French flags burned in Charlie Hebdo protests

Protesters torched French flags in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday as thousands marched in Pakistan, all in protest against the image of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover of the latest issue of French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

After French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo printed a cover last week featuring the Prophet Muhammad in tears, reactions have spread far and wide across the world. 

 

On Thursday in Baghdad, protesters carried banners reading "We demand the French authorities apologize to all Muslims," and "No, no, France", reported the AFP news agency. 

 

The crowd, among many of whom were journalists, burned a French flag outside the French embassy.

                                       

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Hassan Jumaa, director of Al-Nahar television, said he wanted France to issue an apology and "stop this abuse of the prophet and all religions."

   

"We reject terrorism, we are against terrorism, we fought terrorism, and our religion is a religion of tolerance," he said.

 

Meanwhile in Karachi, the biggest city in Pakistan, thousands marched in what has been dubbed as the biggest protest to Charlie Hebdo so far.

 

Protesters carried green flags printed with the prophet's mausoleum and chanted anti-Charlie Hebdo slogans as they marched.

   

"Down with Charlie Hebdo, down with the blasphemers," they shouted.

  

Many carried placards demanding blasphemers be killed.

 

Insulting the Prophet carries the death penalty under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Photo: AFP   

 

One of the protest leaders, Sarwat Ejaz Qadri, demanded the Pakistani government cut diplomatic ties with France.

   

"Their ambassador should be declared persona non grata and must be expelled from the country," Qadri said.

 

Activists in Quetta, southern Pakistan, also marched and burned a French flag. A further 2,000 marched  in the eastern city of Lahore.

 

Protesters carried banners reading: "Let blasphemers be hanged, we will not tolerate anyone ridiculing our prophet."

   

In Afghanistan, a crowd of around 50 gathered at the French embassy in Kabul, chanting "France you are the devil".  

 

Throughout this week, rioters have blazed through Niger in Africa, leaving ten people dead and 45 churches burned. 

 

Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch claimed responsibility for the January 7th attack by two brothers, saying it was "in revenge for the prophet of God."After French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo printed a cover last week featuring the Prophet Muhammad in tears, reactions have spread far and wide across the world. 

 

On Thursday in Baghdad, protesters carried banners reading "We demand the French authorities apologize to all Muslims," and "No, no, France", reported the AFP news agency. 

 

The crowd, among many of whom were journalists, burned a French flag outside the French embassy.

 

Hassan Jumaa, director of Al-Nahar television, said he wanted France to issue an apology and "stop this abuse of the prophet and all religions."

   

"We reject terrorism, we are against terrorism, we fought terrorism, and our religion is a religion of tolerance," he said.

 

Meanwhile in Karachi, the biggest city in Pakistan, thousands marched in what has been dubbed as the biggest protest to Charlie Hebdo so far.

 

Protesters carried green flags printed with the prophet's mausoleum and chanted anti-Charlie Hebdo slogans as they marched.

   

"Down with Charlie Hebdo, down with the blasphemers," they shouted.

  

Many carried placards demanding blasphemers be killed.

 

Insulting the Prophet carries the death penalty under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Photo: AFP   

 

One of the protest leaders, Sarwat Ejaz Qadri, demanded the Pakistani government cut diplomatic ties with France.

   

"Their ambassador should be declared persona non grata and must be expelled from the country," Qadri said.

 

Activists in Quetta, southern Pakistan, also marched and burned a French flag. A further 2,000 marched  in the eastern city of Lahore.

 

Protesters carried banners reading: "Let blasphemers be hanged, we will not tolerate anyone ridiculing our prophet."

   

In Afghanistan, a crowd of around 50 gathered at the French embassy in Kabul, chanting "France you are the devil".  

 

Throughout this week, rioters have blazed through Niger in Africa, leaving ten people dead and 45 churches burned. 

 

Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch claimed responsibility for the January 7th attack by two brothers, saying it was "in revenge for the prophet of God."

NTSB recommends ways to find plane crashes faster

WASHINGTON — In an effort to find plane crashes faster and learn more from them, the National Transportation Safety Board made eight recommendations Thursday to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The proposals include installing cockpit video recorders, preventing anyone from disabling them or the voice and data recorders, and ensuring that searchers can get information about an ocean crash without needing to retrieve underwater wreckage.

"The NTSB is vitally interested in these recommendations because they are designed to prevent accidents and save lives," according to the 13-page letter from current board members Christopher Hart, Robert Sumwalt and Earl Weener.

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But many of the recommendations are contentious. For example, the NTSB recommended video recorders in 2000, but pilots have opposed the proposal and FAA hasn't acted.

The recommendations are a response to the difficulties finding planes that crash or go missing over oceans, where radar can't reach and satellite links can be lost. The search continues for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared last March, presumably over the Indian Ocean.

Electronics on that Boeing 777 stopped routine communications after less than an hour, meaning either a catastrophic failure or that someone turned them off, even though satellite signals suggested that the plane kept flying for seven hours.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations that recommends policies, is studying how to better track planes. The NTSB calls for tamper-proof signaling from planes flying over water to within six nautical miles.

The crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 illustrated the challenges of finding a plane's recorders. Even with debris floating from the Airbus A330, it took searchers nearly two years to find the recorders on the ocean floor.

The NTSB said search areas could have been narrowed significantly for Air France and Malaysia with its recommendation. But international experts are debating what standards to adopt for tracking planes, and whether more equipment is needed on planes.

Another challenge in an ocean crash is retrieving voice and data recorders from wreckage that could be miles deep. The NTSB recommends either installing additional, floating recorders that eject from a plane just before a crash, or installing communications equipment that sends a blast of details about the flight by satellite just before a crash.

Boeing and Airbus disagree about installing deployable recorders on airliners. At an NTSB forum in October, an Airbus representative said the manufacturer planned to install deployable recorders on its larger planes, the A380 and the new A350, and on planes that routinely fly over water from the smaller A320 family of planes.

But a Boeing representative noted that in development for military planes, recorders occasionally deployed unintentionally, which would be risky over cities. Out of 24 intentional military ejections since 2004, he said 18 recorders were found, meaning the system is only 75% reliable.

NTSB also recommends making the recorders tamper-proof and including video from the cockpit.

Besides concerns that Malaysia's equipment was intentionally turned off, the NTSB said voice and data recorders lacked information about crew actions in crashes of ValuJet Flight 592, SilkAir Flight 185, Swissair Flight 111 and EgyptAir Flight 990. In the SilkAir and EgyptAir, pilot suicide was suspected.

The ideas aren't new. In 2000, Jim Hall, who was then head of the NTSB, urged video recording in a speech that said it would tell which pilot was in control, who was flipping switches and what distractions existed. Noises are sometimes hard to distinguish on voice recorders because of the chaos.

"That would enable us to more easily determine causes of accidents and implement solutions to improve safety," Hall said.

But pilots have long argued they must have the power to turn off electronic equipment because of fire threats. And pilots contend that video is subjective and isn't as precise as the current data recorders, which monitor hundreds of details about a plane's controls.

The Air Line Pilots Association, a union representing 50,000 pilots, argues in a white paper that video would invade a pilot's privacy, lawyers would play videos in court as a gimmick and video could be released widely to hurt a pilot's survivors.

"ALPA is opposed to any use of video recording in the cockpit," the paper said.

The recommendations urge FAA to:

• Require aircraft that fly over oceans to have a tamper-resistant broadcast of their location to within six nautical miles of a crash, which would require a signal about once a minute.

• Mandate that aircraft flying over water provide a means to recover flight data that "should not require underwater retrieval."

• Coordinate the location and retrieval policies with international groups.

• Install underwater locator devices on planes that signal for 90 days at lower frequencies than current ultrasonic beacons, so they are heard better through wreckage.

• Thwart the ability for someone to disable recorders on existing planes.

• Prevent anyone from disabling recorders on new planes.

• Require cockpit video recorders in existing airliners with voice and data recorders.

• Require cockpit video recorders in new airliners.

#sex: Prince Andrew denies he had sex with underage girl

In a first for British royals, Prince Andrew on Thursday publicly denied he ever had sex with an underage American girl.

As expected, the Duke of York, second son of Queen Elizabeth, addressed shocking allegations against him during a long-scheduled speech at a reception for British trade in Davos, Switzerland.

Buckingham Palace has already issued three emphatic denials on Andrew's behalf denying that he had sex with a then-teen-age Virginia Roberts, a now-31-year-old American mother of three .

On Thursday, the prince, 54, added his personal denial, rejecting Roberts' allegations.

"I just wish to reiterate and to reaffirm the statements which have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace," Andrew said, according to The Associated Press.

He went on to say: "My focus is on my work."

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Andrew, fifth-in-line to the throne, has long promoted British business and trade around the world.

ITV reporter Tim Ewart reported that Andrew spoke to a couple hundred people in a room "so quiet you could hear a pin drop."

Some British reporters seized on how Andrew said what he said as significant.

Roberts claims in a Florida civil lawsuit that she was hired to have sex with him and other "powerful people" as a "sex slave" to Andrew's longtime friend, financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It was Andrew's first public appearance since Roberts' allegations surfaced two weeks ago in connection with the long-running Florida lawsuit.

USA TODAYRoyal sex-scandal accuser spills more salacious details

The allegations are unprecedented for British royals, who generally do not personally go public to denounce accusations the way Americans do.

But Andrew, who has hosted a British trade reception at Davos for years, has been under increasing pressure at home to say or do something in response.

Plus, even if Roberts' allegations are untrue, it is a fact that Andrew is a friend of sex-offender Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and served about a year in prison.

Meanwhile, Roberts and her lawyers upped the stakes again on Wednesday, filing new court documents in Florida in which she spills more salacious details about her alleged three sexual encounters with Andrew when she was 17, and demanding that he submit to an under-oath interview about her charges.

She said in the court papers that she is telling the truth about Andrew (and also American superlawyer Alan Dershowitz) and that she's miffed about the royal denials.

"That denial is false and hurtful to me," she says in the documents. "I did have sexual contact with him as I have described here — under oath.

"I was hoping that he would simply voluntarily tell the truth about everything. I hope my attorneys can interview Prince Andrew under oath about the contacts and that he will tell the truth."

USA TODAYDershowitz on sex slave case: 'I'm hiding nothing'

Will Andrew's words today resolve his problems over the allegations? Some in the British media were skeptical.

As Andrew's mother the queen prepares to mark her 63rd year on the throne next month, and to pass her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria for longest-servicing monarch ever in September, will Andrew's embarrassment lead to more anti-monarchy republican sentiment?

North Carolina, NCAA sued for academic scandal

Attorneys representing two former University of North Carolina athletes on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the university and the NCAA in connection with the academic scandal involving Tar Heels athletes.

The suit, which seeks to become a class action, was filed in a North Carolina state court on behalf of women's basketball player Rashanda McCants and football player Devon Ramsay by lawyers from the same firm that is pursuing the Ed O'Bannon antitrust case against the NCAA concerning the use of college athletes' names, images and likenesses.

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Rashanda McCants is the younger sister of former North Carolina men's basketball player Rashad McCants.

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North Carolina probe: Advisers steered athletes to bogus classes

This case involves allegations of breach of contract against UNC for a failure to provide "academically sound classes with legitimate educational instruction."

The complaint also accuses the NCAA of negligence because: "Although the NCAA's rules prohibit academic fraud, the NCAA knew of dozens of instances of academic fraud in its member schools' athletic programs over the last century, and it nevertheless refused to implement adequate monitoring systems to detect and prevent these occurrences at its member institutions."

The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks for "the formation of an independent commission to review, audit, assess, and report on academic integrity in NCAA-member athletic programs and certify member-school curricula as providing comparable educations and educational opportunities to athletes and non-athletes alike."

Huckabee: Resisting the Supreme Court on gay marriage?

NEW YORK — Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a likely contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination and a leading voice for Christian conservatives, said Thursday that governors and state legislatures should consider ways to resist a Supreme Court decision that recognized same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.

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On USA TODAY's Capital Download, Huckabee likened such a possible decision, on an issue now being weighed by the high court, to the notorious Dred Scott case before the Civil War that ruled African Americans couldn't be citizens. Pushing back against such an opinion "is not without historical and judicial precedence," he said in an interview promoting his new book, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, published Wednesday by St. Martin's Press.

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Capital Download - Conversations with Washington's biggest newsmakers

If he were still governor, he said, "I think I would put it before the legislature. I mean, we would ask, 'We have a constitutional amendment in our constitution. Do we want to hold to that? Do we want to put it before a referendum of the people?' I mean, there are a lot of different angles to pursue it. (Or) you could just surrender and say, 'OK, we just agree that the court is right.' "

Whatever the legal basis for Huckabee's stance — and constitutional scholars question whether there is one — as a political matter his fervent opposition all but guarantees that the issue of gay marriage will be prominent in the GOP presidential debate. While other leading contenders also oppose gay marriage, some of them, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, have said court decisions recognizing the right make it a settled question.

Huckabee disagrees.

The cover of Mike Huckabee's new book, "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy." (Photo: St. Martin's Press)

"Rather than just immediately capitulate to nine people in robes, and what it will probably be is five people in robes against four people who disagree ... then you have a very, very divided court," he told the weekly newsmaker series. "Do we really surrender the entire American system of government to five people, unelected, appointed for life, with no consequences for the decisions they make? The founders never intended for there to be such incredible, almost unlimited power, put in the hands of so few people."

However, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Law School, Irvine, said states would have no options if the Supreme Court decided that laws prohibiting same-sex marriage violated the Constitution.

"There have been efforts by states to circumvent or ignore Supreme Court decisions, most notably the intense Southern resistance to Brown v. Board of Education and desegregation," Chemerinsky said. "The Supreme Court made it clear that its ruling was the law of the land. This will be no different."

The issue has been joined, he noted. "Already, marriage equality exists in 36 states, mostly because of court decisions, and there has not been the type of resistance Huckabee suggests."

Still, it is a sign of Huckabee's appeal to the evangelical Christians who are among the GOP's most loyal voters that his new book immediately shot to No. 1 in sales among political books on Amazon and into the top 100 among books of all sorts. In his folksy, conversational style, he unfavorably contrasts New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — places he dubs "Bubble-ville" — with those from the heartland, which he dubs "Bubba-ville."

At one point in the book, he discussed how "goooood" it is to eat game. "I'm sorry if that sounds cruel to any vegan readers," he added. "(And are there any? Raise your hands, if you have the strength.)"

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The Road to 2016

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Huckabee points to Beyonce as he slams Obama on parenting

In the interview, Huckabee also:

• Acknowledged he was likely to make his second bid for the White House. He also ran in 2008. "If everything continues to work well and I sense that there is, say, the proper financial and political support, then I think it's a given that that's where the destination is."

• Predicted former president Bill Clinton would be an asset to his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, if she runs for the Democratic nomination. "I mean, he had a good presidency. I'm a Republican but I admire good governing."

• Dismissed as overblown a furor over comments in his new book criticizing Beyonce and Jay-Z for using sexually explicit lyrics, and the president and first lady for allowing their daughters to listen to them. "I do think they're good parents," he said of the Obamas, adding he has some of Beyonce's songs on his iPhone. "She's an incredibly gifted singer and dancer. She doesn't need to get into the vulgar in order to be successful and influential."

He also denied charges of hypocrisy, leveled this week by Jon Stewart in a combative interview on The Daily Show, because he had played bass backing up rocker Ted Nugent as he sang "Cat Scratch Fever," a song with sexually suggestive lyrics of its own.

• Discussed reports that the FBI had decided not to pursue civil-rights charges in the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., saying the Justice Department would have proceeded if it could have found any standing to do so. "It was obvious that (Attorney General) Eric Holder wanted to be able to bring charges," he said. "It was almost evident from the beginning that he was hoping that they would be able to find some way to indict or bring some charges against officer Darren Wilson."

Now, he said, "I hope that (civil rights activist and MSNBC anchor) Al Sharpton will have a rally and apologize for having incited so many people to actions that were hurtful to the people of Ferguson, hurtful to many minority business owners whose businesses were burned and looted because passions were inflamed."

#McDonald's: Marvelous Marilyn Hagerty in the spotlight for McDonald's review

After reviewing Olive Garden and later Applebee's, Grand Forks Herald food columnist Marilyn Hagerty has turned her attention to McDonalds, and has once again gained national attention for The Eatbeat.

This time, https://grabtrk.com/ picked up the story, along withvita.mn, People Magazine, CBS Minnesota, and the Star Tribune. And here's Minnesota Public Radio's NewsCut on the review. Then there's the piece by the OC Weekly's Stick a Fork In It. Which is based in Orange County, California.

Of course, the place to find Hagerty's full review of McDonald's is here, on the Grand Forks Herald's page.https://grabtrk.com/

We also tweet links to Hagerty's reviews when they come out, so if you don't want to miss one, and you're into Twitter, you can follow us here.

And if you just want to read Marilyn's reviews of Red Lobster, Denny's and other restaurants, well, they're all right here too. Enjoy!

TwitterPost: Thanks to Bedi, Shanti Bhushan disturbs the 'shanti' of AAP

It was an exciting morning for the newsroom as Shanti Bhushan, one of AAP's founder member criticised Arvind Kejriwal and praised BJP's CM candidate Kiran Bedi. Shanti Bhushan, who has closely worked with both the leaders in India Against Corruption movement, said the decision to present her as the CM candidate by BJP is a 'masterstroke' and "She is definitely the biggest challenge to Kejriwal."

It did not end there.  Shanti Bhushan also demanded that now AAP should have a new convenor as Arvind Kejriwal has 'strayed.'

Within minutes of his open criticism, Shanti Bhushan came under fire on Twitter.  Aashish Khetan, one of the aides of Arvind Kejriwal suggested Shanti Bhushan asks Kiran Bedi a few questions.Various leaders came out and gave statement in favour Arvind Kejriwal and reposed their faith in his leadership.

The controversy heightened when the junior Bhushan (Prashant Bhushan) expressed his disagreement with Shanti Bhushan's comments and said Kiran Bedi is an 'opportunist'

 

Kejriwal said that the party will reach to Shanti Bhushan in order to make him understand the party's stand on various issues.AAP supporter Vishal Dadlani also came out in Arvind Kejriwal's support and said that AAP might not be perfect, but surely it does not give tickets to people who have criminal cases against them. His tweet clearly suggests that he is in disagreement with the seasoned lawyer.Congress leader Ajay Maken jumped in to encash the opportunity to criticise AAP for its fragmentation of perceptionSome people also questioned the timing of the statement made by Shanti Bhushan and asked why he was silent for so long if he was unhappy with the internal operations of AAP.One statement and Twitterati went into a tizzy. Be sure, there are more to follow. Send us your feedback on #ITSocialMedia

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Shanti Bhushan turns the dagger: Arvind Kejriwal has gone astray, must resign

Continuing with his attacks 

on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan on Thursday demanded his resignation as the party convener. "Kejriwal has gone astray. Kiran Bedi for me remains the best choice for Delhi CM," the 89-year-old co-founder of the AAP told Headlines Today in an exclusive interview.

"Arvind only wants winnability. He must step down as AAP convener because the idea of AAP is bigger than Kejriwal," Bhushan told managing editor, TV Today Network, Rahul Kanwal. In words that echoed Shazia Ilmi's accusations before she quit AAP last year, he further said, "Arvind has bulit a personality cult around himself which is harming the party."

The senior Bhushan even claimed that his son and AAP leader Prashant Bhushan also agrees with his stand in private, but is gagged from admitting it in public because of the ongoing elections. "The AAP national executive will meet after February 10 to elect a new convener," Bhushan said, adding that he will call the meeting himself.

Delhi will vote on February 7 and the votes will be counted on February 10.

Shanti Bhushan, a former Union minister and now the biggest donor to AAP, again made his choice for Kiran Bedi clear. "Bedi is the best choice for the chief minister in Delhi. Her track record says she will give a good government."

In further rebuke to party chief Kejriwal, Bhushan said, "For me, Ajay Maken of the Congress comes second. But it is difficult to imagine Congress without corruption." He had only a small concession for Kejriwal. "Arvind also has a track record against corruption. As a CM, I can rely on him."

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal had dismissed Bhushan's preference for Kiran Bedi in Delhi. "It's a democracy and everybody has a right to express his feelings," he told reporters.

"BJP recognised the force of Anna's movement and was forced to bring as CM candidate a crusader against corruption. Kiranji made a huge contribution to India Against Corruption. She would provide a very clean and efficient administration. She is definitely the biggest challenge to Kejriwal," Bhushan had told another TV channel, adding that Bedi's candidature was the BJP's "masterstroke" and it "could be harmful for Kejriwal".

When asked if Bhushan should have refrained from making such a remark in the middle of an election, Kejriwal said, "This is something he should have thought about. What do I say? We will put facts before him to change his mind."

Kiran Bedi, on her part, welcomed the remarks from a rival camp. "If he has said so, I can only be thankful to him," she said. "He has been part of that team. Such a statement coming from him only strengthens the thought process of the BJP," party MP Manoj Tiwari, who had called Bedi a thanedaar earlier, said.

His open preference for Bedi as Delhi's chief minister in the middle of a bitter campaign sparked a sharp reaction from other AAP leaders. "I can't understand how Shantiji can possibly approve of Kiran Bedi joining a party that he calls communal even today," Yogendra Yadav said.

"He is our senior colleague and like a father figure in the party. It is the duty of such figures to avoid getting into a fight between his children," Yadav added. Prashant Bhushan also had distanced himself from his father's remarks. "I differ with my father on this," Prashant told ANI.

ECB Announces Asset-Purchase Plan of 60 Billion Euros a Month

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announced an expanded asset-purchase program, including private and public securities, of up to 60 billion euros ($69 billion) a month to spur growth and counter deflationary pressures.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fergal O’Brien in London https://grabtrk.com/

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Stirling atcstirling1@bloomberg.net James Hertling

#Windows 10:The next generation of Windows

Today I had the honor of sharing new information about Windows 10, the new generation of Windows.

Our team shared more Windows 10 experiences and how Windows 10 will inspire new scenarios across the broadest range of devices, from big screens to small screens to no screens at all. You can catch the video on-demand presentation here.

Windows 10 is the first step to an era of more personal computing. This vision framed our work on Windows 10, where we are moving Windows from its heritage of enabling a single device – the PC – to a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. We believe your experiences should be mobile – not just your devices. Technology should be out of the way and your apps, services and content should move with you across devices, seamlessly and easily. In our connected and transparent world, we know that people care deeply about privacy – and so do we. That’s why everything we do puts you in control – because you are our customer, not our product. We also believe that interacting with technology should be as natural as interacting with people – using voice, pen, gestures and even gaze for the right interaction, in the right way, at the right time. These concepts led our development and you saw them come to life today.

Delivering Windows as a Service and a Free Upgrade to Windows 10

Today was a monumental day for us on the Windows team because we shared our desire to redefine the relationship we have with you – our customers. We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*

This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.

And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers. With universal Windows apps that work across the entire device family, developers can build one app that targets the broadest range of devices – including the PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, the Internet of Things, and more.

For our enterprise customers, we’ll continue to support the way many of them work today, with long-term servicing for their mission critical environments. With Windows 10, a best practice we recommend for many enterprise devices is to connect to Windows Update and be kept up-to-date with the latest security and productivity improvements as soon as they are available. You can learn more about our commitment to enterprises here, with much more to come in the following months.

Everything about Windows 10 – the experiences, delivering it as a service and the free upgrade – means ongoing value to all our customers. The new generation of Windows is a commitment—a commitment to liberate people from technology and enable them to do great things.

Office universal apps on Windows 10 offer a consistent, touch-first experience across phone, tablet and PC with new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. Designed from the ground up to run on Windows, you can easily create and edit Word documents, annotate slides in real-time with new inking features or easily present PowerPoint presentations, and with new touch-first controls in Excel you can create or update spreadsheets without a keyboard or mouse. The next version of the Office desktop suite is also currently in development, more on this in the coming months.

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