Lovie Smith fired as Bears coach after 9 seasons

LAKE FOREST, Ill. The Chicago Bears fired coach Lovie Smith on Monday after the team missed the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons.

Smith was informed of the decision by general manager Phil Emery on the day after the Bears beat Detroit to finish 10-6 but still didn't make the playoffs.

10 Photos

NFL coaches, GMs sacked in firing frenzy

Smith led the Bears to a Super Bowl, but also saw his team collapse in the second half of the past two seasons. Hired in 2004, Smith led the Bears to three division titles, two NFC title games and a 2007 Super Bowl appearance in his nine seasons. His record is 81-63, and he leaves with one year left on his contract.

The Bears scheduled a news conference Tuesday to discuss the move.

Even though Chicago closed with a win, the Bears needed a loss by Minnesota to get into the playoffs. The Vikings, though, beat Green Bay to clinch a postseason spot, leaving Chicago as the second team since the postseason expanded to 12 teams to miss out after a 7-1 start. The other was Washington in 1996.

CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported Sunday that Smith's tenuous hold on his job "would be further imperiled should his team fail to get into the postseason."

But Smith, who had one year remaining on his current deal, shouldn't have any trouble finding work. League sources told La Canfora that Smith should land head-coaching interviews with other NFL teams.

Smith's record ranks third on the Bears' all-time list, behind George Halas and Mike Ditka.

The highlight of his tenure was the run to the title game that ended with a loss to the Indianapolis Colts. It was the first time two black coaches met for the championship, with Smith going against his mentor Tony Dungy.

The Bears made the playoffs just three times and posted three postseason victories under Smith. The 2010 team beat Seattle after the Seahawks won their division with a 7-9 record, but the Bears lost to Green Bay in the NFC title game at Soldier Field.

There was speculation Smith would be let go following the 2011 team's collapse, but he got one more year while general manager Jerry Angelo was fired.

Ultimately, the struggles on offense did him in.

Known for solid defenses, Smith oversaw a unit that was consistently effective and at times ranked among the league's best with stars such as Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and later Julius Peppers. Smith emphasized taking the ball away from the opposition, and no team did it more than the Bears with 310 during his tenure.

But on the other side, it was a different story.

Smith went through four offensive coordinators in Terry Shea, Ron Turner, Mike Martz and Mike Tice. He never could find the right formula, even as the Bears acquired stars such as quarterback Jay Cutler and receiver Brandon Marshall over the years.

The offensive line has struggled in a big way over the past few seasons after age took its toll on a group that was a strength during the 2005 and 2006 playoff seasons. The Bears were never able to replenish, spending first-round picks on Chris Williams (2008) and Gabe Carimi (2011) that did not pan out.

Williams had his contract terminated in October, ending a disappointing run, and Carimi struggled this season after missing most of his rookie year with a knee injury.

While Angelo took the fall after last season, Smith was not without blame in the personnel issues over the years. He pushed to bring in former Rams offensive lineman Orlando Pace and safety Adam Archuleta, players who succeeded in St. Louis when Smith was the defensive coordinator there but were busts with the Bears.

He had no bigger supporter than team matriarch Virginia McCaskey, but the fans seemed split on him. To some, he was a picture of calm, a coach who never lost his composure and never criticized his players in public, the anti-Ditka if you will.

History suggests fans who are clamoring for a high-profile replacement such as Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden might be disappointed. The last time the Bears went with an experienced NFL head coach was when Halas returned to the sideline in 1958.

They might, however, go with an offensive-minded coach for the first time since Mike Ditka was fired after the 1992 season, given the issues in that area.

That the Bears would be in this spot seemed unthinkable after they ripped Tennessee 51-20 on Nov. 4. They were sailing along at 7-1 and eyeing a big playoff run after collapsing the previous season, with the defense taking the ball away and scoring at an eye-opening rate to compensate for a struggling offense, but the schedule took a tougher turn.

They dropped back-to-back games to Houston and San Francisco and five of six in all before closing out with wins at Arizona and Detroit. Injuries mounted along the way, and what looked like a playoff run slipped from their grasp, just as it did after a promising start in 2011.

That year, they won seven of their first 10 only to wind up at 8-8 after a monumental collapse sparked by a season-ending injury to Cutler.

While Angelo was fired, Smith got spared and Emery took the job with a mandate to keep the coach at least one more year.

He quickly went to work retooling the roster, landing Marshall in a blockbuster trade with Miami that reunited Cutler with his favorite target in Denver.

He also added depth in other areas, bringing in Jason Campbell as the backup quarterback after Caleb Hanie failed the previous season and teaming running back Michael Bush in the backfield with Matt Forte.

All those moves sent expectations soaring. The results were awfully familiar, though.

Now, Smith's out of a job.

Read More..

Clinton's Blood Clot Could've Been Life Threatening

Hillary Clinton's latest health update -- cerebral venous thrombosis -- is a rare and potentially "life-threatening" condition, according to medical experts, but one from which the globe-trotting secretary of state is likely to recover from.

In an update from her doctors, Clinton's brain scans revealed a clot had formed in the right transverse venous sinus, and she was being successfully treated with anticoagulants.

"She is lucky being Hillary Clinton and had a follow-up MRI -- lucky that her team thought to do it," said Dr. Brian D. Greenwald, medical director at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Center for Head Injuries. "It could have potentially serious complications."

The backup of blood flow could have caused a stroke or hemorrhage, according to Greenwald.

"Imagine this vein, where all the cerebral spinal fluid inside the head and spine no longer flows through this area," he said. "You get a big back up and that itself could cause a stroke. In the long-term … the venous system can't get the blood out of the brain. It's like a Lincoln Tunnel back up."

A transverse sinus thrombosis is a clot arising in one of the major veins that drains the brain. It is an uncommon but serious disorder.

Morne de Klerk/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton Has Blood Clot From Concussion Watch Video

Members of Hillary Clinton's State Department Team Resign Watch Video

Hillary Clinton's Concussion: Doctor Orders Rest Watch Video

According to Greenwald, the clot was most likely caused by dehydration brought on by the flu, perhaps exacerbated by a concussion she recently suffered.

"The only time I have seen it happen is when people are severely dehydrated and it causes the blood to be so thick that it causes a clot in the area," said Greenwald. "It's one of the long-term effects of a viral illness."

Drs. Lisa Bardack of the Mt. Kisco Medical Group and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University discovered the clot during a routine follow-up MRI on Sunday.

"This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear," they said in a statement today. "It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage. To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established."

Clinton is "making excellent progress," according to her doctors. "She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."

Clinton, 65, was hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Sunday. She suffered a concussion earlier this month after she hit her head when she fainted because of dehydration from a stomach virus, according to an aide.

Dehydration can also precipitate fainting, according to Dr. Neil Martin, head of neurovascular surgery at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.

He agreed that the condition could potentially have caused a brain hemorrhage or stroke and been fatal.

"In patients with no symptoms after many days, full recovery is the norm," said Martin. "However, some cases show extension of the thrombus or clot into other regions of the cerebral venous sinuses, and this can worsen the situation considerably -- thus the use of anticoagulants to prevent extension of the thrombus."

But, he said, anticoagulants can be a "double-edged sword." With even a tiny injury within the brain from the concussion, these medications can cause "symptomatic bleed," such as a subdural or intracerebral hemorrhage.

The clot location is not related to the nasal sinuses, but are rather large venous structures in the dura or protective membrane covering the brain, which drains blood from the brain.

Read More..

Bombs kill 23 across Iraq as sectarian strife grows

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed and 87 wounded in attacks across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left.

Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants strike almost daily and have staged at least one big attack a month.

The latest violence followed more than a week of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by thousands of people from the minority Sunni community.

No group claimed responsibility for any of Monday's attacks, which targeted government officials, police patrols and members of both the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.

Seven people from the same Sunni family were killed by a bomb planted near their home in the town of Mussayab, south of Baghdad.

In the Shi'ite majority city of Hilla, also in the south, a parked car bomb went off near the convoy of the governor of Babil province, missing him but killing two other people, police said.

"We heard the sound of a big explosion and the windows of our office shattered. We immediately lay on the ground," said 28-year-old Mohammed Ahmed, who works at a hospital near the site of the explosion.

"After a few minutes I stood up and went to the windows to see what happened. I saw flames and people lying on the ground."

In the capital Baghdad, five people were killed by a parked car bomb targeting pilgrims before a Shi'ite religious rite this week, police and hospital sources said.

Although violence is far lower than during the sectarian slaughter of 2006-2007, about 2,000 people have been killed in Iraq this year following the withdrawal last December of U.S. troops, who led an invasion in 2003 to overthrow Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

SUNNIS PROTEST

Violence also hit Iraq's disputed territories, over which both the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region claim jurisdiction.

Three militants and one Kurdish guard were killed in the oil-producing, ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, where militants driving a car packed with explosives tried to break into a Kurdish security office.

Earlier on Monday, two policemen were killed in Kirkuk when a bomb they were trying to detonate exploded prematurely. An army official and his bodyguard were also killed in a drive-by shooting in the south of the city.

Kirkuk lies at the heart of a feud between Baghdad and Kurdistan over land and oil rights, which escalated last month when both sides deployed their respective armies to the swath of territory along their contested internal boundary.

Efforts to ease the standoff stalled when President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd seen as a steadying influence, suffered a stroke and was flown abroad for medical care in December.

Maliki then detained the bodyguards of his Sunni finance minister, which ignited anti-government protests in the western province of Anbar, a Sunni stronghold on the border with Syria.

A lecturer in law at Baghdad University said the protests could help create the conditions for militant Islamist groups like al Qaeda to thrive.

"Raising tension in Anbar and other provinces with mainly Sunni populations is definitely playing into the hands of al Qaeda and other insurgent groups," Ahmed Younis said.

More than 1,000 people protested in the city of Samarra on Monday and rallies continued in Ramadi, center of the protests, and in Mosul, where about 500 people took to the streets.

In the city of Falluja, where protesters have also staged large rallies and blocked a major highway over the past week, gunmen attacked an army checkpoint, killing one soldier.

Protesters are demanding an end to what they see as the marginalization of Sunnis, who dominated the country until the U.S.-led invasion. They want Maliki to abolish anti-terrorism laws they say are used to persecute them.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, himself a Sunni, was forced to flee a protest in Ramadi when demonstrators pelted him with stones and bottles.

The civil war in neighboring Syria, where majority Sunnis are fighting to topple a ruler backed by Shi'ite Iran, is also whipping up sectarian sentiment in Iraq.

"The toppling of President Bashar al-Assad and empowerment of Sunnis (in Syria) will definitely encourage al Qaeda to regain ground," Younis said.

(Reporting by Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla, Mustafa Mahmoud and Omar Mohammed in Kirkuk, Ali Mohammed in Baquba and Ahmed Rasheed and Aseel Kami in Baghdad; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Alison Williams)

Read More..

US hits debt ceiling with 'fiscal cliff' still unresolved

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury said the country would hit its debt ceiling on Monday as expected, forcing it to take measures to keep funding the government while political leaders battle over the deficit.

The Treasury said it would adjust its handling of civil service pension fund assets to be able to keep operating under the $16.394 trillion borrowing limit without slashing federal spending, suggesting it could do this for at least two months.

"We will reach the statutory debt limit today," a Treasury official told reporters.

In an official letter to Congress, the Treasury detailed the extraordinary measures it would undertake to keep the government afloat, which would last to February 28, 2013.

The statement came as Democrats and Republicans continued to joust over measures to correct the country's deep deficit, with a last-minute deal in the works late Monday to avert the steep tax increases of the fiscal cliff.

But the deal appeared not to include any increase in the congressionally-mandated official debt ceiling, as President Barack Obama had demanded.

That left open the possibility of another showdown like that of July 2011 over how to bridge the fiscal deficit and reduce the debt load.

The brinksmanship over the ceiling last year led to Standard & Poor's cutting the US's top-level AAA credit rating for the first time in history, putting it at AA+ with a "negative" outlook.

On Friday S&P said that any deal to fix the fiscal cliff package of economy-crunching tax hikes and spending cuts would not help the country's credit rating.

In 2011, S&P said, its downgrade was rooted in "the political brinkmanship of recent months (that) highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable".

"We believe that this characterisation still holds," it said Friday.

- AFP/de

Read More..

Unlock your Hyundai with a tap of your smartphone by 2015

In the future, you'll be able to unlock your Hyundai
car, start its engine, and more with little more than your NFC-enabled smartphone. Using the new Hyundai i30 (known here in the States as the Elantra GT) as its Connectivity Concept test platform, Hyundai showed off a variety of wireless technologies that it hopes to implement as early as 2015.

According to Hyundai, "the Connectivity Concept allows the user to lock and unlock the car by placing their smartphone over an NFC-tag (Near Field Communication), negating the need for a traditional key fob." Upon entering the vehicle, placing the phone in the center console allows the car to be started. Meanwhile, a wireless charging pad built into the console keeps the phone juiced while you drive. NFC was selected by the Car Tech editors as the "Most promising future tech" as part of our 2012 Car Tech Awards with this very implementation in mind.

The smartphone will also enable the car's starter, unlock the driver's profile, power the MirrorLink infotainment system, and charge wirelessly from its place in the console.

(Credit:
Hyundai)

However, as promising as this sounds, NFC only has a maximum effective range of about 4 inches. (In practice, I've found the range is usually much shorter, requiring practically direct contact.) This means that you'll have to take your phone out of your pocket to use it. The smart key fobs already widely used in keyless entry and start systems have a much wider operating range and don't require that you remove the fob from your pocket to unlock and start the car. So, while you gain the ability to combine two devices to save space in your pocket, you'll lose the hands-free convenience of current smart keyless entry. Unless you're the sort of person who always has your phone in-hand and at-the-ready, you'll be trading one minor inconvenience for another. These are truly first-world problems, right?

However, Hyundai didn't stop at replacing your keys with your smartphone and has added other useful features to the Connectivity Concept's mix. For those households with multiple drivers, the smartphone will also be the key to your unique driver profile, storing data such as music, phone contacts, radio station preferences, and other profile settings which can be accessed and fine-tuned with the i30's touchscreen interface. In a more well-equipped vehicle (perhaps a future Genesis or Equus?), data such as your automatic climate control settings, the power-adjustable seat position, and exterior mirror settings could be also be stored as part of a driver profile on your phone.

The final piece of the Connectivity Concept's puzzle is the implementation of MirrorLink technology. This smartphone connectivity protocol will allow users to take advantage of car-centric apps already present on the paired smartphone to bring, for example, your favorite navigation and data streaming apps to the touchscreen on the dashboard where they can be more safely and legally used.

It is realistic that the features touted by the Connectivity Concept could be implemented by the 2015 estimate made by Hyundai. My guess is that MirrorLink, wireless charging, and some form of the phone-based driver profiles will definitely make an appearance in the next generation of Hyundai cars. NFC for Bluetooth pairing may also make an appearance, but using the short-range wireless tech for vehicle entry and start doesn't really appear to offer much benefit over the currently used smart key fob technology.

What do you think? Would you replace your car keys with your smartphone?

Read More..

Five killed in Oregon tour bus crash

LA GRANDE, Ore. Authorities say five people died and about 20 more were injured in a tour bus crash on an icy stretch of interstate in Oregon.

Police say the bus lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down an embankment a few hundred feet.

Rescue workers are using ropes to help retrieve people from the crash scene. State police say the charter bus was carrying about 40 people, but they did not say where the vehicle was traveling to or from.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning due to icy conditions. A 69-year-old man died in a single-vehicle rollover accident. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland reports both the 26-year-old driver, who is expected to survive, and the deceased passenger were wearing safety restraints.

Read More..

Fiscal Cliff-Hanger: No Vote Tonight, Reid Says

With less than two days remaining for Congress to reach a budget agreement that would avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," a senior White House official tells ABC News that President Obama is still "modestly optimistic" that a deal can be struck to prevent middle class taxes from increasing on New Year's Day.

But a resolution to the ordeal won't come tonight.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid adjourned his chamber just before 6 p.m., ensuring a potential deal could not be voted on before senators return to business Monday morning.

The Nevada lawmaker vowed despite the recess, the parties' leadership would continue negotiations throughout the night.

Vice President Biden has now re-emerged as a key player, back in Washington and playing "a direct role" in trying to make a deal with Senate Republicans. Biden has been tapped because of his long-standing relationship with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

A Democratic source says that McConnell seems to be genuinely interested in getting an agreement. The news dovetails with reports that the GOP has backed off a key Social Security measure that had stalled negotiations.

According to sources, the row was sparked when the GOP offered a proposal that included a new method of calculating entitlement benefits with inflation. Called the "chained consumer price index," or Chained CPI, the strategy has been criticized by some Democrats because it would lower cost of living increases for Social Security recipients.

"We thought it was mutually understood that it was off the table for a scaled-back deal," a Democratic aide said. "It's basically a poison pill."

Obama has floated chained CPI in the past as part of a grand bargain, despite opposition from the AARP and within his own party.

Also in the Republican plan brought today: An extension of the current estate tax and no increase in the debt ceiling. Higher income earners would see their taxes increase, but at levels "well above $250,000," the sources said.

That "major setback" in the talks was evident on the floor of the Senate this afternoon.

"I'm concerned about the lack of urgency here, I think we all know we are running out of time," McConnell said, "I want everyone to know I am willing to get this done, but I need a dance partner."

McConnell, R-Ky., said he submitted the Republican's latest offer to Reid, D-Nev., at 7:10 p.m. Saturday and was willing to work through the night. Reid promised to get back to him at 10 this morning, but has yet to do so.

Why have the Democrats not come up with a counteroffer? Reid admitted it himself moments later.

"At this stage we're not able to make a counteroffer," Reid said noting that he's had numerous conversations with Obama, but the two parties are still far apart on some big issues, "I don't have a counteroffer to make. Perhaps as the day wears on I will be able to."

McConnell said he believes there is no major issue that is the sticking point but rather, "the sticking point appears to be a willingness, an interest, or frankly the courage to close the deal."

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

Sens. Charles Schumer and Jon Kyl on 'This Week' Watch Video

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations: Could Economy Slip Back into Recession? Watch Video

Reid said late this afternoon that the fiscal cliff negotiations were getting "real close" to falling apart completely.

"At some point in the negotiating process, it appears that there are things that stop us from moving forward," he said. "I hope we're not there but we're getting real close and that's why I still hold out hope that we can get something done. But I'm not overly optimistic but I am cautiously optimistic that we can get something done."

Reid said there were serious difference between the two sides, starting with Social Security. He said Democrats are not willing to cut Social Security benefits as part of a smaller, short-term agreement, as was proposed in the latest Republican proposal.

"We're not going to have any Social Security cuts. At this stage it just doesn't seem appropriate," he said. "We're open to discussion about entitlement reforms, but we're going to have to take a different direction. The present status will not work."

Reid said that even 36 hours before the country could go over the cliff, he remains "hopeful" but "realistic," about the prospects of reaching an agreement.

"The other side is intentionally demanding concessions they know we are not willing to make," he said.

The two parties were met separately at 3 p.m., and before going in Reid said he hoped there would be an announcement to make on a way forward afterwards. But as of this evening there was no agreement and no counterproposal.

McConnell said earlier today he placed a call to Vice President Biden to see if he could "jump start the negotiations on his side."

In an interview aired this morning -- well before the breakdown -- Obama suggested that a smaller deal remained the best hope to avoid the perilous package of spending cuts and tax increases.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" the president said if Republicans agreed to raising taxes on top income earners it should be enough to avoid the triggers that would execute the $607 billion measure. Economists agree that going over the cliff would likely put the country back in recession.

"If we have raised some revenue by the wealthy paying a little bit more, that would be sufficient to turn off what's called the sequester, these automatic spending cuts, and that also would have a better outcome for our economy long-term," he said.

Saying the "pressure is on Congress to produce," the president did not specify what income level his party would deem acceptable as the cutoff for those who would see their tax rates remain at current levels.

The president has called for expiration of the "Bush-era" tax cuts to affect household earnings over $250,000 since the campaign, but has reportedly floated a $400,000 figure in past negotiations.

House Speaker John Boehner once offered a $1 million cut-off in his failed "Plan B" proposal, which failed to garner enough support among the House Republicans.

"It's been very hard for Speaker Boehner and Republican Leader McConnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest Americans should go up a little bit as part of an overall deficit reduction package," the president said.

Domestic programs would lose $55 billion in funding should sequestration pass, including $2 billion to Medicare and unemployment benefits. The Pentagon would take a $55 billion loss as well, or 9 percent of its budget.

Repeating remarks he made Friday after a meeting with congressional leaders,
Obama said that should negotiations fail he has asked Reid to introduce a stripped-down proposal to Congress for a straight up-or-down vote -- if it isn't blocked.

"If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block so that taxes on the middle class do in fact go up on Jan. 1, then we'll come back with a new Congress on Jan. 4, and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle-class families," he said of the worst-case scenario. "I don't think the average person is going to say, 'Gosh, you know, that's a really partisan agenda.'"

The interview with the president was taped Saturday while Reid and McConnell scrambled to their offices for a solution behind closed doors. Press staking out Capitol Hill reported little public activity from the leaders or their surrogates. If negotiations are successful, the lawmakers could introduce a bill for vote this afternoon.

The Republican leaders immediately bit back at the president's remarks. In a written statement Boehner said casting blame was "ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party. "

Read More..

Body of India rape victim cremated in New Delhi

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The body of a woman, whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India, arrived back in New Delhi on Sunday and was cremated at a private ceremony.

Scuffles broke out in central Delhi between police and protesters who say the government is doing too little to protect women. But the 2,000-strong rally was confined to a single area, unlike last week when protests raged up throughout the capital.

Riot police manned barricades along streets leading to India Gate war memorial - a focal point for demonstrators - and, at another gathering point - the centuries-old Jantar Mantar - protesters held banners reading "We want justice!" and "Capital punishment".

Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists, who say that successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women.

The unidentified 23-year-old victim of the December 16 gang rape died of her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage.

The medical student had suffered brain injuries and massive internal injuries in the attack and died in hospital in Singapore where she had been taken for treatment.

She and a male friend had been returning home from the cinema, media reports say, when six men on a bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. The friend survived.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, police figures show. Reported rape cases rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011, according to government data.

Six suspects were charged with murder after her death and face the death penalty if convicted.

In Kolkata, one of India's four biggest cities, police said a man reported that his mother had been gang-raped and killed by a group of six men in a small town near the city on Saturday.

She was killed on her way home with her husband, a senior official said, and the attackers had thrown acid at the husband, raped and killed her, and dumped her body in a roadside pond.

Police declined to give any further details. One officer told Reuters no criminal investigation had yet been launched.

"MISOGYNY"

The leader of India's ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, was seen arriving at the airport when the plane carrying the woman's body from Singapore landed and Prime Minister Mannmohan Singh's convoy was also there.

A Reuters correspondent saw family members who had been with her in Singapore take her body from the airport to their Delhi home in an ambulance with a police escort.

Her body was then taken to a crematorium and cremated. Media were kept away but a Reuters witness saw the woman's family, New Delhi's chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the junior home minister, R P N Singh, coming out of the crematorium.

The outcry over the attack caught the government off guard. It took a week for the prime minister to make a statement, infuriating many protesters. Last weekend they fought pitched battles with police.

Issues such as rape, dowry-related deaths and female infanticide rarely enter mainstream political discourse.

Analysts say the death of the woman dubbed "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure", by some Indian media could change that, though it is too early to say whether the protesters can sustain their momentum through to national elections due in 2014.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon added his voice to those demanding change, calling for "further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice".

Commentators and sociologists say the incident earlier this month has tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues.

Newspapers raised doubts about the commitment of both male politicians and the police to protecting women.

"Would the Indian political system and class have been so indifferent to the problem of sexual violence if half or even one-third of all legislators were women?" the Hindu newspaper asked.

The Indian Express said it was more complicated than realizing that the police force was understaffed and underpaid.

"It is geared towards dominating citizens rather than working for them, not to mention being open to influential interests," the newspaper said. "It reflects the misogyny around us, rather than actively fighting for the rights of citizens who happen to be female."

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin and Diksha Madhokin New Delhi and Sujoy Dhar in Kolkata; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Read More..

Brazil, Mexico have most Latin American billionaires

MEXICO CITY: Brazil and Mexico have the most billionaires in Latin America but earn the least from estate taxes, according to a new study from a regional economic group.

Brazil tops the billionaires list with 30, followed by Mexico, with 11, said this month's report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mexico's Carlos Slim is the richest in the world according to the annual Forbes magazine ranking.

Yet between 2005 and 2007, Mexico earned just 0.18 per cent of its GDP from estate taxes, and Brazil only 0.44 per cent, according to the report on economic elites, inequality and taxation.

That put them behind several other Latin American countries with far fewer billionaires, such as Colombia, which has three billionaires and earned 0.54 per cent from estate taxes.

And income disparities are vast.

More than two billion people live on less than US$2 a day worldwide, "revealing the extreme disparities in the global economy," wrote study authors Andres Solimano and Juan Pablo Jimenez.

The sharp concentration of income and wealth in the hands of a few "reduces the legitimacy of capitalism," they said.

The wide gap between the haves and the have-nots also undermines democracy, the authors added, because "winning an election requires financing, giving an advantage to those who have resources."

Earlier this year, the United Nations called for a "billionaires tax" of 1.0 per cent that could raise more than US$40 billion a year, as part of a package of global taxes that could help raise hundreds of billions of dollars for development.

- AFP/jc

Read More..

Predicting the most unlikely tech events that will happen in 2013

Mr. Pop on his flip phone.

(Credit:
Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

The other day I was lying on the beach when an older, bronzed man came and lay down next to me.

He made some groaning noises and chatted on his flip phone. He was Iggy Pop.

This, in itself was unusual. However, at the very moment he was there I was reading a book called "Paris, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down," by Rosencrans Baldwin. It's the story of an American writer who moves to Paris with his wife to write silly ads for Louis Vuitton.

I happened to be on page 167, where Baldwin describes Karl Lagerfeld: "He resembled a short, dead Iggy Pop."

Please, you who count how many Corn Flakes are in your bowl. How likely was that? I almost wanted to tell Mr. Pop that when he dies he will look like Karl Lagerfeld.

So while the majority might want to believe that 2013 will be all about mobile, mobile and an Apple wristwatch, I'd like to offer some far less likely things that will actually, actually happen. Well, they conceivably might.

1. There will be no more free news and social media sites
Chuckle though you might, aren't you a little tired of all this free, free, free? Aren't you finding that free is coming with strings that are longer than a list of Silvio Berlusconi's lovers? Whether it's privacy policies or data selling, it's all getting ugly.

Facebook is little different from Spirit Airlines. It's now trying to find every possible method of putting its bulbous hand in your pockets and grabbing your nickels and dimes. It will soon be no more free than your every business lunch. The New York Times' paywall is working rather well. Soon, all news Web sites will follow. 2013 will see a long-lost embrace of the quaint concept of "you get what you pay for." And people will suddenly respect what it is they're getting by paying for it.

2. Apple and Samsung will merge
Yes, yes. There's as much chance of this as there is of Kristen Stewart getting back together with that nice vampire who rarely shaves. Wait. If there's one thing I know about people -- just one -- it's that the more passion they put into their bickering, the more they're really expressing their love.

It's easy to believe that Apple and Samsung are deadly rivals. But what if they suddenly got together, like two royal families of ancient times, to secure not merely the future of fine, arousing technology, but vast political influence not imagined even by that great political force of our time, Google? I'm a dreamer, me.

3. Sharing on social media sites will go down 30 percent
There was surely nothing more poetic than Randi Zuckerberg banging her shoe like Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations, after one of her very personal photographs was seen by the great unwashed.

Some might have thought this merely proved that anyone could become a director of social media company. The deeper, though, realized that it was a significant moment when everyone realized that their postings truly were never safe from prying eyes.

This will lead to a sudden restraint that will signify a monstrous trend toward meeting groups of friends at secluded cafe tables. The name of the cafe will only be released at the very last minute, as with a virulent rave. Once the group is seated, everyone will whip out their iPhones and quietly display their photographs of their latest beet salad, beat poetry reading or beatdown of their brother at squash, in the sure knowledge that no one else will see them. Except for some quasi-Stasi operative at Apple, perhaps. (Oh, they must have a way of seeing your photos, mustn't they?)

4. Justin Timberlake will succeed Steve Ballmer
Snigger away. But while you are, ask yourself this: who, other than the Timberman himself, will be able to whip a vast room full of Redmondians or developers into a hip-waggling frenzy, the way Ballmer always does?

Who else could possibly embody Microsoft's new era better than a man who can seduce every single member of the human race with either his pelvic gyrations or his golf swing? Timberlake isn't merely some sort of pop star figurehead.

This is a man who is rapidly turning around MySpace. This is a man who's already been Sean Parker. Compared to that, bringing the sexy back to Microsoft will be little more than whipping off a small piece of Janet Jackson's wardrobe.

More Technically Incorrect

5. Google will form a political party
Oh, stop your snorting. This is nothing more than a logical extension of the current reality. More than any organization on Earth, Google can claim to know more about people, more about who they are and what they think and more about what truly matters to them.

Google understands that we don't really want to drive, we don't really want to think and we don't really want to buy phones from Apple. By creating a third force in politics, Mountain View's most pulsating company will be able to claim -- more fairly than any other force that has ever existed in politics -- that it truly represents the people's wishes. And it'll know that we intend to vote for it before the nice people at the polling stations -- yes, even before Nate Silver.

You will think I've been a little fanciful with these predictions. But I don't see how I can lose. If they fail to come true, you'll think me the freakish fool that you already do.

However, if just one of these happens to occur, I can cheerily take my place among the pantheon of the prescient, write a book on how I got there and finally, finally make an appearance on "Letterman."

Read More..