Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Panasonic launches $500 Lumix DMC-LF1 enthusiast compact with WiFi, NFC

Panasonic launches LumixLF1 compact

Panasonic's just unveiled the 12-megapixel Lumix DMC-LF1 compact for fans of high-end compacts like Canon's S110 who may not want to snap with a smartphone camera. But the social set will still be able to share images to their handset or tablet thanks to the LF1's built-in WiFi with NFC pairing and included app. Meanwhile, most cellphones definitely can't compete with the 1/1.7-inch, 12-megapixel CMOS sensor and 28-200mm equivalent f2.0-5.9 Leica zoom lens. Other specs include 1,920/60i video with AVCHD and MP4 recording, POWER O.I.S image stabilization, a 200K EVF, a variety of shooting modes like panorama, and full manual control. There's no set arrival date, but it'll run a hefty $500 or so --perhaps a hard sell against certain photo-clever handsets.

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

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Boston bomb suspect charged; religious motive seen

FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A court official says Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, is facing federal charges and has made an initial court appearance in his hospital room, Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)

FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A court official says Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, is facing federal charges and has made an initial court appearance in his hospital room, Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)

A moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing is observed on Boylston Street near the race finish line, exactly one week after the tragedy, Monday, April 22, 2013, in Boston, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

People pause for a moment of silence near the Statehouse in Boston at 2:50pm, Monday, April 22, 2013, exactly one week after the first bomb went off at the finish area of the Boston Marathon. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

People link hands to form a human chain from a makeshift memorial for fallen MIT police officer Sean Collier to a campus police station at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, April 22, 2013. A moment of silence for victims of the marathon bombings was also observed during the event. Collier was fatally shot on the MIT campus Thursday, April 18, 2013. Authorities allege that Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were responsible. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A moment of silence in honor of the victims of the bombing at the Boston Marathon is observed at the corner of Boylston and Berkeley Streets near the race finish line, Monday, April 22, 2013, in Boston, Mass. At 2:50 p.m., exactly one week after the bombings, many bowed their heads and cried at the makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, three blocks from the site of the explosions, where bouquets of flowers, handwritten messages, and used running shoes were piled on the sidewalk. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

BOSTON (AP) ? The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam but do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, U.S. officials said Monday after interrogating and charging Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with crimes that could bring the death penalty.

Tsarnaev, 19, was charged in his hospital room, where he was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway. His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died Friday after a fierce gunbattle with police.

The Massachusetts college student was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 200 a week ago.

The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade, practiced Islam.

Two U.S. officials said preliminary evidence from the younger man's interrogation suggests the brothers were motivated by religious extremism but were apparently not involved with Islamic terrorist organizations.

Dzhokhar communicated with his interrogators in writing, precluding the type of back-and-forth exchanges often crucial to establishing key facts, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

They cautioned that they were still trying to verify what they were told by Tsarnaev and were looking at such things as his telephone and online communications and his associations with others.

In the criminal complaint outlining the allegations, investigators said Tsarnaev and his brother each placed a knapsack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.

The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his cellphone and lifting it to his ear just instants before the two blasts.

After the first blast, a block away from Dzhokhar, "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm," the complaint says. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "virtually alone of the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm."

He then quickly walked away, leaving a knapsack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his cellphone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

The criminal complaint shed no light on the motive for the attack.

The Obama administration said it had no choice but to prosecute Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the federal court system. Some politicians had suggested he be tried as an enemy combatant in front of a military tribunal, where defendants are denied some of the usual constitutional protections.

But Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and under U.S. law, American citizens cannot be tried by military tribunals, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Carney said that since 9/11, the federal court system has been used to convict and imprison hundreds of terrorists.

Shortly after the charges were unveiled, Boston-area residents and many of their well-wishers ? including President Barack Obama at the White House ? observed a moment of silence at 2:49 p.m. ? the moment a week earlier when the bombs exploded.

Across Massachusetts, the silence was broken by the tolling of church bells.

"God bless the people of Massachusetts," said Gov. Deval Patrick at a ceremony outside the Statehouse. "Boston Strong."

Also Monday, the governor and Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O'Malley were among the mourners at St. Joseph Church at the first funeral for one of the victims, Krystle Campbell. The 29-year-old restaurant manager had gone to watch a friend finish the race.

"She was always there for people. As long as Krystle was around, you were OK," said Marishi Charles, who attended the Mass. "These were the words her family wanted you to remember."

Amid a swirl of emotions in Boston, there was cause for some celebration: Doctors announced that everyone injured in the blasts who made it to a hospital alive now seems likely to survive.

That includes several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a 3-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails.

"All I feel is joy," said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, referring to his hospital's 31 blast patients. "Whoever came in alive stayed alive."

As of Monday, 51 people remained hospitalized, three of them in critical condition. At least 14 people lost all or part of a limb; three of them lost more than one.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands when he was captured hiding out in a boat in a backyard in the Boston suburb of Watertown, authorities said.

A probable cause hearing ? at which prosecutors will spell out the basics of their case ? was set for May 30. According to a clerk's notes of Monday's proceedings in the hospital, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler indicated she was satisfied that Tsarnaev was "alert and able to respond to the charges."

Tsarnaev did not speak during the proceeding, except to answer "no" when he was asked if he could afford his own lawyer, according to the notes. He nodded when asked if he was able to answer some questions and whether he understood his rights as explained to him by the judge.

Federal Public Defender Miriam Conrad, whose office has been assigned to represent Tsarnaev, declined to comment.

Tsarnaev could also face state charges in the slaying of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, who was shot in his cruiser Thursday night on the MIT campus in Cambridge.

News of the criminal charges pleased some of the people gathered at a makeshift memorial along the police barricades on Boylston Street, where the attack took place.

Amy McPate a Massachusetts native now living in Maine, said she usually opposes the death penalty, but thinks it should apply in this case.

"They were more than murderers. They're terrorists. They terrorized the city," she said. "The nation has been terrorized."

Kaitlynn Cates of Everett, who suffered a leg injury in the bombing, said from her hospital room: "He has what's coming to him."

Among the details in the FBI affidavit:

? One of the brothers ? it wasn't clear which one ? told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

?The FBI said it searched Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Sunday and found BBs as well as a white hat and dark jacket that look like those worn by one of the suspected bombers in the surveillance photos the FBI released a few days after the attack.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples, Allen Breed, Bridget Murphy, Jay Lindsay and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-22-Boston%20Marathon-Explosions/id-91bca5c5b15f4ac0970214ebeee6ef9d

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Bostonians silently mark bombing, with family, co-workers, and total strangers

It was silent at 2:50 p.m., not just in Boston but in other cities, too, to honor those killed and wounded in the Boston Marathon bombings, but also to affirm the city's resilience.

By Allison Terry,?Correspondent / April 22, 2013

A moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing is observed on Boylston Street near the race finish line, exactly one week after the tragedy. People around the US and world joined in the silent tribute at 2:50 p.m.

Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Enlarge

The busy streets of downtown Boston came to a standstill on Monday, as people stopped to observe a moment of silence at 2:50 p.m., the time the first bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon on April 15, one week ago.

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With grief, but also a sense of dignity, hundreds of people gathered at various landmarks around the city with their co-workers, families, and total strangers to mark the moment of silence together.

Church bells echoed across the city after the minute tribute, but at Copley Square, which is within the six-block crime scene area, a couple hundred people lining the streets stood in silence for more than five minutes. The Old South and Trinity churches also stood silent, because they, too, are in the off-limits area. Slowly people stepped away from the police barricade, going back to work, walking their dogs, or pushing kids in strollers.

"God bless the people of Massachusetts. Boston Strong," Gov. Deval Patrick said after the?moment?had ended, standing on the steps of the State House with Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Secretary of State William Galvin, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

One group standing on Boylston Street quietly sang ?God Bless America? before leaving the area, while another cheered for a police officer pumping his fists in the air.

At City Hall, people just stopped in their tracks during the moment of silence, says Brian Signore, who is visiting from Tampa, Fla.

?Everybody just came together, but I guess tragedy is something that brings people together,? he says.

Doreen Reis, an advertising manager at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was in the Prudential Shopping Center looking out the glass windows onto Boylston Street, a block away from where the second bomb exploded.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/jp9FL_aQwck/Bostonians-silently-mark-bombing-with-family-co-workers-and-total-strangers

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U.N. nuclear agency in talks about talks with Iran

VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear agency is talking with Iran to set a date for discussions on resuming an investigation there, it said on Monday, as Washington stressed the importance of diplomacy in ending a standoff over Tehran's nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which wants to restart a long-stalled inquiry into suspected atomic bomb research, issued a brief statement after Iranian media reported that talks were set for May 21.

The IAEA has been trying for more than a year to coax Iran into granting IAEA officials the access they want. Western diplomats accuse Iran of stonewalling and some say the IAEA may soon need to get tougher with the Islamic Republic.

Asked about the Iranian media reports, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an email: "I can confirm we are discussing possible dates of a meeting with Iran."

Iran's Mehr and ISNA news agencies initially reported that the meeting would be held on May 21, but ISNA later quoted an unnamed official as saying this was only a "preliminary agreement" and that the date could be moved by one or two days.

The IAEA-Iran talks are separate from, but have an important bearing on, diplomatic negotiations between Tehran and six world powers aimed at a broad settlement to the decade-old dispute and reduce the risk of a new Middle East war.

Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons under the guise of a declared civilian atomic energy program. Iran denies this, saying it seeks only electricity and medical applications from uranium enrichment.

But its refusal to curb sensitive nuclear activity with both civilian and military applications and its lack of openness with IAEA inspectors have drawn U.N. and Western sanctions.

Israel, widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, has long hinted at possible air strikes to deny Iran any means to make an atomic bomb.

But the Jewish state suggested on Monday it would be patient before taking any military action against Iran's nuclear sites, saying during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel there was still time for other options.

Thomas Countryman, U.S. assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation, told reporters in Geneva that the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran was "a threat to the entire region and an impetus for greater proliferation," but he stressed the value of diplomacy.

"The fact is that it is concerted international diplomatic action with the full range of diplomatic tools, including strong economic sanctions, that have brought Iran to the negotiating table," Countryman told a news conference.

"They have not yet succeeded in getting Iran to negotiate seriously on the world's concerns, but they have brought us to the table."

Some analysts and diplomats say Iran's leadership may be unwilling or unable to make important decisions in nuclear negotiations before its presidential election in June.

If the Iran-IAEA meeting were to take place, it would be the 10th between the two sides since early 2012, so far without a deal that would enable the U.N. watchdog to gain access to sites, documents and officials for the inquiry.

Officials at Iran's IAEA mission were not immediately available for comment. The last round of IAEA-Iran negotiations, in February, yielded no breakthrough.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-u-n-nuclear-watchdog-hold-round-talks-082314738.html

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Strong quake hits China; 156 dead, more than 5,500 injured

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing at least 156 people and injuring about 5,500 close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008.

The earthquake, China's worst in three years, occurred at 8.02 a.m. (0002 GMT) in Lushan county near Ya'an city and the epicenter had a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt by residents in neighboring provinces and in the provincial capital of Chengdu, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to accounts on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.

State media said 156 people had been confirmed dead with more than 5,500 injured.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang said all efforts must be put into rescuing victims to limit the death toll.

After arriving at the disaster zone by helicopter, Li directed earthquake relief efforts from a plaza in Longmen township in Lushan, Xinhua said.

Li asked that a road be opened to Baoxing county, one of the most affected by the earthquake, and that rescuers "act quickly" in their efforts, Xinhua quoted Li as saying.

"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying earlier.

Xinhua said 6,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya'an, though Chengdu airport had reopened.

Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, where water and electricity were cut off. Pictures on Chinese news sites showed toppled buildings and people in bloodied bandages being treated in tents outside the hospital, which appeared only lightly damaged.

Rescuers in Lushan had pulled 32 survivors out of rubble, Xinhua said. In villages closest to the epicenter, almost all low rise houses and buildings had collapsed, according to footage broadcast on state television.

This aerial photo released by China's Xinhua news agency shows destroyed houses after a powerful earthquake hit Taiping town of Lushan County in Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, ... more? This aerial photo released by China's Xinhua news agency shows destroyed houses after a powerful earthquake hit Taiping town of Lushan County in Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. The powerful earthquake jolted Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Liu Yinghua) NO SALES less? ?

"We are very busy right now, there are about eight or nine injured people, the doctors are handling the cases," said a doctor at a Ya'an hospital who gave her family name as Liu.

The hospital was seeing head and leg injuries, she added.

"SHAKES AND TREMORS"

The China Meteorological Association warned of a possibility of landslides occurring in Lushan county on Saturday and Sunday, the agency said in a statement on its website.

A resident in Chengdu, 140 km (85 miles) from Ya'an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.

Ya'an is a city of 1.5 million people and is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture. It is also the home to one of China's main centers for protecting the giant panda.

"There are still shakes and tremors and our area is safe. The pandas are safe," said a spokesman with Ya'an's Bifengxia nature park, a tourism park that houses more than 100 pandas.

Shouts and screams were heard in the background while Reuters was on the telephone with the spokesman.

"There was just an aftershock, an aftershock, our office is safe," he said.

Numerous aftershocks jolted the area, the largest of which was magnitude 5.1.

Sichuan is one of the four major natural-gas-producing provinces in China, and its output accounts for about 14 percent of the nation's total.

Sinopec Group, Asia's largest oil refiner, said its huge Puguang gas field was unaffected.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down.

The devastating May 2008 quake was 7.9 magnitude.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee and Lu Jianxin in SHANGHAI and Sui-Lee Wee in BEIJING; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/magnitude-6-9-quake-strikes-sichuan-region-china-002702079.html

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Analysis: Rough start to post-Chavez era augurs badly for Venezuela

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) - About the only tranquil place in Caracas over the last few days is a hilltop military museum housing the remains of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Visitors tip-toe around his marble sarcophagus, reprimanded by guards if their voices rise above whispers.

Outside, a shell-shocked nation is still reeling both from Chavez's death from cancer last month and a week of violence and recriminations over the disputed election to succeed him.

Nightly protests - government supporters launch fireworks, opponents bang pots and bans - have been shaking the capital Caracas and most other major cities in the South American nation of 29 million people.

The beginning of Venezuela's transition into the post-Chavez era could hardly have been more raucous or controversial.

The dispute over Chavez prot?g? Nicolas Maduro's narrow presidential vote win led to the deaths of at least eight people.

It has also deepened the near 50-50 split in a nation polarized by Chavez's socialist policies, shown the fragility of Maduro's grip on the "Chavismo" movement, and left a raft of fast-accruing economic and social problems on the back burner.

"If we're at war among ourselves, everyone suffers," said construction worker Elias Simancas, 61, sitting on a bench in a square where police clashed with masked and rock-throwing protesters during riots after last Sunday's vote.

"We just want a country in peace," he said, expressing an oft-repeated sentiment by the less vocal but majority voices on both sides of the country's political conflict.

As well as longing for some quiet and normality after 14 years in the global spotlight under Chavez, Venezuelans also want plenty more tangible things on their street corners.

First on their wish list is an end to murders, kidnappings and violent robberies that rival the world's worst crime spots and leave many Venezuelan towns and cities eerily quiet at night.

Beyond that, most Venezuelans of all political creeds want an end to runaway price rises, shortages of basic products, power cuts, potholes, cronyism in politics, and the insulting rhetoric between politically divided neighbors and families.

"I'm sick of it. I want out. How can I bring up kids in this country?" said Manuel Pereira, a 39-year-old businessman who has seen his electronics importing company collapse due to lack of access to foreign currency under government controls.

Debating Venezuela's future with middle-class friends on Saturday morning as their children held weekend soccer training - instead of a local league match, canceled due to the unrest - he said he was going to use his Spanish roots to try and emigrate this year.

CHAVEZ'S SHOES IMPOSSIBLE TO FILL

Just as during Chavez's two-year battle with cancer, his re-election last year, and his death on March 5, ideological disputes rather than grassroots issues fill the headlines and dominate government and opposition agendas.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles' decision to contest Maduro's election victory - by less than 2 percent, or 265,000 of nearly 15 million votes - uncorked passions and resentments built up during Chavez's rule.

The day after the election, Venezuela teetered on the edge of all-out crisis as pro-opposition hard-liners took to the streets in protests that turned violent and, according to the government, killed eight and injured many more.

Capriles publicly distanced himself from the bloodshed - blaming government instigators for the violence and accusing officials of exaggerating and exploiting the trouble - and called off a march in Caracas that may have turned violent.

The election board then agreed to audit the result, helping to take more heat out of the immediate situation.

Longer-term, the political standoff remains unresolved.

Though safely sworn-in, endorsed by his peers in South America and very unlikely to see his win overturned by the audit, Maduro cannot hide from some obvious conclusions after the vote.

Clearly he failed to replicate Chavez's popularity despite presenting himself as his devoted "son" and deploying much of the state apparatus at his service for an emotion-charged election just five weeks after Chavez's death.

Lacking the charisma and iron grip of his mentor, and with a weaker mandate at the polls, Maduro may now struggle to keep the ruling Socialist Party together given its competing interests and factions ranging from socialist ideologues to military chiefs and businessmen.

There have already been a handful of calls from within the movement for a period of soul-searching and for improving social services to win back the more than half-a-million 'Chavistas' who defected to Capriles during the election campaign.

"Let what needs correcting be corrected and what needs rectifying be rectified," said Foreign Minister Elias Jaua.

Furthermore, though Maduro condemns his opponents as "fascists" and "ultra-right," almost half of Venezuelans voted against him and question his legitimacy given opposition leaders' claims of thousands of irregularities on polling day.

Many Venezuelans are deeply frustrated that their OPEC nation is not doing better economically despite being rich in natural resources from abundant rivers for hydropower to the world's largest oil reserves.

OPPOSITION WAITING GAME

Opposition supporters are downhearted at having come so close to the prize but just missed out.

The Democratic Unity coalition is also a disparate and fragile mix of right- and left-wing parties and competing egos.

Capriles' surprisingly strong showing - most opinion polls before the vote had left him for dead - has cemented his standing as the undisputed opposition flag bearer and reduced the probability of what many had anticipated would be an opposition implosion after a comfortable Maduro win.

But Capriles faces public vilification by Maduro, possible legal charges against him over the violence, and a potential move to debar him from the governorship of Miranda state, where he is serving a second four-year term.

"They should get rid of him and find a proper democrat to run the opposition," said Andrea Lopez, a government supporter in Caracas' largest slum, Petare, saying Capriles should be put behind bars for the week's events.

"Some of my 'Chavista' neighbors even voted for him. They were deceived by his lies. Now they have seen the wolf in sheep's clothes. If he had won, we would have lost everything," she added, listing the health, education and other welfare projects that sprung up in her neighborhood under Chavez.

With Maduro in a tricky situation and the economy slowing, Capriles will likely look to consolidate an image as Venezuela's president-in-waiting.

"This is unfolding chapter by chapter," Capriles said. "The whole system is collapsing. It is a castle built on sand."

The awkward economic backdrop adds to Maduro's challenges, especially if the gloom-and-doom predictions of most Wall Street and private analysts are to be believed.

They see economic growth slowing from 5.6 percent in 2012 to perhaps half of that or even lower this year, inflation heading for 30 percent, bottlenecks in dollar supply for businesses, and shortages of basics from flour and sugar to medicine and tampons.

"Time is on the opposition's side as the economic and likely also political dynamics may contribute to weaken the government," said Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos.

He predicts just 2.2 percent growth in 2013 and a minimum 25-percent currency devaluation in 2014 or earlier.

Balancing that, economic naysayers have exaggerated Venezuela's economic woes in the past, and the billions keep pouring in from the nation's oil production.

All the signs so far are that Maduro will stay faithful to Chavez's economic policies, including costly fiscal strategies to maintain and expand the social welfare "missions" that were the cornerstone of his late boss's popularity.

In the immediate aftermath of Chavez's death, Maduro, a burly former bus driver who became foreign minister, was seen in many quarters as an affable and experienced diplomat who could be a potential reformer and bridge-builder.

There was talk of possible free-market economic tweaking, rapprochement with the United States, dialogue with the opposition and amnesty for political prisoners.

But his need to imitate Chavez's rhetoric during the campaign, then the post-election dispute, have seen him looking every bit the hard-liner in public.

That may be exacerbated by his dependence on the support of tough-talking National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello, the country's second most powerful official, who had been seen as a candidate for the top job before Chavez gave his blessing to Maduro.

Cabello showed his teeth last week, banning opposition legislators from speaking unless they recognized Maduro's win.

"Capriles wants chaos," said Cabello, a former military comrade of Chavez who keeps strong ties with the security forces and is seen as the muscle in government behind Maduro.

"But we're not idiots! There is no weakness. We swear to defend Chavez's legacy."

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Deisy Buitrago, Mario Naranjo, Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Kieran Murray and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-rough-start-post-chavez-era-augurs-badly-050622851.html

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

CA-NEWS Summary

Rescuers search for survivors of Texas fertilizer plant blast

WEST, Texas (Reuters) - Rescuers searched on Thursday for survivors in the rubble of homes destroyed by a fiery fertilizer plant explosion in a small rural Texas town, as authorities struggled to determine how many people had been killed. Concern and uncertainty gripped the town of West nearly a day after the chemical blast at West Fertilizer Co. injured more than 160 people. The cause of the explosion was not known and officials said no evidence of foul play had been found.

Carney warns of quicker rate hike if household debt not tempered

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney warned on Thursday that interest rates could rise sooner if the growth in household debt, which is related to the housing market, was not tempered. "A concern of the Bank of Canada...has been the pace of growth of household debt, which has been related to dynamics in the housing market. And so a number of measures have been taken to slow that pace," he told a Reuters-sponsored event, noting that the growth rate has fallen "quite nicely" to 3 percent from 13 percent.

Syrian Kurds fear increasing attacks from Assad forces

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bombings of Kurdish areas in Syria suggest that Syrian Kurds, long detached from the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, are increasingly being targeted by his forces after they struck deals with rebels fighting to topple him, a Kurdish leader said. Saleh Muslim, head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said a recent wave of Syrian army attacks may have been prompted by non-aggression pacts reached between Kurds and some moderate factions in the rebel forces.

Rockets strike Israel from Gaza: reports

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck inside Israel after nightfall on Thursday, causing no damage or injury, Israeli media reports said. The Ynet and Haaretz news websites said the rockets fell in open areas. The Israeli military was checking the reports. There were no immediate claims of responsibility issued from Gaza.

U.S. looks into possible chemical weapons use in Syria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence officials are looking into the possibility that chemical weapons may have been used in Syria in a limited form, although there is no consensus yet and additional analysis is required, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. "More review is needed," the senior U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

FBI releases photos of two Boston bomb suspects

BOSTON (Reuters) - Investigators released pictures of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing on Thursday, seeking the public's help in identifying two backpack-toting men photographed on the crowded sidewalk on Monday before bombs exploded near the finish line. The blasts that killed three people and wounded 176 began a week of security scares that rattled the United States and evoked memories of the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks.

EU presses Serbia and Kosovo for historic accord

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The European Union summoned Serbia and Kosovo back to Brussels on Thursday, pressing for an historic accord to settle relations between the Balkan foes and open the door to membership talks with Belgrade. On the table is an agreement to end the ethnic partition of Kosovo five years since it seceded from Serbia, and potentially clear a path to a seat at the United Nations for the last state to emerge from the ashes of federal Yugoslavia.

Italian parliament fails to elect state president in slap to Bersani

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's parliament failed to elect a new state president in the first two votes on Thursday with a center-left rebellion against leader Pier Luigi Bersani torpedoing his official candidate and prolonging a political stalemate. Until the new president is elected, the paralysis hobbling attempts to form a government since February's inconclusive general election will continue, and a chaotic day of voting showed how fractured the political landscape remains.

Rios Montt's lawyers walk out of Guatemala genocide trial

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A session in the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt ended abruptly on Thursday, as his lawyers tried to suspend proceedings over a legal technicality and stormed out, leaving him sitting alone in court. Rios Montt, who ruled between 1982-83, was ordered to trial for genocide and crimes against humanity in January to answer for a counterinsurgency plan that killed more than 1,700 members of the Ixil indigenous group during Guatemala's long civil war.

Baghdad suicide bomb blast at Internet cafe kills 27

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself inside a Baghdad cafe popular with young people using the Internet, killing a least 27 and wounding dozens more in one of the worst single attacks in the Iraqi capital this year. The late evening blast in west Baghdad came just two days before provincial elections that will be a major test of Iraq's political stability more than a year after the last American troops left the country.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-001243053.html

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