Syria access essential for credible chemical weapons inquiry: U.N.

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that investigators have been gathering and analyzing available information on alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, but access to the war-torn country is essential for a "credible and comprehensive inquiry."

A U.N. push for unconditional access for its inspection team gained fresh momentum after the United States and Britain said last week they had limited evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops used the nerve agent sarin against rebels.

U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Syria that deployment of chemical weapons could trigger unspecified consequences, widely interpreted to include military action by Washington.

But Obama stressed the need for a comprehensive U.N. inquiry in Syria before any decisions on further steps could be taken. The U.N. team, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, is investigating if chemical weapons were used, not who used them.

The Syrian government and the opposition blame each other for alleged chemical weapons attacks in Aleppo in March and Homs in December. Syria wants the U.N. team to probe only the Aleppo attack, but Ban wants the inquiry to cover both incidents.

Syria denies using chemical weapons in the two-year-old civil war in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.

"On-site activities are essential if the United Nations is to be able to establish the facts and clear all the doubts surrounding this issue," Ban told reporters before meeting with Sellstrom at the United Nations in New York.

"A credible and comprehensible inquiry requires full access to the site where chemical weapons are alleged to have been used," Ban said. "I again urge Syrian authorities to allow the investigation to proceed without delay and without conditions."

SYRIA BLOCKING ACCESS

Syria has blocked unfettered access by the U.N. mission, which was created by Ban nearly six weeks ago and has an advance team in Cyprus ready to deploy to Syria. Diplomats say it is unlikely it will gain access any time soon.

"There are clearly still differences in the understanding of what is required to carry out the investigation," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters. Syria and the United Nations have exchanged nearly a dozen letters on the issue.

Ban said that in the meantime, the U.N. investigators were gathering and analyzing available information on the alleged attacks, which included possible visits to countries that said they had evidence of chemical weapons use.

A Western diplomat said British officials had shown Sellstrom evidence on which London based its assertion that there was "limited but growing" evidence of chemical weapons use by Syrian troops. But Sellstrom found the evidence inconclusive, said the diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which works on U.N. inquiries, has said assertions of chemical weapon use by Western and Israeli officials citing photos, sporadic shelling and traces of toxins do not meet the standard of proof needed for U.N. investigators.

The United Nations said in February that around 70,000 people had been killed in Syria's conflict, and since then activists have reported daily death tolls of between 100 and 200. Five million people have fled their homes, including 1.4 million refugees in nearby countries.

"If there is a massive use of chemical weapons in the country, we are not prepared to face it and to be able to deliver humanitarian aid in that kind of environment," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said on Monday.

"This is something that we have to look at as a devastating scenario if it happens," he told reporters at an aid conference near Washington.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-access-essential-credible-chemical-weapons-inquiry-u-005119769.html

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Students for a Democratic Society: End U.S. war threats against ...

Statement by Students for a Democratic Society |

April 28, 2013

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Students for a Democratic Society

In the last several months, the U.S. has yet again ramped up tensions on the Korean peninsula, staging unnecessary and provocative war games; all while threatening north Korea with destruction. This comes after decades of similar threats and years of sanctions that have impoverished millions. The U.S. is clearly using lies, military threats including nuclear devastation, and economic bullying to get what it wants from both the north, the south, and indeed the world.

Students for a Democratic Society condemn the imperial actions of the United States toward north Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). We demand an end to the threats and lies that have helped divide the Korean people for more than fifty years, including war games.

We demand that the U.S. close military bases on the peninsula and withdraw troops from south Korea.

We demand an end to sanctions against the north that impoverish the Korean people.

We hold that peace is impossible so long as the United States continues to interfere with the affairs of sovereign states. The Korean people have a right to self-determination. The fate of reunification is for the Korean people to decide.

We say, ?Hands off north Korea! Get off the peninsula!?

Source: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2013/4/28/students-democratic-society-end-us-war-threats-against-north-korea

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Jony Ive once again rumored to be painting a kinder, flatter iOS 7 interface

We've been hearing about Jony Ive taking a sand blaster to iOS 7 -- removing a lot of the heavier textures, gradients, shadows, and skeuomorphs that built up at Apple under Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall. According to what I've been hearing), iOS 7 will make fans of the richer design style cry. 9to5Mac's ace reporter, Mark Gurman, calls it Windows Phone-like, and what's more:

In addition to losing the complex interface design characteristics from earlier versions of iOS, Apple has been discussing and testing ways to add more ?glance-able? information and system options panels, like Notification Center, to the software. While it is still uncertain if Apple will end up including such new functionality in iOS 7, or how the Company will implement the potential addition, one of the early ideas was to implement the new panels via swipes from the left and right side of an iOS device?s display. This would be similar to the gesture on Apple?s Mac trackpads for accessing Notification Center in Mountain Lion, but what, specifically, the iOS gesture could access is uncertain.

Gurman also says that iOS 7 is code-named Innsbruck, and includes a full set of newly redesigned icons for the built-in Apple apps. As that suggests, and as I've heard as well, the base Springboard launcher and its grid aren't going anywhere any time soon, so those hoping for an entirely new Home screen experience will be disappointed. That's not to say there won't be, as Gurman alludes to in his post, that Apple won't introduce new or modified sliding panels like Notification Center to add to or enhance functionality, but when you hit Home, currently, you still see Home. That's important for the hundreds of millions of existing iOS users.

What it means for developers and designers, however, will depend on how they've built their apps to date. Those who have stuck to UIKit will get a lot of the new look, including all the new stock interface elements, "for free". Those who have replicated UIKit elements in order to change them more substantially will have to re-replicate them. Those who have completely customized their interfaces, and who want to fit the new aesthetic, will have a lot of graphics to redraw come WWDC.

Ironically, Windows Phone and Android went flat to overcome performance issues. Compositing, masking, and shadow effects takes cycles. Flat interface can be thrown around much faster. Yet, because they've done it more recently, and because it stands in stark contrast to the more elaborate 2007-esque iOS interface, it looks "new". Their constraints brought out a cleanness and modernness that became fashionable, and as a result made Apple look decidedly unfashionable.

It'd be tempting to call the move reactionary -- a new look by new management to deal with new tastes in the market -- but for that new management being headed by Jony Ive. Apple's senior vice president of design has tastes that are well known, minimalist and timeless. He values getting everything, every distraction, out of the way until only the essential nature of the object remains. Now we're seeing that vision, Ive's vision, in charge of software for the first time. That it's such a stark contrast, and likely a welcome change for many from the status quo, could simply be a bonus.

Check out Gurman's article for more on iOS 7's new look, and then come back here and let me know what you think. If Apple goes flat, should they go very flat?

Source: 9to5Mac

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/P5QO6_uBecQ/story01.htm

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The Rumor Mills for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Release Date, Specs, Features Already Begun!

Some rumors regarding the release Date & specs of Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and will it affect Samsung Galaxy S4!! At present, there have been quite a lot of rumors regarding Samsung. And according to these rumors Samsung is working on its upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that is about to be released on latter half of this year. The Galaxy Note 3 from Samsung will be its next flagship device and the successor of the famous Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phablet.

lately Samsung made some announcements regarding Samsung Galaxy S4 which is the latest flagship device of Samsung and will be one of the most influential next generation smartphones of this year. However, it seems quite obvious that Samsung may very soon face competition among its very own smart devices and which may affect its overall business.

Source: technobuffalo

There?s no doubt that Samsung is one of the leading manufacturers of smartphone & tablet devices. This Korean firm has achieved top level due to its Galaxy range of smartphones & tablets. But the real question is, what will customers do when they have to select from Samsung Galaxy S4 & Samsung Galaxy Note 3? Moreover, the hardware configuration of the latest upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet can be a threat to Samsung Galaxy S4. In fact customers have already posted comments on internet that say that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will for sure be a better smart device.

Source: technobuffalo

Also read: Rumors: Samsung to Release Galaxy S4 Mini to Complete with Apple?s iPhone Mini

The spectacular features of Samsung Galaxy S4 will not make a much difference because the Galaxy Note 3 will have all these features along with some extra cool features. One of such features is the flexible display which was initially expected to be seen in Galaxy S4. This latest feature will add extra protection and would make the device nearly unbreakable.

Source: technobuffalo

We all are familiar with the greatness of Galaxy Note 2, and we can tell that its successor would be equally good. So allow us to know what you all think regarding these two devices. Would the Galaxy Note 3 boost sales for Samsung or will it give a tough time to Galaxy S4 instead?

?Article source: captees

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Source: http://www.iphone5sreleasedate.com/the-rumor-mills-for-samsung-galaxy-note-3-release-date-specs-features-already-begun.html

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What?! Enviro Activist Re-Imprisoned for Writing a Blog Post ...

Photo Credit: SupportDaniel.org

April 5, 2013 ?|

This article was published in partnership with? GlobalPossibilities.org.

Federal officials sent environmental activist Daniel McGowan back to prison Thursday, just months after his release to a halfway house in December. McGowan?s wife, Jenny Synan says officials re-jailed her husband for writing a Huffington Post blog piece critical of a controversial prison program designed to restrict inmates? communication to the outside world.

?Synan told HuffPost that she asked a BOP official why her husband had been re-imprisoned after his release to a halfway house in December,? report HuffPost?s Matt Sledge and Ryan Grimm, ?She said the official told her that the HuffPost article violated a term of his release that restricted him from interacting with the media.?

In 2001, McGowan was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to arson in connection with the animal rights group, Earth Liberation Front. Whilst serving his time, prison officials designated him to a division restricting his outside contact called a ?Communication Management Unit.? McGowan sought to find out why he was quartered off, eventually obtaining memos explaining his CMU designation. It turns out prison officials frowned upon his continued in-prison activism and demonstrated ??support for anarchist and radical environmental terrorist groups.? In a blog post for The Huffington Post, he criticizes the program for segregating prisoners based on their beliefs:

It became quickly obvious to me that many CMU prisoners were there because of their religion or in retaliation for their speech. By my count, around two-thirds of the men are? Muslim, many of whom have been caught up in the so-called? ?war on terror,? others who just spoke out for their rights or allegedly took leadership positions in the? Muslim community?at other facilities.?Some, like me, were prisoners who have political views and perspectives that are?not shared by the Department of Justice.

Three days after McGowan wrote the preceding paragraph, he was rearrested. ?He just posted his thing a few days ago about all this stuff ? about his political beliefs and speech ? and they do something to him because of his post about this. It?s crazy,? Syan said.

Assuming McGowan was rejailed for his blog post the question of whether the BOP acted legally might rest on whether writing for the Huffington Post constitutes as speaking to the media. In a statement to HuffPost, Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Chris Burke said, ?inmates cannot do interviews without permission. So if there?s some sort of a phone interview or a sit-in interview, those have to be pre-approved.?

But HuffPost executive editor Stuart Whatley says a media interview and blog contribution represents a false equivalency.

?The HuffPost blog is a platform for contributors to share opinion, commentary and their thoughts on any topic of their choosing,? Whatley said. ?As our guidelines explicitly state, ?you can write about anything you want. Huffington Post does not select or approve your topics.??

Steven Hsieh is an editorial assistant at AlterNet and writer based in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter @stevenjhsieh.

Source: http://www.globalpossibilities.org/what-enviro-activist-re-imprisoned-for-writing-a-blog-post/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-enviro-activist-re-imprisoned-for-writing-a-blog-post

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NASA could make 'Skylab II' first deep space 'home'

NASA Images

The original Skylab space station (left) launched atop a Saturn V moon rocket. Skylab II (right) would blast off atop NASA's Space Launch System.

By Mike Wall
Space.com

NASA's first manned outpost in deep space may be a repurposed rocket part, just like the agency's first-ever astronaut abode in Earth orbit.

With a little tinkering, the upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank of NASA's huge Space Launch System rocket would make a nice and relatively cheap deep-space habitat, some researchers say. They call the proposed craft "Skylab II," an homage to the 1970s Skylab space station that was a modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket.

"This idea is not challenging technology," said Brand Griffin, an engineer with Gray Research Inc. who works with the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"It's just trying to say, 'Is this the time to be able to look at existing assets, planned assets and incorporate those into what we have as a destination of getting humans beyond LEO (low-Earth orbit)?'" Griffin said? March 27 during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group. [Gallery: Visions of Deep-Space Stations]

NASA / MSFC artist concept, Brand Griffin, Advanced Concepts Office

The Skylab II deep-space habitat would be made from the Space Launch System's upper-stage hydrogen tank.

A roomy home in deep space
NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) to launch astronauts toward distant destinations such as near-Earth asteroids and Mars. The rocket's first test flight is slated for 2017, and NASA wants it to start lofting crews by 2021.

The SLS will stand 384 feet tall (117 meters) in its biggest ("evolved") incarnation, which will be capable of blasting 130 metric tons of payload to orbit. Its upper-stage hydrogen tank is big, too, measuring 36.1 feet tall by 27.6 feet wide (11.15 m by 8.5 m).

The tank's dimensions yield an internal volume of 17,481 cubic feet (495 cubic m) ? roughly equivalent to a two-story house. That's much roomier than a potential deep-space habitat derived from modules of the International Space Station?(ISS), which are just 14.8 feet (4.5 m) wide, Griffin said.

The tank-based Skylab II could accommodate a crew of four comfortably and carry enough gear and food to last for several years at a time without requiring a resupply, he added. Further, it would launch aboard the SLS in a single piece, whereas ISS-derived habitats?would need to link up multiple components in space.

Because of this, Skylab?II would require relatively few launches to establish and maintain, Griffin said. That and the use of existing SLS-manufacturing infrastructure would translate into big cost savings ? a key selling point in today's tough fiscal climate.

NASA / MSFC artist concept, Brand Griffin, Advanced Concepts Office

Astronauts would reach the Skylab II deep-space habitat aboard NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

"We will have the facilities in place, the tooling, the personnel, all the supply chain and everything else," Griffin said.

He compared the overall concept with the original Skylab space station, which was built in a time of declining NASA budgets after the boom years of the Apollo program.

Skylab "was a project embedded under the Apollo program," Griffin said. "In many ways, this could follow that same pattern. It could be a project embedded under SLS and be able to, ideally, not incur some of the costs of program startup."

Living beyond the moon
Griffin and his colleagues envision placing Skylab II at the Earth-moon Lagrange point 2, a gravitationally stable location beyond the moon's far side.

Over the past year or so, NASA has been drawing up plans for a possible manned outpost at EM-L2. A station there would establish a human presence in deep space, serve as a staging ground for lunar operations and help build momentum for exploring more distant destinations, such as asteroids and Mars, advocates say.

The Skylab II concept could also help ferry astronauts to these far-flung locales, Griffin said.

"You can build multiple vehicles," he said. "If we were to send this one, the first one, out to Earth-moon L2, you could build another that that could be a transit hab. So rather than having to go back and use space station parts, you would be able to pick these off the line."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?Space.com.

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

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a5820dd/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A40C1760A19550Enasa0Ecould0Emake0Eskylab0Eii0Efirst0Edeep0Espace0Ehome0Dlite/story01.htm

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Subprime Madness: Shotguns Now Accepted As Car Loan Down ...

Anyone looking for an anecdote illustrating the QE-fueled madness that is subprime auto lending, take a look at this Reuters report on what?constitutes?a down payment in the subprime world.

And still, though Nelson?s credit history was an unhappy one, local car dealer Maloy Chrysler Dodge Jeep had no problem arranging a $10,294 loan from Wall Street-backed subprime lender Exeter Finance Corp so Nelson and his wife could buy a charcoal gray 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara.

All the Nelsons had to do was cover the $1,000 down payment. For most of that amount, Maloy accepted Jeffrey?s 12-gauge Mossberg & Sons shotgun, valued at about $700 online.

Sub-prime auto loans were up 18 percent in 2012, thanks to a bubble created by the Fed?s quantitative-easing program. As QE has driven up inflation and kept interest rates low, global investors are looking at riskier investment vehicles that offer better potential returns. Bonds backed by subprime car loans are one of those vehicles that everyone from hedge funds to institutional investors have gravitated towards. In 2012, $18.5 billion in subprime backed securities were sold, up from $11.75 billion in 2011.

With subprime lenders expecting 1 in 4 creditors to default on their loans, interest rates can easily top 20 percent, and dealers can easily?repossess?and sell the same car over and over again while reaping enormous profits. Meanwhile, the process appears to be?fueling?yet another credit-driven asset bubble similar to the mortgage crisis that torpedoed everything in the previous decade.

Despite a focus on used cars in the Reuters report, many of the players in the used car field, such as Santander, GM Financial and Ally Financial are tied in with the new car side as well. Santander is Chrysler?s financing unit of choice, while GM has GM Financial as a?separate?subprime financing arm, in addition to Ally.?Delinquencies?are slowly creeping upwards as well. GM alone claims that 8.5 percent of its auto contracts are?delinquent? higher than Ford, Toyota and Honda combined.

News of yet another month with a SAAR of over 15 million is an encouraging sign for the auto industry, but in light of reports such as this one, one can?t help but wonder how much of the market is being driven by subprime lending, and whether this level of auto sales will be sustainable. Adding additional capacity to meet demand that is fueled by a lending bubble could be disastrous if we witness a 2008-style deflation in auto sales thanks to a subprime contraction.

Source: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/04/subprime-madness-shotguns-now-accepted-as-car-loan-down-payments/

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