Nintendo says it won’t cut Wii U price despite slumping sales

Nintendo (NTDOY) has a lot riding on its latest video game console, but sales have been slow thus far. Gamers have not responded to the bulky new GamePad controller, which could be considered the biggest point of differentiation on the Wii U. As a result, Nintendo recently slashed its sales outlook on Wii U consoles for the March quarter. Following some speculation that Nintendo might cut the price of the Wii U in an effort to bolster sales, the company confirmed alongside its third-quarter results that dropping the console’s price is not an option.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry doesn’t need to catch up with Android and iOS overnight, it needs to live to fight another day]

“With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown,” the company said. “I would like to make this point absolutely clear. We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated. However, given that it has now become clear that we have not yet fully communicated the value of our product, we will try to do so before the software lineup is enhanced and at the same time work to enrich the software lineup which could make consumers understand the appeal of Wii U.”

[More from BGR: Mark Cuban unloads on American patent system, says bad patents are ‘crushing small businesses’]

Nintendo stands firm behind its new console, and the company says it will gain traction once consumers become more familiar with the new GamePad controller and other Wii U features.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Jenna Miscavige Hill Pens Revealing Scientology Book

02/01/2013 at 08:00 PM EST

Jenna Miscavige and her uncle David inset

Michael Murphree; Inset: Polaris

What was it like to grow up inside Sea Org, the Church of Scientology's most elite body?

In her memoir Beyond Belief, excerpted exclusively below, Jenna Miscavige Hill describes her experiences at the Ranch, a San Jacinto, Calif., boarding school for children of Scientology execs. The niece of church head David Miscavige, she was raised away from her parents, then worked within Sea Org until leaving Scientology in 2005.

Now living near San Diego, married to Dallas Hill and mom to their children Archie, 3, and Winnie, 10 months, she's telling her story, she says, to increase awareness about Scientology: "I realize every day how lucky I am to have gotten out." (When asked to comment on the book's portrayal of its members, the church stated they had not read the book but that "any allegations of neglect are blatantly false.")

Jenna's parents, Ron and Blythe Miscavige, high-ranking members of Sea Org, sent both Jenna and her older brother Justin to the Ranch. There, at age 7, in accordance with Scientologists' belief that they are "Thetans," or immortal spirits, Jenna signed a billion-year contract.

I tried to write my name in my best cursive, the way I'd been learning. I had goose bumps. Just like that, I committed my soul to a billion years of servitude to the Church of Scientology.

Sea Org was run like the Navy: Members wore uniforms and managed all aspects of the church. Married members couldn't have kids; those who already did sent them to be raised communally.

A Sea Org member was required to be on duty for at least 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with a break for an hour of 'family time.' I was too young to understand that seeing your parents only one hour a day was highly unusual.

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Healthier schools: Goodbye candy and greasy snacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Goodbye candy bars and sugary cookies. Hello baked chips and diet sodas.

The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful, a change that would ban the sale of almost all candy, high-calorie sports drinks and greasy foods on campus.

Under new rules the Department of Agriculture proposed Friday, school vending machines would start selling water, lower-calorie sports drinks, diet sodas and baked chips instead. Lunchrooms that now sell fatty "a la carte" items like mozzarella sticks and nachos would have to switch to healthier pizzas, low-fat hamburgers, fruit cups and yogurt.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have made improvements in their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunch rooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. And food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has not been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools, and 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says surveys done by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.

That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.

Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.

Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.

Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.

"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."

The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.

Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.

Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .

But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.

Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.

During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.

MOM AND POP STILL WARY

Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.

This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.

"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.

Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.

He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.

Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.

On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.

Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.

Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.

Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 1

NEWS After nearly 10 months of occupation by Islamists fighters, many of them linked with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the people of Timbuktu, Mali, recounted how they survived the upending of their tranquil lives. Lydia Polgreen reports from Timbuktu, Mali.

Israel has pursued a creeping annexation of the Palestinian territories through the creation of Jewish settlements and committed multiple violations of international law, possibly including war crimes, a United Nations panel said Thursday, calling for an immediate halt to all settlement activity and the withdrawal of all settlers. Nick Cumming-Bruce reported from Geneva, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.

Just as Spain’s financial troubles seemed to be diminishing, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has become engulfed in a widening corruption scandal involving payments to the leaders of his Popular Party. Raphael Minder reports from Madrid.

One day after The New York Times reported that Chinese hackers had infiltrated its computers and stolen passwords for its employees, The Wall Street Journal announced that it too had been hacked. Nicole Perlroth reports.

European antitrust officials on Thursday accused the drug giants Johnson & Johnson and Novartis of colluding to delay the availability of a less expensive generic version of a powerful medication often used to ease severe pain in cancer patients. James Kanter reports from Brussels and Katie Thomas from New York.

Across Asia and the Middle East, musicians from the Philippines are seemingly ubiquitous in bars, lounges and clubs. But they are also helping to bolster the Philippine economy. Floyd Whaley reports from Manila.

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, reported a surprise quarterly net loss of $3 billion on Thursday, as new management tallied the cost of past mistakes and tried to draw a line under the bank’s troubled past. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.

Some see the central coastline of Vietnam becoming a world-class beachfront destination along the lines of Phuket and Bali, though regulations for acquisition of property by foreigners remain murky. Mike Ives reports from Da Nang, Vietnam.

ARTS World records were set for some Old Masters on Wednesday. Souren Melikian reports from New York.

SPORTS Almost six years after departing mainstream soccer to pitch camp close to Hollywood, David Beckham will join Paris Saint-Germain. Rob Hughes reports.

For rugby players from Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England, playing well in the Six Nations tournament will be the best way to ensure selection for the famed British and Irish Lions team later this year. Emma Stoney reports from Wellington.

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BlackBerry World is off to a decent start, but it’s missing some big-name apps

When BlackBerry (RIMM) announced that more than 70,000 BlackBerry 10 applications would be available when its new platform launched, users were ecstatic. That big number was too good to be true, unfortunately, as we and many others noticed in our time spent with the BlackBerry Z10. While the app store includes some big names such as Rovio’s Angry Birds and various titles from Electronic Arts (EA) and Gameloft, it still leaves much to be desired. The company is said to be “in talks” to bring popular apps such as Netflix (NFLX) and Instagram to the platform but nothing is certain. Despite all of this, BlackBerry has announced that more than 1,000 of the top app developers are developing for BlackBerry 10.

“Being able to announce 1000 of the top app partners is a testament to the strength of BlackBerry 10, the ease of developing for this powerful new platform, and the remarkable opportunity that it represents for developers and brands alike,” said Martyn Mallick, BlackBerry’s VP of global alliances and business development. “We have focused on bringing the most relevant apps to BlackBerry 10 – whether they are global leaders in their categories, or whether they are regional must-have apps. We are thrilled and want to thank all the developers that have shown such strong support of a platform before it has commercially launched. We share in their excitement and belief in BlackBerry 10.”

Some of the big-name apps that aren’t available on BlackBerry 10 include YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Hulu and perhaps most importantly, Google Maps.

BlackBerry’s press release follows below.

BlackBerry 10 Customers Will Have a Great Selection of Top Apps in Every Category
BlackBerry welcomes more than 1000 of the top app partners with relevant, local content from every region of the globe

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Jan. 31, 2013) – A phenomenal lineup of top brands and applications have committed to the BlackBerry(R) 10 platform, giving the new platform the strongest content offering of any first generation mobile platform at launch. Yesterday at the BlackBerry 10 launch event in New York, BlackBerry(R) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) announced that 1,000 of the top app partners will be making their applications available on the BlackBerry(R) World(TM) storefront. The partners range from leaders in social media to the top games, sports, productivity, lifestyle apps, and more.

BlackBerry Vice President of Global Alliances and Business Development, Martyn Mallick took to the stage yesterday to showcase some of applications committed to BlackBerry 10, and attendees were able to play with some of the applications for the new platform.

“Being able to announce 1000 of the top app partners is a testament to the strength of BlackBerry 10, the ease of developing for this powerful new platform, and the remarkable opportunity that it represents for developers and brands alike,” said Mallick. “We have focused on bringing the most relevant apps to BlackBerry 10 – whether they are global leaders in their categories, or whether they are regional must-have apps. We are thrilled and want to thank all the developers that have shown such strong support of a platform before it has commercially launched. We share in their excitement and belief in BlackBerry 10.”

Here are just some of the apps and games committed to BlackBerry 10. Many of these apps will be available at launch with others to follow:

Business and Productivity
– Bloomberg, BMC Service Desk & Remedy, Box, Cisco WebEx Meetings, Citrix Podio, CNBC, Dictionary.com, Emirates NBD, Harmon.ie, IBM Notes, Traveler, ING DIRECT Canada, Nat West, RBC, RBS, SAP, TD Bank Group and Thomson Reuters

Gaming
- 10tons: Sparkle, Joining Hands, Azkend, King Oddball, Azkend2, Ironworm, Dragon Portal and Boom Brigade 2
- Disney Mobile Games: Where’s My Water? and Where’s My Perry?
– Electronic Arts: A great selection of their top games including, Mass Effect(TM) Infiltrator, Flight Control Rocket, The Sims(TM) FreePlay and MONOPOLY Millionaire
– Fishlabs: Galaxy on Fire
– Funkoi: Alpha Zero
– Gameloft: A great selection of their top games, including Asphalt 7:Heat, The Amazing Spider-Man(TM), Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, The Dark Knight Rises(TM)
– Halfbrick: Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja
– JoyBits: Doodle God & Doodle Devil
– Rovio: Angry Birds Classic, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Bids Space and Angry Birds Seasons
– Square One Games: Square One and InXile
– SEGA: Sonic4(TM) Episode 1
– ZeptoLab- Cut the Rope, Cut the Rope: Experiments
Lifestyle
– AccuWeather, Air Canada, Air France, DStv Mobile, Dr. Oetker Rezeptideen, Easyjet, FlightAware, Flixster, KLM, Manulife Financial, President’s Choice Recipe Box, SkyScanner, Spotcast, StubHub, The Weather Channel, The Weather Network, Tim Hortons TimmyMe(TM), United Airlines, Wikitude, WisePilot, Yellow Pages Group and Zara

Multimedia
– Absolute Radio, Al Jazeera, Allocine, Astral Radio, BBC Worldwide- Top Gear, BubblePix, Channel 4, Corus Entertainment- Radio, Deezer, E! Online, eMusic, Europe 1, Kiss Kube, MTV Italia, Nobex Radio, NOS, N-TV Nachrichten, Occipital 360 Panorama, OxygenLive, Pacemaker, PaperCamera, Rdio, Shahid.net, SiriusXM, Slacker, Songza, SoundHound, TuneIn, and Volu.me
Published Media
– AFP News, Amazon Kindle, CBC (News, Radio, Music, Hockey Night in Canada), Economist, elmundo.es, El Pais, Grazia Italy, Handlesbaltt, kicker, Leo Dictionary, MailOnline, Maxim, News24, New York Times, NU.nl, PressReader, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The London Evening Standard, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Wirtschaftswoche
Social
– Badoo, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, ooVoo, Skype, Tuenti Social Messenger, Twitter, Viber, Whatsapp and Xing
Sports
CBSSports.com, ESPN ScoreCenter, Goal.com, L’equipe, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s Maple Leafs Mobile App and Raptors Mobile App, MLB.com At Bat(R), NHL GameCenter, PGA Tour, Runtastic, Sports Tracker and UFC

Continuing to build out a rich and robust content offering for BlackBerry 10 customers, on January 28, BlackBerry announced content partnerships with leading music labels, movie studios and TV broadcasters making BlackBerry World a one stop shop for all app, games and multimedia content for BlackBerry 10.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Steven Tyler Auditions in Drag for American Idol

TV Watch

American Idol

By Steve Helling

01/31/2013 at 10:35 PM EST

Steven Tyler sings before the AFC Championship NFL football game, Jan, 22, 2012

Elise Amendola/AP

Former judge Steven Tyler made a surprise cameo on American Idol Thursday night – dressed as a woman. Calling himself Pepper LaBeija after the famous drag queen featured in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, Tyler wore a blonde wig, snakeskin miniskirt and fake breasts that honked when squeezed. (There will be no "Dude Looks Like a Lady" jokes because, frankly, he didn't.) Looking eerily like Joan Rivers, Tyler blew kisses at the camera and reduced judge Keith Urban to hysterical laughter.

But Tyler's appearance was actually not the most over-the-top performance on Thursday's show. That distinction belonged to Zoanette Johnson, a 19-year-old Tulsa resident who performed an overblown version of "The Star Spangled Banner." It was unclear whether her audition, which featured exaggerated gestures throughout, was elaborate performance art or an authentic effort at singing. The judges looked ambivalent, too, but then unanimously (though reluctantly?) voted for her to advance to the Hollywood round.

Other odd auditions included Halie Hillburn a 26-year-old singing ventriloquist with a puppet named Oscar. He was either a bear or a dog. Whatever he was, the judges told her to lose Oscar and showcase her strong voice instead. Karl Skinner from Joplin, Mo., performed a fitful version of James Brown's "I Feel Good." His voice was pleasant, but he may be a contestant better in small doses.

There was none of the earlier drama between the judges during the show. Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj no longer interact, not even to roll their eyes when the other one speaks. It doesn't feel like polite indifference – it feels like a calculated decision to ignore each other. Either way, their lack of drama has allowed for sweeter moments to shine through.

For example: Sign language teacher Nate Tao, who was raised by deaf parents, performed a version of Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life" that impressed he judges. "You're unassuming," said Randy Jackson before the panel unanimously put him through. "You looked like you were going to do my taxes."

The last contestant of the night was Kayden Stephenson, a 16-year-old battling cystic fibrosis. Looking years younger than his age – with looks reminiscent of a young Aaron Carter – he performed a nice version of Stevie Wonder's "I Wish." Minaj compared him to a "baby Michael [Jackson]," which may have been an overstatement.

In total, 45 singers from the Oklahoma auditions advanced to the next round. We only got to see five of them – which means there are surely some surprises in store when the show heads to Hollywood next week.

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Hedgehog Alert! Prickly pets can carry salmonella

NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.

In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials on Thursday say such cases seem to be increasing.

The CDC recommends thoroughly washing your hands after handling hedgehogs and cleaning pet cages and other equipment outside.

Other pets that carry the salmonella bug are frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, lizards, chicks and ducklings.

Seven of the hedgehog illnesses were in Washington state, including the death — an elderly man from Spokane County who died in January. The other cases were in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.

In years past, only one or two illnesses from this salmonella strain have been reported annually, but the numbers rose to 14 in 2011, 18 last year, and two so far this year.

Children younger than five and the elderly are considered at highest risk for severe illness, CDC officials said.

Hedgehogs are small, insect-eating mammals with a coat of stiff quills. In nature, they sometimes live under hedges and defend themselves by rolling up into a spiky ball.

The critters linked to recent illnesses were purchased from various breeders, many of them licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDC officials said. Hedgehogs are native to Western Europe, New Zealand and some other parts of the world, but are bred in the United States.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

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Asian shares steady; regional PMI data dampens mood

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares were on the defensive on Friday after a series of surveys on factory output signaled a tough outlook for the region's manufacturers, though Japanese equities were a notable exception, logging their longest winning run in 54 years on a weaker yen.

European markets are likely to inch higher, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open up as much as 0.2 percent.

A 0.3 percent rise in U.S. stock futures suggested a firmer open on Wall Street. <.l><.eu><.n/>

Several surveys on Friday suggested Asia's manufacturers face a challenging business climate in the coming months, with China's vast factory sector managing only a shallow rebound at the start of 2013 as feeble foreign demand dragged on sales.

Two separate surveys of China's purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed that factory output in the world's second-biggest economy rose in January, but the pace of the revival in activity was uneven.

China's official PMI logged a reading of 50.4, easing from December's 50.6 and below forecasts for a nine-month high of 50.9. A separate private sector PMI released by HSBC, however, rose to a two-year high of 52.3.

"It seems new orders for exports have declined even when new orders overall rose, suggesting that infrastructure spending and other investment to spur domestic demand is needed to keep (China's) economy growing," said Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory.

"But it's not going to change the view about the Chinese economy recovering. The official data was just neither good nor bad."

Other PMI releases showed manufacturing growth slowed or stalled in India and South Korea, while factories in Indonesia said business shrank in January from December for the first time in eight months.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was little changed by mid-afternoon after swinging up and down 0.2 percent during the day. It was set for a weekly gain of 0.6 percent and 2.6 percent so far this year.

A 0.9 percent jump to a 21-month high in resources-reliant Australian shares <.axjo> helped the pan-Asian index out of the negative territory, but weak Hong Kong shares <.hsi> capped the index.

The commodity-linked Australian dollar fell 0.3 percent to session lows around $1.0382.

"Australia is a high-yielding country and there are a lot of foreign funds coming here and that is supporting the market," said Macquarie Equities division director Lucinda Chan.

Investors' focus now turns to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which will likely show a rise of 160,000 jobs and the jobless rate staying steady at 7.8 percent.

Manufacturing purchasing managers' indexes from the United States and the euro zone, as well as the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index, are also due later in the session.

The euro added 0.3 percent to $1.3623 to the dollar, after earlier reaching a fresh 14-month high of $1.3634. The common currency's strength has pushed the dollar index to a one-month low of 79.078 <.dxy>.

"The euro revival looks set to continue for some time, as investors return to euro zone bond markets, content with the combination of the European Central Bank backstop for sovereign risk and low inflation danger due to lack of economic growth. The dollar bloc looks to be a key loser in the portfolio reallocation back into EUR," Westpac bank said in a note.

Asia official PMI: http://link.reuters.com/baq77s

China PMI: http://link.reuters.com/qaf92t

Asset returns in 2013: http://link.reuters.com/dub25t

S&P 500 vs Treasury yield: http://link.reuters.com/ren65t

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YEN STILL UNDER PRESSURE, NIKKEI SHINES

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average <.n225> closed at a fresh 33-month high, bolstered by the yen's decline to new lows, and logged its 12th straight week of gains, the longest run of weekly gains since 1959. The benchmark index rose 0.5 percent. <.t/>

The dollar advanced further against the yen, up 0.6 percent to 92.25 yen, having earlier hit its highest since June 2010 of 92.27. The euro extended gains, soaring 1 percent to its highest since April 2010 of 125.75.

The yen also plunged to its lowest since August 2008 against both the Australian dollar, at 95.84 yen, and against the New Zealand dollar at 77.58 yen.

"The yen selling is seen as a safe bet because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has not faltered on his election pledge about beating deflation, highlighting the government's resolve," said Kimihiko Tomita, head of forex at State Street in Tokyo.

Oil and copper prices firmed and the euro extended gains against the dollar, reflecting a recent trend of improving sentiment across asset classes, underpinned by easing stress in the euro zone and a generally positive global economic outlook.

"Chinese data should get stronger into the second quarter. Global indicators are improving, so it makes sense to a certain extent that speculators are taking another look at copper," said analyst Bonnie Liu of Macquarie in Singapore.

London copper added 0.6 percent to $8,213.50 a tonne.

U.S. crude futures inched up 0.1 percent to $97.56 a barrel while Brent hit its highest in over three months at $115.91.

(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne and Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Eric Meijer and Shri Navaratnam)

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India Ink: Gandhi's Relationship With Kallenbach Focus of New Exhibition in Delhi

“My Dear Lower House,” begins one letter, from Hermann Kallenbach, to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, dated Aug. 20, 1912.

“We are to blame for all the misery in the world and therefore all the imperfections of our surroundings. They will be perfect when we are.”

In the letter, Mr. Kallenbach requests that Gandhi meet him to discuss “Tolstoy Farm,” a project that Mr. Kallenbach, an architect by profession, was financing by giving Gandhi a gift of land in Johannesburg.

It is signed “With love, your sinly [sincerely] — Upper House.”

The letter is one of dozens of documents and photos on display in an exhibition that opened Wednesday at the National Archives of India in New Delhi. The exhibition centers on the intimate and loving friendship between Gandhi and his German-Jewish friend, Mr. Kallenbach.

Wednesday was the 65th anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination in New Delhi.

The “Gandhi-Kallenbach papers,” as the documents that make up the exhibition are known, were purchased by the Indian government from the Kallenbach family for $1.1 million last year, on the back of controversy over the nature of their friendship.

In a book about Gandhi’s time in South Africa, Joseph Lelyveld, a former New York Times executive editor, detailed the relationship between the two men. The book was denounced by some in India, who believed it portrayed the man often called the “father of the nation” as a homosexual.

“It is clear from these letters, there was a deep emotional attachment that Gandhi shared with Kallenbach,” Mushirul Hasan, director general of the National Archives, said in an interview. But Mr. Hasan dismissed the idea that the two men shared a sexual relationship.

“Gandhi as a person tended to get very enthusiastic about certain relationships, and expressed the intensity in words that conveyed the impression that it is more than a normal relationship,” he said.

Most of the documents on display center on Gandhi’s life in South Africa, including the management of Tolstoy farm and the growth of the nonviolent resistance movement that Gandhi led there. The exhibition also includes correspondence between the families of the two men and letters to their acquaintances.

Gandhi was not the only one who had a special term of address for Kallenbach; his secretary Mahadev Desai in a letter dated Aug. 23, 1937, refers to Kallenbach as “dear Uncle Hanuman,” a reference to the Hindu monkey-god.

Also on display are photographs of Gandhi and Kallenbach in their younger years, life on Tolstoy farm and Kallenbach with Gandhi’s sons, grandchildren and other leaders of the Indian national movement.

Spread across two spacious halls at the National Archives, the public exhibition was inaugurated by the minister of culture, Chandresh Kumari Katoch, and will continue until Feb 15.

The Kallenbach family was originally planning to auction the papers through Sotheby’s, but then came the controversy over Mr. Lelyveld’s book, which heightened interest in what they contained.

“It cost us a lot of money,” Mr. Hasan said. “The controversy raised the price of the papers.”

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