Nintendo’s amazing triumph in Japan may doom the company internationally

According to Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, Nintendo (NTDOY) 3DS sold 333,000 units in the week ending December 16, while Sony’s (SNE) PS Vita limped along at 13,000 units, the new Wii U did an okay 130,000 units and the PlayStation 3 managed to sell 46,000 units.  The utter hardware domination of the 3DS is reshaping the Japanese software market. Franchises that were thought to be fading have...

Read More..

In Cold Blood Killers' Bodies Exhumed in Kansas

By Stephen M. Silverman 12/19/2012 at 12:50 PM EST Richard Hickock (left) and Perry Smith AP The bodies of two men put to death for the 1959 murders made famous in Truman Capote's 1966 bestseller In Cold Blood – and subsequent film depictions – were exhumed Tuesday...

Read More..

Experts: Kids are resilient in coping with trauma

WASHINGTON (AP) — They might not want to talk about the gunshots or the screams. But their toys might start getting into imaginary shootouts.Last week's school shooting in Connecticut raises the question: What will be the psychological fallout for the children who survived?For people of any age, regaining a sense of security after surviving violence can take a long time. They're at risk for lingering...

Read More..

Wall Street little changed after two-day rally, GM jumps

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday as investors found scant reason to continue buying following the best two-day rally for the S&P in a month. General Motors bucked the overall weakness to surge more than 8 percent after the company said it will buy back 200 million of its shares from the U.S. Treasury, which plans to sell the rest of its GM stake over the...

Read More..

Shooting renews argument over video-game violence

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the days since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a shell-shocked nation has looked for reasons. The list of culprits include easy access to guns, a strained mental-health system and the “culture of violence” — the entertainment industry’s embrace of violence in movies, TV shows and, especially, video games.“The violence in the entertainment culture...

Read More..

See Romeo Beckham Make His Modeling Debut

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 12/17/2012 at 02:00 PM ET Victoria Beckham wasn’t kidding when she said Romeo is all about fashion. The fashion designer’s dapper son is making an adorable appearance (check out that smile and pose!) in Burberry‘s 2013 campaign.Although it’s his first official solo...

Read More..

Experts: No link between Asperger's, violence

NEW YORK (AP) — While an official has said that the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shooting had Asperger's syndrome, experts say there is no connection between the disorder and violence.Asperger's is a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness."There really is no clear association between Asperger's and violent behavior," said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant...

Read More..

S&P gains over 1 percent as Wall Street extends rally

In the aftermath of Friday's Newtown school shooting, we've heard tales mostly horrifying and occasionally heroic, from surviving witnesses and mourning citizens alike, but this one lies somewhere in between, all the more unshakeable. One six-year-old Sandy Hook student played dead in her first-grade classroom, her family pastor said late Sunday, with the kind of quick thinking that ended up saving...

Read More..

Lashkar Gah Journal: A Pristine Afghan Prison Faces a Murky Future

Bryan Denton for The New York TimesInmates at the Helmand Central Prison in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, in an outdoor area. LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — The first thing one notices about the new prison here is the smell, or rather the absence of it. Helmand Central Prison does not reek of sewage or sweat or old clothes or rancid cooking oil, the typical odors of an Afghan lockup. The air smells, dare...

Read More..

Merry Christmas, America-Haters?

When TNT was preparing its annual special “Christmas in Washington” with the president of the United States, you’d think the last star musician they would consider to join the official caroling would be Psy, the South Korean rapper. What on Earth is Christmasy about this man’s invisible-horse-riding dance to his dorky disco-rap hit “Gangnam Style”? It’s not exactly the natural flip-side to “O Holy...

Read More..