GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? An independent Palestinian rights group said Thursday that Hamas authorities in Gaza are targeting members of the rival Fatah, questioning them and searching their homes.
One Fatah activist quoted in the report from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said he was held for 15 days, during which Hamas officers placed a plastic bag over his head during interrogation and subjected him to loud noises.
On Monday and Tuesday alone, the report said, Hamas summoned some 50 former members of Fatah security forces, questioning them at length.
Hamas and Fatah joined in a short-lived unity government following 2006 parliamentary elections. But the following year, the alliance shattered and Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip during several days of fighting, leaving the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in charge in the West Bank. Repeated attempts at reconciliation failed, and both sides have cracked down on the other in their respective territories.
The rights center said it condemns "political arrests and accompanying methods of torture and calls for immediate release of all political prisoners detained by Palestinian security services in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
Reconciliation talks currently under way with Egyptian mediation appear to be making progress, with both Fatah and Hamas saying they hope to allow Palestinian elections to go ahead in 2012.
In a response to the report, Hamas said, "Such claims aim to poison the atmosphere of reconciliation by raising false accusations. We do not have any political prisoners in Gaza."
Hamas also said that its activists are still being held by Fatah forces in the West Bank.
Fatah activists in Gaza were hoping to celebrate their movement's anniversary next week, but Hamas has so far banned the celebrations in the coastal strip. Fatah has banned similar Hamas rallies in the West Bank.
HONOLULU, Hawaii (Reuters) - President Barack Obama spent a low-key Christmas Day with his wife and daughters in Hawaii, going to church and thanking U.S. troops for their service before hosting friends for dinner at the first family's rented beach house.
The Obamas started opening gifts around 8 a.m. on Sunday and then ate breakfast and sang carols together before heading to the chapel at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii for a Christmas service, the White House said.
Far from Washington officialdom, and making the most of a bright, warm day, Obama dressed casually in a polo shirt and khaki pants to church and Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia wore summer dresses.
After a few hours back at their multi-million-dollar temporary home, the president and Michelle Obama returned to the base to shake hands, hold babies and pose for pictures with hundreds of sailors and marines stationed there.
"In the evening, the First Family and friends will celebrate with a Christmas dinner at home," a White House official said. Sam Kass, the White House chef, is spending the holidays with the Obamas and was expected to do the cooking.
(Reporting By Travis Quezon; Writing by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Todd Eastham)
Suspected arson fire badly damages community post office west of Reno ??
?????Monday 26th December, 2011??Source: Las Vegas Review Journal ??
RENO -- Vandals are suspected of setting a fire Sunday morning that caused major damage to a Reno area post office and shut it down.U.S. Postal Inspector Steve Hofheins told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the building in Verdi, a community of 1,400 located along Interstate 80 about 10 miles west of Reno, may be a total loss. He said no mail was burn...
Breaking News Monday 26th December, 2011
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LONDON ? A teenager was fatally stabbed and a second man wounded in attacks on London's most famous retail street as thousands of shoppers flocked to Britain's capital seeking post-Christmas bargains.
The killing of the 18-year-old man on Oxford Street on Monday ? and a second wounding in the same road ? did little to deter shoppers crowding into neighboring stores in the landmark shopping district. Bargain hunters were also largely untroubled by a subway strike which badly disrupted the city's public transport services.
Selfridges ? close to the scene of Monday's stabbing and one of Britain's most popular department stores ? reported its biggest ever first hour of trading Monday morning, while the New West End Company, which represents traders on central London's shopping streets, reported 15 million pounds (US$23.5 million) in sales in the first three hours of trading.
Jace Tyrrell, of the New West End Company, said hundreds of thousands of people had visited central London retailers, despite action by police to cordon off parts of Oxford Street and temporarily close some stores after the attacks.
"These incidents are extremely rare on Oxford Street and we understand arrests have been made," she said. "The emergency services were quick to respond and have cordoned off the street as they continue with their investigations. We are working to ensure the street is open to businesses and shoppers tomorrow."
Tyrrell said shopkeepers had requested a meeting with police to discuss the incidents. "We understand both incidents involved gangs of youth who were known to each other (and) the police, and did not involve individual shoppers," she said.
London's air ambulance helicopter had earlier rushed to the street following the fatal stabbing.
Authorities said the teenage victim died before medics could administer help, while amateur video footage showed police struggling to part large crowds of shopper to allow emergency vehicles to reach the man.
Police erected a tent outside a Foot Locker sports store as they carried out investigations and confirmed that about ten people had been arrested in connection with the death.
Officers said a second stabbing took place close by ? on the corner of Oxford Street and Regent Street ? but insisted it wasn't immediately known if the two incidents were linked.
Det. Chief Insp. Mark Dunne, of London's Metropolitan police, said two groups of young people appeared to have become involved in a large-scale altercation before the teenager's death.
Dunne said that little more was known about the circumstances, but there were likely to be large numbers of witnesses. "This is probably the busiest place in the United Kingdom right now, on the busiest shopping day," he told reporters at the scene.
"A number of weapons have been recovered from that scene ? whether I have got the murder weapon I don't know. There's an assortment of items, but no guns," he said.
In the second attack, a 21-year-old man was stabbed in the leg and is being treated at a hospital for his wound.
Police said in a statement that three men had been arrested, but it was "too early to say whether this incident is linked to a fatal stabbing on Oxford Street."
On London's subway network, the ASLEF train drivers' labor union staged a one-day strike to demand extra pay and additional time off for members working on the public holiday.
Despite the disruptions, huge crowds ? some lining up outside stores from midnight ? rushed into department stores in London and other British cities as soon as doors opened early Monday.
The London Underground, the organization that manages the subway system, condemned the move, saying it was pointless and demonstrated "a complete disregard for our customers." Authorities said extra buses were running in main shopping areas to cater to the increased flow of travelers on one of the year's busiest shopping days.
The ASLEF union has warned it plans to stage three more strikes in January and February if the dispute is not resolved.
The age of driverless cars may still be years in the future, but to those playing a long game, that just means that work now will pay off even more later. Google is getting into the business of tracking and managing driverless cars, and while the technology actually steering and perceiving the cars' surroundings will be undergoing lots of changes, some fundamentals of their interactions with the world can actually be explored today. For example, Google has been granted a patent for a "landing strip": a parking spot with special markings that help the car park itself, and then allow it to determine exactly where it is without relying on GPS or landmarks.
BEIJING -- A man from a southern Chinese fishing village whose death in police custody helped spark a rare revolt was given a hero's farewell Friday as thousands of tearful residents mourned what they called his sacrifice for them.
Wukan, a village of 20,000, has for months been the site of simmering protests by locals who say officials sold farmland to developers without their consent.
Protests against official misconduct are increasingly common in fast-developing China, but Wukan residents have taken things a step further, erecting barricades over the weekend to keep police out and posing a challenge to the authoritarian government. On a near-daily basis, thousands of villagers gather for rallies, shouting slogans for the return of their land and pumping their fists in the air.
The gathering took on a more somber note Friday as about 7,000 people attended a memorial ceremony for local butcher Xue Jinbo, who before his death had been one of the village's representatives in tense negotiations with officials over the land seizure.
Banners saying "You sacrificed your life for our land" and "Sadly mourn Xue Jinbo" were displayed at the ceremony, said villager Qin Zhuan, who was reached by phone.
Qin said they made speeches and lined up to bow in front of a large photograph of Xue, who died Sunday, not long after he was detained by police on suspicion of participating in riots in September.
Expressing commonly held suspicions over Xue's death, another villager said he appeared to have been abused in custody.
"He is man with a loving heart for people. He was killed for struggling to win the land for the villagers. We all cried for him," said villager Huang Hancan. "He must have suffered from mistreatment for a good healthy man to turn into a dead man just a day after being detained. No doubt, he was beaten to death and everyone can imagine that."
In an interview this week with Hong Kong online magazine iSun Affairs, Xue Jinbo's daughter said his body showed signs of bruising and swelling on his mouth, hands, neck and elsewhere, as well as open wounds on his forehead and jaw.
"When we looked at his back, there were also many bruises that look like he had been kicked or stamped on," she said in a video posted on the magazine's website.
Calls to the offices of the Communist Party propaganda department and the government of Shanwei city, which oversees Wukan, rang unanswered Friday. Chinese media reported that local authorities said Xue died of cardiac failure.
Problems in Wukan erupted in violence in September, when hundreds of villagers smashed buildings and clashed with police in protest against the sale of their farmland without their consent. Villagers since have submitted petitions and sought meetings with higher officials without success.
Last Friday, police took away several village representatives and when police tried to return the next day, residents blockaded the roads with tree trunks and barriers to stop them. Residents say police fired tear gas and water cannons at the villagers, who armed themselves with sticks, clubs, hoes and other farming tools.
Police then retreated and set up blockades on the main roads into Wukan, preventing villagers from entering and leaving and food from being brought in, villagers reached by phone said.
Huang said the residents would not give up. "We want justice from the government and we will fight to the end," he said, adding that the villagers also wanted the truth about Xue's death.
On Wednesday, the mayor of Shanwei city threatened to take strong measures against the leaders of the rebellion. He also promised to investigate local officials for wrongdoing and impose a temporary freeze on one farmland development project until a majority of villagers are satisfied with the conditions of the land transfer.
But signs of a split in the community were starting to emerge. Government supporters were offering food in exchange for villagers' signatures, said Qin, the woman who attended the funeral.
"Most of them are former village officials and their relatives who have an interest in the land sales," Qin said. "They offered us rice and cooking oil on condition that we must sign an empty white paper. We suspected that our signatures would be used for other purposes, so we refused to sign."
With a booming economy, demand for land to build factories and housing complexes in China has soared. Land disputes have grown apace, becoming one of the leading causes of the tens of thousands of large-scale protests that hit China every year.
Around Wukan village and in much of the rest of Guangdong province, conflicts have been intense because the area is among China's most economically developed, pushing up land prices.
___
A villagers gives direction to people heading to a makeshift funeral alter to pay their respects to Xue Jinbo, a 42-year-old village leader who died in police custody in Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong on December 16, 2011. Thousands of residents of the Chinese village under police blockade attended the rally and funeral service to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of the local leader. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
A villagers gives direction to people heading to a makeshift funeral alter to pay their respects to Xue Jinbo, a 42-year-old village leader who died in police custody in Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong on December 16, 2011. Thousands of residents of the Chinese village under police blockade attended the rally and funeral service to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of the local leader. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
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A villagers gives direction to people heading to a makeshift funeral alter to pay their respects to Xue Jinbo, a 42-year-old village leader who died in police custody in Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong on December 16, 2011. Thousands of residents of the Chinese village under police blockade attended the rally and funeral service to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of the local leader. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
Grammy-winning R&B singer Etta James is terminally ill, her live-in physician said in an interview this week that confirmed reports of the singer’s fading health. Dr. Elaine James, who is no relation to the singer, told a California newspaper in a video interview that the 73-year-old “At Last” singer has leukemia, dementia and kidney disease [...]
Map of Amundsens journey, from Scientific American, Vol. CVI, No. 12, March 23, 1912.
Image: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
One hundred years ago today the South Pole was reached by a party of Norwegian explorers under the command of Roald Amundsen. The existence of the pole had been known, but the inhospitable landscape presented a barrier until Amundsen?s party made the dangerous trek across ice and snow to stand at the geographical South Pole on this day a century ago.
One of Amundsen?s competitors, Robert Falcon Scott and his party, achieved a different kind of fame: they arrived on January 17, 1912 to find they were second in the race to fame, and they perished on their way back north.
News of Amundsen?s achievement was telegraphed to the world on March 7, 1912, on his return to Hobart, Australia.
From Scientific American, Vol. CV1, No. 11, March 16, 1911
The Discovery of the South Pole
It is much too early to give any critical account of Capt. Roald Amundsen's achievement. Many weeks must elapse before we are in complete possession of all his data. Yet even the laconic account, which he has cabled to the press, throws a flood of light on the mystery of Antarctic geography. Amundsen seems to have collected enough evidence to substantiate the theory that the great chain of mountains which extends almost uninterruptedly from Alaska to Patagonia finds its continuation in a ridge connecting Victoria Land and King Edward VII Land, and which, in honor of his queen, he has named "Queen Maude's Range."
The ice barrier, which had proved for a century and a half a formidable obstacle to Antarctic exploration, is found to terminate in a bay, lying between the southeast mountain range running from South Victoria Land and a range which is probably a continuation of King Edward the VII Land and which extends in a southwesterly direction. Contrary to his original plan, Amundsen despatched one of his officers, Lieut. Prestud, to survey the Bay of Whales and the great ice barrier and to explore King Edward VII Land, of which practically nothing is known. No doubt the spur of competition played its part in unfolding the secrets of the last unexplored frigid region of the earth.
Amundsen and his party at the geographic South Pole, December 14, 1911.
CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF NORWEGIAN-U.S. SCIENTIFIC TRAVERSE OF EAST ANTARCTICA
No less than four other expeditions were in the Antarctic regions at the time while Amundsen was forcing his way south. Besides Amundsen's, there was the Japanese expedition under Lieut. Shirase, which had to retreat to Australia last spring in order to replenish its supply of dogs, and which Amundsen says landed on January 16th at the Bay of Whales, two weeks before he sailed for home; Dr. Mawson's Australian expedition, for which $215,000 had been raised up to November 1st last, and which was to land three parties between Cape Adare and Gaussberg; the German expedition under Lieut. Filchner in the "Deutschland," elaborately equipped with wireless, magnetic, and meteorological apparatus, full of the hope of establishing a base southwest of Coats Land in as high a latitude as possible; and lastly, Capt. Scott's English expedition in the "Terra Nova," which left New Zealand in November, 1910, badly damaged by stormy weather; so badly, indeed, that the necessary repairs and the cost of making good the stores that had been lost seriously depleted the resources of the party.
Amundsen seems to have been helped by exceptionally favorable weather conditions. To be sure, there were storms, but not those frightful hurricanes which thwarted Shackleton. It was cold, so cold that the dogs suffered visibly; yet the average temperature was no lower than that in many an inhabited part of Canada. Amundsen himself states that part of his journey was much like a pleasure trip--"excellent ground, fine sledging, and an even temperature." The glaciers and crevasses make detours necessary, yet, despite them, progress was remarkably rapid. The party climbed up 2,000 to 5,000 feet in a day. Throughout much of his journey Amundsen covered entirely new ground. Therefore he will bring back absolutely new information of Antarctic geography. He made up his mind that he would reach the plateau on which the Pole is situated by another route than that of Beardmore Glacier. Luck, instinct, experience, call it what you will, the new route proved easier than that which either Shackleton or Scott took on their expeditions. To that comparatively easy route, coupled with exceptionally favorable weather, may be attributed Amundsen's success.
LOS ANGELES ? A lawyer for imprisoned music legend Phil Spector is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, arguing his constitutional rights were violated by the trial judge.
Attorney Dennis Riordan contends that Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler became a witness for the prosecution by offering his opinion on an expert's testimony.
The filing was expected to reach the court Friday. It cites the prosecution's use of the judge's videotaped comments and his picture during prosecution summations.
The same arguments were made to state appellate justices, who refused to consider them because of a belated filing. They upheld Spector's second-degree murder conviction in the death of actress Lana Clarkson.
The California Supreme Court declined to review the case.
NEW YORK ? The euro fell below $1.30 Wednesday on fears that European leaders won't be able to solve the region's debt crisis. It's the first time the euro has fallen below that level since January.
"Confidence is certainly seeping," said Kathleen Brooks, research direct at FOREX.com in London. "The EU summit was so off the mark of what needs to be done that sentiment has drained."
At last week's European Union summit, the 17 nations that use the euro agreed to tighten spending. But traders are recognizing that more is needed to be done to protect larger economies like Italy and Spain from defaulting on their debt.
The euro fell to $1.2991 in afternoon trading Wednesday from $1.3043 late Tuesday. It fell to $1.2943 earlier, its lowest point since Jan. 7.
Italian borrowing costs rose again on Wednesday, a sign that investors are worried that the country could default on its debt. It's also further evidence that last week's summit did little to deal with underlying debt problems.
Europe's debt crisis is spreading from smaller countries, such as Greece and Portugal, and is starting to affect larger economies such as Italy and Spain.
Traders are losing confidence that politicians will be able to come up with a solution for the region's debt crisis.
Brooks said that most people believe that the only way to end Europe's debt crisis is if the European Central Bank buys up more sovereign bonds from Italy and Spain. She said that scenario "doesn't seem likely," since many politicians have spoken out against it.
In other trading Wednesday, the U.S. currency was mostly higher against most other currencies. The British pound fell to $1.5474 from $1.5487.
The dollar rose to 77.99 Japanese yen from 77.97 Japanese yen, to 0.9504 Swiss franc from 0.9448 Swiss franc and to 1.0379 Canadian dollar $1.0322 Canadian dollar.
The dollar was also higher against currencies in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Hong Kong and Latin America.
Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren speaks about quarterback Colt McCoy's concussion during a news conference at the NFL football team's headquarters in Berea, Ohio Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Holmgren says McCoy was not checked for a concussion while he was on the sideline after helmet-to-helmet hit by Pittsburgh's James Harrison. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren speaks about quarterback Colt McCoy's concussion during a news conference at the NFL football team's headquarters in Berea, Ohio Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Holmgren says McCoy was not checked for a concussion while he was on the sideline after helmet-to-helmet hit by Pittsburgh's James Harrison. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren speaks about quarterback Colt McCoy's concussion during a news conference at the NFL football team's headquarters in Berea, Ohio Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Holmgren says McCoy was not checked for a concussion while he was on the sideline after helmet-to-helmet hit by Pittsburgh's James Harrison. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren speaks about quarterback Colt McCoy's concussion during a news conference at the NFL football team's headquarters in Berea, Ohio Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Holmgren says McCoy was not checked for a concussion while he was on the sideline after helmet-to-helmet hit by Pittsburgh's James Harrison. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
BEREA, Ohio (AP) ? Browns president Mike Holmgren said quarterback Colt McCoy was not checked for a concussion on the sideline following a hit by Pittsburgh's James Harrison because he didn't exhibit signs of having a head injury.
Holmgren finally addressed McCoy's concussion Wednesday, one day after the team met with NFL medical officials and Players Association representatives to discuss the handling of the injury and ways to improve the NFL's system on dealing with concussions. McCoy was laid out on vicious a helmet-to-face mask hit by Harrison, who has been suspended for one game without pay.
Holmgren said the Browns medical and training staff did not see the hit and did not realize the impact because they were treating other injured players at the time. McCoy was "lucid and talking," Holmgren said, when they tended to him on the field.
"He didn't display any signs of a concussion," Holmgren said during a nearly one-hour news conference.
McCoy did not show any concussion-like symptoms until well after the game. Holmgren said McCoy was tested for a concussion in the locker room by one of the team's doctors before the team's flight to Cleveland.
McCoy was sent home with a headache before Wednesday's practice and Holmgren said the team is following protocol to treat him. Holmgren believes the meetings on Tuesday with members of the league's medical staff could result in "tweaks" to the league's guidelines on testing for concussions.
Holmgren also defended Shurmur's decision to send McCoy back into the game.
"I'm not going to second-guess Pat," he said. "Pat's in the front lines. He's got to make the decision. (As a coach) if I feel the quarterback's good to go, then he's back in the game. That's his call."
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Barry Bonds' lawyers asked a federal judge Tuesday to follow a federal probation officer's recommendation and give Major League Baseball's career home run leader probation when he's sentenced for obstruction of justice this month.
Bonds, 47, was convicted in April of obstructing a grand jury's sports doping investigation with an evasive answer. Prosecutors dropped three other perjury counts after the jury deadlocked on those charges, which accused Bonds of lying to the grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Federal sentencing guidelines for conviction on the charge recommend a prison sentence between 15 months and 21 months. But Bonds' lawyers cited an investigative report prepared by a federal probation officer for the judge that also recommended a sentence of probation.
The lawyers said they disagreed, however, with the probation report's recommendation that Bonds spend an unspecified time under "location monitoring," a form of house arrest.
In their motion, Bonds' lawyers said the probation department cited Bonds' "significant history of charitable, civic and prior good works" as a major reason for leniency. The probation officer also noted that Bonds' conviction appears "to be an aberration when taken in context of his entire life," according to the lawyers.
"The behavior for which Mr. Bonds is to be sentenced relates to his obstruction of justice conduct before the grand jury," lawyers quoted the probation officer as reporting in the sentencing recommendation. "The sentence to be imposed should not be about steroid use and how this use impacts his stature."
The lawyers said the probation officer recommended probation because other sports figures convicted of similar charges stemming from the same sports doping investigation also avoided prison.
Juries convicted cyclist Tammy Thomas of perjury for testifying she never used steroids and former track coach Trevor Graham for lying to investigators about his involvement with a steroids dealer. Both were sentenced to periods of house arrest, which is considered a form of probation.
Former professional football player Dana Stubblefield pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and was sentenced to probation.
Prosecutors were expected to submit their sentencing recommendations in Bonds' case this week. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.
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Kim Richards has checked into an undisclosed rehab treatment center, Entertainment Tonight reports.
Former Disney child star Richards, 47, unwittingly exposed her problem with alcohol in the shocking first season finale of the Bravo hit ? in which she appeared intoxicated during a brutal fight with younger sister Kyle Richards.
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Sister Kyle, 42, called her an "alcoholic" during the ugly brawl, and Kim briefly entered rehab at that time (mid-2010) for treatment, although she declined to discuss her addiction problems on camera or with the press.
Kim's behavior on the second season of the show (currently running) remained erratic. At one infamous game night hosted by new castmate Dana Wilkey, foe Brandi Glanville accused Kim ? who made frequent bathroom breaks and slurred her speech ? of being high on crystal meth.
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The real culprit, theorized pal Dr. Paul Nassif, was a bad combination of prescription medications.
MANILA, Philippines - David Beckham scored the opening goal Saturday in the Los Angeles Galaxy's 6-1 win over the Philippine national team in a friendly that was part of the MLS champions' Asian tour.
Beckham gave his team the lead with a curling shot in the 20th minute, and Mike Magee was set up by Landon Donovan for the second goal before halftime. Adam Cristman added two goals in the second half, with Robby Keane and Greg Belhalter getting one apiece.
After being substituted midway through the second half, Beckham handed his shirt to boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, who was one of the about 13,000 spectators for the match. The former England captain said "I am a huge fan of his."
Despite the loss, Philippine coach Michael Weiss said he was "extremely unhappy" with his team's performance.
Phil Younghusband scored for the Philippines.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Man United vs. Man City again
Manchester United will meet defending champion Manchester City in the FA Cup for a second straight season after the local rivals were drawn against each other in the third round.
Season set
Major League Soccer's 2012 season will open March 10 with six games.
Over 30,000 U.S.-based cellphone users were surveyed recently and an interesting statistic was discovered: About one in ten was an iPhone user. How do you like them Apples?
Not only that, but in the three month period ending October 2011, research firm ComScore reports? that Apple was the only brand in the top 5 to have an increase in its user base.?Apple users?amount to 10.8 percent of total U.S. mobile subscribers. This number is up?by 1.3 percent since last quarter.
Considering that Apple only has one device on the market?? the iPhone?? the indication is that one in ten folks is walking around with some generation of that particular gadget in his or her pocket.
Apple's piece of the pie is still smaller than its competition however: There were about 234 million cellphone users in America (assuming that we're only counting those over the age of 13).?Of those folks, 25.5 percent used mobile devices made by Samsung, 20.6 percent were LG users, 13.6 percent rocked Motorola devices and 6.6 percent were using RIM gadgets.
All of those numbers are lower than the prior quarters ? except for Samsung's, which remained unchanged.
It's worth noting that when it comes to mobile operating systems rather than device manufacturers, Android?? Google's counterpart to Apple's iOS?? has seen an overall increase in users as well.
Related stories:
Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa ? Americans are going to have to do more for themselves if they want the government to do less, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday.
The former House speaker's call for "more responsible" citizens is the crux of the message he said he planned to stress as he approached the final month of campaigning for votes in Iowa's leadoff nominating caucuses.
"Whether you are a parent or grandparent or an aunt or an uncle you have responsibilities to your community, your neighborhood," Gingrich told about 500 employees of an insurance company at its Des Moines headquarters. "And we're all going to have to roll up our sleeves and be a little bit more responsible in the next 30 years."
While warning that he alone couldn't turn the country around as president, Gingrich also expressed confidence in his resurgent campaign. He is riding a wave of late support, having lost most of his national campaign staff in June over fundraising and strategy issues. Larger crowds turned out during his two-day Iowa visit than those coming to see his Republican rivals recently.
Gingrich capped the visit Thursday by headlining the Polk County GOP fundraising dinner. Party officials said they had hoped two weeks ago to sell 300 tickets to the dinner, but they ended up packing packed 450 into the convention hall and had to turn about 100 away.
Earlier, he met with some of Iowa's many Republican state lawmakers and picked up backing from a former top supporter of rival Herman Cain.
"I'm going to be the nominee," Gingrich said in an ABC News interview. "It's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I'm going to be the nominee."
Gingrich's demeanor, loose and cheerful, belied the increasing intensity in the once slow-moving campaign for Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses.
While a driving snow in central Iowa heralded the coming caucuses, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was preparing to air his first advertisement in Iowa, a spot for Friday touting his business background and plan to cut the budget.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also planned to introduce a new ad Friday, his seventh, focusing on his Christian faith.
Two nationally televised debates are scheduled within the next two weeks in the state.
Despite leading in some national and Iowa polls, Gingrich has little of the campaign infrastructure on the ground. Identifying supporters and turning them out at roughly 1,700 precinct-level political meetings requires an organizational network other candidates have spent more time developing than Gingrich has.
Last month, he hired back two of the Iowa staffers who quit in June, and added three more this week.
Gingrich joked Thursday that a methodical march to the caucuses would have been no challenge.
"We had a chance in June to do it easy, and thought to ourselves, why would you want to do that?" Gingrich said during an Associated Press interview.
He said he's now scrambling to build a campaign organization while hoping a winning message can resonate with undecided caucusgoers.
Gingrich's scholarly style ? he's a former college history professor ? and blunt candor have produced standout debate performances that have boosted his fundraising in recent months.
Without scolding, he said lasting economic recovery would require sacrifice.
"So every person who says they want a smaller bureaucracy and less power in Washington, you better sign up to do more things yourself," he told the AP.
It was a message that won over Charlie Gruchow. A tea party organizer in Iowa, he had been a strong supporter of Cain. But the reports of sexual harassment and an alleged extramarital affair had damaged Cain, said Gruchow, who said he would support and likely work for Gingrich's campaign.
Gingrich's path is far from certain.
Polls of Iowa GOP caucusgoers have shown Romney continually strong but not dominant, underscoring a healthy contingent of Republicans looking for an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
Gingrich's history as a Washington insider with nuanced positions, such as support for allowing some illegal immigrants to remain in the country, has prompted rivals to begin attacking him in the conservative state.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul released a blistering Internet video Wednesday, raking Gingrich in part for receiving more than $1.5 million from the embattled federally backed mortgage company Freddie Mac for consulting work after he left Congress.
"If we want nuance, we have that in Romney," said Iowa Republican activist Chuck Laudner. "What we want is clarity."
NEW YORK ? An early rally fizzled on the stock market Friday but still left the Standard & Poor's 500 index up 7.4 percent for the week, its biggest gain since March 2009.
A surprise drop in the U.S. unemployment rate sent stocks higher in early trading, but the gains faded during the afternoon.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.61 of a point to close at 12,019.42. The Dow ended the week up 7 percent, the largest weekly gain since July 2009.
Bank stocks rose sharply, continuing a weeklong rally. JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 6.1 percent, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow average. Morgan Stanley leapt 6.9 percent, the second-biggest gain of any stock in the S&P 500 index.
European stock indexes and the euro rose after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a speech pushing for tighter rules on government spending. Merkel said the 17 countries that use the euro must quickly restore market confidence by making financial controls stricter.
Bond yields for Spain and Italy fell, a sign that investors are becoming more confident in the ability of those countries to pay their debt. France's CAC-40 and Britain's FT-SE each rose 1.1 percent.
Markets could be in for more volatility next week as European leaders prepare for a summit to propose new measures for containing the crisis.
The Labor Department reported before the market opened that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, the lowest level in 2? years. Economists had expected the rate to stay at 9 percent. But a key reason the unemployment rate fell so much was that more than 300,000 people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.
The Nasdaq composite index inched up 0.73 to 2,626.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.31 of a point to 1,244.28. The S&P surged 7.4 percent over the week, the most since March 2009.
Decisive steps by world leaders to right Europe's teetering economy sent stocks soaring on Wednesday. The Dow jumped 490 points, its biggest gain since March 2009 and its seventh-largest one-day point gain in history. The weekly point gain of 787 in the Dow was the second-biggest in its history, following a 946-point gain in October 2008.
"This market has been gripped with fear for a long time," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. "And I think some of these fear factors are beginning to dissipate."
This week's strong stock performance is partially a reflection of the market's increased volatility since August, when concerns that Europe's debt was spinning out of control made dramatic stock price swings the norm. On Monday the S&P 500 broke a 7-day slide that had taken the index down 7.9 percent.
The improvements in the U.S. job market are "another illustration that the US economy is, for now at least, shrugging off the global economic downturn and fears about the collapse of the euro-zone," Capital Economics Chief U.S. Economist Paul Ashworth said in a note to clients.
Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Monday to discuss changes to European Union treaties. The talks will culminate in a Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders, where the proposals are expected to be debated and detailed. Analysts say stricter controls on spending could encourage the European Central Bank to offer more short-term help for governments struggling with their debts.
If the European Central Bank takes a larger role in buying government debt, "it will certainly be a relief to markets," Cardillo said, "and maybe even mean Europe avoids falling into a deep recession. Not that it's going to cure all the problems of Europe."
In corporate news:
Western Digital Corp. soared 7.5 percent, the most in the S&P. The data storage provider raised its revenue estimate for the current quarter and said that recovery efforts at its facility in Thailand following massive flooding there were proceeding faster than had been expected.
Big Lots Inc. slumped 8.7 percent, after the retailer reported a 76 percent plunge in income because of lower margins and a loss related to a newly acquired Canadian business. The company buys overstocked items including food and housewares and sells them at a discount.
H&R Block Inc. fell 6.4 percent. The country's largest tax-preparation company reported a wider quarterly loss late Thursday. H&R Block also said there was a jump in claims tied to bad loans made by its former subprime mortgage unit.
TORONTO (Reuters) ? Research In Motion does not install, nor authorize, its carrier partners to install "Carrier IQ" monitoring software on its BlackBerry smartphones, the company said on Thursday.
RIM made the statement after a security researcher said the "Carrier IQ" application, which can monitor what device users are doing, has been installed on mobile devices from multiple vendors without the knowledge or consent of customers.
"RIM does not pre-install the Carrier IQ app on BlackBerry smartphones or authorize its carrier partners to install the Carrier IQ app before sales or distribution," RIM said.
"RIM also did not develop or commission the development of the Carrier IQ application, and has no involvement in the testing, promotion, or distribution of the app."
Trevor Eckhart, the researcher who demonstrated in online videos how the software works, focused on devices using Google's Android operating system, but he also mentioned other operating systems, including RIM's BlackBerry and Nokia's Symbian system as having the software installed.
Nokia also denied their phones used the software.
"CarrierIQ does not ship products for any Nokia devices," a company spokesman said.
In a statement posted to its website last month, Carrier IQ said its software is used by network operators to help improve network quality and troubleshoot device problems.
"While we look at many aspects of a device's performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes, or providing tracking tools," the Mountain View, California-based company said.
Since Eckhart's videos first appeared, a firestorm of criticism has erupted in online forums and on Twitter, where users complain about breach of privacy.
"In principle, technology like this could be highly beneficial to both networks and users, but by crossing the line of what is deemed as acceptable by the privacy lobby Carrier IQ has run into problems," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.
Carrier IQ issued a cease-and-desist letter to Eckhard last month before later retracting it and apologizing to the researcher.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp, additional reporting by Tarmo Virki in Helsinki; editing by Peter Galloway)
VIENNA (Reuters) ? Vienna's excellent infrastructure, safe streets and good public health service make it the nicest place to live in the world, consulting group Mercer said in a global survey which put Baghdad firmly in last place.
German and Swiss cities also performed especially well in the quality of living rankings, with Zurich, Munich, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva and Bern in the top 10.
The Austrian capital, with its ornate buildings, public parks and extensive bicycle network recently reduced the cost of its annual public transport ticket to 1 euro a day.
Serious crime is rare and the city of around 1.7 million inhabitants regularly tops global quality of life surveys.
But Mercer warned that top-ranking European cities could not take their position for granted in the survey, which assessed more than 200 cities.
"They are not immune to any decrease of living standards should this (economic) turmoil persist," Mercer's senior researcher Slagin Parakatil said on the company's website.
Mercer, which also ranked cities according to personal safety, gave Athens a poor score because of clashes between demonstrators and police and political instability.
"In 2011 Athens is ranked in Europe among the lowest in the personal safety ranking," Parakatil said.
Oslo also fell to 24th place in the separate safety survey because of Anders Breivik's mass killings in July. It would usually be in the top 15, Mercer said.
Baghdad's political turmoil, poor security enforcement and attacks on local people and foreigners made it the worst place to live in 2011, both in terms of life quality and safety, Mercer said.
Political and economic unrest in Africa and the Middle East also pushed down scores in those regions.
"Many countries such as Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have seen their quality of living levels drop considerably," Parakatil said.
"Political and economic reconstruction in these countries, combined with funding to serve basic human needs, will undoubtedly boost the region."
He said that while the outlook is uncertain for most of the world because of economic and political turmoil, cities in Asia-Pacific look set to benefit thanks to political stability and solid growth.
Auckland, Sydney, Wellington, Melbourne and Perth made it into the top 20 for quality of life in 2011 while Singapore was the highest-ranking Asian city in 25th place.
The age of 
Amundsen and his party at the geographic South Pole, December 14, 1911.
