Israel lawmaker claims Hezbollah getting chemicals from Syria

JERUSALEM (AP) ? A former Israeli defense minister alleged Monday that Syria's chemical weapons are "trickling" to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the first claim by a senior politician in Israel that one of the country's nightmare scenarios is coming true.

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who also called for international intervention in the Syria's civil war to stop mass civilian deaths, did not supply any evidence for his claim.

"The process of weapon transferal to Hezbollah has begun," Ben-Eliezer told The Associated Press. He refused to elaborate.

Ben-Eliezer, a retired general who is now a lawmaker from the opposition Labor party, also told Israel Radio that he "has no doubt" that Syrian President Bashar Assad has already used chemical weapons and that that "these weapons are trickling to Hezbollah."

His statements do not represent an official assessment and defense officials say that, while they are concerned about Hezbollah getting chemical weapons, they are assuming it has not yet done so.

Israel has repeatedly expressed concern that Syria's chemical arsenal could fall into the hands of anti-Israel militants like Lebanon's Hezbollah, an Assad ally, or an al-Qaida-linked group fighting with the rebels. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that militants getting chemical arms or other sophisticated weapons is a red line that could trigger military action.

Israel is widely believed to have carried out an airstrike in Syria early this year on a shipment of sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles allegedly bound for Hezbollah. Israel has all but confirmed it carried out the attack.

Although Assad is a bitter enemy, Israel has been careful not to take sides in Syria's civil war, partly because the Assad family has kept the border with Israel quiet for the past 40 years and because of fears of what would happen if he is overthrown. Israeli military officials believe some Syrian opposition groups, especially those affiliated with the al-Qaida terror group, will turn their focus toward Israel once Assad is ousted.

Ben-Eliezer said he is "amazed by the silence of the world" and that the international community needs to intervene to end the high civilian death toll in Syria's civil war. He said Israel should consider action if there is no international intervention.

"I wouldn't rule out preparing a plan for Israel to act if the world continues to remain silent and the weapons continue to flow to Hezbollah. These are crazy people, terrorists who will not hesitate to use this tomorrow morning," he said.

This week another former defense chief, Environment Minister Amir Peretz, also called for international action in Syria.

Both sides in Syria's civil war accuse each other of using chemical weapons in the war, which according to the U.N. has killed more than 70,000 people.

The U.S. has warned such weapons cross a red line and last week said the weapons were probably used, though it still seeks definitive proof.

Last week, Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the head of research and analysis in Israeli military intelligence, said Assad's soldiers had used chemical weapons against rebels. He said sarin, a lethal nerve agent, was probably used in one instance. He cited images of alleged victims of the attacks foaming at the mouth and displaying other apparent symptoms of chemical attacks as part of the evidence.

The Israeli government convened its Security Cabinet to discuss Syria on Sunday but no details were released.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-lawmaker-claims-hezbollah-getting-chemicals-122131118.html

netanyahu aipac vanessa minnillo super tuesday epidemiology total eclipse of the heart jionni lavalle

FAA: Air traffic system soon at full operation

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Federal Aviation Administration said that the U.S. air traffic system will resume normal operations by Sunday evening after lawmakers rushed a bill through Congress allowing the agency to withdraw furloughs of air traffic controllers and other workers.

The FAA said Saturday that it has suspended all employee furloughs and that traffic facilities will begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours. The furloughs were fallout from the $85 billion in automatic-across-the-board spending cuts this spring. The bill, passed on Friday, allows the FAA to move as much as $253 million within its budget to areas that will allow it to prevent reduced operations and staffing.

The furloughs started to hit air traffic controllers this past week, causing flight delays that left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious. Planes were forced to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

The FAA had no choice but to cut $637 million as its share of $85 billion in automatic, government-wide spending cuts that must be achieved by the end of the federal budget year on Sept. 30.

Flight delays piled up across the country Sunday and Monday of this week as the FAA kept planes on the ground because there weren't enough controllers to monitor busy air corridors. Cascading delays held up flights at some of nation's busiest airports, including New York, Baltimore and Washington. Delta Air Lines canceled about 90 flights Monday because of worries about delays. Just about every passenger was rebooked on another Delta flight within a couple of hours. Air travel was smoother Tuesday.

Things could have been worse. A lot of people who had planned to fly this week changed their plans when they heard that air travel might be difficult, according to longtime aviation consultant Daniel Kasper of Compass Lexicon.

"Essentially what happened from an airline's perspective is that people who were going to travel didn't travel," he said. But canceled flights likely led to lost revenue for airlines. Even if they didn't have to incur some of costs of fueling up planes and getting them off the ground, crews that were already scheduled to work still had to paid.

"One week isn't going to kill them, but had it gone on much longer, it would have been a significant hit on their revenues and profits," Kasper said.

It's also a toll on travelers. At New York's LaGuardia airport on Friday, traveler Roger Bentley said "getting on a flight and being delayed really puts people on the spot. It puts people on the edge and makes people edgy and that's not something I want."

The challenges this week probably cost airlines less than disruptions from a typical winter storm, said John F. Thomas, an aviation consultant with L.E.K. Consulting.

"I think the fact that it got resolved this week has minimized the cost as it was more the inconvenience factor," Thomas said.

The budget cuts at the FAA were required under a law enacted two years ago as the government was approaching its debt limit. Democrats were in favor of raising the debt limit without strings attached so as not to provoke an economic crisis, but Republicans insisted on substantial cuts in exchange. The compromise was to require that every government "program, project and activity" ? with some exceptions, like Medicare ? be cut equally.

The FAA had reduced the work schedules of nearly all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as thousands of air traffic supervisors, managers and technicians who keep airport towers and radar facility equipment working. That amounted to a 10 percent cut in hours and pay.

Republicans accused the Obama administration of forcing the furloughs to raise public pressure on Congress to roll back the budget cuts. Critics of the FAA insist the agency could have reduce its budget in other ways that would not have inconvenience travelers including diverting money from other accounts, such as those devoted to research, commercial space transportation and modernization of the air traffic control computers.

President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern, dubbing it a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to the spending cuts known as the sequester.

"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said, singling out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both chambers.

He scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/faa-air-traffic-system-soon-full-operation-172947164.html

rory mcilroy Fatboy Slim Rio de Janeiro Shark Week London 2012 closing ceremony Shark Week 2012 evelyn lozada

$50 million bike trail would go from St. Pete to Titusville (tbo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302084301?client_source=feed&format=rss

News nbc news msnbc reddit abc news Boston Police Scanner Jeff Bauman

Pakistan Taliban bomb politicians' offices, kill 9

Pakistani police officers and volunteers visit the site of an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, April 28, 2013. Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing many people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Pakistani police officers and volunteers visit the site of an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, April 28, 2013. Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing many people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

People gather at the site of an explosion outside an election office of a candidate in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing many people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

An injured Pakistani girl cries while getting medical treatment at a local hospital following a bomb blast, in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, April 28, 2013. Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing many people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Pakistani hospital staff treat a boy injured by a bomb in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, April 28, 2013. Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing many people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

A Pakistani police officer stands guard near an office of a local politician following a blast in Kohat, Pakistan on Sunday, April 28, 2013. Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country?s northwest on Sunday, police said, killing many people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties. (AP Photo/Abdul Basit Gilani)

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing at least nine people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties.

In first attack, on the outskirts of Kohat city, a bomb ripped through the office of Syed Noor Akbar, killing six and wounding 10 people, police official Mujtaba Hussain said.

A second bomb targeted a campaign office of another candidate, Nasir Khan Afridi, in the suburbs of Peshawar city. That attack killed three people and wounded 12, police official Saifur Rehman Khan said.

Both politicians, who were not in the offices at the time of the blasts, are running as independent candidates for national assembly seats to represent constituencies in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, where scores of militant groups operate including some with links to al-Qaida. The general elections will be held on May 11.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for both attacks, as well as two others against secular political parties in the southern port city of Karachi.

"We are against all politicians who are going to become part of any secular, democratic government," he told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Taliban previously announced a strategy to target three political parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP), the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). All three are perceived as liberal, having earned the Taliban's ire by opposing the insurgency and extremism during their time in the outgoing government.

The onslaught has forced many of the parties to change their campaign strategy and has raised questions about whether the vote can be considered valid if some mainstream parties can't properly take part.

Such attacks have killed at least 28 people in just last four days.

One of the most serious attacks occurred on April 21, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a meeting of the ANP in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 16 people. The Taliban said the target of the attack was Haroon Ahmad Bilour, whose father, a senior party leader, was killed in a suicide bombing in Peshawar in December. He escaped unscathed, but his uncle, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, suffered minor injuries.

In the capital, Islamabad, Pakistani officials said they planned to seal the border with Afghanistan and restrict the movement of Afghan refugees on election day.

Officials at the Interior Ministry and the election commission have said that the measure is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks during the vote. However, officials did not say how they would restrict the movement of hundreds of thousands of people spread out across the country or block crossings along the porous border. Pakistan announced similar measures in the past but failed to take action.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The Islamist and center-right political parties have been spared by the Taliban and have been holding big public rallies without fear of being attacked. They largely support peace talks with the Taliban instead of military offensives.

The leaders of the political parties under Taliban attack have said the violence amounts to election rigging. But they have, so far, decided not to boycott the vote.

____

Associated Press Writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-28-Pakistan/id-bbe57d3c035a4bba8ad445fb7e0cec6f

Jack Klugman merry Christmas a christmas story twas the night before christmas santa Capital STEEZ George Bush

Want a solar home? Consider batteries.

Most solar homes are still dependent on the grid, so when the grid fails, they lose power. But that's beginning to change as the solar industry begins to focus on battery storage as the next 'green' frontier.

By David J. Unger,?Correspondent / April 27, 2013

Workers install solar panels on the roof of a farmstead barn in Binsham near Landshut, Germany, last year. Currently, most solar homes don't have onsite energy storage. Typically, adding backup batteries to a solar home adds about 30 percent to the cost.

Michaela Rehle/Reuters/File

Enlarge

When superstorm Sandy barreled into Long Island last October, it flooded Raina Brett Russo's home.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

"Basically, the ocean and the bay came together in my living room," Ms. Russo says. "It hit us really hard."

The basement and first floor were underwater, three cars were flooded, and to the amazement of her neighbors, the power did not come back on any sooner than theirs. With 10.4 kilowatts' worth of solar panels bolted to her roof and undamaged, shouldn't the Russo house have been an oasis of light and power?

Not quite. Like most solar installations today, Russo's panels are connected to, and reliant on, the broader energy infrastructure. When the grid fails, most residential solar panels also fail. But that's beginning to change. The next evolution of home solar will be not in the panels that create energy, experts say, but in the batteries that can store it.

"Storage to me is the holy grail of renewable technology," says Dan Juhl, head of Juhl Energy, a Minnesota-based clean-energy company that offers, among other things, a hybrid solar-storage system called SolarBank. "With solar and wind we can produce power ? no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And with a little storage, you're good to go."

The technology exists, but it comes at a price. Depending on a house's size, location, and consumption, storage adds about 30 percent to the cost of a solar installation, which averages $26,000. Also, batteries need to be replaced every six to 12 years, depending on whether they're used to provide energy at night or strictly as backup systems.

Some of that?cost may be offset by the savings from buying less power from a central utility. Then there's the benefit of having working lights, refrigeration, and a charged cellphone in the aftermath of a storm, say supporters of solar power. Still, battery storage will have to come down in price to be competitive with conventional backup generators.

Solar panels themselves were once considered cost-prohibitive. Those prices have since plummeted, thanks to technological advances and a rapidly growing global market. The same could happen for storage.

"Ten or 15 years ago the battery was an afterthought because the photovoltaic module was the new, exciting technology," says Dean Middleton, director of sales for renewable energy at California-based Trojan Battery Company. "Today, there's much more of a focus on the battery."

Energy storage topped the list of high-demand features in a December 2012 global survey of 400 solar in-stallers, system integrators, and wholesalers by IHS Inc., a Colorado-based business analysis firm.

One-third of respondents said they expect to use energy storage in more than 40 percent of the photovoltaic systems they install by 2015. "Energy storage is becoming an increasingly important feature for PV systems, and if suppliers are able to deliver products in line with the industry's expectations, the market for energy storage in PV could increase significantly over the next two years," says Sam Wilkinson, a manager at IHS, in a release.

The nascent market is getting a boost from the US government. In November, the Department of Energy awarded $120 million to Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago to lead research into better and cheaper batteries for vehicles and the electrical grid.

In the meantime,?lead-acid batteries will do the trick. The technology is time-tested and well understood, unlike newer and more volatile storage systems. Batterymakers say that storage of lead-acid batteries, despite their ominous name, is clean, safe, and highly recyclable.

When combined with solar panels and a special inverter to direct the flow of energy to and from the various sources, the batteries offer a kind of energy security not available in most solar panel systems.

"While everybody is arguing about a smart grid and how it's going to work, anyone who installs this kind of system already has a smart grid right there in their home," says Mark Cerasuolo, senior marketing manager at OutBack Power Technologies in Arlington, Wash., which specializes in power conversion equipment. "Everything on your side of the meter is what really counts."

Four months passed before Russo and her family could move back into their storm-battered home. She is adamant about acquiring backup power for when the next storm comes. But Russo, cofounder of educational website EcoOutfitters.net, which is dedicated to demystifying the process of installing renewable energy systems, eschews conventional generators because of their emissions.

"Since we already have this solar system, let's use it as a backup," she says.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/OgfsgwPCA3c/Want-a-solar-home-Consider-batteries

university of kentucky oakland news alec baldwin alec baldwin college basketball oakland pinnacle airlines

Analysts: We've got 'til October

By Rachelle Younglai

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States might not hit the statutory limit on its debt until October, a policy research group said on Friday, giving Republican lawmakers more time to extract spending cuts from the Obama administration in return for extending the borrowing cap.

After giving into Democratic demands in December to raise taxes and later working with them to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans have been gearing up to use the debt limit as leverage to seek fresh budget cuts and changes to the tax code.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank that analyzes the Treasury's daily and monthly cash flows, had expected the federal government to hit the congressionally-set limit on its debt sometime between early-August and mid-September.

But stronger-than-expected revenues and deeper-than-anticipated budget cuts mean the ceiling on borrowing probably will not be reach until sometime between mid-August and mid-October, the group said on its website on Friday.

"October is a nasty month," BPC economic policy director Steve Bell said in an interview, noting that major government payments are due in October.

If Congress does not raise the borrowing cap before the Treasury hits the limit, the government will no longer be able to borrow money to pay its bills, including interest on its bonds, raising the risk of a damaging debt default.

In an attempt to avoid being blamed for a default, Republicans in the House of Representatives are pushing legislation to require the Treasury to pay bondholders and Social Security retirement benefits before other bills if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling on time.

The BPC said its forecast could change depending on economic conditions and when updated financial information became available.

Nearly $90 billion may soon be pumped into government coffers by the now-profitable government-controlled housing finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to account for deferred tax assets that were written down.

The think tank, however, does not think the disbursement to the Treasury will be that high. "We do expect that there will be a payment of some size in June but it is our opinion that the number is more likely to be in the $20 billion range and not in the rumored $100 billion range," Bell said.

The Treasury has said it could not forecast an exact date for when Congress must raise the debt ceiling due to delayed tax filings and uncertainty about the effect of the government budget cuts.

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-government-may-not-hit-debt-limit-until-215216483.html

Melissa Nelson foot locker champs champs calvin johnson calvin johnson sound of music

Scientists confirm new H7N9 bird flu has come from chickens

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have confirmed for the first time that a new strain of bird flu that has killed 23 people in China has been transmitted to humans from chickens.

In a study published online in the Lancet medical journal, the scientists echoed previous statements from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese officials that there is as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus.

The H7N9 strain has infected 109 people in China since it was first detected in March. The WHO warned on Wednesday that this strain is "one of the most lethal" flu viruses and is transmitted more easily than the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed hundreds around the world since 2003.

Kwok-Yung Yuen of the University of Hong Kong, who led the study, said its findings that chickens in poultry markets were a source of human infections meant that controlling the disease in these places and in these birds should be a priority.

"Aggressive intervention to block further animal-to-person transmission in live poultry markets, as has previously been done in Hong Kong, should be considered," he told the Lancet.

He added that temporary closure of live bird markets and comprehensive programs of surveillance, culling, biosecurity and segregation of different poultry species may also be needed "to halt evolution of the virus into a pandemic agent".

"The evidence ... suggests it is a pure poultry-to-human transmission and that controlling (infections in people) will therefore depend on controlling the epidemic in poultry," he said.

Yuen's findings do not mean all cases of human H7N9 infection come from chickens, or from poultry, but they do confirm chickens as one source.

The WHO has said 40 percent of people infected with H7N9 appear to have had no contact with poultry.

Other so called "reservoirs" of the flu virus may be circulating in other types of birds or mammals, and investigators in China are working hard to try find out.

CASE STUDIES

Yuen's team conducted detailed cases studies on four H7N9 flu patients from Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province south of the commercial hub Shanghai.

All four patients had been exposed to poultry, either through their work or through visiting poultry markets.

To find out whether there was transmission of the virus from poultry to humans, the researchers took swabs from 20 chickens, four quails, five pigeons and 57 ducks, all from six markets likely to have been visited by the patients.

Two of the five pigeons and four of the 20 chickens tested positive for H7N9, but none of the ducks or quails.

After analyzing the genetic makeup of H7N9 virus in a sample isolated from one patient and comparing it to a sample from one of the chickens, the researchers said similarities suggest the virus is being transmitted directly to humans from poultry.

The team also checked more than 300 people who had had close contact with the four patients and found that none showed any symptoms of H7N9 infection within 14 days from the beginning of surveillance. This suggests the virus is not currently able to transmit between people, they said.

But they noted that previous genetic analysis shows H7N9 has already acquired some gene mutations that adapt it specifically to being more able to infect mammals - raising the risk that it could one day cause a human pandemic.

"Further adaptation of the virus could lead to infections with less severe symptoms and more efficient person-to-person transmission," the scientists wrote.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-confirm-h7n9-bird-flu-come-chickens-134334449.html

curacao curacao home run derby kourtney kardashian kourtney kardashian DNS Changer ernest borgnine