EBay is in the middle of its Analyst Day, and just a little while ago it announced plans for some significant expansions for eBay Now, its same-day delivery service, with Chicago and Dallas?deliveries coming this summer, and integration of?the service into its "core experience" as it gears up for competition with Amazon and now Google.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7pJK_RKX_BY/
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Do you have an online business? What forms of marketing tools are you using to boost up your sales? ?
Running an online business has now been a household name. ?As a matter of fact, majority of the people patronizing products online belong to the home makers group. ?This is so because they are the ones who are always occupied with the so many tasks at home being a mother and a wife. ?They are lured to online shopping simply because it is the most convenient way to shop. ?Not only they can stay at the comfort of their own homes and combined shopping with other tasks at home but also because, most of the products being sold online are cheaper and comes with a variety of options and designs to choose from. ?No wonder why more and more people are getting interested putting up their online shops. ?But the next big question would be, "how would we be able to boost our sales online?"
Just like any other ordinary home maker, I am not an exemption. ?I am one of the majority who is much interested to online shopping much more to running my own online business. ?But since, I am not more to being a technical type of person, I am clueless about using search engine marketing with fizz. ?Search Engine Marketing is a kind of Internet marketing that uses website exposure as a means of increasing their visibility and presence in search engine result pages. ?Since search engines appeared to help people to find information they need quickly, search engines develop search models that could somehow finance various services that could boost the web presence of various online businesses. ?In fact, some businesses spent billions of dollars for SEO campaigns and do you ever wonder why they would resort to spending that much if is is not a proven method of online marketing?
The main objective of business using search engine marketing is to maintain their ranking as high as possible to capture a larger share of audience that would visit their websites and eventually view their products. ?There is no doubt that search engine marketing is an effective tool in getting the attention of ?online consumers which would eventually paved the way for an increases sales and growth of your businesses.
Disclaimer:
This is a sponsored post, however all the opinions and views presented here are my own.?
Source: http://www.lifestipsandtricks.com/2013/03/grow-your-business-through-search.html
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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa did not import any crude oil from Iran for a ninth consecutive month in February, data showed on Thursday, as Pretoria steers clear of the shipments because of sanctions.
South Africa used to import a quarter of its crude from Iran but has come under Western pressure to reduce the purchases as part of sanctions aimed at halting Tehran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.
In May last year, imports from Iran stood at 285,524 tonnes but since June, Africa's biggest economy has replaced the shipments with crude from other suppliers.
Saudi Arabia was again the major supplier in February with shipments of 719,330 tonnes, data from the South African Revenue Service showed. Other crude imports were from Angola, Nigeria, Russia, Yemen, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, with shipments totalling 1.75 million tonnes.
While the United States extended South Africa's exemption from financial sanctions in December due to the Iranian cuts, Pretoria is still hampered by European Union sanctions that prevent insurance companies from underwriting Iranian shipments.
The EU has not granted any waivers, even though South Africa has been lobbying Brussels because it has to pay more to source crude from countries other than Iran.
Also, some of the South African refineries are designed to treat Iranian-type crude only and require modifications to accept other products.
Refiners in South Africa include Shell, BP, Total, Chevron, petrochemicals group Sasol, and Engen, which is majority-owned by Malaysian state oil group Petronas .
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africa-imports-no-iranian-crude-again-february-150858494--sector.html
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By Oliver Holmes and Hamdi Istanbullu
BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Fifteen Syrian students were killed when rebel mortar shells hit a Damascus University canteen on Thursday, state-run news agency SANA said, as attacks intensified in the center of the capital.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said a mortar killed 13 people at the university, without saying who fired the bombs.
Other activists confirmed the attack but no opposition group has denied or claimed responsibility.
Insurgents trying to end four decades of rule by the family of President Bashar al-Assad have formed a semi-circle around the capital and intensified attacks from positions on the outskirts this week.
A bastion for Assad's forces, the capital city is a crucial prize in a two-year-old uprising that has developed into a war in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.
Another 1.2 million Syrians have also fled to neighboring countries and North Africa, where they have registered as refugees or are awaiting processing, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Highlighting the strain the conflict is placing on neighboring states, Turkey, host to about 260,000 of the refugees, denied on Thursday it had rounded up and deported hundreds of Syrians following unrest at a refugee camp.
SANA said mortar rounds landed in a canteen at the College of Architecture in Baramkeh, a central district near several government buildings, including the Defense Ministry, the headquarters for state media and Assad's official residence.
Pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV showed images of doctors trying to resuscitate at least two young men and blood on the floor of what appeared to be an outdoor canteen. A young woman was shown walking in a hospital, her face bleeding heavily.
SANA quoted the president of Damascus University as saying the death toll, initially put at 12, had risen to 15 in what state and pro-government media called a terrorist attack.
Last weekend rebel groups sent out warnings on the Internet that they planned to intensify strikes on government and military sites in the city and warned residents they should leave to avoid what they called "Operation Shaking the Fort".
The United Nations said on Monday it would withdraw about half of its international staff from Damascus after a mortar bomb landed near their hotel.
The Syrian military has responded to rebel attacks with artillery shelling and air strikes on suburbs where rebels are entrenched among thousands of civilians trapped in crossfire.
On Thursday, opposition activists said rebels had taken the main bus station in northeastern Damascus. They provided footage of fighters walking around a deserted area and stamping on a framed picture of Assad. (http://link.reuters.com/peg96t)
Government reporting restrictions make it difficult to verify such accounts independently.
TURKISH DENIAL
The foreign ministry in Turkey denied on Thursday any Syrians had been expelled following unrest at the Suleymansah refugees camp, near the Turkish town of Akcakale
A group of 130 people, identified with the help of camera footage as being "involved in the provocations", decided to cross back into Syria voluntarily, either because they did not want to face judicial proceedings or because of repercussions from other refugees, the ministry said in a statement.
Witnesses said hundreds of Syrians were bused to the border after Wednesday's clashes in which refugees threw rocks at military police, who fired tear gas and water cannon.
"There has been a big deportation operation here, they got rid of lots of people. They kicked out two of my boys and three of my brother's sons. They came for my boys last night and told them to get their bags," one refugee at the camp told Reuters by telephone, giving her name as Saher.
Camp residents said young men started the protest against living conditions after faulty electrics set a tent on fire, injuring three brothers aged seven, 18 and 19, one of whom later died in hospital, according to Turkish media reports.
UNHCR said it was concerned about the reports and had taken them up with Turkey. Such action would violate U.N. conventions.
In a sign of divisions hampering international efforts to stem the conflict, Russia on Thursday accused the Arab League of abandoning support for a peaceful solution by giving a summit seat to the Syrian opposition.
Opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib took Syria's vacant seat on Tuesday at the Arab summit, which also lent its support to giving military aid to rebels fighting Assad.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also cast doubt over the mandate of U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.
"I just don't see how Mr. Brahimi can continue to be considered the representative not just of the United Nations but of the Arab League," Lavrov said in Moscow.
Russia has in the past vocally supported Brahimi, who has met in recent months with Russian and U.S. officials in talks which failed to bridge disagreements over Syria.
Russia, which has long supplied arms to Assad's government but says it is not delivering weapons that can be used in the civil war, vehemently opposes arming the rebels.
Moscow says it has pressed Assad's government to end violence and accuses Western and Arab states of failing to put enough pressure on his opponents to do so, and in many cases encouraging them to keep fighting.
Russia and China have blocked three resolutions in the U.N. Security Council, and Moscow says Assad's exit from power must not be a precondition for peace talks
(Additional reporting by Reuters TV, Erika Solomon in Beirut and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Jason Webb; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mortar-kills-15-damascus-university-syria-says-190632299.html
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By Brian Homewood March 28 (Reuters) - Swiss champions FC Basel, renowned for their youth development programme, face a constant battle to stop teenage players moving to English, Spanish and Italian clubs. President Bernhard Heusler told Reuters in an interview that parents often do not listen to the club when warned against taking their sons elsewhere. "We get enormous pressure from outside, including English clubs," said Heusler before adding Basel were powerless to stop their youngsters leaving before the age of 16. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africas-mandela-back-hospital-070540290.html
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Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a prominent Russian opposition figure, was found dead at his home near London on Saturday. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News
Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a prominent Russian opposition figure, was found dead at his home near London on Saturday, British officials told NBC News. He was 67.
His death was also reported in a Facebook post by his son-in-law, Egor Schuppe. "Boris Berezovsky dead," the post read.
Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images, file
A picture dated Oct. 4, 2011 shows Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky leaving the Court of Appeal in Central London. Berezovsky, the exiled Russian oligarch and long-time opponent of the Kremlin, has died in Britain at the age of 67, his spokesman said on March 23, 2013, without giving further details.
Police said in a statement that they were investigating "the unexplained death of a 67-year-old man, believed to be Russian national Boris Berezovsky." Officials were combing through a property in Ascot, Berkshire, which is about 25 miles west of London.?
Officers trained in dealing with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats conducted a number of searches as a precaution but found "nothing of concern in the property," according to the police statement.?One road block in the area remained closed, police said.
Police said Berezovsky's body was still in the property Saturday night, police said.
"I would like to reassure residents that we are confident there is no risk to the wider community," Supt. Stuart Greenfield said in an earlier statement. "The property is part of a large estate so a number of roads are closed off at the moment and will remain so for the time being."
Berezovsky accumulated his wealth in the early 1990s, when Russia's privatization of state assets turned chaotic. He orchestrated the re-election of Boris Yeltsin in 1996 and played a role in Vladimir Putin's rise to prominence, but he fell out of favor with the latter after Putin became president of Russia in 2000.?
Berezovsky fled Russia for Britain in 2001 after criticizing Putin's government. He was granted political asylum in Britain in 2003.
Berezovsky was a close friend of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006.
Last year, a court ordered him to pay $53.3 million in legal costs to fellow Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, after losing a legal battle against him. The legal and other costs of that lawsuit amounted to about $250 million.
?
This story was originally published on Sat Mar 23, 2013 3:55 PM EDT
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When a fire broke out in a church in Mesa County, Colo., in September 2011, the police department was ready with its flight team. Strapping a thermal camera to a Draganflyer X6, they flew the drone above the burning building. Together, police and firemen identified hotspots in the structure, and traced the direction in which the fire was spreading.
In 2010, a 5-pound Marcus drone was loaned to forest rangers in West Virginia by University Cincinnati researchers, in order to monitor a controlled burn. Now the group is developing an unmanned system to help control wildfires.
Even the Global Hawk, used by the U.S. Army, has entered civilian life. NOAA and NASA have decked two out with all kinds of sensors to watch storms as they brew. The crafts can endure (comparatively) long missions, letting researchers study large-scale weather patterns, like how grains from a Sahara sandstorm can seed a new hurricane when they reach the ocean.
There's no doubt drones can do a world of good. They can get to places humans can't, and do many jobs quicker ? for a fraction of the cost. Benjamin Miller, who manages the Mesa County Sheriff?s Office drone program, estimates that drones can do "30 percent of the missions of manned aviation for 2 percent of the cost." The two Mesa County drones cost $25 for each hour they are used.
But state-level bills cropping up across the U.S. could ground virtuous drones used in rescue and research. Meanwhile, privacy advocates and legal experts disagree over how effective the proposed legislation really will be.
In Oregon, one proposed bill requires that anyone who operates a drone, whether it's a local police department or a hobbyist, get a license from the Oregon Department of Aviation first.
An Indiana state bill wouldn't let a news station survey traffic on a highway, or let law enforcement send out an unmanned search party for lost hikers, the American Civil Liberties Union's Allie Bohm explained to NBC News. And a Nebraska bill wouldn't allow law enforcement to gather evidence or information via drone except in the case of a terrorist threat.
Two bills on the governor's desk in Virginia propose drone restrictions, but exclude select cases, such as search and rescue. Same for a bill proposed in Massachusetts last December, which would require police to get a warrant before sending a drone to collect aerial photography or thermal data as part of a criminal investigation.
Privacy advocates told NBC News they support this type of drone law.
"With drones, we have arrived at a moment when it is technologically possible to engage in constant mass aerial surveillance," the ACLU's Jay Stanley told NBC News. But don't surveillance cameras do some of that already? "We don't like those either," Stanley added, "But I think that drones raise the stakes considerably from there."
There's currently a trade-off between how maneuverable a drone can be and how long it can stay in the air. You can't combine the endurance of the solar-panelled QinetiQ Zephyr ? which stayed aloft in the Nevada desert for two straight weeks, but whose view can be blocked by clouds ? with the steady gaze of the Pentagon?s 1.8-gigapixel drone camera. Not yet.
One drone that captured the attention of Wednesday's senate hearing was AeroVironment's Nano Hummingbird, which can fly sideways or vertically by flapping two tiny wings. It weighs less than a AA battery, but records video. Not especially well, mind you, but cameras are always improving.
Regardless of current limitations, drones great and small still give law enforcement more reach than it had before. Yet while new legislation will surely be required, existing law may address some concerns.
"I believe that existing frameworks will provide more protection than is generally appreciated," John Villasenor a policy expert with UCLA and the Brookings Institution, told NBC News via email. By that he means that, when drones start snooping, courts will uphold certain privacies thanks to the Fourth Amendment.
Others say that current laws may be insufficient, but targeting drones misses the point.
?Whether data's being collected by Google or from cellphones or bank cameras or traffic cameras, I don't think the medium is the essence," Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, which represents drone manufacturers, told NBC News. "The question is what's being done with it, who's using it, who's collecting it, where's it being stored, where is it being deleted."
Toscano's organization may wish to keep drones out of legislation, but legal experts agree with the premise.
"Privacy law is not keeping up with surveillance technology, and drones are helping us see that," Ryan Calo, assistant professor of law at the University of Washington told NBC News. "But it's not limited to drones," he said, citing street cameras and vans like the ones driven by Google's mapping team.
"I think the good reason to get the privacy laws right here is to avail ourselves of this kind of technology," Calo said. And there's no time like the present, as the FAA has been asked to fully integrate drones into U.S. airspace by 2015.
More on drone policies: Lawmakers voice concerns on drone privacy questions
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.
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The drawing for the Powerball jackpot, now at 320 million takes place Saturday. The jackpot is the sixth highest ever. People in 42 states and Washington, D.C., were scrambling for tickets, even with odds at about 175 million to one. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News
A winning ticket for Saturday night's $338 million Powerball jackpot was sold in New Jersey, lottery officials said early Sunday.
The winning numbers in the drawing were: 17, 29, 31, 52, 53, 31. The drawing took place Saturday.
Before the drawing, the jackpot had been estimated at $320 million, but late ticket sales pushed that to $338 million -- the fourth-largest Powerball prize ever. The lump-sum option is $211 million.
The Multi-State Lottery Association said a grand prize-winning ticket was sold in New Jersey.?
People in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands scrambled for Powerball tickets until the last minute, even with odds at about 175 million to one.
No ticket had matched the six numbers in Wednesday night's Powerball drawing, and no one had won the jackpot since early February.
Bob King in Boston told NBC affiliate WHDH his daughter is getting married next month and winning the lottery could help.
?I don?t hold out hope of winning, but you can?t win unless you play, right?? King told WHDH.
?Well there's a lot of states in it, so it's a one in a million shot, but everybody has a chance,? Frank Weber of Chicopee, Mass., told NBC affiliate WWLP.
Roanna Fightei from Hardin, Mont., said she would use the winnings to help others.
"Something positive to help -- I would most definitely use more than I needed to help others," she told NBC affiliate KULR. "It's just better to love one another, and to help everybody out there. I believe it comes back at you."
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A report out of Manitoba?s prisons showing that many violent offenders were raised in Child and Family Services care could be yet another sign of mismanagement at the agency, says Manitoba Liberal leader Jon Gerrard.
?I?ve been concerned for some time about the management of Child and Family Services,? Gerrard says.
Then a report out of the Child Advocate?s office revealed that 88% of aboriginal inmates, and 63% of non-aboriginal inmates, at one Manitoba correctional facility surveyed in 2001 had not lived at home during adolescence, mainly because they were in foster care.
A forum on the issue last week only raised more questions.
?From that forum, and from other input that I?ve had, there really is a significant concern that the mismanagement of CFS is leading to a situation where we?ve got more kids ? who are ending up in criminal activity. And it?s very disturbing.?
So on Sunday, Gerrard is holding another discussion, with Amanda Sansregret, chair of the St. Norbert Behavioural Health Foundation, Glenn Cochrane, president of the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre, Tracy Booth from the Elizabeth Fry Society and Meredith Mitchell, a child protection lawyer for Legal Aid Manitoba.
?We?re asking the question: Is there a link between the poor management of CFS and the high crime rate in Manitoba??
The Phoenix Sinclair inquiry has brought problems with CFS to the forefront, he said. Even for those with no connection to the 10,000 kids in CFS care, Gerrard says this should be a concern.
?It may be very important to all of us if this mismanagement is a factor in increased violent crime in Winnipeg and in Manitoba,? Gerrard said. ?If this in fact is a major problem ? then that can be important in helping us with a look at the direction we have to go, to CFS, so we eliminate this connection, or decrease this problem.?
The public meeting goes from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at the Central Corydon Community Centre, 1370 Grosvenor Avenue.
Gerrard said recommendations from the discussion could go to the Legislature or to another public meeting in the spring.
?
Source: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/03/23/from-cfs-to-life-of-crime-gerrard-probes-prison-link
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Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have once again demonstrated the incredible capabilities of metamaterials ? artificial nanoconstructs whose optical properties arise from their physical structure rather than their chemical composition. Engineering a unique two-dimensional sheet of gold nanoantennas, the researchers were able to obtain the strongest signal yet of the photonic spin Hall effect, an optical phenomenon of quantum mechanics that could play a prominent role in the future of computing.
"With metamaterial, we were able to greatly enhance a naturally weak effect to the point where it was directly observable with simple detection techniques," said Xiang Zhang, a faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division who led this research. "We also demonstrated that metamaterials not only allow us to control the propagation of light but also allos control of circular polarization. This could have profound consequences for information encoding and processing."
Zhang is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in the journal Science. The paper is titled "Photonic Spin Hall Effect at Metasurfaces." Co-authors are Xiaobo Yin, Ziliang Ye, Jun Sun Rho and Yuan Wang.
The spin Hall effect, named in honor of physicist Edwin Hall, describes the curved path that spinning electrons follow as they move through a semiconductor. The curved movement arises from the interaction between the physical motion of the electron and its spin ? a quantized angular momentum that gives rise to magnetic moment. Think of a baseball pitcher putting spin on a ball to make it curve to the left or right.
"Light moving through a metal also displays the spin Hall effect but the photonic spin Hall effect is very weak because the spin angular momentum of photons and spin-orbit interactions are very small," says Xiaobo Yin, a member of Zhang's research group and the lead author of the Science paper. "In the past, people have managed to observe the photonic spin Hall effect by generating the process over and over again to obtain an accumulative signal, or by using highly sophisticated quantum measurements. Our metamaterial makes the photonic spin Hall effect observable even with a simple camera."
Metamaterials have garnered a lot of attention in recent years because their unique structure affords electromagnetic properties unattainable in nature. For example, a metamaterial can have a negative index of refraction, the ability to bend light backwards, unlike all materials found in nature, which bend light forward. Zhang, who holds the Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, where he also directs the National Science Foundation's Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, has been at the forefront of metamaterials research. For this study, he and his group fashioned metamaterial surfaces about 30 nanometers thick (a human hair by comparison is between 50,000 and 100,000 nanometers thick). These metasurfaces were constructed from V-shaped gold nanoantennas whose geometry could be configured by adjusting the length and orientation of the arms of the Vs.
"We chose eight different antenna configurations with optimized geometry parameters to generate a linear phase gradient along the x direction," says Yin. "This enabled us to control the the propagation of the light and introduce strong photon spin-orbit interactions through rapid changes in direction. The photonic spin Hall effect depends on the curvature of the light's trajectory, so the sharper the change in propagation direction, the stronger the effect."
Since the entire metasurface sample measured only 0.3 millimeters, a 50-millimeter lens was used to project the transmission of the light through the metamaterial onto a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera for imaging. From the CCD images, the researchers determined that both the control of light propagation and the giant photonic spin Hall effect were the direct results of the designed meta-material. This finding opens up a wealth of possibilities for new technologies.
"The controllable spin-orbit interaction and momentum transfer between spin and orbital angular momentum allows us to manipulate the information encoded on the polarization of light, much like the 0 and 1 of today's electronic devices," Yin says. "But photonic devices could encode more information and provide greater information security than conventional electronic devices."
Yin says the ability to control left and right circular polarization of light in metamaterial surfaces should allow for the formation of optical elements, like highly coveted "flat lenses," or the management of light polarization without using wave plates.
"Metamaterials provide us with tremendous design freedom that will allow us to modulate the strength of the photonic spin Hall effect at different spatial locations," Yin says. "We knew the photonic spin Hall effect existed in nature but it was so hard to detect. Now, with the right metamaterials we can not only enhance this effect we can harness it for our own purposes."
###
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: http://www.lbl.gov
Thanks to DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for this article.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? An exhausted Senate gave pre-dawn approval Saturday to a Democratic $3.7 trillion budget for next year that embraces nearly $1 trillion in tax increases over the coming decade but shelters domestic programs targeted for cuts by House Republicans.
While their victory was by a razor-thin 50-49, the vote let Democrats tout their priorities. Yet it doesn't resolve the deep differences the two parties have over deficits and the size of government.
Joining all Republicans voting no were four Democrats who face re-election next year in potentially difficult races: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., did not vote.
The vote came after lawmakers labored through the night on scores of symbolic amendments, ranging from voicing support for letting states collect taxes on Internet sales to expressing opposition to requiring photo ID's for voters.
The Senate's budget would shrink annual federal shortfalls over the next decade to nearly $400 billion, raise unspecified taxes by $975 billion and cull modest savings from domestic programs.
In contrast, a rival budget approved by the GOP-run House balances the budget within 10 years without boosting taxes.
That blueprint? by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., his party's vice presidential candidate last year ? claims $4 trillion more in savings over the period than Senate Democrats by digging deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs for the needy. It would also transform the Medicare health care program for seniors into a voucher-like system for future recipients.
"We have presented very different visions for how our country should work and who it should work for," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Budget Committee. "But I am hopeful that we can bridge this divide."
A day that stretched roughly 20 hours featured brittle debate at times. The loudest moment came toward the end, when senators rose as one to cheer a handful of Senate pages ? high school students ? who lawmakers said had worked in the chamber since the morning's opening gavel. Senators then left town for a two-week spring recess.
Congressional budgets are planning documents that leave actual changes in revenues and spending for later legislation, and this was the first the Democratic-run Senate has approved in four years. That lapse is testament to the political and mathematical contortions needed to write fiscal plans in an era of record-breaking deficits that until this year exceeded an eye-popping $1 trillion annually, and to the parties' profoundly conflicting views.
"I believe we're in denial about the financial condition of our country," Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, top Republican on the Budget panel, said of Democratic efforts to boost spending on some programs. "Trust me, we've got to have some spending reductions."
Though budget shortfalls have shown signs of easing slightly and temporarily, there is no easy path for the two parties to find compromise ? which the first months of 2013 have amply illustrated.
Already this year, Congress has raised taxes on the rich after narrowly averting tax boosts on virtually everyone else, tolerated $85 billion in automatic spending cuts, temporarily sidestepped a federal default and prevented a potential government shutdown.
By sometime this summer, the government's borrowing limit will have to be extended again ? or a default will be at risk ? and it is unclear what Republicans may demand for providing needed votes. It is also uncertain how the two parties will resolve the differences between their two budgets, something many believe simply won't happen.
Both sides have expressed a desire to reduce federal deficits. But President Barack Obama is demanding a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to do so, while GOP leaders say they won't consider higher revenues but want serious reductions in Medicare and other benefit programs that have rocketed deficits skyward.
Obama plans to release his own 2014 budget next month, an unveiling that will be studied for whether it signals a willingness to engage Republicans in negotiations or play political hardball.
The amendments senators considered during their long day of debate were all non-binding, but some delivered potent political messages.
They voted in favor of giving states more powers to collect sales taxes on online purchases their citizens make from out-of-state Internet companies, and to endorse the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is to pump oil from Canada to Texas refineries.
They also voted to voiced support for eliminating the $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending account contributions imposed by Obama's health care overhaul, and for charging regular postal rates for mailings by political parties, which currently qualify for the lower prices paid by non-profits.
In a rebuke to one of the Senate's most conservative members, they overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut even deeper than the House GOP budget and eliminate deficits in just five years.
The Democratic budget's $975 billion in new taxes would be matched by an equal amount of spending reductions coming chiefly from health programs, defense and reduced interest payments as deficits get smaller than previously anticipated.
This year's projected deficit of nearly $900 billion would fall to around $700 billion next year and bottom out near $400 billion in 2016 before trending upward again.
Shoehorned into the package is $100 billion for public works projects and other programs aimed at creating jobs.
__
Associated Press reporter Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
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Apple has patented drop protection technology for its handheld devices, including the Apple iPhone.?
A man talks on his iPhone as he takes the escalator out of a subway station in downtown Shanghai, March 13, 2013. Apple has established a patent on technology that senses when an iPhone has been dropped, and adjusts the angle of the phone accordingly.
Reuters
EnlargeDropped iPhones: No one likes 'em.?
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No ones likes the cracked screens, or the broken glass, or the battered edges. No one likes marching to the Apple store and forking over $200 for a replacement unit. But take solace, iPhone users! Apple may have a solution in the works. According to Apple Insider, Apple recently patented something called a "Protective Mechanism for an Electronic Device," which senses the angle of the falling iPhone to the floor, and adjusts course accordingly.?
In other words, let's say you were snacking on a sandwich, and you knocked your iPhone off the table with your elbow. The sensors would kick in ? keep in mind the iPhone has long been equipped with a gyroscope and an accelerometer? ? and make sure the iPhone landed on an edge, as opposed to the display. Pretty handy for users who are all thumbs when it comes to their smartphones.?
The patent defines?the technology, in part, like this (dense, technical language warning):?
A method of protecting a vulnerable area of an electronic device during free[fall] comprising the steps of: detecting by a sensor a freefall of the device; determining by the sensor an orientation of the device; estimating by a processor an impact area of the device; and selectively changing the orientation of the device via a protective mechanism depending on the estimated impact area of the device.?
Of course, as Apple Insider is quick to note, it's unlikely this technology will be arriving in the next iPhone. It's simply too bulky, and Apple has put a premium on slimming down the build of its smartphone in recent years. Still, it's nice to dream.?
Speaking of new iPhones, back in December, a?French tech site published photos of a device it claimed was the iPhone 5S. The phone looked similar to the iPhone 5, which makes sense ? Apple typically overhauls its phones not annually, but every other year.?
Strategy Analytics recently reported (hat tip BGR) that in the US alone, Apple shipped a whopping 17.7 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012. That was good enough to make Apple the top smart-phone vendor in the country.?
For?more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut.
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Apple (AAPL) may not have the best reputation for online services but that hasn?t stopped its iCloud online storage service from becoming the most-used cloud service in the United States. A new report from Strategy Analytics shows that 27% American web users user iCloud, giving it a lead of 10 percentage points over runner-up Dropbox, which is used by 17% of American web users. What makes Dropbox?s share remarkable is that, as Strategy Analytics notes, it ?has no associated content ecosystem,? which should seemingly put it at a disadvantage compared to iCloud, Amazon?s (AMZN) Cloud Drive and Google (GOOG) Play. So the fact that Dropbox ranks only behind Apple for the title of America?s most-used cloud service is impressive, especially for a company that Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer recently dismissed as a ?little startup.??Strategy Analytics? full press release is posted below.
THE CLOUD STORAGE WARS: APPLE LEADS WITH 27% MARKET SHARE
[More from BGR: BlackBerry Z10 said to have ?disappointing? preorder volumes in the U.S.]
Dropbox hits 17% of market share with no associated content ecosystem
Over half of Americans online have never used cloud storage service
Boston, MA ? March 21, 2013: Apple is dominating the cloud storage wars, followed by Dropbox, Amazon and Google according to Strategy Analytics ?Cloud Media Services? surve.?In a recent study of almost 2,300 connected Americans, Strategy Analytics found that 27% have used Apple?s iCloud followed by 17% for Dropbox, 15% for Amazon Cloud Drive and 10% for Google Play (see chart).
Usage of cloud storage is heavily skewed towards younger people, in particular 20-24 year olds, whilst Apple?s service is the only one with more female than male users. Amongst the big four, Google?s is the one most heavily skewed towards males.
Cloud storage is overwhelmingly dominated by music; around 90% of Apple, Amazon and Google?s cloud users store music. Even Dropbox ? which has no associated content ecosystem ? sees around 45% of its users storing music files. Dropbox?s recent acquisition of Audiogalaxy will add a much needed native music player to the platform in the coming months.
?Music is currently the key battleground in the war for cloud domination. Google is tempting users by giving away free storage for 20,000 songs which can be streamed to any Android device, a feature both Amazon and Apple charge annual subscriptions for,? observes Ed Barton, Strategy Analytics? Director of Digital Media. ?However, the growth of video streaming and the desire to access content via a growing range of devices will see services such as the Hollywood-backed digital movie initiative Ultraviolet ? currently used by 4% of Americans ? increase market share.?
Barton continues, ?The cloud?s role in the race to win over consumers? digital media libraries has evolved from a value added service for digital content purchases to a feature-rich and increasingly device agnostic digital locker for music and movies. Dropbox being used by 1 in 6 Americans shows that an integrated content storefront isn?t essential to build a large user base, however we expect competition to intensify sharply over the coming years.?
Strategy Analytics found that, the big four cloud storage services aside, recognition of other brands was uniformly low. Furthermore 55% of connected Americans have never used a cloud storage service ? although, amongst consumers who have used one, one third (33%) had done so in the last week.
?There needs to be considerable investment in evangelizing these services to a potentially willing yet largely oblivious audience,? suggests Barton. ?Given the size of bet Hollywood is making with Ultraviolet, this will be essential to their success given a crowded market and widespread apathy. However, more fundamental questions remain ? is the use of more than one cloud service going to be too much for consumers to handle and will consolidation in such a fragmented market become inevitable??
Barton concludes, ?Although cloud storage is fast becoming a key pillar of digital platform strategies for the world?s leading device manufacturers and digital content distributors, there?s still a lot of work to do in educating consumers ? particularly those over 45. With over half of consumers yet to use any consumer cloud based service, 2013 predictions for the ?year of the cloud? seem unrealistic. However given the market influence of the leading players pushing the concept, in particular Apple, Amazon, Google and Ultraviolet, I won?t be surprised to see mainstream adoption and usage spike within the next two to three years in the key US market.?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/icloud-revealed-america-most-used-cloud-storage-030747050.html
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Whenever Windows 7 had problems, you could just insert your Windows 7 installation CD and run its recovery tools. Most Windows 8 users, however, don't have an installation CD. Here's how to make a recovery flash drive, and, if you bought a Windows 8 PC, delete the space-hogging recovery partition that came with it.
If you have a regular hard drive, the recovery partition probably isn't a big deal, but if you have a smaller SSD, for example, the recovery partition can waste a lot of space?sometimes up to 15GB or higher. If you built your own computer, you won't have a recovery partition, but having a recovery flash drive can still be very handy to have around. Luckily, it's easy to make:
create a recovery drive. Click the "Settings" option in the right sidebar, then choose the recovery drive option in the search results.Now, if you ever have problems with your computer, just plug the flash drive in and boot from it. You'll be able to run Windows' recovery tools, as well as your manufacturers' when applicable. Plus you'll have freed up quite a bit of space!
How to Delete Recovery Partition in Windows 8 | Into Windows
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GarageBand for iOS has been updated with editing enhancements, bug fixing, and Audiobus support. Audiobus is an app that facilitates communication between supported music apps, allowing you to, for instance, create a track in one app, send it immediately to another for filtering or effects work, then send the filtered audio into another app, like a multi-track recorder. This all takes place within the apps themselves, no need to copy or use an ?Open In...? menu.
Audiobus recently announced an SDK for developers who want to support its capabilities.
Other enhancements includ the ability to turn off grid snapping, giving users greater control when editing their recordings. There is also a fix for an issue that caused feedback when connecting third-party audio accessories through the headphone jack.
The update is live one the App Store. Go grab it and let us know what you think.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/n3Abng3Tj9M/story01.htm
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The advent of cyberwarfare raises any number of legal quandaries, let alone ethical ones: when it's possible to do serious damage without crossing a border or firing a shot, where do you stop? NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) is publishing the finished version of a non-binding guide, the Tallinn Manual, that could settle at least the legal disputes. For the most part, it demands a measured, one-for-one response and attempts to minimize collateral damage. Digital retaliation is appropriate if the state is a victim of a hacking attack, but bombs and guns should only come into play if virtual combat leads to real casualties. Any attacks should likewise steer clear of civilians, and simply having the capacity or desire for a hacking campaign doesn't make someone a target -- there has to be an "imminent" threat to justify a preemptive strike. NATO isn't formally adopting the Tallinn Manual as policy, and it's difficult to know whether the organization's member nations (or any other country) would honor the guidelines when parties on all sides have been pushing the boundaries of cyberwarfare for years. Still, we'll have to start somewhere if we want to draw a line in the silicon.
[Image credit: US Army, Flickr]
Via: TechWeek Europe
Source: CCDCOE
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/21/tallinn-manual-defines-the-legal-groundwork-for-cyberwarfare/
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Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
March 17
The New York Times on no nukes on the Korean Peninsula:
It's little wonder that South Koreans are thinking about ways to defend themselves, given North Korea's bizarre and dangerous behavior. The North has recently launched a long-range rocket and conducted its third nuclear test. It has also unleashed a barrage of apocalyptic threats, including potentially launching "pre-emptive nuclear strikes" on Seoul and the United States and declaring the 1953 Korean War armistice nullified.
In response, some influential South Koreans have urged that the South develop its own nuclear arsenal, and recent polls show that two-thirds of the population concurs. ...
In recent years, the international community has demonstrated rare unity in imposing sanctions on Iran and North Korea to curb their nuclear ambitions. ...
South Korea would do better spending the billions of dollars that nuclear weapons would cost on conventional capabilities that would actually enhance its security. The United States recently bolstered the deployment of ballistic missile defense warships in waters off the Korean Peninsula and on Friday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that the Pentagon is enhancing America's ability to defend itself from a North Korean nuclear missile attack by deploying up to 14 additional ground-based interceptors on the West Coast.
Many experts say that the North's new leader, Kim Jong-un, is looking to enhance his political position, not start a war. But there is a huge and growing risk of miscalculation. There is also every reason to believe that adding the threat of nuclear weapons from the South would inflame the situation, not calm it.
Online:
http://www.nytimes.com
___
March 14
The Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, W. Va., on rules for tamper-resistant drugs:
Attorneys general from 48 U.S. states and territories made it clear this week that they support the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's efforts to make drug manufacturers more accountable for preventing abuse of powerful opioid drugs.
But the coalition also pointed out a potential gap in the FDA's efforts and asked that the federal agency takes steps to plug it. The FDA should listen.
In its letter, the National Association of Attorneys General praised the FDA's plan to adopt rules encouraging manufacturers to develop opioids that are difficult to crush or dissolve ? two steps often used by abusers of the drugs. Early this year, the FDA released draft guidelines which suggested studies drug companies would have to conduct to show that their opioid products actually deterred abuse.
However, the attorneys general noted, those draft guidelines did not include how the developing standards would apply to generic versions of painkillers. They said they were concerned that if generic painkillers are approved without the same tamper-resistant features, abusers of the drugs will shift to the generic versions so they can more easily be abused.
In announcing his participation in the request to the FDA, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey noted the extent of the prescription drug abuse problem in the Mountain State. He cited a study from the Centers for Disease Control that found West Virginia had one of the highest drug overdose death rates in the country. About 25 of every 100,000 people in the state died from an overdose in 2008. Morrisey's counterparts in Ohio and Kentucky also signed the letter. ...
Both manufacturers of brand-name drugs and makers of the generic formulations have their own perspectives on the issue, and both no doubt will raise questions that could stall implementation of the tamper-resistant rules. ...
Despite the respective issues put forth by the brand-name and generic drug manufacturers, the FDA should move forward with a plan to require both segments to produce abuse-deterrent formulations. It's been a slow process to get the brand-name manufacturers to take greater accountability for the prescription-drug abuse problem. There shouldn't be any backsliding on that progress, and generic manufacturers should be held to the same standards.
Online:
http://www.herald-dispatch.com
___
March 14
The Courier, Houma, La., on the new pope:
"Habemus Papam."
With those Latin words, it was official. "We have a pope."
Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina won election as the Catholic Church's 266th leader but the first from Latin America.
In fact, he is the first pope in more than 1,000 years from outside of Europe.
As the spiritual leader of the world's more than 1 billion Catholics, Pope Francis will confront a number of challenges, perhaps the largest being the church's lingering abuse scandals.
But the 76-year-old former archbishop of Buenos Aires is known for his energetic, humble service to the church. He regularly used the public bus to travel to and from work, reportedly cooks his own meals and makes regular trips into Argentina's slums to minister to the poor.
The new pope was actually close to the papacy in 2005 when he finished second in the voting to Pope Benedict XVI, who recently announced his retirement. ...
While the pope is the official leader of the Catholic Church, that position allows him to take a leadership position in the world's religious and moral affairs.
He will certainly be challenged by the abuse scandals, but he has known challenges in his native Argentina. He was seen as instrumental in trying to restore credibility to the church that lost many of its followers during that nation's military dictatorship, which ended in 1983.
He has acknowledged the church's failure to fight the wrongs of that dictatorship and led an effort that ended in the church's apology in 2012.
The lessons of that episode will serve him as he reaches out to the world's Catholics and tries to restore the reputation of the world church. ...
Good luck on an important spiritual job that will lead the church of so many around the globe.
Online:
http://www.houmatoday.com
___
March 15
Houston Chronicle on U.S. should not view Mexico as a problem:
We've all seen the headlines. They're as gruesome and disturbing as any in the world, and they're all the more disturbing because they're relatively close to home:
Twenty-two bodies found in Mexico City over a recent weekend. Thirty-five bodies dumped like yesterday's trash along the side of a busy Veracruz highway. The bodies of 17 musicians and crew members of a band found in an abandoned well near Monterrey.
Mexico's narco-fueled terror rampage has become so commonplace that the horror stories barely rate as news. ...
For these reasons and others, the Obama administration needs to make sure that its focus on the Middle East and other trouble spots around the world doesn't blind it to the mutual opportunities of close neighborly ties. With President Enrique Pena Nieto in the early weeks of his presidency, it's an opportune time.
Writing in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs, Shannon K. O'Neil, a Latin American expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, points out that it also is time for this country "to start seeing Mexico as a partner instead of a problem."
She noted in a recent interview with the Chronicle that Mexico is now the second-largest export destination for U.S. goods, after Canada ? and twice as much as China ? and that Mexico is both Texas' and Houston's biggest trading partner.
More than a billion dollars worth of legal goods cross the U.S.-Mexican border into this country each day. An estimated 6 million U.S. jobs depend on U.S-Mexico trade.
Approximately 40 percent of the products made in Mexico have parts that come from this country. ...
Mexico still has challenges, certainly, but the vital signs are strong. Whatever Mexico's future holds, the United States will be affected.
An increasingly prosperous neighbor, a strong and able trading partner and a safe and stable democracy define the Mexico we hope continues to evolve.
Online:
http://www.chron.com
___
March 18
San Francisco Chronicle on the Iraq war not being the answer:
It's not an anniversary that inspires public ceremonies or reflection, though it should. Ten years ago, the United States launched the Iraq War, an invasion that cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars and squandered this nation's worldwide leadership.
American troops left a year ago, but the war lingers in countless ways. Wounded veterans need help. Military spending deepened a national debt that totals $15 trillion. Iraq remains a fragile and violent place. The terrorist scourge, nominally the cause of the war, endures.
A Gallup poll out this week found that barely half the nation, some 53 percent, think the war was a mistake, down from 63 percent five years ago. No one likes to dwell on the bad memories, it seems.
Recalling the reasons for the war should remind Americans how unfounded the cause was. There was no Iraqi connection to al-Qaida as President George W. Bush's team suggested. Nor were there weapons of mass destruction as intelligence experts predicted. Finally, the Middle East didn't embrace democracy after the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein. The Arab Spring uprisings, which came years later, didn't feature posters or chants praising American troops sweeping into Baghdad.
If the Iraq War seems like ancient history, think again. The experience undercuts American resolve to end the slaughter in Syria. The overboard cost of the Iraqi conflict deepens this country's financial future. The decision to invade, made with minimal support from a handful of allies, will strain this country's stature for years.
If anything, the Iraq War produced yet another cautionary tale on the limits of military power.
Online:
http://www.rep-am.com
___
March 19
The Chicago Tribune on growing need for missile defense:
Decades ago, in the scariest days of the nuclear arms race with Russia, American schoolchildren learned to "duck and cover" under their desks in case an atomic bomb was dropped nearby. Since the end of the Cold War, kids have grown up free of the fear of nuclear attack. But those days may be coming to an end.
New threats have emerged. The first is North Korea, which is believed to have as many as 10 nuclear warheads and recently carried out its third nuclear test. The Pyongyang regime, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., has missiles "that can reach U.S. shores." ...
Missile defense is an attempt to buttress the power to retaliate with the ability to fend off incoming warheads before they arrive. Last week the Defense Department said it would spend $1 billion to deploy more missile interceptors along the West Coast to shoot down a North Korean missile, increasing the total number from 30 to 44 in the next four years.
It's a reasonable and useful step, at a cost that would seem trivial if the system were ever called on to deflect an attack. ...
With regard to Iran, the administration took a different step, scrapping the last phase of a missile defense system that has elicited vigorous objections from the government of Russia ? which regarded the program as a threat to neutralize its nuclear weapons. The Pentagon insisted the U.S. decision was based on technical problems, which may be true. But it may also serve to pave the way to better relations and even arms reductions with Moscow.
The danger still exists, of course, but President Barack Obama has made it clear he will take military action if necessary to keep Iran from getting the bomb. If he succeeds in deterring Tehran from that course ? or in forcibly preventing it ? the European missile shield will not be needed quite so soon.
American missile defense still has a lot of hurdles to surmount before it can offer a reliable safeguard against attack. But even an imperfect system is better than nothing. And no one can doubt the need to keep pursuing it.
Online:
http://www.chicagotribune.com
___
March 14
Sacramento Bee on Vatican recognizing rise of the Americas:
By selecting Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church, cardinals have sent an important signal to the Americas ? and particularly to Latin America, where 39 percent of all Catholics worldwide live.
Bergoglio, who will be called Pope Francis, was previously the archbishop of Buenos Aires. He is the first pope to be selected from anywhere in the Americas, and the first Jesuit tapped to be papal leader. While he may be more conservative than many American Catholics and Jesuits would prefer, it is significant that the Vatican has recognized the rise of Latin America, which for too long been overlooked by this and many other international institutions.
According to 2011 data from the Pew Forum, more than 425 million Catholics live in Latin America, with the largest populations in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. ...
The son of Italian immigrants, Bergoglio is said to lead an austere life. In Argentina, he worked to restore the church's reputation after a murderous military junta in the 1970s was allowed to "disappear" tens of thousands of leftists and people suspected of being opponents.
Yet it remains to be seen if the 76-year-old pope, the 266th pontiff, will be any more committed or effective than his predecessor in slimming down the Curia and moving the church into a modern age. ...
Yet both of the hemispheres are rapidly changing and, on many issues, the church is decades behind. Will Francis work to change that? The answer, at this point, will await moments of clarity that have been absent during the closed-door conclave.
Online:
http://www.sacbee.com
___
March 19
The Star-Ledger, New Jersey, on momentum for assault weapons ban fades:
This time was supposed to be different.
A crazed man entered a school building and killed 20 children and six adults with an assault rifle. The sight last December of terror stricken children fleeing Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was supposed to be the last straw.
One nightmare was imagining the carnage inside, children under the age of 7 slaughtered in the one place we expect children to be safe. Another nightmare was the unimaginable grief of parents.
The outcry for gun control ? and especially a ban on assault weapons ? appeared to be gaining momentum. Enough was enough, everyone said. Surely, a strong gun control law would finally be enacted, with perhaps the assault weapons ban being reinstated.
The ban, which expired in 2004, would certainly have made a difference in the number of children who survived the Newtown shooting. The shooter could not have shot as many, as quickly, as he did.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced the assault weapon ban would not be part of any gun control bill, which he expects to introduce in April after the Easter break. ...
Gun control is personal with Feinstein, who was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 when she discovered the murdered bodies of Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk in City Hall.
"The enemies on this are very powerful, I've known that all my life," Feinstein told the Washington Post.
Somewhere, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA is smiling.
Online:
http://blog.nj.com
___
March 19
The Jerusalem Post on U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Israel:
U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Israel is being billed by Washington insiders as primarily a "charm offensive." They have suggested that the American leader wants to communicate directly with the Israeli people, voicing his strong support for Israel and its security.
Obama will no doubt praise the US-funded Iron Dome system, which operated so successfully during Operation Pillar of Defense last November. It is a powerful symbol of the "unbreakable alliance" that both Israel and the US want to convey during the president's visit.
The White House has made it clear that Obama will not be bringing with him grandiose plans to jump-start the long-stalled peace process with the Palestinians. This represents a change in Washington's approach to a historic presidential visit to the Jewish state.
In Obama's first term, the assessment seemed to be that it made no sense to come to Jerusalem as long as negotiations with the Palestinians were stalled and the US president could have no tangible diplomatic achievements to show the American people. ...
As the leader of the Jewish people, who have been threatened with destruction by Iran's leaders, Netanyahu wants assurances that the US will launch a military strike if necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. ...
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg quoted "several sources" in Amman and Tel Aviv saying that Israeli drones were monitoring the Jordan-Syria border on Jordan's behalf and that military and intelligence officials from the two countries are in constant contact, planning for the inevitable chaos post-Bashar Assad.
Israel is also concerned that a large amount of arms - including huge caches of chemical and biological weapons - could fall into the wrong hands. ...
There are, however, a number of substantive issues - including Iran and Syria - on the agenda that need to be addressed during Obama's meetings in Jerusalem and Amman. And this should make the US president's visit to the region more than just a "charm offensive."
Online:
http://www.jpost.com
___
March 18
The Japan Times, Tokyo, on no place for nuclear weapons:
The Norwegian government on March 4 and 5 sponsored an international conference on the various effects that nuclear weapons detonations would have on human health, the natural environment and economic development.
Although the conference did not touch on nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear arms reduction or elimination of nuclear weapons, it was significant in that it squarely dealt with the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons.
Government and political leaders and citizens should deepen discussions on this issue and increase the awareness of the cruel nature of nuclear weapons to give momentum to efforts for reduction and eventual eradication of nuclear weapons.
Delegates from 127 countries, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent movement, and civil society organizations took part in the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. ...
Two atomic bomb survivors, among the Japanese government delegates, told the conference that survivors have suffered not only ill health but also post-traumatic stress disorder from their radiation exposure 68 years ago.
Masao Tomonaga, director the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Genbaku (atomic bomb) Hospital, presented his research, which showed a high cancer incidence among atomic bombing survivors. He characterized nuclear weapons as "gene-targeting weapons." ...
Having suffered the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Japan has a duty and responsibility to appeal against the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons and work toward their elimination in earnest.
Online:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
___
March 19
The Australian on Obama's Middle East mission:
Expectations of Barack Obama's historic first visit to Israel as U.S. president were never high. On the eve of his arrival, those expectations look even less promising. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his new coalition government, with key posts going to powerful proponents of the settlements policy that lies at the heart of strained relations with the Obama White House.
Despite this, Obama has a vital mission with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders in seeking common ground for the resumption of stalled Middle East peace talks. In pursuing that goal, he would be wrong to become bogged down in the settlements issue.
An Israeli commentator's description of the new government as "of the settlers, by the settlers, for the settlers" may be an overstatement but the cabinet's composition ? with former armed forces commander and settlers' favorite General Moshe Yaalon as Defense Minister, the leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home party that rejects Palestinian statehood, Naftali Bennett, in a senior post and a member of his party, Uri Ariel, as Housing Minister responsible for new settlements ? reasserts the policy that has rankled with Obama.
Despite international criticism, this is a clear signal Israel is not going to retreat and if Obama seriously wants to end Washington's protracted neglect of the Middle East peace process, he must find other ways of persuading the two sides to resume talking. The principal roadblock to negotiations remains, as always, Palestinian opposition to talks without preconditions and Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist. Netanyahu, by contrast, has long been willing to talk without preconditions. In meeting Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, Obama must convince him that statehood can be achieved only by negotiating directly with Israel, however provocative the resettlements policy.
Obama must also do whatever it takes - including the use of force - to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons, and to work hand in glove with Netanyahu to thwart Tehran. Strained relations with Israel in Obama's first term ill-served U.S. strategic interests and seriously undermined what should be an intimate bilateral relationship, able to confront issues such as Iran. The president must seize the opportunity to restore the relationship and get talks over a two-state solution restarted.
Online:
http://www.standard.co.uk
___
March 17
The Globe and Mail, Toronto, on Argentina should accept the near-unanimity of the Falklander:
Not since the halcyon days of the Soviet Union has a vote been so lopsided, but there was no fraud or coercion. Ninety-two percent turnout; over 98 percent support for the Falkland Islands to retain its status as a British Overseas Territory. It is time for Argentina to give up its claim and respect the democratic will of the islands' residents.
A supporter of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner expressed dismay: "We must denounce this trickery that pretends to represent the popular participation of an implanted population." But as one British pundit pointed out, the descendants of implanted Europeans who have lived for generations on the Falklands have a better claim than the descendants of implanted Europeans who have lived for generations in Argentina.
The Argentine Embassy in Ottawa responded to the vote by offering assurances that "the Argentine Constitution specifically protects the way of life of the population of the Malvinas Islands." But in 20 years, the Falkland Islanders will celebrate the bicentennial of British administration over islands that were first charted by an English explorer. It is time for Argentina to let go.
Online:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/editorial-roundup-excerpts-recent-editorials-162151856.html
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