News Portal, latest news from around the world.

When I speak to groups and ask people that question -- and emphasize that I mean an aspirational dream, not one they had in their sleep -- they often say they wanted to be firefighters or princesses. Or cowboys, or ballerinas. Maybe superheroes.

That's what a lot of us think, because those are the oldest dreams we're conscious of, the first ones we remember formulating.

But before that -- before we ever imagined ourselves rocketing to outer space or drumming in a rock band -- we had other dreams. The first ones we ever felt.

If we rediscover those, a lot of us, particularly those of us who are parents, just may find the "sacrifices" we make for family a lot easier to accept.

I rediscovered mine after my wife skipped labor and I had to guide my son into this world.

On the phone with 911, I unraveled the umbilical cord that was snaked all over his neck.

In that moment, I saw life -- its fragility and its opportunity -- in a new way.

As I wrote in my CNN.com column, "what matters most -- my real values and priorities -- became crystal clear. Nothing else even existed."

A lot of people have asked me about that. What did I see -- and what didn't I see?

When I was preparing to give a TEDx Talk about chasing big dreams, I realized the answer.

What I saw, in that moment, was my real first dream, and my son's.

I live by my dreams. Throughout my career, instead of following traditional paths, I've come up with new ideas for what I wanted to do and found ways to make them happen.

I've been fortunate. Those dreams have brought me to the places I've wanted to be.

Everyone should chase big dreams. It brings a deep sense of satisfaction. And it makes the world better. We have advanced societies, stronger buildings to withstand storms, medical discoveries, technology, entertainment and so much more because dreamers pursued their visions and worked hard to make them happen.

But dream-chasing can also be addictive. Some people become so obsessed with making one idea happen that they stop focusing on what's most important in their lives. They stop spending time with their families and friends. As with any addiction, they pay a price.

In the moment my son was being born, all my professional dreams ceased to exist. In that room, it was just the four of us -- my wife, our then 3-year-old son, the baby, and me. Family and fatherhood were all I saw.

(CNN) -- The love affair between BlackBerry devotees and their mobile communicators is becoming strained, and some of them made the quarrel very public this week after a service outage.

Fans often discuss the intimate details about why they are attached at the hip to smartphones made by Research in Motion -- the clack-clack of the tiny keys, the feel of the trackball or square pad on their thumbs, the informative indicator light calling out for attention. They affectionately call it the "CrackBerry."

After the recent outage, which RIM says was caused by a server error, some longtime BlackBerry users are writing goodbye letters on blogs, and on message boards operated and frequented by the CrackBerry collective. Richie, a British member of a Web forum called CrackBerry, summed up the concerns, saying RIM has been "chipping away our faith" in the company's ability to satisfy customers.

In interviews with reporters, RIM executives issued apologies, which they also made public in a recorded video, but they avoided questions about whether they planned to offer incentives as compensation for the millions of customers affected by the outage. RIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

By comparison, after Sony restored its network this summer following a lengthy outage, the company compensated users of its subscription service, and gave free games and movie rentals to all users.

Netflix has offered small discounts to customers affected by technical troubles.

Despite RIM's lack of public comment, an AT&T customer in Cleveland wrote on the CrackBerry message boards that he received a credit on his bill when he called to complain about the outage.

RIM customers still holding onto their faith in the company should pay close attention to a conference being held in San Francisco next week. The pressure on BlackBerry from competitors is mounting, and RIM's promised next-generation models, with dual-core processors and large touchscreens, are overdue.

A CrackBerry forum member, posting under the alias N8star, says he is giving up his BlackBerry Torch 9850 "after years of being treated like a battered spouse by RIM," he wrote. His wife urged him to switch to an iPhone, and he says he will acquiesce.

Jim Kerstetter, the executive editor for technology website CNET, published an editorial on Thursday titled "RIM, you're dead to me now." He writes that he has defended BlackBerry, despite the lack of multimedia features, but that the recent outage has spurred him to switch phones and operating systems.

RIM still has a comfortable hold on corporate buyers, who snap up large orders for employees. Security experts tend to trust BlackBerry more than other smartphone platforms.

However, even tech departments in companies are becoming more lenient on this policy. David Hurst, who was waiting in line to buy an iPhone 4S for his wife at a store in Atlanta, said her company "has finally approved for her to switch from BlackBerry to iPhone, and her BlackBerry is just falling apart."

In the now crucial mobile-consumer market, Google and Apple both lead BlackBerry in sales, a trend expected to continue into the crucial holiday shopping season. A combined 69% of smartphone buyers say they plan to get either an Android phone or iPhone, while only 8% indicated that BlackBerry was at the top of their shopping lists, according to an NPD study from this summer.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- While Europe's debt crisis will remain a focus on Wall Street this week, investors will also have a barrage of corporate financial results to sift through as earnings season kicks into high gear.

The week ahead includes reports from nearly half of the Dow's 30 components, including Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500) and General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), and 96 members of the S&P 500 including, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Southwest Airlines (LUV, Fortune 500) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).

S&P 500 company earnings are expected to have climbed 23% in the third quarter of 2011, according to earnings tracker Thomson Reuters. Revenues of the companies in the benchmark index are expected to have risen 10%.

Stocks posted stellar gains last week, with the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) delivering their best weekly performances since 2009. They'll start the week at the high end of the range that they have been trading between since early August.
Bring profits home and create jobs? Maybe not

Whether they'll be able to break above those levels will primarily depend on the health of and guidance from corporate America, said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies at ING Investment Management.

"Earnings will determine the moves in the market," said Zemsky. "If companies aren't positive, we could see stocks continue to drift in the territory they've been in for two months. "

Zemsky said investors will pay especially close attention to companies with global footprints to get their take on the pace of worldwide economic growth, amid rising fears of a slowdown.

Istanbul (CNN) -- A growing number of Syria's Middle Eastern neighbors, including its closest allies Iran and Hezbollah, are calling on the embattled and defiant Damascus regime to implement reforms.

The chorus of foreign criticism and concern comes as opposition demonstrators inside Syria have begun for the first time making public appeals for foreign "protection."

In an amateur video believed to have been filmed over the weekend in the southern town of Horan, a crowd of dozens of young Syrians clapped and chanted "the people demand international protection." In another video, also posted on YouTube this weekend, activsts held up printed signs saying "we need international protection," in English and Arabic.

This is a dramatic departure from the position demonstrators staked out during more than five months of protests against the government of Syrian president Bashar al- Assad. Previously, activists rejected the possibility of any foreign military intervention similar to the NATO bombing campaign of Libya.

But inside Syria, there are signs that the opposition movement has grown frustrated with the high death toll resulting from a brutal government crackdown. According to the United Nations, more than 2200 people have been killed during the uprising, in addition to mass arrests and allegations of torture by Syrian security forces. In the video recorded in Horan, some Syrians held up signs saying "Yes to Arab deterrent Forces." Activists tell CNN, on condition of anonymity to protect from persecution, there is more debate in opposition circles about new measures ranging from requesting a foreign military "no fly zone" over Syria to trying to arm protesters with weapons.

"In an unprecedented move over the past several days, Syrians in Syria and abroad have been calling for Syrians to take up arms, or for international military intervention," announced a prominent Syrian opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

"While we understand the motivation to take up arms or call for military intervention, we specifically reject this position as we find it unacceptable politically, nationally, and ethically," the Committees went on to say, arguing that militarization would "erode the morale superiority" of the Syrian revolution.

As frustrated protesters contemplate alternative options, Turkey and the Arab league have stepped up their criticism of the al-Assad regime.

Turkish president Abdullah Gul blasted his Syrian counterpart in remarks that were televised on Sunday, saying that Ankara had "lost confidence" in its former ally and trading partner.

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- As a voter, aren't you tired of feeling as if you don't really have a choice?

Primaries have an assortment of personalities to sort through early on, but at the end of the day, the general election often forces us into a this-or-that, the lesser-of-two-evils scenario.

Technically that scenario is still a choice, but I bet if you went to an all-you-can-eat buffet and they only served mashed potatoes and mashed potatoes with gravy, you would want your money back.

And when I look at some of the decisions President Obama has made, that's exactly what I want, my money back.

But then I look at the field of Republican candidates and I just feel trapped, as our election process has become less about which candidate you prefer and more like which limb you want to cut off.

The only GOP candidate I find myself wanting to hear more from is Jon Huntsman, who, when I last checked, finished a hair below Lady Gaga and a handful of rocks in the latest Gallup poll.

"He's a nice guy, but he's out of his league," said Bob List, a former Nevada governor and GOP strategist.

Is Huntsman a charismatic politician?

No.

But wow -- a former governor who oversaw the biggest tax cut in his state's history, maintained a surplus in the budget, speaks fluent Chinese and is a talented enough musician to play on stage with REO Speedwagon is deemed "out of his league." But Rick Perry, the dude who got a "D" in economics and brags about creating more minimum wage jobs, many without benefits, than any other governor is not?

I don't know what kind of league List is talking about, but it sounds nuts to me.

It's those kinds of insider statements that have me reminiscing about the free-wheeling Ross Perot.

True, the 1992 independent candidate didn't win. He finished third behind winner Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. But man was he fun. He didn't have to deal with the Lists in his party, and because of that, the nearly 20 million people who voted for him didn't feel as trapped.

Think about it: Perot captured nearly 19% of the popular vote, more than 50% of them independents. This was at a time in which no one really paid attention to independent voters. But in 2008, independent voters were credited with being the difference makers, and today the big GOP question is whether a social conservative in the primary can appeal to moderates and independents in the general.

Huntsman's showing a bit more personality now, and he is unveiling a jobs package ahead of Obama and Mitt Romney. But the reality is, it doesn't matter. He effectively eliminated his chances of making conservatives swoon, and thus winning the GOP nomination, when he tweeted that he believes in evolution and global warming.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has apologized for causing a collision with Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi which ended the Briton's involvement in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

The 2008 world champion Hamilton overtook the Sauber racer on the 13th lap heading into the corner known as Les Combes, but the 26-year-old failed to see Kobayashi making a counter move.

The two cars subsequently made contact with Hamilton spinning into the barriers and out of the race.

The crash prompted the Briton to apologize to Kobayashi and his McLaren team via the social-networking site Twitter.

"After watching the replay, I realize it was my fault today [Sunday] 100%. I didn't give Kobayashi enough room though I thought I was past," tweeted Hamilton.

20 years of Schumacher: Is his legacy on the line?