nwes-cjk: 2012

2012年12月27日星期四

Nasty storms, tornadoes cross South; blizzard conditions in mid-US; 2 death

An apparent tornado caused damage in the west Alabama town of Grove Hill, located about 80 miles (130 kilometres) north of Mobile.

Meanwhile, blizzard conditions were hitting the nation's midsection.

No injuries were confirmed immediately, but fire crews were still making door-to-door checks in the hardest hit areas of Mobile. The Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, which was providing storm updates through Twitter, said a high school was damaged and that there was a gas leak at a nearby apartment building.

The holiday may conjure visions of snow and ice, but twisters this time of year are not unheard of. Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 113 mph (182 kph) or more in the South, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, via email.

On Christmas Eve, the church with about 500 members, was crowded for services.

MOBILE, Ala. - A Christmas Day tornado outbreak left damage across the U.S. South while holiday travellers in the much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions.

Conditions were volatile throughout the afternoon and into the night with tornado warnings in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The storms were blamed for two deaths, several injuries, and left homes from Louisiana to Alabama damaged.

Earlier in the day, winds toppled a tree onto a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver. Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pileup in Oklahoma, and the Highway Patrol says a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy U.S. Highway near Fairview.

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The most lethal were the storms of Dec. 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32.

Mary Cartright said she was working at the Fast Track convenience store in the town on Christmas evening when the wind started howling and the lights flickered, knocking out the store's computerized cash registers.

"We haven't verified what it was, but we have an area that we heard has damage to homes," she said.

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston, Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Arkansas, and AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner in Washington, contributed to this report.

In Mobile, a large section of the roof on the Trinity Episcopal Church is missing and the front wall of the parish wall is gone, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church in the Midtown section of the city.

In Mobile, Alabama, a tornado or high winds damaged homes and knocked down power lines and large tree limbs in an area just west of downtown around nightfall, said Nancy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County Commission. WALA-TV's tower camera captured a large funnel cloud headed toward downtown.

At least three tornadoes were reported in Texas, though only one building was damaged, according to the National Weather Service. Tornado watches were in effect across southern Louisiana and Mississippi.

The snowstorm that caused numerous accidents pushed out of Oklahoma late Tuesday, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 10 inches (25 centimetres) of snow was forecast. Freezing rain clung to trees and utility lines in Arkansas and winds gusts up to 30 mph (48 kph) whipped them around, causing about 71,000 customers to lose electricity.

Nasty storms, tornadoes cross South; blizzard conditions in mid-US; 2 death

More than 400 flights nationwide were cancelled by the evening, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. More than half were cancelled into and out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport that got a few inches (centimetres) of snow.

The church finished a $1 million-plus renovation campaign in June 2011, which required the closure of the historic sanctuary for more than a year.

"We've had some pretty heavy weather," said Cartright in a phone interview. "Our cash registers are down so our doors are closed."

Christmas lights also were knocked out with more than 100,000 customers without power in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

Blizzard conditions were possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky with predictions of 4 to 7 inches (10 to 17.5 centimetres) of snow.

Trees fell on a few houses in central Louisiana's Rapides Parish but there were no injuries reported and crews were cutting trees out of roadways to get to people in their homes, said sheriff's Lt. Tommy Carnline. Near McNeill, Mississippi, a likely tornado damaged a dozen homes and sent eight people to the hospital, none with life-threatening injuries, said Pearl River County emergency management agency director Danny Manley.

"Thank God this didn't happen last night," Rye said.

Got a new iPad for Christmas? 11 must-have apps

Got a new iPad for Christmas? 11 must-have apps
Related Content

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You're all set! And please share your favorite must-have iPad apps in the comments below.

7. DropboxDropbox is the best cloud storage service out there. On the iPad, it's especially handy for uploading any photos and videos you take, thanks to a recent upgrade that arranges files in easy-to-browse galleries. (Free)

2. InstapaperHere at The Week, we read a lot of stories. A lot. And often, we come across a long story that's simply too long to read in a single sitting. Enter Instapaper, a simple, reader-friendly app that allows you to clip stories from all over the web to read later. When you use it, it strips noisy websites of all their usual trappings — it's just you, a white background, and the text. It's not free, but if you read a lot, it's worth the sticker price. ($3.99)

If you unwrapped a new iPad or iPad Mini on Christmas, congratulations! Someone really cares about you. But unless you're already iSavvy, navigating the labyrinth that is Apple's App Store can feel a bit overwhelming. Here are a few of our favorite apps to help get you on your way:

3. Find My iPhoneIt's the app you'll hopefully never have to use. Say you accidentally leave your $329 iPad Mini in a cab. Oops. Activating Find My iPhone taps into the gadget's location data so you can use another device (like an iPhone) to pinpoint exactly where your tablet is. (Free)?

Philadelphia high schools to welcome students back with free condom dispens

Teens currently account for a quarter of new HIV infections and STDs in the City of Brotherly Love.

5 Things To Do if the Fiscal Cliff Happens

If Washington politicians can't reach a last-minute deal, 2013 will begin with a big batch of tax hikes and cuts in government spending that could lop four percent off GDP and trigger a recession. It's a maddening turn of events because the huge mismatch between the government's spending and revenue--along with the cliff deadline itself--are entirely man-made problems that could be solved by rational people applying the same logic it takes to run a business or manage the family finances. But occasionally we must put up with outrageous political posturing as part of the price we pay for a free society.

Postpone spending. The odds still favor a benign outcome to the fiscal-cliff drama, but it's increasingly possible that political brinksmanship really will cause another recession. Moody's Analytics puts the odds of a recession at 37 percent, the highest level in about 15 months. That risk has spiked on account of the fiscal cliff. Reining in spending will hurt the economy, of course, but given Washington's dithering, it's only prudent.

[ENJOY: Political Cartoons on the Fiscal Cliff]

[READ: How Much Will the Fiscal Cliff Cost You?]

First, relax. As outlandish as the cliff standoff may seem, many analysts thought all along that it would probably come down to a faux crisis with each side refusing to make the concessions required to get a deal during a lame-duck session of Congress. Republicans may feel they'll have more leverage to demand deep spending cuts as part of a broad tax-reform package, which will take months, not weeks, to work out. Some Democrats believe it will be easier to raise taxes on the wealthy by simply leaving their rates unchanged after they go up on January 1, than by voting for a tax hike now.

5 Things To Do if the Fiscal Cliff Happens

Turn off the TV. Until Congress reaches a deal, the media will find little else to talk about. The endless chatter will create the mistaken impression that the whole country is going down the tubes and gloom is everywhere. Reality is a bit more uplifting: The housing market is recovering, consumers are feeling better about their finances, and a real recovery might even take hold--if only Washington would do its job.

So it has come to this. The stagnant economy is showing signs of life, except that a dysfunctional Congress seems intent on snuffing it out. We have arrived at the fiscal cliff.

Call your representatives in Congress. You, dear citizen, have an important role to play in the fiscal-cliff drama, by vocally expressing your outrage as Congress threatens to tank the economy. When enough of you demand action, Congress will act.

Rick Newman is the author of Rebounders: How Winners Pivot From Setback To Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.

So we may have to deal with the fiscal cliff for a while. Here are five ways to do it:

That would depend, of course, on Washington politicians ultimately doing the right thing. For some, that may seem too risky a bet. Gambling on a happy outcome in Washington takes a lot more guts than it used to.

[NEWMAN: The Right Way to Resolve the Fiscal Cliff]

The broader point is that blowing deadlines and creating panic, for better or worse, is part of the American political process. Panic itself may even help clinch a final deal, if, for instance, the stock market craters. So if that happens, keep in mind that it's all part of the script.

Get some cash ready. One plausible scenario is a plunge over the cliff, followed by a three to seven percent drop in the stock market, which puts pressure on the cliff-hagglers to bend just enough to retroactively roll back tax hikes and spending cuts after they go into effect on January 1. This roller-coaster ride might completely unnerve investors, but Wall Street money managers are also telling their clients it could be a perfect opportunity to buy the dip to make a quick profit if stocks rebound following an after-the-buzzer deal.

Pope gives advice as Italians prepare for bitter campaign

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict sent a political Christmas greeting to Italians on Tuesday as they head into an election campaign expected to be brutal and bitter: think, cooperate for the common good and don't discard values when making big choices.

Riccardi is very influential among Catholics in Italy and could help deliver the Catholic vote for Monti or anyone else who promises to continue his policy of economic reform.

Given that Italy's Catholic Church has turned its back on former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - who is trying to make a comeback even though his previous terms were mired in sex scandals and judicial woes - Benedict's words could be far less general and casual than they appear at first glance.

Berlusconi's adversaries accuse him of wanting to return to front-line politics to protect his business interests and regain partial and temporary immunity in trials for corruption and paying for sex with a minor.

Monti has urged Italians to join a debate on their country's future. He declared his availability to lead a reform-minded centrist alliance to seek a second term to complete the economic reform program begun when he took office just over a year ago.

"It's not a specific endorsement for (Prime Minister Mario) Monti but it comes pretty close, given the well-known esteem the outgoing prime minister enjoys (at the Vatican)," the Italian news agency Ansa said of the pope's words.

Italy holds national elections on Feb 24-25 to choose a new parliament and a new government.

Monti, demonstrating the kind of sobriety the Church says Italy needs, has said no one loves taxes but if the property levy is abolished for opportunistic electoral reasons, the move would throw accounts so out of whack that future governments would have to re-introduce it at a higher rate.

Significantly, one of the ministers in Monti's outgoing technocrat government is Andrea Riccardi, founder of the internationally prestigious Catholic peace and charity group, the Sant' Egidio Community.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Bishops Conference, has made it clear where he stands on the issue.

He may yet stay on the sidelines, outside elected office, but still exercising substantial influence over a new centrist grouping that could at the very least help shape the agenda of the next government.

Pope gives advice as Italians prepare for bitter campaign

The former EU Commissioner - once labeled Supermario for his effectiveness in the job - goes to mass every Sunday with his wife of 40 years and has impressed the Vatican with his calmness, sobriety and what the Church sees as a genuine desire to fix Italy's economic problems and avoid social unrest of the kind seen in Greece.

SOBER AND STEADY

"I am shocked by the irresponsibility of people who want to look after their own affairs while the house is still on fire," Bagnasco said.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by Patrick Graham)

Italy's Catholic Church used to support Silvio Berlusconi as a bulwark against leftist governments. But it has made it clear to Berlusconi that this time there will be no blessing.

The pope, in his Christmas greetings in 65 languages, said in his special message to Italians that he hoped the spirit of the day would "make people reflect, favor the spirit of cooperation for the common good and lead to a reflection on the hierarchy of values when making the most important of choices".

In its reaction to Berlusconi's decision to return to politics, Famiglia Cristiana, an influential Catholic magazine with one of Italy's largest weekly circulations, likened him to a "dinosaur" who could throw "the whole country into chaos".

The Church has been embarrassed by the scandals surrounding Berlusconi but at the same time fears the unknown of what a leftist government might do on issues such as gay marriage and euthanasia.

The magazine accused him of selling Italians a mirage and trying to lure them with populist promises, such as the abolition of property taxes on primary residences.

2012年12月26日星期三

Ticket rush- Film fans hand Hollywood record cash

Whether finishing a good year or a bad one, Hollywood executives always look ahead to better days, insisting that the next crop of blockbusters will be bigger than ever. The same goes this time as studio bosses hype their 2013 lineup, which includes the latest "Iron Man," ''Star Trek," ''Hunger Games" and "Thor" installments, the Superman tale "Man of Steel" and the second chapter in "The Hobbit" trilogy.

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While domestic revenues inch upward most years largely because of inflation, the real growth areas have been overseas, where more and more fans are eager for the next Hollywood blockbuster.

http://www.hollywood.com

Domestic revenue should finish up nearly 6 percent from 2011's $10.2 billion and top Hollywood's previous high of $10.6 billion set in 2009.

The year was led by a pair of superhero sagas, Disney's "The Avengers" with $623 million domestically and $1.5 billion worldwide and the Warner Bros. Batman finale "The Dark Knight Rises" with $448 million domestically and $1.1 billion worldwide. Sony's James Bond adventure "Skyfall" is closing in on the $1 billion mark globally, and the list of action and family-film blockbusters includes "The Hunger Games," ''The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part Two," ''Ice Age: Continental Drift," ''Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," ''The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Brave."

Twelve months from now, they hope to be talking about another revenue record topping this year's $10.8 billion.

For all of the annoyances of theaters — parking, pricy concessions, sitting next to strangers texting on their iPhones — cinemas still offer the biggest and best way to see a movie.

It's all been a continual drain on cinema business, and cynics repeatedly predict the eventual demise of movie theaters. Yet Hollywood fights back with new technology of its own, from digital 3-D to booming surround-sound to the clarity of images projected at high-frame rates, which is being tested now with "The Lord of the Rings" prelude "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," shown in select theaters at 48 frames a second, double the standard speed.

"Every home has a kitchen, but you can't get into a good restaurant on Saturday night," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. "People want to escape. That's the nature of society. The adult population just is not going to sit home seven days a week, even though they have technology in their home that's certainly an improvement over what it was 10 years ago. People want to get out of the house, and no matter what they throw in the face of theatrical exhibition, it continues to perform at a strong level."

Movie-going eroded steadily through the 1970s as people stayed home with their small screens. The rise of videotape in the 1980s further cut into business, followed by DVDs in the '90s and big, cheap flat-screen TVs in recent years. Today's video games, mobile phones and other portable devices also offer easy options to tramping out to a movie theater.

International business generally used to account for less than half of a studio film's overall receipts. Films now often do two or even three times as much business overseas as they do domestically. Some movies that were duds with U.S. audiences, such as "Battleship" and "John Carter," can wind up being $200 million hits with overseas crowds.

In this publicity photo provided…

"I've been saying we're going to hit that $11 billion level for about three years now," said Paul Dergarabedian, a box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Next year I think is the year we actually do it."

"It is a victory, ultimately," said Don Harris, head of distribution at Paramount Pictures. "If we deliver the product as an industry that people want, they will want to get out there. Even though you can sit at home and watch something on your large screen in high-def, people want to get out."

Online:

2012年12月25日星期二

US gun support runs far deeper than politics

On the television in the corner of his workshop, above a stuffed gray fox and a clutch of animal jawbones dangling on a ring like a set of keys, Obama is holding his first press conference since the Connecticut tragedy. He's promising to send Congress legislation tightening gun laws and urging them to reinstate a ban on military-style assault weapons, like the one used by Lanza.

He tells a story of standing in the post office one day and hearing about a suspect driving around, wanted by the police. He thought of the woman behind the counter near him.

Gun laws in the U.S. vary from state to state — for instance, as of last month it is now legal to carry a gun in public view in Oklahoma — and are defended by the firearms industry and the NRA. On Friday, the NRA broke a weeklong silence since the Connecticut massacre by calling for armed volunteers at public schools, prompting criticism from many quarters.

"I guess it's something you get used to," he said of guns. "That you grow up around, and you enjoy them, and you accept the fact that you can own. It's a privilege. It's a whole different way of life. I guess I don't need three pick-ups and a Corvette. But I have them."

An NRA poster picturing a bald eagle is taped to the glass door of his office. He started as a lawyer, dabbling in everything from commercial land to trying to block the deportation of an illegal immigrant, before seguing into selling guns.

"I sit at a desk all day. And when I get out to the range, I don't hear any gunfire going on," said Smith, who likens his emotional detachment to his guns to the way he would feel about a car or any other machine. "I'm so intent on my sight alignment, my trigger pull, my position. I don't worry about anything. I don't think about anything. It's relieving. It's therapeutic. Everybody has to have their Zen."

Dave Burdett, who owns an outdoors and adventure shop across the street from the sprawling Texas A&M University campus in College Station, says his affinity for guns is rooted in history, not sport.

In the raw aftermath of the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history, countless gun enthusiasts much like Lanza's mother complicate a gun-owning narrative that critics, sometimes simplistically, put at the feet of a powerful lobby and caricatured zealots. More civilians are armed in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, with Yemen coming in a distant second, according to the independent Small Arms Survey in Geneva.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who famously claimed to have shot a coyote while jogging with a pistol holstered to his running shorts, has signed a half-dozen certificates applauding Smith as one of the state's top marksmen. "But I won't call myself a fanatic," said Smith, 54, whose father first let him handle a gun around age 6.

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Since the school shooting, President Barack Obama has asked for proposals on reducing gun violence that he can take to Congress in January, and he called on the National Rifle Association, the country's most powerful gun-rights organization, to join the effort.

"To me it's obvious — the more people that have guns, or at least in their homes, it's more of a criminal deterrent," said Bill Moos, a local taxidermist in the small town of Bryan, near College Station. Moos, who owns more than 30 guns, can be spotted any given morning, prowling his roughly 40-acre (16-hectare) ranch with his dogs and a shotgun slung over his shoulder.

"It isn't about hunting. Everyone says, 'Well, I can understand having a sporting rifle, but not an AR-15," Burdett said. "But wait a second — the idea of the Second Amendment was to preserve and protect the rights of individuals to have those guns."

In this photo taken Wednesday,…

Moos turns down the volume.

Take Blake Smith, a mechanical engineer who lives near Houston and uses an AR-15 style rifle in shooting competitions.

Others add safety to the list of reasons for allowing people easy access to guns.

When his daughter graduated with a business degree from Texas A&M, Burdett figured she would move somewhere cosmopolitan like Dallas and work in a downtown high-rise. She instead went to work in the store, built her own AR-15 out of spare parts and used it to join what her father described as the "let's-go-pig-hunting-tonight circuit." Those feral hog hunts often include high-powered rifles as well as night-vision goggles.

In this photo taken Wednesday,…

"My first thought was, 'How are you going to protect yourself?' Does she have a gun, in case someone tries to rob her?" he said. "It's the first thing you think of: How are you going to defend yourself?"

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Many think so. Smith, the mechanical engineer, said that includes teenage girls. At national shooting competitions, Smith has run into a group of girls around 13 or 14 years old who call themselves "The Pink Ladies," firing high-powered rifles at targets. He also recalls meeting Australians, whose country bans guns, who told him, "I love to shoot, so I'm going to the U.S."

US gun support runs far deeper than politics Related Content prevnext

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BRYAN, Texas (AP) — Adam Lanza's mother was among the tens of millions of U.S. gun owners. She legally had a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle and a pair of handguns, which her 20-year-old son used to kill 20 children and six adults in 10 minutes inside a Connecticut school.

"Remember that the (American) revolution was fought by citizen soldiers," he added. "To this day, that's one of the cornerstones of our military defense. We have an all-volunteer military."

But in the U.S., gun-control advocates are up against a sizeable bloc of mainstream Americans for whom guns are central to their lives, whether for patriotism or personal sense of safety, or simply to occupy their spare time.

"The other thing is, shooting is fun. It really is," Burdett said.

2012年12月24日星期一

New York town's 'Firefighter of the Year' shot dead responding to blaze

New York town's 'Firefighter of the Year' shot dead responding to blaze
(CNN) -- Seven weeks ago, Michael Chiapperini was in Long Island, helping those suffering after Superstorm Sandy. Two weeks ago, he was named "Firefighter of the Year" for his department in his upstate New York town on Webster.
Monday, he was dead.
A gunman -- later identified as William Spengler, 62 -- apparently set his home ablaze, took up a position on a nearby berm, then shot and killed Chiapperini and fellow firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka. Two other firefighters were wounded, as was an off-duty police officer who was driving through the area.
Gunman ambushes, kills 2 firefighters
Why Spengler, an ex-felon who killed his grandmother in 1980, committed these crimes is unknown.
But authorities say there's no doubt about the quality of the people he killed on Christmas Eve.
"We work with these people everyday, they're like our brothers," Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said of the firefighters shot. "It's terrible."
"These guys are all heroes."
Until Monday, Chiapperini was the person reporters would talk to about killings and other crimes. For the past two decades, he had been a member of the Webster Police Department, rising to the rank of lieutenant and serving as a spokesman.
He was promoted in August 2010, telling the hometown Webster Post, "I want to learn more about the administrative operations of the police department." The paper noted Chiapperini was a decorated police officer who had risen up through the ranks and was married with three children.
Chiapperini served his community outside of the police force.
As a volunteer, he also played an active part in the West Webster Fire Department -- one of three such departments in Webster, a town of about 43,000 people located about 10 miles east of Rochester.
"He's held every line office that the department has had" including chief, fire department spokesman Al Sienkiewicz said.
That includes a hands-on role in the department's Explorer program that encourages high school students to learn about firefighting and perhaps become volunteers themselves.
Chiapperini was also active on the front lines of fires, with his efforts in specific incidents earning him the department's "Firefighter of the Year" award earlier this month, Sienkiewicz said.
Service was a way of life for Chiapperini. For example, around Halloween, he and other firefighters from northern New York headed to Long Island to assist in recovery efforts in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
"He'd been down in Suffolk County to see the destruction, (then) he loses his life this morning, responding to help someone," Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy told reporters Monday in Webster.
"When you start looking at the two who lost their lives and the two that are fighting for their lives, (all are) just tremendous public servants."

2012年12月23日星期日

Bethenny Frankel Separating from Husband Jason Hoppy

Bethenny Frankel Separating from Husband Jason Hoppy
Bethenny Frankel and Jason Hoppy have called it quits after two years of marriage, according to Us Weekly.
RIP Jelena and TomKat! Check out the most shocking celebrity splits
"This was an extremely difficult decision that as a woman and a mother, I have to accept as the best choice for our family," Frankel told the magazine. "We have love and respect for one another and will continue to amicably co-parent our daughter who is and will always remain our first priority. This is an immensely painful and heartbreaking time for us."
The former Real Housewives of New York City star added on Twitter: "I am heartbroken. I am sad. We will work through this as a family."
Photos: Everybody's posing nude! Check out Rihanna and other stars who've bared all
Frankel and Hoppy met in late 2008 before exchanging vows on March 28, 2010, an event which was broadcast during Season 1 of Frankel's Bravo reality series Bethenny Getting Married. Together, the couple have a 2-year-old daughter, Bryn.
According to the magazine, the couple's relationship has become strained after an increase in fighting, mainly over Hoppy's lack of career ambition.
Things you forgot happened this year
Reports about Frankel's marriage ending have been circulating for months, but the reality star previously denied any plans to separate or divorce.

2012年12月18日星期二

Huge crowds vote in SKorean presidential election

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Huge crowds turned out Wednesday to vote in a tight presidential race pitting the son of North Korean refugees against the conservative daughter of a late dictator who both favor greater engagement with rival North Korea.

Despite bitter cold, turnout was higher than past elections, which political analysts said might provide a slight boost to liberal Moon Jae-in over conservative Park Geun-hye in their contest to lead Asia's fourth-largest economy at a time of high tension with rival North Korea.

South Koreans stood in long lines, wrapped in mufflers and parkas. A big turnout could mean large numbers of young people — more likely aligned with Moon — are going to the polls, analysts said. Park's conservative base is comprised mainly of older voters who remember with fondness what they see as the firm economic and security guidance of her dictator father, Park Chung-hee.

Seoul's election watchdog said turnout was about 45 percent as of early afternoon, 9 percentage points higher than five years ago, when current conservative President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory, and 3 percentage points higher than a decade ago when Moon's protege and former boss, liberal Roh Moo-hyun, won.

Wednesday is a national holiday in South Korea. Polls opened at 6 a.m. and were to close at 6 p.m. local time, after which television broadcasters planned to announce results from exit polls predicting a winner.

For all their differences, Moon, who was Roh's former chief of staff, and Park, who belongs to Lee's party, hold remarkably similar views on the need to engage with Pyongyang and other issues.

One big reason: Many voters are dissatisfied with current President Lee, including his hard-line stance on the country's authoritarian rival to the north. Park has had to tack to the center in her bid to become South Korea's first woman president.
Many voters blame inter-Korean tension for encouraging North Korea to conduct nuclear and missile tests — including a rocket launch by Pyongyang last week that outsiders call a cover for a banned long-range missile test. Some also say ragged North-South relations led to two attacks blamed on Pyongyang that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
Earlier polls showed Park and Moon in a dead heat.
"Everything's now at heaven's disposal," Moon told reporters at a polling station in the southeastern port city of Busan. "I have put forward every bit of my energy."
Park, a five-term lawmaker, voted in Seoul and said she would wait for the "people's choice with a humble mind," calling on voters to "open a new era" for their nation.
South Koreans express deepening worry about the economy and disgust over the alleged involvement of aides close to Lee in corruption scandals.
"I skipped breakfast to vote. I've been waiting to vote for five years. I think it's time to change the government," said 37-year-old Kim Young-jin, who voted for Moon at a polling station inside an apartment complex.
At one polling station in Seoul, electric stoves were set up near a long line of young and old voters, some of whom blew on their freezing hands to try to keep warm.
"I believe in Park," Choi Yong-ja, a 59-year-old housekeeper, said as she left a polling station at a Seoul school. "She has abundant political experience."
The effort to create distance with incumbent Lee has been more difficult for Park, whose popularity rests on a staunchly conservative, anti-North Korea base.
Both candidates propose pulling back from Lee's insistence that engagement with North Korea be linked to so-far-nonexistent nuclear disarmament progress by Pyongyang. Park, however, insists on more conditions than Moon.

"I wish for at least a path to freely travel to North Korea and communicate" with friends and family, said a 40-year-old North Korean defector who would identify herself only by her surname, No. North Korean defectors are screened and given South Korean citizenship upon arrival.

Moon was a close friend and aide of late President Roh, who championed the so-called "sunshine policy" of no-strings-attached aid for Pyongyang.
Moon wants an early summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Park has also held out the possibility of such a meeting, but only if it's "an honest dialogue on issues of mutual concern."

Whoever wins and moves into the presidential Blue House in February will set the initial tone for new North Korea policy not just in Seoul but in Washington, Beijing and Tokyo. All those governments have recently undergone an election, a change of leadership or both.

A Moon election could lead to friction with Washington if new engagement with Pyongyang comes without any of the reciprocal nuclear disarmament progress that Washington demands from the North.

Moon and Park also agree on the need to fight widespread government corruption, strengthen social welfare, help small companies, close growing gaps between rich and poor, ease heavy household debt and rein in big corporations that have grown so powerful they threaten to eclipse national laws. They differ mainly in how far they want to go.

Moon wants to drastically expand welfare, while Park seeks more cautious improvement in the system, out of concern that expanding too much could hurt the economy, according to Chung Jin-young, a political scientist at Kyung Hee University in South Korea.

Park is aiming to make history as the first female leader in South Korea — and modern Northeast Asia. But she also works under the shadow of her father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea as dictator for 18 years until his intelligence chief killed him during a drinking party in 1979.

Park's father is both an asset and a soft spot. Many older South Koreans revere his strict economic policies and tough line against North Korea. But he's also loathed for his odious treatment of opponents, including claims of torture and snap executions.
A Park win would mean that South Korean voters believe she would evoke her father's strong charisma as president and settle the country's economic and security woes, analyst Chung said.
Moon, on the other hand, was a young opponent of Park Chung-hee. Before working for Roh, whom Lee replaced in 2008, Moon was a human rights lawyer. He also spent time in jail for challenging Park's government.

Moon's parents lived in the North Korean port city of Hungnam before fleeing to South Korea aboard a U.S. military ship in daring evacuation operations in December 1950, six months after the Korean War broke out.

A Moon win would be a clear judgment against the Lee government, said Hahm Sung Deuk, a political scientist at Korea University in Seoul.

Economic worries may be the focus of many voters, but North Korea forced itself as an issue in the closing days of campaigning with its rocket launch last week, which put a satellite into orbit.

The launch won't be a major election influence, but it will consolidate conservative votes in favor of Park, said Hahm. He said the launch will remind South Korean voters that "the North Koreans are unpredictable and belligerent."

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AP writers Foster Klug and Youkyung Lee contributed to this story.

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