The Voice Crowns a Winner!















12/18/2012 at 11:20 PM EST







From left: Terry McDermott, Cassadee Pope, Nicholas David and host Carson Daly


Tyler Golden/NBC


The Voice has a new winner!

After several powerful performances the night before, the top three singers – Nicholas David (of Team Cee Lo) and Terry McDermott and Cassadee Pope (of Blake Shelton's team) – faced the music on Tuesday during the final results show of season 3.

Which one was the winner? Keep reading to find out ...

Cassadee Pope was named the winner of The Voice!

Pope thanked her fans who supported her throughout the competition. She was joined onstage by McDermott, who was the runner-up, and David, who came in third place.

It was a night of music as Rihanna, newly engaged Kelly Clarkson, Bruno Mars and the Killers celebrated with the finalists by displaying their talents.

Season 4 of The Voice premieres March 25, 2013, with Shakira and Usher stepping in to take over for Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green.

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Experts: No link between Asperger's, violence


NEW YORK (AP) — While an official has said that the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shooting had Asperger's syndrome, experts say there is no connection between the disorder and violence.


Asperger's is a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.


"There really is no clear association between Asperger's and violent behavior," said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.


Little is known about Adam Lanza, identified by police as the shooter in the Friday massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. He fatally shot his mother before going to the school and killing 20 young children, six adults and himself, authorities said.


A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation, said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger's.


High school classmates and others have described him as bright but painfully shy, anxious and a loner. Those kinds of symptoms are consistent with Asperger's, said psychologist Eric Butter of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who treats autism, including Asperger's, but has no knowledge of Lanza's case.


Research suggests people with autism do have a higher rate of aggressive behavior — outbursts, shoving or pushing or angry shouting — than the general population, he said.


"But we are not talking about the kind of planned and intentional type of violence we have seen at Newtown," he said in an email.


"These types of tragedies have occurred at the hands of individuals with many different types of personalities and psychological profiles," he added.


Autism is a developmental disorder that can range from mild to severe. Asperger's generally is thought of as a mild form. Both autism and Asperger's can be characterized by poor social skills, repetitive behavior or interests and problems communicating. Unlike classic autism, Asperger's does not typically involve delays in mental development or speech.


Experts say those with autism and related disorders are sometimes diagnosed with other mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.


"I think it's far more likely that what happened may have more to do with some other kind of mental health condition like depression or anxiety rather than Asperger's," Laugeson said.


She said those with Asperger's tend to focus on rules and be very law-abiding.


"There's something more to this," she said. "We just don't know what that is yet."


After much debate, the term Asperger's is being dropped from the diagnostic manual used by the nation's psychiatrists. In changes approved earlier this month, Asperger's will be incorporated under the umbrella term "autism spectrum disorder" for all the ranges of autism.


__


AP Writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.


___


Online:


Asperger's information: http://1.usa.gov/3tGSp5


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Asian shares inch higher on "fiscal cliff" hopes

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares crept higher on Tuesday, tracking the overnight gains in U.S. stocks, as fresh signs of compromise maintained a new optimism that the U.S. "fiscal cliff" budget tussle could be settled before tax hikes and spending cuts begin to bite early next year.


Oil and copper also firmed on the prospect of progress in the U.S. budget talks, but expectations of more monetary easing in Japan kept the yen soft.


President Barack Obama is seeking higher tax revenues which include increased rates on the wealthy while he is willing to cut some spending by changing the way cost of living adjustments are made to Social Security retirement benefits and other programs.


Obama's offer shows his willingness to give way on an item that some of his supporters had sought to protect, and may help advance negotiations with top Republican John Boehner to avert the fiscal cliff before the end-year deadline.


MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was up 0.2 percent, following a rise in global shares on Monday. The index snapped an eight-day winning streak on Monday as investors took profits from last week's rally.


Fears over the U.S. fiscal crisis have dragged on many markets, but regional equities took direction from local factors.


Australian shares <.axjo> led Asia's outperformers with a 0.7 percent gain, lifted by a rise in iron ore prices <.io62-cni> to a five-month high.


"Iron ore is a very key commodity in the Chinese industrial machine, steel usage will bounce back and that is good news for our exporters," said Baillieu Holst director Richard Morrow.


Seoul shares <.ks11> rose marginally but underperformed others in Asia, as investors were reluctant to build positions ahead of South Korea's presidential vote on Wednesday.


In Japan, the Nikkei average <.n225> surged 1.1 percent to an 8-1/2-month high and edged closer to the key 10,000-mark, with sentiment bolstered by a landslide election win for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday. <.t/>


LDP leader Shinzo Abe, who is due to be confirmed as Japan's next premier on December 26, is calling for far more aggressive monetary stimulus and huge public works spending to rescue Japan out of decades-long deflation, pledges which are seen pressuring the yen and supporting Japanese stocks by improving earnings for Japanese exporters.


"The Nikkei is up today primarily due to the rise in U.S. stocks overnight, but the 'Abe-effect' is surprisingly longer-lasting as investors seem to be postponing the timing of unwinding their positions until they see the details and specifics in policies," said Ayako Sera, market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.


YEN REMAINs PRESSURED


The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 83.95 yen, off a 20-month high of 84.48 yen hit on Monday but well above its late New York levels on Friday.


Abe applied fresh pressure on the Bank of Japan on Monday, saying that the election result reflected strong public support for his views, which he hoped the BOJ would take into account at its two-day policy meeting starting on Wednesday.


"The dollar has more upside against the yen ahead of the BOJ's meeting, with expectations for some additional easing steps being strengthened after Abe's comments yesterday," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.


"The corrective fall in the dollar/yen after the election was small and it's crawling up because the yen weakening trend is still intact. But after the BOJ meeting, there will likely be pre-holiday profit-taking, pushing the dollar/yen down by 1 to 2 yen," he said, adding that the dollar could temporarily touch 85 yen before profit-taking sets in by the end of the year.


The benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield hit a one-month high of 0.750 percent on concerns that big-scale fiscal stimulus could seriously increase the country's debt burden.


U.S. Treasury yields also inched up in Asia, with the 10-year yields briefly reaching 1.796 percent, its highest level since October 26, on hopes for a deal on the U.S. fiscal cliff.


London copper was up 0.2 percent to $8,078.50 a metric ton (1.1023 tons).


U.S. crude rose 0.4 percent to $87.57 a barrel and Brent added 0.5 percent to $108.18.


(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne; Editing by Eric Meijer)



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Lashkar Gah Journal: A Pristine Afghan Prison Faces a Murky Future


Bryan Denton for The New York Times


Inmates at the Helmand Central Prison in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, in an outdoor area.







LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — The first thing one notices about the new prison here is the smell, or rather the absence of it. Helmand Central Prison does not reek of sewage or sweat or old clothes or rancid cooking oil, the typical odors of an Afghan lockup. The air smells, dare one say, fresh.




Also noteworthy are the bathroom floors, which are sparkling, and the outer walls, which are made of concrete, not mud, like so much of this country’s prison infrastructure.


Built in the insurgency’s southern heartland with $6.5 million from the British government, there is no doubt that Helmand Central Prison is impressive. The only question is how long it will stay that way once Western forces leave and Western money dwindles.


That prospect is not something that Col. Hajji Raz Mohammed, the deputy warden, even wanted to contemplate as he proudly walked visitors through every corner of the prison, the bathrooms included.


Asked what will happen when the British Provincial Reconstruction Team that is a few miles away packs up in the coming year or so, he squinted in the bright winter sunlight of the prison yard. “It’s very early to comment on this,” he said.


He went on to detail all that the British are supplying to the prison — air-conditioners, refrigerators and even computers that allow the inmates, many of them former Taliban affiliates, to learn PowerPoint and Excel. There is also the clinic that treats those with tuberculosis, depression and a variety of other illnesses. The British team even provided two minivans to act as ambulances for prisoners who need transport to the hospital.


As for the Afghan government, which has been managing the prison since mid-2011, it pays for the salaries of prison employees and food. Colonel Mohammed expressed grave doubts about whether the prison could keep up its standards solely with Afghan government backing.


“No, our government will not be able to afford this,” he said. “Our government is poor.”


If a prison is, in some measure, a mirror of the larger society, then the Helmand Central Prison offers a glimpse of southern Afghanistan just as the surge in Western troops is ending. It not only shows the largess and aspirations of the Western militaries, but also the fragility of their efforts against the Taliban, whose presence in the prison reflects its prevalence in the province.


In 2009, the British razed the run-down structure that used to house prisoners here, with its poor plumbing and its dirt yard that turned to mud in the rainy winter. The new prison is just the first piece of an ambitious complex that will include a modern juvenile detention center, a women’s prison and, with the aid of the Danish government, a rehabilitation center.


A walk through the prison with Colonel Mohammed reveals conditions far removed from the dungeonlike atmosphere that still exists in some places in the rest of the country. The prisoners, who wear traditional Afghan dress, live in groups of 8 to 10 in bunk rooms with the television tuned to local channels. Afghan news and music seemed to be favorites.


The hallways are swept clean, and the floors washed. The prison yard accommodates several hundred prisoners who sit in large groups, some reading the Koran, others taking literacy classes and still others standing in a line to use a communal cellphone — monitored by the intelligence service.


Colonel Mohammed said the prison had 37 surveillance cameras, which helped employees keep track of what was going on. When one breaks, “the P.R.T. pays to repair them,” he said. What will happen when the Provincial Reconstruction Team is no longer there? “We will do it,” Colonel Mohammed said, though he looked less than certain.


Gen. Bismullah Hamid, who runs Helmand Central and is described by the Westerners who work with him as a “visionary” in the Afghan prison system, recalled that when he was assigned to the prison, it was a squalid, crowded place filled with gangs and drugs. (Helmand Province leads Afghanistan in opium production.)


“Drug addicts were easily manipulated by subversive inmates, and they would start protests and rebellions,” he said.


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What If Nothing or Nobody is to Blame for Adam Lanza? Guns, Video Games, Autism or Authorities






What if there is nobody or nothing to blame for Adam Lanza‘s heinous acts? Other than Lanza, of course.


What if school security and the school psychiatrist kept an eye on Lanza since his freshman year? The Wall Street Journal has a compelling narrative about the red flags addressed.






What if he had a form of autism that has little or no link to violent behavior? Lanza may have had Asperger’s syndrome but, even so, that is not a cause.


(RELATED: How To Make Sense of America’s Confusing Patchwork of Gun Control Laws)


What if it’s too simple to lay the massacre at the feet of the gun lobby? Reader Larry Kelly tweets that shaming Aspies “makes about as much sense at stigmatizing the NRA. Pick an enemy … any enemy. Let outrage and fear rule.”


What if Lanza wasn’t provoked by video games? David Axelrod, a close friend an adviser of President Obama, tweeted last night: “In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot ‘em up video game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game.”


When I asked whether he was laying groundwork for a White House initiative, Axelrod said no: “Just one man’s observation.” A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said today that Axelrod was not a stalking horse for Obama on this issue.


What if Lanza’s mother did everything she could, short of keeping her guns out her adult son’s reach? What if he wasn’t bullied?


What if there is nobody or nothing to blame? Would that make this inexplicable horror unbearable?


What if we didn’t rush to judgement? What if we didn’t waste our thoughts, prayers and actions on assigning blame for the sake of mere recrimination? What if we calmly and ruthlessly learned whatever lessons we can from the massacre — and prevented the next one?


What if it wasn’t one thing, but everything, that set off Lanza?


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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The Voice's Top Three Give Final Performances in the Competition






The Voice










12/17/2012 at 10:25 PM EST







From left: Judges Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton


Trae Patton/NBC


Monday night's episode of The Voice gave the final three contestants three chances to earn fans' votes. Each singer revisited a "breakout" song that set them apart in the competition, sang a new song and performed a duet with his or her coach.

But the night opened with a touching tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Coaches and singers held up the names of each life lost while singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

Team Cee Lo's Nicholas David then kicked off the competition with Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire." Not able to resist a pun, his coach chimed in on his performance: "Your fire tonight burned this house down," Green said. David later revisited his performance of Bill Withers's "Lean On Me," and joined Green for a duet of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music."

Team Blake's two contestants also had the crowd cheering. Terry McDermott's sang his best song, Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," and took a stab at Mr. Mister's "Take These Broken Wings." But the crowning moment of the night for McDermott was his duet with Shelton of Aerosmith's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)." Adam Levine played guitar alongside them, decked out in a long rocker wig.

Cassadee Pope sang "Over You," which her coach and his wife, Miranda Lambert, co-wrote. She received huge praise for singing it the first time, but the song about Shelton's late brother had special meaning in the wake of the shootings in Newtown, Conn. "America's heart is heavy, and that's about healing," Shelton said. She also moved the coaches with her take on Faith Hill's "Cry." "I don't care that you weren't on my team," Levine said. "I am so proud of you and so happy that you're here at this moment." Pope finished the night with Shelton for a duet of Sheryl Crow's "Steve McQueen."

The Voice returns Tuesday, when the season's winner will be named. Who will it be? Tell us in the comments below.

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Experts: No link between Asperger's, violence


NEW YORK (AP) — While an official has said that the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shooting had Asperger's syndrome, experts say there is no connection between the disorder and violence.


Asperger's is a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.


"There really is no clear association between Asperger's and violent behavior," said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.


Little is known about Adam Lanza, identified by police as the shooter in the Friday massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. He fatally shot his mother before going to the school and killing 20 young children, six adults and himself, authorities said.


A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation, said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger's.


High school classmates and others have described him as bright but painfully shy, anxious and a loner. Those kinds of symptoms are consistent with Asperger's, said psychologist Eric Butter of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who treats autism, including Asperger's, but has no knowledge of Lanza's case.


Research suggests people with autism do have a higher rate of aggressive behavior — outbursts, shoving or pushing or angry shouting — than the general population, he said.


"But we are not talking about the kind of planned and intentional type of violence we have seen at Newtown," he said in an email.


"These types of tragedies have occurred at the hands of individuals with many different types of personalities and psychological profiles," he added.


Autism is a developmental disorder that can range from mild to severe. Asperger's generally is thought of as a mild form. Both autism and Asperger's can be characterized by poor social skills, repetitive behavior or interests and problems communicating. Unlike classic autism, Asperger's does not typically involve delays in mental development or speech.


Experts say those with autism and related disorders are sometimes diagnosed with other mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.


"I think it's far more likely that what happened may have more to do with some other kind of mental health condition like depression or anxiety rather than Asperger's," Laugeson said.


She said those with Asperger's tend to focus on rules and be very law-abiding.


"There's something more to this," she said. "We just don't know what that is yet."


After much debate, the term Asperger's is being dropped from the diagnostic manual used by the nation's psychiatrists. In changes approved earlier this month, Asperger's will be incorporated under the umbrella term "autism spectrum disorder" for all the ranges of autism.


__


AP Writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.


___


Online:


Asperger's information: http://1.usa.gov/3tGSp5


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Wall Street Week Ahead: Holiday "on standby" as clock ticks on cliff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The last two weeks of December are traditionally quiet for stocks, but traders accustomed to a bit of time off are staying close to their mobile devices, thanks to the "fiscal cliff."


Last-minute negotiations in Washington on the so-called fiscal cliff - nearly $600 billion of tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January that could cause a sharp slowdown in growth or even a recession - are keeping some traders and analysts from taking Christmas holidays because any deal could have a big impact on markets.


"A lot of firms are saying to their trading desks, 'You can take days off for Christmas, but you are on standby to come in if anything happens.' This is certainly different from previous years, especially around this time of the year when things are supposed to be slowing down," said J.J. Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.


"Next week is going to be a Capitol Hill-driven market."


With talks between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner at an apparent standstill, it was increasingly likely that Washington will not come up with a deal before January 1.


Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York, will also be on standby for the holiday season.


"It's a 'Look guys, let's just rotate and be sensible" type of situation going on," Charlop said.


"We are hopeful there is some resolution down there, but it seems to me they continue to walk that political tightrope... rather than coming up with something."


Despite concerns that the deadline will pass without a deal, the S&P 500 has held its ground with a 12.4 percent gain for the year. For this week, though, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent.


BEWARE OF THE WITCH


This coming Friday will mark the last so-called "quadruple witching" day of the year, when contracts for stock options, single stock futures, stock index options and stock index futures all expire. This could make trading more volatile.


"We could see some heavy selling as there is going to be a lot of re-establishing of positions, reallocation of assets before the year-end," Kinahan said.


RETHINKING APPLE


Higher tax rates on capital gains and dividends are part of the automatic tax increases that will go into effect next year, if Congress and the White House don't come up with a solution to avert the fiscal cliff. That possibility could give investors an incentive to unload certain stocks in some tax-related selling by December 31.


Some market participants said tax-related selling may be behind the weaker trend in the stock price of market leader Apple . Apple's stock has lost a quarter of its value since it hit a lifetime high of $705.07 on September 21.


On Friday, the stock fell 3.8 percent to $509.79 after the iPhone 5 got a chilly reception at its debut in China and two analysts cut shipment forecasts. But the stock is still up nearly 26 percent for the year.


"If you owned Apple for a long time, you should be thinking about reallocation as there will be changes in taxes and other regulations next year, although we don't really know which rules to play by yet," Kinahan said.


But one indicator of the market's reduced concern about the fiscal cliff compared with a few weeks ago, is the defense sector, which will be hit hard if the spending cuts take effect. The PHLX Defense Sector Index <.dfx> is up nearly 13 percent for the year, and sits just a few points from its 2012 high.


(Reporting by Angela Moon; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)



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Egypt Votes on Constitution; Muslim Brotherhood Expects Approval





CAIRO — Supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi sparred on Sunday over the preliminary results of a referendum on a draft constitution, which Egyptians moved toward approving in voting marked by long lines but low voter turnout.




The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that supports Mr. Morsi, said that around 57 percent of those who cast ballots in the first round on Saturday voted in favor of the proposed constitution, whose drafting was dominated by Islamists. The figure was based on unofficial tallies. A second round of voting is scheduled for this Saturday in rural areas, where the draft constitution is likely to win stronger support.


While the Brotherhood hailed the “political maturity” of voters, opposition leaders disputed the unofficial results and said the voting was marred by irregularities. Each side sought to frame the results as favorable.


Although many people here predicted that the charter would be approved, the turnout was just 31 percent, according the Brotherhood’s estimates. That immediately raised doubts about whether a document intended to express a consensus on Egypt’s identity and lay the foundation of a new government had won legitimacy in the referendum.


Some also said that the low turnout and relatively narrow approval margin dented assumptions about the strength of the Brotherhood, whose extensive grass-roots network had yielded a string of electoral victories since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February 2011.


Some Brotherhood officials seemed surprised by the results. “It’s certainly below a lot of expectations,” said Gehad el-Haddad, a senior Brotherhood official. He and others said the polarizing political fight between Mr. Morsi’s supporters and opponents was to blame, causing a broad disillusion with politics and prompting what Mr. Haddad called Egypt’s “silent majority” to stay home.


Still, he argued that the high proportion of “no” votes came not from a rejection of the draft constitution, but rather from anger — justified or otherwise — at the Brotherhood.


“The evaluation was not on the product,” he said. “It was on the producers.”


Resentment against the Brotherhood grew in recent weeks after Mr. Morsi issued a decree insulating his decisions from judicial scrutiny and then hastily called a referendum on the constitution. Many Egyptians also blamed the Brotherhood for deadly clashes outside the presidential palace two weeks ago.


The voting on Saturday was largely peaceful, a respite after weeks of turmoil and a toxic political debate over the constitution.


The arguments started again on Sunday. A coalition of human rights groups called for a revote, saying there were thousands of complaints of violations at the polls and inadequate supervision by judges. The Brotherhood-sponsored Freedom and Justice Party also cited allegations of misbehavior by opponents at polling places, but said that in general the voting was a success. The Egyptian election commission said it would release official results after the second round.


Some opposition figures were hailing the results of the referendum as a small victory for non-Islamist political groups. Amr Hamzawy, the founder of the liberal Free Egypt Party, asserted in a message on Twitter that the relative closeness of the outcome ended the notion that the Brotherhood was unbeatable at the polls. “Saying that democratic currents have no popularity, and that the Brotherhood and their allies monopolize popular will and have the license of the boxes fell yesterday, once and for all,” Mr. Hamzawy wrote.


But analysts said that the voting had left an uncertain landscape. A much better showing for the draft constitution in the next round would probably strengthen Mr. Morsi’s hand. But if current voting patterns continue, Mr. Morsi would just as surely face steep challenges in governing. The Brotherhood could also be seen as more vulnerable in parliamentary elections due after the constitution is adopted.


Mr. Morsi’s problems could start with the charter itself. If it passes narrowly with only about one-third of eligible voters turning out, the document would have legal legitimacy, “but it’s difficult to argue it would have popular legitimacy,” said Zaid al-Ali, who has tracked Egypt’s constitution-writing process for the International Institute for Democratic and Electoral Assistance, based in Sweden. “Politically, it will be a hot potato for a long time to come,” he said.


Many countries require that constitutional referendums exceed a minimum turnout threshold to be valid, out of a belief that the fundamental nature of constitutions means that they must command broad popular support.


Some members of Egypt’s constitutional assembly seemed to agree in principle. Mr. Ali said that several members had told him that they would not be satisfied unless half of eligible voters — not just half of those casting ballots — registered approval. One member was quoted in state news media saying a two-thirds majority in favor was needed for legitimacy. But no such requirements were imposed.


A narrow outcome would oblige the president to “spend a large proportion of his time defending its legitimacy, rather than discussing specific policies,” Mr. Ali said.


Some saw the voting as a referendum not just on the charter, but also on the president’s record after five months in office. “I read this as a strong vote against the dismal, confused performance of the Morsi administration,” said Emad Shahin, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo, about the low turnout and high proportion of “no” votes. Of the president’s Islamist allies, Mr. Shahin said, “I think they thought they were on their way to really secure some kind of comfortable majority for the constitution, which did not happen.”


Whether that assessment is borne out remains to be seen. But Mr. Shahin said that the results so far already showed the need for Mr. Morsi to change his approach to his opponents, who have faulted him for failing to build consensus around contentious decisions. He said that Mr. Morsi’s government needed a transformation of “mentality”: from a state run by the Muslim Brotherhood to a “state that runs an entire country with its all political and social segments.”


Mr. Shahin laid equal blame on the opposition, for resorting to obstructionism rather than compromise at crucial junctures. He called some of the opposition leaders “irresponsible” and said they had engaged in a “massive campaign of disinformation” about the constitution, aided by segments of the news media.


Late on Sunday, opposition leaders signaled that they intended to keep the pressure on Mr. Morsi, calling simultaneously for a large protest on Tuesday, for voters to turn out heavily in the second round next Saturday and for the election commission to consider voiding the first round because of the irregularities.


David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting.



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Apple says China iPhone 5 sales in first weekend top two million






(Reuters) – Apple Inc sold more than 2 million of its new iPhone 5 in China during the three days after its launch there on Friday, marking China’s best-selling iPhone rollout ever, the company said late on Sunday.


“Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement.






Apple’s latest iPhone, which offers a larger 4-inch screen and 4G capability, was launched in the United States and 30 other countries in September, when the company sold more than 5 million of the devices in the first three days.


The device’s highly anticipated release in China, Apple’s second-biggest market, failed to stop the recent share slide of the world’s most valuable technology company, and analysts said Apple’s longer-term China hopes may hinge on a partnership with China Mobile Ltd, the country’s top telecoms carrier.


(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Edmund Klamann)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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