A close look at compact megazoom cameras

The lenses get longer, but the bodies get smaller. Pretty amazing. These four cameras offer wide-angle lenses with long zooms, giving you a lot of shooting flexibility, but without the bulk of larger dSLR-style megazooms.

Canon PowerShot SX260 HS

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: Shooting modes are for every type of photographer, casual to advanced. There is a useful long zoom lens with excellent image stabilization, and overall excellent photo and video quality for a compact megazoom.

The bad: Menus and controls can take getting used to, battery life is short and photos get noticeably softer-looking indoors or in low light.

The cost: $209 to $325.99

The bottom line: The wider, longer lens, a few much-needed design tweaks, and excellent photo quality add up to one pretty great compact megazoom.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: Excellent design and feature set, including an ultrawide-angle 20x zoom lens, GPS and semimanual and manual shooting modes, as well as fast shooting performance and improved low-light photo quality from previous versions.

The bad: Using all of the high-performance features, such as the near-pointless touch screen, can cut into battery life. Also, photos are noisy and soft when viewed at 100 percent.

The cost: $229.99 to $294

The bottom line: The zoom lens might be the main attraction, but the camera is all-around excellent.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX30V

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: Excellent photo and video quality for its class, fast shooting performance and plenty of shooting options for everyone.

The bad: It’s expensive, especially when compared with competing models. It’s not the easiest to use and the feature set is so deep it might be overwhelming for some users.

The cost: $299.99 to $419.99

The bottom line: The feature-rich camera has a great mix of speed and photo quality.

Samsung WB850F

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)

The good: A feature-packed compact megazoom with a versatile lens, very good picture quality and excellent Wi-Fi capabilities.

The bad: Shooting performance is a bit mixed, battery life is mediocre and interface, while very good, can take some time to learn.

The cost: $288 to $379.99

The bottom line: For snapshooters looking to enter the world of connected cameras, this is a good place to start.

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'Gun bounty' suspects open fire on Miami-Dade cops; 1 suspect wounded, another at large

A wounded suspect was in custody Tuesday morning after a pair of men opened fire on Miami-Dade police at a Florida City home and officers returned fire.

A search is on for the second suspect.

According to Miami-Dade police, officers on Monday night went to a residence at 326 NE Eighth Ave. after receiving a "gun bounty tip," police said Tuesday morning.

"As the officers approached the residence, two subjects immediately open fire at the officers. The officers returned fire and both subjects fled the area," police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said.

Police found one of the suspects, wounded by gunfire, in an area hospital. They did not release his name nor the names of the officers involved.

The second suspect remains at large.

Police recovered two guns outside of the Florida City house.

No officers were injured in the trade of gunfire that happened just before 9 p.m.

Late Monday night, a police helicopter and K-9 units circled the area with a giant spotlight apparently searching for suspects. A six-block radius around the shooting was closed off to traffic.

This article will be updated when more details become available.

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Bachelor Recap Sean's Sister Provides Perspective on Tierra

Apparently there is one girl whose words have weight enough to sway The Bachelor from his affections for Tierra, and that's his sister Shay.

One week prior to the all-important hometown dates, Sean flies his sister to St. Croix to help him work out his feelings for the remaining six. Harking back to her sage, sisterly advice before he embarked on his Bachelor adventure, Shay tells Sean not to "end up with a girl no one likes." The words strike a painful chord with him seeing as Tierra's alienation from the other ladies is no longer a secret.

Pics: 'The Bachelor' Scorecard (Did the Relationships Sizzle or Fizzle?)

Inspired to test his sister's intuition, Sean decides to introduce Tierra to his sibling, but when he arrives to the ladies' hotel, the resident mean girl is found weeping after an all-out war of words with AshLee. At first dismayed by her pain, Sean comes to realize the humane thing to do would be to send Tierra home, fearing she won't be able to handle the more stressful weeks ahead.

"I can't believe they did this to me!" are Tierra's departing words as she is sent packing. "I hope the girls got what they wanted."

During the final rose ceremony in St. Croix, Lesley is cut loose from the remaining five. Despite their incredible connection and friendship, Sean worries that the relationship had gone stagnant.

Pics: Meet 'Bachelor' Sean Lowe's Lucky Ladies!

A confused, crying Catherine takes Lesley's elimination especially hard as she believed that Sean and Les, in her opinion, were better suited for eachother than she will ever be with Mr. Lowe.

Next Monday on ABC, Desiree, Lindsay, Catherine and AshLee will get to introduce their maybe-husband-to-be to the family, but it seems the hometown dates don't go over as well for Des in particular, whose protective brother appears unwilling to accept her "playboy" boyfriend.

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North Korea conducts third controversial nuke test, warns of second and third measures

REUTERS

A monitor at the Japan Meteorological Agency's earthquake and tsunami observations division shows ground motion data from the nuclear test in North Korea.

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea said Tuesday that its widely condemned nuclear test was merely its "first response" to what it called U.S. threats, warning that it will continue with unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity" if the United States maintains its hostility.

The United States and others called the test a violation of U.N. resolutions. Even North Korea's only major ally, China, voiced opposition. But the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the test was a "self-defensive measure" that does not violate any international law.

The underground nuclear test in the remote, snowy northeast could be a crucial step toward the North's goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the United States.

President Barack Obama, who was scheduled to give a State of the Union address later Tuesday, said nuclear tests efforts "do not make North Korea more secure." Instead, North Korea has "increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," he said in a statement.

The test was a defiant response to U.N. orders that North Korea shut down its atomic activities or face more sanctions and international isolation, as well as a direct message from young leader Kim Jong Un to the United States, the North's No. 1 enemy since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea was punished by more U.N. sanctions after a December launch of a rocket that the U.N. and Washington called a cover for a banned missile test. The North said it was a peaceful, and successful, bid to send a satellite into space.

The timing is significant. The test in an underground tunnel came hours before Obama's speech and only days before the Saturday birthday of Kim Jong Un's father, late leader Kim Jong Il, whose memory North Korean propaganda has repeatedly linked to the country's nuclear ambitions.

This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, and in late February South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye will be inaugurated.

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U.S. Century to OK details of new deal

U.S. Century Bank is expected to sign off on Monday on its letter of intent — the framework for a plan to recapitalize the bank.

Under the deal, a local group of investors, led by Jimmy Tate of Tate Capital and Sergio Rok of Rok Enterprises, will bring in fresh capital and wipe out the Doral bank’s bad loans, while allowing it to operate independently.

The investor group is expected to inject $50 million in capital into the bank, becoming majority owners. In addition, the group will pay about $90 million to buy certain loans, including all $98 million of U.S. Century’s non-performing loans, said U.S. Century President and Chief Executive Carlos J. Dávila. The deal would also provide for a negotiated amount to be paid to the federal government to repay U.S. Century’s $50.2 million in TARP funds.

A definitive agreement, based on the letter of intent, is expected next month. Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal could be completed by mid-year, Dávila said.

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With millions at stake, tutoring lobby goes into action

Second of two parts

Every year for nearly a decade, private tutoring companies have made millions in Florida because the federal government required school districts to hire them.

That was in danger of changing last February, when the state won freedom from mandated private instruction for poor children in the state's worst schools.

But the tutoring industry wasn't letting go without a fight.

At the end of last year's legislative session, Florida became a key target as the tutoring lobby battled to retain funding.

The effort paid off in March, when state lawmakers quietly voted to keep the money flowing.

The moment marked a major victory for the tutoring industry, but, as the Tampa Bay Times reported on Sunday, it also ensured the survival of a program that is shot through with cheating, opportunism and fraud.

In tracing the new law from the agenda books of a special interest group to the pages of state statutes, the Times reviewed public records and interviewed legislators, lobbyists, education officials and advocates.

It found that the push to fund tutoring in Florida was part of a national campaign by the industry, an undertaking that failed in other places but succeeded in Tallahassee.

To save tutoring, the industry formed a nonprofit group that sold the effort as a civil rights struggle, spent $2.4 million on campaign contributions and lobbying fees and pushed legislation in states across the country.

In New York and Maryland, tutoring companies and their lobbyists battled fiercely for a law requiring funding and still made no headway.

In Florida, all it took was a phone call.

Rallying support

By the summer of 2010, midway through President Barack Obama's second year in office, tutoring companies that had thrived on government contracts knew they were in trouble.

Industry groups were expecting the administration to gut requirements for private tutoring, known as supplemental educational services, that made up a key part of President George W. Bush's education reform act, No Child Left Behind.

What the industry needed was a campaign to rally people who otherwise might not show support. The solution? Defend subsidized tutoring as a civil rights cause.

Steve Pines, head of the Education Industry Association, previewed the strategy in a PowerPoint presentation for tutoring companies in June 2010. His organization, a trade group for for-profit education businesses, would spend $1.5 million to help launch a nonprofit called Tutor Our Children.

The new organization would hire lobbyists, create a pro-tutoring website and encourage parents to flood public officials with support for mandated tutoring, all while positioning the campaign as a fight for civil rights.

It cultivated ties to the Urban League of Greater Miami and the United Farm Workers of America. In April 2011, it organized a panel discussion in Washington called "Waiving Away Education Civil Rights."

In October 2011, Tutor Our Children announced it had hired a spokeswoman, Stephanie Monroe, a Washington lobbyist who formerly served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights in the Bush administration.

About a week later, Monroe testified in a Senate hearing on the organization's behalf.

The same day, the group posted on its website a photo of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. It showed an inscription — a quote from King — that reads in part: "Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights."

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Alicia Keys on Record-Breaking Super Bowl Anthem

Alicia Keys was praised for putting her unique twist on the national anthem at Super Bowl XLVII, and she opened up about the experience to Nancy O'Dell on the Grammys red carpet.

PICS: Grammys Fashion

"It felt like a dream actually because it was such a moment and I'd never done that before and I really put a lot of beautiful time into it, so it was an incredible high," Keys gushed.

The Grammy winner's rendition of The Star Spangled Banner was recorded as the longest that the big game has ever seen, according to USA Today. The song was reportedly timed at 156.4 seconds, four seconds longer than the previous record held by Natalie Cole.

February has been an especially busy month for Keys, as she is also preparing for her Set the World on Fire tour that launches March 7 in Seattle.

"This tour is going to take it to the next stratosphere," Keys said. "It's going to be a visual, emotional and sonic experience that you're not going to be able to resist."

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Pope Benedict XVI resigning on Feb. 28 due to age, health concerns

REUTERS

Pope Benedict XVI leaves at the end of a mass at the St. Peter Basilica in Vatican February 9. Pope Benedict will step down as head of the Catholic Church on Feb. 28, the Vatican confirmed Monday.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28 — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

He emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope — the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide — requires "both strength of mind and body."

"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," he told the cardinals. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

"However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary — strengths which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.

Benedict called his choice "a decision of great importance for the life of the church."

The move sets the stage for the Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn't have to be observed.

There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner — the same situation when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.

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U.S. Century to OK details of new deal

U.S. Century Bank is expected to sign off on Monday on its letter of intent — the framework for a plan to recapitalize the bank.

Under the deal, a local group of investors, led by Jimmy Tate of Tate Capital and Sergio Rok of Rok Enterprises, will bring in fresh capital and wipe out the Doral bank’s bad loans, while allowing it to operate independently.

The investor group is expected to inject $50 million in capital into the bank, becoming majority owners. In addition, the group will pay about $90 million to buy certain loans, including all $98 million of U.S. Century’s non-performing loans, said U.S. Century President and Chief Executive Carlos J. Dávila. The deal would also provide for a negotiated amount to be paid to the federal government to repay U.S. Century’s $50.2 million in TARP funds.

A definitive agreement, based on the letter of intent, is expected next month. Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal could be completed by mid-year, Dávila said.

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Miami-Dade mayor disappointed at Major League Baseball over All-Star Game

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was swept into office in part because of his opposition to the public financing for the Marlins’ new baseball stadium.

But that doesn’t mean he was happy when Major League Baseball awarded the 2015 All-Star Game to Cincinnati. Marlins President David Samson said last year he hoped to host the game, continuing a streak of All-Star games at new ballparks. That was before the team decimated its roster and chopped its payroll after last season.

After MLB Commissioner Bud Selig made the Cincinnati announcement last month, Gimenez sent him a letter expressing his disappointment. And the mayor phoned Selig last week, according to Gimenez’s calendar.

“[N]ow that the facility is built and operating, it is my responsibility to ensure its greatest benefit to our residents,” Gimenez wrote.

“Public sentiment regarding the Stadium is at an all-time low, and now we are further disappointed by the recent announcement...[I]t is clear that Miami has been benched once again, this time by Major League Baseball.”

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