Hospitals Flooded With Flu Patients

U.S. emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with flu patients, turning away some of them and others with non-life-threatening conditions for lack of space.

Forty-one states are battling widespread influenza outbreaks, including Illinois, where six people -- all older than 50 -- have died, according to the state's Department of Public Health.

At least 18 children in the country have died during this flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The proportion of people seeing their doctor for flu-like symptoms jumped to 5.6 percent from 2.8 percent in the past month, according to the CDC.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago reported a 20 percent increase in flu patients every day. Northwestern Memorial was one of eight hospitals on bypass Monday and Tuesday, meaning it asked ambulances to take patients elsewhere if they could do so safely.

Dr. Besser's Tips to Protect Yourself From the Flu

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Most of the hospitals have resumed normal operations, but could return to the bypass status if the influx of patients becomes too great.

"Northwestern Memorial Hospital is an extraordinarily busy hospital, and oftentimes during our busier months, in the summer, we will sometimes have to go on bypass," Northwestern Memorial's Dr. David Zich said. "We don't like it, the community doesn't like it, but sometimes it is necessary."

A tent outside Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, Pa., was set up to tend to the overflowing number of flu cases.

A hospital in Ohio is requiring patients with the flu to wear masks to protect those who are not infected.

State health officials in Indiana have reported seven deaths. Five of the deaths occurred in people older than 65 and two younger than 18. The state will release another report later today.

Doctors are especially concerned about the elderly and children, where the flu can be deadly.

"Our office in the last two weeks has exploded with children," Dr. Gayle Smith, a pediatrician in Richmond, Va., said

It is the earliest flu season in a decade and, ABC News Chief Medical Editor Dr. Besser says, it's not too late to protect yourself from the outbreak.

"You have to think about an anti-viral, especially if you're elderly, a young child, a pregnant woman," Besser said.

"They're the people that are going to die from this. Tens of thousands of people die in a bad flu season. We're not taking it serious enough."

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Freed Iranians arrive in Damascus after prisoner swap

DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Forty-eight Iranians freed by Syrian rebels in exchange for more than 2,000 civilian prisoners held by the Syrian government arrived in central Damascus on Wednesday, a Reuters witness reported.

The Syrian government has not referred to the prisoner swap and the whereabouts of the civilian prisoners was not immediately known.

Opposition groups accuse it of detaining tens of thousands of political prisoners during his 12 years in office and say those numbers have spiked sharply during the 21-month-old civil war.

The Syrian rebel al-Baraa brigade seized the Iranians in early August and initially threatened to kill them, saying they were members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent to fight for President Bashar al-Assad.

The Islamic Republic, one of his staunchest allies, denied this, saying they were Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims visiting shrines, and it asked Turkey and Qatar to use their connections with Syrian insurgents to help secure their release.

The freed Iranians arrived at a Damascus hotel in six small buses, looking tired but in good health, each carrying a white flower, and they were welcomed by Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sheibani. They did not speak to reporters.

Bulent Yildirim, head of the Turkish humanitarian aid agency IHH which helped broker the deal, told Reuters by telephone from Damascus shortly beforehand that the reciprocal release of 2,130 civilian prisoners - most of them Syrian but also including Turks and other foreign citizens - had begun.

Syrian government forces have struck local deals with rebel groups to trade prisoners but the release announced on Wednesday was the first time non-Syrians were freed in an exchange.

The Damascus government has periodically freed hundreds of prisoners during the conflict but always stressed such detainees "do not have blood on their hands."

Given the number of political prisoners held during the course of Assad's rule, missing persons became a key issue when street protests against him first erupted in March 2011.

Turkey is one of Assad's fiercest critics, a strong backer of his opponents and proponent of international intervention. It has denounced Iran's stance during the Syrian uprising, which has killed around 60,000 people according to a U.N. estimate.

Turkey, Gulf Arab states, the United States and European allies support the mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels, while Shi'ite Iran supports Assad, whose Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

A pro-government newspaper said on December 31 that Syrian forces arrested four Turkish fighter pilots who were trying to sneak into a military airport with an armed group in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Damascus-based al-Watan newspaper said the arrests at the Koers military base, 24 km (15 miles) east of Aleppo city, proved "scandalous Turkish involvement" in Syria's crisis.

TURKEY, QATAR INTERVENE

The al-Baraa brigade, part of the umbrella rebel organization, the Free Syrian Army, said in October it would start killing the Iranians unless Assad freed Syrian opposition detainees and stopped shelling civilian areas.

But Qatar, following a request from Iran, urged the rebels not to carry out the threat.

Insurgents fighting to topple Assad accuse Iran of sending fighters from the Revolutionary Guards to help his forces crush the revolt, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.

The rebels now control wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, most of its border crossings with Turkey and a crescent of suburbs around the capital Damascus.

But Assad's government is still firmly entrenched in the capital and controls most of the densely populated southwest, the Mediterranean coast and the main north-south highway.

The IHH has been involved in previous negotiations in recent months to release prisoners, including two Turkish journalists and Syrian citizens, held in Syria.

The humanitarian group came to prominence in May 2010 when Israeli marines stormed its Mavi Marmara aid ship to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists on board.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

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Hong Kong leader survives impeachment bid

HONG KONG: Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers failed in an unprecedented bid on Wednesday to impeach the city's embattled Beijing-backed leader, after they accused him of breaking housing laws and urged him to quit.

The city's first impeachment motion, which accused Leung Chun-ying of lying, dereliction of duty and serious breaches of the law in a row stemming from illegal structures at his luxury home, was denied after eight hours of debate.

The 27 pro-democracy lawmakers who signed the joint motion -- which they said was a symbolic move -- voted in favour, while 37 voted against in the 70-seat legislature which is dominated by pro-Beijing members.

Wednesday's vote followed a protest on New Year's Day in which tens of thousands took to the streets to urge Leung to quit and to press for greater democracy, 15 years after the city returned to Chinese rule.

The former British colony maintains a semi-autonomous status, with its own legal and judicial system, but cannot choose its leader through the popular vote.

Leung took office in July after he was picked by a 1,200-strong election committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites, amid rising anger over what many perceive to be China's meddling in local affairs.

China has said the chief executive could be directly elected in 2017 at the earliest, with the legislature following by 2020.

Unauthorised structures are a politically sensitive issue in the space-starved city of seven million and demonstrators have used the scandal to press for universal suffrage in choosing Hong Kong's leader.

Leung secured the chief executive role after criticising his rival Henry Tang over illegal structures at Tang's home.

But he has since acknowledged and apologised for structures at his own home which were built without planning permission.

Maverick lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, wearing a T-shirt reading "We topple a tyrant", accused the new leader of lying about his own structures during campaigning when he presented the impeachment motion earlier on Wednesday.

"He has used dishonest ways to win the election," he said.

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, second in command in Leung's administration, said the motion was unnecessary and urged lawmakers to work together on policy and livelihood issues.

But Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau said the motion was a symbolic gesture to show the deepening public mistrust toward Leung, claiming the leader had "cheated his way to power".

"This is the first time we have a motion in the legislature to impeach a cheating chief executive," she said.

If the motion had been passed, the city's highest court would have had to initiate an investigation. At least two-thirds of the legislature would need to endorse a guilty finding before Leung could be removed from office.

Earlier, rival protesters traded barbs outside the legislature and security personnel had to step in at one point when an angry pro-government supporter charged towards the rival group, TV footage showed.

Leung's popularity ratings have fallen since the controversy, with discontent over issues including sky-high property prices and anti-Beijing sentiment remaining high.

- AFP/xq

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Off-the-beaten-track at CES 2013

Samsung. Panasonic. Sony. Intel. Qualcomm. All have big booths pitching smartphones, smart TVs, smart
tablets, smart cameras -- you name it.

But my first day at CES 2013 was spent wandering around exploring things from companies you've likely never heard of. And there's some interesting stuff out there!

Most of my time on Tuesday at CES was spent wandering the South Hall. What I'll cover below are things that caught my eye. Not all of these are necessarily new products, and this will be far from a comprehensive round-up within product categories. But I hope you'll find it interesting.

Take your phone underwater
One of my favorite finds was an inexpensive pouch from DiCAPac that lets you use your smartphone even if you're in water.

Sure, you've got waterproof cases out there like the Armor series from OtterBox. But at around $100, it's overkill for what I need: something light to protect my phone when I go paddleboarding, on the off-chance I might fall off.

Similarly, the Griffin Survivor is expensive at $80. The LifeProof, now down to around $45, is less expensive. But at $20 to $25, the DiCAPac cases beat them all.

DiCAPac waterproof case

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Do they really work? Well, my phone is working fine, after I dropped it into that fishtank above, while in one of the pouches. With luck, I'll never put it to a torture test, however. I'm not planning to use my phone in the water. I just want protection if I accidentally drop it. That's also another plus about the DiCAPac pouches. They float.

Hopefully I'll avoid dropping my phone at all, given that the pouches come with a long neck strap. As for why I'd even want a phone while paddleboarding, that's mainly for pictures. It's nice to get a shot of a great sunset or sea lions or other things I might spot. And again, this is where the pouch so far works well. You can tap the pouch down to your phone's touchscreen, and all the controls really work.

Will the pictures be blurry, shooting through the plastic? DiCAPac says it should be fine. We'll see.

There are similar products out there. A short walk away, the SEaLABox was being offered. And after returning from the show floor, some searching came up with AquaPac, which has similar looking pouches. A Wired review of waterproof case also led me to Ecases from Cascade Designs. I especially like the iSeries with a waterproof headphone jack. That might let me hook a cheap pair of headphones up to my iPhone or
iPod, so I can listen to tunes while paddling away.

Mind over matter
Of course, I might never drop my phone at all if I could develop telekinetic powers. That's not so science fiction, any longer. There are a number of devices out there where using your mind, you can move matter -- or at least transmit signals to electronics that will then move themselves.

NeuroSky, which provides EEG sensor technology to enable mind-over-matter devices, had a booth with products from a variety of partners, including The Force Trainer, to help young Jedis (and hopefully not young Siths) develop their powers.

But it was the Puzzlebox Brain Controlled Helicopter that was the star attraction. First there was a remote control helicopter craze. Then there was the Parrot smartphone controlled helicopter. This is 2013. If you're going to fly, you fly with your mind!

Steve Castellotti, flying the Puzzlebox helicopter with his mind

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Steve Castellotti, CTO of Puzzlebox, let me have a go. You have to concentrate on something, anything, and the more you stay focused on that task, the more the helicopter will stay airborne. It automatically tries to hover in the same place, so you're not trying to fly it around the room. You're just trying to keep it aloft.

For the record, singing the lyrics to Katy Perry's California Gurls in my head worked pretty well, but repeating the spelling of antidisestablishmentarianism over and over worked the best. I'm glad memorizing the spelling of that word back in fifth grade finally paid off.

I've Fallen & I Can't Get Up 2.0
Many people have seen the classic "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials, where an elderly woman summons help through a pendant that lets her call a monitoring and assistance service.

Well, the next generation of assistance services are here, where technology will know if you've fallen and get help without you even asking.

GoSafe by Philips Lifeline

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

That, at least, is what Philips Lifeline says it offers in its pendant. It can detect if you've fallen. It knows your location. And it'll make that call for you, when you can't, apparently.

Perhaps somewhat related, having trouble hearing on the phone as you're getting older? Hard to hit those little keys? Would pictures help you dial the right number? Well, just across from Philips, the Sonic Alert booth had those needs covered:

Sonic Alert phones

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Everybody wants to track your fitness
Speaking of health, how about staying healthy by monitoring your activity. Yeah, yeah. Fitbit. I still don't have one. Since I inline skate for exercise rather than run, I've never felt it's going to track my activity well.

But if you're like me and have avoided the Fitbit craze, look out. Booth after booth at CES seemed to be offering some type of activity tracker.

One that stood out was from Withings, the company that makes the wireless scale that I keep thinking is overkill. It will be releasing its Smart Activity Tracker. And you know that scale, sending data to my smartphone? Suddenly, that's looking pretty cool. Fitbit itself has a new band-based tracker called the Fitbit Flex that's coming.

What really caught my eye were the ibitz "family fitness keys" from GeoPalz. How could they not. Look at those colors!

ibitz family fitness keys

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

The versions for kids link to a game on their smartphone. They need to stay fit to keep their virtual characters fit. Kind of smart. For adults, there's more traditional tracking, plus options for monitoring your kids.

Ready to buy? Well, you can't. You can pre-order, and if enough people do, then the device will actually ship. So far, practically no one has ordered. Well, it was just announced. The product looks pretty cool; I hope it makes it.

Sports cameras everywhere!

Years ago, I got a Contour video camera that attached to my goggles, letting me film while I'm snowboarding. It drew looks, because there were so few people who had ruggedized cameras like that.

These days, we're well into the GoPro generation, it seems. With an array of devices to attach GoPro cameras to virtually any type of sporting equipment, GoPro seems to have become the standard in the space. Or at least my kids sure feel that way. For them and their friends, GoPro is cool. And I certainly do see GoPros far more than any other camera on the slopes.

If GoPro is king, perhaps this is the year where the rabble has turned out to try and unseat it. This year at CES, it seemed as if I was running into a GoPro competitor around every aisle.

And 170 degrees field of vision is so 2012. For 2013, it's all about the 360, or so the people at Geonaute would hope you believe. They've got a Geonaute 360 sports camera that shoots from all directions, so if you ever wanted to pretend you were a Google StreetView
car, check it out:

Geonaute 360

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Price? Release date? Sadly, the Geonaute site is lacking this. But maybe after CES, they'll provide some updates.

But who wants yet another camera sticking up off their helmet? The folks at Liquid Image have cameras built right into goggles:

Liquid Image camera googles

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Mmm. But then again, the folks at iON have a barrel-like format that reminds me of my old Contour, which I loved in how it could tuck it away against my googles, rather than stick off my helmet:

iON sports cameras

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

I actually didn't see these on the CES show floor but rather at the Pepcon Digital Experience event on Monday. Alas, there's no yet a way to attach them to your goggles, but I'm told that's coming.

Of course, maybe you'd prefer a Vivitar action camera:

Vivitar action camera

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Or a Polaroid one:

Polaroid action camera

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Or this GoPro clone:

Iron X Action Cam

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Well, if you really want that one, sorry -- I didn't stop long enough to catch the maker's name, and I can't find anything about it on the web. I mainly took it as yet another example of how action cameras were everywhere. I half-expected to find a "My Little Pony" action cam. Actually, it's probably out there, if I look hard enough.

Seeing all of these, I kept wondering if they'd eventually go the way of the dodo, when someone comes up with a way to make our smartphones do the same job. Turns out, Hitcase has a product at CES aiming to do that. I didn't see it, but CNET writer Amanda Kooser did and has a review.

And yes, GoPro was at the show with a big booth and cameras looking as compelling as ever. It even survived the CNET torture test of dunking it in liquid nitrogen.

3D Printing, movie posters as the new QR codes and more
But wait, there's more! Like the MakerBot booth being overrun by those curious to see some of its 3D printing creations:

MakerBot creations

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

MakerBot makes the Las Vegas sign

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Can't afford the MakerBot Replicator 2X that was unveiled at CES this week? Well, $2,800 is pretty pricey. How about effectively renting? The Sculpteo booth was touting how you can submit your own 3D models through the cloud for printing with its facilities. There's even a Made In 3D contest happening now to get you motivated.

Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures is super-excited about an app it has for the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness movie. Developed by Qualcomm Labs and aided by buzzwords that range from "context awareness technologies" to "geo-location recognition" to, oh, just go read the press release.

Cynicism aside, the app was pretty amazing in that when you pointed the phone with the app open at the Star Trek movie poster, it registered the poster within seconds of pushing the scan button, adding points to your app. It was like scanning a QR code, only the entire poster was the QR code -- and a pretty one:

Star Trek Into Darkness app

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Maybe this app will turn out to be fun. You can sign up here to be notified when it's available. Of course, app or not, I'm going to the next Star Trek movie. Who wouldn't?

Meanwhile, candy anyone?

Anything can be made to look like candy

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Candy-themed headphones aren't new -- CNET had a review of them back in 2009. But still, candy! The display above is just one of the many examples of odd, strange or wondrous things you find off the beaten track at CES.

Blade Runnerize your home

One of my very favorite finds were the "LED balls" that Samsung LED Signs sells:

LED Balls

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Logos spin around and around inside the balls. Presumably, you could have the LEDs make all types of pictures. For some reason, it reminded me of something out of the movie, Blade Runner.

For those with $1,000 to $1,600 to toss around, these might be the ideal conversation piece for the living room. But it's more likely that business trying to attract customers may want them. They sure pulled me in.

And no, despite the Samsung name, Samsung LED Signs apparently isn't connected with the big Samsung electronics group.

I'll leave off with this last bit of high tech from the wilds of CES that I guarantee won't make it into any other press write-up from the show:

Antennas

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

That's right. Antennas. They're making a comeback. You read it here first.

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Super Bowls ads selling for more than $4 million

NEW YORK Super Bowl ads have sold for more than $4 million for some 30-second spots for this year's game.

All the commercials for the NFL championship Feb. 3 in New Orleans are sold out, CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday.

Companies paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot last year, the previous record for a number that keeps going up. TV's biggest event averaged more than 111 million viewers in 2012. Marketers for everything from cars to yogurt used plenty of stars in last year's crop of ads.

For CBS, the entire company is taking part in promoting the Super Bowl. The network's telecasts will be headquartered in New Orleans' Jackson Square. The sets will be used by 15 different shows from nine CBS divisions, from the main network to cable channels to online to radio.

"We've never done anything like this before," CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said.

That list includes the daytime show "The Talk," which will broadcast from the city the week leading up to the game to try to take advantage of the Super Bowl's large female viewership.

The Jackson Square shoots will give CBS plenty of opportunities to highlight New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina as the city hosts its first Super Bowl since the storm. Its coverage will include a special called "New Orleans: Let The Good Times Roll" hosted by musician Wynton Marsalis airing at noon on Super Bowl Sunday.

The halftime show will be by Beyonce. Moonves joked: "I actually wanted Janet Jackson."

The last time a female pop star performed at the half of a Super Bowl on CBS, Jackson had her breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004. Moonves can laugh about it now, after the Supreme Court decided last summer not to consider reinstating the government's $550,000 fine on the network.

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Jodi Arias: Who Is the Admitted Killer?

Jodi Arias is a woman that many can't keep their eyes off of--a soft-spoken, small-framed 32-year-old who last year won a jailhouse Christmas caroling contest. But she is also an admitted killer who is now on trial in Arizona for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander.

Sitting in a Maricopa County court, Arias, whose trial resumes today, cries every time prosecutors describe what she admits she did -- stab her one-time boyfriend Travis Alexander 27 times, slit his throat and shoot him in the head.

Arias grew up in the small city of Yreka, Calif. She dropped out of high school, but received her GED while in jail a few years ago. She was an aspiring photographer; her MySpace page includes several albums of pictures, one of which was called "In loving memory of Travis Alexander."

FULL COVERAGE: Jodi Arias Murder Trial

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"Jodi wanted nothing but to please Travis," defense attorney Jennifer Wilmot said in her opening statements, but added that there was another reality – that Arias was Alexander's "dirty little secret."

Arias' attorneys want the jury to believe she killed Alexander in June of 2008 in self defense, that he abused her, and she feared for her life when she attacked him in the shower of his Mesa, Ariz., home.

Alexander's family and friends say Arias was a stalker who killed him in cold blood. They say the 30-year-old was a successful businessman who overcame all the odds. His parents were drug addicts, and he grew up occasionally homeless until he converted to Mormonism and turned his life around.

Jodi Arias Trial: A Timeline of Events in the Arizona Murder Case

"He actually had everything going for him," said Dave Hall, one of Alexander's friends. "A beautiful home, a beautiful car, a great income."

Alexander kept a blog, and in a haunting last entry, just two weeks before his murder, he wrote about trying to find a wife.

"This type of dating to me is like a very long job interview," he wrote. "Desperately trying to find out if my date has an axe murderer penned up inside of her."

Alexander did date a killer. It's now up to the jury to decide if she killed in self defense.

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Tunisia frees man held over attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an Islamist militant attack in Libya last year in which the U.S. ambassador was killed, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other American officials were killed.

"The judge decided to free Harzi and he is free now," lawyer Anouar Awled Ali told Reuters. "The release came in response to our request to free him for lack of evidence and after he underwent the hearing with American investigators as a witness in the case."

A Tunisian justice ministry spokesman confirmed the release of Harzi but declined to elaborate.

A month ago, Harzi refused to be interviewed by visiting U.S. FBI investigators over the September 11 assault on the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

The Daily Beast reported that shortly after the attacks began, Harzi posted an update on an unspecified social media site about the fighting.

It said Harzi was on his way to Syria when he was detained in Turkey at the behest of U.S. authorities, and that he was affiliated with a militant group in North Africa.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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India says two soldiers killed in clash with Pakistan troops

SRINAGAR, India: Pakistani troops killed two Indian soldiers on Tuesday near the tense disputed border between the nuclear-armed neighbours in Kashmir and one of the bodies was badly mutilated, the Indian army said.

The firefight broke out at about noon on Tuesday (0630 GMT) after an Indian patrol discovered Pakistani troops about half a kilometre (1,600 feet) inside Indian territory, an army spokesman told AFP.

A ceasefire has been in place along the Line of Control that divides the countries since 2003, but it is periodically violated by both sides and Pakistan said Indian troops killed a Pakistani soldier on Sunday.

Relations had been slowly improving over the last few years following a rupture in their slow-moving peace process after the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, which were blamed by India on Pakistan-based militants.

"There was a firefight with Pakistani troops," army spokesman Rajesh Kalia told AFP from the mountainous Himalayan region.

"We lost two soldiers and one of them has been badly mutilated," he added, declining to give more details on the injuries.

"The intruders were regular (Pakistani) soldiers and they were 400-500 metres (1,300-1,600 feet) inside our territory," he said of the clash in Mendhar sector, 173 kilometres (107 miles) west by road from the city of Jammu.

In Islamabad, a Pakistan military spokesman denied what he called an "Indian allegation of unprovoked firing". He declined to elaborate.

On Sunday, Pakistan said Indian troops had crossed the Line of Control and stormed a military post. It said one Pakistani soldier was killed and another injured.

It lodged a formal protest with India on Monday over what it called an unprovoked attack.

India denied crossing the line, saying it had retaliated with small arms fire after Pakistani mortars hit a village home.

A foreign ministry spokesman said Indian troops had undertaken "controlled retaliation" on Sunday after "unprovoked firing" which damaged a civilian home.

The deaths are set to undermine recent efforts to improve relations, such as opening up trade and offering more lenient visa regimes which have been a feature of talks between senior political leaders from both sides.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is a Himalayan region which India and Pakistan both claim in full but rule in part. It was the cause of two of three wars between the neighbours since independence from Britain in 1947.

- AFP/fa

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Amazon Prime lands in Canada

Amazon Prime has expanded its coverage to Canada, but not all benefits will be part of the package.

Starting today, Prime will be offered to Canadian consumers for the yearly fee of $79.

The service's unlimited two-day shipping will be available in most of the country, according to Canada's Times Colonist. People in rural areas can grab the unlimited shipping but with no two-day guarantee. Those in certain locations will be able to upgrade to one-day shipping starting at $3.99 per item.

Steve Oliver, the country manager for Amazon.ca, told the Times Colonist that the shipping guarantee is good for millions of products sold by the store.

Amazon Prime also provides free Kindle e-book lending and the Instant Video streaming service to its U.S. members. But Canadian subscribers are out of luck. Oliver told the Times Colonist that at this point the company has no plans to offer those options in Canada.

Amazon Prime is also available in the U.K, Japan, France, and Germany.

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Concordia capt. "painted worse than bin Laden"

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Costa Concordia disaster, in which 32 people were killed when the cruise ship ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio, the captain of the ship told an Italian newspaper that he "was painted worse than bin Laden."

82 Photos

Luxury cruise ship runs aground

Francesco Schettino said in an interview with the Turin newspaper La Stampa that he is tormented by the disaster.

"It is sincere pain from the bottom of my heart," he said.

The 950-foot-long Costa Concordia struck rocks and capsized on January 13 last year. Thirty-two people aboard were killed and hundreds injured in the panicked evacuation.

Prosecutors have accused Shettino of sailing the luxury liner too close to shore. He faces multiple charges of manslaughter and of abandoning ship during the evacuation of the 4,200 passengers and crew on board.

Italian media have referred to Schettino as "Captain Coward,"

He complained to the paper that the press' characterization of him and his actions "ridicules not just 30 years of my work, my experience in the whole world, but also the image of our country, which has been exposed to the criticism, often unjust, of the entire planet."

The Costa Concordia cruise ship is seen on its side near the Italian island of Giglio, January 7, 2013.

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FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

Schettino - who told the paper that he did not intentionally abandon ship, but slipped and fell into a lifeboat when the Concordia listed to its side - says he may have made a mistake by sailing too close to land, but he was not given exact information, and should not be the only one to get the blame.

In fact, eight others (including the ship's first officer and four other crew members, and three members of a crisis unit set up by the cruise ship's owner) also face possible criminal charges following the Italian prosecutors' investigation, which concluded last month.

Play Video

Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck

Last Thursday at a Naples courtroom, Schettino brought a case against Costa Cruises, the ship's operator, for wrongful dismissal.

Efforts by salvage crews to right the ship are underway.

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