Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/17/star-trek-2-begins-production/
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Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks to members of the media after a GOP forum at Byrnes High School, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Duncan, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks to members of the media after a GOP forum at Byrnes High School, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Duncan, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum meets with audience members at a GOP forum at Byrnes High School, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Duncan, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Between the sand sculpted faces of Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry, Team Sandtastic's Patrick Harsch steps back to look at Mt. Myrtle as it takes shape with the Republican presidential candidates' faces and parts of their torsos nearly complete Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C.. (AP Photo/The Sun News, Janet Blackmon Morgan)
Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry waits to be introduced at a campaign stop Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns with, from left to right: former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in Hilton Head, S.C., Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? Call it the fight for the coast.
Mitt Romney's presidential challengers were to campaign up and down the South Carolina shoreline on Sunday as they worked to stymie the GOP front-runner one week before this state's pivotal GOP primary. The former Massachusetts governor was taking a rare day off the campaign trail ahead of a jam-packed week that includes a pair of debates ? one in Myrtle Beach on Monday and another in Charleston on Thursday.
The South Carolina coast is a heavily populated area that's home to many veterans, active military personnel, moderates and fiscal conservatives whose support Romney and his rivals are counting on as they work to cobble together the diverse voting coalition needed to win the state on Jan. 21.
Florida votes just 10 days later, putting pressure on Romney's opponents to dramatically shift the trajectory of the race over the next week.
Three of Romney's challengers ? former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry ? were appearing on national Sunday morning talk shows before making the rounds of churches and prayer breakfasts. The state has a large segment of church-goers and candidates are trying to woo evangelicals who make up a significant number of GOP primary voters.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman also was attending religious services, while another contender ? Texas Rep. Ron Paul ? was returning to the campaign trail for the first time since Wednesday. He has spent several days at home in Texas after his second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary last week. He was set to unveil what his campaign said was a big endorsement.
A week before the primary, polls show Romney leading as he works to capitalize on back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to hold contests in the march to the GOP nomination.
The stakes are high in South Carolina, a state that historically has voted for the Republican candidate who eventually won the party's nomination.
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Much of the country is in a deep freeze after unseasonably warm weather. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.
By Jonathan Erdman, weather.com
As we kick off a new week, we may have a sense of deja vu from the Upper Midwest to northern New England.
"We're beginning to see the pattern across the northern United States become a bit more active now," says Tom Niziol, Winter Weather Expert for The Weather Channel. "There's a combination of more storm tracks going across the northern U.S. and Great Lakes and cold air being pulled down from Canada. That combination spells the return of winter."
Niziol has been tracking winter weather, and lake effect snow in particular, for decades. He was formerly the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Buffalo.
So, let's lay out what we know about this next wintry threat.
Monday, the system will just be in its "organizing stages".
Light rain and drizzle will spread northward from the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley. By afternoon and evening, light rain (mainly south) or snow (north) will spread into the interior Northeast.
Meanwhile, light snow may swing out of the Rockies Monday into the Plains and Upper Midwest by Monday night.
Tuesday, it gets a bit more interesting.
Low pressure then tracks into the Great Lakes. With cold air in place, we expect a swath of accumulating snow in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes into northern New England and Upstate New York. Sound familiar?
5-Day Forecasts: Chicago | Milwaukee | Burlington, Vt. | Your location
At this time, here is the latest thinking on rough snowfall accumulation potential:
| 6"+ potential | Lake Ontario snowbelt to northern Vt., northern N.H., northwest Maine |
| 2-4" | Lake Erie snowbelt, Mohawk Valley of N.Y., central/northeast Maine |
| 1-2" | western Great Lakes |
Strong winds may lead to reduced visibility and blowing snow by Wednesday morning in northern New England, creating difficult driving conditions.
For the I-95 urban corridor, you may see some wet snowflakes fall Monday night, but by Tuesday, that should change to rain. Only spotty slushy accumulations over a trace are possible in southern New England. Some light freezing drizzle or freezing rain may fall for a period of time in valley locations from northeast Pennsylvania to western Massachusetts, as well.
5-Day Forecasts: Boston | Hartford | New York | Your location
One other concern may be another "flash freeze" event in parts of the Ohio Valley, then interior Northeast Tuesday into early Wednesday, whereby wet pavement from earlier rain freezes after the Arctic cold front sweeps through. You can see this potential by comparing the Tuesday forecast highs to the Wednesday forecast lows below.
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, speaks during the opening session of a conference on democracy in the Arab world, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Jan. 15, 2012. Ban demanded Sunday that Syria's president stop killing his own people, and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, speaks during the opening session of a conference on democracy in the Arab world, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Jan. 15, 2012. Ban demanded Sunday that Syria's president stop killing his own people, and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati attend the opening session of a conference on democracy in the Arab world, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Jan. 15, 2012. Ban demanded Sunday that Syria's president stop killing his own people, and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, purports to show a rally in support of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa, Syria.(AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT
This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, purports to show a rally in support of the Free Syrian Army in Hama, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT
BEIRUT (AP) ? The U.N. chief demanded Sunday that Syria's president stop killing his own people and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East on a day when activists said 27 people died.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, delivering the keynote address at a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world, said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show people will no longer accept tyranny.
"Today, I say again to President (Bashar) Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people," Ban said.
Ban has been highly critical of the Assad government's deadly crackdown on civilian protesters since the killings began ? unlike the U.N. Security Council. That body is deeply divided. The U.S. and European nations demand strong condemnation and possible sanctions against Assad, but Russia and China are opposed.
Ban's speech Sunday was his toughest against the continued survival of authoritarian regimes in the face of the growing international clamor for democracy.
Thousands of people have been killed in the government's crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising, which has turned increasingly militarized in recent months with a growing risk of civil war.
Syria agreed last month to an Arab League plan that calls for a halt to the crackdown, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, such as tanks, from cities, the release of all political prisoners, and allowing foreign journalists and human rights workers in. About 200 Arab League observers are working in Syria to verify whether the government is abiding by its agreement to end the military crackdown on dissent.
Observers visited the coastal city of Banias and the restive town of Maaret al-Numan in northern Syria Sunday, where they were met with thousands of anti-Assad protesters chanting for his downfall.
Amateur video posted by activists on the Internet showed the monitors watching and filming from a balcony as a large protest unfolded on the streets below. "Victory for our revolution!" the protesters shouted.
The monitors also visited the Damascus suburb of Zabadani, which activists say has come under an intense crackdown in the past few days.
"The authorities pulled out tanks and stopped firing just before the observers arrived," said one activist in Zabadani, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals. "But they saw with their own eyes the destruction and fear," he said, adding people took to the streets in huge protests while the monitors were there.
The presence of the observers has not put a stop to bloodshed and the U.S. and many in the Syrian opposition say killings have accelerated. The U.N. says about 400 people have been killed in the last three weeks alone, on top of an earlier estimate of more than 5,000 killed since March.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported Sunday that at least five factory workers were killed when a roadside bomb detonated near the bus they were traveling in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria.
The Observatory said 16 other people died in Syria Sunday, 11 of them in the restive central city of Homs.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network said 27 people were killed Sunday. The differing numbers could not be immediately reconciled.
Syria bans most foreign correspondents and limits movement.
"The killings still continue and still there are people arrested," said Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby in Bahrain. He said there will be a meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the end of the week in Cairo to decide on the next steps.
Syria's state news agency reported that Assad granted a general amnesty for "crimes" committed during the uprising and officials said authorities have begun granting local and foreign media outlets approvals to work in Syria. It was not clear how many prisoners would be released.
Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud said the level of "incitement and distortion of facts" has doubled since some reporters were allowed in along with the Arab League observers who started work late last month.
Ban acknowledged challenges facing Arab states in the wake of the uprisings sweeping the Arab world, in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria.
"It is sometimes said that authoritarian regimes, whatever else their faults, at least kept a lid on sectarian conflict. This is a cruel canard," Ban said in Beirut. "Yet it would be equally mistaken to assume that all of the new regimes now emerging will automatically uphold universal human rights," he said.
"Democracy is not easy," he added. "It takes time and effort to build. It does not come into being with one or two elections. Yet there is no going back."
He encouraged Arab countries to usher in real reforms and dialogue, and to respect the role of women and youth.
"The old way, the old order, is crumbling," Ban said. "One-man rule and the perpetuation of family dynasties, monopolies of wealth and power, the silencing of the media, the deprivation of fundamental freedoms that are the birthright of every man, woman and child on this planet ? to all of this, the people say: Enough!"
The U.N. chief also urged an end to Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories.
"Settlements, new and old, are illegal. They work against the emergence of a viable Palestinian state."
The foreign minister of Tunisia, which became the first Arab country to oust a dictator through a peaceful revolution one year ago, said there is no escape from the process of democratization and freedoms in the Arab world.
"My message (to the Syrian regime) is to hear and to listen to the will of the people," Rafik Abdessalem told APTN in an interview in Beirut Sunday.
On Saturday, the leader of Qatar was quoted as saying that Arab troops should be sent to Syria to stop a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests. Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani's comments to CBS' "60 Minutes," which will be aired Sunday, are the first statements by an Arab leader calling for the deployment of troops inside Syria.
Excerpts of the interview were sent to The Associated Press by CBS on Saturday.
Qatar, which once had close relations with Damascus, has been a harsh critic of the crackdown by Assad's regime. The wealthy and influential Gulf state withdrew its ambassador to Syria in the summer.
___
Reem Khalifa In Manama, Bahrain and Edith M. Lederer at the U.N. contributed to this report.
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Cars led by Trevor Bayne (21) work on running in a pack on the track during NASCAR auto racing testing at the Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Cars led by Trevor Bayne (21) work on running in a pack on the track during NASCAR auto racing testing at the Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Jimmie Johnson removes his gloves after driving on the track during NASCAR auto racing testing at the Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Danica Patrick leaves her garage after a session of NASCAR auto racing testing at the Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. waves to fans on a deck above the garages during NASCAR auto racing testing at the Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Tony Stewart waits in his car as his crew makes adjustments in the garage during NASCAR auto racing testing at the Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? NASCAR is making gains toward breaking up the two-car tandem racing that has taken over at Daytona and Talladega, but the fix sent speeds soaring over 200 mph Friday in a test session.
Kurt Busch posted the fastest lap of the day at 206.058 mph, but was being pushed around Daytona International Speedway in a two-car tandem by Regan Smith. Kyle Busch was clocked at 205.813 while pack racing.
NASCAR has traditionally shied away from the 200 mph mark, and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon said he approached series officials about the speeds because he was certain the cars would be slowed. He said he was surprised when NASCAR indicated it was comfortable over 200 mph.
"It's embedded in our minds we can't go out there over 200 mph in race conditions," he said. "Somehow it's become accepted and I think that's a good thing. It's very comfortable. It's extremely comfortable."
But it's unclear what the racing will actually look like when the season opens with the Daytona 500 ? NASCAR's version of the Super Bowl ? on Feb. 26.
Fans are clear that they want pack racing at Daytona and Talladega, NASCAR's two biggest and fastest tracks. Drivers figured out about three years ago that hooking up in two-car tandems was the fastest way around the track, and the style evolved so quickly, NASCAR couldn't stop it.
The end result was a two-car hookup in which the trailing driver was pushing the lead car around the track. Only one spotter worked for both cars, as the pushing driver was unable to see anything ahead. Overheating issues forced the cars to swap positions every few laps, and that maneuver added an element of danger because separating slowed the two cars dramatically.
NASCAR Chairman Brian France vowed to move away from the two-car tandems in November, and a series of aerodynamic rules changes have done just that.
NASCAR also banned driver-to-driver communications over their scanners.
It's all part of a continuous process, that could go all the way up to race day. NASCAR has changed specifications during each of the first two days of testing, and officials summoned the drivers to a Friday meeting during the lunch break to strongly urge them to pack race during the afternoon session. Based on the data gleaned from the two drafting sessions, NASCAR made yet another series of technical changes that will be applied Saturday in the final day of testing.
Last year, NASCAR made changes during actual Speedweeks in an effort to break up the tandems. More changes were made before the other three restrictor-plate races on the schedule, too.
Earlier Friday, NASCAR President Mike Helton indicated speeds will likely be much different when teams return for the Daytona 500.
"(Speed) is one of those things that we have to kind of monitor," Helton said. "It is a test, so we may be a little bit more lenient at a test than we would be on race weekend. But we'll see how everything settles out and what kind of rules package we come back with ... 204 is OK for a test. It's OK for now.
"But we'll have to take back everything we learn and then make a decision after that."
But Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said after the drafting sessions that the final product will likely be right around the 200 mph mark.
"We'll still be over 200 mph. We'd like to stay as close to that mark as we can," said Darby, adding that NASCAR's confidence of keeping cars from going airborne at those speed has improved through wind tunnel testing.
"If we were to put a target mark, it would be right around 200, which the drivers like, the excitement level of 200 mph is always present for the fans."
The drivers seemed comfortable over 200 mph, and most were thankful to run in packs again. Gordon said it was "just reminds me of the good 'ol days."
But, most of the drivers admitted the two-car tandem will never go away completely.
"Everybody was really having a good time, and trying to get everything they could out of it before we went back to pushing around each other," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who pushed teammate Jimmie Johnson to a win at Talladega last year.
"Maybe, just maybe, you don't have to be in a two-car tandem to stay with the lead pack. The two-car tandem is probably the preferred way to go as far as speed. But maybe you don't have to do it for 500 miles. Maybe you can just kind of save your car, save the tail and the nose of your car and yourself.
"That might be the way to go just to get through the race, and be there at the end. But that tandem stuff is what is going to win the race."
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WASHINGTON ? Seeking more power to shrink the government, President Barack Obama on Friday suggested smashing six economic agencies into one, an election-year idea intended to halt bureaucratic nightmares and force Republicans to back him on one of their own favorite issues.
"The government we have is not the government we need," Obama told business owners he'd gathered at the White House.
Sounding like a manager of a disorganized company, and looking like one by pointing to slides as he spoke, Obama asked Congress to give him a kind of reorganization power no president has had since Ronald Reagan. It would guarantee Obama a vote, within 90 days, on any idea he offers to consolidate agencies, provided it saves money and cuts the government.
His first target: Merging six major trade and commerce agencies into a one-stop-shopping department for American businesses. The Commerce Department would be among those that would seek to exist.
Congress would keep the final say, but Obama would have a stronger hand to skip much of the outside lobbying and fighting and get right to a vote.
Attacking senseless duplication across the executive branch he runs, Obama said: "Why is it OK for our government? It's not. It has to change."
Politically, Obama is seeking advantage on the turf often owned by Republicans: Smaller government. He is attempting to directly counter Republican arguments that he has presided over the kind of regulation, spending and debt that can undermine the economy ? a dominant theme of this year's debate and one often cited by his potential re-election rival, Republican Mitt Romney.
Obama put himself on the side of business people who deal with the government as part of their daily life and are exasperated by a maze of agencies, permits and Web sites.
"We can do this better," he told them. "So much of the argument out there all the time is up in 40,000 feet, these abstract arguments about who's conservative or who's liberal. ...You guys are just trying to figure out, how do we make things work? How do we apply common sense? And that's what this is about."
In making his case, the president sought to target the design of the bureaucracy as the problem, not the employees who serve it.
Congressional reaction seemed generally favorable, but cautious.
Republicans skeptically pointed to Obama's past promises as the size of the nation's debt keeps growing.
"It's not often that we see real proposals from this administration to make government smaller," said Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "I look forward to reviewing the proposal, and hope that it will be the first of many to unravel the red tape."
Indeed, Obama promised more plans to shrink things if given more power, citing inefficiencies all across the government.
Obama had an imperative to deliver. He made the promise to come up with a smart reorganization of the government in his State of the Union speech last January.
He made some waves at the time by pointing out the absurdity of government inefficiency, noting fresh water and saltwater salmon were regulated by different agencies.
The White House said the problem is serious for consumers who turn to their government for help and often do not know where to begin.
Not in decades has the government undergone a sustained reorganization of itself. Presidents have tried from time to time, but each part of the bureaucracy has its own defenders inside and outside the government, which can make merger ideas politically impossible. That's particularly true because "efficiency" is often another way of saying people will lose their jobs.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she hoped Congress would quickly approve Obama's proposal, which she said tracked with worries Democrats have been hearing from small business owners. Many lawmakers of both parties expressed support in principle but wariness about how programs and the prerogatives of Congress may be affected.
Beyond the politics, the merger Obama offered would have big implications for trade and commerce in America.
Presidents held a fast-track reorganizational authority for about 50 years until it ran out during Reagan's presidency in 1984, the White House argued.
Obama wants to merge: the Commerce Department's core business and trade functions; the Small Business Administration; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.
The White House says 1,000 to 2,000 jobs would be cut, but the administration would do so through attrition. The administration says the consolidation would save $3 billion over 10 years by getting rid of duplicative overhead and programs, although it has yet to spell out any plan in detail.
Obama's announcement treads on ground that Romney, the Republican front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, frequently stakes out on the campaign trail. Romney often says he would try to shrink government by eliminating offices that duplicate functions performed somewhere else, citing as examples more than 80 different workforce training programs.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said streamlining government was always a potentially good idea but expressed suspicion about whether the plan by Obama would really help business. Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, pledged Obama's plan would get a careful review.
But he added: "It's interesting to see the president finally acknowledge that Washington is out of control."
__
Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt, Alan Fram, Erica Werner and Ken Thomas contributed to this story.
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BEIJING ? Angry customers and gangs of scalpers threw eggs at Apple Inc.'s Beijing store Friday after the iPhone 4S launch there was canceled due to concerns over the crowd's size.
Apple reacted to the outburst by postponing iPhone 4S sales in its mainland China stores to protect customers and employees. The phone still will be sold online and through its local carrier.
The incident highlighted Apple's huge popularity in China and the role of middlemen who buy up limited supplies of iPhones and other products or smuggle them from abroad for resale to Chinese gadget fans at a big markup.
Hundreds of customers including migrant workers hired by scalpers in teams of 20 to 30 waited overnight in freezing weather at the Apple store in a shopping mall in Beijing's east side Sanlitun district.
The crowd erupted after the store failed to open on schedule at 7 a.m. Some threw eggs and shouted at employees through the windows.
A person with a megaphone announced the sale was canceled. Police ordered the crowd to leave and sealed off the area with yellow tape. Employees posted a sign saying the iPhone 4S was out of stock.
"We were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being," said Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu.
The iPhone 4S quickly sold out at other Apple stores in China, Wu said. She said the phone still will be sold in China through Apple's online store, its local carrier China Unicom Ltd. and authorized resellers.
Wu declined to comment on what Apple might know about scalpers buying iPhones for resale.
China is Apple's fastest-growing market and "an area of enormous opportunity," CEO Tim Cook said in October. He said quarterly sales were up nearly four times over a year earlier and accounted for one-sixth of Apple's global sales.
Apple's China stores are routinely mobbed for the release of new products.
The company has its own stores only in Beijing and Shanghai, with a handful of authorized retailers in other cities, so middlemen who buy iPhones and resell them in other areas can make big profits, said Wang Ying, who follows the mobile phone market for Analysys International, a research firm in Beijing.
"Apple is making a lot of money, so it is not too concerned about the scalpers," Wang said.
Wang and other industry analysts said the size of the underground trade and price markups are unclear.
In Shanghai, stores limited iPhone 4S sales to two per customer. Several hundred people were waiting when the stores opened, bundled up against the cold. Some passed the time playing mahjong.
Buyers included 500 older people from neighboring Jiangsu province who were hired by the boss of a mobile phone market, the newspaper Oriental Morning Post said. They arrived aboard an 11-bus convoy and were paid 150 yuan ($15) each.
Online bulletin boards were filled with comments about Friday's buying frenzy, many complaining about or ridiculing the scalpers.
An Apple contractor manufactures iPhones in China, but new models are released in other countries first. That has fueled a thriving "gray market" in China for phones smuggled in from Hong Kong and other markets.
Last May, the Sanlitun store was closed for several hours after a scuffle between an employee and a customer during the release of the iPhone 4, the previous model in the series.
Customers began gathering Thursday afternoon outside the Sanlitun store. People in the crowd said the number grew to as many as 2,000 overnight but many left when word spread the store would not open. About 350 people remained when the protest erupted after 7 a.m.
"On the one hand there is poor organization and on the other there were just too many people," said a man outside the Sanlitun store Friday, who would give only his surname, Miao. "I don't think they prepared well enough."
Another man who refused to give his name said he was a migrant laborer who was paid 100 yuan ($15) to wait in line overnight.
Others in the crowd said scalpers had organized groups of 20 to 30 migrant workers to buy phones or hold places in line. Organizers held colored balloons aloft to identify themselves to their workers.
Others said they were waiting to buy the phone for themselves.
"I just like the 4S," said Zhu Xiaodong, a Beijing resident. He said he was upgrading from the previous iPhone 4 model.
Sales in China began three months after the iPhone 4S had its global debut Oct. 14 in the United States and six other countries.
The delay between the release of Apple products in the United States and in China has yet to affect its reputation with Chinese customers, said Ted Dean, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a research firm in Beijing.
For other products, such a delay "sort of gives the impression here that you're not giving the Chinese consumer a fair shake," Dean said. "But demand and that `cool factor' is so huge for Apple products that you don't hear that about them."
___
Associated Press writer David Wivell, researchers Zhao Liang and Yu Bing, all in Beijing, and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Apple Inc.: http:://http://www.apple.com
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