cartel

Same-gender romance will soon be in the air in Star Wars: The Old Republic, meaning your Jedi Knight or Bounty Hunter will have more opportunities to get some lovin' in the online game.

To date, characters' romance options have been limited by class and gender. But in a blog post today, Jeff Hickman, executive producer of the BioWare/EA title, revealed that that's shifting come spring -- to an extent.

The upcoming Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion pack, he said, will make it possible for players on the new planet (called Makeb) to flirt with same-gender non-player characters, created by BioWare to give quests, sell items, and otherwise move the story forward. Players will not yet, however, be able to put the moves on same-sex companion characters, the NPCs that accompany them on their intergalactic escapades as a major plotline piece. … Read more

European antitrust authorities have imposed a series of fines against former producers of cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions and computer displays for "cartel" activity, amounting to 1.47 billion euros ($1.92 billion) in total.

The companies were charged under EU antitrust and competition law with fixing prices in the CRT television market -- a long-lived technology that was gradually replaced by alternatives such as liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma displays -- for a decade ending in 2006.

In a statement today, the European Commission said the companies artificially "fixed prices, shared markets, allocated customers between themselves and … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice has reined down hard on a Taiwanese LCD screen maker in court, demanding $1 billion in fines and significant jail time for two former executives.

According to the Associated Press, AU Optronics carried out an extensive price-fixing scheme that feds said was the most significant ever prosecuted in the U.S. During a federal trial in March, the jury found both AU Optronics and two of its executives, Hsuan Bin Chen and Hui Hsiung, guilty of price-fixing.

The original complaints for the case alleged that the company worked to create an international "cartel&… Read more

Ya basta!

Members of the online activist group Anonymous in Mexico have again (and hopefully for good) called off their threat to expose names of associates of the Zetas drug cartel.

Apparently, the cartel returned the Anonymous member whose kidnap allegedly was the catalyst for the OpCartel plan in the first place.

A statement from Anonymous Iberoamerica says the Anonymous member was freed, "although bruised, we can say he is safe and well." But the cartel, reknowned for its violence and brutality, sent a message back that for every name related to the cartel that is disclosed the … Read more

The most controversial operation the online activist group Anonymous has ever planned appears to be going forward despite the danger it poses.

Anonymous members launched OpCartel last month targeting the Zetas drug cartel, one of the most violent and technologically sophisticated groups in Mexico, in response to the alleged kidnapping of an Anonymous member. In a Spanish-language YouTube video (later released in English), Anonymous said one of its members had been kidnapped while postering in Veracruz. The video demands the return of the alleged kidnapping victim by November 5 and threatens to release information on the organization, as well as … Read more

The online collective Anonymous is making threats to a Mexican drug cartel over the alleged kidnapping of one of its activists in Veracruz.

"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him. And if anything happens to him, you (expletive) will always remember this upcoming November 5th," the group says in a Spanish-language YouTube video that shows buildings being blown up.

November 5 is commonly referred to as Guy Fawkes day in honor of the Brit who tried to blow up parliament in the Gunpowder Plot of 1604. Fawkes was immortalized in the 2006 movie &… Read more

Laughing in the face of the concepts of the "tragedy of the commons" and "don't-design-by-committee," a game publisher has decided to put nearly all of the design decisions for a forthcoming console video game in the hands of a large-scale community of users.

The publisher, Roundhouse Interactive, says it will work with programming partner Frima Studio, but will rely mainly on the whims of a potentially six-figure-large community for the major decisions in the game's creation. The game, which is currently going by the code name The Game Cartel, is expected to be a … Read more