Now, researchers have reconstructed words, such as "mother," "to pull" and "man," which would have been spoken by ancient hunter-gatherers, possibly in an area such as the Caucuses or the modern-day country of Georgia. The word list, detailed today (May 6) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help researchers retrace the history of ancient migrations and contacts between prehistoric cultures.

"We can trace echoes of language back 15,000 years to a time that corresponds to about the end of the last ice age," said study co-author Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

Tower of Babel

The idea of a universal human language goes back at least to , in which humanity spoke a common tongue, but were punished with mutual unintelligibility after trying to build theall the way to heaven. []

But not all linguists believe in a single common origin of language, and trying to reconstruct that language seemed impossible. Most researchers thought they could only trace a language's roots back 3,000 to 4,000 years. (Even so, researchers recently said they had traced the roots of ato many Eurasian languages back 8,000 to 9,500 years to Anatolia, a southwestern Asian peninsula that is now part of Turkey.)

Pagel, however, wondered whether language evolution proceeds much like . If so, the most critical words, such as the frequently used words that define our social relationships, would change much more slowly.

To find out if he could uncover those ancient words, Pagel and his colleagues in a previous study tracked how quickly words changed in modern languages. They identified the most stable words. They also mapped out how different modern languages were related.

They then reconstructed ancient words based on the frequency at which certain sounds tend to change in different languages for instance, p's and f's often change over time in many languages, as in the change from "pater" in Latin to the more recent term "father" in English.

The researchers could predict what 23 words, including "I," "ye," "mother," "male," "fire," "hand" and "to hear" might sound like in an ancestral language dating to 15,000 years ago.

In other words, if modern-day humans could somehow encounter their Stone Age ancestors, they could say one or two very simple statements and make themselves understood, Pagel said.

Limitations of tracing language

Unfortunately, this language technique may have reached its limits in terms of how far back in history it can go.

"It's going to be very difficult to go much beyond that, even these slowly evolving words are starting to run out of steam," Pagel told LiveScience.

The study raises the possibility that researchers could combine linguistic data with archaeology and anthropology "to tell the story of ," for instance by recreating ancient migrations and contacts between people, said William Croft, a comparative linguist at the University of New Mexico, who was not involved in the study.

"That has been held back because most linguists say you can only go so far back in time," Croft said. "So this is an intriguing suggestion that you can go further back in time."

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter . Follow LiveScience ,  & . Original article on .

PARIS (AP) -- Bye, New York! Ciao, Milan! And bonjour, Paris.

The world's largest traveling circus of fashion editors, models, buyers and journalists has descended on the French capital, clutching their metro maps and city guides, to cap fashion season for nine days of intensive ready-to-wear.

And this fall-winter 2013-14 is the biggest to date, with some 99 "on-calendar" shows that see the week almost tearing at the seams, starting earlier and finishing later than ever.

"There are 12 shows a day. Twenty-two different nationalities this season. With new top designers at work," says Didier Grumbach, president of the French Fashion Federation. "It's an impressive mix, an energy that sets Paris apart from what's going on elsewhere."

Tuesday day one saw collections dominated by three up-and-coming Belgian designers: Veronique Branquinho, Cedric Charlier and Anthony Vaccarello, who dressed actress Charlotte Gainsbourg at last Friday's Cesar film awards.

The similarities start and end with their nationalities; all three threw together strong but highly individual collections.

If Branquinho was elegance, Charlier was edgy architecture, and Vaccarello was retro sex-appeal.

In other shows of the day, Le Moine Tricote spiced up the bread-and-butter knitwear with woven fabric.

Wednesday's shows include Guy Laroche, Damir Doma and London's enfant terrible, Gareth Pugh.

ANTHONY VACCARELLO

The no-holds-barred sex appeal for Anthony Vaccarello is not for the faint-hearted.

The third Belgian designer to show on Paris fashion week's first day served up a black-and-white ode to the early '80s in a show that featured micro skirts, chainmail, a lot of skin and lashings of sensual leather.

Strong retro shoulders, asymmetrical, diagonally cut skirts, upturned lapels and cowl collars set the fashion time dial firmly back to the era of the New Romantics.

This was fused with the innate sexiness of his variations on the Little Black Dress.

The best look was a black kimono-style top, which billowed in great contrast to the tight, bright shiny black mini.

Subtle this was not, but then, subtle isn't glam-loving Vaccarello's thing.

VERONIQUE BRANQUINHO

It was the modern bohemian woman on parade.

Veronique Branquinho mixed and matched eclectic references, from wooden African bracelets to Obi-style dresses with belts.

The soundtrack included Marilyn Monroe's sultry "One Silver Dollar" from the Western "River of No Return," which played as cowboy boots and denim studs peppered the looks.

Stetson cowboy hats in Shetland went too far, but overall it was a strong collection for the up-and-coming designer reined in only by its feminine silhouette proportions and textural contrasts that unified the show.

The graceful, slouchy style, now a Branquinho signature, was seen on several of the dropped waist looks, often in beige and fawn.

LE MOINE TRICOTE

Fall-winter sees bright-eyed designer Alice Lemoine brimming with ideas.

First of all, in the unique presentation of her Le Moine Tricote collection via three different mediums in three different rooms: there were edgy photos, vintage-looking video projections, and the clothes themselves on mannequins.

Second of all, there were new ideas in the direction of the up-and-comer's knitwear line itself, which saw the repertoire this season spun out to include stricter woven fabrics. They provided a subtle but welcome contrast to the more feminine thick-knit tailored jackets in black, beige and gray.

The strongest piece in the show was a fantastic black mid-length coat dress that had pockets, a lapel and sleeves in billowing wool to imitate fur.

Despite sporty flashes, the collection overall remained thoroughly feminine, thanks to the natural roundness of the thick-knit silhouettes.

This season, ladylike is the name of the game.

CEDRIC CHARLIER

Architecture, "art brut" and Dutch Master Brueghel were all inspirations behind Cedric Charlier's diverse show.

The first pieces, among the collection's best, mixed up sharp geometric paneling alongside oversize coats with fluid, rounded shoulders.

Ensembles were made up of several layers, like square navy skirts on top of knee-length leggings with a rectangular bib form hanging down.

There were also some great structured sheaths in silky navy and black leather.

It's a far cry from the more fluid looks seen in Charlier's last collection.

The designer said medieval painter Brueghel inspired the bright colors of some of the prints and patterns, as did an early 20th century movement called "art brut" that celebrated art from shunned circles, like mental asylums.

It was an interesting idea that worked on the more simple silhouettes.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company also dragged itself back to profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, following four straight years of red ink.

It reported Thursday annual earnings of 43 billion yen ($434 million), a reversal from a loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) the previous year the worst in the company's nearly seven-decade history.

Tokyo-based Sony expects the recovery to continue, and projected a 50 billion yen ($505 million) profit for the fiscal year through March 2014, up 16 percent.

A weak yen helps Japanese exporters, and the dollar has gained 20 percent against the yen in recent months.

The favorable exchange rate is expected to continue in the coming months because of the policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office last year.

Sony had sunk to a 255.2 billion yen loss for the January-March period in 2012, slammed by its money-losing TV business and competition from rivals Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Sales for the January-March period rose 8 percent to 1.7 trillion yen ($17 billion), mainly from a favorable currency rate.

Sony's annual earnings were better than its own forecast for a 40 billion yen ($404 million) profit, and that of analysts surveyed by FactSet at about 33 billion yen ($333 million).

In an effort to achieve a turnaround, Sony has been shedding jobs and selling assets and parts of businesses in recent years.

The brand has lost much of its glamour as the maker of the Walkman portable music player, a pioneering product, as well as the PlayStation video-game console, once a must-have for holiday shopping.

Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said that despite the return to profitability, the company's electronics sector, including camcorders and digital cameras, was struggling compared to its entertainment projects.

"We must answer to the challenge of making our electronics business profitable, no matter what," he said.

The recent weaker yen, which will make Sony products cheaper abroad, was almost certain to work as a big plus, and Kato welcomed it.

Sony gained 182 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in its sales and operating revenue for the January-March quarter due to favorable exchange rates. The company reiterated that it will turn its TV business profitable by the fiscal year ending March 2014. That business has bled money for nine straight years.

Sony said it is beefing up its TV lineup, including models with 4K liquid crystal displays, which deliver even better image quality than current LCD TVs.

Sony said games sales will be boosted significantly with the planned introduction of the PlayStation 4 this fiscal year.

Sony is also doing better in its mobile-phone business with its Xperia Z, which went on sale earlier this year. Sony had fallen far behind rivals like Samsung and Apple in smartphones.

Sony sold its U.S. headquarters building on New York's Madison Avenue in January, as well as other buildings in Tokyo. It sold stocks in Japanese game maker DeNA.

It also ended its liquid-crystal display venture with rival Samsung, while inking a new capital alliance with Japanese electronics and camera maker Olympus Corp. to strengthen its medical equipment business.

Still, some analysts say catching up and selling assets isn't enough, and Sony needs to come up with a more unique product.

For the fiscal year just ended, Sony has continued to lag in its device, digital camera and game sectors. But it scored better sales and income in Sony Pictures Entertainment, with the success of "Skyfall" and "The Amazing Spider-Man."

Sales and income were flat in its music business. Best-selling titles included One Direction's "Take Me Home" and Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience."

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Team owner Roger Penske said he was "very happy with the outcome" following John Middlebrook's decision.

"All of us have lost points, six, eight, 10, 12 for certain infractions over the years," Penske said. "I don't think this is something we worry about. Obviously we don't worry about it. But from my perspective, the key thing is to have our people back at the race track, operating in full control. I think that's most important. If we're going to win, and be a leader and win a championship again, we've got plenty of time to do that."

NASCAR inspectors confiscated parts from the rear suspensions of the cars of defending champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano before the April 13 race at Texas. NASCAR alleged the parts were not approved, while Penske maintained the parts had been approved but the organization was applying them in a way that fell in a gray area of the rule book.

Penske still felt that way Tuesday: "I don't think we were confused. As we interpreted the rules, these are undefined areas."

"This sport has been built on innovation," he said. "All of us have tried to innovate in areas not defined in the rulebook. We were in that area."

NASCAR docked Keselowski and Logano 25 points each, and fined crew chiefs Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon $100,000 each. NASCAR also suspended Wolfe, Gordon, competition director Travis Geisler, car chiefs Jerry Kelley and Raymond Fox and engineers Brian Wilson and Samuel Stanley for six races.

All suspensions were reduced to two points races, plus next week's All-Star race. They can return to work at Dover for the June 2 race. Penske did not immediately address how the organization would address the personnel issues at Darlington Raceway this weekend.

"The important thing is, this is over," Penske said. "This has been 2-3 weeks of constant questions, lots of emotions. I feel our bench is strong and people can fill in for the crew chiefs."

Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive who is paid $1 per year by NASCAR, heard two cases last year. He reduced similar penalties against Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Chad Knaus after the initial appeals board upheld his punishment.

He lifted the suspension and reinstated Jimmie Johnson's points, but left intact the $100,000 fine NASCAR levied against Knaus for altering sheet metal on the car before inspection at the season-opening Daytona 500. Middlebrook also upheld all penalties on Richard Childress Racing for modifications made to Paul Menard's frame rails.

Penske praised NASCAR's appeals process, and didn't mind the two phases. But it's becoming clear that those who run afoul of NASCAR have their best chance at redemption with Middlebrook: Since NASCAR began keeping records in 1999, the first-phase National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel that Penske went before last week has upheld 106 of 150 appeals.

Still, he said the system is fair.

"I think the process is good. The panel is the first step and you don't go to the Supreme Court the first day," Penske said. "We operated within the guidelines and I'm happy with the outcome."

During the first phase of appeal, each side presents its case separately to a three-member panel that is chosen from a pool of 49 potential jurors. The other side is not in the room during the presentation.

During final appeal, each side presents its case separately and Middlebrook then brings both parties into the room to question them together. Penske said that was the first time his organization was able to hear from Sprint Cup Series director John Darby directly about the infractions.

"Today we had the opportunity to meet with the chief appellate officer and we had that opportunity in conjunction to meet with NASCAR, and this was the first opportunity we had to listen to John specifically to say 'These are the areas we think you are over the line on,'" Penske said. "Obviously we had our rebuttal on that, and then the appellate officer had a chance to take into consideration all of the comments we made and NASCAR made, and he came up with a final ruling."

It's a busy week for NASCAR, which on Wednesday defends before the three-member panel penalties levied against Joe Gibbs Racing for an illegal part being found in Matt Kenseth's race-winning engine from Kansas.

JGR is not arguing the part was illegal. The team is instead seeking a reduction of the penalties because the infraction was a mistake on manufacturer Toyota's part that the team had nothing to do with, and it did not provide a competitive advantage.

GENEVA/DUBAI (Reuters) - World Health Organization (WHO) experts and local officials will visit a Saudi hospital where the SARS-like coronavirus has spread, killing seven people, the U.N. agency said on Wednesday.

France reported its first case on Wednesday in a 65-year-old Frenchman who had recently returned from Dubai with the virus that has emerged from the Gulf and has also spread to Britain and Germany as well as Jordan, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

The French case brings total known infections worldwide to 31, of which 18 have died.

The Saudi patients appeared to have been infected in hospital with some family members also falling ill, WHO officials said.

Coronavirus is from the same viral family as triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world from Asia in late 2003, killing 775 people.

Health experts' concerns are growing over clusters of cases, despite no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission - the type of infection pathway that can lead to pandemics.

The WHO-Saudi team of experts will focus on the Al-Moosa hospital in the town of Hofuf in Ahsa governate in Eastern Province, where the patients are being treated. Official statements released via the Saudi Press Agency have sought to reassure Saudis the outbreak is limited.

"One focal point of the investigation at the moment is the hemodialysis unit in the hospital," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl in Geneva, referring to equipment used on kidney and diabetes patients.

"The association of this outbreak with a single health care facility suggests nosocomial (hospital-acquired) transmission," it said, noting that some patients under treatment for ailments may have had increased susceptibility to infection.

"However, the presence of infection in two family members not associated with the facility itself raises a concern about potential broader transmission in the community," it said.

Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry spokesman did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment, while the director at Al-Moosa declined to comment. International media were not invited to a news conference with Health Ministry officials on Monday.

Statements on official media outlets were aimed at dispelling online speculation in Saudi Arabia that the virus had spread to other hospitals in Eastern Province.

A total of 23 cases have been reported since September in Saudi Arabia, including 13 since mid-April in al-Ahsa, where seven patients have died and four remain critically ill in intensive care, with two improving in hospital, the WHO said.

SPREADING TO EUROPE

Along with the French case, the WHO has registered 23 cases in Saudi Arabia, two in Jordan, two in Qatar, one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and two in Britain.

France's Health Minister Marisol Touraine said the man, now on a respirator in an intensive care ward, was admitted to hospital with breathing problems and a fever on April 23, a few days after his return from a week-long trip to Dubai.

"This is an imported case and it's a unique case," Touraine told a news conference, promising a thorough investigation into how the man had become infected.

Tests were now being carried out as a precaution on all friends and relatives who had been in contact with him, but all have come up negative so far, officials said.

"He is in a critical condition. His situation is worrying," the government's health director Jean-Yves Grall told the news conference. The man, who is from the northern Nord Pas de Calais region, has needed blood transfusions, he said.

The most recent German case was in March. The man fell ill in UAE and went to Germany for treatment where he died. The previous case, in November, was a man who was infected in Qatar, treated in Germany and then discharged from hospital.

(This story corrects the spelling of Al-Moosa hospital in the 11th paragraph)

(Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh and James Regan in Paris; Editing by Louise Ireland and Catherine Bremer)

The Chicago Board Options Exchange reopened at 12:50 p.m. (1650 GMT) after being closed from the start of the trading day. The shutdown forced traders to scramble for alternatives.

The outage followed a brief scare in financial markets Tuesday afternoon when hackers sent a false Associated Press tweet reporting explosions at the White House. Stocks plunged for two minutes as computerized trading systems unloaded stocks. Regulators are increasingly looking into the safety of computerized trading systems.

Initially, there was speculation that CBOE computers had been hacked, but the exchange said hackers were not involved. It was an internal "software issue" that had delayed the opening, said CBOE spokesperson Gail Osten.

The CBOE is the largest U.S. options exchange. It is the only place to trade two popular options one a bet on the future price of the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index, the other a kind of insurance against wild stock-price swings.

Options give the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy and sell stocks or other financial assets in the future.

The exchange normally opens at 9:30 a.m. When it opened at 12:50 p.m., the only trading was in options on the S&P 500, according CBOE's Osten. Trading of other options resumed ten minutes later, she said.

Some on Wall Street shrugged off the outage.

"I don't think it is too big of a deal if it's a one day thing. If it keeps happening, of course, that's different," said Ryan Detrick, a senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

The volatility index traded on the CBOE known as the VIX is a bet on the likelihood of stock prices swinging in the future. Last week, investors anxious over the Boston Marathon bombings and slowing economic growth in China sent the VIX up 40 percent to 17.6 at one point. But the option quickly fell back to 13, around where it's been trading since the start of 2013.

The VIX closed at 13.7 on Thursday.

Jay Tigay, a VIX trader at Stutland Equities, described VIX trading as a sort of neglected stepchild in the flow of business news. So he was glad the CBOE was getting relatively big play on business news channel CNBC during the shutdown though "not the attention they want."

Stock of the CBOE Holdings, the parent company of the exchange, was not hurt by the shutdown, though. It closed up 16 cents, or about 0.5 percent, to $36.61.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Andy Cohen has definitely made the best of his programming executive level job at Bravo Media. Aside from becoming the face of the network and hosting its popular late night show, "Watch What Happens Live," he was instrumental in developing and producing the network's flagship "Real Housewives" franchise.

The same franchise, by the way, that he famously put a fork in when he announced in 2011 that the network wouldn't be extending the series. But, did he really mean it?

"Well, I mean, I always say never say never,'" Cohen, who's currently promoting the paperback release of his autobiography, "Most Talkative," told TheWrap.

"But, I think we're pretty good and I still do think we are pretty good. I mean, we've got six going and it's great," the 44-year-old continued.

And, that's true. Even if a "Real Housewives" city isn't bringing in the ratings, it still drives headlines and buzz. Not to mention, the network still mines the series for spinoffs.

As of now, there are four "Real Housewives" spinoffs either airing or in development, which include "Vanderpump Rules" starring Beverly Hills' Lisa Vanderpump, "The Kandi Factory" with Atlanta's Kandi Burruss, and a newly announced project with Atlanta castmember Phaedra Parks with the working title, "Rich People Problems."

Plus, former Atlanta castmember Kim Zolciak's series, "Don't Be Tardy..." returns for its second season on Tuesday at 9/8c.

TheWrap spoke with Cohen, 44, about what the cable channel looks for in "Real Housewives" spinoffs, the status of Bethenny Frankel's show and how he handles viewer opinion. Andy Cohen: Phaedra does a lot of other things outside of the "Housewives" show. Kandi is a songwriter. Lisa has restaurants. So, these are other things that the women do in their real lives that lend themselves to seeing more of them. I think that the women just living their lives, that's what they do on the "Housewives." The shows that we've picked up have been because the women have other things going on. Kim's show started with her getting married, which is really the natural way to, it lends itself well to another series, you know?

Speaking of Kim, was there any anger over her leaving "The Real Housewives of Atlanta"?

Well, no. It was mutual. It was something that we all did together. I mean the natural evolution was it was time for her to go and we figured out how to make it work for everybody.

Did you get any flack from viewers over Bravo's choice to continue on with her spinoff after the way she departed from "The Real Housewives of Atlanta"? Not really. I think it's pretty cool. It seemed to happen as it should and it was a great season of Atlanta after she left. So, I think the reunion kind of tied it up really nicely.

What can we expect from Season 2 of "Don't Be Tardy"? Just that it's really fun and funny and surprising. And then takes a much more active role than he has in the past. So, he's more involved. And the part that's not funny or fun is the part about, you know what's going on with Kim and her mom.

Yes, the lawsuit. Their relationship began to crumble on Season 1. Will she make any appearances this season? No, the mom is not, but the story is covered.

Is Bethenny Frankel's show dead in the water?

Oh, no, look, she's got a really full plate right now and I don't know what she has time for. But, she and I are always talking about working together again and I hope we do. I don't think it's out of the question. She's about to launch this huge other show.

The talk show. Ellen DeGeneres is an executive producer, but, still, have you given Bethenny any hosting advice?

She doesn't need any of my advice.

People have their own version of this hormone, and the new work suggests that giving diabetics more might one day help them avoid insulin shots.

That would give them better control of their blood sugar levels, said Harvard University researcher Douglas Melton, senior author of a report published Thursday by the journal Cell.

Experts unconnected with the work cautioned that other substances have shown similar effects on mouse cells but failed to work on human ones. Melton said this hormone stands out because its effect is unusually potent and confined to just the cells that make insulin.

An estimated 371 million people worldwide have diabetes, in which insulin fails to control blood sugar levels. High blood sugar can lead to heart disease, stroke and damage to kidneys, eyes and the nervous system. At least 90 percent of diabetes is "Type 2," and some of those patients have to inject insulin. Melton said the newly identified hormone might someday enable them to stop insulin injections and help other diabetic patients avoid them.

As for its possible use to treat Type 1 diabetes, Melton called that a "long shot" because of differences in the biology of that disease.

Insulin is produced by beta cells in the pancreas.

Melton and co-authors identified a hormone they dubbed betatrophin (BAY-tuh-TROH-fin) in mice. When they made the liver in mice secrete more of it by inserting extra copies of the gene, the size of the beta cell population tripled in comparison to untreated mice. Tests indicated the new cells worked normally.

Melton said it's not known how the hormone works. Now the researchers want to create an injectable form that they can test on diabetic mice, he said. If all goes well, tests in people could follow fairly quickly.

Dr. Peter Butler, a diabetes researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who had no role in the new work, cautioned in an emailthat no evidence has been presented yet to show that the hormone will make human beta cells proliferate.

But Philip diIorio, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, said he found the work to be "quite promising" because it offers new leads for research, and that it might someday help in building supplies of human beta cells in a lab for transplant into patients.

___

Online:

Cell: http://www.cell.com/

International Diabetes Federation: http://www.idf.org

___

Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Cellular operator Digicel Group Ltd jumped into Myanmar early and big, hiring staff, funding local sports, negotiating land deals for thousands of cell tower sites and signing up hundreds of partners for retail outlets.

The strategy helped propel it onto the shortlist for a mobile license in one of the world's last mobile frontiers, putting an operator that ranks 65th globally in terms of customers up against giants such as Vodafone Group Plc.

Whether its strategy pays off or not, industry insiders say, Digicel, largely unknown outside the Caribbean and some Pacific islands, has shaken up a usually conservative industry.

"They have been a disruptive force," said Roger Barlow, a Hong Kong-based telecommunications consultant who has worked in Asia for more than 25 years. "Some of the big guys tend to look down their noses at them but they shouldn't because they're becoming a credible player."

Myanmar this month short-listed 12 consortia for two licenses it plans to grant foreign operators in late June. The government wants to expand mobile penetration from less than 4 percent to up to 80 percent by 2015-16.

While Digicel is up against behemoths such as Vodafone, China Mobile Ltd and Telenor ASA, several other big players failed to make the list - among them South Korea's SK Telecom Co Ltd and Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding SAE.

It's a vindication of sorts for Digicel's long-term approach. Business development director Frank O'Carroll led the charge into Myanmar in 2009. In early 2012 he persuaded the company to commit funds to build a local brand and prepare the ground so that if it did get the go-ahead it could roll out a service in a matter of months.

That entailed deploying hundreds of workers across the country to negotiate thousands of leases for base station sites, months before the government had even begun the tender process.

"There's not one square inch of the country we haven't been in," O'Carroll said in an interview in Singapore.

Its sponsorship of the national football federation has built brand awareness - of sorts. Lots of locals have heard of Digicel, O'Carroll said, though at least initially they were as likely to think it's a brand of battery as a cellphone operator.

It's a strategy, he said, that Digicel has been pursuing in much smaller markets for more than a decade.

"What we are doing in Myanmar is not unique to Myanmar," said O'Carroll. "The first country that Digicel as a company looked to get a license was Trinidad and Tobago. We did very the same thing. We were there, we leased the land, we rented local offices, we started a local team, sponsored big sports."

SMALL AND NIMBLE

Digicel has since set up shop in 31 markets, gaining 13 million customers. While none boasts a population above 10 million people, the company has taken on some major rivals, including America Movil SAB, Vodafone, Telefonica and Cable & Wireless.

"I don't think there's any fantastic science to it, but I do think it's our ability to move fast because we're small, we don't have this complex machinery that takes months and months to make decisions," said Vanessa Slowey, Singapore-based CEO of Digicel Asia Pacific, in an interview.

Making those decisions is Digicel owner Denis O'Brien, an Irish billionaire who first focused on small markets in the Caribbean after noticing that spectrum was being auctioned off in Jamaica. Eventually the Pacific beckoned.

Telecoms executive David Borrill recalls meeting O'Brien in his office after three years working for the incumbent operator in Samoa. "He went straight over to his library and opened the biggest atlas he had, turned to the Pacific and said, 'Tell me about this, where would you put an office here?'"

A few weeks later Borrill was back in Samoa, this time working for Digicel. The company bought out Telecom New Zealand's stake in the incumbent operator in 2006, and within six months had more than doubled its customer base.

Last financial year the company reported revenue of $2.5 billion, year-on-year growth of 14 percent and EBITDA of $1.08 billion, up 13 percent. It has 87 percent market share in Haiti, at least 75 percent in Jamaica and 92 percent of Papua New Guinea, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"Digicel is very astute in selecting the markets it enters," said John Hibbard, an Australia-based telecoms consultant. "It has to be convinced it will win a reasonable market share."

When it isn't, it's prepared to abort. In East Timor, for example, Digicel went so far as building cell towers, and assured the government that if granted a license it could cover more than 90 percent of the population within four months.

But, Digicel said, the government dragged its feet and ignored advice to issue only one license. So when it did eventually win one of the two on offer last year, Digicel turned it down. "Why would we invest $50 million to compete with two other operators, for the 40 percent that is left? It's crazy. So we handed our license back," said O'Carroll.

Digicel sold its assets to the other licensee Telin, a unit of Indonesia's PT Telkom. The company broke even on its Timor investment, said Digicel's Slowey, without giving details.

Such an approach is at odds with the industry's more conservative approach, where investment decisions must be highly rational and based on certain outcomes.

"Digicel doesn't have the institutional memory of other telcos," said Rob Bratby, a Singapore-based telecoms lawyer with Olswang LLP. "It's an example of a company with a different mental framework."

SOROS PARTNERSHIP

Digicel, however, has not had a free ride in Myanmar. The government turned down its proposal in 2012 to set up a joint venture with the incumbent operator, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, in favor of an open tender.

That has meant facing the diplomatic and financial muscle of some of the world's biggest and best-connected operators, prompting Digicel to take on its own partners: Yoma Strategic Holdings, owned by Serge Pun, a powerful businessman who, unlike many tycoons in Myanmar, isn't entangled in Western sanctions. The other member of the consortium: Quantum Strategic Partners, owned by financier George Soros.

The Soros-funded Open Society Foundations have long worked with exiles, refugees and dissidents, according to its website. Last year Soros said he would set up an office in Yangon.

Digicel shrugs off criticism that it lacks the experience of working in big markets like Myanmar, arguing that it's harder to work in lots of countries, whatever their size. Among the shortlistees, only France Telecom SA matches Digicel in the number of markets covered.

"Whether it's the smallest country in the world you deploy in or the largest, it's still the same building blocks, still the same issues that you must go through," said O'Carroll. "A lot of those same things, whether it's Nauru's 9,000 people or Myanmar's 60 million, we think are going to be identical."

(Additional reporting by Jason Szep in Bangkok; Editing by Emily Kaiser)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LivingSocial, the second-largest daily deal company behind Groupon Inc, said on Friday it was hit by a cyber attack that may have affected more than 50 million customers.

The company said the attack on its computer systems resulted in unauthorized access to customer data, including names, email addresses, date of birth for some users and "encrypted" passwords.

LivingSocial stressed customer credit card and merchants' financial and banking information were not affected or accessed. It also does not store passwords in plain text.

"We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue," the company, part-owned by Amazon.com Inc, wrote in an email to employees.

LivingSocial does not disclose how many customers it has. However, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said "a substantial portion" of the company's customer base was affected. LivingSocial is also contacting customers who closed accounts, because it still has their information stored in databases, he added.

The attack hit customers in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Southern Europe and Latin America. Customers in South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand were not affected, Weinstein said.

"In light of recent successful widespread attacks against major social networking sites, it's obvious that these providers are simply not doing enough to protect their customers' information," said George Tubin, senior security strategist at Trusteer, a computer security company.

The attack comes as LivingSocial struggles to handle a decline in consumer and merchant demand for daily deals. The company raised $110 million from investors, including Amazon earlier this year, but was forced to make large concessions to get the new money.

Amazon invested $56 million in LivingSocial in the first quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, which also revealed the company had a first-quarter operating loss of $44 million on revenue of $135 million.

LivingSocial said on Friday it was beginning to contact more than 50 million customers whose data may have been affected by the cyber attack.

LivingSocial told customers in an email that they should log on to LivingSocial.com to create a new password for their accounts.

"We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)," LivingSocial Chief Executive Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote in the email.

"We are sorry this incident occurred."

All Things D reported the cyber attack earlier on Friday.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Bernard Orr and Andre Grenon)