Hurricane Sandy Victims Find Refuge on Timeshare Marketplace RedWeek.com

Timeshares are not only for fun vacation getaways, as evidenced by the story of RedWeek.com members Bob and Jody; left homeless by Hurricane Sandy last month. With the holidays approaching, Bob and Judy turned to leading timeshare marketplace RedWeek.com to secure a timeshare rental in New York City.

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Timeshares are not only for fun vacation getaways, as evidenced by the story of RedWeek.com members Bob and Jody; left homeless by Hurricane Sandy last month.
Bob and Judy are one of the many families displaced by the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. With their Long Island home flooded and area hotels at capacity; the Bob and Judy began looking for a short-term rental property to no avail. Frustrated and exhausted, they began looking at every alternative for a place to live.
As timeshare owners, Bob and Judy knew the advantages of timesharing and had recently used leading timeshare marketplace RedWeek.com to rent out their own Aruba timeshare. Homeless and with the holidays approaching, they turned to RedWeek.com and began searching for timeshare rentals at The Manhattan Club resort in New York City.
“We decided to rent multiple units at the Manhattan Club so that we could spend the holiday all together in Manhattan,” said Jody. “When my husband and I checked in to the Manhattan Club, it was so luxurious that I actually began tearing up.”
Unlike standard hotels, timeshares offer home-like accommodations with multiple bedrooms, full kitchens or kitchenettes, and living and dining areas. Renting a timeshare directly from an owner is often cheaper than staying at a hotel, and the resorts offer the same hotel amenities such as pools, exercise facilities, reception areas, and concierge services.
“I have only good things to say about RedWeek and the Manhattan Club,” said Jody. “I plan to use RedWeek again when I need a vacation - the value and the superior accommodations were just more than I could have hoped for.”
To learn more about RedWeek.com or timesharing visit http://www.redweek.com.
About RedWeek.com:
RedWeek® is a registered trademark of RedWeek, Inc. RedWeek.com is a member-supported marketplace for timeshare rentals and resales, and also provides a full-service timeshare resale offering. You can find reviews, ratings, prices, availability, full-service exchange, and complete resort descriptions for all timeshare resorts to make vacation selection easier. Boasting an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, RedWeek has more than 1.5 million registered users and includes 5,000 timeshare resorts worldwide.

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Pure-Ecommerce.com Introduces Its New 2013 Premier Internet Business Site Collection Featuring Upgraded Designs, Larger Product Counts, and Video and Mobile Marketing

14 New Pure-Ecommerce.com Internet Businesses for Sale in the Most Popular Niche Markets in the Online Marketplace

CARY, NC (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Pure-Ecommerce.com introduces its 2013 Premier Internet Business Site Collection. This incredible new collection of 14 internet businesses for sale has been created in some of the most popular niche markets in the online marketplace. The Collection includes: eBaseballOutlet.com, eBasketballOutlet.com, EverythingDogShop.com, BlueSkyBeachStore.com, EveryStyleGift.com, eSoccerOutlet.com, ShootandScoreSports.com, BlackandWhiteDecorShop.com, GroovyGreenToys.com, ClassActCat.com, StudioDecorBoutique.com, GlassofWinePlease.com, AllAmericanMadePets.com, and TheModernBabyNursery.com. Pure-Ecommerce.com will continuously be introducing new sites to the Collection throughout 2013. It will also be offering more “sister” sites (such as eBaseballOutlet.com, eBasketballOutlet.com and eSoccerOutlet.com) to help clients expand their brand presence in the online marketplace by owning multiple internet businesses.
All Pure-Ecommerce internet businesses for sale come with a high quality, professionally designed site, as well as a 10- step training program and 40 hours of consulting to help burgeoning ecommerce entrepreneurs each step of the way! Every product featured on this site is drop shipped so no inventory is needed. It also allows for less overhead and gives owners more flexibility in managing their business and schedule. These sites feature upgraded designs as well as the addition of larger product counts, as well as Video Marketing and a Marketing Application and Site!
Pure-Ecommerce strives to be at the forefront of technology and incorporate the latest applications in all its internet business offerings. Varner wants her small business ecommerce clients to have all the latest and greatest technologies available to large ecommerce retailers. Pure-Ecommerce CEO Jennifer Varner says, “Mobile and Video Marketing are vital to any ecommerce strategy and help the e-retailer stay competitive, increase sales, drive up SEO rankings, build customer loyalty, and much more.” According to digital marketing technology company Monetate the growth in traffic on leading ecommerce websites over the past year has grown 103% with nearly 86 million Americans now shopping on their smartphones. And Practical Ecommerce says “increasing numbers of online retailers will be using video in 2013 to increase sales, find new potential customers, and build brand relationships.” Through personalized consultation and 24/7 access to an E-Learning Library, Varner and her team help clients understand how to use mobile and video marketing and design strategies to be best positioned to capitalize on these shifting market dynamics.
Pure-Ecommerce.com celebrates its sixth anniversary in 2013 and has helped over 550 entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Canada start their own internet businesses. CEO Jennifer Varner founded Pure-Ecommerce after gaining experience and success through starting one of the largest online maternity clothing stores, BellaBluMaternity.com. After selling her company, she began helping others realize their dreams of owning a business.
Buying a business from Pure-Ecommerce.com allows a budding entrepreneur to step into the business of their dreams with minimal start-up costs and low monthly and have someone personally mentor them through all aspects of setting up, running, and then growing an online business. Best of all, it provides them the opportunity to have a flexible schedule and to work when they want, where they want. A Pure-Ecommerce business can be run on a part-time basis while someone is still working or as a full-time business, depending upon the time one puts into growing their business. Pure-Ecommerce’s turnkey sites are especially attractive to budding mompreneurs and entrepreneurs; boomers looking for additional income to supplement their retirement; people looking for work-life balance; and the unemployed wishing to be their own boss and create their own destiny.
Pure-Ecommerce has been featured in several national magazines and websites such as Entrepreneur, Forbes and WomenEntrepreneur.com, as well as in national newspapers and on TV news programs. Pure-Ecommerce has also been selected as one of the top 50 Women-Owned businesses by Start-up Nation.

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Escape Villas Offers Family Vacation Rentals for the Holidays

Trade the cold winter weather in North America for a tropical Christmas vacation in Costa Rica, where travelers can spend their holidays enjoying outdoor family adventures in the comfort of an Escape Villa family vacation rental.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
As the holiday season approaches, more Americans are planning to travel for Christmas compared to 2011, according to a report by HomeAway, Inc. – an online vacation rental marketplace. The number of families traveling in December is expected to nearly double, rising from 22 percent in 2011 to 40 percent this year.
And while everyone looks forward to a “White Christmas,” some families are trading in blankets of fresh snow for the pristine white sands of a tropical beach. Costa Rica has long been a sun-kissed haven for vacationers seeking outdoor thrills and wildlife encounters, and its balmy weather is a welcome respite during the blustery winter season.
Escape Villas, Costa Rica’s leading vacation rental company, sees a ten-fold increase in reservations during the holiday season, with the majority of bookings made by large family groups. “One of the terrific features about vacation rentals is that extended families can stay together with all the creature comforts of home – but with a lot more space and privacy. They have their own swimming pool, kitchen, laundry facilities and an array of other amenities at no extra charge," says Escape Villas spokesperson, Sara Hopkins
With an impressive portfolio of villas and vacation rentals in some of Costa Rica’s most family-friendly locales, including Manuel Antonio, Tamarindo and Flamingo, Escape Villas caters to those seeking plenty of warm sunshine with easy access to national parks, beaches, nature tours and vibrant nightlife. According to Ms. Hopkins, most guests book their holiday beach vacation rentals at least six months in advance, sometimes even earlier.
On why families choose Escape Villas for their holiday plans, Sara Hopkins explains, “A Christmas vacation in Costa Rica takes the stress out of the holidays, as families can enjoy each other’s company in one of the most spectacular places in the world. The kids never forget the year Santa visited their beachfront home, where every day promised a new and exciting adventure.” Another built-in benefit to their vacation rentals: private chef services. No more slaving in the kitchen, as families can relax and spend time together while someone else prepares a home-cooked holiday feast.
When considering a holiday rental, timing is everything. Costa Rica has two tourism periods: a high season that lasts from December-April and corresponds with the country’s dry weather. And a low season, which runs from May-October, during Costa Rica’s rainy months. December and January are known for their fabulous climate, with cool breezes and average temperatures hovering around 82 F.
While prices may be steeper during this peak time, travelers are willing to shell out extra funds to reap the season’s many rewards, according to Escape Villas’ reservations manager. Recent statistics from a HomeAway, Inc. poll reveal that 31 percent of travelers are booking a vacation rental this December, and 21 percent say they’d pay more for more spacious accommodations, especially those that included a pool or spa tub, kitchen and laundry facilities.
Costa Rica has been a treasured vacation destination for many tourists during the festive holiday months. With its temperate climate, proximity to North America, and wealth of adventure activities, the perks of Christmas in paradise are many. And with more airlines offering direct flights into San Jose and Liberia, travelers have new budget-conscious options for booking their vacation. This past October, Canadian carrier WestJet announced non-stop seasonal service from Toronto to Guanacaste’s Liberia terminal. Other low-cost airlines including Spirit, JetBlue and Frontier also provide direct flights from major U.S. cities like New York, Denver and Orlando.
If the current travel trend continues, the team at Escape Villas anticipates another 10 percent increase in their Costa Rica vacation rental bookings for December 2013. Ms. Hopkins confirms “Our experienced concierge is committed to providing the tropical holiday vacation of a lifetime, with engaging activities for the whole family, from zip-line canopy tours and horseback rides to sunset sailing excursions.”
Families can celebrate the holidays in contemporary rainforest villas – where playful monkeys are regular visitors – to luxurious oceanfront homes with sublime views. Consider the many advantages of a Christmas vacation in Costa Rica with Escape Villas. Feliz Navidad!

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Shiny Reputation Highlights Airbnb for their Focus on Local Neighborhood Information

Shiny Reputation proclaims their opinion on the recent launch of Airbnb’s Neighborhoods program, in which they are looking to narrow the focus of their site to concentrate on services in local neighborhoods where rental properties are located.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Shiny Reputation has issued an announcement about the launch of the Airbnb Neighborhood program, which seeks to give users of its online holiday lodging rental marketplace more information about the areas in which the lodging is located.
The editor of ShinyReputation.com stated, “Local businesses will benefit greatly from the launch of neighborhood ratings by Airbnb, in which local neighborhoods are rated based on transportation, services, quality of local restaurants and more. This will create an all in one service for renters. The service, which is in its trial stage in San Francisco, will lessen Airbnb’s members need to use services such as Yelp. We still see Yelp going strong and always tell businesses that improving your reputation online is key to developing the business relationship with patrons. The neighborhoods service is another resource.”
Airbnb is an online marketplace in which people can offer their homes, apartments, and other types of lodging for rent directly to travelers, bypassing hotels and apartment-finding services. Airbnb was founded in San Francisco in 2008, and has since grown to host more than 200,000 unique listings in 26,000 cities in 192 countries across the globe. On Airbnb, individuals can search for lodgings available in a certain city for a certain timeframe, and then choose from the listings on offer by private renters in that location. Payment is done through the website itself, while all interactions between renters and lodgers are done on a personal basis. The Neighborhoods program is an attempt to give travelers more information about specific local areas of cities they travel to and choose lodgings in the area of their choosing. Currently the program is for information purposes only, and is not yet a channel for marketing online. “That being said the photos used to highlight the local businesses on the neighborhoods tool are amazing. Most travel savvy individuals will seek out those businesses’ websites. It is always recommended that server uptime monitoring receive some attention as we are primarily connected via the internet.”
Airbnb has launched the Neighborhoods program in this city in which it is headquartered, San Francisco, California. San Francisco is the financial, cultural, and technological capital of the West Coast of the United States. With over 800,000 residents in the city itself and more than 7.5 million in the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area, it is one of the largest and most important cities in the US. The San Francisco Bay Area is known for being the home of Silicon Valley, and the center of technological innovation in the US. Some of the tech companies with headquarters in the area include Apple Computers, Adobe, HP, Google, and Intel.
The launch of Airbnb’s local Neighborhood program will give local businesses further exposure within this large community of travelers, and possibly increase business. Additionally, it will position Airbnb as a rival to Yelp when looking at local businesses and determining where to stay, and what to do. It has yet to be determined if the program will be successful, but local businesses should be entranced by the thought of become visible to a new pool of potential customers.

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KSL Cars Adds Contact At Once! Live Chat in Ads

Utah Dealerships Can Integrate Chat to Connect with Potential Buyers

Atlanta (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Contact At Once!, the leading live chat provider connecting online and mobile car shoppers to auto dealers, today announced that it has been selected by KSL Cars, Utah’s leading online marketplace, as its exclusive provider of live chat for automotive advertising. KSL Cars will bundle Contact At Once! in its auto dealer packages.
Contact At Once! live chat is used by over 10,000 automobile dealerships and the world’s busiest online automotive shopping sites. Dealers who use Contact At Once! say they typically experience a 25% increase in the number of connections with website visitors.
“Contact At Once! was the first to put live chat in online automotive classifieds and they have unique features that make the software especially well-suited for connecting thousands of shoppers with dealers through chat in ads,” says Eric Bright, KSL’s Vice-President of E-Commerce.
“More and more shoppers prefer text and chat to old-fashioned lead forms and they like the instant access, as well as the convenience,” says Lloyd Hecht, Contact At Once! Director, Business Development. Advertising with mobile and desktop text and chat options can draw more attention and appeal to shoppers who might be reluctant to call or email.”
KSL Cars is the leading provider of auto classifieds in Utah, serving more than 45,000 car shoppers per month. Another factor in choosing Contact At Once! was ease of use and implementation, says Bright. “Our advertisers can be chatting with potential car buyers in a matter of minutes.”
About Contact At Once!

Contact At Once! pioneered the use of website chat in automotive advertising, enabling instant connections between online shoppers and dealerships through search websites, dealership websites, social media and mobile sites. More than 10,000 customers rely on Contact At Once! chat to drive incremental sales opportunities and increase return on advertising investments. For more information, visit http://www.autodealerchat.com.
About KSL

KSL.com is owned and operated by Deseret Digital Media (DDM), and powers the largest online marketplace in Utah - including auto, real estate, deals and local search verticals. In total, Deseret Digital Media properties attract more than 5.5 million unique visitors and serve nearly 300 million page views per month. The DDM network of web sites includes KSL.com, Deseretnews.com, DeseretBook.com, MormonTimes.com, LDSChurchNews.com, FM100.com, OK.com and 1035TheArrow.com. Deseret Digital Media's two-part vision is to become the largest and most compelling regional commerce marketplace in the United States and to also become a world-leading, values-based digital content marketplace. Deseret Digital Media is a part of Deseret Media Companies.

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Samsung is replacing faulty Galaxy S IIIs that are suddenly dying for no reason

Samsung (005930) is reportedly quietly replacing faulty Galaxy S III devices according to many users on XDA Developers. The issue appears to be related to the NAND becoming corrupted and killing off the Galaxy S III’s mainboard, which causes the phone to essentially “brick” itself. Users have reported the issues have affected some devices after 150-200 days after purchase. Users on XDA Developers and Reddit are also saying Samsung is replacing affected smartphones (rooted or not) with new ones that could potentially be just as faulty in another 200 days. The Galaxy S III made headlines last week when an XDA forum member discovered that a security hole in its Exynos-4 processor was vulnerable to app-based malware attacks. Samsung has since said it will patch the hole as soon as possible.

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Insight: Security fears dogged Canada debate on China energy bid

OTTAWA (Reuters) - In September, two months after China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd made an unexpected $15.1 billion bid for Canadian energy company Nexen Inc, Canada's spy agency told ministers that takeovers by Chinese companies may threaten national security.
The rare warning from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was disclosed to Reuters by intelligence sources, did not stop the takeover. That was approved by Canadian authorities earlier this month.
But the intervention and an influential U.S. lawmaker's warning in October that Canadian companies should be careful about doing business with Chinese telecom equipment companies Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp made the approval process for the deal more difficult than initially expected.
"CSIS did not like the Nexen bid and thought it was a bad idea for Chinese firms to be investing in the oil sands. It all played into their greater fears about firms like Huawei," said one person familiar with the agency's concerns. "They do not want to wake up one day and realize a crucial sector of the economy is under the control of foreign interests."
And after listening to the spy service, which usually keeps a low profile, Canada drew up surprisingly tough foreign investment rules that were unveiled when approving the Nexen deal, China's biggest-ever successful foreign takeover. In a clampdown on companies it deems influenced by foreign governments, Canada will block similar purchases in the future.
CSIS has been silent about what it said to Ottawa on the Nexen transaction, and it declined to comment for this story. It didn't specifically recommend the CNOOC deal be blocked, but rather warned more generally about such deals with Chinese entities, the person said.
In reality, the government was unlikely to want to block the CNOOC bid, given a high-profile push by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier in the year to boost ties with China, and given that a lot of Nexen's assets are outside Canada, and it has underperformed other energy companies.
SPECIFIC WORRIES
By pushing back aggressively, CSIS ensured that it got foreign investment policy tightened significantly to deter similar such takeovers by companies under the sway of foreign governments.
"I think people at CSIS and elsewhere are going 'Good. That was a very good response by the government'," said Ray Boisvert, a former CSIS assistant director of intelligence, who retired this year after almost three decades at the agency.
"It did reflect some of those deep strategic concerns that practitioners have had about this kind of investment."
Specific worries include theft of Canadian intellectual property, espionage, computer hacking and foreign companies gaining too much influence over crucial sectors of the economy, said the person familiar with the agency's views.
The government could, in theory, nationalize assets if it thought foreign control was problematic. But the pro-business Conservatives would likely find it politically unpalatable to take such a step.
"To be blunt, Canadians have not spent years reducing the ownership of sectors of the economy by our own governments, only to see them bought and controlled by foreign governments instead," Harper said as he announced the new investment rules.
In October, the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee urged U.S. firms to stop doing business with Huawei and another Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE on the grounds that Beijing could use products made by the two companies to spy.
The House Intelligence Committee's chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, urged Canada to take a similar stance, and two days later, the Canadian government indicated it would not let Huawei help build a secure government communications network because of possible security risks.
"The Huawei business caused a lot of political complications for the CNOOC bid," another person familiar with the CNOOC deal said of the U.S. committee's report.
Both Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly denied the allegations in the report, and China's foreign ministry dismissed as "baseless" the idea that security concerns could impede commercial ties.
"We hope that the relevant party can objectively and justly treat Chinese companies' overseas investment and cooperation plans, and stop actions which harm Chinese companies' image and do more to benefit the promotion of bilateral trade and business cooperation," said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
CLANDESTINE SUPPORT
In its annual report, released in September, CSIS noted risks that included espionage and illegal technology transfers, and said some foreign state-owned enterprises had "pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits" in Canada.
The agency did not give details, but added: "When foreign companies with ties to foreign intelligence agencies or hostile governments seek to acquire control over strategic sectors of the Canadian economy, it can represent a threat to Canadian security interests."
CSIS, hit by controversy in 2010 after its head suggested China had too much influence over some Canadian provincial politicians, did not mention any country or firm in its report.
It is unclear how much, if any, influence the United States had on the Canadian authorities' foreign investment policy.
Fen Hampson, head of the global security program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, said he had learned that a U.S. official visited Ottawa in the last few months to discuss mutual concerns about foreign state-owned enterprises.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson told Reuters he was not aware of such a meeting, but he noted that officials from the two countries met constantly. "I would be surprised if almost any issue you could think of has not come up in one or more of those conversations," he said. "The United States has not sought to influence Canada's decision with respect to that (CNOOC's bid)... We respect that decision."
The Canadian government did not respond to a request for a comment.
Chinese companies have bought up smaller Canadian energy firms before, but the July 23 bid for Nexen was their first attempt to buy one of the larger players.
Nexen has assets in Canada, the North Sea, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. Technology that Nexen and its partners use for deep sea drilling could interest CNOOC. [ID:nL4N09N3R5]
Asked about the CSIS concerns, a spokeswoman for Industry Minister Christian Paradis replied: "The government has the authority to take any measures it considers necessary to protect national security."
Yet two people close to the deal noted that the Canadian government did not exercise its option to do a separate review of the potential security risks of the CNOOC-Nexen bid, again signaling its concerns were tied to overall Chinese investment rather than to this particular deal.
Under the new rules, which Paradis is responsible for enforcing, foreign state-owned enterprises can no longer buy controlling stakes in assets in the oil sands, the biggest reserve of crude oil outside Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Such enterprises can buy minority stakes in the oil sands, or majority stakes in companies outside the oil sands. Companies deemed to have strong government links will be treated with particular caution wherever they propose to invest.
"When it comes to our security and intelligence services, they would rather pull up the drawbridge than let it down," said Hampson, co-author of a report on trade ties between Canada and emerging nations that he discussed with Harper in June.

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Huawei shows off 6.1-inch Android phablet ahead of CES [video]

It looks like things are going to get worse before they start to get better. Further blurring the line between a smartphone that is too big to be used comfortably and a tablet the is too small to be used efficiently, Huawei has plans to unveil a new smartphone-tablet hybrid device at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January. The Android “phablet” was recently shown off by a Huawei executive outside of a Huawei store in Guangzhou, China, and Engadget lists among the device’s key specs a 6.1-inch 1080p display with a pixel density of 316 ppi, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, a 4,000 mAh battery and a case that measure just 9.9 millimeters thick. A video of the device follows below.

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Iran says defeats cyber attack on industrial sites

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Internet virus attacked computers at industrial sites in southern Iran, in an apparent extension of a covert cyber war that initially targeted the country's nuclear facilities, an Iranian official said.
Iran, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, has tightened online security since its uranium enrichment centrifuges were hit in 2010 by the Stuxnet computer worm, which Tehran believes was planted by arch-adversaries Israel or the United States.
The unit tasked with fighting cyber attacks, the Passive Defence Organisation, said a virus had infected several sites in Hormozgan province in recent months but was neutralised.
"Enemies are constantly attacking Iran's industrial units through Internet networks in order to create disruptions," Ali Akbar Akhavan, head of the Hormozgan branch of the organisation, was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency on Tuesday.
"This virus has even penetrated some manufacturing industries in Hormozgan province, but with timely measures and the cooperation of skilled hackers in the province, the progress of this virus was halted," Akhavan said.
"As an example, the Bandar Abbas Tavanir Co., a producer of electricity in the province and even adjacent provinces, has been the target of Internet attacks in recent months," he said.
Bandar Abbas is the capital of Hormozgan province on Iran's southern coast and home to an oil refinery and container port.
Israeli officials have threatened military action against Iranian nuclear facilities if Western sanctions on Tehran's banking and oil sectors do not persuade the Islamic Republic to shelve its disputed atomic program.
Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is enriching uranium only for civilian energy.
Iranian authorities said in April that a computer virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island - which handles the vast majority of Iran's crude oil exports - but the terminal had remained operational.
Cyber attackers also slowed Iran's Internet and attacked its offshore oil and gas platforms this year, Iranian officials have said.

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Iran media report new cyberattack by Stuxnet worm

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian semi-official news agency says there has been another cyberattack by the sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet, this time on the industries in the country's south.
Tuesday's report by ISNA quotes provincial civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan as saying the virus targeted a power plant and some other industries in Hormozgan province in recent months.
Akhavan says Iranian computer experts were able to "successfully stop" the worm.
Iran has repeatedly claimed defusing cyber worms and malware, including Stuxnet and Flame viruses that targeted the vital oil sector, which provides 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue.
Tehran has said both worms are part of a secret U.S.-Israeli program that seeks to destabilize Iran's nuclear program.
The West suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran denies.

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Twitter offers users scrapbook of past tweets

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter is offering its more than 200 million users a chance to keep a digital scrapbook of all their tweets.
The tool, announced this week, is designed to make it easier for people to review all their activity on Twitter's trend-setting messaging service.
When it's available, the downloading option will appear at the bottom of each user's settings menu.
Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, said it may take a several weeks, or even months, before everyone gets the feature.
After a records request is made, users will receive an email on how to download their personal archive. For Twitter's earliest users, the records date back to 2006 when Twitter started.
Twitter users already have been able to peruse their past tweets by navigating to their personal profile page. But going that route is more cumbersome because it requires scrolling down a page that can sometimes be slow to display additional tweets.
The company said that users who download their entire histories should find it easier to search for particular tweets and organize the messages — by month, for example.
The new tool also should serve as a reminder that a copy of everything people have tweeted still resides on Twitter's computers.
Other widely used services, such as Facebook's popular social network, also have been creating digital portraits of people's lives as more content gets posted on their sites. Facebook gives its more than 1 billon users the option to download everything they have shared on the service. It has become easier this year for Facebook users to look at their past musings and photos as the service converted people's profiles into a timeline that sorts content by the month it was shared.
Path, another social network founded by former Facebook executive Dave Morin, is also trying to position itself as a treasure chest of memories. A new feature released Thursday in an update to Path's' mobile app allows users to search their past posts on devices running on Apple and Android software. The content can be quickly retrieved by typing in their names' friends, a specific event or time of year, or just a phrase encapsulating a vacation highlight, such as "hiking in Kauai.

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Facebook tests charging users to send certain messages

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc unveiled a test on Thursday that charges users to send certain types of messages through the social network, the latest example of the company looking for new sources of revenue and profit.
Until now, Facebook's messaging system sends the most-relevant messages, including those from users' Facebook friends, into an Inbox and siphons off less-relevant messages, such as potential spam, in an "Other" folder.
"Today we're starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance," Facebook said. "This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the 'Inbox' rather than the 'Other' folder of a recipient that they are not connected with."
A Facebook spokesman said the charge for the test is $1 per message, but added that the company is still looking for the "optimum" price. Users can only receive one of these paid, re-routed messages per week, he noted.
The company said its test service may be useful in certain situations, such as allowing users to send a message to someone they heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or contacting someone about a job opportunity.
Facebook, which went public earlier this year, is under pressure from Wall Street to find new sources of revenue and profit. The company has responded with a series of new services and tests in recent months. In September, the company said it would start charging merchants to run offers on its social network.
The test messaging service is similar to the InMail service from LinkedIn Corp, the professional networking rival to Facebook, which lets users with high-end subscriptions send messages to other LinkedIn members outside their networks.
"For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them," Facebook added.

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Twitter post offers clue to The Civil Wars' future

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — While there still remain questions about the future of The Civil Wars, there's new music on the way.
Joy Williams, one half of the Grammy Award-winning duo with John Paul White, said Thursday during a Twitter chat that she was in the studio listening to new Civil Wars songs.
It's a tantalizing clue to the future of the group, which appeared in doubt when a European tour unraveled last month due to "irreconcilable differences."
At the time, the duo said it hoped to release an album in 2013. It's not clear if Williams was referring Thursday to music for a new album or for a documentary score they have composed with T Bone Burnett. They're also set to release an "Unplugged" session on iTunes on Jan. 15.
Nate Yetton, the group's manager and Williams' husband, had no comment — though he has supplied a few hints of his own by posting pictures of recording sessions on his Instagram account recently. The duo announced last summer it would be working with Charlie Peacock, who produced its gold-selling debut "Barton Hollow." The photos do not show Williams or White, but one includes violin player Odessa Rose.
Rose says in an Instagram post: "Playing on the new Civil Wars record... Beautiful sounds."
Even with its future in doubt, the duo continues to gather accolades. Williams and White are up for a Golden Globe on Jan. 13, and two Grammy Awards on Feb. 10, for their "The Hunger Games" soundtrack collaboration "Safe & Sound" with Taylor Swift.
Williams' comments came during an installment of an artist interview series with Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy sponsored by The Recording Academy.

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Facebook tests charging to route messages to inbox

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users' inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called "other."
The "other" folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely don't know, based on Facebook's reading of your social connections. Many users ignore this folder.
Now, users will be able to pay $1 to route their messages to non-friends. Facebook said Thursday that it is testing the service with a small percentage of individuals — not businesses — in the U.S.
The company says charging for messages could help discourage spammers.

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Facebook tests $1 fee for messages to non-friends

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users' inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called "other."
Launched in 2011, the "other" folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely don't know, based on Facebook's reading of your social connections. Many users ignore this folder.
Now, users will be able to pay $1 to route their messages to non-friends. Facebook said Thursday that it is testing the service with a small percentage of individuals — not businesses — in the U.S.
"For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox," Facebook said in an online post. "For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them."
The company says charging for messages could help discourage spammers.
In October, Facebook unveiled another feature that lets users pay if they want more people to read their updates. For $7, users can promote a post to their friends, just as advertisers do.

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Delhi police say they will protect women on buses

Indian officials announced Friday a broad campaign to protect women in New Delhi following the gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in the capital.
Police arrested a boy Thursday night, the fifth person detained in connection with the crime, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said. Authorities were hunting for the final assailant, he said. Those arrested were being charged with attempted murder in addition to kidnapping and rape.
The government is seeking life sentences for the assailants, Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters Friday.
"This is an incident which has shocked all of us," he said.
The attack sparked days of protests across the country from women demanding that authorities take tougher action to protect them against the daily threat of harassment and violence. The government said it is taking steps to address those concerns.
"There will not be any tolerance for crimes against women," Singh said.
Bus drivers in New Delhi will be required to display their identification prominently in the vehicles, buses are now required to remove tinting from their windows and plainclothes police are being placed on buses to protect female passengers, he said. In addition, chartered buses such as the one where the attack occurred will be impounded if they illegally ply for fares on the streets, he said.
Authorities are also cracking down on drunk driving and on loitering gangs of drunken youths, he said.
The victim and a companion were attacked after getting a ride on a chartered bus following a movie Sunday evening. Police said the men on the bus gang-raped her and beat her and her companion with iron rods as the bus drove through the city for hours, even passing through police checkpoints. The assailants eventually stripped the pair and dumped them on the side of a road.
Protesters marched Friday to the presidential mansion and toward Parliament, while theater troupes performed plays about women's safety in a park in central Delhi. A group blocked traffic near the hospital where the victim, who had severe internal injuries, was being treated.
Dr. B.D. Athani, the medical superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital, told reporters the victim was "stable, alert and conscious," but remained on a ventilator.
"We are ready to send the victim to anywhere in the world for treatment," Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said. "I have given that assurance to the parents of the girl that we will give every kind of help, no matter what it costs."
Parliamentarian M. Venkaiah Naidu said a special legislative committee would meet next week to take action to protect women.
The government, Singh said, was proposing laws to make it easier for attacked women to come forward, to ensure rape cases are dealt with swiftly in the nation's notoriously slow court system and for increasing the punishment for the crime to a possible death sentence.
"(The) people of Delhi will feel safe moving through the streets of the city, at any point of time, day or night. That is our objective," Singh said.

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Russia's Gazprom to buy Kyrgyz state gas company

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Kyrgyzstan's state-owned natural gas company says it is to be sold to Russia's energy monopoly Gazprom, raising hopes of an end to debilitating energy shortages in the impoverished Central Asian nation.
Kyrgyzgaz general director Turgunbek Kulmurzayev said Friday that the sale of the company to the Russian gas giant would be completed by April 1.
Last week, gas and electricity supplies to thousands of Kyrgyz households were suspended.
The crisis was provoked by a shortage in natural gas deliveries from neighboring Kazakhstan, which had to hold onto its own reserves after failing to receive imports from Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous nation of 5 million on China's western border, also has substantial unpaid debts to Kazakhstan.
Residents in the capital, Bishkek, and nearby towns were hits by days of gas and power shortages just as temperatures dropped to around minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit). Failure in gas deliveries pushes people into using more electricity for heating, which in turn leads to blackouts.
The inability of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to fulfill basic energy needs led to his violent overthrow in 2010.
The sale of a major national asset to a company owned by a foreign government is likely to raise concerns. Russia has made similar efforts to gain control over important energy infrastructure in other former Soviet republic, such as Ukraine and Belarus.
Kyrgyzgaz's Kulmurzayev traveled to Moscow this week to hold a new round of talks with Gazprom, which offered to buy up the entire company. Kyrgyzgaz is currently 87 percent owned by the state. Another 4.5 percent is held by social investment funds, with the remainder belonging to private investors.
"The Russians now want to buy the entire stock, even from private shareholders," Kulmurzayev said in Bishkek.
Kulmurzayev gave no figure for the sale, but the sum is expected to be nominal due to the company's outstanding debts of around $31 million. He added that Gazprom officials said they plan to invest $650 million over five years on modernizing Kyrgyzstan's gas pipeline network.
"The price for fuel will be substantially cheaper than what is paid to Kazakhstan — $224 per thousand cubic meters — or Uzbekistan — $290 per thousand cubic meters," Kulmurzayev said. "We hope Gazprom will solve the fuel delivery problem in 2013."
Kyrgyzstan also expects Gazprom to begin exploration for new gas fields.

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Coalition soldier missing in Afghanistan

A search is under way in southern Afghanistan for a soldier from the NATO-led coalition, believed to be the first to have gone missing since a U.S. Army sergeant was captured by the Taliban more than three years ago, a military spokesman said Friday.
U.S. Army Maj. Martyn Crighton said the soldier was among the 1,560 troops from the former Soviet republic of Georgia serving in the country.
A statement from Georgia's Defense Ministry on Thursday said an intense "search and rescue" operation was being mounted in Helmand and Nimroz provinces, describing the soldier as a military officer who went missing on Wednesday.
The last known coalition soldier to go missing was U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 26, who was taken prisoner on June 30, 2009 in Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan.
Bergdahl, who turned 26 in captivity on March 28, was the subject of a proposed prisoner swap in which the Obama administration was considering the transfer of five Taliban prisoners long held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Qatar.
That plan collapsed, but a new proposal would transfer some Taliban fighters or their affiliates out of full U.S. control. The prisoners would go to a detention facility adjacent to Bagram air field, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, officials of both governments have said.
Eighteen Georgian soldiers have been killed since the country joined the international military operations in Afghanistan in August 2009. Georgia is not a member of NATO but has significant presence in Afghanistan relative to its population of 4.5 million.
There are currently more than 102,000 coalition troops in the country, including 66,000 from the United States. Only a residual force is slated to remain past 2013.

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US budget negotiations setback drives stocks down

A failed attempt find a compromise in U.S. budget negotiations sent global stock markets plummeting Friday, as investors feared the world's largest economy could teeter into recession if no deal is found.
Without an agreement, the U.S. economy will fall off the so-called "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 1 when Bush-era tax cuts expire and spending cuts kick in automatically. The measures were designed to have a negative effect on the U.S. economy, in the hopes that the feared outcome would push lawmakers and President Barack Obama to find a deal.
"We've seen Europe's politicians repeatedly flirt lemming-like with cliff-diving in 2012, and now it's the turn of U.S. 'leaders,'" said Kit Juckes, an analyst with Societe Generale. "The nagging fear is always there that someone, on one side of the Atlantic or the other, will forget to let rational thought take over at the last second."
Amid the uncertainty, European shares fell. France's CAC dropped 0.15 percent to close at 3,661, while the DAX in Germany dropped 0.5 percent to end the day 7,636. The FTSE index of leading British shares retreated 0.3 percent to 5,939.
The euro also fell sharply, dropping 0.5 percent to $1.3159.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed 1 percent lower at 9,940.06. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.7 percent to 22,506.29. South Korea's Kospi shed 1 percent at 1,980.42. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2 percent to 4,623.60. Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed.
U.S. stock futures tumbled after rank-and-file Republican lawmakers failed to support an alternative tax plan by House Speaker John Boehner late Thursday in Washington. That plan would have allowed tax rates to rise on households earning $1 million and up. Obama wants the level to be $400,000.
In midday trading trading in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.25 percent to 13,147, while the broader Standard & Poor's index fell 1.3 percent at 1,424.
"The fiscal cliff is a real threat not just for U.S. growth next year but for the outlook for global growth," said Jane Foley, currency analyst with Rabobank.
When growth slows, energy demand does, too, and oil prices fell in anticipation.
Benchmark crude for February delivery fell $1.78 to $88.35 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Japan's next leader wants freer rein for military

Imagine that North Korea launched a missile at Japan. Tokyo could — and would certainly try to — shoot it down. But if the missile were flying overhead toward Hawaii or the continental United States, Japan would have to sit idly by.
Japan's military is kept on a very short leash under a war-renouncing constitution written by U.S. officials whose main concern was keeping Japan from rearming soon after World War II. But if Japan's soon-to-be prime minister Shinzo Abe has his way, the status quo may be in for some change.
Abe, set to take office for a second time after leading his conservative party to victory in elections last Sunday, has vowed a fundamental review of Japan's taboo-ridden postwar security policies and proposed ideas that range from changing the name of the military — now called the Japan Self-Defense Forces — to revising the constitution itself.
Most of all, he wants to open the door to what the Japanese call "collective defense," which would allow Japan's troops to fight alongside their allies — especially the U.S. troops who are obliged to defend Japan — if either comes under direct attack. The United States has about 50,000 troops in Japan, including its largest air base in Asia.
Right now, if Japan's current standoff with China over a group of disputed islands got physical, and U.S. Navy ships coming to Japan's assistance took enemy fire, Japan wouldn't be able to help them.
"With the U.S. defense budget facing big cuts, a collapse of the military balance of power in Asia could create instability," Abe said in the run-up to the election, promising to address the collective defense issue quickly. "We must foster an alliance with the United States that can hold up under these circumstances."
While welcome in Washington, which is looking to keep its own costs down while beefing up its Pacific alliances to counterbalance the rise of China, Abe's ideas are raising eyebrows in a region that vividly remembers Japan's brutal rampage across Asia 70 years ago.
"The issue of whether Japan can face up to and reflect upon its history of aggression is what every close neighbor in Asia and the global community at large are highly concerned about," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference in Beijing this week. She said any move to bolster the military "deserves full vigilance among the Asian countries and the global community."
Even so, many Japanese strategists believe the changes are long overdue.
Japan has one of the most sophisticated military forces in the world, with a quarter million troops, a well-equipped navy and an air force that will acquire dozens of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters over the next several years, in addition to its already formidable fleet of F-15s. Japan's annual defense budget is the world's sixth largest.
"We should stand tall in the international community," said Narushige Michishita, who has advised the government on defense issues and is the director of the security and international program at Tokyo's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
"These are good, well-trained conventional forces," he said. "We are second to none in Asia. So the idea is why don't we start using this. We don't have to start going to war. We can use it more effectively as a deterrent. If we get rid of legal, political and psychological restraints, we can do much more. We should start playing a larger and more responsible in international security affairs."
Outside of very constrained participation in U.N.-sanctioned peacekeeping operations and other low-intensity missions, Japan's military is tightly restricted to national defense and humanitarian assistance. Although Japan did support the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its troops were kept well away from frontline combat.
Such restrictions, seen by conservatives as a postwar relic that has kept Japan from being a bigger player on the international stage, have long been one of Abe's pet peeves.
When he was first prime minister in 2006-2007, he was so disturbed by the kinds of crisis scenarios in which Tokyo's hands were tied that he commissioned a panel of experts to explore Japan's options. He left office before the report could be completed. His party was ousted from power two years later, and the issue was essentially dropped.
This time around, it's not clear how effectively or how soon Abe will be able to push the military issue, since stimulating the nation's economy will be his first task, and he faces strong opposition in parliament, where he has been slammed as a historical revisionist and a hawk.
But with the daily cat-and-mouse game between the Chinese and Japanese coast guards over the disputed islands not expected to end soon, polls indicate support for beefing up the military is stronger than ever.
"These are real issues, important issues," Michishita said. "And I think Abe will try to do something about it."

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Saudi website editor could face death for apostasy-rights group

RIYADH (Reuters) - The editor of a Saudi Arabian website could be sentenced to death after a judge cited him for apostasy and moved his case to a higher court, the monitoring group Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.
Raif Badawi, who started the Free Saudi Liberals website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in June, Human Rights Watch said.
Badawi had initially been charged with the less serious offence of insulting Islam through electronic channels, but at a December 17 hearing a judge referred him to a more senior court and recommended he be tried for apostasy, the monitoring group said.
Apostasy, the act of changing religious affiliation, carries an automatic death sentence in Saudi Arabia, along with crimes including blasphemy.
Badawi's website included articles that were critical of senior religious figures, the monitoring group said.
A spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Justice Ministry was not available to comment.
The world's top oil exporter follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam and applies Islamic law, or sharia.
Judges base their decisions on their own interpretation of religious law rather than on a written legal code or on precedent.
King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's ruler, has pushed for reforms to the legal system, including improved training for judges and the introduction of precedent to standardize verdicts and make courts more transparent.
However, Saudi lawyers say that conservatives in the Justice Ministry and the judiciary have resisted implementing many of the changes that he announced in 2007.

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Iran a central issue for my next term: Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran's perceived nuclear threat against Israel will be the central issue concerning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government if he is re-elected in a month's time, the Israeli leader said on Saturday.
Netanyahu has set out a mid-2013 "red line" for tackling Iran's uranium enrichment project. The West says this programme is aimed at developing the means to build atomic bombs. Tehran denies this, saying it is enriching uranium for civilian energy.
"Preventing Iran becoming a nuclear (threat) is, I would say, the central aim in my next term if I earn the confidence of voters," Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 2 in a recorded interview.
Opinion polls have consistently shown Netanyahu's rightist Likud Beiteinu party as the clear front-runner for the January 22 elections, meaning he would be called upon to form a new coalition government.
Since announcing elections on October 9, Netanyahu discussed Iran nuclear programme in public less frequently than he had before setting the "red line" in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 27.
But he told interviewers that he was dealing with the issue on a daily basis.

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Obama seeks scaled-down 'fiscal cliff' agreement

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has scaled back his ambitions for a sweeping budget bargain with Republicans. Instead, he's calling for a limited measure sufficient to prevent the government from careening off the "fiscal cliff" in January by extending tax cuts for most taxpayers and forestalling a painful set of agency budget cuts.
In a White House appearance Friday, Obama also called on Congress to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that would otherwise be cut off for 2 million people at the end of the year.
Obama's announcement was a recognition that chances for a larger agreement before year's end have probably collapsed. It also suggested that any chance for a smaller deal may rest in the Senate, particularly after the collapse of a plan by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to permit tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes.
"In the next few days, I've asked leaders of Congress to work toward a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction," Obama said. "That's an achievable goal. That can get done in 10 days."
Maybe, maybe not. The latest plan faces uncertainty at best in the sharply divided Senate. GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who wields great power even in the minority, called Friday for Senate action on a House bill from the summer extending the full menu of Bush-era tax cuts. He promised that it will take GOP votes for anything to clear the Senate, where 60 votes are required to advance most legislation. Democrats control 53 votes.
Boehner, giving the GOP weekly radio address, said, "Of course, hope springs eternal, and I know we have it in us to come together and do the right thing."
Earlier, Boehner said Obama needs to give more ground to reach an agreement and that both he and Obama had indicated in a Monday telephone call that their latest offers represented their bottom lines. "How we get there," he added, "God only knows."
Congress shut down for Christmas and Obama flew to Hawaii with his family for the holidays. But both men indicated they'd be back in Washington, working to beat the fast-approaching Jan. 1 deadline with an agreement between Christmas and New Year's.
Obama announced his plans after talking by phone with Boehner and meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had previously pinned his hopes on an Obama-Boehner agreement and is wary of dealing with McConnell.
At the White House, Obama projected optimism despite of weeks of failed negotiations. "Call me a hopeless optimist, but I actually still think we can get it done," he said.
Boehner spoke in the morning, describing the increasingly tangled attempts to beat the Jan. 1 deadline and head off the perilous combination of across-the-board tax hikes and deep spending cuts.
"Because of the political divide in the country, because of the divide here in Washington, trying to bridge these differences has been difficult," Boehner said. "If it were easy, I guarantee you this would have been done decades before."
Obama said that in his negotiations with Boehner, he had offered to meet Republicans halfway when it came to taxes and "more than halfway" toward their target for spending cuts.
It's clear, however, that there's great resistance in GOP ranks to forging a bargain with Obama along the lines of a possible agreement that almost seemed at hand just a few days ago: tax hikes at or just over $1 trillion over 10 years, matched by comparable cuts to federal health care programs, Social Security benefits and across federal agency operating budgets.
Obama said he remains committed to working toward a goal of longer-term deficit reduction to reduce chronic trillion-dollar deficits while keeping tax rates in place for nearly everyone.
"Even though Democrats and Republicans are arguing about whether those rates should go up for the wealthiest individuals, all of us — every single one of us — agrees that tax rates shouldn't go up for the other 98 percent of Americans," Obama said, citing statistics associated with his promise to protect household income under $250,000 from higher tax rates.
Neither the House nor the Senate is expected to meet again until after Christmas. Officials in both parties said there was still time to prevent the changes from kicking in with the new year.
The week began amid optimism that Obama and Boehner had finally begun to significantly narrow their differences. Both were offering a cut in taxes for most Americans, an increase for a relative few, and cuts of roughly $1 trillion in spending over a year. Also included was a provision to scale back future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients — a concession by the president that inflamed many liberals..
GOP officials said some senior Republicans such as Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the most recent Republican vice presidential nominee, opposed the possible agreement. But No. 2 House Republican Eric Cantor of Virginia has joined arms with Boehner.
Boehner stepped back and announced what he called Plan B, legislation to let tax rates rise on incomes of $1 million or more while preventing increases for all other taxpayers.
Despite statements of confidence, he and his lieutenants decided late Thursday they were not going to be able to secure the votes needed to pass the measure in the face of opposition from conservatives unwilling to violate decades-old party orthodoxy never to raise tax rates.
The retreat came after it became clear that too many Republicans feared "the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes," Boehner said.
Boehner also said that last Monday he had told Obama he had submitted his bottom-line proposal.
"The president told me that his numbers — the $1.3 trillion in new revenues, $850 billion in spending cuts — was his bottom line, that he couldn't go any further."
That contradicted remarks by White House press secretary Jay Carney, who said on Thursday that Obama has "never said either in private or in public that this was his final offer. He understands that to reach a deal it would require some further negotiation. There is not much further he could go.

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Yet another Senate race on the horizon in Mass.

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts voters weary from one of the nation's costliest and most divisive U.S. Senate races are all but certain to find themselves thrown back into another tumultuous election now that President Barack Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry for secretary of state.
If confirmed by the Senate, as expected, Democrat Kerry would have to resign the seat he's held for nearly three decades, meaning a special election that will be the state's third Senate contest since 2010.
Jockeying already is well under way. The big question is whether Republican Sen. Scott Brown will go for the seat after losing his last month to Democratic Elizabeth Warren.
He kept the door wide open to another run during a farewell address on the Senate floor, declaring that both victory and defeat are "temporary" things. "Depending on what happens, and where we go, all of us, we may obviously meet again."
Perhaps as soon as next year.
Brown would be a formidable candidate. He has a statewide political organization and more than $400,000 left in his campaign account. He remains popular and demonstrated an ability to raise millions of dollars in campaign donations. But he would still have to contend with all the hurdles facing any Republican in Massachusetts.
Still, he'd probably have a clear path to the GOP nomination. "The candidacy is his for the asking," said Rep. Brad Jones, the Republican leader in the Massachusetts House. "If he runs, then get out of the way and put your oar in the water and row in the same direction."
Should Brown opt out, former Gov. William Weld, former gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker and Richard Tisei, who lost a narrow race to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Tierney, are among the Republicans waiting in the wings for a possible run.
Democrats don't have a clear front-runner, given that Gov. Deval Patrick doesn't plan to break his pledge to serve out the last two years of his term.
He still could play a pivotal role.
Patrick could use his sway in the party to clear what looks like a potentially crowded Democratic field. His backing of Warren was seen as giving her a critical edge by helping energize Democratic voters. On Friday, however, he said he'd probably not endorse anyone in a Democratic primary.
Attorney General Martha Coakley, who lost to Brown in the 2010 special election, pulled her name out of contention on Friday.
Several Democratic members of the state's congressional delegation have said they would seriously consider running, including Reps. Michael Capuano, Edward Markey, Stephen Lynch, and Niki Tsongas. Most of those House members would begin a campaign with a financial edge. Markey has one of the largest war chests with more than $3.1 million. Capuano has nearly half a million dollars in his account while Lynch has more than $740,000. Tsongas has about $166,000.
But all would have to work quickly to expand their appeal outside of their home districts.
Others mentioned by Democratic insiders as potential candidates are U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Ted Kennedy Jr., a son of the late senator, an advocate for the disabled and co-founder of the New York-based Marwood Group, which describes itself as "a health care-focused strategic advisory and financial services firm."
The governor will be required to fill Kerry's seat temporarily with an interim appointment, while setting a day for the special election between 145 days and 160 days after Kerry's resignation. In the 2010 special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, Patrick required his interim appointee, former Democratic Party Chairman Paul Kirk, not to run for a full term.
Patrick said he expects anyone he appoints on a temporary basis this time would also not run in the special election.
Former Gov. Michael Dukakis, retiring Rep. Barney Frank and Victoria Kennedy, widow of Sen. Kennedy, have been mentioned in Democratic circles as possible interim senators. This past week, Dukakis played down interest in the post while Kennedy declined comment.
Although Democrats are riding high off Warren's victory, several of the arguments they brought to bear in the 2012 campaign wouldn't apply in a special election. They can't say, as they did in the Warren campaign, that defeating Brown might tip the balance of power in the Senate. Or that electing him would strengthen the hand of a Republican president.
Still, the Democratic Party chairman, John Walsh, said the party has a wide pool of candidates and attributed Brown's loss to a rejection of his voting record.
"I don't think Scott Brown is any kind of prohibitive favorite," Walsh said. But he'd "certainly be a front-runner."
If there is a special election, whoever wins shouldn't get too comfortable. The senator will face re-election in 2014, when Massachusetts voters will endure yet another Senate election.

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'Fiscal cliff' leaves Boehner a wounded speaker

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Boehner is a bloodied House speaker following the startling setback that his own fractious Republican troops dealt him in their "fiscal cliff" struggle against President Barack Obama.
There's plenty of internal grumbling about the Ohio Republican, especially among conservatives, and lots of buzzing about whether his leadership post is in jeopardy. But it's uncertain whether any other House Republican has the broad appeal to seize the job from Boehner or whether his embarrassing inability to pass his own bill preventing tax increases on everyone but millionaires is enough to topple him.
"No one will be challenging John Boehner as speaker," predicted John Feehery, a consultant and former aide to House GOP leaders. "No one else can right now do the job of bringing everyone together" and unifying House Republicans.
The morning after he yanked the tax-cutting bill from the House floor to prevent certain defeat, Boehner told reporters he wasn't worried about losing his job when the new Congress convenes Jan. 3.
"They weren't taking that out on me," he said Friday of rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, who despite pleading from Boehner and his lieutenants were shy of providing the 217 votes needed for passage. "They were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes."
That "somebody" was a number of outside conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America, which openly pressured lawmakers to reject Boehner's bill. Such organizations often oppose GOP lawmakers they consider too moderate and have been headaches for Boehner in the past.
This time, his retreat on the tax measure was an unmistakable blow to the clout of the 22-year House veteran known for an amiable style, a willingness to make deals and a perpetual tan.
Congressional leaders amass power partly by their ability to command votes, especially in showdowns. His failure to do so Thursday stands to weaken his muscle with Obama and among House Republicans.
"It's very hard for him to negotiate now," said Sarah Binder, a George Washington University political scientist, adding that it's premature to judge if Boehner's hold on the speakership is in peril. "No one can trust him because it's very hard for him to produce votes."
She said the loss weakens his ability to summon support in the future because "you know the last time he came to you like this, others didn't step in line."
Boehner, 63, faces unvarnished hostility from some conservatives.
"We clearly can't have a speaker operate well outside" what Republicans want to do, said freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.
Huelskamp is one of four GOP lawmakers who lost prized committee assignments following previous clashes with party leaders. That punishment was an anomaly for Boehner, who is known more for friendly persuasion than arm-twisting.
He said Boehner's job would depend on whether the speaker is "willing to sit and listen to Republicans first, or march off" and negotiate with Obama.
Conservative Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said one of the tea party's lasting impacts would be if Boehner struggled to retain his speakership due to the fight over the fiscal cliff, which is the combination of deep tax increases and spending cuts that start in early January without a bipartisan deal to avert them.
"If there's a major defeat delivered here, it could make it tough on him," King said. "He's in a tough spot."
Defenders say Boehner has been dealt a difficult hand. They say that in nearly two years as speaker, he's been field general over an unruly GOP majority confronting a Democratic president and Senate, steering them to the best outcomes possible.
House Republicans won some spending cuts early on. But they were faulted by the public for nearly causing a federal default in a 2011 fight over extending the government's debt limit, and lost a later battle over renewing a payroll tax cut.
This year, they've suffered in the polls for resisting the extension of wide-ranging tax cuts unless the wealthiest earners were included, which Obama opposes. They saw their House majority whittled by eight seats in last month's elections.
"He's doing a good job in a tough situation," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a Boehner friend. He said the speaker's challenges include "independent individuals" among House Republicans and the increased willingness of outside conservatives to pressure GOP leaders, not defer to them.
Portman said he didn't know if Boehner's tax bill debacle would weaken him.
"It proved to the president what he's been saying, that there are limits to how far he can go" in making concessions in fiscal cliff bargaining, said Portman. "But a win would have improved chances for an agreement" by demonstrating that Boehner could deliver votes.
"His own Republican team let him down and that always hurts a leader," said veteran Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.
Republicans watching closely for overt or subtle moves by would-be challengers to Boehner said Friday they'd detected none, though such moves are notoriously secretive.
The entire House elects its speaker by majority vote on the first day of the new session. Because the 201 Democrats will probably all back Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for the job, a GOP effort to depose Boehner would have to occur internally and before the full House votes so Republicans — with 234 seats — elect one of their own as speaker.
Possible candidates to replace Boehner, according to GOP lawmakers and aides, include Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, third-ranking Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Rep. Tom Price of Georgia.
Cantor was at Boehner's side Friday as both men met with reporters. Cantor, McCarthy and Ryan lobbied colleagues for Boehner's tax-cut bill, giving Republicans angry over the measure little reason to turn to them as alternatives.
"I recognize why these questions are getting asked," conservative freshman Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said about whether Boehner was in trouble. "I see nothing giving any evidence to that end. It was not a vote of no confidence on John Boehner. It was a legislative defeat, not a personal defeat."

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