Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about a problem installing software updates from Apple's Software Update service, how to restore a deleted Notes application in OS X, and options for recording movies and video to your
Mac. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Unable to install software updates
MacFixIt reader Arthur asks:

A friend has an iMac (2008) running Leopard. She received notice that Apple no longer supports Leopard, so I upgraded her to Snow Leopard. Upgrade worked seamlessly with one problem--cannot get updates to work. It opens, moves a bit, then says cannot complete--not connected to Internet. We are connected; all programs open online with no problem and Mail has been updated to open. I get a message that there are 3 processes available--two with dates and one "automatic". I tried all 3 and am rebuffed on all. Message says Internet connection seems to be O.K. but Updates don't work.

Answer:
Try removing the contents of the /Library/Updates/ folder and try again. In addition, try removing the system's cache. To do this, open the Terminal and run the following command:

open $TMPDIR../C

In the Finder window that opens, locate and remove the folder called "com.apple.SoftwareUpdate," and then try the software updates again.

Question: Restoring a deleted Notes application in OS X
MacFixIt reader Alan asks:

I opened Time Machine in the Applications folder, but restoring my missing Notes.app failed with the message:

"Notes.app" can't be modified or deleted because it's required by Mac OS X.

Answer:
Go to the Time Machine backup drive and open the backups.backupdb folder. Then navigate to a backup instance that does contain the Notes application (likely a slightly older one). The backup instances should be listed by date, and each should mirror the file structure of your hard drive.

When you locate the Notes application, select it and press Command-C to copy, then open the Applications folder on your boot drive and press Shift-Option-Command-V to invoke the Paste Exactly command, which will have you authenticate and then should copy the file with root privileges from the source to your Applications folder.

If this does not work, then open the Terminal utility and run the following routine:

1. Type "sudo cp -R" followed by a single space.


2. Drag the Notes application from the backup disk into the Terminal window


3. Now drag your Applications folder from your boot drive to the Terminal window (or simply type /Applications)


4. Press Enter to run the command, and supply your password when prompted.

This should copy the entire Notes application from the Time Machine destination to your applications folder and restore it.

Question: Recording movies and video to your Mac
MacFixIt reader Pieter asks:

Yesterday I saw "Paranormal Activity 4" and in that movie they record everything on their computers. Now I want to know how do you do that?

Answer:
I have not seen the movie, but you can record video to your computer using Apple's iMovie program, QuickTime Player, or Photo Booth. There are also several third-party programs that can do the same thing. You can set up a FireWire or USB camera and have the system record from those external devices as well, instead of only using the built-in iSight camera.

Keep in mind that continuous recording will fill up hard-drive space quickly, but some programs such as security software like Witness will provide continual recording options that will not fill your hard drive.

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Budget deficit set to hit $1 trillion for fifth straight year

WASHINGTON The U.S. annual budget deficit is on track to reach $1 trillion for a fifth straight year, though government revenue jumped last month as people paid some taxes early to avoid higher rates in 2013.

The Treasury Department said Friday that the federal deficit grew just $260 million in December. But for the first three months of the budget year, the deficit widened to $292 billion.

In December, tax revenue rose 12 percent to $270 billion. Spending fell 17 percent to nearly the same amount.

The budget year begins on Oct. 1. The size of the annual deficit will hinge, in part, on how Congress and the White House resolve a debate over raising the nation's borrowing limit. Republicans are demanding deep spending cuts in return for any increase.

The deficit, in simplest terms, is the amount of money the government has to borrow when revenues fall short of expenses. The monthly figures are volatile and can be affected by calendar quirks that shift payments from one month to another.

Much of the December gain in revenue occurred because some companies accelerated bonuses or other payments into 2012 to avoid the possibility of higher taxes in 2013.

And spending fell last month partly because the government provided $14 billion to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in December 2011, after they had lost hundreds of billions from defaulted mortgages in the housing bust. The government didn't make any such payments last month.

The White House and Congress agreed last week to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans this year as part of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. That deal also allowed a Social Security tax cut to expire. But the groups also postponed for two months the implementation of spending cuts that were included in the cliff.

Those cuts are now scheduled to kick in at around the same time the borrowing limit will be reached. And funding authority for most government programs will expire at the end of March.

The government has run annual deficits for more than a decade, although President Barack Obama's presidency has coincided with four straight $1 trillion-plus deficits.

The deficit reached a record $1.41 trillion in budget year 2009, which began four months before Obama was inaugurated. That deficit was largely because of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Tax revenue plummeted, while the government spent more on stimulus programs.

The budget gaps in 2010 and 2011 were slightly lower than the 2009 deficit as a gradually strengthening economy generated more tax revenue.

President George W. Bush also ran annual deficits through most of his two terms in office after he won approval for broad tax cuts and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The last time the government ran an annual surplus was in 2001.

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James Holmes Told to 'Rot in Hell' By Victim's Dad

The father of a young woman allegedly slain by James Holmes in the Aurora movie theater massacre yelled "Rot in hell, Holmes" during a court hearing today.

The outburst by Steve Hernandez prompted judge William Sylvester to have an off-the-record conference with prosecutors and defense attorneys. Sylvester then reconvened court to address the issue while armed court deputies watched over Hernandez at the front of the gallery.

Hernandez's daughter, Rebecca Wingo, was one of Holmes' 12 murder victims when he opened fire in the crowded movie theater July 20 during the midnight showing of "Dark Knight Rises." Wingo, 32, was the mother of two young girls.

"I am terribly sorry for your loss," Sylvester told Hernandez. "I can only begin to imagine the emotions that this is raising."

He then lectured Hernandez about the decorum order in place to prevent outbursts in the courtroom.

"I meant no disrespect," Hernandez apologized, promising there would be no further trouble and he was let go.

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The judge decided on Thursday night that there is enough evidence against Holmes to proceed to trial and scheduled Holmes' arraignment for March 12. Holmes will enter a plea at the arraignment.

In an order posted late Thursday, the judge wrote that "the People have carried their burden of proof and have established that there is probable cause to believe that Defendant committed the crimes charged."

The ruling came after a three-day preliminary hearing this week that revealed new details about how Holmes allegedly planned and carried out the movie theater shooting, including how investigators say he amassed an arsenal of guns and ammunition, how he booby-trapped his apartment to explode, and his bizarre behavior after his arrest.

Holmes is charged with 166 counts, including murder, attempted murder and other charges. His shooting rampage left 12 people dead and 58 wounded by gunfire. An additional 12 people suffered non-gunshot injuries.

Sylvester also ordered that Holmes be held without bail.

Holmes' attorneys have said in court that the former University of Colorado neuroscience student is mentally ill. The district attorney overseeing the case has not yet announced whether Holmes, now 25, can face the death penalty.

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U.S. forces to move to Afghan support role in spring: Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces this year, underscoring Obama's determination to move decisively to wind down the long, unpopular war.

Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground in White House talks on U.S. demands for immunity from prosecution for any U.S. troops who stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, a concession that could allow Obama to keep at least a small residual force there.

Both leaders also threw their support behind tentative Afghan reconciliation efforts with Taliban insurgents. They each voiced support for the establishment of a Taliban political office in the Gulf state of Qatar in hopes of bringing insurgents to inter-Afghan talks.

Karzai's visit, which follows a year of growing strains in U.S.-Afghan ties, comes amid stepped-up deliberations in Washington over the size and scope of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan once the NATO-led combat mission concludes at the end of next year.

The Obama administration has been considering a residual force of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops in Afghanistan to conduct counterterrorism operations while providing training and assistance for Afghan forces.

But a top Obama aide said this week that the administration does not rule out a complete withdrawal after 2014, a move that some experts say would be disastrous for the still-fragile Afghan government and its fledgling security apparatus.

Saying that Afghan forces were being trained and were "stepping up" faster than expected, Obama said Afghan troops would take over the lead in combat missions across the country this spring, rather than waiting until the summer, as was originally planned.

"Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission: training, advising, assisting Afghan forces," Obama said. "It will be a historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty."

There are some 66,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan. NATO allies have also been steadily reducing their troop numbers there with the aim of ending the foreign combat role in 2014, despite doubts about the ability of Afghan forces to shoulder full responsibility for security.

Obama said final decisions on this year's troop reductions and the post-2014 U.S. military role were still months away, but his comments raised the prospects of an accelerated withdrawal timetable as the security transition proceeds.

Precisely how much of an acceleration was unclear.

For his part, Karzai voiced satisfaction over Obama's agreement to turn over control of detention centers to Afghan authorities, a source of dispute between their countries.

The two leaders, who have had a tense relationship in the past, stood side by side in the White House East Room, nodding occasionally as the other spoke.

Obama once called Afghanistan a "war of necessity," but he is heading into a second term looking for an orderly way out of the conflict, which was sparked by the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on the United States.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Warren Strobel and David Brunnstrom)

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US will stand by Afghanistan, Panetta tells Karzai

WASHINGTON: The United States sought to assure Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday that it would remain committed to his country even as US officials weigh a major withdrawal of American forces.

After an elaborate military ceremony for Karzai outside the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told his "distinguished visitor" that more than 10 years of war had paved the way for Afghanistan to stand on its own.

"After a long and difficult past, we finally are, I believe, at the last chapter of establishing a sovereign Afghanistan that can govern and secure itself for the future," Panetta said.

"We've come a long way towards a shared goal of establishing a nation that you and we can be proud of, one that never again becomes a safe haven for terrorism."

He also offered Karzai assurances that the future of the two countries was now entwined.

"We have sacrificed together -- that has created a bond that will not be broken in the future," Panetta said.

Since US-led troops toppled the Taliban in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, the Afghan president has had a stormy relationship with his US allies, and officials here want to demonstrate Washington's full-fledged support.

The talks come as President Barack Obama, newly elected to a second term, charts a plan to pull most of the 66,000 US troops out of Afghanistan -- well down from a high of about 100,000.

The United States and its NATO allies have already agreed to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014, but questions remain on a US training and security role after that.

Throughout his visit, Karzai is expected to push for a substantial US military presence in Afghanistan after 2014.

But some White House officials favour only a light footprint of several thousand troops, and Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, even suggested Tuesday the United States might pull out all of its troops.

US military officers privately acknowledged those comments about a total withdrawal were primarily designed as a tactic in negotiations with Kabul.

Karzai was also due to meet later Thursday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for talks and an official dinner at the State Department, before a White House summit on Friday with Obama.

Among the issues topping the agenda at the State Department are progress on reconciliation talks with the Taliban, as well as the distribution of US aid to Afghanistan.

"We have had some modest steps forward in recent months, including a commitment by Pakistan to support Afghan reconciliation," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Karzai has also pressed for more US assistance to go directly into Afghan coffers, instead of being distributed via non-governmental and aid organizations.

"We've made a pledge that about 50 per cent ought to go through the Afghan government," Nuland said earlier this week. But she stressed that this was "tied to our expectation that the Afghan government will in turn meet the commitments... with regard to continuing to make progress on corruption, on transparency, on accountability."

For his part, Karzai thanked Panetta for the US military's contributions and for the red-carpet ceremony, saying he was hopeful Washington and Kabul would work out an agreement allowing a future US military role beyond 2014.

"Afghanistan will, with the help that you provide, be able to provide security to its people and to protect its borders; so Afghanistan would not ever again be threatened by terrorists from across our borders," he said.

Karzai also voiced confidence the two countries can "work out a modality for a bilateral security agreement that will ensure the interests of Afghanistan and also the interests of the United States."

- AFP/jc

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Lenovo chief: We're in the PC-Plus, not post-PC era

Lenovo's Yoga convertible.

(Credit:
CBS Interactive)

Although some say that the rapid adoption of tablets has ushered in a so-called "post-PC era," Lenovo chief executive Yuanqing Yang begs to differ.

"We don't live in a post-PC world," Yang told Reuters in an interview published yesterday. "We are entering the PC-plus era."

Yang went on to tell Reuters that PCs today can't simply be boxes that come with the same basic design and only allow for computing. Instead, he believes that computers must add extra features. He pointed to Lenovo's Yoga convertible PC line, which allows users to convert their computer into a
tablet. Lenovo's Twist, its Ultrabook convertible, is another example of the supposed "plus" that goes along with its PCs.

Although Yang has a vested interest in seeing PCs stay relevant -- his company is one of the largest computer vendors in the world -- tablets are starting to steal PC thunder.

Research firm NPD DisplaySearch revealed this week that for the first time ever, tablet shipments will outpace notebooks in 2013. The research firm expects 240 million tablets to ship worldwide this year, compared to 207 million notebooks. NPD based its prediction on sluggish demand for PCs worldwide, including in emerging markets. Those emerging markets, meanwhile, will be buying up tablets at a rapid clip, NPD says.

Given that, there are some who disagree with Lenovo and say that the industry is, in fact, in a post-PC world. Former Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie said last year that it's about time everyone in the industry realizes that the world has changed.

"Why are we arguing? Of course we're in a post-PC world," he said.

Not surprisingly, PC makers are most likely to disagree with Ozzie. In September, HP -- Lenovo's chief competitor -- said that the idea that the PC has been stepped over for tablets is nonsense.

"Look, it's just wrong. Just think of the decision when your child is going off to college," Todd Bradley, HP's printing and personal systems group executive vice president, said. "What's a requirement? A PC. Or you run a business and need your employees to be productive. You need a PC. The size of the global PC business is huge, and I think some people are trying to be dramatic."

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Student shot at Calif. high school; Suspect held

Updated at 3:44 p.m. ET

TAFT, Calif. A student was shot and critically wounded at a rural California high school Thursday and a student suspect was taken into custody, officials said

The sheriff of Kern County, Calif., says the 16-year-old student who was shot is in critical but stable condition.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood says the shooter is a student who walked into a class at Taft Union High School Thursday morning and shot the teen with a shotgun, and then fired at another student but missed. A teacher suffered a minor pellet wound to the head.

Youngblood says the teacher tried to get other students out a back door, then he and another staff member engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, and convinced him to put down the gun.

The shooting happened on the second floor of the school's science building around 9 a.m., according to CBS affiliate KBAK in Bakersfield.

As word spread, Dayna Hopper rushed to the school to pick up her son Joseph Sorensen, 16, and daughter, Cheryle Pryor, 15, who had called from Cheryle's cell phone.

"I panicked. I wanted to puke and just get here," Dayna Hopper told The Bakersfield Californian.

KERO-TV Bakersfield reported that the station received phone calls from people inside the school who hid in closets.

The bell had just rung at a nearby school when teachers began shouting for students to get inside buildings, and the principal used an intercom to tell students to stay inside, Felicity Reich, 13, a student at Lincoln Junior High School, told the newspaper.

Shaken, she held the hand of her mother, Ellie Reich, as she spoke.

The student who was shot at the high school was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield, said Ray Pruitt, spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff's Department.

It was not immediately clear how many students are enrolled at the high school, which includes 9th through 12th grades.

Masses of parents headed to the school football field to find their children, and officials at other schools took action to protect their students as well, the newspaper said.

The Taft shooting came less than a month after a gunman massacred 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself.

That shooting prompted President Barack Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.

At the state Capitol, Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, said the thoughts and prayers of legislators were with the people at the Taft school.

"It really is just another very sad moment as we deal with the ongoing reality of gun violence that has captured so much of our attention this last year," Perez said.

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Biden Hints at Executive Order on Gun Control

Vice President Biden, meeting today with outside groups on gun safety, told reporters he has already started putting together a list of recommendations that he plans to issue next Tuesday.

He has suggested the administration would be ready to take executive action on the issue, which would not require votes from Congress. That prospect has raised alarm bells for gun rights advocates.

Biden told reporters Thursday, during a meeting a with sportsmen, women and wildlife groups, that he would deliver the list of recommendations to the president on Jan. 15, and that an improved system for background checks has emerged as a a priority for the stakeholders he's met so far. Guns have been at the top of the White House agenda since the December shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"I am putting together a series of recommendations for the president that will, that he will take a look at. There's a real, very tight window to do this," Biden said at the top of his meeting with advocates for sportsmen, sportswomen and wildlife interest groups. "I committed to him I'd have these recommendations to him by Tuesday. And it doesn't mean it's the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act."

Biden said he has not reached any conclusions just yet but recounted the recommendations that have been made to him from the various stakeholders he's met with over the past month. The vice president emphasized the consensus emerging from the meetings on the need to strengthen the background check system.

"So far, a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks, not just close the gun show loophole, but total, universal background checks, even including private sales," Biden said.

Other suggestions offered at the meetings have centered on gun safety and the responsibility that goes along with gun ownership, dealing with high capacity magazines, and the ability of federal agencies to do research on gun violence.

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Biden sat down with representatives of the NRA and other supporters of gun rights on the second day of this week's meetings on gun violence.

He said at one meeting that he has "never quite heard so much talk about high-capacity magazines" as he has since the shootings in Newtown.

Biden met with gun-violence victims' groups and proponents of gun control on Wednesday. Thursday was his opportunity to get a different side of the story. Biden met with the National Rifle Association and Attorney General Eric Holder met with representatives from Wal-Mart, one of the largest sellers of firearms in the country.

"There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members, as well as legislative action, we believe, is required," Biden said.

Spokesmen for the NRA and Wal-Mart confirmed representatives from their organizations would be included in the meetings Thursday. The NRA said it would be represented by James J. Baker, its top lobbyist. Advocates for sportsmen, women's groups, wildlife groups and gun owners were also invited. The vice president is slated to meet with members of the entertainment industry in the evening.

In December, the NRA called for armed officers to be placed in every school after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Wal-Mart initially turned down an invitation to participate in the talks but reversed its decision after it "underestimated the expectation to attend the meeting on Thursday in person," a spokesman said.

"We take this issue very seriously and are committed staying engaged in this discussion as the administration and Congress work toward a consensus on the right path forward," David Tovar, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart, said.

The latest meetings come one day after Biden held a first round of talks this week with gun safety advocacy groups and victims of gun violence. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, the vice president expressed the administration's commitment to develop effective gun policy by considering all ideas.

Colin Goddard, a survivor of the shooting at Virginia Tech University in 2007, participated in the meeting at the White House Wednesday and said the talks gave the groups "encouragement from the highest office in the country."

"I was really encouraged by seeing how focused and determined the administration is in seeing comprehensive changes to the gun violence in America," Goddard, who is now the assistant director for federal legislation at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told ABC News. "It was really great to see even the Vice President of the United States of America supporting us. He wants to see this done to the end and bringing us all to the table to share our personal stories, share our ideas about what our proposals could be."

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String of bombings kill 101, injure 200 in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 101 people were killed in bombings in two Pakistani cities on Thursday in one of the country's bloodiest days in recent years, officials said, with most casualties caused by sectarian attacks in Quetta.

The bombings underscored the myriad threats Pakistani security forces face from homegrown Sunni extremist groups, the Taliban insurgency in the northwest and the less well-known Baloch insurgency in the southwest.

On Thursday evening, two coordinated explosions killed at least 69 people and injured more than 100 in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, said Deputy Inspector of Police Hamid Shakil.

The first attack, in a crowded snooker hall, was a suicide bombing, local residents said. About ten minutes later, a car bomb exploded, they said. Five policemen and a cameraman were among the dead from that blast.

The attacks happened in a predominately Shia neighborhood and banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility. The extremist Sunni group targets Shias, who make up about 20 percent of Pakistani's population.

Targeted killings and bombings of Shia communities are common in Pakistan, and rights groups say hundreds of Shia were killed last year. Militant groups in Balochistan frequently bomb or shoot Shia passengers on buses travelling to neighboring Iran.

The killers are rarely caught and some Shia activists say militants work alongside elements of Pakistan's security forces, who see them as a potential bulwark against neighboring India.

Many Pakistanis fear their nation could become the site of a regional power struggle between Saudi Arabia, source of funding for Sunni extremist groups, and Iran, which is largely Shia.

But sectarian tensions are not the only source of violence.

The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for a blast in Quetta's market earlier in the day. It killed 11 people and injured more than 40, mostly vegetable sellers and secondhand clothes dealers, police officer Zubair Mehmood said. A child was also killed.

The group is one of several fighting for independence for Balochistan, an arid, impoverished region with substantial gas, copper and gold reserves, which constitutes just under half of Pakistan's territory and is home to about 8 million of the country's population of 180 million.

SWAT BOMBING

In another incident Thursday, 21 were killed and more than 60 injured in a bombing when people gathered to hear a religious leader speak in Mingora, the largest city in the northwestern province of Swat, police and officials at the Saidu Sharif hospital said.

"The death toll may rise as some of the injured are in critical condition and we are receiving more and more injured people," said Dr. Niaz Mohammad.

It has been more than two years since a militant attack has claimed that many lives in Swat.

The mountainous region, formerly a tourist destination, has been administered by the Pakistani army since their 2009 offensive drove out Taliban militants who had taken control.

But Talibans retain the ability to attack in Swat and shot schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousufzai in Mingora last October.

A Taliban spokesman said they were not responsible for Thursday's bombing.

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar, Pakistan; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Jason Webb)

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Oil prices weaken after US energy report

NEW YORK: Crude oil prices retreated Wednesday after a US oil inventory report pointed to large increases in refined petroleum products.

Oil prices for US benchmark West Texas Intermediate settled five cents lower at US$93.10 a barrel.

In London, the Brent contract for February finished at US$111.76 a barrel, losing 18 cents from Tuesday.

The decline came after a weekly report by the US Energy Information Administration reported surprisingly large increases in stocks of gasoline and distillate fuel, a category that includes home heating oil.

Gasoline stockpiles in the week ending January 4 surged by 7.4 million barrels, far higher than forecasts for a rise of 2.1 million barrels. Reserves of distillates soared 6.8 million barrels, well beyond the expected 1.4-million-barrel increase.

And US crude oil stocks grew by 1.3 million barrels, below the 2.2 million-barrel forecast according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

Crude futures also fell Wednesday on lingering concerns over the US economy despite solid earnings from aluminium giant Alcoa, analysts said.

Global markets have shifted their attention from the US fiscal debate to corporate earnings to gauge the health of the world's biggest economy and largest oil consuming nation going into 2013.

"The recent fiscal cliff-inspired rally is fast becoming the 'Ghost of Christmas Past' as traders shift their focus to US corporate earnings," said Jason Hughes, head of premium client management at IG Markets in Singapore.

"Solid gains notched up in the first week of the year across global markets are so far just being nibbled at by fears of disappointing fourth-quarter profits across US blue chip stocks."

- AFP/jc

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