Singapore Conversation turns to animal welfare

SINGAPORE: A more inclusive society for animals or tougher rules for buying a pet were some suggestions animal lovers brought up at a dialogue on Saturday.

It was also the first time the Singapore Conversation - an initiative to get Singaporeans to come to a consensus on the kind of future they want - focused on animal welfare.

Saturday's event was jointly organised by the Agency for Animal Welfare, the Our SG Conversation Committee and the Singapore Kindness Movement.

Two working dogs - Esme and Joel - were present at the dialogue.

They were there to receive an inaugural Great Pet award given out by the Agency for Animal Welfare to pets which have served their owners in extraordinary ways.

Esme works as a guide dog for her visually impaired master, while Joel is a health service dog who can alert family members during a medical emergency at home.

Awareness of working dogs in Singapore remains low.

Hence animal lovers at the dialogue urged more shops and restaurants to welcome these dogs and their owners.

Their vision is an inclusive Singapore, for animals, too.

But pet owners need to do their part.

A keyword heard throughout the dialogue was "responsibility" - the responsibility of pet owners.

Abandonment cases in Singapore are unfortunately common. Hence some said the process of buying and owning a pet should be made tougher.

One of them is business owner Jill Hum, who said: "It's just far too easy for someone to buy a pet. It's not just buying candy or a teddy bear from the toy store. It's a live animal, you need to know how to take care of the pet. You need to know it's a lifelong commitment."

Others like Melanie Lee want an outright ban on live animals in pet stores.

"If pet shops can be legislated such that they can't have any live pets for sale, that would really help, because we have so many dogs out there - strays dogs, dogs up for adoption that do not have a home right now."

MP for Nee Soon GRC Associate Professor Faishal Ibrahim said the issue will require consultation with relevant stakeholders.

But the dialogue must go on.

"What we need to do is continue to develop and deepen this journey, so that ten years down the road, we will have a more gracious society," said the MP.

One way that can happen, participants said, is to inject the importance of animal welfare into the education system.

- CNA/ir

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Alabama hostage standoff enters 5th day

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The suspect has been identified as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes


• Dykes is accused of killing a school bus driver and abducting a child


• Authorities have said there is no connection between Dykes and the boy

Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- As an armed standoff entered its fifth day Saturday, authorities negotiated through a ventilation pipe with a man accused of barricading himself and a 5-year-old hostage in an underground bunker in southeastern Alabama.

Police have been tight-lipped about a possible motive since the hostage drama began unfolding in Midland City with the shooting of school bus driver and the abduction of the 5-year-old.

In a sign of perhaps how tense negotiations are between authorities and the suspect, officials have refused to detail what, if any, demands have been made by the suspect.

On Friday, the Dale County sheriff did confirm what neighbors have been saying and news outlets around Midland City have been reporting since the standoff began -- the suspected gunman's identity.

He is Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, a Vietnam veteran and retired truck driver who moved to the area about five years ago.

Charles Poland was fatally shot in Alabama on Tuesday.

The sheriff's department released a photo of a gray-bearded, unsmiling Dykes and brief physical description: white male, 6 feet tall, weighing 170 pounds with brown eyes and gray hair.

Suspect Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, is a Vietnam War veteran and retired truck driver.

This much is known, according to police and witness statements: On Tuesday at about 3:40 p.m., bus driver Charles Poland Jr. was shuttling children from school to their homes when he dropped children off and the gunman boarded the bus.

The gunman demanded that Poland, 66, hand over two children. Poland refused, blocking access to the bus's narrow aisle as at least 21 children escaped out of the back emergency door, according to police.

The gunman shot Poland four times, killing him; grabbed the boy and then barricaded the two of them inside a nearby bunker.

It's unclear whether the gunman was after a specific child on the bus. Police have said there is no connection between the suspect and the abducted boy, whose identity is being withheld.

The suspect, who police have identified as Dykes, is holed up in a bunker 4 feet underground and built at least partially out of PVC pipe, authorities have said.

A hostage negotiator has been communicating with the alleged gunman through a 60-foot-long plastic ventilation pipe in an effort to end the standoff.

Authorities believe the boy is physically unharmed.

The suspect agreed to let police send down coloring books, crayons and prescription medication that the boy needs for treatment for Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit disorder, State Rep. Steve Clouse told CNN.

Neighbors have said the bunker has electricity, and Dykes has been known to stay in it for up to eight days, said James Arrington, the police chief in nearby Pinckard.

Dykes has been described as a self-styled survivalist with "anti-government" views, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch.

As negotiations continue, preparations were under way for Poland's funeral.

The late school bus driver will be memorialized Saturday night at a visitation service, followed by a funeral service Sunday at the Ozark Civic Center.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley praised Poland for protecting the children on his bus.

"He stood in that place, and when that man came to take two children, he said no. And he lost his life because of that ... he did his job, and I'm proud of him as the governor but I'm just proud of him as a human being," he said.

CNN's George Howell reported from Midland City and Chelsea J. Carter wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Joe Sutton, Greg Botelho and Tristan Smith contributed to this report.

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Twitter: 250,000 users' data compromised in hacking attacks

#1157946: Twitter bird logo, social networking and microblogging service, graphic element on white / AP Graphics

Twitter said today that it recently detected a series of attempts to hack into user data, and that the attackers may have successfully absconded with some users' information.

In a blog post Friday afternoon, Twitter explained the situation, and the steps it has taken to fight off the hackers.

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information - usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords - for approximately 250,000 users. As a precautionary security measure, we have reset passwords and revoked session tokens for these accounts. If your account was one of them, you will have recently received (or will shortly) an email from us at the address associated with your Twitter account notifying you that you will need to create a new password. Your old password will not work when you try to log in to Twitter.

Twitter said in the post that a very small number of users were affected by the hacking, but it encouraged everyone who uses the service to ensure that they are practicing "good password hygiene, on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet." Among its suggestions: using unique passwords of at least ten characters, including a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Based on attacks on other high-profile tech and media companies, Twitter also said it is recommending the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's recent advisory on disabling Java, among other precautions.

This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.

This article originally appeared on CNET under the headline "Twitter says 250,000 users' data compromised in hacking attacks"

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Gov's Handling of Sandusky Case Under Investigation

The newly-elected attorney general of Pennsylvania is going after the state's governor, Tom Corbett, who was attorney general when child sex allegations against Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky were first brought forward.

Kathleen Kane, a Democrat who was sworn in as attorney general on Jan. 15, said that she will name a special prosecutor in the coming days to investigate Corbett's handling of the Sandusky case. Corbett is a Republican.

The investigation will look specifically at why it took the attorney general's office three years to bring criminal charges against Sandusky while he continued to have access to children.

"Attorney General Kane will appoint a special prosecutor to lead the office's internal investigation into how the Sandusky child abuse investigation was handled by the Office of the Attorney General," Kane's office said in a statement released today.

Corbett's attorney general's office was first notified of the allegations against Sandusky in 2008 when a high school student told his mother and school that Sandusky had molested him. The local district attorney passed the allegation on to the attorney general, then Corbett. Corbett convened a grand jury.

Mario Tama; Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Jerry Sandusky Insists Innocence Before Sentencing Watch Video

Jerry Sandusky Sentencing: Why Did He Release Statement? Watch Video

Jerry Sandusky Claims Innocence in Audio Statement Watch Video

It wasn't until 2011 that sex abuse charges were filed against Sandusky while Corbett had since become governor. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sex abuse in June 2012.

The charges sent shockwaves throughout Pennsylvania, as Penn State's president, two top officials, and legendary coach Joe Paterno all lost their jobs over the scandal.

"Why did it take 33 months to get Sandusky off the streets? Was the use of a grand jury the right decision? Why were there so few resources dedicated to the investigation? Were the best practices implemented?" the statement from Kane's office read.

"At the end of this investigation, we will know the answers to these questions and be able to tell the people of Pennsylvania the facts and give them answers that they deserve," the statement said.

Describing an interview Kane gave the New York Times, the Times said Kane suggested that Corbett did not want to upset voters or donors in the Penn State community before his gubernatorial run in 2009.

Corbett has denied those suggestions. His office did not immediately return calls for comment.

Kane's office preemptively fought back against the idea that the investigation is politically motivated. Kane, a Democrat, defeated the incumbent attorney general, Linda Kelly, a Republican in November 2011. Corbett is a Republican.

"The speculation that this is about politics is insane," a staff member in Kane's office told ABC News today. "You go anywhere in Pennsylvania and anywhere across the country and you'll find individuals asking, 'why did it take three years? Why was there a grand jury? Why make these kids talk to 30 different people about what happened?"

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Reality check needed on immigration?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Howard Kurtz: The mainstream media are rooting for immigration policy changes


• Kurtz: Is enthusiasm causing the media to overestimate the prospects for reform?


• He says the Republican House has been a graveyard for numerous Obama reforms


• Kurtz: Illegal immigration still arouses visceral opposition among some Americans

Editor's note: Howard Kurtz is the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and is Newsweek's Washington bureau chief. He is also a contributor to the website Daily Download.

(CNN) -- The mainstream media -- you know who you are -- are rooting for immigration reform.

They like the idea of doing something to accommodate the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants, who, despite conservative rhetoric to the contrary, were never going to be banished.

They swoon over the kind of bipartisanship that brings together John McCain and Marco Rubio on the one hand and Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer on the other.

Howard Kurtz

They believe the Republican Party needs to moderate its harsh rhetoric about immigrants -- if only to salvage its political future -- and are welcoming the GOP's new realism.

But is that enthusiasm causing media organizations to overestimate the prospects for reform?

Watch: Steve Kroft Plays Defense Over Hillary/Obama Lovefest on '60 Minutes'

Any bill still must pass the Republican House, which has been a graveyard for numerous Obama reforms. The Senate has always been a place where top lawmakers reach across the aisle more easily than in the polarized House, as was evident during the fiscal cliff debacle. And there are conservative groups determined to derail any path toward citizenship, which they view as amnesty.

It's not that journalists are acting as cheerleaders for the emerging plan. But when the media have qualms about an issue, they couch it as being "controversial" and "risky" (say, George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security).

Opinion: Immigrant - Can we trust Obama?

By contrast, look at the way the president's immigration speech in Las Vegas was covered:

The New York Times: "Seizing on a groundswell of support for rewriting the nation's immigration laws ..."

The Washington Post: "Obama added to momentum on Capitol Hill in favor of an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws ..."

We saw the same supportive approach when the Pentagon lifted a ban on women serving in front-line combat positions, which, despite some conservative opposition, was greeted with favorable features that largely depicted the move as long overdue.

Watch: Should N.Y. Times Have Censored Company Name Over the S-Word?

As with many perpetual Beltway disputes, the contours of a common-sense compromise on immigration have been clear for some time. The right wants tougher border enforcement and employer verification procedures. The left wants undocumented immigrants taken out of the "shadows," as Obama put it, and given a chance to become openly productive members of society.

The key are the tradeoffs. How long would a path to citizenship take? Are fines and back taxes required? How do we ensure that those who broke the law don't get an unfair advantage over legal applicants?

I don't argue with the standard political analysis that the moment may be ripe for immigration reform.

Watch: Media Seize on Emotional Moment of Gabby Giffords' Testimony

Mitt Romney, who talked about wanting immigrants to "self-deport," got clobbered among Hispanic voters. The GOP has lost the popular vote in five of the past six presidential elections. Sean Hannity, the Fox News commentator, says he has "evolved" on the issue, and he's not alone.

The conservative media may be a bellwether here. After Obama's Tuesday speech, Hannity's leadoff guest was Karl Rove, the former Bush lieutenant who favors the Senate compromise. And when Rubio, the Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, called in to Rush Limbaugh's show, the host -- while criticizing Obama -- told him, "What you are doing is admirable and noteworthy. You are recognizing reality."

Watch: BlackBerry 10: Is It a Hit or All Thumbs?

But illegal immigration remains a divisive subject that still arouses visceral opposition among some Americans. Capitol Hill is a place where partisan maneuvering can push the government to the brink of default. And as George W. Bush learned in his second term, hammering out a compromise on such a volatile issue is maddeningly elusive.

Perhaps the election changed the landscape and both parties will find a way to compromise. In the meantime, it might be wise to take the upbeat media coverage with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Howard Kurtz.

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Indonesia's January inflation rises to 4.57%

JAKARTA: Indonesian inflation hit a four-year high on a monthly basis in January as food prices soared following severe flooding across the country, an official said on Friday.

The monsoonal downpour pushed inflation to 1.03 per cent last month from 0.54 per cent in December, while it also accelerated to 4.57 per cent year on year, from 4.3 per cent, Central Statistics Bureau chief Suryamin said.

"Bad weather in January caused some food prices to increase, including chillies and chicken. Food was the biggest driver of inflation last month," Suryamin told reporters.

However, core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices, eased to 4.32 per cent from 4.4 per cent the previous month.

The country's central bank, Bank Indonesia, has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 5.75 per cent since February, having kept inflation within the target range of 4.5-5.5 per cent.

- AFP/fa

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At least 25 killed in Mexico office blast, dozens injured

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: 25 people were killed and more than 100 are injured, interior minister says


• The explosion collapsed two floors of an office building, paramedics say


• Rescuers have pulled a survivor from the rubble, Mexico's president says


• Crews are searching for people trapped in the building

Lea este artículo en español/Read this article in Spanish

Mexico City (CNN) -- An explosion rocked the offices of Mexico's state oil company Thursday, killing at least 25 people and injuring 101, Mexico's interior minister said.

Dozens of people were trapped in the building after the explosion, Foro TV reported. It was unclear how many of them had been pulled to safety, or whether anyone remained stuck inside late Thursday, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told reporters.

More than five hours after the blast, rescuers had pulled at least one survivor from the rubble, Mexico's president said in a Twitter post.

Crews were still searching Thursday night for people who could be trapped in the Pemex office complex, which includes one of the city's tallest skyscrapers.

Watch: Office explosion rocks Mexico City

Explosion hits Mexican state oil company Pemex

HIDE CAPTION

The explosion occurred in a basement and collapsed two floors of a building adjacent to the well-known tower, said Carlos Javier Rodriguez Jurado, one of the first paramedics to arrive at the scene.

The explosion tore through the building "from the inside out," he said, and rescuers found many people trapped. Six hours after the explosion, Rodriguez said people were likely still stuck in the rubble.

It was unclear what caused the blast, and Mexico's attorney general's office is investigating, Pemex said in a statement.

A large plume of smoke rose near the building after the explosion around 4 p.m. Thursday, and emergency crews swarmed the scene.

"People were screaming. ... You could see pieces of the wall falling to the ground," said Joaquin Borrell Valenzuela, an attorney for the Pemex comptroller's office, who was in a courtyard outside the building at the time of the blast.

Paramedics quickly arrived and started pulling bodies from the rubble.

Are you there? Send us your photos, videos.

"Entering the building, we smelled a strong odor of gas," said Christopher Rangel, a paramedic and firefighter.

Outside the building, frantic family members searched for loved ones, and shaken witnesses described the explosion.

Mario Guzman said he was on the 10th floor of the tower when he felt "a very strong blow."

"We felt like the whole building was going to collapse," he told CNNMexico.

Images from the scene showed emergency rescue teams carrying people on stretchers. Authorities said helicopters carried some of the wounded to hospitals.

At least 14 people were hospitalized with injuries, and two of them were in serious condition, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto surveyed the damage Thursday night, along with Osorio Chong and Mexico City's mayor.

Pena Nieto cautioned against speculating over what caused the blast, and said authorities would be closely investigating.

Thousands of people work at the Pemex headquarters, which includes a 54-story building that is nearly 700 feet tall.

The explosion occurred in an annex building just to the east of the tower, Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade said.

Officials evacuated the complex and operations will cease there until further notice, the company said.

The state oil company's director, who was on a business trip in South Korea this week, said in a Twitter post that he would return to Mexico immediately.

"We will get to the bottom of the causes in close coordination with the authorities," Pemex Director General Emilio Lozoya Austin said. "At this time, attending to the injured is the priority."

Federal troops and rescue dogs were aiding in search efforts late Thursday night.

As they combed through the rubble, a Pemex executive's cell phone rang, Rangel said.

A man on the other end of the line said he was still trapped, and started to describe his location to rescuers.

"Unfortunately, we lost communication with him," Rangel said.

When they called back, his phone didn't ring.

CNN en Español's Krupskaia Alis reported from Mexico City. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta. CNN's Rafael Romo, Edwin Mesa, Christine Theodorou, Rey Rodriguez, Rene Hernandez and CNNMexico's Arturo Ascencion and Javier Rodriguez contributed to this report.

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Former New York Mayor Ed Koch dead at 88

NEW YORKEd Koch, the ebullient former congressman and three-term Democratic mayor of New York City credited with correcting the city's sinking finances in the 1980s, has died at the age of 88.

His spokesman, George Arzt, says Koch died Friday morning of congestive heart failure.

Koch was born in the Bronx in 1924, and his family moved to Newark, N.J., before settling in Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, when he was a teenager. He studied at City College before being drafted into the Army as an infantryman during World War II, serving from 1943 to 1946, and achieving the rank of sergeant.

After the war, Koch became a lawyer and later entered politics as the district leader of Greenwich Village in 1963. In 1969, he was elected as a Democrat-Liberal to the U.S. House of Representatives, eventually serving four terms. While a congressman, he became known for championing social causes.

In 1977, Koch ran for mayor of New York City for the first time, beating in the general election Mario Cuomo, who later became governor of New York. When Koch took over the mayoralty, New York City was suffering from a terrible fiscal crisis, out-of-control crime, and general decay.

Koch brought what some described as a cult of personality to the situation. Former Daily News editor Michael Goodwin told the Gotham Gazette: "Mayor Koch was so in your face for so long that a whole generation of children grew up thinking 'Mayor' was his first name."

With his forceful personality and budget-cutting measures, Koch not only restored the city's terrible credit in his first term and eventually doubled the city's budget to $26 billion, he also improved what many saw as tanking morale amongst its citizens.

Journalist Pete Hamill said of the situation: "When Ed Koch took office on the first of January 1978 there were neither parades, rallies, preparations for bonfires nor any sense of celebration. The fact was that we had gone through such a terrible time there was no reason to celebrate."

Many say Koch turned that city-wide negative feeling around, and while doing so he became known for greeting New Yorkers with his catchphrase: "How'm I doin'?"

While the Koch administration got much credit for righting a sinking ship, it also became tainted by a series of corruption scandals and combative dealings with other politicians and officials, all of which eventually cost him his bid for a fourth term as mayor in 1989, when he lost to David Dinkins.

After leaving the mayor's office, Koch remained in the public eye as a practicing lawyer, lecturer, television personality, newspaper columnist, radio host and author.

Koch was a lifelong bachelor. On the question of his sexuality, he said in a 1998 piece that ran in New York magazine: "Listen, there's no question that some New Yorkers think I'm gay, and voted for me nevertheless. The vast majority don't care, and others don't think I am. And I don't give a s*** either way! What do I care? I'm 73 years old. I find it fascinating that people are interested in my sex life at age 73. It's rather complimentary! But as I say in my book, my answer to questions on this subject is simply F*** off. There have to be some private matters left."

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Columbia Shuttle Crew Remembered 10 Years Later

Iain Clark is a teenager now. He was eight years old when his mother, Dr Laurel Clark, and six other astronauts died when the space shuttle Columbia fell apart in the skies over Texas 10 years ago today.

Iain's father, Dr. Jonathon Clark, told ABC News recently that he and Iain will never really recover.

"There will always be a sense of loss and pain and hurt," said Clark. "I've lost a lot, but I've gained a lot, too. I have a perspective and reverence for life. I have my son, and seeing him through this has been very rewarding -- though it has been difficult, as well."

Feb. 1, the anniversary of the Columbia accident, is the day NASA chooses to remember all the astronauts who have died during missions.

Spaceflight is a risky business. Some of the accidents are well known. Others, not really. But they all illustrate just how dangerous it is to leave our planet and venture into orbit.

Three accidents, in particular, are seared in our memories because NASA's missions have been so dramatic, and so public.

First, there was the fire on Jan. 27, 1967, which killed Apollo 1's crew of Command Pilot "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White and Pilot Roger Chaffee. At the time, NASA was racing to beat the Soviet Union to the moon.

Second was the space shuttle Challenger's accident on Jan. 28, 1986, which was seen live by children across the country because its crew included the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.

Finally, Columbia's accident, on a clear, sunny Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003, as it re-entered from space after a seemingly routine science mission, stunned the country. It also meant the end of NASA's space shuttle program.

This morning at 9:16 a.m. ET, the time Columbia would have landed at the Kennedy Space Center in 2003, there will be a minute of silence. A bell will toll seven times at the Johnson Space Center for the seven astronauts who died on Columbia's final mission, STS 107: Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Michael Anderson, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla and Ilan Ramon.

It took months for the commission investigating the accident to determine the cause: foam. A piece the size of a briefcase broke off one of the shuttle's external fuel tanks, punching a hole in the orbiter's left wing.

The crew of seven knew something was wrong very late during re-entry, but there wasn't anything they or mission control could do to save them or Columbia. It took managers at the Johnson Space Center months to accept that something so simple as a piece of foam could do so much damage.

Wayne Hale, who guided NASA's space shuttle program back from the accident, was the only NASA employee who publicly accepted responsibility for Columbia's accident.

Hale now works in the private sector, but recently wrote in a blog about the internal discussion at mission control while engineers discussed what they thought might be a problem -- but weren't sure.

"After one of the MMTs [mission management teams] when possible damage to the orbiter was discussed," Hale wrote, "[Flight Director Jon Harpold] gave me his opinion: 'You know, there is nothing we can do about damage to the TPS [thermal protection system]. If it has been damaged it's probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don't you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?'

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BlackBerry must remember strengths

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• BlackBerry sales have slumped in the U.S. but is still strong in emerging markets


• New models launched should remember why they are popular in developing world


• In places like Brazil and South Africa, the 10 is the update to their current phone


• in Sub-Saharan Africa there is expected to be 175 million new customers in the next 3 years

Watch Jim Clancy on CNN International's "The Brief" at 4p.m. ET GMT Friday.

(CNN) -- BlackBerry's loss of market share in the U.S. is the stuff of legends. Last fall, it was estimated only about 2% of American phone users were still carrying their BlackBerry mobile with its iconic keypad.

But consider this: sub-Saharan Africa is expected to add 175 million new mobile users in just the coming 3 years. That's according to the GSMA, which represents the world's mobile operators.

"Mobile has already revolutionized African society and yet demand still continues to grow by almost 50 percent a year," said Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA.

That could be good news indeed for BlackBerry. Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, estimates it holds a 70% market share in countries like South Africa.

The company's new phones, announced this week, are not the ones some of its best customers in emerging markets would like to buy. They're too expensive. But Research in Motion -- which also this week changed its company name to BlackBerry -- is pledging some of its six new models will address that.

While millions in China, Europe and the U.S. have adopted Android or iOS smartphones with a vengeance, millions more users in emerging markets are enthused about what's in store for the new BlackBerry 10. It's the update for what many of them are already using.

They live in countries like Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. They have embraced the BlackBerry for a combination of factors that all point to the different way mobile devices are used.

Unlike their counterparts in Europe and America, the mobile in their pocket is more likely to be their primary link to the internet.

BlackBerry Messenger is the connection that allows these users unlimited conversations without paying charges for SMS data. While young, brand-conscious Chinese may be willing to part with several months' salary to buy the latest iPhone, African users are looking for more practical (and cheaper) connections.

What separates developed countries from their developing counterparts at street level can be summed up in a single word: infrastructure.

Isobel Coleman, senior fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations, says mobile technology has proved it can bridge the gap where infrastructure is lacking.

"It's a culture, it's an economy, it's innovation, education, healthcare, it's all of these things," says Coleman.

You can take that to the bank. For many Africans, their cell phone account is the first bank account they've ever owned.

In emerging markets, mobile phone banking is growing because of the lack of infrastructure. Fewer bank branches often mean long distances to travel and long lines once you've arrived.

Africans are expected to transfer more than $200 billion per year or 18% of the continent's GDP by 2015.

Oh, and that keyboard. No matter where you are in the world, there will always be a demand for a keyboard that clicks. The company appears to understand that as BlackBerry 10 models come with both soft keypads and the traditional BlackBerry buttons.

I asked some of my Twitter followers to weigh in on the BlackBerry 10 roll out. While some said Android or Apple's iOS were in their future plans, many others expressed continued enthusiasm for the BlackBerry.

Soji, a pianist and teacher in Nigeria tweeted back "I'm falling in love with this BB. Cheaper to own."

From Kuala Lumpur, Amir wrote "I need a physical keyboard to type while also having a touch-screen for photos etc. Security factor also important."

Hans-Eric from South Africa reinforced the sentiments of many mobile users in emerging markets: "The cost of data is simply too high without it (BlackBerry.)"

The voices from emerging markets couldn't have been clearer. What they expect from BlackBerry 10 is a stronger, longer lasting battery, durability and continued low cost connectivity.

CFR's Coleman agrees that BlackBerry (and anyone else) trying to win and hold this mobile device sector has to understand how these devices are being used and give the customers what they want.

"Cheap. Rugged. Not too many bells and whistles. Practical."

There is little doubt smartphones are changing the way people use the internet, how they bank, shop and interact socially.

But it's worth keeping in perspective that in a world where there are now an estimated 1 billion smartphones, there are 5 billion feature phone users. That's a lot of upside growth potential for BlackBerry and all the other players out there.

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