Moscow says US aid for Syria helps 'extremists'

The Kremlin has urged the US to move cautiously. Moscow claims it is doing all it can to promote a settlement in Syria that avoids an Afghanistan-style militant blowback.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / March 1, 2013

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (r.) listens to France's President Fran?ois Hollande during a joint news conference after talks in Moscow's Kremlin Thursday. Russia and France agreed on Thursday that Syria must not be allowed to break up but differed on other aspects of the two-year-old conflict, Putin said.

Alexsey Druginyn/RIA Novosti/Reuters

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Russia accelerated the war of words over Syria today, accusing the US of undermining recent efforts to move toward a negotiated settlement?between the Bashar al-Assad regime and its opponents by "encouraging extremists" at this week's Friends of Syria meeting in Rome. The US announced at the meeting that it was stepping up material aid to rebels in a bid to "change the balance of power" in the two-year civil war that's already killed more than 70,000 people.

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"There is a general understanding within the international community that there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement posted today on the ministry?s website.?

"Meanwhile, judging by incoming reports, the decisions made in Rome, as well as the statements that were made there, both in letter and in spirit, encourage extremists to seize power by force, regardless of the inevitable suffering of ordinary Syrians," he added.

Russia, the chief backer and arms supplier of the Assad regime, says the pieces are falling into place for a realistic peace process in Syria, and that it is doing all it can to pressure Mr. Assad to accept the need for sweeping change.

The Russians allege that the US is sabotaging those hopes. Mr. Lukashevich pointed to the final communique of the Rome meeting, signed by US Secretary of State John Kerry and other Western leaders, which underlined "the need to change the balance of power on the ground."

Mr. Kerry also pledged to double US nonlethal assistance directly to Syrian rebels, including food and medical supplies, although that is still far less than the weapons and ammunition the rebels are asking for.

Moscow claims it has convinced the Syrian dictator to form a negotiating team that's ready to hold talks with the rebels, with an aim to creating a transitional government that could enforce a ceasefire, rewrite the constitution, and set elections to carry Syria beyond the Assad era.

After meeting with French President Fran?ois Hollande in the Kremlin yesterday, Vladimir Putin hinted to journalists that Russia and France are on the same page about the need to work together to promote "political dialogue that would involve all sides in the conflict."

Earlier this week Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held intensive discussions?with Kerry and, according to Mr. Lavrov, the two agreed that "we shall do all we can to create conditions for the soonest start of a dialogue between the government and the opposition."

And today Moscow hosted leading Syrian opposition figure Manaf Tlass, a former elite army commander and childhood friend of Assad who defected to the rebels last summer.?

In an interview with the Voice of Russia,?Mr. Tlass said that Russia and the US should work together to create a transitional government composed of moderates from both the regime and from rebel ranks in order to save Syria from the evil twin alternatives of dictatorship or takeover by Islamist radicals.

"In Syria there is a third party that doesn't support the regime or the extremists," Tlass said.?

"Most Syrians don't want to choose between these two extremes, they want to go about their lives in a stable and secure state. . . Russia has enough political clout to help find a solution," he added.?

Andrei Klimov, deputy chair of the State Duma's international affairs committee, argues that in encouraging the rebels to press on to military victory, the US is repeating the same mistake it made in backing anti-Soviet mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

"This [bloody civil war] came to this critical point only because somebody provided Syrian rebels with sophisticated weapons and everything they need to fight the regime, short of military intervention," Mr. Klimov says.

"It reminds me a lot the situation in Afganistan when Soviet troops supported the existing regime and the West supported and armed the other side, without taking a good look an who they were helping. I hope I don't have to remind you how that ended, or rather still hasn't ended. We're all still dealing with the consequences of those bad choices," he adds

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/oTuEPeAzDDU/Moscow-says-US-aid-for-Syria-helps-extremists

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Rapper Ja Rule in NYC jail with July release date

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? Federal authorities say platinum-selling rapper Ja Rule is in a New York City jail with a July release date.

The 36-year-old rapper left a state prison in central New York last week after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession and went straight into federal custody in a tax evasion case.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says he has since moved from an upstate jail to Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, which houses prisoners awaiting court dates or having short terms left on their sentences.

The bureau said Thursday his expected release date is July 28.

Ja Rule admits he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million earned between 2004 and 2006 while he lived in New Jersey.

A call to his attorney hasn't been returned.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rapper-ja-rule-nyc-jail-july-release-date-222714976.html

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Sequester Real Talk: The 3 Dumbest Things About This Truly Dumb Law (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288392918?client_source=feed&format=rss

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US consumer spending up 0.2 percent in January

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. consumers increased spending modestly in January but cut back on major purchases that signal confidence in the economy. The decline in spending on goods suggests higher tax rates that kicked in on Jan. 1 may have made consumers more cautious.

The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending rose 0.2 percent in January compared with December. The gain was driven by an increase in spending on services, partly reflecting higher heating bills. Spending on durable goods, such as cars and appliances, fell 0.8 percent. Spending on non-durable goods, such as clothing, was essentially flat.

Income plunged 3.6 percent in January, the biggest drop since January 1993. But it followed a 2.6 percent rise in December, which reflected a rush by companies to pay dividends and bonuses before income taxes increased on top earners.

After-tax income fell 4 percent in January and after having risen 2.7 percent in December. Part of the January drop reflected higher Social Security taxes.

Americans adjusted to higher taxes by saving less. The savings rate declined to 2.4 percent of after-tax income in January, down from 6.4 percent in December and the lowest in five years.

"The sting of higher taxes hit home at the start of the year. This will cool spending in the next few months before consumers adjust to higher rates," predicted Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

In January, Congress and the White House allowed a temporary 2 percentage point cut in Social Security taxes to expire. That means a person earning $50,000 a year will have about $1,000 less to spend in 2013. A household with two high-paid workers will have up to $4,500 less.

Lawmakers and the Obama administration also agreed to let income tax rates rise on top-earning Americans.

Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that spending growth in the first three months of this year could slow to just half of the 2.1 percent rate of increase seen in the October-December quarter. Consumer spending drives nearly 70 percent of economy activity.

A better job market may help offset some of the pain from the tax increase later this year.

Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month from November through January. That was up from about 150,000 in the previous three months. And a drop in weekly applications for unemployment benefits suggests employers may have stepped up hiring further in February.

Sustained hiring, along with increases in home construction and business investment, could also support growth at a crucial time. The federal government is facing the automatic spending cuts that kick in Friday. If the cuts remain in place for an extended period, they could crimp growth.

The economy is coming off its weakest quarter of growth in nearly two years, according to a government report released Thursday. The Commerce Department estimated that the economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.1 percent in the October-December quarter, much slower than the 3.1 percent growth in the July-September quarter.

Still, economists said the weakness in the fourth quarter was caused by temporary factors ? deep defense spending cuts and slower restocking by companies. They expect growth will rebound to a rate of around 2 percent in the current January-March quarter.

They note that residential construction, consumer spending and business investment ? core drivers of growth ? all improved in the fourth quarter.

Businesses and consumers are also showing greater confidence despite the automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect on Friday. A measure of consumer confidence rebounded in February after a sharp fall the previous month that likely was a result of the tax increase.

Companies, meanwhile, sharply increased orders in January for a category of long-lasting manufactured goods that reflect their investment plans. That suggests they are confident about their business prospects.

The consumer spending report showed that inflation remains subdued. A price gauge tied to consumer purchases showed no increase in January and since January 2012 is up just 1.2 percent. That's the lowest 12-month increase since October 2009.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-consumer-spending-0-2-percent-january-133724544--finance.html

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iTunes U content downloads pass the one billion mark

Apple completely revamped its iTunes U app last year to include full course materials and it looks like that work is paying off, as the company just trumpeted its billionth content download. Over 250,000 students are enrolled in the service, which now boasts "thousands" of iTunes U learning materials, according to Cupertino. The company added that 60 percent of those downloads came from outside the US, with educators in 30 different countries -- like recent additions Brazil and Turkey -- able to create content. OHU prof "Dr. Fus" Stoltzfus said that students using his materials range from students around the world to retirees, so if you've been thinking of a knowledge upgrade, you've got no excuse. For more, check the PR after the break.

Filed under: Misc, Software, Apple

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/28/itunes-u-content-hits-the-one-billion-download-mark/

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Italy vote arms critics of Berlin's austerity mantra

PARIS (Reuters) - Austerity opponents from Athens to Paris say Italy's election stalemate is proof that Europe's voters have had enough of the painful spending cuts that Germany and its northern allies prescribe for their less fortunate neighbors.

While the outcome will not persuade Germany to abandon its demands for budgetary rigor altogether, it makes it more likely debt-laden euro zone states will receive some leniency from Berlin, paymaster of the European Union, as long as they show real efforts on reform.

Early beneficiaries of that indulgence will be France, which in coming weeks expects to win a year's grace from the European Union to achieve deficit targets, and Cyprus, which Berlin now acknowledges must be offered an aid package next month.

"THE SOUTH IS COMING," Panos Kammenos, head of the fiercely anti-austerity and anti-German Independent Greeks party tweeted in response to the Italian election, which he saw as a backlash against the rigor imposed on southern states such as Greece, Portugal and Spain.

While the poll deadlock in Rome owes much to Italy's chaotic politics, it showed a huge popular protest against austerity measures and underlined the north-south split dividing Europe into debt sinners and self-appointed fiscal disciplinarians.

Stirring up animosities dating back to World War Two, the debt crisis has turned Angela Merkel, the unassuming daughter of an East German pastor, into Europe's most divisive leader since Britain's Tony Blair split the continent in two by backing the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq war.

Lampooned in banners on Irish soccer terraces and in Spanish and Greek cartoons, Merkel has become the embodiment of austerity and is among the tiny band of European politicians who stir genuine passions across the continent.

"Mrs Merkel cannot lead Europe alone," France's left-wing Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said this week in a rare breach of French policy not to criticize the conservative German leader in public.

NO DIKTAT?

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, more senior to Montebourg in the government, declined to join such attacks in an interview for the Reuters Euro Zone Summit this week.

But he stated: "The message from Italy is: 'Be careful, when you are in a situation in which you ask populations to make sacrifices for long periods ... There needs to be another perspective - which is 'growth again'."

While Paris accepts that the might of the German economy has thrust Berlin into a crisis leadership role, officials complain in private that Germany has yet to work out how it can perform that role without raising the hackles of others.

German opposition chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck found himself on the wrong side of that dilemma on Wednesday - and in the process talked himself out of dinner with Italy's president - by describing ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi and comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, who both scored well in the election thanks to protest voters, as "clowns".

German leaders bristle at the accusation they are trying to browbeat Europe into their mould, with President Joachim Gauck - the largely ceremonial head of state - insisting last week that Berlin did not want to rule the continent by "German diktat".

"We don't want to intimidate others, nor force our ideas upon them. But we do stand by our experiences and want to share them," Gauck said in a speech, noting Germany's economy had been written off as unreformable less than a decade ago.

The hands of Merkel and Steinbrueck are tied; neither can expect to win a September election if they relent too much on a path of budgetary rigor that is as popular with German voters as it is poisonous to electorates in southern Europe.

But Germany's austerity push is not as monolithic as many opponents would have it.

SOURCE OF PAIN

Berlin already agreed last year to give Spain and Greece more time to seek budget cuts and, in a move intended as an attempt to boost growth and help the competitive edge of other euro economies, has let its domestic wage levels tick higher.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Reuters summit that stable finances remained a condition for growth, and warned against a repetition of the joint Franco-German push a decade ago to water down EU budget rules.

But he also showed a conciliatory line on France's admission last week that it will miss a 2013 deficit target of 3 percent of output.

"France is not saying it will flout the rules," he told the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper, adding it was time to look with the European Commission at what the admission meant for the EU stability pact governing deficit targets.

That gels with the Commission view that a postponement of deficit targets for countries on the brink of recession is possible if they are trying their hardest to secure reform.

Even the Netherlands, which for years played hardball on the need for southern countries to accept budget cuts, may now fall into that category after conceding on Thursday it will miss its own deficit target this year.

But European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso rejected the idea that the Italian vote would mean countries around the zone simply being let off the hook.

"We never said it would be easy ... But I insist for this kind of policy we need leadership, democratic leadership that has the courage to resist short-term considerations and the capability to explain to the public what is at stake," he told Reuters.

As always with politics, form is as important as substance.

Clemens Fuest, incoming president of Germany's ZEW centre for economic research, said that for Europe's leaders to keep selling austerity policies to their voters, they must also convince them they have a plan to kickstart the region's economies by highlighting efforts to prop up banks and private investors.

"They have to come up with a credible story that will tell voters there is some silver lining on the horizon," Fuest said. "There has to be some sort of growth story."

That is something on which, according to a conservative ally of Merkel, the German leader is already reflecting.

"If the economic situation in southern Europe gets worse, if unemployment continues to rise, that doesn't help her," said the ally, who requested anonymity.

"She wants to see growth. She has no interest in being seen as the source of the pain."

(Additional reporting by Reuters Euro Summit team; Nicholas Vinocur in Paris; Noah Barkin in Berlin; Deepa Babington in Athens; Fiona Ortiz and Manuel Maria Ruiz in Madrid; Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries in Dublin; Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-vote-arms-critics-berlins-austerity-mantra-141717241--business.html

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Pedersen On Sports | Pedersen on Sports | Tucson Weekly

By the end of this column?assuming you read the whole thing?you'll either be thinking to yourself, "What have I done to deserve this?" or "This was just what the Tucson Weekly needed to cement itself as the top media source in the region."

I get paid either way, so it's no bother to me what the verdict is.

But be warned: This space will be reserved for analysis, bluntness, commentary, discussion and exposition on all facets of sports, recreation and entertainment in Southern Arizona, and maybe even Phoenix if I'm feeling particularly saucy.

DISCLAIMER: This means there will be talk not just about the University of Arizona but also of professional and high school sports as well as bowling, gambling (especially poker), board games and Little League. They're all areas that, frankly, deserve some attention but just don't get enough of it from this region's UA-and-nothing-else slant.

The approach will be a mix of promotion, kudos and character evisceration?if necessary, of the throwing-them-under-the-bus variety. Punches won't be pulled for fear of getting kicked out of the press box or having credentials revoked. That ship sailed with my predecessor a long time ago.

I have opinions, and I like to voice them when appropriate?and also when it's not appropriate, as anyone who follows me on Twitter has learned. These viewpoints come from more than 18 years of witnessing the comings and goings of the sporting and pop culture worlds in Tucson, both as a fan and as a reporter for various local publications.

I even picked up a gig coaching youth basketball, which I heard was a prerequisite for Weekly sports coverage.

My legacy lives on from more than a decade writing for the morning daily, where a certain cup is awarded to the top prep athletic program (yup, I came up with that), a certain approach is taken to selecting prep all-stars (me again) and a certain series of stories chronicles odd attractions found around town (guilty as charged).

But this isn't going to be a place for rehashing what's been done before, or what others are still doing. The only things seen here will be truly relevant in the local sports community, the things people really want to know about. I'm not going to chronicle the music playlists from sporting events?you have my word.

So, let's get the ball rolling:

? Tucson needs to distance itself from its annual rodeo as much as possible if we ever want to be considered a truly progressive and trendy (read: well-heeled-tourist-friendly) locale. Sure, it's nice to be home to the world's largest nonmechanized parade, but we also have a world-class golf tournament here at the same time. And with Tucson also becoming the western hub for Major League Soccer's preseason, we're more than just a rodeo town.

Yet we still let the kids out of school for two days to celebrate "Rodeo Days," a practice that dates back to when people actually went to the rodeo. I've always felt that it should be a requirement to attend at least one calf roping or barrel racing event in exchange for the time off. If that doesn't fly, then please change the name to something else, like midwinter break (that's what we called it back in New Jersey; I used that break in 1994 to visit the UA, and the rest is history) or something all-inclusive like Sports Break.

Just not Rodeo Days. That makes us sound like a podunk community, the kind that shuts down not just schools but all of the businesses on Main Street so everyone can participate in the county fair.

? No matter what changes the Arizona Interscholastic Association makes, Southern Arizona teams are going to get the short end of the stick. It's a Phoenix-centric governing body, with only token advisers from outside Maricopa County, and it's never going to give us a fair deal.

How else can you explain the fact the girls' soccer team at Sierra Vista's Buena High went undefeated in the regular season yet found itself uninvited to the Division I state tournament? The Colts had one tie and 11 wins in games that counted toward the power points system the AIA instituted this school year in reaction to complaints that the previous system was flawed. But somehow this proprietary formula that MaxPreps uses managed to make it possible for an unbeaten club to finish 18th (only the top 16 made the playoffs).

The saddest part was that Buena coach Marilyn Piduch knew that not making state was a distinct possibility despite the team's record. Piduch had no say in who her team played this season thanks to the AIA using a computer program to match schools against their closest opponents in hopes of cutting down on travel.

"It's like our schedule is automatically putting us at a disadvantage," said Piduch, noting that her team had to face the "closer" teams on Tucson's southside instead of tougher opponents a few miles farther away like Catalina Foothills, Ironwood Ridge, Mountain View and Sahuaro.

Some believe things will get better for Tucson next year when all of our larger schools move down to Division II or Division III to avoid battling enormous Phoenix schools for playoff spots. I'm reserving judgment on that.

? Weather and attendance aside, it's a safe assumption that FC Tucson's monthlong SoccerFest was a raging success. It gave local soccer lovers a chance to immerse themselves in the game and created an opportunity for new fans to take a gander at a variety of competitions. Overall, it created a fun atmosphere that permeated throughout the city at a time when so many other big-ticket events (the aforementioned rodeo and golf events, plus the gem shows) are already entrenched.

That being said, a few tweaks could keep Tucson's evolution into a pro soccer mecca moving forward.

Most notably, the ticket prices are going to need to come down to keep growing the fan base. Putting on games involving MLS teams, even in the preseason, is pricey? it's ridiculous how much referees have to be paid just for an exhibition?but the lighter the burden placed on fans to subsidize this soccer effort the better.

One thing FC Tucson and the local soccer machine unfortunately won't be able to benefit from is the use of Arizona Stadium for games, such as a much-desired contest involving either the U.S. or Mexican national teams. Most pro soccer outfits view playing on anything but grass with disdain. So the stadium's artificial turf, and its "ghost lettering" set to be in place for the 2013 football season, all but kill any chances of having a big-time contest held there.

Source: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/pedersen-on-sports/Content?oid=3654074

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