Swiss gunman kills 3 people, had troubled history

 A shooting in southern Switzerland has left three women dead, two men wounded and raised questions about how a troubled suspect was able to go on a rampage with an old military rifle.
The shooting — which came on the eve of students' return to classes in Newtown, Connecticut, after a horrific school shooting — also highlighted the easy access to firearms in gun-loving nations.
The suspect, a 33-year-old unemployed man living on disability payments, fired about 20 shots Wednesday night in the village of Daillon, authorities in the Swiss canton (state) of Valais said Thursday.
He opened fire from his apartment and pursued people in the street, police said. Armed with a Swiss military rifle and a handgun, he then threatened to shoot the officers sent in to stop him, police said.
"The shooter pointed his weapon at our colleagues, so they had to open fire to neutralize him, to avoid being injured themselves," police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet told Swiss radio.
The suspect, who police did not identify, was arrested and taken to the hospital with serious wounds. Bornet said he lived in Daillon but the motive for the shooting was unclear.
Guns are popular among the Swiss — the Alpine country has at least 2.3 million weapons among a population of less than 8 million. Many rural areas have gun clubs, with children as young as 10 taking part in shooting competitions.
The suspect was using a military rifle that was once standard issue in the Swiss army, interim cantonal police chief Robert Steiner said.
Prosecutor Catherine Seppey said the suspect was unemployed and had been receiving psychiatric care since at least 2005, when he was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He was currently under the care of the cantonal agency for the disabled, she said.
His weapons were confiscated and destroyed in 2005, she said, "and currently no arms register showed he had a weapon. The inquiry will have to determine where the weapons came from."
Buying a firearm in a Swiss shop requires a permit, a clean criminal record and no psychiatric disability, but buying a firearm from another person is less restrictive and old-style Army rifles are often sold at military surplus markets.
Most types of ammunition can be bought, while automatic firearms generally require a special police permit.
Seppey said the shooter knew several of the victims but "he was not known for making threats."
The victims were three women aged 32, 54 and 79 who died at the scene, and two injured men, aged 33 and 63, who were taken to the hospital, Seppey said. The two youngest victims were a couple with small children.
"We have no words to express ourselves after an event like this," Christophe Germanier, head of the Conthey district where the shooting occurred, told a news conference.
Daillon is near some of Switzerland's most popular ski resorts, such as Verbier and Crans-Montana, and is in the country's main wine-producing region. The area also boasts a sizeable share of the country's federally protected hunting reserves.
Authorities say firearms are involved in nearly a quarter of the 1,100 suicides a year in Switzerland — which don't include another 300 cases a year of assisted suicide — but shooting rampages are rare in peaceful, prosperous Switzerland.
A gunman who killed 14 people at a city meeting in Zug in 2001 was the nation's worst rampage, leading to calls to tighten national gun-buying laws. Friedrich Leibacher used a commercial version of the Swiss army's SG 550 assault rifle for the rampage, then killed himself.
All able-bodied Swiss men who are required to perform military duty often take their army-issued rifle home with them after completing military service. In 2007, the government began requiring that nearly all army ammunition is kept at secure army depots.
Many in Switzerland believe that distributing guns to households helped dissuade a Nazi invasion during World War II. In 2011, Swiss voters rejected a proposal to tighten gun laws.
"This is part of Switzerland's self-defense, where the entire army can be mobilized in 24 hours," said Daniel Warner of the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. "I don't think (the latest shooting) is going to cause a change in attitude here.

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British government extradites al-Qaida suspect

WASHINGTON (AP) — Police in Britain have extradited a terror suspect to the United States to face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaida plot to detonate explosives aboard the New York City subway system.
British authorities handed over Abid Naseer, 26, to U.S. authorities on Thursday.
Prosecutors want Naseer to stand trial in New York for his alleged role in a terror campaign that would have also struck targets in Britain and Norway.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have said they aim to prove that Naseer collected bomb ingredients, conducted reconnaissance and was in frequent contact with other al-Qaida operatives as part of a foiled New York plot and a second suspected plot to bomb a busy shopping area in the northern English city of Manchester.
Naseer "is one of a long line of terrorist suspects extradited to these shores," said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn. She said the extradition underscored the importance of international cooperation in bringing down terror suspects.
Naseer was due in federal court Monday. If convicted in the U.S., Naseer would face a maximum penalty of life in prison. At the Justice Department, spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment.
Naseer was one of 12 people arrested in a counterterrorism operation in April 2009, but all were subsequently released without charge. They were ordered to leave Britain, but Naseer escaped deportation to Pakistan after a judge ruled it was likely he would be mistreated if he were sent home.
Naseer was re-arrested in July 2010 at the request of the prosecutors in Brooklyn, where a federal indictment named him as a co-defendant with Adis Medunjanin.
In January 2011, a British judge approved Naseer's extradition. The judge acknowledged there was a "very real risk" Naseer would be tortured if the U.S. ultimately returned him to Pakistan but said he believed the U.S. justice system would not ignore that concern.
Naseer's lawyer had argued that the U.S. would have fewer inhibitions about returning him to Pakistan.
U.S. authorities allege Medunjanin and former high school friends Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay — all three attended Flushing High School in Queens — traveled to Pakistan in 2008 to seek terror training from al-Qaida.
Zazi, an airport van driver from Colorado, admitted in a guilty plea that once back from Pakistan he tested peroxide-based explosive materials in a makeshift lab in Denver in the fall of 2009 before traveling by car to New York to carry out the scheme.
Authorities say Medunjanin and Ahmedzay agreed to join Zazi in three coordinated suicide bombings on Manhattan subway lines during rush hour near the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks — what Zazi called a "martyrdom operation."
The plot was disrupted when police stopped Zazi's car as it entered New York.
At Medunjanin's trial last year, Zazi and Ahmedzay, who testified as part of a plea deal, told jurors that the scheme was designed to avenge the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Medunjanin was sentenced to life in prison.

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Northern Irish police injured as flag row turns violent again

 Eight police officers were injured in Northern Ireland on Thursday when protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall turned violent for the first time in more than two weeks.
Pro-British loyalists began rioting and fighting street battles with police after a decision a month ago by mostly nationalist pro-Irish councillors to end the century-old tradition of flying the British flag from City Hall every day in the British-controlled province.
More than 40 police officers were injured in the initial wave of violence, which stopped over Christmas. Protesters took to the streets in recent days but had remained peaceful until Thursday, when the community divisions were exposed once more.
At least 3,600 people were killed during Northern Ireland's darkest period as Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland fought British security forces and mainly Protestant loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Missiles, including petrol bombs, rained down on police in the Mountpottinger area of Belfast, a loyalist stronghold that borders the only Catholic enclave in the east of the city. A burning barricade was also used to block a major route into the city centre and a nearby car was set on fire.
Police said a crowd of around 100, some in masks and waving British flags, were involved in the unrest that lasted for several hours and led to two arrests.
Almost 50 rioters have been charged so far, the youngest a boy of 11, after deeming the vote to only fly the Union flag on 17 specified days a year - such as Queen Elizabeth's birthday - as a step too far in the ebbing away of Protestant dominance.
The protests marred a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who travelled to Belfast last month to lend her support to a 15-year-old peace process that helped mostly end three decades of sectarian bloodshed.
Another rally outside City Hall has been scheduled for Saturday and organisers say the demonstrations will continue until the flag is restored to the City Hall roof.
The now regular weekend rallies have mostly remained peaceful but disrupted pre-Christmas trade in Belfast city centre shops.

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Just Explain It: Why the Fiscal Cliff May Trigger a Recession

Lawmakers in Washington appear to be making little to no progress in avoiding the impending so-called fiscal cliff.  House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Friday the negotiations are "almost nowhere." On Thursday Boehner rejected a proposal from the Obama administration saying that the Democrats need to "get serious about real spending cuts."
President Obama's offer continues to call for higher taxes on the wealthy and an extension of the payroll tax cut.   But Republicans say they will not agree to a plan that raises taxes.
As the country continues to head toward the fiscal cliff, this Just Explain It helps to make sense of what it is.
On December 31st, most of us would like to be thinking about a prosperous new year ahead…drinking bubbly and singing Auld Lang Syne with friends.  But there's a chance we could be singing a different tune if President Obama and Congress don't agree on measures to avoid the fiscal cliff.
First, let me explain what the fiscal cliff is.
The fiscal cliff refers to the potentially disastrous situation the U-S faces at the end of this year.  At midnight on December 31st, a number of laws are set to expire.  If the President and the Republicans don't reach an agreement before then, Americans could face broad government spending cuts and tax increases on January 1st.   The combined amount would total over 500 billion dollars. Those 500 billion dollars equal about three to four percent of the nation's entire gross domestic product.  This is what's referred to as the fiscal cliff.
If there isn't a resolution, here are the specifics of what will happen.
Taxes would go up for almost every taxpayer and many businesses. The Bush-era tax cuts, which tax relief for middle and upper-class tax payers, would be a thing of the past.  So would President Obama's payroll tax cut which added about a thousand dollars a year to the average worker's income.
Government spending would be slashed.  That means less money for most military, domestic and federal programs.  $26 billion in emergency unemployment-compensation would be gone. Medicare payments to doctors would be reduced by $11 billion. Federal programs would take the biggest hit.  They stand to lose a total of $65 billion.
If the fiscal cliff isn't avoided, some investors will be hit hard.  Those who receive qualified dividends could see the tax rate on those dividends go from 15% to almost 40% in 2013.
Many business owners believe going over the fiscal cliff will cripple the economy, triggering a deep recession.  They fear demand for their products or services will decrease because consumers will have less money to spend.  It also means that they won't be able to afford new hires or expand their businesses.   Since most Americans would be paying more in taxes, they'd be less inclined to make big purchases, like a home or a new car.
None of this is set in stone, but that's part of the problem.  Markets, businesses and people in general hate uncertainty. The fear of the unknown facing us at the beginning of next year is exactly why so many people are so worked up over the fiscal cliff.
Did you learn something? Do you have a topic you'd like explained?  Give us your feedback in the comments below or on twitter using #justexplainit.

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Retailers report higher December sales

A last-minute surge in spending saved the holiday shopping season.
Major retailers including Costco, Gap and Nordstrom on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue in December. That comes as a relief for stores, which can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue in the last two months of the year.
Americans spent cautiously early in the season as the Northeast recovered from Superstorm Sandy. Then they held back because of fears that the U.S. economy would fall off the "fiscal cliff," triggering massive budget cuts and tax increases that would have amounted to less money in their pockets. But shoppers spent more freely in the final shopping days of the year.
Twenty retailers reported that revenue at stores open at least a year — an indicator of a store's health — rose an average of 4.5 percent in December compared with the same month a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. That's on the high end of the expected range of 4 percent to 4.5 percent. Only a small group of stores that represent about 13 percent of the $2.4 trillion U.S. retail industry report monthly revenue, but the data offers a snapshot of consumer spending.
"I wouldn't be doing cartwheels that it was a particularly great or strong holiday season, but it could have been worse given the headwinds," said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics, a research firm. "The government and Mother Nature were not as cooperative as retailers would have liked. But it was definitely not as bad as feared."
December's results provide a brighter picture than reports last month that proclaimed that the holiday shopping season was shaping up to be the worst since 2008 when the U.S. was in a deep recession.
To be sure, the season had multiple fits and starts, with healthy spending during certain periods followed by stretches of tepid sales. Overall, revenue for the combined months of November and December rose 3.1 percent, roughly on par with the 3 percent rise that the ICSC had predicted.
Sales were weak at the beginning of November in the wake of Superstorm Sandy and the distraction of the U.S. presidential campaign, followed by a surge later in the month during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. Spending fell off after that until a rush before and after Christmas when some stores began offering bigger discounts.
Nordstrom, for instance, had a particularly strong December, with revenue at stores open at least a year up 8.6 percent, more than double the 3.4 percent analysts expected. The Seattle-based department store operator said revenue was particularly strong in the last week of the season.
"That last-minute shopping, coupled with post-Christmas bargain hunting and early gift-card redemption, helped propel sales at the end of the month," said Michael P. Niemira, ICSC's chief economist.
Kelly Tenedini, 35, decided to pick up some "filler" gifts for her mom and her sister on the Sunday before Christmas at the Target in the Edgewood Retail District in Atlanta. Tenedini, who spent about $400 during the season, bought a sweater for her mom and gloves for her mother and sister that day.
Tenedini, who works in marketing, said the biggest deal she found was for herself: $50 off a pot and pan set on Target.com.
Manuel Gonzalez, 52, from Manhattan borough of New York City, spent about $150 on the Saturday before Christmas when he went to The Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. He scooped up bargains, including 75 percent off Sketcher sneakers at Macy's.
For the season, he was planning to spend about $400 to $500 for gifts for his three boys, ages 5, 8 and 22 -- the same amount he spent a year ago.
Gonzales, who works at a bank, said he's glad he waited until later in the season to shop: "I am budgeting."
While the last-minute promotions may have drawn shoppers like Tenedini and Gonzalez, they also ate into stores' profits.
For instance, Kohl's said its December revenue at stores open at least a year increased 3.4 percent, beating Wall Street predictions. But the retailer said that the growth came from heavy discounts, and it cut its profit outlook for the current quarter and full year.
"Sales came late in the holiday shopping season and, as a result, were at deeper discounts than planned," said CEO Kevin Mansell. "We are taking the necessary markdowns in the fourth quarter to manage our inventory as we transition into the Spring season.

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GM could face $918 million hit from bankruptcy-related lawsuit

A U.S. bankruptcy judge could soon rule on whether the 2009 government-led restructuring of General Motors Co improperly favored hedge funds, and an adverse ruling could cost the automaker nearly $1 billion.
Judge Robert Gerber must decide whether a "lock-up agreement" in the restructuring sent $367 million to a group of hedge fund noteholders at the expense of other creditors.
A trust representing unsecured creditors has sued to undo the lock-up agreement, arguing that it was a last-minute deal secretly folded into GM's bankruptcy to ensure the hedge funds' support.
After the automaker, or "Old GM," filed for bankruptcy in 2009, its best assets were sold to the new General Motors Co . The remainder of the company was liquidated for the benefit of creditors.
While the hedge funds, which hold notes with about $1 billion in face value, received the $367 million under the lock-up agreement, unsecured creditors received just pennies on the dollar. The hedge funds and other investors in the notes also received a claim against "Old GM" for $2.67 billion.
In its lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the creditors' trust alleged that the lock-up agreement was unfair to "Old GM" creditors. The trust said the deal took place after the bankruptcy filing and therefore required Gerber's approval, and it called on Gerber to unwind the deal.
GM and the hedge funds have argued the lock-up agreement was sealed before the bankruptcy and was not subject to Gerber's approval. They have also argued the agreement was not secret because it was disclosed in securities filings.
They also argued that the lock-up agreement cannot be unwound without undoing the entire restructuring.
At a court hearing in July, Gerber said he was "shocked" to learn about the hedge fund deal. "The bottom line is, is that this matter is huge," Gerber said. "There was a lack of disclosure to the court on the matter with the potential to injure 'Old GM' creditors to the extent of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars."
Gerber held several days of trial between August and October. The hedge funds and GM have asked Gerber to extend the trial for one more day to call a rebuttal witness, a request to which the judge has not responded publicly.
Although the judge has not said when he will rule on the lock-up agreement, experts say a ruling could come as early as this month.
A GM spokesman and Bruce Zirinsky, a Greenberg Traurig lawyer who represents the main hedge fund defendants, both said they expect to prevail but declined to comment further. A lawyer for the creditor trust, Eric Fisher of Dickstein Shapiro, did not respond to requests for comment.
The defendants are the hedge funds that signed the lock-up agreement, as well as others that invested in the notes along with the hedge funds. While GM is not a defendant, the automaker said in an earnings statement in August that the lawsuit could lead to a possible loss of as much as $918 million.
This is because GM could find itself on the hook for a loan of around $1 billion that was owed by GM Canada to a financing unit based in Nova Scotia that had issued notes to the hedge funds.
According to court papers, the lock-up agreement was negotiated with the involvement of Canada and the United States, which were funding the bankruptcy.
The two governments wanted to keep GM Canada out of that country's potentially complicated insolvency proceedings and agreed to pay the $367 million to the hedge funds to resolve GM Canada's debt to the Nova Scotia entity.
In addition to the payment, "Old GM" agreed not to contest claims against it by the noteholders with a face value of $2.67 billion.
Regardless of the outcome, Gerber said in July he expected his ruling to be appealed.
The case is Motors Liquidation Company GUC Trust v The Liverpool Limited Partnership et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-09802.

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Private sector job gains offer hope for labor market

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Private-sector employers shrugged off a looming budget crisis and stepped up hiring in December, offering further evidence of underlying strength in the economy as 2012 ended.
While other data on Thursday showed an increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits, the trend remained consistent with steady job growth.
"The underlying economy has momentum, and the employment data confirms that. The hope and prayer of the market is that our political leaders don't screw it up," said John Brady, managing director at R.J. O'Brien & Associates in Chicago.
Although Congress this week approved a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of sharp government spending cuts and higher taxes that would have sucked about $600 billion from the economy, the budget problems are far from resolved.
The ADP National Employment Report showed the private sector added 215,000 jobs last month after increasing payrolls by 148,000 in November. The report is jointly developed with Moody's Analytics.
The job gains came even as companies worried the economy might fall off the fiscal cliff.
However, the ADP data tends to overstate job gains in December because of a year-end accounting quirk.
"While we are encouraged by the better tone in the ADP employment report, we are cautious about reading too much into it, particularly given its tendency to exaggerate the performance of the labor market in December," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.
Still, the report added to other data ranging from consumer spending to manufacturing that have suggested the economy was in a much better shape than previously thought.
It was released ahead of the government's more comprehensive employment report on Friday, which is expected to show employers added 150,000 jobs to their payrolls in December, according to a Reuters survey of economists, up from 146,000 in November.
STEADY JOB GAINS
A separate report from the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 372,000 last week. However, claims data for nine states, including California and Virginia, was estimated because of the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of job market trends, was little changed at 360,000, a sign labor conditions continue to improve at a steady pace.
"The claims data are not always reliable labor market indicators around the holiday season because of issues seasonally adjusting the data, but it is still a somewhat encouraging sign to see the trend in the data remain relatively low," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.
Job gains in the first 11 months of last year averaged about 151,000 per month, not enough to significantly lower unemployment. The jobless rate dropped by 0.2 percentage point to 7.7 percent in November and is expected to have held at that level last month.
Labor market concerns prompted the Federal Reserve to aggressively ease monetary policy, but consensus is diminishing.
Minutes of the U.S. central bank's December 11-12 meeting released on Thursday showed some policymakers thought it would be prudent to slow or stop asset purchases well before the end of this year because of concerns about financial stability.
Stocks on Wall Street ended lower on the prospect of the Fed adopting a less accommodative stance. Prices for U.S. government debt fell, with the yield on the longer-dated 30-year bond touching its highest level since May.
The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of currencies.
The improving labor market tone was also captured by a third report showing planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in December for the first time in four months, while the overall job-cut total in 2012 was the lowest since 1997.
"The key to job creation is the pace at which companies are willing to hire new workers since it appears they are already retaining existing employees at a high rate," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.
Better job security is helping to support domestic demand. Auto sales rose 9.0 percent last month to a 1.36 million-unit annual rate last month.
Several major retailers reported better-than-expected sales in December. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 4.5 percent, beating analysts' estimates for 3.3 percent growth.

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US job market resilient despite budget fight

The U.S. job market showed resilience in three reports Thursday, suggesting it may be able to withstand a federal budget battle that threatens more economic uncertainty in coming months.
A survey showed private hiring increased last month, while layoffs declined and applications for unemployment benefits stayed near a four-year low. The data led some economists to raise their forecasts for December job growth one day before the government releases its closely watched employment report.
"The job market held firm in December despite the intensifying fiscal cliff negotiations," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "Businesses even became somewhat more aggressive in their hiring at year end."
The most encouraging sign came from payroll provider ADP. Its monthly employment survey showed businesses added 215,000 jobs last month, the most in 10 months and much higher than November's total of 148,000.
Economists tend to approach the ADP survey with some skepticism because it has diverged sharply at times from the government's job figures. The Labor Department releases its employment report Friday.
But some economists were also hopeful after seeing businesses were less inclined to cut jobs last month.
Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said that the number of announced job cuts fell 43 percent in December from November, and overall planned layoffs in 2012 fell to the lowest level since 1997.
The decline in layoffs coincided with a drop last month in the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits. The four-week average was little changed at 360,000 last week. That's only slightly above the previous week's 359,750, which was the lowest since March 2008.
Most economists expect the Labor Department report will show employers added about 150,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate stayed at 7.7 percent.
Some economists saw potential for stronger gains after seeing Thursday's data.
Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, raised his forecast for job growth in December to 190,000 jobs, up from 150,000.
Credit Suisse increased its forecast to 185,000, up from 165,000.
"Given that we have restraints, the labor market data do appear to be improving," said Dana Saporta, an economist at Credit Suisse.
Still, many economists remained cautious about where the job market is headed. While Congress and the White House reached a deal this week that removed the threat of tax increases to most Americans, they postponed the more difficult decisions on cutting spending. And the government must also increase its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by late February or risk defaulting on its debt.
Congressional Republicans are pressing for deep spending cuts in return for any increase in the borrowing limit. President Barack Obama has repeatedly said wants the issues kept separate.
The economy has added about 150,000 jobs a month, on average, over the past two years. That's too few to rapidly lower the unemployment rate.
Hiring probably won't rise above the current 150,000 per month trend until after the borrowing limit is resolved, economists say.
A similar fight over raising the borrowing limit in 2011 was only settled at the last hour and nearly brought the nation to the brink of default.
"That's not an environment where you're likely to be taking risks," such as boosting hiring, said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.
Even with modest gains in hiring, the unemployment rate remains high. It fell to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October. But that was mostly because many of the unemployed stopped looking for jobs. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively searching for work.
The number of people receiving jobless benefits fell to 5.4 million in the week ended Dec. 15, the latest data available. That's down about 70,000 from the previous week. The figure includes about 2.1 million people receiving emergency benefits paid for by the federal government. The White House and Congress agreed earlier this week to extend that program for another year.
There are signs the economy is improving. The once-battered housing market is recovering, which should lead to more construction jobs this year. Companies ordered more long-lasting manufactured goods in November, a sign they are investing more in equipment and software. And Americans spent more in November. Consumer spending drives nearly 70 percent of economic growth.

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50 million Android and iOS devices activated in last week of December alone

The latest numbers from analytics firm Flurry suggest that Android and iOS flourished in the last week of the 2012. The firm previously estimated that roughly 17.4 million Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas Day, leading to an estimated 1.76 billion mobile application downloads and more than 50 million activations for the full week. The latest numbers represent the highest number of device activations and app downloads of any week in history, an increase from 20 million activations and 1.2 billion downloads during Christmas week in 2011. Flurry estimates that in 2013 the trend of one-billion app downloads per week will become more frequent and by next December, more than 2 billion apps will be downloaded in a single week.

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Apple reportedly considering Waze acquisition to help fix iOS Maps app

Less than a month after rumors of a potential TomTom acquisition swirled, Apple (AAPL) is now reportedly considering a buyout of social navigation startup Waze in an effort to improve its much-maligned Maps application. TechCrunch reported on Wednesday that “there are rumours flying around that Apple is sniffing around Waze with a view to a possible acquisition,” though the source of the rumors is unclear. A similar report was published by Israeli news site NewsGeek.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Waze, which currently provides some data to Apple for use in its iOS Maps app, utilizes user-submitted data to enhance its free navigation service available for iOS, Android and other platforms. Waze CEO Noam Bardin has been vocal about the quality of Apple’s mapping solution in the past, having said previously that Apple chose some of its mapping partners poorly, resulting in “the lowest, weakest data set.”

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