Microsoft Surface sales well below shipments, says iSuppli

Surface RT tablet.

(Credit:
CNET)

Sales of Microsoft's first Surface tablet fell well short of the 1 million mark, while return rates were high, IHS iSuppli told CNET.

Shipments of the Surface RT device, which debuted last quarter, into the channel were about 1.25 million, but sales out of the channel "were significantly lower, maybe on the order of 55 to 60 percent of that figure," said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at iSuppli, citing the market research firm's estimates.

That would put sales in the range of between roughly 680,000 and 750,000 based on those percentages.

That kind of "sales out" percentage is not unusual, however, according to Alexander, adding that she has seen similar percentages with newly introduced
Android devices.

And, needless to say, almost every manufacturer's sales-out figure pales against Apple's, the gold standard, where the percentage is typically in the mid to high 90 percent range or even 100 percent.

And Alexander said she sees little evidence of continued production of the Microsoft RT device -- which runs a limited version of
Windows 8 on top of an ARM processor -- in the first quarter because Microsoft is still trying to sell off inventory.

But that inventory carryover is also not unique to Microsoft. The Amazon
Kindle Fire, when it was first introduced, had excess inventory that carried over into the following quarter. As a result, Amazon temporarily cut production, Alexander said.

Surface RT has other challenges, too. The return rate on the device was "very high," Alexander said. "If you put the high return rate together with low sell-through [sales out] rate, that's indicative of a problem," she said, adding, again, that the Kindle Fire initially had very high return rates and low sell-through.

Why the high return rates? "It seems to be linked in a lot of cases to a steep learning curve of the [Windows 8] OS -- which is not necessarily intuitive," she said.

And another problem possibly looms big this year. There is a "distinct lack of interest" from device makers in pursuing RT devices at the moment, she said.

For Microsoft partners the question is, "where is the win for us?" -- according to Alexander.

During last week's earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein repeated a number of times that Surface contributed to revenue. "Certainly this quarter [Surface] was a contributing factor to revenue growth in the Windows business," Klein said.

During the call, Microsoft cited Surface as a part of non-OEM revenue that grew 40 percent.

Microsoft has not talked about sales figures. And the company would not provide a number when contacted.

Microsoft is about to bring out a second line of tablets, the Surface Pro, that runs the full version of Windows 8 on top of a mainstream Intel processor. Alexander says she sees more momentum industrywide for these kinds of devices.

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Grandson of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens dies in Texas

Updated 8:35 PM ET

FORT WORTH, Texas A 21-year-old grandson of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens died Tuesday after being rushed to a hospital in Fort Worth, according to police and a family spokesman.

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Thomas Boone Pickens IV, who went by Ty, was a junior at Texas Christian University. Pickens' spokesman, Jay Rosser, called the death an "unspeakable family tragedy" and asked that the family be allowed to grieve in private.

As reported by CBS Station KTVT Dallas, the family issued a statement: "Ty's loss at such a young age is an unspeakable family tragedy for the entire Pickens family and his many friends. We mourn his passing and respectfully request that the family be allowed to grieve in private in this time of sorrow."

Neither Rosser nor Fort Worth police have said what may have caused the death.

10 Photos

Thomas Boone "Ty" Pickens IV

Officers were dispatched after getting a report of a dead person at an off-campus location around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, police spokeswoman Cpl. Tracey Knight said. Police said Ty Pickens was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Knight said the Tarrant County medical examiner would determine the cause of death. She declined further comment.

T. Boone Pickens appears on "CBS This Morning," Aug. 23, 2012.

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CBS News

The elder Pickens made much of his fortune in oil drilling but has since become an advocate for alternative energy. The 84-year-old also is active in politics and has donated millions of dollars to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, and various other causes.

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Clinton Talks 2016, Stands by Benghazi Testimony

In her final television interview as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton told ABC's Cynthia McFadden that she is "flattered and honored" at the intense interest in whether she might run for president in 2016.

But Clinton maintained that right now she's "not focused" on a presidential campaign; instead she said she wants to return to a "normal" life when she steps down from office on Friday.

Watch Cynthia McFadden's full interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on "Nightline" tonight at 12:35 a.m. ET

Clinton's first order of business, she said, will be sleep.

"I hope I get to sleep in," she told McFadden with a laugh. "It will be the first time in many years. I have no office to go to, no schedule to keep, no work to do. That will probably last a few days then I will be up and going with my new projects," she said.

"I have been working or attending school full-time since I was 13. This is going to be new for me. I don't know how I'm going to react to it, to be honest."

PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton Through the Years: From Wellesley to the White House, and Beyond

Clinton has had no trouble articulating her reaction to what has arguably been the darkest chapter of her tenure as Secretary of State: the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.

Final Farewell: Hillary Clinton Steps Down as Secretary of State Watch Video

Secretary Clinton had a heated exchange with Republican Senator Ron Johnson during her five hours of testimony before Congress about the attack last week. Johnson accused the administration of misleading the American people about the cause of the attack, when UN Ambassador Susan Rice, on Sunday political talk shows, blamed it on protesters.

Clinton snapped back at Johnson, "Four Americans are dead. What difference does it make?" For that, she has been sharply criticized by some conservatives.

Clinton said she "absolutely" stands by her response to Johnson, maintaining that the administration has been transparent with the information it knew, when it was available. Clinton said partisan politics have no place in a response to a terrorist attack against Americans.

"I believe that we should in public life, whether you're in the administration or the Congress, de-politicize crisis and work together to figure out what happened, what we can do to prevent it and then put into place both the institutional changes and the budgetary changes that are necessary, " she said.

"When someone tries to put into a partisan lens, when they focus not on the fact that we have such a terrible event happening with four dead Americans but instead what did somebody say on a Sunday morning talk show? That to me is not in keeping with the seriousness of the issue and the obligation we all have as public servants"

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's "Nightline" Interview

Asked about her health, Clinton said her recent illness, concussion and blood clot were all a surprise.

"When I got sick and fainted and hit my head I was so surprised, and I thought I would just get up and go to work. And thankfully I had very good medical care and doctors who said, 'No we'd better do an MRI, we'd better do this, we'd better do that,'" she said, calling herself "lucky."

"I know now how split second beset by a virus and dehydrated, what it can do to you."

Though she confirmed she is wearing special glasses to help with double vision, a lingering issue following her illness, Clinton said that she expects to be fully recovered and operating at "full speed" soon.

The Secretary told McFadden that if she does decide to run, she would have "no problem" making her health records public.

"Of course, that goes with the territory," she said.

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Sixty-five people executed in Syria's Aleppo: activists

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday in a "new massacre" in the near two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Opposition campaigners blamed the government but it was impossible to confirm who was responsible. Assad's forces and rebels have been battling in Syria's commercial hub since July and both have been accused of carrying out summary executions.

U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told the U.N. Security Council "unprecedented levels of horror" had been reached in Syria, and that both the government and rebels had committed atrocious crimes, diplomats said.

He appealed to the 15-nation council to overcome its deadlock and take action to help end the civil war in which Syria is "breaking up before everyone's eyes".

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war, the longest and deadliest of the revolts that began throughout the Arab world two years ago.

The U.N. refugee agency said the fighting had forced more than 700,000 people to flee. World powers fear the conflict could envelop Syria's neighbors including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, further destabilizing an already explosive region.

Opposition activists posted a video of at least 51 muddied male bodies alongside what they said was the Queiq River in Aleppo's rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood.

The bodies had what looked like bullet wounds in their heads and some of the victims appeared to be young, possibly teenagers, dressed in jeans, shirts and trainers.

Aleppo-based opposition activists who asked not to be named for security reasons blamed pro-Assad militia fighters.

They said the men had been executed and dumped in the river before floating downstream into the rebel area. State media did not mention the incident.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which says it provides objective information about casualties on both sides of Syria's war from a network of monitors, said the footage was evidence of a new massacre and the death toll could rise as high as 80.

"They were killed only because they are Muslims," said a bearded man in another video said to have been filmed in central Bustan al-Qasr after the bodies were removed from the river. A pickup truck with a pile of corpses was parked behind him.

STALEMATE

It is hard for Reuters to verify such reports from inside Syria because of restrictions on independent media.

Rebels are stuck in a stalemate with government forces in Aleppo - Syria's most populous city which is divided roughly in half between the two sides.

The revolt started as a peaceful protest movement against more than four decades of rule by Assad and his family, but turned into an armed rebellion after a government crackdown.

About 712,000 Syrian refugees have registered in other countries in the region or are awaiting processing as of Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said.

"We have seen an unrelenting flow of refugees across all borders. We are running double shifts to register people," Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva.

The United Nations said it had received aid promises ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait on Wednesday where it is seeking $1.5 billion for refugees and people inside Syria. Washington announced an additional $155 million that its said brought the total U.S. humanitarian aid to the crisis to some $365 million.

Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said the bulk of the current aid was going to government-controlled areas in Syria and called on donors to make sure they were even-handed.

MISSILES

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, insurgents including al Qaeda-linked Islamists captured a security agency after days of heavy fighting, according to an activist.

Some of the fighters were shown carrying a black flag with the Islamic declaration of faith and the name of the al-Nusra Front, which has ties to al Qaeda in neighboring Iraq.

The war has become heavily sectarian, with rebels who mostly come from the Sunni Muslim majority fighting an army whose top generals are mostly from Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Assad has framed the revolt as a foreign-backed conspiracy and blames the West and Sunni Gulf states.

Fighting also took place in the northern town of Ras al-Ain, on the border with Turkey, between rebels and Kurdish militants, the Observatory said.

In Turkey, a second pair of Patriot missile batteries being sent by NATO countries are now operational, a German security official said.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands each committed to sending two batteries and up to 400 soldiers to operate them after Ankara asked for help to bolster its air defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.

(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Kuwait, Sabine Siebold in Berlin and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Robin Pomeroy)

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Million mourners set to honour Cambodia's ex-king

PHNOM PENH: More than one million mourners are expected to line the streets of the Cambodian capital on Friday for a lavish funeral procession for their revered former King Norodom Sihanouk, officials say.

The late monarch's body will be transported atop a golden float shaped like a mythological bird from the royal palace -- where he has been lying in state for three months -- to a funeral pyre in a city park.

"This is our last homage to say goodbye to the great hero king," Prime Minister Hun Sen said on national radio this week.

Sihanouk died of a heart attack aged 89 in Beijing on October 15 last year.

He abdicated in 2004 after steering Cambodia through six decades marked by independence from France, civil war, the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and finally peace.

His body will be kept at the cremation site for religious ceremonies until Monday when his wife and son King Norodom Sihamoni are expected to light the pyre.

Foreign dignitaries -- including French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Japan's Prince Akishino and a host of Asian leaders or high-ranking officials -- are due to attend the cremation.

Flags will fly at half-mast. Radio and TV stations as well as entertainment venues have been instructed to refrain from showing "joyful spectacles", performances and concerts.

Cambodians have been urged to wear black ribbons pinned to their shirts.

"This is the first time in Cambodian history that the country holds such a large funeral for a king," said Sihanouk's long-time personal assistant Prince Sisowath Thomico.

"The nation does this to show him the same respect he gave to the country," he told AFP.

After the cremation, Sihanouk's remains will be put in a golden-colour urn that will be placed in a stupa inside the royal palace, he said, in line with the late monarch's wishes.

Large portraits of Sihanouk have been erected along Phnom Penh's streets and outside the royal palace where people have regularly gathered for religious ceremonies since his death.

"When the King-Father is cremated, it will be a big loss for Cambodia. We will lose our spirit," said Khut Simon, who joined about 100 people for one such ceremony.

"He was a good king who was incomparable," said the 61-year-old, clutching three pictures of the late monarch to her chest.

Sihanouk was just 18 when placed on the throne in 1941 by French colonial authorities, but quickly defied his patron's expectations of a pliant king.

Many elderly Cambodians fondly recall the 1950s and 1960s as a golden era, when Sihanouk led the country to independence from France and a rare period of political stability.

Hundreds of thousands filled the capital's boulevards when his body returned home from China in October.

A self-confessed "naughty boy" who married six times and fathered 14 children, the former king was also a prolific amateur filmmaker and shrewd political survivor who repeatedly backed different regimes.

He was not immune to controversy, notably aligning himself with the communist Khmer Rouge after being ousted by US-backed general Lon Nol in 1970.

After seizing power, the Khmer Rouge put Sihanouk under house arrest in the royal palace. Their 1975-79 reign of terror killed up to two million people, including five of Sihanouk's own children.

Before the Vietnamese invaded and toppled the Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk took exile in China.

He continued to push for peace, which eventually came in the 1990s. Sihanouk triumphantly regained the throne in 1993 but his influence diminished as strongman premier Hun Sen extended his grip on power.

In recent years, Sihanouk -- who battled illnesses including cancer, diabetes and heart problems -- spent long periods of time in China undergoing medical treatment, with his devoted sixth wife Monique always at his side.

-AFP/fl

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Obama backs immigration reform for skilled tech workers

Obama announced today that he backs immigration reform.

(Credit:
White House)

Tech companies may score a victory in their hopes to get immigration reform passed for skilled tech workers.

President Obama urged Congress today to work on immigration policy that would allow foreign-born startup founders to stay in the country. At the same time, several U.S. senators introduced a bill focusing on the same. As U.S. immigration policy currently stands, U.S.-educated computer programmers and engineers could be deported once finishing school.

"Right now in one of those classrooms there's a student wrestling with how to turn their big idea -- their Intel or Instagram -- into a big business," Obama said during a speech in Las Vegas today. "We're giving them all the skills they need to figure that out, but then we're going to turn around and tell them to start that business and create those jobs in China or India or Mexico or someplace else. That's not how you grow new industries in America. That's how you give new industries to our competitors. That's why we need comprehensive immigration reform."

The president mentioned that Instagram was co-founded by an immigrant -- Brazilian Michel Krieger who studied at Stanford University. But, he said, not all startup founders are able to secure visas and stay in the U.S.

In addition to Obama urging Congress to act today, a handful of U.S. Senators -- Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Chris Coons, D-Del. -- introduced new legislation called the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013. This bill focuses on reforming the country's immigration laws for high-skilled workers. The idea is to increase the H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000, along with easing green cards rules.

Several tech companies have come out in support of such reform. Google, Intel, and Hewlett Packard all commended the government's efforts on changing the country's immigration policy today.

Google's senior vice president of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, wrote in a blog post today that immigrants founded 40 percent of tech sector companies that went public in the U.S., including Yahoo, eBay, Intel, and Google. And, one in four startups were founded by an immigrant. Combined, these companies employ about 560,000 workers and make $63 billion in sales.

"Our experiences here at Google and in the tech sector show us that immigrants to the U.S. are a powerful force for entrepreneurship and innovation at every level, from startups to multinational corporations," Bock wrote.

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"Maternity Tourism": How Chinese couples buy U.S. citizenship

(CBS News) CHINO HILLS, Calif. - Any child born in the United States is automatically an American citizen. Mexican mothers have, for years, crossed the border to give birth here for that reason.

Maternity tourism in America has also caught on now with mothers in China.

Ada Lin, a young Chinese girl whose parents traveled to America so she could be born an American citizen

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CBS News

Ada Lin is 4 months old and the only American citizen in her family. Her parents, who agreed to speak with CBS News if they could remain anonymous, traveled from China to Los Angeles, so Ada could be born in America and claim U.S. citizenship.

"I want her to live a happy life" her father said.

The family is back in China now. They are among thousands of Chinese who have become so called "birth tourists" staying in maternity hotels near Los Angeles. These hotels are often single-family homes in quiet neighborhoods.

At least two are in Chino Hills, California, where residents are annoyed by the frequent comings and goings.

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Chino Hills resident Rossana Mitchell said: "When people think of the American dream, they're not thinking about birth tourism. They're thinking about people who come here, immigrate here, work hard, pay their taxes, become citizens and become Americans."

Ada Lin's family paid $27,000 to a Chinese agency with a website that advertises the advantages of giving birth in America. The agency helps arrange U.S. tourist visas, lodging, and medical care.

The practice does not violate federal immigration laws, but it gives Chinese parents the option down the road to have their American-born children attend U.S. universities, or live here.

The Lins said having Ada in the United States allowed them to get around China's "one child" policy. It restricts most women from giving birth to more than one child in China. The Lins say that restriction does not apply to Chinese that give birth overseas.

One hilltop home was converted into a maternity hotel with 17 bedrooms. It is said to have housed as many as 30 pregnant Chinese women at a time. It apparently didn't break immigration laws, but local officials closed it down because it violated zoning and building codes.

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US Mom Missing in Turkey Took Side Trips

Sarai Sierra, the New York mother who disappeared in Turkey while on a solo trip, took several side excursions out of the country, but stayed in contact with her family the entire time, a family friend told ABC News.

Turkish media reported today that police were trying to establish why Sierra visited Amsterdam and Munich. Police were also trying to establish the identity of a man Sierra, 33, was chatting with on the Internet, according to local media.

Rachel Norman, a family friend, said the man was a group tour guide from the Netherlands and said Sierra stayed in regular touch with her family in New York.

Steven Sierra, Sarai's husband, and David Jimenez, her brother, arrived in Istanbul today to aid in the search.

The men have been in contact with officials from the U.S. consulate in the country and plan to meet with them as soon as they open on Tuesday, Norman said.

After that, she said Sierra and Jimenez would meet with Turkish officials to discuss plans and search efforts.

Family of Sarai Sierra|AP Photo

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Sarai Sierra was supposed to fly back to the United States on Jan. 22, but she never showed up for her flight home.

Her two boys, ages 11 and 9, have not been told their mother is missing.

Sierra, an avid photographer, left New York on Jan. 7. It was her first overseas trip, and she decided to go ahead after a friend had to cancel, her family said.

"It was her first time outside of the United States, and every day while she was there she pretty much kept in contact with us, letting us know what she was up to, where she was going, whether it be through texting or whether it be through video chat, she was touching base with us," Steven Sierra told ABC News before he departed for Istanbul.

But when it came time to pick her up from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Sierra wasn't on board her scheduled flight.

Steven Sierra called United Airlines and was told his wife had never boarded the flight home.

Further investigation revealed she had left her passport, clothes, phone chargers and medical cards in her room at a hostel in Beyoglu, Turkey, he said.

The family is suspicious and said it is completely out of character for the happily married mother, who met her husband in church youth group, to disappear.

The U.S. Embassy in Turkey and the Turkish National Police are involved in the investigation, WABC-TV reported.

"They've been keeping us posted, from my understanding they've been looking into hospitals and sending out word to police stations over there," Steven Sierra said. "Maybe she's, you know, locked up, so they are doing what they can."

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French seal off Mali's Timbuktu, rebels torch library

GAO, Mali (Reuters) - French and Malian troops retook control of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, on Monday after Islamist rebel occupiers fled the ancient Sahara trading town and torched several buildings, including a library holding priceless manuscripts.

The United States and the European Union are backing a French-led intervention in Mali against al Qaeda-allied militants they fear could use the West African state's desert north as a springboard for international attacks.

The recovery of Timbuktu followed the swift capture by French and Malian forces at the weekend of Gao, another major town in Mali's north that had been occupied by the alliance of jihadist groups since last year.

The two-week-old mission by France in its former Sahel colony, at the request of Mali's government, has driven the Islamist rebels northwards out of towns into the desert and mountains.

Without a shot being fired, 1,000 French soldiers and paratroopers and 200 Malian troops seized Timbuktu airport and surrounded the town on the banks of the Niger River, looking to block the escape of insurgents.

In both Timbuktu and Gao, cheering crowds turned out to welcome the French and Malian troops.

A third town in Mali's vast desert north, Kidal, had remained in Islamist militant hands. But Malian Tuareg MNLA rebels, who are seeking autonomy for their northern region, said on Monday they had taken charge in Kidal after Islamist fighters abandoned it.

A diplomat in Bamako confirmed the MNLA takeover of Kidal.

A French military spokesman said the assault forces at Timbuktu were avoiding any fighting inside the city to protect the cultural treasures, mosques and religious shrines in what is considered a seat of Islamic learning.

But Timbuktu Mayor Ousmane Halle told Reuters departing Islamist gunmen had four days earlier set fire to the town's new Ahmed Baba Institute, which contained thousands of manuscripts.

UNESCO spokesman Roni Amelan said the Paris-based U.N. cultural agency was "horrified" by the news of the fire, but was awaiting a full assessment of the damage.

Ali Baba, a worker at the Ahmed Baba Institute, told Sky News in Timbuktu more than 3,000 manuscripts had been destroyed. "They are bandits. They have burned some manuscripts and also stole a lot of manuscripts which they took with them," he said.

Marie Rodet, an African history lecturer at Britain's School of Oriental and African Studies, said Timbuktu held one of the greatest libraries of Islamic manuscripts in the world.

"It's pure retaliation. They (the Islamist militant rebels) knew they were losing the battle and they hit where it really hurts," Rodet told Reuters. "These people are not interested in any intellectual debate. They are anti-intellectual."

ISLAMISTS "ALL FLED"

The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in Timbuktu containing fragile documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults.

The French and Malians have encountered no resistance so far in Timbuktu. But they will now have to comb through a labyrinth of ancient mosques, monuments, mud-brick homes and narrow alleyways to flush out any hiding fighters.

The Islamist forces comprise a loose alliance that groups Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA.

They have retreated in the face of relentless French air strikes and superior firepower and are believed to be sheltering in the rugged Adrar des Ifoghas mountain range, north of Kidal.

The MNLA Tuareg rebels who say they now hold Kidal have offered to help the French-led offensive against the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamists. It was not clear, however, whether the French and Malians would steer their offensive further towards Kidal, or hold negotiations with the MNLA.

FRANCE: MALI "BEING LIBERATED"

The world was shocked by Timbuktu's capture in April by Tuareg fighters, whose separatist rebellion was later hijacked by Islamist radicals who imposed severe sharia (Islamic law).

Provoking international outrage, the Muslim militants - who follow a more radical Salafist brand of Islam - destroyed dozens of ancient shrines in Timbuktu sacred to Sufi Muslims, condemning them as idolatrous and un-Islamic.

They also imposed a strict form of Islamic law, or sharia, authorizing the stoning of adulterers and amputations for thieves, while forcing women to go veiled.

On Sunday, many women among the thousands of Gao residents who came out to celebrate the rebels' expulsion made a point of going unveiled. Other residents smoked cigarettes and played music to flout the bans previously imposed by the rebels.

Hundreds of troops from Niger and Chad have been brought to Gao to help secure the town.

"Little by little, Mali is being liberated," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France 2 television.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris, French President Francois Hollande said French troops would take a step back once the job of retaking key towns was complete, and Malian and other African troops would take over the task of hunting the rebels.

"They are the ones who will go into the northern part, which we know is the most difficult because that's where the terrorists are hiding," Hollande said.

As the French and Malian troops thrust into northern Mali, African troops for a U.N.-backed continental intervention force for Mali, expected to number 7,700, are being flown into the country, despite severe delays and logistical problems.

Outgoing African Union Chairman President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin scolded AU states at a weekend summit in Addis Ababa for their slow response to assist Mali while former colonial power France took the lead in the military operation.

Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Chad are providing soldiers for the AFISMA force. Burundi and other nations have pledged to contribute.

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said these regional troops could play a useful "clean-up" role once the main military operations against the Islamist rebels end.

Speaking in Addis Ababa on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. was "actively considering" helping the troop-contributing African countries with logistical support.

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis in Sevare, Mali, Bate Felix and David Lewis in Dakar, Maria Golovina in London, Alexandria Sage, Vicky Buffery and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey, Richard Lough and Aaron Masho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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"Off the scale" smog envelops Beijing again

BEIJING: Pollution levels in Beijing rose above index limits on Tuesday, the US embassy said, as a dense cloud of haze shrouded large swathes of northern China.

Mask-wearing residents of the capital battled through a second consecutive day of pollution at hazardous levels, despite Beijing municipal authorities warning those with respiratory difficulties to stay indoors.

It is at least the fourth time a dense cloud of haze has descended on northern China this winter, reducing visibility and causing flight delays, with even state media repeatedly expressing anger over the issue.

"The current environmental problems are worrisome," Wang Anshun, who took over as mayor of the Chinese capital this week, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

The US embassy's air quality index (AQI) reading for Beijing stood at 495 and "hazardous" at 11am, after having reached 517, or "beyond index", at 6am.

The index rates anything over 150 as "unhealthy", over 300 as "hazardous", while a reading above the upper limit of 500 is regarded as "beyond index".

Meanwhile, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre gave the figure at 10am as 393, indicating the air in the capital was "severely polluted".

The toxic air follows an extreme bout of pollution earlier this month, peaking on January 13 when state media said readings for PM 2.5, particles small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs, reached 993 micrograms per cubic metre, almost 40 times the World Health Organisation's recommended safe limit.

The pollution sparked online uproar from residents and outrage from state media who urged officials to confront Beijing's poor air quality.

At the height of the smog, many residents rushed to buy facemasks and air purifiers, and doctors at two of Beijing's major hospitals said the number of patients with respiratory problems had increased sharply during the period.

China's pollution problems are blamed on the country's rapid urbanisation and dramatic economic development.

A total of 61 flights were delayed at Beijing Airport just before 9.30am on Monday, according to its website.

-AFP/fl

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