GrandCentral To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It’s Very, Very Good

GrandCentral, a phone management service that first launched in 2006 and was acquired by Google for $50+ million in 2007, hasn’t been in the news much lately. Other than a few good natured jabs at their marketing gimmicks and coverage of outages, that is. Get ready for that to change as the service prepares for a public launch under a new product name: Google Voice.

The 21 month delay between acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or so.

Now, though, Google is ready to fully launch Grand Central/Google Voice. Key new features have been added that make the service absolutely compelling (each is described below). The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” Grand Central gives you one phone number that can access all your numbers, whether they be cell, home, mobile, and work numbers; the GrandCentral numbers stay the same, as many of these number change over the course of a user’s lifetime. Here’s our quick and dirty guide to using the old GrandCentral.

Most people have never used the service, because Google froze new accounts after the acquisition. The freeze isn’t being lifted yet (and we’ve heard there are tens of thousands of people on the wait list). But starting Thursday existing accounts are being given the option of switching to the new service and gett access to the new features. Over the next several weeks Google will begin to let new people in. Some people, impatient to try out the new service, have been paying as much as $650 on Ebay for an account.

The service was free and is still going to be free. Users can purchase credit (much like Skype) to make international calls at rates far below what they normally pay. GrandCentral will also remain solely a U.S. service.

New Features:

Google’s added new features and plugged some big holes that limited the original service. Some of the more useful and innovating new features (and see screenshots at end):

Text Messaging: Google wants people to use their Google Voice phone number exclusively (and in fact it’s the only way to use it properly). A problem with the original service – it didn’t allow text messaging, so you had to tell people your mobile number as well if you wanted to send and receive text messages with them. Now, Google Voice will accept text messages and forward them on to your mobile phone. You can respond to those messages as well. Google is using the existing Gateway technology (which is used by Google Chat) to power this feature.

Voicemail Transcription: Google also added a nifty transcription feature (which is using the same subscription service as Google 411) for voicemails. All voicemails are transcribed easily saved into the system and searchable. Users can add notes or tags to voicemails and each transcription details how confident Google is about the success of voice transcription; Google Voice highlights word in lighter color that they are not confident were subscribed properly. And transcription takes about 30 seconds to be seen in the system from the end of a voicemail. All in all, Google may have unkilled the dreaded voicemail.

Friend Settings: Google has added new settings that allow users to route calls from specific people straight to voicemail, or your mobile phone, etc, instead of having to state their name and then be forwarded accordingly.

New User Interface: The primary user interface for Google Voice is through your phone via an audio menu. But users can also log in to the website to administer the account and view activity. This interface has undergone a makeover - It now looks very much like a comprehensive Gmail inbox with tabs for Voicemail, SMS, Recorded calls, Placed calls, Received calls and Missed calls. And the Google Voice is easily integrated into the list of links to Google apps at the top left of each application. All SMS and transcribed voicemails are searchable and taggable, which is very useful and will change the way people interact with these messages. Google also says that full integration with Gmail is coming, but won’t say when. Personally, having all my email, SMS and transcribed voicemails in a single inbox could be life-changing. You can also respond to text messages from the interface and initiate phone calls, which then calls your designated phone and then the recipient.

Conference and International Calls: Google Voice also added a conference calling feature allowing conference calls of up to six participants and recording abilities. International calls can also be made through the system at very reasonable rates. For example, voice calls to France are $0.02 per minute, to France mobile phones $0.15 per minute, and to China $0.02 per minute. These rates are about the same as Skype’s international phone rates.

Our First Impression:

Google is finally bringing us the voice service that was promised back in 2006. With GrandCentral, you no longer have to wrestle with 3 or more phone numbers and multiple email and texting devices. You give out one phone number, administer it with a website or voice menu, and forward calls to various devices depending on who’s calling and when.

Google has also fixed most of the limitations with the original service. Outages are a thing of the past, they say, and there won’t be any further reassigning of phone numbers. The new SMS feature means you don’t have to give out your mobile phone separately. And the voicemail transcription and search feature is a great addition.

Still, users have to get over a big initial hurdle - getting all their friends to start using a new phone number instead of the old ones. Business cards are to be thrown out, new ones printed. Contact cards updated. Etc. There’s nothing Google can do to fix this problem.

But they can prove that the service is reliable. No dropped calls. No outages. Proper support even though its a free product. If they do that they can conceivably control the phone numbers for millions of people…and eventually find a way to monetize all that power.

We have 100 Google Voice accounts to give out to readers, but you must have a gmail account. If you’d like one, please send an email from your gmail account to techcrunch@gmail.com (note that this isn’t an account we check regularly) with the exact subject “Google Voice Account” - the first 100 will get an account invitation from Google. Update: We’ve now received several thousand email requests, so the 100 are gone.

from : http://www.techcrunch.com

EU warns on Facebook privacy

Young Europeans using Facebook and other social networking sites may be unwittingly risking their privacy, according to a warning from Jacques Barrot, a vice president of the European Commission.

The alarm comes amid an outpouring of concern from parents and privacy advocates about the potentially negative effects of posting personal details and photographs to popular Web sites accessible from virtually any computer.

Youth job prospects have become a particular concern now that employers trawl social networking sites to discover details about whether potential employees are suitable hires. Another concern is how to enforce age limits on social networking sites so that Web surfers who are children are shielded from adults who have not been approved by parents.

Young people "are exposing their everyday life online without being aware of the risks the online activities could entail now and in the future for their own privacy," Barrot said Tuesday in a statement. "It is therefore crucial that those young people are educated how to surf the Internet in a privacy-friendly way." Barrot is responsible for matters concerning justice, freedom and security in the European Union.

EU officials also are concerned that information collected from such sites could be used by companies to flood consumers with unsolicited advertising or used by government agencies to compromise citizens' civil liberties.

The commission, the executive arm of the European Union, released the results of a study it conducted in late 2008 showing that 33 percent of respondents aged 15 to 24 were aware of their rights in relation to their own personal data, while 18 percent knew of the existence of national data protection supervisory authorities. Those figures are too low, the commission said.

Obama signs order to close Guantanamo in a year

President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods.

"We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms," Obama said as he signed three executive orders and a presidential directive in the Oval Office. Obama explained each order before he put his pen to them and occasionally solicited input from White House counsel Greg Craig to make sure he was describing them correctly.

With his action, Obama started changing how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans — and overhauling America's image abroad, battered by accusations of the use of torture and the indefinite detention of suspects at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba.

"The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," the president said.

The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned Guantanamo facility within a year, a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama's. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

In the other actions, Obama:

_Created a task force that would have 30 days to recommend policies on handling terror suspects who are detained in the future. Specifically, the group would look at where those detainees should be housed since Guantanamo is closing.

_Required all U.S. personnel to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual while interrogating detainees. The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture by critics. However, a Capitol Hill aide says that the administration also is planning a study of more aggressive interrogation methods that could be added to the Army manual — which would create a significant loophole to Obama's action Thursday.

"We believe that the Army Field Manual reflects the best judgment of our military, that we can abide by a rule that says we don't torture, but that we can still effectively obtain the intelligence that we need," Obama said. He said his action reflects an understanding that "we are willing to observe core standards of conduct, not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard."

_Directed the Justice Department to review the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri, who is the only enemy combatant currently being held on U.S. soil. The review will look at whether al-Marri has the right to sue the government for his freedom, a right the Supreme Court already has given to Guantanamo detainees. The directive will ask the high court for a stay in al-Marri's appeals case while the review is ongoing. The government says al-Marri is an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

An estimated 245 men are being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged with a crime. Among the sticky issues the Obama administration has to resolve are where to put those detainees — whether back in their home countries or at other federal detention centers — and how to prosecute some of them for war crimes.

In his first Oval Office signing ceremony, Obama was surrounded by retired senior military leaders. He described them as outstanding Americans who have defended the country — and its ideals.


President Barack Obama signs an executive order
closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay

Mr. President, it's cold outside

It's cold, maybe even freezing. Sometimes it snows. So why do we have to have a huge outdoor event to inaugurate a new president on January 20? Our first president, George Washington, was smart enough to get himself inaugurated on a more balmy April 30, 1789. What went wrong?

In short, the Constiution did it. Inaugurations used to be held in March to give electors four months to cast their ballots. But the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution changed the date to Jan. 20, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's second swearing-in ceremony in 1937 was the first held on the new date. FindLaw says a report from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary offered some reasons for the change:

"[W]hen our Constitution was adopted there was some reason for such a long intervention of time between the election and the actual commencement of work by the new Congress.... Under present conditions [of communication and transportation] the result of elections is known all over the country within a few hours after the polls close, and the Capital City is within a few days' travel of the remotest portions of the country....

"Another effect of the amendment would be to abolish the so-called short session of Congress.... Every other year, under our Constitution, the terms of Members of the House and one-third of the Members of the Senate expire on the 4th day of March.... Experience has shown that this brings about a very undesirable legislative condition."

In other words, that's an awfully long lame-duck session, and we now have airplanes and 24-hour news and the Internet — in 2008, we knew Obama would be the next president by 11pm ET. As the 2000 election reminded us, we don't always know who's going to president by the end of election night. And in the days of yore, presidents had to physically move to the nation's capital without the help of FedEx, super highways and United hubs.

Getting our president to work on time — that seems a worthwhile amendment. And not to worry: President-elect Obama says a chilly weather report won't deter him from the traditional outdoor ceremony. So if you're headed to D.C. to catch the big show for yourself, you might want to take some advice from Karin Tanabe at the Huffington Post, who has clearly been debating "what to wear?" for quite some time:

"So what does one wear to be sandwiched between total strangers for hours while craning your neck to see a Jumbotron in sub-zero weather? Clothing you never want to see again. Don't mind if a reveler accidentally flambés your parka? Then by all means wear it. And then throw another one on top for good measure. Spent your entire month's salary on stilettos so fabulous you had them sewn to your feet? It's time to cut them off and wear the sensible shoes favored by nuns and your Aunt Mildred."

Even if you're cold and not-so-comfortable, it's always a special moment watching a new leader say these famous words:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Obama: 'Dramatic action' needed now to fix economy

President-elect Barack Obama made a pitch for his massive economic stimulus plan at a Midwestern factory that manufactures wind turbine parts, saying Friday his proposal would make smart investments in the country's future and create solid jobs in up-and-coming industries.

"Renewable energy isn't something pie in the sky. It's not part of a far-off future. It's happening all across America right now," Obama told workers at the Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co. in this Cleveland suburb. "It can create millions of additional jobs and entire new industries if we act right now."

Just days before taking the oath of office as the 44th president, Obama used the factory as a backdrop as he sought to generate support from the public — constituents of skeptical Republicans and Democrats in Congress — for his pricey plan to pull the country out of recession.

Seeking to counter critics' claims of excessive spending and too few tax cuts, Obama cast the package as necessary to create long-lasting, well-paying jobs in industries such as alternative energy, and help hard-hit industrial states such as Ohio now and in the future.

"It's not too late to change course — but only if we take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said. He pledged: "The first job of my administration is to put people back to work and get our economy moving again."

"We're not looking to create just any kind of jobs here," Obama added. "We're looking to create good jobs that pay well and won't be shipped overseas. Jobs that don't just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to be on the cutting edge in the long term."

His audience — factory workers, invited guests and state officials, including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland — gave him warm greetings and polite applause at the relatively low-key appearance.

Obama held the campaign-style event — likely the first in a series — one day after the Senate agreed to give him access to the second half of last fall's $700 billion financial industry bailout and House Democrats unveiled an $825 billion stimulus package that could reach $1 trillion by the time Congress sends it to him.

One of the largest bills ever to make its way through Congress, it calls for federal spending of roughly $550 billion and tax cuts of $275 billion over the next two years to revive the sickly economy. It also focuses heavily on energy, education, health care and jobs-producing highway construction.

Energy-related proposals include $32 billion to upgrade the nation's electrical distribution system, more than $20 billion in tax cuts to promote the development of alternatives to oil fuels, and billions more to make public housing, federal buildings and modest-income homes more energy efficient.

Over the past three months, Obama has moved from campaigning for president to campaigning for a stimulus plan. He has been in Washington for two weeks, and he and his advisers have spent much of the time consulting with Congress on the plan's components. He is seeking to secure lawmakers' backing even as both Republicans and Democrats raise concerns about its price tag and tax provisions.

Despite the resistance, House and Senate leaders have pledged to give Obama legislation to sign by mid-February.

The stakes are enormous for Obama.

Passage of the plan — and bipartisan passage in particular — would mark a significant achievement at the outset of his administration. Obama is inheriting a deep recession from President George W. Bush. Defeat would be a blow, coming not just in his first weeks in office but also as joblessness increases, bank failures continue, investment portfolios shrink and home prices plummet.

Either way, the success or failure of the plan could well set the tone for Obama's first 100 days in office, if not his first year or longer.

Ohio was a fitting selection for Obama's first trip outside Washington to promote the plan; it's a state steeped in both political and economic symbolism. Obama won Ohio in last fall's election by 4 percentage points over Republican Sen. John McCain in a campaign that focused heavily on worsening economic conditions.

The state also is part of the industrial Midwest that's been hit especially hard by the recession; it has posted huge losses in manufacturing, has a high foreclosure rate and a 7.3 percent unemployment rate in November.

Unlike many other businesses in the state, the company that Obama visited can boast of growth.

Founded in 1983, the company has 65 employees and is seeking to hire more. It recently announced the creation of a wind power division to respond to what the company says is a surge of demand for parts in the wind turbine industry.

Wearing clear protective glasses with his dark business suit, Obama took a tour of the chilly factory. He stopped at several stations to greet workers and watch them demonstrate the steps to manufacture large screws and bolts used to hold wind turbines together.

"The need for us to act is now. It's never been more urgent," Obama said. But given the economic crisis, he also repeated a warning: "Recovery won't happen overnight, and it's likely that, even with these measures, things will get worse before they get better."


President-elect Barack Obama
speaks to workers about the economy after
touring Cardinal Fastener and …

Jeff Monson charged with mischief; ESPN not an accomplice

Jeff Monson is either really dumb or really smart. I'm leaning towards the latter.

The fighter, who last appeared in the Mixed Fighting Alliance, winning over Ricco Rodriguez in December, has a warrant against him for defacing the Capitol building in Olympia, Wash. This warrant was issued after pictures of him painting an anarchist symbol on the building appeared in ESPN the Magazine.

See, Monson is an outspoken anarchist. He has said many times that he wants to do away with the social hierarchies that govern our world. The best way for Monson to share these theories is through the mass media, so publicity is his friend.

Is Monson so dumb that he would expect ESPN to not use photographs of him committing a crime? Of course not. This is a man with a Master's degree in psychology. He understands the ramifications of civil disobedience. If he didn't want attention brought to his cause, he would have asked ESPN to photograph him sitting at home, enjoying dinner.

Monson was charged with first-degree malicious mischief, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of a $20,000 fine and 10 years in prison. ESPN did not do him a favor by running that picture, but it's not their job to protect athletes. It's their job to cover them, a fact which Monson has used to make sure that everyone is discussing his cause today.

Dubya's New Digs

Everyone's obsessing about the new guy, Barack What's-His-Face, moving into the White House. But what about the fella who's been living there for eight years? He's about to be evicted! Where the heck is he supposed to go?

Answer: Dallas. President Bush and wife Laura have purchased a swanky 8,500-square-foot home in suburban Preston Hollow. According to an audio report from NPR, the president and first lady will take up residence on Daria Drive. It was once a sleepy little street, but ever since the move was announced, it has become a place for gawkers and photo-hounds.

For those reasons and more, the street will soon become a gated community. The Dallas Morning News reports that the city council "unanimously approved gating Daria Drive." And, in case you were wondering, an article from KERA quotes a council member as saying that the new gate will "be done at his [Bush's] expense." Nobody seems too sure who is going to pay for Dallas police to "provide around the clock security."

Regardless of who foots the bill, neighbors seem to be generally enthusiastic about having a former president on the street. A local young Republican printed up signs declaring "Welcome Home, George and Laura." Future neighbor, Tom Hicks, who owns the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers, is considering adding a helipad to his property. We assume he wouldn't mind letting Dubya use it every once in a while. Heck, it'd be the neighborly thing to do.

Wizards poke fun at LeBron’s ‘crab dribble’

Add LeBron James’ “crab dribble” to the lengthy list of talking points in the Cavaliers-Wizards rivalry.

“I’ll have to check in my book to see what a ‘crab dribble’ is. I’m not quite sure,” Washington interim coach Ed Tapscott said with a smile Monday. “I do know that we don’t seem to get away with very many of them, whatever they are.”

James and the rest of the Cavaliers were given Monday off by coach Mike Brown, so the world will have to wait for more thoughts from them as to whether The Chosen One did, indeed, travel a day earlier when driving for a potential tying basket in the closing seconds of Cleveland’s 80-77 loss at Washington.

Referee Bill Spooner waved off the play and called the violation. Asked to clarify his ruling, Spooner wrote in an e-mail to a pool reporter: “3 steps on the move to the basket. Basic travel call.”

The NBA did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press to comment on whether Spooner made the correct call.

On Sunday, James said it was a “bad call” and that “they need to look at it and they need to understand that’s not a travel.”

In giving his take on what happened, James said: “I watched it again, and I took a ‘crab dribble,’ which is a hesitation dribble, and then two steps.”

Asked Monday if he knows what a “crab dribble” is, Wizards All-Star forward Antawn Jamison said, “I know what a traveling is. … I think we all know what traveling is.”

Washington’s other All-Star forward, Caron Butler, gave a similar answer.

“‘Crab dribble’ is when you, uh, travel,” Butler said. “That’s the hottest thing on the market right now.”

Turning to a more serious explanation, Butler said he thought James switched his pivot foot.

“I couldn’t do it in AAU, I couldn’t do it in college,” Butler said, “and obviously I can’t do it now.”

AP Sports Writer Tom Withers contributed to this report.

Star battled to save son

JOHN Travolta frantically tried to save his teen son's life after he was found collapsed in a bathroom, it was reported last night.

The superstar actor and his wife were alerted to 16-year-old Jett's accident when they heard the screams a nanny who was trying to revive him.

Travolta then rushed back to his holiday villa and tried to revive his son.

‘Mr Travolta did everything he could but it appears it was too late,’ a detective with the Grand Bahama Police Force said.

‘The nanny tried, Mr Travolta tried, but none of them was getting any response. They did their best. Nobody wanted to give up.’
The Grease star pounded his son's chest and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in an effort to revive him as paramedics arrived.

‘The pain he is going through is unimaginable,’ said the actor's corporate and commercial attorney Michael McDermott.

'He’s just broken up. John took over the CPR for a substantial period of time and was performing CPR until the emergency medical team came and took over.’

Michael Ossi, the family’s lawyer, confirmed that Jett had a history of seizures. ‘But they were controlled,’ he said. "This one couldn’t be."

"This is the worst day in Mr. and Mrs. Travolta's life -- nobody wants to bury their child," Mr Ossi said.

Travolta and his wife have said Jett suffered from Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory condition that can damage the heart.

Grease and Pulp Fiction star Travolta, 54, and Kelly, 46, were being comforted by pals at the beach-front apartment last night. A police spokesman said: “Information is that Jett suffered from seizures.

“He was last seen when he went to use the bathroom at their residence.” A post-mortem will be held.

Doting dad John had even named one of his planes after his tragic only son.

The Hollywood star called one of his five aircraft Jett Clipper Ella in honour of the 16-year-old lad and his daughter Ella Bleu, eight.

Keen pilot Travolta, 54, also named his Florida estate — which has a 6,400 square foot mansion designed to resemble an airport terminal — Jett-Bleu after the kids.

Oldest man in the US dies in Sacramento at 112

George Francis, the nation's oldest man, who lived through both world wars, man's first walk on the moon and the election of the first black president, has died. He was 112.

Francis died Saturday of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Sacramento, his son, Anthony Francis, said Sunday.

"He lived four years in the 19th century, 100 years in the 20th century, and 8 years in the 21st century. We call him the man of three centuries," said the younger Francis, 81.

UCLA gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles, who maintains a list of the world's oldest people, said Francis lived 112 years and 204 days.

With Francis' death, Walter Breuning of Montana, who is 112 years, 98 days old, becomes the country's oldest living man. At 114, Gertrude Baines of Los Angeles is the nation's oldest living person. The world's oldest person is Maria de Jesus of Portugal, who is 115 years, 109 days old, and the oldest man is Tomoji Tanabe of Japan, who is 113 years, 101 days, Coles said.

Francis, who at his prime barely weighed more than 100 pounds, was born June 6, 1896, in New Orleans. As an African-American in the South, he felt the sting of the Jim Crow-era segregation laws in his early life.

His son said Francis tried to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War I but was turned down because of his stature.

"We always attributed his longevity to his mental and physical toughness," Anthony Francis said.

George Francis quit school after the sixth grade, became an amateur boxer as a young man and later worked as a chauffeur, an auto mechanic and a barber.

He and his wife, Josephine Johnson Francis, had a son and three daughters. Josephine Francis died of cancer in 1964.

Even in his waning days, Francis never lost his passion for politics, his family said. He voted for Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and for Barack Obama in 2008.

In an interview with The Associated Press after Obama's victory, Francis, who used a wheelchair, said he felt like jumping up and down.

"He is going to give black men a break in the world, and give them a better opportunity to live and make more money," he said. "For people who say voting doesn't matter, I think that's crazy."

Anthony Francis said his father was devoted to his family and that he attributed his longevity to them.

"He said `My children and my friends, I live off of them,'" he said.

Besides his four children, Francis is survived by 18 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.

Wal-Mart to start selling Apple's iPhone on Sunday

Wal-Mart will start selling Apple's popular iPhone on Sunday, the chain said, confirming earlier reports by employees.

Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will become the second independent retail chain after Best Buy Inc. to sell the phone. It is also sold at Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc. stores.

Wal-Mart will sell the phones for $2 less than the regular price with a two-year contract: $197 for the 8-gigabyte model, or $297 for the 16-gigabyte model. Best Buy is discounting the phone by $9.

Reports that Wal-Mart would sell the phone, but not the exact launch date or the terms, surfaced early this month through store employees who had been briefed.


iPhones

Heat’s Dwyane Wade helps family displaced by fire

When Dwyane Wade heard the plight of a South Florida woman whose nephew accidentally burned down her home—and ruined all the family’s possessions—the Miami Heat star knew he had to do something.

So he helped the family move into a new home, just in time for Christmas.

Wade presented Dawn Smith with the ultimate Christmas gift on Wednesday— the keys to a her new house, along with some furnishings, clothing and gifts to make sure her family has a joyous holiday, something that didn’t seem likely just a few weeks ago.

His Wade’s World foundation will make some payments on the home, while Smith and her family get back on their feet.

“That’s what I try to teach my kids,” said Wade, whose foundation has hosted several charity events this holiday season, mostly for needy children. “It’s not about what you’re going to receive—it’s what you can give to others from what you’ve received.”

Smith couldn’t hold back happy sobs when she saw the home for the first time.

“A big-time relief,” Smith said, clearly overcome by emotion. “Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Oh, God, thank you so much.”

The NBA’s leading scorer this season had a simple message: “Hopefully, you’ll like it.”

Wade’s other holiday events this year included a party for 350 children on Monday, and hosting 100 kids at Tuesday night’s Heat game against the Golden State Warriors. He also donated $10,000 to each of three children’s organizations, but said he was particularly touched by being able to assist the Smith family.

Man in Santa suit kills at least 6 at holiday party

In a bizarre Christmas Eve rampage in a Los Angeles suburb, a 45-year-old man in a Santa Claus outfit opened fire on a gathering of his in-laws and then methodically set their house ablaze, killing at least six people and injuring several others, the authorities said on Thursday.

In adition, three people who were at the party in the suburb of Covina — including the couple who owned the home and the former wife of the suspect — were missing, the police said.

The suspect, identified by witnesses as Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, later killed himself in front of his brother's house in Sylmar, about 40 miles from the scene of the shootings, the police said.

Witnesses said Pardo, armed with cans of accelerant, went to the house looking for his former wife, Sylvia, with whom he had been entangled in a bitter divorce..

The frenzied shooting occurred just before midnight Wednesday at a two-story home on a cul de sac in Covina, a middle-class town about 22 miles east of Los Angeles. People who escaped the home, including one woman who broke an ankle as she leapt out of a second-floor window, said they had gathered for a family celebration.
At least three bodies were initially discovered inside the home, and coroners found "several" more bodies as they went through the rubble on Thursday morning, according to The Associated Press.

Investigators said that about 30 people, among them many children, were inside the home celebrating on Christmas Eve when Pardo knocked on the door. The gathering was a tradition for the family, an annual holiday party, and Pardo had apparently disguised himself as hired entertainment to gain access. When a guest opened the door, Pardo stepped inside the house, pulled out a handgun, and immediately started shooting, Lieut. Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department said in a telephone interview.

Officers said they responded to a burst of 911 calls, and arrived at the home at 1129 E. Knollcrest Drive moments later to find it engulfed in flames and shots still being fired inside. Pardo had doused the house in accelerant and then set it on fire, the police said. They said they initially kept about 80 firefighters from getting too close until it appeared that the shooting had stopped. Pardo was believed to have started the fire, possibly with Molotov Cocktails, the authorities said.

Three victims — an 8-year-old and a 16-year-old with gunshot wounds, and the woman who broke her ankle, who is in her 20s— staggered outside and were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries, Buchanan said.

Jeanie Golpz, 51, who lives down the street from the house, said the woman leapt out of the window after running upstairs to flee Pardo. Golpz said she comforted the woman and two others who escaped the house, including a man who was screaming "He shot my family, he shot my family!" The three survivors, she said, were worried that as many as 10 people were still in the home when they escaped.

At some point during the chaos, the police said, Pardo stripped out of his Santa outfit and fled the house in street clothes. When the fire was brought under control, around 1:30 a.m., investigators peered inside the charred structure, where they could see at least three bodies. By early Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, it was still unclear who the victims were and how many more were inside because officers had not yet entered the home, Buchanan said.

But Ed Winter, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office, told The AP that more bodies had been found inside, some of them too badly burned to immediately determine whether they died in the fire or from gunshots.

"We have multiple bodies inside," Winter said. "They're extremely charred and burned."

Buchanan said Pardo had been having problems with his wife, a relative of the owner of the home. Records indicate that the two filed for divorce in March, and that Sylivia Pardo had been living in the home. It was unclear if she was among the dead, and what connection Bruce Pardo had to the wounded 8-year-old and the other victims, he said.

"We don't know if they were residents of the house or not," the officer said.

The authorities began a manhunt for Pardo and were scouring the area when his body was discovered in a car near his brother's home in Sylmar, about 40 miles northwest of Covina.

A suburb that boasts in its slogan "One mile square and all there," Covina sits at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley. In the last few decades it became a scenic backdrop for films and shows, including several episodes of the television series "Roswell" and the hit show "Knight Rider."

Eartha Kitt, sultry 'Santa Baby' singer, dies

Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said. She was 81.

Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday in Connecticut of colon cancer.

Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age even as she neared 80.

When her book "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying physically fit, was published in 2001, Kitt was featured on the cover in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy. Kitt also wrote three autobiographies.

Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

After becoming a hit singing "Monotonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for "Mrs. Patterson," but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in "Shinbone Alley" and "The Owl and the Pussycat."

Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want to Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the saucy gold digger's theme song "Santa Baby," which is revived on radio each Christmas.

The next year, the record company released follow-up album "That Bad Eartha," which featured "Let's Do It," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated in the children's recording category for the 1969 record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa."

Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958 and more recently appearing in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.

On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular "Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.

"Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland," she said in a 1996 Associated Press interview. "It depends so much on gadgetry and flash now. You don't have to have talent to be in the business today.

"I think we had to have something to offer, if you wanted to be recognized as worth paying for."

Kitt was plainspoken about causes she believed in. Her anti-war comments at the White House came as she attended a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth — in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth — you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

In 1978, Kitt returned to Broadway in the musical "Timbuktu!" — which brought her a Tony nomination — and was invited back to the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

In 2000, Kitt earned another Tony nod for "The Wild Party." She played the fairy godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" in 2002.

As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway after replacing Chita Rivera in a revival of "Nine."

She also gained new fans as the voice of Yzma in the 2000 Disney animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove.'"

In an online discussion at Washingtonpost.com in March 2005, shortly after Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won Oscars, she expressed satisfaction that black performers "have more of a chance now than we did then to play larger parts."

But she also said: "I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody. After all, it's the general public that made (me) — not any one particular group. So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have."

Kitt was born in North, S.C., and her road to fame was the stuff of storybooks. In her autobiography, she wrote that her mother was black and Cherokee while her father was white, and she was left to live with relatives after her mother's new husband objected to taking in a mixed-race girl.

An aunt eventually brought her to live in New York, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts, later dropping out to take various odd jobs.

By chance, she dropped by an audition for the dance group run by Dunham, a pioneering African-American dancer. In 1946, Kitt was one of the Sans-Souci Singers in Dunham's Broadway production "Bal Negre."

Kitt's travels with the Dunham troupe landed her a gig in a Paris nightclub in the early 1950s. Kitt was spotted by Welles, who cast her in his Paris stage production of "Faust."

That led to a role in "New Faces of 1952," which featured such other stars-to-be as Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde and, as a writer, Mel Brooks.

While traveling the world as a dancer and singer in the 1950s, Kitt learned to perform in nearly a dozen languages and, over time, added songs in French, Spanish and even Turkish to her repertoire.

"Usku Dara," a song Kitt said was taught to her by the wife of a Turkish admiral, was one of her first hits, though Kitt says her record company feared it too remote for American audiences to appreciate.

Song titles such as "I Want to be Evil" and "Just an Old Fashioned Girl" seem to reflect the paradoxes in Kitt's private life.

Over the years, Kitt had liaisons with wealthy men, including Revlon founder Charles Revson, who showered her with lavish gifts.

In 1960, she married Bill McDonald but divorced him after the birth of their daughter, Kitt.

While on stage, she was daringly sexy and always flirtatious. Offstage, however, Kitt described herself as shy and almost reclusive, remnants of feeling unwanted and unloved as a child. She referred to herself as "that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae."

For years, Kitt was unsure of her birthplace or birth date. In 1997, a group of students at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., located her birth certificate, which verified her birth date as Jan. 17, 1927. Kitt had previously celebrated on Jan. 26.

The research into her background also showed Kitt was the daughter of a white man, a poor cotton farmer.

"I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me and that has been my only family," she told the Post online. "The biggest family in the world is my fans."

This Feb. 7, 1996 file photo shows singer Eartha Kitt
in a New York hotel room.

Nintendo, Dentsu to offer video on Wii

Dentsu Inc, Japan's largest ad agency, said it would team up with game maker Nintendo Co Ltd to launch a video distribution service on Nintendo's wildly popular Wii console.

The two companies plan to offer programmes created for the service, a Dentsu spokesman said, in contrast to most online channels, which tend to carry existing TV shows and movies.

Viewers will need to pay to see some of the new programmes, while others will be offered free of charge and accompanied by advertisements, the spokesman said on Thursday.

Nintendo has sold 34.6 million Wii consoles, which feature a motion-sensing controller that looks like a TV remote control, as of the end of September, far outselling Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3.

Dentsu and Nintendo will start offering the new service in Japan next year, while the timing for overseas sales has yet to be set, the Dentsu spokesman said.

He said the two firms have not decided what type of programmes they will offer, but the Nikkei business daily said cartoons and other entertainment content will be distributed.

Travelers hunker down for Christmas Eve at airport

With airports across the country recovering from a blast of snow and ice storms, some unlucky holiday travelers stranded for the second night in a row prepared to wake up Christmas morning at the nation's second busiest airport.

Newlyweds Tommy and Siobhan Costello were at O'Hare International Airport on Wednesday for the second night en route to their honeymoon in San Diego.

About 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare on Tuesday, the day the Costellos arrived from their native Ireland. The weather disruptions meant the earliest flight out they could get was Thursday. Since the couple packed for California, they didn't have clothes to venture out into the city where the weather was expected to dip into the single digits Wednesday evening.

"This was supposed to be a pit stop," said 30-year-old Siobhan Costello, who wandered the terminal hallways with her husband. "But there's nothing you can do."

Airline officials said the Costellos were among a dwindling group of stranded passengers. About 100 flights were canceled early Wednesday, but as the day progressed and the weather improved, the cancellations dropped off and delays shortened to between 30 and 45 minutes.

City of Chicago Aviation Department spokesman Greg Cunningham said airlines at O'Hare requested 75 cots for passengers Wednesday night.

Airports across the country recovered from a barrage of snow and ice storms Wednesday, with some conditions improving, but highways remained dangerously slippery in some areas.

At least 30 people were killed in crashes on rain- and ice-slickened roads across the nation's midsection Tuesday and Wednesday.

The New York metro area's Newark airport was experiencing delays of more than four hours, and Kennedy was seeing delays of three hours, the Federeal Aviation Administration reported.

"The airlines are dealing with nothing but unhappy customers," said Mike Conway, spokesman for Detroit's Metropolitan Airport, where delays were reported because of conditions elsewhere in the country.

The weather service posted winter storm warnings and advisories for large parts of the West, plus parts of the Midwest and the Northeast.

Driving conditions were still tough in Oregon's Portland metro area, where many side streets were clogged with snow and motorists were required to have tire chains, unless they had four-wheel drive and tires designed for hazardous weather. More snow fell in the region Wednesday, followed by rain that would likely freeze overnight.

Despite more snow falling Wednesday in the Seattle area, operations at Sea-Tac Airport were back to normal Wednesday, said spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt. She said the only flight cancellations were caused by delays or cancellations at other airports.

"I've lived here 16 years and this is the first time I've thought 'I wish it would rain!'" Betancourt said.

The weather service said she could get her wish, at least briefly, with snow showers changing to rain Christmas Eve.

Oregon's largest utility, PGE, said it had restored service to 265,000 customers since the storm arrived Friday, but 47,000 were still blacked out Wednesday.

Motorists in Michigan had to cope with drifting snow in places in addition to ice-covered pavement.

"It looks like all areas should see a white Christmas," meteorologist Dave Kook said from the weather service office in Oakland County's White Lake Township. "There's enough snow on the ground that it won't all melt away with the rain."

Amtrak also reported improvement Wednesday. Trains out of Chicago and elsewhere were leaving on time — or relatively close to it — unlike Tuesday when several trains were canceled and some 600 furious travelers waited for as much as 22 hours for delayed trains at Chicago's Union Station, spokesman Marc Magliari said.

Also Wednesday, an avalanche in the Rocky Mountains killed two snowmobilers in northern Utah. The Utah Avalanche Center warned people not to venture into the backcountry.

Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret

Think you could borrow money from a bank without saying what you were going to do with it? Well, apparently when banks borrow from you they don't feel the same need to say how the money is spent.

After receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending it. Some won't even talk about it.

"We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.

Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money, said that while some of the money was lent, some was not, and the bank has not given any accounting of exactly how the money is being used.

"We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to," Kelly said.

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

"We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Some banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going.



Elizabeth Warren

Blood from mosquito traps Finnish suspect

Police in Finland believe they have caught a car-thief thanks to a DNA sample taken from a sample of his blood found inside a mosquito.

Last June a car was stolen in Lapua, some 380 kilometres (235 miles) north of Helsinki. It was soon found near a railway station in Seinaejoki, about 25 kilometres from where it was stolen.

"A police patrol carried out an inspection of the car and they noticed a mosquito that had sucked blood. It was sent to the laboratory for testing, which showed the blood belonged to a man who was in the police registers," inspector Sakari Palomaeki told AFP.

The suspect, who has been interrogated, has insisted he did not steal the car, saying he had hitchhiked and was given a lift by a man driving the car.

Palomaeki said a prosecutor would decide if the evidence was solid enough for charges to be pressed.

Finnish police said it was rare for them to use insects to solve crimes, although they are interested in everything found at a crime scene.

"It is not usual to use mosquitoes. In training we were not told to keep an eye on mosquitoes at crime scenes," Palomaeki said, laughing.

"It is not easy to find a small mosquito in a car, this just shows how thorough the crime scene investigation was," he added.

Nets’ Yi Jianlian targeted in age investigation

NBA player Yi Jianlian is being investigated by a Chinese-language magazine which claims he is one of many of the country’s athletes guilty of lying about their age on official documents.

Yi, who plays for the New Jersey Nets, has long been reported in the Chinese media to be older than his records show. Earlier this month, China’s Sports Ministry reported that it found 36 players in China’s professional basketball league whose dates of birth may have been changed.

The December issue of the Chinese-language edition of Sports Illustrated said a reporter for the magazine found records from Yi’s middle-school registration in his hometown in southern China that said he was born in 1984.

His official basketball records say he was born in 1987. He is also listed by the Nets as being born Oct. 27, 1987.

A spokesman for the Chinese Basketball Association could not be reached Monday for comment.

Yi could be quizzed again about his age on Monday night when the Nets face the Houston Rockets and fellow Chinese star center Yao Ming in New Jersey.

Players’ ages are sometimes altered to show them as being younger, mainly to qualify for youth tournaments. Those false ages stay with athletes and can result in embarrassment and sanctions when they move on to greater success.

The opposite practice was alleged in the controversy surrounding China’s gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team at the Beijing Olympics, where China entered athletes suspected of being below the minimum age of 16.

The international gymnastics federation eventually cleared the Chinese gymnasts of amending birth records to make athletes appear older than they were. However, it continues to investigate the ages of Chinese gymnasts who competed in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Shoppers haggle for deals from desperate retailers

If you're looking for an extra bargain before the holidays, you may only have to ask. With holiday sales shaping up to be the lowest in years, possibly the worst since the industry began annual comparisons in 1969, retailers say they're taking consumers' demands for good deals seriously.

Some are extending return policies, while others are matching competitors' prices. Many are volunteering on-the-spot discounts and even letting customers haggle prices well down from what's marked in a desperate bid to make the cash register ring.

"You'd have to be a moron not to ask for a discount," said Stephen Hoch, a retailing expert at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

More and more consumers are doing just that, treating a trip to the mall like a visit to the used car lot.

Allen Chen, a part-time cashier at a J. Crew store in White Plains, N.Y., said shoppers with two-month-old receipts are asking for partial refunds for items now on sale. Normally, the store's policy is to refund the difference between an item's purchase price and a later sale price only if it goes on sale within seven days of the purchase.

"When I tell them it is past the seven-day policy, they tell me that they will just return it and re-buy it" at the sale price, he said, adding that his store managers are now allowing customers to do so most of the time.

Shoppers are also being far more savvy about asking retailers to match a competitor's lower price.

While shopping for Blu-ray discs at a Los Angeles Best Buy, Luis Levy used his cell phone to check the price at nearby competitors. Each disc was $10 cheaper at Circuit City or Wal-Mart. Best Buy matched the lower prices.

Diana Thang, manager of Grace Jewelers near San Francisco's Union Square, said she and her staff are bargaining more than she ever has in two-plus decades in the business. But it's not working wonders.

"They have a budget," Thang said of most customers this season. "We give a low, low price and they still can't accept it. They're looking at more than $1,000 stuff, and they want to spend $200 or $300."

With sales slow at virtually all retailers, experts say customers now have the upper hand. And even some who don't explicitly ask for a discount or price-match are pressing for better deals.

Jill duPont the owner of a small women's clothing and accessories boutique called Out of the Box in Greenwich, Conn., said she's felt some pressure to mark her prices down to be competitive with others.

"Customers aren't shy about telling us 'what a good price' they found somewhere else," she said.

For some retailers, desperation is setting in. The new year brings new inventory, so retailers typically try to clear out the old stock by year's end. Stores are increasingly willing to do whatever they can to get rid of merchandise — even offering discounts on the spot.

Erica Pearson, a 31-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., resident, was debating which pair of Camper shoes to buy at a Saga Shoes store in Manhattan when a salesman offered her a deal if she bought both.

"The manager asked me what I wanted to pay for both of them," Pearson said. She wound up getting about $40 off the total and paying no sales tax.

At cosmetics counters, the situation varies, said Ehtisham Khan, who asked that the major retailer where he works in San Francisco not be named. The biggest-name vendors aren't bargaining; some aren't even offering specials for big spenders. But smaller makeup and perfume companies are piling on the freebies, he said, and it's driving sales.

"You give them an extra travel size or a couple fragrance samples, and they'll buy an extra item rather than wait until later," he said.

Of course, not every retailer is willing to haggle.

Adam Lippes, the owner of a two-store high-end contemporary clothing chain called ADAM, said he's offering bigger sales this year at his location in Manhattan's trendy Meatpacking district to cater to more budget-conscious shoppers. But he has had to retrain his sales staff to explain to shoppers why a garment shouldn't be sold for still less.

"The sales staff has to understand the clothes," he said. "It's more work."

He recently talked a customer out of demanding $200 off a $450 dress that was already discounted 25 percent by explaining that it was made with high-quality Italian fabric and manufactured in New York.

Other retailers are giving consumers more wiggle room for returns instead of haggling over prices.

Even Circuit City Inc., which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has extended its holiday return deadline to Jan. 31, said spokesman Jim Babb. The chain previously required items like cameras and computers to be returned by Jan. 8 and others by Jan. 25.

If the International Council of Shopping Centers' prediction for this season's sales comes true, it would be the weakest season since the index of same-store sales started in 1969. The group expects same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, to be down 1 percent in November and December — maybe more — compared with last year.

Even massive discounts on Black Friday — the day after Thanksgiving, historically the point when retailers began to turn a profit — didn't do much to help boost sales.

"Retailers have pulled every single trick out of their quiver of arrows that has worked in the past and what they're seeing this year is that it's just not working," said Hoch, the Wharton expert.

DuPont said her normal return policy "became history" about a month ago after her customers begged to be able to return their normally nonreturnable sale purchases after Christmas.

"We caved in, reluctant to turn away business," she said. "We're not looking forward to what Dec. 26 brings."