Egg attack mars Indonesia Christmas celebration

BEKASI, Indonesia: More than 200 Indonesian Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass near land outside Jakarta where they plan to build a church, police and a witness said.

Some 100 Christian worshippers intended to hold a mass near empty land where they hope to build a church, about 30 kilometres east of the capital, in a project barred by district government and community members in 2009.

Since then, worshippers from the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant have held Sunday services under scorching sun outside the property.

On Tuesday, however, local community members blocked the road near the land, Andri Ananta, a local police chief on Jakarta's outskirts, told AFP.

An AFP photographer witnessed furious locals - men and women wearing Muslim headscarf, with small children in tow - physically blocking the road and throwing rotten eggs at the gathering worshippers.

Ananta said police managed to convince the Christians to drop their plan and return home.

"We tried our best to avoid any clash and the Christians agreed to leave," he said, adding 380 police and military personnel including an anti-riot squad were deployed to the area.

Church leader Reverend Palti Panjaitan said the incident came after a Christmas Eve attack Monday evening when "intolerant people" threw not only rotten eggs but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung at them.

"Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us," he told AFP.

The country's high court last year overruled the district government's 2009 decision, but constant intimidation from Muslims in the area has delayed the church's construction, church officials said.

Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect has escalated since 2008.

Ninety percent of Indonesia's population of 240 million identify themselves as Muslim but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.

- AFP/de

Read More..

LG's 2013 home theater line doubles down on sound bars, Bluetooth speakers

CES 2013 is still weeks away, but LG is getting a jump on the show by announcing its full line of home theater products on Christmas Day.

Its home audio offerings are anchored by four new sound bar models, with all but the entry-level NB2030A featuring built-in Bluetooth and a wireless subwoofer. The top two models come in a new, larger size, designed to match 47-inch TVs, which reflects the rising popularity of larger screen HDTVs.

The strangest model may be the NB3730A, which includes built-in Wi-Fi and a basic streaming-media suite including including Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Vudu, and Pandora. Paying extra for streaming-media in a sound bar seems like a hard sell -- especially with the superior Roku LT available for just $50 -- so I'd be surprised if many people opted for the NB3730A over less expensive models. Full breakdown of sound bar features below:

Click to enlarge.

(Credit:
LG)

The chart also includes LG's line of Blu-ray home-theater-in-a-box systems, which all featuring built-in Wi-Fi and LG's full Smart TV suite of apps. You'll notice the higher-end models are listed as "9.1 systems", but that's more marketing than anything else -- the additional channels are top-mounted drivers on the speakers, designed to create a more immersive sound. (CNET's experience with "height" channels in home audio has been underwhelming.) Regardless, I've been hesitant to recommend HTIB systems these days over competing
options, and these models don't offer anything that changes my mind.

For Blu-ray, LG is slimming its line down to just three models: BP330, BP530 and BP730. At first glance, the entry-level BP330 looks most attractive, with built-in Wi-Fi and the same stripped-down collection of streaming services included on the NB3730A sound bar.

The most interesting step-up feature on the BP530 and BDP730 is "private sound mode", which lets you listen to the audio of your Blu-ray player via an app on your smartphone -- essentially a DIY wireless headphones solution. That's probably not enough incentive to pay extra over the BP330, but it's a feature that's likely to appeal to more buyers than 3D, 4K upscaling, or a Web browser. A full breakdown of the features is below:

Click to enlarge.

(Credit:
LG)

Like seemingly every manufacturer, LG is also expanding its selection of Bluetooth/AirPlay and docking speakers. There's not much to differentiate these kinds of speakers without listening to them, although the NP6630 and ND8630 interestingly include AirPlay, Bluetooth, DLNA, and NFC, with the latter also including a dual-dock that can accommodate iPhones, iPads, and some
Android devices.

While none of these products screams "break-out hit", there look to be many solid, workaday products in the new line for buyers looking to pickup a Blu-ray player, Bluetooth speaker, or sound bar, although we'll have a better idea after LG announces pricing.

Read More..

Extreme weather worries across U.S. on Christmas Day

Updated 12:05 a.m. ET

Both coasts of the country are dealing with unusual weather this week during an especially challenging time. An estimated 93 million Americans are expected to drive or fly more than 50 miles from home for the holidays.

In the Sierra Mountains, they're dealing with three feet of snow in some spots.

From the possibility of tornados to heavy snowfall, there is great potential for a travel nightmare this holiday season. The fast-moving storm system is expected to have a significant impact on airport travel as it moves east.

Meteorologist Jeff Beradelli of CBS Miami station WFOR-TV said the southern storm system is looking like a classic severe weather setup, with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico colliding with the jet stream to create unstable conditions. We may see howling thunderstorms and numerous, possibly strong tornados on Christmas Day.

The storms could bring strong tornadoes or winds of more than 75 mph, heavy rain, quarter-sized hail and dangerous lightning in Louisiana and Mississippi, the National Weather Service said. The greatest risk is in areas north of Interstates 10 and 12, with the worst storms likely along and southeast of a line from Winnsboro, La., to Jackson and DeKalb, Miss., according to the weather service's Jackson office.

Play Video

Five holiday tips for the travel industry

On the northern side of the system, there's a possibility of a very wide swath of heavy snowfall.

That will be good news on Christmas Day for folks expecting a white Christmas, but this is going to turn into a travel nightmare as the system makes its way up through the Ohio Valley, into the Great Lakes and interior portions of the Northeast. Some places will see one to two feet of snow, especially upstate New York and interior Pennsylvania.

Much of Oklahoma and Arkansas were under a winter storm warning, with freezing rain, sleet and snow expected on Christmas. A blizzard watch is out for western Kentucky. No matter what form it takes, travel Tuesday could be dangerous, meteorologists said.

"We understand that most people will be focusing on the holiday," said Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. "Please plan now for how you will receive a severe weather warning, and know where you will go when it is issued. It only takes a few minutes, and it will help everyone have a safe Christmas."

In Alabama, the director of the Emergency Management Agency, Art Faulkner, said he was briefing both local officials and Gov. Robert Bentley on plans for dealing with a possible outbreak.

Forecasters said storms would begin near the Gulf Coast and spread north through the day, bringing with them the chances of storms, particularly in central and southwest Alabama. No day is good for severe weather, but Faulkner said Christmas adds extra challenges because people are visiting unfamiliar areas. Also, people are more tuned in to holiday festivities than their weather radio on a day when thoughts typically turn more toward the possibility of snow than twisters, he said.

In California, after a brief reprieve across the northern half of the state on Monday, wet weather was expected to make another appearance on Christmas. Flooding and snarled holiday traffic were also expected in Southern California.

Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 113 mph or more (F-2) in the South, Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, said in an email. The most lethal were the storms of Dec. 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32; and those of Dec. 24-25, 1964, when two people were killed and about 30 people injured by 14 tornadoes in seven states.

A National Weather Service statement from Jackson, Miss., said the main questions are how far north and west the threat will spread — and whether the storms will be more scattered, resulting in a greater tornado risk, or more in the form of a squall line, resulting in a higher risk of damaging straight-line winds along with embedded tornadoes.

Read More..

Newtown Christmas: 'We Know They'll Feel Loved'

As residents prepared to observe Christmas less than two weeks after a gunman killed 20 children and six educators at an elementary school, people sharing in the town's mourning brought offerings of cards, handmade snowflakes and sympathy.

Tiny empty Christmas stockings with the victims' names on them hung from trees in the neighborhood where the children were shot. On Christmas Eve, residents said they would light luminaries outside their homes in memory of the victims.

"We know that they'll feel loved. They'll feel that somebody actually cares," said Treyvon Smalls, a 15-year-old from a few towns away who arrived at town hall with hundreds of cards and paper snowflakes collected from around the state.

At the Trinity Episcopal Church, less than 2 miles from the school, an overflow crowd of several hundred people attended Christmas Eve services. They were greeted by the sounds of a children's choir echoing throughout a sanctuary hall that had its walls decorated with green wreaths adorned with red bows.

The church program said flowers were donated in honor of Sandy Hook shooting victims, identified by name or as the "school angels" and "Sandy Hook families."

Julio Cortez, File/AP Photo

U.S. Sends Christmas Wishes to Newtown, Conn. Watch Video

Season of Giving: Newtown Tragedy Inspires Country to Spread Kindness Watch Video

Gun Violence Victims, Survivors Share Thoughts After Newtown Massacre Watch Video

The service, which generally took on a celebratory tone, made only a few vague references to the shooting. Pastor Kathie Adams-Shepherd led the congregation in praying "that the joy and consolation of the wonderful counselor might enliven all who are touched by illness, danger, or grief, especially all those families affected by the shootings in Sandy Hook."

Police say the gunman, Adam Lanza, killed his mother in her bed before his Dec. 14 rampage and committed suicide as he heard officers arriving. Authorities have yet to give a theory about his motive.

While the grief is still fresh, some residents are urging political activism in the wake of the tragedy. A grassroots group called Newtown United has been meeting at the library to talk about issues ranging from gun control, to increasing mental health services to the types of memorials that could be erected for the victims. Some clergy members have said they also intend to push for change.

"We seek not to be the town of tragedy," said Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel. "But, we seek to be the town where all the great changes started."

Since the shooting, messages similar to the ones delivered Monday have arrived from around the world. People have donated toys, books, money and more. A United Way fund, one of many, has collected $3 million. People have given nearly $500,000 to a memorial scholarship fund at the University of Connecticut. On Christmas Day, police from other towns have agreed to work so Newtown officers can have the time off.

At Washington's National Cathedral, the 20 children who were killed also were remembered. Angels made of paper doilies were used to adorn the altar in the children's chapel. They'll be displayed there through Jan. 6.

In the center of Newtown's Sandy Hook section Monday, a steady stream of residents and out-of-towners snapped pictures, lit candles and dropped off children's gifts at an expansive memorial filled with stuffed animals, poems, flowers, posters and cards.

"All the families who lost those little kids, Christmas will never be the same," said Philippe Poncet, a Newtown resident originally from France. "Everybody across the world is trying to share the tragedy with our community here."

Read More..

Afghan policewoman kills U.S. adviser in police chief's compound

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan policewoman shot dead on Monday a U.S. forces member in the chief of police's compound in Kabul, police and NATO said, another "insider attack" that is bound to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war.

It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces shot a member of the Western coalition force supporting and training Afghanistan's military and police.

"A U.S. police adviser was killed in an attack by an Afghan policewoman," a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

Mohammad Zahir, head of the police criminal investigation department, described the incident as an "insider attack" in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troops they are supposed to be working with.

After more than 10 years of conflict, militants are capable of staging attacks on Western targets in the heart of the capital, and foreign forces worry that members of the Afghan police and military they are supposed to work with can suddenly turn on them.

The policewoman approached the American adviser as he was walking in the heavily guarded police chief's compound in a bustling area of the capital. She then drew a pistol and shot him once, a senior police official told Reuters.

The police compound is close to the Interior Ministry where in February, two American officers were shot dead at close range at a time anger gripped the country over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base.

"She is now under interrogation. She is crying and saying 'what have I done'," said the official of the police officer who worked in a section of the Interior Ministry responsible for gender awareness issues.

The insider incidents, also known as green-on-blue attacks, have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taliban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

Security responsibilities in a country plagued by conflict for decades will be handed to Afghan security forces.

Many Afghans fear a civil war like one dominated by warlords after the withdrawal of Soviet occupying forces in 1989 could erupt again, or the Taliban will make another push to seize power if they reject a nascent peace process.

At least 52 members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been killed this year by Afghans wearing police or army uniforms.

Insider attacks now account for one in every five combat deaths suffered by NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, and 16 percent of all U.S. combat casualties, according to 2012 data.

Hoping to stop the alarming rise in the attacks, Afghan Defense Ministry officials have given their troops tips in foreign culture, telling them not to be offended by a hearty pat on the back or an American soldier asking after your wife's health.

NATO attributes only about a quarter of the attacks to the Taliban, saying the rest are caused by personal grievances and misunderstandings. Last year, there were 35 deaths in such attacks.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Read More..

American killed by Afghan policewoman

KABUL, Afghanistan An Afghan police official says an Afghan policewoman has killed an American adviser at the Kabul police headquarters.

Kabul's Deputy Police Chief, Mohammad Daoud Amin, says an investigation is under way to determine whether the killing Monday was intentional or accidental.

Charles Stadtlander, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the U.S.-led military coalition, tells CBS News the victim was a civilian and the assailant is in custody.

More than 50 international troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers or police this year, and a number of other assaults -- known as "insider attacks" -- are still being probed.

This would apparently be the first such attack involving a female assailant.

NATO forces, due to mostly withdraw from the country by 2014, have sped up efforts to train and advise Afghan military and police units before the pullout.

The surge in insider attacks is throwing doubt on the capability of the Afghan security forces to take over from international troops and has further undermined public support in NATO countries for the 11-year war.

More than 50 Afghan members of the government's security forces also have died this year in attacks by their own colleagues.

Taliban militants claim such attacks reflect a growing popular opposition to both foreign military presence and the Kabul government.

Read More..

Get 'em While You Can? Gun Sales Soar

The National Rifle Association may still get its way and defeat the lawmakers calling for a ban on the sale of assault ridles, but some gun store owners say it seems their customers aren't taking any chances.

"We have never seen anything like this," said Larry Hyatt, who owns a gun shop in Charlotte, N.C. "We have the Christmas business, the hunting season business, and now we have the political business.

"We have seen a lot of things, but we have never seen anything like this, this is probably four times bigger than the last time we saw a big rush," he said.

Some of the customers in his store said it is the talk of stricter gun control in the wake of the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that is driving the rush.

"The way they are trying to approach it, they are just making people who have never thought about buying a gun, now they want to come in here and buy a gun," one customer said.

At NOVA Firearms in Falls Church, Va., there have been "skyrocketing" sales following the Newtown shooting, chief firearms instructor Chuck Nesby said.

"They've been off the charts. Absolutely skyrocketing," Nesby said. "If I could give an award to President Obama and Senator Feinstein would be sales persons of the year."

He was referring to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who said she will introduce an assault weapons ban in January.

Sales are up 400 percent, he said.

"We're completely out of the so-called assault weapons, semi automatic firearms that are rifles," Nesby said. "Forty percent of those sales went to women and senior citizens. We can't get them now. Everybody, nationwide is out of them the sales have just been off the charts nationwide."

National Rifle Association News Conference Interrupted by Protesters Watch Video

The horrific shooting, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza broke in to the elementary school and killed 20 children and six adults with a semi-automatic rifle, has even some former NRA supporters saying it's time to change the rules on assault weapons.

Those guns were banned from 1994 until 2004, when the ban expired and was not renewed.

Now it's not just lawmakers who have traditionally advocated stricter gun control talking about the need to act.

Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas suggested today on CBS' "Face the Nation" that new regulation should be considered.

"We ought to be looking at where the real danger is, like those large clips, I think that does need to be looked at," Hutchison said. "It's the semi-automatics and those large magazines that can be fired off very quickly. You do have to pull the trigger each time, but it's very quick."

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat but a long-time opponent of gun control who like Hutchison has received an A rating from the NRA, has also come out in support of strengthening gun laws.

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre said Friday that more gun control is not the way to stop such shooting from happening again: the answer is more guns, in the form of armed guards in every school.

After being criticized for two days for the proposal, LaPierre today stuck by his guns.

"If it's crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"When that horrible monster tried to shoot his way into Sandy Hook school, that if a good guy with a gun had been there, he might have been able to stop [it]," LaPierre said.

LaPierre and the NRA said that the media, the entertainment culture and lack of proper mental health care are to blame, not the proliferation of guns in the United States.

Asa Hutchinson, the former congressman who will lead the effort by the NRA to place armed security guards in schools across the country, said today on "This Week" that gun control efforts would not be part of the "ultimate solution" to gun violence.

Read More..

Israel says Syria chemical weapons are secure for now

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Syria's chemical weapons are still secure despite the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of parts of the country, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday.

Amos Gilad told Army Radio that the civil war between Assad and opposition forces fighting to topple him had become deadlocked, but that the Syrian leader showed no signs of heeding international calls to step down.

"Suppose he (Assad) does leave, there could be chaos ... in the Middle East you never know who will come instead. We need to stay level-headed; the entire world is dealing with this. At the moment, chemical weapons are under control," Gilad said.

As Syria's southern neighbor, Israel has been concerned about chemical weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants or Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, warning it could intervene to stop such developments.

Western countries said three weeks ago that Assad's government might be preparing to use poison gas to repel rebel fighters who are encamped around Damascus, the capital, and who control rural Aleppo and Idlib in the north.

"The opposition is not managing to defeat him and he is not defeating the opposition, though more and more parts of Syria are no longer under his control and that is what matters," Gilad said.

The rebels - mainly Sunni Muslims - are pushing southwards from their northern strongholds into the central province of Hama.

But Assad, who is from the Alawite minority linked to Shi'ite Islam, has responded with artillery, air strikes and, according to NATO, with Scud-type missiles.

Western powers and some Arab countries have called for Assad to step down, but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that international efforts to persuade Assad to quit would fail.

Lavrov said Russia had rejected requests from countries in the region to pressure Assad to go or to offer him safe haven. If Assad did exit the political scene, it could lead to an upsurge in the fighting that activists say has killed 44,000 people since the uprising began in March 2011, Lavrov said.

(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Osborn)

Read More..

More S'poreans fall prey to phone scams

SINGAPORE: More Singaporeans fell prey to lucky draw phone scams in the first eight months of the year.

Police said there were 234 reported cases in the period, of which 134 victims were cheated of their money.

Between January and August last year, there were 201 reported cases of lucky draw phone scams and 123 victims who were cheated.

The amount of money cheated from victims went up by 21 per cent to S$4.6 million, compared to S$3.8 million in the same period last year.

Police said victims include professionals, youths and senior citizens.

Tricksters would typically call their victims and inform them that they have won a prize in a lucky draw overseas.

In order to redeem the prize, which could be a luxury car or air tickets, the victim will have to pay a processing fee or tax upfront.

After receiving the first payment via bank transfers, the tricksters would ask for subsequent payments.

The victim usually realises he or she has been cheated when the culprit becomes uncontactable.

Police advised the public to call 999 immediately if they receive a lucky draw phone scam call.

The public should not make any advance payment to claim any prize.

- CNA/xq

Read More..

First day tips and tweaks for new MacBook owners

As much as new MacBook owners love to rave about their systems, no laptop -- even one with an Apple logo -- comes right out of the box ready to perform optimally.

And while it's certainly exciting to unwrap a new holiday MacBook, there are a handful of tweaks, tips, and fixes you should check out on day one that will make your MacBook easier to use. I've put together some of my personal favorites here.

There are many more I could list, and I'm sure I've left out some of your favorites, so feel free to leave your own Day One tips for new MacBook owners in the comments section.

 

Featured Posts

Most Popular

Holiday Gift Guide

Your mobile devices could use a little holiday cheer as well. Take a look at this gathering of affordable accessories.

Read More..