NASA marks 10th anniversary of Columbia disaster



Evelyn Husband-Thompson, widow of Columbia Commander Rick Husband, remembers the fallen crew and the devastating impact of the 2003 disaster in a ceremony Friday at the Space Mirror Memorial honoring fallen astronauts.



(Credit:
William Harwood/CBS News)


In an emotional memorial service, the widow of the shuttle Columbia's commander recalled their last meeting the day before launch and the devastation the families felt when they learned their loved ones had perished during re-entry 10 years ago Friday.


Speaking in front of the Space Mirror Memorial to fallen astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex, Evelyn Husband-Thompson shared memories of Columbia commander Rick Husband and his six crewmates, saying how proud the families were of the crew's accomplishments during their 16-day science mission.


The night before landing, the families "shared a meal together at a local restaurant," she said. "I went to bed with the NASA (television) channel left on quietly in the background and I fell asleep, thanking God for the great mission, and I was so excited for the reunion with my husband."


Instead, the families listened in disbelief at the shuttle's 3-mile-long runway the next morning as it became clear Columbia had suffered a catastrophic failure during re-entry.


"February 1, 2003, became a traumatic, shocking day," Husband-Thompson said. "Anticipating a joyful homecoming of our crew, we were jolted in the viewing area into a nightmarish stroll of fear, uncertainty, and horror that led to a crushing announcement that the crew had perished during re-entry.


"Words of sorrow, efforts to comfort, even fathoming the magnitude of loss was overwhelming that day. Looks of disbelief from one family member to another brought little comfort. The shock was so intense that even tears were not freely able to fall. They would come in the weeks, months, and years to follow, in waves and in buckets."


And in the months and years that followed, she said, "the human spirit, created by God, began to minister to my family."


"Friends and family cared for us, and countless thousands of others prayed for us. To all of you, I want to say thank you.... God bless the families of STS-107. May our broken hearts continue to heal and may beauty continue to replace the ashes. God bless you."


In an interview before the ceremony, Husband-Thompson said she remains a strong supporter of NASA and the manned space program.


"NASA's an amazing group of folks and they have been hugely supportive of us," she said. "It was Rick's dream since he was 4 years old, and obviously what happened was devastating. But it doesn't stop the cause of space exploration. I totally support it. It's contributed so much to our world."


Several hundred space managers, engineers, and acquaintances gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the Columbia disaster, the 27th anniversary of Challenger's loss on Jan. 28, 1986, and the 46th anniversary of a launch pad fire on Jan. 27, 1967, that killed three Apollo astronauts.



Husband-Thompson chats with friends before a memorial service marking the 10th anniversary of the Columbia disaster.



(Credit:
William Harwood/CBS News)


Their names are carved in the Space Mirror Memorial, along with others who lost their lives in the pursuit of spaceflight.


Columbia was destroyed during re-entry when hot gas penetrated the shuttle's left wing through a hole in a leading edge heat shield panel. The hole was caused by the impact of foam insulation that fell from the ship's external tank during launch 16 days earlier.


As a postaccident investigation would show, NASA had a long history of problems with "foam shedding," but continued to launch shuttles without a thorough understanding of the implications.


"In looking back, there was no malicious intent by any engineer or manager in the decisions they made that led to the loss of Columbia and her crew," said Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana, a veteran shuttle commander. "They were doing their very best to be successful. But we are human and oftentimes, when lacking sufficient data, we make poor decisions. And that results in events like Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia."


Cabana said NASA had learned from its mistakes "and we are going on to even greater accomplishments."


"But we must never forget the hard lessons that we learned in the past," he told the crowd. "It's important that we pause to remember and reflect. We must do our very best to prevent something like that from ever happening again. Too much is at stake."


William Gerstenmaier, director of manned space operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, echoed Cabana's sentiments, saying the Columbia accident "wasn't caused by a single event or a single person, but by a series of technical and cultural missteps stemming all the way back to the first shuttle launch in 1981 when ice and foam first struck the (orbiter)."


"This was a first indication we had a design problem," he said. "But we continued to fly without fully investigating the consequences of foam hitting the orbiter. We continued to lose foam on many missions and this reinforced the idea that all was well. We did not stay hungry, and we didn't deeply analyze the implications of foam being released at precisely the wrong moment."


He cautioned engineers to stay vigilant, to "recognize even the smallest potential flaw can become a big problem."


"In honor of the Columbia crew, it is our job to be aware of the technical subtleties and be creative about understanding them and the underlying problems," he said. "Even small problems can surface as major failures."


At the conclusion of the memorial ceremony, three NASA T-38 jets roared overhead in a "missing man" formation. Gospel singer BeBe Winans performed his song "Ultimate Sacrifice," and Husband-Thompson, assisted by Gerstenmaier, Cabana, and Eileen Collins, commander of the first post-Columbia shuttle mission, placed a wreath at the base of the Space Mirror.


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Clinton's legacy: Smart power, celebrity status

(CBS News) After four years as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was officially replaced by Sen. John Kerry Friday. An improbable pick after a tough primary battle with Barack Obama back in 2008, Clinton has used her celebrity status around the world to make changes both at home and abroad.

John Kerry sworn in as secretary of state

In a heartfelt goodbye to thousands of State Department employees Friday, Clinton said, "I am proud to have been secretary of state. I leave this department confident, confident about the direction we have set."

Friends and colleagues say there's a side to Clinton many people don't know. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan talked to those people about Clinton and the legacy she's leaving behind.

She's not a typical Secretary of State saying goodbye. Anne Marie Slaughter, a former Clinton adviser said, "The first trip I took with her was like traveling with Madonna."

At times, Clinton's celebrity has overshadowed her diplomacy. But Slaughter said it shouldn't. "She elevated the roll of development. She's elevated social media, all sorts of new ways to reach people, ways of engaging youth, women, entrepreneurs."

Those tools are what Clinton calls "smart power" - finding ways to connect with people so that they then are able to influence their governments. She's said her extensive travel to 112 countries helped to build goodwill.

Others dismiss it as a vanity project. Critics also complain that she did not craft a clear policy to stop the war in Syria and point to security failures at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

However, longtime aide Philippe Reines disagrees. "For the last four years she has been, you know, working, literally killing herself for her country," he said.

He said her outreach made it possible to levy sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and to broker the November cease fire in Gaza. Reines has been aboard Clinton's plane for nearly every one of the almost one million miles she flew as secretary of state.

He told CBS News that most people don't know that how normal Clinton is. "I mean, she likes and dislikes a lot of the same things that you and I don't like or do like," he said.

He also said that she's not caught up on her future. "She does not sit around and do that as much as people think she does. It's more sitting around thinking, I saw 'Argo' and that's a great movie, did you see 'Argo?'"

Clinton is reluctant to make any decision yet about running for president in 2016. At a global town hall for students at the Newseum in Washington, Clinton talked about a bid for the presidency.

"I am not thinking about anything like that right now. I am looking forward to finishing up my tenure as secretary of state and then catching up on about 20 years of sleep deprivation," she said.

But few believe she'll stop working, and if you want to know what she'll do, aides say, look at what she's done.

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Ala. Standoff: Students Say Suspect Threatened to Kill













A brother and sister who escaped the school bus where a 5-year-old autistic boy was taken hostage by a retired Alabama trucker are speaking out about the standoff and the man who threatened the lives of the children on board.


"I look up and he's talking about threatening to kill us all or something," 14-year-old Terrica Singletary told ABC's "Good Morning America." "He's like, 'I'll kill all y'all, I'll kill y'all, I just want two kids.'"


Singletary and her brother, Tristian, 12, said Jimmy Lee Dykes boarded the bus on Tuesday and offered the driver what appeared to be broccoli and a note, before demanding two children.


"The bus driver kept saying, 'Just please get off the bus,' and [Dykes] said, 'Ah alright, I'll get off the bus," said Terrica Singletary, "He just tried to back up and reverse and [Dykes] pulled out the gun and he just shot him, and he just took Ethan."


PHOTOS: Worst Hostage Situations


School bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was fatally shot several times by Dykes.






WDHN (inset); Julie Bennett/al.com via AP











Alabama Hostage Standoff: Who Is Jimmy Lee Dykes? Watch Video









Alabama Boy Held Hostage in Underground Bunker Watch Video









Alabama Hostage Standoff: Boy, 5, Held Captive in Bunker Watch Video





The siblings and the rest of the students on board were able to get away unharmed, but were shocked by what had transpired just five days ago.


"I never thought I would have to go through a shootout," Singletary said.


They said they had seen Dykes, 65, working on his fence, and described him as a menacing figure.


"He was very protective of his stuff," Tristian Singletary said. "Whenever he stares at you, he looks kinda crazy."


Dykes has been holed up in his underground bunker with his 5-year-old hostage named Ethan near Midland City, Ala. for five days now. Neighbors told ABCNews.com that Dykes has been known to retreat underground for up to eight days.


READ: Alabama Hostage Suspect Jimmy Dykes 'Has No Regard for Human Life'


While Dykes, who was described as having "no regard for human life," has allowed negotiators to send Ethan's medicine, as well as coloring books, into the bunker for the boy through a ventilation pipe that leads into the 6 by 8 foot subterranean hideout 4 feet underground, authorities are staying quiet about their conversations with Dykes.


While negotiations continue and it was reported that Ethan is physically unharmed, an official told the Associated Press that the boy has been crying for his parents.


Meanwhile, his peers are steadfast that he will return home soon.


"Ethan will make it out there, Ethan will make it out there," said Tristian Singletary.


ABC News' Kevin Dolak and Gio Benitez contributed to this report.



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Turkish leftist group claims U.S. embassy bombing: website


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish leftist group DHKP-C claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara, according to a statement on a website close to the group.


"Our warrior Alisan Sanli carried out an act of self-sacrifice on Feb 1, 2013, by entering the Ankara embassy of the United States, murderer of the peoples of the world," the statement on "The People's Cry" website said.


The statement was posted next to what it said was a picture of the bomber, dressed in a black beret and military-style clothes with what appeared to be an explosives belt strapped around his waist.


The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body, as well as a hand grenade, inside an embassy gatehouse, killing himself and a Turkish security guard and critically wounding a journalist on her way to visit the ambassador.


(Reporting by Seltem Iyigun; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich)



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Football: Beckham's arrival creates headache for PSG coach






PARIS: The unveiling of David Beckham as a Paris Saint-Germain player was undoubtedly a major media event and marketing ploy but what can the Englishman, now 37, actually offer on the pitch?

The fact that Beckham has signed only a five-month contract indicates that football is not the priority, especially as the French season finishes in mid-May and the player has admitted that he will need "a few weeks" before he is fully fit.

But even when he does take to the field, it will not be the Beckham of his peak.

After all, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid player left Europe for the MLS in 2007 -- although he has had two loan spells at AC Milan since then -- and last played for England in 2009.

"Physically I feel good, as if I were 21. I've not lost much pace because I never really had any," Beckham joked on Thursday.

However, some remain to be convinced.

Christian Gourcuff, the veteran coach of Ligue 1 club Lorient, told AFP he was far from thrilled at a signing which had "nothing to do with sport", pointing out that Ligue 1 makes "distinctive physical demands" on players.

"I am no MLS specialist but when I see the players who do well there, I think the level is some way below that of the leading European leagues," he said.

Reynald Denoueix, who won the French title as a coach with Nantes in 2001 and later coached Real Sociedad in Spain, is less sceptical and believes Beckham can still offer something, as long as he is in good shape physically.

"His qualities are his passing ability and the work he does for the team," he said. "It is very good for PSG but he needs to be in a physical condition that allows him to find space on the field and make himself available for a pass.

"If he does not have what it takes in terms of fitness, it will be enough of a problem for him just to get the ball.

"Just because he is 37 it doesn't mean that he can't be competitive. Others have proved that it is possible. But you need to have exceptional aptitudes."

Questions remain as to where coach Carlo Ancelotti will use Beckham and how high up the pecking order he will stand in a stellar squad.

"I don't know where he will be but, when you look at the course his career has taken in recent seasons, I think it will be very difficult for him to have much of an impact," Gourcuff assessed.

It seems highly unlikely that he will be given the chance to play on the right of midfield, where he first made his name at Manchester United.

Beckham remains a fantastic crosser and his ability to strike a dead ball will be an immense asset but he has never been great at beating his man and is unlikely to start now.

Besides, the 4-4-2 formation that Ancelotti has used, largely successfully, in the last couple of months, requires wide players of a very different profile.

Jeremy Menez, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Lucas Moura are all speed merchants who like to take on their man.

In other words, the exact opposite of the "Spice Boy."

As a result, the only remaining possibility looks like playing him in a deeper, central role, where he enjoyed success during his four-year spell at Real Madrid, and where his vision and precision passing may be most useful.

"But in that case, there is still a problem of how well he complements those around him. You need to be able to defend too," said Gourcuff, imagining the possibility of a partnership with the tireless Blaise Matuidi.

The idea of a three-man midfield in which the duties are more evenly shared is a possibility and would probably be the best solution for Beckham's ageing legs.

But Ancelotti abandoned such a formation when PSG's form dipped in November.

Another factor against Beckham is that his mooted move to Paris last year collapsed partly because Ancelotti could not guarantee him a minimum amount of playing time.

- AFP/ir



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BlackBerry teases Super Bowl ad with colorful, um, something



Is Alicia Keys somewhere in there?



(Credit:
BlackBerry)


You know it's going to be wonderful. Or terrible. Or just dull.


Yes, I'm talking about the Super Bowl. But I'm also talking about BlackBerry's new ad for its Z10 smartphone that will debut during Sunday's game.


BlackBerry doesn't have a florid history with respect to advertising. Can you even remember one BlackBerry ad that moved you to anything other than obliviousness?


This time, though, it's going to be different. Perhaps.


So, as CrackBerry.com reports, the brand formerly known as RIM today tweeted one still frame from its forthcoming ad.


It was accompanied by the words: "Whaaat is going on?! You'll see Sunday. http://twitpic.com/c017e0 #BlackBerry10."


Amateur film buffs and psychologists will immediately try to decipher this strange visual cipher.



More Technically Incorrect



It looks like a multicolored explosion on a normal street.


It could be that BlackBerry will be preaching revolution, with hordes of BlackBerry T-shirted rioters storming the dull streets of America and adding color to their lives with happy smoke bombs.


It could be that, within those clouds of color, Alicia Keys, BlackBerry's new global creative director, awaits to appear like a genie and offer us a haiku to the merits of the Z10.


Or it could be that, when the cloud dissipates, there will appear a Canadian Mountie, ready to restore sensible, rational order, not merely to the smartphone market, but to the troubled, crime-torn streets of the United States.


Whatever happens, it's bound to be more exciting than having to watch one more self-aggrandizing, self-obsessed, self-unaware Ray Lewis dance.


One hopes.


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Cell users complain: Too many Amber Alerts

LOS ANGELES The next time a child is abducted near you, your cell phone may shriek to life with an alert message.

A new national Amber Alert system officially rolled out earlier this month to millions of cell phones, and because the alerts are automatically active on most newer phones, the messages have already taken tens of thousands of people by surprise.

The newly-expanded emergency alert system is an effort by FEMA to update the way it reaches people with new technologies, but local officials and others worry that the lack of public education and some initial stumbles may undermine the program's purpose, especially when people are startled and annoyed and choose to opt out.


Lisa Rott was jolted from her sleep at 1:44 a.m. earlier this month in her Sarasota, Fla. home. A high-pitched tone sounded in spurts for about 10 seconds while her phone buzzed multiple times.

Initially Roth, 50, was worried something had happened to her elderly mother. Then she saw the message: "Emergency Alert: Amber Alert. An Amber Alert has been issued in your area. Please check local media."

"I thought it was spam," said Rott, who works for AT&T as a process engineer. And because her cell phone has a New Jersey number, she wasn't sure exactly where the alert originated. The next morning Rott searched online for both New Jersey and Florida incidents yielding one likely possibility — hours away from her home.

"What are we supposed to do?" Roth said. "They're not telling us what to do, they're not even telling us what to look for in our area."

Later that morning Rott called AT&T, her service provider, and asked them how to make the "worthless" messages stop.

Dozens of people have similarly taken to Facebook and Twitter to comment on being startled awake, scared by their phone's activity, and frustrated by the lack of information.

FEMA officials said they are aware of the confusion the Amber Alerts have caused and are working with the U.S. Department of Justice to include more information in the text messages.

"There's a very delicate balance between how much is enough and how much (alerting) is too much," said Damon Penn, who oversees the FEMA emergency alerts system. "The big concern is over-alerting, and that's what we're focused on."

The federal agency requires people sending the alerts to be trained and to ensure that the alerts meet specific criteria. But officials are still working on trying to determine whether an alert should be sent out in the middle of the night, what information to provide, and how best to use the system, Penn said. The agency has started an education campaign, he said.

"My biggest concern is that people, if they don't understand what it means ... will opt out of the program," said Bob Hoever, a director at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "And it's critical that we continue to have their participation."

The organization activates the messages seen on billboards and now cell phones once officials tell them an Amber Alert is necessary. Since the program's inception in 1996, Hoever said Amber Alerts have helped officials safely return at least 602 children.

So far, 19 Amber Alerts have been issued under this new system in 14 states including Texas, Ohio, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Arizona, according to figures kept by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.


1/2


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Ala. Hostage Suspect Had Court Date Scheduled













The retired Alabama trucker who shot a school bus driver and is now holding a kindergarten student in an underground bunker was scheduled to be in court Wednesday to answer for allegedly shooting at his neighbors in a dispute over a damaged speed bump.


Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, has been holed up in a 6 by 8 foot bunker 4 feet underground with a 5-year-old autistic boy named Ethan since Tuesday, when he boarded a school bus and asked for two 6 to 8 year old boys. School bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was shot several times by Dykes, and died trying to protect the children.


Police said that they do not think that Dykes had any connection to Ethan, and that SWAT teams and police are negotiating with Dykes.


"I could tell you that negotiators continue to communicate with the suspect and that there's no reason to believe the child has been harmed," Sheriff Wally Olson said late Thursday.


Dykes' neighbor Claudia Davis told The Associated Press that he had yelled at her and fired his gun at her, her son James Davis, Jr. and her baby grandson after he claimed their truck caused damage to a speed bump in the dirt road near his property. No one was hurt, but Davis, Jr. told the AP that he believes the shooting and kidnapping are connected to the scheduled court hearing.


"I believe he thought I was going to be in court and he was going to get more charges than the menacing, which he deserved, and he had a bunch of stuff to hide and that's why he did it," he said.








Alabama Hostage Standoff: Boy, 5, Held Captive in Bunker Watch Video









Alabama 5-year-old Hostage: Negotiations Continue Watch Video









Alabama Child Hostage Situation: School Bus Driver Killed Watch Video





This was not Dykes' only run-in with people in the neighborhood, where he had come to be known as a menacing figure. Neighbor Ronda Wilbur told the AP that Dykes beat her 120-pound dog with a lead pipe when it entered the side of the dirt rode his trailer sits on. Wilbur said her dog died a week later.


Early last year, two pit bulls belonging to neighbors Mike and Patricia Smith escaped and got into his yard. Patricia Smith said that Dykes threatened to shoot her children when they went to retrieve them.


Neighbor Ronda Wilbur said that Dykes would be seen on his property at all hours of the day.


"It could be 2 o'clock in the morning, it could be midnight. He was out there either digging or moving dirt," she said.


As the underground standoff moved into its fourth day, tensions grow in this small community near Midland City, Ala., which is now enveloped by SWAT teams and police.


"That's an innocent kid. Let him go back to his parents, he's crying for his parents and his grandparents and he does not know what's going on," Midland City Mayor Virgil Skipper told ABC News. "Let this kid go."


Neighbor Jimmy Davis said that he has seen the bunker where Dykes has been known to hunker down for up to eight days.


"He's got steps made out of cinder blocks going down to it, Davis said. "It's lined with those red bricks all in it."


Police say he may have enough supplies to last him weeks.


Former FBI profiler and ABC News consultant Brad Garrett said there's a distinct reason why authorities are keeping details about Dykes under wraps.


"One of reasons they are keeping negations closed and not releasing his picture, is to try to insulate the situation, so they don't have a situation where they don't have to deal with his anger and rage," he said.


Meanwhile, children are trying to understand why this happened to their friend


"He always comes up to my house to play," 10-year-old Trisha Beaty told ABC News. "I miss him. I miss him a lot."



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Suicide bomber kills guard at U.S. embassy in Turkey


ANKARA (Reuters) - A suicide bomber from a far-left group killed a Turkish security guard at the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Friday, blowing the door off a side entrance and sending smoke and debris flying into the street.


The attacker blew himself up inside U.S. property, Ankara Governor Alaaddin Yuksel said. The blast sent masonry spewing out of the wall and could be heard a mile away.


Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the bomber was a member of a far-left group. The U.S. State Department said it was working with Turkish police to investigate what it described as "a terrorist blast".


Islamist radicals, far-left groups, far-right groups and Kurdish separatist militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past. There was no claim of responsibility.


"The suicide bomber was ripped apart and one or two citizens from the special security team passed away," said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who was attending a ceremony in Istanbul when the blast happened.


"This event shows that we need to fight together everywhere in the world against these terrorist elements," he said.


Far-left groups in Turkey oppose what they see as U.S. influence over Turkish foreign policy.


Turkey is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East with common interests ranging from energy security to counter-terrorism, and has been one of the leading advocates of foreign intervention to end the conflict in neighboring Syria.


Around 400 U.S. soldiers have arrived in Turkey over the past few weeks to operate Patriot anti-missile batteries meant to defend against any spillover of Syria's civil war, part of a NATO deployment due to be fully operational in the coming days.


U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone emerged through the main gate of the embassy, which is surrounded by high walls, shortly after the explosion to address reporters, flanked by a security detail as a Turkish police helicopter hovered overhead.


"We are very sad of course that we lost one of our Turkish guards at the gate," Ricciardone said, thanking the Turkish authorities for a prompt response.


A Reuters witness saw one wounded person being lifted into an ambulance as police armed with assault rifles cordoned off the area.


"It was a huge explosion. I was sitting in my shop when it happened. I saw what looked like a body part on the ground," said travel agent Kamiyar Barnos, whose shop window was shattered around 100 meters away from the blast.


OPPOSED TO U.S. INFLUENCE


State broadcaster TRT said the attacker was thought to be from The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which wants a socialist state and is vehemently anti-American, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).


The group, deemed a terrorist organization by both the United States and Turkey, was blamed for a suicide attack in 2001 that killed two police officers and a tourist in Istanbul's central Taksim Square.


Guler said the bomber could have been from the DHKP-C or a similar group.


The DHKP/C has in the past attacked Turkish official targets with bombs, but arrests of some of its members in recent years have weakened its capabilities, according to the NCTC.


The date of the DHKP-C's most recent attack, on an Istanbul police station, was September 11, 2012, seen as a symbolic strike to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks on the United States.


Despite some strains, Washington and Ankara have long had a strong strategic alliance. U.S. President Barack Obama chose Turkey as his first Muslim nation to visit after he took office five years ago.


Turkish support and bases have helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan, while Turkey hosts a NATO radar system, operated by U.S. forces, in its eastern province of Malatya to help defend against any regional threat from Iran.


More recently, it has led calls for international intervention in neighboring Syria and is hosting hundreds of NATO soldiers who are manning the Patriot missile defense system near the Syrian border, hundreds of kilometers from the capital.


The U.S. consulate in Istanbul warned its citizens to be vigilant and to avoid large gatherings, while the British mission in Istanbul called on British businesses to tighten security after what it called a "suspected terrorist attack".


The most serious bombings of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when car bombs shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.


Part of the HSBC Bank headquarters was destroyed and the British consulate was damaged in two more explosions that killed a further 32 people a week later.


(Additional reporting by Daren Butler and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Jon Hemming)



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Govt completes review of SMEs






SINGAPORE: The government has completed a review of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore and new initiatives for the sector will be unveiled in the upcoming Budget announcement.

This is according to Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Teo Ser Luck who was speaking at the 26th Singapore 1000 Awards dinner on Friday evening.

Mr Teo said the review was conducted against a backdrop of new challenges for SMEs.

These include "the more pressing need to operate within tight manpower constraints, cope with rising business costs, and at the same time, improve productivity and expand overseas".

Mr Teo added that the government will focus on helping SMEs drive productivity, tap on growth opportunities and create a conducive business environment.

Mr Teo said: "This entails making our schemes simpler and accessible to all groups of SMEs - whether big or small. So sometimes when you apply for grants, funding, maybe (the application form) is ten pages (long). We're streamlining them, bring it down from ten to two pages for example, and we want to make sure that the grant is more accessible."

In his speech, Mr Teo gave some examples of the ways SMEs can internationalise. For instance, companies can come together to tap on a network or fund to expand overseas, and inter-company partnerships can facilitated, so that smaller companies can ride on the coat-tails of the larger ones and access overseas markets.

SMEs make up 99 per cent of enterprises in Singapore and employ 70 per cent of the workforce.

They also contribute more than 50 per cent of Singapore's GDP.

The awards dinner is an annual event that recognises the biggest Singapore companies by sales turnover and net profit.

Forty-eight companies across different industries were recognised for achieving excellent sales or profit performance.

Among the firms lauded are DBS Group Holdings, Seagate Singapore International Headquarters and Keppel Offshore and Marine, Samwoh Ready Mix, iFast Corporation and Bengawan Solo.

- CNA/fa



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BlackBerry 10.1: What we want to see next



BlackBerry Z10: Not your father's BlackBerry




BlackBerry (formerly RIM) may have just lifted the lid on its completely overhauled BlackBerry 10 OS for mobile devices, but CNET has been testing the heck out of the OS and Z10 smartphone for over a week now. There are elements that we love and elements that we frankly think the smartphone-maker could have done better.


So three of us who have spent time with the Z10 and its OS put our heads together to offer up a few suggestions that we'd like to see in BlackBerry's inevitable first OS update. And yes, we have more suggestions for the platform's long-term development after that.



  • Smoother front-end animation when you open an app (currently takes you to the multitasking screen each and every time before opening.)

  • More camera options: HDR mode, panorama mode, ISO, resolution options

  • Walking and transit directions in maps app, more granular maps data to show local businesses, satellite and 3D mode

  • Native podcast app that hooks into the music player

  • Long press the period on the virtual keyboard to get comma and exclamation point punctuation

  • Faster rotation speed from landscape to portrait mode

  • Improved battery life (this was mixed for three testers)
  • Better integration with Google's social services

  • More transparent, better surfaced toggle to switch from desktop to mobile mode and back (current toggle is in Settings --> Developer Tools

    Things we really like about the OS now:

    • Overall graphical look and feel

    • Fade animation when swiping home screens

    • BlackBerry Hub

    • Photo-editor with wide variety of tools and filters

    • BlackBerry Messenger

    • BlackBerry Balance (smaller subsection of beneficiaries)

    • Multitasking screen

    Our friends in the UK get the first chance to buy a
    BlackBerry 10 device in the form of the Z10, followed by Canada and the UAE in February. The phones are expected to arrive in the U.S. and other countries around the world as late as March or April (a shame!), to wide U.S. carrier support.


    CNET will have much, much more in-depth content coming up for the Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 in the coming weeks, so check back often!In the meantime, read CNET's full BlackBerry 10 OS review for all the details.


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Child-hostage taker, Ala. police keep up standoff

Updated at 12:10 p.m. ET

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. A standoff in rural Alabama went into a third day as police surrounded an underground bunker where authorities said a retired truck driver was holding a 5-year-old hostage he grabbed off a school bus after shooting the driver dead.

A normally quiet dirt road was teeming with activity Thursday around the siege that began late Tuesday. More than a dozen police cars and trucks, a fire truck, a helicopter, officers from multiple agencies, media and at least one ambulance crowded the stretch where the dead-end residential road branches off a U.S. highway near Midland City, population 2,300. A staging area for law enforcement was lit by bright lights overnight.

People who live in the neighborhood said the suspect is a retired truck driver with a reputation, CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports. They said he allegedly beat a dog to death and threatened to shoot kids who trespass on his property. He was reportedly due in court this week on a weapons charge.

Neighbor Ronda Wilbur described the suspect to CBS News as "very anti-social, very anti-government" and that he "hates everybody."

"My granddaughter who just turned 7, when I have her visiting me this next weekend, I won't have to worry about 'mean man,'" Wilbur told CBS News. "One way or another he's not gonna be there. He will either be locked up, or he'll be dead."

Wilbur told The Associated Press that the suspect beat her 120-pound dog with a lead pipe for coming onto his side of the dirt road. The dog died a week later.

"He said his only regret was he didn't beat him to death all the way," Wilbur told the AP. "If a man can kill a dog, and beat it with a lead pipe and brag about it, it's nothing until it's going to be people."

The boy being held was watching TV and getting medication sent from home, according to state Rep. Steve Clouse, who met with authorities and visited the boy's family. Clouse said the bunker had food and electricity.

Authorities lowered medicine into the bunker for the boy after his captor agreed to it, Clouse said.

The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

Authorities say the gunman boarded a stopped school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded two boys between 6 and 8 years old. When the driver tried to block his way, the gunman shot him several times and took a 5-year-old boy off the bus.

Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of menacing some neighbors with a gun as they drove by his house weeks ago.

Homes on the road had been evacuated earlier after authorities found what they believed to be a bomb on the property. SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman's property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener's safe release.

The situation remained unchanged for hours as negotiators talked to the suspect, Alabama State Trooper Charles Dysart told a news conference late Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Sheriff Wally Olson said that authorities had "no reason to believe that the child has been harmed."

Local TV station WDHN obtained a police dispatch recording of the moment officers first arrived at the site. On it, the officers are heard saying that they were trying to communicate with Dykes through a PVC pipe leading into the shelter.

Authorities gave no details of the standoff, and it was unclear if Dykes made any demands from the bunker, which some officials described as being like the underground tornado shelters some homes have in their yards.

"As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation," said Michael Senn, a pastor who helped comfort other traumatized children after the attack.

The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect the 21 students aboard the bus. Authorities say most of the students scrambled to the back of the bus when the gunman boarded.

Neighbors described a number of run-ins with Dykes in the time since he moved to this small town near the Georgia and Florida borders, in a region known for peanut farming. Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

In that dispute, neighbor Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage Dykes claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.

Mike and Patricia Smith, who live across the street from Dykes and whose two children were on the bus, said their youngsters had a run-in with him about 10 months ago.

"My bulldogs got loose and went over there," Patricia Smith said. "The children went to get them. He threatened to shoot them if they came back."

"He's very paranoid," her husband said. "He goes around in his yard at night with a flashlight and shotgun."

Court records showed Dykes was arrested in Florida in 1995 for improper exhibition of a weapon, but the misdemeanor was dismissed. The circumstances of the arrest were not detailed in his criminal record. He was also arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

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Negotiations Drag Out for 5-Year-Old Hostage













An Alabama community is on edge today, praying for a 5-year-old boy being held hostage by a retired man who police say abducted him at gunpoint Tuesday afternoon.


Nearly 40 hours have slowly passed since school bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, heroically tried to prevent the kidnapping, but was shot to death by suspect Jimmy Lee Dykes, a former truck driver, police said.


Dykes boarded the bus Tuesday and said he wanted two boys, 6 to 8 years old. As the children piled to the back of the bus, Dykes, 65, allegedly shot Poland four times, then grabbed the child at random and fled, The Associated Press reported.


The primary concern in the community near Midland City, Ala., is now for the boy's safety. Dale County police have not identified the child.


"I believe in prayer, so I just pray that we can resolve this peacefully," Dale County sheriff Wally Olson said.






Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser/AP











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The boy is being held in a bunker about 8 feet below ground, where police say Dykes likely has enough food and supplies to remain underground for weeks. Dykes has been communicating with police through a pipe extending from the bunker to the surface.


It is unclear whether he has made any demands from the bunker-style shelter on his property.


The young hostage is a child with autism. Dykes has allowed the boy to watch television, and have some medication, police said


Multiple agencies have responded to the hostage situation, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said. The FBI has assumed the lead in the investigation, and SWAT teams were surrounding the bunker.


"A lot of law enforcement agencies here doing everything they possibly can to get this job done," Olson said.


Former FBI lead hostage negotiator Chris Voss said that authorities must proceed with caution.


"You make contact as quickly as you can, but also as gently as you can," he said. "You don't try to be assertive; you don't try to be aggressive."


Voss said patience is important in delicate situations such as this.


"The more patient approach they take, the less likely they are to make mistakes," he said.


"They need to move slowly to get it right, to communicate properly and slowly and gently unravel this."



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Syrian rebels make slow headway in south


AMMAN (Reuters) - The revolt against President Bashar al-Assad first flared in Deraa, but the southern border city now epitomizes the bloody stalemate gripping Syria after 22 months of violence and 60,000 dead.


Jordan next door has little sympathy with Assad, but is wary of spillover from the upheaval in its bigger neighbor. It has tightened control of its 370-km (230-mile) border with Syria, partly to stop Islamist fighters or weapons from crossing.


That makes things tough for Assad's enemies in the Hawran plain, traditionally one of Syria's most heavily militarized regions, where the army has long been deployed to defend the southern approaches to Damascus from any Israeli threat.


The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels, loosely grouped in tribal and local "brigades", are united by a hatred of Assad and range from secular-minded fighters to al Qaeda-aligned Islamists.


"Nothing comes from Jordan," complained Moaz al-Zubi, an officer in the rebel Free Syrian Army, contacted via Skype from the Jordanian capital Amman. "If every village had weapons, we would not be afraid, but the lack of them is sapping morale."


Insurgents in Syria say weapons occasionally do seep through from Jordan but that they rely more on arsenals they seize from Assad's troops and arms that reach them from distant Turkey.


This month a Syrian pro-government television channel showed footage of what it said was an intercepted shipment of anti-tank weapons in Deraa, without specifying where it had come from.


Assad's troops man dozens of checkpoints in Deraa, a Sunni city that was home to 180,000 people before the uprising there in March 2011. They have imposed a stranglehold which insurgents rarely penetrate, apart from sporadic suicide bombings by Islamist militants, say residents and dissidents.


Rebel activity is minimal west of Deraa, where military bases proliferate near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.


Insurgents have captured some towns and villages in a 25-km (17-mile) wedge of territory east of Deraa, but intensifying army shelling and air strikes have reduced many of these to ruin, forcing their residents to join a rapidly expanding refugee exodus to Jordan, which now hosts 320,000 Syrians.


However, despite more than a month of fighting, Assad's forces have failed to winkle rebels out of strongholds in the rugged volcanic terrain that stretches from Busra al-Harir, 37 km (23 miles) northeast of Deraa, to the outskirts of Damascus.


Further east lies Sweida, home to minority Druze who have mostly sat out the Sunni-led revolt against security forces dominated by Assad's minority, Shi'ite-rooted Alawite sect.


"KEY TO DAMASCUS"


As long as Assad's forces control southwestern Syria, with its fertile, rain-fed Hawran plain, his foes will find it hard to make a concerted assault on Damascus, the capital and seat of his power, from suburbs where they already have footholds.


"If this area is liberated, the supply routes from the south to Damascus would be cut," said Abu Hamza, a commander in the rebel Ababeel Hawran Brigade. "Deraa is the key to the capital."


Fighters in the north, where Turkey provides a rear base and at least some supply lines, have fared somewhat better than their counterparts in the south, grabbing control of swathes of territory and seizing half of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.


They have also captured some towns in the east, across the border from Iraq's Sunni heartland of Anbar province, and in central Syria near the mostly Sunni cities of Homs and Hama.


But even where they gain ground, Assad's mostly Russian-supplied army and air force can still pound rebels from afar, prompting a Saudi prince to call for outsiders to "level the playing field" by providing anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.


"What is needed are sophisticated, high-level weapons that can bring down planes, can take out tanks at a distance," Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief and brother of the Saudi foreign minister, said last week at a meeting in Davos.


Saudi Arabia and its fellow Gulf state Qatar have long backed Assad's opponents and advocate arming them, but for now the rebels are still far outgunned by the Syrian military.


"They are not heavily armed, properly trained or equipped," said Ali Shukri, a retired Jordanian general, who argued also that rebels would need extensive training to use Western anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons effectively even if they had them.


He said two powerful armored divisions were among Syrian forces in the south, where the rebels are "not that strong".


It is easier for insurgents elsewhere in Syria to get support via Turkey or Lebanon than in the south where the only borders are with Israel and Jordan, Shukri said.


Jordan, which has urged Assad to go, but seeks a political solution to the crisis, is unlikely to ramp up support for the rebels, even if its cautious policy risks irritating Saudi Arabia and Qatar, financial donors to the cash-strapped kingdom.


ISLAMIST STRENGTH


"I'm confident the opposition would like to be sourcing arms regularly from the Jordanian border, not least because I guess it would be easier for the Saudis to get stuff up there on the scale you'd be talking about," said a Western diplomat in Amman.


A scarcity of arms and ammunition is the main complaint of the armed opposition, a disparate array of local factions in which Islamist militants, especially the al Qaeda-endorsed Nusra Front, have come to play an increasing role in recent months.


The Nusra Front, better armed than many groups, emerged months after the anti-Assad revolt began in Deraa with peaceful protests that drew a violent response from the security forces.


It has flourished as the conflict has turned ever more bitterly sectarian, pitting majority Sunnis against Alawites.


Since October, the Front, deemed a terrorist group by the United States, has carried out at least three high-profile suicide bombings in Deraa, attacking the officers' club, the governor's residence and an army checkpoint in the city centre.


Such exploits have won prestige for the Islamist group, which has gained a reputation for military prowess, piety and respect for local communities, in contrast to some other rebel outfits tainted by looting and other unpopular behavior.


"So far no misdeeds have come from the Nusra Front to make us fear them," said Daya al-Deen al-Hawrani, a fighter from the rebel al-Omari Brigade. "Their goal and our goal is one."


Abu Ibrahim, a non-Islamist rebel commander operating near Deraa, said the Nusra Front fought better and behaved better than units active under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.


"Their influence has grown," he acknowledged, describing them as dedicated and disciplined. Nor were their fighters imposing their austere Islamic ideology on others, at least for now. "I sit with them and smoke and they don't mind," he said.


The Nusra Front may be trying to avoid the mistakes made by a kindred group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, which fought U.S. troops and the rise of Shi'ite factions empowered by the 2003 invasion.


The Iraqi group's suicide attacks on civilians, hostage beheadings and attempts to enforce a harsh version of Islamic law eventually alienated fellow Sunni tribesmen who switched sides and joined U.S. forces in combating the militants.


Despite the Nusra Front's growing prominence and its occasional spectacular suicide bombings in Deraa, there are few signs that its fighters or other rebels are on the verge of dislodging the Syrian military from its southern bastions.


Abu Hamza, the commander in the Ababeel Hawran Brigade, was among many rebels and opposition figures to lament the toughness of the task facing Assad's enemies in the south: "What is killing us is that all of Hawran is a military area," he said.


"And every village has five army compounds around it."


(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)



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Goodyear says French plant with over 1,100 staff set to close






PARIS: Executives at a Goodyear tyre plant in Amiens, northern France, unveiled on Thursday a plan to close the site, which employs 1,173 workers.

"Closing the factory is the only option after five years of unsuccessful negotiations," said a French-language statement, which added that the plan had been presented to a works committee and would be the basis of talks with workers' representatives.

Henry Dumortier, chairman of Goodyear's French unit, said: "We are fully aware of the impact of the announcement we are making today and the plan's heavy consequences for staff, their families and local communities."

He added: "We are deeply disappointed that five years of negotiations were not enough to reach a compromise with representatives of workers at Amiens Nord. Today's announcement was the only option left to us."

Tyre production at the plant led to an aggregate loss in 2011 of 61 million euros ($83 million), according to Goodyear figures.

Franck Jurek, a leader of the CGT trade union at the plant, reacted to the news by saying: "We have been battling for six years against 400, 800, 1,200 job cuts. We are going to keep fighting."

A new meeting of the works committee was scheduled for February 12, the CGT said, while forecasting a big turnout by workers.

Goodyear said that closing the tyre plant was a decision "aimed at remaining competitive in the tourism and agricultural sectors."

French President Francois Hollande had paid a visit to the Amiens factory during his electoral campaign, calling for more workers rights in cases where companies were still making profits.

His administration is now facing plans by French automakers Peugeot Citroen and Renault to eliminate a total of more than 16,000 positions as the sector struggles to get to grips with serious surplus capacity amid slumping auto sales.

The CGT vowed to turn out Goodyear workers from all over France for the next works committee meeting, which is to take place at the group's French headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, west of Paris.

Accusing the Goodyear management of "lying right from the start", CGT leader Mickael Wamen said staff at the Amiens site would be on strike on February 12, and "we will come here with all of Goodyear's workers".

He claimed that "Goodyear has no legal chances" of closing the tyre plant.

On Tuesday, a French appeal court suspended a Peugeot restructuring plan that concerned 8,000 jobs because the group had not fully informed staff representatives at its auto parts unit Faurecia of the plan's details.

- AFP/al



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BackBlaze iPhone app gives access to online backups



Backblaze's iOS app gives access to an account holder's backed-up PC files.

Backblaze's iOS app gives access to an account holder's backed-up PC files.



(Credit:
Backblaze)



Backblaze, an online backup start-up, announced plans to release an iPhone app in coming weeks to let customers tap into their files.




"Having restored 2.5 billion files for our customers, we found that 22 percent of recoveries contained a single file and realized customers were using Backblaze to access their files remotely," said Chief Executive Gleb Budman in a statement. Backblaze's Web interface already lets people retrieve files, but the iOS app will extend the ability to mobile devices.


Backblaze still is chiefly about backup rather than synchronizing files across multiple devices. For example, it keeps copies of files for 30 days, letting you step back to older versions or recover deleted ones. But the iPhone app does nudge BackBlaze a step closer to the world of DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and other services people use to remotely access files.


According to Backblaze, the app lets people do the following:


• See all PC and Mac computers they currently back up.


• Select files from these computers and their external hard drives.


• View and download these photos, songs, movies, and other documents.


• Access previous versions of these files.


• Print, text, e-mail, post to Facebook and Twitter, or save files to the camera roll.


The app is scheduled for release within several weeks, the company said.


Backblaze currently has backed up 45,000,000GB of data, more conveniently expressed as 45 exabytes.


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Possible suspect for NYC mom missing in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey Turkish police on Wednesday were trying to trace a contact who apparently corresponded with a New York City woman through social networking sites before she went missing, an official said.


Undated photo of Sarai Sierra


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Facebook

Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two from Staten Island, N.Y., has been missing since Jan. 21 when she was supposed to return home from a solo vacation in Istanbul. Police there have set up a special unit to find her.

A senior police official told The Associated Press that Sierra had exchanged messages with a person before she disappeared and police were now trying to trace the man or woman he described as a possible suspect in her disappearance.

The official said Sierra "presumably met" the person after she arrived in Istanbul. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.

The official, however, denied several Turkish media reports - that police were searching for an unknown man caught following Sierra on security camera footage; that Sierra had spent some US$12,000 during her stay in Istanbul; and that a narcotics team had searched her hostel room on suspicion that she might be a drug courier. "It's all made-up," he said.

Sierra arrived in Istanbul on Jan. 7 and had been in regular contact with friends and family back in the United States. Before she went missing, Sierra told family members that she planned to take some photographs at Galata Bridge, a well-known tourist destination about 2 kilometers away from her hostel. She was supposed to begin traveling home on Jan. 21, but never checked into her flight back to New York.


Police have said Sierra made an excursion to Amsterdam, Netherlands, from Istanbul on Jan. 15 and travelled on to Munich, Germany, on Jan. 16 before returning to Istanbul on Jan. 19, WBCS in New York reports. Police were trying to determine the reason for her visit to the European cities.

Her husband, Steven, and brother, David Jimenez, travelled to Istanbul to help in the search and were interviewed by the Istanbul police Tuesday. The two left the police headquarters after some seven hours and were seen carrying a suitcase, which the state-run Anadolu Agency said belonged to Sierra.

Sierra's belongings, including her passport, were found in her hostel room.

Jimenez did not immediately respond to questions sent by email or to an interview request.

Police have released CCTV camera footage showing Sierra alone, eating in the food court of a shopping mall and walking along a main shopping street near her hostel. She is dressed in jeans, a brown leather jacket and a winter hat.

Sierra had planned to go on the trip with a friend but ended up going by herself when the friend couldn't make it. She was looking forward to exploring her hobby of photography, on her first trip outside of the United States, her family said.

Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm is assisting in the case.

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Giffords to Senate: 'Americans Are Counting on You'













Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, whose congressional career was ended by a bullet wound to her head, opened a Senate hearing on gun violence today by telling the panel, "Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important."


She told the Senate to be "courageous" because "Americans are counting on you."


Giffords sat alongside her astronaut husband Mark Kelly as she delivered her emotional statement just over a minute long imploring Congress to act on gun policy.


"This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats, and Republicans," the former Arizona congresswoman said. "Speaking is difficult but I need to say something important: Violence is a big problem too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be bold, be courageous, Americans are counting on you. Thank you," Giffords said before being helped out of the hearing room.


Giffords was shot by a gunman in her Arizona district two years ago, and was a last-minute addition to the hearing about the nation's gun laws as lawmakers grapple with how to curb gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy that left 20 children and six adults dead late last year.


Today's hearing is a showdown on guns, featuring two powerful but conflicting forces in the gun control movement. Giffords' husband will also testify, as will Wayne LaPierre, the fiery executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association.


Kelly's opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, in the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. last month, emphasized that he and his wife are both gun owners but also dedicated to minimizing gun violence because of their personal tragedy.








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"We are simply two reasonable Americans who realize we have a problem with gun violence, and we need Congress to act," Kelly told members of the Senate. "Our rights are paramount but our responsibilities are serious and as a nation we are not taking responsibility for the gun rights our founding fathers conferred upon us."


Giffords and Kelly recently launched Americans for Responsible Solutions, an organization promoting the implementation of universal background checks and limits on high capacity magazines.


"Overwhelmingly, you told us that universal background checks and limiting access to high capacity magazines were top priorities, and I'll make sure to address each of those ideas in my opening remarks," Kelly wrote in an email to supporters Tuesday. Kelly asked the group's allies to sign a petition calling on Congress to pass legislation on both issues.


LaPierre, who states the NRA's opposition to universal background checks and urged legislators not to "blame" legal gun owners by enacting new gun control laws.


"Law-abiding gun owners will not accept blame for the acts of violence of deranged criminals. Nor do we believe the government should dictate what we can lawfully own and use to protect our families," LaPierre said."And when it comes to background checks, let's be honest – background checks will never be 'universal' – because criminals will never submit to them."


"Proposing more gun control laws -- while failing to enforce the thousands we already have -- it's not a serious solution to reducing crime," said LaPierre.


In the wake of the Newtown shooting, the NRA advocated placing armed security guards in every school in America, an initiative LaPierre will promote in Wednesday's hearing, arguing that "it's time to throw an immediate blanket of security around our children."


In an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer earlier this month, Kelly and Giffords said they hope the Sandy Hook shooting, in which 20 children and seven adults died, will spur legislative action on gun policy.


Today's hearing is the first meeting ever for Kelly and LaPierre, according to an interview Kelly gave to CNN Tuesday. Kelly, who has shot at an NRA practice range with his wife, noted that he is a gun enthusiast but is not a member of the NRA.


"You would think with my background I would be a member of the NRA. I own a gun. I recently bought a hunting rifle a few months ago. I went through a background check. It took I think about 20 minutes. It's a small price to pay to make us safer. We're not going to stop every one of these mass shootings. We're not going to stop every murder with a handgun in our cities, but I think we'd go a long way to reducing the violence and preventing some," Kelly told CNN.






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Merkel urges Egypt's Mursi to hold crisis dialogue


CAIRO/BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Egypt's Islamist president on Wednesday to open a dialogue with all political forces in the crisis-ridden Arab country after a week of violence that has killed more than 50 people.


President Mohamed Mursi flew to Germany to try to convince Europe of his democratic credentials, but in a sign of the political tensions back home, he restricted his trip to a few hours and canceled a planned Paris leg.


"One thing that is important for us is that the line for dialogue is always open to all political forces in Egypt, that the different political forces can make their contribution, that human rights are adhered to in Egypt and that of course religious freedom can be experienced," Merkel told Mursi at a joint news conference.


The Egyptian leader, who has faced months of protests by liberal and youth groups opposed to a new Islamic constitution, replied that dialogue was possible and that Egypt would be a state based on the rule of law, not run by the military.


But he refused to give a commitment sought by the opposition to form a national unity government, saying that would be for the new parliament to decide after elections expected in April.


Two more protesters were shot dead before dawn near Cairo's central Tahrir Square on the seventh day of what has become the deadliest wave of unrest since Mursi took power in June.


The army chief warned on Tuesday that the state was on the brink of collapse if Mursi's opponents and supporters did not end street battles that have marked the two-year anniversary of the revolt that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.


Mursi is due to return to Cairo later in the day.


Near Tahrir Square on Wednesday morning, dozens of protesters threw stones at police who fired back teargas, although the scuffles were brief.


"Our demand is simply that Mursi goes, and leaves the country alone. He is just like Mubarak and his crowd who are now in prison," said Ahmed Mustafa, 28, a youth who had goggles on his head to protect his eyes from teargas.


Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei called for a meeting of the president, ministers, the ruling party and the opposition to halt the violence. But he also restated the opposition's precondition that Mursi first commit to seeking a national unity government.


Mursi's critics accuse him of betraying the spirit of the revolution by keeping too much power in his own hands and those of his Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement banned under Mubarak which won repeated elections since the 2011 uprising.


Mursi's supporters say the protesters want to overthrow Egypt's first democratically elected leader. The unrest has prevented a return to stability ahead of parliamentary elections due within months, and worsened an economic crisis that has seen the pound currency tumble in recent weeks.


The worst violence has been in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, where rage was fuelled by death sentences passed against soccer fans for deadly riots last year. Mursi responded by announcing on Sunday a month-long state of emergency and curfew in Port Said and two other Suez Canal cities.


Protesters have ignored the curfew and returned to the streets. Human Rights Watch called for Mursi to lift the decree.


Mursi was keen to allay the West's fears over the future of the most populous Arab country in his meetings with Merkel and powerful industry groups in Berlin.


"DISTURBING IMAGES"


"We have seen worrying images in recent days, images of violence and destruction, and I appeal to both sides to engage in dialogue," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a radio interview on Wednesday ahead of Mursi's arrival.


Germany's "offer to help with Egypt's transformation clearly depends on it sticking to democratic reforms", he added.


Germany has praised Mursi's efforts in mediating a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza after a conflict last year, but became concerned at Mursi's efforts to expand his powers and fast-track a constitution last year.


Berlin was also alarmed by video that emerged in recent weeks showing Mursi making vitriolic remarks against Jews and Zionists in 2010 when he was a senior Brotherhood official. Germany's Nazi past and strong support of Israel make it highly sensitive to anti-Semitism.


Mursi's past anti-Jewish remarks were "unacceptable", Westerwelle said. "But at the same time President Mursi has played a very constructive role mediating in the Gaza conflict."


Asked about those remarks at the news conference with Merkel, Mursi said they had been taken out of context and he was not against the Jewish faith.


Egypt's main liberal and secularist bloc, the National Salvation Front, has so far refused talks with Mursi unless he promises a unity government including opposition figures.


"Stopping the violence is the priority, and starting a serious dialogue requires committing to guarantees demanded by the National Salvation Front, at the forefront of which are a national salvation government and a committee to amend the constitution," ElBaradei said on Twitter.


Those calls have also been backed by the hardline Islamist Nour party - rivals of Mursi's Brotherhood. Nour and the Front were due to meet on Wednesday, signaling an unlikely alliance of Mursi's critics from opposite ends of the political spectrum.


Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy dismissed the unity government proposal as a ploy for the Front to take power despite having lost elections. On his Facebook page he ridiculed "the leaders of the Salvation Front, who seem to know more about the people's interests than the people themselves".


German industry leaders see potential in Egypt but are concerned about political instability.


"At the moment many firms are waiting on political developments and are cautious on any big investments," said Hans Heinrich Driftmann, head of Germany's Chamber of Industry and Commerce.


Mursi's supporters blame the opposition for preventing an economic recovery by halting efforts to restore stability. The opposition says an inclusive government is needed to bring calm.


(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad in Cairo, Stephen Brown and Gernot Heller in Berlin and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood and Paul Taylor)



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Pakistan approves port transfer to China






ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday approved a deal transferring from Singapore to China the management of the strategically located deep-sea Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.

China provided about 75 percent of the initial $250 million in funding for the construction of the port in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan.

It is currently being operated by Singapore's PSA International, but needs further development work to become fully operational. According to PSA's Gwadar website, there has been no ship in the port since November.

"The cabinet today gave approval to transfer Gwadar port operations from Port of Singapore to Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Limited," Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters.

"Both the companies have settled their deal," he said, without giving a timetable for the transfer.

Kaira said that Singapore's PSA International could not develop or operate Gwadar "as desired" and said he hoped that under new management the port would soon contribute to Pakistan's flagging economy.

"The Chinese will make more investments to make the project operational," Kaira said.

China, one of Pakistan's closest allies and its main arms supplier, has also funded ports in Sri Lanka and has been approached to help build a port in Bangladesh.

Pakistan's former defence minister Ahmad Mukhtar said in May 2011 that China had agreed to take over port operations at Gwadar.

He also said Islamabad would be "more grateful to the Chinese government if a naval base was being constructed at the site of Gwadar for Pakistan". At the time, China's foreign ministry said it was unaware of any such request.

-CNA/ac



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Snapseed (free)
Snapseed is not your typical one-dimensional, tap-to-apply photo-editing app. No, this Google-made download is aimed at more discerning photographers who need to get granular in their adjustments. You can use Snapseed to adjust photographic attributes like color levels, saturation, brightness, white balance, contrast, and more. Plus, the app lets you perform basics like straightening, cropping, and adding filters to photos. What's more, Snapseed employs a unique gesture-based interface that makes photo editing not only easy, but enjoyable. It might take a while to learn how to use the app, but trust me, it will be well worth it.


 
































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2013 CES







The promo image for How tech is becoming an extension of you

CNET editors talk to folks from Fitbit, Nest, and Leap Motion about how humans interact with this next generation of tech.





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Report: A-Rod, Cruz, Gonzalez linked to PED probe

New York Yankees' $275 million man Alex Rodriguez, Washington Nationals All-Star Gio Gonzalez and Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz are among the players connected to performance-enhancing drugs in a new investigative report by the Miami New Times.

A former employee of a South Florida clinic called Biogenesis gave the Miami New Times "an extraordinary batch of records" showing athletes received various substances from Anthony Bosch, the clinic's chief who is already under investigation by Major League Baseball and the Drug Enforcement Administration, as CBSSports.com reported. At least one boxer, one tennis player and a coach were also implicated.


In a statement, MLB said "through our Department of Investigations, we have been actively involved in the issues in South Florida." The unsigned statement also says "we are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances."


The report outlines "damning evidence" against A-Rod as his name appears in Biogenesis records up until 2012. Rodriguez, who finally admitted to taking PEDs in 2009, claims he has been clean for a decade. An excerpt of the report on A-Rod reads:

There, at number seven on the list, is Alex Rodriguez. He paid $3,500, Bosch notes. Below that, he writes, "1.5/1.5 HGH (sports perf.) creams test., glut., MIC, supplement, sports perf. Diet." HGH, of course, is banned in baseball, as are testosterone creams...."

The mentions of Rodriguez begin in 2009 and continue all the way through last season. Take a page in another notebook, which is labeled "2012" and looks to have been written last spring. Under the heading "A-Rod/Cacique," Bosch writes, "He is paid through April 30th. He will owe May 1 $4,000... I need to see him between April 13-19, deliver troches, pink cream, and... May meds. Has three weeks of Sub-Q (as of April).

Gonzalez took to Twitter to deny he has ever used PEDs or met Bosch.





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MLB players banned for positive drug tests




Other names linked to Biogenesis in the report include outfielder Melky Cabrera, pitcher Bartolo Colon and catcher Yasmani Grandal - all of whom were suspended last season under MLB's ban on performance-enhancing drugs.

Writes Tim Elfrink, the author of the Miami New Times report: "As baseball teams head to spring training under a tougher new policy, the Biogenesis records affirm that the war on doping has been as futile as the War on Drugs."

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Obama's Immigration Plan to Have More Direct Path












President Barack Obama is expected to lay out his principles for immigration reform in a speech in Las Vegas today that will include a potentially quicker path to citizenship than the bipartisan plan a group of senators unveiled earlier this week.


The president will offer some new details about the White House's immigration reform plan, which expands on a blueprint it released in 2011, a senior administration official told ABC News. But for now Obama will stop short of offering his own piece of legislation because of the progress made by the Senate "Gang of Eight."


See Also: Senate Wants Immigration Bill Passed in Months


The White House has sounded positive notes about the Senate group's plan thus far, but the specifics that Obama announces are expected to have some key differences that might cause concern for some Republican senators who have signed onto the senate deal.


Like the senators' plan, Obama's proposal calls for a pathway to citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. The senators' plan would grant "probationary legal status" immediately to eligible undocumented immigrants, but would not allow them to apply for permanent legal status, or a green card, until the border is deemed to be secure. Think of that as a trigger system.




On the other hand, Obama's framework would not contain a border security measure. Administration officials told media outlets that they believe a path to citizenship needs to be straightforward. They also believe a trigger system, like the one in the senate plan, could lead to a state of legal limbo for the undocumented immigrants who receive legal status, The Washington Post reported.


The border-security-first plan, however, is essential to Republican senators who signed onto the Senate "Gang of Eight" deal.


"I will not be supporting any law that does not ensure that the enforcement things happen," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the group, told conservative blogger Ed Morrissey on his web radio show.


See Also: 3 Flashpoints in the Senate Immigration Blueprint


Obama's plan is likely to include language that would allow same-sex bi-national couples to have the same rights as heterosexual couples, BuzzFeed and The Washington Post reported. Under current law, gays and lesbians who are married to U.S. citizens under state laws cannot obtain a green card. Obama's plan would allow them a path to citizenship, but the issue is not mentioned in the Senate "Gang of Eight" proposal.


As noted by the Post, that language may anger Christian groups who have signaled they would support comprehensive immigration reform.


But the White House remains optimistic about the progress that has been made so far. An official described the senators' announcement as a "breakthrough" to ABC News because it wasn't clear whether Republicans would sign on to any path to citizenship.


Some observers couched the Senate group's decision to come out with his plan a day before Obama as an attempt to outfox the White House politically. But administration officials told media outlets they remain generally pleased with the plan and believe that the president's speech could build momentum for a final bill.


ABC's Reena Ninan contributed reporting.



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Army warning: unrest pushing Egypt to brink


CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief said political strife was pushing the state to the brink of collapse - a stark warning from the institution that ran the country until last year as Cairo's first freely elected leader struggles to contain bloody street violence.


Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a U.S.-trained general appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last year to head the armed forces, added in a statement on Tuesday that one of the primary goals of deploying troops in cities on the Suez Canal was to protect the waterway that is vital for Egypt's economy and world trade.


Sisi's comments, published on an official army Facebook page, followed 52 deaths in the past week of disorder and highlighted the mounting sense of crisis facing Egypt and its Islamist head of state who is struggling to fix a teetering economy and needs to prepare Egypt for a parliamentary election in a few months that is meant to cement the new democracy.


Violence largely subsided on Tuesday, although some youths again hurled rocks at police lines in Cairo near Tahrir Square.


It seemed unlikely that Sisi was signaling the army wants to take back the power it held for six decades since the end of the colonial era and through an interim period after the overthrow of former air force chief Hosni Mubarak two years ago.


But it did send a powerful message that Egypt's biggest institution, with a huge economic as well as security role and a recipient of massive direct U.S. subsidies, is worried about the fate of the nation, after five days of turmoil in major cities.


"The continuation of the struggle of the different political forces ... over the management of state affairs could lead to the collapse of the state," said General Sisi, who is also defense minister in the government Mursi appointed.


He said the economic, political and social challenges facing the country represented "a real threat to the security of Egypt and the cohesiveness of the Egyptian state" and the army would remain "the solid and cohesive block" on which the state rests.


Sisi was picked by Mursi after the army handed over power to the new president in June once Mursi had sacked Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, in charge of Egypt during the transition and who had also been Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years.


DEEPLY POLARISED


The 58-year-old previously headed military intelligence and studied at the U.S. Army War College. Diplomats say he is well known to the United States, which donates $1.3 billion in military aid each year, helping reassure Washington that the last year's changes in the top brass would not upset ties.


One of Sisi's closest and longest serving associates, General Mohamed el-Assar, an assistant defense minister, is now in charge of the military's relations with the United States.


Almost seven months after Mursi took office, Egyptian politics have become even more deeply polarized.


Opponents spurned a call by Mursi for talks on Monday to try to end the violence. Instead, protesters have rallied in Cairo and Alexandria, and in the three Suez Canal cities - Port Said, Ismailia and Suez - where Mursi imposed emergency rule.


On Tuesday, thousands were again on the streets of Port Said to mourn the deaths of two people in the latest clashes there, taking the total toll in Mediterranean port alone to 42 people. Most were killed by gunshots in a city where weapons are rife.


Mohamed Ezz, a Port Said resident speaking by telephone, heard heavy gunfire through the night. "Gunshots damaged the balcony of my flat, so I went to stay with my brother," he said.


Residents in the three canal cities had taken to the streets in protest at a nightly curfew now in place there. The president's spokesman said on Tuesday that the 30-day state of emergency could be shortened, depending on circumstances.


In Cairo on Tuesday afternoon, police again fired teargas as stone-throwing youths in a street near Tahrir Square, the centre of the 2011 uprising. But the clashes were less intense than previous days and traffic was able to cross the area. Street cleaners swept up the remains of burnt tires and other debris.


Street flare-ups are a common occurrence in divided Egypt, frustrating many people desperate for order and economic growth.


Although the general's comments were notably blunt, Egypt's military has voiced similar concerns in the past, pledging to protect the nation. But it has refused to be drawn back into a direct political role after its reputation as a neutral party took a pounding during the 17 months after Mubarak fell.


WARY MILITARY


"Egyptians are really alarmed by what is going on," said Cairo-based analyst Elijah Zarwan, adding that the army was reflecting that broader concern among the wider public.


"But I don't think it should be taken as a sign that the military is on the verge of stepping in and taking back the reins of government," he said.


In December, Sisi offered to host a national dialogue when Mursi and the rivals were again at loggerheads and the streets were aflame. But the invitation was swiftly withdrawn before the meeting went ahead, apparently because the army was wary of becoming embroiled again in Egypt's polarized politics.


Protests initially flared during the second anniversary of the uprising which erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later. They were exacerbated in Port Said when residents were angered after a court sentenced to death several people from the city over deadly soccer violence.


Since the 2011 revolt, Islamists who Mubarak spent his 30-year rule suppressing have won two referendums, two parliamentary elections and a presidential vote.


But that legitimacy has been challenged by an opposition that accuses Mursi of imposing a new form of authoritarianism. Mursi's supporters says protesters want to overthrow Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader by undemocratic means.


The army has already been deployed in Port Said and Suez and the government agreed a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians as part of the state of emergency. Sisi reiterated that the army's role would be support the police in restoring order.


The instability has provoked unease in Western capitals, where officials worry about the direction of a powerful regional player that has a peace deal with Israel. The United States condemned the bloodshed and called on Egyptian leaders to make clear violence was not acceptable.


Mursi's invitation to rivals to a national dialogue with Islamists on Monday was spurned by the main opposition National Salvation Front coalition, which described it as "cosmetic".


The only liberal politician who attended, Ayman Nour, told Egypt's al-Hayat channel after the meeting ended late on Monday that attendees agreed to meet again in a week.


He said Mursi had promised to look at changes to the constitution requested by the opposition but did not consider the opposition's request for a government of national unity. Mursi's pushing through last month of a new constitution which critics see as too Islamic remains a bone of contention.


(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)



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