Obama returns as fiscal cliff battle heats up

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama rushed back to Washington Thursday in a last-ditch effort to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," even as key figures in any deal -- House Republicans -- stayed home.

Cutting short his own Christmas vacation in Hawaii, Obama arrived at the White House shortly before noon (1700 GMT), ignoring questions about the looming financial crisis shouted by reporters as he strode inside.

He has returned to a sharply divided Washington, where the mood has soured on a possible plan to prevent hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes from hitting all Americans and deep automatic spending cuts from kicking in beginning January 1.

Lawmakers have stubbornly refused to compromise, and the Senate's Democratic leader blamed Republicans for the breakdown.

With less than five days before a year-end deadline, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "it looks like" the US economy will hurtle over the fiscal cliff because House Speaker John Boehner and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were stalling.

Reid said Boehner was running a "dictatorship" in the House by refusing to put to a vote a Senate-passed bill which would prevent taxes from rising on all households making less than $250,000 per year.

He also took Boehner to task for keeping his members on vacation instead of returning for a rare holiday week session.

"Without participation of Leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner, nothing can happen on the fiscal cliff -- and so far they are radio silent," a furious Reid said on the Senate floor.

"Take the escape hatch that we've left you" in the form of the Senate bill, Reid advised Boehner. "Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as speaker of the House."

Congress has shown no signs of nearing any accord, and Boehner last week punted to the Democrat-led Senate, asking Obama and Reid to draft legislation that could pass both chambers.

With Boehner remaining in his state of Ohio on Thursday, his office shot back with a curt message.

"Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.

"The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Obama called Boehner, McConnell, Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi late Wednesday to discuss the way forward, the White House said.

McConnell's office said the senator was "happy to review what the president has in mind, but to date, the Senate Democrat majority has not put forward a plan."

"When they do, members on both sides of the aisle will review the legislation and make decisions on how best to proceed," it added.

Last week, Obama urged Congress to end the deadlock.

The situation has spooked markets, left Americans wondering whether they will pay thousands more in taxes next year, and worried the Pentagon, which fears defense cuts could undermine the military.

Complicating efforts to avoid fiscal disaster, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that his department will need to take "extraordinary measures" to keep the US government from defaulting on its liabilities.

Geithner said in a letter to Reid that the nation will reach its statutory $16.39 trillion debt limit on December 31.

His measures would create some $200 billion in headroom that under normal conditions could last until the end of February.

But with "significant" budgetary uncertainty in 2013, "it is not possible to predict the effective duration of these measures," Geithner said.

Experts say a failure to strike a compromise by New Year's Eve could plunge the world's biggest economy into recession.

With the cliff deadline fast approaching, Obama has pared back his hopes for a year-end, multi-trillion-dollar grand bargain that slashes the deficit over a 10-year period.

Instead, he said Congress should approve a stop-gap measure that protects middle-class taxpayers while laying groundwork for further deficit reduction next year.

Obama campaigned for re-election vowing to extend Bush-era tax breaks for households earning up to $250,000 a year, but even if all Democrats voted for such a plan, it would need support from two dozen House Republicans.

Most Republicans in Congress have signed a no-new-taxes pledge, however, and it was unclear just how many would violate that oath in order to strike a deal.

While the Senate resumed its work Thursday, the House was absent, with Boehner promising to give members 48 hours notice before recalling them.

Reid accused Boehner of wanting to go over the fiscal cliff and see all taxes rise, so that Republicans could then vote to reduce middle-class taxes to pre-2013 rates.

-AFP/ac

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Tablets more popular than e-readers among e-book crowd

More people are reading e-books, and more of them are using
tablets as their primary device.

The percentage of Americans who now read e-books rose to 23 percent from 16 percent a year ago, says a report out today from Pew Internet. Over the same time, the percentage of those who read printed books dropped to 67 percent from 72 percent.

From the poll conducted in October and November, the percentage of people who own a tablet or dedicated e-reader jumped to 33 percent from just 18 percent a year ago.

But among the two types of devices, tablets are proving more dominant.

As of November, 25 percent of those polled said they own a tablet, while 19 percent own a dedicated reader. Last year, both devices were neck and neck with 10 percent ownership. And surveys taken in May 2011 and 2010 showed e-readers then more popular than tablets.

Libraries are also feeling the greater interest in e-books. The percentage of people who borrowed an electronic book from their library rose to 5 percent from 3 percent a year ago. And the share of those who are aware that their libraries offer e-books increased to 31 percent from 24 percent last year.

Who's reading all these e-books?

Among those polled, the ones most likely to read an e-book included people with college or graduate degrees, those with households incomes more than $75,000, and folks between 30 and 49 years old.

Men and women were about on par, while people living in urban areas came in higher than those in suburban or rural communities.

I've always tended to prefer printed books, in large part because of their feel and texture. And I enjoy just browsing through the variety of books on the shelves at my local library and choosing one at random.

But after buying the 7-inch Google Nexus tablet, I now read e-books more frequently. For me, the experience still isn't the same, but the convenience and accessbility to electronic books is definitely appealing.

Pew's data is based on a survey conducted from October 15 to November 10, 2012 among 2,252 Americans ages 16 and older.

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Former President Bush stays in ICU, fever lingers

(CBS News) Former President George H.W. Bush remains in the intensive care unit of Houston's Methodist Hospital on Thursday, after battling a bronchitis-like cough and fever for over a month.

Doctors say his condition is improving since he suffered a setback on Christmas Day but also say they are having trouble keeping the former president's fever under control. He was reportedly put on a liquid diet on Wednesday.

After a family spokesman referenced Bush's "stubborn fever" and "guarded condition," his office released a statement saying doctors remain "cautiously optimistic" about the 41st president's prognosis. CBS News' Anna Werner reports that he has been able to receive visits from his wife, children, and grandchildren and to join them in a Christmas day takeout meal.

Thursday, Dr. Lori Mosca of Columbia University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital explained that "guarded condition" "is somewhere in between being stable and critical," a state that requires constant careful monitoring by doctors.

Dr. Mosca added that while the fever could be due to bronchitis, "any fever in an elderly person is serious," and that doctors should continue to look for the source of the fever -- which could range from an allergic reaction, to a drug reaction, to an immune system issue.

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At Cliff's Edge, Reid Decries Boehner's 'Dictatorship'

With only five days left before the federal government goes over the fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shattered any pretense of cooperation with Republicans in a scathing speech that targeted House Republicans and particularly Speaker John Boehner.

Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the floor of the Senate as President Obama returned to Washington early from an Hawaiian vacation in what appears to be a dwindling hope for a deal on taxes and spending cuts before the Jan. 1 deadline that will trigger tax increases and sharp spending cuts.

Boehner, however, has not returned to Washington from a Christmas break and has not called the House back into session.

"We are here in Washington working while the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here," Reid said. "I can't imagine their consciences."

House Republicans have balked at a White House deal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 and even rejected Boehner's proposal that would limit the tax increases to people earning more than $1 million.

Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images

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"It's obvious what's going on," Reid said while referring to Boehner. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get reelected to speaker because he has so many people over there that won't follow what he wants. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a firm financial footing."

Reid said the House is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker" and suggested today that the Republicans should agree to accept the original Senate bill pass in July. Reid's comments, however, made it clear he did not expect that to happen.

"It looks like" the nation will go over the fiscal cliff in just five days, he declared.

"It's not too late for the speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but that time is even winding down," Reid said. "So I say to the speaker, take the escape hatch that we've left you. Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House."

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel reacted to Reid's tirade in an email, writing, "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Boehner has said it is now up to the Senate to come up with a deal.

Obama, who landed in Washington late this morning, made a round of calls over the last 24 hours to Reid, Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

McConnell "is happy to review what the president has in mind, but to date, the Senate Democrat majority has not put forward a plan," McConnell aide Don Stewart said in a statement. "When they do, members on both sides of the aisle will review the legislation and make decisions on how best to proceed."

Jason Peuquet, research director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said the conditions for a bipartisan agreement are there.

"Just by the numbers, they're incredibly close," Peuquet told ABC News. "And so it seems pretty crazy that they wouldn't be able to find an agreement."

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Syria to discuss Brahimi peace proposals with Russia

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss proposals to end the conflict convulsing his country made by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power, but has disclosed little about how this might be done.

More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests but which has descended into civil war.

Past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad flew to Moscow to discuss the details of the talks with Brahimi, said a Syrian security source, who would not say if a deal was in the works.

However, a Lebanese official close to Damascus said Makdad had been sent to seek Russian advice on a possible agreement.

He said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, who met Foreign Minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday a day after his session with Assad, but who has not outlined his ideas in public.

"There is a new mood now and something good is happening," the official said, asking not to be named. He gave no details.

Russia, which has given Assad diplomatic and military aid to help him weather the 21-month-old uprising, has said it is not protecting him, but has fiercely criticized any foreign backing for rebels and, with China, has blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria.

"ASSAD CANNOT STAY"

A Russian Foreign Ministry source said Makdad and an aide would meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, on Thursday, but did not disclose the nature of the talks.

On Saturday, Lavrov said Syria's civil war had reached a stalemate, saying international efforts to get Assad to quit would fail. Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels were gaining ground and might win.

Given the scale of the bloodshed and destruction, Assad's opponents insist the Syrian president must go.

Moaz Alkhatib, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian National Coalition opposition, has criticized any notion of a transitional government in which Assad would stay on as a figurehead president stripped of real powers.

Comments on Alkhatib's Facebook page on Monday suggested that the opposition believed this was one of Brahimi's ideas.

"The government and its president cannot stay in power, with or without their powers," Alkhatib wrote, saying his Coalition had told Brahimi it rejected any such solution.

While Brahimi was working to bridge the vast gaps between Assad and his foes, fighting raged across the country and a senior Syrian military officer defected to the rebels.

Syrian army shelling killed about 20 people, at least eight of them children, in the northern province of Raqqa, a video posted by opposition campaigners showed.

The video, published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, showed rows of blood-stained bodies laid out on blankets. The sound of crying relatives could be heard in the background.

The shelling hit the province's al-Qahtania village, but it was unclear when the attack had occurred.

STRATEGIC BASE

Rebels relaunched their assault on the Wadi Deif military base in the northwestern province of Idlib, in a battle for a major army compound and fuel storage and distribution point.

Activist Ahmed Kaddour said rebels were firing mortars and had attacked the base with a vehicle rigged with explosives.

The British-based Observatory, which uses a network of contacts in Syria to monitor the conflict, said a rebel commander was among several people killed in Wednesday's fighting, which it said was among the heaviest for months.

The military used artillery and air strikes to try to hold back rebels assaulting Wadi Deif and the town of Morek in Hama province further south. In one air raid, several rockets fell near a field hospital in the town of Saraqeb, in Idlib province, wounding several people, the Observatory said.

As violence has intensified in recent weeks, daily death tolls have climbed. The Observatory reported at least 190 had been killed across the country on Tuesday alone.

The head of Syria's military police changed sides and declared allegiance to the anti-Assad revolt.

"I am General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal, head of the military police. I have defected because of the deviation of the army from its primary duty of protecting the country and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction," the officer said in a video published on YouTube.

A Syrian security source confirmed the defection, but said Shalal was near retirement and had only defected to "play hero".

Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar left Lebanon for Damascus after being treated in Beirut for wounds sustained in a rebel bomb attack this month.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Indian gang-rape victim to be flown to Singapore: reports

NEW DELHI: An Indian student who was left fighting for her life after being gang-raped in New Delhi is to be flown for treatment to Singapore, medical sources and reports said on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old, whose attack sparked protests across India, has been moved from the Safdarjung hospital in central Delhi to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, close to the city's international airport, a source at Safdarjung told AFP.

She would then be flown out for treatment abroad, the source added, without confirming her destination.

"The decision was taken this morning at cabinet," said the source. "Her mother and father are with her."

The NDTV news channel and Press Trust of India said that the woman was expected to be flown out overnight to Singapore on an air ambulance.

The government had earlier announced it was setting up a special commission of inquiry after the gang-rape on December 16 when the woman was allegedly tricked into boarding a bus by six men who then took it in turns to assault her.

The group also attacked her with an iron bar before throwing out of the vehicle, along with a male companion.

Six suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack and have been remanded in custody.

- AFP/ac

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ZTE officially unveils high-end Nubia Z5

The ZTE Nubia Z5

(Credit:
ZTE)

Though it isn't slated for the U.S. anytime soon, ZTE's ultra high-end device, the Nubia Z5, finally launched today.

The handset comes in black or white, and has a 5-inch 1080p touchscreen with a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and 443ppi. The display itself is manufactured by Sharp.

Its aluminum uni-body design measures 5.43-inches tall, 2.71-inches wide, and it has a thin, 0.3-inch profile. And at 4.44 ounces, it's lightweight than most standard 5-inch smartphones.

The Nubia Z5 runs on
Android 4.1, and it's powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and 2,300mAh battery.

On the back there is a 13-megapixel camera with LED flash and it includes features like panoramic and continuous shooting. On the front is a 2-megapixel camera.

Other features include 2GB memory, 32GB of storage space, Dolby sound technology, and free backup to a private cloud service.

The device costs about $554.26 (3,456 yuan) and is ZTE's flagship phone for the season.

As previously mentioned, it doesn't look like there are plans for the Nubia Z5 to hit our shores, but if it's anything like the Grand S, another 5-inch, quad-core phone that ZTE will unveil at
CES 2013 for the U.S. market, I'll be pretty excited.

ZTE already said it wants to heavily invest in its U.S. presence, and if it releases reliable handsets like the Nubia Z5 here, it might get the recognition it's been trying so hard to attain.

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World's longest high-speed rail line opens in China

BEIJING China on Wednesday opened the world's longest high-speed rail line that more than halves the time required to travel from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in southern China.

The opening of the 1,428-mile line was commemorated by the 9 a.m. departure of a train from Beijing for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later.

China has massive resources and considerable prestige invested in its showcase high-speed railways program.

But it has in recent months faced high-profile problems: part of a line collapsed in central China after heavy rains in March, while a bullet train crash in the summer of 2011 killed 40 people. The former railway minister, who spearheaded the bullet train's construction, and the ministry's chief engineer, were detained in an unrelated corruption investigation months before the crash.

Trains on the latest high-speed line will initially run at 186 mph with a total travel time of about eight hours. Before, the fastest time between the two cities by train was more than 20 hours.

The line also makes stops in major cities along the way, including provincial capitals Shijiazhuang, Wuhan and Changsha.

More than 150 pairs of high-speed trains will run on the new line every day, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Railways.

Railway is an essential part in China's transportation system, and the government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.

The opening of the new line brings the total distance covered by China's high-speed railway system to more than 5,800 miles — about half its 2015 target of around 11,000 miles.

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Weather Death Toll Up to 6 as Storm Churns North

A killer Christmas storm is churning its way north leaving hundreds of thousands without power and snarling travel plans for people trying to get home after the holiday.

Six people have died, mostly in weather related car crashes, as the South was hammered by as many as 34 tornadoes and a lethal coating of sleet and snow that spread from the South into the Midwest.

Over 280,000 customers are without across the South today with 100,000 without power in Little Rock, Ark. alone.

The wild weather isn't over. Eighteen states from Tennessee to Maine are under winter storm warnings, blizzard warnings and advisories. Between one and two feet of snow is expected from Indianapolis to Cleveland to Syracuse, N.Y. and into Maine.

The number of flight cancellations nationwide is growing by the hour on one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season. But by noon more than 800 flights were canceled, according to FlightAware.com.

"Traveling will definitely be affected as people go home for the holidays," Bob Oravec, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service, told ABC News. "Anywhere from the Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley and the Northeast, there's definitely going to be travel issues as we have heavy snow and some very high winds."

Flights were disrupted in traffic hubs like Indianapolis International Airport because of heavy snowfall as well as Dallas/Fort Worth which was hit with five inches of snow on Christmas, a rarity for the city.

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Cancellations and delays are expected to ripple into the Northeast today where high winds, flooding and more than a foot of snow in some areas is expected.

Heavy winds could further complicate matters for travelers. According to Flightaware.com, fliers are experiencing delays up to an hour in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Some airlines are issuing flexible travel policies for travelers holding airline tickets today and tomorrow. Delta Airlines is allowing travelers to change their flights through Jan. 2 with no penalty. United Airlines has enacted a similar policy, as has Southwest. Policies vary slightly from airline to airline, travelers should check their carrier's web site for specifics. JetBlue, which has a major presence in New York, has not yet issued a policy but warned travelers via its web site to be prepared for delays.

Wild Holiday Weather

Severe weather on Christmas day spawned 34 tornado reports from Texas to Alabama.

In Mobile, Ala., a wide funnel cloud was barreled across the city as lightning flashed inside like giant Christmas ornaments.

The punishing winds mangled Mobile's graceful ante-bellum homes, and today, dazed residents are picking through debris while rescue crews search for people trapped in the rubble.

Teresa Mason told ABC News that she and her boyfriend panicked when they saw the tornado heading toward them in Stone County, in southern Mississippi, but she says they were actually saved when a tree fell onto the truck.

"[We] got in the truck and made it out there to the road. And that's when the tornado was over us. And it started jerking us and spinning us, "she said."This tree got us in the truck and kept us from being sucked up into the tornado."

The last time a number of tornadoes hit the Gulf Coast area around Christmas Day was in 2009, when 22 tornadoes struck on Christmas Eve morning, National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro told ABC News.

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Syria envoy seeks peace as clashes rage

BEIRUT (Reuters) - International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi pursued mediation efforts in Damascus on Tuesday, but there was no pause in the bloodletting as Syrian Christians marked a bleak Christmas Day with prayers for peace.

"We are here in a cave that symbolizes Syria right now," said a priest standing beside a nativity scene in a grotto.

"It is cold here but the door is open to all refugees," he told Syrian state TV. "Amid the hunger, cold and deprivation, we still have hope for peace and love for our country."

More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad erupted 21 months ago, igniting an increasingly sectarian conflict that broadly pits a Sunni Muslim majority against Assad's Alawite minority.

Christians, many of whom have been reluctant to join what they see as an Islamist-tinged insurgency, feel threatened.

Bishop John Kawak, speaking on state TV, said the Christmas holiday was "a symbol for the rebirth of the nation". He condemned "terrorism", the government's term for the rebellion.

Brahimi met some dissidents who are tolerated by Assad but rejected by the mainstream opposition and by rebels fighting to oust him, a day after he held talks with the Syrian president.

There was no word on any progress in the U.N.-Arab League' envoy's drive to end violence that has intensified in recent months as Assad uses airpower and artillery against rebel gains.

Raja Naser, secretary general of the National Coordination Body, said after meeting Brahimi that the envoy planned a week of meetings in Damascus and would stay until Sunday.

"There is still a lot of concern but there is also great hope that these meetings with other Syrian officials will result in some agreements or positive developments," he said.

But most opposition groups appear frustrated with Brahimi's quest for a deal on a transitional government. He has not clarified any role for Assad, whose foes say he must simply go, arguing that too much blood has been shed for any other outcome.

GULF PLEA

Gulf Arab leaders, who have long called for Assad's removal and some of whom have helped the rebels with guns and money, urged swift world action to halt the "massacres" and violations of international law in Syria.

The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes and government shelling in hotspots across the country, including towns on the eastern outskirts of Damascus.

Abu Nidal, a spokesman for the Rebel Military Council in Damascus, said fighters had killed the head of a local security branch in the capital's suburb of Jaramana, home to a large Christian and Druze population.

In his Christmas message to the world on Tuesday, Pope Benedict encouraged Syrians not to lose hope for peace.

"May peace spring up for the people of Syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenseless and reaps innocent victims," he said.

"I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict."

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled abroad to escape the daily violence. Those who remain face severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials as winter weather takes a grip.

Syrian activists offered a message of solidarity with Christians despite rising tensions in central Hama province, where rebels have demanded that Christian villages let them enter to force out the army and pro-Assad "shabbiha" militias.

"We say to the Christians, you are our brothers and our beloved, and your holiday is our holiday," said Abu Faisal, a Hama activist who posted a Christmas message on the Internet.

"The rebels are surrounding (the Christian town) Muhardeh to get rid of Assad's soldiers and shabbiha, but we have not forgotten your honorable stance when you took care of our refugees when the army entered Hama," he said.

"We will not accept that you are targeted by hatred, you are our brothers and our friends."

(Additional reporting by Philip Pullela in Vatican City and Asma Alsharif in Manama)

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