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BEIJING (AP) Foxconn Technology Group denied on Saturday that production was affected at a Chinese factory that makes Apple's iPhones, although both state media and an overseas labor watch group said some workers halted production lines on Friday, apparently over higher quality control standards.

New York-based China Labor Watch reported that 3,000 to 4,000 workers at the Foxconn plant in the central China's Zhengzhou city went on strike Friday over increased quality control demands and having to work during an extended national holiday.

The official Xinhua News Agency, quoting a spokesman for the management committee of the Xinzheng Comprehensive Bonded Area where the plant is located, said some production lines were halted Friday when workers persuaded quality inspectors to skip work to show their dissatisfaction over higher quality standards.

In a written statement issued Saturday, the Taiwan-based electronic manufacturer Foxconn said production at the Zhengzhou plant continued without interruption. It denied any strike or work stoppage.

Foxconn said there were two isolated, small-scale disputes between production line workers and quality assurance personnel on Monday and Tuesday, but it added that they were quickly addressed. It did not specify what issues had caused the disputes but said immediate measures were taken to resolve the problems, including adding production line workers.

Xinhua said some workers were unhappy when Apple strengthened quality inspections of the iPhone 5 following consumer complaints regarding aesthetic flaws in the phone. In the Xinhua report, the spokesman who was not named characterized the incident as a worker-management dispute instead of a strike and was unable to provide a specific number of workers involved.

China Labor Watch said several iPhone 5 production lines at the factory were paralyzed after the workers found the new quality control demands difficult to meet and went on strike. The group said the workers also were angry about being forced to work through China's National Day Golden Week holiday, which ends Sunday.

The iPhone 5, the latest in the line of the smartphones, debuted in September.

Foxconn said its employees in China who worked during the holiday did so voluntarily and were being paid three times their normal pay, in accordance with Chinese labor law.

China Labor Watch said workers also beat quality control inspectors, who carried out their own work stoppage after management ignored their complaints.

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Foxconn workers halt production at iPhone plant

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Oct 5, 2012) - MediaCom USA announced today that it has been awarded media responsibilities for AARP, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial to them and society.

The media assignment includes traditional and non-traditional planning and buying, insights, analytics and business science.

The win comes after a competitive review that began in February 2012. The appointment was effective October 1, 2012, and will be managed out of the MediaCom USA headquarters in New York City.

"AARP is committed to numerous causes, including caregiver assistance, ending hunger and making a positive impact in thousands of communities, and we share their passion for change," said Sasha Savic, CEO of MediaCom USA. "We're honored to work together to deliver the savings and strategic leadership that will future-proof the AARP brand and help bring its agenda to life."

Based in Washington, D.C., AARP has been representing people over 50 since its inception in 1958. With over 37 million members, it is one of the largest organizations in the United States.

MediaCom is part of GroupM, the parent company for WPP's media services agencies, which also include Maxus, MEC and Mindshare.

About MediaCom MediaCom is one of the world's leading media communications specialists, with billings exceeding US $28 billion (Source:RECMA 2012). It employs 4,600 people in 113 offices across 89 countries around the globe. The company's strategy is driven by its "People first, better results" philosophy, which places people -- consumers, clients and employees -- at its core to generate optimum business results. The MediaCom family includes a number of industry-leading divisions, such as: MediaCom Interaction, a global digital and interactive marketing agency, which uses future-forward proprietary technology to grow client businesses; direct response agency MediaCom Direct, which creates close, measured connections with consumers; branded content specialists MediaCom Beyond Advertising; sports sponsorship and strategy team MediaCom Sport; and MediaCom Business Science, which ensures clients achieve maximum sales return. MediaCom Worldwide is a member of WPP, the world's largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP's consolidated media investment management arm. For more information, visit http://www.mediacom.com.

About GroupM GroupM is the world's largest global media investment management operation, with total billings exceeding US $90 billion (Source:RECMA 2012). It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including MediaCom, Maxus, MEC, and Mindshare. Its primary purpose is to maximise the performance of WPP's media communications agencies on behalf of its clients, its shareholders and its people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, and to bring competitive advantage to its clients and companies. For more information, visit http://www.groupm.com.

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MediaCom USA Wins AARP Media Assignment

WBC President, Jose Sulaiman has often been accused of working for the benefit of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and even, at times, running interference for the second generation star. After all, he did allow for a path to be paved where Chavez Jr. could fight extremely weak opposition en route to a practically gift wrapped WBC middleweight title belt. He also allowed for the fighter to keep his belt for as long as possible without having to face the legitimate lineal champ, Sergio Martinez.

Now, almost three weeks after Chavez tested positive for marijuana following his unanimous decision loss to Sergio Martinez, Sulaiman has gone to the media with some harsh words for the young fighter that could either be considered tough love or spiteful backlash.

After stating his intention to fine Chavez $20,000 and force him to go to rehabilitation as a condition for being allowed to return to a WBC ring, the long-time official revealed that the 26-year-old fighter, who is still facing punishment from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, may be in more serious trouble than anyone thought.

"He's not the young man I know anymore," Sulaiman said. "He's become bitter and has an out of control passion for throwing his money away. He loses much of it in the casinos. So, what he makes, he just hands over to the casinos. That's truly terrible. It shows that he's not on firm ground. He has lost his head."

The Mexico City native, who has been close to the Chavez family for years, also said that the young fighter has hurled insults at him in a recent outburst.

"I feel disappointed. I'm worried and I feel sad. Disappointed because he was the one who changed his life. He's a person who doesn't have to fight to make money. Since he was born, he's always been a poor rich kid."

Over the course of his nine year professional career, Chavez has seen trouble and controversy before, in situations ranging from questionable decisions in his favor to a 2009 positive drug test for a banned substance and a DUI arrest earlier this year.

Depending on how you feel about the legalization of marijuana and/or its role as a banned substance in the fight game, this latest offense could be considered the least of his offenses. But, still, for those who care about the young man outside of the ring, this should be prime motivation to get him some help before things escalate out of control.

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Paul Magno was a licensed official in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, and a close follower of the sport for more than 30 years. His work can also be found on Fox Sports and The BoxingTribune. In the past, Paul has done work for Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules and Eastside Boxing.

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WBC President: Chavez Jr. Out of Control, "Poor, Rich Kid." Fan's Take

WASHINGTON Big Bird is endangered. Jim Lehrer lost control. And Mitt Romney crushed President Barack Obama.

Those were the judgments rendered across Twitter and Facebook Wednesday during the first debate of the 2012 presidential contest. While millions turned on their televisions to watch the 90-minute showdown, a smaller but highly engaged subset took to social networks to discuss and score the debate as it unspooled in real time.

Until recently, debate watchers would have waited through the entire broadcast to hear analysis and reaction from a small cadre of television pundits. Social media has democratized the commentary, giving voice to a far wider range of participants who can shape the narrative long before the candidates reach their closing statements.

"People still use old media to watch the debates, but they use social networks and other new media to have influence, voice opinions and be involved," said Scott Talan, an assistant professor of communication at American University who studies social media and politics. "Old media is not dead; it's growing. But now we have more people involved and engaged because of digital means."

The political conversation plays out across a range of social platforms, especially on the industry giant Facebook and on Twitter, the social networking hub where opinions are shared through 140-character comments known as tweets. Reflecting the changing times, many television analysts now monitor Twitter and Facebook feeds and use information gleaned from those platforms to inform their punditry.

Twitter announced shortly after Wednesday's debate that it had been the most tweeted event in U.S. political history, topping this year's Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

With 11.1 million comments, Wednesday's debate was the fourth most tweeted telecast of any kind, coming in just behind the most recent Grammy awards, MTV's Video Music Awards and the Super Bowl, according to William Powers, director of the Crowdwire, an election project of the social analytics firm Bluefin Labs. The project found 55 percent of the social comments about the debate were made by women, 45 percent by men.

Unlike the wider viewing audience, debate watchers who comment on social media "are politically engaged in the strongest possible way," Powers said. But, he added, "it's a bit of a hothouse population. It does skew younger, and I'm not sure how much middle America is represented."

Twitter scored Romney the debate's clear winner according to Peoplebrowsr, a web analytics firm. The group found 47,141 tweets mentioning Romney and "win or winner" compared to just 29,677 mentioning Obama and "win or winner."

Romney was also the top tweet in battleground states including Florida, Ohio, Nevada and Colorado, Peoplebrowsr found.

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Romney's 'Big Bird' debate comment stirs social media; Jim Lehrer, out of control?

BURNABY, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Viscount Systems Inc. (VSYS) a high technology supplier of IT-focused solutions for physical security under its Freedom product line, announced today that the company has filed a series of patents for securing facilities and tracking users through the use of mobile, handheld devices such as phones or PDAs. The patents deal with the ability to use mobile devices to communicate with a door reader, rather than using traditional ID/access cards. The company previewed the technology at the recent ASIS security conference in Philadelphia and received excellent feedback including media coverage.

Security InfoWatch, a leading security industry magazine publisher, began their review of new technology at ASIS by stating, When you think of what might be the greatest access control innovations from the show floor at ASIS this year, your first thought was probably a neat way to open doors with an iphone Viscount used a mobile phone to open a door using only a QR (Quick Response) code. The code is mounted above the door, and the user need only scan the QR code to be granted access.

With Freedom we have already demonstrated our ability to dramatically improve ROI by eliminating the control panel component of systems, noted Stephen Pineau, President and CEO of Viscount. With Freedom Mobile we can now also eliminate the cost of RFID readers and cards to further improve ROI. The patents we have filed and the technology we are developing represents a tremendous opportunity for Viscount to deliver solutions as low cost Cloud applications based on a recurring revenue model that are normally delivered as electronic hardware.

Mr. Pineau continued, In addition to securing doors we have filed wide reaching patents covering mobile security applications that we have encountered in the past, but that for reasons relating to cost, end-users were hesitant to proceed. For example, large retail chains and restaurants have been looking for ways to track deliveries and contractors such as garbage and snow removal but the cost of wiring dedicated RFID systems is prohibitive. Other users have requested ways to locate staff without using expensive RFID muster stations in the event of emergencies and evacuations. Finally, there are large corporate and financial clients who are looking to secure shared printer networks for compliance reasons. With Freedom Mobile we now have a solution to these applications where there is basically no cost to deploy the technology. The solutions simply require a nominal monthly recurring revenue Cloud fee with no upfront capital cost. We believe there is great potential with this approach.

About Viscount Systems

Viscount Systems Inc., designs unified software platforms for building security and emergency planning. Recent awards include SIA Convergence Solution of the Year 2011 and Platinum Award for Emergency Response and Gold Award for Access Control at GOVSEC 2011. Additional information on Viscount's products may be obtained on-line at http://www.viscount.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy any securities of Viscount Systems Inc., nor shall there be any sale of any such security in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.

Forward looking statements: This press release and other statements by Viscount Systems Inc. may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act with respect to the outlook for earnings and revenues, other future financial or business performance, strategies and expectations. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases such as "believe," "expect," "estimate," "position," "assume," "potential," "outlook," "continue," "remain," "maintain," and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," or similar expressions.

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Viscount Files Patents for Mobile Security and Access Control