Sony launches camera phone with add-on lenses

BERLIN — Sony Mobile unveiled a new addition to its Xperia smartphone lineup Wednesday: a device that sports a massive 20.7-megapixel camera and is capable of attaching better lenses.

The Xperia Z1, presented in Berlin two days before the annual IFA consumer electronics show there, is Sony's attempt to leapfrog rivals such as Nokia and Samsung in the race for the phone with the best camera.

Its standout features are a high-resolution lens built into the camera, and the option of controlling detachable lenses from the phone's 5-inch screen.

According to Sony, the lenses can also be used with other Android phones and even Apple's iPhone.

The Z1's camera functions are further supported by a large image sensor and dedicated apps that allow users to stream video directly onto their Facebook page, store images online and search for information about whatever their viewfinder is pointing at.

The phone, previously codenamed Honami, comes with 2.2 gigahertz processor and a waterproof aluminum case.

Sony said the Z1 will go on sale later this month.

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Top 5 gifts to colleges or universities in 2013

Here are the Top 5 donations to U.S. colleges or universities in 2013, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

1. $350 million from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Johns Hopkins University.

2. $250 million from the A. Eugene Brockman Charitable Trust to Centre College.

3. $200 million from New York real estate magnate and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to the University of Michigan.

4. $151 million from real estate developer John Arrillaga to Stanford University.

5. $133 million from Qualcomm Inc. co-founder Irwin Jacobs and Joan Klein Jacobs to Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

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New India central bank chief announces reforms

MUMBAI, India — India's new central bank chief kicked off his first day in office Wednesday by announcing short-term measures to stabilize the country's troubled economy and tumbling currency.

Under pressure amid fears of an economic crisis, Raghuram Rajan acknowledged he is taking over the Reserve Bank of India at a tough time. Still, he insisted that India has "a fundamentally sound economy" and that a mood of doom and gloom is overblown.

India's economic growth slowed to 4.4 percent in the April-June quarter and the Indian rupee has lost more than 20 percent of its value since May.

Rajan had not been expected to make specific policy changes on the day he was sworn into office, but he announced short-term measures at a televised news conference.

"It involves considerable change, and change is risky," he said of his agenda. "But as India develops, not changing is even riskier."

Among the measures he promised for coming months were that existing banks would be able to open new domestic branches without RBI permission and that long-awaited new banking licenses would be issued by January.

The central bank will also soon issue inflation-indexed savings certificates and take steps to encourage financial services for the poor, including making payments easier through mobile banking, he said.

He also pledged to improve the system for banks to recover bad loans by accelerating the work of debt recovery tribunals and asset reconstruction companies.

Rajan plans his first full policy address on Sept. 20.

"Some of the actions I take will not be popular," he said, but added, "The governorship of the central bank is not meant to win one votes of Facebook 'likes.'"

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US trade deficit widens to $39.1 billion in July

WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit widened in July from a four-year low in June. American consumers bought more foreign cars and other imported goods, while U.S. companies exported fewer long-lasting manufactured goods.

The rise in imports points to resilient consumer spending, which drives 70 percent of economic activity.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the trade gap rose 13 percent to $39.1 billion. That's up from June's deficit of $34.5 billion, which was the smallest since late 2009.

Imports increased 1.6 percent to $228.6 billion, lifted by more shipments of oil, autos and consumer goods. Exports slipped 0.6 percent to $189.4 billion. Companies shipped fewer capital goods, such as civilian aircraft and industrial engines.

A wider trade gap can slow economic growth because it means that U.S. consumers and businesses are spending more on foreign goods than U.S. companies are earning from overseas sales.

Still, the decline follows a steep drop in June. And economists noted that trade is running at roughly the same pace as the previous quarter. Many were also encouraged by the increase in imports of consumer products. That follows a weak government report last week on consumer spending in July.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that he expected trade would be "broadly neutral" in terms of overall economic growth in the second half of this year, not subtracting from growth or adding to it.

Gregory Daco, director of U.S. economics for IHS Global Insight, said the rise in imports reflects stronger consumer and business demand. Those could be encouraging signs for economic growth.

Most economists expect the economy will grow at an annual rate between 2 percent and 2.5 percent in the second half of this year. Many say consumers will increase spending as the impact of higher taxes starts to fade.

In July, the deficit with China jumped to an all-time high of $30.1 billion and is slightly ahead of last year's record pace. That could increase pressure on the Obama administration to take a harder line on trade issues with China. American manufacturers contend China manipulates its currency and engages in other unfair practices to gain trade advantages over U.S. companies.

Europe's weak economy also is weighing on U.S. exports. The deficit with the 27-nation European Union jumped to a record $13.9 billion as imports from that region climbed 17.2 percent to a record $35.1 billion while U.S. exports to the region fell 7.4 percent to $21.1 billion.

Other reports suggest exports could rebound in August.

U.S. factories expanded in August at the fastest pace since June 2011, according to a closely watched survey released Tuesday from the Institute for Supply Management. The report said orders from overseas rose in August.

And a private survey of purchasing managers in China found that manufacturing in that country expanded for the first time after shrinking for three months.

The Federal Reserve is closely watching economic data to determine whether it should reduce its monthly bond purchases. Those purchases have been intended to keep long-term borrowing costs low.

Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the Fed could slow its $85 billion a month in bond buying later this year if the economy keeps improving. Some analysts think the Fed will announce after its next policy meeting Sept. 17-18 that it's scaling back the purchases.

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Radio want-ad shows plug listeners into bygone era

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — In much of the world, people looking to buy and sell things go online to flick through search results or post ads. But in some parts of rural America, they're just as likely to tune in to a local radio station.

Three times every weekday (and twice a day on Saturdays) people in western Arkansas call in to a radio station that produces an audio adaptation of the classified ads. For an hour or so, callers on KARV's "Dial-A-Trade" explain what they're looking to buy, sell or trade. Then they leave their phone numbers. On live air. For free.

The programs are neither new nor unique to Arkansas. For decades, similar shows across the country filled the airwaves with callers wanting to buy and sell everything from apples to ammunition.

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New PBS team low key about milestone

NEW YORK — Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff didn't think much about the milestone upon being appointed the first women to co-anchor a national daily news program on television — until flowers began filling their offices and strangers offered congratulations.

The veteran journalists are the regular co-hosts of PBS' "NewsHour," effective Monday. They will be the faces for a newscast known for many years as the home of founders Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil.

Two days earlier, PBS will premiere a new weekend edition of "NewsHour," based in New York instead of Washington. Hari Sreenivasan will be the host.

In 2006, Katie Couric at the "CBS Evening News" became the first woman to solely anchor a national newscast. Ifill said she was surprised by how many people made a big deal of two women anchors when PBS announced the change in early August.

"I'm very touched by that," she said. "I'm most touched by young women who stop me on the street and tell me how happy they are about this. I'm amazed at the investment people have in this."

Following Lehrer's retirement two years ago, Ifill and Woodruff were part of a five-person anchor rotation with Jeffrey Brown, Ray Suarez and Margaret Warner. Two of the five anchored each night, depending on their schedules. There was nothing wrong with it, said the show's executive producer, Linda Winslow. But she came to conclude that a regular team makes for a sharper identity; people are more likely to say they watch Brian Williams instead of the NBC "Nightly News," for example.

The new anchors have lengthy Washington resumes. Woodruff, 66, was a White House correspondent for NBC News during the Carter administration and has two stints at PBS with 12 years at CNN in between. Ifill, 57, started in print, working at The Washington Post and The New York Times, before joining NBC News and then PBS in 1999. Ifill hosts "Washington Week," meaning Woodruff will fly solo on the "NewsHour" on Fridays.

Both say they share sensibilities and news instincts.

"She's exactly the kind of person you'd want to have by your side if there's a big, breaking story," Woodruff said of her partner. "You want to be beside someone you can trust, whose judgment you can trust."

Winslow said it seemed to be the combination that clicked. The women think alike, but have distinct styles. During interviews, Ifill is more conversational, Woodruff more questioning. "She's leaning forward and Gwen is more inviting you to come forward," she said.

"NewsHour" anchors have often seemed more like solo artists than a team. Winslow said there will be an effort to have Ifill and Woodruff appear on-screen together more and interact.

The show helped draw attention to the pairing when Ifill and Woodruff interviewed President Barack Obama last week, with the poison gas attack in Syria the chief topic.

Even for veteran reporters, a presidential interview is a nerve-wracking experience. You live in fear of missing something obvious. You have to balance to-the-minute reporting of breaking news with more reflective questions knowing, as Ifill said, "all your planning can go out the window in an hour." And for the two anchors, each had to be conscious of giving her partner equal time.

Both women were also named managing editors of "NewsHour," joining Winslow in shaping the day's broadcast.

"It means that every day we wake up, we're not just thinking about our own segments within the show," Woodruff said. "It means that every day you're thinking about the whole program. But that's a good thing."

Ifill and Woodruff will bring their own ideas for changes, comfortable knowing that no overhaul is necessary.

"The 'NewsHour' occupies a place that doesn't exist anymore in broadcast television, which is an hour-long, uninterrupted chance to let people finish their sentences," Ifill said. "We're very careful of that franchise, but we are also aware of ways that we can freshen it just with our presence."

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EDITOR'S NOTE — David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter @dbauder. His work can be found at http:bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.

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Liberia rejects pleas to release jailed editor

MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberia has rejected calls to release an editor jailed last month for reporting on the results of an official graft investigation.

The case also shines a spotlight on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose government four years ago filed a lawsuit that led to another newspaper's closure.

Rodney Sieh, publisher and editor of the independent newspaper FrontPageAfrica, was arrested Aug. 21 after failing to pay $1.5 million in damages awarded to former Agriculture Minister Chris Toe. In 2010, Sieh's newspaper published several articles about findings by the country's anti-corruption watchdog that the ministry could not account for millions of dollars.

Two days after Sieh's arrest, law enforcement closed the paper's offices. Sieh then launched a hunger strike and was hospitalized last week with malaria.

Despite calls by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders for Sirleaf to intervene on Sieh's behalf, Liberia's information ministry said Tuesday that the verdict against Sieh should be respected.

Sirleaf last year became the second African head of state to sign the Declaration of Table Mountain, which calls for the Africa-wide repeal of defamation and "insult" laws.

Yet multiple libel convictions have been handed down since she came to power in 2006, and no newspaper has won a libel case during that time, according to the Press Union of Liberia. A lawsuit filed by Sirleaf's office in 2009 for $5 million against the New Broom newspaper led to that paper's closure.

Former agriculture minister Toe has denied allegations of wrongdoing, though he resigned from his position and was never put on trial. He has said the newspaper's reports were libelous because he was never convicted, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In a letter to Sirleaf on Monday, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said the case against Sieh was flawed and asked the government to facilitate his release.

"We believe the punishment meted out against FrontPageAfrica is disproportionate and that the case is tainted with political undertones," Simon said.

The $1.5 million damages award is more than 30 times the yearly operating budget for FrontPageAfrica, according to Sieh, who in a New York Times op-ed over the weekend said the case was a clear attempt to silence Liberia's most aggressive and ambitious newspaper.

Sieh also wrote that two jurors claimed they were paid to find him guilty.

"So long as Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf's advisers can tell the courts how to rule, the government will continue to intimidate the press at home while maintaining an undeserved positive image abroad," Sieh said.

The information ministry faulted Sieh for not appealing the verdict, though Sieh has said the process is prohibitively expensive.

Sirleaf has not addressed the case herself. Wade Williams, an editor at FrontPageAfrica who has been running the paper in Sieh's absence, said she suspected many government officials would be happy to see the paper shut down.

"They're all using their influence to get to Rodney, punishing him for exposing them over the years," Williams said. "That's why (Sirleaf's) not saying anything. She herself has not been happy with FrontPageAfrica for some time now."

The newspaper has continued to publish online even though its offices remain closed and an important source of revenue — print advertisements — has dried up.

Toe, the former agriculture minister who brought the libel case, said Tuesday he had been "injured" by FrontPageAfrica's coverage but that he was open to talks with Sieh's lawyers.

Williams, however, said she questioned what purpose the talks might serve. "I don't think there should be any negotiation on the part of a newspaper reporting on public officials just to appease them," she said. "It will be a sign of weakness on the part of the media."

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Associated Press writer Robbie Corey-Boulet contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal.

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Auctioneer shows off 118-carat diamond in NYC

NEW YORK — A New York auction house is showing off a 118-carat white diamond that's the size of an egg.

The oval stone was highlighted at a Manhattan media event Wednesday. It will be auctioned in Hong Kong on Oct. 7 and has a pre-sale estimate of $28 million to $35 million.

Sotheby's calls it the greatest white diamond to be offered at auction in terms of size, quality, polish and color.

It was discovered in 2011 as a 299-carat rough diamond in an undisclosed southern African nation.

The current record for any white diamond is $26.7 million. That pear-shaped stone was over 101 carats. It was sold at Christie's in Geneva last spring.

The stone being auctioned next month is nearly 20 percent larger.

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McDonald's exploring changes to Dollar Menu

NEW YORK — McDonald's Corp. says a revamped version of its Dollar Menu that includes items priced at $5 could be launched nationally this year.

The world's biggest hamburger chain says it has been testing versions of its famous value menu that's called "Dollar Menu & More" in five markets across the country. The company noted that no official changes have yet been made to its current Dollar Menu, which was introduced more than a decade ago.

The change would come after McDonald's unsuccessful attempt last year to get customers to switch from the Dollar Menu to a pricier "Extra Value Menu," which features items costing closer to $2. But after sales flagged, the company went back to aggressively touting its Dollar Menu in TV ads.

If the new "Dollar Menu & More" is rolled out, the Extra Value Menu would be retired, said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald's, which is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

"We didn't deliver on simplicity and clarity," Golden said of the Extra Value Menu. He said that the company realized the "Dollar Menu" was a strong brand that McDonald's could build on instead.

The results from the tests have been positive and the company is in the process of sharing the information with its more than 14,000 U.S. franchisees, he said. In order to be approved, at least 75 percent of the company's 180 marketing cooperatives across the country would need to vote for it.

The Dollar Menu & More that was tested has three price points —$1, $2 and $5 or "shareable" items such as 20-piece McNuggets. Another version that was tested has prices of $1, $1.79 and $4.99. The menu includes more chicken items, as well as versions of its burgers that come with an extra beef patty or toppings such as bacon.

Golden declined to provide specifics, but said the menu provided "a broader range of profitability" for restaurants. He said the overall percentage of sales generated by the revamped Dollar Menu in tests was "similar" to that of the Dollar Menu. McDonald's has said in the past that its Dollar Menu accounts for about 14 percent of sales.

The tests come as McDonald's and other fast-food chains have been trumpeting their value menus amid increased competition and the weak economy. Some analysts have raised concerns that the strategy could eat into profit margins. Wendy's addressed the issue earlier this year by revamping its 99-cent menu to a "Right Price Right Size" menu, with prices ranging up to around $2.

McDonald's, based in Oak Brook, Ill., has had to swap out items on its Dollar Menu over the years as costs for ingredients such as beef have climbed. When it was first introduced, for example, the flagship offering on the Dollar Menu was the Big 'N Tasty, which was made with a quarter-pound beef patty. The most substantial burger on the menu now is the McDouble, which comes with two patties and a slice of cheese. In the tests, the company said the price of the McDouble was pushed up to $1.19 in some markets.

McDonald's conducted the Dollar Menu & More tests in Fresno, Calif.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Columbia, S.C., the combined market of Hartford, Conn., Springfield, Mass. and Memphis, Tenn.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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Afghan woman sought in alleged $1.1M bank theft

KABUL, Afghanistan — The young woman worked for three years at the Afghan bank, officials say. Then one day she vanished. As did $1.1 million.

Afghan authorities have been scrambling to track down the suspected thief and several alleged accomplices, and an international arrest warrant has been issued. Still, the revelations are another embarrassment for the banking sector in this country, which has seen corruption already unravel one major institution amid ongoing security threats from militants and criminals.

Shokofa Salehi, 22, worked in the money transfer division at the headquarters of Azizi Bank, a major Afghan lender in Kabul, officials said. She disappeared around two months ago, according to Azizi chief executive Inayatullah Fazli. Investigators say she is suspected of transferring some $1.1 million out of the bank's coffers to accounts of relatives. Besides Salehi, at least nine people are believed involved in the case.

"They are a mafia group," Fazli alleged.

An Interpol red notice — the equivalent of an international arrest warrant — describes authorities as seeking Salehi on charges of fraud and misusing her authority. Afghan officials believe Salehi used fake documents under the name Samira to reach India after transferring the money; her current whereabouts are unknown.

Two suspects in the case have been detained in Dubai, senior Afghan police official Gen. Aminullah Amarkhail said, adding that he's in touch with counterparts in Dubai and India for help tracking down Salehi and other suspects. He said one suspect is alleged to have spent some $850,000 of the money to invest in a tire business and possibly other ventures in Dubai.

Amarkhail said Salehi's parents were among the suspects, and are believed to have returned to Kabul after going with her to India. Another top police official, Mohammad Zahir, said investigators were still seeking the parents.

Azizi Bank's website says it began operating in 2006, and that it now has "a 1,500-plus strong team of employees and with a 20 percent female workforce is playing a quiet but effective role in women('s) emancipation and empowerment." It also calls itself "the bank you can trust."

As striking as it is, Salehi's alleged pilfering pales in comparison to some other examples of corruption in Afghanistan's banking sector.

In 2010, regulators seized Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest lender, amid allegations of severe levels of graft. Its near-collapse and subsequent bailout represented more than 5 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, making it one of the largest banking failures in the world in relative terms.

An independent report described Kabul Bank as being run like a Ponzi scheme. Investigators said some $861 million in fraudulent loans had disappeared into the pockets of associates of the men behind the bank.

Earlier this year, an Afghan tribunal sentenced two top Kabul Bank executives to five years in prison for misappropriating funds. Critics said the punishments were far too light and raised questions about President Hamid Karzai's commitment to rooting out corruption.

On Tuesday, Afghanistan announced it was trying once again to privatize what it had salvaged of the bank, which is now called New Kabul Bank.

Banks in Afghanistan have also been targeted by Taliban militants and criminal gangs.

Not only are they prime targets for people seeking to steal money, they also are gathering places for many government employees seeking to make deposits or cash their paychecks, thus making them attractive to suicide bombers.

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