Danny Puff

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Male artists led the nominations announced on Wednesday for the 2013 Grammys, as fun., Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys landed six nods each for music's biggest awards.

The nominations for New York-based indie-pop band fun. - made up of Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff - included the four main categories for record, song and album of the year, and best new artist.

fun., which also performed at the Grammy nominations concert with Janelle Monae, said it felt good to be recognized and "took pride" in its live performances.

"Tonight, all I wanted to do was get up and really give it our all ... receiving the nomination is amazing and a culmination of hard work the three of us have put into this band," lead singer Ruess told reporters backstage.

The group scored a huge hit with its first single, "We Are Young," and then followed that up with its successful album "Some Nights" and single of the same name.

Joining it in the album, record of the year and best new artist categories was hip hop artist Ocean.

The 25-year-old rapper-singer made waves earlier this year after revealing his first love was a man, a groundbreaking move in the hip hop industry, which has faced criticism in the past for being hostile toward gays.

His debut album, "Channel Orange" was a critical and commercial success, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart in July.

Ocean and fun. will be competing with blues-rock group Alabama Shakes, country singer Hunter Hayes and folk-rockers The Lumineers for the coveted best new artist title.

While young male artists made up a large portion of nominees in key categories, noticeably absent was 18-year-old Canadian singer Justin Bieber, one of 2012's biggest pop music stars with chart-topping album "Believe" and singles such as "Boyfriend."

The winners will be announced at the televised awards show in Los Angeles on February 10.

AFTER ADELE, MALE ARTISTS LEAD

After British singer Adele dominated the previous Grammy Awards with her juggernaut album "21," male artists took the lead in the album of the year category, where Ocean and fun. are competing with The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons and Jack White.

British folk band Mumford & Sons, which scored six nominations both in 2011 and 2012 for its debut album, "Sigh No More," landed six more nominations on Wednesday for its chart-topping sophomore album, "Babel," which is the second biggest-selling album in the United States this year.

Ohio rock duo The Black Keys, formed by frontman Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, landed five nominations, while Auerbach also notched a non-classical producer of the year nomination for his work on four albums.

Blues-rocker Jack White, the former frontman of The White Stripes, picked up three nods for his chart-topping debut solo album "Blunderbuss."

Rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West continued to pick up nods for their 2011 album, "Watch The Throne," including best rap performance for "N****s in Paris." Jay-Z also landed nods for collaborating on songs with Young Jeezy and Rihanna, while West scored multiple nominations for his song "Mercy."

Kelly Clarkson was one of the few leading female nominees, picking up three nominations, including record of the year and best pop vocal album.

R&B singer Rihanna also landed three nods, including best solo pop performance for "Where Have You Been."

Record of the year nominees saw an assortment of rock, pop and hip hop nominees, with Clarkson's "Stronger" competing with The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy," fun.'s "We Are Young," Australian artist Gotye's heartbreak hit "Somebody That I Used To Know," Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You," and Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

To be eligible for nominations this year, artists had to release their music between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2012.

Adele, who swept the awards in February with six accolades including the top three, landed only one nomination this year for best pop solo performance, as she did not release any music in the eligibility time frame.

The nominations for the top awards and main categories were announced during an hour-long televised concert in Nashville for the first time, co-hosted by country-pop artist Swift and veteran Grammy host, rapper-actor LL Cool J.

Adding a twist to the announcements, Hayes sang the nominees for best pop album, a tight contest between Maroon 5, Clarkson, Pink, fun. and Florence and the Machine. Hayes picked up two nods for best new artist and best country vocal performance.

British rock legends The Who will receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February.

(Writing by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The cartoony post-apocalyptic shoot-'em-up sequel "Borderlands 2" and the stealthy first-person game "Dishonored" were among the early winners at the Spike Video Game Awards on Friday.

"Borderlands 2" was picked as best shooter and multiplayer game, while "Dishonored" was awarded with the best action-adventure game trophy at the gaming extravaganza.

The ceremony honors outstanding achievements within the gaming industry over the past year.

"The Avengers" star and shooter fan Samuel L. Jackson hosted the 10th annual ceremony at Sony Pictures Studios his fourth time as the show's emcee.

This year's ceremony was scheduled to screen never-before-seen footage from such upcoming titles as "The Last Us," ''South Park: The Stick of Truth" and "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2." It will also serve as the launch pad for newly announced game "The Phantom Pain."

For the first time, the VGAs were streamed on Xbox Live, the online service for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. During the ceremony, online viewers could vote on show components such as what songs and clips would be played during the ceremony.

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Online:

http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

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NEW YORK (AP) The Rolling Stones will join the artists already booked for next week's televised Superstorm Sandy benefit show in New York City, which producers said Friday would be the most widely available live concert ever.

The Stones join a trio of 1960s British rock royalty on the bill, including Paul McCartney and the Who. Among the other artists scheduled to appear are Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Eric Clapton, Eddie Vedder, Billy Joel, Roger Waters and Chris Martin.

The "12-12-12" concert at Madison Square Garden will be available on television or online to some 2 billion people, said James Dolan, one of the producers. A total of 34 U.S. television networks have agreed to show the concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

Harvey Weinstein, the movie executive who is producing the show along with Cablevision chief Dolan and John Sykes, head of Clear Channel Communications Inc., said that $30 million has been raised for victims of the storm, which hit the New York City region hard on Oct. 29. The "Concert for New York," a benefit run in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, had raised $19 million by the same point on its way to a total of $65 million. The Robin Hood Foundation will distribute proceeds of the Sandy benefit to storm victims in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The concert is sold out. Producers urged fans who don't already have tickets not to buy them through brokers like StubHub, where people have been trying to sell seats at a price higher than the list prices of $150 to $2,500. Weinstein said there were counterfeit tickets offered for sale.

While StubHub has agreed to donate its fee for selling tickets to the Sandy relief efforts, producers say there's no way to recover markups that scalpers receive. They had no estimate of how many of the tickets were bought by people or companies that intended to resell them.

"We're not going to make that our focus," Dolan said.

The concert lineup is "99 percent" set, Sykes said. McCartney is the closer, followed by a finale involving many artists. It's scheduled to end around midnight, but may go longer.

"We're not going to pull the plug," Weinstein said.

Many actors and other personalities will introduce segments profiling storm victims, including Sean Combs, Brian Williams, Jon Stewart, Jamie Foxx, Chris Rock, Chelsea Clinton, Adam Sandler, Seth Meyers and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The participating U.S. networks do not include the major broadcast networks. The lineup will include HBO and Showtime, public broadcasting stations in New York and Philadelphia, and a host of smaller cable networks like the Cooking Channel, Military History and VH1 Classic.

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Online:

http://www.121212concert.org .

http://thegarden.com

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PHOENIX (AP) The other ticket holders in last week's record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot have claimed their half of the prize but aren't stepping into the spotlight just yet, the Arizona Lottery said Friday.

The winning family opted to take the cash option of $192 million. They declined to take part in a news conference scheduled for Friday afternoon in Phoenix, the lottery said.

The ticket was sold at a convenience store in Fountain Hills, Ariz., northeast of Phoenix.

Lottery officials won't release the name or address of the winning family during the news conference but will give information about the family's decision to play, when they bought the winning ticket and how they responded to discovering that they had won, Lottery Director Jeff Hatch-Miller said.

A statement from the family will also be released, he said.

Hatch-Miller said the lottery would respond to media public records requests and release the name, but that probably would not occur before Monday because lottery officials were busy verifying that the family had the winning ticket. The lottery was also preparing for Friday's news conference, he said.

"Mainly because today we're focused on the press conference, we're preparing for that," Hatch-Miller said.

A mechanic and his wife, Mark and Cindy Hill, of Dearborn, Mo., already have claimed their half of the multistate Powerball prize.

The jackpot was the second-largest in U.S. history and set off a nationwide buying frenzy. At one point, tickets were selling at nearly 130,000 a minute.

Before the Nov. 28 drawing, the jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without anyone hitting the jackpot. In a Mega Millions drawing in March, three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot, the largest lottery payout of all time.

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LONDON (AP) The news that Prince William and the former Kate Middleton were expecting their first child joyous news for a couple looking forward to starting a family immediately turned bittersweet with the simultaneous announcement that the duchess was being hospitalized for acute morning sickness. Then there was an invasion of her privacy by two disc jockeys who impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles to gain information on her condition.

By Friday, the sadness merely deepened, with the news that the nurse who unwittingly took the hoax call had died.

The royal couple quickly issued a statement expressing their condolences over the death of Jacintha Saldanha, the 46-year-old mother of two duped by the DJs, who had suddenly found herself at the vortex of a global incident. They stressed they had not complained about the hoax call, and indeed offered praise for the staff. The hospital, too, stressed that Saldanha had not been reprimanded.

And yet the week can only be described as tragic, with the happiness so tarnished by the latest developments.

Saldanha was found dead early Friday at apartments affiliated with King Edward VII hospital in central London, where she worked for four years.

Police didn't release a cause of death, but said they didn't find anything suspicious. A coroner will make a determination on the cause.

2DayFM, the Australian station that performed the prank early Tuesday, said in a statement posted on Facebook and Twitter that the two disc jockeys, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, would not return to the station until further notice. They had apologized for the hoax Wednesday.

Saldanha took the hoax call by the pair, who impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles to elicit information on the duchess, the hospital said. She later transferred the call to the nurse caring for the duchess, who was admitted to the hospital Monday with acute morning sickness.

"Our thoughts and deepest sympathies at this time are with her family and friends," hospital chief executive John Lofthouse said in a statement. "Everyone is shocked by the loss of a much loved and valued colleague."

St. James's Palace, the office of the duchess and her husband Prince William, also expressed sadness at the death, but insisted that it had not complained about the hoax.

"On the contrary, we offered our full and heartfelt support to the nurses involved and hospital staff at all times," the palace said in a statement.

Saldanha's family asked for privacy in a statement issued through London police.

"We as a family are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha," the statement said.

During the hoax call, a woman using the often-mimicked voice of Britain's monarch asked about the duchess' health. She was told by the second nurse who took the call from Saldanha that the duchess, the former Kate Middleton, "hasn't had any retching with me and she's been sleeping on and off."

The nurse went on to tell the personalities that the duchess had had an uneventful night, as a dog barking sound was heard in the background. The alleged queen and prince talk about traveling to the hospital to check in on the patient.

The hospital said it supported Saldanha in the aftermath of the call and that its phone protocols were under review.

The Australian station placed the recording of the conversation on its website, but later said it was sorry.

"We were very surprised that our call was put through. We thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents," Greig and Christian said in a joint statement with the station at the time. "We're very sorry if we've caused any issues and we're glad to hear that Kate is doing well."

The station's chief executive officer, Rhys Holleran, had spoken with the presenters after the nurse's death, and that both were deeply shocked. The hosts "have decided that they will not return to their radio show until further notice out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy."

Christian's Twitter account has since been taken down.

Officials from St. James's Palace have said the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant. The child would be the first for her and Prince William.

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Associated Press writer Paisley Dodds contributed to this story.

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Xiaomi Technology is a fairy tale for nerdy entrepreneurs.

Less than three years after its founding, the smartphone maker is valued at $4 billion and evokes Apple-like adoration from its fans, some of whom are desperate enough to skip work for a shot at buying the latest product the day it goes on sale.

Founder Lei Jun dresses like the late Steve Jobs, in jeans and a black top. He has created a fervent fan base for Xiaomi's moderately priced high-end smartphones by mimicking Apple Inc's marketing tactic of attaching an aura of exclusivity around its products.

Before Xiaomi, the 42-year-old Lei was a key investor in China's early Internet scene, co-founding startups including Joyo.cn, which was eventually sold to Amazon.com Inc, and the recently listed YY Inc.

Born in Xiantao, a small city in China's central Hubei province better known for breeding Olympic gymnasts than billionaire technocrats, Lei brushes off comparisons to Jobs but concedes that the Apple visionary was an inspiration.

"China's media say I am China's Steve Jobs," Lei told Reuters in an interview.

"I will take this as a compliment but such kind of comparison brings us huge pressure," said Lei, who grew up assembling radios as a hobby. "Xiaomi and Apple are two totally different companies. Xiaomi's based on the Internet. We are not doing the same thing as Apple."

HOT SALES AND FANS

Xiaomi has already sold 300,000 of its latest phone model, launched in October. The Xiaomi phone 2 has specifications similar to those of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3 and Apple's iPhone5 but a top-of-the-line model sells for about $370, half the price of an iPhone5.

Unlike the big domestic smartphone players, such as Lenovo Group, ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies, which work with telecom carriers to sell a large volume of smartphones, Xiaomi sells most of its phones online and in small batches.

This small volume strategy creates pent-up demand that gives Xiaomi free marketing buzz. The first batch of 50,000 phones released on October 30 sold out in less than two minutes. Subsequent larger batches have also sold out in minutes.

Lei, who has nearly 4 million followers on China's popular microblogging platform, Weibo, feeds the buzz by dangling teasers about new products and launch dates.

"We're not a company that chases sales volume. We chase customer satisfaction. We look for ways to give the customer a great surprise," Lei said.

His vision for an exclusive mid-tier brand that builds up incrementally, rather than swamping the market, has found financial backers. In June, Xiaomi raised $216 million from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, and a few of Lei's friends, local media reported, giving it a valuation of $4 billion.

"China is ripe for its own Apple, HTC or Samsung," said Hans Tung, managing partner at Qiming Venture Partners, a venture firm backing Xiaomi. "The country is big enough, there are enough mobile Internet users and mobile phone consumers. Therefore having its own mobile ecosystem built up by a domestic brand makes sense."

Xiaomi, which was founded in April 2010 and only started selling smartphones in October 2011, is on track to sell 7 million units this year, exceeding its target of 2 million.

Xiaomi is already profitable and is expected to rake in sales of up to 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) this year.

"Our product only sold for a year and hit sales of $2 billion. That is pretty impressive," Lei said, adding Xiaomi was not considering an initial public offering within the next five years.

Tung said Xiaomi's net margins were 10 percent. This suggests its net profit could hit $200 million this year.

Mo Xiaohua, a 24-year-old accountant, is a proud Xiaomi fan who only recently bought her first Xiaomi phone. For many who use Xiaomi phones, the customizable themes and the weekly updates are a big draw.

"I like Xiaomi because among China's brand smartphones, its value is the best," Mo said. "Now that we have such a good China branded phone, we need to support it."

'BLACK BACK FLATS'

Xiaomi has its fair share of detractors who doubt it will have a happy ending. They say the smartphone game in China can only be won with wide distribution and high volume or a big brand with distinctive designs.

Xiaomi, whose attraction is its price and high technical specifications, does not win points for cutting-edge design.

"This is a world where people are now cranking out 'black back flats', that's what all these phones are when you put 10 on the table... Xiaomi is not going to stick out," said Michael Clendenin, managing director at RedTech Advisors. "In this world, the market is driven by two things: one is massive volume and two huge brands."

ZTE and Huawei have set smartphone sales targets for this year at about 30 million and 60 million respectively. The firms have traditionally dominated the cheap low-end smartphone segment but have been pushing into the mid-price range.

ZTE said it launched 11 types of smartphones in the mid-price range of 1,500-2,500 yuan this year, up from six last year. Apple released its mid-range tablet, the iPad Mini, in China on Friday.

"Xiaomi had great headline appeal a year ago... but the problem is now you have got guys like ZTE and Huawei and Meizu with phones that are priced in a similar range," Clendenin said.

China is expected to surpass the United States as the world's largest smartphone market this year with 165-170 million unit sales, up from 78 million last year, Gartner said.

Analysts said Xiaomi had to ramp up volume and address technical problems and a shortage of customer service centers if it wanted a shot at the big league.

"One of the challenges of being in the middle is that you can get squeezed," said Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based consultancy BDA.

Lei is resolute that he will prove the naysayers wrong.

"In this industry, I think the most important thing is to get love from your customers," he said. "If you are popular with your customers, you succeed." ($1 = 6.2253 yuan)

(Additional reporting by Jane Lee and the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Emily Kaiser and Nick Macfie)

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WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama will attend a charity concert where PSY is scheduled to perform after reports that the South Korean rapper participated in anti-American protests several years ago.

A spokesman says Friday that the Obama family will attend the Dec. 21 Christmas in Washington concert, as is custom.

News reports cite two instances of the 34-year-old "Gangnam Style" rapper participating in concerts protesting the U.S. military presence in South Korea during the early stages of the war in Iraq. In a 2004 concert, PSY performs another act's song about killing "Yankees" who have been torturing Iraqi captives and their families "slowly and painfully."

PSY's inescapable hit went viral in the U.S. and holds the YouTube record for most watched video. A message left with his spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) This holiday season is shaping up to be a record-breaking period for Apple as shoppers snap up iPhones and iPads. So, why is the world's most valuable company losing its luster with investors?

Apple began selling the iPhone 5 on Sept. 21, the same day the company's stock hit an all-time peak of $705.07 per share. Since then, the stock has plunged nearly 25 percent, trimming the company's market value by more than $150 billion. On Friday afternoon, shares were trading at around $534.

The sell-off has had broad impact. It has reached beyond Apple's own stockholders because the company is the largest component in the Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite index two benchmarks that are tracked by widely held mutual funds and exchange traded funds, or ETFs.

Apple comprises 4 percent of the S&P 500 and nearly 12 percent of the Nasdaq, according to FactSet. The Nasdaq has shed 6 percent since Apple's stock price peaked while the S&P 500 has declined 3 percent, the same as the Dow Jones industrial average, which doesn't include Apple in its basket of 30 stocks.

Apple's abrupt descent is fueling a debate among market-watchers. Is the stock now a bargain, as some would argue? Or, is the recent markdown in Apple's value justified because the company has entered a phase of less innovation and slower revenue growth?

Disagreements over the issue are contributing to unusual volatility in the stock. On Wednesday, Apple's stock fell 6.4 percent, the biggest one-day drop in more than four years. Just two-and-half weeks ago, the stock surged 7.2 percent for its biggest one-day gain in three years.

There's no consensus regarding the cause, but one thing is clear: There have been more investors eager to sell Apple's stock than buy it in recent months, despite all the evidence indicating Apple's products have never been more popular.

Here are several theories that seek to explain the recent downturn in Apple's stock:

Theory: The Competition Conundrum

Hypothesis: Apple's grip on the growing mobile computing market is loosening amid a wave of cheaper alternatives to the iPhone and iPad.

The iPhone's early lead in the smartphone market already has been surrendered to the more than 500 million devices running on the free Android software made by Google Inc. By comparison, as of the end of September, Apple had shipped 271 million iPhones since its 2007 debut.

Nokia phones running on the recently released Windows 8 system from Microsoft Corp. pose a new threat, especially in China, where Nokia has struck a deal with that country's largest wireless carrier. Meanwhile, struggling Research In Motion Ltd. is pinning its comeback hopes on a revamped operating system for the once-iconic BlackBerry to rekindle demand for that device.

Now, there are signs the competition is putting pressure on Apple in the booming tablet computer industry that it launched in 2010 with the release of the iPad.

In a report that likely contributed to Wednesday's steep drop in Apple's stock, research firm IDC predicted the iPad's share of the worldwide tablet market this year will decline to 54 percent from 56 percent in 2011. IDC said the iPad will dip below 50 percent by 2016.

Meanwhile, the market share of tablets powered by Android, including Google's Nexus line and Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire, has climbed from 40 percent last year to 43 percent his year, according to IDC.

Windows 8, which is designed to run on tablets, also is expected to chip at Apple's lead and latch on to 10 percent of the market by 2016, IDC said.

The popularity of smaller tablets with seven-inch diagonal screens and retail prices below $200 has already forced Apple to make changes. The company responded by introducing the iPad Mini, which features a nearly eight-inch screen. The iPad Mini sells for $329, which helps Apple protect its profit margins and preserve its reputation for selling top-of-the-line products that merit prices a notch above the competition. Nevertheless, the iPad mini is undoubtedly diverting some sales from full-sized iPads, which sell at prices ranging from $399 to $829. That is one of the reasons BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis expects the iPad's average selling price to fall by about $50 in the current quarter, which ends this month. That would be a 9 percent decline from the iPad's average price of $535 during the July through September period.

Even if it's no longer the market leader, the iPhone remains hotter than ever. Based on figures released by wireless carrier AT&T earlier this week, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek predicts Apple will sell 53 million iPhones this quarter, primarily the newest model. That would be a more than 40 percent increase from Apple's previous one-quarter record of 37 million iPhones set in the period covering last year's holiday shopping season.

Theory: The Creativity Contraction

Hypothesis: Apple is running out of fresh ideas.

Since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died 14 months ago after a long battle with cancer, the company has mostly been fine-tuning products that were created under his visionary leadership. The former CEO's hand-picked successor, Tim Cook, is well-respected, but some investors are starting to wonder if Apple can conjure up another revolutionary product to catapult the company on another multiyear stretch of breakneck sales growth. Can Apple innovate like a hard-charging startup while maintaining its giant company stature?

Smartphones and tablets "are starting to become more like commodities," Gillis said. "And how much upside is left if you are stuck in a commodities business? The question is: What is going to get Apple going again?"Most analysts believe Apple's next breakthrough will be a television that shares the same operating system as the iPhone and iPad. An Apple TV would give the company a prized perch on the biggest screen in most households and open up an array of new business opportunities.

Jobs hinted that Apple had figured out how to produce a mesmerizing new TV during interviews he gave with his biographer, Walter Isaacson, before he died. That led many analysts to predict an "iTV" would come this year, only to be disappointed. Cook indicated Apple is still trying to develop the device during an interview that aired on NBC's "Rock Center" Thursday night.

"When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years," Cook said. "It's an area of intense interest. I can't say more than that."

Theory: The Fiscal Cliff Factor

Hypothesis: Many long-time Apple shareholders are selling stock to lock in gains at a lower tax rate.

Under laws set to expire Dec. 31, profits on stocks owned for at least a year are taxed at a 15 percent rate much less than the rate earned income is taxed at.

The recent drop notwithstanding, Apple's stock has still enjoyed an incredible run. It has more than quadrupled from about $120 per share since the iPhone's release in June 2007. Even investors who bought Apple's stock a year ago are still sitting on a gain of nearly 40 percent.

Gillis, though, points out that savvy investors probably wouldn't be selling their Apple stock just to save some money on taxes if they truly believed the stock is destined to soar higher and make them even richer a year from now.

"Sometimes, stocks just take a breather," he said. "And when you get to be as big as Apple, any shift in sentiment can have a material impact on the share price."

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) South Carolina's governor appears to have closed the door on appointing Stephen Colbert to the U.S. Senate, all because the comedian didn't know the state drink was milk.

During "The Colbert Report" on Thursday, Colbert urged his fans to send Gov. Nikki Haley messages on Twitter with the hashtag "SenatorColbert" telling her why he would make a great senator from his home state. Haley is appointing a senator after Jim DeMint announced he is resigning at the end of the year.

Colbert, who plays a mock conservative pundit on his show, also gave Haley four reasons he was the perfect choice.

"You want somebody young, somebody conservative, somebody from South Carolina, maybe somebody who had a super PAC," Colbert said, ticking off the choices by putting down a finger until the final one was left pointing at himself.

"Wait a second," Colbert said, as his crowd cheered.

Thousands of messages poured into the governor's official Twitter account. She responded on her favorite social media site, Facebook, writing on her page that she appreciated Colbert's interest and all the tweets.

"But you forget one thing, my friend. You didn't know our state drink. Big, big mistake," Haley wrote, adding a link to a video of her April appearance on Colbert's show where the host did not know milk was the official state beverage.

On that same show, however, Colbert stumped Haley with the state amphibian the spotted salamander.

Colbert was born and raised in Charleston, and he still has family in the state. He gently mocks his home, and has made a couple of faux runs for president during the state's early primaries. He also put on a crown and declared himself governor of South Carolina in 2009 when then-Gov. Mark Sanford disappeared for several days while visiting his mistress in Argentina.

On his show Thursday, Colbert also gave one other qualification he had to be a U.S. Senator.

"When I look at the U.S. Senate, I say to myself, you know what they could use?" Colbert said. "Another white guy."

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CAIRO (AP) Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters push past barbed wire fences installed by the army and march on the presidential palace, calling for President Mohammed Morsi to "leave" a day after they say he offered no concessions to opposition demands.

Climbing over tanks of the Republican Guard, protesters streamed toward the palace as night fell Friday, crossing a no-go zone set up around the compound's perimeter.

The area witnessed deadly clashes on Wednesday, when supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group drove out crowds camped outside the palace. The clashes left at least six dead and hundreds injured, deepening the schism between the two sides.

Egypt is plunging deeper into crisis as protesters mainly liberals press Morsi to call off a referendum on a draft constitution agreed by his allies.

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