LAHAD DATU, Malaysia: Malaysia threatened Saturday to take "drastic action" against intruding followers of a self-proclaimed Filipino sultan after a tense standoff erupted into a shootout that killed 14 people.
Twelve followers of the little-known sultan of Sulu and two Malaysian security personnel were killed in Friday's firefight, police said, as the more than two-week-old siege in a remote corner of Malaysia turned deadly.
Dozens of Filipinos have been holed up on Borneo island, surrounded by a massive Malaysian police and military cordon, since landing by boat from their nearby Philippine islands to insist the area belongs to their Islamic leader.
"We want them to surrender immediately. If they don't, they will face drastic action," Hamza Taib, police chief of the Malaysian state of Sabah where the drama was taking place, told AFP.
He declined to provide details of what security forces had in store but his comments echoed growing Malaysian impatience with the situation.
In Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino urged the gunmen to surrender immediately.
"To those who have influence and the capacity to reason with those in (the affected town of) Lahad Datu, I ask you to convey this message: surrender now, without conditions," he said in a statement.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose government has been embarrassed by the security breach, said in the shootout's aftermath that he told police and armed forces to take whatever action was necessary to end the impasse.
"Now there is no grace period for the group to leave," he was quoted as saying by Malaysian media, blaming the intruders for sparking the violence.
But the deadly clash drew criticism from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
"Why is our government lax about national security,?" he said in a statement late Friday, adding that the government must explain what transpired in the bloody clash claiming two Malaysian lives.
Muslim-majority Malaysia had previously avoided tough talk, expressing hope the intruders would leave peacefully.
But even if they give up, they will face Malaysian prosecution, Hamza said, after he met with Malaysia's home minister and other top security officials.
Local residents were staying indoors and the usually bustling coastal town of Lahad Datu was quiet with most shops closed on Saturday.
Georgina Paulino, a 50-year-old street vendor, complained that her business has been badly hit.
"People are afraid they could be shot if they come out," she told AFP.
The Filipinos, who are estimated to number between 100 and 300, sailed from their remote islands to press Jamalul Kiram III's claim to Sabah.
Kiram, 74, claims to be the heir to the Islamic sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of the southern Philippines and a portion of Borneo.
The Sulu sultanate's power faded about a century ago but it has continued to receive nominal payments from Malaysia for Sabah under a historical lease arrangement passed down from European colonial powers.
A German inventor has built a DIY jetpack, so we hop onboard. Also, we get a first look at "Star Wars" pinball for iOS and Android, and "Star Trek" fans win a major space battle when they vote to name a Pluto moon "Vulcan." All that and more on this week's episode of Crave.
Crave stories:
- Google Nexus fired into space to see if screams are audible
- Myo gesture-control armband uses muscle power
- Star Wars Pinball coming tomorrow to Android, iOS (video)
- Get a ball's-eye view with camera in football
- Trekkies conquer contest to name Pluto moons
- Inventor gets off the ground with homemade jetpack
- First-person Mario video will blow your mind
- Crave giveaway: Two leather iPad cases from Kavaj
SEFFNER, Fla. A man was missing and feared dead early Friday after a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near Tampa.
Jeff Bush is presumed dead after a sinkhole opened under his bed.
/ CBS
His brother says Jeff Bush screamed for help before he disappeared.
The 36-year-old man's brother, Jeremy Bush, told rescue crews he heard a loud crash around 11 p.m. Thursday, then heard his brother screaming for help.
"When he got there, there was no bedroom left," Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. "There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up."
Jeremy Bush called 911 and frantically tried to help his brother Jeff. He said he jumped into the hole and dirt was quickly up to his neck.
"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," Jeremy said. "But I just couldn't do nothing."
An arriving deputy pulled Jeremy Bush from the still-collapsing house.
28 Photos
Sinkholes
"I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his hand and pull him out of the hole," Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duvall said. "The hole was collapsing. At that time, we left the house."
Engineers worked to determine the size of the sinkhole. At the surface, officials estimated it was about 30 feet across. Below the surface, officials believed it was 100 feet wide.
"The entire house is on the sinkhole," Damico said.
Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers told a news briefing that extra-sensitive listening devices and cameras were inserted into the sinkhole. "They did not detect any signs of life," he said.
By early Friday, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials determined the home had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts.
Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.
Sinkholes are common in seaside Florida, whose underlying limestone and dolomite can be worn away by water and chemicals, then collapse.
Engineers condemned the house, reports CBS Tampa affiliate WTSP.
From the outside of the small, sky blue house, nothing appeared wrong. There wear no cracks and the only sign something was amiss was the yellow caution tape circling the house.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said authorities asked sinkhole and engineering experts, and they were using equipment to see if the ground can support the weight of heavy machinery needed for the recovery effort.
Jeremy Bush stood in a neighbor's yard across the street from the house Friday and recounted the harrowing collapse.
"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him," he said of his brother Jeff.
Jeremy Bush's wife and his 2-year-old daughter were also inside the house. "She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is," he said. "I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid and I lost everything."
Janell Wheeler told the Tampa Bay Times newspaper she was inside the house with four other adults and a child when the sinkhole opened.
"It sounded like a car hit my house," she said.
The rest of the family went to a hotel but she stayed behind, sleeping in her car.
President Obama and congressional leaders today failed to reach a breakthrough to avert a sweeping package of automatic spending cuts, setting into motion $85 billion of across-the-board belt-tightening that neither had wanted to see.
President Obama officially initiated the cuts with an order to agencies Friday evening.
He had met for just over an hour at the White House Friday morning with Republican leaders House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Democratic allies, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Vice President Joe Biden.
But the parties emerged from their first face-to-face meeting of the year resigned to see the cuts take hold at midnight.
"This is not a win for anybody," Obama lamented in a statement to reporters after the meeting. "This is a loss for the American people."
READ MORE: 6 Questions (and Answers) About the Sequester
Officials have said the spending reductions immediately take effect Saturday but that the pain from reduced government services and furloughs of tens of thousands of federal employees would be felt gradually in the weeks ahead.
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Federal agencies, including Homeland Security, the Pentagon, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Education, have all prepared to notify employees that they will have to take one unpaid day off per week through the end of the year.
The staffing trims could slow many government services, including airport screenings, air traffic control, and law enforcement investigations and prosecutions. Spending on education programs and health services for low-income families will also get clipped.
"It is absolutely true that this is not going to precipitate the crisis" that would have been caused by the so-called fiscal cliff, Obama said. "But people are going to be hurt. The economy will not grow as quickly as it would have. Unemployment will not go down as quickly as it would have. And there are lives behind that. And it's real."
The sticking point in the debate over the automatic cuts -- known as sequester -- has remained the same between the parties for more than a year since the cuts were first proposed: whether to include more new tax revenue in a broad deficit reduction plan.
The White House insists there must be higher tax revenue, through elimination of tax loopholes and deductions that benefit wealthier Americans and corporations. Republicans seek an approach of spending cuts only, with an emphasis on entitlement programs. It's a deep divide that both sides have proven unable to bridge.
"This discussion about revenue, in my view, is over," Boehner told reporters after the meeting. "It's about taking on the spending problem here in Washington."
Boehner: No New Taxes to Avert Sequester
Boehner says any elimination of tax loopholes or deductions should be part of a broader tax code overhaul aimed at lowering rates overall, not to offset spending cuts in the sequester.
Obama countered today that he's willing to "take on the problem where it exists, on entitlements, and do some things that my own party doesn't like."
But he says Republicans must be willing to eliminate some tax loopholes as part of a deal.
"They refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit," Obama said. "We can and must replace these cuts with a more balanced approach that asks something from everybody."
Can anything more be done by either side to reach a middle ground?
The president today claimed he's done all he can. "I am not a dictator, I'm the president," Obama said.
TOKYO: Two US sailors who raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa last October, sparking island-wide anger, were on Friday jailed for nine and 10 years, a report said.
The Naha District Court in Okinawa said Christopher Browning, 24, should go to prison for 10 years while Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, should serve nine, Jiji Press reported.
Browning and Dozierwalker, who were not stationed in Okinawa, had been drinking on the evening of the attack, which took place on the street and left the unidentified woman with neck injuries.
During an earlier court appearance the two men had admitted the offence, which caused outrage on the sub-tropical islands and beyond, and led to a nationwide night-time curfew on all US military personnel in Japan.
Despite the curfew, misconduct involving US servicemen, much of it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communities with bases.
Wary of yet another public relations disaster, the US moved quickly to try to lower the temperature in the immediate aftermath of the rape, with ambassador John Roos holding a special news conference at which he appeared visibly angry and upset.
"The United States will cooperate in every way possible with the Japanese authorities to address this terrible situation."
"I understand the anger that many people feel with respect to this reported incident," he said. "I have a 25-year-old daughter myself, so this is very personal to me."
The attack came amid already high tensions in Okinawa, which saw demonstrations last year against the US deployment to the island of the tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft.
The aircraft's perceived poor safety record has been picked over in Japanese media and by local opponents, but commentators say it is a proxy issue and resentment over what many see as an unfair burden is at the root of objections.
Okinawa is the reluctant host to more than half of the 47,000 American service personnel in Japan, and the crimes, noise and risk of accidents associated with their bases regularly provoke ire in the local community.
In 1995 the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by US servicemen sparked mass protests resulting in a US-Japan agreement to reduce the huge US military presence on the Okinawan chain.
Okinawans say other parts of Japan should take more of the burden and want bases closed or reduced in size.
Google has released a new data compression algorithm it hopes will make the Internet faster for everyone.
Dubbed Zopfli, the open-source algorithm will accelerate data transfer speeds and reduce Web page load times by compressing content up to 8 percent smaller than the zlib software library, Google said in a company blog post today. Named after a Swiss bread recipe, the new algorithm is an implementation of the Deflate algorithm, which is used in the ZIP archive format, as well as in gzip file compression.
"The higher data density is achieved by using more exhaustive compression techniques, which make the compression a lot slower, but do not affect the decompression speed," said Lode Vandevenne, a Zurich-based software engineer who implemented Zopfli as part of this 20 percent time activity.
Zopfli is a compression-only library, meaning that existing software can decompress the data. It is also bit-stream compatible with gzip, ZIP, PNG, and HTTP requests, among others.
"The smaller compressed size allows for better space utilization, faster data transmission, and lower web page load latencies," he said, adding that mobile users will benefit from the smaller compression in the form of lower data transfer rates and reduced battery use.
Because the amount of CPU time required for compression is two to three orders of magnitude more than zlib, Google believes Zopfli is best suited for applications where data is compressed once and but delivered many times over -- such as static content for the Web.
Wildfire approaches homes in Riverside County, Calif., outside Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 2013. /KCBS-TV/CBS
RIVERSIDE, Calif. Flames from a ferocious wildfire burned palm trees along residential streets and came very close to homes in Riverside County, but dying winds helped firefighters stop its progress.
County Fire spokeswoman Jody Hageman said residents from two streets were told to evacuate Thursday night at the peak of the fire that burned about 150 acres in and around Rancho Jurupa Regional Park, some 60 miles east of Los Angeles. It was 20 percent contained after about three hours. The mandatory evacuation was later changed to voluntary, reports CBS Los Angeles station KCBS-TV.
Embers from the flames landed on palm trees and people's homes , KCBS says.
Some 2,000 customers were without power at one point, but it was restored to everyone by about 11 p.m. local time, the station adds.
About 200 firefighters helped by helicopters took on the blaze, whose bright flames and huge plumes of smoke were visible from long distances.
There were no reports of any injuries or homes or buildings burning.
The National Weather Service issued an advisory for gusty offshore winds in Riverside County that will be in effect until Saturday.
The budget ax is about to fall, and there's little lawmakers in Washington are doing to stop it.
Despite a parade of dire warnings from the White House, an $85 billion package of deep automatic spending cuts appears poised to take effect at the stroke of midnight on Friday.
The cuts – known in Washington-speak as the sequester – will hit every federal budget, from defense to education, and even the president's own staff.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats and Republicans each staged votes Thursday aimed at substituting the indiscriminate across-the-board cuts with more sensible ones. Democrats also called for including new tax revenue in the mix. Both measures failed.
Lleaders on both sides publicly conceded that the effort was largely for show, with little chance the opposing chamber would embrace the other's plan. They will discuss their differences with President Obama at the White House on Friday.
"It isn't a plan at all, it's a gimmick," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said today of the Democrats' legislation.
"Republicans call the plan flexibility" in how the cuts are made, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Let's call it what it is. It is a punt."
The budget crisis is the product of a longstanding failure of Congress and the White House to compromise on plans for deficit reduction. The sequester itself, enacted in late 2011, was intended to be so unpalatable as to help force a deal.
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Republicans and Democrats, however, remain gridlocked over the issue of taxes.
Obama has mandated that any steps to offset the automatic cuts must include new tax revenue through the elimination of loopholes and deductions. House Speaker John Boehner and the GOP insist the approach should be spending cuts-only, modifying the package to make it more reasonable.
"Do we want to close loopholes? We sure do. But if we are going to do tax reform, it should focus on creating jobs, not funding more government," House Speaker John Boehner said, explaining his opposition to Obama's plan.
Boehner, McConnell, Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will huddle with Obama at the White House on Friday for the first face-to-face meeting of the group this year.
"There are no preconditions to a meeting like this," White House spokesman Jay Carney said today. "The immediate purpose of the meeting is to discuss the imminent sequester deadline and to avert it."
Even if the leaders reach a deal, there's almost no chance a compromise could be enacted before the deadline. Lawmakers are expected to recess later today for a long weekend in their districts.
What will be the short-term impact of the automatic cuts?
Officials say it will be a gradual, "rolling impact" with limited visible impact across the country in the first few weeks that the cuts are allowed to stand.
Over the long term, however, the Congressional Budget Office and independent economic analysts have warned sequester could lead to economic contraction and possibly a recession.
"This is going to be a big hit on the economy," Obama said Wednesday night.
"It means that you have fewer customers with money in their pockets ready to buy your goods and services. It means that the global economy will be weaker," he said. "And the worst part of it is, it's entirely unnecessary."
Both sides say that if the cuts take effect, the next best chance for a resolution could come next month when the parties need to enact a new federal budget. Government funding runs out on March 27, raising the specter of a federal shutdown if they still can't reach a deal.
"As we anticipate an across-the-board budget cuts across our land, we still expect to see your goodness prevail, O God, " Senate Chaplain Barry Black prayed on the Senate floor this morning, "and save us from ourselves."
SINGAPORE: Prices of resale private homes rebounded in January, rising 0.3 per cent, reversing the previous month's 0.2 per cent decline, according to the Singapore Residential Price Index flash estimates published by the Institute of Real Estate Studies at the National University of Singapore.
The increase in January was led by price growth in the small unit segment, defined as homes below 506 square feet.
In January, prices of small units rose 2.6 per cent, reversing a 0.7 per cent fall in December.
Prices of resale homes located in the central region also climbed by 0.7 per cent in January, following a 1.5 per cent decrease in the previous month.
Meanwhile, the only segment that registered a price drop last month was homes outside the central area.
Prices fell 0.1 per cent in January, compared with a 0.8 per cent increase in December.
Social video startup video has released a new iOS app with a bevy of new features to help users enhance the videos they produce and stave off Twitter's upstart video-sharing app Vine.
Debuting this evening in Apple's App Store, the new app doubles the size of videos users can upload from 15 seconds to 30 seconds, as well as adding the Vine-like ability to pause recording to splice together segments into a single clip. The app also adds 15 new video filters, licensed music tracks from popular artists that can be added to videos, and stop-motion functionality that adjusts video frame rates.
Viddy, which is sometimes referred to as the Instagram of video, also social discovery tools to help users find and share videos that are important to them. The update adds a section with curated video categories and trending topics. A geo-centric feed spotlights videos from specific regions, while another feed focuses on user interests and preferences.
In another Twitter-like feature, Viddy will add a verified user program for celebrities, public figures, and company brands.
The new video comes in the wake of corporate upheaval at the Venice, Calif.-based startup. The company, which claims 40 million users, revealed earlier this week that it had laid off a dozen employees, or about a third of its work force. The cuts came less than a month after the firing of co-founder and CEO Brett O'Brien, who was rumored to have turned down a buyout offer from Twitter, which ended up buying Vine and launching its app last month.
(CBS News) -- The federal budget cuts expected to take effect this Friday are not simple. For example, hundreds of illegal immigrants are being released from detention because the administration says it can't afford to keep them.
Until recently, Fredi Alcazar was one of those detained. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Alcazar spent a month in jail after a traffic stop near Atlanta last December. He now wears an electronic monitoring band on his ankle. The device lets immigration officials know where he is at all times.
(watch: Releasing illegal immigrants over budget cuts, below)
Alcazar was released unexpectedly in January.
"I was surprised they released me," Alcazar recalled. "They didn't say anything."
Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would not tell CBS exactly how many detainees they released ahead of for Friday's automatic budget cuts. They also declined to say where or when the releases occurred.
Those let go, like Fredi Alcazar, are required to wear electronic tracking devices, regularly call immigration officials or visit ICE offices.
"We started getting calls all of a sudden they had been released," said immigration advocate Dulce Guerrero. "We were very much in shock."
The early release of detainees was a surprise to Guerrero.
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"These folks are no criminals," she said. "These folks in there are moms, dads, students, community members who are in there for no license, for a broken tail light."
But some members of Congress are demanding ICE provide information on each detainee's case.
"When you release these people and expect them to show up at a court proceeding at a later date, we found before that 90 percent of them don't show up," said Congressman Michael McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Besides Georgia, CBS did learn that many releases were in Arizona, California and Florida. Immigration advocates said that "supervised release" costs about $14 a day compared to about $160 a day to keep detainees in jail.
He has barked, yelled, been sarcastic and demanded answers from accused murderer Jodi Arias this week.
And in doing so, prosecutor Juan Martinez and his aggressive antics may be turning off the jury he is hoping to convince that Arias killed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in June 2008, experts told ABCNews.com today.
"Martinez is his own worst enemy," Mel McDonald, a prominent Phoenix defense attorney and former judge, told ABC News. "He takes it to the point where it's ad nauseam. You have difficulty recognizing when he's driving the point home because he's always angry and pushy and pacing around the courtroom. He loses the effectiveness, rather than build it up."
"He's like a rabid dog and believes you've got to go to everybody's throat," he said.
"If they convict her and give her death, they do it in spite of Juan, not because of him," McDonald added.
Martinez's needling style was on display again today as he pestered Arias to admit that she willingly participated in kinky sex with Alexander, though she previously testified that she only succumbed to his erotic fantasies to please him.
Arias, now 32, and Alexander, who was 27 at the time of his death, dated for a year and continued to sleep together for another year following their break-up.
Arias drove to his house in Mesa, Ariz., in June 2008, had sex with him, they took nude photos together and she killed him in his shower. She claims it was in self-defense. If convicted, Arias could face the death penalty.
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Martinez also attempted to point out inconsistencies in her story of the killing, bickering with her over details about her journey from Yreka, Calif., to Mesa, Ariz., including why she borrowed gas cans from an ex-boyfriend, when she allegedly took naps and got lost while driving, and why she spontaneously decided to visit Alexander at his home in Mesa for a sexual liaison.
"I want to know what you're talking about," Arias said to Martinez at one point.
"No, I'm asking you," he yelled.
Later, he bellowed, "Am I asking you if you're telling the truth?"
"I don't know," Arias said, firing back at him. "Are you?"
During three days of cross examining Arias this week, Martinez has spent hours going back and forth with the defendant over word choice, her memory, and her answers to his questions.
"Everyone who takes witness stand for defense is an enemy," McDonald said. "He prides himself on being able to work by rarely referring to his notes, but what he's giving up in that is that there's so much time he wastes on stupid comments. A lot of what I've heard is utterly objectionable."
Martinez's behavior has spurred frequent objections of "witness badgering" from Arias' attorney Kirk Nurmi, who at one point Tuesday stood up in court and appealed to the judge to have a conference with all of the attorneys before questioning continued. Judge Sherry Stephens at one point admonished Martinez and Arias for speaking over one another.
Andy Hill, a former spokesperson for the Phoenix police department, and Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who has testified as an expert witness at many trials in the Phoenix area, both said that despite his aggressive style, Martinez would likely succeed in obtaining a guilty verdict.
"When it comes to cross examination, one size does not fit all," said Pitt. "But if you set aside the incessant sparring, what the prosecutor I believe is effectively doing is pointing out the various inconsistencies in the defendant's version of events."
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict slips quietly from the world stage on Thursday after a private last goodbye to his cardinals and a short flight to a country palace to enter the final phase of his life "hidden from the world".
In keeping with his shy and modest ways, there will be no public ceremony to mark the first papal resignation in six centuries and no solemn declaration ending his nearly eight-year reign at the head of the world's largest church.
His last public appearance will be a short greeting to residents and well-wishers at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence south of Rome, in the late afternoon after his 15-minute helicopter hop from the Vatican.
When the resignation becomes official at 8 p.m. Rome time (02.00 p.m. EST), Benedict will be relaxing inside the 17th century palace. Swiss Guards on duty at the main gate to indicate the pope's presence within will simply quit their posts and return to Rome to await their next pontiff.
Avoiding any special ceremony, Benedict used his weekly general audience on Wednesday to bid an emotional farewell to more than 150,000 people who packed St Peter's Square to cheer for him and wave signs of support.
With a slight smile, his often stern-looking face seemed content and relaxed as he acknowledged the loud applause from the crowd.
"Thank you, I am very moved," he said in Italian. His unusually personal remarks included an admission that "there were moments ... when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping".
CARDINALS PREPARE THE FUTURE
Once the chair of St Peter is vacant, cardinals who have assembled from around the world for Benedict's farewell will begin planning the closed-door conclave that will elect his successor.
One of the first questions facing these "princes of the Church" is when the 115 cardinal electors should enter the Sistine Chapel for the voting. They will hold a first meeting on Friday but a decision may not come until next week.
The Vatican seems to be aiming for an election by mid-March so the new pope can be installed in office before Palm Sunday on March 24 and lead the Holy Week services that culminate in Easter on the following Sunday.
In the meantime, the cardinals will hold daily consultations at the Vatican at which they discuss issues facing the Church, get to know each other better and size up potential candidates for the 2,000-year-old post of pope.
There are no official candidates, no open campaigning and no clear front runner for the job. Cardinals tipped as favorites by Vatican watchers include Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet, Ghanaian Peter Turkson, Italy's Angelo Scola and Timothy Dolan of the United States.
BENEDICT'S PLANS
Benedict, a bookish man who did not seek the papacy and did not enjoy the global glare it brought, proved to be an energetic teacher of Catholic doctrine but a poor manager of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that became mired in scandal during his reign.
He leaves his successor a top secret report on rivalries and scandals within the Curia, prompted by leaks of internal files last year that documented the problems hidden behind the Vatican's thick walls and the Church's traditional secrecy.
After about two months at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict plans to move into a refurbished convent in the Vatican Gardens, where he will live out his life in prayer and study, "hidden to the world", as he put it.
Having both a retired and a serving pope at the same time proved such a novelty that the Vatican took nearly two weeks to decide his title and form of clerical dress.
He will be known as the "pope emeritus," wear a simple white cassock rather than his white papal clothes and retire his famous red "shoes of the fisherman," a symbol of the blood of the early Christian martyrs, for more pedestrian brown ones.
(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; editing by Philip Pullella and Giles Elgood)
TOKYO: A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout.
The Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is a power-assisted pair of legs developed by Japanese robot maker Cyberdyne, which has also developed similar robot arms.
A quality assurance body issued the certificate based on a draft version of an international safety standard for personal robots that is expected to be approved later this year, the ministry for the economy, trade and industry said.
The metal-and-plastic exoskeleton has become the first nursing-care robot certified under the draft standard, a ministry official said.
Battery-powered HAL, which detects muscle impulses to anticipate and support the user's body movements, is designed to help the elderly with mobility or help hospital or nursing carers to lift patients.
Cyberdyne, based in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, has so far leased some 330 suits to 150 hospitals, welfare and other facilities in Japan since 2010, at 178,000 yen (US$1,950) per suit per year.
"It is very significant that Japan has obtained this certification before others in the world," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, the head of Cyberdyne.
The company is unrelated to the firm of the same name responsible for the cyborg assassin played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 film "The Terminator".
"This is a first step forward for Japan, the great robot nation, to send our message to the world about robots of the future," said Sankai, who is also a professor at Tsukuba University.
A different version of HAL -- coincidentally the name of the evil supercomputer in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- has been developed for workers who need to wear heavy radiation protection as part of the clean-up at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Industrial robots have long been used in Japan, and robo-suits are gradually making inroads into hospitals and retirement homes.
But critics say the government has been slow in creating a safety framework for such robots in a country whose rapidly-ageing population is expected to enjoy ever longer lives.
Oracle's Larry Ellison has bought a Hawaiian airline that flies to his Hawaiian airline.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who last year purchased his own Hawaiian island, bought a small airline that services the island chain.
Island Air announced the acquisition in a press release today that noted there would be no staff or operational changes as a result of its sale to Ellison. Financial terms of the transaction were not revealed.
"We are excited Mr. Ellison has acquired Island Air. He has the vision and resources to literally take Island Air to new heights," Island Air President Les Murashige said in a statement published by the Associated Press. The airline announced last month that it had reached a preliminary sale agreement but did not reveal the buyer until today.
The airline employs 245 people and flies 244 weekly flights between Oahu, Maui, the Big Island, Kauai, Molokai, and Lanai.
Ellison, whose estimated $41 billion net worth makes him the No. 3 richest American, purchased 98 percent of the island of Lanai last June for a rumored $500 million. Ellison told CNBC that he hoped to turn the 141-square-mile island "into a model for sustainable enterprise" that would export organic producer to Asia.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. Two police officers were shot and killed Tuesday while investigating a sexual assault, and a suspect was also fatally shot, authorities said.
Santa Cruz police Chief Kevin Vogel says Sgt. Loren Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler were gunned down in mid-afternoon Tuesday as they followed up on a sexual assault investigation. He says Baker was a 28-year veteran of the department and Butler had been with the department 10 years. Vogel says Baker was married and the father of two daughters, while Butler leaves behind two young sons.
A suspect, identified as 35-year-old Jeremy Goulet, was shot and killed a short time later while authorities were pursuing the gunman, the Santa Cruz County sheriff's office said.
Residents on the adjoining streets where the shootings occurred received an automatic police call warning them to stay locked inside. About half an hour later, more than a dozen semi-automatic shots echoed down the streets in a brief shootout that killed the suspect.
Witnesses described hearing a "multitude of gunfire" - with 20 or more shots fired during that gun battle between the suspect and law enforcement, reports CBS San Francisco station station KPIX-TV.
Police were going door-to-door in the neighborhood, searching homes, garages, even closets, although the sheriff said authorities didn't know if another suspect remained at large.
Police, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents filled intersections, some with guns drawn, in what is ordinarily a quiet, residential neighborhood in the community about 60 miles south of San Francisco.
A store clerk a few buildings away from the shooting said the barrage of gunfire was "terrifying."
"We ducked. We have big desks, so under the desks we went," said the clerk, who spoke on condition of anonymity and asked that her store not be identified because she feared for her safety.
She said she remained locked in her store hours after the shooting and was still scared.
Two schools were locked down during the shooting. The students were later evacuated by bus to the County Government Center about half a mile away.
As darkness fell, helicopters and light aircraft patrolled above the neighborhood, which is about a mile from downtown Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The campus of University of California, Santa Cruz, is about five miles away.
The city's mayor, Hilary Bryant, said in a statement that the city was shocked over the shootings.
"Tonight we are heartbroken at the loss of two of our finest police officers who were killed in the line of duty, protecting the community we love," the statement said. "This is an exceptionally shocking and sad day for Santa Cruz and our Police Department."
Santa Cruz has faced a recent spate of violence, and community leaders had scheduled a downtown rally Tuesday to speak out against shootings. That and a city council meeting were canceled after teary-eyed city leaders learned of the deaths.
Those shootings include the killing of Pauly Silva, a 32-year-old martial arts instructor who was shot outside a popular downtown bar and restaurant on Feb. 9.
Two days later, a UC Santa Cruz student waiting at a bus stop was shot in the head during a robbery. She is recovering from her injuries.
Then on Feb. 17, a 21-year-old woman was raped and beaten on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Four days later, a Santa Cruz couple fought off two men who came in their home before dawn and threatened them with a sword.
We used to call it shoplifting, but these days the foot soldiers of retail crime rings are known as boosters. Police even have an acronym for these operations: ORC, which stands for Organized Retail Crime.
"It's just like a Fortune 500 company," said Sergeant Eric Lee of the Gardena Police Department in Gardena, Calif. "All of this is just organized."
Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET
Police say big retail stores, from Walgreens to J.C. Penny, are getting hit by highly sophisticated shoplifting networks that steal and resell everything from underwear to razors to milk. According to the National Retail Federation, theft can amount to annual losses as high as a $37 billion for retail businesses.
"Every store in every city has to go through this," Lee said. "They wait until no one's paying attention and they walk out."
Tide detergent is currently a hot target because it is compact, expensive and easy to sell on the streets for profit, police said. The Street name: "liquid gold."
"Sometimes we get rings that just do alcohol," Lee said. "And then we get some that do just meat and seafood."
Investigators say boosters move the loot for cents on the dollar to fencing operations -- the black market resellers of the stolen goods -- which sell the stolen merchandise in plain sight in stores. Boosters, fencers, Mr. Bigs, all of those involved in these shoplifting operations can potentially make millions a year from boosting and re-selling stolen goods.
Craigslist Crackdown: Cops Go After Thieves Watch Video
And Mike Swett is on the case. A former Riverside County sheriff's deputy in Los Angeles, Swett was badly injured in a car wreck and now works as a full-time private investigator on the ORC beat who has worked with Target, Marshalls, T.J. Maxx. Stores hire him to do his own undercover police work, catching thieves before involving local law enforcement.
"Kind of like working a narcotics case, it's like you've got low-level, mid-level and then top dog," Swett said. "We like to go after the top dog and the only way to get to the top dog is mid-level first."
At his command center -- his apartment -- Swett showed off the boxes upon boxes of tapes and photographs he has collected, the fruits of countless silent stake-out hours.
Swett said he has been casing two joints in L.A. for months, both alleged to be mid-level fencing operations. "Nightline" was invited to ride along with him when he sent undercover agents in for a final reconnaissance mission.
At some stores and shopping malls, clerks do little to stop shoplifters and often let them run, which has contributed to the growing fencing operations.
"[The stores] don't want their employees to get injured," Swett said. "So oftentimes they will call the police, but by the time we get there they are already in their car and they are gone."
This leaves professional investigators like Swett to put the pieces together and bust open the gangs to lead over-stretched police departments to the prey.
When raid day arrived, a motorcade of squad cars departed from the Gardena, Calif., police department and pulled up to one fencing operation. Swett said the merchandise being sold was boosted goods.
"There is Victoria's Secret, expensive Victoria's Secret, the gift sets," he said, pointing down a line of tables. "J.C. Penny, Miramax, its real stuff not counterfeit."
He spotted a bottle of Katy Perry brand perfume, which usually retails for around $90 but one seller had it priced at $59.
SHANGHAI: Fast food giant KFC has cut more than 1,000 farms from its supplier network in China to ensure food safety after a scandal over tainted chicken hurt sales in the key market last year.
The issue came to light when China's commercial hub of Shanghai and the northern province of Shanxi said in December that they were investigating KFC suppliers over claims of high levels of antibiotics in chicken.
The food scare caused a six percent fall in the China sales of KFC's parent Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter last year, deeper than its previous estimate of a four percent decline.
KFC will stop using chicken farms that have potential risk, improve the screening process of suppliers and step up self-inspections to address food safety concerns, the company said in a statement late Monday.
"It will always be our top priority to provide customers with the safest chicken with the best quality," Yum China's chairman and chief executive, Sam Su, said in the statement.
"We have seen some safety problems from the incident... and we aim to address the issue within the shortest time."
KFC also pledged to enhance communication with the government and the public, after the Chinese arm of Yum admitted last month that it failed to inform authorities about tests showing high levels of antibiotics in chicken.
Yum was aware of the issue through testing by a third-party in 2010 and 2011 but did not report to the authorities, the Shanghai government said in December.
China has seen several food safety incidents in recent years, including one of the biggest in 2008, when the industrial chemical melamine was found in dairy products which killed at least six babies and made 300,000 ill.
One of the many Facebook tribute pages created to honor the victims of the Newtown tragedy.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET)
Government officials and family members of victims from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have asked Facebook to delete several offensive posts or tribute pages related to the massacre, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities have said that many of the Facebook pages are being used to berate survivors and victims' families, while others are fraudulently asking for funeral fund donations.
"Certainly there have been many, too many, of these pages that are intimidating or harassing or exploitive," U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal told the Associated Press.
Facebook has responded saying that it will work to remove the offending posts and pages but that some of the tribute pages help people share their sorrow.
Jodi Seth, a spokesperson for the social network, told the Associated Press that Facebook wants to respond quickly "while also recognizing that people across the country want to express grief for a terrible national tragedy."
In December, an armed man stormed the Connecticut elementary school and killed 26 people, including 20 children. Many of the victims have been memorialized and several of the survivors have been lauded on social networks. According to the Associated Press, more than 100 Facebook pages have been created and dedicated to Victoria Soto, one of the teachers killed in the shooting.
The insulting posts include conspiracy theorists who allege that the shooting was staged and all victims were actors. According to the Associated Press, a Facebook tribute page for survivor Kaitlin Roig -- the teacher who saved her students by barricading them in a bathroom -- has a post that reads, "Congratulations Kaitlin or whatever your name is.. Now you're famous and got to meet the 'President.' You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
Lawmakers have asked Facebook to remove the pages that are not authorized by the victims' families and to also make sure new fraudulent pages aren't created. Under Facebook's terms of use, it is prohibited for people to open accounts for anyone but themselves.
"We will continue to be vigilant," Seth told the Associated Press.
CNET contacted Facebook for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.
LUXOR, Egypt An Egyptian security official says at least 19 foreign tourists were killed as their hot air balloon crashed near the famed ancient city of Luxor. The casualties included French, British and other nationals.
The official says there was a fire and an explosion and that the balloon then plunged from the sky and crashed into sugar cane fields west of Luxor on Tuesday. Luxor is 320 miles south of Cairo.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
An Associated Press reporter at the crash site says he counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away.
The Reuters news agency quotes a spokesman for eight companies that operate balloon flights in the area, Ahmed Aboud, as saying one tourist and the balloon's pilot survived.
Aboud told Reuters the incident began with a gas explosion at 1,000 feet.
Arthur Benjamin is sitting at the edge of a small stage, wearing a lavender Hawaiian shirt and nursing a bottle of San Miguel Light beer. The 6-foot-6 mustachioed Texan lazily watches the half dozen or so girls dancing rather unenergetically around the stage's pole.
"I forgot your gift again, it's in the car," Benjamin says to one of the girls on stage, shouting above the pop music blaring from the speaker system.
The small, dingy bar, which Benjamin says he owns, is called Crow Bar. It's in a rundown part of the picturesque Subic Bay in the western Philippines, about a three hour drive from the capital, Manila. Home for 50 years to a United States naval base, Subic Bay has become synonymous with foreigners looking for sex in the long string of bars that line the main road along the coast.
Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET
The bars in this area are often packed with older foreign men ogling the young Filipina women available for the night for a "bar fine" of around 1,500 Filipino pesos, or just over $35. Many of the bars are owned and operated by Americans, often former military servicemen who either served on the base or whose ships docked here until the base was shuttered under political pressure in 1992.
Alleged Underage Prostitution in Philippines Watch Video
Authorities Raid Philippines Bar Suspected of Underage Prostitution Watch Video
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Most of the prostitutes working in the bars are indeed 18 or older. But in the Philippines, just a small scratch to the surface can reveal a layer of young, underage girls who have mostly come from impoverished rural provinces to sell their bodies to help support their families.
Benjamin, 49, is, according to his own statements, one of the countless foreigners who has moved beyond just having sex with underage girls to owning and operating a bar where girls in scantily-clad outfits flaunt their bodies for patrons.
"My wife recently found out that I have this place," he tells an ABC News "Nightline" team, unaware they are journalists and recording the conversation on tiny hidden cameras disguised as shirt buttons.
Benjamin said that a "disgruntled waitress" had written his wife on Facebook, detailing his activities in Subic Bay.
"She sent her this thing saying that I have underage girls who stayed with me, that I [have anal sex with them], I own a bar, I've got other girls that I'm putting through high school, all this other crap," he said.
"All of which is true," he laughed. "However, I have to deny."
He sends a text message summoning his current girlfriend, a petite dark-skinned girl called Jade, who he said is just 16 years old. Benjamin says he bought the bar for her about a year ago and while most still call it Crow Bar, he officially re-named it with her last name.
"She needed a place to stay, I needed a place to do her. I bought a bar for her," he says, explaining that she lives in a house out back by the beach.
"You're not going to find anything like this in the States, not as a guy my age," he said as he looked down at Jade. "Ain't going to happen."
Benjamin is the latest target of Father Shay Cullen, a Catholic priest with a thick Irish brogue and fluency in the local language, Tagalog. Through his non-profit center called Preda, he's been crusading against underage sex trafficking in the Philippines for 40 years.
SINGAPORE: Four former SMRT bus drivers pleaded guilty in court on Monday and were convicted for inciting and participating in last November's illegal bus strike.
He Jun Ling, 32, Gao Yue Qiang, 32, Liu Xiangying, 33, and Wang Xian Jie, 39, had earlier claimed trial with trial dates set for the 4 to 8 March.
But last Friday, the four men's lawyers said their clients' decision to plead came after prosecution gave an indication of the various sentencing options.
On 26 November 2012, 171 SMRT bus drivers failed to report for duty in a protest over pay and living conditions.
Eighty-eight of them stayed away from work the next day.
In December 2012, a SMRT bus driver, Bao Feng Shan, 38, also from China, was sentenced to six weeks' jail for taking part in the same illegal strike.
Nokia took the wraps off four cell phones today at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain, that run the gamut of entry level handsets to high-end Windows 8 devices.
With the entry-level Nokia 105, the Finish handset maker is thinking small. The durable 105 features a an itty-bitty 1.5-inch screen and a 15 euro price tag. Created for cell phone markets in China, Indonesia, India, and Nigeria, the Nokia 105 focuses on calls, long battery life, and only a few little extras.
There's no camera, no volume rocker, and the only buttons on this handset are on the central, rubbery alphanumeric dialpad. Since the screen requires such little power, the 800mAh battery lasts for more than 12.5 hours on talk time, Nokia says, and will power through 35 days on standby without a charge.
Nokia is targeting the younger crowd with the 301, a candy bar shape cell phone with a central select button and a camera feature that vocally guides users on how fit their face in the self-portrait frame. The handset sports a 2.4-inch QVGA display (320X240 pixel resolution) and a 3.2-megapixel camera (no flash) includes panorama and burst modes, which allows up to five shots in a sequence.
Nokia promises that battery life is long-lasting: a single-SIM 301 gives up to 20 hours of talk time, Nokia says, and up to 39 days of standby time. The 301 will go on sale in the second quarter for 65 euros, or about $85, in white, black, cyan, bright yellow, and magenta.
The Nokia Lumia 520 features a pronounced rounded back helps it fit comfortably into the contours of the palm and snappable covers that are exchangeable in different colors. The 520 sports a 4-inch LCD IPS supersensitivity screen 5-megapixel camera can record 720p HD video.
It sports a 1,430mAh battery, the 8GB mass storage, and support for 64GB in expandable memory. It'll be available in the U.S. through T-Mobile around late spring or early summer.
At the high end of Nokia's new lineup, the Windows 8 Nokia Lumia 720 has a 4.3-inch LCD display with the ClearBlack filter that reduces outdoor glare. Aimed at younger, trendier, social people, the 720 supports wireless charging and has a 6.7-megapixel camera with an f/9 aperture intended to capture low-light conditions (like nightlife) and LED flash.
There's also a 1.3-megapixel camera that supports Skype HD and has a wide-angle lens for fitting more faces into self-portraits. The unibody design features a microSD card slot, allowing storage expansion up to 64GB. Intended for markets in Asia and Europe in spots, the 720 will go on sale in the second quarter for 249 euros at full retail price, or about $338.
First lady Michelle Obama, on a video screen, announces the winner for best picture along with actor Jack Nicholson at the 85th annual Academy Awards on Feb. 24, 2013, in Hollywood, Calif. /Getty
First lady Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance at the Oscars, opening the envelope that contained the name of the best-picture winner, "Argo."
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Oscars 2013: Show highlights
Appearing via streaming video from the White House, Mrs. Obama said all of the nominees demonstrated that "we can overcome any obstacle."
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Oscars 2013: Press room
She said that message is "especially important for our young people" and thanked Hollywood for encouraging children "to open their imaginations."
The first lady was introduced by Jack Nicholson, who noted that the best picture trophy is usually announced solo.
Mrs. Obama wore a silver, art deco-inspired gown by Indian-born American fashion designer Naeem Khan. It was the same dress she wore for the Obamas' dinner with the nation's governors at the White House on Sunday night.
"Argo" took home the top prize as best picture at the Oscars Sunday night, with first lady Michelle Obama announcing the winner from the White House.
"You directed a hell of a film," co-producer Grant Heslov told director and fellow producer Ben Affleck. "I couldn't be more proud of the film and more proud of our director."
Affleck was snubbed in the directing category but humbly accepted the best picture Oscar as one of the three producers on the film. George Clooney was the third.
Affleck thanked Steven Spielberg and the other best picture nominees and his wife Jennifer Garner for "working on our marriage."
"It's good, it's work," he said, adding, "but there's no one I'd rather work with."
For Full List of Winners
Acknowledging his last Oscar win, as a screenwriter for "Good Will Hunting," Affleck said, "I was really just a kid. I never thought I would be back here."
In the acting categories, Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for best actor, being the first actor to three-peat in that category. As he accepted the award from Hollywood's greatest actress, Meryl Streep, he joked, "I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher. ... Meryl was Stephen's first choice for Lincoln."
He also thanked his wife, Rebecca Miller, for "living with some very strange men," with each new role that he takes on.
"She's the versatile one in the family and she's been the perfect companion to all of them," he said.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Daniel Day-Lewis Gets Laughs With Oscars Speech Watch Video
Jennifer Lawrence won the award for best actress. She tripped on the stairs on her way to accepting her award but picked herself up and made her way to the stage, earning a standing ovation.
"You're just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that's embarrassing," she said, before rattling off a list of thank-yous and leaving the stage looking slightly stunned.
Watch Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar Tumble
"Life of Pi," which had a total of 11 nominations, was another big winner of the night. Director Ang Lee took home the Oscar for best director over Steven Spielberg and David O. Russell.
"Thank you, movie god," Lee said, accepting his award.
As expected, the film took home the first technical awards of the night for cinematography and visual effects. "Life of Pi" also won for best original score.
The first big acting awards of the night went to Christoph Waltz and Anne Hathaway in the supporting actor categories.
In one of the biggest tossups, Waltz claimed the award for supporting actor for his role in "Django Unchained." It was his second Oscar for a Quentin Tarantino film; his first was for Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."
PHOTOS: Stars on the Red Carpet
As expected, Hathaway took home the award for best supporting actress for her role as Fantine in "Les Miserables."
"It came true," she said, launching into a breathy speech, in which she thanked the cast and crew, her team and her husband. "The greatest moment of my life was when you walked into it," she said.
Tarantino won the Oscar for best original screenplay for his slave revenge western "Django Unchained." He thanked his cast.
"I have to cast the right people," he said. "And boy this time did I do it."
Chris Terrio won the award for best adapted screenplay for "Argo," which also won for film editing.
For only the sixth time in Academy history, there was a tie at the Oscars. "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Skyfall" tied for sound editing.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Sunday he will step down from power after his second term ends in 2018, and the new parliament named a 52-year-old rising star to become his first vice president and most visible successor.
"This will be my last term," Castro, 81, said shortly after the National Assembly elected him to a second five-year tenure.
In a surprise move, the new parliament also named Miguel Diaz-Canel as first vice president, meaning he would take over if Castro cannot serve his full term.
Diaz-Canel is a member of the political bureau who rose through the Communist Party ranks in the provinces to become the most visible possible successor to Castro.
Raul Castro starts his second term immediately, leaving him free to retire in 2018, aged 86.
Former President Fidel Castro joined the National Assembly meeting on Sunday, in a rare public appearance. Since falling ill in 2006 and ceding the presidency to his brother, the elder Castro, 86, has given up official positions except as a deputy in the National Assembly.
The new government will almost certainly be the last headed up by the Castro brothers and their generation of leaders who have ruled Cuba since they swept down from the mountains in the 1959 revolution.
Cubans and foreign governments were keenly watching whether any new, younger faces appeared among the Council of State members, in particular its first vice president and five vice presidents.
Their hopes were partially fulfilled with Diaz-Canel's ascension. He replaces former first vice president, Jose Machado Ventura, 82, who will continue as one of five vice presidents.
Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdes, 80, and Gladys Bejerano, 66, the comptroller general, were also re-elected as vice presidents.
Two other newcomers, Mercedes Lopez Acea, 48, first secretary of the Havana communist party, and Salvador Valdes Mesa, 64, head of the official labor federation, also earned vice presidential slots.
Esteban Lazo, a 68-year-old former vice president and member of the political bureau of the Communist Party, left his post upon being named president of the National Assembly on Sunday. He replaced Ricardo Alarcon, who served in the job for 20 years.
Six of the Council's top seven members sit on the party's political bureau which is also lead by Castro.
Castro's announcement came as little surprise to Cuban exiles in Miami.
"It's no big news. It would have been big news if he resigned today and called for democratic elections," said Alfredo Duran, a Cuban-American lawyer and moderate exile leader in Miami who supports lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. "I wasn't worried about him being around after 2018," he added.
The National Assembly meets for just a few weeks each year and delegates its legislative powers between sessions to the 31-member Council of State, which also functions as the executive through the Council of Ministers it appoints.
Eighty percent of the 612 deputies, who were elected in an uncontested vote February 3, were born after the revolution.
EFFORT TO PROMOTE YOUNGER GENERATION
Raul Castro, who officially replaced his ailing brother as president in 2008, has repeatedly said senior leaders should hold office for no more than two five-year terms.
"Although we kept on trying to promote young people to senior positions, life proved that we did not always make the best choice," Castro said at a Communist Party Congress in 2011.
"Today, we are faced with the consequences of not having a reserve of well-trained replacements ... It's really embarrassing that we have not solved this problem in more than half a century."
Speaking on Sunday, Castro hailed the composition of the new Council of State as an example of what he had said needed to be accomplished.
"Of the 31 members, 41.9 percent are women and 38.6 percent are black or of mixed race. The average age is 57 years and 61.3 percent were born after the triumph of the revolution," he said.
The 2011 party summit adopted a more than 300-point plan aimed at updating Cuba's Soviet-style economic system, designed to transform it from one based on collective production and consumption to one where individual effort and reward play a far more important role.
Across-the-board subsidies are being replaced by a comprehensive tax code and targeted welfare.
Raul Castro has encouraged small businesses and cooperatives in retail services, farming, minor manufacturing and retail, and given more autonomy to state companies which still dominate the economy.
The party plan also includes an opening to more foreign investment.
At the same time, Cuba continues to face a U.S. administration bent on restoring democracy and capitalism to the island and questions about the future largess of oil rich Venezuela with strategic ally Hugo Chavez battling cancer.
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has unveiled lift-door stickers with fire safety messages as part of a campaign to generate greater public awareness on the dangers of discarding items at common areas such as corridors, lift lobbies, staircases and void decks.
One such sticker was unveiled by Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs, Mr Masagos Zulkifli, at Blk 819, Tampines West Avenue 3 on Sunday.
The senior minister of state is also an MP for Tampines GRC.
Fires involving discarded items at common areas in HDB estates account for almost a quarter of the total number of residential fires in 2012.
SCDF says such fires have the potential to be more serious in nature due to the high fire load present and proximity to dwellings.
18 people were injured in 707 fires involving discarded items last year.
SCDF says leaving discarded items at the common areas, especially combustible items such as furniture and newspapers, can easily fuel fires when lighted materials such as cigarette butts are indiscriminately thrown onto them.
Cluttered common areas can also seriously hamper fire-fighting efforts, fire evacuation and conveyance of patients during a medical emergency.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, last year.
(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)
BARCELONA, Spain--Will Nokia unleash another Lumia smartphone?
Nokia kicks off the first official day of Mobile World Congress with its press conference, and you can get all the news right here.
Rather than a high-end superphone, Nokia is expected to unveil a line of more budget-friendly phones in a bid to go after the mass market. That could mean a lower-end Lumia device, as well phones from its Asha line of ultra-low-end phones.
CNET UK's Luke Westaway, photographer Sarah Tew, and I will be bringing you all the details, photos, and commentary from the event. The event kicks off at 11:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, or 8:30 a.m. Monday in local Barcelona time.
You can tune into the live blog here:
Nokia's Mobile World Congress press conference
Nokia, like many cellphone makers, is on the road to recovery, and it's still unclear where the company is headed. Its line of Lumia smartphones has won critical praise, but it doesn't yet have a blockbuster hit like Apple's iPhone or the Galaxy S from Samsung.
Still, the company has made steady progress expanding its distribution. In the U.S., it just got back into the game with Verizon with the Lumia 620, and CEO Stephen Elop has hinted at a potential flagship down the line.
We'll see if Nokia can keep up its momentum with whatever new products it launches tomorrow.
As usual, we'll be using ScribbleLive to bring you live text and photos, blow by blow. We'll start the live blog about 15 minutes before Nokia officially kicks off its event.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. At least 33 fans were injured Saturday during a NASCAR race when a car flew into the fence at Daytona International Speedway, hurling a tire and large pieces of debris into the stands.
The accident happened on the last lap of the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of Sunday's Daytona 500, which officials said would go on as scheduled.
The crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski to preserve the win. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.
The entire front end was sheared off Larson's car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.
The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock several yards away from his car as fans in the stands waived frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.
Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.
"It was freaky. When I looked to my right, the accident happened," said Rick Harpster of Orange Park, Fla., who had a bird's-eye view of the wreck. "I looked over and I saw a tire fly straight over the fence into the stands, but after that I didn't see anything else That was the worst thing I have seen, seeing that tire fly into the stands. I knew it was going to be severe."
Daytona International Speedway released a statement from speedway President Joie Chitwood Saturday evening saying 28 people were injured in the accident in the race held the day before the season-opening Daytona 500.
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Daytona racecar loses control
According to the statement, emergency medical personnel transported 14 people off the property and 14 others were treated at the on-track care center.
"We are in the process of repairing the facility, and we will be ready to go racing tomorrow," Chitwood said.
Nathan Kimpel, 24, who works at a concession stand near where the crash happened, told CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz that he saw 10 to 15 fans being carried out on stretchers.
"As soon as I saw the accident I just turned my head because I didn't want to get injured or anything," Kimpel told Diaz. "I saw the fence separate and more pieces of car parts flying up."
Meghan Willams, 20, who also works at a concession stand, told Diaz the crash sounded like an "earthquake." She saw people running and crying and a girl completely covered in engine oil.
Byron Cogdell, a spokesman for Halifax Health Medical Center, told CBS News that one of the 11 patents taken to the hospital was in critical condition and five more were listed as "trauma" patients.
Lindsay Rew, a spokeswoman for Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center, said its Daytona Beach hospital had one fan there who was in good condition. She said they were expecting three more people who were coming by ambulance, but she didn't yet know their conditions.
"There obviously was some intrusion into the fence and fortunately with the way the event's equipped up, there were plenty of emergency workers ready to go and they all jumped in on it pretty quickly," NASCAR President Mike Helton said. "Right now, it's just a function of determining what all damage is done. They're moving folks, as we've seen, to care centers and take some folks over to Halifax Medical."
As emergency workers tended to injured fans and ambulance sirens wailed in the background, a somber Tony Stewart skipped the traditional post-race victory celebration.
Stewart, who won for the 19th time at Daytona and seventh time in the last nine season-opening Nationwide races, was in no mood to celebrate.
"The important thing is what going on on the frontstretch right now," said Stewart, the three-time NASCAR champion. "We've always known, and since racing started, this is a dangerous sport. But it's hard. We assume that risk, but it's hard when the fans get caught up in it.
"So as much as we want to celebrate right now and as much as this is a big deal to us, I'm more worried about the drivers and the fans that are in the stands right now because that was ... I could see it all in my mirror, and it didn't look good from where I was at."
The accident spread into the upper deck and emergency crews treated fans on both levels. There were five stretchers that appeared to be carrying fans out, and a helicopter flew overhead. A forklift was used to pluck Larson's engine out of the fence.
"It's a violent wreck. Just seeing the carnage on the racetrack, it's truly unbelievable," driver Justin Allgaier said.
It was a chaotic finish to a race that was stopped for nearly 20 minutes five laps from the finish by a 13-car accident that sent driver Michael Annett to a hospital, where his Richard Petty Motorsports team said he would be held overnight with bruising to his chest.
The race resumed with three laps to go, and the final accident occurred with Smith trying to hold off Keselowski through the final turn.
"I tried to throw a block. It's Daytona, you want to go for the win here," Smith said. "I don't know how you can play it any different other than concede second place, and I wasn't willing to do that today. Our job is to put them in position to win, and it was, and it didn't work out."
As the cars began wrecking all around Smith and Keselowski, Stewart slid through for the win, but Larson plowed into Keselowski and his car was sent airborne into the stands. When Larson's car came to a stop, it was missing its entire front end. The 20-year-old, who made his Daytona debut this week, stood apparently stunned, hands on his hips, several feet away from his car, before finally making the mandatory trip to the care center.
He said his first thought was with the fans.
"I hope all the fans are OK and all the drivers are all right," Larson said. "I took a couple big hits there and saw my engine was gone. Just hope everybody's all right."
"Honestly, the race itself pales in comparison to the injuries sustained by the fans," said Chip Ganassi, the team owner who has Larson in his driver development program. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the fans that were injured as a result of the crash. As for Kyle, I am very happy that he is OK."
Keselowski watched a replay of the final accident, and said his first thoughts were with the fans. As for the accident, he agreed he tried to make a winning move and Smith tried to block.
"He felt like that's what he had to do, and that's his right. The chaos comes with it," Keselowski said. "I made the move and he blocked it, and the two of us got together and started the chain events that caused that wreck. First and foremost, just want to make sure everyone in the stands is OK and we're thinking about them."
Keselowski said the incident could cast a pall on the Daytona 500.
"I think until we know exactly the statuses of everyone involved, it's hard to lock yourself into the 500," Keselowski said. "Hopefully, we'll know soon and hopefully everyone's OK. And if that's the case, we'll staring focusing on Sunday."
Las Vegas police identified a suspect today in a shooting on the strip that caused a Maserati to hit a taxi and burst into flames, killing three people.
Ammar Harris, 26, has been named a suspect in the Thursday skirmish that killed three people, including rapper Kenny Clutch.
The altercation between Harris and Clutch, 27, whose legal name was Kenneth Cherry Jr., is believed to have originated in the valet area of a Las Vegas hotel, police said.
Police said Harris fired several rounds into a Maserati that was being driven by Cherry as both vehicles continued northbound on glitzy Las Vegas Boulevard.
The rapper's expensive sports car careened out of control after he was shot, slamming into several cars, including a taxi. The impact caused the cab to burst into flames, killing the driver, Michael Boldon and a female passenger. Witnesses said it looked like the car exploded.
"He was a number one guy," Carolyn Jean Trimble, Boldon's sister, told ABC News.
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"I looked out my window and I could see one vehicle down here on the corner of the intersection totally engulfed in flames," witness John Lamb told ABC News.
Boldon, 62, and his passenger, who has not yet been identified, were both killed, as was Clutch.
Timble said her brother loved driving his taxi around Vegas.
"He came to live with me in Las Vegas last year to help take care of our mother, and the first day he got here he said, 'I have to get a job.' The second day, I came home from work, and he said he got a job," she recalled.
"He says, 'You'll never guess what it is,' and I said, 'what,' and he said, 'taxi cab driver,' and we both fell out laughing," Trimble said. "He loved that job. He never complained. He'd come home and tell me stories about what happened, who he picked up."
Boldon was a single father who raised a 36-year-old son and was a new grandfather. His grandson was named after him, Trimble said.
"Of all the people to take from this earth," she said. "But I guess the Lord needed him."
A passenger in the Maserati was hit and sustained only a minor injury to his arm. Clutch died at University Medical Center.
His father, Kenneth Cherry Sr., expressed his grief for the loss of his son while speaking with ABC News.
"This is something you never really, really ever want to experience as a parent, to lose a child before you go," he said.
Harris is described as 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Las Vegas Metro Police Department's homicide division.
ROME (Reuters) - Italians began voting on Sunday in one of the most closely watched elections in years, with markets nervous about whether it will produce a strong government to pull Italy out of recession and help resolve the euro zone debt crisis.
A huge final rally by anti-establishment-comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo on Friday before a campaigning ban kicked in has highlighted public anger at traditional parties and added to uncertainty about the election outcome.
Voters started casting their ballots at 0700 GMT. Polling booths will remain open until 2100 GMT on Sunday and between 0600-1400 GMT on Monday. Exit polls will come out soon after voting ends and official results are expected by early Tuesday.
The election is being followed closely by financial markets with memories still fresh of the potentially catastrophic debt crisis that brought technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti to power more than a year ago.
Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, is stuck in deep recession, struggling under a public debt burden second only to Greece's in the 17-member currency bloc and with a public weary of more than a year of harsh austerity policies.
Final polls published two weeks ago showed center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani with a 5-point lead, but analysts disagree about whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can push though the economic reforms Italy needs.
Bersani is now thought to be just a few points ahead of center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi, the four-times prime minister who has promised tax refunds and staged a media blitz in an attempt to win back voters.
BERLUSCONI CRITICISM
Berlusconi hogged the headlines on Sunday after he broke the campaign silence the previous evening attack magistrates, saying they were "more dangerous than the Sicilian mafia" and had invented allegations he held sex parties to discredit him.
The 76-year-old billionaire, who faces several trials on charges ranging from fraud to sex with an underage prostitute, was criticized by his election rivals for making the comments after the campaigning ban had come into force.
While the center left is still expected to gain control of the lower house, thanks to rules that guarantee a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally, a much closer battle will be fought in the Senate, which any government also needs to control to be able to pass laws.
Seats in the upper house are awarded on a region-by-region basis, meaning that support in key regions can decisively influence the overall result.
Pollsters still believe the most likely outcome is a center-left government headed by Bersani and possibly backed by Monti, who is leading a centrist coalition.
But strong campaigning by Berlusconi and the fiery Grillo, who has drawn tens of thousands to his election rallies, have thrown the election wide open, causing concern that there may be no clear winner.
Surveys have shown up to 5 million voters are expected to make up their minds at the last minute, adding to uncertainty.
Italy's Interior Ministry urged some 47 million eligible voters to not let bad weather forecasts put them off, and said it was prepared to handle snowy conditions in some northern regions to ensure everyone had a chance to vote.
STAGNANT ECONOMY
Whatever government emerges from the vote will have the task of pulling Italy out of its longest recession for 20 years and reviving an economy largely stagnant for two decades.
The main danger for Italy and the euro zone is a weak government incapable of taking firm action, which would rattle investors and could ignite a new debt crisis.
Monti replaced Berlusconi in November 2011 after Italy came close to Greek-style financial meltdown while the center-right government was embroiled in scandals.
The former European Commissioner launched a tough program of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reforms which won widespread international backing and helped restore Italy's credibility abroad after the scandals of the Berlusconi era.
Italy's borrowing costs have since fallen sharply after the European Central Bank pledged it was prepared to support countries undertaking reforms by buying unlimited quantities of their bonds on the markets.
But economic austerity has fuelled anger among Italians grappling with rising unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, encouraging many to turn to Grillo, who has tapped into a national mood of disenchantment.
