New UC logo: Marketing blunder? Or is storm of criticism overblown?

The University of California – one of the most prestigious public universities in the world – redesigned its logo to stay abreast of the times and attract new students. But the move last week appears to have accomplished just the opposite, and university officials are trying to figure out what to do next. The venerable university system has been hit with a New Media revolt that includes insults on Twitter, e-mail memes that mock the new look, Facebook spoofs, and calls for the new representation to be tattooed on its creator’s foreheads. World rankings: top 10 universities around the globe. Experts say the episode is a cautionary tale on the dangers of image and marketing changes. Here’s the background: for 144 years, the 10 campuses have been collectively represented by a traditional-looking, round logo with a “Let There Be Light” motto, a drawing of an open book and a radiating star. The new logo is essentially rectangular, with a form that approximates the old seal’s open book but which also could pass for a stylized “U.” On top of that is the top half of the letter “C” which could be, depending on whom you ask, a napkin doodle, a bidet, or a banana label. “This is an attempt to be revolutionary, but it comes off as insensitive,” Reaz Rahman, a UC Irvine senior who started an online petition to get the university to reconsider, told the Los Angeles Times. “To me, it didn’t symbolize an institution of higher learning. It seemed like a marketing scheme to pull in money rather than represent the university. “New UC logo is an abomination,” wrote one Twitter-user, according to the Times. “Back to the drawing board.” Another tweeted, “Whoever signed off on this UC logo should be forced to have it tattooed on their forehead for life.” “It is everything our school is against,” wrote Berkeley’s Sheila Lam on the petition, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Might as well have slapped a McDonald’s ‘M’ on top of it. It looks so corporate and it looks cheap. It is the lack of a clear meaning for the redesigned logo that bothers some communications experts. “This is kind of a classic branding screw-up where people who are designing it don’t understand the web environment that they are moving into,” says Mark Tatge, a communications professor at DePauw University in Indiana. “What are they trying to say? It doesn’t do any good if people don’t know what it means.” He says it is legendary in the ad business to list off the number of cars that have failed to succeed in foreign countries because the model name meant something else in the language. “This is just like ignoring what the symbol might mean in another context,” says Tatge. UC officials counter that they trying to be cutting edge instead of stodgy to be attractive to students. “We want to convey that this is an iconic place that makes a difference to California and that there is a UC system,” the UC system’s director of marketing communication, Jason Simon, told the L.A. Times. The university is reminding everyone that the old logo will still appear on diplomas and the official letterhead, although the UC websites do now carry the new logo. Marketing specialists say that such uprisings are typical when businesses or institutions try to change their image. Officials at the Gap clothing chain and Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice backtracked to using original logos after they made changes that triggered consumer protests. But several say UC should just stand its ground, and allow some time for the initial shock to wear off. “Change is hard. In a year, this will die down and the benefit will outweigh the legacy logo,” says Tom Drucker, a Marina Del Rey-based image specialist who focuses on new business models and idea management. "All tweets are not the same – tweets about the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street obviously are of much greater import than Tweets mocking a new university logo,” says Paul Levinson, a professor of communications at Fordham University in New York and author of “New New Media.” Objections from students to just about everything a university does is a time-honored part of university life, he notes. “So, first, University of California officials should take a deep breath,” he says. “Twitter has magnified such objections, true, but that's also a good thing. Students are entitled to express their opinions.” Still other analysts feel that the UC episode is not so much a screw-up as just a sign of the times, which once again spotlights the democratization of ideas and expression. “It’s increasingly par for the course. It’s a great example of the democratization of individual voice bestowed upon people with Internet access,” says Bernard McCoy, associate professor of mass communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Internet access means more people, regardless of title, economic standing, or experience, have a voice whose reach and audience is potentially global.” But others say the whole episode is a tempest in a teacup, for the very same reason. "This tells us nothing about UC or the wisdom of decision making. The only story here is a tired one these days – namely that social media have changed everything,” says Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today magazine. “Ten years ago, the worst that would have happened with a logo change is that a couple of disgruntled alumni would have written complaint letters. Now, through crowding and viral processes, any trivial event can produce an uproar. In this case – as is often the case with social media – the uproar is as trivial as the event." But Professor Levinson thinks the new media environment has created a situation that is different from previous decades, in that the protests are harder to brush off.

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Parents fight for release of son jailed in Mexico

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida family is fighting to get their son, a Marine veteran, released from a prison in a dangerous area in Mexico while facing charges that he carried across the border a shotgun with a barrel that's an inch too short. Jon Hammar and his friend were on their way to Costa Rica in August and planned to drive across the Mexican border near Matamoros in a Winnebago filled with surfboards and camping gear. Hammar, 27, asked U.S. border agents what to do with the unloaded shotgun, which his family said belonged to his great-grandfather. "They examined it, they weighed it, they said you have to fill out this form," his father, Jon Hammar, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday from his home near Miami. But when the pair crossed the border and handed the paperwork to Mexican officials, they impounded the RV and jailed the men, saying it was illegal to carry that type of gun. Hammar's friend was later released because the gun did not belong to him. The family's attorney said Mexican law prohibits civilians from carrying certain types of guns, like sawed-off shotguns, which can be more easily concealed. Mexican law prohibits shotguns with a barrel of less than 25 inches (63.5 centimeters). Family attorney Eddie Varon-Levy said Mexican officials measured the barrel on Hammar's shotgun as 24 inches (61 centimeters). It has not been sawed off. Family members said the gun was purchased at Sears and blamed U.S. officials for telling Hammar he could bring it across the border in the first place. Varon-Levy also questioned the way Mexican officials measured the gun, because the measurements can differ depending on where they are taken on the barrel. He said dealing with Mexican authorities has also been difficult. He said Hammar was brought to court a few weeks ago, where officials tried to convince him to plead guilty without a lawyer present. Varon-Levy said he didn't show up because he was told there was a continuance. "I am fuming," he said. Hammar could face 12 years in prison, but Varon-Levy said that's unlikely. He wants to get the charges downgraded, hoping Hammar can plead guilty to a lesser charge of carrying an unregistered weapon, which only carries a fine. Hammar served in Iraq and Afghanistan before being honorably discharged from the Marines in 2007. His mother said surfing helped him cope after he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. "Mexican authorities have fully guaranteed his right to Consular assistance; therefore Mr. Hammar has been in contact with U.S. Consular officers in Mexico who have regularly visited him," Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy, said in a statement. "The possession of any weapon restricted for the use of the Army in Mexico is a Federal crime, regardless of whether you declare it or not upon entering the country, and must be automatically prosecuted." Alday said Harmmar was detained in Tamaulipas "and as any other detainee facing criminal charges he has the right to defense counsel and a fair trial. In addition, his life and integrity are protected by national and international laws." Meanwhile, Hammar is being held in one of the most dangerous areas in Mexico. Matamoros is the long-time headquarters of the Gulf Cartel, which has been engaged in a bloody struggle with its former security guards, the Zetas, since early 2010 for the lucrative drug routes along the eastern end of the Texas-Mexico border. An October 2011 fight among inmates at the prison left 20 dead and 12 injured. At first Hammar was held with the general population, filled mostly with members of drug cartels. Now he is periodically chained to his bed in a cell by himself, said his father, he speaks with his son by phone occasionally. "Sometimes he's got his head on good. We're like just, 'Hang in there. We're doing everything we can.' Other days, it's like, it's not as good," Jon Hammar said, sighing heavily and struggling to steady his voice. In August, the family received a frightening middle of the night phone call from the cartel demanding money, said Jon Hammar, a 48-year-old software engineer. "'Lady, this isn't about the police. This is our house. We have your son. We're going to kill him if you don't send us money,'" Hammar said, recounting the phone call. The couple planned to wire the money to an account, but officials at the U.S. consulate intervened and contacted prison officials. His son was moved into a private cell the next day, he said. A spokesman for the State Department said officials have visited Hammar three times, spoken with him by phone and contacted prison officials to stop them from chaining him to the bed. "The safety and well-being of U.S. citizens is something we take very seriously," said Peter Velasco. U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday, asking Mexican authorities to release Hammar. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also urged the State Department to work incessantly to reunite Hammar with his family and said she's disappointed the agency has not told her what efforts have been made. The Miami Republican said she plans to contact the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol about Hammar's arrest. His mother emailed Ros-Lehtinen and asked for help. "The Hammar family has suffered a great deal since their son's unjust incarceration in August and the details they have provided to my office are gripping and a clear abuse of Jon's human rights," she said in a statement.

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California man accused of plotting to aid al Qaeda denied bail

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - A California man arrested in Afghanistan on charges he plotted to help al Qaeda and Taliban militants was denied bail on Tuesday despite claims by his lawyers that injuries he suffered during capture diminished any threat he posed if freed on bond. The Afghan-born defendant, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 35, is accused with three younger men arrested last month outside Los Angeles of planning to unleash a campaign of "violent jihad" against U.S. military forces and other Americans overseas. The FBI says Kabir served in the U.S. Air Force for two years about a decade ago, though his lawyers described him in a recent court filing as an Army veteran. Kabir suffered a fractured facial bone, an eye injury and cuts to his face and head from a severe beating he suffered when apprehended last month in a military raid in Kabul, his attorneys said during a detention hearing in federal court. The injuries left him with impaired memory function, difficulty keeping his balance and distorted vision, defense attorneys stated. They said Kabir already suffered from epilepsy and had medical problems stemming from an automobile accident. Kabir's lawyers cited his injuries and various medical issues in requesting that he be released from jail and placed under pretrial supervision, including electronic monitoring, while restricted to his parents' home in southern California. But prosecutors pointed to FBI evidence that Kabir had planned to engage in a suicide bombing mission while in Afghanistan and noted the fierce resistance the Pentagon said he put up when military forces captured him. "Mr. Kabir was extremely combative," Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an emailed statement. "In addition to attempting to strike military personnel and resist capture, he also attempted to grab grenades and weapons from military personnel conducting the capture operation." The same assertions were made in court by prosecutors. U.S. Magistrate Judge Oswald Parada also cited a past criminal record involving an arrest for an unspecified violent act and a history of substance abuse in deciding to order Kabir to remain locked up without bail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan DeWitt said Kabir had in addition tried once in the past to escape from police custody. She did not elaborate. CAST AS PLOT'S RINGLEADER Kabir, shackled and wearing red prison garb and a long beard, sat silently during the detention hearing, except to consult quietly from time to time with public defender Jeffrey Aaron. A small cut was visible under Kabir's right eye. Kabir has been in federal detention since he was returned to the Los Angeles area from Afghanistan on December 3, U.S. authorities say. He was taken into custody last month in Afghanistan under a U.S. criminal warrant charging him with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, a federal offense that carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Kabir is accused of recruiting two co-conspirators, Ralph Deleon, 23, and Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, 21, to join him for training with al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan, according to a criminal complaint. Deleon and Santana, who the FBI says converted to Islam under Kabir's influence, are alleged to have then enlisted a third man, Arifeen David Gojali, 21. The three co-defendants, all residents of communities east of Los Angeles, were arrested together in Chino, California, on November 16, two days before the FBI says they had planned to fly from Mexico to Turkey en route to join Kabir. They each pleaded not guilty last week to a charge of conspiring to support terrorists.

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Australian radio station says no wrongdoing in royal prank call

PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - The Australian radio station behind a prank phone call to a London hospital that was treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate said on Saturday it had done nothing wrong and no one could have foreseen the tragic outcome. There has been renewed soul-searching over media ethics after Jacintha Saldanha, 46, the nurse who was duped by the station's call to the King Edward VII hospital, was found dead on Friday in a suspected suicide. The hoax, in which the radio hosts - posing as Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles despite Australian accents - successfully inquired after Kate's medical condition, has made worldwide headlines. On Saturday, Australians from Prime Minister Julia Gillard to people in the street expressed their sorrow and cringed at how the hoax had crossed the line of acceptability. Two large companies suspended their advertising from the popular Sydney-based station and a media watchdog said it would speak with 2DayFM's owners. Users of social media sites such as Twitter expressed outrage. The hoax also raised concerns about the ethical standards of Australian media, as Britain's own media scramble to agree a new system of self regulation and avoid state intervention following a damning inquiry into reporting practices. Southern Cross Austereo Chief Executive Rhys Holleran told a news conference in Melbourne on Saturday that the company would work with authorities in any investigation, but that it was too early to draw conclusions. He said he was "very confident" that the radio station had done nothing illegal. "This is a tragic event that could not have been reasonably foreseen and we are deeply saddened by it. Our primary concern at this stage is for the family of Nurse Saldanha." Holleran added that 2DayFM radio hosts Mel Greig and Michael Christian were "completely shattered" by Saldanha's death. The pair will stay off the air indefinitely, he said. Two high profile Australian firms, the Coles supermarket group and phone company Telstra, said on Saturday that they were suspending advertising with the station. Others were expected to follow suit. Austereo said all advertising on 2DayFM had been shelved until at least Monday in a mark of respect to advertisers whose Facebook pages were inundated with thousands of hate messages. The Twitter accounts of Greig and Christian were removed shortly after news of the tragedy in London broke. SOCIAL MEDIA OUTRAGE Social media were inundated with angry messages to the radio station and its hosts in what has become the latest shock radio story to rile the Australian public. In 2010, 2DayFM was reprimanded by Australia's independent communications regulator after a radio host in 2009 talked a 14-year-old girl into revealing on air that she had been raped, prompting community outrage and an advertiser backlash. So-called "shock jock" radio announcers are frequently denounced in Australia for their deeply personal and often derogatory attacks on politicians and ordinary citizens. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that the independent broadcast regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), had received complaints about the royal hoax. The British royal family has long had an uneasy relationship with the media, which sank to its lowest after the 1997 death of Prince William's mother Diana in a Paris car crash. Palace officials acted swiftly this summer when a French magazine printed topless photos of Kate on holiday, taking legal action to curb republication for fear of a repeat of the relentless media pursuit of Diana. Saldanha's death threatens to cast a pall over the enthusiastic public welcome given to Kate's pregnancy, which dominated newspaper front pages this week from her admission to hospital on Monday to her departure on Thursday. The royal family emerged from years of criticism that it was a dated and out of touch institution and is enjoying a surge in popularity in Britain following Kate and William's wedding last year. The impending royal baby will only boost public affection. Elaborate celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the queen coming to the throne and her appearance at the opening of the London Olympics this summer - where a stunt double parachuted into the stadium - have all contributed to a more positive royal relationship with Britons.

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Police suspect LA man was lured into NYC ambush

NEW YORK (AP) — Someone wanted Brandon Lincoln Woodard dead — bad enough to apparently lure him to a midtown Manhattan block for what looked like a professional hit. But who shot Woodard in the back of the head and why remained a mystery on Tuesday as police studied security videotape of the unidentified gunman and delved into Woodard's checkered past for clues. The brazen slaying of the 31-year-old visitor from Los Angeles "certainly appears to have been planned," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters. Based on the videotape, New York Police Department detectives suspect Woodard was lured into the Monday afternoon ambush shortly after he checked out of a hotel on nearby Columbus Circle, Kelly said. The killer had arrived at least 30 minutes before the gunfire erupted in a normally safe neighborhood teeming with car and pedestrian traffic. The man, who appears to be bald and have a beard, could be seen exiting the passenger side of a parked Lincoln sedan and pacing as he waited, police said. After Woodard got there, he checked his phone and walked back and forth as if looking for an address, police said. When the shooter approached, Woodard appeared to look back at him for a split second. He looked away again after "showing no sign of recognition," Kelly said. A security photo — released to seek the public's help in identifying the gunman — shows him reaching into his pocket for a pistol moments before he fired a single deadly round. Afterward, the shooter left Woodard in a pool of blood on the sidewalk, slipped into the same Lincoln sedan and was driven away. A vehicle fitting the description of the sedan was last seen going through the Midtown Tunnel. Ballistics evidence pointed to a possible lead: The 9mm semiautomatic used to kill Woodard was the same weapon used to last month to shoot up the outside of a home in Queens where nobody was hurt. Police also recovered two phones carried by the victim. Investigators were still trying to determine what Woodard — who checked into his hotel on Sunday after flying in from California on a one-way ticket — was doing in the city. Kelly said he has been described as a promoter but had no further details. Kelly declined to comment on news reports that Woodard's mother ran a mortgage business in California that was mired in litigation and other troubles. Sandra and Rodney Wellington, the mother and step-father of Woodard, released a statement Tuesday urging anyone with information on the killing to contact New York City police detectives. "There are no words to express our shock and sadness in the face of our family's horrendous tragedy. We eagerly await justice for Brandon," the statement said. They described him as a "gentle and generous young man," a devoted father and loving son who loved sports. Woodard graduated from Campbell Hall High School and earned a Bachelor's degree from Loyola Marymount University, the statement said. Authorities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas confirmed that Woodard had a history of run-ins with the law in both places. Woodard had been due back in court on Jan. 22 following his arrest by LA County sheriff's deputies in West Hollywood in April on a felony cocaine possession charge. He had previously pleaded not guilty. Court records show that in December 2009, Woodard pleaded no contest in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance to a misdemeanor charge of hit-and-run driving. He was sentenced to three years of probation and a day in jail. However, his probation was terminated in January 2011. In 2008, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of grand theft of property. Prosecutors said he stole items on Feb. 26, 2008, from two upscale markets — a Whole Foods Market and a Gelson's — in Beverly Hills. He was sentenced to nine days of jail and 200 hours of community service. Woodard also was issued a misdemeanor battery summons in September 2004 after a backstage scuffle with a security officer at a concert at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip. The records show Woodard failed to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court in October 2004 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested in April 2008 in Las Vegas, based on the warrant. After pleading guilty, he was given credit for time served and released.

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Storm that killed 600 threatens Philippines again

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) — A typhoon that had left the Philippines after killing nearly 600 people and leaving hundreds missing in the south has made a U-turn and is now threatening the country's northwest, officials said Saturday. The weather bureau raised storm warnings over parts of the main northern island of Luzon after Typhoon Bopha veered northeast. There was a strong possibility the disastrous storm would make a second landfall Sunday, but it might also make a loop and remain in the South China Sea, forecasters said. In either case, it was moving close to shore and disaster officials warned of heavy rains and winds and possible landslides in the mountainous region. Another calamity in the north would stretch recovery efforts thin. Most government resources, including army and police, are currently focused on the south, where Bopha hit Tuesday before moving west into the South China Sea. With many survivors still in shock, soldiers, police and outside volunteers formed most of the teams searching for bodies or signs of life under tons of fallen trees and boulders swept down from steep hills surrounding the worst-hit town of New Bataan, municipal spokesman Marlon Esperanza said. "We are having a hard time finding guides," he told The Associated Press. "Entire families were killed and the survivors ... appear dazed. They can't move." He said the rocks, mud, tree trunks and other rubble that litter the town have destroyed landmarks, making it doubly difficult to search places where houses once stood. On Friday, bodies found jammed under fallen trees that could not be retrieved were marked with makeshift flags made of torn cloth so they could be easily spotted by properly equipped teams. Authorities decided to bury unidentified bodies in a common grave after forensic officials process them for future identification by relatives, Esperanza said. The town's damaged public market has been converted into a temporary funeral parlor. A few residents milled around two dozen white wooden coffins, some containing unidentified remains. One resident, Jing Maniquiz, 37, said she rushed home from Manila for the wake of two of her sisters, but could not bring herself to visit the place where her home once stood in Andap village. Her parents, a brother and nephew are missing. "I don't want to see it," she said tearfully. "I can't accept that in just an instant I lost my mother, my father, my brother." She said that at the height of the typhoon, her mother was able to send her a text message saying trees were falling on their house and its roof had been blown away. Maniquiz said her family sought refuge at a nearby health center, but that was destroyed and they and dozens of others were swept away by the raging waters. "We are not hopeful that they are still alive. We just want to find their bodies so that we will have closure," she said. Mary Joy Adlawan, a 14-year-old high school student from the same village, was waiting for authorities to bury her 7-year-old niece. Her parents, an elder sister, five nieces and a nephew are missing. "I don't know what to do," she said as she fixed some flowers on the coffin. Esperanza said heavy equipment, search dogs and chain saws were brought by volunteers from as far away as the capital, Manila, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) to the north. Nearly 400,000 people, mostly from Compostela Valley and nearby Davao Oriental provinces, have lost their homes and are crowded inside evacuation centers or staying with relatives. The typhoon plowed through the main southern island of Mindanao, crossed the central Philippines and lingered over the South China Sea for the past two days. It made a U-turn Saturday and is now threatening the northwestern Ilocos region. President Benigno Aquino III, after visiting the disaster zone, declared a state of national calamity late Friday to speed up rescue and rehabilitation, control prices of basic commodities in typhoon-affected areas and allow the quick release of emergency funds. In Bangkok, Thailand, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said the Philippines had appealed for international aid. She said many countries have already provided assistance, but did not specify the amounts. Officials say 276 people were killed in Compostela Valley, including 155 in New Bataan, and 277 in Davao Oriental. About 40 people died elsewhere and nearly 600 are still missing, 411 from New Bataan alone. Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon told the AP that clean water and shelter were the biggest problem in three towns facing the Pacific Ocean. She said she imposed a curfew there and ordered police to guard stores and shops to stop looting. The Philippines is also counting economic losses. Banana growers reported that 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of export banana plantations, equal to 18 percent of the total in Mindanao, were destroyed. The Philippines is the world's third-largest banana producer and exporter, supplying international brands such as Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte. Stephen Antig, executive director of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, said losses were estimated at 12 billion pesos ($300 million), including 8 billion pesos ($200 million) in damaged fruits that had been ready for harvest, and the rest for the cost of rehabilitating farms, which will take about a year. At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI expressed closeness to the people hit by the typhoon. "I pray for the victims, for their families and for the many homeless," the pontiff said Saturday, addressing pilgrims and tourists from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square.

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US-led coalition: US doctor rescued from Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An American doctor abducted by the Taliban five days ago was rescued Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led military coalition said. Dr. Dilip Joseph was captured by Taliban insurgents Wednesday outside the Afghan capital, in the Sarobi district of Kabul province. He was rescued in an early morning operation ordered after intelligence showed that the doctor was in imminent danger of injury or possible death, according to a statement. "This was a combined operation of U.S. and Afghan forces," said 1st Lt. Joseph Alonso, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "Information was collected through multiple intelligence sources, which allowed Afghan and coalition forces to identify the location of Joseph and the criminals responsible for his captivity." Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the joint force planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted the operation. "Thanks to them, Dr. Joseph will soon be rejoining his family and loved ones," Allen said. The statement did not say where Joseph is from, or whether he was harmed in captivity. No other details of the rescue operation were immediately available.

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North Korea considers delaying rocket launch

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea may postpone the controversial launch of a long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as this week, state media said Sunday, as international pressure on Pyongyang to cancel the provocative move intensified. Scientists have been pushing forward with final preparations for the launch from a west coast site, slated to take place as early as Monday, but are considering "readjusting" the timing, an unidentified spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology told North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency. It was unclear whether diplomatic intervention or technical glitches were behind the delay. A brief KCNA dispatch said scientists and technicians were discussing whether to set new launch dates but did not elaborate. Word of a possible delay comes just days after satellite photos indicated that snow may have slowed launch preparations, and as officials in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow and elsewhere urged North Korea to cancel a liftoff widely seen as a violation of bans against missile activity. Commercial satellite imagery taken by GeoEye on Dec. 4 and shared Friday with The Associated Press by the 38 North and North Korea Tech websites showed the Sohae site northwest of Pyongyang covered with snow. The road from the main assembly building to the launch pad showed no fresh tracks, indicating that the snowfall may have stalled the preparations. However, analysts believed rocket preparations would have been completed on time for liftoff as early as Monday. North Korea announced earlier this month that it would launch a three-stage rocket mounted with a satellite from its Sohae station southeast of Sinuiju sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. Pyongyang calls it a peaceful bid to send an observational satellite into space, its second attempt this year. The launch announcement captured global headlines because of its timing: South Korea and Japan hold key elections this month, President Barack Obama begins his second term next month and China has just formed a new leadership. North Koreans also have begun a mourning period for late leader Kim Jong Il, who died on Dec. 17, 2011. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington was "deeply concerned" about the launch, and urged foreign ministers from NATO and Russia to demand that Pyongyang cancel its plans. U.S. and others said the launch would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from nuclear and missile activity because the rocket shares the same technology used for firing a long-range missile. North Korea has unveiled missiles designed to target U.S. soil and has tested two atomic bombs in recent years, but has not shown yet that it has mastered the technology for mounting a nuclear warhead to a long-range missile. Six-nation negotiations to offer North Korea much-needed aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament have been stalled since 2009. China, the North's main ally and aid provider, noted its "concern" after North Korea declared its plans. It acknowledged North Korea's right to develop its space program but said that had to be harmonized with restrictions including those set by the U.N. Security Council. In Seoul, officials at the Defense Ministry, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Foreign Ministry said Sunday they couldn't immediately find what might be behind the possible delay. North Korea may hold off if Washington actively engages Pyongyang in dialogue and promises to ship stalled food assistance to the country, said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul's Dongguk University. In February, the U.S. agreed to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea in exchange for a freeze in nuclear and missile activities. The deal collapsed after North Korea attempted to launch a long-range rocket in April. That rocket broke up seconds after liftoff. Analyst Baek Seung-joo of the South Korean state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul said China must have sent a "very strong" message calling for the North to cancel the launch plans. "North Korea won't say it would delay the launch due to foreign pressure so that's why they say scientists and technicians are considering delaying it," he said.

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US drones kill 3 suspected militants in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike has killed three suspected militants near the Afghan border. The two officials say four missiles struck a residential compound Sunday morning near Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region. The identity of the suspected militants was not known. North Waziristan has been a frequent target of U.S. missile strikes. The tribal region is home to a mix of insurgents from Pakistan, Afghanistan and al-Qaida-linked foreign militant groups. Pakistan publically protests the drone strikes, although officials say Islamabad has secretly supported the program. The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

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Pakistan's largest city rocked by wave of violence

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Bodies are piling up in Pakistan's largest city as it suffers one of its most violent years in history, and concern is growing that the chaos is giving greater cover for the Taliban to operate and undermining the country's economic epicenter. Karachi, a sprawling port city on the Arabian Sea, has long been beset by religious, sectarian and ethnic strife. Here armed wings of political parties battle for control of the city, Sunnis and Shiites die in tit-for-tat sectarian killings, and Taliban gunmen attack banks and kill police officers. With an election due next year, the violence could easily worsen. According to the Citizens' Police Liaison Committee, a civic organization that works with police to fight crime, the violence has claimed 1,938 lives as of late November, the deadliest year since 1994, when the CPLC began collecting figures. Police tallies put the dead at 1,897 through mid-October. The Taliban seem to be taking advantage of the chaos to expand their presence in the city, a safe distance from areas of Pakistani army operations and U.S. drone strikes. During recent Supreme Court hearings, judges ordered authorities to investigate reports that as many as 8,000 Taliban members were in the city. Security officials say the Taliban raise money in Karachi through bank and ATM robberies, kidnappings and extortion, and are recruiting as well. The head of the city's Central Investigation Department, Chaudhry Aslam, who is tasked with tracking down militants, said the Taliban have killed at least 24 of his officers this year. Regular citizens are often caught in the middle. Samina Waseem says her son Aatir, 21, went out on May 22 to get his phone fixed. Three days later she found his body in the morgue with a gunshot wound through his head. She's convinced he was killed because he belonged to the Mohajir community, descended from people who moved from India to newly created Pakistan when the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947. Part of Karachi's problem is that since 1947 its population has mushroomed from 435,000 to 18 million. The metropolis ranges from the high-end neighborhoods of Clifton where people live behind bougainvillea-covered walls and eat arugula and fig salads at posh restaurants, to concrete block houses on the dusty outskirts. There migrants move in from the rugged northwest where the U.S. is waging its war with the Taliban, and from the flood-prone plains of Sindh. That population growth is marked by spurts of violence. Currently the overarching struggle appears to be between two powerful forces. One is the Muttahida Quami Movement, the city's dominant force, which represents Urdu-speaking Mohajirs. The other is the Awami National Party. It represents Pashtuns whose numbers are increasing as their ethnic kin flee the northwest. The MQM prides itself on being the protector of middle-class, liberal, secular values in a country where extremism and religious conservatism hold sway. It says the Taliban began moving into Karachi in force, driven south by a military offensive in 2009, and is wreaking havoc while hiding among the Pashtun. "We are trying our level best to keep Karachi alive," said Engr Nasir Jamal, of the MQM. The ANP and the Pashtuns believe the MQM is nervous that Pashtun population growth will undermine their hold on Karachi, and that it is targeting Pashtuns to intimidate them. The Pashtuns acknowledge that the Taliban are a big problem, including for them, because the terror group has also been killing its members. But they say the MQM exaggerates the problem. The battle lines are visible across the city. MQM flags and posters blanket the Urdu-speaking neighborhoods, and red flags and graffiti mark ANP territory in the poorer, blue-collar neighborhoods. Theirs is hardly the only conflict. The Pakistan Peoples Party, which heads the national government, says 450 of its activists have been killed over the last 4 ½ years. Nationalists from Baluchistan province find refuge in the city, Sunni extremists target Shiites they consider infidels and the Shiites fight back. Add waves of people displaced by floods over the last three years, and the lack of land and resources becomes a toxic brew. "This is a war for controlling Karachi," said Taj Haider, a leading member of the PPP in Sindh. During pitched battles between armed wings of political parties last year, whole neighborhoods were cut off, children kept away from school and residents shot and killed while shopping for food. This year the violence has been more spread out. The effect on Karachi's business community is being felt, said Mohammed Atiq Mir, chairman of the All Karachi Trade Association. He estimated that 20,000-25,000 businesses have left, and that the economic loss equals about $10 million dollars a day. Businessmen he talks with have begun hiring private security guards and are getting licenses to carry weapons. The city's police are often outnumbered and outgunned. There is one police officer for every 600 people, compared with 1 to 150 on average in neighboring India, said Sharfuddin Memon, an adviser to the Sindh provincial government. There is no witness protection program, so people are reluctant to testify. De-weaponization plans have gone nowhere. Meanwhile the deaths multiply, and the death of Samina Waseem's son remains one among hundreds that go unexplained and unpunished. "I just want that whoever did it to just tell us, why he did it," she pleaded. "Just tell a mother why he killed my son."

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