CDC: Flu Outbreak Could Be Waning

The flu season appears to be waning in some parts of the country, but that doesn't mean it won't make a comeback in the next few weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Five fewer states reported high flu activity levels in the first week of January than the 29 that reported high activity levels in the last week of December, according to the CDC's weekly flu report. This week, 24 states reported high illness levels, 16 reported moderate levels, five reported low levels and one reported minimal levels, suggesting that the flu season peaked in the last week of December.

"It may be decreasing in some areas, but that's hard to predict," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a Friday morning teleconference. "Trends only in the next week or two will show whether we have in fact crossed the peak."

The flu season usually peaks in February or March, not December, said Dr. Jon Abramson, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina. He said the season started early with a dominant H3N2 strain, which was last seen a decade ago, in 2002-03. That year, the flu season also ended early.

Click here to see how this flu season stacks up against other years.

Cheryl Evans/The Arizona Republic/AP Photo

Increasing Flu Cases: Best Measures to Ensure Your Family's Health Watch Video

Because of the holiday season, Frieden said the data may have been skewed.

For instance, Connecticut appeared to be having a lighter flu season than other northeastern states at the end of December, but the state said it could have been a result of college winter break. College student health centers account for a large percentage of flu reports in Connecticut, but they've been closed since the fall semester ended, said William Gerrish, a spokesman for the state's department of public health.

The flu season arrived about a month early this year in parts of the South and the East, but it may only just be starting to take hold of states in the West, Frieden said. California is still showing "minimal" flu on the CDC's map, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way.

Click here to read about how flu has little to do with cold weather.

"It's not surprising. Influenza ebbs and flows during the flu season," Frieden said. "The only thing predictable about the flu is that it is unpredictable."

Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., said he was expecting California's seeming good luck with the flu to be over this week.

"Flu is fickle, we say," Schaffner said. "Influenza can be spotty. It can be more severe in one community than another for reasons incompletely understood."

Early CDC estimates indicate that this year's flu vaccine is 62 percent effective, meaning people who have been vaccinated are 62 percent less likely to need to see a doctor for flu treatment, Frieden said.

Although the shot has been generally believed to be more effective for children than adults, there's not enough data this year to draw conclusions yet.

"The flu vaccine is far from perfect, but it's still by far the best tool we have to prevent flu," Frieden said, adding that most of the 130 million vaccine doses have already been administered. "We're hearing of shortages of the vaccine, so if you haven't been vaccinated and want to be, it's better late than never."

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Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war.

Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground in talks at the White House on U.S. demands for immunity from prosecution for any American troops who stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, a concession that could allow Obama to keep at least a small residual force there.

Both leaders also threw their support behind tentative Afghan reconciliation efforts with Taliban insurgents, endorsing the establishment of a Taliban political office in Qatar in hopes of bringing insurgents to inter-Afghan talks.

Outwardly, at least, the meeting appeared to be something of a success for both men, who need to show their vastly different publics they are making progress in their goals for Afghanistan. There were no signs of the friction that has frequently marked Obama's relations with Karzai.

Karzai's visit came amid stepped-up deliberations in Washington over the size and scope of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan once the NATO-led combat mission concludes at the end of 2014.

"By the end of next year, 2014, the transition will be complete," Obama said at a news conference with Karzai standing at his side. "Afghans will have full responsibility for their security, and this war will come to a responsible end."

The Obama administration has been considering a residual force of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops - far fewer than some U.S. commanders propose - to conduct counterterrorism operations and to train and assist Afghan forces.

A top Obama aide said this week that the administration does not rule out a complete withdrawal after 2014, a move that some experts say would be disastrous for the weak Afghan central government and its fledgling security apparatus.

Obama on Friday left open the possibility of that so-called "zero option" when he several times used the word "if" to suggest that a post-2014 U.S. presence was far from guaranteed.

Insisting that Afghan forces were "stepping up" faster than expected, Obama said Afghan troops would take over the lead in combat missions across the country this spring, rather than waiting until the summer as originally planned. NATO troops will then assume a "support role," he said.

"It will be a historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty," Obama said.

Obama said final decisions on this year's troop cuts and the post-2014 U.S. military role were still months away, but his comments suggested he favors a stepped-up withdrawal timetable.

There are some 66,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan. Washington's NATO allies have been steadily reducing their troop numbers as well despite doubts about the ability of Afghan forces to shoulder full responsibility for security.

'WAR OF NECESSITY'

Karzai voiced satisfaction over Obama's agreement to turn over control of detention centers to Afghan authorities, a source of dispute between their countries, although the White House released no details of the accord on that subject.

Obama once called Afghanistan a "war of necessity." But he is heading into a second term looking for an orderly way out of the conflict, which was sparked by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by an al Qaeda network harbored by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.

He faces the challenge of pressing ahead with his re-election pledge to continue winding down the war while preparing the Afghan government to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence once most NATO forces are gone.

Former Senator Chuck Hagel, Obama's nominee to become defense secretary, is likely to favor a sizable troop reduction.

Karzai, meanwhile, is eager to show he is working to ensure Afghans regain full control of their territory after a foreign military presence of more than 11 years.

Asked whether the cost of the war in lives and money was worth it, Obama said: "We achieved our central goal ... or have come very close to achieving our central goal, which is to de-capacitate al Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can't attack us again."

He added: "Have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. This is a human enterprise, and you fall short of the ideal."

Obama made clear that unless the Afghan government agrees to legal immunity for U.S. troops, he would withdraw them all after 2014 - as happened in Iraq at the end of 2011.

Karzai, who criticized NATO over civilian deaths, said that with Obama's agreement to transfer detention centers and the planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghan villages, "I can go to the Afghan people and argue for immunity" in a bilateral security pact being negotiated.

Addressing students at Georgetown University later in the day, the Afghan leader predicted with certainty that the United States would keep a limited number of troops in Afghanistan after 2014, in part to battle al Qaeda and its affiliates.

"One of the reasons the United States will continue a limited presence in Afghanistan after 2014 in certain facilities in Afghanistan is because we have decided together to continue to fight against al Qaeda," Karzai said. "So there will be no respite in that."

Many of Obama's Republican opponents have criticized him for setting a withdrawal timetable and accuse him of undercutting the U.S. mission by reducing troop numbers too quickly.

Karzai and his U.S. partners have not always seen eye to eye, even though the American military has been crucial to preventing insurgent attempts to oust him.

In October, Karzai accused Washington of playing a double game by fighting the war in Afghan villages instead of going after insurgents who cross the border from neighboring Pakistan.

In Friday's news conference, Karzai did not back down from his previous comments that foreigners were responsible for some of the official corruption critics say is rampant in Afghanistan. But he acknowledged: "There is corruption in the Afghan government that we are fighting against."

Adding to tensions has been a rash of deadly "insider" attacks by Afghan soldiers and police against NATO-led troops training or working with them. U.S. forces have also been involved in a series of incidents that enraged Afghans, including burning Korans, which touched off days of rioting.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Mark Felsenthal, Jeff Mason, Phil Stewart, Tabassum Zakaria, David Alexander; Editing by Warren Strobel and Will Dunham)

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Central African rivals agree unity government

LIBREVILLE: Central African Republic rebel groups on Friday signed a ceasefire deal with President Francois Bozize who agreed to set up a government of national unity and call new elections.

The accord was announced after three days of talks in the Gabon capital between the government and Seleka rebels who launched an offensive on December 10.

The rebels swept aside the impoverished country's army, but stopped just short of the capital Bangui.

The government and rebels signed a ceasefire accord. The two sides and Central African Republic's political opposition also signed two political accords allowing for the appointment of a prime minister from the opposition and setting out other power-sharing details, according to the United Nations.

The talks were organized by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) which had sent troops to the troubled country as Bozize faced mounting pressure.

Chad's President Idriss Deby, current ECCAS head, said the opposition and Bozize should start work on the transitional government "from tomorrow".

Under the accord, Bozize will be allowed to finish his mandate which ends in 2016 but he cannot replace the new prime minister during the transition period. Bozize has said he will not stand for a new term.

The agreement also calls for the withdrawal of "all foreign military forces" except those sent by the ECCAS countries. Seleka made this demand specifically to secure the withdrawal of about 200 South African troops sent in December.

The UN Security Council welcomed the signature of the ceasefire, in a statement, which "emphasized the necessity of an expeditious implementation of these agreements and called on all parties to implement them in good faith."

The 15-nation council "urged all parties to allow safe and unhindered access to peoples in need of humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible" and for all civilians held by armed groups to be released.

The violence in the country of some five million has affected more than 300,000 children, with child soldiers recruited and some girls forced to act as sex slaves, according to UN agencies.

The United Nations withdrew non-essential staff and the dependents of all workers in December as rebels neared Bangui.

The UN humanitarian department, OCHA, has voiced serious concern about the plight of civilians amid reports of widespread looting and violence.

The UN's World Food Programme, which has suspended its operations in the country, says hundreds of tonnes of food have been stolen from warehouses across the country.

Central African Republic has been notoriously unstable since its independence from France in 1960.

Bozize took power in a coup in 2003 and has since won two elections.

The rebels accused Bozize of failing to uphold earlier peace deals and had called for him to face war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court.

They also said he planned to modify the constitution to allow him to seek a third term in 2016.

Up to 500 soldiers from Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Cameroon were sent after troubles in 2008. These troops have begun to pull out of the country.

Nearly 600 French troops are stationed in Bangui, officially to ensure the safety of the estimated 1,200 French nationals in the country.

- AFP/al

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The 2013 TVs of CES are bigger and smarter, but what about the picture?

I expect great things out of the Panasonic ZT60 plasma.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

Will flat-panel TV picture quality get even better in 2013?

I'm guessing "Yes" in the case of the Best of CES nominee Panasonic TC-PZT60 and the re-engineered Samsung UNF8500, very likely the two best-performing TVs of 2013 under $10,000.

But those two are hardly the TV hardware poster children of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, where all the headlines touted expensive 4K and OLED sets as well as new gadgetry of questionable usefulness. Finger-gesture control, anyone?

I got a chance to see both the Panasonic and the Samsung plasmas in extended private viewing sessions and suffice it to say, I think both will be able to surpass the mind-bogglingly good Panasonic TC-PVT50 of 2012 at doing what TVs are supposed to do best: make beautiful pictures. I can't wait to review them, nor to test a few other TVs that stood out from a picture quality perspective.

Other TVs that piqued my videophile interest

• Panasonic's entire plasma lineup Based on what I saw at the show, last year's reviews and this year's pricing so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the 2013 Best TVs list at CNET looked as top-heavy with Panasonic plasmas as the 2012 list. Each of the company's 2013 plasma series models, with the exception of the lowest-end X60 perhaps, should be among the best-performing in its price class.
  
• Sony KDL-55W900A The successor to our favorite edge-lit LED TV of 2012, the W900A keeps the company's excellent local-dimming scheme but is unfortunately only available in one size: 55 inches.


• Vizio M series Meanwhile our second-favorite edge-lit LED of 2012 has a whole litter of descendants in various sizes, and all of them do local dimming too. The company is proud of its home-grown dimming, and from what I saw on the 2012 M3D0KD series, the M should be a solid performer. It's also noteworthy that select sizes in the very affordable E series will be the first to do dimming from a "direct LED" configuration.


• Samsung UNF8000 series The biggest TV company is pushing its revamped Smart TV suite to the world, but to me its engineers talked up the fact that this flagship finally put real local dimming back into its highest-end LEDs. Both the F8000 and the F7500 can dim the letterbox bars, which leads to big improvements in perceived contrast for ultra-widescreen movies, but only the F8000 gets dimming across the whole screen. From what I saw of an early sample it looked great, and color was also exceedingly accurate.


• Samsung UN85S9 The winner of the TV category for Best of
  CES got there partly with unique style and buzz-worthy 4K resolution, but what put it atop other 4K sets I saw was the inclusion of local dimming from a full-array LED backlight. It's Samsung's first so-equipped TV since the excellent UN55B8500, and my bet for the best-performing 4K TV of 2013. I just hope it doesn't fall over and crush me during the review.


• Sharp Purios The company's first shipping 4K TV will also be the first to receive THX's 4K display certification -- not a guarantee that it'll be a good performer, but still a positive sign. I saw an encouraging demo where the Purios' image processing, dubbed ICC (integrated cognitive creation), seemingly revealed a bit more depth and detail than a comparison model. I also liked the company's new "Moth eye" screen finish, which straddles the line between matte and glossy and in demo form did a great job suppressing reflections. I was told the finish might not make it onto the shipping Purios, but I hope it does.


• LG Hecto laser projector At $10,000 the Hecto has the distinction of being the cheapest 100-inch-or-larger TV shown at CES 2013, trumping the 110-inch
  LEDs by a few hundred thousand dollars. Essentially a deconstructed rear-projection TV, this short-throw laser projector includes its own screen and even has speakers. It's the only product of its kind from a major maker, and I'm excited to see how it competes against similarly-priced 80-inch
  LED TVs.


• LG LA8600 Even LG's best TVs last year had disappointing performance, but the company's engineers promised me they've done better this year. I assume LG's best non-4K 2013 LED, the LA8600, will showcase those improvements.


• LG 55PM9700 After more than 10 years of doing what I do, I'm more excited to review LG's OLED TV than I've ever been to review any product. Ever. Will its color-filter WRGB technology affect the jaw-dropping contrast and color response I expect from OLED? What about off-angle, color accuracy, even passive 3D? I hope to know soon how our third Best of CES nominee fares.

It's gonna be tough to find an OLED TV in stores.

Uh, what about 4K and OLED?
In our preview we called out both of these buzz-grabbing trends as the stars of CES, but it's important to remember that showstopping display technology usually takes years to go mainstream. You'll be hard-pressed to find 4K TVs anywhere on store shelves in 2013, and OLED will be as rare as a Tesla Roadster. The TVs with both, introduced by Sony and Panasonic, were prototypes that are still years away.

TVs with 4K, or Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolution, were front and center in nearly every major maker's booth, and their huge screens and slow-moving, short-looping demo material often looked very good (although often worse than I expected). No pricing was announced for any of the major makers' new 4K sets, however, and product managers I pressed on the question were universally more tight-lipped than usual -- not a good sign.

If Samsung's 85-inch 4K TV costs less than $20K, I'm a monkey's uncle.

Sony mentioned "a cost that is right around that of a premium HDTV" for its smaller XBR-X900 sizes, and I'm guessing that means $5,000 for the 55-incher. While LG's smaller 4K models might cost a bit less than that, I don't think you'll be able to buy a non-Chinese 4K TV for less than $4K this year. I'll be interested to test new sets from Chinese makers like Hisense (its 4K TVs go down to 50 inches) and TCL, but I'm not expecting them to match the picture quality of the established brands.

And then there are OLED TVs, which LG says will finally be shipping in March for $12,000. Even if you have that kind of cash I'm guessing it will be nearly impossible to lay your hands on one -- initial quantities will be extremely limited. The only other TV maker close to production is Samsung, which says "this year" for its KN55F9500. But the company still hasn't released a final design, and I'm still skeptical the TV will ship.

Whizbang doodads, newfangled thingamabobs, miscellaneous frippery
No CES TV wrap-up would be complete without passing mention of all the extra bullet points TV makers will pack onto specification sheets that have nothing to do with the core mission of making great pictures. I'll try to get it all into one paragraph.

The fire hose: Samsung TVs now have more than 2,800 apps.

Samsung, the king of featuritis, has a new Smart TV suite that can control your cable box as well as recommend upcoming shows and consolidate searches of on-demand video sources (just not Amazon). Sony is pushing NFC pairing, a second-screen app, and DirecTV-friendliness. LG also touts NFC, along with improved voice control and a better motion remote. Panasonic wants to entice you with an optional pen accessory for marking up documents onscreen (huh?), voice control, a touch-pad controller, and a pop-up camera on some models. Vizio has M-Go, a studio-sanctioned streaming app, as well as a new streaming-3D service and HTML5 support in higher-end sets. Everybody has dual-core processors, built-in Wi-Fi, and tons of apps that you'll never use. But at least they all have Netflix.

In the preview I wistfully asked for a dumb TV with all the picture quality enhancements of a flagship model for a bit less money. None was announced. Maybe next year.

A look at the exciting new technology of Sony's 4K OLED TV

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Sheriff: Calif. teen planned attack on classmates

Updated at 9:40 p.m. ET

TAFT, Calif. A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into a rural California high school on Thursday, shot one student and fired at others and missed before a teacher and another staff member talked him into surrendering, officials said.

The teen victim was in critical but stable condition, and the suspect, whose pockets were stuffed with ammunition, was still being interrogated, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference Thursday evening.

The suspect used a shotgun that belonged to his brother and went to bed Wednesday night with a plan to shoot two fellow students, Youngblood said.

Surveillance video shows the alleged shooter trying to conceal the gun as he nervously entered Taft Union High School through a side entrance after school had started Thursday morning.

When the shots were fired, teacher Ryan Heber tried to get the more than two dozen students out a back door and engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, Youngblood said. Campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields responded to a call of shots fired and also began talking to the teen.

"They talked him into putting that shotgun down. He in fact told the teacher, `I don't want to shoot you,' and named the person that he wanted to shoot," Youngblood said.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

The shooter didn't show up for first period, then interrupted the class of 28 students.

Youngblood said the suspect alleges the two students he targeted had bullied him for more than a year, but the sheriff couldn't confirm the allegations.

"Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet," Youngblood said.

Youngblood did not release the student's disciplinary record, saying he didn't have it.

The shotgun is believed to belong to the boy's brother and was in the boy's home, Youngblood said.

The Sheriff's Department did not release the boy's name because he was a juvenile and had yet to be charged. But many students and community members said they knew the boy and said he was often teased, including Alex Patterson, 18, who went to Taft with the suspect before graduating last year.

"He comes off as the kind of kid who would do something like this," Patterson said. "He talked about it a lot, but nobody thought he would."

Trish Montes, who lived next door to the suspect, said he was "a short guy" and "small" who was teased about his stature by many, including the victim.

"Maybe people will learn not to bully people," Montes said. "I hate to be crappy about it, but that kid was bullying him."

Montes said her son had worked at the school and tutored the boy last year, sometimes walking with him between classes because he felt sorry for him.

"All I ever heard about him was good things from my son," Montes said. "He wasn't Mr. Popularity, but he was a smart kid. It's a shame. My kid said he was like a genius. It's a shame because he could have made something of himself."

The wounded student was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield and was listed in stable but critical condition Thursday evening. Officials said a female student was hospitalized with possible hearing damage because the shotgun was fired close to her ear, and another girl suffered minor injuries during the scramble to flee when she fell over a table.

Officials said there's usually an armed officer on campus, but the person wasn't there because he was snowed in. Taft police officers arrived within 60 seconds of first reports.

Bakersfield television station KERO reported receiving phone calls from people inside the school who hid in closets. About 900 students are enrolled at the high school, which includes ninth through 12th grades.

Wilhelmina Reum, whose daughter Alexis Singleton is a fourth-grader at a nearby elementary school, got word of the attack while she was about 35 miles away in Bakersfield and immediately sped back to Taft.

"I just kept thinking this can't be happening in my little town," she told The Associated Press.

"I was afraid I was going to get hurt," Alexis said. "I just wanted my mom to get here so I could go home."

Taft is a community of fewer than 10,000 people amid oil and natural gas production fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The attack there came less than a month after a gunman massacred 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself.

That shooting prompted President Barack Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that her father had attended Taft Union and she has visited the school over the years.

"At this moment my thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and I wish them a speedy recovery," Feinstein said. "But how many more shootings must there be in America before we come to the realization that guns and grievances do not belong together?"

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Judge: Holmes Can Face Trial for Aurora Shooting

Jan 10, 2013 8:45pm

(Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo)

In a ruling that comes as little surprise, the judge overseeing the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre has ordered that there is enough evidence against James Holmes to proceed to a trial.

In an order posted late Thursday, Judge William Sylvester wrote that “the People have carried their burden of proof and have established that there is probable cause to believe that Defendant committed the crimes charged.”

The ruling came after a three-day preliminary hearing this week that revealed new details about how Holmes allegedly planned for and carried out the movie theater shooting, including how investigators say he amassed an arsenal of guns and ammunition, how he booby-trapped his apartment to explode, and his bizarre behavior after his arrest.

PHOTOS: Colorado ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Theater Shooting

Holmes is charged with 166 counts, including murder, attempted murder and other charges related to the July 20 shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded by gunfire. An additional 12 people suffered non-gunshot injuries.

One of the next legal steps is an arraignment, at which Holmes will enter a plea. The arraignment was originally expected to take place Friday morning.

Judge Sylvester indicated through a court spokesman that he would allow television and still cameras into the courtroom, providing the outside world the first images of Holmes since a July 23 hearing. Plans for cameras in court, however, were put on hold Thursday afternoon.

“The defense has notified the district attorney that it is not prepared to proceed to arraignment in this case by Friday,” wrote public defenders Daniel King, Tamara Brady and Kristen Nelson Thursday afternoon in a document objecting to cameras in court.

A hearing in the case will still take place Friday morning. In his order, Judge Sylvester said it should technically be considered an arraignment, but noted the defense has requested a continuance.  Legal experts expect the judge will grant the continuance, delaying the arraignment and keeping cameras out of court for now.

Sylvester also ordered that Holmes be held without bail.

Holmes’ attorneys have said in court that the former University of Colorado neuroscience student is mentally ill. The district attorney overseeing the case has not yet announced whether Holmes, now 25, can face the death penalty.

SHOWS: World News

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String of bombings kill 101, injure 200 in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 101 people were killed in bombings in two Pakistani cities on Thursday in one of the country's bloodiest days in recent years, officials said, with most casualties caused by sectarian attacks in Quetta.

The bombings underscored the myriad threats Pakistani security forces face from homegrown Sunni extremist groups, the Taliban insurgency in the northwest and the less well-known Baloch insurgency in the southwest.

On Thursday evening, two coordinated explosions killed at least 69 people and injured more than 100 in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, said Deputy Inspector of Police Hamid Shakil.

The first attack, in a crowded snooker hall, was a suicide bombing, local residents said. About ten minutes later, a car bomb exploded, they said. Five policemen and a cameraman were among the dead from that blast.

The attacks happened in a predominately Shia neighborhood and banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility. The extremist Sunni group targets Shias, who make up about 20 percent of Pakistani's population.

Targeted killings and bombings of Shia communities are common in Pakistan, and rights groups say hundreds of Shia were killed last year. Militant groups in Balochistan frequently bomb or shoot Shia passengers on buses travelling to neighboring Iran.

The killers are rarely caught and some Shia activists say militants work alongside elements of Pakistan's security forces, who see them as a potential bulwark against neighboring India.

Many Pakistanis fear their nation could become the site of a regional power struggle between Saudi Arabia, source of funding for Sunni extremist groups, and Iran, which is largely Shia.

But sectarian tensions are not the only source of violence.

The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for a blast in Quetta's market earlier in the day. It killed 11 people and injured more than 40, mostly vegetable sellers and secondhand clothes dealers, police officer Zubair Mehmood said. A child was also killed.

The group is one of several fighting for independence for Balochistan, an arid, impoverished region with substantial gas, copper and gold reserves, which constitutes just under half of Pakistan's territory and is home to about 8 million of the country's population of 180 million.

SWAT BOMBING

In another incident Thursday, 21 were killed and more than 60 injured in a bombing when people gathered to hear a religious leader speak in Mingora, the largest city in the northwestern province of Swat, police and officials at the Saidu Sharif hospital said.

"The death toll may rise as some of the injured are in critical condition and we are receiving more and more injured people," said Dr. Niaz Mohammad.

It has been more than two years since a militant attack has claimed that many lives in Swat.

The mountainous region, formerly a tourist destination, has been administered by the Pakistani army since their 2009 offensive drove out Taliban militants who had taken control.

But Talibans retain the ability to attack in Swat and shot schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousufzai in Mingora last October.

A Taliban spokesman said they were not responsible for Thursday's bombing.

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar, Pakistan; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Jason Webb)

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Python clings to Qantas wing on two-hour flight

SYDNEY: It was not quite a "Snakes on a Plane" scenario, but passengers on a Qantas jet watched in amazement as a three-metre (nine feet) python clung to the outside of their aircraft during a flight.

The Australian carrier said the flight from the Queensland city of Cairns to Port Moresby, capital of the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, took off early Thursday morning with the unintended passenger tucked into its wing.

"The snake was seen by passengers once (the plane) reached cruising altitude," a Qantas spokesman told AFP.

"It was still on the aircraft when it arrived in Port Moresby but it had died by that stage."

Once they spotted it on the wing, passengers watched as the reptile engaged in a life-and-death struggle to maintain its grip on the plane despite the winds and chilly altitude temperatures for the two-hour journey.

Passenger Robert Weber told Fairfax Media Friday that while people at the front of the plane were unaware of the python, those at the back were "all totally focused on the snake and how it might have got onto the aircraft".

Unlike the 2006 "Snakes on a Plane" movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, this reptile did not affect the flight.

"There was no panic. At no time did anyone stop to consider that there might be others on board," Weber said.

He added that the snake had been nestled neatly at first, but once the wind caught the end of its tail, it was "pulling him straight out" and from then on it became a hopeless "life-and-death struggle".

"I felt quite sad for it, really," he said.

An expert said the snake was probably a scrub python, Australia's longest snake and one common in northern Queensland.

Qantas said it had never heard of anything similar happening before, adding that there was no way the reptile could have accessed the cabin.

- AFP/ck

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Uh-oh, Windows RT. Samsung's got second thoughts

Samsung's Ativ Tab runs Windows RT, shown here with the mandatory new Metro interface by Damien Cusick, general manager of Samsung Electronics UK, at a press conference at IFA.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Microsoft launched Windows RT with grand ambitions only a few months ago, but CNET has learned the operating system is facing yet another setback.

This time it's Samsung having second thoughts about the computer software that runs on cellphone chips.

Mike Abary, the Samsung senior vice president who oversees the company's PC and
tablet businesses in the U.S., told CNET today at the Consumer Electronics Show that the Korean electronics giant won't be launching its Qualcomm-powered Windows RT device in the U.S. It's unclear what the company's plans are for the non-U.S. markets.

Abary noted Samsung reached its decision about he device, dubbed the Ativ Tab, for two main reasons. First, feedback from its retail partners indicated demand for such products is only modest. Second, Samsung determined it would take a lot of investment to inform consumers about the benefits of Windows RT. Here's what he told CNET:

There wasn't really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait.

Abary added that one of the big selling points for Windows RT is the devices should be less expensive than those using
Windows 8. However, Samsung found that it would have had to make tradeoffs -- like including less memory -- to bring down the price, and that wasn't something it was willing to do.

"We didn't necessarily attain the price point that we hoped to attain," Abary said. "It's not an issue on Microsoft's side. It's more an issue of how the product was built and some of the tradeoffs we had to incorporate in it."

Check out CNET's in-depth report on how Microsoft became a control freak with tablet makers.

The comments from Abary come only a few days after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer joined Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul Jacobs onstage during his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The two talked up their partnership on Windows RT devices and touted the devices from Dell and Samsung.

"The new Windows PCs, tablets, and phones, I think are stunning," Ballmer said. "Windows RT devices are the new addition to the family."

Samsung's move to hold off on Windows RT, at least in the U.S., raises concerns about the operating system and deals a blow to Microsoft's efforts to gain a bigger footprint in mobile devices. Samsung is one of the world's top provider of smartphones and tablets, and while it's relatively new to the U.S. PC market, those operations have been experiencing double-digit sales growth on a percentage basis. That means Samsung is a key partner for any software maker to have.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is joined on stage at CES 2013 by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

While Samsung isn't releasing the initial product it developed with Qualcomm in the U.S., Abary said the company may consider Windows RT devices in the future.

"We want to see how the market develops for RT," Abary said. "It's not something we're shelving permanently. It's still a viable option for us in the future, but now might not be the right time."

We've contacted Microsoft and will update the report when we hear back.

Meanwhile, Rob Chandhok, president of the Qualcomm's Internet services division, told CNET today at
CES that while the company cares that Samsung won't be launching its product in the U.S., "there are a bunch of devices in the pipeline."

"These first rounds of devices are going to be followed by other rounds of devices," he said.

Microsoft has tightly controlled the development process for Windows RT devices, limiting the number of companies the chipmakers could work with, in order to make better products. That's meant that few products have hit the market, and some companies in the initial development program ultimately decided to abandon Windows RT.

Even before Microsoft's Surface RT tablet hit the market, Hewlett-Packard said in June that it had scuttled its immediate plans for a Windows RT device after receiving feedback from customers that they preferred Intel-powered tablets for business use. And Toshiba in August said it canceled its initial RT products because of development problems that would have delayed launch. The company believed its devices would be handicapped if they weren't introduced with the first wave of Windows RT products.

Samsung unveiled its Windows RT device at IFA in August. However, around the time Windows 8 and RT launched in October, it said it was still trying to formulate its strategy for Windows RT.

Meanwhile, Abary said Samsung saw "exponential" growth in its tablet business in the fourth quarter, with seven-inch devices experiencing the strongest demand.

"We saw significant growth in every category," Abary said. "There's now way we could keep up with all the demand."

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FBI probes cyber threats against Steubenville sheriff

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla talks about how the FBI is investigating cyber threats in the eastern Ohio city that include a death threat received by the sheriff in his office on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Steubenville, Ohio. / AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

STEUBENVILLE, OhioThe FBI is investigating cyber threats in an eastern Ohio city that include death threats against the local sheriff's family and an email that apparently shut down the police chief's computer.

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Steubenville rape case: Officials go on the defense

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Leaked video shows teens joking about Ohio rape case

The threats are part of a series of online messages that have targeted individuals and authorities in Steubenville amid increased attention over two high school football players who are facing rape charges.

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said Wednesday he'd provided the FBI a copy of an anonymous Facebook post in which someone threatened to kill his family.

Steubenville Police Chief William McCafferty said he gave the FBI an email that he had opened Wednesday morning, which then disabled his computer.

FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren said he could not immediately comment.

The two teenage boys are set for trial next month in juvenile court on charges they raped a 16-year-old in August. Their attorneys have denied the charges in court.

Much of the evidence in the case played out on social media, in which the photos of the seemingly unconscious girl were posted online. A video published and then deleted from YouTube shows a third freshman, Michael Nodianos, joking about the alleged rape.

The hacking collective Anonymous has staged rallies in support of the alleged victim, and hackers were able to dig up and re-post the deleted YouTube video online.

According to the Steubenville Herald Star, Nodianos' attorney said someone hacked into his client's email and social media accounts, as well as the email accounts of his family members. He has since dropped out of Ohio State University, where he was slated to attend on a scholarship.

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