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The annual event in Barcelona, Spain, produces some of 2013's most exciting smartphone news. CNET covers the show, inside and out.
The 2013 Mobile World Congress is just a day away from closing in Barcelona, Spain. Housed in a brand-new venue and bigger than ever, the show burst at the seams with everything wireless. Sure, there was a ton of new phones and tablets, but those headline devices only scratched the surface. CNET's team of reporters scoured the show floor to find everything from a GPS-enabled cane to a touchless touch screen.
So if you can't be in Barcelona, join CNET for a video tour of some of the hottest devices and most fascinating finds of the show.
The annual event in Barcelona, Spain, produces some of 2013's most exciting smartphone news. CNET covers the show, inside and out.
(CBS News) WASHINGTON -- The Voting Rights Act has been the law of the land for nearly half a century, helping to ensure that minorities are not denied the right to vote. On Wednesday, Shelby County, Ala., challenged the law at the Supreme Court.
The arguments sharply divided the justices: The court's conservative majority appeared poised to strike down at least part of the act and eliminate the current federal oversight of voting in the South.
At issue is a decades-old provision in the law that requires nine states, mostly in the South, to get approval from the federal government before changing voting laws or procedures.
Justice Antonin Scalia called it a "racial entitlement."
Chief Justice John Roberts asked if the government believed "the citizens in the South are more racist than citizens in the North." Roberts said current data on voter turnout revealed more problems in Massachusetts than in Mississippi.
Congress did not rely on current data when, in 2006, it reauthorized the Voting Rights Act. It continued to rely on rates of minority voter registration and turnout in the elections of 1964, 1968 and 1972.
Will the Voting Rights Act survive the Supreme Court?
Proposed changes to Voting Rights Act stir controversy in Alabama
Alabama attorney Frank Ellis said Congress should look at the modern-day South.
"We ask for some recognition that we and these other converted jurisdictions have made great strides over the last 48 years," Ellis said.
The liberal justices strongly defended the law, saying Congress had thousands of pages of evidence documenting discrimination.
"Discrimination is discrimination, and what Congress said is it continues," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.
Justice Stephen Breyer said, "The disease is still there ... it's gotten a lot better, a lot better, but it's still there."
That's why civil rights attorney Debo Adegbile said the provision is as necessary today as a generation ago.
"The problems are much more serious, much more repetitive, there is a much greater continuity in certain places than others," Adegbile said.
The liberal justices -- and the Obama administration -- say the court should defer to Congress, which they say is was better situated to make judgments about discrimination in voting. But based on the arguments today, it does appear a majority of the conservative judges are ready to tell Congress it's going to have to make some changes in that law.
He has barked, yelled, been sarcastic and demanded answers from accused murderer Jodi Arias this week.
And in doing so, prosecutor Juan Martinez and his aggressive antics may be turning off the jury he is hoping to convince that Arias killed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in June 2008, experts told ABCNews.com today.
"Martinez is his own worst enemy," Mel McDonald, a prominent Phoenix defense attorney and former judge, told ABC News. "He takes it to the point where it's ad nauseam. You have difficulty recognizing when he's driving the point home because he's always angry and pushy and pacing around the courtroom. He loses the effectiveness, rather than build it up."
"He's like a rabid dog and believes you've got to go to everybody's throat," he said.
"If they convict her and give her death, they do it in spite of Juan, not because of him," McDonald added.
Martinez's needling style was on display again today as he pestered Arias to admit that she willingly participated in kinky sex with Alexander, though she previously testified that she only succumbed to his erotic fantasies to please him.
Arias, now 32, and Alexander, who was 27 at the time of his death, dated for a year and continued to sleep together for another year following their break-up.
Arias drove to his house in Mesa, Ariz., in June 2008, had sex with him, they took nude photos together and she killed him in his shower. She claims it was in self-defense. If convicted, Arias could face the death penalty.
Martinez also attempted to point out inconsistencies in her story of the killing, bickering with her over details about her journey from Yreka, Calif., to Mesa, Ariz., including why she borrowed gas cans from an ex-boyfriend, when she allegedly took naps and got lost while driving, and why she spontaneously decided to visit Alexander at his home in Mesa for a sexual liaison.
"I want to know what you're talking about," Arias said to Martinez at one point.
"No, I'm asking you," he yelled.
Later, he bellowed, "Am I asking you if you're telling the truth?"
"I don't know," Arias said, firing back at him. "Are you?"
During three days of cross examining Arias this week, Martinez has spent hours going back and forth with the defendant over word choice, her memory, and her answers to his questions.
"Everyone who takes witness stand for defense is an enemy," McDonald said. "He prides himself on being able to work by rarely referring to his notes, but what he's giving up in that is that there's so much time he wastes on stupid comments. A lot of what I've heard is utterly objectionable."
Martinez's behavior has spurred frequent objections of "witness badgering" from Arias' attorney Kirk Nurmi, who at one point Tuesday stood up in court and appealed to the judge to have a conference with all of the attorneys before questioning continued. Judge Sherry Stephens at one point admonished Martinez and Arias for speaking over one another.
Andy Hill, a former spokesperson for the Phoenix police department, and Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who has testified as an expert witness at many trials in the Phoenix area, both said that despite his aggressive style, Martinez would likely succeed in obtaining a guilty verdict.
"When it comes to cross examination, one size does not fit all," said Pitt. "But if you set aside the incessant sparring, what the prosecutor I believe is effectively doing is pointing out the various inconsistencies in the defendant's version of events."
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties searched for a way forward on Tuesday after an inconclusive election gave none of them a parliamentary majority and threatened prolonged instability and a renewal of the European financial crisis.
The results, notably the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the upper chamber, the Senate.
Financial markets fell sharply at the prospect of a stalemate that reawakened memories of the crisis that pushed Italy's borrowing costs toward unsustainably high levels and brought the euro zone to the brink of collapse in 2011.
"The winner is: Ingovernability," ran the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the deadlock the country will have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies are forced to work together to form a government.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday that policy choices of the next Italian government would be crucial for the country's creditworthiness, underlining the need for a coalition that can agree on new reforms.
Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), has the difficult task of trying to agree a "grand coalition" with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the man he blames for ruining Italy, or striking a deal with Grillo, a completely unknown quantity in conventional politics.
The alternative is new elections either immediately or within a few months, although both Berlusconi and Bersani have indicated that they want to avoid a return to the polls if possible: "Italy cannot be ungoverned and we have to reflect," Berlusconi said in an interview on his own television station.
For his part, Grillo, whose movement won the most votes of any single party, has indicated that he believes the next government will last no more than six months.
"They won't be able to govern," he told reporters on Tuesday. "Whether I'm there or not, they won't be able govern."
He said he would work with anyone who supported his policy proposals, which range from anti-corruption measures to green-tinted energy measures but rejected suggestions of entering a formal coalition: "It's not time to talk of alliances... the system has already fallen," he said.
The election, a massive rejection of the austerity policies applied by Prime Minister Mario Monti with the backing of international leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, caused consternation across Europe.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble put a brave face on it, saying "that's democracy".
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo was more pessimistic.
"This is a jump to nowhere that does not bode well either for Italy or Europe," he said.
A long recession and growing disillusionment with mainstream parties and tax-raising austerity fed a bitter public mood and contributed to the massive rejection of Monti, whose centrist coalition was relegated to the sidelines.
Projections by the Italian center for Electoral Studies showed that the center-left will have 121 seats in the Senate, against 117 for the center-right alliance of Berlusconi's PDL and the regionalist Northern League. Grillo would take 54.
That leaves no party with the majority in a chamber which a government must control to pass legislation.
"THE BELL IS RINGING"
On a visit to Germany, President Giorgio Napolitano said he would not comment until the parties had consulted with each other and Bersani called on Berlusconi and Grillo to "assume their responsibilities" to ensure Italy could have a government.
He warned that the election showed austerity policies alone were no answer to the economic crisis and said the result carried implications beyond Italy.
"The bell is ringing for Europe as well," he said in his first public comments since the election.
He said he would present a limited number of reform proposals to parliament, focusing on jobs, institutional reform and European policy.
However forming an alliance may be long and difficult and could test the sometimes fragile internal unity of the mainstream parties.
"The idea of a majority without Grillo is unthinkable. I don't know if anyone in the PD is considering it but I'm against it," said Matteo Orfini, a member of Bersani's PD secretariat.
"The idea of a PD-PDL government, even if it's backed by Monti, doesn't make any sense," he said.
For his part, Berlusconi won a boost when his Northern League ally Roberto Maroni won the election to become regional president of Lombardy, Italy's economic heartland and one of the richest and most productive areas of Europe.
For Italian business, with an illustrious history of export success, the election result brought dismay that there would be no quick change to what they see as a regulatory sclerosis that has kept the economy virtually stagnant for a decade.
"This is probably the worst possible scenario," said Francesco Divella, whose family began selling pasta under its eponymous brand in 1890 in the southern region of Puglia.
Berlusconi's campaign, mixing sweeping tax cut pledges with relentless attacks on Monti and Merkel, echoed many of the themes pushed by Grillo and underlined the increasingly angry mood of the Italian electorate.
But even if the next government turns away from the tax hikes and spending cuts brought in by Monti, it will struggle to revive an economy that has scarcely grown in two decades.
Monti was widely credited with tightening Italy's public finances and restoring its international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute.
However, Monti struggled to pass the kind of structural reforms needed to improve competitiveness and lay the foundations for a return to economic growth. A weak center-left government may not find it any easier.
The view from some voters, weary of the mainstream parties, was unrepentant: "It's good," said Roger Manica, 28, a security guard in Rome, who voted for the center-left PD.
"Next time I'll vote 5-Star. I like that they are changing things, even if it means uncertainty. Uncertainty doesn't matter to me, for me what's important is a good person who gets things done," he said. "Look how well they've done."
(Additional reporting by Barry Moody, Gavin Jones, Lisa Jucca, Steven Jewkes, Steve Scherer, Catherine Hornby and Massimiliano Di Giorgio, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin. Writing by Philip Pullella and James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Graff)
VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI will hold the last audience of his pontificate in St Peter's Square on Wednesday on the eve of his historic resignation as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected at the Vatican to bid a final farewell to an 85-year-old pope who abruptly cut short his pontificate by declaring he was too weak in body and mind to keep up with the modern world.
The Vatican says 50,000 people have obtained tickets for the event but many more may come and city authorities are preparing for 200,000, installing metal detectors in the area, deploying snipers and setting up field clinics.
No parking has been allowed in the zone since 10:00 pm Tuesday, and cars were to be barred entirely from 7:00 am on Wednesday.
The weekly audience, which is exceptionally being held in St Peter's Square because of the numbers expected, is to begin at around 10:30 am (0930 GMT) and usually lasts around an hour with a mixture of prayers and religious instruction from the pope.
Benedict will be the first pope to step down since the Middle Ages -- a break with Catholic tradition that has worried conservatives but kindled the hopes of Catholics around the world who want a breath of new life in the Church.
Rome has been gripped by speculation over what prompted Benedict to resign and who the leading candidates might be to replace him.
Rumours and counter-rumours in the Italian media suggest cut-throat behind-the-scenes lobbying, prompting the Vatican to condemn what it has called "unacceptable pressure" to influence the papal election.
Campaign groups have also lobbied the Vatican to exclude two cardinals accused of covering up child sex abuse from the upcoming election conclave.
The Vatican has said Benedict will receive the title of "Roman pontiff emeritus" and can still be addressed as "Your Holiness" and wear the white papal cassock after he officially steps down at 1900 GMT on Thursday.
Just before that time, the Vatican said Benedict will be whisked off by helicopter to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome where he will begin a life out of the public eye.
Benedict will wave from the residence's balcony one last time before retreating to a private chapel and, as he has said, a life "hidden from the world".
On the hour he formally loses his powers as sovereign pontiff, the liveried Swiss Guard that traditionally protects popes will leave the residence.
The shock of the resignation and its unprecedented nature in the Church's modern history has left the Vatican sometimes struggling to explain the implications and Benedict's future status -- from the banal to the theological.
Some Catholics find it hard to come to terms with the idea that someone who was elected in a supposedly divinely inspired vote could simply resign.
The Vatican has said Benedict will lose his power of divine infallibility -- a sort of supreme authority in doctrinal matters -- as soon as he steps down.
The Vatican has also explained that the personalised gold Fisherman's Ring traditionally used to seal papal documents -- a key symbol of the office -- will be destroyed by a special cardinal, as is customary in Catholic tradition.
Benedict has also chosen to swap his trademark red shoes for a brown pair given to him by artisans in Mexico during a trip last year.
Starting next week, cardinals from around the world will begin a series of meetings to decide what the priorities for the Catholic Church should be, set a start date for the conclave and consider possible candidates for pope.
The conclave -- a centuries-old tradition with an elaborate ritual -- is supposed to be held within 15 to 20 days of the death of the pope, but Benedict has given special dispensation for the cardinals to bring that date forward.
Cardinals have been flying in from around the world including US prelate Roger Mahony, a former archbishop of Los Angeles stripped of all church duties for mishandling and covering up sex abuse claims against dozens of priests.
A total of 115 "cardinal electors" are scheduled to take part after another voter, British cardinal Keith O'Brien said he would not be taking part after allegations emerged that he made unwanted advances towards priests in the 1980s.
- AFP/ck
Some big name tech companies are adding their support for same-sex marriage and making the case that banning these unions deters employee recruitment efforts.
Dozens of companies, including Apple, Facebook, eBay and Intel, will file an amicus brief -- a court document field by an interested, group that is not actually a party to the case -- on Thursday to delcare their support, Fortune reported today.
The companies will file the brief for the Hollingsworth v. Perry case, which will decide whether or not the Fourteenth amendment prohibits California from defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from denying any person equal protection of the law.
The companies argue that a ban would make it harder for companies in California to hire potential employees if those employees think they will receive better treatment and benefits in another state, or another country, according to the draft brief obtained by Fortune.
The tech companies join dozens of others, as well as top Republicans, including HP's Meg Whitman, who think the state should not ban gay marriage.
(CBS News) -- On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Both sides agree the south have changed in the past half-century. At issue is, has it changed enough?
In Shelby County, Alabama, the question is whether the state's racist past must forever define it.
(Watch: Voting Rights Act challengers take aim at "Section 5", below)
One provision of the Act, Section 5, still requires all or part of 16 states, mostly in the south, to get approval from the Justice Department before changing voting procedures or electoral maps.
"Section five, which is what we are attacking, was never intended by congress to be permanent," said Frank Ellis, a Shelby County lawyer who is at the center of the battle to eliminate Section 5, and force the federal government to treat Alabama and other covered states like the rest of the country.
"They are still using the same criteria to determine whether these 16 states that are covered, they are still using the same test that they used in 1965," Ellis said.
"Things have changed in the South," he said. "This is a dynamic society."
But Ernest Montgomery says things have not changed enough. He was on the city council in Calera, Alabama when city officials, facing a population boom, redrew his district map. He lost the election to a white candidate. Under Section 5, the Justice Department ordered a new election and Montgomery won.
The minority representation in his district under the old map was about 67% African American, according to Montgomery. With the new map, that number dropped to about 28%.
Voting Rights Act faces Supreme Court challenge
Voting Rights Act Section 5 "not the only tool" to protect voting rights, Obama says
VIDEO: SCOTUS to hear challenge to Voting Rights Act
Shelby County Pastor Harry Jones calls it discrimination.
"I think it was designed to dilute the power of the minority community," Jones said. "It did just that."
Opponents like Ellis say they are not attacking the entire Voting Rights Act. If there's intentional discrimination, people can sue, just like they do in Michigan, Ohio and other states that aren't by Section Five.
Though accused murderer Jodi Arias said she sometimes felt "like a prostitute" at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, she admitted today that she often enjoyed their sex life and even suggested sex acts they could try.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez, after a day of aggressive questioning and bickering with Arias, asked her about her own suggestions for her sex life with Alexander, including a phone conversation in which she suggested using sexual lubricant.
Arias, 32, is accused of killing Alexander, but claims it was in self-defense.
Timeline of the Jodi Arias Trial
"You introduced KY Jelly into the relationship to make it more sexually enjoyable, right? When we're talking about the level of experimentation, it looks like both of you were experimenting together sexually. So when we hear things like, 'I felt like a prostitute,' that's not exactly true, is it?" Martinez said.
"It was often mutual," Arias said. "I didn't feel like a prostitute during, just after."
Martinez showed the jury a text message Arias sent offering to perform oral sex on Alexander, comparing it to a statement she made on direct testimony saying that she once felt like a prostitute when Alexander tossed a piece of chocolate at her and walked away without a word after she performed oral sex.
"How is it you can say you 'felt like a prostitute' when you're moving the relationship ahead like this?" Martinez asked. "The act itself is the same thing, and here you're requesting it. The geography is different, but that aside, isn't it the same act? And you're requesting it?"
"When he (ejaculated) and left afterward I felt like a prostitute. When we mutually went through things together I didn't," she said.
Arias also admitted that she sent Alexander a topless photo of herself after he sent her photos of his penis, and that she only did it after she had her breasts enhanced surgically.
Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage
The testimony came as Martinez continued his efforts to discredit Arias' testimony on the stand, including her statements that she often succumbed to Alexander's sexual fantasies so she wouldn't hurt his feelings. Martinez has focused on portraying Arias as a liar for much of his direct examination.
Arias is charged with murder for killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander at his home in Mesa, Ariz., in June 2008. She claims she killed him in self defense and that he had been increasingly violent and sexually demanding in the months before the confrontation. She also claimed he was interested in young boys.
The prosecution claims she killed him in a jealous rage. She could face the death penalty if convicted of first degree murder.
Earlier in the day,tempers flared between Arias and prosecutor Martinez as the prosecutor tried to detail Arias' history of spying on her boyfriends, but Arias complained that his aggressive style of questioning made her "brain scramble."
Arias and Martinez, who have sparred throughout two prior days of cross-examination, spent more than 10 minutes bickering over Martinez's word choices and his apparent "anger."
The morning's testimony, and Martinez's points about Arias' alleged spying, were largely interrupted by the spats.
"Are you having trouble understanding me?" Martinez yelled.
"Yes because sometimes cause you go in circles," Arias answered.
SYDNEY: Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone said Tuesday he would happily sign a contract for Melbourne to host the Grand Prix for 50 years, declaring "everybody loves Australia".
The sport has a contract with Melbourne until 2015 but beyond that it is up in the air, and other cities have expressed interest in snapping up the event which Ecclestone has previously said is the "least viable" on the F1 calendar.
Ecclestone said he hoped to travel to Melbourne for the season-opening 2013 race on March 17, in a year in which negotiations on a new contract are set to begin.
"Everybody loves Australia, loves Australian people and it's good to be there because it's the first race, it's nice, it's relaxed," he said in an official Australian Grand Prix podcast.
"We hope we're going to be in Melbourne forever, although I understand we do get a little bit of criticism and I don't know why.
"We're happy with Melbourne. I'd be happy to sign a 50-year contract. So we don't have a problem with Melbourne."
Ecclestone revealed that other Australian states had contacted him in attempts to poach the event from Victoria, but he indicated he was determined to keep the race in the southern state's capital.
"We get proposals from other parts, but we're happy in Melbourne," he said.
Ahead of the 2012 race Ecclestone floated the idea of a "divorce from our friends in Melbourne" and "walking away from Australia" when the contract expires.
"The race itself, from our point of view, is probably the least viable of all the races we have," he said then.
Ecclestone also said last year he was keen on a night race, which would fit better with European timezones, helping to sell TV rights there.
Such a move would likely be opposed by residents who live around Melbourne's Albert Park circuit, as well as costing the Victorian state government more to stage.
Last year's race cost taxpayers A$56.7 million (US$58.2 million) -- more than the revenue it generates -- with A$30 million of that reportedly going to Ecclestone for the right to host the race.
Ecclestone said the fee was "purely what the race cost" and included bringing six jumbo jets full of freight transportation to Australia.
Melbourne has hosted the Grand Prix since 1996.
- AFP/ck
The "Copyright Alert System," aka "six strikes," kicked off today with the cooperation of five major Internet service providers. The goal of the new campaign is to curb copyright infringement by going after consumers rather than pirates.
While the CAS seems like something that would raise the hackles of privacy and civil liberty groups, the plan isn't to arrest, sue, or fine people downloading illegal movies, games, or music. Instead, the group managing the program -- the Center for Copyright Information -- says its objective is to "educate" such downloaders that they are infringing on protected intellectual copyrights.
"Implementation marks the culmination of many months of work on this groundbreaking and collaborative effort to curb online piracy and promote the lawful use of digital music, movies and TV shows," executive director for the Center for Copyright Information Jill Lesser wrote in a blog post today. "The CAS marks a new way to reach consumers who may be engaging in peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy."
The Center for Copyright Information is a joint venture between Hollywood copyright holders and ISPs -- it is also backed by the White House. AT&T, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast are the participating ISP members in the venture.
The CAS has been in the works since 2011 and was scheduled to go into effect last November. But after a series of delays, including reluctance from ISPs and effects of Hurricane Sandy, the Center for Copyright Information postponed its launch until this year.Under graduated response, or six strikes, entertainment companies will notify a participating ISP that a customer has allegedly been pirating movies or TV shows illegally. The bandwidth provider will then send a notice intended to educate the customer about the consequences of downloading unauthorized content.
The ISP is then supposed to gradually ratcheting up the pressure on customers who ignore the warnings. Eventually, after six warnings, ISPs can choose to suspend service. Graduated response, however, does not include the termination of service. Customers wrongly accused can appeal to their company and take their case to an arbitration group for review. The plan doesn't protect Internet consumers from being sued by copyright owners, however.
Some ways that pirated material is shared on the Internet, such as cyberlockers, e-mail attachments, and Dropbox folders, are not included under six strikes.
Here's more on the CAS from Lesser's blog post:
We hope this cooperative, multi-stakeholder approach will serve as a model for addressing important issues facing all who participate in the digital entertainment ecosystem. From content creators and owners to distributors to consumers, we all benefit from a better understanding of the choices available and the rights and responsibilities that come with using digital content, thereby helping to drive investment in content creation and innovative services that offer exciting ways to enjoy music, video and all digital content.Over the course of the next several days our participating ISPs will begin rolling out the system. Practically speaking, this means our content partners will begin sending notices of alleged P2P copyright infringement to ISPs, and the ISPs will begin forwarding those notices in the form of Copyright Alerts to consumers. Most consumers will never receive Alerts under the program. Consumers whose accounts have been used to share copyrighted content over P2P networks illegally (or without authority) will receive Alerts that are meant to educate rather than punish, and direct them to legal alternatives. And for those consumers who believe they received Alerts in error, an easy to use process will be in place for them to seek independent review of the Alerts they received.
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