Motor Racing: Stupid errors must stop, says Grosjean

PARIS: French Formula One driver Romain Grosjean said on Tuesday he would repay the Lotus team's faith in him by cutting out the reckless mistakes that cast a shadow over a largely successful season for him in 2012.

Lotus, who finished an impressive fourth in the constructors championship as the duo of former world champion Kimi Raikkonen racked up some impressive performances, signed up the 26-year-old Swiss born driver for the 2013 campaign on Monday.

However, as Grosjean revealed he had had some sleepless nights after the curtain came down on the season in Brazil last month and talks went on over his future to the extent he feared that the race had been his last in Formula One.

"There were some tough moments, some sleepless nights," said Grosjean, who made his Formula One debut in 2009 when he raced seven times for Renault before a three year hiatus prior to driving for Lotus last term.

"I had a lot of discussions with the team's owners, which were constructive and allowed us to make progress. Today I am happy to have their confidence, to be able to carry on with them, and I am really going to try and create something special."

Grosjean, who recorded three podium finishes last season to finish a respectable eighth in the championship with 96 points, accepted, though, that he had to erase the wild charges he made from the grid and which earned him not only a suspension but also angered several of his rivals.

The most notable and perhaps costly one was at the beginning of the Belgian Grand Prix which claimed among its victims Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who was to go on and finish second in the world title race, just three points behind Sebastian Vettel.

Grosjean's recklessness in that collision resulted in a one race suspension - however, he was to go on and take Australian Mark Webber out of the Japanese Grand Prix at the start although this time he escaped censure.

"We have been working together since September in order to make progess because I did not want to wait till the end of the season," he said.

"There are lots of things that I am trying to improve on, because I am no longer a rookie, I no longer have the right to make clearly stupid mistakes, which were 100% my fault.

"I want to be more consistent, while remaining as quick as before."

Grosjean, who was unable to match Raikkonen's Grand Prix victory in Abu Dhabi, said that his ambitions matched those of Lotus.

"My ability to drive fast weighed in my favour for being retained, the talks as well, and the fact that we (he and Lotus) both are hungry to be world champions together.

"If we sort out some concerns, we will succeed."

Grosjean, though, was delighted that being re-signed by Lotus he could put off to another time his other favoured ambition which is to open a restaurant.

"I do not know whether I would have, if I had been let go, thrown myself immediately into opening a restaurant," he said.

"I had already looked elsewhere, in order to continue what I do best, to drive a car, but the idea is still in my head."

- AFP/fa

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Penguin settles DOJ lawsuit over alleged e-book price-fixing

Penguin has become the latest book publisher to settle federal charges of e-book price-fixing, leaving only Apple and Macmillan to fight the Justice Department allegations.

In an antitrust lawsuit filed in April, federal prosecutors accused Apple and five book publishers of conspiring to artificially hike prices. The same day, the Justice Department announced it had reached settlements with three publishers but said Apple and the other two publishers had opted to fight the charges. Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, which publishes CNET) agreed to settle.

Penguin added its name to that group, the Justice Department announced today. As with the settlement to which the other settling publishers agreed, Penguin has agreed to terminate their existing contracts with Apple and not enter into new agreements for two years that would prevent retailers from offering discounted Penguin e-books, the Justice Department said.

The publisher issued a statement today confirming the agreement but maintained its innocence in the case:

Penguin confirms that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle claims relating to the establishment of agency pricing agreements in 2010. Penguin has always maintained, and continues to maintain, that it has done nothing wrong and has no case to answer. Penguin continues to believe that the agency pricing model has encouraged competition among distributors of both ebooks and ebook readers and, in the company's view, continues to operate in the interest of consumers and authors. But it is also in everyone's interests that the proposed Penguin Random House company should begin life with a clean sheet of paper.

Penguin's agreement still requires court approval, but the Justice Department said that consumers are already benefiting from the previous settlements.

"Since the department's settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, consumers are already paying lower prices for the e-book versions of many of those publishers' new releases and bestsellers," Jamillia Ferris, chief of staff and counsel at the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, said in a statement. "If approved by the court, the proposed settlement with Penguin will be an important step toward undoing the harm caused by the publishers' anticompetitive conduct and restoring retail price competition so consumers can pay lower prices for Penguin's e-books."

CNET has contacted Apple for comment regarding Penguin's settlement and will update this report when we learn more. In a legal memo filed in August, Apple called the previous settlements "fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented." The case against Apple and Macmillan is scheduled to begin next June.

Penguin's settlement comes a few weeks after Apple reportedly negotiated a deal with European regulators that will help the company avoid litigation for potential antitrust violations while also enabling Amazon to offer lower prices than offered at Apple's iBookstore. Terms of that alleged deal were not revealed.

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Ex-babysitter: Lanza's mother warned me about him

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. A man who says he once babysat for Newtown, Conn., gunman Adam Lanza says he recalls Lanza's mother warning him never to turn his back on the boy - not even to go to the bathroom.

Ryan Kraft now lives in Hermosa Beach, in Southern California.

But, he tells CBS station KCBS in Los Angeles, he was once a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and babysat for Lanza when Lanza was about 9 or 10 and Kraft was 14 or 15.

Play Video

Piecing together Adam Lanza

Police say Lanza, 20, went on a rampage in the school Friday, killing 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six adults before taking his own life. Lanza also shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, to death in the nearby home they shared before heading to the school, authorities say.

Kraft tells KCBS when he first heard about the shooting and that Lanza was involved, "I just couldn't think for a little while. I was shaking."

He says he recalls Nancy Lanza cautioning him never to turn his back on Adam -- "to keep an eye on him at all times ... to never turn my back, or even to go to the bathroom or anything like that."

Kraft says he remembers Lanza as quiet, very intelligent and introverted, noting, "Whenever we were doing something, whether it was building Legos, or playing video games, he was really focused on it. It was like he was in his own world."

Kraft is still having trouble believing the kid he babysat could have been involved in such unspeakable horror. "I'm just numb to it, I haven't really processed the fact that this happened right where I used to be, and that, 15 years ago, it could have been me."

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Vigils for Conn. school shooting victims

Nancy Lanza, says Kraft, was very involved in her children's lives and loved them very much.

He says that, rather than feeling helpless, he decided to start a fundraiser to help the children of Newton, especially the ones who will be dealing with post traumatic stress disorder.

Kraft, who moved to California after college, also wants the money to go to helping families pay funeral expenses and to help establish a scholarship fund for survivors.

Kraft's fundraising page took in more than $53,000 in one day.

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Gunman's Computer Damaged, Drive Possibly Ruined

A computer at the Connecticut home where Newtown, Conn., school shooter Adam Lanza lived with his mother was badly damaged, perhaps smashed with a hammer, said police who hope the machine might still yield clues to the gunman's motive.

The computer's hard drive appeared to have been badly damaged with a hammer or screw driver, law enforcement authorities told ABC News, complicating efforts to exploit it for evidence.

Officials have "seized significant evidence at [Lanza's] residence," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Paul Vance, adding that the process of sifting through that much forensic evidence would be a lengthy and "painstaking process."

Authorities also told ABC News that the weapons used in Friday's rampage at Sandyhook Elementary School, which left dead 20 children and seven adults including Lanza's mother Nancy, were purchased by his mother between 2010 and 2012.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Lanza visited shooting ranges several times in recent years, and went at least one time with his mother.

The first funeral for a child killed in the massacre was held today in Fairfield, Conn., where mourners gathered to remember the too-short life of first-grader Noah Pozner.

Authorities also revealed this morning that two adult women shot during the rampage survived and their accounts will likely be integral to the investigation.

"Investigators will, in fact, speak with them when it's medically appropriate and they will shed a great deal of light on the facts and circumstances of this tragic investigation," Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said at a news conference today.

Both survivors are women and are now home from the hospital after being shot, police said. Officials had previously mentioned just one adult survivor. The women have not been identified and police did not give details on their injuries.

READ MORE: School nurse hid from gunman.

Both adults, Vance said, were wounded in the "lower extremities," but did not indicate where in the building they were when they were injured.

Moving trucks were seen outside Sandy Hook Elementary School this morning, as school officials prepare to move furniture and supplies to a vacant school in neighboring Monroe.

Sandy Hook itself will remain a secure crime scene "indefinitely," said Vance.

Emily Friedman/ABC News, Handout

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CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Police say Adam Lanza, 20, forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, spraying bullets on students and faculty. Lanza killed 20 children and six adults before turning the gun on himself.

Lanza also killed his mother Nancy Lanza at the home they shared before going to school.

"There are many, many witnesses that need to be interviewed," Vance said. "We will not stop until we have interviewed every last one of them."

Vance said the investigation could take weeks or months to complete. "It's not something done in 60 minutes like you see on T.V."

Some of the other key witnesses will be children who survived the shooting spree by playing dead, hiding in closets and bathrooms and being rescued by dedicated teachers.

"Any interviews with any children will be done with professionals...as appropriate," Vance said. "We'll handle that extremely delicately when the time arises."

CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.

The first funerals for victims of the shooting are today, beginning with 6-year-olds Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto.

Officials said today that the Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the shooting took place, will be closed "indefinitely."

Both the school and the home where shootings took place are being held by police as crime scenes and Vance predicted authorities would spend "months" investigating the elementary school.

All Newtown schools are closed today to give residents more time to cope. Every school except for Sandy Hook is expected to re-open Tuesday.

The town of Monroe has offered to open to Sandy Hook students the Chalk Hill School, a former middle school that currently houses the town's EMS and recreational departments.

Officials in Monroe, less than 10 miles from Newtown, say the building could be ready for students by the end of the week, but have not yet set a date to resume classes.

Nearly 100 volunteers are working to ensure the building complies with fire and security regulations and are working to retorfit the school with bathroom facilities for young children.

"We're working to make the school safe and secure for students," said Monroe Police Department spokesman Lt. Brian H. McCauley.

The neighboring community's school is expected to be ready to accommodate students in the next few days, though an exact schedule has not yet been published.

While the families grieve, federal and state authorities are working around the clock to answer the question on so many minds: "Why?"

ABC News has learned that investigators have seized computers belonging to Adam Lanza from the home he shared with his mother. Three weapons were found at the school scene and a fourth was recovered from Lanza's car. Lanza had hundreds of rounds and used multiple high-capacity magazines when he went on the rampage, according to Connecticut State Police.

Vance said that every single electronic device, weapon and round will be thoroughly examined and investigated as well as every aspect of Lanza's life going "back to the date of birth."

ABC News has learned that both the shooter and his mother spent time at an area gun range; however it was not yet known whether they had shot there.

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Football: Anxious Mustafic keeping his fingers crossed

SINGAPORE: Fahrudin Mustafic will have a date with the doctor on Tuesday to see if he is ready to claim his place in the Lions' starting 11 against Thailand on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old midfielder - who has been one of Singapore's star performers in this edition of the biennial regional tournament - has not been in full training since picking up a groin injury in the second leg of the semi-final against the Philippines last week. Instead, he has been receiving treatment at the Singapore Sports Council.

But his situation has been improving.

He emerged unscathed from a short sprints test conducted by the team physiotherapist on Monday morning.

He was later allowed to join the team in their training session at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

"But it was just running and passing. No shooting and no one was allowed to tackle me, just for my protection," he said.

Mustafic will go for an ultrasound scan on his right thigh to see if the muscle there has healed completely. Only then will he be given the green light to play.

"My mind is on the match. Who would want to miss the final of such an important match? But I have to follow the doctor's advice," said Mustafic who was also in the team that won the 2007 edition of the championship by beating the Thais 3-2 on aggregate.

Mustafic's presence in midfield is vital as Hariss Harun is out of the tournament with a fractured fibula while Shi Jiayi remains unavailable because of urgent family matters in Shanghai.

But Isa Halim, who has taken over the role left vacant by Hariss, has promised to go all out again, just like he did against the Philippines at Jalan Besar last week.

"This is the final and only the best will do for me," said the 27-year-old midfield hardman.

"I am looking forward to playing the Thais and that means I have to be at my best."

- TODAY

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Nick Kristof live-tweets his Bahrain visa crisis

A tweet by NYT columnist Nick Kristof about being denied an entry visa to Bahrain.

This might be the world's first high-profile live-tweets of an entry-visa denial.

New York Times columnist Nick Kristof (@NickKristof), who knows how to use social media in smarter ways than most journalists (see my April 2012 post about his fans using social media to mark his birthday), found himself denied an entry visa into Bahrain earlier today. He took to Twitter to complain and bring attention to the situation there.

Kristof has written a lot about human rights abuses by Bahrain, an ally of the U.S., so that's why he was denied a visa at the airport. This happened despite the fact that U.S. citizens can transit through the kingdom without a visa.

As I write this, it's been about three hours since he first started tweeting about his adventure (see the first tweet above and in this link) and has so far sent more than 30 tweets, many of them retweeted hundreds of times. As he said, "If I'm going to stay up all night detained in #Bahrain airport, I may as well spend the time tweeting indignantly!." But he also made it clear he has it better than many Baharainis who are tortured for speaking up against the government: "People are feeling way too sorry for me. I'm sitting in a nice Bahrain airport, denied entry, but sitting by Starbucks."

Here are some of the highlights, including some lighter moments (in mostly chronological order, though I've grouped some together):

• #Bahrain officials acknowledge that US citizens can transit for 72 hours without a visa, but they say I'm on a blacklist


• So #Bahrain fetes Kim Kardashian and boots me out--I wish I were an int'l affairs expert like Kardashian.


• Testing alternative ways to slip into Bahrain. My real name is Nick Kardashian? I'm a race
  car driver? Tear gas salesman?


• Do you think if I made a Kardashian style sex video, #Bahrain would let me in?


• Thanks, Twitter friends, for denouncing my sex video idea. My feelings are hurt. Any hackers who can remove me from Bahrain blacklist?


• Seems as a US taxpayer I shld get access to a country that we support--even if #Bahrain is now a bastion of repression.


• On the bright side, police aren't beating me up as they might if I were Bahraini. And its a nice airport to spend the night


• Denying me entry is a reminder that our ally #Bahrain doesn't want witnesses to its nightly repression in Shia villages.
  


• The sad thing about #Bahrain is that it is so modern, so educated, historically so tolerant--and now so repressive.


• This is why Bahrain doesn't want reporters in RT @jihankazerooni: police ordering to spray pepper on women's faces http://fb.me/1qR5LCrGC
  


• I really do want to report on repression here in #Bahrain. Maybe I can overfly it and jump out with a parachute?


• By barring most journalists, Bahrain gets away with brutally crushing protests--using US military equipment. US pretends not to notice.


• I've got it! I'll put on a Santa Claus costume and slip past immigration! Ho Ho! St. Nick with presents for Bahrain kids!


• My worst airport detention was Iran, accused of spying. Congo & Sudan also unpleasant detentions. Bahrain piece of cake!


• I'm on a morning flight out. They say they'll give my my passport back at gate. They're very pleasant as autocrats go


• Lots of Bahrainis tweeting me about human rights horrors they want me to cover.Sorry I'm kicked out and letting you down


• Why I want to report in Bahrain RT @TubliOnline: @NickKristof This happened in my village 2 days ago pic.twitter.com/K4BmM2TM


• Obama admin is pretending not to notice repression in Bahrain RT @Firegal_01: @NickKristof What's the State Dep have to say?

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In wake of school massacre, Conn. police warn against social media frauds

NEWTOWN, Conn. Connecticut authorities complained Sunday that false information about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school is being promulgated online by social media tricksters. And they warned that such misinformation is prosecutable under the law.

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Victims of Conn. school shooting

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Vigils for Conn. school shooting victims

"Misinformation is being posted on social media. People posing as the shooter, mimicking this crime and crime scene and criminal activity, some things in a threatening manner," said Conn. State Police spokesman Paul Vance.

In addition to people pretending to be the shooter or other principals in the investigation, Vance said other posters are putting up information purported to be from the Newtown city police or the Connecticut state police. Neither of those agencies are posting information via twitter or other social media, he said.

"All info related to this case is coming from these microphones," he told reporters at a press briefing in Newtown Sunday morning.

Vance said he considered the misinformation a "violation of federal law and warrants an investigation."

"These issues are crimes, they will be examined in state and federally."

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Obama Visits Families of Conn. Shooting Victims

President Obama has started visiting with families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which a gunman killed 20 young children and six adults in the school.

A White House official told ABC News that the president was meeting with the families devastated by this tragedy in classrooms at Newtown High School.

Assuming a consoling role that has become all too familiar for this presidency, Obama will also privately meet with some of the families affected by the tragic shooting, as well as local first responders.

The president has witnessed five mass shootings since assuming office in 2009, his reaction to this most recent tragedy in New England being his most publicly emotional. On Friday, tears collected in his eyes as he addressed the nation after the tragedy.

"The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," the president said, pausing to collect himself. "They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."

Brendan Hoffman-Pool/Getty Images

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But the president has also been more directly political in the immediate aftermath of these killings, as national discussions simmer over how to move forward and what, if any, policy is needed to prevent future violence. The president said it was time for "meaningful action" to prevent such tragedies, "regardless of the politics."

"We have been through this too many times, whether it's an elementary school in Newtown or a shopping mall in Oregon or a temple in Wisconsin or a movie theater in Aurora or a street corner in Chicago," he said of the other mass shootings in the past year alone. "These neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children."

It is a subtle but noticeable shift for Obama, who has not actively pursued stricter gun control during his four years in office despite pledges to do so during his 2008 candidacy. Although the White House says it needs support from Congress to move forward with strong legislation, it is also known that many politicians shied away to such reforms during the 2012 campaign season out of fear of alienating potential voters.

In reality the Obama administration has loosened federal restrictions on Second Amendment rights in some areas, including possession in national parks and on Amtrak. But during the second presidential debate in October the president signaled that he is ready to take new action on gun control, including reintroduction of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

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Japan's next PM Abe must deliver on economy, cope with China

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's hawkish ex-premier Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to run the country after his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) surged to power in Sunday's election, but must swiftly move to bolster the sagging economy while managing strained ties with China.

Abe, whose party won by a landslide just three years after a crushing defeat, was expected on Monday to meet Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of the small New Komeito party, to cement their alliance and confirm economic steps to boost an economy now in its fourth recession since 2000.

The victory by the LDP, which had ruled Japan for most of the past 50 years before it was ousted in 2009, will usher in a government pledged to a tough stance in a territorial row with China, a pro-nuclear energy policy despite the 2011 Fukushima disaster and a potentially risky recipe for hyper-easy monetary policy and big fiscal spending to boost growth.

Projections by TV broadcasters showed that the LDP had won at least 291 seats in the 480-member lower house, while the New Komeito party took at least 29 seats.

That gives the two parties the two-thirds majority needed to overrule parliament's upper house in most matters, where they lack a majority and which can block bills. The "super majority" could help to break a policy deadlock that has plagued the world's third biggest economy since 2007.

Markets have already pushed the yen lower and share prices higher in anticipation of an LDP victory and Abe's economic stimulus. The two-thirds "super majority" could boost share prices and weaken the yen further.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was crushed, forecast to win just about 56 seats - less than a fifth of its showing in 2009, when it swept to power promising to pay more heed to consumers than companies and pry control of policies from bureaucrats.

But voters deemed the pledges honored mostly in the breach and the party was hit by defections before the vote due to Noda's unpopular plan to raise the sales tax to curb public debt already more than twice the size of the economy.

"This was an overwhelming rejection of the DPJ," said Gerry Curtis, a professor at New York's Columbia University.

"Abe was smart to run the campaign saying 'It's the economy, stupid. His hawkish (security) views took second place to fiscal stimulus and getting a dovish Bank of Japan governor and getting the economy going. If he keeps that focus ... he has a chance of improving his standing."

Analyst Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington said the return of Abe and LDP was foremost a rejection of the DPJ, but "also reflects an embrace of conservative views" after recent years of strained relations with Japan's close neighbors.

"Chinese assertiveness and North Korean provocations nudged the public from its usual post-war complacency toward a new desire to stand up for Japanese sovereignty," he said.

The Japanese favor moving toward "a more normal nation status" and are not embracing resurgent militarism, added Klingner, a former CIA analyst.

Abe, expected to be voted in by parliament on December 26, will also have to prove he has learned from the mistakes of his first administration, plagued by scandals and charges of incompetence.

Voter distaste for both major parties has spawned a clutch of new parties including the Japan Restoration Party, founded by popular Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, which took at least 52 seats, according to media projections.

But media estimates showed turnout at around 59 percent, which could match the previous post-war low.

LDP leader Abe, 58, who quit as premier in 2007 citing ill health, has been talking tough in a row with China over uninhabited isles in the East China Sea, although some experts say he may temper his hard line with pragmatism once in office.

The soft-spoken grandson of a prime minister, who will become Japan's seventh premier in six years, Abe also wants to loosen the limits of a 1947 pacifist constitution on the military, so Japan can play a bigger global security role.

President Barack Obama congratulated Abe and underlined U.S. interest in working with the longstanding American ally.

"The U.S-Japan Alliance serves as the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and I look forward to working closely with the next government and the people of Japan on a range of important bilateral, regional and global issues," he said in a statement.

The LDP, which promoted atomic energy during its decades-long reign, is expected to be friendly to nuclear utilities, although deep public concerns remain over safety.

Abe has called for "unlimited" monetary easing and big spending on public works to rescue the economy. Such policies, a centerpiece of the LDP's platform for decades, have been criticized by many as wasteful pork-barrel politics.

Many economists say that prescription for "Abenomics" could create temporary growth and enable the government to go ahead with a planned initial sales tax rise in 2014 to help curb a public debt now twice the size of gross domestic product.

But it looks unlikely to cure deeper ills or bring sustainable growth to Japan's ageing society, and risks triggering a market backlash if investors decide Japan has lost control of its finances.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Eric Walsh)

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Kate attends first public engagement since illness

LONDON: Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine on Sunday made her first public engagement since being hospitalised for severe morning sickness, presenting cyclist Bradley Wiggins with the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Kate, 30, presented the main award and a lifetime achievement honour to London Olympic Games organiser Seb Coe at a ceremony in the British capital.

The Duchess of Cambridge was admitted to hospital on December 3, a development which prompted the palace to announce that she was in the very early stages of pregnancy.

She left the London hospital after three nights and had not been seen in public since.

The duchess took to the stage in a full-length green dress to present Coe with his award, sharing a private conversation with the former Olympian.

She was also quiet as superstar footballer David Beckham announced Wiggins as the winner, but handed over the famous trophy to the Tour de France and Olympic time-trial champion.

Stars from the London Olympics dominated the award shortlist, and Kate was understood to be keen to attend to continue her involvement in the summer Games, during which she, her husband and brother-in-law Prince Harry were official ambassadors.

"She will not stay for the whole thing but she really wanted to be there," a royal source told AFP.

The baby is the first for the royal couple, who married in a lavish ceremony in April 2011, and will be heir to Queen Elizabeth II's throne after William's father Prince Charles and William himself.

The news about the royal baby was overshadowed, however, by the apparent suicide of a nurse working at Kate's hospital after she took a hoax call from two Australian radio presenters that led to details of the duchess's condition being made public.

- AFP/fa

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