Syria Launches Deadly Airstrikes in Damascus Suburbs





BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government continued an intensifying campaign of airstrikes against rebels in the suburbs of Damascus, the capital, on Monday, with sharply contrasting accounts of the effects: the government reported progress against “armed terrorists,” while anti-government activists said that 15 children were among more than 30 people killed in the past two days.




A boy’s naked body, thickly coated in gray dust, lay prone amid rubble in a video that activists said was shot on Monday in Moadamiyeh, a suburb southwest of Damascus, on a street echoing with high-pitched wails and crammed with cinder blocks from collapsed facades. Upstairs, in a room that no longer had walls, a woman could briefly be seen carrying the motionless body of a child.


A second video showed the bodies of half a dozen children laid out on blood-soaked blankets, including one curly-headed toddler of no more than two. "Let the whole world observe, those are the victims," a narrator said on the video. "Those are the ones Bashar al-Assad is fighting,” he added, referring to the Syrian president. The origins of the video could not be independently verified.


The government’s SANA news service, however, said that airstrikes had killed scores of “armed terrorists” in the Damascus suburbs, including eight men it identified by name.


The government has mounted days of intense attacks to push rebels out of Daraya and neighboring Moadamiyeh, trying to increase the buffer zone around the nearby presidential palace and the neighborhood of Kafr Souseh, where some key security offices are.


The continued carnage is taking place against a backdrop of Syrian and international concern that the conflict could stretch out for months without a political settlement — and as Russia’s foreign minister urged the Syrian opposition to make a more serious effort to reach one by offering concrete proposals to the government.


Neither Mr. Assad nor his opponents have offered proposals that have any hope of being accepted by the other side.  Mr. Assad refuses to talk to his armed opponents and the opposition insists that Mr. Assad’s exit is a precondition for talks.


The airstrike in Moadamiyeh on Monday killed at least 13 people, including five women and eight children, and rescuers were trying to  recover more people from beneath rubble, according to the antigovernment Syrian Observatory for Human rights. The nearly two-year uprising  has killed more than 60,000 people, according to United Nations estimates. It began as a peaceful movement for democratic reforms and became a civil war after the government fired on unarmed protesters.


International groups have been increasingly sounding the alarm that the world is not responding sufficiently to Syria’s humanitarian crisis.


International humanitarian efforts need to be increased quickly to handle the unrelenting exodus of refugees from Syria, which has reached more than 600,000, as well as more than 2 million people displaced inside the country, the New York-based International Rescue Committee said in a report released Monday.


The committee urged nations to meet the United Nation’s call for $1.5 billion to help refugees. About 70 percent of Syrian refugees are living not in camps but dispersed in cities and towns, the report said, arguing that these “urban refugees” are “grossly underserved” because they are hard to locate and track. Desperate families end up in crushing debt, without money for food, rent or medical care, leading women to join the sex trade and parents to sell daughters for early marriage or place children in exploitative jobs, the report said.


 The report also emphasized a little-discussed issue, the threat of rape, which many families interviewed in Jordan and Lebanon cited as a primary reason for their flight.


 “Many women and girls relayed accounts of being attacked in public or in their homes, primarily by armed men,” the report said. “These rapes, sometimes by multiple perpetrators, often occur in front of family members.”


 The report said that rape and sexual assault have been underreported because of social stigma that can be directed at victims and their families.


Hania Mourtada contributed reporting.



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E-Ink on a Smartphone? This Android Phone Has 2 Displays






Times Up


You can use the rear of the YotaPhone as a clock, or to display wallpapers.


Click here to view this gallery.






[More from Mashable: Hands On With Pebble, the Internet’s Favorite Smart Watch]


LAS VEGAS — What if your phone had two displays? Announced in mid-December, YotaPhone aims to change how people use their smartphones by bringing together a full-color LCD display on one side of the phone and an e-ink display on the other.


I caught up with Yota Device’s Vladislav Martynov at CES to give the phone a closer look.


[More from Mashable: 5 Chinese Tech Brands You’ll Be Hearing From in 2013]


In essence, the two displays on the handset each have their own unique purpose. The front display is used just as you might your traditional smartphone screen to run apps, browse the web or watch videos.


The rear display on the YotaPhone is what makes it stand out. An electronic paper display, it shows content you push to it from the front of the device. Less for interacting with and more for reference information, you can use the display for a map to your next destination, a clock, or a place to keep the boarding pass for your flight handy.


Martynov showed me a few applications designed specifically to use with the screen as well, including an app that shows low long you’ve kept a particular goal, such as not smoking. The company plans to release an API for other developers to make applications that take advantage of the dual-screen functionality as well.


Running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Martynov says that he plans to keep Android as vanilla as possible, something he feels is very important. He also wants to make sure that the phone is on-par with high-end Android smartphones, spec-wise. The current iteration uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8960 platform, and Corning’s 3D Gorilla Glass. It’s also a multi-band LTE handset that can run on LTE networks anywhere in the world.


YotaPhone is expected to go one sale during the second half of 2013.


What uses do you see for an e-ink second screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comment.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


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Justin Timberlake Returns with Hot New Single















01/14/2013 at 07:25 AM EST



What a comeback!

After announcing on Thursday his plans to return to music, Justin Timberlake has finally let fans hear what he's been cooking up in the studio: a new single titled "Suit & Tie," which he posted on his website Sunday night.

And if the news of his first song in years wasn't enough, the track – a funky, futuristic R&B number about hitting the dance floor with a special lady – also features a guest spot from Jay-Z.

Timberlake, 31, marked the release of "Suit & Tie" by posting an open letter to fans. And the singer says he'll release a new album this year – his first since 2006's FutureSex/Lovesounds. The title: The 20/20 Experience.

"Back in June of last year, I quietly started working on what is now, my next journey with the thing I love called MUSIC," he writes. "The inspiration for this really came out of the blue and to be honest, I didn't expect anything out of it."

"Suit & Tie" is available for download on iTunes now.

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Stock futures mixed as investors eye earnings, Apple


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were mixed on Monday as investors faced a busy week of corporate earnings results, while Apple fell on concerns of decreased demand.


Shares of Apple slid more than 3 percent in premarket trade after a report that the tech giant has cut orders for LCD screens and other parts for the iPhone 5 this quarter due to weak demand. The stock was down 3.5 percent at $502.02.


Earnings season picks up the pace this week with reports expected from companies including Goldman Sachs , Bank of America , Intel and General Electric . Overall earnings are expected to grow by just 1.9 percent in this reporting period, according to Thomson Reuters data.


Transocean Ltd has disclosed that billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has acquired a 1.56 percent stake in the offshore rig contractor and is looking to increase that holding. Its shares rose 3.2 percent to $55.80.


S&P 500 futures fell 0.9 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 3 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 9.25 points.


Boeing could come under renewed pressure after Japan's transport ministry launched an investigation into what caused two fuel leaks on a 787 Dreamliner jet owned by Japan Airlines Co 9201.


United Parcel Service Inc said it would drop its 5.2 billion euro ($7 billion) bid for Dutch delivery firm TNT Express on the expectation of an EU veto.


The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 2.5 percent in 2013, improving to 3.5 percent growth in 2014, top Fed official Charles Evans said on Monday.


Investors will also be watching a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, who will be speaking on monetary policy , recovery from the global financial crisis and long-term challenges facing the American economy at 4 p.m. (2100 GMT)


(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)



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Thousands of Russians Rally Against Adoption Ban





MOSCOW – Thousands of Russians marched on Sunday in condemnation of the Russian Parliament’s move to ban adoption of Russian children by American families, an event dubbed a “March Against Scoundrels,” where participants chanted, “Take your hands off children,” and carried posters showing the faces of lawmakers stamped with the word “Shame.”




Marchers flooded tree-lined boulevards for many blocks on a bitterly cold day. The police estimated the turnout at 9,500; organizers said it was much larger, in the tens of thousands.


The sight gags and clever slogans of last year’s anti-government rallies were gone, and many participants had emotional answers for why they had come to march. Many questioned the moral principles of a ban on adoptions by Americans in a country with so many children in foster care or orphanages.


“Even I can’t afford to adopt, and I’m supposedly middle class,” Yekaterina Komissarova, 31, said, adding that perhaps this affected her so strongly because she is the mother of two children.


Marina Lukanova, a teacher, said many of her friends had tried to adopt children and found it nearly impossible. “What they found was endless bureaucracy – they fill out forms and nothing happens,” she said. “And now they have given up.”


President Vladimir V. Putin approved the adoption ban in late December, as part of a broader law retaliating against the United States for the so-called Magnitsky Act, an effort to punish Russian officials accused of human rights violations.


Russian leaders have complained bitterly for years about light sentences handed down in cases where American adoptive parents abused or neglected children adopted from Russia, and named the ban after Dmitri Yakovlev, a toddler who died of heatstroke in Virginia in 2008 after his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours.


But the decision has proven divisive in Russia, even within government circles. More than 650,000 children live in foster care or orphanages in Russia, of whom about 120,000 are eligible for adoption. Many children in orphanages are sick or disabled, and most have little hope of finding permanent homes.


“The authorities thought we would do what we usually do – swallow it and be quiet. They did not expect such a reaction,” said Elena Rostova, 61, who attended the march. “But we had two weeks to consider what awaited these handicapped children.”


A series of high-ranking officials openly expressed their disagreement before the ban was enacted, and figures from the art and entertainment world have recorded emotional messages of dissent and published them on the Internet. Opposition groups have hoped that outrage sparked by the adoption ban would reinvigorate a Moscow-based protest movement that has sagged in recent months, as the government began to prosecute and impose tough sentences on street activists.


A poll released in December by the Public Opinion Foundation showed that 56 percent of Russians approved of the adoption ban. A top official from United Russia, Andrei Isayev, last week described Sunday’s protest as a “March of Child-Sellers,” and tried to refocus attention on the Magnitsky Act, which he described as a “public, demonstrative humiliation of the Russian Federation.”


“All the enemies of Russian sovereignty showed themselves the ardent supporters of American adoption,” Mr. Isayev wrote on a party Web site.


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First BlackBerry 10 smartphone may launch on February 28th







Research in Motion (RIMM) is scheduled to formally unveil its BlackBerry 10 operating system on January 30th, however it is unclear when we will see the first new BlackBerry smartphones launch. Despite the fact that all four major U.S. carriers — Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), Sprint (S) and T-Mobile — have confirmed plans to carry new BlackBerry 10 devices in 2013, RIM has remained quiet regarding release details. According to an image provided to BGR and other publications allegedly showing Best Buy Canada’s (BBY) internal inventory system, the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone could launch in Canada on February 28th.


[More from BGR: Samsung cancels Windows RT plans in U.S.]






This specific release date concerns Canadian carrier Bell (BCE), though the phone will likely launch on additional carriers at the same time if the date is accurate.


[More from BGR: LG reportedly halts Nexus 4 production to make way for new Nexus device]


When contacted by BGR for comment, RIM declined to confirm or deny the date. “We understand that there is a lot of excitement for BlackBerry 10,” a RIM spokesman told BGR via email. “We will launch the platform on January 30th and until then we won’t comment on speculation.”


RIM has previously said it will announce availability and pricing for its debut BlackBerry 10 devices at the launch event on January 30th.


Thanks, Daniel


This article was originally published on BGR.com


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Miss New York Mallory Hytes Hagan Wins Miss America















01/12/2013 at 11:45 PM EST







Miss American 2013 Mallory Hytes Hagan


CraigSjodin/ABC


The crown is headed to the Big Apple!

Brooklyn, N.Y., native Mallory Hytes Hagan was crowned Miss America in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Miss New York, 23, beat out Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers, who placed second, and Miss Oklahoma Alicia Clifton, who finished third. Miss Wyoming Lexie Madden and Miss Iowa Mariah Cary rounded out the top five.

Miss Montana Alexis Wineman, who has autism, was one of 16 semifinalists.

Hagan tapped danced to James Brown's "Get Up Off That Thing" for her talent and answered a question about armed guards in schools from Good Morning America's Sam Champion, who was one of the celebrity judges for the pageant this year, in the Q&A portion of the competition.

"I don't think the proper way to fight violence is with violence," she said, donning a white evening gown.

Hagan, whose platform is child sexual abuse prevention, attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and hopes to obtain a degree in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing, according to her online bio.

She won a $50,000 scholarship as well as a sash and a crown.

Hagan's win was a bit of a surprise, considering Las Vegas oddsmakers didn't have her among the top 15 favorites to don the crown at the conclusion of the two-hour competition at Las Vegas's Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

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Flu more widespread in US; eases off in some areas


NEW YORK (AP) — Flu is now widespread in all but three states as the nation grapples with an earlier-than-normal season. But there was one bit of good news Friday: The number of hard-hit areas declined.


The flu season in the U.S. got under way a month early, in December, driven by a strain that tends to make people sicker. That led to worries that it might be a bad season, following one of the mildest flu seasons in recent memory.


The latest numbers do show that the flu surpassed an "epidemic" threshold last week. That is based on deaths from pneumonia and influenza in 122 U.S. cities. However, it's not unusual — the epidemic level varies at different times of the year, and it was breached earlier this flu season, in October and November.


And there's a hint that the flu season may already have peaked in some spots, like in the South. Still, officials there and elsewhere are bracing for more sickness


In Ohio, administrators at Miami University are anxious that a bug that hit employees will spread to students when they return to the Oxford campus next week.


"Everybody's been sick. It's miserable," said Ritter Hoy, a spokeswoman for the 17,000-student school.


Despite the early start, health officials say it's not too late to get a flu shot. The vaccine is considered a good — though not perfect — protection against getting really sick from the flu.


Flu was widespread in 47 states last week, up from 41 the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. The only states without widespread flu were California, Mississippi and Hawaii.


The number of hard-hit states fell to 24 from 29, where larger numbers of people were treated for flu-like illness. Now off that list: Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina in the South, the first region hit this flu season.


Recent flu reports included holiday weeks when some doctor's offices were closed, so it will probably take a couple more weeks to get a better picture, CDC officials said Friday. Experts say so far say the season looks moderate.


"Only time will tell how moderate or severe this flu season will be," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said Friday in a teleconference with reporters.


The government doesn't keep a running tally of adult deaths from the flu, but estimates that it kills about 24,000 people in an average year. Nationally, 20 children have died from the flu this season.


Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older. Since the swine flu epidemic in 2009, vaccination rates have increased in the U.S., but more than half of Americans haven't gotten this year's vaccine.


Nearly 130 million doses of flu vaccine were distributed this year, and at least 112 million have been used. Vaccine is still available, but supplies may have run low in some locations, officials said.


To find a shot, "you may have to call a couple places," said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, who tracks the flu in Iowa.


In midtown Manhattan, Hyrmete Sciuto got a flu shot Friday at a drugstore. She skipped it in recent years, but news reports about the flu this week worried her.


During her commute from Edgewater, N.J., by ferry and bus, "I have people coughing in my face," she said. "I didn't want to risk it this year."


The vaccine is no guarantee, though, that you won't get sick. On Friday, CDC officials said a recent study of more than 1,100 people has concluded the current flu vaccine is 62 percent effective. That means the average vaccinated person is 62 percent less likely to get a case of flu that sends them to the doctor, compared to people who don't get the vaccine. That's in line with other years.


The vaccine is reformulated annually, and this year's is a good match to the viruses going around.


The flu's early arrival coincided with spikes in flu-like illnesses caused by other bugs, including a new norovirus that causes vomiting and diarrhea, or what is commonly known as "stomach flu." Those illnesses likely are part of the heavy traffic in hospital and clinic waiting rooms, CDC officials said.


Europeans also are suffering an early flu season, though a milder strain predominates there. China, Japan, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Algeria and the Republic of Congo have also reported increasing flu.


Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.


Most people with flu have a mild illness. But people with severe symptoms should see a doctor. They may be given antiviral drugs or other medications to ease symptoms.


Some shortages have been reported for children's liquid Tamiflu, a prescription medicine used to treat flu. But health officials say adult Tamiflu pills are available, and pharmacists can convert those to doses for children.


___


Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati, Catherine Lucey in Des Moines, and Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.


___


Online:


CDC flu: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm


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Wall Street Week Ahead: Attention turns to financial earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street.


The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector - big investment banks and commercial banks - just as retail investors, free from the "fiscal cliff" worries, have started to get back into the markets.


Equities have risen in the new year, rallying after the initial resolution of the fiscal cliff in Washington on January 2. The S&P 500 on Friday closed its second straight week of gains, leaving it just fractionally off a five-year closing high hit on Thursday.


An array of financial companies - including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase - will report on Wednesday. Bank of America and Citigroup will join on Thursday.


"The banks have a read on the economy, on the health of consumers, on the health of demand," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.


"What we're looking for is demand. Demand from small business owners, from consumers."


EARNINGS AND ECONOMIC EXPECTATIONS


Investors were greeted with a slightly better-than-anticipated first week of earnings, but expectations were low and just a few companies reported results.


Fourth quarter earnings and revenues for S&P 500 companies are both expected to have grown by 1.9 percent in the past quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.


Few large corporations have reported, with Wells Fargo the first bank out of the gate on Friday, posting a record profit. The bank, however, made fewer mortgage loans than in the third quarter and its shares were down 0.8 percent for the day.


The KBW bank index <.bkx>, a gauge of U.S. bank stocks, is up about 30 percent from a low hit in June, rising in six of the last eight months, including January.


Investors will continue to watch earnings on Friday, as General Electric will round out the week after Intel's report on Thursday.


HOUSING, INDUSTRIAL DATA ON TAP


Next week will also feature the release of a wide range of economic data.


Tuesday will see the release of retail sales numbers and the Empire State manufacturing index, followed by CPI data on Wednesday.


Investors and analysts will also focus on the housing starts numbers and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve factory activity index on Thursday. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment numbers are due on Friday.


Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, said he expected to see housing numbers continue to climb.


"They won't be that surprising if they're good, they'll be rather eye-catching if they're not good," he said. "The underlying drive of the markets, I think, is economic data. That's been the catalyst."


POLITICAL ANXIETY


Worries about the protracted fiscal cliff negotiations drove the markets in the weeks before the ultimate January 2 resolution, but fear of the debt ceiling fight has yet to command investors' attention to the same extent.


The agreement was likely part of the reason for a rebound in flows to stocks. U.S.-based stock mutual funds gained $7.53 billion after the cliff resolution in the week ending January 9, the most in a week since May 2001, according to Thomson Reuters' Lipper.


Markets are unlikely to move on debt ceiling news unless prominent lawmakers signal that they are taking a surprising position in the debate.


The deal in Washington to avert the cliff set up another debt battle, which will play out in coming months alongside spending debates. But this alarm has been sounded before.


"The market will turn the corner on it when the debate heats up," Prudential Financial's Krosby said.


The CBOE Volatility index <.vix> a gauge of traders' anxiety, is off more than 25 percent so far this month and it recently hit its lowest since June 2007, before the recession began.


"The market doesn't react to the same news twice. It will have to be more brutal than the fiscal cliff," Krosby said. "The market has been conditioned that, at the end, they come up with an agreement."


(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; editing by Rodrigo Campos)



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French Soldier Killed in Somalia Commando Raid





PARIS — As French forces continued air and ground operations in support of the government of Mali, French special forces failed early Saturday in a hostage rescue mission in southern Somalia.




At least one French commando died in the raid along with some 17 of the Al Shabab militiamen who were holding the hostage, whose fate is unclear, France’s defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said.


Mr. Le Drian insisted that the rescue mission, on the eastern edge of the continent, far from Mali, was unconnected to French military action against Islamist radicals who were threatening to seize more of Mali, but Islamist groups holding up to eight French hostages in northern Africa have threatened to kill them if the French intervene militarily on the continent.


The Somalia operation was carried out by the DGSE intelligence agency to rescue one of its own, an agent using the name Denis Allex, who had been taken hostage on July 14, 2009, from a Mogadishu hotel. He was working as a security consultant to the transitional government in Somalia, the French said.


The rescue operation, using helicopters, was a significant one that met “very strong resistance,” Mr. Le Drian said in a news conference. The fate of Mr. Allex is not clear. Mr. Le Drian said, speaking carefully, that “everything leads us to think that unfortunately Denis Allex was killed by his captors,” but it was clear that the French did not recover Mr. Allex or his body.


Mr. Le Drian said that Mr. Allex was in the location raided, and that 17 Al Shabab fighters had been killed in the operation.


In a statement later Saturday, the Al Shabab movement said that Mr. Allex was still alive and was being held in a different place, and that they were holding an injured French soldier. It was not possible to confirm the statement. The militant group “will give its final verdict regarding the fate of Dennis Allex within two days,” the group said in a statement in English linked to a post on its Twitter account on Saturday.


The movement also said that the raid was carried out at about 2 a.m. by five French helicopters in the southern Somali town of Bula-Marer and lasted about 45 minutes. “Instead of rescuing them, such ill-advised operations only further imperil the lives of the hostages,” the statement said. French military officials would not confirm those details or the name of the town.


Mr. Le Drian said that a French commando had been wounded and later died and that a French soldier was missing; the French Defense Ministry had earlier issued a statement saying that two French soldiers had died. Mr. Le Drian also said that the rescue operation had been planned for some time and had been delayed by weather.


The Defense Ministry statement justified the raid, saying: "Faced with the intransigence of the terrorists, who refused to negotiate for three and half years and who were holding Denis Allex in inhumane conditions, an operation was planned and carried out.” The statement also said that Mr. Allex was killed by his captors, but Mr. Le Drian was careful not to repeat that claim.


Mr. Le Drian also announced the death in the Mali fighting of a French helicopter pilot, Lt. Damien Boiteux. French airstrikes overnight drove back Islamic rebels from a key village, Konna, Mr. Le Drian said, and destroyed a militant command center, while attacking at least three different targets.


The rebels, who are said to have ties to various radical groups including offshoots of Al Qaeda, seized the largely desert region of northern Mali and have set up their own rule there in the last nine months. Their move toward the south prompted a call for French help on Thursday from the Mali government and the French military response on Friday, after France had repeatedly said that it would not get involved militarily except to aid African forces.


But the French tone changed quickly, and its intervention by air and ground troops found broad support in Africa and Western nations. "The threat is the establishment of a terrorist state within range of Europe and of France," Mr. Le Drian said.


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