Senate passes bill to ease FAA furloughs

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With flight delays mounting, the Senate approved hurry-up legislation Thursday night to end air traffic controller furloughs blamed for inconveniencing large numbers of travelers.

A House vote on the measure was expected as early as Friday, with lawmakers eager to embark on a weeklong vacation.

Under the legislation, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, Senate officials said the available funds should be ample enough to prevent the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA has said it will shut the facilities as it makes its share of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that took effect last month at numerous government agencies.

The Senate acted as the FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."

There was no immediate reaction at the White House, although administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."

Senate approval followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.

Officials said a small group of senators insisted on a last-ditch effort at an agreement before Congress adjourned for a vacation that could have become politically problematic if the flight delays continued.

"I want to do it right now. There are other senators you'd have to ask what the hang-up is," Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said at a point when it appeared no compromise would emerge.

For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.

In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.

It added it was "learning of additional impacts nationwide, including open watches, increased restoration times, delays resulting from insufficient funding for parts and equipment, modernization delays, missed or deferred preventative maintenance, and reduced redundancy."

The airlines, too, were pressing Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.

In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, likened the furloughs to a "wildcat regulatory action."

He added, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."

In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers have signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.

Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, noted that without the type of comprehensive deficit deal that Obama favors, a bill that eases the spending crunch at the FAA would inevitably be followed by other single-issue measures. She listed funding at the National Institutes of Health as one example, and cuts that cause furloughs of civilians who work at military hospitals as a second.

At the same time, Democratic aides said resolve had crumbled under the weight of widespread delays for the traveling public and pressure from the airlines.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., involved in the discussions, said the issue was big enough so "most people want to find a solution as long as it doesn't spend any more money."

Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and another $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.

Across the Capitol, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said, "We're willing to look at what the Senate's going to propose."

He said he believes the FAA has the authority it needs under existing law to shift funds and end the furloughs of air traffic controllers, and any legislation should be "very, very limited" and direct the agency to use the flexibility it already has.

In a reflection of the political undercurrents, another House Republican, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, said FAA employees "are being used as pawns by this (Obama) administration to be able to implement the maximum amount of pain on the American people when it does not have to be this way."

The White House and congressional Democrats vociferously dispute such claims.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-passes-bill-ease-faa-furloughs-005441034--politics.html

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Discs reveal phone pioneer's voice

25 April 2013 Last updated at 07:45 ET

The voice of Alexander Graham Bell has been identified for the first time, in a recording from 1885.

On the wax-disc recording, the telephone inventor says: "Hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell."

The recording is among the earliest held by the Smithsonian Institution, which runs the National Museum of American History.

Bell's voice was recorded on to the disc on 15 April 1885 at his Volta laboratory in Washington.

As well as saying his name, he also recites a series of numbers and lines from several Shakespeare plays. The sound clip has been posted online.

"Identifying the voice of Alexander Graham Bell, the man who brought us everyone else's voice, is a major moment in the study of history," said museum director John Gray.

"It enriches what we know about the late 1800s, who spoke, what they said and how they said it."

The disc was too fragile to play using a needle so the museum, along with researchers at the US Library of Congress and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, developed an alternative play-back system that used light and a 3D camera to turn its bumps and grooves into sounds.

Also identified was the voice of Alexander Melville Bell, the inventor's father, in a recording from 1881.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22294017#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Syrian troops capture key town near Damascus

BEIRUT (AP) ? After five weeks of battle, Syrian government troops captured a strategic town near Damascus, cutting an arms route for rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad's regime, state media and activists said Thursday.

By taking the town of Otaybah, east of the capital, the army dealt a major setback to opposition forces that in recent months have made gains near the city they eventually hope to storm.

Also Thursday, the White House and other top Obama administration officials said that U.S. intelligence has concluded with "varying degrees of confidence" that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons in the civil war, which has dragged on for two years.

However, officials also said more definitive proof was needed and the U.S. was not ready to escalate its involvement in Syria beyond non-lethal aid despite President Barack Obama's repeated public assertions that Syria's use of chemical weapons, or the transfer of its stockpiles to a terrorist group, would cross a "red line."

Syria's main Western-backed opposition promptly called on the international community to act "urgently and decisively." The opposition's statement said: "Failure to act will be seen by the regime as encouragement to use chemical weapons on a larger scale in the future."

Ahmad Ramadan, a member of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group's executive body, called the U.S. assertion an "important step" that should be followed by actual measures. "The U.S. has a moral duty to act ... we are waiting for the next steps," he told The Associated Press by phone from Istanbul.

The Syrian conflict began with largely peaceful protests against the Assad regime in March 2011, but eventually turned into a full-scale civil war. The fighting has exacted a huge toll on the country, killing an estimated 70,000 people and laying waste to cities, towns and villages.

With fresh supplies of weapons from foreign backers, the rebels have recently seized military bases and towns south of the capital in the strategically important region between Damascus and the border with Jordan, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) away.

The regime has largely kept the rebels at bay in Damascus, although opposition fighters control several suburbs of the capital from which they have threatened the heart of the city, the seat of Assad's power. Last month, government troops launched a campaign to repel the opposition's advances near the capital, deploying elite army units to the rebellious suburbs and pounding rebel positions with airstrikes.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said government troops regained control of Otaybah late Wednesday.

State-run SANA news agency said Thursday that the army has "restored complete control" over Otaybah. The official news services also said Assad's troops "discovered a number of tunnels which were used by terrorists to move and transfer weapons and ammunitions."

The regime and state media refer to rebels as terrorists and accuse them of being part of a foreign plot seeking to destroy Syria.

"It's a huge victory for the regime, and a big blow to the opposition that is now in danger of losing other towns and villages around Damascus," Abdul-Rahman said of the army's campaign.

On Thursday, the army was already capitalizing on the territorial gains, pounding southern suburbs of Damascus, including the long-contested Daraya with artillery barrages and airstrikes, according to the Observatory. The group, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, also reported fierce clashes between rebels and army troops to the east of the capital.

The army's offensive to dislodge rebel fighters from neighborhoods ringing Damascus is part of the government's broader campaign to secure central provinces of Hama and Homs, and areas along the Lebanese border. The region is of strategic value to Assad's regime because it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Syria's Alawites and also home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus.

Syria's regime is dominated by the president's minority Alawite sect ? an offshoot of Shiite Islam ? while the rebels are mostly from the country's Sunni majority. Assad's major allies, the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and Iran, are both Shiite.

Otaybah is located on a road linking Damascus with the eastern suburbs of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta. Rebels have been using the road to transport weapons and other supplies to the capital. Many of the capital's surrounding towns and neighborhoods have been opposition strongholds during the 2-year-old conflict.

Losing control of the town will make the defense of rebel enclaves in northeastern suburbs such as Douma, Harasta and others more difficult, Abdul-Rahman said.

In Hama, rebels ambushed and destroyed an army vehicle after a six-hour battle with troops. Amateur videos uploaded by activists online showed an army vehicle in flames amid sounds of intense gunbattles.

Another video showed rebels raising black Islamic flags over the Nasseh Alwani school after "liberating it" from troops who had transformed it into a military base, and what appeared to be the bodies of soldiers burning inside.

The videos appeared consistent with AP reporting from the area.

Fighting in Hama is rare because the government keeps it under tight control. The city was the site of a notorious massacre in 1982, when Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez, ordered the military to quell a Sunni rebellion. Amnesty International has estimated that between 10,000 and 25,000 people were killed in the siege, though conflicting figures exist and the Syrian government has never made an official estimate.

The fighting across the country has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad. Millions have also been displaced inside Syria.

International aid agencies have been pleading for funds to help refugees in neighboring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. They have also been asking the Syrian government to allow aid convoys into the country and facilitate access to the area inside cities and towns that have been affected by fighting.

Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, saying the increasing influx of Syrian refugees had sparked "a grave humanitarian situation" that threatens his country's security and stability. More than 500,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan since the conflict began.

The letter asks members to make a determination that the refugee influx, "if left unchecked and in the absence of the financial assistance required to enable Jordan to cope," constitutes a threat to international peace and security, a statement obtained by AP said. The letter asked the Security Council to invite Jordan to a private meeting on the issue and to visit Jordan as soon as possible.

___

AP journalist Mohammad Hannon reported from Zaatari. AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-troops-capture-key-town-near-damascus-064600068.html

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LG Optimus G Pro for AT&T detailed: Snapdragon 600, LTE and a Full HD IPS display

There's not much surprise left to LG's Optimus G Pro reveal set for next Wednesday in New York. We've already seen the device slip through the FCC and recently had a previewed glimpse of the potential hardware. But thanks to an anonymous tipster, we now have more insight into the the upcoming AT&T variant's specifications. Based on the official doc we had a look at, LG's managed to keep this US model mostly in line with its global sibling, porting over the same 5.5-inch form factor, 3,140mAh battery, 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor paired with 2GB RAM, a healthy 32GB of internal storage (expandable via microSDXC to 64GB), 2.1-megapixel front-facing / 13-megapixel rear cameras, NFC and WiFi a/b/g/n. What has changed is the actual screen technology used: the AT&T G Pro employs a Full HD IPS panel as opposed to the True HD-IPS+ in the original. Additionally, and unsurprisingly, the device's radios have been tweaked, with the AT&T G Pro now supporting the carrier's flavor of LTE (700/1700 MHz), HSPA+21 (850/1900/2100 MHz) and quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz).

Though it would be nice to see LG bump this up to a more current version of Android -- namely, 4.2.2 -- the AT&T model will likely ship with the more dated 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Continuing further down the software track, carrier bloat looks to be at a minimum as only two automobile-specific apps are mentioned in the document: AT&T DriveMode and Navigator. Aside from that, LG's own software suite makes the transition, bringing along QSlide 2.0 (a multiwindow feature), Dual Recording (for the picture-in-picture effect), Tag+ for NFC, VuTalk (a note sharing app), QuickMemo, Notebook and the ability to preset the Home Key's LED. That enough of a preview for you? Stay tuned for formal unveiling next week.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T, LG

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YqptPcvaZhk/

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Canada thwarts "al Qaeda-supported" passenger train plot

By Euan Rocha

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation they say was backed by al Qaeda elements in Iran.

"Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured," Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia told reporters in Toronto.

The RCMP said it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto in connection with the plot, which authorities said was not linked to the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three and injured more than 200 people last week.

Neither is a Canadian citizen, but the police did not reveal their nationalities.

A spokeswoman for the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique near Montreal confirmed that Esseghaier was a doctoral student at the research institute and that he had been arrested.

Julie Martineau, the school's director of communications, said Esseghaier arrived at the school in 2010 and was about midway through his degree.

"He is doing a PhD in the field of energy and materials sciences," she told Reuters.

A bail hearing for the two will take place in Toronto on Tuesday morning.

Malizia said there was no indication that the planned attacks, which police described as the first known al Qaeda- backed plot on Canadian soil, were state-sponsored.

U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, a route that travels along the Hudson Valley into New York wine country and enters Canada near Niagara Falls.

Canadian police said only that the plot involved a VIA train route in the Toronto area.

VIA is Canada's equivalent of Amtrak and operates passenger rail services on track owned primarily by Canadian National Railway Co.

JOINT OPERATIONS

Malizia said that the RCMP believed the two had the capacity and intent to carry out the attack, but there was no imminent threat to the public, passengers, or infrastructure.

The arrests come as Bostonians are still recovering from last Monday's bombings, and is one of a handful of terrorism-related investigations involving Canadians or Canadian residents.

Police said earlier this year that Canadians took part in an attack by militants on a gas plant in Algeria in January, while Canadian and Somalia authorities are investigating whether a former University of Toronto student participated in a bomb attack on Mogadishu last week.

And in 2006, police arrested and charged nearly 20 Toronto-area men accused of planning to plant bombs at various Canadian targets. Eleven were eventually convicted.

RCMP Superintendent Doug Best said a tip from the Canadian Muslim community had helped the investigation. The timing of the arrests was due to "logistics."

"Today's arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters in Ottawa.

"Canada will not tolerate terrorist activity and we will not be used as a safe haven for terrorists or those who support terrorist activities."

AL QAEDA IN IRAN

The Canadian authorities linked the two to al Qaeda factions in Iran, to the surprise of some security experts.

"The individuals were receiving support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran," Malizia said.

Iran did host some senior al Qaeda figures under a form of house arrest in the years following the September 11, 2001 attacks, but there has been little to no evidence to date of joint attempts to execute violence against the West.

However, a U.S. government source said Iran is home to a little-known network of alleged al Qaeda fixers and "facilitators" based in the Iranian city of Zahedan, very close to Iran's borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The source said the operatives serve as go-betweens, travel agents and financial intermediaries for al Qaeda operatives and cells operating in Pakistan and moving through the area.

They do not operate under the protection of the Iranian government, which has a generally hostile attitude towards Sunni al Qaeda militants, and which periodically launches crackdowns on the al Qaeda elements, though at other times appears to turn a blind eye to them.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Louise Egan, David Ljunggren and Alastair Sharp, writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Philip Barbara and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-announce-arrests-thwarting-major-terrorist-attack-cbc-180404075.html

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Best Sleep Tracking Gadget or App?

Whether it's a gadget designed to keep an eye on your movements while you sleep, or it's a smartphone app that listens to your breathing or noise level at night, sleep tracking gadgets and apps can help you figure out whether you're actually getting a good night's rest or you may have a problem to address. This week, we want to know which ones you think are the best of breed, and why.

Some sleep tracking gadgets, like the Fitbit or the Zeo, or any of the other tools that we've covered before, strap to your arm while you sleep. Others are apps, like previously mentioned Sleep Time or Sleep As Droid, alarm clocks that do their best to watch your sleep cycles from your nightstand. We want to know which ones you rely on to help you get a better night's sleep, or identify systemic sleep problems that you may want to see a doctor about. Let us know in the discussions below!

Hive Five nominations take place in the discussions, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of nominations, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your post like so: VOTE: BEST SLEEP TRACKING APP. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another person. Nominations emailed to us will not be counted. Instead, make your vote and reply separate discussions. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.

About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's five best mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it?it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

Photo by Tony Alter.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/qwvXDpf4ykI/best-sleep-tracking-gadget-or-app

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Katherine Mangu-Ward Talks E-Cigarettes, Cancer, and Pina ...

Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward talked e-cigarettes today on HuffPostLive. Tune in for a vast array of surprisingly scientifically literate guests, stay for host Josh Zepps, who was such a fan of the technology that I suspect him of smoking vaping a Pina Colada?flavored e-cigarette between segments. (Which I would totally endorse.)

A California County has voted to regulate electronic cigarettes like regular cigarettes. Without medical proof they're bad for your health, does this move go too far?

Originally aired on March 27, 2013

Hosted by:?

Guests:?

• Cynthia Hallett?@Cynhallett?(Berkeley , CA)?Executive Director of Americans for Non-Smokers' Rights
• Dan Henry?(Tampa, FL)?Blogger at puffweb.com
• Dr. David Abrams?@LegacyForHealth?(Washington, DC)?Executive Director of the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Legacy
• Gregory Conley?@GregCASAA?(Medford, NJ)?Legislative Director for Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA)
• Katherine Mangu-Ward?@kmanguward?(Washington, DC)?Managing Editor at Reason Magazine & Reason.com
• Dr. Michael Siegel?(Boston, MA)?Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/03/27/katherine-mangu-ward-talks-e-cigarettes

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