iPhone 5 hits China as Apple market share slips

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The China release of its iPhone 5 on Friday should win Apple Inc some respite from a recent slide in its share of what is likely already the world’s biggest smartphone market, but its longer-term hopes may depend on new technology being tested by China‘s top telecoms carrier.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has been in talks about a tie-up with China Mobile for four years. A deal with China’s biggest carrier is seen as crucial to improve Apple’s distribution in a market of 290 million users – which is forecast to double this year.

China is Apple’s second-largest and fastest-growing market – it brings in around 15 percent of total revenue – but the company’s failure to strike a deal with China Mobile means it is missing out on a large number of phone users. As the China pie grows, Apple’s sales increase, but without China Mobile, it’s losing ground at a faster rate compared to other brands.

“In absolute terms, this (iPhone 5) launch will certainly result in strong sales for Apple in China. However, in relative terms, I don’t believe it will move the needle enough in market share,” said Shiv Putcha, a Mumbai-based analyst at Ovum, a global technology consultant.

China Mobile and Apple initially said they were separated only by a technical issue – as the Chinese carrier runs a different 3G network from most of the world – but that has evolved into a broader and more complex issue of revenue-sharing.

“China Mobile and Apple still have to solve many issues, such as the business model, articles of cooperation and revenue division, but I believe we will reach an agreement eventually,” China Mobile CEO Li Yue was reported by Chinese media as saying in Guangzhou last week.

Apple China declined to comment. China Mobile said it had no update to the Apple discussions.

STRONG PRE-ORDERS

Apple’s ranking in China’s smartphone market slipped to sixth in July-September, according to research firm IDC, [ID:nL4N09G1QK] but investors, primed to look to China product launches for an uptick in Apple’s quarterly sales, have good headline numbers to digest – more than 300,000 iPhones pre-ordered on one carrier alone. But it’s the lack of a deal with the No.1 carrier that prevents those numbers being stronger.

The iPhone is currently sold through Apple’s seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom – which together have fewer than half the mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile.

“Apple’s market share declined because of the transition between the iPhone 4S and 5. Their market share will recover (with the iPhone 5), but if you don’t have China Mobile, the significant market share gains will be very difficult,” said Huang Leping, an analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong.

TD-LTE: STILL DISTANT

Cutting a deal with a Chinese state-owned carrier may be less optimal than the deals Apple is used to in other markets, and analysts note that China Mobile wouldn’t necessarily open the flood gates for Apple.

Ovum’s Putcha believes Apple and China Mobile will eventually strike a deal – though this would be for an iPhone running on China Mobile’s next-generation network rather than its current 3G network.

Of China Mobile’s 704 million subscribers, only 79 million are on its 3G network, and Apple has been reluctant to sign up to China Mobile’s under-utilized, homegrown TD-SCDMA technology. “Apple likely doesn’t see the return-on-investment in extending themselves for TD-SCDMA,” Putcha said.

China Mobile is currently trialling its next-generation network, TD-LTE, which could be of more interest to Apple, but full-scale commercial use – and an iPhone tie-up – could still be years away.

ANDROID THREAT

Meanwhile, rivals are circling, eating away at Apple’s smartphone market share. Samsung Electronics, Lenovo Group and little-known Chinese brand Coolpad held the top three slots in the third quarter, according to IDC.

All three have relationships with China Mobile and offer smartphone models at different price points. Apple competes exclusively at the high-end, and even there, rivals are rolling out models with China Mobile. Last week, Nokia said it planned to release its latest Lumia smartphone with China’s top carrier, which is also expected to launch Research in Motion’s new Blackberry 10, analysts predict.

“The threat will still come more from the Android camp where they have many vendors already working with China Mobile and offering high-end phones,” said TZ Wong, a Singapore-based IDC analyst.

While these smartphones don’t generate the buzz of a new iPhone, Chinese buyers are not known for their brand loyalty, and this could siphon away users considering an Apple upgrade.

“I’ve used a Blackberry, Android and iOS and, personally, I want to try the Windows 8,” said Andy Huang, a 37-year-old fund manager, who owns most iPad models, an iPhone 4 and a 4S. “I think the Windows 8 is very innovative.”

With a China Mobile deal looking some way off, Apple could always boost market share by offering cheaper models – the basic iPhone 5 will cost 5288 yuan ($ 850) without a contract – though this appears an unlikely route for a high-end brand.

“If they want to expand market share, probably the only way to do it here dramatically would be to put out a lower cost phone,” said Michael Clendenin, managing director at RedTech Advisors. “It’s really uncertain if they’d decide to go that route … Apple’s a mystery in that regard.”

($ 1 = 6.2518 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom and Jane Lee; Editing by Kazunori Takada and Ian Geoghegan)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

'Star Trek' Stars Take on Warp Speed Round

How well do the stars of Star Trek Into Darkness know their source material? We put Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Alice Eve, Benedict Cumberbatch and director J.J. Abrams to the test by throwing a little unexpected Trek trivia their way in a fun "Warp Speed Round." Watch the video!

One Step Closer to 'Star Trek Into Darkness'

Soaring into theaters and IMAX 3D on May 17, 2013, Star Trek Into Darkness finds the Enterprise crew called back to Earth to battle an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization. Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction, and our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death.

Read More..

Frail-looking Anthony Marshall appears in court for appellate hearing

Daniel Shapiro

Brooke Astor's son Anthony Marshall and his wife Charlene leave court today.

A frail, pale, weary-looking Anthony Marshall was rolled in his wheelchair into the audience of the Manhattan Appellate Division today -- the unofficial Exhibit A in arguments that he really oughtn't go to jail for swindling millions from his famous, white-gloved philanthropist mother, Brooke Astor.

"I can't imagine the purpose of imprisoning a man who is so ill!" Marshall's lawyer, John Cuti, told the panel of five judges, waving his arm to indicate Marshall, who sat in his chair besides his wife, Charlene.

Both the patrician husband and the portly wife -- infamously dubbed "Miss Piggy" by one of Astor's nurses -- wore appropriately sad expressions for the judges. Marshall, a WWII veteran who earned a Purple Heart and fought at Iwo Jima, is at risk from diverticulitis attacks, falls and heart problems, his lawyers have argued.

"This is a man who is falling down and hitting his head into a wall," Marshall's lawyer thundered, recalling a header the old man had taken in a courthouse men's room during his '09 swindle trial, at which he was convicted of stealing $2 million from Astor and trying to plunder more than $60 million more.

"And having a stroke while he's on trial," Cuti added -- a reference to a mini-stroke Marshall suffered. "Do you want to send this man to prison so he dies there?"

Marshall and his co-defendant crooked estates lawyer, Francis Morrissey, have been free pending appeal since both were sentenced in December, 2009 to one-to-three years prison.

Two of the judges -- associate justices Rosalyn Richter and Darcel Clark -- asked a lawyer for the Manhattan DA's office, Gina Mignola, what purpose would be served by putting Marshall in jail, given his age and health.

"So society will understand that we here will defend our elderly," Mignola said -- referring the the Alzheimer's afflicted Astor, who was 105 when she died in 2007.

"All he is saying is, 'Hey, I'm old. And my health isn't good," the lawyer, Mignola told the judges, noting that Marshall has shown no remorse and only paid back $12 million to his mother's estate when directed to by a Surrogate judge in Westchester.

The appellate panel did not indicate when they will rule on Marshall's and Morrissey's arguments on several grounds to dismiss the verdicts -- including insufficiency of evidence, that a holdout juror was pressured, and that Astor was competent in giving her son the money.

Read More..

Florida leads nation in foreclosure activity

Florida led the nation in foreclosure activity for the third month running in November, a dubious distinction that will likely dampen the momentum of the real estate recovery in the coming year, according to RealtyTrac.

Even as foreclosure activity decreased nationally, foreclosure filings in Florida jumped 20 percent in November from a year earlier and rose 3 percent from October, the data firm based in Irvine, Calif., said.

Among the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, seven are in Florida, the firm said. The metro area covering Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach ranked No. 5 among cities, with one in every 260 residences logging some sort of foreclosure activity, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, RealtyTrac said.

The pickup in Florida’s foreclosure activity has emerged since the major settlement last spring of the robo-signing cases.

After 49 state attorneys general filed suit in 2010 against five big mortgage banks over egregious foreclosure procedures implemented amid an avalanche of soured mortgages, foreclosure activity slowed dramatically. With the massive settlement approved in April, lenders now have adapted to the ground rules and have a clearer path forward in pressing foreclosure cases, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

“This is injecting a little reality into the Florida housing market,” Blomquist said of the rising foreclosures. “I don’t think this will crater housing prices, by any means. In markets that are very strong, it may not lower prices at all. It will definitely dampen things. It’ll be a drag on the market.”

One in every 304 Florida residences had some sort of foreclosure filing in November, more than twice the national average, RealtyTrac said.

The rising foreclosure activity in Florida comes as foreclosure activity nationwide fell 3 percent in November from October and plunged 19 percent from November 2011, the firm said. Foreclosure starts hit a 71-month low nationwide.

But in Florida, which is among the states where foreclosures are handled in more time-consuming proceedings in the courts rather than administratively, “we’re seeing a rise in activity across the board,” Blomquist said.

In November in Florida, foreclosure starts rose 7 percent year over year, scheduled auctions jumped 51 percent and bank repossessions rose 15 percent.

Behind Florida, the states ranking highest in foreclosure activity in November were Nevada, Illinois, California and South Carolina, the firm said.

Read More..

PSC takes up pivotal case allowing FPL to raise rates through 2016

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida utility regulators on Thursday will consider one of the most pivotal cases of their term — whether to approve a base rate increase of more than $543 million for Florida Power & Light without the consent of the office that represents consumers.

The proposed settlement, which would mean a $1 increase for average customers next year with additional increases over the next four years, would allow the company to automatically raise rates without the approval of the Public Service Commission until 2016.

The proposal has the backing of the state’s largest commercial power users, who will benefit from the deal. But it is vigorously opposed by the Office of Public Counsel, the state agency charged with representing most consumers in utility rate cases.

Depending on how the PSC rules, the case “has the potential to change the way cases proceed in the future and, we think, not in a positive way,” said J.R. Kelly, the state’s public counsel.

“This has been a very thorough process and we think that the settlement is really the right path forward that benefits all of our customers and effectively locks in low rates while helping us deliver strong service for at least four more years,’’ said Mark Bubriski, FPL spokesman.

FPL side-stepped the public counsel when it entered into its agreement with Florida Industrial Power Users Group, the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association and the Federal Executive Agencies and announced a settlement to the rate case scheduled to begin in August. The groups represent about a half of one percent of FPL’s 4.6 million customers.

The Office of Public Counsel, which is backed by other groups such as the Florida Retail Federation, refused to sign on, saying the settlement was not in the public interest because, they argued, FPL’s base rates should decrease by as much as $253 million.

The PSC went ahead with hearings on the rate case, but despite objections from the public counsel, agreed to consider the settlement during a special hearing this month.

If the five-member PSC rejects the settlement, the focus reverts back to FPL’s original proposal — a plan to increase base rates $690.4 million or 16 percent, which amounts to $7.04 a month for typical customers — and regulators would decide whether or not to approve their request during a Jan. 23 hearing.

If the PSC approves the settlement, the base rates will climb according a yet-to-be-determined amount over the next four years as three new power plants come into service. If the settlement goes forward, Kelly said, the influence of the public counsel could be forever muted.

“If they approve this settlement, then the concern we have is then what is going to be the function of the public counsel’s office,’’ he said. “It could open the door to every utility out there just simply bypassing our office and entering into any kind of self-serving settlement with any other party that represents that .5 percent, 1 percent or 2 percent of their customers, and it doesn’t matter what the rest of the customers think.”

The settlement calls for giving FPL the ability to collect $378 million more from customer base rates, starting in January, and another $165.3 million more to pay for its Cape Canaveral plant starting in June. The cost to customers: no increase in January and $1 more a month in June for the customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours a month.

The settlement also stretches four years into the future, allowing the base rate to rise two more times without PSC approval.

Under the plan, rates would increase again in 2014, enough to pay for $236 million in annual costs to pay for the modernized Riviera Beach plant, and again in 2016, to pay for $217.9 million when the company’s new Port Everglades plant comes into service.

PSC Chairman Ronald Brisé, a former state representative from Miami, is considered the swing vote on the issue. Commissioners Lisa Edgar and Art Graham will likely side with FPL and vote to approve the settlement, while Commissioners Eduardo Balbis and Julie Brown are expected to vote against it.

Read More..

‘The Hobbit’: Like One Bad Video Game

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Peter Jackson‘s landmark, blockbuster Lord of the Rings films was that they made fans, through a combination of stunning landscapes and intricate special effects and soaring music and dramatic spectacle, feel as though we were seeing an almost impossible elevation of the potential size and scope of movies. Here was a rich, dense, sprawling series of films that thundered like myths, that were breathtaking in their realization of some pretty huge ambitions. Sure, they were massive corporate projects that earned lots of people millions of dollars, but to the regular moviegoer they were feats that proved the majesty of the movies, the potential to tell enthralling stories that also played like art. And so it’s hugely disappointing, if not all that surprising, that Jackson’s first foray back into the land of Middle Earth, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, is such a sullenly, basely commercial and junky affair, a movie that feels not crafted with Jackson’s seemingly divine inspiration but by the hands of studio executives. Perhaps the reason that Warner Bros. is forgoing the usual console video-game tie-ins for simple mobile games is because the damn movie already looks like a video game, and not a very fun one at that.

RELATED: ‘The Hobbit’ Trailer Needs to Get Out of the Shire

The Lord of the Rings series succeeded aesthetically because it was such an elegant, painting-like wonder to behold. The textures and palettes all had the look of a particularly vibrant illustrated story book, the kind of immersive vision that exists somewhere between imagination and the real world. For The Hobbit, though, Jackson chose to film at a high frame rate and with Real 3D technology in mind — because 3D movies are doing well these days and, hell, doesn’t hurt that the tickets cost more — but the results are frequently hideous. Those among us who have bought shiny new flatscreen TVs over the past few years are likely familiar with the dreaded “Soap Opera Effect,” which turns what should be stunning, glossy images into cheap-looking messes, all strange movement and lighting, like any network soap or cheap British show. (Think Children of Men looking like Torchwood.) It’s the problem of technology over-thinking or over-performing, and it is on startling, gruesome display in The Hobbit. When you’re wearing the 3D glasses (and admittedly sitting a little off to the side), this hugely expensive movie looks like it was shot on a nice handheld digital camera on the cheap. Actors stand in strange contrast to the digital backgrounds behind them, motion looks too slick or unnatural. Gone are the somber vistas and rugged terrain, replaced by eye-aching shine and plastic-y smoothness. The most special effects-heavy sequences look very much like the non-playable parts of modern video games — the exposition bits that can amp up the graphics a bit because they don’t have to worry about the randomness of play, the stuff you see in the commercials, right before the “rated T for teen” part. I don’t know if I just had a bad projector or what, but I spent the bulk of this long movie distracted by how dreadful everything looked. With a few small exceptions — The Shire glows with lovely green, a mountain cave fight/chase sequence is bracingly rich — this is a dismally unattractive movie, featuring too many shots that I’m sure were lovely at some point but are too often ruined and chintzified by the terrible technology monster.

RELATED: Jon Hamm Has a Roger Clemens Story; Here Come the 007 Novelty Themes

So on its aesthetic merits, The Hobbit comes up more than short. The trouble is, it’s not rescued by many narrative successes. Jackson has taken largely from the first third of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s novel — about an expedition to reclaim a lost dwarf kingdom from a dragon — but he’s also added in some elements found in appendices detailing an expanded universe that Tolkien included in an edition of The Lord of the Rings. This is partly to flesh out the story as Jackson believes Tolkien meant it to be, but it’s also meant to satisfy the needs of a supersize film trilogy based on one mere book. And so we get several pointless and uninteresting diversions, mostly about dwarves and their bitter enemies the orcs, that read exactly like the filler they are. Jackson is trying to flesh out dwarf mythology, because we spend so much of our time with these little guys, but it feels tediously synthetic, as if there are two movies competing for attention with neither one getting its due. We go to the goblin caves of The Hobbit and then, upon deliverance from that dark place, are thrust right into some kind of honor-and-revenge-based conflict with a snarling, giant, one-armed orc. It’s all very crowded and strangely hurried for a movie that, all told, takes its sweet time.

RELATED: No One Likes Peter Jackson’s New ‘Hobbit’ Footage

I suspect that another of Jackson’s reasons for including all this extra dramatic battling is that, on its own, The Hobbit is something of a children’s book. We’ve got wacky, food-crazed dwarves, a mean old dragon, and a funny little guy to take us along on the journey. Jackson doesn’t deny his movie the kiddie flourishes — there’s snot humor and butt jokes and lots of other goofy stuff involving some trolls, plus two little musical numbers involving all the dwarves — but he then tries to complement them with the big, booming faith and honor stuff and it never properly congeals. One moment we’re on a sprightly children’s adventure, the next we’re talking in big fashion about all that warlike serious business. It’s a discordant mix, and I’d imagine it will leave both kids and adults out in the cold.

RELATED: All the Comic-Con News That Matters

The film is not without its bright spots, rare as they may be. Ian McKellen is a feisty, spirited, mysterious Gandalf as ever before, and Martin Freeman nicely and genially projects everyday hobbit-ness, even if he’s a tad underused in the film. (Yeah, in the movie called The Hobbit, there’s barely any time to focus on the darn Hobbit.) Cate Blanchett turns up once more as the ethereal elf Galadriel, lending the movie a cool classiness and a welcome dose of feminine energy. And, of course, we’re back, for one mesmerizing scene, with our beloved Gollum, so winningly and creepily played by Andy Serkis, and here yet another marvel of computer innovation. In some ways Gollum’s innate cartoonishness works better now than it did in the original trilogy, which is probably the only time that can be said of this movie. There are one or two moments in Gollum’s pivotal scene where he’s given a bit too much modern humor to play, but all told he’s the most welcome sight in the film. Maybe that’s just the newfound purist in me, yearning for the old days, but I suspect it has more to do with Gollum being the only genuinely realized character we’ve so far encountered in this new trio of films. Everyone else is a snoozy lesser version of someone else, especially the ridiculous bloodthirsty orc leader, who snarls and growls like something out of the Underworld movies. Sometimes, in the jumble of the The Hobbit‘s many cluttered and dull action scenes, the frantic blur looks like any sequence from one of those schlocky ’00s B-movies; all roughly hewn CGI clashing around nonsensically, with this orc fellow leading the charge.

RELATED: ‘The Hobbit’ Might Be Three Movies Now?

Despite all the technical advancements, if we can call them that, most moments in The Hobbit feel like Peter Jackson is sadly trying to make all those familiar LOTR elements work for him once more, without ever really being able to reignite the old flame. The supposedly awe-inducing visit to the elf city of Rivendell is a ho-hum experience in this new frame-rate-ruined world. A silly battle sequence involving a wizard, a silly Radagast the Brown, riding around pell-mell on a rabbit-drawn sled looks like an interstitial from late-era Super Mario. Even Elijah Wood, appearing briefly as Frodo, looks strange — a pale ghost of himself, as if stitched in from another movie by some forlorn and desperate hand. The film is inevitably resonant with memories of the original trilogy, and little about it can hold up to the comparison. There’s too much effort in the wrong places — action instead of story, technical tricks instead of actual design — and the constant rhythm of arbitrary event after arbitrary event becomes tiresome well before the film’s two hours and forty minutes have lurched to a halt. I’m sure there are kids who will like this wan, distracted effort — they might not yet have anything else to compare it to, depending on their age — but as a human who remembers what came before, I’m afraid The Hobbit left me nothing but frustrated, sad, and tired. Frustrated that these big-budget visionaries seem to consistently feel they have to taint their earlier masterpieces with techno-junk followups, sad that once magical lands now flicker cheap and garish in my head, and tired at the prospect of two more of these things. I exited the theater trying to remind myself that Attack of the Clones was way better than Phantom Menace and that Revenge of the Sith was better still. I then realized how depressing it was that I was making that comparison. Oh, Middle Earth. What has become of you?

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Ginnifer Goodwin's Ethereal Emmy Magazine Shoot

As the star of ABC's Once Upon a Time, Ginnifer Goodwin knows a thing or two about the fantastical, so it's only fitting that she would captivate readers and fans in a surreal cover shoot for Emmy magazine.

RELATED: Once Upon A Time Gets Really Dark

In the pages of the issue, Goodwin explained why her role as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard was a match made in heaven.

"I felt like I had summoned it into being because I had always wanted it so badly," Goodwin gushed before going on to admit, "Fantasy is my go-to genre as an audience member. This is my Harry Potter."

Download the complete digital issue beginning tomorrow, Thursday, December 13. The print edition is available now.

Click here to see more photos from the shoot.

Read More..

2-year-old Bronx toddler saved by Good Samaritan after wandering into traffic

An adorable 2-year-old Bronx girl dodged death today after wandering alone out of her home and walking into a traffic-heavy street — where she was scooped up by a quick-thinking Good Samaritan.

“As a father, this is nuts!” fumed Pepsi deliveryman Martin Rodriguez, 32, who spotted Samira Dawson teetering barefoot across busy White Plains Road in Parkchester wearing just a onesie and diaper. “I have a little girl the same age and it crushed me to see this.”

At 9:10 a.m. today, Samira somehow escaped her family’s apartment on Guerlain Street undetected, walked outside and strolled across White Plains Road.

“She was at the double line in the middle of the street!” Rodriguez said.

“She dropped her little bookbag in the middle of the street, and that’s all she was worried about.”

Then, “A lady grabbed her,” Rodriguez said. The unidentified woman gave Samira to a Parkchester public safety sergeant, who called cops.

“She appeared like a bubbly child,” said Police Officer Harry Kwan, who draped his coat around Samira. “She appeared nervous but obviously enjoyed being held.”

Samira’s worried-looking brother, Davante Valentine, 20, showed up at the scene at 9:39 a.m.

“I don’t know what happened,” Valentine told The Post. “All I know is I was sleeping and my [18-year-old brother] was supposed to be watching her and he left the house without telling me.”

His and Samira’s mom Ingrid Dawson — who told cops she had gone to the pharmacy that morning — showed up just before 10 a.m. and yelled, “Oh my God!” after seeing her daughter.

“You were supposed to be watching her!” Dawson, 38, snapped at Valentine.

Both police and child-protective services workers are probing the incident. No charges had been filed as of last night.

Read More..

Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

Read More..

Slated for execution, ex-Sweetwater cop enjoys Cuban-style last meal

STARKE --
Hours before he was set to be executed by lethal injection, ex-Sweetwater cop Manuel Pardo visited with eight relatives and friends and enjoyed a Cuban-style last meal.

Pardo, who murdered nine people during a series of robberies in Miami-Dade in 1986, is to be executed at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison, just north of Gainesville.

Pardo, who brashly urged jurors to recommend the death penalty over two decades ago, is expected to issue a written statement to the press before he is put to death.

His last-minute appeal to stay the execution was denied late Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

With less than an hour before his scheduled death, an unlikely intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court is his only hope for life in prison. On Monday, a Jacksonville federal judge declined to halt the execution.

According to a corrections spokeswoman, Pardo’s last meal Tuesday morning was roasted pork chunks, white rice and red beans, fried plantains with tomato and avocado, topped with olive oil. He finished off the meal with pumpkin pie and Cuban coffee. It was cooked in the prison kitchen and cost under $40.

He also met with a prison chaplain and retired Catholic bishop John Snyder, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Ann Howard.

“After visiting with family and friends, it’s best to describe him as calm,” Howard said.

Pardo and a cohort killed nine people in 1986, mostly ripping off drug dealers. Pardo also killed two women who had crossed him, and another woman who happened to be with a drug dealer he targeted.

At a 1988 trial in Miami-Dade, he admitted to the murders, saying he was ridding the streets of the “scum of the earth.”

“I’m not a criminal. I’m a soldier. As a soldier, I ask to be given the death penalty. I accomplished my mission,” he told jurors then, asking for a “glorious ending.”

A lawyer for Pardo — a former Florida highway patrolman, Boy Scout leader and decorated Navy veteran — argued he was insane at the time of the crimes. A jury rejected the claims and he was sentenced to death for all nine murders.

Over the next two decades, Pardo’s lawyers have insisted that he had been incompetent to stand trial because of a thyroid disorder that ravaged his mind.

Pardo’s lawyers also claim they had been denied all the public records on the state’s method of lethal injection, which they say is “cruel and unusual” punishment. After Gov. Rick Scott signed the death warrant in October, a Miami-Dade judge denied the appeals. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the judge’s decision.

In Monday’s order, U.S. Judge Timothy Corrigan said the claims were filed too late and that the state’s method of execution, which includes the injection of three drugs, has already been examined by the Florida Supreme Court and a federal appeals court.

Also on Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Miami planned a 6 p.m. vigil for Pardo at St. Mary Cathedral, 7525 NW 2nd Ave. The church opposes the death penalty.

In a press release acknowledging the severity of Pardo’s crimes, Archbishop Thomas Wenski said: “Recourse to the death penalty is both cruel and unnecessary. Modern society has the means of protecting itself. We do not make the case that killing is wrong by killing.”

For updates throughout the day, follow David Ovalle on Twitter at @davidovalle305.

Read More..