Sunday, June 30, 2013

'Dexter' Season 8: Will Dexter Survive The Season?

The new season of "Dexter" premieres on Sunday night, and with Season 8 confirmed as the series' final one, the question on everyone's mind is whether or not Dexter (Michael C. Hall) will make it through.

"Dexter has been playing faster and looser with the code for some time now, and I think there's some unconscious desire to reveal himself and that may manifest itself through reckless behavior," Hall told TV Guide.

Less cryptically, Jennifer Carpenter, who plays Deb, said she had a feeling Dexter wouldn't die. "At the end of the season? No," she said. "Someday? Yes, because we all do."

As for how fans will react to the finale season and Dexter's fate, EP Sara Colleton knows she won't be pleasing everyone.

"We all know that no matter what we do there are going to be a lot of people who are unhappy with it," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "We're trying to not think about that and just think of what everyone who has been on the show from the beginning feels is right and that's all we can do. No matter what we do we'll still be excoriated."

Catch the season premiere of "Dexter" on Sun., June 30 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/30/dexter-season-8-fate_n_3526461.html

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Egypt erupts with protests demanding Morsi ouster

CAIRO (AP) ? Hundreds of thousands thronged the streets of Cairo and cities around the country Sunday and marched on the presidential palace, filling a broad avenue for blocks, in an attempt to force out the Islamist president with the most massive protests Egypt has seen in 2? years of turmoil.

In a sign of the explosive volatility of the country's divisions, a hard core of young opponents broke away from the rallies and attacked the main headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, pelting it with stones and firebombs until a raging fire erupted in the walled villa. During clashes, Brotherhood supporters opened fire on the attackers, and activists said three protesters were killed.

Fears were widespread that the two sides could be heading to a violent collision in coming days. Morsi made clear through a spokesman that he would not step down and his Islamist supporters vowed not to allow protesters to remove one of their own, brought to office in a legitimate vote. Thousands of Islamists massed not far from the presidential palace in support of Morsi, some of them prepared for a fight with makeshift armor and sticks.

At least five anti-Morsi protesters were killed Sunday in clashes and shootings in southern Egypt.

The protesters aimed to show by sheer numbers that the country has irrevocably turned against Morsi, a year to the day after he was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president. But throughout the day and even up to midnight at the main rallying sites, fears of rampant violence did not materialize.

Instead the mood was largely festive as protesters at giant anti-Morsi rallies in Cairo's central Tahrir Square and outside the Ittihadiya palace spilled into side streets and across boulevards, waving flags, blowing whistles and chanting.

Fireworks went off overhead. Men and women, some with small children on their shoulders, beat drums, danced and sang, "By hook or by crook, we will bring Morsi down." Residents in nearby homes showered water on marchers below ? some carrying tents in preparation to camp outside the palace ? to cool them in the summer heat, and blew whistles and waved flags in support.

"Mubarak took only 18 days although he had behind him the security, intelligence and a large sector of Egyptians," said Amr Tawfeeq, an oil company employee marching toward Ittihadiya with a Christian friend. Morsi "won't take long. We want him out and we are ready to pay the price."

The massive outpouring against Morsi raises the question of what is next. Protesters have vowed to stay on the streets until he steps down, and organizers called for widespread labor strikes starting Monday. The president, in turn, appears to be hoping protests wane.

For weeks, Morsi's supporters have depicted the planned protest as a plot by Mubarak loyalists. But their claims were undermined by the extent of Sunday's rallies. In Cairo and a string of cities in the Nile Delta and on the Mediterranean coast, the protests topped even the biggest protests of the 2011's 18-day uprising, including the day Mubarak quit, Feb. 11, when giant crowds marched on Ittihadiya.

It is unclear now whether the opposition, which for months has demanded Morsi form a national unity government, would now accept any concessions short of his removal. The anticipated deadlock raises the question of whether the army, already deployed on the outskirts of cities, will intervene. Protesters believe the military would throw its weight behind them, tipping the balance against Morsi. The country's police, meanwhile, were hardly to be seen Sunday.

"If the Brothers think that we will give up and leave, they are mistaken," said lawyer Hossam Muhareb as he sat with a friend on a sidewalk near the presidential palace. "They will give up and leave after seeing our numbers."

Violence could send the situation spinning into explosive directions.

The fire at the Brotherhood headquarters, located on a plateau overlooking Cairo, sent smoke pouring in the air, even as youths clashed with Brotherhood supporters at the site. Three on the anti-Morsi side were shot to death, and 60 were wounded, an activist who monitored casualties at the hospital, Nazli Hussein, said.

Southern Egypt saw deadly attacks on anti-Morsi protests, and five people were killed. Two protesters were shot to death during clashes outside offices of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, one in Beni Suef, the other in Fayoum.

In the city of Assiut, a stronghold of Islamists, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a protest in which tens of thousands were participating,, killing one person, wounding four others and sending the crowd running.

The enraged protesters then marched on the nearby Freedom and Justice offices, where gunmen inside opened fire, killing two more, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the press. Clashes erupted, with protesters and security forces fighting side by side against Morsi's supporters.

At least 400 people were injured nationwide, the Health Ministry said.

Morsi, who has three years left in his term, said street protests cannot be used to overturn the results of a free election.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he told Britain's The Guardian newspaper in an interview published Sunday, rejecting early elections.

If an elected president is forced out, "there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," he said.

Morsi was not at Ittihadiya as Sunday's rally took place ? he had moved to another nearby palace.

As the crowds massed, Morsi's spokesman Ihab Fahmi repeated the president's longstanding offer of dialogue with the opposition to resolve the nation's political crisis, calling it "the only framework through which we can reach understandings."

The opposition has repeatedly turned down his offers for dialogue, arguing that they were for show.

The demonstrations are the culmination of polarization and instability that have been building since Morsi's June 30, 2012, inauguration. The past year has seen multiple political crises, bouts of bloody clashes and a steadily worsening economy, with power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices and persistent lawlessness and crime.

In one camp are the president and his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. Morsi supporters accuse Mubarak loyalists of being behind the protests, aiming to overturn last year's election results, just as they argue that remnants of the old regime have sabotaged Morsi's attempts to deal with the nation's woes and bring reforms.

Hard-liners among them have also given the confrontation a sharply religious tone, denouncing Morsi's opponents as "enemies of God" and infidels.

On the other side is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists. They say the Islamists have negated their election mandate by trying to monopolize power, infusing government with their supporters, forcing through a constitution they largely wrote and giving religious extremists a free hand, all while failing to manage the country.

"The country is only going backward. He's embarrassing us and making people hate Islam," said Donia Rashad, a 24-year-old unemployed woman who wears the conservative Islamic headscarf. "We need someone who can feel the people and is agreeable to the majority."

As they marched toward the presidential palace, some chanted, "You lied to us in the name of religion." The crowds, including women, children and elderly people, hoisted long banners in the colors of the Egyptian flag and raised red cards ? a sign of expulsion in soccer.

In Tahrir, chants of "erhal!", or "leave!" thundered around the square. The crowd, which appeared to number some 300,000, waved Egyptian flags and posters of Morsi with a red X over his face. They whistled and waved when military helicopters swooped close overhead, reflecting their belief that the army favors them over Morsi.

Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi warned a week ago that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel." Army troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed Sunday in some of Cairo's suburbs, with soldiers at traffic lights and major intersections. In the evening, they deployed near the international airport, state TV said.

Similarly sized crowds turned out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura, Tanta and Damanhour, with sizeable rallies in cities nationwide.

"Today is the Brotherhood's last day in power," Suliman Mohammed, a manager of a seafood company, said in Tahrir.

The protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.

On Saturday, the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the some 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year's presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.

Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

Near Ittihadiya palace, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya mosque. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs ? precautions, they said, against possible violence.

At the pro-Morsi rally at the Rabia al-Adawiya mosque, the crowd chanted, "God is great," and some held up copies of Islam's holy book, the Quran.

"The people hold the legitimacy and we support Dr. Mohamed Morsi," said Ahmed Ramadan, one of the rally participants. "We would like to tell him not to be affected by the opponents' protests and not to give up his rights. We are here to support and protect him."

____

AP reporters Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-erupts-protests-demanding-morsi-ouster-215829657.html

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Egyptians flood streets to demand Mursi ouster

By Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians flooded into the streets on the first anniversary of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's inauguration on Sunday to demand that he resign.

Waving national flags and chanting "Get out!", a crowd of more than 200,000 had massed by sunset on Cairo's central Tahrir Square in the biggest demonstration since the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mursi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

"The people want the fall of the regime!" they shouted, echoing the Arab Spring rallying cry that brought down Mubarak - this time yelling it not against an ageing dictator but against the first elected leader in Egypt's 5,000 year recorded history.

Many bellowed their anger at Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, accused of hijacking the revolution and using electoral victories to monopolize power and push through Islamic law.

Others have been alienated by a deepening economic crisis and worsening personal security, aggravated by a political deadlock over which Mursi has presided.

As the working day ended and 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) heat eased, more protesters converged through the eerily deserted streets of the shuttered city centre, while smaller crowds protested in several other areas of the capital.

The veteran leaders of Egypt's secular, liberal and left-wing opposition, including former chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei and leftist presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, joined protest marches in Cairo.

A Reuters journalist said hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters marched through the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, Egypt's second city, and a military source reported protests in at least 20 towns around the country.

Mursi, an engineering professor propelled to power by the Muslim Brotherhood, was monitoring events from the heavily guarded Qubba presidential palace, where an official spokesman appealed for the demonstrations to remain peaceful.

"Maintaining the security of Egypt is the common responsibility of everyone," presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmy told a news conference. "Dialogue is the only way to reach mutual understanding and to reach national agreement around the different issues of our homeland."

LEGITIMACY

Security sources said three Brotherhood offices were set on fire by demonstrators in towns in the Nile Delta - the latest in more than a week of sporadic violence in which hundreds have been hurt and several killed, including an American student.

More than 20,000 supporters of Mursi congregated outside a Cairo mosque not far from another suburban presidential palace, where protest organizers planned a sit-in from Sunday evening.

Interviewed by a British newspaper, Mursi voiced his determination to ride out what he sees as an undemocratic attack on his electoral legitimacy. But he also offered to revise the new, Islamist-inspired constitution, saying clauses on religious authority, which fuelled liberal resentment, were not his choice.

He made a similar offer last week, after the head of the army issued a strong call for politicians to compromise. But the opposition dismissed it was too little too late. They hope Mursi will resign in the face of large numbers on the streets.

"We call on Mohamed Mursi, who has completely lost the legitimacy of his power, to quickly respond to the clear will of the people which is plain today in all corners of revolutionary Egypt," the June 30 movement, which organized a nationwide petition demanding his resignation, said in a statement.

Some Egyptians seem to believe the army might force the president's hand, if not to quit then at least to make major concessions to the opposition.

In Cairo, demonstrators stopped to shake hands and take photographs with soldiers guarding key buildings. At least six high-ranking police officers took to the Tahrir Square podium in support of demonstrators, a Reuters witness said.

The armed forces used military helicopters to monitor the protests in Cairo and Alexandria and a military source said chief-of-staff and Defense Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was following the situation from a special operations room.

Mursi and the Brotherhood hope the protests will fizzle like previous outbursts last December and in January. If they do not, some form of compromise, possibly arbitrated by the army, may be on the cards.

VIOLENCE

Both sides insist they plan no violence but accuse the other - and agents provocateurs from the old regime - of planning it.

The U.S.-equipped army shows little sign of wanting power but warned last week it may have to step in if deadlocked politicians let violence slip out of control.

U.S. President Barack Obama called for dialogue and warned trouble in the most populous Arab nation could unsettle an already turbulent region. Washington has evacuated non-essential personnel and reinforced security at diplomatic missions.

In an interview with London's Guardian newspaper, Mursi repeated accusations that what he sees as entrenched interests from the Mubarak era are plotting to foil his attempt to govern. But he dismissed the demands that he give up and resign.

If that became the norm, he said, "well, there will be people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down".

Liberal leaders say nearly half the voting population - 22 million people - has signed a petition calling for new elections, although there is no obvious challenger to Mursi.

The opposition, fractious and defeated in a series of ballots last year, hope that by putting millions on the streets they can force Mursi to relent and hand over to a technocrat administration that can organize new elections.

ARMY ROLE

Religious authorities have warned of "civil war". The army insists it will respect the "will of the people", though the two sides have opposing views of what that means.

Islamists interpret that to mean army support for their election victories. Opponents believe that the army may heed the popular will as expressed on the streets, as it did in early 2011 when the generals decided Mubarak's time was up.

Having staged shows of force earlier this month, the Brotherhood has not called on supporters to go out on Sunday.

Among the Islamists in Cairo, Ahmed Hosny, 37, said: "I came here to say, 'We are with you Mursi, with the legitimate order and against the thugs'.

"This is our revolution and no one will take it from us."

At Tahrir Square, banners ranged from "The Revolution Goes On", "Out, Out Like Mubarak" to "Obama Backs Terrorism" - a reference to liberal anger at U.S. support for Mursi's legitimacy and criticism of protests as bad for the economy.

"I am here to bring down Mursi and the Brotherhood," said Ahmed Ali al-Badri, a feed merchant in a white robe. "Just look at this country. It's gone backwards for 20 years. There's no diesel, gasoline, electricity. Life is just too expensive."

The army, half a million strong and financed by Washington since it backed a peace treaty with Israel three decades ago, says it has deployed to protect key installations.

Among these is the Suez Canal. Cities along the waterway vital to global trade are bastions of anti-government sentiment. A bomb killed a protester in Port Said on Friday. A police general was gunned down in Sinai, close to the Israeli border.

There are some similarities with Turkey, where an Islamist prime minister with a strong electoral mandate was confronted in the streets by angry secularists this month. But Egypt is much poorer, its economy is crumbling rather than booming and its new democracy was born in a revolution just two years ago.

For many Egyptians, all the turmoil since 2011 has just made life harder. Standing by his lonely barrow at an eerily quiet downtown Cairo street market, 23-year-old Zeeka was afraid more violence was coming.

"We're not for one side or the other," he said. "What's happening now in Egypt is shameful. There is no work, thugs are everywhere ... I won't go out to any protest.

"It's nothing to do with me. I'm the tomato guy."

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif, Alexander Dziadosz, Shaimaa Fayed, Maggie Fick, Alastair Macdonald, Shadia Nasralla, Tom Perry, Paul Taylor and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Paul Taylor; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-protests-set-showdown-violence-feared-003343388.html

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Cameron in thwarted Afghan peace talks push

By Andrew Osborn

KABUL (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron flew into Afghanistan on Saturday to try to inject momentum into stalled peace talks, but left empty-handed after the Afghan president said his country could break up if a deal was done with the Taliban.

Cameron, who hosted President Hamid Karzai for talks in February about Afghanistan's future, has cast himself as an honest broker able to use Britain's relations with Afghanistan's influential neighbour, Pakistan, to get the Taliban to talk peace.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Kabul after a visit to British troops in the southern province of Helmand, he said the moment to pursue peace had come.

"There is a window of opportunity and I would urge all those who renounce violence, who respect the constitution, who want to have a voice in the future prosperity of this country to seize it," he said.

His comments come barely a week after the United States revealed the Taliban were to open a long-anticipated office in Qatar, making a meeting with the Afghan state and the Taliban a possibility. Those talks collapsed within days after Karzai objected to the manner in which the office was opened, however, and Taliban militants later attacked central Kabul.

On Saturday, Karzai said he hoped peace talks could begin as soon as possible. But he complained about foreign peace plans, sounded a defiant note against the United States, and warned of the dangers of doing a deal with the Taliban.

SCEPTICAL OF PAKISTAN

He also made it clear he was sceptical of Pakistan's motives in the peace process.

"Any system that is imposed on us ... the Afghan people will reject," he told a news conference inside his palace. "Delivering a province or two to the Taliban will be seen by the Afghan people as an invasion of Afghanistan, as an effort from outside to weaken and splinter this country."

When a reporter asked Cameron why he was willing to talk to the Taliban at the same time as British soldiers were fighting the insurgents, Karzai praised the question.

A British source told Reuters Karzai remained "furious" about the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar this month replete with its own flag and plaque, symbols that he felt accorded the Taliban a degree of global legitimacy.

The Afghan leader suspended talks on a long-term security deal to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 Washington said it was ready to talk to the Taliban and the Qatar flap. Karzai accused the Americans of duplicity.

On Saturday, he said he had held a video conference with President Barack Obama to discuss the matter, and that the U.S. leader had told him he hoped a deal could be struck by October.

Karzai's response was ambiguous. "I noted and reminded him (Obama) that Afghanistan continues to hold its unchangeable principles. If these conditions are met, the nation of Afghanistan will definitely be ready to agree to a security agreement with the U.S.," he said.

Karzai's stance underlines a dilemma for the West.

As it prepares to pull its troops out next year, it is caught between wanting to safeguard its legacy in Afghanistan - improved women's rights and access to education among other things - and allowing the Karzai government to roll back some changes to pave the way for talks with the insurgents.

SEEKING STABILITY

Britain is trying to magnify its diplomatic clout at the very moment it is reducing its contingent of some 7,000 troops.

Aides said Cameron was keen to boost political stability ahead of next year's presidential election, which he hopes will result in the first peaceful transition of power since 1901.

Karzai is not eligible to stand under the constitution and Cameron said he welcomed Karzai's "commitment to a democratic succession" after his second term expires.

Cameron flew on to Islamabad on Saturday evening for talks about Afghanistan with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Pakistan could play a major role in any peace process. Its security forces backed the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s and continue to serve as gatekeepers to insurgent commanders living on its territory.

Cameron said he was working to try to persuade both countries they needed to cooperate, but said only "some" progress had been made.

Cameron also used his Afghan visit to reinforce the message that British troops really would be pulling out next year and that only limited financial and other aid would be made available to Afghan forces after that time.

Four hundred and forty-four British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

A senior military source had said earlier that Western troops would have to undertake follow-on missions after 2014 that could last up to five years.

But Cameron suggested no British soldiers would be involved.

"There will be no (British) combat troops after the end of 2014. British troops are coming home," he said.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Dylan Welch; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-afghanistan-push-peace-talks-112953721.html

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Obama urges House to pass immigration reform by August

By Jeff Mason

PRETORIA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Saturday urged the House of Representatives to follow the lead of the Senate and pass a bill by August to reform the U.S. immigration system.

Speaking during a press conference in South Africa, Obama said there was more than enough time for lawmakers to finish work on the issue before their summer recess.

Immigration reform is one of the president's top domestic issues. The Senate recently passed a bill that would strengthen U.S. border security and provide a way for undocumented immigrants in the United States to obtain citizenship. Obama welcomed the passage of that bill.

Despite strong bipartisan support for the Senate bill, the leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, John Boehner, said the measure was dead on arrival in his chamber. Boehner said House Republicans would write their own bill.

Many House Republicans oppose citizenship for immigrants who are in the United States illegally, arguing law-breakers should not be rewarded. Any House Republican bill is expected to focus heavily on border security and on finding immigrants who have outstayed their visas.

But watering down the measure further may not be acceptable to Obama, who repeated on Saturday that he sees the Senate bill as far from perfect.

Even though congressional Republicans have been reluctant to cooperate with Obama, many see immigration reform as a political necessity to improve their standing with Hispanic voters, who overwhelming supported Obama in November's election.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Ed Stoddard)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-urges-house-pass-immigration-reform-august-111737311.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

PSA: Google Play Music All Access $8 promotion ends soon

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Listen, we're all for waiting until the last possible minute, but that time is now. If you happen to be looking for a deal on Google's fancy new music service, the clock is ticking. Once June 30th rolls around, Google Play Music All Access's $7.99 price tag will bump up to the standard $9.99 a month. That's a full $2 a month more for access to those millions of unlimited songs. You can sign up at the source link below -- that same page can also hook you up with a free 30-day trial, if not paying money is your thing.

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Source: Google Play Music All Access

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/29/google-play-music-all-access/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Iran's top leader: Nuclear solution 'easy'

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's supreme leader said a solution to the nuclear impasse with the West would be "easy" if the United States and its allies are serious about seeking a deal, Iranian media reported Thursday.

The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are his first on the nuclear issue since the presidential election earlier this month of Hasan Rouhani, who supports direct talks with Washington. It suggests Khamenei also could endorse bolder diplomacy by Tehran if talks resume with world powers.

Several newspapers, including the hard-line Jomhouri Eslami, quoted Khamenei as saying "the solution to Iran's nuclear case is an easy and smooth job" if Western powers want to strike a deal.

"The opposition front against Iran does not want the nuclear issue to be solved," Khamenei told a group of judiciary officials Wednesday.

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, singled out the U.S. for what he called "new excuses" to block possible headway on negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.

No other details were given in the press reports, but Rouhani has suggested greater openness on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions.

The West suspects Iran seeks a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies the charge, saying its nuclear activities aim at peaceful purposes such as power generation and medical isotopes.

Khamenei also urged all governmental bodies to support Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator who has the backing of reformist leaders. He formally takes over from outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August.

"Managing the country is a difficult job, indeed," Khamenei said. "All individuals and bodies must help the president-elect."

Also Wednesday, Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran supports direct flights to the U.S. as a way to serve the large Iranian community in Southern California and elsewhere. There have been no direct air routes between the two countries since the U.S. broke ties after the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 in the wake of the Islamic Revolution.

Previously, Iran's national carrier Iran Air operated the longest nonstop flight at the time between Tehran and New York.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irans-top-leader-nuclear-solution-easy-092414199.html

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Bizarre 'vampires' heat up for sex

Male sea lampreys heat up special fat deposits during sexual encounters, scientists have found.

The bizarre vertebrates are best known for their blood-sucking mouths filled with teeth and a razor sharp tongue.

Males also have a raised bump of tissue along their back which they rub against females during courtship.

US researchers discovered that this tissue generates heat in the presence of ovulating females, and heats up more for some than others.

The team from the Michigan State University, US, published their results in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Sea lampreys are parasitic animals found in the North Atlantic Ocean. The jawless vertebrates look similar to eels and adults can measure over 45cm in length.

Researchers first began to investigate the males' bump, referred to as "rope tissue" by biologists, after observing how it was used in courtship dances.

"We initially thought this might be a mechanical device," said Professor Weiming Li, a neurobiologist on the team that undertook the study.

"Females are more passive [and] the male will wrap its body around the female's belly - almost like he's stripping the eggs out of her."

Mature males release a pheromone to attract females to their nest, where they rub this rope tissue against the females' abdomens.

If females respond favourably, males bite onto their heads with their oral disc and twist around their bodies.

Spawning ends with both animals thrusting to release sex cells that fuse and develop in the nest.

Under the microscope, scientists found that the rope tissue looked remarkably similar to "brown fat" found in some mammals that allows them to warm up without exercising.

The team were intrigued by this similarity because although brown fat is essential for species that need to maintain their body temperature, lampreys fluctuate to match the temperature of their marine environment.

Aware that the lampreys did not need this specialist fat to keep themselves warm, researchers investigated what role it might play in reproduction.

Using small temperature probes, they were able to record how the tissue reacted in the presence of a female.

They found that the rope's temperature immediately rose by 0.3 C when an ovulating female was nearby.

Prof Li suggested that after attracting females to their nest with pheromones, the males could be using the heated tissue to co-ordinate or entice females to join the spawning act.

He said he was fascinated by how this signal was transmitted to the tissue so quickly and aims to address this in future studies.

Sea lampreys are "anadromous", meaning they are born in fresh water, migrate to the sea for their adult life and eventually return to freshwater to spawn and die.

Pest control

In the UK, a recent rise in sightings of the animals is considered a sign of improving water quality because they only breed in clean, freshwater habitats.

But the "aggressive predators" are considered a pest species in the Great Lakes region. They are native to the Atlantic Ocean but spread into lakes following the construction of canals in the 1800s and now threaten the ecological balance.

The primitive creatures attach to larger fish with their tooth-filled mouths and rasp with their tongue to suck out blood and body fluids, earning them the nickname "vampire fish".

Researchers have been working on a synthetic pheromone to help to lure sea lampreys out of the Great Lakes and surrounding rivers where they spawn.

"I have been involved in lamprey biology for many years and I really believe you should know your enemy," said Prof Li whose work is supported by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

"Because the reaction is so apparent, I suspect the male is sending a signal so if we can find a way to stop this signal then we can probably have an effective way to stop them from reproducing."

Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/23046826

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Power for seaports may be the next job for hydrogen fuel cells

June 27, 2013 ? Providing auxiliary hydrogen power to docked or anchored ships may soon be added to the list of ways in which hydrogen fuel cells can provide efficient, emissions-free energy.

Hydrogen fuel cells are already powering mobile lighting systems, forklifts, emergency backup systems and light-duty trucks, among other applications. Now, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have found that hydrogen fuel cells may be both technically feasible and commercially attractive as a clean, quiet and efficient power source for ships at berth, replacing on-board diesel generators.

The Sandia study was completed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).

Auxiliary power to docked ships, usually provided by on-board diesel engines, is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, accounting for one-third to one-half of the in-port emissions attributed to ocean-going vessels. According to a 2004 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, average daily emissions for a busy port could exceed the total emissions from nearly 500,000 vehicles.

Evaluating fuel cell barges at western U.S. ports

The study evaluated a simple fuel cell strategy that consists of mounting a hydrogen-fueled proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell on a floating barge. Supplying a container ship with average power and run times (1.4 megawatts over 48 hours) requires four 40-ft containers, two for the fuel cell and two for hydrogen fuel storage, which could readily fit on a typical flat-top barge. For ships requiring less power, such as tugboats, a single container housing both the fuel cell and hydrogen will suffice, according to the Sandia study.

To evaluate the feasibility of the fuel cell barge strategy and analyze potential deployment options, Sandia's Joe Pratt visited ports up and down the West Coast and in Hawaii. He gathered data from two U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration facilities and the ports of Long Beach, Calif., Los Angeles, Calif., Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., Tacoma, Wash., Honolulu, Hawaii and Seattle, Wash.

"While Sandia has previously examined the potential for hydrogen and fuel cells in other applications, this is the first study of a maritime environment," Pratt said.

Cheaper, cleaner than grid-based "cold-ironing"

A common alternative to auxiliary diesel engines is a practice called "cold-ironing," in which a vessel at berth connects to a source of electricity on the shore. (The engine, made of steel or iron, literally becomes cold, hence the name.) Electricity supplied by a hydrogen fuel cell thus could become a new form of cold-ironing.

The U.S. Navy has been employing grid-based cold-ironing for many years to save fuel. Ports in California are now turning to the practice to meet the state's environmental regulations. While only a few berths have grid-based cold-ironing, ports throughout California are installing infrastructure to meet the state Air Resources Board's regulations that take effect in 2014.

But grid-based cold-ironing is complex and costly, and most ports lack the infrastructure needed to meet the power needs of multiple ships at berth. Those costs can run up to $5-10 million or more per berth, said Pratt. The Port of Oakland is installing 11 berths on six terminals at an estimated cost of about $70 million.

In addition, switching to grid-based power doesn't eliminate emissions. Instead, that approach shifts the emissions to the source of electricity. Depending on the electricity source, the overall reduction in emissions can be relatively small.

Many potential deployment options, economic benefits

The hydrogen fuel cell barge bypasses the need for electrical infrastructure. The barge also has the capability of being moved from berth to berth as needed and to anchorage points to power vessels that are waiting for berths.

"In California, ports are already installing the necessary infrastructure for cold-ironing because of the regulations introduced a few years ago," said Pratt. "So hydrogen fuel cell auxiliary power has the opportunity for greater impact elsewhere. While this was an unexpected finding, we discovered other locations and applications for hydrogen fuel cell power."

At ports in Oregon and Washington, grid-based cold ironing infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. Using a hydrogen fuel cell to power container ships at berth has attracted interest for its potential economic and environmental benefits, Pratt said, and he continues to work with those ports on quantifying the benefits and deployment options.

Hawaii's Honolulu Harbor in Oahu had a different need. Much of the cargo is unloaded and then reloaded onto barges for distribution to the other islands. As the barges have no power, they carry diesel generators to provide power to shipping containers that require refrigeration, known as "reefers."

"You can replace the diesel generator with a hydrogen fuel cell without changing the operations. It's just a power source in a box, a shipping container in this case," said Pratt. Hawaii ports aren't facing the same emissions regulations as California ports, but the potential savings in fuel cost is attractive for the company operating the inter-island transportation service, along with anyone else suffering from high fuel expenses.

The study's basic fuel cost analysis showed that at today's prices hydrogen, at about $4 per kilogram, with a fuel cell is cost-competitive with maritime fuels using a combustion engine. Subsequent analysis has shown that when generators are frequently producing less than maximum power, such as in the Hawaii application, the efficiency advantage of fuel cells compared to the combustion engine is widened. Even hydrogen at $5 per kilogram can potentially save tens of thousands of dollars per year for each generator.

"Fuel cost is only part of the total economic picture," Pratt said.

He is now developing a detailed plan for the Hawaiian interisland transport barge application. "A successful deployment of the containerized fuel cell on a floating platform in a typical marine environment will be useful not only in this particular service, but also because it validates the concept for the larger, container-ship-sized application," Pratt said. "It's challenging on many levels, but technically feasible with potential worldwide commercial impact."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/M4Yd38LGiIA/130627082713.htm

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

New Spying Reveal: NSA Maintaining Bulk Email And Browsing Data For Two Years

FILE PHOTO  NSA Compiles Massive Database Of Private Phone Calls"The Obama administration for more than two years permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans," reports The Guardian.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DNwnKDPVIWg/

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West Hollywood Prop 8 Rally Remembers Those Who Made 2013 Supreme Court Decision Possible

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Screenwriter and gay activist Dustin Lance Black began his Proposition 8 victory speech by acknowledging that today's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community stands on the shoulders of those who had come before -- in particular, those of slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in San Francisco.

"Harvey Bernard Milk, our dear hero, one of our father figures," began Black. "He said, 'We can no longer be satisfied with crumbs.' It is time for this community to stop asking for crumbs and demand the real thing, 'cause they may find that they could actually get it, and we have."

Black spoke on stage at a rally Wednesday evening in West Hollywood, the center of gay life in the Los Angeles area. The event drew hundreds of people to celebrate the Supreme Court's dismissal of Prop 8 and the overturning of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. And, like Black, some couldn't help but think back to bittersweet memories of loved ones who didn't live to see legal same-sex marriage in California.

Longtime couple John Borsum, 58, and Mark Ehrenstein, 53, spoke to The Huffington Post about Ehrenstein's great-grand aunt and her partner of 60 years, who lived in Missouri during a time that gay relationships were illegal and dangerous.

"They lived as sisters and moved around a lot," said Ehrenstein. "I think they're both looking down and celebrating with us. I really do."

Borsum and Ehrenstein, who have been together for 31 years, married in 2008 during the brief period in which same-sex marriage was legal in California. They can still remember the time, back in 1983, that a Las Vegas hotel turned them away when they requested one king-sized bed in their hotel room. It was experiences like those, in addition to California voters' approval of Prop 8 in 2008, that made them believe they would never see marriage equality in their lifetime.

Now, said Borsum, "we want to see it across the country."

Los Angeles resident Brad Bigelow, 58, had a more immediate memory. This week, Bigelow will mark one year since his longtime partner died. He fought back tears talking about the loss.

"My partner of 32 years died a year ago this Friday," Bigelow said. "This was our dream and he never got to see it."

Bigelow was at the rally with Bert Champagne, a friend who also lost his partner eight years ago. For Champagne, the day was an opportunity to celebrate that the next generation of LGBT people and their supporters will no longer be second-class citizens in the eyes of the federal government.

Back when Prop 8 passed, Champagne said, he took to the streets with his 16-year-old niece in protest of the ban on same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, five years after that protest, she texted: "Uncle Bert, this is what it was all about."

Black was joined on stage by West Hollywood council members, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the anti-Prop 8 legal team Ted Olson and David Boies and the plaintiffs Sandy Stier, Kris Perry, Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami.

Couples, families and friends at the West Hollywood rally share their thoughts on marriage equality in the slideshow below.

  • Bert Champagne and Brad Bigelow

    "I'm no longer a second-class citizen," said Brad Bigelow, 58 (right). He attended the West Hollywood rally with his friend of 15 years, Bert Champagne.

  • Sandy Holm and Vida Smittant

    Sandy Holm (left), 37, and Vida Smittant, 34, got engaged two years ago. Holm told HuffPost they planned their wedding for June of 2014 even before the Supreme Court ruled on Prop 8. "That's how much faith we had in the system," she said.

  • John Borsum and Mark Ehrenstein

    John Borsum (left), 58, and Mark Ehrenstein, 53, pose for a picture with their dog, Papa Bears. The couple have been married since 2008, during the brief window in which same-sex marriage was legal in California. "This is something we thought we'd never see in our lifetime," said Borsum to HuffPost.

  • Joy McMaster, Julie McMaster & Lola McMaster

    Joy McMaster (left), 26, and her partner, 28-year-old Julie McMaster, have been in a domestic partnership since 2011. They have a 14-month old daughter together named Lola. "It'll be nice to know our daughter will grow up knowing her parents are married, just like her friends' [parents]," said Joy McMaster to HuffPost.

  • Laura Wendel & Claudia Pizarro

    Laura Wendel (left), 41, and Claudia Pizarro, 36, have been together for six years. After California's 2008 "summer of love" in which the right to have a same-sex marriage was given and then taken away, the couple are not wasting any time getting a license. "We're going to get the license as soon as possible," said Wendel to HuffPost. "Just in case." Back in 2008, the couple had been planning their wedding but the event was put on hold after Proposition 8 passed.

  • Luis Escamilla, Kacee Wheeler & Ashley Gomez

    "This means freedom. It's a giant weight being lifted off everyone's shoulders," said Kacee Wheeler (middle). She attended the West Hollywood rally with her friends Luis Escamilla and Ashley Gomez. The trio, all 23 years old, have been best friends since they attended El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera.

  • Marc Markley

    "I don't even have a boyfriend and I'm not in the market to get married. But I'm happy to be able to," said Marc Markley, 43. "I've been marching since Prop 8 passed," he continued. "I've never marched for anything but I couldn't stop marching for this."

  • West Hollywood Celebrates Prop 8, DOMA Decisions

    Hundreds gather in West Hollywood to celebrate the Supreme Court decisions.

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and ruled that supporters of California's ban on gay marriage, Proposition 8, could not defend it before the Supreme Court. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • US-JUSTICE-GAY-MARRIAGE

    Same-sex marriage supporter Richard Halpern celebrates at a rally following the Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Kevin Lee Light, known as West Hollywood Jesus, holds a sign as he celebrates the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Supporters of same-sex marriage cheer at a rally celebrating today's Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    American and Rainbow flags are seen at a rally celebrating the Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Same-sex marriage supporter Rick Watts holds a sign listing his 'Gay Agenda' during a rally celebrating today's Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Same-sex marriage supporters Yale Scott (L), David Schulenberg (C) and Mark Martinez (R) show off their temporary tattoos reading 'NoH8' during a rally celebrating today's Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Supporters of same-sex marriage listen to speakers at a rally celebrating today's Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Jeff Olde (L) and his partner of 16 years Alan Uphold (C) attend a rally celebrating today's Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Deidre Weaver (L) and her partner Nancy Grass celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate at a rally following the Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Kevin Lee Light, known as West Hollywood Jesus, stands in between cardboard cutouts of two men hoding hands as he celebrates the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    Same-sex marriage supporters attend a rally celebrating the Supreme Court rulings regarding same-sex marriage, June 26 2013, in West Hollywood California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

  • Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 26: Kevin Lee Light, known as West Hollywood Jesus, (L) poses with Perez Hilton and his son Perez Jr. as they celebrate the US Supreme Court ruling during a community rally on June 26, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/west-hollywood-prop-8-rally_n_3507289.html

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LAPD shooting: Gunman ambushed two LAPD cops

LAPD shooting: Two undercover detectives were injured when a shooter ambushed them on their way back to an LAPD police station.

By Robert Jablon,?Associated Press / June 25, 2013

LAPD officers close off a city street after two police officers were shot and wounded in an attack outside a police station in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles on Tuesday June 25, 2013. A black-clad gunman ambushed two detectives returning to an LAPD police station early Tuesday, but they received only minor injuries and were helping in the hunt for the attacker, police said.

Nick Ut/AP

Enlarge

A black-clad gunman ambushed two undercover detectives returning to a police station early Tuesday, but their wounds didn't prevent them from aiding the hunt for the attacker.

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Police Chief Charlie Beck described the shooting as an attempted assassination and mobilized a huge search involving helicopters, dogs and about 200 officers.

Police initially cordoned off 25 square blocks of the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, leaving thousands of residents stranded in homes and forcing drivers to find detours for their morning commutes.

Later in the day, the search focused on a neighborhood just south of the?LAPD's?Wilshire substation, where the attack occurred.

At least 10 people were detained for questioning and released. Police also planned to look at surveillance video from homes and businesses.

"Anybody who's willing to do this and take on two armed police officers outside of a police station is obviously a very dangerous person," police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

The detectives who were attacked are assigned to an undercover burglary task force and were returning to the station about 4:30 a.m. They were using a keycard to open a gate as shots were fired, police said.

"Suddenly someone from behind began shooting at their vehicle," Smith said.

The car was hit several times and the detectives fired back as the man ran away, Smith said. The gunman and detectives fired more than a dozen shots, he said.

One officer suffered a minor wound to the back of his head, either from a bullet graze or debris from the damaged car, Smith said. The other had an injury to the back of his hand. Their names were not released.

They were treated at a hospital and returned to a command post for the manhunt. One detective has 20 years on the job and the other is an 11-year veteran, Smith said.

The shooting was believed to be an isolated attack, but as a precaution all other police stations were notified to be on high alert, Smith said.

AP writer Tami Abdollah contributed to this report.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/et0nBxyGWNY/LAPD-shooting-Gunman-ambushed-two-LAPD-cops

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Three planets in habitable zone of nearby star: Gliese 667c reexamined

June 25, 2013 ? A team of astronomers has combined new observations of Gliese 667C with existing data from HARPS at ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile, to reveal a system with at least six planets. A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone.

Gliese 667C is a very well-studied star. Just over one third of the mass of the Sun, it is part of a triple star system known as Gliese 667 (also referred to as GJ 667), 22 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). This is quite close to us -- within the Sun's neighbourhood -- and much closer than the star systems investigated using telescopes such as the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope.

Previous studies of Gliese 667C had found that the star hosts three planets with one of them in the habitable zone. Now, a team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escud? of the University of G?ttingen, Germany and Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, has reexamined the system. They have added new HARPS observations, along with data from ESO's Very Large Telescope, the W.M. Keck Observatory and the Magellan Telescopes, to the already existing picture [1]. The team has found evidence for up to seven planets around the star [2].

These planets orbit the third fainter star of a triple star system. Viewed from one of these newly found planets the two other suns would look like a pair of very bright stars visible in the daytime and at night they would provide as much illumination as the full Moon. The new planets completely fill up the habitable zone of Gliese 667C, as there are no more stable orbits in which a planet could exist at the right distance to it.

"We knew that the star had three planets from previous studies, so we wanted to see whether there were any more," says Tuomi. "By adding some new observations and revisiting existing data we were able to confirm these three and confidently reveal several more. Finding three low-mass planets in the star's habitable zone is very exciting!"

Three of these planets are confirmed to be super-Earths -- planets more massive than Earth, but less massive than planets like Uranus or Neptune -- that are within their star's habitable zone, a thin shell around a star in which water may be present in liquid form if conditions are right. This is the first time that three such planets have been spotted orbiting in this zone in the same system [3].

"The number of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy is much greater if we can expect to find several of them around each low-mass star -- instead of looking at ten stars to look for a single potentially habitable planet, we now know we can look at just one star and find several of them," adds co-author Rory Barnes (University of Washington, USA).

Compact systems around Sun-like stars have been found to be abundant in the Milky Way. Around such stars, planets orbiting close to the parent star are very hot and are unlikely to be habitable. But this is not true for cooler and dimmer stars such as Gliese 667C. In this case the habitable zone lies entirely within an orbit the size of Mercury's, much closer in than for our Sun. The Gliese 667C system is the first example of a system where such a low-mass star is seen to host several potentially rocky planets in the habitable zone.

The ESO scientist responsible for HARPS, Gaspare Lo Curto, remarks: "This exciting result was largely made possible by the power of HARPS and its associated software and it also underlines the value of the ESO archive. It is very good to also see several independent research groups exploiting this unique instrument and achieving the ultimate precision."

And Anglada-Escud? concludes: "These new results highlight how valuable it can be to re-analyse data in this way and combine results from different teams on different telescopes."

Notes

[1] The team used data from the UVES spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile (to determine the properties of the star accurately), the Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) at the 6.5-metre Magellan II Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the HIRES spectrograph mounted on the Keck 10-metre telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii as well as extensive previous data from HARPS (the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) at ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile (gathered through the M dwarf programme led by X. Bonfils and M. Mayor 2003-2010.

[2] The team looked at radial velocity data of Gliese 667C, a method often used to hunt for exoplanets. They performed a robust Bayesian statistical analysis to spot the signals of the planets. The first five signals are very confident, while the sixth is tentative, and seventh more tentative still. This system consists of three habitable-zone super-Earths, two hot planets further in, and two cooler planets further out. The planets in the habitable zone and those closer to the star are expected to always have the same side facing the star, so that their day and year will be the same lengths, with one side in perpetual sunshine and the other always night.

[3] In the Solar System Venus orbits close to the inner edge of the habitable zone and Mars close to the outer edge. The precise extent of the habitable zone depends on many factors.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/DpMy_6AWEjY/130625073544.htm

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Internet Explorer 11 to support WebGL and MPEG Dash

Internet Explorer 11 to support WebGL and MPEG Dash

Few would say that consistency is good for its own sake. Microsoft certainly agrees -- it just revealed at Build that Internet Explorer 11 will reverse the company's previously cautious stance on WebGL. The new browser will support the 3D standard from the get go, joining the likes of Chrome and Firefox. IE11 should improve plain old 2D as well, as there's hardware acceleration for video streaming through MPEG Dash. All told, Internet Explorer should be a better web citizen -- and deliver a speed boost in the process.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/internet-explorer-11-to-support-webgl-and-mpeg-dash/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Obama says carbon limits needed for power plants

(AP) ? President Barack Obama says carbon pollution limits need to be set on U.S. power plants in order to curb global warming.

Obama says rules are already in place to limit pollution from arsenic, mercury, lead and other substances, but no federal limits exist on how much carbon pollution that power plants ? including many that are fired by coal ? can dump into the air.

Obama says "that's not right, it's not fair, and it needs to stop."

Obama made his remarks Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University, where he announced measures he intends to take to limit pollution that is trapping gases in the atmosphere.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-25-Obama-Climate%20Change-Power%20Plants/id-f6de373fe32f40fa9e13822abd951611

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

GOP divided on immigration; House uncertain

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Senate Republicans are split over the immigration bill steaming toward approval at week's end, a divide that renders the ultimate fate of White House-backed legislation unpredictable in the House and complicates the party's ability to broaden its appeal among Hispanic voters.

To some Republicans, the strength of Senate GOP support for the bill is all but irrelevant to its prospects in the House. Conservatives there hold a majority and generally oppose a core provision in the Senate measure, a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Any such impact is "greatly overrated," said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, who previously served as chief vote counter for House Republicans.

But Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., offered a different view. A Senate vote on Monday to toughen border security with thousands of new agents and billions of dollars in technology "obviously makes final legislation more likely," the party's 2012 vice presidential nominee said on CBS.

One prominent Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, also says House sentiment can be changed, particularly through the addition of strong border security measures of the kind that resulted from negotiations with previously uncommitted Republicans.

"I believe a large bipartisan vote will wake up our colleagues ... in the House," Schumer said shortly before the Senate inserted a requirement for 20,000 new Border Patrol agents and a total of 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico.

"Hopefully, as congressmen look how their senators voted, they will be influenced by it."

In the key Senate showdown so far, 15 Republicans voted to advance the legislation that toughens border security at the same time it creates a chance at citizenship for 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally. Another 27 voted to keep the bill bottled up.

Republicans who voted to block the legislation generally did so after saying it would not deliver on its promise of operational control of the border.

"When you look at it, it doesn't, and they know it," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said of the bill's backers, who quickly disputed the charge.

A political pattern emerged, as well.

Among Republicans who are seeking a new term next year and as a result face the risk of a primary challenge, only three voted with supporters of the measure. Eight did not, a group that includes the party's two top leaders in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, as well as Sessions, who has been one of the bill's principal opponents across three weeks of debate.

While party leaders long have looked to immigration legislation as a way to broaden appeal among Hispanic voters, individual members of Congress report a different perspective.

"It's hard to argue with the polling they've been getting from the national level," Texas Republican Rep. Kenny Marchant said recently, referring to polls that show support for border security along with legalization. Yet in his own district in the suburbs west of Dallas, he said, proposals along the lines of the Senate bill are "very unpopular."

The party's potential presidential contenders also are split, likely a harbinger of a struggle in the campaign for the 2016 nomination.

Two of them, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, oppose the legislation.

For his part, Cruz took a verbal poke at fellow Republicans in remarks on the Senate floor on Monday, saying that some senators in each parties "very much want a fig leaf" on border security to justify a vote for the measure.

Yet one Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, is a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group that helped draft the bill. Among its provisions are several that impose conditions on immigrants seeking legal status, including payment of fines, pay outstanding taxes and undergo a background check.

In recent months, Rubio has sought to reorder the political circumstances rhetorically, asserting that the status quo amounts to "de facto amnesty" for those in the country illegally since it is unlikely they will be forced to leave. The phrasing marks an attempt to neutralize long-time claims that legalization confers amnesty. Increasing numbers of Republicans now employ similar rhetoric.

Among the unknowns is how much impact Rubio and the other Republicans in the Gang of Eight ? Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina ? will have on House Republicans whose votes will determine the fate of legislation to overhaul the immigration system.

Rubio has met with members of the House Republican leadership as well as with Ryan and members of the conservative Republican Study Group.

Among House Republicans, supporters of legalization in any form, citizenship or otherwise, is scarce, although Blunt predicted there would be "an incredible amount of reasonableness" on that subject once lawmakers thought the border had truly been secured.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved two immigration bills recently, one of which echoes Mitt Romney's suggestion in the 2012 presidential campaign that immigrants "self-deport" if they are in the country illegally. It encourages immigrants living in the United States to "depart voluntarily" at their own expense.

Neither of the bills cleared by the committee offers the prospect of legalization for immigrants in the country illegally, either citizenship or a step short of it.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has pledged not to bring legislation to the floor for a vote that does not have the support of at least half the GOP lawmakers in the chamber, a commitment made under pressure from restive conservatives that virtually rules out any measure envisioning legalization.

Some GOP lawmakers are hoping no immigration bill passes, to avoid the possibility of a final compromise with the Senate that goes further than they want.

Boehner also has said the entire House will "work its will" on the issue. It's a comment that takes into account the potential impact of House Democrats, some of whom are already clamoring for a chance to vote on the bill that clears the Senate this week.

Republicans command a 234-201 majority, meaning that as few as 17 GOP defections could change the outcome of any vote.

____

Associated Press writers Chuck Babington, Donna Cassata and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-divided-immigration-house-uncertain-210942937.html

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Billion-pixel view of Mars comes from Curiosity rover

June 24, 2013 ? A billion-pixel view from the surface of Mars, from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, offers armchair explorers a way to examine one part of the Red Planet in great detail.

The first NASA-produced view from the surface of Mars larger than one billion pixels stitches together nearly 900 exposures taken by cameras onboard Curiosity and shows details of the landscape along the rover's route.

The 1.3-billion-pixel image is available for perusal with pan and zoom tools at: http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/ and a scaled down version (~159MB) is available for direct download here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16919 .

The full-circle scene surrounds the site where Curiosity collected its first scoops of dusty sand at a windblown patch called "Rocknest," and extends to Mount Sharp on the horizon.

"It gives a sense of place and really shows off the cameras' capabilities," said Bob Deen of the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "You can see the context and also zoom in to see very fine details."

Deen assembled the product using 850 frames from the telephoto camera of Curiosity's Mast Camera instrument, supplemented with 21 frames from the Mastcam's wider-angle camera and 25 black-and-white frames -- mostly of the rover itself -- from the Navigation Camera. The images were taken on several different Mars days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Raw single-frame images received from Curiosity are promptly posted on a public website at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ . Mars fans worldwide have used those images to assemble mosaic views, including at least one gigapixel scene.

The new mosaic from NASA shows illumination effects from variations in the time of day for pieces of the mosaic. It also shows variations in the clarity of the atmosphere due to variable dustiness during the month while the images were acquired.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the rover's 10 science instruments to investigate the environmental history within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Curiosity's Mastcam. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington and built the Navigation Camera and the rover.

More information about the mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

For more information about the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory, see: http://www-mipl.jpl.nasa.gov/mipex.html .

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/OHTcgAapQbM/130624135250.htm

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