New York (AFP) - Five-time champion Serena Williams reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final of 2014 at the US Open while Canadian poster girl Eugenie Bouchard, struggling in the heat and humidity, was knocked out.

World number one Williams, the two-time defending champion, eased past world number 50 Kaia Kanepi, 6-3, 6-3, for a fourth win over the Estonian and goes on to face fellow 32-year-old Flavia Pennetta of Italy in a clash of the two oldest remaining players in the draw.

"It's my first quarter-final of the year at the majors -- at last I did it," said the American, who had fallen in the fourth round in Australia, the third round at Wimbledon and suffered a second round French Open exit.

"It was a tough match today. Kaia hits the ball very hard and moves the ball around really well. I wanted to stay relaxed and told myself that whatever happens, Serena, you're still in the doubles."

Seventh seeded Bouchard was at the centre of a medical drama on Louis Armstrong court when she had to have her blood pressure and temperature taken in her 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 defeat to Russian 17th seed Ekaterina Makarova.

Wimbledon runner-up Bouchard called the medical timeout at 2-3 down in the second set when she was obviously struggling in the 31-degree heat (87F) and humidity running at 60 percent.

She slipped 4-2 down, broke back for 4-3 but left-handed Makarova was too strong for the ailing Canadian as she booked a spot in the last-eight for the second successive year.

"I was feeling very light headed and dizzy on the court, just seeing things a little blurry. I just generally didn't feel good," said Bouchard whose defeat meant that for only the second time in the Open era there will be just one top-eight seed in the quarter-finals of a major.

"It developed as the match went on. I have had a few late, tough matches here, and I don't think I fully recovered from those."

Bouchard's defeat ended her run of having reached at least the semi-finals at all the majors this year and also means that for the first time since 1977, the four Grand Slam women's championship matches will have featured eight different players.

Makarova next faces either former world number one Victoria Azarenka, the runner-up to Williams in 2012 and 2013, or Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic, ranked at 145.

Makarova, who is now a five-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist, said even she was glad of the extended medical timeout taken by her opponent.

"I thought, thanks, because I also was tired. It really helped also because I had some time to recover and to use some ice bags. It was actually kind of good medical timeout."

Krunic, 21, who is studying for an economics degree when she is not playing tennis, stunned third seed and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova to reach her first major last-16.

Victory over Azarenka would make her the first qualifier since Barbara Gerkin in 1981 to get to the US Open quarter-finals.

- Pennetta in fifth quarter-final -

Azarenka is down at 17 in the world after a season in which she has struggled with a left foot injury, a problem which caused her to sit out the French Open.

Italian 11th seed Pennetta reached her fifth quarter-final in New York with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Australian 29th seed Casey Dellacqua.

Pennetta made the semi-finals in 2013, where she was defeated by Azarenka, and despite having a 5-0 losing record against Williams, she refuses to believe that the outcome of Wednesday's quarter-final is a foregone conclusion. 

"Of course she's better than me, but I still believe I can beat her. If she doesn't have a good day I can do that," said Pennetta of an opponent who has dropped just 17 games in four rounds so far.

"If I get in the court and just play and try not to take 6-Love 6-Love, I'm going to take 6-Love 6-Love."

The quarter-finals in the bottom half of the draw take place on Tuesday and feature 17-year-old Belinda Bencic up against China's Peng Shuai while former world number one and 2009 runner-up Caroline Wozniacki faces Italy's Sara Errani.

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Koror (Palau) (AFP) - In many places swimmers might prefer to avoid sharks, but wetsuit-clad tourists in Palau clamour to dive among the predators thanks to a pioneering conservation initiative that has made them one of the country's main visitor attractions.

Palau created the world's first shark sanctuary in 2009 and the move has been so successful that plans are now underway to completely ban commercial fishing in the island nation's vast ocean territory by 2018.

The fishing-free zone in the northern Pacific, described as unprecedented by famed US marine scientist Sylvia Earle, will cover 630,000 square kilometres (240,000 square miles), an area almost the size of France.

The architect of the ambitious plan is Palau President Tommy Remengesau, who said the ban was needed to "let the ocean heal" after years of industrialised fishing in the Pacific that has seen stocks of some species such as bluefin tuna fall to critical levels.

Remengesau said Pacific island nations, which are also struggling to deal with climate change, were effectively "the conscience of the world" on environmental matters and had to lead by example because of their special connection with the ocean. 

"The ocean is our way of life," he said. "It sustains and nurtures us, provides us with the basics of our Pacific island cultures, our very identities."

- 'Million-dollar' shark -

Just a decade ago, dozens of so-called "shark boats" regularly docked in Palau's commercial centre Koror, hanging fins to dry from their rigging as they worked to supply a seemingly insatiable demand in Asia for the primary ingredient in shark fin soup.

During the height of the trade, an estimated 73 million sharks a year had their fins hacked off and were thrown back into the sea to die.

"I would have been very upset to see that," said Maayan Sagr, a 22-year-old Israeli tourist on a six-week dive master's course in Palau, which is regularly voted the world's top spot for underwater enthusiasts.

"The nature and the sharks are the reason I came here," she said. "Everybody knows it's quiet and peaceful but the main attraction is the sharks, getting to see them in their natural environment."

Remengesau said Palau's world-first shark protection measures sparked global change in attitudes towards the top predator, which went from being seen as a dangerous pest to a valuable part of the eco-system.

About one-third of the world's countries have followed the Pacific nation's lead in banning shark-finning, according to the Pew Environment Group.

Crucially, demand for shark fin soup in China has waned thanks to a ban from official state banquet tables and celebrities publicly speaking out against eating the dish, which is often regarded as a status symbol.

Remengesau said sharks had more value to Palau as eco-tourism assets, citing a 2011 study that found a single reef shark could contribute almost US$2.0 million to the economy over its 10-year lifespan via the dive tourists it attracts.

"We feel that a live shark is worth a thousand times more than a dead one," he said.

- 'Wake-up call' -

While tourist numbers have climbed since sharks were protected, there have been no attacks on divers, with operators keeping visitors a safe distance from the creatures.

Remesengau said the no-fishing plan prioritised tourism -- which contributes about $160 million or 50 percent of gross domestic product annually -- over the tuna industry, which contributes around $5.5 million a year.

Earle, a National Geographic Society "Explorer-in Residence" who has led more than 100 oceanic expeditions in a career stretching back almost six decades, said it was the first time a government had committed to stopping commercial fishing in its waters.

"(There is) awareness in Palau that we need to protect the systems that keep us alive, to restrict what has clearly been unsustainable -- taking the sharks, tuna and the ocean wildlife," she said.

"I think it will set a standard and wake people up around the world... 50 years ago we thought the ocean was too big to fail, now we know there are limits to what we can take and still have an ocean that functions." 

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Bogota (AFP) - Spain on Monday returned to Colombia a huge and priceless find -- almost 700 pieces of pre-Columbian art that Spanish authorities siezed in over a decade ago in a drug bust.

The catalogue of museum-worthy artefacts includes vases decorated with human faces, ceramic bowls decorated with geometric designs in ochre tones, musical instruments, necklaces and even small figures of people -- dating from 1400 BC up to the 16th century.

"Recovering for our nation these 691 archaeological treasures has a value that is really difficult to put any price on. They are from many of our (indigenous) cultures, and getting them home took years," Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said at a briefing, presenting 50 of the remarkable pieces.

The artefacts -- from Calima, Narino, San Agustin, Quimbaya, Sinu and other groups -- had been spirited out of Colombia in 2001 before being seized from drug traffickers by Spanish authorities in 2003.

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Tokyo (AFP) - Workers employed in decommissioning the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are to sue operator Tokyo Electric Power and some subcontractors, demanding millions of yen in unpaid danger money, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

The four men, of whom two are still working at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, will demand the companies pay a total of 65 million yen ($620,000), mostly in hazard allowances.

The workers, whose ages range from those in their 30s to their 60s, say they have not been properly compensated for the risks their work entails, including removing contaminated debris and patrolling at the plant. 

The suit will be filed with the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Court on Wednesday, according to lawyer Tsuguo Hirota.

It is the first time that workers still employed at the plant have launched legal action against TEPCO over remuneration and working conditions, despite widespread reports of exploitation and abuses.

"My health may be harmed some day... I believe there are many people who can't speak out about this kind of (underpaying) problem," one of the workers told public broadcaster NHK.

"I may get fired or may be given no further work. But I hope people will take this as an opportunity to speak up and get paid," he said.

A massive tsunami triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 smashed into the plant on Japan's northeastern coast, sending reactors into meltdown and contaminating a wide area.

TEPCO, one of the world's largest utilities, has routinely used several layers of contractors and subcontractors in the clean-up and decommissioning work at Fukushima.

Of the 6,000 people working at the plant every day over the last two months, only a handful were directly employed by TEPCO. Allegations continue to swirl that organised crime has had a hand in staffing subcontractors at the bottom of the food chain.

The sometimes murky arrangements mean that despite pledges by TEPCO of extra cash for employees, it is often difficult to tell if the money filters through to the people at the sharp end, or is skimmed off at one of the many intermediary levels.

TEPCO had no immediate comment on the case, but said it would wait to hear what the plaintiffs said in court.

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1.  Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko accused Russia in a speech on Monday of "direct and unconcealed aggression" as the military crisis in the country's eastern region continues. 

2. NATO officials set to meet in Wales on Friday announced plans to create a force of 4,000 troops "capable of deploying quickly to Eastern Europe," The New York Times said. 

3. In a speech on Monday, British prime minister David Cameron suggested giving police the power to seize the passports of British citizens suspected of trying to leave the country to support the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.  

4. The National Institutes of Health plans to fast-track the first test on humans of an Ebola vaccine. 

5. The FBI is now involved in an investigation to uncover the hacker responsible for posting hundreds of nude photos of celebrities online. 

6. Support for Scottish independence is gaining, the Press Association reports, in the lead-up to the Sept. 18 referendum in which residents of Scotland will vote Yes or No to staying a part of the U.K. 

7. U.S. forces have launched an attack against Al-Shabaab, an Islamist terror group affiliated with al Qaeda, in Somalia. 

8. During a meeting in Paris, French President Francois Hollande and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi agreed that the two threats to the E.U's economy are deflation and weak growth, Reuters said. 

9. The U.S. government has requested the release of three Americans detained in North Korea, one serving a 15-year term and two facing trial, who pleaded for help from Washington in a CNN interview. 

10. Mexican authorities are looking into why at least 53 tons of fish turned up dead in a lagoon. 

And finally...

Russia said on Monday that all five geckos involved in a space experiment to see how zero gravity affects their sex lives died on the journey back to Earth. : ( 

R.I.P:

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Tokyo (AFP) - Japanese researchers said Tuesday they had developed a new method to detect the presence of the Ebola virus in 30 minutes, with technology that could allow doctors to quickly diagnose infection.

Professor Jiro Yasuda and his team at Nagasaki University say their process is also cheaper than the system currently in use in west Africa where the virus has already killed more than 1,500 people.

"The new method is simpler than the current one and can be used in countries where expensive testing equipment is not available," Yasuda told AFP by telephone.

"We have yet to receive any questions or requests, but we are pleased to offer the system, which is ready to go," he said.

Yasuda said the team had developed what he called a "primer", which amplifies only those genes specific to the Ebola virus found in a blood sample or other bodily fluid.

Using existing techniques, ribonucleic acid (RNA) -- biological molecules used in the coding of genes -- is extracted from any viruses present in a blood sample.

This is then used to synthesise the viral DNA, which can be mixed with the primers and then heated to 60-65 degrees Celsius (140-149 Fahrenheit).

If Ebola is present, DNA specific to the virus is amplified in 30 minutes due to the action of the primers. The by-products from the process cause the liquid to become cloudy, providing visual confirmation, Yasuda said.

Currently, a method called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is widely used to detect the Ebola virus, which requires doctors to heat and cool samples repeatedly and takes up to two hours.

"The new method only needs a small, battery-powered warmer and the entire system costs just tens of thousands of yen (hundreds of dollars), which developing countries should be able to afford," he added.

The outbreak of the Ebola virus, transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has sparked alarm throughout western Africa and further afield.

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Mogadishu (AFP) - US military forces launched air strikes against the leader of Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, the government said Tuesday, claiming "casualties" but with no details if the main target was killed. 

"The Americans carried out a major air strike targeting a gathering by senior Al-Shebab officials, including their leader Abu-Zubayr," said Abdukadir Mohamed Nur, governor for southern Somalia's Lower Shabelle region.

Abu-Zubayr is the often used name for Shebab supreme commander Ahmed Abdi Godane, listed by the US State Department as one of the world's eight top terror fugitives.

The Pentagon have confirmed an "operation" was carried out.

"We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.

The air strike on Monday comes days after African Union troops and government forces launched a fresh offensive against Shebab strongholds aimed at seizing key ports, and cutting off an important source of revenue for the Islamist rebels.

Shebab fighters have largely fled in the face of the offensive that began Friday, and Nur said the air strike was targeting Shebab commanders as they gathered for a meeting.

"They were meeting to discuss about the current offensive in the region," Nur said. "There were casualties inflicted on the militants, but we don’t have details so far."

Nur said the strike hit a Shebab hideout used as a training camp for suicide bombers, in remote villages of the Lower Shabelle region, south of the capital.

Godane, 37, who was reportedly trained in Afghanistan with the Taliban, took over the leadership of the Shebab in 2008 after then chief Adan Hashi Ayro was killed by a US missile attack.

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has recognised Godane as the head of the "mujahedeen" in East Africa, although letters released after Osama bin Laden's death show the late Saudi Islamist leader had lower regard for the Somali's abilities.

He is included in a third category of men on whom information warrants a $7-million reward, alongside Nigeria's Boko Haram leader, but under the Taliban's Mullah Omar, for whom a tip is worth up to $10 million, and Zawahiri, who fetches $25 million.

The Shebab are fighting to topple Somalia's internationally-backed government, and regularly launch attacks against state targets, as well as in neighbouring countries that contribute to the AU force.

On Sunday, the Shebab carried out a car bomb and gun attack against an intelligence headquarters in the capital Mogadishu.

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Sydney (AFP) - Australia on Tuesday agreed to scrap a contested resources profits tax after the government struck a surprise deal with crossbench senators, including mining tycoon Clive Palmer.

The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) was introduced by the previous Labor administration in 2012, with a levy on annual profits above Aus$75 million (US$70 million) on iron ore and coal at a rate of 30 percent.

It was intended to return a share of the spoils of Australia's decade-long mining boom to government coffers but was widely criticised after its revenues fell dramatically short of forecasts.

"The mining tax is now gone," triumphant Treasurer Joe Hockey told parliament after the Senate, where minor parties hold the balance of power, voted 36 to 33 for its repeal, a key election promise of the Tony Abbott-led conservatives.

It now heads to the lower house where it is guaranteed passage as the government has the numbers to push it through.

"We said we'd get rid of the mining tax; we've delivered in full," added Hockey.

"The tax package was so poorly designed, it was in fact costing the government billions of dollars each year."

The tax regime was initially watered down after a furious publicity campaign by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue, which contributed to then prime minister Kevin Rudd being ousted by his deputy Julia Gillard in 2010 as opinion poll ratings plunged.

The big miners claimed the tax hurt their competitiveness and affected investment.

The Labor government originally estimated that the levy would raise Aus$3.0 billion in its first year of operation and Aus$9.0 billion in 2013-14.

That was drastically scaled back and according to the 2013 budget the MRRT raised just Aus$200 million in the 2013 financial year and was forecast to bring in Aus$700 million in the 12 months to June 30, 2014.

- Deal with mining magnate -

Scrapping the tax was made possible after the government struck a deal with minor parties led by the Palmer United Party, whose powerbroker leader is a coal magnate.

Palmer always wanted the tax gone but said he would not support a repeal unless crucial initiatives to assist families -- which were threatened by budget cuts -- were left unchanged. A compromise was reached.

Greens party leader Christine Milne said the deal was a win for the big miners and for the flamboyant Palmer, who last month issued an apology after outraging Beijing by calling China's leaders "mongrels" who "shoot their own people".

"If ever there is a conflict of interest, it is this one," she told the Senate.

"How is it possible that you can have a coal billionaire voting to vote down a mining tax?"

Palmer insisted the move made no difference to his coal mining interests in Queensland state, saying he was "retired" and was no longer chairman of any company.

"We all pay tax. Does that mean that members of parliament don't vote on income tax bills?" he told reporters.

Dumping the tax is a major win for Abbott and follows his victory in July when he succeeded in abolishing a divisive carbon levy after years of vexed political debate.

Finance Minister Mattias Cormann said the deal would benefit the economy, which is heavily dependent on mining.

"A strong mining industry... is good for Australia, good for the economy and it's an important part of generating more jobs," he said.

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Google has been accused of intentionally displaying old versions of its site in order to convince web users to install the latest browser software 

The BBC reports that users took to Google's online support forum to complain about seeing outdated versions of the site. Expecting an apology and a fix for the issue, they were surprised when a Google employee appeared and told them that it "isn't a bug" and in fact "working as intended." 

One user posted screenshots that show Google displaying an old version of the site from 2013 because his web browser hadn't been upgraded to the latest version.

Many commenters using older versions of the Opera and Safari web browsers reported similar issues, with Google displaying versions of the site that were often years out of date.  

This version of Google Image Search dates from before the site's 2010 redesign.

In 2013, users of Internet Explorer 9 were stopped  from accessing Gmail after the browser was added to Google's list of unsupported browsers, in favor of Internet Explorer 11.

Google regularly ends support for the third-oldest generation of each major web browser. A 2011 post from the company explained that "Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience."

SEE ALSO: This 19-Year-Old Lost $46,000 Because Google Says He Didn't Follow Their Rules

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Paris (AFP) - It's enough to make you choke on your Chablis. In France, the land of good food and world-famous wine, seven of out 10 people admit they are far from connoisseurs when it comes to the grape.

Responding to the question: "Do you have the feeling you have a good knowledge of wine?" a surprising 71 percent of French people replied in the negative, with only three percent saying they had "a lot" of knowledge.

It appeared that social class has a great deal of influence over one's wine appreciation -- 43 percent of white-collar workers claimed to be connoisseurs but only 16 percent of blue-collar employees.

Polling company Viavoice said this showed a "very elitist" approach to wine in France but also the "real or imagined feeling for several households faced with tight budgets that they cannot afford quality wine."

Viavoice surveyed 1,015 adults between May 28 and 30 for the poll that was published in the Terre de Vins magazine on Tuesday.

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In case you had any doubt that the attempt by Atlantic City to revive itself as a gambling destination had completely flopped, check out the series of casino closures that are all happening right now.

This is from Capital NY's Capital Real Estate newsletter:

Atlantic City as we know it is dead: Showboat closed Sunday. Revel, the city’s newest and most expensive resort, pushed hotel guests out the door on Monday and closed its casino floor early this morning. Trump Plaza is to fold in two weeks. And just like that, Atlantic City’s glory days are officially over. Never again will the city be the gaming mecca it once was.

Atlantic City's economy is already ailing, and just the closure of Showboat and Revel will cost the city 5,000 jobs, according to the AP.

The closures are simple to explain: Total gambling revenues were over $5 billion in 2006. Today they're about $2.6 billion.

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The ability to gain access to Apple's iCloud accounts has been an open secret amongst users of porn message boards for years, with enterprising users charging others to "rip" accounts and share nude photos.

As MailOnline reports, AnonIB was the anonymous porn-sharing forum where alleged leaker "OriginalGuy" first hinted at a collection of stolen celebrity photographs, and the site maintains a thriving marketplace where hackers openly sell their services.

Here's an ad on the site from a user looking to trade leaked celebrity photos:

This user advertises in both English and French to reach the most customers:

Experienced hackers charge higher prices:

Reliable iCloud hackers gain a reputation in the community, and clients will often choose to give one person all of their business. Of course, hacking online accounts for a living is dangerous business.

Frequent posters often disappear without warning:

If someone can't provide the password for an iCloud account, then hackers will have to use more inventive means. Some iCloud "rippers" choose to use specialist hacking software to gain access to an Apple account. Hacking an account with just an email address takes longer, and will cost more.

This is what password-hacking software looks like:

But if hackers don't have expensive specialist software, they can instead try and force access to an account using Apple's iForgot password reset tool:

Apple's security questions can prove tricky for the hackers to guess, so they pool their resources to come up with common methods for hijacking an account.

AnonIB iCloud hackers caution others learning the trade to be careful when trying to take over an account. They claim that it's often best to reset the password at night so that the password reset email can be read and deleted before the target is awake. 

Once hackers have gained access to an iCloud account, they use specialist data retrieval tools to download all photos in bulk:

While reliable, the retrieval software can't reliably extract images from an iCloud account, and so hackers often take to anonIB to request help:

After downloading the stolen photos, the hacker will then send them to the client, who will either share them freely with the "Stolen Photos" community, or horde them for himself. The celebrity photo iCloud hack was likely not an individual hack, but a resident of anonIB who had built up a collection of celebrity photos using the iCloud hack exploit mentioned above, and chose to make them public.

SEE ALSO: Alleged Hacker Behind Massive Leak Of Nude Celebrity Photos Says It Took 'Several Months' To Pull Off

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Apple and iPhone users know that iCloud is the very worst product Apple makes. iCloud is the online storage facility that Apple uses to backup and coordinate your iTunes, contacts lists, and — as about 100 celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence have discovered— your photos. (Including those naked selfies you sent your significant other that one time, because, really, YOLO, right?)

So here's a layperson's guide to switching off iCloud, so your naked photos don't stay stuck in cyberspace where hackers can guess your password.

Here's the big picture:

iCloud is simply an online storage facility, like Dropbox or Google Drive or Google Music.

The problem is that iCloud doesn't work. Or, rather, iCloud does work, but the people who use it cannot figure out how it works. When you're in the consumer electronics market, those two conditions lead to the same result. People can't get iCloud to work the way they think it's working.

If you've used Dropbox or Google Drive, you probably don't have any difficulty figuring out "where" your stuff is online. iCloud, by contrast, makes it confusing to "know" where your stuff is — and that's why people end up leaving naked photos in it, even when they think they've deleted them.

We've seen it time and again. You can delete your photos from your iPhone, but they stay inside iCloud, clogging up space.

You delete apps from your iPhone but when you go to iTunes on your laptop, there they all are, undeleted.

iCloud is also part of the reason iMessage — the iPhone's default text-messaging system — doesn't work properly. As an iPhone user you probably think that the reason your Android friends don't get your texts is because their phones are cheap rubbish. Wrong. It's because iMessage is flawed— it's trying to find your friends in iCloud first before giving up and then — maybe — sending the text on to your friend's phone number.

And guess what? If you make one wrong move inside your iPhone's iCloud system settings, you can accidentally delete all your contacts from your iPhone!

Apple still has not fixed iMessage, although the company has said it is trying to. And Apple also says it has fixed the password security flaw in Find My iPhone that can give hackers access to your iCloud photos.

Nonetheless, you probably want to check that iCloud isn't hanging on to stuff you thought you deleted, and you want to make sure that iCloud isn't backing up your photos the next time you start drunk-texting your booty call.

Here is what you have to do:

1. On your iPhone, turn iCloud off.

First check out Apple's official guide to turning iCloud off. The company recommends that you go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to off iCloud features (see image at right). You want those green buttons to go gray to make sure they're off. But note that the photos setting is at the bottom and has a different button — turn that off too!

2. Delete photos in your Photo Stream.

You may have noticed that when you take a photo on your iPhone, it saves a copy of the photo in your camera album and also a copy of the photo appears in your "Photo Stream." The photo stream is gathering your photos and preparing to send them to iCloud. It's no good just deleting the naked selfie from your camera album — you have to delete it from Photo Stream too. (Your photos will still backup into iPhoto the next time you plug your iPhone into your laptop — so you can save them there if you want to free up space on your phone.)

3. Note that Photo Stream/iCloud saves your photos for 30 days!

4. Turn iCloud off on your desktop.

iCloud is baffling — even for Apple fans. You might want to also go to iCloud.com and poke around in the account and settings menus there, too. Do the same thing — turn "off" any type of media that you don't want living in the cloud.

5. Go to iCloud in the settings of your MacBook.

6. Sign in to iCloud

7. Now go through all these buttons and menus, and turn off anything you don't want living in the cloud. Obviously, "Photo stream" is most important here.

8. Go to iPhoto on your laptop/deskptop and make sure there are no old naked selfies in there, too.

A lot of people just let iPhoto suck all the photos off their phone every time they plug their iPhone into their computer — it's quick and convenient, and you can have all your iPhone photos right there on your machine any time you want to see them.

But the problem with mass upload backups is that users aren't as diligent about going through them all and deleting the ones they don't want stored forever. While your iPhoto pictures are not necessarily being uploaded to iCloud if you've got iCloud photo backup switched off, they are probably available for anyone to see if they have access to your home computer.

• Alleged Hacker Behind Massive Leak Of Nude Celebrity Photos Says It Took 'Several Months' To Pull Off

• It's Time To Fix iCloud

• Apple Stock Is At An All-Time High Ahead Of iPhone 6 — Is It Heading For A Massive Selloff?

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Geneva (AFP) - Fighting in Ukraine has forced over half a million people to flee their homes, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday. 

At least 260,000 have been displaced within Ukraine, a UNHCR spokesman said, adding that Moscow has reported that another 260,000 people have sought asylum in Russia.

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Frankfurt (AFP) - A German court has slapped an injunction on the popular car pick-up service Uber across Germany because it lacked the necessary legal permits, it was announced on Tuesday. 

The ruling, which Uber has indicated it will appeal, was issued by the Frankfurt regional court last week but only made public on Tuesday. 

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Box announced Box Workflow, a new set of features that streamlines the work process, at its annual BoxWorks conference Wednesday. 

With Box Workflow, users can set up ‘if this, then that’ type of statements within its system, creating a more customized and flexible work experience.

For example, you can now set up a push notification for contracts that are expiring in a month. Or you automatically assign work to someone when a certain document gets uploaded.

“It’s a tailored solution for your organization and your business,” Box CEO Aaron Levie said.

Box Workflow is an open API service and will be integrated with traditional tools such as Microsoft SharePoint, SAP, and Oracle Marketing Cloud. Levie said it will become available in 2015.

Levie also confirmed that the beta version of Box for Office 365 is now available. Box for Office 365 allows Box users to directly save and open files on Microsoft’s Office 365 desktop application. 

Although Box is not available for the iPad version of Office 365, Levie suggested the integration is a possibility, and jokingly asked the audience to tweet Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to add the feature soon.

Levie also gave the latest figures on Box. As of 2014, more than 240,000 businesses actively use Box’s platform, with over 27 million users worldwide. That’s 99% of the Fortune 500 companies, Levie said.

With the IPO still on hold, it remains to be seen how investors will react to today’s news. Box didn’t mention anything related to the IPO at the Q&A session, but said the timing of today’s announcement was already planned more than a year ago.

"At Box, we're 100% focused on the enterprise. This focus lets us build what others can't or won't," Levie added.

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After it initially looked like he wouldn't get a spot on any of the 32 NFL practice squads, Michael Sam was signed by the Dallas Cowboys practice team on Wednesday.

A lot of people were surprised when the Rams declined to sign Sam to their practice team. But ultimately Dallas is a much better situation for Sam than St. Louis. 

Despite Sam's status as a practice team player, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said on Tuesday, "There’s a great chance he gets on the field for them."

That's because the Cowboys have one of the thinnest defensive lines in the league. Whereas St. Louis had an impenetrable stock of talent along the defensive line (they had eight entrenched lineman before Sam even got to training camp), Dallas has holes everywhere.

The Cowboys lost two of its best lineman from last year, DeMarcus Ware (cut) and Jason Hatcher (left in free agency). The six defensive ends on the current 53-man roster produced nine combined sacks in 2013. As RedZone's Andrew Siciliano points out, the Cowboys had zero sacks from defensive linemen in the preseason (Sam had three alone).

If Sam had been signed to the Rams' practice squad, the only way he could have gotten signed onto the 53-man roster is if a player or two got injured. The St. Louis d-line is so good, with so many highly paid stars, that it would have taken an unlikely series of events for Sam to see the field.

With the Cowboys, Sam could get signed to the team if he just proves to be better than one of the inexperienced, not-very-productive players they have in place.

Getting cut was obviously a tough way for Sam's career to begin. But if he had to choose between staying with the practice squad of the team the drafted him or leaving for Dallas, he'd pick the Cowboys every time.

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Stocks were mixed on Wednesday as the Nasdaq served as the day's largest loser, as shares of Apple weighed on the tech index. Apple shares were down more than 4% on Wednesday after one analyst recommended investors take profits in shares.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 17,078.28, +10.7, (+0.06%)
• S&P 500: 2,000.72, -1.6, (-0.1%)
• Nasdaq: 4,572.56, -25.6, (-0.6%)

And now, the top stories on Wednesday:

1. The Federal Reserve released its latest Beige Book report on economic activity, which showed that economic activity continued to grow in each of the Fed's districts. The pace of growth was little changed from the last Beige Book report, released at the end of July, and the report showed that five districts "explicitly reported that contacts... remained optimistic about future growth." In a note to clients following the Beige Book report, Jesse Hurwitz at Barclays said, "Taken together, this report is consistent with our expectation of continued moderate economic growth and further tightening in labor markets." 

2. U.S. auto sales had a huge month in August. The annualized pace of sales jumped to 17.45 million in August, up from 16.4 million in July and way more than the 16.6 that was expected by analysts. This was also the highest annualized pace for auto sales in July 2006. Among the notable individual reports were a 20% sales jump for Chrysler, which beat expectations for a 12% increase, and a 9.4% increase for Mercedes-Benz, the luxury carmakers best-ever sales for the month of August. Nissan/Infiniti sales also crushed expectations, growing at an 11.5% pace against expectations for a 2.7% rise. 

3. U.S. factory orders jumped 10.5% in July following a 1.5% gain, though this jump was slightly less than the 11% expected by economists. This jump in orders followed the huge 22.5% gain seen in durable goods orders last week. 

4. Andrew John Hall, one of the most successful oil traders in the market, sees crude oil prices going to $150 a barrel within five years. Hall, who is known as "God," by some of his competitors, sees America's shale boom receding, pushing oil prices higher. Hall has been telling subscribers to his investing newsletter that he's been buying up long-dated crude contracts. 

5. A report from CNBC said that Tesla has chosen Nevada as the site of its much-anticipated Gigafactory. A Tesla representative told Business Insider that, "We look forward to meeting with Gov. [Brian] Sandoval and other legislators in Carson City, [Nevada] tomorrow to announce a major economic development."

6. According to a Reuters report, activist hedge fund investor Carl Icahn sold his entire position in discount retailer Family Dollar and took home a $200 million profit. Icahn was the company's largest shareholder after taking a 9.4% stake in June, and at the time Icahn pushed the company to seek a sale. As of Tuesday, Dollar General had raised its bid for Family Dollar to $9.1 billion, or about $80 per share. 

7. Apple shares fell more than 4% as the company continues to deal with the fallout from the leak of nude celebrity photos from its iCloud service, while on Wednesday Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest, said that investors should take profit in Apple shares. Apple is expected to announce a new lineup of iPhones, as well new payments and wearable products, at an event next week and ahead of this announcement, Hargreaves said: "Based on the work we have done, we do not expect either new segment to drive incremental profits that are meaningful to Apple's scale in the near to medium term."

8. The European Central Bank is set to announce its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday morning at 7:45 am ET, with ECB president Mario Draghi set to hold a press conference that begins at 8:30 am ET. Expectations are for the bank to keep rates unchanged, but with the Eurozone economy continuing to flirt with recession, investors are eager to hear if Draghi signals any intention to engage in quantitative easing. 

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We recently spoke with some of the big players in ad tech and asked them to share their thoughts on the hottest companies in the industry right now.

MediaMath, a demand side platform, or DSP, was one name that kept coming up. The company provides advertisers and marketers with tools to buy ads online through a single interface. 

CEO Joe Zawadzki founded MediaMath in 2007 and launched the first DSP that same year.

He was already deeply embedded in the industry; he co-founded [x+1] in 1999 and served as the company's president and chairman.

Zawadzki's two fellow MediaMath co-founders, Erich Wasserman and Greg Williams, also worked at [x+1] where they launched the company's media division. 

Zawadzki left [x+1] because he wanted to create something new.

He compared it to the story of Michelangelo and his masterpiece, the 17-foot marble statue of David. When Michelangelo finished his David statue, the Pope asked the artist how he knew what pieces of marble to chip away. Michelangelo says “It’s simple. I just remove everything that doesn’t look like David.”

Zawadzki notes in an email that the reference may seem “vainglorious,” but explains that when he left [x+1] he did so because the company “wasn’t raw block of stone anymore.”

Making the jump to MediaMath meant he and his other cofounders needed to “cut away anything that didn’t look like David and acquired the things that had David-like features to construct it," which would help them create software that they felt advertisers and marketers actually needed. 

There was another, perhaps less artistic reason. Zawadzki saw big money moving in the ad tech industry in 2007.

"Over $10 billion of market value changed hands in three months — all on the tail of big media companies getting serious about using technology in their media monetization," Zawadzki says.   

In 2007, Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, Yahoo acquired all of Right Media, and companies including BlueKai and eXelate launched their own ad tech services. It seemed, to Zawadzki, that it was the opportune time to launch MediaMath and show people that the company's DSP technology could make the ad industry more efficient. 

DSPs buy ad space on behalf of advertisers and marketers, programatically. They can help advertisers monitor live campaigns or set campaign parameters, among other things.  

When you’re online and you see an ad, chances are an auction just took place within fractions of a second to place that ad. The publisher reaches out to companies like MediaMath and alerts them that an ad slot is available. DSPs can then bid on that space, based on data they have about the user: what websites they’ve visited recently or what they’ve clicked on.

Today, there are a handful of major companies that fit in the DSP "bucket," including Turn, DataXu, as well as some smaller companies. MediaMath is arguably one of the fastest growing "DSP" companies, however, and they are looking to expand more globally after opening an office in Paris earlier this year.  

MediaMath says its sales reached $311 million last year, up from $135 million the year prior. It has been profitable in the last year as well, with earnings of $14 million in 2013 before taxes or interest — up from $0.6 million in 2012. It also raised over $175 million in funding, bringing in $73.5 million in Series C funding in June.

"They have managed to evolve with the changing scope and demands of the programmatic marketplace both through technology innovation as well as through strategic partnerships. They know what their core strengths are and seek to excel in those areas," Scott Ferber, CEO of Videology, says of MediaMath. "At a time when there’s the temptation to be everything to everyone, I believe clients appreciate that type of focus and transparency."

Some speculate MediaMath could be one of the next ad tech companies to go public, but the current state of public ad tech companies and their performance in the stock market could change things. Although, with video ad company TubeMogul reporting better than expected Q2 earnings, there's something to be said for the potential power of the ad tech business on Wall Street. 

Zawadzki's team more than doubled in size in the last year, now with close to 500 employees. MediaMath plans to move buildings next summer and will take over three floors in 4 World Trade Center. 

The company is growing in other ways as well. It acquired the cross-device targeting company Tactads in April, and plans to use that company's technology to develop a new technology called "ConnectedID," which won't use cookies but can still follow users across devices and platforms on a global scale. This will allow marketers to track users throughout the day, as they switch between work computers, smartphones, and laptops. 

If MediaMath can pull this off it will not only make things easier for marketers, looking to track potential customers and serve them with the most relevant ads to increase conversion rates over time, but it may also mean an IPO for the company in the near future. 

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) took former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to task on Wednesday for taking a new job from at investment bank Moelis. Cantor will ultimately earn $3.4 million as part of the package for his new position.

Asked about Cantor's move in an interview with Yahoo News' Katie Couric, Warren sighed and sharply criticized the "revolving door" between former politicians and the powerful industries that employ them after they leave office.

"How wrong can this be?" she asked. "Basically what is happening here is that people work in Washington, and man, they hit that revolving door with a speed that would blind you."

Cantor resigned from Congress in August after he lost his Republican primary election in a shocking upset. Moelis announced his hiring on Monday. Some, including former corporate lawyer Dennis Kelleher, criticized the hire as notable because of Cantor's lack of relevant investment experience.

"Let’s look at Cantor’s résumé," Kelleher told New York magazine. "Let’s look at all his investment-banking experience. Let’s look at his capital-markets experience. He has none. He has no experience or skills that would qualify him to be even an intern at a fifth-tier firm in the financial industry. I mean, come on!"

Warren agreed with this line of thinking in her interview, arguing people like Cantor are "selling access"— not their expertise.

"[They] head straight out into the industry not because they bring great expertise and insight but because they’re selling access back in to their former colleagues who are still writing policy," she continued. "I just think this is fundamentally the wrong approach."

Warren, who has become known for her criticism of Wall Street, said this phenomenon ultimately "infects" Washington politics.

"It worries me about what happens if people in government are looking for that next job: 'Yeah I'm working now, not as much money as I could be making, but when I leave here, that's where I'm headed.' That ultimately infects whatever it is that they’re doing," she said. "I think this is just wrong."

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