BlackBerry World is off to a decent start, but it’s missing some big-name apps

When BlackBerry (RIMM) announced that more than 70,000 BlackBerry 10 applications would be available when its new platform launched, users were ecstatic. That big number was too good to be true, unfortunately, as we and many others noticed in our time spent with the BlackBerry Z10. While the app store includes some big names such as Rovio’s Angry Birds and various titles from Electronic Arts (EA) and Gameloft, it still leaves much to be desired. The company is said to be “in talks” to bring popular apps such as Netflix (NFLX) and Instagram to the platform but nothing is certain. Despite all of this, BlackBerry has announced that more than 1,000 of the top app developers are developing for BlackBerry 10.

“Being able to announce 1000 of the top app partners is a testament to the strength of BlackBerry 10, the ease of developing for this powerful new platform, and the remarkable opportunity that it represents for developers and brands alike,” said Martyn Mallick, BlackBerry’s VP of global alliances and business development. “We have focused on bringing the most relevant apps to BlackBerry 10 – whether they are global leaders in their categories, or whether they are regional must-have apps. We are thrilled and want to thank all the developers that have shown such strong support of a platform before it has commercially launched. We share in their excitement and belief in BlackBerry 10.”

Some of the big-name apps that aren’t available on BlackBerry 10 include YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Hulu and perhaps most importantly, Google Maps.

BlackBerry’s press release follows below.

BlackBerry 10 Customers Will Have a Great Selection of Top Apps in Every Category
BlackBerry welcomes more than 1000 of the top app partners with relevant, local content from every region of the globe

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Jan. 31, 2013) – A phenomenal lineup of top brands and applications have committed to the BlackBerry(R) 10 platform, giving the new platform the strongest content offering of any first generation mobile platform at launch. Yesterday at the BlackBerry 10 launch event in New York, BlackBerry(R) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) announced that 1,000 of the top app partners will be making their applications available on the BlackBerry(R) World(TM) storefront. The partners range from leaders in social media to the top games, sports, productivity, lifestyle apps, and more.

BlackBerry Vice President of Global Alliances and Business Development, Martyn Mallick took to the stage yesterday to showcase some of applications committed to BlackBerry 10, and attendees were able to play with some of the applications for the new platform.

“Being able to announce 1000 of the top app partners is a testament to the strength of BlackBerry 10, the ease of developing for this powerful new platform, and the remarkable opportunity that it represents for developers and brands alike,” said Mallick. “We have focused on bringing the most relevant apps to BlackBerry 10 – whether they are global leaders in their categories, or whether they are regional must-have apps. We are thrilled and want to thank all the developers that have shown such strong support of a platform before it has commercially launched. We share in their excitement and belief in BlackBerry 10.”

Here are just some of the apps and games committed to BlackBerry 10. Many of these apps will be available at launch with others to follow:

Business and Productivity
– Bloomberg, BMC Service Desk & Remedy, Box, Cisco WebEx Meetings, Citrix Podio, CNBC, Dictionary.com, Emirates NBD, Harmon.ie, IBM Notes, Traveler, ING DIRECT Canada, Nat West, RBC, RBS, SAP, TD Bank Group and Thomson Reuters

Gaming
- 10tons: Sparkle, Joining Hands, Azkend, King Oddball, Azkend2, Ironworm, Dragon Portal and Boom Brigade 2
- Disney Mobile Games: Where’s My Water? and Where’s My Perry?
– Electronic Arts: A great selection of their top games including, Mass Effect(TM) Infiltrator, Flight Control Rocket, The Sims(TM) FreePlay and MONOPOLY Millionaire
– Fishlabs: Galaxy on Fire
– Funkoi: Alpha Zero
– Gameloft: A great selection of their top games, including Asphalt 7:Heat, The Amazing Spider-Man(TM), Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, The Dark Knight Rises(TM)
– Halfbrick: Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja
– JoyBits: Doodle God & Doodle Devil
– Rovio: Angry Birds Classic, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Bids Space and Angry Birds Seasons
– Square One Games: Square One and InXile
– SEGA: Sonic4(TM) Episode 1
– ZeptoLab- Cut the Rope, Cut the Rope: Experiments
Lifestyle
– AccuWeather, Air Canada, Air France, DStv Mobile, Dr. Oetker Rezeptideen, Easyjet, FlightAware, Flixster, KLM, Manulife Financial, President’s Choice Recipe Box, SkyScanner, Spotcast, StubHub, The Weather Channel, The Weather Network, Tim Hortons TimmyMe(TM), United Airlines, Wikitude, WisePilot, Yellow Pages Group and Zara

Multimedia
– Absolute Radio, Al Jazeera, Allocine, Astral Radio, BBC Worldwide- Top Gear, BubblePix, Channel 4, Corus Entertainment- Radio, Deezer, E! Online, eMusic, Europe 1, Kiss Kube, MTV Italia, Nobex Radio, NOS, N-TV Nachrichten, Occipital 360 Panorama, OxygenLive, Pacemaker, PaperCamera, Rdio, Shahid.net, SiriusXM, Slacker, Songza, SoundHound, TuneIn, and Volu.me
Published Media
– AFP News, Amazon Kindle, CBC (News, Radio, Music, Hockey Night in Canada), Economist, elmundo.es, El Pais, Grazia Italy, Handlesbaltt, kicker, Leo Dictionary, MailOnline, Maxim, News24, New York Times, NU.nl, PressReader, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The London Evening Standard, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Wirtschaftswoche
Social
– Badoo, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, ooVoo, Skype, Tuenti Social Messenger, Twitter, Viber, Whatsapp and Xing
Sports
CBSSports.com, ESPN ScoreCenter, Goal.com, L’equipe, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s Maple Leafs Mobile App and Raptors Mobile App, MLB.com At Bat(R), NHL GameCenter, PGA Tour, Runtastic, Sports Tracker and UFC

Continuing to build out a rich and robust content offering for BlackBerry 10 customers, on January 28, BlackBerry announced content partnerships with leading music labels, movie studios and TV broadcasters making BlackBerry World a one stop shop for all app, games and multimedia content for BlackBerry 10.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Steven Tyler Auditions in Drag for American Idol

TV Watch

American Idol

By Steve Helling

01/31/2013 at 10:35 PM EST

Steven Tyler sings before the AFC Championship NFL football game, Jan, 22, 2012

Elise Amendola/AP

Former judge Steven Tyler made a surprise cameo on American Idol Thursday night – dressed as a woman. Calling himself Pepper LaBeija after the famous drag queen featured in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, Tyler wore a blonde wig, snakeskin miniskirt and fake breasts that honked when squeezed. (There will be no "Dude Looks Like a Lady" jokes because, frankly, he didn't.) Looking eerily like Joan Rivers, Tyler blew kisses at the camera and reduced judge Keith Urban to hysterical laughter.

But Tyler's appearance was actually not the most over-the-top performance on Thursday's show. That distinction belonged to Zoanette Johnson, a 19-year-old Tulsa resident who performed an overblown version of "The Star Spangled Banner." It was unclear whether her audition, which featured exaggerated gestures throughout, was elaborate performance art or an authentic effort at singing. The judges looked ambivalent, too, but then unanimously (though reluctantly?) voted for her to advance to the Hollywood round.

Other odd auditions included Halie Hillburn a 26-year-old singing ventriloquist with a puppet named Oscar. He was either a bear or a dog. Whatever he was, the judges told her to lose Oscar and showcase her strong voice instead. Karl Skinner from Joplin, Mo., performed a fitful version of James Brown's "I Feel Good." His voice was pleasant, but he may be a contestant better in small doses.

There was none of the earlier drama between the judges during the show. Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj no longer interact, not even to roll their eyes when the other one speaks. It doesn't feel like polite indifference – it feels like a calculated decision to ignore each other. Either way, their lack of drama has allowed for sweeter moments to shine through.

For example: Sign language teacher Nate Tao, who was raised by deaf parents, performed a version of Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life" that impressed he judges. "You're unassuming," said Randy Jackson before the panel unanimously put him through. "You looked like you were going to do my taxes."

The last contestant of the night was Kayden Stephenson, a 16-year-old battling cystic fibrosis. Looking years younger than his age – with looks reminiscent of a young Aaron Carter – he performed a nice version of Stevie Wonder's "I Wish." Minaj compared him to a "baby Michael [Jackson]," which may have been an overstatement.

In total, 45 singers from the Oklahoma auditions advanced to the next round. We only got to see five of them – which means there are surely some surprises in store when the show heads to Hollywood next week.

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Hedgehog Alert! Prickly pets can carry salmonella

NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.

In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials on Thursday say such cases seem to be increasing.

The CDC recommends thoroughly washing your hands after handling hedgehogs and cleaning pet cages and other equipment outside.

Other pets that carry the salmonella bug are frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, lizards, chicks and ducklings.

Seven of the hedgehog illnesses were in Washington state, including the death — an elderly man from Spokane County who died in January. The other cases were in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.

In years past, only one or two illnesses from this salmonella strain have been reported annually, but the numbers rose to 14 in 2011, 18 last year, and two so far this year.

Children younger than five and the elderly are considered at highest risk for severe illness, CDC officials said.

Hedgehogs are small, insect-eating mammals with a coat of stiff quills. In nature, they sometimes live under hedges and defend themselves by rolling up into a spiky ball.

The critters linked to recent illnesses were purchased from various breeders, many of them licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDC officials said. Hedgehogs are native to Western Europe, New Zealand and some other parts of the world, but are bred in the United States.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

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Euro gains but shares steady before economic data

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro hit a fresh 14-month high on Friday as investors returned to the region's riskier asset markets, while shares steadied ahead of a batch of major U.S. and European economic data.

The euro hit a high of $1.3634 to the dollar, building on gains of over 3 percent in January, as the European Central Bank prepared to reveal how much more of its three-year emergency loans banks were likely to repay early.

The repayments are seen as a sign the euro zone debt crisis has eased, encouraging demand for peripheral European debt, but have also raised expectations short term money market rates could rise, which is supporting the euro. Details from ECB are due at 1100 GMT.

Otherwise attention is focused on the economic outlook with the release of January data on factory activity across the euro area to be followed by the latest U.S. jobs report at 1330 GMT and a national report on the state of American manufacturers.

Markets expect the data to show conditions in the euro zone remain weak but have at least stabilized after a weak fourth quarter, while the jobs data in the U.S. should confirm a gradual recovery is underway.

"We are seeing indications of improvement in underlying conditions and the seeds are being sown for a future economic recovery, but here and now economic conditions are still weak," Nick Kounis, head of macro research at ABN-AMRO, said.

Ahead of the data the broader FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> of top companies was 0.2 percent higher at 1,166.87 points, near a 223 month high.

Earlier China's said official purchasing managers' index (PMI) eased to 50.4 in January, missing market expectations for a rise and underscoring the fragility of the recovery from the economy's weakest year since 1999.

However, a separate private survey showed that growth in China's giant manufacturing sector hit a two-year high in January as domestic demand strengthened, underlining hopes the nation's economic recovery is slowly gaining momentum.

The Chinese data left MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> little changed and capped gains in oil prices from escalating tensions in the Middle East.

U.S. crude futures inched up 9 cents to $97.58 a barrel while Brent rose 23 cent to $115.978

London copper added 0.5 percent to $8,203 a tonne.

(Reporting by Richard Hubbard; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Syrian rebels make slow headway in south

AMMAN (Reuters) - The revolt against President Bashar al-Assad first flared in Deraa, but the southern border city now epitomizes the bloody stalemate gripping Syria after 22 months of violence and 60,000 dead.

Jordan next door has little sympathy with Assad, but is wary of spillover from the upheaval in its bigger neighbor. It has tightened control of its 370-km (230-mile) border with Syria, partly to stop Islamist fighters or weapons from crossing.

That makes things tough for Assad's enemies in the Hawran plain, traditionally one of Syria's most heavily militarized regions, where the army has long been deployed to defend the southern approaches to Damascus from any Israeli threat.

The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels, loosely grouped in tribal and local "brigades", are united by a hatred of Assad and range from secular-minded fighters to al Qaeda-aligned Islamists.

"Nothing comes from Jordan," complained Moaz al-Zubi, an officer in the rebel Free Syrian Army, contacted via Skype from the Jordanian capital Amman. "If every village had weapons, we would not be afraid, but the lack of them is sapping morale."

Insurgents in Syria say weapons occasionally do seep through from Jordan but that they rely more on arsenals they seize from Assad's troops and arms that reach them from distant Turkey.

This month a Syrian pro-government television channel showed footage of what it said was an intercepted shipment of anti-tank weapons in Deraa, without specifying where it had come from.

Assad's troops man dozens of checkpoints in Deraa, a Sunni city that was home to 180,000 people before the uprising there in March 2011. They have imposed a stranglehold which insurgents rarely penetrate, apart from sporadic suicide bombings by Islamist militants, say residents and dissidents.

Rebel activity is minimal west of Deraa, where military bases proliferate near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Insurgents have captured some towns and villages in a 25-km (17-mile) wedge of territory east of Deraa, but intensifying army shelling and air strikes have reduced many of these to ruin, forcing their residents to join a rapidly expanding refugee exodus to Jordan, which now hosts 320,000 Syrians.

However, despite more than a month of fighting, Assad's forces have failed to winkle rebels out of strongholds in the rugged volcanic terrain that stretches from Busra al-Harir, 37 km (23 miles) northeast of Deraa, to the outskirts of Damascus.

Further east lies Sweida, home to minority Druze who have mostly sat out the Sunni-led revolt against security forces dominated by Assad's minority, Shi'ite-rooted Alawite sect.

"KEY TO DAMASCUS"

As long as Assad's forces control southwestern Syria, with its fertile, rain-fed Hawran plain, his foes will find it hard to make a concerted assault on Damascus, the capital and seat of his power, from suburbs where they already have footholds.

"If this area is liberated, the supply routes from the south to Damascus would be cut," said Abu Hamza, a commander in the rebel Ababeel Hawran Brigade. "Deraa is the key to the capital."

Fighters in the north, where Turkey provides a rear base and at least some supply lines, have fared somewhat better than their counterparts in the south, grabbing control of swathes of territory and seizing half of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

They have also captured some towns in the east, across the border from Iraq's Sunni heartland of Anbar province, and in central Syria near the mostly Sunni cities of Homs and Hama.

But even where they gain ground, Assad's mostly Russian-supplied army and air force can still pound rebels from afar, prompting a Saudi prince to call for outsiders to "level the playing field" by providing anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.

"What is needed are sophisticated, high-level weapons that can bring down planes, can take out tanks at a distance," Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief and brother of the Saudi foreign minister, said last week at a meeting in Davos.

Saudi Arabia and its fellow Gulf state Qatar have long backed Assad's opponents and advocate arming them, but for now the rebels are still far outgunned by the Syrian military.

"They are not heavily armed, properly trained or equipped," said Ali Shukri, a retired Jordanian general, who argued also that rebels would need extensive training to use Western anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons effectively even if they had them.

He said two powerful armored divisions were among Syrian forces in the south, where the rebels are "not that strong".

It is easier for insurgents elsewhere in Syria to get support via Turkey or Lebanon than in the south where the only borders are with Israel and Jordan, Shukri said.

Jordan, which has urged Assad to go, but seeks a political solution to the crisis, is unlikely to ramp up support for the rebels, even if its cautious policy risks irritating Saudi Arabia and Qatar, financial donors to the cash-strapped kingdom.

ISLAMIST STRENGTH

"I'm confident the opposition would like to be sourcing arms regularly from the Jordanian border, not least because I guess it would be easier for the Saudis to get stuff up there on the scale you'd be talking about," said a Western diplomat in Amman.

A scarcity of arms and ammunition is the main complaint of the armed opposition, a disparate array of local factions in which Islamist militants, especially the al Qaeda-endorsed Nusra Front, have come to play an increasing role in recent months.

The Nusra Front, better armed than many groups, emerged months after the anti-Assad revolt began in Deraa with peaceful protests that drew a violent response from the security forces.

It has flourished as the conflict has turned ever more bitterly sectarian, pitting majority Sunnis against Alawites.

Since October, the Front, deemed a terrorist group by the United States, has carried out at least three high-profile suicide bombings in Deraa, attacking the officers' club, the governor's residence and an army checkpoint in the city centre.

Such exploits have won prestige for the Islamist group, which has gained a reputation for military prowess, piety and respect for local communities, in contrast to some other rebel outfits tainted by looting and other unpopular behavior.

"So far no misdeeds have come from the Nusra Front to make us fear them," said Daya al-Deen al-Hawrani, a fighter from the rebel al-Omari Brigade. "Their goal and our goal is one."

Abu Ibrahim, a non-Islamist rebel commander operating near Deraa, said the Nusra Front fought better and behaved better than units active under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

"Their influence has grown," he acknowledged, describing them as dedicated and disciplined. Nor were their fighters imposing their austere Islamic ideology on others, at least for now. "I sit with them and smoke and they don't mind," he said.

The Nusra Front may be trying to avoid the mistakes made by a kindred group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, which fought U.S. troops and the rise of Shi'ite factions empowered by the 2003 invasion.

The Iraqi group's suicide attacks on civilians, hostage beheadings and attempts to enforce a harsh version of Islamic law eventually alienated fellow Sunni tribesmen who switched sides and joined U.S. forces in combating the militants.

Despite the Nusra Front's growing prominence and its occasional spectacular suicide bombings in Deraa, there are few signs that its fighters or other rebels are on the verge of dislodging the Syrian military from its southern bastions.

Abu Hamza, the commander in the Ababeel Hawran Brigade, was among many rebels and opposition figures to lament the toughness of the task facing Assad's enemies in the south: "What is killing us is that all of Hawran is a military area," he said.

"And every village has five army compounds around it."

(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Facebook’s mobile ad revenue doubles in fourth quarter

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc doubled its mobile advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, a sign that the No.1 social network is seeing early success in expanding onto handheld devices as more of its users migrate to smartphones and tablets.

Investors want to see evidence that CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s 8-year-old company is delivering on promises to develop a full-fledged mobile advertising business, a challenge facing many of today’s technology leaders including Google Inc.

But the growth trailed some of Wall Street‘s most aggressive estimates. Shares of Facebook were down roughly 3 percent at $ 30.21 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, regaining ground after falling more than 8 percent immediately after the numbers were released.

Mobile revenue estimates among some analysts and investors were unreasonably high, said Sterne, Agee & Leach analyst Arvind Bhatia.

“As a result the stock was set up for disappointment,” he said. Overall, he said, Facebook’s results were encouraging.

The company’s overall advertising business grew at its fastest clip since before its May initial public offering, helping the company’s revenue expand 40 percent and surpass Wall Street targets.

Facebook has rolled out a wide variety of new services in recent months as the company seeks to stay ahead in the fast-moving Web market and to convince Wall Street that it can turn its audience of more than 1 billion users into a sustainable business.

Zuckerberg said the company plans to spend heavily to recruit talent in 2013 as the company pushes forward with new product development, particularly “mobile-first” services.

“We aren’t operating to maximize our profit this year but we’re doing what we think will build the best service and business over the long term,” Zuckerberg said during a conference call with analysts on Wednesday.

The strategy makes sense for an Internet company, said Stifel Nicolaus Jordan Rohan. But it will force Wall Street analysts to “ratchet down” their profit expectations.

“The conference call was a bit of a sobering event,” said Rohan. “The company advised analysts and investors to expect lower margins, and downplayed the near-term opportunity for revenues from Gifts,” Facebook’s recently-launched online commerce service.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

Facebook shares, which lost more than half their value following a rocky IPO, have regained ground in recent months as concerns about its mobile ad business and insider selling have eased. Shares have surged roughly 60 percent since mid-November.

Zuckerberg said that recently introduced products such as Gifts, which allows Facebook users to purchase retail goods for their friends, as well as its new social search tool could become important businesses in the future. But in the near term he said that Facebook’s advertising efforts will be the core of its business.

The number of monthly active users on the social network reached 1.06 billion at the end of last year, with 618 million daily active users, Facebook said. But much of that growth again came from emerging markets like Asia, rather than the United States or Europe, where revenue per user is several times higher. For instance, average revenue per user is $ 13.58 for the United States and Canada, but just $ 2.35 in Asia.

Overall fourth-quarter revenue came to $ 1.585 billion, up 40 percent versus $ 1.131 billion a year earlier. Analysts were looking for revenue of $ 1.53 billion.

Executives said some revenue from its payments business dating back to September 2012 had been booked in the October-December quarter, inflating the number somewhat. Excluding those deferred sales, overall revenue would have been up just 34 percent in the quarter.

But it was the fledgling mobile business that dominated Wednesday’s discussion on the call. Finance Chief David Ebersman said Facebook had “basically doubled” mobile ad revenue from the third quarter to the fourth quarter.

“Two quarters ago we really had no mobile revenue,” Ebersman told Reuters in an interview. “In the course of a pretty short period of time, we’ve dramatically ramped up our ability to monetize mobile.”

Facebook said net income in the fourth quarter was $ 64 million, or 3 cents a share, compared to $ 302 million, or 14 cents a share a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, Facebook said it earned 17 cents a share, compared to the 15 cents a share expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Facebook expects expenses — excluding stock-based compensation for employees — to jump 50 percent in 2013, likely outpacing revenue growth. Capital investments may climb to $ 1.8 billion, up 14 percent from last year’s $ 1.575 billion.

“They’re going to have to continue to develop new products, which will cost them,” said Bhatia of Sterne, Agee & Leach.

But he said, “the market would be less happy if they were not finding enough opportunities.”

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Ryan Woo)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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American Idol Discovers Big Talent in Texas and California

TV Watch

American Idol

By Jamie Bufalino

01/30/2013 at 11:00 PM EST

From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban

Michael Becker/FOX.

It's the final week of American Idol's cross-country talent search. And as the judges head to San Antonio, Texas, a surprising lack of diva-on-diva trash-talking allowed the focus to fall squarely on the contestants who seemed like they could be serious contenders this season (or at least keep things interesting).

Case in point: 19-year-old Mississippi native Papa Peachez who described himself as "a cute little white boy and ... so much more than that. I'm really just a big black woman trapped in a trapped in a little boy's body."

After Peachez belted out an original song, Nicki Minaj immediately showed him some love. "I think that you are a superstar," she said. The other judges weren't as convinced, but Minaj managed to twist enough arms (not literally) to get the boy through to Hollywood.

Peachez is going to have some steep competition from another 19-year-old – San Antonio's Adam Sanders, who blew away the judges with his rendition of the Etta James classic "At Last."

"You shocked us all, Dawg," Randy Jackson told the singer before giving him a standing ovation along with Mariah Carey and Keith Urban.

Other notables from the Lone Star State included an Arkansas beauty queen, a vibrant mariachi singer and 16-year-old Senni M'mairura, whose rendition of the Jackson 5's "Who's Lovin You" drew raves and left Minaj sputtering about other things that apparently make her feel good: "Candy canes, strawberries, whip cream, rainbows and sunny skies," she said.

Next the judges hopped aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif., to see what the West Coast had to offer. That's where Jesaiah Baer, 16, had to contend with an impromptu fire drill but still managed to blaze her way to Hollywood.

Then, after an emotional number from Iraq war veteran Matt Farmer, the episode ended with two powerful stories from young, would-be Idols who've overcome bullying.

Briana Oakley, 16, had to change schools after her classmates turned on her when she found success on a televised talent show. But she won the judges over with her performance Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain."

And 21-year-old Matheus Fernandes, who was quite a bit shorter than everyone else in the room, broke down in tears after getting praise from the judges for his version of "A Change Is Gonna Come."

"To me," Randy told him, "You're 10 feet tall."

Thursday American Idol heads to Oklahoma – and next week to Hollywood.

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Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.

All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.

Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting from real solutions to the nation's weight problems.

"The evidence is what matters," and many feel-good ideas repeated by well-meaning health experts just don't have it, said the lead author, David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Independent researchers say the authors have some valid points. But many of the report's authors also have deep financial ties to food, beverage and weight-loss product makers — the disclosures take up half a page of fine print in the journal.

"It raises questions about what the purpose of this paper is" and whether it's aimed at promoting drugs, meal replacement products and bariatric surgery as solutions, said Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies.

"The big issues in weight loss are how you change the food environment in order for people to make healthy choices," such as limits on soda sizes and marketing junk food to children, she said. Some of the myths they cite are "straw men" issues, she said.

But some are pretty interesting.

Sex, for instance. Not that people do it to try to lose weight, but claims that it burns 100 to 300 calories are common, Allison said. Yet the only study that scientifically measured the energy output found that sex lasted six minutes on average — "disappointing, isn't it?" — and burned a mere 21 calories, about as much as walking, he said.

That's for a man. The study was done in 1984 and didn't measure the women's experience.

Among the other myths or assumptions the authors cite, based on their review of the most rigorous studies on each topic:

—Small changes in diet or exercise lead to large, long-term weight changes. Fact: The body adapts to changes, so small steps to cut calories don't have the same effect over time, studies suggest. At least one outside expert agrees with the authors that the "small changes" concept is based on an "oversimplified" 3,500-calorie rule, that adding or cutting that many calories alters weight by one pound.

—School gym classes have a big impact on kids' weight. Fact: Classes typically are not long, often or intense enough to make much difference.

—Losing a lot of weight quickly is worse than losing a little slowly over the long term. Fact: Although many dieters regain weight, those who lose a lot to start with often end up at a lower weight than people who drop more modest amounts.

—Snacking leads to weight gain. Fact: No high quality studies support that, the authors say.

—Regularly eating breakfast helps prevent obesity. Fact: Two studies found no effect on weight and one suggested that the effect depended on whether people were used to skipping breakfast or not.

—Setting overly ambitious goals leads to frustration and less weight loss. Fact: Some studies suggest people do better with high goals.

Some things may not have the strongest evidence for preventing obesity but are good for other reasons, such as breastfeeding and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, the authors write. And exercise helps prevent a host of health problems regardless of whether it helps a person shed weight.

"I agree with most of the points" except the authors' conclusions that meal replacement products and diet drugs work for battling obesity, said Dr. David Ludwig, a prominent obesity research with Boston Children's Hospital who has no industry ties. Most weight-loss drugs sold over the last century had to be recalled because of serious side effects, so "there's much more evidence of failure than success," he said.

___

Online:

Obesity info: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Asian shares off highs, Fed's stance weighs on dollar

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares fell for a second straight day and the euro slid on Thursday, as weak German retail sales and poor earnings at its biggest bank added to investors' nerves after a shock fourth quarter contraction in the U.S. economy.

Data on Wednesday showed U.S. GDP slipped back 0.1 percent, though the country's central bank, the Federal Reserve, indicated the pullback was likely to be brief as it repeated its pledge to continue providing support.

European shares, which have surged 3.7 percent this month, took their biggest daily hit of the year on Wednesday, and a plunge in German retail sales and a huge quarterly loss from Deutsche Bank dashed hopes of a quick rebound.

London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were all around 0.3 percent lower by 0830 GMT as trading gathered pace after shares in Asia posted modest gains. <.l><.eu><.n/>

"Perhaps the German retail sales have contributed a little bit, but we knew that Q4 was weak, so I would it attribute it more to earnings news," said Chris Scicluna, an economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.

"The Deutsche Bank loss does look to be on the sizable side. There has clearly been some mismatch between financial markets and the real economy so that does lend itself to a bit of a pullback."

In the currency market, the German jitters also left the euro under pressure. It was well off Wednesday's 14-month high at $1.3548, though the Federal Reserves promise of continued support was expected to mitigate the fall by keeping downward pressure on the dollar.

The nervy market atmosphere also pushed up Spanish and Italian government bond yields as some investors switched from higher-yielding debt into German Bunds.

Spanish 10-year yields rose 10 basis points on the day to 5.31 percent, while equivalent Italian debt rose 10 bps to 4.38 percent.

German Bund futures were half a point higher, spurred on by the Fed's determination to maintain its policy of stimulus for the U.S. economy.

Spot gold hovered near its one-week high of $1,683.39 an ounce reached on Wednesday. A weak yen pushed the most active gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange to a record high of 4,944 yen a gram on Thursday.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Will Waterman)

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U.N.'s Ban decries "horrors" in Syria, urges end to war

DUBAI (Reuters) - Denouncing "unrelenting horrors" in Syria's war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed on Wednesday for an end to the violence and urged more aid to address a situation he said was catastrophic and worsening by the day.

"How many more people will be killed if the current situation continues?," Ban said, speaking at a conference of donors in Kuwait called to drum up more pledges of financing for U.N. humanitarian efforts.

"I appeal to all sides and particularly the Syrian government, to stop the killing ... in the name of humanity, stop the killing, stop the violence," he said.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since the 22-month-old conflict began, the United Nations says.

The world body warned on Monday that without more money it would not be able to help millions of Syrians and appealed for donations at the aid conference to meet its $1.5 billion target.

Some four million Syrians inside the country need food, shelter and other aid and more than 700,000 more have escaped to neighboring countries since the conflict began, according to the United Nations. Half of the civilians affected by the crisis are children, it says.

SCALE OF CRISIS ESCALATES

Wednesday's conference will seek pledges of $1 billion of aid for Syria's neighbors sheltering refugees and another $500 million to bankroll humanitarian work for 4 million Syrians inside the country.

The aid would fund operations for the first half of this year, but the United Nations has so far received pledges covering just 18 percent of the target, unveiled last month as the scale of Syria's humanitarian crisis escalated sharply.

Even if pledges are made, aid groups have found in the past that converting promises into hard cash can take time.

Nevertheless, there was early positive news for the gathering when Kuwait's emir pledged to give $300 million to the aid effort.

Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told the meeting that "horrifying reports" of violence had raised questions over the future of Syria and aid efforts had to be redoubled.

But Ban said much more remained to be done.

"The situation in Syria is catastrophic and getting worse every day," he said. "Every day Syrians face unrelenting horrors," he said, adding this included sexual violence and detentions.

INFRASTRUCTURE BEING DESTROYED

About half of public hospitals and a quarter of schools are damaged, he said, and the country's infrastructure was being systematically destroyed.

Aid officials hope the fact that the conference is being held in Kuwait will encourage other wealthy Gulf Arab states, who have led regional opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, to support the international aid effort.

Many Gulf states have sent assistance, but aid workers say their efforts have been haphazard and rarely coordinated with other aid agencies, hampering their ability to plan a sustained relief program.

Syria's main opposition coalition has criticized the U.N. appeal and its arrangements for distributing aid inside Syria, saying the organization has effectively ceded control to the Syrian government and failed to deliver all but a bare minimum of aid to areas controlled by Assad's opponents.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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