Following US Secretary Clinton’s visit to Egypt last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived unannounced in Egypt today to hold talks with Egypt’s interim Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, as well as meet with his counterpart, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Upon arrival, Secretary Gates was greeted by Egyptian Maj. Gen. Hassan al-Roueini, military commander for the Cairo area. His trip comes after weeks of telephone conversations with Tantawi, which began with the very…
Continue reading …Inkling signs with major publishers to bring 100 textbooks to iPad by 2012, no actual ink
March 24, 2011 No Comment
Inkling is a pretty cute name for a product, you have to admit, but by the end of the year it could be pretty serious business. It’s a company that specializes on publishing textbooks on the iPad , devices that are rapidly killing the poor paper industry. As of now the company’s products are few, but two major publishers, Pearson and McGraw-Hill, have signed on to support the service, a deal that will see Inkling’s product catalog swell by several orders of magnitude. Up to 100 books are expected to be there by the end of the year and, while that’s nothing compared to the massive variety of volumes that swell students’ backpacks and diminish their drinking funds at the beginning of every semester, it is a solid start. Best of all, Inkling’s current texts cost 35 percent less than their printed doppelgangers, meaning there’s hope for cheaper e-books after all. Inkling signs with major publishers to bring 100 textbooks to iPad by 2012, no actual ink originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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State-run Press TV showed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani describing her alleged role in her husband’s death Ofcom has ruled that Iran’s state-run Press TV station, which has offices in London, did not breach the UK’s broadcasting rules in transmitting a programme that showed an Iranian woman participating in the reconstruction of her alleged part in the murder of her husband. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery triggered an international outcry, was taken from prison to her home in Osku, in Iran’s East Azarbaijan province, last December. She appeared in front of a camera for Press TV recounting how she rendered her husband unconscious before the killer electrocuted him. Ashtiani’s 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh, played the part of her husband in the broadcast. Human rights campaigners described it as a forced confession aimed at collecting new evidence against her and distracting world attention from Iran’s embarrassment over the case. Press TV is Iran’s English-language state television station and has its main overseas office in London, where many of its programmes are made. People in Iran do not have access to the channel. Opponents of the Iranian regime believe the channel is used for propaganda purposes. In response to a complaint made by the Iranian human rights campaigner Fazel Hawramy, who asked whether it was ethical for Press TV to make the imprisoned son play his murdered father, Ofcom said in a letter, seen by the Guardian, that the broadcaster had not breached its code. “Given the broadcaster’s assurances that both Sakineh Ashtiani and her son willingly participated in this programme, we considered that the context was not materially misleading so as to cause harm and offence,” Adam Baxter, standards executive of the media regulator, wrote to Hawramy. Ofcom went on to say: “Given the high public salience of the case of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran, and across the world generally, we considered that it was unsurprising for this matter to be discussed on a serious analysis programme such as this, which focused on Iranian-related matters.” The regulator admitted it was “unusual for a prisoner facing an allegation of murder to take part in a reconstruction of their alleged crime”, but ruled: “It is an editorial matter for broadcasters as to what issues and content they cover in their services, and how they cover them, as long as they comply with the code.” Ofcom added: “The fact that both [Mohammadi Ashtiani and her son] did not appear to be in any obvious distress in their appearances on screen” was another factor it had considered in reaching its decision that “the content, though potentially offensive to some, could be justified by the context”. Ghaderzadeh had been arrested by Iranian authorities before the programme after he spoke to foreign media in support of his mother. Hawramy, who writes for a human rights forum called Kurdishblogger , said: “It is disappointing for me to see that Ofcom has based its conclusions on the assurances Press TV’s editors have given to them. How come Press TV has access to Ms Ashtiani while she, herself, has been denied access to her lawyer? And while one of her lawyers was forced to flee Iran and the other one remains in jail? Why is it that independent journalists were not allowed to access her unrestrictedly while Iran’s state journalists were given permission to?” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian human rights activist based in Norway who is also a spokesman for the NGO Iran Human Rights, said: “I was simply shocked by reading Ofcom’s response. One would expect that Ofcom has sufficient knowledge of Iran’s history of using televised confessions, and the fact that Iran is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists. Iranian authorities claim that prisoners appear ‘willingly’ on the TV and confess against themselves but very often these confessions have been used as new evidence for the death sentences the prisoners have been given afterwards.” According to Ofcom’s letter, Press TV has responded to the regulator and has said: “The complaints are based on the complainants’ assumptions that Ms Ashtiani and her son were forced to appear in the programme and the reconstruction scene. Being that this assumption is false, there is no validity to the complaints. Press TV did not ‘make’ or ‘force’ Ms Ashtiani and her son to do anything they were uncomfortable with. Both participated willingly, and gave no indication that they felt humiliation, distress or violation of their human dignity at any time prior to, during, or subsequent to the filming and broadcast of the programme.” Ofcom said it had received three complaints over Press TV’s programme involving Ashtiani. According to Amnesty International, Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for “adultery while married” but was also given a 10-year prison term in 2006 for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer said later was subsequently reduced to five years for “complicity” in the crime. Last October her son and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested, with two German journalists who were detained after trying to interview her family. The journalists were released after a few months. Sakineh Ashtiani’s stoning sentence was suspended last year, but she and her lawyer remain in jail. Ofcom Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Iran Television industry Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
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State-run Press TV showed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani describing her alleged role in her husband’s death Ofcom has ruled that Iran’s state-run Press TV station, which has offices in London, did not breach the UK’s broadcasting rules in transmitting a programme that showed an Iranian woman participating in the reconstruction of her alleged part in the murder of her husband. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery triggered an international outcry, was taken from prison to her home in Osku, in Iran’s East Azarbaijan province, last December. She appeared in front of a camera for Press TV recounting how she rendered her husband unconscious before the killer electrocuted him. Ashtiani’s 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh, played the part of her husband in the broadcast. Human rights campaigners described it as a forced confession aimed at collecting new evidence against her and distracting world attention from Iran’s embarrassment over the case. Press TV is Iran’s English-language state television station and has its main overseas office in London, where many of its programmes are made. People in Iran do not have access to the channel. Opponents of the Iranian regime believe the channel is used for propaganda purposes. In response to a complaint made by the Iranian human rights campaigner Fazel Hawramy, who asked whether it was ethical for Press TV to make the imprisoned son play his murdered father, Ofcom said in a letter, seen by the Guardian, that the broadcaster had not breached its code. “Given the broadcaster’s assurances that both Sakineh Ashtiani and her son willingly participated in this programme, we considered that the context was not materially misleading so as to cause harm and offence,” Adam Baxter, standards executive of the media regulator, wrote to Hawramy. Ofcom went on to say: “Given the high public salience of the case of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran, and across the world generally, we considered that it was unsurprising for this matter to be discussed on a serious analysis programme such as this, which focused on Iranian-related matters.” The regulator admitted it was “unusual for a prisoner facing an allegation of murder to take part in a reconstruction of their alleged crime”, but ruled: “It is an editorial matter for broadcasters as to what issues and content they cover in their services, and how they cover them, as long as they comply with the code.” Ofcom added: “The fact that both [Mohammadi Ashtiani and her son] did not appear to be in any obvious distress in their appearances on screen” was another factor it had considered in reaching its decision that “the content, though potentially offensive to some, could be justified by the context”. Ghaderzadeh had been arrested by Iranian authorities before the programme after he spoke to foreign media in support of his mother. Hawramy, who writes for a human rights forum called Kurdishblogger , said: “It is disappointing for me to see that Ofcom has based its conclusions on the assurances Press TV’s editors have given to them. How come Press TV has access to Ms Ashtiani while she, herself, has been denied access to her lawyer? And while one of her lawyers was forced to flee Iran and the other one remains in jail? Why is it that independent journalists were not allowed to access her unrestrictedly while Iran’s state journalists were given permission to?” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian human rights activist based in Norway who is also a spokesman for the NGO Iran Human Rights, said: “I was simply shocked by reading Ofcom’s response. One would expect that Ofcom has sufficient knowledge of Iran’s history of using televised confessions, and the fact that Iran is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists. Iranian authorities claim that prisoners appear ‘willingly’ on the TV and confess against themselves but very often these confessions have been used as new evidence for the death sentences the prisoners have been given afterwards.” According to Ofcom’s letter, Press TV has responded to the regulator and has said: “The complaints are based on the complainants’ assumptions that Ms Ashtiani and her son were forced to appear in the programme and the reconstruction scene. Being that this assumption is false, there is no validity to the complaints. Press TV did not ‘make’ or ‘force’ Ms Ashtiani and her son to do anything they were uncomfortable with. Both participated willingly, and gave no indication that they felt humiliation, distress or violation of their human dignity at any time prior to, during, or subsequent to the filming and broadcast of the programme.” Ofcom said it had received three complaints over Press TV’s programme involving Ashtiani. According to Amnesty International, Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for “adultery while married” but was also given a 10-year prison term in 2006 for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer said later was subsequently reduced to five years for “complicity” in the crime. Last October her son and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested, with two German journalists who were detained after trying to interview her family. The journalists were released after a few months. Sakineh Ashtiani’s stoning sentence was suspended last year, but she and her lawyer remain in jail. Ofcom Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Iran Television industry Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
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Bailout request seen as ‘inevitable’ following prime minister’s resignation in wake of failure to push through austerity measures Britain could be forced to contribute more than £3bn to a Portugal bailout package following the Lisbon government’s failure to push through its austerity measures on Wednesday. The Open Europe thinktank claimed on Thursday that the UK’s share of any rescue package would be between €810m (£702m) and €3.7bn, via the European commission’s €440bn bailout fund. Portugal is teetering on the brink of becoming the third member of the eurozone to seek assistance from the EU – and like Greece and Ireland it will probably also ask for help from the International Monetary Fund. Prime minister José Sócrates’s resignation on Wednesday night has left the country in political limbo, and piled extra pressure on European leaders who are gathering at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “Portugal will inevitably ask for a bailout,” said Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel. “But the cases of Ireland and Greece clearly illustrate that the EU’s strategy – to throw good money after bad – is failing. Rather than simply taking a bailout, it would be better in the long run for Portugal to restructure its debt now,” Ruparel added. Sócrates had proposed a wide-ranging plan of tax rises and spending cuts, in an attempt to cut Portugal’s deficit and retain market confidence. The yields on Portuguese government debt has reached record highs , with the 10-year bond trading hitting 7.6% – widely seen as an unsustainably high cost of borrowing. Now that the austerity programme has been rejected, economists also believe Portugal must ask for help. “Portugal moved another step closer to needing a bailout yesterday,” said Gary Jenkins, the head of fixed interest research at Evolution Securities. “Even with complete political harmony it was always going to be difficult for Portugal to persuade investors to continue to fund them and thus yields are likely to rise further from what has already been described as unsustainable levels by Portuguese officials.” Portugal needs to refinance around £4bn of bonds in April. It also emerged last night that the new European Stability Mechanism – to which Britain will not sign up – will not be signed off at the two-day meeting in Brussels, as had been planned. Instead, the deadline for a final agreement has been pushed back to the end of June. “When I started working in the City I was often told to follow the old ‘under promise and over deliver’ formula; the EU seems to be going for the opposite strategy when it comes to dealing with the crisis,” Jenkins added. Fears that the European debt crisis may spread to Madrid were heightened on Thursday morning, when Moody’s downgraded most of the Spanish banking sector. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, argued that Spain was in much better shape than its Iberian neighbour. “You can never say anyone is safe in these times. There is always the danger of a run on a country. But Spain is in a significantly better position than Portugal, which in every likelihood will need a bailout now,” Schmieding told Bloomberg TV. Britain’s inclusion in the €440bn temporary stabilisation mechanism is controversial, as Alistair Darling signed up for the plan on 10 May 2010 – during the hiatus between the general election and the formation of the coalition government. George Osborne, who replaced Darling as chancellor later that week, has insisted that he would have taken a different decision. European debt crisis Global economy Portugal Europe Economics IMF Europe European banks Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bailout request seen as ‘inevitable’ following prime minister’s resignation in wake of failure to push through austerity measures Britain could be forced to contribute more than £3bn to a Portugal bailout package following the Lisbon government’s failure to push through its austerity measures on Wednesday. The Open Europe thinktank claimed on Thursday that the UK’s share of any rescue package would be between €810m (£702m) and €3.7bn, via the European commission’s €440bn bailout fund. Portugal is teetering on the brink of becoming the third member of the eurozone to seek assistance from the EU – and like Greece and Ireland it will probably also ask for help from the International Monetary Fund. Prime minister José Sócrates’s resignation on Wednesday night has left the country in political limbo, and piled extra pressure on European leaders who are gathering at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “Portugal will inevitably ask for a bailout,” said Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel. “But the cases of Ireland and Greece clearly illustrate that the EU’s strategy – to throw good money after bad – is failing. Rather than simply taking a bailout, it would be better in the long run for Portugal to restructure its debt now,” Ruparel added. Sócrates had proposed a wide-ranging plan of tax rises and spending cuts, in an attempt to cut Portugal’s deficit and retain market confidence. The yields on Portuguese government debt has reached record highs , with the 10-year bond trading hitting 7.6% – widely seen as an unsustainably high cost of borrowing. Now that the austerity programme has been rejected, economists also believe Portugal must ask for help. “Portugal moved another step closer to needing a bailout yesterday,” said Gary Jenkins, the head of fixed interest research at Evolution Securities. “Even with complete political harmony it was always going to be difficult for Portugal to persuade investors to continue to fund them and thus yields are likely to rise further from what has already been described as unsustainable levels by Portuguese officials.” Portugal needs to refinance around £4bn of bonds in April. It also emerged last night that the new European Stability Mechanism – to which Britain will not sign up – will not be signed off at the two-day meeting in Brussels, as had been planned. Instead, the deadline for a final agreement has been pushed back to the end of June. “When I started working in the City I was often told to follow the old ‘under promise and over deliver’ formula; the EU seems to be going for the opposite strategy when it comes to dealing with the crisis,” Jenkins added. Fears that the European debt crisis may spread to Madrid were heightened on Thursday morning, when Moody’s downgraded most of the Spanish banking sector. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, argued that Spain was in much better shape than its Iberian neighbour. “You can never say anyone is safe in these times. There is always the danger of a run on a country. But Spain is in a significantly better position than Portugal, which in every likelihood will need a bailout now,” Schmieding told Bloomberg TV. Britain’s inclusion in the €440bn temporary stabilisation mechanism is controversial, as Alistair Darling signed up for the plan on 10 May 2010 – during the hiatus between the general election and the formation of the coalition government. George Osborne, who replaced Darling as chancellor later that week, has insisted that he would have taken a different decision. European debt crisis Global economy Portugal Europe Economics IMF Europe European banks Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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BAA to invest in snow-clearing machines and more staff – with the aim that bad weather will never again close Heathrow BAA will invest £50m in avoiding a repeat of the Heathrow snow fiasco after a report said the chaos that gripped Britain’s largest airport was exacerbated by lack of preparation, poor communication and equipment shortages. An inquiry led by BAA’s independent director, Professor David Begg, recommended that Heathrow adopts a new target of never closing due to bad weather and made a total of 14 recommendations. Accepting the report in full, BAA said on Thursday that it would spend £50m on snow-clearing machines, new staff and improving communication with passengers. The Begg panel outlined major failures by BAA that led to the airport being paralysed for four days after a sudden snowfall on 18 December, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers and bringing back familiar scenes of families camping out on terminal floors. Those errors were: • a failure to anticipate the impact of the weather forecast before 18 December, when nearly 13cm of snow fell • the slow clearance of aircraft stands, caused in part by a lack of specialised equipment, which left dozens of jets frozen to the tarmac • “confused and contradictory” messages to airlines and passengers • several failures in internal communication and co-ordination within BAA • the late mobilisation of the executive crisis team Eschewing the apologetic stance that marked its initial reaction to the fiasco, BAA kept up its mantra that Heathrow would only work better if airlines, regulators, air traffic controllers and airport owners worked more closely. The airport group added that British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and bmi had agreed to join it in a “Heathrow partnership” with air traffic controller NATS and the industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority. BAA has sought to portray the snow fiasco as symptomatic of a wider lack of communication within the Heathrow campus, a point repeated today by the company’s chief executive, Colin Matthews. “We clearly understand our role in keeping Heathrow open, unless for emergency or safety reasons, but to do that and to achieve the highest standards of passenger care, we need to work more closely and collaboratively with airlines and them with us, and all agree on the necessary training and investment,” he said. “Heathrow is among the most congested airports in the world and the lack of spare capacity means that unlike every other British or European airport, we have literally no room to move when disruption occurs. “This means that any problem, large or small, that slows down the rate of aircraft arriving at or leaving from Heathrow, will disrupt many people.” BAA’s heavy-hitting chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd, said the board was encouraging management to dedicate “all the necessary resources” to ensure an improved response to extreme weather. Air transport Heathrow Weather BAA Travel & leisure Airline industry Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
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Foreign Office confirms 60-year-old woman killed in explosion outside Jerusalem’s main bus station was UK national The woman killed when a suitcase bomb exploded in Jerusalem on Wednesday was British, the Foreign Office has confirmed. The bombing, the first in the city for seven years, left the 60-year-old dead and injured dozens of others. “We can confirm the death of a British national,” said a Foreign Office spokeswoman, adding that the woman’s family had been informed. The 1-2kg suitcase bomb detonated close to the main bus station and government ministries . Most of the blast was absorbed by commuters waiting at a bus stop, leaving three people seriously hurt and about three dozen with minor injuries. The explosion also broke windows in two buses that were operating nearby. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has vowed to act “aggressively, responsibly and wisely” in response to the bombing, which was also condemned by the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad. Barack Obama criticised the bombing and said “Israel, like all nations, has a right to self-defence”. However, the US president expressed “deepest condolences” to the families of Palestinians killed in recent Israeli air strikes in Gaza. In the past week a barrage of missiles has been fired into Israel from Gaza, followed by retaliatory air strikes and tank shelling by the Israeli military. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed. Israel Middle East Palestinian territories Gaza Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Energy-efficient military uniforms to make solar-powered necktie so last season
March 24, 2011 No Comment
This definitely isn’t the first time we’ve heard of wearable solar cells , but a new development underway in the UK could certainly have a greater impact than, say, an iPod-charging denim jacket . By combining photovoltaic cells with thermoelectric devices , a team of researchers is working to create new, more efficient uniforms for British troops. The solar-powered outfits could cut the weight of traditional battery packs in half, allow for significantly longer military missions, and actually absorb energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, decreasing the possibility of detection by infrared technology. To ensure 24-hour power, the solar cells will collect energy in daylight, with thermoelectric devices taking on the task at night. A prototype is set for 2013, but we wonder how long it will take to hit the catwalk. Energy-efficient military uniforms to make solar-powered necktie so last season originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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John and Maria singing Portugal’s PM Resigns Prekindergarten kids celebrating Greek national independence Jose Socrates , Portuguese Prime Minister, Resigns After Austerity … Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said on Wednesday he has submitted his resignation to the president after parliament earlier rejected his minority Socialist government’s latest austerity measures in a vote. Channel 6 News » Portugal PM Jose Socrates resigns after austerity … Socrates presented his resignation to Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva after the Stability and Growth Program 2011-2014 was rejected. Opposition parties refused to support the program, and Portugal is now likely to seek a … Socrates | Midora Socrates – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Socrates Greek: , Ancient Greek pronunciation: skrats, Skrts c. 469 BC399 BC, pronounced /skrtiz/ in English was a. Portuguese Parliament Rejects Austerity Plan, PM Socrates Resigns … Portugal’s government rejected Prime Minister Jose Socrates ‘ fourth wave of austerity plans just after the bell on Wednesday. Socrates , who had threatened to resign if opposition Social Democratic and Communist parties didn’t pass his … Portuguese Parliament Rejects Austerity Plan, PM Socrates Resigns … Portugal’s government rejected Prime Minister Jose Socrates ‘ fourth wave of austerity plans just after the bell on Wednesday. Socrates who had threatened to resign if opposition Social Democratic and Communist parties didn’t pass his … DTNCanada says: DTN Canada: Opposition parties defeat Portugal’s austerity measures: Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates say… http://bit.ly/eJ5Jei
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