Melissa McCarthy: It Was 'So Fun' to Look So Cheesy in Identity Thief

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02/05/2013 at 05:30 PM ET

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What’s funnier than Melissa McCarthy? Melissa McCarthy in ridiculous hair and makeup. And lucky for us, the star dons some crazy-bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) crunchy curls and ’80s-inspired eye shadow, blush and lipstick in her new film, Identity Thief.

“It was so fun to put all that together,” McCarthy said of her character’s beauty choices at the film’s L.A. premiere on Tuesday. But it also was labor-intensive to look that (awesomely) cheesy. “[It took] maybe two hours — an hour and a half [to put it on everyday]. Good drag takes a while!”

To create her character Diana’s signature style, McCarthy started with her frizzy, teased and permed mane. “I’m obsessed with wigs, so I started there and once I sort of locked into [a hairstyle], it was kind of more is more [when it came to makeup],” she told reporters.

When it came to Diana’s over-the-top purple and blue eyeshadow, McCarthy looked to an old soap star for inspiration. “I kept saying, ‘Donna Mills’s eyes!’ So we just kept piling [makeup] on, and then one day [the character] appeared.”

McCarthy’s reaction when she finally saw herself as the identity thief? “I thought, I’d like to spend a couple of months with her!” Tell us: Are you excited to see McCarthy’s new movie?

–Jennifer Cress, reporting by Melody Chiu

PHOTOS: SEE MORE BOLD BEAUTY LOOKS IN ‘OBSESSED OR HOT MESS’

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

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JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Stock futures climb ahead of ECB, claims data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures advanced on Thursday, indicating the S&P 500 may rise for a third straight session ahead of a European Central Bank rate decision and data on the U.S. labor market.

The central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged, and the market will give more attention to comments from ECB President Mario Draghi, who will give his views on the region's growth prospects and faces tough questions over the euro's sharp rise and his connection to an Italian banking scandal.

"The ECB will come out and talk about how they are going to have buying programs and all that stuff but this is a danger point for U.S. investors because sometimes traders do pay attention to the woes of Europe," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst, Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

Economic data due at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) includes weekly jobless claims and preliminary fourth quarter productivity and unit labor costs. Initial claims are expected at 360,000 compared with 368,000 in the prior week. Estimates call for a 1.3 percent fall in productivity while unit labor costs are expected to rise 3.0 percent.

"The unemployment information, it has been interesting how much it's dropped off, but we could have a slowdown in firing, but that doesn't necessarily mean an uptick in hiring."

Recent data has pointed to a modest improvement in the economy, but one without enough strength to cause the Federal Reserve to back off it's easy monetary policy, helping the benchmark S&P index <.spx> climb 6 percent for the year.

S&P 500 futures rose 2.7 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 25 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 3.25 points.

Visa Inc's quarterly profit beat analysts' estimates for the ninth consecutive quarter as credit, debit and transactions grew at the world's largest payments network.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc stumbled 7.2 percent to $45.43 in premarket after forecasting sales growth for the current quarter that was slightly lower than analysts expected.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning, of 301 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 68.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters. In terms of revenue, 65.8 percent of companies have topped forecasts.

Looking ahead, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are now expected to grow 4.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

Retailers will also be eyed as they report monthly sales results. Costco Wholesale Corp posted a 4 percent rise in comparable sales in January, marginally above analysts' estimates, despite the largest U.S. warehouse operator having one less sales day in the reporting period.

European shares were little changed after sharp falls the previous day, with any recovery capped by mixed earnings and concerns about economic and political developments in the euro zone. <.eu/>

Asian shares and the euro paused from recent gains as investors awaited the European Central Bank's policy meeting later in the day and Draghi's view on euro zone growth prospects.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Khamenei rebuffs U.S. offer of direct talks

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problem between them.

"Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem," Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's air force carried on his official website.

"If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said.

"American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations."

Khamenei made his comments just days after Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. "That offer stands but it must be real and tangible," Biden said in a speech in Munich.

With traditional fiery rhetoric, Khamenei lambasted Biden's offer, saying that since the 1979 revolution the United States had gravely insulted Iran and continued to do so with its threat of military action.

"You take up arms against the nation of Iran and say: 'negotiate or we fire'. But you should know that pressure and negotiations are not compatible and our nation will not be intimidated by these actions," he added.

Relations between Iran and the United States were severed in 1979 after the overthrow of Iran's pro-western monarchy and diplomatic meetings between officials have since been very rare.

ALL OPTIONS STILL "ON THE TABLE"

Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and a so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran's disputed nuclear program which are to resume on February 26 in Kazakhstan.

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said he was skeptical the negotiations in Almaty could yield a result, telling Israel Radio that the United States needed to demonstrate to Iran that "all options were still on the table".

Israel, widely recognized to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has warned it could mount a pre-emptive strike on Iranian atomic sites. Israel sees its existence as directly threatened by the prospect of an nuclear-armed Iran, given Tehran's refusal to recognize the existence of the Jewish state.

"The final option, this is the phrasing we have used, should remain in place and be serious," said Meridor.

"The fact that the Iranians have not yet come down from the path they are on means that talks ...are liable to bring about only a stalling for time," he said.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western powers are concerned it is intent on developing a weapons program.

Many believe a deal on settling the nuclear issue is impossible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw. But any rapprochement would require direct talks addressing many sources of mutual mistrust that have lingered since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Moreover, although his re-election last November may give President Barack Obama a freer hand to pursue direct negotiations, analysts say Iran's own presidential election in June may prove an additional obstacle to progress being made.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by William Maclean and Jon Boyle)

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BlackBerry wants developers ready for the Q10, releases new developer phone with QWERTY keyboard

BlackBerry (BBRY) hasn’t yet announced launch details for its second BlackBerry 10 smartphone, the QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10, but it still wants to make sure that developers are ready for the new phone once it becomes available. Apropos, the vendor on Tuesday announced a new “Dev Alpha C” developer handset that features a QWERTY keyboard and the same display dimensions as the upcoming BlackBerry Q10. The handset will allow developers to get acclimated with the BlackBerry 10/QWERTY combination and prep apps that work as well with the Q10 as they do on the BlackBerry Z10.

[More from BGR: Google’s big potential problem: The ‘Galaxy’ brand is starting to beat the ‘Android’ brand]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Kelly Clarkson Dishes on Her Dream Wedding

By Michelle Tauber

02/06/2013 at 08:00 AM EST

She had never been in love before. Then, a few years ago, Kelly Clarkson finally figured out why, she says.

"I was dating skinny jeans and I needed Wranglers," the singer, 30, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story.

So when she fell hard for music manager Brandon Blackstock a year ago, she knew it was something special.

Relaxing at their Nashville home together in December, Clarkson recalls, "Out of nowhere I just said, 'Thanks for being an awesome guy.' I've never been loved properly by a man, and I was just like, 'I thank you so much for that.'"

What she didn't realize was that Blackstock, 36, was about to propose. "Not a damn clue!" she says. "If I did I would have worn something besides Uggs and a sweatshirt with no bra."

Now the couple is busy planning an "earthy" outdoor fall wedding at home – think yellow roses for Texas – while Clarkson also works on two new albums and preps for the Grammys on Feb. 10.

"I didn't know life could be this happy," she says.

For much more from Kelly, including details of her wedding dress, engagement ring and how she feels about being a stepmom, pick up this week's PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.

With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.

"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.

City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.

"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.

Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.

"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.

Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.

While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.

Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.

Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Stock futures edge higher with earnings in focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, adding to the benchmark S&P 500's rally of more than 1 percent a day earlier, buoyed by solid corporate earnings and an optimistic outlook from Disney.

Walt Disney Co beat estimates for quarterly adjusted earnings and said it expected the next few quarters to be better due to a stronger lineup of movies and rising attendance at its theme parks. Shares advanced 3.2 percent to $56.03 in light premarket trading.

With a lack of economic catalysts on Wednesday, investor focus has turned to an earnings season that has been better than anticipated.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Tuesday morning, of the 278 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.7 percent have beat analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.

In another positive sign, sixty-six percent of companies have topped revenue forecasts. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are now expected to rise 4.5 percent, according to the data, above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season.

S&P 500 futures rose 1.6 points and were slightly above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 42 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.75 points.

The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2, when legislators sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that could have hurt a fragile U.S. economic recovery.

Visa , the world's largest credit and debit card network, is expected to report earnings per share of $1.79 for its first quarter, up from $1.49 a year earlier. Smaller rival MasterCard recently reported better-than-expected results but said its revenue growth could slow in the first half of the year due to economic uncertainty.

Zynga Inc jumped 6.9 percent to $2.93 in premarket trading after the online gaming company reported an unexpected fourth-quarter profit, following steep cost cuts and shifting forward deferred revenue.

European stocks rose, extending the previous session's recovery with an upbeat outlook from ArcelorMittal reassuring investors. <.eu/>

Asian shares rose, with Japanese equities climbing to their highest since October 2008 on hopes of central bank monetary policy easing and optimism about the prospects for a global economic recovery.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Tunisian opposition politician shot dead, protests erupt

Tunis (Reuters) - A Tunisian opposition politician was shot dead on Wednesday, sending thousands of protesters onto the streets of the capital and in Sidi Bouzid, the epicenter of uprisings that swept the Arab world and Tunisia's president from power.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who said the identity of the attacker was not known, condemned the killing of Shokri Belaid outside his Tunis home as a political assassination and a strike against the "Arab Spring" revolution.

Tension has been growing between Islamists and secularists such as Belaid, who was a staunch opponent of the moderate Islamist-led government elected in October 2011.

As news of the killing spread, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Interior Ministry, many calling for the fall of the government elected after their uprising chased out veteran ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.

Protesters also took to the streets in Sidi Bouzid, where jobless university graduate Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in despair after police confiscated his unlicensed fruit cart, triggering protests that toppled the president.

"More than 4,000 are protesting now, burning wheels and throwing stones at the police", Mehdi Horchani a resident from Sidi Bouzid, told Reuters. "There is a great anger."

Tunisia was the first Arab country to oust its leader and hold free elections as uprisings spread around the region two years ago, leading to the ousting of the rulers of Egypt, Yemen and Libya and the civil war in Syria.

Since the revolution the government has faced a string of protests over economic hardship and Tunisia's future path, with many complaining hardline Salafis were hijacking the revolution in a country dominated previously by a secular elite.

Declining trade with the crisis-hit euro zone has left Tunisians struggling to achieve the better living standards many had hoped for following Ben Ali's departure.

President Moncef Marzouki, who last month warned the tension may lead to "civil war", called for calm and cut short a trip to France as well as cancelling a visit to Egypt scheduled for Thursday after the killing.

"We will continue to fight the enemies of the revolution," he told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, to applause.

FRANCE WORRIED BY RISING VIOLENCE

Compounding the political unrest, Tunisia says al Qaeda-linked militants have been accumulating weapons with the aim of creating an Islamic state.

"The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution. By killing him they wanted to silence his voice," said Jebali, who heads the government led by the Ennahda party, which won Tunisia's first post-Arab Spring election.

Belaid, who died in hospital, was a leading member of the opposition Popular Front party. A lawyer and human rights activist he had been a constant critic of the government, accusing it of being a puppet of the rulers in Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which Tunisia denies.

"Shokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest ... doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia," Ziad Lakhader, a leader of the Popular Front, told Reuters.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the shooting, saying he was concerned by the rise of violence in France's former colony.

"This murder deprives Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices," Hollande's office said in a statement.

"France is concerned by the mounting political violence in Tunisia and calls for the ideas cherished by the Tunisian people during their revolution to be respected."

TENSION OVER RULE

Marzouki warned last month that the conflict between Islamists and secularists could lead to civil war and called for a national dialogue that included all political shades.

The secular opposition has accused Ennahda of being too close to hardline Salafi groups, while Salafis who complain Ennahda is failing to defend Islamic values. Ennahda rejects the charges from both sides.

Ennahda party won 42 percent of seats in 2011 elections but formed a government in coalition with two secular parties, the president's Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.

Marzouki's party threatened on Sunday to withdraw from the government unless it dropped two Islamist ministers.

The opposition threatened unspecified retribution for the killing, that Ennahda president Rached Gannouchi condemned as "aimed at the democratic process of democratic transition". ‮‮‮‮‮‮ ‬‬‬‬‬‬ "The opposition will take historic decisions in response to this cowardly act", Maya Jribi secretary-general of the secularist Republican Party.

(Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Jon Boyle)

(This story was corrected to fix typo in the third paragraph)

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Kenya tracks Facebook, Twitter for election “hate speech”

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Every day, Kagonya Awori and her tech-savvy team trawl through Facebook and Twitter for warning signs that Kenya‘s elections in March may unleash the same ethnic violence that took the country to the brink of civil war five years ago.

Sifting through blogs and social media sites, the group of six search for hate speech and inflammatory postings – or any early indications that inter-tribal tensions are escalating.

Awori and her colleagues have reason to be worried.

The last presidential vote in late 2007 when incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the re-elected victor was disputed by opponents and erupted into bloodletting.

More than 1,200 people were slaughtered, many butchered by machete, burnt alive or shot with bows and arrows as the country’s biggest tribes turned on one another.

“The amount of dangerous speech is going up but, this time, the people who are saying these things are not hiding at all,” said Awori. She heads Umati, a web-based project monitoring dangerous speech for research firm iHub Research, which conducts Africa-focused tech research out of Nairobi.

“There are outright calls to kill, forcefully evict and steal as well as discriminate against members of particular communities,” she said.

Most of the hate speech Awori’s group has come across so far has been on Facebook, with users frequently revealing their names, and often their location.

Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, has ranked second for Twitter use in Africa in recent years, out-tweeting oil-producing powerhouse Nigeria and Egypt, where social media helped galvanise supporters of the Arab Spring revolution.

Kenyan authorities have passed legislation banning media outlets from re-printing hate speech, to curb the spread. But thus far they have been largely powerless to stop ordinary Kenyans from voicing tribal animosities on social media.

Kenyan law prohibits media from re-printing tribal hate speech in full.

Examples of online vitriol include calls to “chinja chinja”, or “butcher butcher” in Swahili, as well as to beat, loot, riot, kill, and drive out other tribes.

A repeat in March of the inter-tribal violence that bloodied the 2007 elections cannot be ruled out.

Alliances forged by Kenya’s main presidential contenders for the 2013 vote are lining up for a rerun of a largely ethnic-based contest for political power.

The two main opposing camps are headed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is backed by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta whose running mate is William Ruto, a former cabinet minister.

The head-on rivalry between Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founder president and from the predominant Kikuyu tribe, and Odinga, a Luo, raises the spectre again of ethnic confrontation.

Contributing to the tensions, both Kenyatta and Ruto face trial after the March vote at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague for their alleged role in fomenting the election violence five years ago.

EYE ON THREATS

Kenyan authorities say journalists should choose their words with care so as not to inflame tensions.

“We will set you on fire before you set us on fire,” government spokesman Muthui Kariuki warned international journalists at a breakfast meeting on Wednesday.

“We believe to a greater extent that (the violence of) 2007-08 was a result of a lot of information that journalists wrote and passed on to our people,” he said.

In the Kenyan blogosphere online users blast opposing tribe members as “snakes”, “maggots” and “vultures”, among other names.

“These are actually telling people to re-enact what happened in 2007, so it’s very vicious,” Mary Ombara, secretary of Kenya’s media monitoring body, said.

Ombara receives daily reports on online hate speech. The government has hired bloggers to monitor sites for inflammatory content. The government two weeks ago also enlisted the help of Awori’s Umati team and Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission.

Civil society NGOs are also helping.

A national agency formed to reconcile tribes after the last election violence said it was working with police to identify threats and hate speech to avoid a repeat of the 2007 mayhem.

Particular attention is being paid to political rallies and social media, Alice Nderitu, an official at National Cohesion and Integration Commission, told Reuters.

“We are monitoring and will take people to court for using abusive language on social media,” said Nicholas Kamwende, head of the police’s criminal investigations department in Nairobi.

FEAR THE TWEET

Radio has traditionally been the leading medium for the dissemination of hate speech in Kenya – a trend reflected by the inclusion of a local radio presenter among the ICC indictees in the aftermath of the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

Joshua Arap Sang faces charges of crimes against humanity alongside Kenyatta and Ruto. They all say they are innocent.

During the 2007-08 clashes, mobile phone text messages were a powerful tool for organising vigilante groups and mobs, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

To curb this, Kenya has ordered that all lines that cannot be traced to a known user be de-registered in a bid to clamp down on people sending out provocative texts.

However, the arrival of affordable smart phones on the Kenyan market has increased internet use on cell phones and caused an explosion of social media.

Some fear Facebook and Twitter will take the place of the SMS text this time around.

Awori’s team are part of a network called Ushahidi, which is Swahili for “testimony” or “witness,” that uses SMS, e-mail and social media to map out where violence is breaking out.

Created in 2008 as way for Kenyans to report instances of post-election violence, it has since been used to map acts of war in Gaza, earthquake devastation in Haiti and currently U.S. activist use it to chart human rights abuses in Syria.

During Kenya’s 2010 constitutional referendum, Ushahidi also showed it could play a key role in curbing aggression. When it received an SMS message of rumours that machete-wielding men had rushed to a polling station in western Kenya, it verified the threat with its sources on the ground and alerted the police.

Fifteen minutes later, dozens of police officers swooped on the polling station to halt any possible trouble.

“It looked like magic for the guy who sent the SMS,” recalled Daudi Were, Ushahidi’s project manager.

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