, the Dow added 0.62 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 0.96 percent -- both close to record highs -- and the Nasdaq surged 1.18 percent to levels not seen since 2000.

- 'Glass half-full' -

"People are looking at the glass half-full," John Carey, a Boston-based fund manager at Pioneer Investment Management, told Bloomberg News.

"There's general optimism around the US economy and a little bit of relief that some of the major international issues are not going to impinge just yet on positive trends here."

Hopes for a breakthrough in Greece also provided support as the country's new anti-austerity Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented his case for an overhaul of its aid programme to EU leaders including Merkel, the strongest opponent of his plans.

Tsipras said Athens would start technical talks with eurozone partners on Friday in a bid to find common ground before a last-ditch meeting of finance ministers on Monday.

Global markets are hoping a deal can be reached before the end of the month, when Greece's bailout is due to expire. Failure to agree an extension would see it default on its giant debts and could mean it would crash out of the eurozone.

The European Central Bank also cheered markets when it increased the volume of emergency cash available to Greek banks, easing concerns over liquidity that had led to speculation of a possible run on the country's lenders.

The euro bought $1.1427 and 135.61 yen, compared with $1.1406 and 135.70 yen in New York.

The dollar was at 118.68 yen early Friday, compared with 118.97 yen in US trade, weighed down by weak US retail sales data.

On oil markets, prices rose, adding to steep gains in the previous session fuelled by planned investment cuts by the world's leading petroleum producers.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for March delivery added 71 cents to $51.92 while Brent crude for April was up 79 cents at $60.07.

Gold fetched $1,230.22 an ounce, against $1,223.20 on Thursday.

In other markets:

-- Taipei added 0.35 percent, or 33.20 points, to 9,529.51.

Smartphone maker HTC rose 0.68 percent to Tw$148.5 while Hon Hai Precision fell 0.46 percent to Tw$85.8.

-- Wellington advanced 0.65 percent, or 37.23 points, to 5,786.54.

Spark was up 0.45 percent at NZ$3.33 and Air New Zealand lifted 0.19 percent to NZ$2.62.

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Rolls Royce John Rishton probably just said the biggest company understatement this year.

In the aerospace and defence giant's full year results, Rishton said 2014 was a "mixed year."

Well, you could say that, considering the over 23% drop in the stock price, underlying revenue dropping for the first time in 10 years and a major restructuring of its aerospace division.

Oh, and EPS dropped 95% year on year, too. The company iced the cake with lower guidance for the coming year.

Investors seem to think it was a little worse than a "mixed year," as well:

 Rishton added: 

 We have met guidance for 2014 revenue and profit in challenging conditions while continuing to build strong foundations for future growth.

2014 has been a mixed year during which underlying revenue fell for the first time in a decade, reflecting reduced spending by our defence customers, macroeconomic uncertainty, and falling commodity prices.

In response to these headwinds, we are taking decisive action to improve the Group's financial performance and accelerating our focus on the 4Cs: Customer, Concentration, Cost and Cash. This includes a major restructuring programme in our Aerospace Division and continued rationalisation of our Land & Sea Division.

The fundamentals of our business remain solid, with long-term growth in demand for the complex power systems we deliver across our Aerospace and Land & Sea Divisions.

The results showed the following decline in a number of areas:

Oh, and there was also another statement to kickstart 2015 - the President and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America decided to retire after 17 years with the company.

For this year, Rolls Royce added that revenue and profit will fall again on "deteriorating markets."

"Since we last gave guidance, the external environment has deteriorated in some of our major markets. In particular, oil prices have halved over this period, creating increased uncertainty for many of our markets and customers, particularly in Marine Offshore. As a consequence, our full-year guidance is framed within a broad range and excludes the effects of foreign currency translation," warned Rolls Royce.

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Cairo (AFP) - Two Al-Jazeera journalists were freed Friday from an Egyptian prison pending retrial, their families said, after spending more than a year in jail in a case that provoked global uproar.

A Cairo court on Thursday ordered the release of Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, who are facing retrial on charges of supporting the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

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London (AFP) - Anglo American on Friday announced a write-down of $3.9 billion caused by sliding price of iron ore that has slashed the value of its Minas-Rio mining project in Brazil.

In an annual earnings update, mining giant Anglo American announced "commodity price-driven impairments of $3.9 billion (3.4 billion euros), including $3.5 billion at Minas-Rio".

The Anglo-South African company had purchased the Brazilian project around the time of the financial crisis for $4.8 billion to secure key supplies of iron ore -- a metal used to make steel.

Two years ago, it announced a $4.0 billion hit on the value of the project owing to delays that sent costs soaring.

Although the company managed last year to ship its first ore from the Minas-Rio project, "the steep drop in the iron ore price has resulted in a $3.5 billion post-tax write down", Anglo American chief executive Mark Cutifani said in Friday's results statement.

Consequently, the miner posted a net loss of $2.51 billion for 2014 compared with a loss post tax of $961 million in 2013.

Iron ore prices slumped 47 percent in 2014, pulled lower by a global supply glut and weaker demand from a slowing China.

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Anglo American shares jumped in the market open despite posting some huge writedowns.

It unveiled a £2.5bn writedown on its iron-ore and coal-mining assets as volatile commodity prices made it cut prices.

Revenue also tumbled by 7.7% to £17.5 billion.

The mining giant unveiled a massive net loss for 2014 of £1.62 billion. This is worse than the losses it posted in 2013 and 2012, at £624 million and £954 million, respectively.

In fact, it equates to a 161% jump in losses.

So, why are the shares rising in the market open?

Well, despite the top line figures, Anglo American said it aims to complete the iron ore Minas Rio project at $400m under budget and will stick to a range of cost cutting measures.

It also believes that the group will be able to ride out the storm of volatile commodity prices and has a diversified enough portfolio to protect it.

"2014 was a year of significant operational improvement against sharp commodity price declines amid generally adverse market conditions," said Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo American in a statement. "We delivered on our major operational and portfolio commitments to shareholders, including delivering Minas-Rio, defining our future platinum business and resetting the performance of our operations."

"Despite the headlines of economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, the underlying fundamentals of our business - applying world class technical skills to world class assets - remain attractive over the long term. In the immediate term, I expect tough trading conditions to prevail during 2015, but we are determined to continue to build on our already very significant operational improvements, drive towards an effective and efficient organisation and culture, and to be unwavering in our capital discipline."

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Twitter CEO Dick Costolo spoke at the Goldman Sachs technology conference earlier this week and reiterated much of what he had laid out at Twitter's financial analyst day in November (to the irritation of some in the audience, hoping for more news.)

But among the take-aways for those who weren't in attendance back in November was the notion that Twitter values its logged-out audience - those who see tweets but are not counted as active users - at $2.50 to the company each year. By comparison, those Twitter users who are logged-in are worth $4 plus per year, he said.

At a time when Twitter's monthly active user growth is stalling, the company has been shouting louder of late about the value of its logged-out audience, which it pegs at around 500 million(this includes people who see tweets embedded in news articles, or visit brand websites that have a Twitter stream.) Meanwhile, independent data from research firm GlobalWebIndex published by Business Insider earlier this month found that 160 million people identify themselves as Twitter readers, but not Twitter users.

But is a logged-out user really worth almost two-thirds that of a registered user? Business Insider put that question to a number of executives across the ad industry to see if Twitter's math adds up.

'Fanciful'

Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst serving marketing professionals at Forrester, thinks the $2.50 number is way out: "The notion that a 'logged-out user' is worth two-thirds as much as an actual user seems pretty fanciful. Those logged-out users will interact with Twitter's content much less frequently and for much less time, and they'll contribute very little data. All of those factors make it significantly harder for Twitter to make money from them."

That said, Twitter is currently making its first attempts to monetize those users.Earlier this week Twitter announced plans to sell ads in other apps and websites, by syndicating promoted tweets, initially with Yahoo Japan and Flipboard.

But a senior digital executive at one of the world's biggest media buying agencies, who asked not to be named given his company's close relationship with Twitter, doesn't think this approach will pay dividends for Twitter. That's a belief also held by a number of Madison Avenue executives asked about Twitter's ad syndication efforts by The Wall Street Journal's CMO Today this week.

"There is no mechanism I know of by which Twitter can sell this passive audience," our source told us. "It certainly sells data, perhaps including data for its passive audience. But not advertising. Twitter's data sales are, I think, a small percentage of its total sales. Maybe 10%. That's only a guess."

He also thinks Costolo's method to come to his $2.50 number - which appears to be comparing selling logged-out Twitter ads on a CPM (cost per mille/1000) is "abstract."

"We do not buy Twitter on CPM and do not think of it in this way. For example, you might pay a fixed lump sum for a 'Promoted Trend' and take pot luck how many people see it or act on it. We would then calculate a 'cost per engagement.' We could calculate a CPM, but we do not," he said.

He added: "[Twitter] is now selling video inventory to advertisers, called 'Promoted Video.' We pay only when the user clicks on the video: This is a 'CPX' model, where 'X' stands for some sort of action. To value Twitter's passive audience is therefore, abstract. And to do so in CPM terms, yet more so."

The numbers that actually matter

Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group, told us that no advertiser budgets for Twitter on the basis of users and that any figure calculated around average revenue per users is "pretty divorced from the business."

"What matters more are metrics like revenue per advertiser (probably around $6,700 in the quarter, up from $6,300 in the year ago period) or number of advertisers (I'm estimating 65,000 vs. 35,000. This matters because Twitter is focused on increasing the spend from every marketer," Wieser said.

Alternatively, Wieser says you could look at Twitter's total share of digital advertising (1.06% of global ex-China digital advertising last year - up from 0.57% in 2013.)

But we were still intrigued: How did Twitter get to that $2.50, or almost 63% of a logged-in user number? Eric Franchi, co-founder of digital advertising company Undertone, provided us with a hypothetical, back of envelope calculation:

20%: Twitter is a public service. You don’t need to be a Twitter user to review all of the content of the Business Insider Twitter stream, for example. There’s a lot of value for the user and Business Insider there.

33%: Twitter can serve them non-targeted ads on site and somewhat contextually relevant ads off-site in the new syndicated Tweets product

10%: Twitter can convert them into users over time. (10%)

But even with that rough math to hand, Franchi said that on an advertising basis, an untargeted ad still would not command 63% of the value of a targeted one.

Jerry Daykin, global digital and client director at the Dentsu Aegis Network, is a little more bullish, saying the $2.50 number is not an unrealistic ambition (although even he admits it's hard to accurately quantify the exact value of a logged-out user.)

Where the bigger opportunity may lie is Twitter's native video product as there will be opportunities for pre-roll, post-roll, and text overlay ads, Daykin said: "As proportionally more of Twitter’s off platform reach becomes video based they’ll be able to flick a switch and instantly be able to monetize that scale, and they’ve shown an early interest in video pre roll through their Amplify event sponsorship product."

As Business Insider has stated before, it seems Twitter is doing itself a huge disservice by not shouting about its huge total audience more often: The majority of digital advertising bought and sold on the internet is not served to logged-in users, and an estimated $137.5 billion was spent on digital ads last year (although this figure also includes ads targeted at logged-in users on sites like Twitter and Facebook, too.)

However, Twitter may be over-egging the pudding slightly too soon, by saying that a user that is logged in, with all the rich data and content they provide, is worth only a third more to the service than some who passively reads the odd tweet.

SEE ALSO: Nearly 160 million people are visiting but not ‘actively using’ Twitter — a huge audience Twitter should be shouting about more

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Germany's DAX stock index just slammed past the 11,000 mark for the first time ever.

That's on the back of Germany's unexpectedly strong growth figures. Growth hit 0.7% in the fourth quarter, way higher than the 0.3% that had been expected.

Here's how German stocks look today:

Over the year to date, the DAX is up by nearly 12%, easily beating US and UK equities.

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New York (AFP) - Every dog has its day, even at New York Fashion Week. So do the odd cat, hen and even a big old lizard.

Some 150 critters took to the catwalk Thursday night in the 11th edition of the New York Pet Show.

Get a load of Paco and Pearl, chihuahuas decked out with skirts, sweaters, wigs and big earrings, who looked nervous as their turn under the bright lights approached.

The lizard, not exactly expected to sashay for the crowd, wore a dress made of feathers and rode a skateboard for its 15 minutes of NYC fame.

Yeyush, a chihuahua with his own Instagram account, wore a black jacket, a bandana with tiny skulls and sunglasses as he strutted with owner Sergio Galdamez, a New Yorker of Guatemalan origin. 

Then there was Juju, a Yorkshire terrier sporting a long dress of antique lace.  

Paco, Pearl and Penelope sported the same outfits as their masters, a couple from Dallas boasting disco-era duds. 

Indeed, the theme of the night was the look of the 60s and 70s. 

Lady Gaga and Beyonce were on hand, although looking thoroughly un-disco: the former all in bright pink and the latter in a petite jacket. 

Sharon Folken, who brought hens, said she wanted to stand out -- even in this dazzling herd.

"I wanted to be unique. I wanted to be different, so I chose my hens," she said, a flapping poultry specimen under each arm.

- Designer couture -

Some designers took things more seriously, though, such as Anthony Rubio, who does "couture" for animals. Last year he was named designer of the year at the pet fashion show.

While Rubio did not take part this year -- "I don't compete any more, I don't have to," he said -- he did came to watch with his two chihuahuas, named Bogie and Kimba. 

They were all dressed in green, red and blue in garb recalling the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover.

Rubio has been making pet clothes for a decade and says business is good.

The dog outfit he made last year that won him the top prize cost $5,000. The little red hat that Bogie wore Thursday night costs $150.

Chen Sahar, a young jewelry designer from Tel Aviv, created a matching collar and bracelet for Annabelle, a puppy up for adoption, to wear just to this three-catwalk show.

The dog's collar was made of sterling silver, 195 various size Swarovski Crystals and fine leather. 

The bracelet, which was on the dog's right front paw, was also made of sterling silver and leather and brimming with gems.

The ensemble sells for $12,000. Sahar was unsure how she would do.

"It's the first time I am doing jewelry for animals. I like special projects," she said.

The mood was relaxed and merry, amid strollers for dogs, vendors of specialized products for pets and, yes, all those jittery models waiting offstage.

"My boys love to dress, all the time. They have a bigger wardrobe than I do," Rubio said of his chihuahuas.

Indeed, the atmosphere had all the buzz and nerves of a fashion show for humans.

Only the lizard, owned by one Susi Lacoff Resner, seemed indifferent to it all as it prepared to be hoisted onto the skateboard.

Like every year, the goal of the show is encourage people to adopt abandoned animals and raise money for associations working for this cause.

"We hope to raise a lot of money," said Gregg Oehler, president of the New York Pet Show.

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Eurozone GDP figures are rolling out this morning, and we've already got a pretty strong German number, with growth twice as fast as expected.

Here's how the scorecard looks so far:

• Germany's growth hit 0.7% in the final quarter, bringing overall growth for the year to 1.6%. (Only 0.3% growth in the final quarter was expected by analysts who also called for only 1% growth for the year.
• French growth was more disappointing. It came in as analysts expected, with a 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter, raising growth in 2014 to just 0.4%
• Italian GDP was flat in Q4, meaning a drop of 0.3% over the year. But that's better than the -0.1% and -0.4% for the quarter and the year respectively that analysts were expecting.
• We've already had Spain's GDP, which rose 2% year-on-year and 0.7% for the quarter, matching Germany.

Basically, the German economy surged upward in the final quarter of 2014. That 0.7% figure is very strong figure for the eurozone. It was almost twice as strong as economists were expecting. 

We've already had some good economic news from Spain in the past month. Business surveys are strong and Spanish retail sales were the strongest in 11 years.

Probably most importantly, private lending is back in positive territory across the eurozone for the first time in two and a half years, which should give the economy a boost.

Let's put it in perspective. Things are not amazing. Unemployment across Europe is still above 11%, rising to above 20% in a significant portion of southern Europe. Few countries are back to their 2008 GDP levels. 

But what we're talking about here is the direction of travel, not overall levels. The eurozone now has a bigger-than-expected QE programme to support growth, and it looks like there's a bit of an upswing already (QE starts in March). One of the big mistakes people made when the US and UK economies started to recovery was being over-pessimistic, after years of gloominess. Don't miss the early signs of an upturn.

Here's how German growth looks over the past few years. Can the current spike in momentum continue? 

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Hip-hop superstar and part-time fashion designer Kanye West just debuted his first fashion show Thursday night in New York City.

And it was pretty interesting. It also started an hour late.

Titled "Yeezy: Season 1", West finally got to show off what he's been working on the the help of the Adidas Originals design team.

But there was much more to the show than just clothing.

According to the Refinery 29, a recording of West saying "I'm here to crack the pavement and make new ground. There's a lack of creativity in every field … people are afraid to create. I want people to think awesome is possible" played on loop during the show, along with the debut of a song off his upcoming album, "Wolves."

With the collection, West aims to "absolve consumers of dressing's daily stress." The pieces in the collection were designed to be "freely combined in infinite ways," according to Dazeen.

The models lined up in nine rows and as each row came forward one by one to show off their designer threads, the lights went up to "blinding intensity."

As for the clothes themselves, there were a lot of comically oversized top pieces and a healthy amount of artful distressing. Some were clearly inspired by military wear, while others took a tech-wear vibe. Most of it fit pretty slouchy.

Throughout, the color palette remained pretty neutral — mostly grays and muted greens.

Adidas called it "a study in contrasts like street-luxury and vintage-new, the clothing shapes a new modern wardrobe." 

Refinery called it "meh." The line didn't impress critics, who said it was "nothing revolutionary."

A exception was the thick white soled Yeezy Boost sneaker, which has been riding the hype train for quite a while pending its release Saturday. The trainer-style shoe recieved praise for looking better on the foot than in product shots.

Another highlight was an oversized backpack one model wore.

Many of the models wore nude-colored tights, which covered much of their body  — some, even including their hair. The tights were the product of the show's collaboration with contemporary performance artist Vanessa Beecroft, presumably to accentuate the clothing pieces the models were wearing. 

Pretty much every celebrity West has ever been connected to was at the show in support, including Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Spike Jonze, Alexander Wang, Diddy , Jay Z, and Beyonce.

One harsh critic, West's daughter North, reportedly starting crying when the show started and had to be carried out. 

"Maybe she was just scared for her daddy. She just wanted people to stop being mean to her daddy. Because she knows that her daddy loves the world and just wants to make it a more beautiful place,"West said in response.

Check out more of the pieces below.

And check out the video of the full show below.

SEE ALSO: 4 Winter Accessories Every Man Should Own

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When you invest hundreds of dollars in a new smartphone, you expect it to last for a while.

Unfortunately, there are tons of tiny factors that could be slowing down your phone that you might not even be aware of.

If you're Android phone is feeling sluggish, try a few of these easy fixes. 

First, restart your phone.

It's easy to forget that our phones need a good restart every once in a while, just like any other type of computer. Before you take any other measures, try shutting down or restarting your phone. 

Make sure your system is up to date.

If your phone is running slow, it's possible that you may not have installed the latest Android software update. Head over to Settings >About device >Software update to see if there are any updates available. 

Delete old photos, apps, and anything else you don't need anymore.

If your phone is still slow, try getting rid of files you don't need. It's easy to forget to delete old photos and music files, but getting rid of content is one of the easiest ways to get your phone running smoothly again. Apps could be using resources from your phone to perform processes in the background, which could be slowing down your phone. The less clutter, the better.