BERLIN: Germany has "an everlasting responsibility" for the crimes committed by the Nazis, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday, just days ahead of the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's takeover of power.
"Naturally, we have an everlasting responsibility for the crimes of national-socialism, for the victims of World War II, and above all, for the Holocaust," Merkel said in a podcast on her website.
Her remarks came as the world prepares to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, the date in 1945 when the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in then occupied Poland.
In another significant date, Wednesday will mark eight decades since Hitler was appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933 by then president Paul von Hindenburg.
"We must clearly say, generation after generation, and say it again: with courage, civil courage, each individual can help ensure that racism and anti-Semitism have no chance," Merkel added.
"We're facing our history, we're not hiding anything, we're not repressing anything. We must confront this to make sure we are a good and trustworthy partner in the future, as we already are today, thankfully," she said.
In response to the death of tech activist Aaron Swartz, hacktivist collective Anonymous hacked a U.S. government Web site related to the justice system and posted a screed saying it would begin leaking a cache of government documents if the justice system is not reformed.
The group hacked the Web site for the United States Sentencing Commission late Friday, posting a message about what it's calling "Operation Last Resort," along with a set of downloadable encrypted files it said contain sensitive information. The sentencing commission is the caretaker of the guidelines for sentencing in U.S. federal courts.
"Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed," the group's statement reads. "Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win -- a twisted and distorted perversion of justice -- a game where the only winning move was not to play."
The recent suicide of Swartz, a proponent of freely accessible information, has been blamed by some on what they say were outrageously aggressive efforts on the part of the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts to punish Swartz for his alleged theft of millions of articles from a database of academic journals. The 26-year-old Swartz, who struggled with bouts of depression, had been charged with 13 felonies and threatened with decades in prison and fines exceeding $1 million. U.S. Attorney Carmin Ortiz says Swartz' lawyers were also offered a plea bargain in which he'd plead guilty and serve perhaps 6 months.
Anonymous encouraged its followers to download the files on the hacked site, a set of nine downloads named after the U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices and collectively referred to by the hacking collective as a "warhead."
"Warhead-US-DOJ-LEA-2013.AEE256 is primed and armed. It has been quietly distributed to numerous mirrors over the last few days and is available for download from this website now. We encourage all Anonymous to syndicate this file as widely as possible."
The group wouldn't specify what, exactly, is in the files, saying only that "the contents are various and we won't ruin the speculation by revealing them. Suffice it to say, everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public. At a regular interval commencing today, we will choose one media outlet and supply them with heavily redacted partial contents of the file."
The contents of the encrypted files can apparently be accessed only with a decryption key, and Anonymous said it didn't necessarily want to provide that key to its followers -- it mentioned "collateral damage" as a result of any leaks and said "It is our hope that this warhead need never be detonated." But the group said the U.S. government must begin acting on reforms to the justice system suggested by the system's critics, and in spelling out its demands more specifically, it mentioned plea bargaining and suggested the overhaul of legislation such as the mid-1980s antihacking law entitled the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
...in order for there to be a peaceful resolution to this crisis, certain things need to happen. There must be reform of outdated and poorly-envisioned legislation, written to be so broadly applied as to make a felony crime out of violation of terms of service, creating in effect vast swathes of crimes, and allowing for selective punishment. There must be reform of mandatory minimum sentencing. There must be a return to proportionality of punishment with respect to actual harm caused, and consideration of motive and mens rea [criminal intent]. The inalienable right to a presumption of innocence and the recourse to trial and possibility of exoneration must be returned to its sacred status, and not gambled away by pre-trial bargaining in the face of overwhelming sentences, unaffordable justice, and disfavourable odds. Laws must be upheld unselectively, and not used as a weapon of government to make examples of those it deems threatening to its power.
The group said it had acquired the files by compromising various government Web sites and installing "leakware," which it has since removed to cover its tracks.
Here's the video Anon posted on the commission's site. A Google cache of the hacked home page, which includes the text version of the screed, can be seen here.
This screenshot shows the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission after it was hijacked by the hacker-activist group Anonymous, early Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed." /AP Photo
Last Updated 12:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON The hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide.
The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed."
The message read in part:
Citizens of the world, Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the "discretion" or prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain."
The hackers say they've infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.
Family and friends of Swartz, who helped create Reddit and RSS, say he killed himself after he was hounded by federal prosecutors.
Officials say he helped post millions of court documents for free online and that he illegally downloaded millions of academic articles from an online clearinghouse.
By mid-morning Saturday the website was offline.
The FBI's Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, said in a statement that "we were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as a criminal investigation. We are always concerned when someone illegally accesses another person's or government agency's network."
Activists from the hacker collective known as Anonymous assumed control over the homepage of a federal judicial agency this morning.
In a manifesto left on the defaced page, the group demanded reform to the American justice system and what the activists said are threats to the free flow of information.
The lengthy essay largely mirrors previous demands from Anonymous, but this time the group also cited the recent suicide of Reddit co-founder and activist Aaron Swartz as has having “crossed a line” for their organization. Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison on computer fraud charges.
Prosecutors said he had stolen thousands of digital scientific and academic journal articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the goal of disseminating them for free.
Read More: Aaron Swartz’ Death Fuels MIT Probe, White House Petition to Oust Prosecutor
Anonymous says Swartz was “killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win — a twisted and distorted perversion of justice — a game where the only winning move was not to play.”
“There must be a return to proportionality of punishment with respect to actual harm caused,” it reads, also mentioning recent arrests of Anonymous associates by the FBI.
In their statement, the hackers say they targeted the homepage of the Federal Sentencing Commission for “symbolic” reasons.
The group claimed that if their demands were not met they would release a trove of embarrassing internal Justice Department documents to media outlets. Anonymous named the files after Supreme Court justices and provided hyperlinks to them from the defaced page.
As of press time the commission’s site had been taken offline but an earlier attempt by CNN to follow the files’ links yielded dead-ends, mostly offline sites.
The file names use an “.aes256″ suffix, denoting a common encryption protocol. The same system was used to encrypt the Wikileaks Afghan war documents before their release.
PORT SAID, Egypt/CAIRO (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed on Saturday when Egyptians rampaged in protest at the sentencing of 21 people to death over a soccer stadium disaster, violence that compounds a political crisis facing Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
Armored vehicles and military police fanned through the streets of Port Said, where gunshots rang out and protesters burned tires in anger that people from their city had been blamed for stadium deaths last year.
The rioting in Port Said, one of the most deadly spasms of violence since Hosni Mubarak's ouster two years ago, followed a day of anti-Mursi demonstrations on Friday, when nine people were killed. The toll over the past two days stands at 39.
The flare-ups make it even tougher for Mursi, who drew fire last year for expanding his powers and pushing through an Islamist-tinged constitution, to fix the creaking economy and to cool tempers enough to ensure a smooth parliamentary election.
That vote is expected in the next few months and is meant to cement a democratic transition that has been blighted from the outset by political rows and street clashes.
The National Defense Council, led by Mursi and which includes the defense minister who commands the army, called for "a broad national dialogue that would be attended by independent national characters" to discuss political differences and ensure a "fair and transparent" parliamentary poll.
The statement was made on state television by Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud, who is also on the council.
The National Salvation Front of liberal-minded groups and other opponents cautiously welcomed the call but demanded any such dialogue have a clear agenda and guarantees that any deal would be implemented, spokesman Khaled Dawoud told Reuters.
The Front spurned previous calls for dialogue, saying Mursi ignored voices beyond his Islamist allies. The Front earlier on Saturday threatened an election boycott and to call for more protests on Friday if demands were not met.
Its demands included picking a national unity government to restore order and holding an early presidential poll.
THREATS OF VIOLENCE
The political statements followed clashes in Port Said that erupted after a judge issued a verdict sentencing 21 men to die for involvement in the deaths of 74 people after a local soccer match on February 1, 2012, many of them fans of the visiting team.
Visiting fans had threatened violence if the court had not meted out the death penalty. They cheered outside their Cairo club when the verdict was announced. But in Port Said, residents were furious that people from their city were held responsible.
Protesters ran wildly through the streets of Mediterranean port, lighting tires in the street and storming two police stations, witnesses said. Gunshots were reported near the prison where most of the defendants were being held.
A director for Port Said hospitals told state television that 30 people had been killed, many as a result of gunshot wounds. He also said the more than 300 had been wounded.
Inside the court, families of victims danced, applauded and some broke down in tears of joy when they heard Judge Sobhy Abdel Maguid declare that the 21 men would be "referred to the Mufti", a phrase used to denote execution, as all death sentences must be reviewed by Egypt's top religious authority.
There were 73 defendants on trial. Only a handful appeared in court in Cairo. Those not sentenced on Saturday would face a verdict on March 9, the judge said.
At the Port Said soccer stadium a year ago, many spectators were crushed and witnesses saw some thrown off balconies after the match between Cairo's Al Ahly and local team al-Masri. Al Ahly fans accused the police of being complicit in the deaths.
The fans, who call themselves "Ultras Ahlawy", said Saturday's ruling started the process of retribution, and hoped the rest would face the same fate when verdicts are issued on March 9.
Among those killed on Saturday was a former player for al-Masri and a soccer player in another Port Said team, the website of the state broadcaster reported.
TEARGAS RAINS DOWN
On Friday, protesters angry at Mursi's rule had taken to the streets for the second anniversary of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and which brought Mubarak down 18 days later.
Police fired teargas and protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs. Nine people were killed, mainly in the port city of Suez, and hundreds more were injured across the nation.
On Saturday, some protesters again clashed with police. In the capital, youths pelted police lines with rocks near Tahrir Square. In Suez, police fired teargas where protesters angry at Friday's deaths hurled petrol bombs and stormed a police post.
"We want to change the president and the government. We are tired of this regime. Nothing has changed," said Mahmoud Suleiman, 22, in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the cauldron of the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolt and near where youths again stoned police.
Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, which have witnessed some of the worst violence in the past two days, lie on the Suez Canal but a canal official said there was no disruption to shipping through the waterway vital to international trade.
Mursi's opponents say he has failed to deliver on economic pledges or to be a president representing the full political and communal diversity of Egyptians, as he promised.
"Egypt will not regain its balance except by a political solution that is transparent and credible, by a government of national salvation to restore order and heal the economy and with a constitution for all Egyptians," prominent opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account.
Mursi's supporters say the opposition does not respect the democracy that has given Egypt its first freely elected leader.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi to office, said in a statement that "corrupt people" and media who were biased against the president had stirred up fury on the streets.
The political schism between Islamists and secular Egyptians and frequent bouts of violence have hurt Mursi's efforts to revive an economy in crisis as investors and tourists have stayed away, taking a heavy toll on Egypt's currency.
Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University, said the latest violence reflected the frustration of many liberal-minded Egyptians and others.
"The state of polarization between Islamists and others is most likely to continue and will have a very negative impact on the state's politics, security and economy," he said.
(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Louise Ireland)
LONDON: Millwall piled on the misery for beleaguered Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert as John Marquis's late goal gave the Championship club a 2-1 win in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday.
Lambert has endured a torrid time since leaving Norwich to take charge at Villa Park in the close-season, but this week has been a new low for the Scot, whose Premier League team were knocked out of the League Cup semi-finals by fourth tier minnows Bradford on Tuesday.
Villa desperately needed a victory at the Den to get back on track after that humiliation and looked on course when Darren Bent opened the scoring midway through the first half.
But Nigerian defender Danny Shittu headed Millwall level soon after Bent's goal and young striker Marquis punished Villa's defensive frailties with the last minute winner.
Lambert insisted earlier this week that Villa owner Randy Lerner has assured him he won't be sacked, but this latest embarrassment will only increase the pressure on the former Borussia Dortmund star.
While Millwall, FA Cup runners-up in 2004, can celebrate a place in the last 16, their victory was slightly marred when a section of home fans began throwing missiles on to the pitch early in the second half.
After a nervous start, Lambert's side seemed to shake off their timid approach and went ahead in the 22nd minute.
Fabian Delph robbed Liam Feeney of possession and Andreas Weimann capitalised, surging away from Shittu before forcing Millwall goalkeeper David Forde into action for the first time.
Forde could only palm Weimann's effort into the path of England striker Bent, whose miskicked effort crept over the line.
But with Villa's star striker Christian Benteke rested there was a lack of bite about the visitors and Millwall quickly regained a foothold in the game.
Villa have been weak at set-pieces for much of the season and Millwall looked to exploit that through Shittu, who headed onto the roof of the net from James Henry's corner.
Lambert's men failed to heed the warning and the hosts equalised in the 27th minute when Lions captain Shittu met another Henry corner at the far post and powered a header past Shay Given.
Feeney came close to putting Millwall ahead when he fired just wide following a corner before the hosts' momentum was brought to a halt by their own supporters.
The game was stopped for five minutes just before the hour-mark due to a disturbance amongst Millwall fans in one corner of the Dockers Stand, with several bottles thrown in the direction of the assistant referee Mark Scholes after he awarded a free-kick to Villa.
Villa substitute Barry Bannan fired in a shot that Forde pushed away as the visitors launched a rare second-half attack.
But, with a replay at Villa Park within reach, Villa were shattered in the 89th minute when Marquis, making his first start of the season, headed Adam Smith's cross on to the bar before reacting quickest to nod home the rebound.
Many programs, such as Microsoft Office, support their own interfaces for various fonts you may have installed on your Mac; however, many other programs like TextEdit and Apple's Pages use Apple's central Font panel to provide font management. This panel can usually be invoked by pressing Command-T in programs that support it, where you will be presented with a column-oriented view of font collections that you can navigate through, select, and set the size for.
While convenient for quickly selecting and setting font sizes, the Font panel also contains a number of additional features that can be applied to your text.
The Font panel by default includes a preview window and effects settings in addition to listing your fonts.
(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)
Preview font style The first feature may or may not already be enabled in the Font panel, but its function is to preview the font you have selected. Though some programs support previewing fonts in a drop-down font menu, this can sometimes bog a system down if you have hundreds of fonts installed that all are accessed and loaded at once (though modern systems handle this far better). To preview a font, simply locate the small dot slider at the top of the Font panel and drag it down to reveal the preview area, or select "Show Preview" from the small gear menu to the bottom left. Now you can see the font name displayed in its actual font, and at the size you have selected.
Set color, style, and other effects Another feature that is usually enabled by default is the effects bar, where you can set styles like underscores, strikethroughs, font color, and highlight colors. You can also enable text shadows in programs that support this. This bar should be between the preview and above the font listings, so if it is not there, enable it by selecting "Show Effects" from the gear menu.
Set up favorites and collections The Font panel will show you all fonts, but does so by listing those in the collection you have chosen. The system includes a number of built-in collections such as those for language-specific fonts, fixed-width fonts, fun fonts, and those that are most compatible with specific tasks like PDF or Web content management. You can add or remove any font from these collections by dragging them to and from the collections.
The "Edit Sizes" option in the gear menu will bring up this settings panel. Note that by resizing the Font panel window and preview areas you can collapse the standard column-browser view, as shown here.
(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)
You can also create your own font collections by clicking the plus button and then dragging fonts to it. Apple does include a couple of special collections, which are the Recently Used list and the favorites. The favorites will contain specific font and size pairings that you have added to this list by choosing "Add to favorites" from the gear menu.
Hidden settings (gear menu) The Font panel does have some additional features that are relatively hidden but may be exceptionally useful; they can be accessed through the gear menu. The first of these is the option to adjust the list and range of sizes that are available in the Font panel. While you can manually change the value in the Size box to the right of the panel to adjust the font, the selectable common font size numbers below this box can be customized. To do this, choose "Edit Sizes" from the gear menu and you can add or remove sizes from the list, show or hide aspects of the size controls, and set the maximum and minimum point values of the slider.
The second hidden feature is the Typography panel, which may be the most useful hidden feature in the Font panel. As with the others, this one is available in the gear menu, and will present contextually relevant font- and character-specific typography options you can use in your document. These include the enabling of ligatures, and special treatment of numbers, capitals, and numbering styles.
The Typography panel holds a number of secrets for making full use of a specific font.
(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler)
Another aspect of this panel holds an answer to a question many may have about how to use some fancy characters that are previewed in fonts like the stylistic Zapfino. The preview text for these fonts may contain elaborate characters, but when you type these characters, you get a fairly bland version of them. To get to these characters, you can use the glyph variants that will appear in the Typography panel for characters in fonts that support them. You can select individual character variants at the bottom of the Typography panel, or you can choose a predefined glyph variant set and end up with dramatically different styles when using the same font.
One of the more useful Typography panel features is the contextual fractional forms option, where if enabled will take any fraction you type and condense it into a character-size fraction. Many fonts support common fractions such as halves, thirds, and fourths, but if you need a similar view for 1/243, you can do so with contextual fractional forms. Another useful option is the conversion of lower- and upper-case characters into small capital letters, which is quite convenient for headlines, signs, and other needs for emboldening text.
The last features in the Font panel gear menu are quick access links to other font-handling features in the OS. One of these is the colors panel (which is also available in the effects bar), but you can also access the Character Viewer and open the Font Book program to better manage your font collections.
Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or ! Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.
President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board.
The unanimous decision is an embarrassing setback for the president, who made the appointments after Senate Republicans spent months blocking his choices for an agency they contended was biased in favor of unions.
The ruling also throws into question Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cordray's appointment, also made under the recess circumstance, has been challenged in a separate case.
Obama claims he acted properly in the case of the NLRB appointments because the Senate was away for the holidays on a 20-day recess. But the three-judge panel ruled that the Senate technically stayed in session when it was gaveled in and out every few days for so-called "pro forma" sessions.
GOP lawmakers used the tactic - as Democrats have in the past as well - to specifically to prevent the president from using his recess power. GOP lawmakers contend the labor board has been too pro-union in its decisions. They had also vigorously opposed the nomination of Cordray.
Play Video
Carney: Court's NLRB ruling "novel and unprecedented"
White House spokesman Jay Carney today said the administration "respectfully but strongly" disagrees with the court decision. He said there have been more than 280 intra-session recess appointments dating back to 1867.
"The decision is novel and unprecedented," he said. "It contradicts 150 years of practice by Democratic and Republican administration."
Carney also said the decision does not apply to Cordray's appointment, since it was written about a specific case the court considered.
The Obama administration is expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, though Carney referred questions with respect to the administration's next steps to the Justice Department. A Justice Department spokesperson, said, "We disagree with the court's ruling and believe that the president's recess appointments are constitutionally sound."
If the decision stands, it means hundreds of decisions issued by the board over more than a year are invalid. It also would leave the five-member labor board with just one validly appointed member, effectively shutting it down. The board is allowed to issue decisions only when it has at least three sitting members.
On Jan. 4, 2012, Obama appointed Deputy Labor Secretary Sharon Block, union lawyer Richard Griffin and NLRB counsel Terence Flynn to fill vacancies on the NLRB, giving it a full contingent for the first time in more than a year. Block and Griffin are Democrats, while Flynn is a Republican. Flynn stepped down from the board last year.
Obama also appointed Cordray on the same day.
The court's decision is a victory for Republicans and business groups that have been attacking the labor board for issuing a series of decisions and rules that make it easier for the nation's labor unions to organize new members. House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement the ruling was "a victory for accountability in government."
"The Obama administration has consistently used the NLRB to impose regulations that hurt our economy by fostering uncertainty in the workplace and telling businesses where they can and cannot create jobs," he said. "Instead of operating under a shroud of controversy, the NLRB should meet the highest standards of transparency, starting with having its members approved by the people's representatives."
President Obama is giving his West Wing team an extreme make-over for the second term, with the departure of top strategist David Plouffe and the naming of Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough to be his next chief of staff.
Once again, the President is keeping a comfort zone around him, promoting from within. He is plucking a favorite aide from his national security team to become the new White House Chief of Staff. McDonough has been a popular figure in the Obama inner circle since the Senate days.
McDonough was widely expected to become Obama’s fifth chief of staff as he replaces Jack Lew who has been nominated as Treasury Secretary.
“Welcome to the announcement of one of the worst kept secrets in Washington,” Obama joked as he announced McDonough’s new position in the East Room of the White House.
The president heaped praise on his longtime adviser and close friend, as McDonough stood beaming by his side.
“I have been counting on Denis for nearly a decade — since I first came to Washington, when he helped set up my Senate office,” Obama said. “He was able to show me where the restrooms were and how you passed a bill… At that time, I relied on his intellect and his good judgment, and that has continued ever since.”
“I cannot imagine the White House without you. Thank you for signing up for this very, very difficult job,” Obama said. ”I know you’ll always give it to me straight, as only a friend can — telling me not only what I want to hear, but more importantly what I need to hear to make the best possible decisions on behalf of the American people.”
Plouffe’s departure from the tiny office next to the president’s makes room for strategist Dan Pfeiffer’s promotion to senior adviser. Pfeiffer is a combative planner who has been orchestrating the administration’s message for the last four years.
“I thought I’d take the occasion to just embarrass somebody. Some of you may know that today is David Plouffe’s last day in the White House,” Obama said to laughter from the audience comprised largely of White House staff. ”I had to hide this in the end of my remarks because I knew he wouldn’t want me to bring it up. So we had some secret squirrel stuff going on here to avoid him thinking that we were going to talk about him.”
“I can’t tell you how lucky I have been to have him manage our campaign back in 2008, then join the White House during these very challenging last two years. He’s built a well-deserved reputation as being a numbers genius and a pretty tough combatant when it comes to politics,” he said. “Were it not for him, we would not have been as effective a White House and I probably wouldn’t be here.”
Pfeiffer’s deputy, Jennifer Palmieri, a long-time Democratic figure, moves up to communications director. Rob Nabors was a key figure in negotiating with Congress and he’s getting promoted to the top policy job in the West Wing’s chief of staff office.
From the Department of Justice, Lisa Monaco will come in as the new counter-terrorism adviser, taking John Brennan’s chair if he is confirmed as CIA Director.
The only other outsider coming into the West Wing is David Simas who worked on the re-election campaign. Simas will do communications. There are no announced changes in Jay Carney’s press office.
CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Protesters clashed with police across Egypt on Friday on the second anniversary of the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak, taking to the streets against the elected Islamist president who they accuse of betraying the revolution.
At least 91 civilians and 42 security personnel were hurt in violence across the country, officials said. Street battles erupted in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Port Said, where the Muslim Brotherhood's political party offices were torched.
Thousands of opponents of President Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood allies massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square - the cradle of the uprising against Mubarak - to revive the demands of a revolution they say has been hijacked by the Islamists.
The January 25 anniversary showcased the divide between the Islamists and their secular foes that is hindering Mursi's efforts to revive an economy in crisis and reverse a plunge in Egypt's currency by enticing back investors and tourists.
Inspired by Tunisia's ground-breaking popular uprising, Egypt's revolution spurred further revolts across the Arab world. But the sense of common purpose that united Egyptians two years ago has given way to internal strife that has only worsened and last month triggered lethal street battles.
"It's definitely tense on the ground, but so far there hasn't been anything out of the ordinary or anything that really threatens to fundamentally alter the political situation," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center.
The Brotherhood decided against mobilizing for the anniversary, wary of the scope for more conflict after violence in December that was stoked by Mursi's decision to fast-track an Islamist-tinged constitution rejected by his opponents.
The Brotherhood fiercely denies accusations of trampling on democracy as part of a smear campaign by its rivals.
Before dawn on Friday, police battled protesters who threw petrol bombs and firecrackers as they tried to approach a wall blocking access to government buildings near Tahrir Square.
Clouds of tear gas filled the air. At one point, riot police used one of the incendiaries thrown at them to set ablaze at least two tents erected by the youths, a Reuters witness said.
Skirmishes between stone-throwing youths and the police continued in streets around the square into the day. Ambulances ferried away a steady stream of casualties.
"Our revolution is continuing. We reject the domination of any party over this state. We say no to the Brotherhood state," Hamdeen Sabahy, a popular leftist leader, told Reuters.
There were similar scenes in Suez and Alexandria, where protesters and riot police clashed near local government offices. Black smoke billowed from tyres set ablaze by youths.
Police also fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters who tried to scale barbed-wire barriers protecting the presidential palace in Cairo, witnesses said. Other protesters broke into offices of provincial governors in Ismailia, east of Cairo, and Kafr el-Sheikh in the Nile Delta.
In Tahrir Square, protesters echoed the chants of 2011's historic 18-day uprising. "The people want to bring down the regime," they chanted. "Leave! Leave! Leave!" chanted others as they marched towards the square.
"We are not here to celebrate but to force those in power to submit to the will of the people. Egypt now must never be like Egypt during Mubarak's rule," said Mohamed Fahmy, an activist.
BADIE CALLS FOR "PRACTICAL, SERIOUS COMPETITION"
With its eye firmly on forthcoming parliamentary elections, the Brotherhood marked the anniversary with a charity drive across the nation. It plans to deliver medical aid to one million people and distribute affordable basic foodstuffs.
Writing in Al-Ahram, Egypt's flagship state-run daily, Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said the country was in need of "practical, serious competition" to reform the corrupt state left by the Mubarak era.
"The differences of opinion and vision that Egypt is passing through is a characteristic at the core of transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and clearly expresses the variety of Egyptian culture," he wrote.
Still, Mursi faces discontent on multiple fronts.
His opponents say he and his group are seeking to dominate the post-Mubarak order. They accuse him of showing some of the autocratic impulses of the deposed leader by, for example, driving through the new constitution last month.
"I am taking part in today's marches to reject the warped constitution, the 'Brotherhoodisation' of the state, the attack on the rule of law, and the disregard of the president and his government for the demands for social justice," Amr Hamzawy, a prominent liberal politician, wrote on his Twitter feed.
The Brotherhood dismisses many of the criticisms as unfair fabrications of their rivals, accusing them of failing to respect the rules of the new democracy that put the Islamists in the driving seat via free elections.
Six months into office, Mursi is also being held responsible for an economic crisis caused by two years of turmoil. The Egyptian pound has sunk to record lows against the dollar.
SOURCES OF FRICTION ABOUND
Other sources of friction abound. Little has been done to reform brutal Mubarak-era security agencies. A spate of transport disasters on roads and railways neglected for years is feeding discontent as well. Activists are impatient for justice for the victims of violence over the last two years.
These include hardcore soccer fans, or ultras, who have been rallying in recent days to press for justice for 74 people killed in a soccer stadium disaster a year ago in Port Said after a match between local side al-Masry and Cairo's Al Ahly.
The parties that called for Friday's protests listed demands including a complete overhaul of the constitution.
Critics say the constitution, which was approved in a referendum, offers inadequate protection for human rights, grants the president too many privileges and fails to curb the power of a military establishment supreme in the Mubarak era.
Mursi's supporters say that enacting the constitution quickly was crucial to restoring stability desperately needed for economic recovery, and that the opposition is making the situation worse by perpetuating unrest.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed el-Shemi, Ashraf Fahim, Marwa Awad and Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo and Yousri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
DAVOS: British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Thursday that corporations must "pay their fair share" of taxes and said he would use Britain's G8 chairmanship to counter tax avoidance.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Cameron said too many global businesses were abusing tax schemes, after Britain last year announced a crackdown on multinationals such as Starbucks, Google and Amazon, claiming they are avoiding huge tax bills.
"When some businesses aren't seen to pay their taxes, that is corrosive to public trust," Cameron said in a speech to the global political and business elite.
"We want to use the G8 to drive a more serious debate on tax evasion and avoidance. This is an issue whose time has come," he said.
He said Britain would use its chairmanship this year of the Group of Eight rich nations to push for cross-border action on tax avoidance.
"Clamp down in one country and the travelling caravan of lawyers, accountants and financial gurus just moves on elsewhere. So we need to act together at the G8," Cameron said.
He insisted such moves were not anti-business.
"I believe in low taxes... I'm a low-tax Conservative. But I'm not a companies-should-pay-no-tax Conservative," Cameron said. "Individuals and businesses must pay their fair share."
Britain last month announced a campaign against "tax dodgers" and "cowboy advisers" to claw back £2 billion a year, after lawmakers alleged that multinationals were involved in "immoral" avoidance of tax.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that tax evasion and fraud was also an "enormously important issue" for the Group of 20 major economies.
"Every financial instrument, every financial product, every financial market, needs to be placed under regulation," said the chancellor.
"We are very far from that and I can only call on the financial industry to support us on this because another bubble that we create would bring another crisis for the global economy, which would be very difficult to overcome," she added.
Taxand, the world's largest independent global organisation of specialist tax advisors to multinational businesses, hit back saying that harmonisation of rules was not necessarily the best solution to tax fraud.
Multinationals should enter into talks with the relevant tax authorities "to obtain prior agreements for a particular initiative or investment," said Frederic Donnedieu de Vabres, the group's chairman.
"It is this, as opposed to a pursuit of harmonisation, that perhaps poses the best way forward," he added.
The Verizon and AT&T iPhones carry hefty subsidies, while consumers share the burden with the Virgin iPhone.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
AT&T has looked at the idea of making consumers pay for their own smartphones in monthly installments, according to CEO Randall Stephenson.
The idea of handset financing runs counter to the current model of subsidizing phones at a lower initial price in exchange for a higher monthly bill. Under handset financing, consumers would pay an upfront fee for the phone, and then steadily pay off the phone's cost over the next few months.
In exchange, the consumer would presumably get a lower rate on their phone bill, and could conceivably leave whenever they want after paying off the phone.
T-Mobile has already used it to great effect, and CEO John Legere has already hinted that the option would be available for the iPhone, which the carrier plans to offer later this year.
Stephenson, speaking to analysts during an earnings conference call today, said handset financing was an option he had looked at several times, and is one that he likes. He added he would monitor how the offer is received at T-Mobile before making any decisions.
The high monthly fee for contract service has many looking at no-contract options, something that AT&T was unable to address in the fourth quarter. While it added a net 780,000 contract subscribers in the period, it lost 166,000 prepaid customers.
T-Mobile and MetroPCS are expected to merge later this year, creating a more formidable opponent that will go after no-contract customers. Stephenson said he doesn't see much of an impact this year, but could see the combined company making moves that would require a response in 2014.
With the T-Mobile-MetroPCS and Sprint-SoftBank deals in the works, 2013 promises to be chaotic.
"In terms of industry dynamics, it should be an interesting year," he said. "It's kind of hard to estimate what's going to happen."
As President Obama faces opposition from gun rights advocates over his recent proposals to combat gun violence, the challenge he faces of fixing flaws in the mental health care system may prove just as difficult a battle.
Mr. Obama outlined plans aimed at preventing mass shootings and reducing broader gun violence in the United States last week, while signing 23 executive actions that did not require Congressional approval. Alongside proposed changes to gun laws including universal background checks, a stronger ban on assault weapons and new restrictions on ammunition and magazines, mental health emerged as a core feature of the president's plan to prevent further tragedies like the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn.
The executive actions related to mental health included:
A letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities
Incentives for schools to hire school resource officers
A letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover
Finalization of regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within health insurance exchanges
A commitment to finalizing mental health parity regulations
The launch of a national dialogue led by the departments of Health and Human Services and Education on mental health
A Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence
Clarification that the new health care law does not prohibit doctors from asking their patients about guns in their homes
Noting that it was the first of its kind to focus on mental health since 2007 -- and long overdue -- Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin chaired a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday.
Harkin laid out that while Newtown has brought the issue to the forefront of discussion, mental illness only accounts for a small proportion of violent crimes.
Experts estimate only a small percentage of violent crimes -- less than 5 percent -- are caused by mentally ill people.
"People with mental illness are much more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than perpetrators of violence," said Harkin, who called mental health care's shortcomings a public health problem.
A common theme throughout the hearing was to avoid stigmatizing people with mental illness while discussing gun violence and problems facing mental health care.
Play Video
Mental health expert: "We can and must intervene early"
Pamela S. Hyde, administrator for the government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) laid out the scope of the mental health care problem during the hearing (video at left). Of the 45 million U.S. adults suffering from mental illness, only 38.5 percent receive the treatment they need, she said. For children, only one in five receive necessary treatment for diagnosable mental disorders. Despite showing symptoms, many children and adults experience significant delays getting into treatment. Hyde argues that if the system shifts to a focus on early intervention, more people can be helped.
"Cost, access and recognition of the problems are the primary reason this treatment is not received. However it doesn't have to be this way," said Hyde. "For most of these conditions, prevention works, treatment is effective and people do in fact recover."
Mental health care spending has been dramatically cut in recent years. A 2011 report from the National Alliance on Mental Health that looked at state-by-state mental health budgets reported $1.6 billion in state funding cuts from 2009 through 2012. Medicaid cuts at this time also negatively affected mental health care, the report showed. States are mulling increases in funding in light of the Newtown shooting.
And the health care system may only become more burdened in the near future: A July 2012 study by the Institute of Medicine, an advisory medical organization to the government, found an aging baby boomer population could cause a mental health care crisis by 2030, when the number of U.S. seniors is expected to double and necessary resources will be woefully lacking.
Play Video
The dangerous stigma of mental illness
Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, told CBS News senior correspondent John Miller in December that mental health care is a societal problem because the U.S. has not taken on the treatment of mental illness as effectively as it could.
"I think mental health is a big issue," Lieberman said at the time. "It's definitely related to the frequency of these seemingly senseless and wanton killings that occur. And the way it relates is that unfortunately, individuals who have specific forms of mental illness, if untreated, can be more prone to act in a way which is socially destructive and results in harm or killing like we saw happen."
Lieberman said a person who needs treatment for mental illness often faces barriers such as insurance coverage and accessibility to care, in addition to stigma -- while people getting treated for a disease like cancer face fewer "disincentives" to getting the best care.
Following the president's announcement, Lieberman told CBSNews.com that the new proposals are "on the right track" in terms of addressing issues in the mental health system, but much work remains to clarify how these actions will be implemented.
By getting more people with mental illness, impulse disorders and substance abuse issues into constant treatment, he said, they may be prevented from ever getting to a point where they are showing symptoms of mental illness -- and acting on violent impulses.
"Trying to say we should only do something when they get dangerous is very late in the process," said Lieberman.
Details on the president's proposals still need to be worked out, said Lieberman, who is also president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. For example, the Mental Health Parity Act, which the president wanted to finalize in his executive actions, requires that mental health benefits are covered by insurance, similar to non-psychiatric health care benefits. However, the rules to determine what services are covered, how people become reimbursed and other stipulations have not been established, he said. The president also asked for clarification on Medicaid mental health services, which now typically covers people who have severe forms of mental illness. Lieberman argues policymakers may find that these services are not adequate, and broader services are needed.
Right now, doctors cannot provide mental health care services in what Lieberman refers to as a "financially viable way." He explains that patients seeking help for mental health may require a lot of support, not only from a doctor who may provide medication, but from therapists, case managers and social and vocational rehabilitation counselors who need to be more actively involved in the patient's lives. These team-based "multi-element treatment approaches" have been shown in studies to be effective, however these types of paid services just aren't available for people suffering from mental health problems. Meanwhile, a person with heart disease may see a cardiologist, a surgeon, a different doctor about stent management, a nutritionist for lifestyle tips, and other providers all covered by insurance.
"In mental health care it's the same thing -- you can't just see a psychiatrist and get a prescription," he said. "This is not just throwing different services at the problem, there's good evidence that these things work."
Dr. Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, who has published several research papers on gun violence and mental health for more than a decade, agrees the current mental health system represents a complex public health problem facing the United States.
"The mental health system in the country, if you can call it that, is fragmented and grossly under-resourced," Swanson told CBSNews.com in an email. "It needs a lot of things, and more research into how to fix it -- at a time when there are more mentally ill people incarcerated than in hospitals -- is one of the needed things," he said.
A 2011 paper by Swanson published in Psychiatric Services examines the lack of data available on firearm use against strangers, and how it is impossible to reliably predict which specific individuals would engage in the most serious acts of violence.
But even if more CDC research stemming from the president's proposals strengthens the available data pool, Swanson argues these egregious acts of violence may still be impossible to predict.
Play Video
Can a mental disorder make someone violent?
"I think more access to evidence-based treatment and less access to guns, taken together, would have an impact on gun violence, at least on the margins. But prevent mass shootings? That's hard to say," Swanson said. "Those are almost inherently unpredictable, and often perpetrated by people with no gun-disqualifying mental health or criminal record -- until it's too late. Most of the measures in the President's proposal, even if enacted and implemented perfectly, would not necessarily have prevented the shootings in Tucson, Aurora, or Newtown."
While concerns persist on how the president's proposals will be implemented, the announcement was supported by various health organizations that had previously submitted recommendations to Vice President Joe Biden's White House Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention.
"NAMI applauds the President's plan for its significant provisions to strengthen and expand mental health services," Michael Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said in a statement following the proposals. "The mental health care system has long been broken. The challenge is not to fix it, but to build it anew, focusing on early screening, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The President's plan takes important steps toward meeting that challenge."
Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, president of the American Psychiatric Association, added in statement, "We are heartened that the Administration plans to finalize rules governing mental health parity under the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the Affordable Care Act, and Medicaid. "We are glad that the President has clarified that doctors are not prohibited from asking their patients about guns in their homes. The APA has consistently advocated for such a position."
The American Academy of Pediatrics also offered its support.
"In addition to addressing firearm regulations, we must improve access to quality mental health care both to help prevent violent acts and to assist victims of trauma," AAP President Dr. Thomas K. McInerny, said in a statement following the proposals. "The AAP agrees with the President that we must improve the identification of mental illnesses through increased screening, address inadequate insurance coverage and high out-of-pocket costs that create barriers to access, strengthen the overall quality of mental health access, and improve and expand the Medicaid reimbursement policy to include mental health and developmental services.
An exterminator named Jason Smith was arrested and charged today in the strangling and burning death of Philadelphia pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti.
Smith, 36, had been sent to Ketunuti's home on a service call where the two got into "some kind of argument" in Ketunuti's basement on Monday, Capt. James Clark of the Philadelphia police department said this morning.
"At her home they got into an argument. It went terribly wrong. He struck her, and knocked her to the ground," Clark said. "Immediately he jumped on top of her, started strangling her. She passed out, and then he set her body on fire."
Clark said Smith burned the woman's body "to hide evidence like DNA." He said "at some point, he bound her up." The doctor was found with her hands and feet tied behind her back.
The captain said that before today's arrest Smith's record consisted of only "minor traffic offenses."
Philadelphia Police Department/AP Photo
Pa. Doctor Killing: Person of Interest in Custody Watch Video
Philadelphia Doctor's Murder Leaves Police Baffled Watch Video
Police received a call from Ketunuti's dog-walker about the house fire around 12:30 p.m. Monday, and once inside found Ketunuti with her hands and feet bound. They believe Smith hit her and strangled her with a rope, causing her to pass out, and then bound her body and set fire to it in order to destroy evidence, including DNA evidence.
Ketunuti, 35, was fully clothed and police do not believe she was sexually assaulted.
She was a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and had lived alone in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood of the city for about three years.
Clark said that homicide detectives scoured the neighborhood for surveillance videos from nearby stores and businesses, and through the video identified the suspect.
Smith was spotted on video getting out of the vehicle and following Ketunuti to her home. The man left her home after an hour and was seen on video circling her home.
Detectives drove to Clark's home in Levittown, Pa., outside of Philadelphia where he lives with a girlfriend and her child, on Wednesday night and brought him back to the Philadelphia police station.
A silver Ford truck was towed from Smith's home, which was the same truck spotted on surveillance video Monday in Ketunuti's neighborhood, sources told ABC News affiliate WPVI.
There, he gave statements that led police to charge him with the murders, Clark said.
Smith will face charges of murder, arson, and abuse of a corpse.
Ketunuti's hospital issued a statement Tuesday that she was "a warm, caring, earnest, bright young woman with her whole future ahead of her," adding that she will be deeply missed.
"[She was] super pleasant, really nice," one neighbor said. "Just super friendly."
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.
North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un, who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition, with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.
"We hope the relevant party can remain calm and act and speak in a cautious and prudent way and not take any steps which may further worsen the situation," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.
North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are the six parties involved.
"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.
"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.
U.S. URGES NO TEST
Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.
"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.
North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons
North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.
According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
North Korea has not yet mastered the technology needed to make a nuclear warhead small enough for an intercontinental missile, most observers say, and needs to develop the capacity to shield any warhead from re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.
North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.
The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father, Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.
The older Kim died in December 2011.
"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.
(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ron Popeski)
LOS ANGELES: A US judge ordered director James Cameron to hand over drafts of the screenplay for "Avatar" Wednesday, to lawyers for a man claiming he wrote the script on which the 3D blockbuster was based.
Eric Ryder is seeking compensation from Cameron and his production company Lightstorm Entertainment, claiming that the 2009 Oscar-nominated film is based on a story he wrote called "K.R.Z. 2068."
He filed a lawsuit in December 2011, saying he spent two years developing the story. On Wednesday Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alan Rosenfield ordered Cameron's lawyers to turn over screenplay drafts.
"We have to be careful and sensitive about ideas and information," said the judge.
But he denied a request by Ryder's lawyers to grant access to the personal calendars of Cameron and Jon Landau, the chief operating officer of Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment Inc.
Ryder's lawyer K. Andrew Kent said his legal team will also get access to backup tapes from computers used by Cameron.
"Avatar," about a paraplegic US marine with split loyalties after being sent to a distant world wanted for its mining potential, was seen as a breakthrough in the use of 3D technology, and has grossed more than US$2.7 billion worldwide.
Apple investors wish shares were still moving higher, but that's definitely not the case in after-hours trading today.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Apple investors hoping for a nice stock boost following fiscal first-quarter earnings are likely pretty disappointed right now.
Shares, which have already been under pressure in recent weeks, slid about 10 percent in late trading after the Cupertino, Calif., electronics giants failed to post quarterly results that were as strong as hoped. Shares initially slid about 5 percent after the report, but losses accelerated during Apple's conference call.
Revenue for the first-quarter ended in January was weaker than analysts expected, as was the company's projections for second-quarter sales. And iPhone sales, while a record, also weren't quite enough to please investors.
All-in-all, the quarterly numbers likely won't assuage fears about slowing growth. Reports over the past few weeks have speculated that Apple is cutting component orders for its iPhone 5 due to slumping demand for the handset, and other reports have said Apple also is having trouble selling its tablets.
Shares recently dropped 10 percent in after-hours trading to $461, their lowest point in about a year. They had risen as high as $705.07 in September.
Even as investors sold off shares, many analysts remained bullish on Apple. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek noted that the revenue projection for the current quarter was better than many feared, though the second-quarter per-share earnings results implied by the guidance could be a bit light. He added that iPhone shipments were particularly disappointing.
And Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that while iPhone sales were "mildly disappointing," he's still confident in the long-term prospects for iOS. He added that the company's revenue guidance for $41 billion to $43 billion was about in line with his expectations for $41 billion.
"Net-net, while we believe the iPhone number may appear disappointing, the slightly better guide implies that investors may not need to continue to worry about noise regarding continued iPhone build decreases for March," Munster said.
For the quarter ended in December, Apple posted revenue of $54.5 billion, and earnings of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per share. That was just below the $54.7 billion and slightly above earnings per share of $13.44 Wall Street was expecting, but above the $52 billion and $11.75 per share Apple forecast for itself back in October.
Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones during the quarter, which ended in December. Sales of the iPad came in at 22.9 million, and 4.1 million units for the Mac. Customers bought 12.7 million iPods.
PORTLAND, Maine A teeth-chattering cold wave with sub-zero temperatures was expected to keep its icy grip on much of the eastern U.S. into the weekend before seasonable temperatures bring relief.
A polar air mass that's been blamed for multiple deaths in the Midwest moved into the Northeast on Wednesday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue wind chill warnings across upstate New York and northern New England.
In northern Maine, the temperature dipped to as low as 36 below zero Wednesday morning. The weather service was calling for wind chills as low as minus-45.
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Frigid weather could precede Northeast snowstorm
Keith Pelletier, the owner of Dolly's Restaurant in Frenchville, said his customers are dressed in multiple layers of clothing, and they keep their cars running in the parking lot while eating lunch. It's so cold that even the snowmobilers are staying home, he said.
"You take the wind chill at 39 below and take a snowmobile going 50 mph, and you're about double that," he said. "That's pretty cold."
The Canadian air mass also has forced schools to close, delayed commuter trains and subways and kept plumbers busy with frozen pipes. A ski resort in New Hampshire shut down on Wednesday and Thursday because of unsafe ski conditions — a predicted wind chill of 48 degrees below zero.
The coldest temperatures were expected Wednesday and Thursday, after which conditions should slowly moderate before returning to normal levels, said John Koch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service regional headquarters in Bohemia, N.Y. For the most part, temperatures have been around 10 to 15 degrees below normal, with windy conditions making it feel colder, he said.
For Anthony Cavallo, the cold was just another in a litany of big and small aggravations that began when Superstorm Sandy swept through his Union Beach, N.J., neighborhood and flooded his one-story house with 4 1/2 feet of water.
Still waiting for the go-ahead to rebuild, Cavallo and his family have been living in a trailer they purchased once it became clear they couldn't afford to rent.
Wednesday's frigid temperatures temporarily froze the trailer's pipes, which Cavallo's 14-year-old daughter discovered when she tried to take a shower at 4:30 a.m. Cavallo spent the morning thawing out the pipes and stuffing hay under the trailer to help insulate them.
Play Video
Deadly freeze grips Midwest
"Every day it's something, whether it's frozen pipes or getting jerked around for two months by insurance companies," the 48-year-old security system installer said. "I just kind of want to wake up one day and have no surprises."
In New York City, food vendor Bashir Babury contended with bone-numbing cold when he set up his cart selling coffee, bagels and pastries at 3 a.m. Wednesday. On the coldest of days, he wears layers of clothing and cranks up a small propane heater inside his cart.
"I put on two, three socks, I have good boots and two, three jackets," he said. "A hat, gloves, but when I'm working I can't wear gloves."
In New Jersey, some residents at a Jersey City apartment have complained about the lack of heat and hot water. One person told 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg: "My apartment is terrible for this very cold. I have three heaters. It's terrible."
Another tenant commented: "If it's not one thing, it's the other. They cut out the gas then there's no hot water, if there's hot water, but then there's no heater. It's horrible."
In Pottsville, Pa., letter carrier Cheryl Vandermeer was stoic as she walked her route Wednesday with temperatures in the teens and wind chill in the single digits. She thankful she had a job that kept her moving, even if it was outside.
"I'm not just standing around," she said. "So for me it's cold, but it's not intolerable."
A little cold air couldn't keep Jo Goodwin, 64, of Bridgewater, N.H., off the slopes at Sugarloaf ski resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, where she was skiing Wednesday with her husband and her sister. The snow conditions were great and there were no lift lines.
To keep warm, she uses a toe warmer, a hand warmer, a face mask, extra underwear and an extra wool sweater. She was told the wind chill was minus 30 midway up the mountain and 50 below zero near the top.
Manti Te'o says that even though he was hoaxed by the supposed existence of a fake girlfriend, his inspirational story of playing through emotional pain "was all real and that's something that I can't fake."
Te'o made his comments to Katie Couric which will air the exclusive interview on Thursday.
Te'o, 21, has been alternately questioned and lampooned over his role in the hoax that led him and the public to believe that his girlfriend Lennay Kekua died of leukemia as Te'o led the Notre Dame football team to an undefeated season that culminated in the national championship game.
Te'o was also a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, which goes to the best college football player in the country. Couric asked the star linebacker whether the emotional "story line" of a girlfriend who died on the same day as his grandmother "helped propel you to second place in Heisman voting?"
"I don't know. I really don't know," Te'o replied.
See more exclusive previews tonight on "World News With Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."
He was more certain, however, when Couric pressed him by pointing out that it had become "sort of a legend that you had endured this hardship and gone on to play your team and your school to victory... Did you feel like, wow, I'm getting a lot of attention for this?"
Te'o denied reveling in the attention.
Watch Katie Couric's interview with Manti Te'o and his parents Thursday. Check your local listings or click here for online station finder.
Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Disney-ABC
Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax: Could Alleged Scammer Be Charged? Watch Video
"I think for me the only thing I basked in was that I had an impact on people, that people turned to me and for inspiration and I think that was the only thing I focused on. You know my story I felt was a guy who in times of hardship and in times of trial really held strong to his faith, held strong to his family and I felt that that was my story," said Te'o, who is a Mormon.
Te'o said there was no acting in his emotions at the time when he thought the girl he called "Lala" had died of leukemia.
"What I went through was real. You know the feelings, the pain, the sorrow, that was all real and that's something that I can't fake," he said.
During the interview, Te'o said that he received a phone call on Dec. 6, apparently from the same woman he believed was dead, who told him she was alive. She said that her name was not Lennay Kekua, it was Leah. Teo has also said that woman sent him a different picture of herself.
Nevertheless, he again publicly mentioned his girlfriend, and her death, two days later on the day the Heisman trophy was to be awarded.
"You stuck to the script. And you knew that something was amiss, Manti," Couric said.
"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12," Te'o said.
"Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?" Te'o said.
Te'o was joined by his parents, Brian and Ottilia, in the interview.
"Now many people writing about this are calling your son a liar. They are saying he manipulated the truth, really for personal gain," Couric said to Te'o's father.
"People can speculate about what they think he is. I've known him 21 years of his life. And he's not a liar. He's a kid," Brian Te'o said with tears in his eyes.
Click here for a who's who in the Manti Te'o case.
Diane O'Meara told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that she was used as the "face" of the Twitter account of Manti Te'o's online girlfriend without her knowledge or consent.
O'Meara said that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating Kekua.
"I've never met Manti Te'o in my entire life. I've never spoke with him. I've never exchanged words with him," O'Meara said Tuesday.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday promised Britons a vote on whether the country should stay in the European Union or leave, rattling London's biggest allies and some investors by raising the prospect of uncertainty and upheaval.
Cameron announced the referendum would be held by the end of 2017, provided he wins the next election, and said that while Britain did not want to retreat from the world, public disillusionment with the EU was at "an all-time high".
"It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time for us to settle this question about Britain and Europe," Cameron said in a speech, adding that his Conservative party would campaign for the 2015 election on a promise to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership.
"When we have negotiated that new settlement, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice to stay in the European Union on these new terms; or come out altogether. It will be an in-out referendum."
A referendum would mark the second time Britons have voted on the issue. In 1975, they decided by a wide margin to stay in the EU's predecessor, two years after the country had joined.
Domestically, Cameron stands on relatively firm ground. Most recent opinion polls have shown a slim majority would vote to leave the EU amid often bitter disenchantment about its influence on the British way of life. However, a poll this week showed a majority wanted to stay.
Cameron's position is fraught with uncertainty. He must come from behind to win the next election, secure support from the EU's 26 other states for a new British role, and hope those countries can persuade their voters to back the changes.
Critics say that in the long run-up to a vote, Britain would slip into a dangerous and damaging limbo that could leave the country adrift or pushed out of the EU.
The United States, a close ally, is also uneasy about the plan, believing it will dilute Britain's international clout. President Barack Obama told Cameron by phone last week that Washington valued "a strong UK in a strong European Union".
Some of Britain's European partners were also anxious and told Cameron on Wednesday his strategy reflected a selfish and ignorant attitude. However, Angela Merkel, the leader of EU paymaster Germany, was quick to say she was ready to discuss Cameron's ideas.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was less diplomatic, quipping: "If Britain wants to leave Europe we will roll out the red carpet for you," echoing Cameron, who once used the same words to invite rich Frenchmen alienated by high taxes to move to Britain.
Billed by commentators as the most important speech of Cameron's career, his referendum promise ties him firmly to an issue that has bedeviled a generation of Conservative leaders.
In the past, he has been careful to avoid bruising partisan fights over Europe, an issue that undid the last two Conservative prime ministers, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.
His speech appeared to pacify a powerful Eurosceptic wing inside his own party, but deepen rifts with the Liberal Democrats, the junior partners in his coalition. Their leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said the plan would undermine a fragile economic recovery.
Sterling fell to its lowest in nearly five months against the dollar on Wednesday as Cameron was speaking.
"BREXIT"?
Cameron said he would seek to claw back powers from Brussels, saying later in parliament that when it came to employment, social and environmental legislation "Europe has gone far too far".
But such a claw back - the subject of an internal audit to identify which powers he should target for repatriation - is likely to be easier said than done.
If Cameron wins the election but then fails to renegotiate Britain's membership of the EU, a 'Brexit' could loom.
Business leaders have warned that years of doubt over Britain's EU membership would damage the $2.5 trillion economy and cool the investment climate.
"Having a referendum creates more uncertainty and we don't need that," Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP, told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "This is a political decision. This is not an economic decision. This isn't good news. You added another reason why people will postpone investment decisions."
Cameron has been pushed into taking such a strong position partly by the rise of the UK Independence Party, which favors complete withdrawal from the EU and has climbed to third in the opinion polls, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives.
"All he's trying to do is to kick the can down the road and to try and get UKIP off his back," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
Eurosceptics in Cameron's party, who have threatened to stir up trouble for the premier, were thrilled by the speech.
Conservative lawmaker Peter Bone called it "a terrific victory" that would unify 98 percent of the party. "He's the first prime minister to say he wants to bring back powers from Brussels," Bone told Reuters. "It's pretty powerful stuff".
Whether Cameron holds the referendum remains as uncertain as the Conservatives' chances of winning the election. They trail the opposition Labour party in opinion polls, and the coalition is grappling with a stagnating economy as it pushes through unpopular public spending cuts to reduce a large budget deficit.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said on Wednesday his party did not want an in/out referendum.
EU REFORM
Cameron said he would campaign for Britain to stay in the EU "with all my heart and soul", provided he secured the reforms he wants. He made clear the EU must become less bureaucratic and focus more on trade deals. It was riskier to maintain the status quo than to change, he said.
"The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy," he said.
Cameron said the euro zone debt crisis was forcing the bloc to change and that Britain would fight to make sure new rules were fair to the 10 countries that don't use the common currency, of which Britain is the largest.
Democratic consent for the EU in Britain was now "wafer thin", he said. "Some people say that to point this out is irresponsible, creates uncertainty for business and puts a question mark over Britain's place in the European Union," said Cameron. "But the question mark is already there: ignoring it won't make it go away."
A YouGov opinion poll on Monday showed that more people wanted to stay in the EU than leave it, the first such result in many months. But it was unclear whether that result was a blip.
Paul Chipperfield, a 53-year-old management consultant, said he liked the strategy. "Cameron's making the right move because I don't think we've had enough debate in this country," he told Reuters. "We should be part of the EU but the EU needs to recognize that not everybody's going to jump on the same bandwagon."
Asked after the speech whether other EU countries would agree to renegotiate Britain's membership, Cameron said he was an optimist and that there was "every chance of success".
"I don't want Britain to leave the EU," he told parliament later. "I want Britain to reform the EU."
In the 1975 referendum, just over 67 percent voted to stay inside with nearly 33 percent against.
(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Davos, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin and Brenda Goh in London; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Stamp)
