Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/06/24/star-wars-movies-need-zuckuss/
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Tuesday, 25 June 2013
What the New 'Star Wars' Movies Need: Zuckuss
By Ryan Rigley Now that production on "Star Wars VII' is starting to heat up, the flood gates have been opened for rumors a plenty regarding the film. Last Wednesday, Bleeding Cool intercepted a casting breakdown for the movie revealing seven brand new characters; late-teen female, young twenty-something male, late twenty-something male, seventy-something male, second [...]
Monday, 24 June 2013
Turtles have fingerprints? New genetic technique reveals paternity and more
June 24, 2013 ? For 220 million years they have roamed the seas, denizens of the bustling coral reef and the vast open ocean. Each year, some emerge from the pounding surf onto moonlit beaches to lay their eggs. Throughout human history, we have revered them, used them, and worked to protect them, but we have only begun to understand these ancient, iconic creatures. Now, with all five of the sea turtle species in the U.S. threatened or endangered, knowledge is more crucial than ever.
NOAA scientist Dr. Peter Dutton leads a team that's trying to answer some important questions about marine turtles. What will happen as sea levels rise, covering the nesting beaches turtles have used for hundreds of years? Which turtle laid this mysterious clutch of eggs on a remote beach? Where in the ocean do they mate, and how big is this population?
Thanks to a recent breakthrough in the genetics lab, Dutton and his colleagues have a clever way to find answers. Like detectives, they have learned that fingerprints help solve the puzzle?genetic fingerprints. For decades, most sea turtle studies and conservation efforts have focused on nesting females and hatchlings, because they're easiest for humans to access. Male sea turtles, which don't come ashore, are elusive characters.
Dutton's team has pioneered a technique that allows them to fill in the blanks using tiny DNA samples from nesting females and hatchlings. As Dutton and his colleague Dr. Kelly Stewart wrote in a recent article, "Hidden in a hatchling's DNA is its entire family history, including who its mother is, who its father is, and to what nesting population it belongs." (See: http://seaturtlestatus.org/sites/swot/files/report/030612_SWOT7_p12_Sea%20Turtle%20CSI.pdf)
This innovative tool is opening up new avenues in marine turtle conservation. Population recovery goals are based on how long turtles take to reach maturity, and genetic fingerprinting can help reveal this key piece of information, which may be different for each population. Dutton's team developed the technique while studying endangered leatherbacks on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. In the last four years, they have sampled 20,353 hatchlings there, and discovered the genetic identity of the fathers, even when multiple males have sired a single clutch of eggs; how often individual turtles mate and their reproductive success; and the ratio of males to females among the breeding turtles.
On Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, critically endangered Kemp's ridley turtles have been leaving scattered nests along remote beaches, but females are often long gone by the time monitors find the nests. There, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the National Park Service are using the technique to match mystery nests to mother turtles. Identifying who's nesting where and when, survival rate, and breeding success over many years will help us monitor this small population and gauge the impact of major events like disasters.
In the most surprising news yet, green turtles have begun nesting in the main Hawai'ian islands for the first time in generations. Green turtles, or honu, have nested in the remote Northwest Hawai'ian Islands, primarily on the quiet, low-lying beaches of French Frigate Shoals, a coral atoll about 500 miles from Honolulu.
Genetic fingerprinting shows that about 15 untagged females have become "founders" on the main Hawai'ian islands, boldly nesting where no one has nested before?at least not for hundreds of years. It's possible that this pioneer population could provide a kind of buffer as sea level rise threatens to shrink their traditional nesting beaches. Many questions remain, but for now science is giving turtles, and those who care about them, reason to hope.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/ldgcQeFmidI/130624143922.htm
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Bomb attacks in Syrian capital kill 8 people
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Suicide bombers targeted security compounds in Damascus and a car bomb exploded in a pro-regime district there Sunday, killing at least eight people, the latest in a surge of civil war violence in the capital.
In northern Syria, a car bomb killed 12 soldiers in Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists in Syria for information. It had no other details, and the government did not comment.
The state-run news agency SANA said three suicide bombers blew themselves up while trying to break into the Rukneddine police station in northern Damascus, killing five people and wounding several others. SANA said three would-be suicide bombers also tried to break into the Criminal Security Branch in the southern Bab Mousalla area but were caught by security forces before they could detonate their explosives.
Activists confirmed the death toll.
SANA said a car bomb exploded in Mazzeh 86 district in the capital, killing three people, including a 3-year-old boy. Residents of the district are mostly Alawites, an offshoot Shiite sect that President Bashar Assad's family belongs to. The opposition forces fighting against Assad's regime are mostly Sunni Muslims.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the Damascus explosions, but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida-linked groups that have joined forces with rebels fighting to oust Assad.
The attacks in Syria's two largest cities came as government forces pressed an offensive on the outskirts of the capital.
SANA carried a statement by the Interior Ministry saying that the Damascus attacks were a "new escalation by terrorist groups," a term used by the government to refer to the rebels.
More than 93,000 people have been killed in Syrian conflict that started in March 2011 as peaceful protest against Assad's rule. In the past year, the war has taken on sectarian overtones.
The conflict has increasingly spilled across Syria's borders.
In neighboring Lebanon, clashes erupted between Lebanese military and supporters of hard-line Sunni cleric Sheik Ahmad al-Assar, a security official said. Three Lebanese soldiers were killed, he said speaking anonymously in line with regulations.
The fighting broke out in the predominantly Sunni southern port city of Sidon after al-Assir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint.
The military issued a statement confirming that three soldiers died in the shooting, including two officers. It said the shooting was unprovoked.
Heavy fighting with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades caused panic in the city, which until recently had been largely spared the violence hitting other areas. Many people who were spending the day on the beach hurried home, while others living on high floors came down or fled to safer areas. Gray smoke billowed over parts of the city.
The clashes centered on the Bilal bin Rabbah Mosque, where al-Assir preaches. The cleric, a virulent critic of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group, is believed to have hundreds of armed supporters in Sidon. Dozens of al-Assir's gunmen also partially shut down the main highway linking south Lebanon with Beirut.
By Sunday evening, the army appeared poised to move against al-Assir and his supporters, who have been agitating for months. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the army have surrounded the mosque, sealing off access to it from all directions and neutralized hostile fire from neighboring buildings.
The NNA report said Assir was believed to be hiding inside the mosque with several of his followers.
The cleric and his followers support Sunni rebels in the Syria conflict, and he has threatened to clear apartments in Sidon where Hezbollah supporters live.
Sunday's clashes in Sidon deepened tensions in Lebanon. on edge since the Syrian conflict began more than two years ago.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called an emergency meeting of the security cabinet for Monday. NNA also reported sporadic shooting in the volatile city of Tripoli in the north, and the army announced additional force deployments in around Beirut.
The violence came a day after an 11-nation group that includes the U.S. met in the Qatari capital of Doha to coordinate military aid and other forms of assistance to the rebels.
Syria's al-Thawra newspaper, the mouthpiece of the government, assailed the Friends of Syria meeting.
"It's clear that the enemies of Syria are rushing to arm the terrorists to kill the chances for holding the Geneva conference," the newspaper said, referring to a U.S.-Russia initiative for bringing Assad's government and rebels together to negotiate an end to the crisis.
The Syrian paper pledged that the army would "continue the showdown to eliminate terrorism and restore security and stability."
____
Surk reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-attacks-syrian-capital-kill-8-people-182829771.html
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Facebook Working On A Mobile News Reader - Business Insider
AP
Facebook has been working on a mobile news product for over a year, The Wall Street Journal's Evelyn Rusli reports.
The product, which Facebook employees refer to as "Reader," sounds like a Flipboard competitor. Flipboard is a social news reader for tablets that has more than 50 million users. Facebook's Reader will "displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices," Rusli's sources say. She's not sure when or if Reader will actually launch though.
Reader's team is being led by Facebook designer Michael Matas, formerly of smart hardware startup Nest and Apple.
Zuckerberg hinted at a social news product in March when News Feed was redesigned and Graph Search was announced. "We want to give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper in the world," Facebook's CEO said then.
Facebook will have its work cut out for it. There is no shortage of mobile news readers. Circa is a venture-backed app that summarizes news stories so they can be easily scanned on the go. Twitter has also started to develop a news team to highlight trending topics and social content.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-working-on-a-mobile-news-reader-2013-6
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Sunday, 23 June 2013
The genome's 3-D structure shapes how genes are expressed
June 23, 2013 ? Scientists from Australia and the United States bring new insights to our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the genome, one of the biggest challenges currently facing the fields of genomics and genetics. Their findings are published in Nature Genetics, online today.
Roughly 3 metres of DNA is tightly folded into the nucleus of every cell in our body. This folding allows some genes to be 'expressed', or activated, while excluding others.
Dr Tim Mercer and Professor John Mattick from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Professor John Stamatoyannopoulos from Seattle's University of Washington analysed the genome's 3D structure, at high resolution.
Genes are made up of 'exons' and 'introns' - the former being the sequences that code for protein and are expressed, and the latter being stretches of noncoding DNA in-between. As the genes are copied, or 'transcribed', from DNA into RNA, the intron sequences are cut or 'spliced' out and the remaining exons are strung together to form a sequence that encodes a protein. Depending on which exons are strung together, the same gene can generate different proteins.
Using vast amounts of data from the ENCODE project*, Dr Tim Mercer and colleagues have inferred the folding of the genome, finding that even within a gene, selected exons are easily exposed.
"Imagine a long and immensely convoluted grape vine, its twisted branches presenting some grapes to be plucked easily, while concealing others beyond reach," said Dr Mercer. "At the same time, imagine a lazy fruit picker only picking the grapes within easy reach.
"The same principle applies in the genome. Specific genes and even specific exons, are placed within easy reach by folding."
"Over the last few years, we've been starting to appreciate just how the folding of the genome helps determine how it's expressed and regulated,"
"This study provides the first indication that the three-dimensional structure of the genome can influence the splicing of genes."
"We can infer that the genome is folded in such a way that the promoter region -- the sequence that initiates transcription of a gene -- is located alongside exons, and they are all presented to transcription machinery."
"This supports a new way of looking at things, one that the genome is folded around transcription machinery, rather than the other way around. Those genes that come in contact with the transcription machinery get transcribed, while those parts which loop away are ignored."
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/459JXnr-9hM/130623145058.htm
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It's scrap, not trash, and it's also one of America's top exports
International scrap dealers educate our reporter on the language of our leftovers.
One thing you learn quickly if you hang around scrap merchants is not to refer to the materials in which they trade as "trash" or "garbage" or "junk."
Skip to next paragraph Peter FordBeijing Bureau Chief
Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.
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At a recent convention here of the Bureau of International Recycling (essentially the global forum for scrap dealers) I drew some very sharp looks and a reprimand or two before I got the message.
Of course, the traders are right. If scrap was indeed trash it would not be worth anything. And scrap is certainly worth something. In fact, according to a recent Bank of America-Merrill Lynch report, the global waste and recycling business is worth $1 trillion a year. And it could be worth double that by 2020.
"Where there's muck, there's brass," runs an old Yorkshire adage.
People in the know at the conference told me that a lot of the participants were millionaires at least. But they work in the shadows of the world economy, attracting little attention.
Did you know, for example, that trash ? I mean scrap ? was America's top export to China in 2011? (Though maybe not for long, because of new Chinese regulations.)
There is one synonym for "scrap" that its devotees more or less allow ? "waste." But, as I was reminded by Surendra Borad, an Indian businessman whose company, Gemini, handles more scrap plastic than any other firm, "waste is not waste until it is wasted."
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Planetary Resources Kickstarter Meets Its Initial Goal
Just a few days ago (when it was published on theoatmeal.com) I visited that campaign and it was a few thousands of dolars (around 15k, if I recall correctly). Now, Not more than a week later it reached 1,1 million? The number of people who supported it hasn't grown that much from that time. I don't recall the exact figure, unfortunately. I don't know, it just seems kinda fishy. They started the project may, 29 and they've got a little over 10k. Now, after a few days, they got to 1,1 million? Maybe oatmeal
Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/0Ke-zrPU3Ss/story01.htm
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Saturday, 22 June 2013
Bits of Arthur C. Clarke and 'Star Trek' celebs will sail into deep space
Sunjammer / Celestis
An artist's conception shows the Sunjammer solar sail deployed in orbit.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
When the Sunjammer solar sail?is launched for a deep-space test next year, small samples from sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke and three pioneers of the "Star Trek" TV series will be going along for the ride. And you can send a message as well.
It's all part of a memorial spaceflight organized by the Houston-based Celestis, which has been putting cremated remains into outer space for 16 years. Hundreds of bits of ash, weighing no more than a few grams each, have been launched on suborbital or orbital flights. The remains of planetary scientist Gene Shoemaker were sent to the moon aboard NASA's Lunar Prospector probe in the late 1990s. Celestis is getting set to send another set of remains on a short trip to space and back on Friday, aboard an UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
The Sunjammer flight, set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral in November 2014, will break new ground: It'll be the first Celestis mission to go into deep space. "We're finally able to initiate the Celestis Voyager service, which we've wanted to do for a long time," Charles Chafer, CEO of Space Services Holdings and co-founder of Celestis, told NBC News.
Among those whose ashes will be included on the flight are "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who was an actress on several Trek TV series. Remains from James Doohan, who played the irascible chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, will go up as well. (Samples from Gene Roddenberry and Doohan have been included on previous Celestis flights.)
Clarke will be represented by a single strand of hair, part of a lock that the late writer donated back in 1999. Chafer recalled that Clarke said, "I'd give you more, but I don't have anything to spare."
Sunjammer's namesake
In a way, Clarke is the most fitting person to ride on Sunjammer: He's the one who came up with the solar sail's name, for a 1963 short story about a sun-yacht race.
Celestis is a commercial partner in the $27 million Sunjammer project, which is funded by NASA and headed up by L'Garde, a California-based company that specializes in inflatable and deployable structures. The 13,000-square-foot (1,208-square-meter) expandable sail will be folded up inside a spacecraft and then placed aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as a secondary payload. Sunjammer will be deployed in orbit along with a bigger satellite, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Deep Space Climate Observatory.
A promotional video outlines the Sunjammer solar-sail mission.
After separation from the Falcon 9, the Sunjammer spacecraft will open up its sail and head for a position about 1.8 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Earth, propelled by the force of photons from the sun. The aim of the mission is to test solar-sail propulsion techniques as well as monitor solar weather.
"It's the culmination of generations of hopes that we can harness the sun," Chafer said.
He said Sunjammer would remain in space forever, tracing an orbit around the sun between Earth and Venus. The samples from Clarke, Doohan, the Roddenberrys and dozens of others would stay out there as well, protected inside lipstick-sized metal containers.
'Message in a bottle'
Celestis is selling spots on the memorial spaceflight for prices ranging from $12,500 on up. The company will also let people send digitized messages for inclusion aboard the spacecraft, as part of a service it calls MindFiles. Messages are already pouring in via the SunjammerMission.com website. "Greetings from the early 21st century, from an aerospace worker ... who loves space exploration," one message reads.
"It's kind of like a Facebook post," Chafer explained. "You put photos in, or anything you want, and we'll take that information, burn it onto a disk and send it out to deep space. It's like a message in a bottle, but it could also be like a Library of Alexandria."
And if you want to be like Arthur C. Clarke, you can send a BioFile?? a single strand of hair, and/or digital DNA markers, that will be packaged to endure in outer space. Theoretically, it might be possible for an alien civilization to turn that BioFile into a clone, as Clarke hoped would be the case when he donated his hair. Chafer makes no guarantee, however.
"It's a symbolic action more than anything else," he said, "but it's a way to have a little bit of you go on a space mission, and you don't have to die first."
More about space memorials:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log pageto your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Friday, 21 June 2013
Immigration reform: new security plan could sway dozen Republicans
Many Republicans have balked at the immigration reform bill, saying it didn't do enough to improve border security. A new compromise amendment in the Senate addresses those concerns and could pave the way for overwhelming approval next week.
Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee (l.) and John Hoeven of North Dakota talk to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday about their amendment to immigration legislation.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
EnlargeImmigration reform got a substantial boost in the Senate Thursday, as Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota helped craft a compromise proposal on border security that could pave the way for an overwhelming approval of the bill when it comes to a final vote next week.
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The amendment, together with a handful of others still under negotiation but whose prospects appear favorable, could push the vote total toward 70 senators. That is something of a magic number for proponents of immigration reform, who think a huge, bipartisan vote in the Senate could compel the House to act. Many Republicans in the House have so far shown little enthusiasm for comprehensive immigration reform.?
Yet border security has been among the primary stumbling blocks for Republicans, both in the House and Senate, and Senator Corker is confident that his amendment should allay any concerns.
?If anybody on either side of the aisle had any concerns whatsoever about the border being secure ? certainly securing the border should not be an issue if this amendment passes,? he said Thursday.
The "Gang of Eight" senators that crafted the immigration bill also also hailed the importance of the compromise amendment.?
?If this amendment doesn?t convince people we are securing the border, nothing will,? says Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) of New York, one of the bill?s authors.
The amendment, which will likely come up for a vote early next week, would double the number of border security agents along the US-Mexico divide to 40,000 and require the completion of 700 miles of border fencing, up from 350 in the initial border plan. The measure explicitly spells out the types of technology (including unmanned aerial vehicles and special radar) and infrastructure to be deployed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which will have to provide a border security strategy six months after the bill is enacted.
The Corker-Hoeven compromise addressed concerns on both sides of the aisle.
Republicans pointed out that the DHS has failed to enforce immigration laws in the past. They also were concerned that, under the original bill, DHS was tasked with devising its own border security plan. What if that plan wasn't up to snuff? Republicans said.?
Democrats, on the other hand, feared that an alternative ? putting specific border-security goals in place and then making the pathway to citizenship contingent on their fulfillment ? would allow a future Congress to short-circuit the route to citizenship for the nation?s 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Corker-Hoeven?s answer was to establish five "triggers" that will increase border security significantly, but which can be definitively implemented in a relatively short period. These are:
- The addition of 20,000 border patrol agents.
- The construction of 700 miles of fencing.
- The implementation of more and advanced border-security technology
- The nationwide implementation of the E-Verify employment verification system.
- The implementation of electronic scanning systems for foreigners entering and exiting the US at all air and seaports.
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Germany, Turkey summon envoys in row over protests and EU
By Michelle Martin
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and Turkey summoned each other's ambassadors on Friday for tit-for-tat reproaches in an escalating row over Chancellor Angela Merkel's criticism of a crackdown on protesters in Turkey and her reluctance to see the country join the European Union.
After Merkel said she was "appalled" by Ankara's response to the protests, a Turkish cabinet minister accused her on Thursday of blocking Turkey's accession to the EU because she was "looking for domestic political material for her elections".
Berlin responded on Friday by summoning the Turkish envoy to the German foreign ministry - then Turkey retaliated.
Many EU countries support the opening of more negotiations with Turkey next week on its long path to membership. They argue that Turkey, with its fast-growing economy, youthful population and its diplomatic clout, would benefit the EU.
But Germany has criticized Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's forceful response to weeks of anti-government protests and appears to be refusing to agree to open a new negotiation area, potentially the first such step in three years.
Merkel's conservatives reject Turkish EU membership in their platform for September's election, saying it would "overburden" the bloc because of the country's size and economy, though Merkel has stopped short of calling a halt to accession talks.
"Neither the chancellor nor the government are questioning the accession process in any way. We are not talking about 'whether', just about 'how', to continue the accession process," said German deputy government spokesman Georg Streiter.
Foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said the Turkish minister's comments were "unacceptable" and that Ankara's envoy to Berlin had been summoned for consultations in the early afternoon.
Turkey reacted by summoning the German envoy to Ankara, with a senior Turkish official telling Reuters: "We want to convey our views on recent developments."
Peschke said Turkish accession talks had been held up for unspecified "technical reasons" rather than concerns about the crackdown, adding that the Dutch shared the German view. Chapter 22 of the talks deals with regional politics.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said this week he would like to see discussion of the chapters 23 and 24 that deal with civil rights, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. These have been blocked by other EU member states because of concerns about Turkey's record on human and civil rights.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Brown in Berlin and Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Editing by Stephen Brown and Gareth Jones)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/germany-summons-turkish-envoy-over-criticism-merkel-110644866.html
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Now that there?s iOS in the Car, what are the odds of iOS on the Camera? [Poll]
![Now that we have iOS in the car, how about iOS on cameras? [Poll]](http://cdn.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2013/06/photography_rene_hero.jpg?itok=GJXW0-v7)
Should Apple bring iOS 7 to cameras? At WWDC 2013 Apple announced a new feature called iOS in the Car, which pushes iOS interface and interaction from a connected device to a car's in-dash display. There were a number of companies signed up for the program, so it should see at least some level of sunlight. While this might not be the same type of to-the-metal integration Microsoft Sync or BlackBerry QNX or even embedded Android enjoys, given Apple won't license iOS or start building automobiles or even cameras any time soon, it does offer a possibility...
Nokia is flirting with giant camera on Windows Phones like the rumored EOS, Samsung is making both Android phones with giant cameras like the Galaxy Zoom, and cameras that run Android like the Galaxy NX. Could Apple strike a deal with Canon or Nikon or several companies in the DSLR and micro 4/3 space to either connect to iOS devices, or do a similar interface and interaction projection?
I'd love to be able to sync, share, and post the pictures I take on my DSLR as easily as I do from my iPhone, but I'm not the biggest fan of Samsung's or Microsoft's user experience. Apple loves photography, but there's a limit to the potential of an iPhone camera, especially if you want interchangeable lenses. Is there a world where Apple could take the same type of system they're working on for cars, and push it to cameras? Would you want them to?
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/eMCMDwmq-4o/story01.htm
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Saturday, 15 June 2013
Reaction cool to US arms plan for Syrian rebels
President Barack Obama mingles in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 14, 2013, where he hosted a Father's Day luncheon. Speaking about Syria, the president said the use of chemical weapons in Syria crosses a "red line," triggering greater U.S involvement in the crisis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama mingles in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 14, 2013, where he hosted a Father's Day luncheon. Speaking about Syria, the president said the use of chemical weapons in Syria crosses a "red line," triggering greater U.S involvement in the crisis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Egyptian Salafis shout slogans against Syrian President Bashar Assad as one waves a Syrian revolutionary flag during a rally after the Friday prayers at Amr Ibn Al As mosque, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 14, 2013. Syrians are being killed at an average rate of 5,000 per month, the United Nation said Thursday as it raised the overall death toll in the civil war to nearly 93,000, with civilians bearing the brunt of the attacks. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Deputy National Security advisor Ben Rhodes arrives for the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 14, 2013. Rhodes discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria, and previewed the upcoming G8 trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Deputy National Security adviser Ben Rhodes gestures as he speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington. Rhodes discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria, and previewed the upcoming G8 trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration hopes its decision to give lethal aid to Syrian rebels will prompt other nations to beef up assistance, now that the U.S. has cited evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its people. But the international reaction Friday ranged from flat-out disbelief of the U.S. intelligence assessments to calls for negotiation before more weapons pour into the vicious civil war.
The administration now says it has "high confidence" that President Bashar Assad's forces have killed up to 150 people with sarin gas. Although that's a tiny percentage of the approximately 93,000 killed in the civil war so far, the use of a chemical weapon crosses President Barack Obama's "red line" for escalating U.S. involvement in the conflict and prompted the decision to send arms and ammunition, not just humanitarian aid and defensive non-lethal help like armored vests and night goggles.
The administration's plan heading into the G8 meeting of industrialized nations beginning Monday is to use the chemical weapons announcement and Obama's decision on arms to persuade Russia to increase pressure on Assad to send a credible negotiating team to Geneva for talks with the opposition.
In addition, Obama is expected to use the G8 meeting and discussions on the sidelines to further coordinate with the British, French and potentially others an increase of assistance ? lethal, non-lethal and humanitarian ? to the rebels, the political opposition and refugees.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States has determined that sarin was used in a March 19 attack on the Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal and in an April 13 attack on the neighborhood of Shaykh Maqsud. She said unspecified chemicals, possibly including chemical warfare agents, were used May 14 in an attack on Qasr Abu Samrah and in a May 23 attack on Adra.
U.S. officials have not disclosed any details about the weapons they intend to send to Syria or when and how they will be delivered. According to officials, the U.S. is most likely to provide the rebel fighters with small arms, ammunition, assault rifles and a variety of anti-tank weaponry such as shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and other missiles.
As of Friday, however, no final decisions had been made on the details or when it would reach the rebels, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal administration discussions with reporters.
Obama has consistently said he will not put American troops in Syria, making it less likely the U.S. will provide sophisticated arms or anti-aircraft weapons that would require large-scale training. Administration officials are also worried about high-powered weapons ending up in the hands of terrorist groups. Hezbollah fighters are among those backing Assad's armed forces, and al-Qaida-linked extremists back the rebellion.
The lethal aid will largely be coordinated by the CIA, but that effort will also be buttressed by an increased U.S. military presence in Jordan.
U.S. officials say Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is about to approve orders that would leave roughly a dozen F-16 fighter jets and a Patriot missile battery in Jordan after ongoing military exercises there end later next week. That would result in several hundred more U.S. troops staying in Jordan to support the fighters and missiles, in addition to the approximately 250 that have been there for some time.
The added military troops and equipment are designed to increase stability in the region and are not part of the effort to train Syrian rebels or take part in any offensive operations in Syria, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the details.
The biggest hurdle for the U.S. strategy remains Russia, a major weapons supplier to Assad.
President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that Moscow doesn't believe the U.S. finding on chemical weapons.
"I wouldn't like to draw parallels with the famous dossier of Secretary of State Colin Powell, but the facts, the information presented by the U.S. didn't look convincing," he said. The comment indeed drew a parallel with Powell's speech to the U.N. asserting pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a claim that proved false.
Ushakov also suggested that sending weapons to the opposition would diminish Moscow's interest in negotiations in Geneva.
"If the Americans make and fulfill a decision to provide a greater assistance to the rebels, to the opposition, it's not going to make the preparations for an international conference on Syria any easier," he said.
Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, acknowledged the differences that remain between U.S. and Russia on the Syrian crisis. Despite their disagreement over chemical weapon use, the U.S. will continue to talk to the Russians about ways to achieve a political settlement in Syria, considered the best option by all .
"We have no illusions that that's going to be easy," Rhodes said, adding that Obama and Putin would meet next week.
Getting Western allies to increase support for the rebels won't necessarily be easy, either.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he there is credible evidence of "multiple attacks" using chemical weapons by Assad's fighters, but indicated that al-Qaida-linked elements in the opposition movement had also attempted to acquire chemical weapons for probable use in Syria. Still, he restated the government's position that no decision had been taken to arm moderate rebels opposed to Assad. The Obama administration says it has no evidence the opposition has used chemical weapons.
French President Francois Hollande told reporters Friday that the use of chemical weapons by Assad "confirms that we must exercise pressure on the regime." But Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot would not say whether the U.S. claim of chemical weapons adds momentum to arming rebels.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, however, voiced opposition to the U.S. decision to send arms to the Syrian rebels. He said no one can be certain chemical weapons were used without an on-the-ground investigation. Increasing the flow of arms to either side "would not be helpful," he said
Washington's decision comes after several military setbacks for the rebels and as Lebanon's Hezbollah militia becomes increasingly involved, fighting alongside Assad's forces. Hezbollah's role was key in the capture of the strategic rebel-held town of Qusair earlier this month.
The U.S. has so far provided $250 million in non-lethal military and political aid to the Syrian opposition. The Obama administration has already told Congress that $127 million of this aid is in the pipeline. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday the administration now has notified Congress that the remaining $123 million in assistance, including body armor and other equipment such as night-vision goggles, is beginning to move to the Syrian rebels.
The plan to arm the rebels comes after a tricky assessment of which groups in the opposition the U.S. and allies can work with and which should be avoided.
"I think we know who the good guys are ... who we can trust and who we cannot," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He received briefings from U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials in Jordan last month and visited a refugee camp at the Syrian border.
He said the U.S. aid will include weapons training and basic military tactics, and share intelligence to help guide the rebels to the right targets.
"Intelligence is a key component to helping the opposition warfighters to make sure they make the right decisions to turn the tide of this fight," said Ruppersberger.
The CIA has led U.S. outreach to the rebels from outside Syria, meeting rebels at refugee camps and towns along the Turkish and Jordanian borders. CIA paramilitary officers, as well as special operations trainers, have trained select groups of rebels in Jordan on the use of encrypted communications equipment ? the nonlethal aid provided by the Obama administration ? and they have helped the rebels learn how to fire anti-aircraft weapons and small arms provided by Gulf states.
"We've been looking at this for a long time now," said John McLaughlin, former acting director of the CIA. "You can do a pretty good diagram of who the rebel forces are, what the number of foreign fighters are. We've come to the conclusion that there is an acceptable level of risk, understanding we will lose control of some of the weapons."
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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Kimberly Dozier in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Elaine Ganley in Paris and Cassadra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.
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