China's Huawei claims world's fastest smartphone

BARCELONA: China's Huawei, the number three smartphone maker behind giants Samsung and Apple, unveiled Sunday a new mobile, the Ascend P2, which it claims is the fastest in the world.

Sharp-cornered and thinner than a pencil at 8.4 mm, the company said it can achieve speeds of 150 Mbps, fast enough to download a two-hour high-definition movie in less than five minutes.

The mobile, which has a 4.7-inch, high definition screen, has a powerful 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and is able to use the fourth-generation high speed mobile networks being rolled out worldwide.

Unveiling the device on the eve of the opening Monday of the four-day Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the company said it was "the world's fastest smartphone," smashing all previous records.

Huawei said its phone surpassed top speeds of 100 Mbps for the fourth-generation network ready versions of Apple's flagship iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy SIII.

The Ascend P2 will launch in France through Orange in June and is also expected to be available worldwide during the second quarter of 2013, it said.

"Ascend P2 downloads HD movies in minutes, and loads online videos, web pages, songs or e-Books in seconds," Huawei said in a company statement issued at the launch.

The phone, which includes a 13 megapixel camera, is the latest shot in Huawei's battle against the fast-growing market's titans Samsung and Apple.

Samsung and Apple accounted for more than half of all smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2012 -- 29.0 per cent for Samsung and 22.1 per cent for Apple -- according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Behind Samsung and Apple, however, Chinese firms held the third, fourth and fifth spots -- with 5.3 per cent for Huawei, 4.7 per cent for ZTE and 4.4 per cent for Lenovo.

- AFP/jc

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Karunanidhi slams AIADMK, BJP over stand on Sethusamudram

CHENNAI: DMK Chief M Karunanidhi on Sunday called on the Centre to take steps to present a strong case before the Supreme Court on the Sethusamundram shipping channel project sought to be blocked by "communal forces".

Flaying the BJP and the AIADMK for their stand on the project, Karunanidhi said the national party, while in power, had proposed the alignment for the project which involved dredging of 'Ram Sethu', the mythical bridge believed to have been built by Lord Ram to cross over to Lanka. Now it is firmly opposed to the project.

"After considering various proposals over the route, the Vajpayee-led NDA government had decided to implement the project on alignment No 6 which involves the Ram Sethu, called Adam's Bridge. Forgetting that, it is now opposing dredging of Ram Sethu," he said.

The Pachauri Committee has said the shipping channel project is not viable on economic and ecological grounds. The government has rejected the report and maintained that it intends to pursue the project which will cut through the Adam's Bridge.

On the AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa's demand to the prime minister that Ram Sethu be declared a national monument, Karunanidhi said she had claimed in 2005 that it was due to her efforts that preliminary work on the project was initiated in 1998 and that she had been instrumental in its taking shape.

The AIADMK had in its 2001 poll manifesto spoken in favour of the Sethusamudram project, he said, adding she had turned against it since she didn't want DMK to take the credit.

"Some communal forces had taken the issue to the apex court with a view to creating roadblocks," he said.

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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Jessica Ridgeway Murder Suspect to Stand Trial

The teenage suspect in the murder and dismemberment of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway will stand trial after a judge ruled there is enough evidence, including an alleged 911 confession, to move forward with the case.

Prosecutors played the 911 recording on Friday at a preliminary hearing for Austin Sigg, 18, in which the teen confessed to murdering the fifth grader and trying to kidnap a female jogger.

"I murdered Jessica Ridgeway, I have proof that I did. I'm giving myself up completely, there will be no resistance whatsoever," Sigg said on the Oct. 23, 2012, recording, according to ABC News Denver affiliate KMGH-TV.

The dispatcher then asked about his criminal history.

"The only other [incident] was Ketner Lake, where a woman was attacked. That was me," Sigg said in the recording.

A lead investigator on the case testified that Mindy Sigg, the teen's mother, told the dispatcher her son had hidden Jessica's remains in a crawl space under the family home, KMGH reported.

Authorities arrested Sigg at his Westminster, Colo., home that evening.

Sigg is charged with murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery in the Ridgeway case.

He faces an attempted kidnapping charge for the May 28, 2012, attack on a 22-year-old female jogger. Police said a man tried to grab her from behind on a trail around Ketner Lake.

Courtesy Westminster Police Department

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The woman said the man tried to put a rag over her mouth that had a chemical smell. She was able to get away and call 911.

A judge ruled Friday that Sigg should be held without bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned March 12.

Jessica Ridgeway Disappearance Rattles Community

The search last fall for Jessica Ridgeway had the Westminster, Colo., community on edge as they grappled with the notion a cold-blooded predator could be hiding in their midst.

The fifth-grader was last seen on Oct. 5, 2012, when she left for school. She never showed up at a nearby park where she was supposed to meet friends for the one-mile walk to her elementary school. It was a route she took every day, but this time she never arrived.

An extensive FBI search included knocking on doors, road blocks, and encouraging people to report any suspicious behavior observed in friends and family members.

Jessica's dismembered torso was found inside a bag in Arvada, Colo., on Oct. 10. Her legs, arms and head were found in the crawl space under Sigg's home, Detective Luis Lopez told the court on Friday, according to KMGH. Her cause of death was asphyxiation, he said.

Authorities turned their attention to Sigg after a neighbor called a tip line Oct. 19 to report Sigg wore a cross similar to the one police believed the killer wore, and said the teen had a fascination with death. Two FBI agents took a DNA sample from Sigg, who was 17 years old at the time.

It wasn't until the 911 call on Oct. 23 that Sigg was taken into custody.

Sigg had been a student at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colo., according to his arrest report, where classmates said he was studying mortuary science.

The Ridgeway and Sigg families attended the hearing on Friday. Both families were dressed in purple, which was Jessica's favorite color.

ABC News' Christina Ng contributed to this report.

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Egypt's ElBaradei urges election boycott

CAIRO: Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday called for a boycott of Egypt's upcoming legislative elections, as the president rescheduled the first round after Copts complained it would clash with a Christian holiday.

"Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," the Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the UN atomic watchdog wrote on Twitter.

Former foreign minister Amr Mussa, another leader in the National Salvation Front (NSF), said many members of the opposition bloc were inclined to boycott the four-round election, but a final position had not yet been taken.

"There is a large group that wants a boycott, but it has not yet been discussed, and no decision has been taken," he told AFP.

Initially the election had been set to begin on April 27, with a new parliament to convene on July 6.

But the dates conflicted with pre-Easter and Easter holidays, prompting Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to announce new ones "in response to requests by Christian brothers," a reference to the Coptic Church, his office said Saturday.

A statement said the new starting date for the election would be April 22-23 instead of 27-28 which fell on the Christian holidays of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday.

The second round will take place on April 29-30 instead of May 4-5, to avoid interference with Easter weekend, the statement said, adding that as a result of the changes parliament was now set to convene on July 2, instead of July 6.

Earlier Father Rafiq Greish, the Catholic Church's spokesman in Egypt, told AFP that he spoke with the presidency, which "accepted" rescheduling the first round.

Many Copts fear that Morsi and his Islamist allies seek to marginalise the minority community which represents six to 10 per cent of Egypt's 83-million population of mostly Sunni Muslims.

ElBaradei, who did not elaborate about his boycott call on Twitter, raised suspicion that the vote might be rigged, as was the case in a 2010 election under ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak.

Leaders of the NSF, an alliance that brings together liberal and secular leaning groups, have previously proposed a postponement of the vote.

The coalition organised massive protests against Morsi in November and December after he adopted now-repealed powers that shielded his decisions from judicial review.

But anti-Morsi protests have slowed since he pushed through an Islamist-drafted constitution in a December referendum, with the mass rallies giving way to smaller, and often violent, protests.

The opposition, less organised than Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, has insisted the president appoint a new government before the election while the presidency says the new parliament should have the right to appoint the cabinet.

The Brotherhood and Islamist allies dominated the last parliamentary election in 2011 that resulted in an Islamist-majority house which a court annulled on a technicality before Morsi's election last June.

But due to increased anti-Morsi sentiment, Hamdeen Sabahi, another NSF leader, has said the opposition coalition could now win up to 50 per cent of seats in parliament if it chose to contest the election.

- AFP/jc

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Hyderabad blasts: Local outfit under police’s scanner

HYDERABAD: With no breakthrough so far in Dilsukhnagar serial blasts that claimed 17 lives and left nearly 150 injured, the investigating agencies are scanning the activities of Dursgah-e-Jihad-o-Shahadat (DJS), a city-based outfit whose members were alleged to have been involved in a series of terror attacks in the past.

"DJS has been a training ground for militants in the past. Many of them had developed links with foreign intelligence agencies and terrorist organisations and carried out attacks in Hyderabad and elsewhere. It is critical to know the status of these members in the context of the latest blasts," a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

Local police sources said the outfit lost its sheen after the death of its founder Shaikh Mahboob Ali in 2011. The new DJS president Mohammed Abdul Majid, son-in-law of the founder, staged a protest on December 6, the anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition. He also organised protests against a police officer in October for which he was behind bars for over two weeks.

Police sources said IM operative Syed Maqbool, who was arrested by the Delhi police in October last year for planning terror attacks across the country, was once linked to DJS. Mohammed Abdul Shahid Bilal and his brother Samad, who were first linked with Mecca Masjid bomb blast and later killed in Karachi, were also DJS members. Mohammed Viquar, who reportedly killed two policemen in 2009 and 2010 had his initial training with DJS. Another militant Ghulam Yazdani, who was killed in a police encounter in Delhi, also owed allegiance to the outfit.

The founder's grandson Nijihullah was packed off to Saudi Arabia to escape police, but later fell into the hands of Pakistani terror handlers. He was reportedly trained in Pakistan and later pushed back into India. His present whereabouts are not known.

Denying any role in terror activities, DJS President Abdul Majid had earlier claimed that the outfit had trained about 50,000 youths in self-defence in the past. The two camps of DJS where "self-defence training" was imparted—Ujale Shah Eidgah grounds and Purani Haveli—are now defunct.

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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Jodi Arias' Friends Believe in Her Innocence

Accused murderer Jodi Arias believes she should be punished, but hopes she will not be sentenced to death, two of her closest friends told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

Ann Campbell and Donavan Bering have been a constant presence for Arias wth at least one of them sitting in the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom along with Arias' family for almost every day of her murder trial. They befriended Arias after she first arrived in jail and believe in her innocence.

Arias admits killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander and lying for nearly two years about it, but insists she killed Alexander in self defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.

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Nevertheless, she is aware of the seriousness of her lies and deceitful behavior.

The women told ABC News that they understand that Arias needs to be punished and Arias understands that too.

"She does know that, you know, she does need to pay for the crime," Campbell said. "But I don't want her to die, and I know that she has so much to give back."

Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage

The lies that Arias admits she told to police and her family have been devastating to her, Bering said.

""She said to me, 'I wish I didn't have to have lied. That destroyed me,'" Donovan said earlier this week. "Because now when it's so important for her to be believed, she has that doubt. But as she told me on the phone yesterday, she goes, 'I have nothing to lose.' So all she can do is go out there and tell the truth."

During Arias' nine days on the stand she has described in detail the oral, anal and phone sex that she and Alexander allegedly engaged in, despite being Mormons and trying to practice chastity. She also spelled out in excruciating detail what she claimed was Alexander's growing demands for sex, loyalty and subservience along with an increasingly violent temper.

Besides her two friends, Arias' mother and sometimes her father have been sitting in the front row of the courtroom during the testimony. It's been humiliating, Bering said.

"She's horrified. There's not one ounce of her life that's not out there, that's not open to the public. She's ashamed," she said.

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Abe: Japan acting calmly in island dispute with China

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said he told President Barack Obama in a meeting that Japan would act calmly in its row with China over tiny islands in the East China Sea claimed by both Asian countries.

"I explained that we have always been dealing with this issue ... in a calm manner," he said through a translator, while sitting next to Obama in the White House Oval Office.

"We will continue to do so and we have always done so," he said.

Tension has raised fears of an unintended military incident near the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Washington says the islets fall under a U.S.-Japan security pact, but it is eager to avoid a clash in the region.

Abe said the existence of the Japan-U.S. alliance was a stabilizing factor in the area.

"We agreed that we would stay in close coordination with each other in dealing with such issues and other issues," he said.

Obama, in his remarks to reporters, said Japan was one of the United States' closest allies. He said the two men would discuss trade and other economic issues and agreed that their top priority was economic growth.

Obama declined to answer a reporter's question on whether they would discuss the Japanese yen.

Expectations for Abe's economic programs, especially monetary easing, have cut some 10 percent off the yen's value against the U.S. dollar since Abe took office, raising concern that Japan is weakening its currency to export its way out of recession.

Obama and Abe also discussed North Korea and agreed to cooperate at the United Nations over the issue. Abe said the two men also talked about additional sanctions against North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb last week in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

(Editing by Vicki Allen)

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US sequester cuts will force major flight delays

WASHINGTON: US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday that looming automatic budget cuts will force air traffic control cutbacks and cause flight delays in major cities by up to 90 minutes.

LaHood said the US$85 billion "sequester" cuts scheduled for March 1 will compel the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce airport staffing around the country, shutting towers at smaller airports and causing a general slowdown of civil aviation operations.

"Sequester will have a very serious impact on the transportation services that are critical to the traveling public and to the nation's economy," LaHood told reporters at the White House.

At the department of transportation, he said, spending will be reduced by nearly US$1 billion, including US$600 million at the FAA for the March-September period.

That means the FAA will furlough -- mandate unpaid leave -- most of its 47,000 workers for between two and four days each month beginning in April, LaHood said.

That will mean less air traffic control services at large and small airports around the country, likely forcing flight schedule changes and slowdowns by airlines.

"Once airlines see the potential impact of these furloughs, we expect that they will change their schedules and cancel flights."

"Obviously, as always, safety is our top priority, and we will never allow the amount of air travel we can handle safely to take off and land -- which means travellers should expect delays," LaHood warned.

In a letter to airline and airport managers around the country, LaHood said the cutbacks will mean the elimination of midnight shifts in 30 secondary airports like El Paso, Texas and Chicago's Midway, and the closure of traffic control towers at 100 smaller airports.

The FAA will have to reduce equipment maintenance and support as well.

As a consequence, "travellers should expect delays," he said in the letter.

"Flights to major cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco could experience delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours because we will have fewer controllers on staff."

The sequester -- harsh automatic spending cuts over 10 years agreed in a 2011 political deal to force deficit reduction -- will take effect on March 1 if Democrats and Republicans cannot compromise on a less austere program before then.

President Barack Obama wants to replace the cuts with a balanced set of spending cuts and revenue hikes obtained by closing tax loopholes, but Republicans in Congress are resisting the idea of higher taxes.

- AFP/jc

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