Panasonic highlights its ambitions beyond TVs at CES 2013

Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga gives the opening keynote speech at CES 2013.

(Credit:
CNET/James Martin)

Panasonic is more than a TV company. Or so said the company's president, Kazuhiro Tsuga, during an opening keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Indeed, Tsuga and TV journalist Lisa Ling, who joined him on stage, spent the good part of an hour highlighting the many facets of Panasonics varied business. From green technology and battery technology that helps power smart grids and electric
cars to cutting edge avionics technology to creating new cutting edge business-class
tablets. And of course, there was talk of the successful TV business.

At the heart of the discussion was Panasonic's commitment to delivering new and innovative technologies to its customers.

"Now more than ever, we are committed to creating real value for our customers," Tsuga said. "Our ability to do this is based on two fundamental things: Listening to what our customers need.... In fact, there are Panasonic research centers created just to do that. Second, we are creating lasting relationships with customers that continue long after they have purchased their product."

As part of the presentation, Tsuga showed off some exciting new products, like the new 4K 56-inch OLED TV and the 20-inch
Windows 8 tablet with a 4K screen. And he announced a new partnership with Specific Media, an interactive-media company that helps integrate advertising into video and mobile platforms. And lastly, he announced that the company is moving its North American headquarters to Newark, N.J., in what it hopes is a partnership that will help revitalize the city.

When it comes to the TV market, Tsuga said that people are hungry for change. And he said that Panasonic is determined to raise the bar in terms of their expectations. In addition to bigger and clearer screens, he said that consumers also want to access more content and interact with their friends.

He was joined on stage by Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and president of Specific Media, who talked about the partnership with Panasonic and how the two companies will help enable the next generation of the TV experience. The idea is to give consumers a deeper level of engagement with content. They showed an on-screen TV guide that depicted what a TV owner was watching, as well as showing what his friends were watching. And it also allowed for chat sessions between friends as they watched the program.

Panasonic executives show off a prototype of a 56-inch 4K OLED TV at the 2013 CES.

(Credit:
CNET/James Martin)

But at the heart of the company's TV strategy is making the picture amazing. And that's exactly what he showed off with a new prototype TV. The Panasonic 4K OLED is a 56-inch TV that features 3840 × 2160 resolution, weighs 27 pounds and is less than half an inch thick. The bezel also appears very slim and equivalent to a mainstream LCD.

In addition to the super resolution 4K TV, Panasonic also showed off a new 20-inch, Windows 8 4K tablet. The tablet comes with a stylus and is designed for people who need high-end resolution.

Joe Taylor, CEO of Panasonic North America, shows off the 20-inch Windows 8 tablet with a 4K resolution screen.

(Credit:
CNET/James Martin)

Neither product is commercially available, but the company will be showing them off this week at its booth at CES. For a full rundown of Panasonic's product announcements check out the post from yesterday's press conference.

Moving on from TVs and tablets, Panansonic execs talked up the company's other areas of technological innovation such as green technology. Tsuga talked about how Panasonic is working with companies, such as IBM, to come up with more efficient energy solutions. And he highlighted the company's solar panel and lithium battery businesses. The journalist Lisa Ling, who was on stage helping with the presentation, said she was a customer of Panasonic's as she and her husband built their environmentally sustainable home in California.

Tsuga said that Panasonic has taken many of the technologies it's developed for green homes adapted them for the automotive industry. Panasonic's global automotive partners include Volskwagen, Audi, Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Tesla Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mazda. Specifically, Panasonic batteries are being used to power Tesla's electric cars. And GM is using some of its technology to power apps in its cars.

Panasonic doesn't just offer technology to the automotive industry, but it also offers technology to 275 airline partners. United Airlines has implemented Panasonic in-flight technology. And the company welcomed the CEO of Air New Zealand to talk about its partnership with Panasonic. Tsuga said that in 2014, Panasonic is planning to launch lowest-cost and lightest in-flight tech suite ever.

Newark, NJ's mayor Cory Booker with Panasonic's North American CEO announce at the 2013 CES that Panasonic is moving its North American headquarters to Newark.

(Credit:
CNET/James Martin)

And finally Tsuga highlighted Panasonic's commitment to improving communities with its technology and its business. He invited Newark mayor Cory Booker on stage to announce that a partnership with the city. Not only is Panasonic moving its North American headquarters to Newark, but the company will be working with the city to showcase advances in technology and green products. And it has a plan to reduce the city's energy use by 50 percent.

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Vitter: Harry Reid "an idiot" for Katrina comments

Sen. David Vitter, R-La, took to Twitter to slam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for comments he made comparing Hurricane Katrina victims to superstorm Sandy victims.

"Sadly, Harry Reid has again revealed himself to be an idiot, this time gravely insulting Gulf Coast residents," Vitter wrote today.

He's referring to comments Reid made on the floor of the Senate Friday where expressed disbelief for how long it took for Congress to approve federal disaster relief for New York and New Jersey. He said the people affected by Katrina in 2005 were impacted, "but nothing in comparison" to those impacted by Sandy. Katrina killed over 1,800 people and caused $145 billion in damage; 120 died after Sandy hit and the storm caused an estimated $80 billion in damage.

"The people of New Orleans and that part, they were hurt, but nothing in comparison to what's happened to the people in [New York and New Jersey]. Almost a million people lost their homes. That's homes, not people in their homes," Reid said.

Affected states have been pleading for federal assistance for more than two months, but the federal government has been slow to act because of opposition in the House over the high price tag. Reid noted that the federal government responded "within days" with federal aid for Katrina-disaster areas.

Congress did pass $9.7 billion in Sandy aid Friday as its last action before leaving town for more than a week, and one of the first actions of the new 113th Congress. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, promised an additional $50 billion in aid once the House returns next week.

On his Facebook page, Vitter reiterated his sentiment, but added, "And by most any measure, Katrina was our worst natural disaster in history."

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Accused Shooter Was 'Relaxed' After Massacre

Accused movie theater gunman James Holmes was "relaxed" and "detached" when police confronted him just moments after he had allegedly killed 12 people and wounded dozens more in the Aurora, Colo., massacre, a police officer testified today.

A preliminary hearing for Holmes began today in Colorado, with victims and families present. One family member likened attending the hearing to having to "face the devil."

The first two witnesses to take the stand were Aurora police officers who responded to the theater and spotted Holmes standing by his car at the rear of the theater.

Officer Jason Oviatt said he first thought Holmes was a cop because he was wearing a gas mask and helmet, but as he got closer realized he was not an officer and held Holmes at gunpoint.

Holmes allegedly opened fire at the crowded movie theater during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20, 2012. In addition to wearing the body armor and gas mask, Holmes had dyed his hair red.

Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

Throughout the search and arrest, Holes was extremely compliant, the officer said.

"He was very, very relaxed," Oviatt said. "These were not normal reactions to anything. He seemed very detached from it all."

Oviatt said Holmes had extremely dilated pupils and smelled badly when he was arrested.

Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo

Aurora, Colorado Gunman: Neuroscience PhD Student Watch Video

Officer Aaron Blue testified that Holmes volunteered that he had four guns and that there were "improvised explosive devices" in his apartment and that they would go off if the police triggered them.

Holmes was dressed for the court hearing in a red jumpsuit and has brown hair and a full beard. He did not show any reaction when the officers pointed him out in the courtroom.

This is the most important court hearing in the case so far, essentially a mini-trial as prosecutors present witness testimony and evidence—some never before heard—to outline their case against the former neuroscience student.

The hearing at the Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo., could last all week. At the end, Judge William Sylvester will decide whether the case will go to trial.

Prosecutors say they will present potentially gruesome photos and videos in addition to 911 calls from the night of the shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded. They will aim to convince the judge that there is enough evidence against Holmes to proceed to a trial.

It is expected that the prosecution's witnesses will include the Aurora police lead detective, first responders, the coroner and a computer forensic specialist.

In an unusual move, defense attorneys may call two witnesses. Last week, the judge ruled that Holmes can call the witnesses to testify on his "mental state," but it is not clear who the witnesses are.

A court-imposed gag order days after the shooting has kept many of the details under wraps, so much of the information could be new to the public.

Hundreds of family members and victims are expected to attend the hearing.

Holmes has been charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder, possession of explosives and crime of violence. The district attorney has not decided whether to seek the death penalty, and Holmes' defense team believes Holmes is mentally ill. He has not entered a plea.

One of the attendees will be MaryEllen Hanson, whose great-niece Veronica Moser Sullivan, 6, was killed in the shooting. Veronica's mother Ashley was shot and is now a quadriplegic and suffered a miscarriage.

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Five accused in India rape case charged in court

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of raping and murdering an Indian student were read the charges in a near-empty courtroom on Monday after the judge cleared out lawyers for bickering over whether the men deserved a defense.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died two weeks after being gang-raped and beaten on a moving bus in New Delhi, then thrown bleeding onto the street. Protests followed, along with a fierce public debate over police failure to stem rampant violence against women.

With popular anger simmering against the five men and a teenager accused in the case, most lawyers in the district where the trial will be held refuse to represent them.

Before the men arrived for a pre-trial hearing on Monday, heckling broke out in a chamber packed with jostling lawyers, journalists and members of the public after two of the lawyers, Manohar Lal Sharma and V. K. Anand, offered to defend the men.

"We are living in a modern society," declared Lal Sharma, defending his decision. "We all are educated. Every accused, including those in brutal offences like this, has the legal right ... to defend themselves."

One woman lawyer prodded V. K. Anand in the chest, saying: "I'll see how you can represent the accused."

Unable to restore order, presiding magistrate Namrita Aggarwal ordered everyone to leave except the prosecution, and set police to guard the entrance.

She said the trial would now be held behind closed doors because of the sensitivity of the case.

FACES COVERED

Reuters video images showed the men stepping out of a blue police van that brought them from Tihar jail and walking, their faces covered, through a metal detector into the South Delhi court building.

The court was across the street from the cinema where the victim watched a film before she was attacked on her way home.

Aggarwal gave the men copies of the charges, which include murder, rape and abduction, a prosecutor in the case told Reuters.

Police have conducted extensive interrogations and say they have recorded confessions, even though the men have no lawyers.

If the men, most of them from a slum neighborhood, cannot arrange a defense, the court will offer them legal aid before the trial begins.

Two of them, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta, have offered to give evidence against the others - Mukesh Kumar, Ram Singh and Akshay Thakura - possibly in return for a lighter sentence.

Mohan, describing what he called a heinous crime, said: "The five accused persons deserve not less than the death penalty."

The case has sharpened long-standing anger against the government and police for a perceived failure to protect women.

A male friend who was assaulted with the woman on December 16 said on Friday that passers-by left her unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour and that, when police arrived, they spent a long time arguing about where to take them.

The woman lived for two weeks after her attack, dying in a Singapore hospital where she had been taken for treatment.

FAST-TRACK COURT

Aggarwal said the next hearing would be on January 10. The case is due to move later to another, fast-track court set up since the woman was attacked to help reduce a backlog of sex crime cases in Delhi.

Legal experts say the lack of representation for the five men may give grounds for appeal if they are found guilty. Convictions in similar cases have often been overturned years later.

Some legal experts have also warned that previous attempts to fast-track justice in India in some cases led to imperfect convictions that were later challenged.

The sixth member of the group alleged to have lured the student and a male friend into the private bus is under 18 and will be tried in a separate juvenile court.

The government is aiming to lower the age at which teenagers can be tried as adults, acknowledging public anger that the boy will face a maximum three-year sentence.

The victim was identified by a British newspaper at the weekend but Reuters has opted not to name her.

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims' privacy and keep them out of the glare of media in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

The dead woman's father repeated on Monday that he wanted her identified and said he would be happy to release a photograph of her.

"We don't want to hide her identity. There is no reason for that. The only condition is it should not be misused," he told Reuters.

He said he was confident the trial would be quick and reiterated a call that the perpetrators be hanged.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Robert Birsel and Tom Pfeiffer)

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Colorado gunman 'relaxed' after theatre massacre

CENTENNIAL: The alleged gunman behind the Colorado theatre shooting was relaxed and cooperative when arrested after the massacre which killed 12 people, an officer told a court hearing Monday.

James Holmes, who was wearing body armour and a mask, told police his name and volunteered that there were improvised explosive devices rigged up in his apartment, when detained after the shooting last July in Aurora, Colorado.

Holmes, sporting dark brown hair and a full beard, was led into court in handcuffs at the start of a week-long hearing expected to hear more details about the shooting, which revived America's perennial debate over gun control.

Clad in dark red prison scrubs, Holmes -- who had bright orange hair when he first appeared in court last July -- stared straight ahead and talked to no one in the courtroom, as relatives of the victims looked on.

Aurora policeman Jason Oviatt told the court how he at first thought Holmes was another officer when he arrived with dozens of other police, in response to 911 calls about the midnight shooting at a screening of the new Batman film.

Holmes had his hands on the top of a white car at the back of the building, and as Oviatt approached, he saw he was not a fellow officer.

"As I got closer the man was just standing there, not moving. The overall picture didn't match a police officer as I got closer," said Oviatt, one of two officers who testified at the opening court session.

The 25-year-old offered no resistance when ordered him to put his hands up, he said.

"He was completely compliant ... He was very relaxed, there weren't normal reactions to anything ... He was very detached," he said, adding: "He seemed to be out of it, and disoriented."

Fellow policeman Aaron Blue said Holmes told officers his name, home address, and that he had four weapons. "He volunteered there were no bombs here, but he had improvised explosive devices at his home," he said.

The alleged attack took place on July 20 in an opening midnight screening of the blockbuster Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," at the Century 16 theatre in Aurora.

Witnesses said Holmes threw smoke bomb-type devices before opening fire randomly with weapons including an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.

His one-bedroom apartment was later found to be booby-trapped with an array of home-made explosive devices, which police had to disarm before entering the dwelling.

In the last five months some details have leaked out, including that Holmes was being treated by a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, where he was a doctoral student in neuroscience until shortly before the shootings.

But much has been kept confidential as part of the pre-trial judicial process, and this week's hearing is expected to reveal a good deal of previously-undisclosed evidence.

Prosecutors will build up their case that the shootings were a premeditated act of mass murder, while Holmes' lawyers may try to pick holes in evidence. It is unclear if they will argue that he is mentally unfit to stand trial.

The Aurora massacre, which also wounded at least 70, revived the perennial US debate over gun control -- an issue re-ignited even more intensely by last month's shooting of 20 young children at a Connecticut elementary school.

Only two days before Monday's hearing a gunman killed three people in Aurora itself, before police shot him dead. He had barricaded himself inside a house with his victims' bodies Saturday, but a woman escaped and raised the alarm.

- AFP/jc

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Adobe releases Creative Suite 2 for free

If you have an older computer and wish to install Adobe's popular Creative Suite on it, you can now do so for free; the catch is the version available is Adobe's older CS2.

Adobe's
CS has been developed way beyond the capabilities of the initial versions of the software; however, the older versions of the programs are still very powerful image-manipulation and content-creation tools. Still, they are no longer supported by the company and could cause problems or fail to run when installed on computers running the latest versions of OS X or Windows.

Nevertheless, if you have an older computer or have virtual-machine software configured with an older operating system compatible with CS2, then you should be able to get CS2 running. Unfortunately for
Mac users, CS2 is a PowerPC application, so it will require the use of either an Intel Mac running OS X 10.4 through 10.6 with the Rosetta translator installed, or the use of an older PowerPC Mac.

The only versions of the OS X client that Apple supports in virtualization are those that do not include the Rosetta translator (OS X 10.7 and higher) which is required for running older PowerPC code on an Intel-based Mac. Therefore, while you can either virtualize the Server versions of OS X 10.6 (which is rather expensive and no longer available) or earlier, or hack virtualization software to allow installation of the OS X 10.6 client, the best option for current Mac users is to perhaps configure a Windows XP virtual machine and install the Windows version of CS2.

The CS2 download requires you to first get an Adobe account and then download the installer from the CS2 downloads page.

Since this release, the Adobe Web site has been flooded with activity, so you may have to either wait for it to come back online, or access the download links directly through the SlickDeals Web site (the previous link on this page direct-links to Adobe's servers).

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Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

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Obama signs Sandy aid bill

President Barack Obama signs H.R. 41, which temporarily increases the Federal Emergency Management Agency's borrowing authority for carrying out the National Flood Insurance Program, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. / White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama has signed into law a $9.7 billion bill to pay flood insurance claims from Superstorm Sandy that devastated northeastern states last October.

The law increases the borrowing authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA had warned that it was set to run out of money without additional dollars from Congress.

The White House said more than 100,000 flood claim payments from Sandy would be delayed without the additional money.

The House has yet to act on a larger, more comprehensive Sandy aid package. Republican leaders did not bring the bill to the floor before the last session of Congress adjourned.

House Speaker John Boehner has promised a vote Jan. 15 on that $51 billion package, and Senate leaders have promised a vote the following week.

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GOP Leader McConnell: 'Tax Issue Is Finished'

Jan 6, 2013 10:19am

                                                                                                            (Image Credit: ABC News)

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., Sunday said he will not accept any new revenue in future deals with congressional Democrats and President Obama.

“The tax issue is finished.  Over. Completed,” McConnell told me on “This Week.” “That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and that’s our spending addiction.

“We didn’t have this problem because we weren’t taxing enough,” McConnell added.

He blamed Obama and Democrats for waiting to resolve budget issues until the last minute.

Read a transcript of the full interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell HERE.

“Why we end up in these last-minute discussions is beyond me. We need to function,” McConnell said. “I mean, the House of Representatives, for example, passed a budget every year.  They’ve passed appropriation bills.

“The Senate Democratic majority and the president seem to like these last-minute deals.”

McConnell said that the biggest issue facing the country in the next year is the deficit and spending. And he predicted that the issue would occupy the congressional agenda in the first three months of the year, overtaking Obama’s other priorities, including gun control.

“But the biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt,” McConnell said. “That’s going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March.  None of these issues, I think, will have the kind of priority that spending and debt are going to have over the next two or three months.”

On the expected nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as the secretary of Defense by Obama, McConnell said he would evaluate Hagel’s past statements before determining whether he could support his nomination in the Senate.

“I’m going to take a look at all the things that Chuck has said over the years and review that, and in terms of his qualifications to lead our nation’s military,” McConnell said. “The question we will be answering if he’s the nominee, is do his views make sense for that particular job?  I think he ought to be given a fair hearing, like any other nominee, and he will be.”

McConnell, who in 2008 praised Hagel for his clear voice and stature on foreign policy and national security, now says he will reserve judgment on his possible nomination until after a Senate confirmation hearing.

“I’m going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck’s views square with the job he would be nominated to do,” he added.

Like “This Week” on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

SHOWS: This Week

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Assad "peace plan" greeted with scorn by foes

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected peace talks with his enemies on Sunday in a defiant speech that his opponents described as a renewed declaration of war.

Although the speech was billed as the unveiling of a new peace plan, Assad offered no concessions and even appeared to harden many of his positions. He rallied Syrians for "a war to defend the nation" and disparaged the prospect of negotiations.

"We do not reject political dialogue ... but with whom should we hold a dialogue? With extremists who don't believe in any language but killing and terrorism?" Assad asked supporters who packed Damascus Opera House for his first speech since June.

"Should we speak to gangs recruited abroad that follow the orders of foreigners? Should we have official dialogue with a puppet made by the West, which has scripted its lines?"

It was his first public speech to an audience in six months. Since the last, rebels have reached the capital's outskirts.

George Sabra, vice president of the opposition National Coalition, told Reuters the peace plan Assad put at the heart of his speech did "not even deserve to be called an initiative":

"We should see it rather as a declaration that he will continue his war against the Syrian people," he said.

"The appropriate response is to continue to resist this unacceptable regime and for the Free Syrian Army to continue its work in liberating Syria until every inch of land is free."

The speech was seen by many as a response to U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who has been meeting U.S. and Russian officials to try to narrow differences between Washington and Moscow over a peace plan. Brahimi also met Assad in Syria late last month.

"Lakhdar Brahimi must feel foolish after that Assad speech, where his diplomacy is dismissed as intolerable intervention," said Rana Kabbani, a Syrian analyst who supports the opposition.

The United States, European Union, Turkey and most Arab states have called on Assad to quit. Russia, which sells arms to and leases a naval base from Syria, says it backs a transition of power but that Assad's departure should not be a precondition for any talks.

REPETITIONS

Assad's foreign foes were scornful and dismissive of the speech: "His remarks are just repetitions of what he's said all along," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"It seems he's locked himself up in a room and only reads the intelligence reports presented to him."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said "empty promises of reform fool no one". In a Twitter message, he added: "Death, violence and oppression engulfing Syria are of his own making."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Brussels would "look carefully if there is anything new in the speech, but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition".

The 47-year-old Assad, tall and mustachioed, in a business suit and tie, spoke confidently for about an hour before a crowd of cheering loyalists, who occasionally interrupted him to shout and applaud, at one point raising their fists and chanting: "With blood and soul we sacrifice for you, oh Bashar!"

At the end of the speech, supporters rushed to the stage, mobbing him and shouting: "God, Syria and Bashar is enough!" as a smiling president waved and was escorted from the hall past a backdrop showing a Syrian flag made of pictures of people whom state television described as "martyrs" of the conflict so far.

"We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word," Assad said in the speech, broadcast on Syrian state television. "This war targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. Thus, this is a war to defend the nation."

Independent media are largely barred from Damascus.

Giving the speech in the opera house, in a part of central Damascus that has been hit by rebel attacks, could be intended as a show of strength by a leader whose public appearances have grown rarer as the rebellion has gathered force.

Critics saw irony in the venue: "Assad speech appropriately made in Opera House!" tweeted Rami Khouri, a commentator for Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. "It was operatic in its other-worldly fantasy, unrelated to realities outside the building."

DEATHS

The United Nations says 60,000 people have been killed in the civil war, the longest and bloodiest of the conflicts to emerge in two years of revolts in Arab states.

Rebels now control much of the north and east of the country, a crescent of suburbs on the outskirts of the capital and the main border crossings with Turkey in the north.

But Assad's forces are still firmly in control of most of the densely populated southwest, the main north-south highway and the Mediterranean coast. The army also holds military bases throughout the country from which its helicopters and jets can strike rebel-held areas with impunity, making it impossible for the insurgents to consolidate their grip on territory they hold.

Assad, an eye doctor, has ruled since 2000, succeeding his late father Hafez, who had seized power in a 1970 coup.

The rebels are drawn mainly from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad, a member of the Alawite sect related to Shi'ite Islam, is supported by some members of religious minorities who fear retribution if he falls.

The conflict has heightened confrontation in the Middle East between Shi'ite Iran and Sunni Arab rulers, particularly those in the Gulf who are allied with the West against Tehran.

The plan unveiled in Sunday's speech could hardly have been better designed to ensure its rejection by the opposition. Among its proposals: rebels would first be expected to halt operations before the army would cease fire, a certain non-starter.

Assad also repeatedly emphasized rebel links to al Qaeda and other Sunni Islamist radicals. Washington has also labeled one of the main rebel groups a terrorist organization and says it is linked to the network founded by Osama bin Laden.

Diplomacy has been largely irrelevant so far in the conflict, with Moscow vetoing U.N. resolutions against Assad.

U.N. mediator Brahimi has been trying to bridge the gap, meeting senior U.S. and Russian officials to discuss his own peace proposal, which does not explicitly mention Assad's fate.

National Coalition spokesman Walid Bunni said Assad's speech appeared timed to prevent a breakthrough in those talks, by taking a position that could not be reconciled with diplomacy.

"The talk by Brahimi and others that there could be a type of political solution being worked out has prompted him to come out and tell the others 'I won't accept a solution'," Bunni said, adding that Assad feared any deal would mean his downfall.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Gulsen Solaker in Ankara and Tim Castle in London; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Football: Ronaldo rescues Madrid on dramatic Casillas day

MADRID: Goalkeeper Iker Casillas came off the bench after just five minutes for 10-man Real Madrid who needed a second half double from Cristiano Ronaldo to beat Real Sociedad 4-3 on Sunday.

The Madrid captain was left out for the second consecutive game but was called upon in the opening minutes following a penalty conceded by his replacement Adan Garrido who was red carded.

Xabi Prieto, who was to grab a hat-trick, scored from the spot-kick to equalise after Karim Benzema had put Madrid ahead after just two minutes with Sami Khedira then restoring the lead for Jose Mourinho's side after 35 minutes.

Prieto struck again before half-time before Ronaldo came to the rescue with a brace after the restart.

Prieto hit his third with 14 minutes to go but Sociedad finished with 10 men also as Daniel Estrada was given a second yellow card.

Madrid are still 13 points behind Barcelona who play Espanyol later in a local derby and where they welcome back coach Tito Vilanova after cancer surgery.

Madrid faced an injury crisis at the back with Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Marcelo and Raul Albiol all injured and Sergio Ramos suspended but they did have striker Gonzalo Higuain back after two months out and he began on the bench.

They got the perfect start with Khedira finding Benzema in space in the centre of the penalty area and he found the corner with a clinical finish.

But if the Bernabeu crowd were expecting to then see a comfortable victory after such an inconsistent season they were badly mistaken as only three minutes later Adan conceded the penalty for the visitors to draw level.

Adan's poor pass to Ricardo Carvalho went to Carlos Vela who bore down on goal and was upended by the shot-stopper. The referee pointed to the spot and also dismissed Adan which meant Casillas would play after all.

The player nicknamed 'Saint Iker' by Spain fans for his exploits in the recent successes of the national side was unable to make the perfect start as Prieto fired home the penalty.

An edgy looking Casillas moments later played the ball straight to Prieto who hit the side netting and then he came and failed to reach a corner ball crossed in.

Sociedad came into the game on the back of a strong run without a defeat in seven games and Antoine Griezmann went close with a couple of strikes as they played the ball around well in attack.

Madrid went back ahead with Khedira flicking in a shot by Carvalho from the edge of the area but they were never comfortable at the back and Prieto got his second when a Vela strike fell to him and he drove the ball past Casillas.

In first half stoppage time Benzema hit a post with fine effort from the edge of the area and Khedira was unable to direct the rebound goalwards.

After the break the game hit a lull before Ronaldo responded with a double. Benzema hit a ball over the top and he finished clinically and then a couple of minutes later he struck a free-kick into the top corner.

Sociedad didn't give up with Xabi Prieto latching onto a Chory Castro pass before beating Casillas but their hopes of an equaliser were hit by a red card for Estrada.

- AFP/jc

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