SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leaderKim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
The address by Kim, who took over power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.
Impoverished North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.
North Korea, which considers North and South as one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.
"An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south," Kim said in the address that appeared to be pre-recorded and was made at an undisclosed location.
"The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war."
The New Year address was the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader after the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather. Kim Jong-il rarely spoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda in editorials in state newspapers.
The two Koreas have seen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the North bombed a Southern island in 2010 killing two civilians and two soldiers.
The sinking of a South Korean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North but Pyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaign against its leadership.
Last month, South Korea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter of assassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee whom Kim Il-sung had tried to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.
Park has vowed to pursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to build confidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.
Conspicuously absent from Kim's speech was any mention of the nuclear arms program.
SEOUL: North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un called for a "radical turnabout" in the impoverished country's economy in a rare New Year's address Tuesday that also urged improved relations with the South.
While the heart of his lengthy speech was devoted to turning the North into an "economic giant" and raising living standards, Kim stressed that military power remained a national priority.
"The military might of a country represents its national strength. Only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country," he said in a voiced message broadcast on state television.
The address will be closely parsed for meaning in South Korea which just elected its first woman president, the conservative Park Geun-Hye, who has signalled a willingness for greater engagement with Pyongyang.
The voiced message was the first of its kind since Kim's grandfather, the North's founding president Kim Il-Sung, delivered one in 1994, the year of his death.
Kim's comments on the economy are likely to fuel speculation that he might be set to implement economic reforms that observers have been predicting since he came to power a year ago after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il.
The year 2013 will be a year of "great creations and changes in which a radical turnabout will be effected," Kim said, adding that "the building of an economic giant is the most important task" facing the country.
Praising the success of the North's space scientists in launching a long-range rocket last month, Kim said a similar national effort was required on the economic front.
"The entire Party, the whole country and all the people should wage an all-out struggle this year to effect a turnaround in building an economic giant and improving the people's standard of living," he said.
When Kim Jong-Il died, he left a country in dire economic straits -- the result of a "military first" policy that fed an ambitious missile and nuclear programme at the expense of a malnourished population.
Despite a rise in staple food output, daily life for millions of Koreans is an ongoing struggle with under-nutrition and a lack of vital protein and fat, according to a recent World Food Programme report.
Some observers had seen a glimmer of reformist hope in the handover of power to the Swiss-educated Kim Jong-Un, only in his late 20s.
Instead, Kim focused on consolidating his power base with a series of high-profile personnel changes, notably within the military elite, while at the same time pursuing Kim Jong-Il's missile programme.
Tuesday's address called for a "radical" increase in output across the board, from light and heavy industry to agriculture, as well as an improved transport infrastructure.
But it offered no specific policy directives for how this might be achieved by the isolated state which relies on its sole major ally China for 70 per cent of its foreign trade.
Kim's address came as the UN Security Council is still considering how to punish Pyongyang for its recent rocket launch, which most of the world saw as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The speech lauded the launch as a historic national achievement and stressed the need to develop more "sophisticated military hardware" in order to bring about a "fundamental change" in combat preparedness.
On South Korea, Kim sounded a conciliatory note and urged a scaling down of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
"An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the North and the South," Kim said.
"The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war," he said.
South Korean president-elect Park Geun-Hye has distanced herself from outgoing President Lee Myung-Bak's hardline policy towards Pyongyang and spoken of the need for greater engagement with the North.
But in her first post-election victory policy statement, Park made it clear she still viewed Pyongyang as a serious threat and would put the South's national security before any trust-building programme.
Whether readers want to learn the complexities of how the Mars Curiosity rover was able to enter the Red Planet's atmosphere or just see photos of cats being weird, they can go to Reddit. The social news site announced today its end-of-year stats and it appears that users are frequenting the site at an ever-increasing rate.
Reddit revealed that in 2012 it received 37 billion page views, 400 million unique visitors, and 30 million posts -- not bad for one of the most simple Web sites on the Internet.
The site's user population has skyrocketed since its inception. According to The Next Web, Reddit achieved 1 billion monthly page views in February 2011 and by December of that year it more than doubled that number. By October 2012, the site recorded more than 3.8 billion monthly page views and more than 46 million unique visitors.
The huge increase in traffic means Reddit has had to add more servers and other equipment and bring in more staff to maintain its site. This growth has forced it to spend money to keep up with the flow, while also promoting paid subscriptions and advertising.
One of the ways Reddit has driven more traffic to its site this past year is by hosting high-level AMAs, or "ask me anything" sessions. In August, Reddit hosted President Barack Obama, whose impromptu hour-long interview crippled the site's servers. Reddit has also done AMAs with the Mars Curiosity rover team, Gangnam Style's PSY, and U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren who asked users for ideas on a bill to protect Web sites accused of copyright violations.
Here are Reddit's top 10 posts of 2012 by page view:
I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA (5,598,171 page views)
What's your "picture you can't see without laughing"? (2,450,140 page views)
What's your favorite picture on the whole Internet? (2,148,400 page views)
Reddit, what do you look like before and after makeup? Is there a real difference? (2,142,071 page views)
Today, a homeless looking man handed me $50 and this note. Do any of you have any idea what it means? (1,756,748 page views)
What GIF makes you laugh every single time? (1,749,185 page views)
I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for almost 10 years. This is the result. (1,651,956 page views)
I am South Korean Singer, Rapper, Composer, Dancer and Creator of Gangnam Style PSY. AMA (1,514,034 page views)
What's your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out? (1,482,935 page views)
I'm Snoop Lion! Ask me anything!! (1,467,071 page views)
Update: 10:20 P.M. EST -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's physicians released more information about her condition in a statement Monday afternoon:
"In the course of a routine follow-up MRI on Sunday, the scan revealed that a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis had formed. This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear," Clinton's doctors Dr. Lisa Bardack of Mt. Kisco Medical Group, and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University, said in a statement. "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. In all other aspects of her recovery, the Secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Monday for a blood clot.
Clinton reportedly suffered a concussion Dec. 13 after falling and hitting her head after fainting from a stomach virus that caused serious dehydration. She hasn't been seen in public since, but was expected to return to work this week before being hospitalized for the blood clot.
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How serious is Hillary Clinton's condition?
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Hillary Clinton has blood clot in her head
"She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours," Spokesperson Philippe Reines said in a statement. There has been no announcement on the location of the clot, which was discovered during the course of a follow-up exam.
Doctors are expected to decide soon whether any further action is required, Reines said, adding that they will continue to assess Clinton's condition, "including other issues associated with her concussion."
A blood clot is a clump that occurs when blood hardens from a liquid to a solid.
Dr. Jack Ansell, chairman of the department of medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who has no special knowledge of the secretary's case, tells CBSNews.com he suspects Clinton is either experiencing a clot that originated in a blood vessel in the brain, called cerebral venous thrombosis, or one that could have occurred in one of the veins in the leg, called deep venous thrombosis (DVT).
Ansell's field of study is thrombosis, which is the formation of a blood clot inside a vessel.
Where does Clinton's concussion come in?
Ansell said the brain is rich in substances that stimulate clotting, so in general, people with a brain injury may face a higher risk for having a blood clot. Therefore it's possible a clot could have originated in a nearby vessel in the brain. However, if someone is lying around recuperating following a concussion or stomach virus, that increase in inactivity could also raise risk for DVT, he said. A person who experiences this dangerous blood clot deep in the leg could be at risk if the clot travels to the lung, becoming what's called a pulmonary embolism.
Dr. Richard Figler, a primary care sports medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, told CBSNews.com that he doesn't believe Clinton's head injury was a direct cause of the blood clot, but said timing and other factors could have contributed. He also suspects that Clinton may have rested more following the stomach virus and concussion than she typically does, and going from an active to sedentary lifestyle may have combined with other factors that can influence blood clotting, like age and genetics.
"I'd have a hard time blaming the concussion for the clot itself," he said.
Ansell said these types of clots are easily treatable and respond well to therapy, so while there is potential harm from complications, he would give the secretary a good prognosis. Patients typically receive anti-coagulant therapy for three to six months, he said, and are monitored up to every week with a blood test to ensure they aren't having any blood flow irregularities.
"I would expect her to recover and not have a problem," he said.
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How serious is Secretary Clinton's condition?
One potential complication from treatment with an anti-coagulant, such as Coumadin (warfarin), is an increased risk for bleeding. That presents a problem for head injury suffers, according to CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook, who is affiliated with the hospital where Clinton is receiving care but has no knowledge of her case.
LaPook says that it is unusual for someone to be given blood thinners after suffering a head injury, because more bleeding in the brain can be deadly.
"The reason is when somebody falls and hits their head, you're worried about bleeding into the skull, into the brain, like Natasha Richardson had, so the last thing you would want to do is thin their blood," he said. "At this point the reason to give anti-coagulation, blood thinner, would be to prevent another clot from forming," he said.
Actress Natasha Richardson hit her head while skiing in Quebec in 2009 and later died from bleeding underneath the skull. That type of clot in the brain is called a subdural hematoma.
LaPook said the doctors treating Clinton may be between a rock and a hard place.
"They want to thin her blood to prevent a further clot, on the other hand they're afraid to give her blood thinners because that could increase bleeding in somebody who's smacked their head recently, so they're going to observe her very closely in the hospital," he said. That observation could also rule out other potential causes for the blood clot, such as heart problems.
Figler said a brain bleed from a head injury is only a major risk within 48 hours of the initial injury, and if the blood clot originated in the secretary's leg, as some suspect, the anti-coagulant therapy shouldn't present a major risk.
Ansell said that while doctors may have balanced Clinton's underlying head injury initially, such as by waiting a few days to make sure brain tissues healed, he also said it's likely safe to treat her with anti-coagulants, adding that many patients with brain injuries or strokes take these types of medication and it's not even certain if the secretary's concussion caused bleeding in the brain.
"I don't think there's any concern for any special risks for bleeding in the brain," he said.
Both doctors also said that anti-coagulants are not typically prescribed for brain bleeds caused by head injuries.
To Figler, the fact that doctors separately diagnosed a clot in addition to the secretary's other recent health woes, speaks to the doctors' ability to find other potential symptoms of a blood clot, such as leg swelling or calf soreness.
"Some docs may say don't worry about it, it could be soreness," he said, noting that a leg ultrasound isn't a typical test given following a concussion. "To be honest, it takes an astute physician to figure those things out."
The so-called "fiscal cliff" came tonight -- but now there is a specific deal on the table to try to soften it after the fact, according to congressional sources.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the deal would get a vote in the Senate tonight. The House would not vote before Tuesday, having adjourned for the evening before word of the agreement spread.
"It is a compromise, so we don't love it," said a senior White House official. "But it is the right thing to do for the economy."
Vice President Joe Biden met this evening with Senate Democrats in order to convince them to support the proposal, which would extend Bush-era tax cuts permanently for people making less than $400,000 per year and households making less than $450,000, the sources said.
The steep "sequester" budget cuts scheduled to go into effect with the new year would be postponed two months, said sources. They said half the money would come from cuts elsewhere, and the other half from new revenue.
The deal also would affect taxes on investment income and estates, and extend unemployment benefits for a year, the congressional sources added.
Biden was asked to confirm the deal as he entered a meeting with Senate Democrats tonight, but only smiled and said, "Happy New Year." Senators later were seen leaving the meeting later, but made few comments.
"We're waiting to see how the vice president brings his party along," a McConnell aide said.
"The end is in sight," said a Democratic aide with the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "If everyone cooperates, it's possible things can move pretty quickly."
After the midnight deadline passes, lawmakers could still prevent a tax hike by making retroactive any legislation that passes in the weeks ahead, experts said. The IRS said it has not yet advised employers to withhold more from their employees' paychecks, pending a deal.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
'Fiscal Cliff': Lawmakers Scramble for Last-Minute Deal Watch Video
But the deal, if it can pass through Congress, does not entirely solve the problem of the "fiscal cliff." In fact, it could set up a new showdown over the same spending cuts in just two months that would be amplified by a brewing fight over how to raise the debt ceiling beyond $16.4 trillion. That new fiscal battle has the potential to eclipse the "fiscal cliff" in short order.
Earlier, during a midday news conference, Obama said he was optimistic about compromise.
"It appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year's tax hike is within sight, but it's not done," he said. "There are still issues left to resolve, but we're hopeful that Congress can get it done."
Congressional and White House negotiators worked out a tentative plan that, in addition to extending current tax rates for households making $450,000 or less, would raise the estate tax from 35 to 40 percent for estates larger than $5 million; and prevent the alternative minimum tax from hammering millions of middle-class workers, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Capital gains taxes would rise to 20 percent from 15, according to a senior White House official.
The deal would also extend for one year unemployment insurance benefits set to expire Tuesday, and avert a steep cut to Medicare payments for doctors, congressional sources said.
"I can report that we've reached an agreement on the all the tax issues," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in an afternoon speech on the Senate floor.
At the time, McConnell said that federal spending cuts remained a sticking point. That hurdle later appeared to be cleared by postponing the debate two more months.
The White House had proposed a three-month delay of the cuts to allow more time to hash out details for deficit reduction, while many Senate Democrats wanted a flat one-year delay. Republicans insisted that some spending cuts should be implemented now as part of any deal.
"In order to get the sequester moved, you're going to have to have real, concrete spending cuts," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Without that, he said, "I don't know how it passes the House."
Some Republicans also said Obama unduly complicated progress toward an agreement by seeming to take a victory lap on taxes at his campaign-style event at the White House.
"Keep in mind that just last month Republicans in Congress said they would never agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans," Obama said, raising the ire of several Republicans. "Obviously, the agreement that's currently discussed would raise those rates, and raise them permanently."
Those words drew a sharp retort from Republican Sen. John McCain.
Rather than staging a "cheerleading rally," McCain said, the president should have been negotiating the finishing touches of the deal.
"He comes out and calls people together and has a group standing behind him, laughs and jokes and ridicules Republicans. Why?" said McCain.
Several Democrats also voiced disappointment with the president and the emerging deal.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is suffering more complications linked to a respiratory infection that hit him after his fourth cancer operation in Cuba, his vice president said in a somber broadcast on Sunday.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro flew to Cuba to visit Chavez in the hospital as supporters' fears grew for the ailing 58-year-old socialist leader, who has not been seen in public nor heard from in three weeks.
Chavez had already suffered unexpected bleeding caused by the six-hour operation on December 11 for an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area. Officials said doctors then had to fight a respiratory infection.
"Just a few minutes ago we were with President Chavez. He greeted us and he himself talked about these complications," Maduro said in the broadcast, adding that the third set of complications arose because of the respiratory infection.
"Thanks to his physical and spiritual strength, Comandante Chavez is confronting this difficult situation."
Maduro, flanked by his wife Attorney-General Cilia Flores, Chavez's daughter Rosa Virginia and her husband, Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, said he would remain in Havana while Chavez's condition evolved.
He said Chavez's condition remained "delicate" - a term he has used since the day after the surgery, when he warned Venezuelans to prepare for difficult times and urged them to keep the president in their prayers.
"We trust that the avalanche of love and solidarity with Comandante Chavez, together with his immense will to live and the care of the best medical specialists, will help our president win this new battle," Maduro said.
A senior government official in Caracas said the New Year's Eve party in the capital's central Plaza Bolivar had been canceled. "Everyone pray for strength for our comandante to overcome this difficult moment," the official, Jacqueline Faria, added on Twitter after making the announcement.
OIL-FINANCED SOCIALISM
Chavez's resignation for health reasons, or his death, would upend politics in the OPEC nation where his personalized brand of oil-financed socialism has made him a hero to the poor but a pariah to critics who call him a dictator.
His condition is being closely watched around Latin America, especially in other nations run by leftist governments, from Cuba to Bolivia, which depend on subsidized fuel shipments and other aid from Venezuela for their fragile economies.
Chavez has not provided details of the cancer that was first diagnosed in June 2011, leading to speculation among Venezuela's 29 million people and criticism from opposition leaders.
Chavez's allies have openly discussed the possibility that he may not be able to return to Venezuela to be inaugurated for his third six-year term as president on the constitutionally mandated date of January 10.
Senior "Chavista" officials have said the people's wishes were made clear when the president was re-elected in October, and that the constitution makes no provision for what happens if a president-elect cannot take office on January 10.
Opposition leaders say any postponement would be just the latest sign that Chavez is not in a fit state to govern and that new elections should be called to choose his replacement. If Chavez had to step down, new elections would be called within 30 days.
Opposition figures believe they have a better shot against Maduro, who was named earlier this month by Chavez as his heir apparent, than against the charismatic president who for 14 years has been nearly invincible at the ballot box.
Any constitutional dispute over succession could lead to a messy transition toward a post-Chavez era in the country that boasts the biggest oil reserves in the world.
Maduro has become the face of the government in Chavez's absence, imitating the president's bombastic style and sharp criticism of the United States and its "imperialist" policies.
In Sunday's broadcast, Maduro said Chavez sent New Year greetings to all Venezuelans, "especially the children, whom he carries in his heart always."
(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Mario Naranjo; Editng by Kieran Murray and Christopher Wilson)
BRASILIA: Military police killed the leader of a gang that had spectacularly blasted its way into a gem-cutting plant on Sunday, traded fire with police and made off with nine hostages who were later safely freed.
Three of the assailants died in the assault in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a military police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The dead included Elisandro Falcao, 31, one of the state's most wanted men. He led a gang that specializes in robberies using explosives to target banks and automated teller machines, reports said.
Surviving attackers fled with their hostages -- one of whom was a 12-year-old girl -- into a wooded area of the town of Cotipora, with police pursuing in cars and helicopters, the official said.
At least 100 military police, backed by helicopters, worked into the night in the search for five assailants and their captives.
After an hours-long operation, police freed all nine hostages safely, but also exchanged more fire with the assailants, killing three more of them, while two police officers were injured, officials said.
The area where the strike was carried out is in the heart of the gem-cutting industry in Brazil, which is a world leader in exporting many semi-precious stones such as topaz, aquamarine and amethyst.
The robbers detonated dynamite to storm into the plant, then ran into police on their way out, the military police official said.
"There was an intense firefight. Three assailants died and two police were injured," Rio Grande do Sul state military chief Sergio Abreu told reporters.
Police have recovered part of the loot, but gave no figure for its value.
As they made their escape, the attackers split into two groups. One took two people who were in a bar hostage, and the other broke into a home and abducted seven people, apparently all members of the same family.
The forest where the gang fled is thick and hard to navigate, but police surrounded it, said state deputy military commander Altair de Freitas.
Helicopters and special operations teams with sniffer dogs took part in the search, he added. News reports said the remaining gang was made up of nine men armed with rifles.
Governor Tarso Genro stressed that the hostages' lives were the top priority.
Already considered a threat to U.S. national security, Huawei is again finding itself under scrutiny, linked to an offer to sell embargoed computer equipment to Iran.
A major partner of the Chinese telecommunications gear maker offered to provide 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million) of Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. However, Huawei says neither it nor Hong Kong-based Skycom, its privately-owned partner, provided the equipment to Mobile Telecommunication Co of Iran, known as MCI.
The proposal focused on expanding MCI's subscriber billing system and included at least 13 pages marked "Huawei confidential" and carrying the Huawei's company logo, according to Reuters. Those documents featured a price list for new HP equipment that included one server, 20 disk arrays, and 22 switches, as well as software.
In a statement, Huawei called the proposal a bidding document and said it was submitted by Skycom.
Huawei's business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.N., U.S. and E.U. This commitment has been carried out and followed strictly by our company. Further, we also require our partners to follow the same commitment and strictly abide by the relevant laws and regulations.
The two Chinese companies appear to have close ties, with Reuters noting that the two share headquarters in China and Skycom employees in Tehran wear Huawei badges.
The report emerges just months after Cisco Systems ended its relationship with ZTE -- another Chinese telecommunications gear maker -- after it was revealed that ZTE was selling Cisco-branded networking equipment to Iran. The Shenzhen, China-based telecommunications giant reportedly sold restricted and banned computer equipment developed by Cisco and other U.S.-based companies to Iran's telecoms firms.
In October, House Intelligence Committee released a report accusing Huawei and ZTE of being threats to U.S. security and discouraging U.S. companies from buying their equipment.
"U.S. network providers and systems developers are strongly encouraged to seek other vendors for their projects," the committee wrote in its 52-page report. "Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems."
LA GRANDE, Ore. A tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment Sunday, killing nine people and injuring more than 20 others, authorities said.
The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police.
The bus came to rest at the bottom of a snowy slope. More than a dozen rescue workers descended the hill and used ropes to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather. The bus driver was among the survivors, but had not yet spoken to police because of the severity of the injuries the driver had suffered.
Lt. Greg Hastings said the bus crashed along the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called Deadman Pass. Stretches of highway in the rural and agricultural area of east Oregon tend to be icy in winter months.
The bus slid down the hill and landed upright, with little or no debris visible around the crash site.
St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton treated 26 people from the accident, including some who were treated and then transported to other medical facilities, said hospital spokesman Larry Blanc.
In addition to the people who were transferred from St. Anthony to La Grand and Hermiston, Ore., and Walla Walla, Wash., Hastings said. Others were taken directly to hospitals further away, including Boise, Idaho, and Portland, Ore.
I-84 is a major east-west highway through Oregon that follows the Columbia River Gorge.
Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard said the bus was owned by Mi Joo travel in Vancouver, B.C., and state police said the bus was en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver.
A woman who answered the phone at a listing for the company confirmed with The Associated Press that it owned the bus and said it was on a tour of the Western U.S. She declined to give her name.
A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo Tour & Travel has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in at least the past two years.
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.
Secretary Hillary Clinton was hospitalized today after a doctors doing a follow-up exam discovered a blood clot had formed, stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago.
She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours, Deputy Assistant Secretary Philippe Reines said.
Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. They will determine if any further action is required, Reines said.
Clinton, 65, originally fell ill from a stomach virus following a whirlwind trip to Europe at the beginning of the month, which caused such severe dehydration that she fainted and fell at home, suffering a concussion. No ambulance was called and she was not hospitalized, according to a state department official.
The stomach virus had caused Clinton to cancel a planned trip to North Africa and the United Arab Emirates, and also her scheduled testimony before Congress at hearings on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
According to a U.S. official, the secretary had two teams of doctors, including specialists, examine her after the fall. They also ran tests to rule out more serious ailments beyond the virus and the concussion. During the course of the week after her concussion, Clinton was on an IV drip and being monitored by a nurse, while also recovering from the pain caused by the fall.
Medical experts consulted by ABC News said that it was impossible to know for sure the true nature or severity of Clinton’s condition, given the sparse information provided by the State Department. However, most noted that the information available could indicate that Clinton had a deep venous thrombosis,which is a clot in the large veins in the legs.
“A concussion (traumatic brain injury) in itself increases risk of this clot. Likely the concussion has increased her bed rest,” said Dr. Brian D. Greenwald, Medical Director JFK Jonson Rehabilitation Center for Head Injuries. “Immobility is also a risk for DVT. Long flights are also a risk factor for DVT but the recent concussion is the most likely cause.
“Anticoagulants are the treatment,” he said. “If DVT goes untreated it can lead to pulmonary embolism (PE). PE is a clot traveling from veins in legs to lungs which is life threatening. Many people die each year from this.
“Now that she is being treated with blood thinners her risks of PE are decreased,” he said. “Blood thinners carry risk of bleeding but are common and can be safely used.”
Dr. Allen Sills, associate professor of Neurological Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said it was most likely that the clot was not located in Clinton’s brain, since she is being treated with anticoagulants.
“This is certainly not a common occurrence after a concussion, and is most likely related to either inactivity or some other injury suffered in the fall,” he said.
Dr. Neil Martin, the head of Neurovascular Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, said blood thinners are often given for blood clots in the legs, and it is “very unusual” for anticoagulants to be given for blood clots in the head.
But he cautioned about speculating too much about Clinton’s condition before more information is available.
“If we don’t know where it is, there is the possibility of several different indications,” he said. “I don’t know if there is any connection between what she’s got now and the concussion. All I can tell you is, at this point, it’s almost impossible to speculate unless we know what’s going on there.”
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 early on Sunday.
The unidentified 23-year-old medical student died from her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage.
She had suffered brain injuries and massive internal damage in the attack on December 16, 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.
Six suspects were charged with murder after her death.
A Reuters correspondent saw family members who had been with her in Singapore take her body back to their Delhi home in an ambulance with a police escort.
Ruling party leader Sonia Gandhi was seen arriving at the airport when the plane landed and Prime Minister Mannmohan Singh's convoy was also there, the witness said.
The body was later taken to a crematorium and cremated, news channels reported. 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 Singh to make a statement, infuriating many protesters.
PROTESTS
Issues such as rape, dowry-related deaths and female infanticide rarely enter mainstream political discourse in India.
Analysts say the death of the woman dubbed "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure", by some Indian media could change that, although it is too early to say whether the protesters calling for government action to better safeguard women can sustain their momentum through to national elections due in 2014.
Protesters have staged peaceful demonstrations in the capital New Delhi and in cities across India in the last few days to keep the pressure on Singh's government to get tougher on crime against women. Last weekend, protesters fought pitched battles with police.
Authorities, worried about the reaction to the news of her death on Saturday, deployed thousands of policemen, closed 10 metro stations and banned vehicles from some main roads in central New Delhi.
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.
Commentators and sociologists say the rape has tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues.
New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in India rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.
For a link to the poll, click
(Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Writing by Louise Ireland; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
ROME: Italy is ending 2012 on an upbeat note, with renewed financial market confidence and optimism among analysts that the worst of the financial crisis is over, despite expectations of political uncertainty in the run-up to a general election in February.
The Treasury's borrowing rates were slightly higher at short, medium and long-term debt auctions last week, but were well below levels seen at the end of 2011, when Prime Minister Mario Monti took over from Silvio Berlusconi as Italy teetered on the brink amid the eurozone debt crisis.
In late November 2011, the country was paying a 7.56 per cent rate for its benchmark ten-year bonds, sparking widespread concerns it might have to ask for a bailout.
On Friday, that rate stood at 4.48 per cent.
As 2012 draws to a close, "even if public debt has breached the two trillion euros mark, Italy's ability to finance itself is no longer in doubt," said Enrico Marro in Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore financial daily.
"For 2013, optimism reigns," he concluded.
The turnaround is principally the result of two factors: the European Central Bank's promise to buy sovereign debt issued by eurozone member states without limit if necessary if they meet certain strict conditions, and Monti's decisive reforms which have restored Italy's credibility internationally.
Experts have forecast a couple of months of volatility on the markets in the lead up to the February 24 and 25 elections, but the worst appears to be over.
Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo said "the fever should drop off in 2013 compared with 2012."
The bond spread -- a key measure of the difference between Italian and German 10-year bond yields -- has also dropped sharply over the year, dipping below 300 basis points in early December from double that figure at its peak.
While European leaders congratulated Monti on restoring calm to the markets, Berlusconi's announcement at the start of December that he is running again for prime minister sparked panic and the spread began to inch up again.
The media magnate has dismissed the spread measure as "a trick and an invention" used to bring down his government.
Investors will be watching closely in the coming weeks to see if Berlusconi's large-scale media campaign for re-election wins him potential votes from Italians tired of Monti's austerity packages and record unemployment levels.
Renewed confidence in financial markets contrasts sharply with official forecasts for economic growth over the coming year, as Italy struggles to pull itself out of a recession.
Despite Monti's "Grow Italy" plan, the economy is not expected to return to growth before the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2014.
"Business and household sentiment does not appear to have benefited from the easing market tension," Intensa Sanpaolo said.
The government has forecast a 0.2 per cent contraction of the country's gross domestic product in 2013 -- an outlook considered overly optimistic by Italy's business association Confindustria, which expects GDP to shrink by 1.1 per cent next year.
One figure is on the rise however: the number of people on Twitter following Monti, who is drumming up support for a reform-led electoral campaign.
Monti, who resigned last week after Berlusconi's People of Freedom party pulled support from the government, has said he is keen to lead the country again after the elections -- a message welcomed by the markets, European leaders and Italy's Catholic Church alike.
I spend precious little time in Metro when using a traditional laptop.
(Credit: Microsoft)
I'm by no means the first one to say this but Windows 8 and older PCs make an odd couple.
But let me back up for a second. Before the release of Windows 8 on October 26, I tested Windows 8 on tablets only, such as the Intel-based Samsung slate that Microsoft sold in its stores. And I was impressed with Metro.
That was then. Windows 8 Pro 64-bit is now installed on my Dell Adamo laptop. And I rarely venture into the Metro UI unless if I'm forced to.
Of course if you're one of the relative few who have a tablet like the Samsung slate or Microsoft's Surface or a touch-screen laptop like Acer's Aspire S7, yeah, then Metro is front and center, as it should be.
But on a traditional laptop it's problematic. That's why Apple, probably the biggest single force behind the rise of the touch interface, hasn't done something similar with its OSes.
Making iOS the launch point and default interface on Macs would not go over well, Steve Job's edict nixing the idea of touch on laptops notwithstanding.
So, Microsoft is going where Apple won't. Intel -- still Microsoft's single most important hardware partner -- is going there too, by the way. The chipmaker said recently that it has chosen Windows 8 "as the standard operating system for Ultrabooks and tablets in our enterprise environment."
But I don't think -- despite Microsoft's upbeat announcement about Windows 8 licenses -- the hundreds of millions of users out there with plain old PCs will warm to the concept of a touch-based launch UI.
Acer's president, Jim Wong, stated this concern rather bluntly to Digitimes this week. The Windows 8 interface could "dramatically delay adoption by consumers," he said.
I'll expand on that by saying that until touch-based laptops and hybrids are both plentiful and cheap, Windows 8 may not gain much traction. And that may take a while.
Let me close on a positive note, though. I like Windows 8. It's faster than Windows 7 on my Dell and more stable. That's good enough for me.
And Microsoft should spend more time pitching these straightforward Windows 8 merits until touch becomes mainstream.
NEW YORK A woman who told police she shoved a man to his death off a subway platform into the path of a train because she has hated Muslims since Sept. 11 and thought he was one was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime, prosecutors said.
Erika Menendez was charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a 7 train in Queens on Thursday night, the second time this month a commuter has died in such a nightmarish fashion.
Menendez, 31, was awaiting arraignment on the charge Saturday evening, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. She could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. She was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment, and it was unclear if she had an attorney.
Menendez, who was arrested after a tip by a passer-by who saw her on a street and thought she looked like the woman in a surveillance video released by police, admitted shoving Sen, who was pushed from behind, authorities said.
In this image provided by the New York City Police Department, a composite sketch showing the woman believed to have pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 is shown.
/ AP Photo/New York City Police Department
"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up," Menendez told police, according to the district attorney's office.
Sen was from India, but police said it was unclear if he was Muslim, Hindu or of some other faith. The 46-year-old lived in Queens and ran a printing shop. He was shoved from an elevated platform on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens. Witnesses said a muttering woman rose from her seat on a platform bench and pushed him on the tracks as a train entered the station and then ran off.
The two had never met before, authorities said, and witnesses told police they hadn't interacted on the platform.
Police released a sketch and security camera video showing a woman running from the station where Sen was killed.
Menendez was arrested by police earlier Saturday after a passer-by on a Brooklyn street spotted her and called 911. Police responded, confirmed her identity and took her into custody, where she made statements implicating herself in the crime, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
The district attorney said such hateful remarks about Muslims and Hindus could not be tolerated.
"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare," he said.
On Dec. 3, another man was pushed to his death in a Times Square subway station. A photo of the man clinging to the edge of the platform a split second before he was struck by a train was published on the front page of the New York Post, causing an uproar about whether the photographer, who was catching a train, or anyone else should have tried to help him.
A homeless man was arrested and charged with murder in that case. He claimed he acted in self-defense and is awaiting trial.
It's unclear whether anyone tried -- or could have tried -- to help Sen on Thursday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday urged residents to keep Sen's death in perspective as he touted new historic lows in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals.
"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.
But commuters still expressed concern over subway safety and shock about the arrest of Menendez on a hate crime charge.
"For someone to do something like that ... that's not the way we are made," said David Green, who was waiting for a train in Manhattan. "She needs help."
Green said he caught himself leaning over the subway platform's edge and realized maybe he shouldn't do that.
"It does make you more conscious," he said of the deaths.
Such subway deaths are rare, but other high-profile cases include the 1999 fatal shoving of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale by a former psychiatric patient. That case led to a state law allowing for more supervision of mentally ill people living outside institutions.
A woman who allegedly told New York City police she pushed a man onto the subway tracks because she hated Hindus and Muslims has been charged with murder as a hate crime.
Erica Menendez, 31, allegedly told police that she "pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up."
Menendez was taken into custody this morning after a two-day search, and when detectives were interviewing her she allegedly made the statements implicating herself in Thursday night's subway-platform death.
"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare -- being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train," Queen District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. "The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated by a civilized society."
Menendez was due to be arraigned this evening. She could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the second degree murder charge.
On Thursday night, a woman shoved a man from a subway platform at Queens Boulevard, and the man was crushed beneath an oncoming train. Police had searched the area for her after the incident.
New York City Subway Pusher Charged With Murder Watch Video
The victim was Sunando Sen, identified by several media outlets as a graphic designer and Indian immigrant who opened a print shop, Amsterdam Copy, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Sen was struck by the No. 7 train after the unidentified woman allegedly pushed him from the northbound platform at 40th Street and Queens Boulevard at 8:04 p.m. on Thursday.
Witnesses told police they had seen the woman mubling to herself, pacing along the platform. She gave Sen little time to react, witnesses said.
"Witnesses said she was walking back and forth on the platform, talking to herself, before taking a seat alone on a wooden bench near the north end of the platform. When the train pulled into the station, the suspect rose from the bench and pushed the man, who was standing with his back to her, onto the tracks into the path of the train," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said earlier today. "The victim appeared not to notice her, according to witnesses."
READ: What to Do If You Fall on the Subway Tracks
Police released brief surveillance video of the woman fleeing the subway station, and described the suspect as a woman in her 20s, "heavy set, approximately 5'5" with brown or blond hair."
It was New York's second death of this kind in less than a month. On Dec. 3, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han of Queens was shoved onto the tracks at New York's Times Square subway station. Two days later, police took 30-year-old Naeem Davis into custody.
On Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked whether the attack might be related to the increase of mentally ill people on the streets following closures of institutions over the past four decades.
"The courts or the law have changed and said, no, you can't do that unless they're a danger to society. Our laws protect you," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show.
SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian woman whose gang rape in New Delhi triggered violent protests died of her injuries on Saturday in a Singapore hospital, bringing a security lockdown in Delhi and recognition from India's prime minister that social change is needed.
The Indian capital braced for a new wave of protests, closing metro stations and banning vehicles from the city centre district where young activists had converged to demand improved women's rights. The news came in the early hours of the morning in India and there were no signs of protests as morning broke.
The 23-year-old medical student, severely beaten, raped and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi two weeks ago, had been flown to Singapore in a critical condition by the Indian government on Thursday for specialist treatment.
"We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on Dec 29, 2012 (2045 GMT Friday). Her family and officials from the High Commission (embassy) of India were by her side," Mount Elizabeth Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Loh said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement he was deeply saddened by the death and described the emotions associated with her case as "perfectly understandable reactions from a young India and an India that genuinely desires change.
"It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channelize these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action."
"It is a shameful moment for me not just as a chief minister but also as a citizen of this country," she said.
The woman, who has not been identified, and a male friend were returning home from the cinema by bus on the evening of December 16 when, media reports say, six men on the bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. The reports say a rod was used in the rape, causing internal injuries. Both were thrown from the bus. The male friend survived the attack.
Singh's government has been battling criticism that it was tone-deaf to the outcry that followed the attack and was heavy handed in its response to the protests in the Indian capital.
Most rapes and other sex crimes in India go unreported and offenders are rarely punished, women's rights activists say. But the brutality of the December 16 assault sparked public outrage and calls for better policing and harsher punishment for rapists.
VEHICLES BARRED FROM DELHI CITY CENTRE
T.C.A. Raghavan, the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, told reporters hours after the woman's death that a chartered aircraft would fly her body back to India on Saturday, along with members of her family. The woman's body had earlier been loaded into a van at the hospital and driven away.
In New Delhi, the Joint Commissioner of Traffic Police, Satyendra Garg, told NDTV news channel that residents and commuters were advised to avoid the city centre.
The case has received blanket coverage on cable television news channels. Some Indian media have called the woman "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure".
Talking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Raghavan declined to comment on Indian media reports accusing the government of sending her to Singapore to minimize the possible backlash in the event of her death.
Some Indian medical experts had questioned the decision to airlift the woman to Singapore, calling it a risky maneuver given the seriousness of her injuries. They had said she was already receiving the best possible care in India.
But Dr B.D. Athani, medical superintendent of the New Delhi hospital where she had initially been treated, told Indian television the intention was to give the victim the best chance of surviving in what he described as "an extreme case".
"Her condition was very critical from day one. We had managed what best we could do at our end ... she had to be shifted to a centre with much better facilities."
On Friday, the Singapore hospital had said the woman's condition had taken a turn for the worse. It said she had suffered "significant brain injury". She had already undergone three abdominal operations before arriving in Singapore.
The suspects in the rape - five men aged between 20 and 40, and a juvenile - were arrested within hours of the attack and are in custody. Media reports say they are likely to be formally charged with murder next week.
Commentators and sociologists say the rape tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social and economic issues.
Many protesters have complained that Singh's government has done little to curb the abuse of women in the country of 1.2 billion. A global poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in June found that India was the worst place to be a woman because of high rates of infanticide, child marriage and slavery.
New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in the country rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.
(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin and Devidutta Tripathy in New Delhi; Saeed Azhar, Edgar Su and Sanjeev Miglani in Singapore; Editing by Michael Roddy, Ron Popeski and Mark Bendeich)
SINGAPORE: The body of an Indian woman who died in a Singapore hospital after a brutal gang-rape in New Delhi will be flown back on a chartered plane later Saturday, India's ambassador said.
"The requisite formalities (including the issue of the death certificate) for sending the body to India are being completed," Indian High Commissioner T.C.A. Raghavan told reporters, hours after the woman died of multiple organ failure at the Singapore hospital where she was being treated.
"The deceased and her family members will be flown back to India in a chartered aircraft later this afternoon," Raghavan said.
The flight is expected to arrive in Singapore around 3:00 or 4:00pm. It's understood that the body has been moved to a morgue.
When asked to provide more details on the identity of the victim, Dr Raghavan said the family has asked for their privacy.
Dr Raghavan, however, revealed that her family lives in Delhi and are Hindus. It's understood that those who are in Singapore include her parents and brothers.
He said: "It is natural the family is deeply affected by the loss they have suffered. At the same time, I will say that they have borne this loss with a great deal of fortitude and understanding. They have repeatedly asked me to say how inspired they are by the many messages of support and condolences they have received. And also this reinforces their view that the death of their child will lead to a better future for all women in India and Delhi."
Questions were raised on whether the victim's condition was affected by the flight to Singapore and whether it was the right decision.
Dr Raghavan said that the decision to move to Singapore followed consultations between doctors in India and Singapore, and that it was done with the intention to give the patient the best possible medical care.
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority finally joined the smartphone era today by releasing an iOS app showing train arrival times for seven subway lines.
Available for the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad, MTA Subway Time will display train arrival times for 156 stations on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 lines and the S shuttle line. Though officially in a test version for the time being, the app will use the same arrival times shown on station countdown clocks and on the MTA's Web site.
"The ability to get subway arrival time at street level is here," said MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph J. Lhota in a statement. "The days of rushing to a subway station only to find yourself waiting motionless in a state of uncertainty are coming to an end."
According to the statement, the app can handle up to 5,000 incoming requests per second. The information comes from a feed that can be accessed by developers for other mobile operating systems.
Though the MTA has existing apps for bus arrivals and the drive times on its bridges and tunnels, this is the first time that the country's busiest transit agency has developed an app for subway service.
NEW YORK New York City police have identified a man they say was shoved to his death in front of a subway train by a woman.
Police said Friday that Sunando Sen was pushed from the platform the night before. The 46-year-old Sen was from India and lived alone in Queens.
Investigators identified him through a smartphone and a prescription pill bottle he was carrying when he was struck by a 7 train. His family in India has been notified.
Police are searching homeless shelters and psychiatric units for the woman believed to have pushed him. Witnesses say she was mumbling before she shoved him without warning.
As police sought on Friday to locate the unidentified woman, Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents to keep the second fatal subway shove in the city this month in perspective. The news of the horrific death of Sen came as the mayor touted drops in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals.
"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.
The incident happened around 8 p.m. Thursday on the elevated tracks at the 40th Street Station on Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, CBS Station WCBS reports.
Play Video
Search on for suspect in 2nd subway push death
Police said witnesses saw the woman pacing and mumbling on the platform before taking a seat alone on a wooden bench. Then, as the train approached the station, witnesses said she suddenly shot forward, shoving the unsuspecting man onto the tracks, directly into the path of an oncoming Number 7 train.
The New York Police Department released surveillance video of the suspect running away from the scene. Police said the woman raced down two flights of stairs after the attack and then disappeared onto the crowded street.
Detectives described her as a heavyset Hispanic woman in her 20s, approximately 5-foot-5, with blonde or brown hair. She was last seen wearing a blue, white and grey ski jacket and grey and red Nike sneakers.
The medical examiner said Friday that an autopsy found that Sen died from head trauma.
Commuters on Friday expressed concern over subway safety.
"It's just a really sad commentary on the world and on human beings, period," said Howard Roth, who takes the subway daily.
He said the deadly push reminded him, "the best thing is what they tell you — don't stand near the edge, and keep your eyes open."
The incident marked the second deadly subway push this month. On December 3, police said 58-year-old Ki Suck Han was pushed to his death by 30-year-old Naeem Davis. The two were seen on cell phone video arguing just moments before Han was pushed to his death.
In the most recent incident, witnesses said the victim never encountered his attacker and never saw what was coming.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto Crime Stoppers or texting tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
In the Bible, he is called Moses. In the Koran, he is the prophet Musa.
Religious scholars have long questioned whether of the story of a prophet leading God's chosen people in a great exodus out of Egypt and the freedom it brought them afterwards was real, but the similarities between a pharaoh's ancient hymn and a psalm of David might hold the link to his existence.
Tune in to Part 2 of Christiane Amanpour's ABC News special, "Back to the Beginning," which explores the history of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus, on Friday, Dec. 28 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
Christian scripture says Moses was content to grow old with his family in the vast deserted wilderness of Midian, and 40 years passed until the Bible says God spoke to him through the Burning Bush and told him to lead his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. According to tradition, that miraculous bush can still be seen today enclosed within the ancient walls of St. Catherine's Monastery, located not far from Moses' hometown.
But there was another figure in the ancient world who gave up everything to answer the call from what he believed was the one and only true God.
Archaeologists discovered the remains of the ancient city of Amarna in the 1800s. Egyptologist Rawya Ismail, who has been studying the ruins for years, believes, as other archaeologists do, that Pharaoh Akhenaten built the city as a tribute to Aten, the sun.
G.Sioen/De Agostini/Getty Images
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She said it was a bold and unusual step for the pharaoh to leave the luxurious trappings of palace life in Luxor for the inhospitable landscape of Amarna, but it might have been his only choice as the priests from the existing religious establishment gained power.
"The very powerful Amun-Ra priests that he couldn't stand against gained control of the whole country," Ismail said. "The idea was to find a place that had never been used by any other gods -- to be virgin is what he called it -- so he chose this place."
All over the walls inside the city's beautiful tombs are examples of Akhanaten's radical message of monotheism. There is the Hymn to the Aten, which translates, in part, to: "The earth comes into being by your hand, as you made it. When you dawn, they live. When you set, they die. You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you."
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Some attribute the writing of the hymn to Akhanaten himself, but it bears a striking resemblance to a passage that can be found in the Hebrew Bible: Psalm 104.
"If you compare the hymns from A to Z, you'll find mirror images to it in many of the holy books," Ismail said. "And if you compare certain parts of it, you'll find it almost exactly -- a typical translation for some of the [psalms] of David."
Psalm 104, written a few hundred years later, references a Lord that ruled over Israel and a passage compares him to the sun.
"You hide your face, they are troubled," part of it reads. "You take away your breath, they die, And return to dust. You send forth your breath, they are created, And you renew the face of the earth."
Like the psalm, the Hymn to Aten extols the virtues of the one true God.
"A lot of people think that [the Hymn to Aten] was the source of the [psalms] of David," Ismail said. "Putting Egypt on the trade route, a lot of people traveled from Egypt and came back to Egypt, it wasn't like a country living in isolation."
Ismail believes it is possible that the message from the heretic pharaoh has some connection to the story of Moses and the Exodus, as outlined in the Hebrew Bible.
BANGUI (Reuters) - The president of the Central African Republic appealed on Thursday for France and the United States to help push back rebels threatening his government and the capital, but Paris said its troops were only ready to protect French nationals.
The exchanges came as regional African leaders tried to broker a ceasefire deal and as rebels said they had temporarily halted their advance on Bangui, the capital, to allow talks to take place.
Insurgents on motorbikes and in pickup trucks have driven to within 75 km (47 miles) of Bangui after weeks of fighting, threatening to end President Francois Bozize's nearly 10-year-stint in charge of the turbulent, resource-rich country.
French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in the CAR's south - France's biggest commercial interest in its former colony.
The rebel advance has highlighted the instability of a country that has remained poor since independence from Paris in 1960 despite rich deposits of uranium, gold and diamonds. Average income is barely over $2 a day.
Bozize on Thursday appealed for French and U.S. military support to stop the SELEKA rebel coalition, which has promised to overthrow him unless he implements a previous peace deal in full.
He told a crowd of anti-rebel protesters in the riverside capital that he had asked Paris and Washington to help move the rebels away from the capital to clear the way for peace talks which regional leaders say could be held soon in Libreville, Gabon.
"We are asking our cousins the French and the United States, which are major powers, to help us push back the rebels to their initial positions in a way that will permit talks in Libreville to resolve this crisis," Bozize said.
France has 250 soldiers in its landlocked former colony as part of a peacekeeping mission and Paris in the past has ousted or propped up governments - including by using air strikes to defend Bozize against rebels in 2006.
But French President Francois Hollande poured cold water on the latest request for help.
"If we have a presence, it's not to protect a regime, it's to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic," Hollande said on the sidelines of a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris.
"Those days are over," he said.
Some 1,200 French nationals live in the CAR, mostly in the capital, according to the French Foreign Ministry, where they typically work for mining firms or aid groups.
CEASEFIRE TALKS
The U.N. Security Council issued a statement saying its members "condemn the continued attacks on several towns perpetrated by the 'SELEKA' coalition of armed groups which gravely undermine the Libreville Comprehensive Peace Agreement and threaten the civilian population."
U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. embassy had temporarily suspended operations and the U.S. ambassador and other embassy personnel had left the country.
Officials from around central Africa are due to meet in Bangui later on Thursday to open initial talks with the government and rebels.
A rebel spokesman said fighters had temporarily halted their advance to allow dialogue.
"We will not enter Bangui," Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, the rebel spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.
Previous rebel promises to stop advancing have been broken, and a diplomatic source said rebels had taken up positions around Bangui on Thursday, effectively surrounding it.
The atmosphere remained tense in the city the day after anti-rebel protests broke out, and residents were stocking up on food and water.
Government soldiers deployed at strategic sites and French troops reinforced security at the French embassy after protesters threw rocks at the building on Wednesday.
In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said protecting foreigners and embassies was the responsibility of the CAR authorities.
"This message will once again be stressed to the CAR's charge d'affaires in Paris, who has been summoned this afternoon," a ministry spokesman said.
He also said France condemned the rebels for pursuing hostilities and urged all sides to commit to talks.
Bozize came to power in a 2003 rebellion that overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse.
However, France is increasingly reluctant to directly intervene in conflicts in its former colonies. Since coming to power in May, Hollande has promised to end its shadowy relations with former colonies and put ties on a healthier footing.
A military source and an aid worker said the rebels had got as far as Damara, 75 km (47 miles) from Bangui, by late afternoon on Wednesday, having skirted Sibut, where some 150 Chadian soldiers had earlier been deployed to try and block a push south by a rebel coalition.
With a government that holds little sway outside the capital, some parts of the country have long endured the consequences of conflicts in troubled neighbors Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo spilling over.
The Central African Republic is one of a number of nations in the region where U.S. Special Forces are helping local forces try to track down the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel group responsible for killing thousands of civilians across four African nations.
(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas and Louis Charbonneau; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Paul Simao)
LONDON: Henning Berg, sacked by Blackburn after just 57 days, and Sean O'Driscoll, dismissed by Nottingham Forest just six months into his reign, became the latest managers to discover that patience is an increasingly rare quality among chairmen chasing the dream of a lucrative place in the Premier League.
Owen Coyle, booted out by Bolton in October after a slow start to the season, and Paul Jewell, fired by Ipswich with a relegation battle looming, had already been losers in the Championship's frantic game of managerial musical chairs.
There have been eight bosses on the move with only half the season gone and more casualties are certain to follow in the new year.
And, as ever in modern day football, money is the root cause of the blood-letting.
The rewards of promotion are estimated at around £90 million, but the cost is even greater for the managers who fall short of that goal.
The prospect of buying a sleeping giant and turning them into a cash cow has convinced a series of investors from across the world to pitch up at second-tier clubs with a wad of cash and promises of instant success.
But when that seductive talk of promotion falters on the pitch, there is no apology from the owners for spreading false hope. Instead it is the managers who are made the scapegoats.
Nowhere is that more apparent than at Blackburn, where Indian owners Venky's are searching for their third manager of the season following the brutal dismissal of Berg on Thursday.
Berg, who played in the Blackburn team that won the Premier League in 1995, had been appointed as successor to the much-criticised Steve Kean, who avoided the sack despite relegation from the top-flight last season but then quit in September amid suggestions Venky's were meddling in his team selections.
Although Berg had won only one of his first 10 matches -- a 1-0 defeat on Wednesday to Middlesbrough was their fifth loss in six matches -- he surely deserved longer to get a troubled club back on an even keel.
In the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that the Norwegian should talk of being "bitterly disappointed" at his treatment.
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand summed up the disbelief felt by the football world when he tweeted: "Henning Berg was given loads of time to implement his coaching ideas and get the team playing the way he wanted, 50 something days... NOT!!
"Berg didn't even get to see a transfer window let alone take part in one?!?"
While O'Driscoll was given a little longer than Berg by Forest's Kuwaiti owners, he still had plenty of cause for complaint.
Forest were just one point outside the play-off places after a 4-2 win over Leeds on Wednesday, yet even that wasn't good enough for impatient Kuwaiti chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi, who talked of the need for a manager with Premier League experience after sacking O'Driscoll, widely regarded as one of the most astute managers in the lower divisions.
Danny Collins, one of O'Driscoll's first signings when he took charge at Forest in July, said: "To hear the news that the gaffer had gone was obviously a surprise, and we're shocked and disappointed at the same time."
Forest striker Simon Cox added on Twitter: "So we win 4-2 and the manager gets the sack. Gutted for Sean, pleasure to work under. Wonder who will walk through the door next."
And as the stakes get even higher in the coming months, there will be plenty more managers and players nervously wondering when the next change will come.
The pressure will be most intense for under-achieving Wolves boss Stale Solbakken, Malky Mackay at leaders Cardiff, where the Malaysian owners are determined to secure promotion at all costs, and Nigel Pearson at Leicester, whose Thai owners have been spent big to reach the top-flight.
Autonomy founder and former CEO Mike Lynch is firing back at Hewlett-Packard after the release of HP's annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. The report states that the federal government opened an inquiry into HP's acquisition of Autonomy in November and hints that Autonomy's accounting is partially to blame.
"It is extremely disappointing that HP has again failed to provide a detailed calculation of its $5 billion write-down of Autonomy, or publish any explanation of the serious allegations it has made against the former management team, in its annual report filing today," Lynch said in an e-mailed statement. "Furthermore, it is now less clear how much of the $5 billion write-down is in fact being attributed to the alleged accounting issues, and how much to other changes in business performance and earnings projections."
HP acquired the enterprise software company in August 2011 for $11.1 billion, or 11 times its annual earnings. Since the purchase, controversy, lawsuits, and an $8.8 billion charge against HP's earnings have ensued.
HP and Lynch have traded arguments in the press over who deserves the blame for Autonomy's subpar performance. In its fourth-quarter earnings release last month, HP said it had discovered "extensive evidence" of fraudulent accounting and failed disclosures on Autonomy's part leading up to the sale. Consequently, Lynch set up a Web site that denies HP's charges and says HP mishandled the company after acquiring it.
"We also do not understand why HP is raising these issues now given that Autonomy reported into the HP Finance team from the day the acquisition completed in October 2011, there was an extensive due diligence process and Autonomy was audited as a public company for many years," Lynch said today. "We also note the statement in HP's annual report that it received confirmation from the U.S. Department of Justice on 21 November 2012 (the day after HP's first public statement), that the Department had opened an investigation. We can confirm that we have as yet had no contact from any regulatory authority. We will co-operate with any investigation and look forward to the opportunity to explain our position."
NEWTOWN, Conn. The children at the Sandy Hook Elementary school won't be returning to classes for another week, but officials from the town, school district and local agencies are doing their best in the meantime to keep them occupied following a massacre at their school two weeks ago.
The students have not attended school since a gunman killed 20 of their schoolmates and six adults on Dec. 14. They are slated to return to a different school next Thursday.
In the meantime, they've been treated to field trips, toy giveaways and some organized play time.
"A couple of the teachers have done pizza parties," said Janet Robinson, Newtown's school superintendent. "Another met her kids at the library so they could have a little reading time together. The most important thing has been connecting the students back to their teacher and their classmates."
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Newtown schools superintendent: We have to move forward
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Victims of Conn. school shooting
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Newtown police get a break on Christmas
The Newtown Youth Academy, a nonprofit sports center, opened its doors to all kids in town at no cost shortly after the shooting. But from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. last week, the building's turf field, basketball and tennis courts, and giant inflatable obstacle course were reserved just for Sandy Hook Elementary students.
There have been arts and crafts for the smaller kids, as well as face-paintings. Some celebrities, including two members of the Harlem Globetrotters and former University of Connecticut basketball star Tina Charles, also have stopped by to play with the children.
UConn's men's basketball team and its coaches made a trip to the academy Thursday and played games with the kids, posed for photos and signed autographs. "It was great for us to be able to see some smiles on their faces and to spend some time with them," Coach Kevin Ollie said.
On Thursday afternoon, school buses were loading up at the Youth Academy for a trip to Stamford and a larger complex, Chelsea Piers, which also has ice rinks and an indoor swimming pool, said academy owner Peter D'Amico. Sports celebrities, such as Brooklyn Nets forward Kris Humphries, planned to meet them there.
"The idea was to get them away from the house, the television and all the coverage of this tragedy and get them to a place where kids can just be kids," said D'Amico, a longtime youth coach in town.
University of Connecticut psychologist Julian Ford, who spent time counseling in Newtown in the first days after the shooting, said it's important for the grieving process to include an outlet that lets children know that while things will never be the same, it's OK to enjoy life.
"They are all going to be thinking about what happened," he said. "That, unfortunately, is inescapable. But this gives them a chance to say, `Life is carrying on.' Nothing will be the same, but it's also continuing in ways that it should be."
Some students and their parents on Thursday toured the Chalk Hill school in Monroe, a former middle school being reopened next week for the Sandy Hook students. An open house is planned for Wednesday.
"Getting back into the school is like getting back on the horse," Robinson said. "Some of the scariness is gone once they cross that threshold. They are just so happy to see their teachers."
State police said they plan to keep their contact with the children to a minimum as they continue investigating the shooting.
"We certainly don't want to traumatize them any more than they've already been traumatized," said Lt. J. Paul Vance, the department's spokesman. "If (an interview is) not necessary it won't be done. Our investigators will make all those determinations."
In the meantime, Ford has encouraged parents to keep the kids involved in a normal holiday routine and deal with the tragedy as it comes up, rather than making it a focal point of their lives.
David Connors, who has 8-year-old triplets who attend Sandy Hook, said he and his wife have made play dates with their friends, brought the kids to see family for the holidays and participated in the class get-togethers and recreation events.
"That's been, I think, helpful at least in the short term just to kind of keep them doing things, keep them seeing their friends and being nearby and talking to family," Connors said.
Todd Wood of Newtown has five children, the youngest age 4 and the oldest in college. His children's piano teacher lost a child in the shooting, and the family knows other victims as well.
He said he's found that each child has reacted differently to the tragedy. He said he is not making the shooting the center of his family's life but is not pretending it didn't happen, either.
"We did Christmas, we had our lights here, we've tried to make things as normal as possible," he said. "But we also went down to see the memorials. I don't want to shield them from it. I want to let them grieve in their own way."
Ford said that is healthy. He said children will remember their friends as they go about doing normal kid things.
Chris Wolcott, the sport's academy's operations manager, said the best part of having the kids at the center is that the tragedy is pushed aside, at least for a little while.
"A couple times someone would drop a weight (in the facility's health center) and you would hear a bang and there would be a kid who would freeze for a second," he said. "But that would last a split-second. Most of the time, everyone just had a great time."
