App is the word, say US linguists

Saturday, 8 January 2011

The American Dialect Society has chosen 'app' as its 2010 Word Of The Year

The American Dialect Society has chosen "app" as its 2010 Word Of The Year.

The shortened slang term for a computer or smartphone application was picked by linguists as the word that best sums up the country's preoccupation last year.

"Nom" - a chat, tweet and text-friendly syllable that connotes "yummy food" - was the runner-up. It derives from the Cookie Monster character on Sesame Street or, more accurately, the sound he makes as he devours cookies, "Nom, nom, nom, nom".

The vote came at a Pittsburgh hotel ballroom during the national conference of the Linguistic Society of America, an umbrella group that includes the Dialect Society.

U.N.: Southern Sudanese head back home

By the CNN Wire Staff

January 8, 2011 -- Updated 0020 GMT (0820 HKT)

(CNN) -- Southern Sudanese have been steadily trickling back home from their country's northern region ahead of next week's historic election, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said an average of 2,000 people are crossing from the north into the south every day. The number of returnees has doubled since mid-December and now stands at 120,000, the UNHCR said in a news release.

Several million people in the African nation of Sudan will be going to the polls to vote on whether the autonomous region of Southern Sudan should become an independent country or remain part of Sudan.

"We anticipate that many more will return in the coming months following the referendum. Many of the returnees who have lived in the North for years say they have left for fear of the unknown and the opportunity to start afresh in their native South," the UNHCR said.

Since early last year UNHCR established a presence in the ten states of Southern Sudan to support returnees.

The agency said about 30 percent of them have traveled to urban centers and others to rural areas. Most of the returnees are from Khartoum -- the capital of Sudan -- where some of them have lived for two generations.

"As a result they do not necessarily have a home village to return to, but having lived in an urban environment they are settling in South Sudan's urban centers. This puts additional pressure on the fragile infrastructure of South Sudan's towns and has prompted UNHCR to focus its attention on these urban returns. We are providing assistance to 35,000 returnees in and around the town of Abyei, with stocks in the South for more than 100,000, should they be needed," the agency said.

One region that has received many returnees is the Upper Nile.

"Every day, buses and barges with returnees arrive in the state capital, Malakal. They have come with everything they own. The buses and barges are packed with beds, sofa seats, chairs, tables, cooking pans and utensils, corrugated iron sheets, radio sets, and some have even come with TV sets, fridges and small generators."

While other agencies have noted the return, UNHCR said it is concerned about the fate of southerners who stay in the north.

The agency said it is important that "the status of those southern Sudanese who would prefer to remain in the North is established."

"We are concerned about the spectre of a significant number of southerners in the North having uncertain citizen status, possibly becoming stateless. We are actively supporting negotiations with officials to address this issue, which if left unresolved could result in an even larger movement south. There are an estimated 1.5 -2 million southerners who live in the North."

From January 9 to January 15, the black Christians and animists in the autonomous region of Southern Sudan will vote on whether to declare independence from a northern government dominated by Arab Muslims. The two sides fought a war that killed 2 million people from 1983 to 2005, when a peace treaty set the stage for the upcoming vote.

S. Korea reviews N. Korea offer to resume talks

By the CNN Wires Staff

January 8, 2011 -- Updated 0305 GMT (1105 HKT)

Small-scale skirmishes have flared repeatedly along their land and sea borders over the past six decades.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency publishes statement
• KCNA: North Korea would like to resume talks with South Korea
• South Korean officials will meet Saturday on proposal

RELATED TOPICS

• North Korea
• South Korea

(CNN) -- South Korean officials tell CNN that they are reviewing a call for resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Seoul that was published by North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency on Friday.

The statement from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea suggested several steps that could be taken to calm tension between the north and south.

It expressed a desire for "settling the grave situation prevailing in Korea as early as possible and paving the way for improved relations between the north and the south and peace and prosperity." The statement cited both patriotism and "public opinion at home and abroad" as reasons that dialogue should be resumed.

A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry told CNN's Kyung Lah that officials are working to understand the motivation behind the statement. High-level officials will hold an internal meeting on Saturday to analyze it.

Full coverage: North Korea

In the statement, the North Korean government proposed an "unconditional and early" opening of the talks between Pyongyang and Seoul, as well as a resumption of various other dialogues that had been abandoned as relations between the two worsened, according to KCNA.

The statement called for a resumption of suspended Red Cross talks, as well as discussions about two inter-Korean cooperation projects -- the Mount Kumgang tourism zone and the Kaesong Joint Industrial Park.

A Red Cross passage between the north and the south at Panmunjom should be reopened as well, according to the statement.

In the flowery language that is typical of DPRK statements, officials asked that authorities in the south "should discard any unnecessary misgiving, open their hearts and positively respond to the north's proposal."

Relations on the peninsula grew increasingly frosty in 2010. South Korea accused North Korea of firing on a warship in March. In November, North Korea's military opened fire on the disputed Yeonpyeong Island, killing two South Korean marines.

CNN's Kyung Lah and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report

Chilean miner Edison Pena visits Elvis Presley's home

8 January 2011 Last updated at 01:35 GMT

Mr Pena said the best part of the tour was the display of Presley's jumpsuits

One of the Chilean miners rescued in October after 69 days underground has fulfilled a dream: visiting Graceland, home of Elvis Presley.

Edison Pena posed for the cameras after touring Presley's house in Memphis, in the state of Tennessee.

He was on a six-day US visit sponsored by business and tourism groups.

Mr Pena, a devoted fan of the King of Rock and Roll, is said to have crooned Presley songs to his fellow miners to cheer them through their ordeal.

"His music was a message to me, that I could get out," Pena said in Spanish. "We were living in death. It could have come at any time."

During a private tour of the rock and roll legend's house on Friday, Mr Pena took photographs with a mobile phone.

Later Mr Pena, who speaks little English, sang for reporters short versions of his favourite Presley hits, including Blue Suede Shoes, Heartbreak Hotel and Suspicious Minds.

He also treated the audience to some of Presley's signature karate-inspired stage moves, the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper reported.

On Saturday, Mr Pena is to visit Presley's hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, to observe the singer's 75th birthday.

During the miners' long ordeal, Mr Pena kept in shape by running laps of open tunnels in the copper and gold mine. In November, he ran the New York City marathon.

Mr Pena and 32 other miners, mostly Chileans, were trapped in August when a mine shaft collapsed around them. They were rescued in relatively good health in October.

US 'wants Twitter details of Wikileaks activist'

8 January 2011 Last updated at 01:39 GMT

Birgitta Jonsdottir says she helped produce a controversial Wikileaks video

An Icelandic MP who once worked with Wikileaks says US officials have subpoenaed her personal details from the social networking website Twitter.

Birgitta Jonsdottir says the US Department of Justice also asked Twitter for all of her tweets since November 2009.

She says she has 10 days to appeal against the subpoena.

US officials have not commented on her claims, which have not been independently verified.

Ms Jonsdottir said on her Twitter feed: "USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since 1 November 2009. Do they realise I am a member of parliament in Iceland?"

She said that she would call Iceland's justice minister to discuss the request.

"I think I am being given a message, almost like someone breathing in a phone," she said.

Ms Jonsdottir has said she helped to produce a video for Wikileaks showing a US Apache helicopter shooting civilians in Iraq in 2007.

The classified video, released by Wikileaks last April, brought the whistle-blowing website to the world's attention.

The site later released hundreds of thousands of classified and secret documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It also published cables sent by US diplomats across the world, deeply embarrassing the US authorities.

The website's founder, Julian Assange, is currently fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning as part of an inquiry into alleged sex offences.

Ms Jonsdottir reportedly left Wikileaks late last year after she argued unsuccessfully that Mr Assange should take a low-profile role until his legal troubles were resolved.

Parcel ignites at DC post office

The incident prompts concerns following two similar cases in nearby Maryland. Last Modified: 08 Jan 2011 02:50 GMT

The package scare prompted a quick response from the fire department [EPA] A parcel has ignited at a postal facility in Washington DC, a day after two similar incidents in mailrooms in the US state of Maryland, police officials say. No one was reported injured in Friday's incident, and the Washington postal facility was evacuated. "There was an ignition of some envelope or package," Hugh Carew, a police spokesman, told Reuters news agency. "They evacuated the building, and we're investigating at this time." The incident prompted concerns following two similar cases on Thursday in nearby Maryland. Two separate packages ignited in state government buildings, one a mailroom in the capital Annapolis and another at the state transportation headquarters in Hanover. FBI Spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said initial information indicated the parcel that ignited in Washington was similar to the two packages opened in Maryland on Thursday. Maryland parcels The packages, addressed to Governor Martin O'Malley and to Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley, have been taken to an FBI lab for forensic analysis. They were opened within a 15-minute period on Thursday at state government buildings 32km apart. Soon after, mailrooms across Maryland were cleared and two other suspicious packages uncovered, though they turned out to be a toner cartridge and laptop batteries. Explosive material wasn't found in either package that ignited and authorities aren't sure if any other dangerous packages are out there, but mailroom employees were back at work on Friday. They had pictures of the packages and were advised to be vigilant about anything suspicious. Postal Service spokeswoman Joanne Veto said the suspicious Washington package was discovered after another package was thrown on top of it. She said the labels, postmark and stamps were similar to the Maryland parcels.

Source: Agencies

Chile recognises Palestinian state

Chile joins other South American nations to recognise Palestine as a "full, free and sovereign" state. Last Modified: 08 Jan 2011 00:26 GMT

Palestinian authorities have travelled extensively to convince nations to recognise it as a state [EPA] Chile has become the latest South American country to officially recognise Palestine as an independent state. "The government of Chile has adopted the resolution today recognising the existence of the state of Palestine as a free, independent and sovereign state," Alfredo Moreno, the foreign minister, said on Friday. "Chile has permanently and consistently supported the right of the Palestinian people to constitute themselves as an independent state, in peaceful coexistence with the state of Israel," Moreno said. Chile's decision follows a meeting in Brazil between Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador last month recognised Palestine within its borders prior to 1967, and Uruguay and Paraguay are expected to join them in the coming weeks. Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Costa Rica also recognise the Palestinian state. 'Support for peace' Moreno said that Pinera is to travel in March to the Middle East to express his support for peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel and to reinforce Chile's friendship and cooperation with both states. The government's resolution also noted that both Jewish and Palestinian communities have been key to Chile's social, cultural, political and economic development for many years, working in harmony that should serve as a model for their both the Israeli and Palestinian states. It's a message that Pinera plans to make personally during a visit to the Middle East in March. Chile has a community of more than 300,000 Palestinian immigrants and their descendants. The borders of a final Palestinian state have been one of the thorniest issues in peace negotiations with Israel. Direct talks between the two sides, the first for nearly two years, began on September 2 but stalled after a 10-month Israeli settlement-building freeze expired three weeks later. In a New Year's Eve address, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to come up with a new peace plan after months of US diplomacy failed to secure a settlement freeze.

Source: Agencies