Syria says army retakes Homs district from rebels

By Dominic Evans

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops drove insurgents from a central district of Homs on Monday, tightening their siege on remaining rebel bastions in the city, which links Damascus to the Mediterranean heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect.

The military's gains in Khalidiya district follow a counter-offensive by Assad's forces, which have pushed back rebels around the Syrian capital and retaken several towns and villages near the border with Lebanon in the last few weeks.

"As of this morning the armed forces, in collaboration with the National Defense Force, took full control of Khalidiya," an army officer said, referring to the NDF militia which has fought in the offensive, along with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

The officer was speaking to Syrian television in a live broadcast from Khalidiya.

Shattered, deserted ruins and weeds sprouting a meter (yard) high in the rubble-filled streets around him showed the scale of the destruction and neglect in a city which was once an industrial powerhouse in Syria.

Also badly damaged in the Khalidiya fighting was the distinctive black and white stone mosque housing the shrine of early Islamic military leader Khalid ibn al-Walid.

Some activists disputed the capture of Khalidiya district, saying heavy clashes continued on Monday morning, but conceded that army had control of almost the entire neighborhood.

The army's progress in Khalidiya comes a month after it launched an offensive in Homs city, building on its capture of the border towns of Qusair and Tel Kalakh, which were both used to bring rebel arms and fighters into Syria from Lebanon.

ALEPPO CLASHES

At least 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which started with peaceful protests against Assad's rule in March 2011 but gradually descended into civil war after a military crackdown on the demonstrations.

Nearly two million refugees have fled the sectarian-tinged struggle between mainly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's Alawite supporters, whose minority sect is a branch of Shi'ite Islam.

Regional Sunni powers Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have backed the rebels, while Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah have given military support to the Syrian authorities.

At the United Nations in New York, Paulo Pinheiro, who chairs a U.N. commission of inquiry on rights abuses in Syria, said countries which armed either side in the conflict were simply helping prolong the suffering.

Civilians "come under such sustained and unlawful attacks" that the international community should be shocked into action, Pinheiro told the U.N. General Assembly.

"Those who supply arms to the various warring parties are not creating the ground for victory but rather the illusion for victory," Pinheiro said. "This is a dangerous and irresponsible illusion as it allows the war to unfurl endlessly before us."

Assad has sent reinforcements to the northern city of Aleppo, much of which has been in rebel hands for a year.

A coalition of Islamist rebels announced a campaign dubbed "Amputation of the Infidels" against Assad's forces in Aleppo's western districts of Lairamun, Dahr Abed Rebbo and Zahraa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an overnight attack by the Islamists had killed eight members of the armed forces. Another five defected, according to the British-based monitoring group which has a network of sources in Syria.

In the town of Tal Hasel, southeast of Aleppo, Kurdish fighters clashed with Islamists from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, the Observatory said. A Kurdish commander was killed, as well as three Nusra fighters.

Kurdish and Nusra fighters have also been battling further east, near the Ras al-Ain border crossing with Turkey.

(Additional reporting by Michele Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-says-army-retakes-homs-district-rebels-173511036.html

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Jennifer Aniston ?In No Rush? To Get Married

Jennifer Aniston “In No Rush” To Get Married

Jennifer Aniston has finally opened up about the rumors of her wedding plans with fiance Justin Theroux. Aniston explained they “already feel married” and that they haven’t set a date. Is Justin dragging his heels? Jennifer Aniston touched on all the reports during a press conference for her film “We’re the Millers”. She said, “We ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/07/jennifer-aniston-in-no-rush-to-get-married/

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Why This Apple Lover Sold His iPad (AAPL)

I'm lucky that my job lets me test out a bunch of different kinds of gadgets for free. At any given moment, I have at least one device running every major computing platform within arm's reach.

But whenever I want to spend my hard-earned cash on a new gizmo, it almost always comes from Apple. I have an iPhone 5, Apple TV, and a MacBook Air. I still think Apple makes the best stuff (they won't forever though, trust me), and that's why it gets my money.

I used to have an iPad (the third-generation model with the super-sharp Retina display), but I sold it last week.?I got a cool $400 for it, just $100 less than what I paid for it on launch day in March 2012. (Say whatever you want about Apple, but its products hold their value very well.)

Something changed this year though. For months, my iPad remained on my nightstand, untouched. The battery was dead, not from overuse, but from weeks of neglect while it was in sleep mode, which barely sips power. I didn't feel a need to recharge it.

It was a strange twist in my computing habits. When I first got my iPad, I found myself using it more than my MacBook. I would come home from work and use my iPad to catch up on news and Twitter. At night, I'd use it to stream Netflix in bed. I really only used my MacBook if I needed to do some work from home. It was essentially just a word processor to me.

So, what happened??

I started using my iPad less and less this year mostly because I started working a lot more when away from the office. For writers, an iPad isn't an ideal device to get things done, even with one of those cool keyboard accessories. I still need a full-fledged PC to do my job well, as I suspect people in many other professions do.

So I found myself spending much more time on my MacBook, and I realized I could still do a lot of things on it that I could do on my iPad, and then some. I could still catch up on the news, keep up with Twitter, and plow through my exhaustive Gmail inbox. Since the MacBook Air is so thin and light, it was just as easy for me to use on the couch or in bed like I used to with my iPad. It was like rediscovering an old beloved toy.

Before long, I only had two devices in my daily rotation: My iPhone (for checking email and Tweets when away from the computer and playing games or listening to podcasts on the subway), and my MacBook (for work and just about everything else). I realized my iPad was better off in someone else's hands and that someone else's $400 was better off in my checking account.

Yes, iPads and other tablets appear to be cannibalizing the traditional PC market. PC makers like HP, Dell, and to an extent, Apple, have all blamed the popularity of smartphones and tablets for the decline in PC sales. However, in most cases, if you need to get work done, an iPad or other tablet really doesn't cut it. They're great devices for browsing the web, light emailing, and playing games, but still don't offer the full suite of productivity a regular PC does.

That's a problem Microsoft is trying to solve with Windows 8 and devices like the Surface Pro, a tablet that can double as a regular laptop thanks to a handy snap-on keyboard accessory. Unfortunately, most Windows 8 devices don't do a great job at being both things. There are still far too many compromises in weight, thickness, battery life, and apps that manufacturers have to deal with when making these hybrid PCs. As a result, most Windows 8 hybrids are pretty mediocre right now.

Until someone figures out the perfect hybrid device, I don't see a need to carry around three different computing form factors. And iPhone and MacBook Air is the perfect combination for me.?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-sold-my-ipad-2013-7

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Judge questions train driver over crash in Spain

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) ? The driver of a Spanish train that derailed at high speed was being questioned by a judge on Sunday as officials tried to determine if he was responsible for the accident, which killed 79 people.

Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, has been held by police on suspicion of negligent homicide. He has not been formally charged by a magistrate or made any official statements.

However, minutes after the crash Garzon said that he had been going fast and couldn't brake, a local resident who rushed to the scene of the accident said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

The resident, Evaristo Iglesias, said he and another person accompanied the blood-soaked Garzon to flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive.

"He told us that he wanted to die," Iglesias told Antena 3 television. "He said he had needed to brake but couldn't," Iglesias said. He added that Garzon said "he had been going fast."

The train carrying 218 passenger in eight cars hurtled far over the 80-kph (50-mph) speed limit into a high-risk curve on Wednesday, tumbling off the tracks and slamming into a concrete wall, with some of the cars catching fire. The Spanish rail agency has said the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve.

On Sunday, Garzon was moved from the police station in the northwestern Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela, near where the accident occurred, to its courthouse just as the deadline of his 72 hours of detention was to expire.

Luis Alaez, the investigative judge, was to question the driver in private and was not expected to comment about it afterward. The judge also was to have access to the information contained in the train's "black box," which is similar to those found on aircraft, officials said.

Investigators must determine if Garzon failed to apply the brakes or whether it was a technical failure.

Previously Garzon had exercised his right to remain silent when police tried to interview him, officials said. Spain's state-run train company has described him as an experience driver who knew the route well.

In its report about the accident, Antena 3 television showed a photograph of Iglesias in a pink shirt and cap helping to carry the driver after the train accident. The station also aired television footage of Iglesias working beside the wrecked train to help other survivors.

In the interview, Iglesias recalled Garzon's words, "'I don't want to see this, I want to die,' that's what he said repeatedly," said Iglesias. "'I had to brake down to 80 and couldn't,'" Iglesias quoted the driver as saying.

On Sunday, the death toll from the train derailment rose to 79 when an injured passenger died at University Hospital in Santiago de Compostela, officials said. She was identified as American Myrta Fariza of Houston, her family said in a statement. Fariza's friends and family had created a Facebook page while she was hospitalized titled "Hope for Myrta," where they collected donations and communicated.

Officials said 70 people injured in the train accident remained hospitalized on Sunday, 22 in critical condition.

Iglesias was among survivors and witnesses who began to give evidence to police on Sunday.

Meanwhile, authorities said forensic experts have identified the last three bodies among the 79 dead.

Victims have been reported from France, Algeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Mexico and the United States, but officials have not publicly identified each victim or his or her nationality.

Mourning continued throughout Spain, with Sunday church services being held in remembrance of the dead. A large funeral mass is planned for Monday afternoon in Santiago de Compostela, and the prime minister and royal family are expected to attend.

The crash has cast a pall over the town, a Catholic pilgrimage site. Santiago officials had been preparing for the religious feast of St. James of Compostela, Spain's patron saint, but canceled it after the crash and turned a local sporting arena into a morgue.

___

Heckle contributed from Madrid, and AP correspondent Ramit Plushnick-Masti contributed from Houston.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-questions-train-driver-over-crash-spain-175812900.html

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Can coal power help eradicate poverty from India?

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Source: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/news/can-coal-power-help-eradicate-poverty-india

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Israeli and Palestinian negotiators invited to talks in Washington, D.C.

Ronen Zvulun / Reuters

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem July 28, 2013. Netanyahu on Sunday urged divided rightists in his cabinet to approve the release of 104 Arab prisoners in order to restart peace talk with the Palestinians.

By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators ??stalled for three years ??are set to resume in Washington, D.C., this week, the State Department said in a news release on Sunday.

Teams of negotiators from the two countries have accepted invitations to ?resume direct final status negotiations," according to the release.

According to a senior U.S. official, the meeting will take place over two days beginning Monday evening before an iftar dinner,??a meal that breaks the day of fasting during Ramadan. Those meetings will tentatively lay a groundwork for further negotiations in the coming months, according to the release.

All meetings will take place at the State Department, the official said.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho will travel to the U.S. to represent Israel, while Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat and Mohammad Shtayyeh will represent the Palestinians.

"Both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point.? We are grateful for their leadership," Secretary of State John Kerry said in the statement.?

News of the meetings came shortly after the Israel?s cabinet approved the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, whose freedom knocked aside a barrier for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to come to the negotiating table.??

"This moment is not easy for me, is not easy for the cabinet ministers, and is not easy especially for the bereaved families, whose feelings I understand," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to families who have lost members in militant attacks, according to Reuters.

"But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the nation and this is one of those moments," Netanyahu said.

While in Amman, Jordan on July 19, Kerry told reporters that the two countries had begun to lay the groundwork to resume talks after months of intense shuttle diplomacy by America?s newly appointed chief diplomat.

"The representatives of two proud people today have decided that the difficult road ahead is worth traveling," Kerry said at the time.

On again, off again negotiations have taken place over the last two decades. U.S. sponsored talked broke down in late 2010 over a disputed Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

But the 13-7 vote, with two abstentions, by the Israeli government, to release the prisoners cleared the way for peace talks to resume.

Netanyahu said on his Facebook page that the inmates would be freed only after talks began and would be released in groups based on the progress of the talks. Following the vote, hundreds of Israelis took to the streets to protest, including family members who lost loved ones killed by Palestinian militants.

Palestinians have long demanded the release of the prisoners who have been jailed in Israel since before 1993, when both countries signed an interim peace treaty known as the Oslo Accords.

Erekat commend Israel for setting in motion the steps to release the prisoners, but added that the move was well overdue.?

``We call on Israel to seize the opportunity ... to put an end to decades of occupation and exile and to start a new stage of justice, freedom and peace for Israel, Palestine and the rest of the region,'' he said, according to Reuters.?

The release of the prisoners gives Netanyahu flexibility to negotiate around other Palestinian demands, like stopping the expansion of Jewish settlements and the guarantee that talks over borders will be based on boundaries drawn before the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel took the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

Israeli officials have insisted that the country be able to keep East Jerusalem and several settlement blocs as part of any peace deal.

Negotiations would likely take months to complete, and no more details about the framework of a possible deal have been released.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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