Our friends at CNET Asia got their very lucky hands on an HTC One for a brief test drive with the device's promising new camera. Indeed, it's worthy test since the shooter is one of One's most interesting features.
Though the One's camera has a 4-megapixel resolution, that's not the whole story by any measure. As Brian Bennett wrote in his First Take earlier this week, the camera features an updated ImageSense system, new ImageChip 2 hardware, and a revamped light sensor. HTC says that UltraPixel Sensor will be able to create more detailed pixels.
Down in Singapore, CNET Asia Editor John Chan took five shots with the One and then compared with the same shots from the iPhone 5. You can see the indoor still life and outdoor portrait comparison below, but click over to CNET Asia to see full story. And after you do, let me know what you think in the comments section below.
CNET Asia's Jacqueline Seng strikes a pose.
(Credit: John Chan/CNET)
Modeling is hard, especially when your shot is overexposed.
WASHINGTON The White House has agreed to give the Senate Intelligence Committee documents related to the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, a congressional aide told The Associated Press Friday.
Republicans had demanded the documents as a condition of voting on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director.
The documents include emails between top national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack and other documents the committee had been asking for, the aide said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The White House has said it has already turned over more than 10,000 pages of Benghazi-related documents, along with witness interviews, staff briefings and hours of testimony.
Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the administration was talking with members of Congress about their requests regarding both the Benghazi attacks and the use of drone strikes, but he declined to say whether those requests had been granted.
"That being said, the confirmation process should be about the nominees and their ability to do the jobs they're nominated for," Vietor said.
The attack on the Benghazi compound last Sept. 11 killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The Obama administration sent conflicting signals about whether the assault was a terrorist attack or an incident touched off by protests over an anti-Muslim video.
Republicans accused the administration of an election-year cover-up of an act of terrorism and repeatedly pressed for more information about the attack. An independent review that faulted the State Department and led to four employees being relieved of their duties failed to placate GOP lawmakers. They demanded testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spent more than five hours before two congressional panels, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey about the military's response to the attack.
Republicans also pressed the administration for emails, communiques and videos, and threatened to hold up the nominations of members of President Barack Obama's second-term national security team, including the choice of Chuck Hagel for the Pentagon and Brennan for CIA director.
South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius is spending time his family today after the athlete was freed on $113,000 bail Friday.
"We realise that the law must run its course, and we would not have it any other way," the Olympian's uncle, Arnold Pistorius said in a statement on Saturday.
The Pistorius family expressed their gratitude that the former Olympian was allowed out of jail before the trial.
"This constitutes a moment of relief under these otherwise very grave circumstances" said Arnold Pistorius."We are extremely thankful that Oscar is now home."
Pistorius, 26, is charged with premeditated murder in the Valentine's Day shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
While the prosecution argued that the world-renowned athlete was a flight risk and had a history of violence, South African Magistrate Desmond Nair, who presided over the case, disagreed.
FULL COVERAGE: Oscar Pistorius
"He regards South Africa as his permanent place of abode, he has no intention to relocate to any other country" Nair said during his two hour ruling, before concluding with, "the accused has made the case to be released on bail."
'Blade Runner' Murder Charges: Oscar Pistorius Out on Bail Watch Video
Oscar Pistorius Granted Bail in Murder Case Watch Video
Pistoriuis will have to adhere to strict conditions to stay out of jail before the trial. He must give up all his guns, he cannot drink alcohol or return to the home where the shooting occurred, and he must check in with a police department twice a week.
Oscar Pistorius is believed to be staying at an uncle's house as he awaits trial.
RELATED: Oscar Pistorius Case: Key Elements to the Murder Investigation
During the hearing, the prosecution argued that Pistorius shot Steenkamp after an argument, while the defense laid out an alternate version of events saying Pistorius mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.
Nair took issue with the head detective originally in charge of the case, who he said "blundered" in gathering evidence and was removed from the case after it was revealed he is facing attempted murder charges.
RELATED: Oscar Pistorius Case: Lead Det. Hilton Botha to Be Booted From Investigation Team
After the magistrate's decision, cheers erupted in the courtroom from the Pistorius camp. Pistorius' trial is expected to start in six to eight months, with his next pre-trial court date in June.
Reeva Steenkamp Family Reaction
Steenkamp's father, Barry Steenkamp told the South African Beeld newspaper that the 26-year-old athlete will "suffer" if he is lying about accidentally shooting 29-year-old model.
PHOTOS: Oscar Pistorius Charged with Murder
Barry Steenkamp went on to say that the Pistorius will have to "live with his conscience" if he intentionally shot Reeva.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Days before resuming talks over its disputed atomic program, Iran said on Saturday it had found significant new deposits of raw uranium and identified sites for 16 more nuclear power stations.
State news agency IRNA quoted a report by the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) which said the reserves were discovered in northern and southern coastal areas and had trebled the amount outlined in previous estimates.
There was no independent confirmation. With few uranium mines of its own, Western experts had previously thought that Iran might be close to exhausting its supply of raw uranium.
"We have discovered new sources of uranium in the country and we will put them to use in the near future," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the AEOI, was quoted as saying at Iran's annual nuclear industry conference.
The timing of the announcement suggested Iran, by talking up its reserves and nuclear ambitions, may hope to strengthen its negotiating hand at talks in Kazakhstan on Tuesday with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
Diplomats say the six powers, known as the P5+1, are set to offer Iran some relief from international sanctions if it agrees to curb its production of higher-grade enriched uranium.
The West says Iran's enrichment of uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent demonstrates its intent to develop a nuclear weapons capability, an allegation the Islamic republic denies.
FROM MINE TO CENTRIFUGE
The enriched uranium required for use in nuclear reactors or weapons is produced in centrifuges that spin uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) at high speeds. The UF6 is derived from yellow cake, a concentrate from uranium ore discovered in mines.
Iran's reserves of raw uranium now stood at around 4,400 tonnes, taking into account discoveries over the past 18 months, IRNA quoted the report as saying.
In another sign that Iran is intent on pushing forward with its nuclear ambitions, the report also said 16 sites had been identified for the construction of nuclear power stations.
It did not specify the exact locations but said they included coastal areas of the Gulf, Sea of Oman, Khuzestan province and the Caspian Sea.
Iranian authorities have long announced their desire to build more nuclear power plants for electricity production. Only one currently exists, in the southern city of Bushehr, and that has suffered several shutdowns in recent months.
The announcements could further complicate the search for a breakthrough in Kazakhstan, after three unsuccessful rounds of talks between the two sides in 2012.
"We are meeting all of our obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and we should be able to benefit from our rights. We don't accept more responsibilities and less rights," Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, was quoted as telling Saturday's conference.
In what Washington has called a provocative move, Iran is also installing new-generation centrifuges, capable of producing enriched uranium much faster, at a site in Natanz in the centre of the country.
Western diplomats say the P5+1 will reiterate demands for the suspension of uranium enrichment to a purity of 20 percent, the closure of Iran's Fordow enrichment plant, increased access for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and agreement to address concerns on existing uranium stockpiles.
In return, the latest embargoes on gold and metals trading with Iran would be lifted. Iran has criticized the offer and says its rights need to be fully recognized.
"If the P5+1 group wants to start constructive talks with Tehran it needs to present a valid proposal," said Jalili. "It needs to put its past errors to one side ... to win the trust of the Iranian nation."
In a statement issued before the Iranian announcement, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the six-power group wanted to enter a 'substantial negotiation process' over Tehran's nuclear program.
"The talks in Almaty are a chance which I hope Iran takes," he said.
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
PRETORIA: South African Paralympic icon and murder suspect Oscar Pistorius on Saturday said he was thankful for prayers offered to his family and that of his slain girlfriend, a day after he was freed on bail.
"Thank-you to every person that has prayed for both families, Osca" read a tweet posted by his brother Carl, in the track star's first public reaction, outside of his court appearances, since his arrest for the Valentine's Day killing of Reeva Steenkamp.
The Olympic "Blade Runner" was spending his first day out on bail with his family pending trial for the killing of his lover.
Pistorius was freed on a record one million rand (US$112,770) bail on Friday after eight days in custody and an emotionally charged four-day bail hearing.
"I would like Oscar to just compose himself and to have a normal day," his uncle Arnold Pistorius told the local Eyewitness News.
He will return to court later this year when a date will be set for trial for having shot dead his model girlfriend and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.
When contacted by AFP, his father Henke Pistorius declined to say how his son had slept at his uncle's house in Pretoria.
But a source close to the family told AFP late Friday that "the family just want time together. They haven't thought about anything except being together".
Pistorius claims he repeatedly shot at and killed his lover by mistake thinking she was a burglar.
Steenkamp's grieving parents, however, did not appear convinced.
"It doesn't matter how rich he is and how good his legal team is. He needs to live with himself if he lets his legal team lie for him," her father Barry told the Afrikaans-language daily Beeld.
Pistorius has assembled some of the best legal brains in South Africa to defend his case.
"He'll have to live with his conscience. But if he's telling the truth, I may forgive him one day," Steenkamp's father said.
But "if it didn't happen as he described it, he should suffer. And he will suffer ... only he knows."
Pistorius's family has sent flowers and a card to the Steenkamp family, but "what does that mean? Nothing," said June, Reeva's mother.
In addition to the bail cash he posted Friday afternoon, which experts say is among one of the highest ever set in South Africa, Pistorius had to surrender his passport and his firearms. The magistrate quadrupled the bail amount that initially had been proposed by the state.
He will have to report twice weekly to Pretoria's Brooklyn police on Mondays and Fridays. He was also ordered not to take alcohol or drugs.
Pistorius may also on Saturday hold talks with his trainer to get back on the track, despite being banned under his bail terms from competing outside South Africa.
"He is a professional athlete. He needs to keep his body in shape," the family source said.
His arrest on February 14 shocked the world and gripped South Africa, where he became a national hero after becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics last year.
The state charged him with the premeditated killing of 29-year-old Steenkamp.
If found guilty, Pistorius faces a possible life sentence.
Just hours before the magistrate's decision to release Pistorius on bail, arguing he was not a flight a risk and did not pose a danger to the public, defence lawyer Barry Roux appeared to concede that the star sprinter could be convicted on a lesser charge of culpable homicide.
That charge, which entails negligence rather than murderous intent, can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
The prosecution meanwhile said it was confident it had evidence to convict Pistorius.
Winning a bail application "doesn't mean an acquittal", said spokesman for the prosecution Medupe Simasiku, "We still believe we have evidence to convict Oscar Pistorius."
Mobile handset maker HTC has agreed to settle a complaint filed against it by the Federal Trade Commission accusing the company of failing to take "reasonable steps" to patch a security flaw in software running on its smartphones.
As part of this settlement, HTC has agreed to patch handsets that were left vulnerable to the security risks. And the company has agreed to develop a security program to address future security issues on its handsets.
HTC has already begun rolling out the patches to devices in the U.S., according to the FTC.
In its complaint, the commission accused HTC of failing to provide its engineering staff with adequate security training. The agency also claimed that HTC had not used "well-known and commonly accepted secure coding practices."
Specifically, the agency pointed to two logging applications offered by third-party companies used in the HTC devices. These applications -- Carrier IQ and HTC Loggers -- are also used by other handset and tablet makers. And they are used to track users' locations in order to improve the accuracy of location-based services.
Vulnerabilities in these software applications as well as others opened up millions of HTC customers to security risks, such as allowing malicious applications to send text messages, record audio, or even install additional malware on devices, the FTC said.
HTC has said in the past that none of its customers have been affected by these logging issues. And the company issued a patch to its devices starting in 2011. The company has not admitted or denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement and issued this statement:
Privacy and security are important, and we are committed to improving practices that help safeguard our customers' devices and data. Working with our carrier partners, we have addressed the identified security vulnerabilities on the majority of devices in the U.S. released after December 2010. We're working to roll out the remaining software updates now and recommend customers download them once available.
HTC's devices running Android 4.0 already include a fix to these security issues.
JACKSON, Ga. A 38-year-old inmate convicted of killing two college students in 1995 was executed in Georgia on Thursday, apologizing to the families of both victims before being injected at a state prison.
Andrew Allen Cook was pronounced dead at 11:22 p.m., about 14 minutes after he was injected with the sedative pentobarbital. He was the first inmate to be executed since the state changed its procedure in July from a three-drug combination to a single dose.
With his last words, he apologized to the families of Mercer University students Grant Patrick Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Lee Cartagena, 19, who were shot several times as they sat in a car at Lake Juliette, which is about 75 miles south of Atlanta. He said what he did was senseless.
"I'm sorry," Cook said as he was strapped to a gurney. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I can't even do it myself."
He also thanked his family for "their support, for being with me and I'm sorry I took so much from you all."
The Georgia Appeals Court on Wednesday temporarily stayed Cook's execution to consider a challenge to the state's lethal injection procedure. But the Georgia Supreme Court lifted the stay Thursday and all other appeals were exhausted.
Cook's lawyers have argued at various stages in their appeals of his death sentence that he suffered from mental illness and was being treated for depression up to the time of his death.
Mary Hendrickson, the mother of one of the victims, recently told television station WMAZ-TV in Macon she's been waiting 18 years for justice.
"I think that's what it was: the devil's work," she said. "When all that is going on, I was just thinking to myself, 'Well, the devil is not going to win. He's not going to win over my heart. He is not going to win."'
The single-drug injection began at about 11:08 p.m. Cook blinked his eyes a few times, and his eyes soon got heavy. His chest was heaving for about two or three minutes as his eyes closed. Not too long after, two doctors examined him and nodded and Carl Humphrey, warden of the state prison in Jackson, pronounced him dead.
Corrections officials said Thursday evening that Cook had received visits from family earlier in the day and ate the last meal he had requested -- steak, a baked potato, potato wedges, fried shrimp, lemon meringue pie and soda.
A jury sentenced Cook to death after he was convicted in the January 2, 1995 slayings at Lake Juliette. Cook wasn't charged until more than two years later. He confessed to his father, a Macon FBI agent who ended up testifying at his son's trial.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reached out to John Cook in December 1995 because they were interested in speaking to his son. When he called his then-22-year-old son to tell him the GBI wanted to talk to him, he had no idea the younger man was considered a suspect.
"I said, 'Andy, the GBI is looking for you concerning the Lake Juliette homicide. Do you know anything about it?"' John Cook testified at his son's trial in March 1998. "He said, 'Daddy, I can't tell you. You're one of them. ... You're a cop."'
Eventually, Andrew Cook told his father that he knew about the slayings, that he was there and that he knew who shot the couple, John Cook recalled.
"I just felt like the world was crashing in on me. But I felt maybe he was there and just saw what happened," he said. "I then asked, 'Did you shoot them?'
"After a pause on the phone, he said, 'Yes."'
As a law enforcement officer, John Cook said he was forced to call his supervisor and contacted the Monroe County sheriff.
At the trial, as he walked away from the stand, the distraught father mouthed "I'm sorry" to the victims' families who were sitting on the front row of the courtroom. Several members of both families acknowledged his apology.
Oscar Pistorius was granted bail today in a South African court, meaning he can be released from jail for the six to eight months before his trial for the allegedly premeditated killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Magistrate Desmond Nair, in reading his lengthy decision, said, "The issue before me is whether this accused, being who is and the assets he has [here], would seek to duck and dive all over the world." His conclusion: "I cannot find that he is a flight risk."
Nair said, "The accused has made a case to be released on bail."
PHOTOS: Paralympics Champion Charged in Killing
The judge also said he had to weigh whether Pistorius would be a danger to others. He noted that Pistorius has been accused of using foul language against people in arguments and once threatened to break someone's legs, but he said that was different from someone with an arrest record of violence.
"I appreciate that a person is dead, but I don't think that is enough," he said.
Nair also said he could not be influenced by the public's "shock and outrage" if Pistorius is released.
A member of Pistorius' defense team told ABC News, "he is going to be released today."
Despite the ruling, prosecutors displayed confidence, with one of them emerging from the courthouse today to say, "We still believe we have the evidence to convict Oscar Pistorius."
The court set bail at about $113,000 (1 million rand) and June 4 as the date for Pistorius' next court appearance.
The other bail conditions are: Pistorius cannot leave the country; he must hand over his passports; he cannot return to his home as long as it's an active crime scene; he needs permission to leave the Pretoria area; he must visit a police station on a daily basis and be available to a probation officer at all times via cellphone; he is not allowed any communication with prosecution witnesses; he cannot drink alcohol; and he must relinquish his firearms.
"Do you understand?" the magistrate asked him.
"Yes, sir," Pistorius replied.
Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images
'Blade Runner' Shocker: Lead Detective Replaced Watch Video
Speaking for the family, Arnold Pistorius, the Olympian's uncle, said, "Although we are obviously relieved that Oscar has been granted bail, this is still a very sad time for the family of Reeva and for us.
"We are grateful that the Magistrate recognized the validity and strength of our application. As the family, we are convinced that Oscar's version of what happened on that terrible night will prove to be true."
The judge's ruling came on the fourth and final day of the bail hearing for Pistorius, the Olympian accused of murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day.
Pistorius, who gained global acclaim for racing at the 2012 London Olympics, shot his model-girlfriend through a closed bathroom. He says he killed Reeva Steenkamp accidentally, but prosecutors alleged that he took a moment to put on his prosthetic legs, indicating that he thought out and planned to kill Steenkamp when he shot her three times through the bathroom door.
Pistorius sobbed today in court. Barry Roux, his defense attorney, said the prosecution misinterpreted the assigning of intent, meaning that the runner's intent to shoot at a supposed intruder in his home cannot be transferred to someone else who was shot -- in this case, Steenkamp.
"He did not want to kill Reeva," Roux told the court.
FULL COVERAGE: Oscar Pistorius Case
When Magistrate Nair, who overheard the bail hearing, asked Roux what the charges should be if Pistorius intended to kill an intruder, the defense attorney responded that he should be charged with culpable homicide.
Culpable homicide is defined in South Africa as "the unlawful negligent killing of a human being."
Roux also made light of the prosecution's argument that Pistorius is a flight risk, saying that every time the double-amputee goes through airport security, it causes a commotion. He said that Pistorius' legs need constant maintenance and he needs medical attention for his stumps.
The prosecution argued today that the onus was on Pistorius to provide his version of events, and his version was improbable.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel also spoke of Pistorius' fame and his disability, even relating him to Wikipedia founder Julian Assange, who is now confined to Ecuador's London Embassy, where he has been granted political asylum. "[Assange's] facial features are as well known as Mr. Pistorius' prostheses," Nel said.
Nel argued that Pistorius' prostheses do not set him apart, stating that it's no different to any other feature, and the court cannot be seen to treat people with disabilities accused of a crime, or famous people accused of crime, any differently.
Pistorius has said that in the early hours of Feb. 14 he was closing his balcony doors when he heard a noise from the bathroom. Fearing an intruder, and without his prosthetic legs on, he grabbed a gun from under his bed and fired through the closed bathroom door, he told the court.
But prosecutors say that's implausible, that the gun's holster was found under the side of the bed where Steenkamp slept, and that Pistorius would have seen she wasn't there. Prosecutors also say the angle at which the shots were fired shows Pistorius was already wearing his prosthetics when he fired.
PRETORIA (Reuters) - A South African court granted bail on Friday to Oscar Pistorius, charged with the murder of his girlfriend, after his lawyers argued the "Blade Runner" was too famous to pose a flight risk.
The decision by Magistrate Desmond Nair drew cheers from the athlete's family and supporters, although he appeared unmoved. Pistorius had broken down in tears earlier in the week-long hearing.
The court set bail at 1 million rand ($113,000) and postponed the case until June 4. Pistorius was ordered to hand over firearms and passports, avoid his home and all witnesses in the case, report to a police station twice a week and not to drink alcohol.
The decision followed a week of dramatic testimony about how the athlete shot dead Reeva Steenkamp at his luxury home near Pretoria in the early hours of February 14, Valentine's Day.
Prosecutors said Pistorius, 26, committed premeditated murder when he fired four shots into a locked bathroom door, hitting his girlfriend cowering on the other side. Steenkamp, 29, suffered gunshot wounds to her head, hip and arm.
Pistorius' defense team argued the killing was a tragic mistake, saying the athlete had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder. They said he was too famous to pose a flight risk and deserved bail to prepare for a case that has drawn worldwide attention.
"He can never go anywhere unnoticed," his lawyer Barry Roux told the court on Friday.
The 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic star's lower legs were amputated in infancy and he has raced on carbon fiber blades.
The Olympic and Paralympic star faces life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder.
Prosecutors had portrayed him as a cold-blooded killer.
"You cannot put yourself in the deceased's position. It must have been terrifying. It was not one shot. It was four shots," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said on Friday.
SHOTS AND SCREAMS
In an affidavit read out in court, Pistorius said he had been "deeply in love" with Steenkamp, and Roux said his client had no motive for the killing.
Pistorius contends he was acting in self-defense after mistaking Steenkamp for an intruder, and feeling vulnerable because he was unable to attach his prosthetic limbs in time to confront the perceived threat.
He said he grabbed a 9-mm pistol from under his bed and went into the bathroom. He said he fired into the locked door of the toilet, which adjoined the bathroom, in a blind panic in the mistaken belief the intruder was lurking inside.
Witnesses said they heard a gunshots and screams from the athlete's home on an upscale gated community near Pretoria. The community is surrounded by 3-metre-high stone walls and topped with an electric fence.
In a magazine interview a week before her death, published on Friday, Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, spoke about her three-month-old relationship with Pistorius.
"I absolutely adore Oscar. I respect and admire him so much," she told celebrity gossip magazine Heat. "I don't want anything to come in the way of his career."
Police pulled their lead detective off the case on Thursday after it was revealed he himself faces attempted murder charges for shooting at a minibus. He has been replaced by South Africa's top detective.
The arrest of Pistorius last week shocked those who had watched in awe last year as he reached the semi-final of the 400 meters race in the London Olympics.
The impact has been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who commanded respect from both black and white people, transcending the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.
PARIS : Air France-KLM said Friday its net loss deepened by nearly 50 percent last year to 1.2 billion euros (US$1.59 billion) as it began restructuring to cope with the rise of low-cost airlines.
However the airline group said that underlying prospects were improving despite heavy fuel and restructuring costs, with its operating loss narrowing to 300 million euros from 353 million euros in 2011.
This was better than the average figure expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg financial agency of a loss of 334.6 million euros.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the operating loss was reduced to 143 million euros from 202 million euros 12 months earlier.
Sales rose by 5.2 percent in 2012 to 25.6 billion euros.
The load factor, the percentage of seats occupied, rose by 1.2 points to a record 83.1 percent.
Financial director Philippe Calavia said that 2012 was an important year for the group because decisions about the structure and transformation of the company had been taken.
"Today, all of the foundations for an improvement of competitiveness are in place and will produce their full effects in 2013 and 2014," said Calavia.
Air France-KLM has suffered from a fall of competitiveness in recent years, under the pressure of low-cost operators and the rise of airlines in the Middle East and in Asia.
In January of last year, the company announced a vast restructuring plan called "Transform 2015."
It booked provisions of 471 million euros under this plan to cover expenses related to cutting its workforce in order to boost productivity.
Last year some 3,300 out 100,000 staff voluntarily left the airline group and most were not replaced, said AirFrance-KLM.
The plan targets 5,122 voluntary departures this year.
Wages have been frozen and the fleet of aircraft trimmed.
Air France-KLM executives said this led to an improvement in the results on long-haul routes, but that in the medium-haul sector they had yet to turn a corner.
Chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta said the operating loss on medium-haul activities deepened from 700 million euros in 2011 to 800 million euros in 2012 due to a worse performance at Air France.
Losses at Air France regional hubs at Marseille, Nice and Toulouse were to blame, and the company has already taken measures to improve their performance.
Air France recently reorganised its three French regional airlines into one company, HOP!, which will begin offering next month flights in France and Europe at prices from 55 euros one way to compete with low-cost airlines.
Air France also boasts another low-cost unit, Transavia France, which under the Transform 2015 plan is also gradually being expanded.
Air France-KLM said that net debt, which weighs heavily on the group, fell by 540 million euros to slightly less than 6.0 billion euros.
The company aims to have cut it by 2 billion euros over 2012-2014.
Air France-KLM executives were cautious about providing any guidance for 2013 given the poor outlook for Europe and market volatility.
The company's shares dove 2.7 percent to 8.10 euros in afternoon trading while the Paris market was up 1.82 percent overall.
A petition asking President Obama to oppose a new rule restricting cell phone owners from unlocking their devices has passed the 100,000 mark, meaning the White House is now obliged to respond.
The petition, which passed the threshold last night and now stands at over 102,000 signatures, protests a regulation from the Library of Congress that prohibits unlocking phones without the carrier's permission -- even when a customer's contract with the carrier has expired.
"I think it's terrific," said Derek Khanna, a Yale visiting fellow who was previously a Republican Hill staffer working on copyright reform. "I think it demonstrates that the American people care about free markets. They care about property rights. They don't appreciate laws that represent crony capitalism."
"Consumers will be forced to pay exorbitant roaming fees to make calls while traveling abroad," the petition says. "It reduces consumer choice, and decreases the resale value of devices that consumers have paid for in full."
Being prohibited from unlocking a phone that you purchased may seem bizarre, but the wireless carriers' lobbying arm, CTIA, asked for the new rule and has been defending it ever since it took effect on January 26. It "makes our streets just a little bit safer by making it harder for large scale phone trafficking operations to operate in the open and buy large quantities of phones, unlock them and resell them in foreign markets," CTIA general counsel Michael Altschul wrote in a blog post.
The petition is partly symbolic: the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office are part of the legislative branch, not the executive branch, meaning that Obama cannot overturn the decision even if he disagreed with it.
But Congress has the power to rewrite the law, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which hands the Library of Congress the effective power to regulate certain gadgets in the name of copyright law. And a nudge from the administration would speed up any DMCA legislative fixes.
Under the DMCA, Americans are broadly prohibited from "circumventing" copyright-related technologies, with criminal penalties targeting people who profit from doing it. But the DMCA gives the Library of Congress the authority to grant exemptions, which it did for cell phone unlocking utilities in 2006 and 2010.
Last fall, however, the Library of Congress reversed position after lobbying from CTIA, which represents carriers including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel. It ruled (PDF) the exemption was no longer necessary because there are no "adverse effects" relating to locked phones, and unlocked phones are now readily available.
The Library of Congress' regulatory flip-flop doesn't affect jail breaking or rooting mobile phones, which is currently permitted through at least 2015.
ST. LOUIS Blinding snow, at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, bombarded much of the nation's midsection Thursday, causing whiteout conditions, making major roadways all but impassable and shutting down schools and state legislatures.
Kansas was the epicenter of the winter storm, with parts of Wichita buried under 13 inches of still-falling snow, but winter storm warnings stretched eastern Colorado through Illinois. Freezing rain and sleet were forecast for southern Missouri, southern Illinois and Arkansas. St. Louis was expected to get all of the above — a treacherous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
CBS News weather consultant David Bernard reported on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that very heavy snow squalls were moving into Kansas City, Mo., where it looks like it's going to snow hard for about the entire day.
Forecast models show the snowstorm pivoting from the southwest part of Kansas to the northeast throughout the morning and afternoon hours, so Wichita would see improvement late Thursday, but northeastern Kansas and most of Missouri would be looking at heavy snowfall until at least Thursday night, Bernard reports.
Several accidents were blamed on icy and slushy roadways, including a wreck in Oklahoma that killed a teenager Wednesday. Most schools in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighboring states, were closed. Legislatures shut down early in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.
By midmorning Thursday, the snowfall was so heavy that Kansas City International Airport shut down. About 90 flights were also cancelled at Lambert Airport in St. Louis.
"Thundersnow" accompanied the winter storm in parts of Kansas and Missouri, which National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett said is the result of an unstable air mass, much like a thunderstorm.
"Instead of pouring rain, it's pouring snow," Truett said. And pouring was a sound description, with snow falling at a rate of 1 1/2 to 2 inches per hour in some spots.
While heavy in nature, the snow itself is powdery, said weather service meteorologist Suzanna Sortin. She said the Wichita area had received between 11 and 13 inches of snow by midmorning, and places like Salina, Russell and Great Bend were expected to get up to 18 inches of snow.
With that in mind, Kansas transportation officials — and even the governor — urged people to simply stay home. Drivers were particularly warned away from the Kansas Turnpike, as whiteout conditions meant low visibility for the length of the turnpike, from Oklahoma to Kansas City. Interstate 70, which runs the length of Kansas, was also snow-packed and icy.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback closed executive offices, except for essential personnel.
"Common sense is a good thing, and we'll make it through it," Brownback said.
Some travelers gave up, filling hotels rather than skating across dangerous roadways.
At the Econo Lodge in WaKeeney, Kan., assistant manager Michael Tidball said the 48-room hotel was full by 10 p.m. Wednesday and that most guests were opting to stay an extra day. He said travelers reported that snow was freezing on their windshields faster than wipers could keep them clean.
The blowing snow didn't stop everyone. Jesse Landin, feedlot manager at McClymont Feedyard in south-central Nebraska, was out early Thursday clearing a path with his tractor so trucks could put down feed for 11,000 head of cattle, which remained outside.
"They can handle it," Landin said of the cattle. "They got good winter hair coats."
Near the Nebraska-Kansas border, as much as 8 inches fell overnight, while western Nebraska saw about half of that amount, National Weather Service forecaster Shawn Jacobs said.
Some parts of Oklahoma also had up to 8 inches of snow by Thursday morning, and the weather caused a fatal wreck Wednesday. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said 18-year-old Cody Alexander of Alex, Okla., died when his pickup truck skidded on a slushy state highway into oncoming traffic and struck a truck.
In northern Arkansas, a school bus crashed Wednesday on a steep, snowy country road, leaving three students and the driver with minor injuries.
The weather service warned that freezing rain could lead to a half-inch or more of ice accumulating Thursday in central and northern Arkansas. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said "significant ice accumulations" are expected in far northern Arkansas.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Thursday morning and activated the State Emergency Operations Center. The declaration allows state agencies to coordinate directly with cities and counties to provide emergency services. The Missouri Department of Transportation said Interstate 44 near Springfield was completely covered with ice Thursday morning, and traffic was moving very slow.
In Jefferson City, Mo., off-duty police sergeant Randy Werner had been perched atop a hotel for more than 24 hours as a publicity stunt for a charitable fundraiser.
As large blowing snowflakes pelted him in the face Thursday morning, Werner defiantly declared: "The weather's not bothering me, I can assure you." He then acknowledged that was a lie.
"It's blustery," he said. Werner planned to cut his camp out short, having raised less than a third of his goal.
The St. Louis region prepared with some uncertainty. Depending on the temperature and the trajectory of the storm, St. Louis could get snow, freezing rain, ice, sleet or all or some of the above. Crews were hoping to spread enough salt to keep at least the major roadways moving.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said precipitation is generally expected to drop off as the storm pushes east. Chicago and parts of Indiana, he said, could get about 2 inches of snow and some sleet.
A drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas strip early this morning by the occupants of a Range Rover SUV, who shot at the occupants of a Maserati, caused a multi-car accident and car explosion that left three dead.
Police said that they believe a group of men riding in a black Range Rover Sport SUV pulled up alongside a Maserati around 4:20 a.m. today and fired shots into the car, striking the driver and passenger, according to Officer Jose Hernandez of the Las Vegas Metropolitan police department.
The Maserati then swerved through an intersection, hitting at least four other cars. One car that was struck, a taxi with a driver and passenger in it, caught on fire and burst into flames, trapping both occupants, Hernandez said.
Raw Video: Las Vegas Shooting Caught on Tape Watch Video
The SUV then fled the scene, according to cops.
The driver of the Maserati died from his gunshot wounds at University Medical Center shortly after the shooting, according to Sgt. John Sheahan.
The driver and passenger of the taxi both died in the car fire.
At least three individuals, including the passenger of the Maserati, were injured during the shooting and car crashes and are being treated at UMC hospital.
Police are scouring surveillance video from the area, including from the strip's major casinos, to try and identify the Range Rover and its occupants, according to police.
They do not yet know why the Range Rovers' occupants fired shots at the Maserati or whether the cars had local plates or were from out of state.
No bystanders were hit by gunfire, Hernandez said.
"We're currently looking for a black Range Rover Sport, with large black rims and some sort of dealership advertising or advertisement plates," Hernandez said. "This is an armed and dangerous vehicle."
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority had no immediate comment about the safety of tourists in the wake of the shooting today.
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The fate of seven French tourists seized in Cameroon by suspected Nigerian Islamist militants was unclear on Thursday after government officials denied French media reports that they had been freed.
The hostages, four children and three adults, were captured this week while on an excursion to the Waza national park near Cameroon's border with Nigeria.
Several French media reported earlier on Thursday that the hostages had been found alive in a house in northern Nigeria and freed.
"The hostages are safe and sound and are in the hands of Nigerian authorities," BFMTV quoted a Cameroon army officer as saying.
"This is a crazy rumor that we cannot confirm. We do not know where is it coming from," Cameroon Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said by telephone from the capital Yaounde.
Sagir Musa, a spokesman for Nigeria's military, told Reuters the report was "not true."
Kader Arif, France's minister for veterans' affairs, told parliament on Thursday that the seven hostages had been released but retracted his statement minutes later, saying he had been quoting media reports and there was no official confirmation.
It was the first case of foreigners being seized by suspected Islamist militants in the mainly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony.
The region is seen as being within the operational sphere of Nigerian sect Boko Haram and another Islamist militant group, Ansaru.
The threat to French nationals in the region has grown since France deployed thousands of troops to nearby Mali to root out al Qaeda-linked Islamists who took control of the country's north last year.
The kidnapping in Cameroon brought to 15 the number of French citizens being held in West Africa.
French diplomatic sources said the government would not confirm the hostages had been released until it had physical proof, or until they were in French hands.
(Reporting By Emile Picy and Nicholas Vinocur in Paris; Additional reporting by Joe Brock in Abuja and Bate Felix and John Irish in Dakar; Editing by Pravin Char and Tom Pfeiffer)
SOFIA: Bulgaria on Thursday became the latest European country to confirm the presence of horsemeat in products labelled as beef that were taken off shelves last week.
"Results from the two tests taken from the already banned products were positive for horsemeat, indicating 80 percent and 50 percent content," Bulgaria's food safety agency said.
The tests by a German laboratory were ordered last week when 86 kilogrammes (190 pounds) of "beef" lasagne dishes were withdrawn from a supermarket chain that was not identified.
The agency proceeded to destroy the dishes on Thursday, adding that it also sent for DNA testing five new samples from other products.
Some 30 samples from Bulgarian meat products were also tested in Bulgarian laboratories over the past 10 days, and were all negative, it added.
Horsemeat labelled as beef has already been detected in products across Europe in recent days in a major scandal that has even reached Hong Kong.
An investigation pointed to French firm Spanghero as the main culprit for mislabelling meat bought in Romania through a complicated network of traders in Cyprus and The Netherlands.
Since then, supermarket chains across Europe have removed millions of "beef" products while tests are carried out.
China is refuting a report that names its military as the source of recent cyberattacks against the U.S.
A report released this week by U.S. security firm Mandiant linked the People's Liberation Army to a large number of cyberattacks against U.S. corporations, government agencies, and other organizations. The report specifically pointed the finger at Chinese military Unit 61398, noting that digital forensic evidence led investigators to the building housing that unit.
China's response?
As expected, the government has criticized the report, citing a lack of hard evidence. In a press conference held by China's Department of Defense News Affairs, Defense Ministry representative Geng Yansheng challenged Mandiant's findings.
Yansheng claimed the report relied on the use of IP addresses to trace the attacks to China. But such addresses are commonly stolen and used by hackers, he noted. Therefore, it's difficult to know the exact source of a hacking attempt.
"Everyone knows that the use of usurped IP addresses to carry out hacking attacks happens on an almost daily basis," he said, according to Reuters.
Yansheng also asserted that there is no standard international definition of what constitutes a cyberattack.
"There is no legal evidence behind the report subjectively inducing that the everyday gathering of online (information) is online spying," he said, Reuters added.
Finally, Yansheng called it irresponsible for Mandiant to publish such a report since cyberattacks are conducted anonymously, leaving uncertainty as to their source.
Turning the tables to portray China as the victim, Yansheng also said his country is one of the main targets of cyberattacks.
A Google translated version of the press release has Yansheng saying, "According to statistics, the Chinese armed forces access to the Internet user terminal suffered a large number of foreign attacks[. A]ccording to the IP address of the display...a considerable number of attack sources [were] from the United States, but we did not...accuse the U.S. side."
Yansheng also reiterated the claim that China forbids hacker attacks and that the government has always cracked down on such criminal activities.
Despite China's protestations, the United States remains concerned over the reported cyberattacks. The U.S. government is "eyeing fines, penalties, and other trade restrictions" against the country, according to the Associated Press, even as it pursues more diplomatic channels.
"We have repeatedly raised our concerns at the highest levels about cybertheft with senior Chinese officials, including in the military, and we will continue to do so," Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the White House's National Security Council, said in a statement. "The United States and China are among the world's largest cyberactors, and it is vital that we continue a sustained, meaningful dialogue and work together to develop an understanding of acceptable behavior in cyberspace."
PRETORIA, South Africa The spokesman for the state prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius case says there was an error in a detective's testimony when he identified a substance police found in the athlete's bedroom as testosterone.
19 Photos
Olympic athlete charged with murder
Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecution Agency, said it is too early to identify the substance as it is still undergoing laboratory tests.
Detective Warrant Officer Hilton Botha, the investigating officer, said earlier Wednesday in court that police found testosterone and needles in the bedroom of the Olympic athlete.
Simasiku said it is "not certain" what the substance is.
Pistorius' defense said the substance found was not a steroid or a banned substance but an herbal remedy.
Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder for the Feb. 14 shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
The discovery of the alleged testosterone had raised the possibility that the double-amputee Olympian and Paralympian might have been using performance-enhancing substances.
Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux had slammed Botha's testimony earlier, saying police "take every piece of evidence and try to extract the most possibly negative connotation and present it to the court."
At the second day of a bail hearing for Olympian Oscar Pistorius, a South African investigator who arrived at the scene of the Feb. 14 fatal shooting said that Reeva Steenkamp was shot from a high angle, which prosecutors say contradicts the runner's account that he was not wearing his prosthetics when he shot his girlfriend to death.
Pistorius, a double-amputee who runs on carbon-fiber blades, appeared in court for the second day in a row after his arrest in the death of girlfriend Steenkamp at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa.
Read Oscar Pistorius' Full Statement to the Court
PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing
Arresting officer Hilton Botha told the court today that the 26-year-old was standing in the master bathroom when he shot the supermodel, who was crouched in a defensive position behind a locked door in a smaller powder room. He also said that the bullets that were fired had been fired from high up, and the bullets seemed to be coming in a downward direction.
"[The angle] seems to me down. Fired down," Botha told the court.
Pistorius said Tuesday that he went to the bathroom and fired through the door before putting on his prosthetic legs.
Oscar Pistorius: Defense Presents New Evidence Watch Video
'Blade Runner' Appears in Court to Hear Murder Charges Watch Video
He said he mistakenly shot his girlfriend, thinking she was an intruder.
Prosecutors also said that they found two boxes of testosterone in the bedroom, although the defense disputes that, saying it's just herbal supplements.
The court also heard that a witness, someone about 2,000 feet away from Pistorius' home, heard nonstop fighting the morning of the shooting.
"We have a witness who says she heard non-stop shouting and fighting between 2 and 3 a.m.," said prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who added that another witness saw lights on at the time of the gunshots.
Pistorius says he spent a quiet night with Steenkamp before the shooting.
Nel said that Pistorius' actions and phone calls on the night indicate pre-planning, and that there was a "deliberate aiming of shots at the toilet from about 1.5 meters [about 5 feet]."
He says Steenkamp was shot on the right side of her body.
Officer Botha also said Pistorius should be considered a flight risk because investigators discovered that he has offshore bank accounts and a house in Italy.
"I think it would be hard to get him back," Botha told the court. "This is a very serious crime, shooting an unarmed woman behind closed door."
Prosecutors also say they may file more charges for unlicensed ammunition, after a special-caliber .38 round was found in a safe in Pistorius' home.
Botha told the court today that he arrived at Pistorius' home at 4:15 a.m. Valentine's Day to find Steenkamp already dead, dressed in a white shorts and a black vest, and covered in towels. The only thing that Pistorius said was, 'I thought it was a burglar,'" according to Botha.
The 26-year-old sprinter Tuesday denied that he willfully killed Steenkamp, telling the court that he shot the woman through his bathroom door because he believed she was an intruder.
Botha said today that he attended Steenkamp's postmortem, and that she had three entrance wounds: one on the head, one in the elbow and one in the hip.
Describing the scene to the court, Botha said that the shots fired into the bathroom were aimed at the toilet bowl.
The shooter "would have to walk into the bathroom and turn directly at the door to shoot at the toilet the way the bullets went," he said.
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's government resigned on Wednesday after violent nationwide protests against high power prices, joining a long list of European administrations felled by austerity during Europe's debt crisis.
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, a former bodyguard who swept to power in 2009 on pledges to root out corruption and raise living standards in the European Union's poorest member, now faces a tough task to prop up eroding support ahead of a probable early election.
Wage and pension freezes and tax hikes have bitten deep in a country where living standards are less than half the EU average and tens of thousands of Bulgarians have rallied in protests that have turned violent, chanting "Mafia" and "Resign".
On Tuesday, 11 people were hospitalized - including one man bleeding heavily from the head - and 11 arrested after protesters threw flares at police, who fought demonstrators with shields and truncheons.
"I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people," Borisov, who began his career guarding the Black Sea state's communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, said as he announced his resignation on Wednesday.
Parliament is expected to accept the resignation later in the day.
The spark for the protests was high electricity bills, after the government raised prices by 13 percent last July. But it quickly spilled over into wider frustration with Borisov's domineering manner and unpredictable decision making.
The prime minister made sacrifices in an attempt to cling on, sacking his finance minister, cutting power prices and risking a diplomatic row with the Czech Republic by punishing foreign-owned companies, a move that conflicted with EU norms on protection of investors and due process.
Borisov's rightist GERB party is the dominant faction in parliament but will not take part in talks to form a new government, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said, indicating that an election planned for July will now be held early.
"He made my day," student Borislav Hadzhiev, 21, in central Sofia said, commenting on Borisov's resignation. "The truth is that we're living in an extremely poor country."
IRE
GERB's popularity has held up well and it still leads, just, in the polls, largely because budget cutbacks have been relatively mild compared with those in many other European countries. Salaries and pensions were frozen rather than cut.
But the last opinion poll, taken before protests grew last weekend already showed the opposition Socialists were nearly tied with the ruling party and analysts said the protests had boosted the Socialists' chances.
Unemployment in the country of 7.3 million is far from the highs hit in the decade after the end of communism but remains at 11.9 percent and average salaries are stuck at around 800 levs ($550) a month.
Millions have emigrated in search of a better life, leaving swathes of the country depopulated and little hope for those who remain.
The measures announced this week has also put the country on a collision course with the EU and financial investors without easing the tension at home.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas demanded an explanation from Bulgaria and accused it of "politicizing" the power sector by threatening to revoke the electricity distribution license of central Europe's largest listed company CEZ, 70 percent of which is owned by the Czech state.
There have also been fines for another Czech company, Energo-Pro and Austria's EVN.
The precedent is unlikely to encourage other foreign investors, who already have to navigate complicated bureaucracy and widespread corruption and organized crime if they want to take advantage of Bulgaria's 16-percent flat tax rate.
"The resignation is the only responsible move," said Kantcho Stoychev, an analyst with pollster Gallup International. "It also gives Borisov some legitimacy to stay in political life in the future, despite the violent police actions last night."
(Additional reporting by Angel Krasimirov; editing by Patrick Graham)
SINGAPORE: Travellers have welcomed the move to build a high-speed rail link between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Industry players, however, said the impact on buses and airlines will depend on the future rail link's fare structure.
Presently, those travelling by bus between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur pay as little as $25 per trip for the five-hour ride.
This is in contrast to just 90 minutes on the high-speed rail link to be built by 2020.
Some say they do not mind paying more - for speed and predictability on the rail link.
"It is more secure and more safety. And the timing will be more fixed."
"I'm expecting about S$80 to S$90 per trip, per one-way trip."
The Express Bus Agencies Association says the rail option may have a "tremendous impact" on the industry, and called on operators to be "prepared to re-strategise".
This includes complementing the rail service, by offering services to smaller towns from the stations along the rail line.
Still, it feels bus operators will retain some market share.
Mr Sebastian Yap, who is from the Association's Terminal Services sub-committee elaborates.
"We have to look at the fare structure, to me the high speed train cannot be cheaper than bus, there's no way about it. So in terms of the pricing, I think we still have a bit of a competitive edge," he said.
Flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur can take up about 40 minutes to an hour, with budget carriers offering cheap fares.
But industry watchers say budget carriers are less likely to see an impact, compared to full-service ones.
Mr Siva Govindasamy, Managing Editor from Flight global Asia, said: "The bigger impact could actually be on the full-service carriers, because passengers - the premium passengers, are the ones who would want to get from point A to point B comfortably.
"So if this high-speed rail system offers a premium proposition for these business people who need to get from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore comfortably and very fast, then I think it's the full-service carriers who could have a bigger impact, because the leisure passengers are still price-sensitive.
"The budget airlines cater to these leisure passengers, so they might not have an impact, as trends worldwide point that while the high-speed rail system - while efficient, are more expensive and that's the case here, then it might affect the full service carriers more than the budget carriers."
Mr Logan Velaitham, CEO of AirAsia Singapore, said: "This high-speed rail introduction to be implemented in 2020 is not going to be a big challenge to us because being a low-cost carrier, the biggest competitor for us is cost itself and if we keep our costs low as much as possible.
"Therefore we can compete against any form of alternative travel mode that is coming in. No doubt there will be some market shifting over to this mode of travel given the fact, the convenience they want to have or a stopover along the way which is hard beyond our reach."
When contacted, Tiger Airways said it will "re-strategise accordingly should business conditions change or new opportunities arise."
Singapore's Transport Ministry said that the Iskandar- Malaysia Joint Ministerial Committee will study details of the system including its alignment.
Separately, Malaysia's Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha said that based on initial study, the line may have five new stations stopping by Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Iskandar Johor, before heading to Singapore.
The stops are Seremban (Negeri Sembilan), Ayer Keroh (Melaka), Muar, Batu Pahat and Iskandar Johor (johor).
Apple today said it too was targeted as part of the string of hacking efforts on companies and news agencies.
The iPhone and Mac maker today told Reuters that hackers targeted computers used by its employees, but that "there was no evidence that any data left Apple."
In a statement, Apple said it discovered malware that made use of a vulnerability in the Java plug-in, and that it was sourced from a site for software developers.
Reuters says Apple plans to release a security update later today to protect user computers. CNET has reached out to the company for additional information and will update this post when we know more.
Apple joins a list of companies that includes Facebook, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, as targets of a group of hackers believed to originate from China.
A report Monday by The New York Times claimed that an "overwhelming percentage" of the cyberattacks on U.S. corporations, government agencies, and organizations all came from an office building in Shanghai with ties to the People's Liberation Army, information that remains unconfirmed and flatly denied by Chinese authorities.
The hack itself stemmed from an attack on The New York Times, with attackers stealing corporate passwords of its employees as well as spying on personal computers owned by employees. Apple says only "a small number of systems" were infected before being isolated.
Oscar Pistorius in court following his bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. /AP Photo
Oscar Pistorius, the famed double amputee South African Olympian, has been charged by prosecutors with intentionally murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria home.
Play Video
Pistorius: I thought girlfriend was a burglar
He has said it was an accident, that he mistook her for a burglar when he fired several rounds through a locked bathroom door with a 9mm pistol. When a judge ruled Tuesday that he could not outright dismiss the prosecution's premeditated murder charge, Pistorius told his side of the story to the court on the same day Steenkamp's family laid her to rest in coastal Port Elizabeth.
The following are the portions of the statement Pistorius' lawyers submitted to the court via an affadavit that offer his view of the tragic events of this past Valentine's Day:
16.2 I have been informed that I am accused of having committed the offence of murder. I deny the aforesaid allegation in the strongest terms.
16.3 I am advised that I do not have to deal with the merits of the case for purposes of the bail application. However, I believe that it is appropriate to deal with the merits in this application, particularly in view of the State's contention that I planned to murder Reeva. Nothing can be further from the truth and I have no doubt that it is not possible for the State to present objective facts to substantiate such an allegation, as there is no substance in the allegation. I do not know on what different facts the allegation of a premeditated murder could be premised and I respectfully request the State to furnish me with such alleged facts in order to allow me to refute such allegations.
16.4 On the 13th of February 2013 Reeva would have gone out with her friends and I with my friends. Reeva then called me and asked that we rather spend the evening at home. I agreed and we were content to have a quiet dinner together at home. By about 22h00 on 13 February 2013 we were in our bedroom. She was doing her yoga exercises and I was in bed watching television. My prosthetic legs were off. We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I know she felt the same way. She had given me a present for Valentine's Day but asked me only to open it the next day.
16.5 After Reeva finished her yoga exercises she got into bed and we both fell asleep.
16.6 I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering homes with a view to commit crime, including violent crime. I have received death threats before. I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before. For that reason I kept my firearm, a 9 mm Parabellum, underneath my bed when I went to bed at night.
16.7 During the early morning hours of 14 February 2013, I woke up, went onto the balcony to bring the fan in and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains. I heard a noise in the bathroom and realised that someone was in the bathroom.
16.8 I felt a sense of terror rushing over me. There are no burglar bars across the bathroom window and I knew that contractors who worked at my house had left the ladders outside. Although I did not have my prosthetic legs on I have mobility on my stumps.
16.9 I believed that someone had entered my house. I was too scared to switch a light on.
16.10 I grabbed my 9mm pistol from underneath my bed. On my way to the bathroom I screamed words to the effect for him/them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police. It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed.
16.11 I noticed that the bathroom window was open. I realised that the intruder/s was/were in the toilet because the toilet door was closed and I did not see anyone in the bathroom. I heard movement inside the toilet. The toilet is inside the bathroom and has a separate door.
16.12 It filled me with horror and fear of an intruder or intruders being inside the toilet. I thought he or they must have entered through the unprotected window. As I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, I knew I had to protect Reeva and myself. I believed that when the intruder/s came out of the toilet we would be in grave danger. I felt trapped as my bedroom door was locked and I have limited mobility on my stumps.
16.13 I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police. She did not respond and I moved backwards out of the bathroom, keeping my eyes on the bathroom entrance. Everything was pitch dark in the bedroom and I was still too scared to switch on a light. Reeva was not responding.
16.14 When I reached the bed, I realised that Reeva was not in bed. That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva who was in the toilet. I returned to the bathroom calling her name. I tried to open the toilet door but it was locked. I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help.
16.15 I put on my prosthetic legs, ran back to the bathroom and tried to kick the toilet door open. I think I must then have turned on the lights. I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cricket bat to bash open the toilet door. A panel or panels broke off and I found the key on the floor and unlocked and opened the door. Reeva was slumped over but alive.
16.16 I battled to get her out of the toilet and pulled her into the bathroom. I phoned Johan Stander ("Stander") who was involved in the administration of the estate and asked him to phone the ambulance. I phoned Netcare and asked for help. I went downstairs to open the front door.
16.17 I returned to the bathroom and picked Reeva up as I had been told not to wait for the paramedics, but to take her to hospital. I carried her downstairs in order to take her to the hospital. On my way down Stander arrived. A doctor who lives in the complex also arrived. Downstairs, I tried to render the assistance to Reeva that I could, but she died in my arms.
16.18 I am absolutely mortified by the events and the devastating loss of my beloved Reeva. With the benefit of hindsight I believe that Reeva went to the toilet when I went out on the balcony to bring the fan in. I cannot bear to think of the suffering I have caused her and her family, knowing how much she was loved. I also know that the events of that tragic night were as I have described them and that in due course I have no doubt the police and expert investigators will bear this out.
Olympian Oscar Pistorius today denied that he willfully killed his girlfriend, telling a South African court that he shot the woman through his bathroom door because he believed she was an intruder.
Pistorius, 26 and a double-amputee Olympian, was charged today with premeditated murder, or a Schedule 6 offense, which under South African law limits his chances for parole if convicted.
"I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated murder because I had no intention to kill my girlfriend," Pistorius said in a statement, read by his lawyer.
"I deny the accusation," he said. "Nothing can be further from the truth that I planned the murder of my girlfriend."
PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing
Pistorius, who gained worldwide fame for running on carbon-fiber blades and competing against able-bodied runners at the Olympics, is accused of shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 14.
In a statement read by his lawyer, the runner said he and Steenkamp went to bed together before he was awoken by a noise he thought was an intruder coming from the bathroom.
Filled with a "sense of terror," he removed the 9-mm pistol he kept hidden under his bed and, without putting on his prosthetic legs, began shooting through the bathroom door, according to his statement.
Oscar Pistorius: Was Shooting Premeditated? Watch Video
Conflicting Theories Muddle Oscar Pistorius Murder Case Watch Video
Oscar Pistorius Allegedly Fought the Night of Shooting Watch Video
"I was scared and didn't switch on the light," he said. "I got my gun and moved towards the bathroom. I screamed at the intruder because I did not have my legs on. I felt vulnerable. I fired shots through the bathroom door and told Reeva to call police.
"I walked back to the bed and realized Reeva was not in bed. It's then it dawned on me it could be her in there," he said.
That's when he realized Steenkamp was not in bed, he said in the statement. Fearing she was inside the bathroom, he says, he broke down the door using a cricket bat and carried the woman outside, where he called for help, and she soon died.
Excerpts of Prosecutor's Case Against Pistorius
Pistorius appeared in court today for the first time since his Valentine's Day arrest, as prosecutors laid out their case, insisting that the runner could not have mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder.
"[Pistorius] shot and killed an innocent woman," Gerrie Nel, the senior state prosecutor, said in court, adding that there is "no possible explanation to support" the notion that Pistorius thought Steenkamp was an intruder.
Police responding to neighbors' calls about shouting and gunshots at Pistorius' home in the guarded and gated complex in the South African capital discovered Steenkamp's body. A 9-mm pistol was recovered at the home.
Prosecutors said Steenkamp had arrived at the house with the expectation of spending the night with Pistorius. They said that Steenkamp was shot while in the bathroom, which is about 21 feet from the main bedroom, and that the two rooms are linked by a passage. The door to the toilet was broken down from the outside, prosecutors said, implying that the bathroom door had been locked.
Prosecutors believe it's a case of premeditated murder because, they say, Pistorius had to stop, put on his prosthetic legs, grab a gun and then walk 21 feet to a bathroom.
The premeditated murder charge means that he would likely be sentenced to life in prison if convicted, and that he is likely to be denied bail, which is expected to be decided later today.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro would comfortably win a presidential election should his boss Hugo Chavez's cancer force him out of power, according to an opinion poll.
The first survey on such a scenario, by local pollster Hinterlaces, gave Maduro a potential 50 percent of votes, compared to 36 percent for opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
Chavez returned to Venezuela on Monday after a long stay in Cuba to continue treatment at home for the disease that is jeopardizing his 14-year socialist rule of the South American OPEC nation.
He has named 50-year-old former bus driver and union activist Maduro as his preferred successor. But Capriles, 40, a center-left state governor who lost to Chavez in a presidential vote last year, would likely run again.
Chavez still has not said a word in public since his December 11 operation in Cuba, and Venezuelans were debating on Tuesday the various possible scenarios after his homecoming - from full recovery, to resignation, or even death from the cancer.
Should Chavez be forced out, Venezuela's constitution stipulates an election must be held within 30 days.
Capriles, who crossed swords with Hinterlaces at various points during the presidential election, again mocked its director, Oscar Schemel, as being biased against him.
"That man is not a pollster, he's on the government's payroll," Capriles told local TV.
"He said in December I would lose the Miranda governorship," he added, referring to his defeat of government heavyweight Elias Jaua, now foreign minister, in that local race.
Opinion surveys are notoriously controversial and divergent in Venezuela, with both sides routinely accusing pollsters of being in the pocket of the other.
Hinterlaces surveyed 1,230 people between January 30-February 9.
FRANKFURT: German luxury car maker BMW is recalling about 750,000 cars worldwide over potential electrical problems, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The recall affects mainly about 500,000 cars in the United States, specifically various versions of its 1-Series and 3-Series cars built between March 2007 and July 2011 and its Z4 model built between March 2009 and June 2011.
Cars sold in Canada, Japan and South Africa were also affected, the spokesman said.
The recall is the results of problems with a battery cable connector which could break and cause a loss of electrical power to the vehicle, causing the car to stall unexpectedly and even crash.
The Twitter account associated with the fast-food chain Burger King was suspended after an apparent hacking that defaced the page with messages that the account had been sold to rival McDonald's.
The @BurgerKing account name was changed today to "McDonalds" and the Golden Arches' familiar logo was added to the page, as was a message that the account had been sold to McDonald's "because the whopper flopped."
The page has since been taken down, but images of the defacement are still visible on Web cache.
Before the feed's suspension, hackers posted messages to Burger King's some 83,000 followers that included racial epithets.
The online hacktivist collective Anonymous appeared to take responsibility for the hack in a tweet that mentioned a new operation dubbed #OpMadCow, although it was not immediately clear what the aim of that campaign was.
CNET has contacted Burger King and will update this report when we learn more.
LOS ANGELES Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships from the `80s Showtime dynasty to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday, his assistant said.
Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant. He was 80.
23 Photos
Jerry Buss: 1933-2013
He'd been hospitalized for cancer, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said.
Various Los Angeles media reported late last week that several current and former Lakers players had visited Buss in the hospital, including Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Under Buss' leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California's most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure.
Few owners in sports history can even approach Buss' accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his 32 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA's winningest franchise since he bought the club.
Few owners have ever been more beloved by their players than Buss, who always referred to the Lakers as his extended family. Working with front-office executives Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA's highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.
Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, adding justification for his induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Magic Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers' run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their glamorous Showtime style.
Jackson then led Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant to a threepeat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers' mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010.
Although Buss was proudest of his two hands full of NBA title rings, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool — and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle — for his entire public life.
The father of six rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches, poker tournaments — and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch.
Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money largely from his Santa Monica real-estate ventures, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and both clubs' arena — the Forum — from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.
The Lakers were recently valued at $900 million by Forbes, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, even receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.
Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan — another deal that was ahead of its time.
Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in Wyoming and attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took an abrupt turn into wealth and sports.
The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer.
Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss' love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers — who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 — into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.
"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."
Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast cool.
Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and chiseled good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.
Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.
Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.
Shaq and Kobe didn't reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls' six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG's state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.
After the Lakers traded O'Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.
Through the Lakers' frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 — with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz — prompted him to cut down on his partying.
Buss owned the NHL's Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss' ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.
Buss' children moved into leadership roles with the Lakers in their father's later years. Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel and the second of Buss' six children, has taken over much of the club's primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie is a longtime executive on the franchise's business side — and Jackson's longtime companion.
Yet Jerry Buss served two terms as President of the NBA's Board of Governors, and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time
