Locals: Trapped whales freed with sea ice shift

In this Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013 photo provided by Marina Lacasse, a killer whale surfaces through a small hole in the ice near Inukjuak, in Northern Quebec. Mayor Peter Inukpuk urged the Canadian government Wednesday to send an icebreaker as soon as possible to crack open the ice and help the pod of about a dozen trapped orcas find open water. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said it is sending officials to assess the situation. / AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Marina Lacasse

Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET

MONTREAL A Canadian village leader says about a dozen killer whales that were trapped under sea ice appear to have reached safety after the floating ice shifted on Hudson Bay.

5 Photos

Killer whales trapped in Quebec ice

Tommy Palliser said Thursday that two hunters from Inukjuak village reported the water had opened up around the area where the cornered whales had been bobbing frantically for air.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans said that it would send a helicopter to locate them, Isabelle Dubois of the Nunavik Tourism Association told CBS News.

Locals said the mammals had been trapped around a single, truck-sized breathing hole for at least two days.

Palliser says villagers had been planning to launch a rescue operation Thursday.

But he says the winds seemed to shift overnight, pushing the floating ice further away from shore to open up the water.

Mayor Peter Inukpuk had urged the Canadian government to send an icebreaker.

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Oscar Nominations 2013: Full List

"Lincoln" is leading the way to the 2013 Oscars. This morning, the biopic about the 16th president picked up 12 Academy Award nominations, including best director for Steven Spielberg and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" followed close behind with 11 nominations. "Les Miserables" and "Silver Linings Playbook" tied for third place, with eight nominations each.

The Academy also named its eldest and youngest best actress nominees ever. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, is up for best actress along with "Amour" lead Emmanuelle Riva, 85.

See who made the cut below, and weigh in on who you want to win with Oscar.com's My Picks, an interactive and social Oscar ballot that allows you to pick who you think will win in each category. You can compete with your Facebook friends when the Academy Awards air on Feb. 24.

FULL COVERAGE: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Best Picture:

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Lincoln"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Django Unchained"

"Argo"

My Picks: Create an Oscar Ballot and Play With Friends

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

PHOTOS: 2013 Oscar Nominees

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Field, "Lincoln"

Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"

David James/Dreamworks/AP

Seth MacFarlane, Emma Stone Discuss Oscar Nominations Watch Video

Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"

Amy Adams, "The Master"

RELATED: Oscar's Likely Winners

Best Director:

David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"

Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"

Michael Haneke, "Amour"

Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Actor:

Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"

Denzel Washington, "Flight"

Hugh Jackman, "Les Miserables"

Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress:

Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Original Screenplay:

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Django Unchained"

"Moonrise Kingdom"

"Amour"

"Flight"

Best Adapted Screenplay:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Animated Feature:

"Frankenweenie"

"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"

"Wreck-It Ralph"

"Paranorman"

"Brave"

Best Foreign Feature:

"Amour"

"A Royal Affair"

"Kon-Tiki"

"No"

"War Witch"

Best Visual Effects:

"Life of Pi"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"The Avengers"

"Prometheus"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Cinematography:

"Skyfall"

"Anna Karenina"

"Django Unchained"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

Best Costume Design:

"Anna Karenina"

"Les Miserables"

"Lincoln"

"Mirror Mirror"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Documentary Feature:

"Searching for Sugar Man"

"How to Survive a Plague"

"The Gatekeepers"

"5 Broken Cameras"

"The Invisible War"

Best Documentary Short:

"Open Heart"

"Inocente"

"Redemption"

"Kings Point"

"Mondays at Racine"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Film Editing:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Life of Pi"

"Argo"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

"Hitchcock"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Les Miserables"

Best Music (Original Score):

"Anna Karenina"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Skyfall"

Best Music (Original Song):

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Freed Iranians arrive in Damascus after prisoner swap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TURKEY, QATAR INTERVENE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Hong Kong leader survives impeachment bid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- AFP/xq

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How Samsung might get featuritis under control

Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, talks about the company's TV features during the company's press conference at CES.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Samsung has a serious case of featuritis, but it's trying to get better.

The Korean electronics giant has long been known for its push to include more and more features in its products, whether it's new hardware capabilities like NFC in smartphones or software like smart TV apps. Samsung uses such features as a way to differentiate its new gadgets from rivals and from its older products, and consumers typically like those add-ons because they're getting more for the same price. Win-win, right?

The problem is more isn't always better when it comes to device features. Rather, cramming unnecessary capabilities into products can make them confusing and difficult to use. Critics say this lack of focus sometimes distracts Samsung from investing in more vital items like TV picture quality. And when the features don't work well (as seems to be the case fairly often), it can reflect poorly on Samsung.

"It's an ongoing challenge for us," Kevin Packingham, chief product officer of Samsung's U.S. mobile business, told CNET. "You have hundreds of capabilities in the device that sometimes the user never becomes aware of even though they buy the product. We have so much innovation and technology built into devices that it can be overwhelming."

However, he and many other Samsung executives told CNET that simplifying the user experience is one of Samsung's biggest focuses for 2013. That sentiment echoed throughout the company's press events and meetings this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Samsung designers even made the point yesterday during a press panel that the company's new design strategy is "make it meaningful."

Of course, Samsung isn't the only company with featuritis. For electronics makers, there's a fine line between including too many features and not enough. While people may only access Netflix on their smart TVs, it's unlikely they'd purchase a product that didn't include a few more options. And while Apple's streamlined interface is often held up as a model for other operating systems,
Android device users would howl if they lost the ability to customize their gadgets.

In addition, one of those seemingly unnecessary features could turn out to be the item that makes a device a must-have gadget.

"They've got to keep throwing features at the wall and hope something gets people going 'ooh and ahh' and reaching for their wallet," IHS iSuppli analyst Jordan Selburn said.

The easel design of Samsung's 85-inch 4K TV is one of the most striking you'll ever see.

CNET's reviews team has panned some of Samsung's features in the past, such as saying the voice and gesture control on TVs is unnecessary and "half-baked" and the Smart TV suite in general is "cluttered" with too many apps and poor, overwhelming design. In mobile, CNET has criticized some Galaxy S3 programs like AllShare Play and GroupCast for being "unnecessarily complicated to set up and use."

However, Samsung during its
CES press conference on Monday highlighted several steps it's taking to make its products easier to use. That includes a revamped smart TV user interface, improved voice interaction for its televisions, and the integration of NFC technology into speakers to make it simpler to pair a mobile device with the system.

In addition, the Smart Hub application has been enhanced with more content -- movies, videos, and music -- and a new TV program guide. This augments Samsung's new S-Recommendation engine, which lists suggested content in thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. And it also has a new video discovery tool for its TVs and mobile devices that allows users to search for content in cable listings and streaming services.

Samsung also has ramped up its advertising that shows ways device owners can use its products, such as this spot on sharing a video via NFC by tapping two Galaxy S3s together.

"They don't even use the word NFC in these ads," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said. "That's a huge improvement for Samsung where in the past they might have simply put NFC in a device and said it had NFC."

Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung Electronics, kicks off the company's press conference at 2013 CES.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

Meanwhile, TJ Kang, senior vice president of Samsung's media solution center, told CNET that Samsung is expanding its team that focuses on the user experience. Kang noted that his business unit, which develops the apps and services that come preloaded on Samsung devices, is one of the fastest-growing operations in the company.

Samsung has been hiring many people with expertise in creating a better user experience, he said, even luring away employees from rivals in Silicon Valley.

"These people are helping the existing teams come up to speed on creating the experience users really will enjoy," Kang said. "You'll begin to see that as part of this new video discovery service and many new apps and services we'll be launching this year."

While Samsung is taking many steps to ease its featuritis, it still has quite a ways to go. The company went a bit overboard with features for its 2013 TVs unveiled at the show, and users still have to navigate through many layers of settings to do certain things on their mobile devices.

But what it ultimately comes down to is how well those features actually work and whether consumers seek out Samsung products to get them.

"The era of pure technology push is long over," David Steel, Samsung executive vice president of corporate strategy, told CNET. "It's now less about smart and becoming more and more about the relevance of smart, the human touch of smart."

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Super Bowls ads selling for more than $4 million

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

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

Companies paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot last year, the previous record for a number that keeps going up. TV's biggest event averaged more than 111 million viewers in 2012.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Hospitals Flooded With Flu Patients

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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India says two soldiers killed in clash with Pakistan troops

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- AFP/fa

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Google offers free Wi-Fi in Chelsea neighborhood

Google today is rolling out free public Wi-Fi in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City.

The free public service, which is being unveiled today by Google Chief Technology Officer Ben Fried and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), is the largest contiguous Wi-Fi network in the entire city.

When folks enter the Chelsea neighborhood, which spans Gansevoort Street and 19th Street from 8th Avenue to the West Side Highway, including the Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park, and Gansevoort Plaza, they'll have free access to a Wi-Fi connection provided by Google.

The search giant has been making a push in New York City for months to deliver free Wi-Fi to residents. In June, for example, the company announced that Google Offers was sponsoring free Wi-Fi in over 200 hotspot locations across New York City. Six MTA subway stations also were offered free wireless connections. Google also offers a fiber Internet service in Kansas City, KS.

This time around, Sen. Schumer sees the Wi-Fi rollout as a potential benefit to New York's "Silicon Alley" by aiding the city in attracting technology companies.

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