Offbeat game recasts Xmas tune as 'Little Bummer Boy'

If you don't want to be 'LDB Out,' avoid 'Little Drummer Boy' at all costs.

(Credit:
@Nelz9999)

There's a bigger danger this holiday season than ending up on Santa's naughty list. A lump of coal in a Christmas stocking is one thing. What can happen to you if you hear "Little Drummer Boy" is something else altogether.

You know the tune: "Come they told me/Pa rum pum pum pum/A newborn King to see/Pa rum pum pum pum." It's a Christmas standard, and in cities and small towns everywhere, it emanates from department store sound systems, TV commercials, Web sites -- you name it. To the average modern-day sophisticate, "Little Drummer Boy (note: read the story before clicking the link)" is nothing more than a song to love or hate, to endure or enjoy. But to the many players of the LDB Game, the song's aesthetic merits are hardly the point.

Here's how the game works: Once the holiday season starts (more on that later), you're alive until you hear LDB. Once you hear it -- don't worry, knocking around inside your own head doesn't count -- you're "LDB Out." Victory (and the attendant bragging rights) accrue to anyone who successfully avoids LDB until Christmas. On e-mail lists, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, groups full of players intent on surviving LDB season are now in full swing.

One might ask why would anyone play LDB? To Bunny Watson, an Oakland, Calif., DJ who has served for years as unofficial game master for a couple of hundred players on one e-mail list, it's all about the stories. "The whole thing just struck me as hilarious for some reason. I saw it on someone's blog and decided I was going to play too. Then I 'infected' my friend group and got a bunch of people playing," she recalled. "It's as much a game of chance as of strategy, though people sometimes do really funny things in the name of strategy, such as wearing earplugs if they have to go shopping. I have one friend who just turns down her hearing aids."

There are all kinds of LDB hazards out there, not least of which is researching an article on the game (recommended: mute the computer's speakers). Given that shopping spots are one of the most common danger zones, many players limit their retail exposure as best they can. The LDB Game is not political, though, and players are not necessarily anticonsumerists. They don't Occupy anything. They love their high-tech gadgets, happily eat at restaurants, and even hope for spiffy presents under their trees. But they definitely want to win.

And so it was that on Thanksgiving Day, high above Berkeley, Calif., eight friends, all involved in the tech world in one form or another, sat enjoying a rich and satisfying dinner of deep-fried turkey, duck, and all the trimmings when a Christmas tune began to play. The potential for a massacre was huge. All eight people -- including the hosts -- could be taken out at once. The risk was recognized, threats were made. And understood. The music was changed. The tension lifted.

Others haven't been as lucky. At one Bay Area karaoke bar, a few weeks ago, a man who goes by the name of Weazie took out the entire saloon. With a dance version, no less.

More often, though, the moment of one's LDB demise is a private affair, and the e-mail lists and Facebook groups where players congregate are littered this time of year with LDB Out tales, many of which are embarrassingly banal (listening to the radio, shopping for gifts). Often, though, there's a fun -- or at least involved -- tale to be told, such as the fate Watson herself suffered one year when, deep into hours of fighting on the phone with her ISP over the crisis caused when her business' essential Web site went down, she got taken out by the company's hold muzak.

Players are honor bound to share their LDB Out stories, and they mostly do, because, really, the game is just a fun social exercise. And besides, there's a lot less pressure when your time is up. "I've been tempting fate this holiday season. I've spent more time in stores in the last two months than I have in probably the last 10 years,..." Robyn Herr, from Cleveland, reported to her e-mail list the other day after getting LDB'd in a novelty store called Big Fun, "now I don't have to be on guard for LDB for the rest of the season."

On the other hand, there's certainly pride in winning, and veteran players employ certain strategies year in and year out. Watson advises against going into a Home Depot or a "Bloodbath and Beyond." "Both claim many victims each year," she says. Also, avoid taxis if you can and make sure inexperienced players don't sing LDB to you, because it'll knock you both out.

Then there's well-known entertainment land mines. Among them, the 2012 "Saturday Night Live" Christmas special, the November 26 "Colbert Report," and for those with stacks of old DVDs lying around, the "West Wing" Season One Christmas episode.

In fact, it was thanks to that episode of "West Wing" that Watson was asked to weigh in on when, exactly, the LDB Game kicks off. Some -- you might consider them LDB Conservatives -- say the game isn't on until Thanksgiving Day. But to Watson, it starts when the first bells start jingling and the first notes of "Silent Night" are heard in stores. You know it when you see it. Halloween is risky, but the first day of fall is still too early. On September 21, Watson was asked for a ruling by a Democrat who was gearing up for the upcoming presidential election by doing a complete rewatching of Aaron Sorkin's hit show about life in the White House. LDB encountered, the hopeful question was whether it was fatal. "Whew! You're still in...and the game is NOT yet afoot," she replied.

A bigger question might be when it's safe to blast LDB. On a Web site purporting to spell out the rules of the game, it's said that the game ends at 12:01 a.m. on December 26. But in Watson's community, Christmas is a day of rest. "A group of friends has a tradition to sing it, loudly and drunkenly at 12:01 am on Christmas morning at an annual party," she said. "It's a silly, lighthearted part of the holiday season and it is one part you know is going to be entertaining, no matter how it goes down. You can even play it with your mom."

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Rebels threaten to storm 2 Syrian Christian towns

BEIRUT Rebels have threatened to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria, saying regime forces are using them to attack nearby areas, an activist group said Saturday. It says such an attack could force thousands of Christians from their homes.

Russia's foreign minister, meanwhile, said that Damascus has consolidated its chemical weapons into one or two locations to protect them from a rebel onslaught.

Concerns over Syria's chemical arsenal have escalated as the regime of President Bashar Assad suffers losses on the battlefield. U.S. intelligence officials have said the regime may be readying chemical weapons and could be desperate enough to use them, while both Israel and the U.S. have also expressed concerns they could fall into militant hands if the regime crumbles.

Moscow's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's military, has kept close watch over Damascus's chemical arsenal. He said the Syrian government has moved them from many arsenals to just "one or two centers" to properly safeguard them.

Lavrov also told reporters on a flight from an EU summit late Friday that countries in the region had asked Russia to convey an offer of safe passage to Assad.

Syria refuses to confirm or deny if it has chemical weapons but Damascus is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas. It also possesses Scud missiles capable of delivering them.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that one rebel group has issued an ultimatum to the towns of Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh in the province of Hama.

A video released by rebels showed Rashid Abul-Fidaa, who identified himself as the Hama commander of the Ansar Brigade, calls on residents to "evict" regime forces or be attacked.

"Assad's gangs in the cities are shelling our villages with mortars and rockets destroying our homes, killing our children and displacing our people," said Abdul-Fidaa, who wore an Islamic headband and was surrounded by gunmen. "You should perform your duty by evicting Assad's gangs," he said. "Otherwise our warriors will storm the hideouts of the Assad gangs."

He accused regime forces of taking positions in the two towns in order to "incite sectarian strife" between Christians and the predominantly Sunni opposition. Assad belongs to the Alawite minority sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam.

Mahrada was the hometown of Ignatius Hazim, the former Patriarch of the Damascus-based Eastern Orthodox Church who passed away on Dec. 5 at the age of 92.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

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'Fiscal Cliff' Leaves Boehner a Wounded Speaker

John Boehner is a bloodied House speaker following the startling setback that his own fractious Republican troops dealt him in their "fiscal cliff" struggle against President Barack Obama.

There's plenty of internal grumbling about the Ohio Republican, especially among conservatives, and lots of buzzing about whether his leadership post is in jeopardy. But it's uncertain whether any other House Republican has the broad appeal to seize the job from Boehner or whether his embarrassing inability to pass his own bill preventing tax increases on everyone but millionaires is enough to topple him.

"No one will be challenging John Boehner as speaker," predicted John Feehery, a consultant and former aide to House GOP leaders. "No one else can right now do the job of bringing everyone together" and unifying House Republicans.

The morning after he yanked the tax-cutting bill from the House floor to prevent certain defeat, Boehner told reporters he wasn't worried about losing his job when the new Congress convenes Jan. 3.

"They weren't taking that out on me," he said Friday of rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, who despite pleading from Boehner and his lieutenants were shy of providing the 217 votes needed for passage. "They were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes."

Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

That "somebody" was a number of outside conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America, which openly pressured lawmakers to reject Boehner's bill. Such organizations often oppose GOP lawmakers they consider too moderate and have been headaches for Boehner in the past.

This time, his retreat on the tax measure was an unmistakable blow to the clout of the 22-year House veteran known for an amiable style, a willingness to make deals and a perpetual tan.

Congressional leaders amass power partly by their ability to command votes, especially in showdowns. His failure to do so Thursday stands to weaken his muscle with Obama and among House Republicans.

"It's very hard for him to negotiate now," said Sarah Binder, a George Washington University political scientist, adding that it's premature to judge if Boehner's hold on the speakership is in peril. "No one can trust him because it's very hard for him to produce votes."

She said the loss weakens his ability to summon support in the future because "you know the last time he came to you like this, others didn't step in line."

Boehner, 63, faces unvarnished hostility from some conservatives.

"We clearly can't have a speaker operate well outside" what Republicans want to do, said freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.

Huelskamp is one of four GOP lawmakers who lost prized committee assignments following previous clashes with party leaders. That punishment was an anomaly for Boehner, who is known more for friendly persuasion than arm-twisting.

He said Boehner's job would depend on whether the speaker is "willing to sit and listen to Republicans first, or march off" and negotiate with Obama.

Conservative Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said one of the tea party's lasting impacts would be if Boehner struggled to retain his speakership due to the fight over the fiscal cliff, which is the combination of deep tax increases and spending cuts that start in early January without a bipartisan deal to avert them.

"If there's a major defeat delivered here, it could make it tough on him," King said. "He's in a tough spot."

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Egypt's constitution seen passing in referendum

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt extended voting by four hours on Saturday in the second and decisive round of a referendum that was expected to approve the country's new Islamist-drafted constitution after weeks of protests and violence.

Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Mursi, who was elected in June, say the charter is vital to move Egypt towards democracy, nearly two years after an Arab Spring revolution overthrew authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak.

It will help restore the stability needed to fix an economy that is on the ropes, they say.

But the opposition says the document is divisive and has accused Mursi of pushing through a text that favors his Islamist allies while ignoring the rights of Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population, as well as women.

"I'm voting 'no' because Egypt can't be ruled by one faction," said Karim Nahas, 35, a stockbroker, heading to a polling station in Giza, a province included in this round of voting which covers parts of greater Cairo.

At another polling station, some voters said they were more interested in ending Egypt's long period of political instability than in the Islamist aspects of the charter.

"We have to extend our hands to Mursi to help fix the country," said Hisham Kamal, an accountant.

Queues formed at some polling stations around the country and voting was extended by four hours to 11 p.m. (2100 GMT).

Unofficial tallies are likely to emerge within hours of the close, but the referendum committee may not declare an official result for the two rounds until Monday, after hearing appeals.

CHEATING ALLEGED

As polling opened on Saturday, a coalition of Egyptian rights groups reported a number of alleged irregularities.

They said some polling stations had opened late, that Islamists urging a "yes" vote had illegally campaigned at some stations, and complained of irregularities in voter registration irregularities, including the listing of one dead person.

The first round of voting last week resulted in a 57 percent vote in favor of the constitution, according to unofficial figures.

Analysts expect another "yes" on Saturday because the vote covers rural and other areas seen as having more Islamist sympathizers. Islamists may also be able to count on many Egyptians who are simply exhausted by two years of upheaval.

Among the provisions of the new basic law are a limit of two four-year presidential terms. It says the principles of sharia law remain the main source of legislation but adds an article to explain this further. It also says Islamic authorities will be consulted on sharia - a source of concern to Christians and other non-Muslims.

If the constitution is passed, a parliamentary election will be held in about two months. If not, an assembly will have to be set up to draft a new one.

After the first round of voting, the opposition said a litany of alleged abuses meant the first stage of the referendum should be re-run.

But the committee overseeing the two-stage vote said its investigations showed no major irregularities in voting on December 15, which covered about half of Egypt's 51 million voters.

There was no indication on Saturday that the alleged abuses were any worse than those claimed during the first round.

MORE UNREST

Even if the charter is approved, the opposition say it is a recipe for trouble since it has not received broad consensus backing from the population. They say the result may go in Mursi's favor but it will not be the result of a fair vote.

"I see more unrest," said Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party and a member of the National Salvation Front, an opposition coalition formed after Mursi expanded his powers on November 22 and then pushed the constitution to a vote.

Protesters accused the president of acting like a pharaoh, and he was forced to issue a second decree two weeks ago that amended a provision putting all his decisions above legal challenge.

Said cited "serious violations" on the first day of voting, and said anger against Mursi and his Islamist allies was growing. "People are not going to accept the way they are dealing with the situation."

At least eight people were killed in protests outside the presidential palace in Cairo this month. Islamists and rivals clashed on Friday in the second biggest city of Alexandria, hurling stones at each other. Two buses were torched.

The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that represents Mursi's power base, said the vote was an opportunity for Egypt to move on.

"After the constitution is settled by the people, the wheels in all areas will turn, even if there are differences here and there," the Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, said as he went to vote in Beni Suef, south of Cairo.

"After choosing a constitution, all Egyptians will be moving in the same direction," he said.

The vote was staggered after many judges refused to supervise the ballot, meaning there were not enough to hold the referendum on a single day nationwide.

The first round was won by a slim enough margin to buttress opposition arguments that the text was divisive. Opponents who include liberals, leftists, Christians and more moderate-minded Muslims accuse Islamists of using religion to sway voters.

Islamists, who have won successive ballots since Mubarak's overthrow, albeit by narrowing margins, dismiss charges that they are exploiting religion and say the document reflects the will of a majority in the country where most people are Muslim.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan; Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Low Latency's comic take on the big stories of 2012

In late 2011, Crave welcomed Low Latency, CNET's first-ever weekly tech comic. Every Thursday morning(ish), the pair behind the comic's shenanigans, artist Blake Stevenson and CNET editor Jeff Bakalar, give their amusing take on a prominent tech happening. Here, a look back at 10 of the year's big stories through Low Latency's unique lens. Click on each panel for a larger version, and to see every one of Low Latency's panels so far, click here.

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When Facebook first announced plans to go public, Low Latency -- and many others -- immediately thought big (February 9, 2012):

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Way before the brouhaha over Instagram's terms of service, the comic considered how the app affects how we perceive photos (March 22, 2012):

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Ouch! Here's what happened when Low Latency tried on a pair of Google's Project Glass augmented-reality goggles (April 26, 2012):

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Low Latency thought Microsoft's press conference for its Surface
tablet could have taken a cue from another company (June 21, 2012):

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The Olympics drama that prime-time TV coverage can deliver got somewhat dampened by the social-media frenzy this year (August 2, 2012):

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When NASA's Curiosity rover triumphantly landed on Mars, Low Latency mused on what the vehicle would spot first (August 23, 2012):

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Did antics in the giant Apple v. Samsung courtroom battle remind anyone else of kids bickering at recess? (August 23, 2012):

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Like so many others, Low Latency got lost in the controversy over the new
iPhone 5's Apple Maps (October 4, 2012):

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Remember how some got peeved when the fourth-generation
iPad came out just seven months after the third-gen iPad hit? (October 25, 2012):

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When Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 launched, some gamers got a strange illness that prevented them from going to school or work (November 12, 2012):

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Low Latency will be back in 2013. To see every one of Low Latency's panels so far, click here.

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John Kerry tapped to be next Secretary of State

President Obama is nominating Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, CBS News has learned. An official announcement is forthcoming later today.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, has widely been seen as the frontrunner for the position since U.N. ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration. Rice came under heavy fire from Republican senators for putting forth a flawed explanation of the events in the Sept. 11 consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya in the days after the attack.

Kerry is expected to be confirmed with relative ease in the Senate. The 69-year-old senator is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is widely respected in Democratic foreign policy circles. Clinton plans to leave her post in January.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will now appoint someone to serve in Kerry's seat until a special election is held between 145 and 160 days of Kerry leaving the Senate. Soon-to-be-former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who lost his seat in November, could run on the Republican side. Democrats being discussed include Ted Kennedy Jr., Reps. Ed Markey, Michael Capuano, Steve Lynch, and even actor Ben Affleck.

CBS News' Major Garrett and Caroline Horn contributed to this report.

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Amid Protest, NRA Calls for Armed Guards in Schools

For the past week, leadership at the National Rifle Association has largely stayed away from the media, but this morning the group may weigh in on how to keep a deadly shooting massacre like last week's at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school from happening again.

The NRA will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., just before 11 a.m.

Its leadership has held off on interviews this week after refusing to appear on Sunday morning public affairs shows this past weekend.

The group came under pressure after Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six adults before shooting himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last Friday.

"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting," the group said in a press release Tuesday. "The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."

NRA News anchor Ginny Simone said Thursday that in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, membership surged "with an average of 8,000 new members a day."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the NRA is partially to blame for the tragedy.

"We're not trying to take away your right to advance the interests of gun owners, hunters, people who want to protect themselves," Bloomberg told "Nightline" anchor Cynthia McFadden in an interview Thursday. "But that's not an absolute right to encourage behavior which causes things like Connecticut. In fact, Connecticut is because of some of their actions."

Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP Photo

President Obama Launches Gun-Violence Task Force Watch Video

President Obama on Gun Control: Ready to Act? Watch Video

Joe Biden to Lead Task Force to Prevent Gun Violence Watch Video

The guns used in the attack were legally purchased and owned by the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza, who Adam Lanza shot to death before his assault on the school.

In the aftermath of the shooting, many, including Bloomberg, have called for stricter regulations on the type of weapons used in this and other instances of mass gun violence this year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she intends to introduce a bill banning assault weapons on the first day of next year's Congress -- a step the president said he supports.

President Obama announced Wednesday that Vice President Joe Biden will head a task force of leaders from across the country that will evaluate the best solutions to reduce gun violence in the United States.

Obama said he will "use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, of which Mayor Bloomberg is co-chair, released a letter to President Obama signed by more than 750 mayors calling on him to produce a plan to "make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns."

The letter asked for mandatory background checks for gun buyers, a ban on high-capacity rifles and ammunition magazines, and a designation of gun trafficking as a federal crime.

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos looked at whether strict gun control laws like those that have worked for the United Kingdom and Japan could work for the U.S. on "Good Morning America" Thursday.

Others have argued that, rather than banning guns, the government should be arming teachers and administrators in schools so that they can defend students in the event of another school shooting.

While Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a measure that would have let guns into schools on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell praised the idea.

Speaking on the NRA's daily news program Tuesday, Dave Koppel of the Independence Institute said the teachers at Sandy Hook should have had weapons.

"We'd certainly be talking about fewer innocent people and children dead," Koppel said.

While a national debate over the necessary solutions to prevent a tragedy of this nature from ever happening again wages on, Connecticut residents will have to wait "several months" before the final Connecticut State Police report on the Newtown shootings is complete.

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Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said.

The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect has dominated leadership of the Sunni Muslim majority - rumbles on.

Opposition sources said rebels had won some territory in the strategic southern town of Morek and were surrounding the Alawite town of al-Tleisia.

They were also planning to take the town of Maan, arguing that the army was present there and in al-Tleisia and was hindering their advance on nearby Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and another battleground in the conflict.

"The rockets are being fired from there, they are being fired from Maan and al-Tleisia, we have taken two checkpoints in the southern town of Morek. If we want to control it then we need to take Maan," said a rebel captain in Hama rural area, who asked not to be named.

Activists said heavy army shelling had targeted the town of Halfaya, captured by rebels two days earlier. Seven people were killed, 30 were wounded, and dozens of homes were destroyed, said activist Safi al-Hamawi.

Hama is home to dozens of Alawite and Christian villages among Sunni towns, and activists said it may be necessary to lay siege to many minority areas to seize Morek. Rebels want to capture Morek to cut off army supply lines into northern Idlib, a province on the northern border with Turkey where rebels hold swathes of territory.

From an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, Alawites have largely stood behind Assad, many out of fear of revenge attacks. Christians and some other minorities have claimed neutrality, with a few joining the rebels and a more sizeable portion of them supporting the government out of fear of hardline Islamism that has taken root in some rebel groups.

Activists in Hama said rebels were also surrounding the Christian town of al-Suqeilabiya and might enter the city to take out army positions as well as those of "shabbiha" - pro-Assad militias, the bulk of whom are usually Alawite but can also include Christians and even Sunnis.

"We have been in touch with Christian opposition activists in al-Suqeilabiya and we have told them to stay downstairs or on the lowest floor of their building as possible, and not to go outside. The rebels have promised not to hurt anyone who stays at home," said activist Mousab al-Hamdee, speaking by Skype.

He said he was optimistic that potential sectarian tensions with Christians could be resolved but that Sunni-Alawite strife may be harder to suppress.

SECTARIAN FEARS

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria's conflict was becoming more "overtly sectarian", with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

"They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries," said Karen Abuzayd, one of the U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

Deeper sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

Some activists privately voiced concerns of sectarian violence, but the rebel commander in Hama said fighters had been told "violations" would not be tolerated and argued that the move to attack the towns was purely strategic.

"If we are fired at from a Sunni village that is loyal to the regime we go in and we liberate it and clean it," he said. "So should we not do the same when it comes to an Alawite village just because there is a fear of an all-out sectarian war? We respond to the source of fire."

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

Assad's forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

Rebels said on Thursday they had negotiated to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

A resident in Damascus said dozens of families were returning to the camp but that the army had erected checkpoints. Many families were still hesitant to return.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria's northern and eastern borders with Turkey and Iraq respectively.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors from the government as well as from the army, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

The conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces on Thursday arrested an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad's Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Park Geun-Hye adds to Asian women's rise to power

SEOUL: South Korea's president-elect Park Geun-Hye is joining a long list of Asian women whose rise to power has, to varying degrees, been founded on the political legacy of a male sibling, father or husband.

Park, who will become the country's first female president in February after her historic election win on Wednesday, is the daughter of former military ruler Park Chung-Hee.

Despite carving out an independent political career since winning a national assembly seat in 1998, Park is, for many South Koreans, still largely defined in relation to her father and his authoritarian 1961-79 rule.

The same is true of a number of prominent Asian women leaders - past and present - who took office or came to prominence under a male shadow and then, in some cases, went on to create major political legacies of their own.

The list includes Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, India's Indira Gandhi, Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, Corazon Aquino of the Philippines and the current Thai prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

As with Park, their elevation to high office was often seen as a sign of female empowerment in Asia's largely male-dominated politics but the reality is "far more complex," according to former Asia Society president Vishakha N. Desai.

"It is fair to say that in many Asian societies, hierarchical by nature, a powerful family connection can actually trump the gender constraints," Desai wrote in an article for the society's website.

Yingluck, aged 45 and elected in 2011 as the first Thai female premier and the youngest in more than six decades, is seen by critics as a puppet for her brother, fugitive ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who once described her as his "clone".

Aquino, a self-proclaimed "plain housewife," emerged as a political force after the assassination in 1983 of her husband and lawmaker Benigno Aquino Jr. and became the nation's first female president three years later.

Park stands out in being a seasoned and respected politician and Desai noted that, in her case, her father's split image as economic saviour and ruthless dictator had been both a boon and a burden.

Jung Mi-Ae, a professor at Kookmin University, also pointed out that after Park Chung-Hee's assassination in 1979, Park was left to build her own political brand alone.

Park's mother was murdered five years before her father, and she has never married or had children.

"There's still a question mark over how Park will fare as a leader, but she's not some figurehead who came to power solely because of her father, either," Jung told AFP.

Park Geun-Hye enjoys solid support among older conservative Koreans who admired her father, but exit polls from Wednesday's ballot suggest she was also favoured by more than 30 per cent of voters in their 20s or 30s.

"The fact that she received considerable support from young voters with little memory of, or love for, the late Park shows that she has established a certain political brand of her own," Jung said.

Park's election marks a historic breakthrough for a traditionally Confucian country whose political and commercial fields are dominated by men, in both the private and public sectors.

Women occupy a mere 15 per cent of seats in parliament and only 12 per cent of managerial positions at 1,500 major firms.

They also earn nearly 40 per cent less than men - the biggest pay gap among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development group of nations.

Whether a female president will herald any significant gender power shift remains to be seen and neither Park nor her ruling conservative party has a particularly good record on women's rights.

Park made a strong play for women's votes in her campaign, a tactic that some found shallow and opportunistic.

Kim Eun-Ju, executive director of the Center for Korean Women and Politics, called Park a female political leader "only in biological terms," saying she had shown little interest in promoting women's rights in her 15 years in politics.

"Here she follows in the footsteps of many of her Asian predecessors who were not necessarily supportive of women's rights or equality, especially in their first terms," said Desai.

- AFP/il

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Best of the best from this year in Crave

What's your favorite Crave story from the last year?

(Credit:
Image by Christopher MacManus)

It's been an eventful year here at Crave, what with the discovery of Dungeons & Dragons dice from the Ptolemaic Period; the strange tail of the robotic butt; a ship that flips over on purpose, and cow lady parts that text farmers when it's time for a booty call.

Our retrospective gallery below gives you just a small sense of the mind-bending tales we encountered in our 2012 travels. Among the stories that grabbed your attention most (as judged by traffic and reader comments), we've got jaunts to remote geeky destinations in New Mexico, a trip aboard a giant Lego spaceship, and a look at a zombie-proof safe house.

Moving forward, the future of Crave looks brighter than ever, and the Crave team's excited to take on more challenges in the coming year and beyond. Aside from our daily features, be sure to check out our exclusive weekly enjoyments: Crave's resurrected video podcast starring Stephen Beacham; our brilliant comic Low Latency by Blake Stevenson and Jeff Bakalar, and our awesome weekly Crave product giveaways.

A happy and healthy holidays to all our readers who ride the Crave train, and as always, we welcome your feedback at crave at cnet dot com.

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New York Stock Exchange to be sold

NEW YORK The New York Stock Exchange (NYX) is being sold to a rival exchange for about $8 billion, ending more than two centuries of independence for the iconic Big Board.

The buyer, IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), an upstart exchange based in Atlanta, made clear Thursday that little would change for the iconic trading floor in Manhattan's financial district if regulators approve the deal.

There will be dual headquarters in New York and Atlanta and ICE will open an office in Manhattan. NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer will become president of the combined company and CEO of NYSE Group.

ICE said that the tie-up will create a top exchange operator covering a diverse lineup of markets and boosting efficiency.

"We believe the combined company will be better positioned to compete and serve customers across a broad range of asset classes by uniting our global brands, expertise and infrastructure," said IntercontinentalExchange Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher. "With a track record of growth and returns, clearing and M&A integration, we are well positioned to transform our combined companies into a premier global exchange operator that remains a leader in market evolution."

Sprecher will keep his positions. Four members of the NYSE board will be added to IntercontinentalExchange's board, expanding it to 15 members.

NYSE Euronext Inc. shareholders can chose to receive either $33.12 in cash, .2581 IntercontinentalExchange Inc. shares, or a combination of $11.27 in cash plus .1703 shares of stock.

IntercontinentalExchange plans to fund the cash portion of the acquisition with a combination of cash and existing debt. It added that the addition of NYSE will help it cut costs and should boost its earnings by more than 15 percent in the first year after the deal closes.

The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies, but still needs the approvals by regulators and the shareholders of both companies. It's expected to close in the second half of next year.

Exchanges have repeatedly attempted to merge recently as competition intensifies and commissions decline.

Last year, IntercontinentalExchange and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. made a failed $11 billion bid to buy NYSE Euronext.

Earlier this year, European regulators blocked Deutsche Boerse AG from buying NYSE Euronext.

Shares of NYSE jumped 40 percent in premarket trading to $33.75 and are headed for a new high for the year. Shares if ICE rose 5 percent, to $134.98.

Shares of both companies had been halted in premarket trading earlier Thursday.

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Schools Threatened Nationwide After Sandy Hook

Schools across the country, already on edge following last week's massacre of 20 students and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school have been further unnerved following a series of copycat threats, sometimes yielding arrests and caches of deadly weapons.

From California to Connecticut, police in the past five days have arrested more than a dozen individuals in Indiana, South Carolina, Maryland and elsewhere who were plotting or threatening to attack schools.

"After high-profile incidents like the shootings at Columbine and Sandy Hook, threats go off the wall. Some of those threats turn out to be unfounded, but sometimes those incidents propel people planning legitimate threats," Ken Trump, a national school safety consultant, told ABCNews.com.

CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERACTIVE MAP AND TIMELINE OF THE SANDY HOOK SHOOTING.

Many of these incidents turned out to be little more than young people acting out or seeking attention, but in some cases police found significant stockpiles of firearms and ammunition.

Just a few hours after the world learned what happened inside the halls at the Sandy Hook elementary school, police arrested a 60-year-old Indiana man who had allegedly threatened to "kill as many people as he could before police stopped him," according to the police report, at an elementary school in Cedar Lake, Ind.

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Indiana School Shooting Threat: Parents Not Notified Watch Video

Tennessee Teen Arrested Over School Shooting Threat Watch Video

Maryland Student Hospitalized for Alleged Threat Watch Video

When Von Meyer was arrested, just 1,000 feet from Jane Ball Elementary School, police confiscated from his home $100,000 worth of guns and ammunition including 47 weapons.

The school was placed on lockdown.

Meyer's case was taken by the Lake County public defender's office, but an attorney has not yet been assigned. He has been charged with seven crimes, including felonious intimidation, and an automatic "not guilty" plea was made on his behalf at a hearing on Tuesday.

Many of the suspects arrested in the wake of the Connecticut shooting were themselves school students – teenagers or young adults.

On Wednesday, in Laurel, Md., an unidentified student at Laurel High School was taken to the hospital and placed under psychiatric evaluation after school security officials found maps of the school and lists of students they believed he planned to kill.

Authorities called the evidence a "credible threat." The student, however, was not arrested or charged with a crime.

In Columbia, Tenn., police arrested Shawn Lenz, 19, who on Saturday posted to Facebook that he felt like "goin on a rampage, kinda like the school shooting were that one guy killed some teachers and a bunch of students."

He later told police that "it was stupid" to have written what he did. Lenz was arraigned Tuesday on terrorism and harassment charges and was appointed a public defender. He did not enter a plea.

A Tampa, Fla., school was put on lockdown two days in a row, Tuesday and Wednesday, after students found bullets on a school bus. Police there have made no arrests.

Despite the rash of recent threats, anecdotal data compiled by Trump's National School Safety and Security Services and analyzed by Scripps Howard found that there were approximately 120 known but thwarted plots against schools between 2000 and 2010. The list is not comprehensive and many incidents likely went unreported.

Fifty-five of those known threats -- all thwarted -- involved guns and 22 of them involved explosive devices, according to the Scripps Howard report.

"We're getting better at preventing these situations," Trump told ABC News.com.

But in that same time there were about 50 lethal school shootings, including the killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech.

"While shootings statistically may be rare, they impact a community and these kids forever," said Trump.

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Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels thrust into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday, activists said, pursuing a string of territorial gains to help cut army supply lines and cement a foothold in the capital Damascus to the south.

They have made a series of advances across the country, seizing several military installations and more heavy weaponry, hardening the threat to President Bashar al-Assad's power base in Damascus 21 months into an uprising against his rule.

Rebels said a day earlier they had captured at least six towns in Hama province. On Thursday heavy fighting erupted in Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and another battleground.

The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels were trying to take checkpoints in Morek, one of which they had already seized, and described the town as a critical position for the Syrian army.

"The town of Morek lies on the Damascus-Aleppo road ... it has eight checkpoints and two security and military headquarters. If the rebels were able to control the town they would completely sever the supply lines between Hama and Damascus to Idlib province," the group said in an email.

Idlib is in the rebel-dominated north bordering on Turkey.

The British-based Observatory has a network of activists across the country. Activist reports are difficult to verify, as the government restricts media access into Syria.

Fighting in Hama could aggravate Syria's sectarian strife as it is home to many rural minority communities of Alawites and Christians. Minorities, and particularly the Alawite sect to which Assad himself belongs, have largely backed the president. Syria's Sunni Muslim majority has been the engine of the revolt.

"Rebels are trying to take Mohardeh and al-Suqaylabiya, which are strongholds of the regime and are strategic. The residents are Christian and the neighboring towns are Alawite. The rebels worry security forces may be arming people there," said activist Safi al-Hamawi, speaking on Skype.

He said the opposition feared skirmishes that had previously been largely Sunni-Alawite could spread into a broader sectarian conflict.

"I think it is still unlikely, because the residents have tried to maintain neutrality, but if the battle became a sectarian clash, it could be a catastrophe. Christians and Muslims could suddenly find themselves enemies."

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria's conflict was becoming more "overtly sectarian", with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

"They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries," said Karen Abuzayd, one of U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

The deepened sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

FIGHTS FOR DAMASCUS CAMP

Assad's forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with bouts of heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

But rebels said on Thursday they were negotiating to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

Despite warnings of continued violence, a video released by activists on Thursday showed dozens of people returning to Yarmouk. Most of the people in the footage were men, suggesting entire families may not be venturing back yet.

"There are still negotiations going on between the Palestinians and the rebels. The rebels want control of the checkpoints to be sure they can keep supply routes open to central Damascus," said a rebel who asked not to be named.

"Palestinians want their fighters to run the checkpoints so the army will stop attacking and people can go home. But we are worried there are government collaborators among them."

The fighter said rebels were looking to ensure their Palestinian allies could keep open access for rebels in Yarmouk, which they have described as a gateway to central Damascus.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

"This is the end of you, Bashar you dog," one of the fighters said. The remains of two army trucks, which the rebels said had been blown up, stood nearby on a single track dirt road crossing a flat brown plain between snow-capped mountains.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria's northern and eastern borders with Turkey and Iraq respectively.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors not only from the army but from the government as well, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

But the conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces arrested on Thursday an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad's Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government to solve a crisis that has killed more than 40,000 Syrians.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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S'poreans are the least positive: poll

SINGAPORE: A Gallup poll said Singaporeans are the least positive, after the same poll found Singaporeans to be the world's most emotionless people.

Last year, international pollster Gallup measured positive emotions of 1000 people in 148 countries and areas using five questions.

They asked people questions such as whether they experienced a lot of enjoyment the day before the survey, whether they felt respected, well-rested, laughed and smiled a lot, and did or learned something interesting.

Singapore topped the list of countries where the fewest adults experienced positive emotions.

The poll found Singaporeans to be less positive than those in Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Singaporeans rank fifth in the world in terms of GDP per capita.

Latin Americans are the most positive people in the world, with residents in Panama and Paraguay among the most likely to report experiencing positive emotions.

Residents of Panama rank 90th in the world with respect to GDP per capita.

Gallup says these data may surprise analysts and leaders who solely focus on traditional economic indicators.

- CNA/xq

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Get a free 1-year membership to ShopRunner

Talk about good timing!

From now through Dec. 31, you can get a free 1-year membership to ShopRunner -- the service that affords, among other things, free 2-day shipping from dozens of big-name stores. (Use offer code runner when filling out the registration form.) That may come in awfully handy for you last-minute gift shoppers.

Before I go any further, and to help prevent another SiriusXM Internet Radio-style debacle, I must point out that this offer is ostensibly for American Express Platinum Card members only. Consequently, it could disappear at any time, and it's even possible that ShopRunner will revoke the freebie for anyone who turns out not to have an Amex.

That said, I signed up without any problem, and it appears my membership is valid -- at least for the time being. Again, this offer is technically not for you, but for the moment it's definitely available to you (if you're a new ShopRunner member, that is). If something changes, well, please think twice before you blame me, American Express, or ShopRunner. (But especially me.)

For those unfamiliar with it, ShopRunner upgrades you to free 2-day shipping at stores ranging from American Eagle to MacMall to Newegg to Toys R Us. And there's no minimum purchase, either, so you can get that fast, free shipping even if you spend only a couple bucks.

ShopRunner also entitles you to free return shipping, a huge plus if you've ordered something big and heavy (like, say, a TV or speaker system) and decided you don't like it. (Restocking fees may apply, though, so the return itself may not be "free.").

Finally, the service offers various members-only deals, like "10 percent off your order" here and "save $15 on $75 or more" there. These aren't exactly earth-shattering, though, nor are they even the best discounts you can find. For example, ShopRunner offers 20 percent off your order at Fathead, but a little Googling reveals a coupon code for 25 percent off -- one anybody can claim.

Still, the big draw here is the shipping upgrades. And would you believe a year of ShopRunner normally costs $79? It would be a cold day in Bermuda before I'd pay that much for this service. But free? Yeah, I'll take it for free.

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State Dept. official resigns following Benghazi report

Eric Boswell, the head of diplomatic security at the State Department, has resigned, CBS News confirmed, following the release of a harsh report detailing State Department missteps that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Boswell's resignation from his post as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security is effective immediately. Sources say he will stay on as director of the Office of Foreign Missions for a short, indefinite time.

The report, released today by an independent board led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, did not single out any individuals for culpability. It did, however, blame failures within two bureaus at the State Department for the missteps that eventually lead to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three additional American personnel in Libya. The two bureaus cited -- Near Eastern Affairs and Diplomatic Security -- were criticized for a security posture that was "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack," and for failing to coordinate with other agencies to better secure the consulate.

Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees were briefed this morning on the report. "I think the conclusion was very stark, very candid, very honest," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after the briefing. "And [the report] told us the following: Mistakes were made, lives were lost, lessons need to be learned."

Durbin said the review board's conclusions were: "Our intelligence fell short, our security personnel were inexperienced and unprepared, our security systems failed, our host nation was lacking in protection for our own people, and senior State Department officials unfortunately showed a lack of leadership and management ability."

He added, "That is a challenge to all of us, it is a challenge for us to assess this in an honest fashion and to change policy to put resources in place that will make a difference."

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said after the briefing that there were "no doubt a numbers of problems" that led to the Sept. 11 attack.

"There is no question there were people within the State Department that were remiss and did not execute in an appropriate way," Corker told reporters. "There are also some cultural issues."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to testify before Congress on Thursday in two hearings reviewing the Benghazi attack. However, after falling ill and suffering from a concussion, she's no longer scheduled to appear at the hearings. Clinton sent a letter to Congress, indicating she accepts the Benghazi report's 29 recommendations for strengthening security at diplomatic posts and recognizes the the need to address the "systemic challenges" at the State Department.

Corker said it's "imperative" Clinton testify before a new secretary of state is confirmed in President Obama's second term. "I think that is very important to her, I think it is very important for our country, and I think it is very important to really understand the inner workings of the State Department itself," he said.

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Newtown Parents Committed to Staying Put

The people of Newtown, Conn., and the surrounding towns are filled with fear and doubt in light of the rampage that turned their worlds upside down. Despite the uncertainty, however, there is one thing parents are adamant about: They're not going anywhere.

"I know it's an awful thing, but this town and the towns surrounding it, it's a big community where people come together and people know each other," resident Chris Roman said. "Growing up here, I would definitely stay."

He paused a moment, before saying with great resolve, "I'm definitely going to stay. One tragedy is not going to push us away."

Roman and his wife, Ellen Roman, are the parents of 16-month-old Stella and they have held her even closer since the Adam Lanza killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School before turning the gun on himself. He had killed his mother at her home earlier that morning.

"I don't think I've kissed her as much as I have in the past three days as I have the entire time she's been alive," Ellen Roman, 33, said. "I constantly am picking her up and kissing her and hugging her."

The new mom is still shaken by the shooting, gasping to choke back tears as she recalled hearing the news.

Newtown, Connecticut Gets Support From Across America Watch Video

Sandy Hook Shooting: What Was Wrong with Adam Lanza? Watch Video

Gun Control Debate Resurfaces After Sandy Hook Shooting Watch Video

"Before I even knew that anyone had died, before I even knew that anyone had been shot, I was bawling; just to know that gunfire had happened anywhere near a school in Newtown affected me," she said through tears. "This town is so small and it's such a tight community and everyone knows everyone so it's just, it just doesn't happen here. It just doesn't happen in this town."

Chris Roman, 36, said there's "a big hole to fill that will never be filled" in the community, and he hopes for change so that the only tricky conversation he'll have to have with his young daughter in the future is "the birds and the bees talk."

"It's something that we all have to deal with and work together and try to stop it from happening so I wouldn't have to explain it to her," he said of school shootings.

Other parents echoed the Romans' sentiments.

Maureen Pendergast is the mother of 11-month-old James and her 8-year-old nephew is a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"It's absolutely terrible," Pendergast said. "My nephew, Brian, was in the school when it did happen and James goes to day care right down the street here, so it's hard to say [Lanza] didn't stop into the day care."

She said Brian is "as OK as he can be" and that his parents are planning on putting him in counseling. Pendergast knows that healing will take time, but she plans on sticking it out.

"I want to stay," she said. "Overall, it's a very cute and quiet town. My husband has lived here his entire life and I like it. It's a tough community."

Others are equally committed, including Ana Deaguiar of nearby Danbury.

"I'm not going anywhere," Deaguiar, mother of 16-month-old Giovanni, said. "I've spent 11 years in Danbury and I don't think about moving at all. I want him to grow up here and not let this be the only memory there is of this state and this region."

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South Korea president-elect Park says victory is people's hope for economic recovery

In the aftermath of Friday's Newtown school shooting, we've heard tales mostly horrifying and occasionally heroic, from surviving witnesses and mourning citizens alike, but this one lies somewhere in between, all the more unshakeable. One six-year-old Sandy Hook student played dead in her first-grade classroom, her family pastor said late Sunday, with the kind of quick thinking that ended up saving her life but now leaves her with the unshakeable memories of watching all her classmates being shot and killed. ...

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Football: Singapore 3 Thailand 1

SINGAPORE - Singapore took a firm grip on the AFF Suzuki Cup final Wednesday with a 3-1 win over Thailand in the first leg at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Goals from Mustafic Fahruddin, Khairul Amri and Baihakki Khaizan gave the Lions a deserved win which will raise hopes of a record fourth Southeast Asian title ahead of Saturday's second leg in Bangkok.

Thailand were briefly on level terms in the second half through Adul Lahso but the goal-scorer's departure on a stretcher later meant they finished with 10 men, as coach Winfried Schafer had already made all his substitutions.

In a carnival atmosphere, Singapore were quickly into their stride with some slick interchanges on the artificial surface, and Bosnian-born striker Aleksandar Duric, 42, headed over as early as the third minute.

Duric, who will retire after the tournament, proved himself a handful again just minutes later when he was hauled down in the box by Piyaphon Buntao, with Japanese referee Masaaki Toma pointing straight to the spot.

Fahruddin survived some nervy moments after his first, successful spot-kick was ruled out for encroachment, and he planted the second effort high and right to spark jubilation in the packed 7,500-capacity stadium.

Singapore were dominant and Amri, the match-winning hero when the two sides met in the 2007 final, floated a showboating effort from distance which tested Thai goalkeeper Kawin Thamasatchanan.

Teerasil Dangda's shot from a tight angle was as close as Thailand came in the first half but the classy forward brought his team roaring back into it on 59 minutes when his cut-back was swept in off the post by Adul.

However, parity lasted just two minutes as Duric found Amri in the box from the left and the striker span away from his marker, turned and buried his shot right-footed at the near post.

Singapore goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud was at full stretch when he palmed away a stinging free-kick by Thailand's Jakkapan Ponsai, and Duric should have done better with a header from a set-piece as the chances flowed.

With 10 minutes to go, Thailand were dealt a blow when goal-scorer Adul was stretchered off injured, reducing them to 10 men.

And Khaizan made them pay when he bundled in a corner with just seconds left to make Singapore favourites to seal victory in the second leg.

- AFP/ir

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Apple releases iOS 6.0.2 to fix Wi-Fi issue

Apple on Tuesday released another minor update to
iOS 6 that promises to fix a Wi-Fi issue affecting some devices.

The software, which went this morning, says simply that it "fixes a bug that could impact Wi-Fi." No additional features or security fixes are a part of the update, according to the company's release notes.

The update comes just a day after Apple gave developers a fourth beta of iOS 6.1. That software, which is expected by the end of the year, or shortly thereafter, brings new boarding pass behavior in Apple's Passbook software, tweaks to
Safari, reworked music playback controls from the lock screen, ticket purchases through Fandango in Siri, and a back-end change in Apple's mapping software.

Apple's last update to iOS 6 was iOS 6.0.1 on November 1. That software fixed a handful of bugs, including one that kept
iPhone 5 users from installing over-the-air software updates. It also fixed an issue with lines appearing on the software keyboard, and a bug that deleted meetings from calendars when accepting an invitation.

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First of 8 funerals at Newtown church begins

NEWTOWN, Conn. Family members have gathered for the first of eight funerals for school shooting victims to be held at a Catholic church in Newtown, Conn.

A motorcade of dozens of vehicles led by police motorcycles accompanied the family of 6-year-old James Mattioli to St. Rose of Lima on Tuesday. His funeral comes a day after two other 6-year-old boys were laid in the first of a long, almost unbearable procession of funerals.

32 Photos

Victims of Conn. school shooting

At least one other funeral was planned - for 6-year-old Jessica Rekos - as well as several wakes, including one for teacher Victoria Soto, who has been praised as a hero for sacrificing herself to save several students in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

Margarita Rosniak and her 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte, watched from the sidewalk as people entered the church for Mattioli's funeral. They had traveled from California for a Christmas vacation in New York and came to Newtown to join the residents in their grief.

Play Video

Holiday week is full of funerals for Newtown, Conn.

Clutching her daughter close, Margarita Rosniak spoke of sympathizing with the parents. Her daughter says she plans to do a school project on the massacre. She asks, "What was the point of it? They're just little kids."

Gunman Adam Lanza shot his mother Friday, then headed to Sandy Hook Elementary where he killed 20 children and six adults, and himself.

Security remained high, and the small, affluent Connecticut community was still on edge as the rest of the country prepared for the Christmas holidays.

"There's going to be no joy in school," said 17-year-old P.J. Hickey. "It really doesn't feel like Christmas anymore." But he added, "This is where I feel the most at home. I feel safer here than anywhere else in the world."

In the middle of town, an ever-growing memorial has become a pilgrimage site for strangers who want to pay their respect.

Play Video

Funerals begin for Conn. shooting victims

One man told CBS Station WCBS why he visited: "Because I'm a dad with four beautiful daughters, when I found out it broke my heart. It's hard to sleep, I don't know how to feel."

In a sign of investors distancing themselves from gun makers, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced it would sell its stake in major arms manufacturer Freedom Group. It said in a statement, "It is apparent that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level."

The mystery of why a smart but severely withdrawn 20-year-old, Adam Lanza, shot his mother to death in bed before rampaging through Sandy Hook Elementary, killing 20 children ages 6 and 7, was as deep as ever.

Sandy Hook Elementary will remain closed indefinitely.

Investigators say Lanza had no ties to the school he attacked, and they have found no letters or diaries that could explain why he targeted it. He forced into the school shortly after its front door locked as part of a new security measure. He wore all black and is believed to have used a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, a civilian version of the military's M-16. Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the U.S. under the 1994 assault weapons ban, but the law expired in 2004.

Debora Seifert, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said both Lanza and his mother fired at shooting ranges and visited ranges together.

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Political reaction to Newtown, CT tragedy

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Gun sales on the rise after Conn. shooting

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CBS News poll: Strong support for tougher gun laws

At the White House on Monday, spokesman Jay Carney said curbing gun violence is a complex problem that will require a "comprehensive solution." He did not mention specific proposals to follow up on President Barack Obama's call for "meaningful action."

New York City's billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, perhaps the most outspoken advocate for gun control in U.S. politics, again pressed Obama and Congress to toughen gun laws and tighten enforcement.

"If this doesn't do it," he asked, "what is going to?"

At least one senator, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, said Monday that the attack has led him to rethink his opposition to the ban on assault weapons. And West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is an avid hunter and lifelong member of the powerful National Rifle Association, said it's time to move beyond the political rhetoric and begin an honest discussion about reasonable restrictions on guns.

In Newtown on Monday, minds were on mourning.

Two funeral homes filled for Jack Pinto and the youngest victim, Noah Pozner, who turned 6 just two weeks ago..

A rabbi presided at Noah's service, and in keeping with Jewish tradition, the boy was laid to rest in a simple brown wooden casket with a Star of David on it.

"I will miss your perpetual smile, the twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that would be the envy of any lady in this room," Noah's mother, Veronique Pozner, said at the service, according to remarks the family provided to The Associated Press. Both services were closed to the news media.

Noah's twin, Arielle, who was assigned to a different classroom, survived the killing frenzy.

At 6-year-old Jack Pinto's Christian service, hymns rang out from inside the funeral home, where the boy lay in an open casket.

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Assault Weapons Ban: What Was It and Did It Work?

Editor's Note: This post is part of a larger series by ABC News examining the complex legal, political and social issues in the gun control debate. The series is part of ABC's special coverage of the search for solutions in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

When the 113th Congress is sworn in in January, expect the debate over gun control to have renewed urgency. Several prominent lawmakers have already come forth to call for a re-examination and re-working of our nation's gun laws in the wake of Friday's mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

While new legislation likely won't be introduced until after Jan. 3, statements from top Senators such as Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) suggest that new proposals could be similar to the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that was in in place from 1994 to 2004.

"I can tell you that he is going to have a bill to lead on because as a first-day bill I'm going to introduce in the Senate and the same bill will be introduced in the House -- a bill to ban assault weapons," Feinstein said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

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"High-capacity magazines -- devices that dramatically boost a weapon's firing power -- were prohibited from 1994 until 2004, when the federal assault weapons ban was in place... It's time to end the bloodshed and restore common sense to our gun laws -- beginning with a permanent ban on high-capacity gun magazines," Lautenberg wrote in an op-ed on the Huffington Post that he penned with Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed in the Long Island Railroad shooting of 1993.

What Did the Assault Weapons Ban Do?

Passed by Congress on Sept. 13, 1994, and signed by Bill Clinton later that day, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban prohibited the manufacturing of 18 specific models of semiautomatic weapons, along with the manufacturing of high-capacity ammunition magazines that could carry more than 10 rounds. The ban had a provision that allowed it to expire in September 2004.

Several attempts were made in Congress to re-up the ban, the most recent in June 2008, according to the Library of Congress, but none of them have been successful. Republicans generally opposed it; high-profile Democrats typically shied away from the issue.

In the second presidential debate of the 2012 campaign, President Obama said he was interested in re-instituting the ban.

"Weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. And so what I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally," the president said. "Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced."

Could a Ban Have Prevented the Connecticut Shootings?

It's impossible to say for sure, but it seems unlikely that if the law were still in place, as it was written, it could have done much to prevent Friday's tragedy. Lanza's primary weapon, the Bushmaster .223 rifle, is a type of AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, certain models of which were prohibited from being sold under the ban, but the Bushmaster model used by Lanza was not on that list.

Additionally, the language in the law was loose enough that a gun enthusiast who was interested in adding a type of AR-15 to their collection could have purchased one legally.

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Egypt prosecutor's resignation angers Brotherhood

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor resigned under pressure from his opponents in the judiciary, dealing a blow to President Mohamed Mursi and drawing an angry response on Tuesday from the Islamist leader's supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Seeking to keep pressure on Mursi, the main opposition coalition will hold new protests against an Islamist-backed draft constitution that has divided Egypt but which looks set to be approved in the second round of a referendum on Saturday.

Mursi obtained a 57 percent "yes" vote for the constitution in a first round of the referendum last weekend, state media said, less than he had hoped for.

The opposition, which says the law is too Islamist, will be emboldened by the result but is unlikely to win the second round, to be held in districts seen as even more sympathetic towards Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Protesters broke out into cheers when the public prosecutor appointed by Mursi last month announced his resignation late on Monday.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi to power in elections in June, said the enforced resignation of public prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim was a "crime".

The Supreme Judiciary Council, which governs the country's judicial system, should refuse to accept the prosecutor's resignation, the Brotherhood said.

Further signs of opposition to Mursi emerged when a judges' club urged its members not to supervise Saturday's vote. But the call is not binding and balloting is expected to go ahead.

If the constitution passes next weekend, national elections can take place early next year, something many hope will help end the turmoil that has gripped Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.

The National Salvation Front opposition coalition said there were widespread voting violations in the first round and called for protests across Egypt on Tuesday to "bring down the invalid draft constitution".

The Ministry of Justice said it was appointing a group of judges to investigate complaints of voting irregularities around the country.

DEMONSTRATIONS

In Cairo, the Front planned to hold demonstrations at Tahrir Square, cradle of the revolution that toppled Mubarak, and outside Mursi's presidential palace, still ringed with tanks after earlier protests.

"Down with the constitution of the Brotherhood," the Front said in a statement. "Down with the constitution of tyranny."

A protester at the presidential palace, Mohamed Adel, 30, said: "I have been camping here for weeks and will continue to do so until the constitution that divided the nation, and for which people died, gets scrapped."

The build-up to the first round of voting saw clashes between supporters and opponents of Mursi in which eight people died. Recent demonstrations in Cairo have been more peaceful, although rival factions clashed on Friday in Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city.

On Monday evening, more than 1,300 members of the General Prosecution staff gathered outside the public prosecutor's office, demanding Ibrahim leave his post.

Hours later, Ibrahim announced he had resigned and the crowd cheered, "God is Great! Long live justice!" and "Long live the independence of the judiciary!" witnesses said.

The closeness of the first-round referendum vote and low turnout give Mursi scant comfort as he seeks to assemble support for difficult economic reforms.

OPPOSITION BOOST

"This percentage ... will strengthen the hand of the National Salvation Front and the leaders of this Front have declared they are going to continue this fight to discredit the constitution," said Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University.

Mursi is likely to become more unpopular with the introduction of planned austerity measures, polarizing society further, Sayyid told Reuters.

To tackle the budget deficit, the government needs to impose tax rises and cut back fuel subsidies. Uncertainty surrounding economic reform plans has already forced the postponement of a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. The Egyptian pound has fallen to eight-year lows against the dollar.

Mursi and his backers say the constitution is needed to move Egypt's democratic transition forward. Opponents say the document is too Islamist and ignores the rights of women and of minorities, including Christians who make up 10 percent of the population.

Demonstrations erupted when Mursi awarded himself extra powers on November 22 and then fast-tracked the constitution through an assembly dominated by his Islamist allies and boycotted by many liberals.

The referendum has had to be held over two days because many of the judges needed to oversee polling staged a boycott in protest. In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of those voting.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan and Edmund Blair; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Police call for death penalty after Delhi bus rape

NEW DELHI: New Delhi's police chief on Tuesday demanded the death penalty for rapists amid growing outrage over the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a school bus in the city.

The physiotherapy student and her male companion were brutally beaten and thrown off the vehicle after the attack, which has provoked street protests and widespread anger over the treatment of women in India.

"We will seek the most severe punishment of life imprisonment for the culprits and we will send a proposal to the government for the death sentence for rapists," New Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar told reporters.

Rape currently carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, while the death penalty is restricted to rare cases of murder and "waging war against the country".

Four of the six alleged attackers, including the bus driver, have been arrested and a hunt has been launched for two other suspects involved in the Sunday evening assault.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday vowed to "act tough" to crack down on rape and said the suspects must face a fast-track trial.

Kumar said the suspects took the off-duty school bus for a "joy-ride" and offered to take the student and her companion, who had just watched a movie, home for a regular fare.

"They began molesting the girl and her companion bravely fought back trying to save her but these men attacked him with an iron rod," he said. "The victim was dragged to the rear of the bus and brutally beaten and raped."

The female victim was in intensive care while her companion, a 28-year-old software engineer, was also being treated in hospital for multiple injuries.

Protesters blocked traffic at the intersection in the south of the city where the couple boarded the bus, while others demonstrated outside a nearby police station.

"No more rapes or harassment," shouted protesters.

Molestation of women is a serious problem in many Indian cities, with rights campaigners complaining that the commonly-used term "eve-teasing" is a dangerous euphemism that hides a culture of abusive sexual behaviour.

The case triggered an emergency debate in parliament and made the front-pages of all newspapers, with the Mail Today headline reading "Savagery shames city".

Some lawmakers including Sushma Swaraj, leader of the main opposition BJP party, also called for rapists to be hanged.

Rape cases in India more than doubled between 1990 and 2008, according to official data.

- AFP/jc

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