BlackBerry is "circling the toilet," as Chris Velazco puts it so eloquently. Meanwhile, Google is now offering stock Android versions of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. We're also mildly interested in Hyundai's new infotainment system, Blue Link, (especially given Apple's foray into the car with iOS 7). Just as you'd expect, we discuss all this and more during this week's TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast.
SAN FRANCISCO ? Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban say a federal appeals court decision that clears the way for gay weddings to resume is "disgraceful."
Anthony Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups, called Friday's order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals an "outrageous act" by judges and politicians determined to overturn voter-approved Proposition 8.
Immediately after the court's order, the lead plaintiffs in the case hurried to San Francisco's City Hall to be married by state Attorney General Kamala Harris.
Pugno called the court's decision an "abuse of power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless."
Friday's decision came after the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the sponsors of California's gay marriage ban lacked the authority to defend it in court.
There are too many damn people crammed into Spotify's NYC offices because Mayor Mike is in the house! Or we're told he will be at some point, but we've been sitting here for two hours. Us tech bloggers are all aflutter because we're getting an audience with a real news maker that our moms have actually heard of. Wait, what is Mike Bloomberg doing here?
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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? The hopeful story President Barack Obama wants to tell about Africa is represented in the first stop of his weeklong trip to re-engage the continent, in a country where democracy recently overcame an impending electoral crisis.
During his visit to Senegal on Thursday, Obama also will reflect on the ties many African-Americans share with the continent as he takes a tour of Goree Island, Africa's westernmost point. By some accounts, millions of Africans were shipped off into slavery across the Atlantic Ocean through the island's "Door of No Return."
Crowds welcomed Obama's motorcade Thursday morning in Dakar, cheering and waving homemade signs as he made his way to the presidential palace for his meeting with Senegalese President Macky Sall. Some in the crowd drummed and sang outside the palace gates. Sall and his wife, Marieme Faye Sall, greeted Obama and first lady Michelle Obama before entering the palace.
Obama was scheduled to hold a press conference before ferrying to Goree Island for his tour.
It's the first of two island visits where Obama planned to highlight racial atrocities of the past. The second was scheduled for Sunday at South Africa's Robben Island, where anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years.
But Mandela's condition could affect Obama's plans. The former South African president is gravely ill, and Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes said it would be left to the Mandela family to decide whether he is up for a visit from Obama this weekend.
Mandela's legacy hangs over the entire trip, with Senegal among many African countries that have benefited from his example of a peaceful transition to power. "So much of the democratic progress that we see across the continent I think can be tied in some way to the inspiration that Nelson Mandela set," Rhodes said.
Obama's focus in Senegal will be on the modern-day achievements of the former French colony after half a century of independence. Sall ousted an incumbent president who attempted to change the constitution to make it easier for him to be re-elected and pave the way for his son to succeed him. The power grab sparked protests, fueled by hip-hop music and social media, that led to Sall's election.
But such people-powered democratic transitions are not always the story of the African experience. Fighting and human rights abuses limited Obama's options for stops in his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago. Obama is avoiding his father's homeland, Kenya, whose president has been charged with war crimes, and Nigeria, the country with the continent's most dominant economy. Nigeria is enveloped in an Islamist insurgency and military crackdown.
Obama's itinerary in Senegal was designed to send a message, purposefully delivered in a French-speaking, Muslim-majority nation, to other Africans in countries that have not made the strides toward democracy that Senegal has. Obama plans to meet with civil society leaders at the Goree Institute and visit the Supreme Court to speak about the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law in Africa's development.
"It's not enough to have elections, it's not enough to have democratically elected leaders," Rhodes said. "You need to have independent judiciaries. You need to have confidence in the rule of law. You need to have efforts to combat corruption. Because, frankly, not only is that good for democracy and respect for human rights, but it's critical to Africa's economic growth, because where you have clear rules of the road and efforts to combat corruption, businesses will invest, and jobs will be created and growth will take off. And that's what we want to see."
___
Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
At its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that it is adding auto scaling for web apps to its Azure cloud-computing platform. This will allow developers to dynamically scale their cloud server capacity on Azure automatically as needed. Users can, of course, set a maximum and minimum number of servers to run at any given time. Enabling this feature just takes a few clicks in the Azure management console, and in addition to setting the number of servers to use, developers can also set a target CPU load for every one of these servers. Once a web app needs more CPU capacity — or if the storage queue gets too long — it can then spin up a new server. Besides making apps more responsive, one of the main reasons to use auto scaling is, of course, to save money. There is, after all, no reason to pay for servers that aren’t actually being used. Azure will give users a general idea of how much they can save when they turn this feature on for their accounts. Autoscale for Windows Azure is in preview now and will be available for free for a limited time. It’s worth noting that Amazon Web Services has long offered auto scaling for its EC2 cloud computing platform, too, so Microsoft, which was relatively late to cloud computing, is mostly playing catch-up here.
Either way, the persistence of a large bloc of Packers fans has been rewarded, as 5,000 names are being taken off the team?s season-ticket waiting list, the most in one offseason.
The Packers gave a glimpse of the expansion of Lambeau Field yesterday, which includes 7,000 new seats. The bulk of those are going to people who have been waiting to get in for decades.
?The folks coming off the list have been on for 30 years, so there?s some patience on their part. That?s the great thing with the support the Packers have,? Packers director of public affairs Aaron Popkey said, via WBAY.
Team officials said the project, which includes suites, escalators, new concession stands and standing room areas is 98 percent finished, and should be complete before the team?s shareholders meeting in late July.
While they took pride it making it look like it blended into one of the league?s most traditional buildings, they think it?s going to be even louder than before.
?I think it?ll be pretty dramatic in that top area,? said Stuart Zadra,vice president of Hammes Company, the contractor on the project. ?It?s got metal behind it that?s just going to reflect, and I?m sure people are going to be pounding on that metal cheering on Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.?
And with 7,000 new voices, the effect should be dramatic.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) ? Ha-Neul Kim saw friend Inbee Park after the world's top-ranked player took the lead in the morning session at the U.S. Women's Open.
Kim, with an afternoon tee time playing the major for the first time, wondered, "Wow, how did she shoot that score?"
Then Kim went out Thursday and shot one stroke better, finishing with a bogey-free, 6-under 66 to take the first-round lead at Sebonack.
Park is trying to make history by winning the first three majors of the year. For a day at least, she was upstaged by a much less-heralded fellow South Korean.
"I'm enjoying myself," Kim said through a translator. "I'm just happy to be here and to be playing in this big event. I'm not really thinking about winning or results but enjoying the moment."
Currently a member of the KLPGA Tour, Kim is a seven-time winner in South Korea. She kept giving herself short birdie putts Thursday and making them.
Kim birdied her second-to-last hole with daylight waning to claim the lead after Park held it for most of the day with her 67 in the morning session.
No player has won the first three majors in a season with at least four majors. The 2008 U.S. Women's Open champion, Park has already won five times this year, including her last two tournaments.
American Lizette Salas, Swedes Caroline Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist and South Korea's I.K. Kim shot 68.
Concerned about bad weather, tournament officials moved up the tees, and with the rain holding off, Park was able to play aggressively.
"I never had practiced from those tees, so I was a little bit shocked when I went to the tees," Park said.
Not that she was complaining.
She repeatedly set up short putts, and the way she has excelled in her short game lately, Park was headed to a low score.
"So instead of hitting like 5-irons, we were hitting 9-irons, and that was making the course much easier," she said. "I was actually able to go for some pins and give myself a lot of opportunities today. I made a lot of putts and didn't leave much out there."
Starting on No. 10, Park birdied her first hole, then started racking up pars. She made the turn at 2 under before birdies on three of her next four holes.
At 5 under, Park briefly struggled with her tee shots, needing to save par on Nos. 5 and 7. On No. 6, her 15th hole of the day, she had to lay up out of the tall grass and settled for her lone bogey.
Park got back to 5 under on the par-5 eighth with a chip shot to about 5 feet that set up a birdie putt.
Hedwall and I.K. Kim were each at 5 under with a hole left, but closed with bogeys. Nordqvist birdied her last two holes to pull into the tie for third.
The two Swedes grew up playing together.
"Certainly seeing her shooting 4 under in the morning session gave me a little bit of inspiration for the afternoon," Nordqvist said.
Salas, a 23-year-old former Southern California star, played with Park in the last group of the final round of this year's Kraft Nabisco Championship. Three strokes back starting the day, she opened with a double bogey and tumbled to 25th after shooting a 79.
She bounced back to reach a playoff at the LPGA Lotte Championship in April, losing to Suzann Pettersen for her best finish on tour.
"I'm just getting a lot more used to being in contention and really studying the leaderboard and really managing my patience," Salas said. "I think that's been key for me this week. Yes, I still get nervous on the first tee and my hands keep shaking, but I just know that if I just trust myself and trust my instincts, I can perform out here."
Chile's Paz Echeverria, a 28-year-old LPGA Tour rookie also making her U.S. Women's Open debut, and Canada's Maude-Aimee Leblanc shot 69.
Among eight players at 70 was Natalie Gulbis, who withdrew from a tournament and missed two others earlier this year because of malaria. Infected by a mosquito during the LPGA Thailand in late February, she returned for the Kraft Nabisco in early April. Gulbis hasn't finished better than 13th since, missing the cut at the LPGA Championship.
Defending champion Na Yeon Choi, second-ranked Stacy Lewis and amateurs Kyung Kim and Brooke Henderson were among 11 players at 71.
Lydia Ko, the 16-year-old New Zealand amateur who won the Canadian Open last August to become the youngest LPGA Tour winner, had a 72. Juli Inkster, playing in a record-breaking 34th U.S. Women's Open at age 53, holed a 103-yard wedge shot for eagle on the 18th to also finish at 72.
Michelle Wie opened her round with a quadruple-bogey 8 on No. 10. She was at 11 over through 14 holes before birdies on three of the last four to finish with an 80.
With Park's two major titles to start the year, South Koreans have won four straight majors. But Ha-Neul Kim was an unlikely representative to lead after the first round of this tournament.
"I was very nervous coming in, and I thought in the practice round that the course was very difficult," she said. "Before playing today I thought that even par would be a very good score for me."
Robot toys aren't what you'd normally expect from Microsoft's developer-focused Build conference, but that's just what the company served up today. In a chat about developer tools, Microsoft's VP of Web Services Antoine Leblond demoed a version of Lego Education'sunreleasedMindstorms EV3 platform using -- what else? -- a brick-built robot and a Surface tablet. Citing the Win RT APIs that let users interact with device-specific protocols (i.e., USB, Bluetooth, etc.) Leblond was able to stream live video of his face, using a separate Windows tablet, to the tank-like franken-toy. All whimsy aside, this MS / Lego collaboration's less about giving kids a neat, remote spying tool and more about making programming fun and approachable. You know, STEM stuff. And we're all for it.
n Tuesday, President Obama, sweating slightly in the Washington D.C. sun in front of a receptive crowd at Georgetown University, laid out his strategy to fight climate change.
His plan, detailed earlier in a 21-page outline, focuses on three main areas: Cutting carbon pollution, preparing the United States for the effects of climate change, and coordinating the U.S. effort with other countries. Obama is looking to essentially side-step Congress, relying on the EPA's power to regulate climate change under the Clean Air Act.
"This is a challenge that doesn't pause for partisan gridlock," Obama said. "It demands our attention now."
Liberals, of course, will want to see results before they give credit to Obama for fighting climate change. He made big promises in the 2008 campaign. (Remember how "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"?) But with the death of cap-and-trade in the Senate in 2010, and Obama's hesitance to put the kibosh on the Keystone XL pipeline, green activists have been less than enthused about the White House's record on the environment.
During his speech, Obama remained noncommittal on the pipeline, saying that "our national interest will be served only if this pipeline does not significantly exacerbate the climate problem." No doubt Democrats and Republicans will quibble over what the word "significantly" means.
Speaking of the GOP, it has already framed Obama's climate change plan as the president abandoning "any pretense of an 'all of the above energy plan'" and stepping up his "effort to bankrupt the coal industry."
So what exactly can Obama do without the help of Congress? Here, five key details:
1. Institute new carbon pollution standards on power plants This is the most ambitious ? and most vague ? part of Obama's proposal. Power plants produce 40 percent of the country's carbon dioxide. Putting limits on carbon pollution from power plants would be a huge step toward reaching the White House's goal of cutting greenhouse emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
"Today, for the sake of our children, I'm directing the EPA to set higher carbon pollution standards," Obama said.
The president's language concerning specific policy, however, was very vague. The White House has not said how, when, or how strictly it will regulate power plants. Officially, Obama is "issuing a Presidential Memorandum directing the Environmental Protection Agency to work expeditiously to complete carbon pollution standards for both new and existing power plants."
While light on specifics, the fact that it includes "existing power plants" is a big deal, considering that the EPA only has the power to regulate carbon pollutants in new power plants. The lack of federal limits, Obama said, is "not right, it's not fair, and it needs to stop."
New regulations, if started today, could take years to implement.
2. Encourage more clean energy production Obama's plan also calls for $8 billion in loan guarantees for clean energy projects and a vast increase in the number of permits for renewable energy projects on public lands. Since 2009, the White House claimed, enough solar, wind, and geothermal facilities were built to power 4.4 million homes.
3. Create new energy efficiency standards One thing green activists have applauded Obama for is increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, something he claimed on Tuesday that he would continue by creating stricter standards for heavy-duty trucks. The White House also wants to create new efficiency standards for appliances that would cut 3 billion metric tons of carbon pollution by 2030.
4. Prepare for the changes that are already happening Obama repeatedly invoked Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday as evidence that climate change was already affecting the weather. His message? It's happening now, so the United States might as well prepare for it.
That involves, apparently, creating task forces to analyze the problem, giving local authorities federal assistance, and providing $200 million in award money to communities that build infrastructure with "enhanced preparedness" for climate change-related disasters.
5. Cut funding for fossil fuel subsidies and new coal power plants overseas The White House claimed that international fossil fuel subsidies cost the United States $500 billion every year ? an amount it said it's looking to cut from the 2014 budget. Obama also claimed that the United States was going to stop financing new coal power plants overseas, with the exception of plants in poor countries that have no other economically feasible option.
All of this doesn't add up to the most detailed plan ever, but the president's tone at least signified that he was serious about fighting climate change.
"I don't have much patience for anyone who says this problem isn't real," Obama said. "We don't have time for a meeting of the flat-Earth society."
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - For the best part of a year, the minds of European policymakers have focused on one overriding issue - banking union.
By establishing stricter oversight of Europe's banking sector and a unified system for dealing with any problems, they hope to draw a line under more than three years of debt and economic turmoil by separating countries from their banks.
For months, a summit of EU leaders on June 27-28 was flagged by officials as an important 'landmark' on the road towards a fully fledged banking union. But it now looks more likely to produce a letdown than a breakthrough.
There are unlikely to be any significant decisions given upcoming German elections, continued disagreement over how banking problems should best be resolved and the fact that financial markets are no longer exerting the same pressure.
"We're in a holding pattern until after the German elections in September," said a senior diplomat involved in preparing files for the summit. "Nothing controversial can happen until then, at least in terms of economic policy."
Ever since banking union started to take shape in mid-2012, Germany has been wary of it. It is concerned that as the currency union's largest and most powerful economy, it will end up on the hook for other countries' debts if a single, EU-wide system for sorting out problems is put in place.
Combined with German frustration at having to bail out weaker eurozone members including Greece and Portugal, it is not surprising Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to keep any banking union controversies out of the debate ahead of the September 22 vote, when she will bid for a third term.
She is being helped by the inability of EU finance ministers to agree on how best to go about cleaning up bad banks. Nearly 20 hours of meetings in Luxembourg last Friday again failed to reach a deal.
As a result, the Thursday-Friday summit will focus on youth unemployment and the need to reinvigorate growth in the EU - worthy goals but ones that some leaders feel are a distraction.
"If we don't discuss a common resolution of banks in crisis at the next meeting, I have a feeling that the December 2013 deadline for this will also not be met," Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said last week.
While other countries such as Finland, France and the Netherlands share Italy's concerns about a delay, there is little sign the slowdown is having an effect on financial markets, where minds are more occupied by central bank policy in the United States, Japan and at the European Central Bank.
"Market sentiment is really of the view that banking union will come at some point in time, it's a mid-range goal," said Carsten Brzeski, an economist with ING Bank in Brussels.
"In that respect, Merkel has prevailed. Muddling through has become an accepted and successful policy strategy. Europe is muddling through in very small steps."
PITFALLS AHEAD
The danger is that muddling through becomes complacency or procrastination.
If concrete progress on banking union - originally conceived of as a three-step process involving a single supervisor, a single resolution mechanism and a single bank deposit-guarantee scheme - is put off until after the German election, the chances are that nothing will happen until mid-2014 or later.
It takes around six weeks to form a coalition in Germany, which means the next EU leaders' summit in October will come too soon to deal with the outstanding issues, and it is unlikely much progress can be made before the December EU gathering either, officials acknowledge.
Then early 2014 will be dominated by campaigning for the European Parliament elections in May. If the anti-EU vote turns out to be strong, as expected, it will complicate the appointment of a new president of the European Commission, a process in which the parliament has an increased say.
Policymakers may have to wait until after that process is complete, and perhaps until a new Commission is in place, before they can seriously crack on with implementing banking union.
"Europe is probably capable of making steady, but incremental, progress without an overarching vision for the next few years," said Alex White, an economist with JP Morgan, playing down the prospect of any progress at the summit.
"Leaders look increasingly unlikely to do much that is both additive and transformative for the region in the near term."
While that may be acceptable, it doesn't come without risks.
If the anti-EU vote in next May's elections is particularly strong, and it therefore proves very difficult to appoint new presidents to the European institutions, the EU could find itself in a power vacuum while also not having made any progress on sorting out its banks - one of the origins of the crisis.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? For decades, South Korean film buffs thought all their country's moviemaking from the Korean War era was lost forever. And it would have been, but for one film wrapped in a cocoon of old newspapers, tucked inside a plastic bag and placed in a dark, dusty closet.
That film, "The Street of the Sun," got its first screening in six decades Tuesday, the 63th anniversary of the beginning of the war. Now digitally restored, it offers South Koreans a rare glimpse at how their ancestors lived amid the destruction and poverty of war.
The movie was the debut feature of Min Kyoung-sik, a South Korean director who took a camera to the streets of Daegu in 1952, while a stream of refugees poured in. The southeastern city was tucked behind a perimeter secured by U.S. and South Korean forces battling North Korea and China to the north.
The film's sentimental story of a refugee schoolteacher who becomes a surrogate father figure for street urchins attempts to teach a social lesson about wartime poverty and crime.
While fiction, it offers a look at real life in war-torn South Korea. The actors and producers had been uprooted by fighting, and many of the scenes reflect the city's actual surroundings rather than a movie set, with non-actors in the mix.
The war started June 25, 1950, and ended in a truce a year after the film was made. The Koreas remain technically at war, separated by a heavily fortified border, and about 28,500 U.S. troops are still stationed in the South.
Min's movie was long believed to have been destroyed or lost, along with the 13 other South Korean films made during the war, according to the Korean Film Archive, the organization behind the film's restoration. But two decades ago, the director's daughter-in-law, Seong Ryeong-chul, found the 62-minute, 16 mm film in a closet at her home.
Seong said in an interview that she nearly threw away the coil of negatives. "But when I raised the plastic ribbon against the light, I saw tiny images of people etched inside," she said.
Even after the discovery, well over a decade passed before the Korean Film Archive became aware of the film. Seong contacted the organization in 2009, and in 2012 she granted the film to the archive for an undisclosed fee. The audio has never been found, so the film was screened Tuesday without sound.
The story begins at a train station where a Seoul schoolteacher arrives at the scene of a fight. He watches a local break up the brawl between two men. Another scene depicts a dusty road in wartime Daegu lined with thatched roof houses that form a shantytown around the original city.
The influences of American culture prevail over the scenes. Refugee children play baseball in clothing straight out of 1950s American comic strips.
Civilian life behind the U.S.-South Korean perimeter is depicted as impoverished but peaceful: Children bend vines in an apple orchard and swim together in a creek where they learn to stop fighting and get along. Though they watch their elders struggle to make ends meet, there are no obvious references to war in the film.
Chung Chong-hwa of the film archive said the film shows the influence of post-World War II Italian classics like "The Bicycle Thief" in South Korean cinema at a time when war, poverty and desperation marked everyday life.
Chung said the style of "The Street of the Sun" influenced other filmmakers, including prolific South Korean director and producer Shin Sang-ok. Shin was kidnapped in 1978 by Kim Jong Il, son and eventual successor of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, and spent years making movies for the cinephile and future dictator before escaping with his wife.
Min, who made five films in a relatively low-key career, had a life story that reflects the divisions that still haunt the two Koreas. Min's son, Min Byoung-hak, said Tuesday that the director's younger brother, Min Jung-sik, was on the north side of the 38th parallel when the Koreas were divided, and ended up making propagandistic films for the Pyongyang government.
Even in South Korea, which was led by military dictators for decades, filmmakers were often prevented from making the films they wanted to make as late as the 1990s, according to Darcy Paquet, founder of Koreanfilm.org.
South Korean film directors are now a growing presence on the international film festival circuit. The modern South Korean classic "Old Boy" was remade by U.S. film director Spike Lee and will be released this fall.
"Extra's real estate expert Michael Corbett takes you inside Hollywood's hottest hideouts, including "The Voice" coach Christina Aguilera's $11.5-Mil mansion, Steven Spielberg's beach house, and the home to 25 men and 1 girl, "The Bachelorette" mansion.
Watch!
Which "Scary Movie" star is selling her $2-Mil mansion to buy the house next door? Answer: Anna Faris! For more info, go to Trulia.com.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) ? Qatar's ruler said Tuesday he has transferred power to the 33-year-old crown prince in an anticipated move that puts a new generation in charge of the Gulf nation's vast energy wealth and rising political influence.
The 61-year-old emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, said in a televised address that the decision has been made to step down following weeks of speculation. Now, the British-educated crown prince, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, will begin the process of putting together a new government that may be in direct contrast to the old guard leaders across the Western-backed Gulf Arab states.
Qatar has given no official explanation on the transition, but it is widely believed that Sheik Hamad is suffering from health problems.
Sheik Tamim is not expected to make any immediate policy shifts for Qatar, which has used its riches to propel itself into one of the world's most politically ambitious countries. It has served as a powerful player in the Middle East, including key support for rebels in Libya last year and now in Syria. Qatar also has broken ranks with other Gulf states to offer help to the Muslim Brotherhood, which rose to political dominance in Egypt.
In an important sign of continuity and shared goals, the outgoing emir and Sheik Tamim stood shoulder to shoulder and greeted members of the ruling family and others following the address. Sheik Tamim has been closely involved in all key decisions in recent years and his father is expected to remain a guiding force from the wings.
"Sheik Tamim will be driving his father's car, which is already programed on where to go," said Mustafa Alani, a political analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva.
But the transition ? a rarity in a region where leadership changes are nearly always triggered by deaths or palace coups ? also sends a message the wider Middle East. It appears a sweeping response to the Arab Spring upheavals and their emphasis on giving voice to the region's youth, and reinforces Qatar's bold-stroke political policies.
Under Sheik Hamad, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1995, Qatar has been transformed into a political broker and a center for global investment with a sovereign fund estimated to be worth more than $100 billion. Its portfolio includes landmark real estate, luxury brands and a powerful presence in the sporting world. Tiny Qatar also defeated rivals including the U.S. to win the rights to host the 2022 World Cup.
Qatar has played a role as mediator in conflicts such as Sudan's Darfur region and regional disputes including Palestinian political rifts. Qatar this week hosted a Syrian opposition conference attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and is the venue for possible U.S.-led peace talks with Afghanistan's Taliban.
Sheik Tamim became the next in line to rule in 2003 after his older brother stepped aside.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranians celebrated on the streets into Sunday's early hours, counting on moderate president-elect Hassan Rohani to follow through on promises of better relations abroad and more freedom at home after routing hardliners at the polls.
A mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, Rohani is an Islamic Republic insider who has held senior political and military posts since the 1979 revolution and maintained a good rapport throughout with theocratic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's most powerful man who has the last word on all the big issues.
While no reformer himself, Rohani gained the backing of politically sidelined but still popular reformist leaders. His call for an end to the "era of extremism" won over many voters disgruntled over economic crises and crackdowns on free speech and dissidents that marked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency.
Rohani's surprise win however is not expected to quickly resolve the stand-off with the West over Iran's disputed nuclear ambitions or break its commitment to backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war.
But the new president will run the economy of the sprawling OPEC member state of 75 million people and exert influence when Khamenei decides on national security matters.
His victory goes some way to repairing the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, punctured four years ago when dozens were killed in protests after an election reformists said was rigged, and may help pragmatic voices muzzled since then to re-emerge.
Thousands of young Iranians took to the streets of the capital Tehran and other big cities as soon as the poll results were announced on Saturday, making sure their voices and expectations of the new president were clearly heard.
The president-elect, known in the West as Iran's main nuclear negotiator in 2003-05, immediately sought to build bridges on Sunday, expressing approval of the street parties but also having talks with the conservative speaker of parliament.
"With their celebrations last night, the Iranian people showed they are hopeful about the future and God willing, morals and moderation will govern the country," Rohani told state TV.
Hardliners whose power comes from their unquestioning loyalty to Khamenei both badly miscalculated the public mood and failed to set aside their own factional differences and field a single candidate, analysts said.
Both Khamenei and the powerful hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that controls large swathes of the oil-dependent economy said the election was a victory for all.
Whether Rohani succeeds in ushering in change to Iran, or whether the next four years yield the same stalemate that marked the 1997-2005 presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami, will hinge on his ability to balance the demands and expectations of the people with the interests and constraints of those who hold the pivotal instruments of power in the Islamic Republic.
ROHANI MAY HAVE ADVANTAGES OVER KHATAMI
Rohani's reputation as a mediator and someone who has worked within the corridors of power should be an advantage that Khatami, who was director of the national library before he became president, never enjoyed.
"Rohani is the ultimate regime insider. In contrast to Khatami, who held no governmental position when he was catapulted into the presidency, Rohani has never been out of power or Khamenei's good graces," said Ali Vaez, Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.
"Also, Rohani is a centrist politician, with a unique bridge-building ability. He is unlikely to alienate competing power centers, who can stymie his reforms," he said.
A big test will be whether Rohani pushes for the release from house arrest of Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, two reformist leaders held under house arrest since 2011. That demand was a constant chant of Rohani supporters at his campaign rallies and on the streets of Tehran and elsewhere overnight.
"This will in my view be the first real test of how sincere this election has been. Then we will know the caliber of Mr Rohani," said Ali Ansari, professor at St Andrew's University in Scotland.
"Much depends on the political will of the fractured elite and the willingness of Khamenei to pull back. There is some anxiety that the powers that be, having got their 'popular election', will now settle back into their comfort zones."
Despite similarities between Khatami and Rohani's upset election victories, political realities "are fundamentally different", said Yasmin Alem, a U.S.-based Iran expert.
"The supreme leader is more powerful, the Revolutionary Guards are more influential, and the conservatives are more in control. However, Rohani is a crafty statesman and stands a better chance ... of navigating Iran's political minefield."
Rohani has a tough task ahead of him dealing with Iran's myriad domestic and foreign policy problems, she said.
"Iranian voters should demonstrate the same maturity and patience they did at the polls, if they want to avoid the disillusionment that followed Khatami's presidency."
Rohani himself called for patience soon after his win was announced on Saturday. "The country's problems won't be solved overnight and this needs to happen gradually and with consultation with experts," he told the state news agency IRNA.
But Rohani, whose conciliatory style contrasts with the confrontational populism of Ahmadinejad, said there was a new chance "in the international arena for ... those who truly respect democracy and cooperation and free negotiation".
Post-election revelers were optimistic. "I am hopeful about the future, hopeful that we will have more social freedoms, more stability in Iran, better relations with other countries and hopefully a much better economy," said Hoda, 26, from Tehran.
As well as chanting "Long live Rohani!" and wishing good riddance to the current president with "Ahmadi, bye bye!", jubilant crowds did not shy from feting Mousavi, the reformist leader defeated in the election four years ago.
"Mousavi, Mousavi, congratulations on your victory!" the crowds shouted.
Pictures and videos of the celebrations showed more people wearing the green colors of Mousavi's 2009 campaign than Rohani's purple. Police stood by and even shared jokes with some people in the throng.
Others had an ironic take on the "death to dictator" chants of the huge 2009 protests at which security forces opened fire, shouting "thank you dictator" for allowing a fair vote now.
LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned on Sunday why the West would want to arm Syrian rebels who he said ate human organs, saying plans to give them weapons contradicted basic human values.
Speaking after meeting Prime Minister David Cameron in London ahead of a G8 summit on Monday, Putin said both the Syrian government and Syrian rebels were to blame for the bloodshed.
"You will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public and cameras. Are these the people you want to support?," Putin told a news conference.
"Is it them who you want to supply with weapons? Then this probably has little relation to humanitarian values that have been preached in Europe for hundreds of years."
Putin was referring to disturbing video footage on the Internet of one rebel fighter eating what appeared to be the heart of a government soldier.
The talks followed a decision by President Barack Obama's administration to arm rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad after it said it had obtained proof that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons.
The Russian leader, who arrived an hour late for the talks, said he wanted to help broker a peace deal for Syria, saying he hoped the G8 summit in Northern Ireland could help advance that process.
But Cameron said big differences over how to best achieve that aim remained between Britain and Russia.
"There are very big differences between the analysis we have of what happened in Syria and who is to blame but where there is common ground is that we both see a humanitarian catastrophe", Cameron said.
However, Cameron added he thought the differences were not insurmountable.
"What I take from our conversation today is that we can overcome these differences if we recognize that we share some fundamental aims: to end the conflict, to stop Syria breaking apart, to let the Syrian people decide who governs them and to take the fight to the extremists and defeat them," he said.
(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk, Costas Pitas and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Andrew Osborn)
All Critics (72) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (9)
The film is touching, filled with taste and care, but not enough to avoid being coy and sentimental.
On the surface, this indie does sound like standard-issue material, but its dynamics are far more complex than its simple exterior.
What Maisie Knew gives the audience a ground-eye view of its mesmerizing title character, a plucky, charismatic New Yorker who navigates downtown bars and building lobbies with the street savvy of a pro.
The result is a film that deeply engages us on multiple levels. Not only do we wonder what Maisie knows and how she knows it, we want to get this seedling to a place where she won't have to be transplanted every day.
It's a study of human nature, not at its worst, but at its most typically pathetic, and it goes to show that the more things don't change, the more they stay lousy.
Intimate, unnerving and entirely addictive.
It's far from the first story of a child dealing with the consequences of parental break-up -- but it may be one of the best.
The worthwhile subject matter becomes trivialized.
A wonderful modernized re-telling of the 1897 Henry James short story.
It's an intimate, well-acted and nuanced film that provides a fresh angle on an all-too-familiar struggle.
Onata Aprile is never showy and always authentic, a rare find in a child actor. In fact, she is one of the most self-possessed actors I've seen of any age.
A movie that's much easier to admire than to actually enjoy, no matter how well done or acted.
Onata Aprile's short career should blossom as people react to her subtle performance here.
Despite the big-name adults around her, it's the unknown Onata Aprile who is the star of this movie.
Gazing on Maisie, you want to know what she knows. That you can't is at once your dilemma and your opportunity, what adults must engage in order to be adults.
Despite a sensitive, mature performance from Onata Aprile as Maisie, the girl remains withdrawn and opaque throughout. In telling this sad story from her perspective, it never quite plugs in to what Maisie felt.
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Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 11:39 pm?? ?Post subject: Afraid of getting tetanus...again...
Yesterday, at the exterior of a grocery store, I got a little cut on my right hand by slightly hitting a shelving unit. This was metal shelving unit, with a lot of rust. So basically, I cut myself with rusty metal. I got to drug store to buy some cotton and hydrogen peroxyde, so I desinfected the cut after a few minutes.
So now I'm worried about tetanus, , I did get a shot one year ago, but no protection is perfect and I'm still worried. What should I do? Should I go to the clinic? And could they do something?
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Artificial sweetener a potential treatment for Parkinson's diseasePublic release date: 17-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University researcher says mannitol could prevent aggregation of toxic proteins in the brain
Mannitol, a sugar alcohol produced by fungi, bacteria, and algae, is a common component of sugar-free gum and candy. The sweetener is also used in the medical field it's approved by the FDA as a diuretic to flush out excess fluids and used during surgery as a substance that opens the blood/brain barrier to ease the passage of other drugs.
Now Profs. Ehud Gazit and Daniel Segal of Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, along with their colleague Dr. Ronit Shaltiel-Karyo and PhD candidate Moran Frenkel-Pinter, have found that mannitol also prevents clumps of the protein ?-synuclein from forming in the brain a process that is characteristic of Parkinson's disease.
These results, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and presented at the Drosophila Conference in Washington, DC in April, suggest that this artificial sweetener could be a novel therapy for the treatment of Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The research was funded by a grant from the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and supported in part by the Lord Alliance Family Trust.
Seeing a significant difference
After identifying the structural characteristics that facilitate the development of clumps of ?-synuclein, the researchers began to hunt for a compound that could inhibit the proteins' ability to bind together. In the lab, they found that mannitol was among the most effective agents in preventing aggregation of the protein in test tubes. The benefit of this substance is that it is already approved for use in a variety of clinical interventions, Prof. Segal says.
Next, to test the capabilities of mannitol in the living brain, the researchers turned to transgenic fruit flies engineered to carry the human gene for ?-synuclein. To study fly movement, they used a test called the "climbing assay," in which the ability of flies to climb the walls of a test tube indicates their locomotive capability. In the initial experimental period, 72 percent of normal flies were able to climb up the test tube, compared to only 38 percent of the genetically-altered flies.
The researchers then added mannitol to the food of the genetically-altered flies for a period of 27 days and repeated the experiment. This time, 70 percent of the mutated flies could climb up the test tube. In addition, the researchers observed a 70 percent reduction in aggregates of ?-synuclein in mutated flies that had been fed mannitol, compared to those that had not.
These findings were confirmed by a second study which measured the impact of mannitol on mice engineered to produce human ?-synuclein, developed by Dr. Eliezer Masliah of the University of San Diego. After four months, the researchers found that the mice injected with mannitol also showed a dramatic reduction of ?-synuclein in the brain.
Delivering therapeutic compounds to the brain
The researchers now plan to re-examine the structure of the mannitol compound and introduce modifications to optimize its effectiveness. Further experiments on animal models, including behavioral testing, whose disease development mimics more closely the development of Parkinson's in humans is needed, Prof. Segal says.
For the time being, mannitol may be used in combination with other medications that have been developed to treat Parkinson's but which have proven ineffective in breaking through the blood/brain barrier, says Prof. Segal. These medications may be able to "piggy-back" on mannitol's ability to open this barrier into the brain.
Although the results look promising, it is still not advisable for Parkinson's patients to begin ingesting mannitol in large quantities, Prof. Segal cautions. More testing must be done to determine dosages that would be both effective and safe.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Artificial sweetener a potential treatment for Parkinson's diseasePublic release date: 17-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University researcher says mannitol could prevent aggregation of toxic proteins in the brain
Mannitol, a sugar alcohol produced by fungi, bacteria, and algae, is a common component of sugar-free gum and candy. The sweetener is also used in the medical field it's approved by the FDA as a diuretic to flush out excess fluids and used during surgery as a substance that opens the blood/brain barrier to ease the passage of other drugs.
Now Profs. Ehud Gazit and Daniel Segal of Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, along with their colleague Dr. Ronit Shaltiel-Karyo and PhD candidate Moran Frenkel-Pinter, have found that mannitol also prevents clumps of the protein ?-synuclein from forming in the brain a process that is characteristic of Parkinson's disease.
These results, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and presented at the Drosophila Conference in Washington, DC in April, suggest that this artificial sweetener could be a novel therapy for the treatment of Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The research was funded by a grant from the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and supported in part by the Lord Alliance Family Trust.
Seeing a significant difference
After identifying the structural characteristics that facilitate the development of clumps of ?-synuclein, the researchers began to hunt for a compound that could inhibit the proteins' ability to bind together. In the lab, they found that mannitol was among the most effective agents in preventing aggregation of the protein in test tubes. The benefit of this substance is that it is already approved for use in a variety of clinical interventions, Prof. Segal says.
Next, to test the capabilities of mannitol in the living brain, the researchers turned to transgenic fruit flies engineered to carry the human gene for ?-synuclein. To study fly movement, they used a test called the "climbing assay," in which the ability of flies to climb the walls of a test tube indicates their locomotive capability. In the initial experimental period, 72 percent of normal flies were able to climb up the test tube, compared to only 38 percent of the genetically-altered flies.
The researchers then added mannitol to the food of the genetically-altered flies for a period of 27 days and repeated the experiment. This time, 70 percent of the mutated flies could climb up the test tube. In addition, the researchers observed a 70 percent reduction in aggregates of ?-synuclein in mutated flies that had been fed mannitol, compared to those that had not.
These findings were confirmed by a second study which measured the impact of mannitol on mice engineered to produce human ?-synuclein, developed by Dr. Eliezer Masliah of the University of San Diego. After four months, the researchers found that the mice injected with mannitol also showed a dramatic reduction of ?-synuclein in the brain.
Delivering therapeutic compounds to the brain
The researchers now plan to re-examine the structure of the mannitol compound and introduce modifications to optimize its effectiveness. Further experiments on animal models, including behavioral testing, whose disease development mimics more closely the development of Parkinson's in humans is needed, Prof. Segal says.
For the time being, mannitol may be used in combination with other medications that have been developed to treat Parkinson's but which have proven ineffective in breaking through the blood/brain barrier, says Prof. Segal. These medications may be able to "piggy-back" on mannitol's ability to open this barrier into the brain.
Although the results look promising, it is still not advisable for Parkinson's patients to begin ingesting mannitol in large quantities, Prof. Segal cautions. More testing must be done to determine dosages that would be both effective and safe.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BlackBerry is "circling the toilet," as Chris Velazco puts it so eloquently. Meanwhile, Google is now offering stock Android versions of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. We're also mildly interested in Hyundai's new infotainment system, Blue Link, (especially given Apple's foray into the car with iOS 7). Just as you'd expect, we discuss all this and more during this week's TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast.
At its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that it is adding auto scaling for web apps to its Azure cloud-computing platform. This will allow developers to dynamically scale their cloud server capacity on Azure automatically as needed. Users can, of course, set a maximum and minimum number of servers to run at any given time. Enabling this feature just takes a few clicks in the Azure management console, and in addition to setting the number of servers to use, developers can also set a target CPU load for every one of these servers. Once a web app needs more CPU capacity — or if the storage queue gets too long — it can then spin up a new server. Besides making apps more responsive, one of the main reasons to use auto scaling is, of course, to save money. There is, after all, no reason to pay for servers that aren’t actually being used. Azure will give users a general idea of how much they can save when they turn this feature on for their accounts. Autoscale for Windows Azure is in preview now and will be available for free for a limited time. It’s worth noting that Amazon Web Services has long offered auto scaling for its EC2 cloud computing platform, too, so Microsoft, which was relatively late to cloud computing, is mostly playing catch-up here.
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, I did get a shot one year ago, but no protection is perfect and I'm still worried. What should I do? Should I go to the clinic? And could they do something?
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Public release date: 17-Jun-2013
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