Stock futures point to higher open after payrolls data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures were poised to open higher Friday as a slight disappointment in the January payroll report was offset by a strong upward revision for jobs in December.

Employment grew modestly in January, with 157,000 added in the month, slightly below expectations for 160,000. Still, the December report was revised upward to 196,000 from 155,000, supporting views the U.S. economic recovery remained on track despite a surprise contraction in fourth-quarter gross domestic product.

"Nice revision upward, and this month came in right at the sweet spot where job growth is picking up, but not at the point where the Fed's quantitative easing program is threatened," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

The market may be vulnerable to a pullback at recent levels, and may see the S&P 500 coming off its best monthly performance since October 2011. However, declines may be limited, with investors having bought on dips over the past four weeks; the biggest daily drop on the S&P so far this year was just 0.39 percent.

"The market may be at something of a top here, but we are rising on improved economic fundamentals so the rally has been rational," said Luschini, who helps oversee $55 billion in assets.

Corporate earnings were also a focus for investors, with a trio of Dow components reporting profits that beat expectations.

Exxon Mobil Corp rose 0.7 percent to $90.60 in premarket trading after its results, and drugmaker Merck & Co fell 2.9 percent to $42. While Merck's profit was ahead of forecasts it gave a cautious outlook on 2013.

Chevron Corp rose 3 cents to $115.18 before the bell as its profit beat expectations.

S&P 500 futures rose 10.7 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 116 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 21.5 points.

The S&P advanced 5.1 percent in January, with gains driven by a sturdy start to the earnings season and a compromise in Washington that postponed the impact of a "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that were due to take effect early this year.

Of the 231 companies in the S&P 500 reporting earnings so far, 69.3 percent have exceeded expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning. That is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above average since 1994.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings rose 3.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season but well below a 9.9 percent profit growth forecast on October 1.

Other data due Friday include consumer sentiment, U.S. manufacturing, construction spending and car sales. January sentiment is seen edging slightly higher in the month while construction spending rises 0.6 percent in December.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday amid investor caution ahead of the payroll report.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Few surprises in Super Bowl ads

NEW YORK (AP) — So much for surprises.

The majority of the 30-plus Super Bowl advertisers have been releasing their spots in the days leading up to the game. So it's unlikely there'll be lots of action off the football field to make viewers drop their jaws on Sunday.

Advertising fans already can catch a glimpse of "Spider-Man" actor Willem Dafoe in a Mercedes-Benz ad. They can watch a baby Clydesdale grow up in an Anheuser-Busch commercial. They even can spot old people partying in a Taco Bell ad.

Gone are the days when Super Bowl spots were closely-guarded secrets. With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's no surprise that more advertisers are releasing ads online up to a week or more before Game Day.

In recent years, more advertisers have been making their spots public before the Big Game. This year, 26 of the 35 or so advertisers have released their spots, with more reveals expected, according to YouTube.com.

Companies have good reason for doing this. Last year, Super Bowl ads released early were watched 600 percent more times — with 9.1 million average views — than ones released after the game, according to YouTube.com, which hosts advertisers' commercials on its site.

"The conversation has gone from Monday morning around the water cooler to social media, so basically what that means is there's no downside in showing your cards early and getting people to talk about it and starting up some buzz," said Charlie Warzel, staff writer at Adweek Magazine.

Still, Warzel said not everyone likes seeing ads early. "There are a lot of people who want to be surprised and can't help but see these things floating around the Internet or picked up by news agencies. So the element of surprise is taken away."

To be sure, a few companies are betting that there's still cachet in making the "big reveal." The few advertisers that are staying mum this year are hoping they can accomplish what Chrysler did last year — its two-minute halftime spot featuring Clint Eastwood was so unexpected that it was one of the most memorable ads of the game.

"Last year, Chrysler shocked everyone with a Clint Eastwood ad no one knew about," said Barbara Lippert, a columnist at mediapost.com. "This year, no one knows what Chrysler is doing."

Besides Chrysler, companies that haven't revealed their spots yet include Mondelez' Oreo and Research In Motion's BlackBerry. All the companies have so far declined to discuss their plans for Super Bowl publicly.

"Oreo has developed this ad for the Super Bowl and, as such, it's only fitting that it debuts during the Super Bowl," according to an Oreo statement.

That hasn't stopped ad experts from speculating. "Oreo's advertising might really hit the mark because people are tired of sex and beer," Lippert, the columnist, said. "Blackberry's commercial is coming from a British agency so I have high hopes for it."

Procter & Gamble's Tide also hasn't released its ad, but it has given some details. For instance, the company said that the ad will include both teams in the Super Bowl — the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens — and discuss stains that might be worth keeping.

"We feel that the magic of the ad would be lost if we revealed it before its slot in the game," said Chris Lillich, the company's associate marketing director.

There might also be some surprises from advertisers that have already released ads. Experts say some companies may tinker with their plans.

Something to watch for, Lippert said: Whether Volkswagen changes its Game Day spot that features a Minnesotan man with a Jamaican accent, which faced some criticism in the days leading up to the Super Bowl from some people who deemed it culturally insensitive.

"There might be some surprises and last-minute changes," Lippert said.

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Refining margins boost 4Q profit at Exxon Mobil

DALLAS (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday that fourth-quarter earnings rose 6 percent to $ 9.95 billion with help from higher refining profit margins.

The company still makes most of its money by producing oil and gas, but that end of the business was less profitable than a year ago because of lower prices and production. Exxon made up the difference in the refining business.

The nation’s biggest oil company said Friday that net income equaled $ 2.20 per share, compared with $ 9.4 billion, or $ 1.97 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell 5 percent to $ 115.17 billion, a drop of $ 6.44 billion.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected profit of $ 1.99 per share on revenue of $ 115.22 billion.

Profit from exploration and production of oil and gas fell 12 percent but still totaled $ 7.76 billion, more than three-fourths of Exxon Mobil’s income for the quarter. Production fell 5 percent, oil prices dipped, and the company took in less money from asset sales.

Exxon Mobil produces most of its oil outside the United States. Profit from overseas production tumbled by nearly one-fifth, but Exxon partly offset that by boosting its profit from U.S. production by more than one-third.

Outside of exploration and production, most of Exxon’s other profit comes from refining and selling petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. That business did very well in the fourth quarter, earning $ 1.8 billion, an increase of more than $ 1.3 billion from a year earlier, mainly due to higher refining margins.

Other oil refiners have also reported better margins this earnings season as they switched from foreign crude to cheaper U.S. oil.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil said it spent $ 5 billion during the quarter buying back its own shares.

In trading before Friday’s opening bell, the shares were up 54 cents to $ 90.51. They gained 4 percent in January.

Energy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Hillary: Secretary of empowerment

Girls hug U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2010 tour of a shelter run for sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Donna Brazile: Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. Maybe she'll run for president


• She says as secretary she expanded foreign policy to include effect on regular people


• She says she was first secretary of state to focus on empowering women and girls


• Brazile: Clinton has fought for education and inclusion in politics for women and girls

Editor's note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of "Cooking with Grease." She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000.

(CNN) -- As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton steps down from her job Friday, many are assuming she will run for president. And she may. In fact, five of the first eight presidents first served their predecessors as secretary of state.

It hasn't happened in more than a century, though that may change should Clinton decide to run. After all, she has been a game changer her entire life.

But before we look ahead, I think we should appreciate what she's done as secretary of state; it's a high profile, high pressure job. You have to deal with the routine as if it is critical and with crisis as if it's routine. You have to manage egos, protocols, customs and Congress. You have to be rhetorical and blunt, diplomatic and direct.

CNN Contributor Donna Brazile

As secretary of state you are dealing with heads of state and with we the people. And the president of the United States has to trust you -- implicitly.

Of all Clinton's accomplishments -- and I will mention just a few -- this may be the most underappreciated. During the election, pundits were puzzled and amazed not only at how much energy former President Bill Clinton poured into Obama's campaign, but even more at how genuine and close the friendship was.

Obama was given a lot of well-deserved credit for reaching out to the Clintons by appointing then-Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state in the first place. But trust is a two-way street and has to be earned. We should not underestimate or forget how much Clinton did and how hard she worked. She deserved that trust, as she deserved to be in the war room when Osama bin Laden was killed.

By the way, is there any other leader in the last 50 years whom we routinely refer to by a first name, and do so more out of respect than familiarity? The last person I can think of was Ike -- the elder family member who we revere with affection. Hillary is Hillary.

It's not surprising that we feel we know her. She has been part of our public life for more than 20 years. She's been a model of dignity, diplomacy, empathy and toughness. She also has done something no other secretary of state has done -- including the two women who preceded her in the Cabinet post.

Rothkopf: President Hillary Clinton? If she wants it

Hillary has transformed our understanding -- no, our definition -- of foreign affairs. Diplomacy is no longer just the skill of managing relations with other countries. The big issues -- war and peace, terror, economic stability, etc. -- remain, and she has handled them with firmness and authority, with poise and confidence, and with good will, when appropriate.

But it is not the praise of diplomats or dictators that will be her legacy. She dealt with plenipotentiaries, but her focus was on people. Foreign affairs isn't just about treaties, she taught us, it's about the suffering and aspirations of those affected by the treaties, made or unmade.

Most of all, diplomacy should refocus attention on the powerless.

Of course, Hillary wasn't the first secretary of state to advocate for human rights or use the post to raise awareness of abuses or negotiate humanitarian relief or pressure oppressors. But she was the first to focus on empowerment, particularly of women and girls.

She created the first Office of Global Women's Issues. That office fought to highlight the plight of women around the world. Rape of women has been a weapon of war for centuries. Though civilized countries condemn it, the fight against it has in a sense only really begun.

Ghitis: Hillary Clinton's global legacy on gay rights

The office has worked to hold governments accountable for the systematic oppression of girls and women and fought for their education in emerging countries. As Hillary said when the office was established: "When the Security Council passed Resolution 1325, we tried to make a very clear statement, that women are still largely shut out of the negotiations that seek to end conflicts, even though women and children are the primary victims of 21st century conflict."

Hillary also included the United States in the Trafficking in Person report. Human Trafficking, a form of modern, mainly sexual, slavery, victimizes mostly women and girls. The annual report reviews the state of global efforts to eliminate the practice. "We believe it is important to keep the spotlight on ourselves," she said. "Human trafficking is not someone else's problem. Involuntary servitude is not something we can ignore or hope doesn't exist in our own communities."

She also created the office of Global Partnerships. And there is much more.

She has held her own in palaces and held the hands of hungry children in mud-hut villages, pursuing an agenda that empowers women, children, the poor and helpless.

We shouldn't have been surprised. Her book "It Takes a Village" focused on the impact that those outside the family have, for better or worse, on a child's well-being.

As secretary of state, she did all she could to make sure our impact as a nation would be for the better.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.

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Woman shot to death on Lake Shore Drive ramp

A woman was found shot dead in a van riddled with bullets near Lake Shore Drive and Stevenson Expy. CBS 2's Susanna Song reports. (CBS Chicago)

By Peter Nickeas




Tribune reporter

7:58 a.m. CST, February 1, 2013

A woman was shot to death while driving a van on the ramp from Lake Shore Drive to Interstate 55 when someone pulled alongside her and fired 10 to 14 times Friday morning, police said.

The woman, 32 and from Chicago, was hit at least once and died at the scene. A woman in the van escaped unharmed and was being questioned by police, officials said.

“A brown full-sized van approached in the left lane,” Illinois State Police Capt. Luis Gutierrez said at a press conference on the scene. “That vehicle shot at our victim approximately 10 to 14 rounds. One round struck our driver, who is now deceased at Northwestern (Memorial Hospital).”

Gutierrez declined to speculate on what led to the shooting.

“At this time we don’t want to comment on the investigation, it’s still ongoing,” he said.

Illinois State Police learned of the shooting about 4:20 a.m. from Chicago police, who got to the scene after the van crashed.

Police closed access to interstates 94 and 55 from southbound Lake Shore Drive. Flares were laid out to keep vehicles off the ramp but they were quickly extinguished by wind.

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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Suicide bomber kills guard at U.S. embassy in Turkey

ANKARA (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed a Turkish security guard at the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Friday, blowing the door off a side entrance and sending smoke and debris flying into the street.

Ankara Governor Alaaddin Yuksel said the attacker was inside U.S. property when the explosives were detonated. The blast sent masonry spewing out of the wall of the side entrance, but there did not appear to be any more significant structural damage.

The bomber was also killed.

U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone emerged through the main gate of the building, which is surrounded by high walls, shortly after the explosion to address reporters, flanked by a security detail as a Turkish police helicopter hovered overhead.

"We are very sad of course that we lost one of our Turkish guards at the gate," Ricciardone he said, thanking the Turkish authorities for a prompt response.

A Reuters witness saw one wounded person being lifted into an ambulance as police armed with assault rifles cordoned off the area.

"It was a huge explosion. I was sitting in my shop when it happened. I saw what looked like a body part on the ground," said travel agent Kamiyar Barnos whose shop window was shattered around 100 meters away from the blast.

One witness said the blast was audible a mile away.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The British Consulate-General to Turkey said the blast a "suspected terrorist attack".

Islamist radicals, far-left groups, far-right groups and Kurdish separatist militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

The main domestic security threat comes from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Turkey, but the PKK has focused its campaign largely on domestic targets.

Turkey has led calls for international intervention in neighboring Syria and is hosting hundreds of NATO soldiers from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands who are operating a Patriot missile defense system along its border with Syria, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital.

The U.S. Patriots were expected to go active in the coming days.

The most serious attacks of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when car bombs shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

Part of the HSBC Bank headquarters was destroyed and the British consulate was damaged in two more explosions that killed a further 32 people a week later.

(Writing by Nick Tattersall and Daren Butler; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Stock futures flat as earnings roll in; data on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were poised for a modestly lower open on Thursday as economic data continued to paint a mixed picture of the economy and as investors sifted through a host of corporate earnings reports.

Data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased to 368,000 last week, bouncing off five-year lows in the prior week and exceeding an estimated 350,000, pointing to modest improvement in the labor market.

The claims data comes ahead of Friday's payrolls report, which is expected to show employers added 160,000 jobs in January after an increase of 155,000 in December.

A separate report showed incomes rose by 2.6 percent in December, the most in eight years, in a positive sign that could propel the economy forward.

Facebook Inc shares lost 6.4 percent to $29.23 in premarket trading. The company doubled its mobile advertising revenue in the fourth quarter but that growth trailed some of Wall Street's most aggressive estimates.

The S&P 500 <.spx> is up 5.3 percent for the month, after legislators in Washington temporarily sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could have derailed the economic recovery, and amid improving economic data and better-than-expected corporate earnings.

But the benchmark index has stalled recently and is virtually flat for the week, hovering near the 1,500 mark, as investors look for more catalysts to justify further gains.

"Unfortunately it's still a mixed picture, it appears we are just getting a lot of conflicting data right now," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

"There is certainly a lot of information coming out this week - a lot of economic data, a lot of earnings and of course we have the employment number looming Friday, so with 1,500 right here, my guess is there is just not enough conviction to push us substantially higher yet."

United Parcel Service Inc lost 1.8 percent to $79.75 in premarket trading after the world's largest parcel delivery reported fourth-quarter earnings below analysts' estimates on Thursday and forecast weaker-than-expected profit for 2013.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.4 point and were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures dipped 2 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 9.25 points.

Later in the session at 9:45 a.m. (1445 GMT), the Institute for Supply Management Chicago releases January index of manufacturing activity. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a reading of 50.5 compared with 50.0 in December.

Qualcomm Inc gained 6.5 percent to $67.66 in premarket trading after the world's leading supplier of chips for cellphones beat analysts' expectations for quarterly profit and revenue and raised its financial targets for 2013.

Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning shows that of the 192 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season, 68.8 percent have exceeded expectations, a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to have risen 3.8 percent. That's above the 1.9 percent forecast from the start of the earnings season, but well below a 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings growth forecast on October 1, the data showed.

WMS Industries Inc surged 55.7 percent to $25.48 in premarket after the company agreed to be acquired by Scientific Games Corp for $26 per share in cash. Scientific Games advanced 15.9 percent to $10.35.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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2 NFL seasons since agreement, still no HGH tests

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Baltimore Ravens defensive end Arthur Jones is among those NFL players who want the league and the union to finally agree on a way to do blood testing for human growth hormone.

"I hope guys wouldn't be cheating. That's why you do all this extra work and extra training. Unfortunately, there are probably a few guys, a handful maybe, that are on it. It's unfortunate. It takes away from the sport," Jones said.

"It would be fair to do blood testing," Jones added. "Hopefully they figure it out."

When Jones and the Ravens face the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday, two complete seasons will have come and gone without a single HGH test being administered, even though the league and the NFL Players Association paved the way for it in the 10-year collective bargaining agreement they signed in August 2011.

Since then, the sides have haggled over various elements, primarily the union's insistence that it needs more information about the validity of a test that is used by Olympic sports and Major League Baseball. HGH is a banned performance-enhancing drug that is hard to detect and has been linked to health problems such as diabetes, cardiac dysfunction and arthritis.

"If there are guys using (HGH), there definitely needs to be action taken against it, and it needs to be out of (the sport)," Ravens backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. "I'm pretty sure it'll happen eventually."

At least two members of Congress want to make it happen sooner, rather than later.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland wrote NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith this week to chastise the union for standing in the way of HGH testing and to warn that they might ask players to testify on Capitol Hill.

Smith is scheduled to hold his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference Thursday.

"We have cooperated and been helpful to the committee on all of their requests," NFLPA spokesman George Atallah said. "If this is something they feel strongly about, we will be happy to help them facilitate it."

Several players from the Super Bowl teams said they would be willing to talk to Congress about the issue, if asked.

"I have nothing to hide. I can't speak for anyone else in football, but I would have no problem going," said Kenny Wiggins, a 6-foot-6, 314-pound offensive lineman on San Francisco's practice squad.

But Wiggins added: "There's a lot more problems in the U.S. they should be worried about than HGH in the NFL."

That sentiment was echoed by former New York Giants offensive lineman Shaun O'Hara, who now works for the NFL Network.

"Do I think there is an HGH problem in the NFL? I don't think there is. Are there guys who are using it? I'm sure there are. But is it something Congress needs to worry about? No. We have enough educated people on both sides that can fully handle this. And if they can't, then they should be fired," said O'Hara, an NFLPA representative as a player. "I include the union in that, and I include the NFL. There is no reason we would need someone to help us facilitate this process."

Issa and Cummings apparently disagree.

In December, their committee held a hearing at which medical experts testified that the current HGH test is reliable and that the union's request for a new study is unnecessary. Neither the league nor union was invited to participate in that hearing; at the time, Issa and Cummings said they expected additional hearings.

"We are disappointed with the NFLPA's remarkable recalcitrance, which has prevented meaningful progress on this issue," they wrote in their recent letter to Smith. "We intend to take a more active role to determine whether the position you have taken — that HGH is not a serious concern and that the test for HGH is unreliable — is consistent with the beliefs of rank and file NFL players."

Atallah questioned that premise.

"To us, there is no distinction between players and the union. ... The reason we had HGH in our CBA is precisely because our players wanted us to start testing for it," Atallah said. "We are not being recalcitrant for recalcitrance sake. We are merely following the direction of our player leadership."

Wiggins and other players said no one can know for sure how much HGH use there is in the league until there is testing — but that it's important for the union's concerns about the test to be answered.

"The union decides what is best for the players," said Ravens nose tackle Ma'ake Kemoeatu, who said he would be willing to go to Capitol Hill.

"I feel like some guys are on HGH," said 49ers offensive lineman Anthony Davis, who would rather not speak to Congress. "I personally don't care if there is testing. It's something they have to live with, knowing they cheated, and if they get (outplayed) while they're on it, it's a hit on their pride."

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

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Venus Can Have’Comet-Like’ Atmosphere

The planet Venus sometimes looks less like a planet and more like a comet, scientists say.

Scientists with the European Space Agency have discovered that a part of the upper atmosphere of Venus — its ionosphere — acts surprisingly different depending on daily changes in the sun’s weather. The side of Venus’ ionosphere that faces away from the sun can billow outward like the tail of a comet, while the side facing the star remains tightly compacted, researchers said.

The discovery was made using ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft, which observed Venus’s ionosphere during a period of low solar wind in 2010 to see exactly how the sun affects the way the planet’s atmosphere functions. In 2013, the sun is expected to reach the peak of its 11-year solar activity cycle.

“As this significantly reduced solar wind hit Venus, Venus Express saw the planet’s ionosphere balloon outwards on the planet’s ‘downwind’ nightside, much like the shape of the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions,” ESA officials said in a statement today (Jan. 29).

It only takes 30 to 60 minutes for the planet’s comet-like tail to form after the solar wind dies down. Researchers observed the ionosphere stretch to at least 7,521 miles (12,104 kilometers) from the planet, said Yong Wei, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Katlenburg, Germany who worked on this research.

Earth’s ionosphere never becomes comet-like largely because the planet has its own magnetic field that balances out the sun’s influence on the way the atmospheric layer is shaped. Venus, however, doesn’t have its own magnetic field and is therefore subject to the whims of the sun’s solar wind.

Researchers think that Mars behaves in much the same way. The Red Planet doesn’t have a magnetic field to mitigate the influence of the sun’s wind either.

The Venus Express spacecraft launched in 2005 and has been orbiting the second planet from the sun since 2006. The spacecraft is equipped with seven instruments to study the atmosphere and surface of Venus in extreme detail. The spacecraft is currently in an extended mission slated to last until 2014 .

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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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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