Rebels battle in Assad stronghold of Damascus

Bullets and shrapnel shells smashed into homes in the Syrian capital of Damascus overnight as troops battled rebels in the streets, a show of boldness for rebels taking their fight against President Bashar Assad to the center of his power.

For nearly 12 hours of fighting that lasted into the early hours Saturday, rebels armed mainly with assault rifles fought Syrian forces in the heaviest fighting in the Assad stronghold since the 15-month-old uprising began. U.N. observers said rebels fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the local power plant, damaging parts of it and reducing six buses to charred shells, according to video the observers took of the scene.

Syrian forces showed the regime’s willingness to unleash such firepower in the capital: At least three tank shells slammed into residential areas in the central Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, an activist said. Intense exchanges of assault-rifle fire marked the clash, according to residents and amateur video posted online.

At least 52 civilians were killed around the country outside Damascus on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based activist group. Among them were 20, including nine women and children, who died in heavy, pre-dawn shelling in the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. Six children were among 10 killed by a shell that exploded in a house they took cover in during fierce fighting in the coastal region of Latakia, the group said.

The group’s figures could not be independently confirmed.

In a Daraa mosque, a father stood over his son killed in the shelling, swaddled in a blanket in a hooded sweater, amateur video showed. “I will become a suicide bomber!” the father shouted in grief.

Another video showed tens of thousands of Daraa residents burying their slain victims later Saturday — singing, dancing and parading the dead in coffins around a large square and giving the mass funeral the appearance of a mass wedding party.

The Damascus violence was a dramatic shift; the capital has been relatively quiet compared with other Syrian cities throughout the uprising. Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, the country’s largest, are under the firm grip of security forces.

The rebels’ brazenness in the Damascus districts underscored deep-seated Sunni anger against the regime, with residents risking their safety — and potentially their lives — to shelter the fighters. Residents burned tires to block the advance of Syrian troops, sending plumes of smoke into the air, amateur video showed.

Urban Sunni Syrians had once mostly stayed at arms’ length from their mostly rural compatriots leading the uprising, fearing the instability that their leaderless, chaotic movement would bring.

But it appears a series of massacres of mainly Sunni peasants over the past few weeks have tipped some of their urban brethren in favor of the uprising. One rebel supporter in Qaboun said the recent mass killings made people see rebel fighters more as protectors against Assad’s forces.

“The regime has forced the rebels into the city. When they commit attacks, or massacres, or arrests, they come in to defend residents,” he said.

The most recent mass killing was on Wednesday in central Syria, where activists say up to 78 people were hacked, burned and stabbed in the farming village of Mazraat al-Qubair. The opposition and regime have traded blame over the slayings.

“The heart of this revolt is the poor, jobless youth in the countryside. But that is gathering strength in other places, in Aleppo, in Damascus and even the Kurdish regions,” said Syria expert Joshua Landis.

“The psychological state of the people, after watching these massacres, is so far advanced. People are ready to do whatever it takes. They are frightened; it could come next to them.”

The fighting began in two neighborhoods, Qaboun and Barzeh, during the day Friday, when troops opened fire on anti-Assad opposition gatherings and rebels responded, witnesses said. Blasts shook the districts until about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. In the fringe neighborhood of Kfar Souseh, fighting began after rebels attacked a Syrian forces checkpoint.

At least five people were killed in Qaboun, according to an activist video that showed the bodies.

Also Saturday, troops shelled parts of the central city of Homs, one of the main battlegrounds of the uprising, and stormed into the city’s posh neighborhood of Ghouta, conducting raids.

The latest escalations are another blow to international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan, which aims to end the country’s bloodletting. Annan brokered a cease-fire that went into effect on April 12 but has since been violated nearly every day since.

Thousands have been killed since the crisis began in March last year. The U.N.’s latest estimate is 9,000 dead, but that is from April and it has been unable to update it. Syrian activists put the toll at more than 13,000.

Also Saturday, the foreign minister of Assad’s ally Russia said Moscow would continue to oppose the outside use of force, despite its growing concerns about the Syria conflict. Sergey Lavrov called for an international conference to galvanize commitment behind Annan’s plan.

Efforts by Western and Arab nations to help the opposition have been hampered by fragmentation amid the movement. The main opposition movement, the Syrian National Council, has been plagued by infighting.

The council was gathering Saturday in Turkey to elect a new leader nearly three weeks after its Paris-based president Burhan Ghalioun offered to step down over mounting criticism of his leadership. The vote had been expected late Saturday, but was postponed to Sunday with no immediate explanation.

The frontrunner to replace him was Abdulbaset Sieda, a member of Syria’s minority Kurd community, SNC spokeswoman Basma Kodmani told Associated Press Television.

His elevation to the post could be part of an attempt to appeal to Syria’s significant Kurdish minority, which has largely stayed on the sidelines of the uprising. The community is deeply suspicious that Sunni Arabs who dominate the opposition will be no more likely to provide them greater rights than Assad’s regime has.

Also Saturday, U.N. observers in Syria to monitor the cease-fire issued the first independent video images from the scene of the reported massacre in Mazraat al-Qubair.

The video, taken in the U.N. visit a day earlier, showed blood splashed on a wall pockmarked with bullet holes and soaking a nearby mattress. A shell punched through one wall of a house. Another home was burnt on the inside with dried blood was splashed on floors.

One man wearing a red-and-white checked scarf to cover his face, pointed at a 2008 calendar adorning a wall, bearing the photo of a lightly-bearded, handsome man.

“This is the martyr,” the resident, sobbing. He sat on the floor, amid strewn colorful blankets, heaving with tears.

It was not immediately clear if he was a resident of the village or related to the man in the photograph.

“They killed children,” said another unidentified resident. “My brother, his wife and their seven children, the oldest was in the sixth grade. They burnt down his house.”

China plans manned space launch this month

China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday.

A rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was moved to a launch pad in China’s desert northwest on Saturday for the mid-June flight, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing an space program spokesman.

The three-member crew will dock with and live in the Tiangong 1 orbital module launched last year, Xinhua said. The government has not said how long the mission will last.

Xinhua cited Niu Hongguang, deputy commander in chief of the manned space program, as saying the crew “might include female astronauts.”

The government said in 2010 that two female air force pilots had joined the astronaut program but has disclosed no other details.

China’s space program has made steady progress since a 2003 launch that made it only the third nation to put a man in space on its own. Two more manned missions have followed, one including a space walk.

China completed its first space rendezvous in November when the unmanned Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 by remote control. Tiangong 1 was launched on Sept. 29.

Over the next few days, scientists will test the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, the Long March 2F rocket and ground systems, Xinhua said, citing the spokesman.

During the flight, one crew member will remain aboard the Shenzhou 9 “as a precautionary measure in case of emergency” while the others enter Tiangong 1, Xinhua said.

China has scheduled two space docking missions for this year and plans to complete a manned space station around 2020 to replace Tiangong 1. At about 60 tons, the Chinese station will be considerably smaller than the 16-nation International Space Station.

Beijing launched its independent space station program after being turned away from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. objections. Washington is wary of the Chinese program’s military links and of sharing technology with an economic and political rival.

Fire at De Niro's NYC apartment; no injuries

A fire that broke out in Robert De Niro’s Manhattan apartment has been extinguished.

A Fire Department spokesman said no residents were injured in the Friday afternoon fire on Central Park West. The fire was contained within an hour, and the cause was under investigation.

A spokesman for De Niro confirmed that the actor lives in the building. The spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said De Niro is out of the country.

Residents of the building told The New York Times the fire started in the laundry room of De Niro’s apartment. The newspaper said 95-year-old actress Celeste Holm and her husband, Frank Basile, who live in the building, were in their apartment as firefighters fought to contain the flames.

Facebook rolling out central location for apps

There’s more to Facebook apps than “Angry Birds” and Pinterest, but many users wouldn’t know that because there hasn’t been a good, central way to find them.

Facebook Inc. is trying to change that. On Thursday, Facebook is beginning to roll out its App Center to its nearly 1 billion users, so they can find games and other applications with social components more easily.

The App Center, available on Facebook’s website and on Apple and Android mobile devices, will recommend apps to users based on their interests, the types of apps their friends like, or the apps they have liked in the past.

Many people are introduced to Facebook apps in the form of sometimes-annoying requests from their friends for poker partners, Scrabble buddies or neighbors on virtual farms. Those requests haven’t necessarily matched a user’s specific interests.

The new App Center will initially feature about 600 Facebook apps, mostly games, reviewed by the company to meet its quality standards. Games, such as Zynga’s “CityVille” and Electronic Arts’ “The Sims,” are the most popular types of apps on Facebook.

But the company is betting that by personalizing recommendations to users, people will find new types of applications beyond games, along with games that are more interesting to them. There are all sorts of social apps that use Facebook, from music-listening services such as Spotify to what-you-just-ate tools such as Foodspotting.

“We spend all day, every day building a platform (so that) great social games and apps can exist,” said Matt Wyndowe, product manager for apps and games at Facebook. But a common question has long been where to find them. “Up until now, we haven’t had a great answer to that question.”

Facebook said that on mobile devices, the App Center won’t compete with other app stores, such as Apple’s or Google’s. Rather, the App Center will send users to those other stores to download the programs. People can also get mobile apps from their regular computers by using a feature called “send to mobile.”

Among the roughly 600 applications included in the App Center at launch will be the Nike Plus GPS running app, which lets users track their runs and broadcast it to their Facebook feed. Ricky Engelberg, whose title at Nike is experience director at digital sport, said having a place where apps are showcased will “let more people be part of the Nike Plus community.”

The App Center, which Facebook announced last month, will be rolled out to U.S. users beginning Thursday night and to everyone else over the coming weeks

Students from across Southern California dominated the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th annual Student Academy Awards.

Amanda Tasse of the University of Southern California and David Wolter of California Institute of the Arts were among the five students hailing from Southern California schools. Both received gold medals, the highest honor at Saturday’s ceremony at the motion picture academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Other winners of the gold medal included David Winstone of the University of Westminster in London, Mark Raso of Columbia University in New York and Keiko Wright of New York University.

The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar nominations and have won or sharnual Academy Awards earlier this year, 2011 Student Academy Award winners Hallvar Witzo and Max Zahle were respectively nominated in the live action short film category for “Tuba Atlantic” and “Raju.” James Spione, a Student Academy Award winner in 1987, earned a nomination in the documentary short subject category for “Incident in New Baghdad.”

This year’s winners were:

Alternative

— Gold Medal: “The Reality Clock,” Amanda Tasse, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. (Only one winner was selected in this category.)

Animation

— Gold Medal: “Eyrie,” David Wolter, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, Calif.

— Silver Medal: “The Jockstrap Raiders,” Mark Nelson, University of California, Los Angeles.

— Bronze Medal: “My Little Friend,” Eric Prah, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Fla.

Documentary

— Gold Medal: “Hiro: A Story of Japanese Internment,” Keiko Wright, New York University, New York.

— Silver Medal: “Dying Green,” Ellen Tripler, American University, Washington D.C.

—Bronze Medal: “Lost Country,” Heather Burky, Art Institute of Jacksonville (Fla.).

Narrative

— Gold Medal: “Under,” Mark Raso, Columbia University, New York.

— Silver Medal: “Narcocorrido,” Ryan Prows, American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

— Bronze Medal: “Nani,” Justin Tipping, American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

Foreign Film

— Gold Medal: “For Elsie,” David Winstone, University of Westminster, London.

— Silver Medal: “Of Dogs and Horses,” Thomas Stuber, Film Academy, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.

— Bronze Medal: “The Swing of the Coffin Maker,” Elmar Imanov, The International Film School, Cologne, Germany.

Miss Universe pageant fights back on rigging claim

The Miss Universe Organization says a former contestant should be made to pay for her “defamatory” claims that this year’s Miss USA pageant was a sham.

The New York-based organization made a filing with a dispute resolution company over the former Miss Pennsylvania USA’s assertion that another contestant spotted the list of finalists on a planning sheet hours before the event was even held Sunday, its lawyer Scott Balber said Friday.

A statement from the organization said it was seeking compensation for her “ongoing defamatory statements,” but Balber wouldn’t say how much money the Miss Universe Organization was seeking.

The pageant also released a statement from Miss Florida USA — the contestant Sheena Monnin claims saw the list — in which she disputes Miss Pennsylvania’s version of the events that prompted her to step down.

Monnin gave up her crown Monday, claiming in a Facebook post that the pageant had been rigged, with the top five finishers selected before the show was broadcast Sunday night from Las Vegas. Pageant organizers immediately denied Monnin’s allegation and claimed she had actually stepped down because she disagreed with the pageant’s decision to allow transgender contestants.

Earlier Friday, Monnin told NBC’s “Today” show that she was standing by her claim that Miss Florida USA confided in her that she’d seen a list of finalists Sunday morning.

“I know what I heard, and I know what I in turn witnessed come true based on what the contestant said she saw,” Monnin said.

Monnin claimed Miss Florida USA Karina Brez named the top five contestants in the same order they were called during the broadcast.

“That’s just too coincidental to not be true,” she said.

But a statement released Friday by Brez disputes Monnin’s account, saying Brez was only making a joke about a list of contestants that she saw.

“The list I saw didn’t even have the eventual winner on it,” the statement read.

This year’s Miss USA winner was Olivia Culpo, of Rhode Island.

Pageant officials maintain the judging was done fairly and under the watchful eye of auditor Ernst & Young.

“(The) tabulation of the judges’ votes which determined the final five contestants did not occur until after the evening gown competition had been completed,” Ernst & Young said in a statement released Friday evening.

A group of preliminary judges selects 15 top contestants before the telecast along with a 16th picked by fan vote. Those contestants are then whittled down by the telecast judges, who this year included celebrity chef Cat Cora and Arsenio Hall.

Monnin does not have a listed phone number and did not respond to Facebook messages seeking comment. Attorneys for the pageant said they forwarded her the arbitration action directly because they did not know whether she’d retained a lawyer.

Balber said the action filed with the private arbitration company is confidential under the terms of the contestant contract, but that Monnin could release it if she wished.

Earlier this week, pageant organizers released the text of Monnin’s resignation email; it doesn’t specifically mention rigging, but does mention organizers’ decision to allow transgender contestants into the competition.

In the “Today” interview, Monnin did not deny the transgender contestant issue played a role in her resignation.

“There are a myriad of reasons why I’m resigning,” Monnin said. She went on to point out that same email mentioned “fair play,” but didn’t elaborate what she meant at the time.

U.S. stocks will get a lift on Monday after euro zone finance ministers agreed to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to help its battered banks.

The surprisingly large amount of aid removes a huge cloud that has been hanging over financial markets, with investors fearing that a banking crisis in euro zone’s fourth-largest economy could have compounded the currency bloc’s troubles with Greece.

Though the exact amount to be lent will be decided in just over a week, striking a deal now means Spain has added support in case Greece’s June 17 elections throw financial markets into a tailspin.

“This is a major step in avoiding a contagion,” said Tim Speiss, partner-in-charge of EisnerAmper’s Personal Wealth Advisors Group in New York.

“The amount is pretty high, higher-than-expected. Although we need to get more details, at least for equity markets in the U.S. and around the world, this definitely eases short-term fears,” Speiss said.

U.S. stocks are coming off their best week of 2012, in large part due to expectations that something would be done for Spain’s banks.

After a 2-1/2-hour conference call of the 17 finance ministers, which several sources described as heated, the Eurogroup and Madrid said the amount of the bailout would be sufficiently large to banish any doubts.

For Wall Street, anything that diminishes fears over Europe is welcome news. The broad S&P 500 index fell 6.3 percent in May, its largest percentage drop since September, as the euro zone debt crisis worsened in the wake of Greek elections that produced a hung parliament.

In the first Greek poll, a large number of voters voted for parties opposed to the country’s international bailout. The re-run of Greek elections on June 17 could decide whether the country stays in the euro zone.

“It’s good that the news of the aid come ahead of the Greek elections. There has already been a lot of volatility in the market associated with it (the elections), so it’s a good way to calm the sentiment until we get the elections out of the way,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

In other parts of the world, news was not as good.

Data showed China’s inflation dipped to a two-year low in May while economic activity remained weak. This reinforced expectations that further policy easing could be in the pipeline to head off a sharper slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

However, the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday was not as grim as the market had feared after China’s surprising interest rate cut this week – the first since the depths of the 2008/09 global crisis.

But the numbers still suggested economic activity remains sluggish in China. There were also concerns that while the economy may stabilize with stimulus measures, growth could slow down further.

EYES ON APPLE

Apple Inc (AAPL) kicks off its annual conference for software developers on Monday, and more than ever, the consumer electronics juggernaut finds itself in a pitched battle with the online search giant, Google Inc (GOOG) – in smartphones, cloud computing and the never-ending competition for the hearts and minds of the best software developers.

Apple is expected to announce its own mapping application, challenging the position of Google Maps as one of the most-valued features on the iPhone. It will unveil closer integration of its iPhone apps and iCloud storage service with all its devices, the latest riposte in its battle with Google’s Android smartphone software.

Apple shares rose 1.5 percent to close at $580.32 on Friday. For the week, the stock rose 3.5 percent, but for the month, the shares were almost flat.

Google shares rose 0.4 percent to end at $580.45 on Friday, closing the week with a 1.7 percent gain. However, for the month, the stock was almost unchanged.

On June 1, the S&P 500 index ended below its 200-day moving average for the first time this year, but it clawed its way back above the key level and rallied later in the week on hopes that Europe would find solutions to its problems. For the week on Friday, the Dow advanced 3.6 percent, the S&P 500 rose 3.7 percent and the Nasdaq jumped about 4 percent – their best weekly percentage gains since December.

The U.S. economic calendar in the coming week includes data on the Producer Price Index and retail sales on Wednesday. Reports on the Consumer Price Index and initial weekly jobless claims are set for Thursday. Data on Friday includes the Empire State manufacturing index, U.S. industrial production and the preliminary reading for June on consumer sentiment from the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan surveys.

The battleship USS Wi, a varied one provided during Globe War Two and the Freezing War, created a brief last voyage on Sunday to its lasting cabin at the Slot of Los Angeles, where it will start as a naval art gallery next 1 month.

Los Angeles Gran Antonio Villaraigosa and U.S. Deep blue blue experts who provided on the 175-foot-tall (53-metre) send, which was decommissioned in 1990, were among the thousands of welcomed celebrants along for the trip.

The USS Wi was requested in 1943. It taken Chief executive Franklin Roosevelt across the Ocean to a conference with English Excellent Reverend Winston Churchill and Communist head John Stalin during Globe War Two.

Later in the war, the Wi hammered beachheads in the Hawaiian with its 16-inch weapons prior to Allied landings and took aspect in the Japoneses give up in Seattle Bay in 1945. During the Japoneses War in the 50′s, it performed gun hits and bombardments.

After being decommissioned in 1958, it came returning to assistance returning in 1984 during the latter decades of the Freezing War.

On Sunday, it was transported from a short-term anchorage in the external harbour through the port’s primary route.

As viewers cheered and an excellent group performed, the send arrive at its lasting identify at Berth 87. It will start as a naval art gallery on September 7.

“The USS Wi, ‘The Battleship of Presidents,’ is a icon of United states inventiveness and typical objective,” Villaraigosa said built in the send soon after it docked.

“We are recognized to welcome the USS Wi to its new house in Los Angeles,” he said. “What a best aspect to the men and ladies of the U.S. Deep blue blue. She is a send as opposed to any other.”

The 887-foot-long (270-metre) battleship had formerly been moored in the Southern region Florida town of Richmond, where volunteers renovated it for several weeks until the Los Angeles Harbor Commission payment elected in May to make a lasting house for it.

Tugboats drawn the send under the Fantastic Checkpoint Link in San Francisco on May 26 and took it south to Los Angeles, where in latest times it experienced last arrangements.

Bob Dedic, an 86-year-old Deep blue blue expert, provided on the USS Wi during Globe War Two. He was an electrical engineer and said that he and his other crewmates during fight were often not informed their place. But ice lotion cones marketed for 5 dollars.

“It was an excellent encounter in my lifestyle. Too bad there was a war going on,” Dedic said with a chuckle.

The range between the two factors in the Los Angeles harbour that the send protected on Sunday was approximately 1 1/2 kilometers. But the send expanded out its last voyage by first moving Connect 87 and visiting under a large revocation bridge further up the route, before circling returning to connect at its place.