Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on Monday after fighting raged for days in the district on the southern edge of President Bashar al-Assad's Damascus powerbase, rebel and Palestinian sources said. The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation...

Read More..

Tarantino film latest to be pulled after US shooting

LOS ANGELES: A Hollywood premiere of notoriously violent director Quentin Tarantino's latest film "Django Unchained" was canceled Monday, the latest such response to the Connecticut school massacre.A string of movies and TV shows have been pulled or postponed since Friday's shootings, while sporting events have held moments of silence and players have worn black armbands to honor the victims,...

Read More..

Apple loses bid for permanent ban on Samsung phones in U.S.

A U.S. District Court judge denied Apple's bid to ban a number of Samsung's devices from sale in the U.S., a little more than a week after a hearing on the matter.In a late ruling Monday, Judge Lucy Koh -- who presided over the entire trial between the two tech giants -- denied Apple's bid for a sales ban, saying that any infringing features were just part of a larger feature set, making a sales ban...

Read More..

Obama moves on taxes in latest "cliff" counter-proposal

President Obama gave up Monday on his demand for higher taxes on households earning $250,000 and upped it to $400,000 while embracing smaller cost-of-living Social Security raises in a counter-proposal to House Speaker John Boehner meant to narrow differences and forge a pre-Christmas "fiscal cliff" deal. Mr. Obama and Boehner met for nearly an hour in the Oval Office on Monday and sources familiar...

Read More..

Conn. Kids Laid to Rest: 'Our Hearts Are With You'

Visibly shaken attendees exiting the funeral today for 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of 20 children killed in the Connecticut school massacre last week, said they were touched by a story that summed up the first-grader best.His mother, Veronique, would often tell him how much she loved him and he'd respond: "Not as much as I [love] you," said a New York man who attended the funeral...

Read More..

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

TOKYO (Reuters) - Conservative ex-premier Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead Japan after his Liberal Democratic Party surged back to power in Sunday's election, but he must move swiftly to bolster a sagging economy and manage strained ties with China to avoid the fate of his short-lived predecessors. Abe, whose party won by a landslide just three years after a crushing defeat,...

Read More..

Karena Lam pregnant again

HONG KONG: Hong Kong actress Karena Lam revealed Saturday during a publicity event that she is pregnant with her second child, reported Hong Kong media.The actress, who is married to advertisement director Steve Yuen, gave birth to their first, daughter Kayla, in 2010. Lam expressed that she has asked actor Ekin Cheng, who was also at the event, to be her unborn child's godfather."We are...

Read More..

iPhone 5 sales in China surpass 2 million in first weekend

Apple's iPhone 5.(Credit:CNET)It's been just three days since Apple's iPhone 5 launch in China and already 2 million devices have already been sold. The tech giant announced today that this latest model of its popular smartphone is selling faster than ever in the Far East country. "Customer response toiPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever...

Read More..

Newtown church evacuated after phone threat

NEWTOWN, Conn. Police say there's no danger at a Connecticut church following a phoned-in threat days after 20 children and six adults were massacred at a school.Deborah Metz, a Trumbull police officer on the scene, gave the all-clear after an hour in which armed police in SWAT gear searched the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church and adjacent buildings.The evacuation unnerved worshipers in the...

Read More..

Obama Offers Newtown 'Love and Prayers of a Nation'

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would...

Read More..