Activists at Syrian 'national dialogue' call for end to violence - CNN International

Syrian officials and delegates attend the national dialogue meeting in Damascus on July 10, 2011.NEW: "The bloodshed needs to stop. ... Excessive force is unjustified," one activist saysSyria's vice president says the meeting is a step toward creating a "democratic nation"Some government opponents criticize the Damascus University meetingSyria's foreign ministry summons U.S. and French ambassadors

(CNN) -- Activists speaking at a Syrian government-sponsored "national dialogue" meeting Sunday criticized recent crackdowns by the country's security forces, calling for an end to violence against protesters.

Syria's vice president hailed the Damascus University meeting between officials and members of the opposition as a step toward creating a "democratic nation."

"We hope that at the end of this comprehensive meeting to announce the transition of Syria to a pluralistic democratic nation where all citizens are guided by equality and participate in the modeling of the future of their country," Vice President Faruq al-Shara said in opening remarks at the meeting, which was broadcast live on state television.

Syrian activists say that security personnel have assaulted unarmed protesters during months of anti-government demonstrations that erupted nationwide in mid-March. The Syrian government has claimed armed groups are responsible for the violence at the demonstrations.

Several speakers at Sunday's meeting called on Syria's government to change its tactics.

"The bloodshed needs to stop. Yes, there are unauthorized protests, but is it a reason to use unjustified and excessive violence? The use of all types of excessive force is unjustified," said Qadri Jameel of the opposition Front of Change and Liberation.

Syrian researcher Al-Tayyeb Tizzina also criticized the use of force and asked for violence to stop in order for the dialogue to succeed.

"The establishment of a political society requires the immediate start of a process dismantling the police state that is dominating Syria," he said.

Al-Shara acknowledged that a surge of violence in Syria precipitated Sunday's meeting.

"We have to admit that without the big sacrifices that were presented by the Syrian people, from the blood of their sons, civilians or military in more than one province, city and town, this meeting wouldn't have happened," he said.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the meeting included members of the opposition, independent activists, youth leaders and academics.

But some opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime have criticized the meeting, saying the government is trying to quiet widespread unrest without making meaningful changes.

Demonstrators protested the meeting in nationwide "no dialogue" marches Friday.

"Any dialogue must be based on the base of (al-Assad's) stepping down from power," said a statement from the Change in Syria Conference, an opposition group which called for al-Assad to hand over power to the vice president at a meeting in Turkey last month.

Sunday's dialogue meeting began as Syria's foreign ministry summoned the U.S. and French ambassadors and accused them of interfering in internal affairs when they visited Syria's fourth largest city without permission last week, state media reported.

The ministry told the diplomats that their visit to the city of Hama violated the Vienna Convention, according to SANA.

On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford visited Hama as part of what the State Department called an

effort to show American support for Syrians fighting for democracy. He was in Hama early Friday and departed.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland issued a blunt rebuttal to similar Syrian government accusations Friday, calling claims that Ford's visit was inciting protesters "absolute rubbish" and saying she was "dismayed" by the Syrian government's reaction. Nuland said that the U.S. Embassy had notified the Syrian Defense Ministry before the visit and that Ford's car was waved through a security checkpoint.

France's ambassador to Syria, Eric Chevallier, also visited Hama Thursday and spent the night, the French government said, meeting with wounded people and their families and medical staffers at a hospital.

Al-Assad issued a decree appointing a Hama provincial governor Sunday, a day after firing the existing leader after a series of peaceful demonstrations there, including a massive anti-government protest last Friday.

Activists and Human Rights Watch have reported many arrests and deaths in a fierce government crackdown in the area. Citizens have called a general strike in the city.

Diplomatic tensions over Syria also flared in Washington last week, with the State Department summoning Syrian Ambassador Imad Mustapha Friday.

The State Department said Mustapha was called "to express a number of our concerns with the reported actions of certain Syrian embassy staff in the United States."

The statement, issued in response to a question taken at Friday's daily briefing, said the State Department had received reports that Syrian mission personnel had been conducting video surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States.

"We are also investigating reports that the Syrian government has sought retribution against Syrian family members for the actions of their relatives in the United States exercising their lawful rights in this country and will respond accordingly," the statement said.

CNN's Yousuf Basil and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.

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Egyptian frustrations with army, government mount - Reuters

A protester holding a big Egyptian flag walks in Tahrir square in Cairo July 10, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih

By Dina Zayed and Shaimaa Fayed

CAIRO | Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:56am EDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian activists vowed on Sunday to stay camped in Cairo's Tahrir Square, accusing the army rulers of failing to sweep out corruption, end the use of military courts and swiftly try those who killed protesters.

Anger has been rising against what many Egyptians see as the reluctance of the military council to deliver on the demands of protesters who ousted Hosni Mubarak in February. They include speeding up the pace of Mubarak's trial over the killings of demonstrators, which is scheduled to start August 3.

A speech by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Saturday that promised action but was thin on detail only stoked frustrations.

One speaker in Tahrir, the symbolic center of the revolt that toppled Mubarak, said Sharaf deserved a "red card," the soccer term for being sent off. Youth groups on Facebook called for stepping up action this week.

Analysts said the army-appointed government needed to act quickly if it wanted to avoid a further escalation even if some of the aspirations for change were unreasonably high.

The Public Prosecution office, in what appeared to be an attempt to placate protesters, posted a list of the legal measures it had taken against senior officials of the Interior Ministry accused of killing protesters, including trial dates.

An Egyptian judge also said on Sunday that new criminal cases would be deferred to other courts to free up judges reviewing cases linked to corruption and the death of protesters, in line with Sharaf's call to expedite protester demands.

Hundreds of people were camped in Tahrir Square, in the heart of Cairo, throughout Sunday. Activists said more would join late in the day, including some heading in from Suez where protests have been taking place since Wednesday.

A sign reading: "Civil disobedience until further notice" was pinned up outside the vast 'Mogamma' administrative building in Tahrir. Protesters blocked the main roads to the square and set up security barricades.

Employees and some who made the trip to finish paperwork at the administrative building -- stood arguing with protesters that they had jobs to do -- after being barred from entry.

Makeshift tents were set up in the center of the square, where some protesters have stayed since a mass rally on Friday dubbed "Revolution First" that demanded swifter reforms. Some chanted for Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to go.

Tantawi, who now leads the military council in charge of Egypt, was Mubarak's defense minister for two decades. The army has pledged to hand power to civilians soon and has scheduled a parliamentary election for September.

"The entire military council served Mubarak and the entire Cabinet is nothing but the remnants of his regime," a longtime critic of the former president, Abdel Hamid Qandil, said.

'EMOTIONS ARE RISING'

"We have been manipulated for almost six months. If our demands are not met, there will be further escalation," said a 37-year-old protester, who identified himself only as Mohamed.

After Sharaf's speech, the Revolution Youth Coalition called for speeding up trials, hiking the minimum wage, stopping trials of civilians in military courts and reforming the Interior Ministry, criticised by Egyptians for the rough manner police handled protests during and since the uprising.

"People's emotions are rising, especially over the issue of retribution for the killers (of protesters). ... There is no patience, especially because the people know the killers, saw them and reported them," said Adel Soliman, executive director of the International Center for Future and Strategic Studies.

More than 100 Egyptian political groups warned they reserved the right "to use all legitimate methods to push for achieving their demands, foremost of which a general strike, civil disobedience."

The prime minister has come in for increasingly tough criticism. His appointment in March was initially welcomed as the former minister had joined protesters in Tahrir even when Mubarak was still in office. Now, activists say he has failed to act firmly as a mediator between protesters and the army.

Ahmed Abdullah wrote on Facebook after Sharaf's speech: "What I am failing to understand is this is not what was demanded in Tahrir. Essam Sharaf promised he would achieve the demands of the revolution or join it, where is that promise."

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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What We Could Lose if the James Webb Telescope Is Killed - PC Magazine

NASA's next space-based observatory is on the chopping block due to budget cuts. If it dies, a whole universe of discovery could die with it.

NASA's James Webb telescope, the successor to the Hubble, is on the chopping block. With the U.S. Congress arguing over fiscal matters, one of the things that may get cut is NASA's budget, with the expensive James Webb telescope potentially getting the ax. If that happens, a generation of scientific discoveries about the nature of the universe may need to be put on hold.

Right now the future of the Webb telescope, scheduled to launch in 2018, is uncertain. Congress is looking to cut costs, and NASA's budget could be cut by as much as $1.6 billion (or about nine percent of its overall budget). Such a big cut would certainly be the death knell for the Webb telescope, which has so far cost $3 billion but whose final price is expected to hit the $6.8-billion mark.

"The cost overruns are driven by a couple things," says Rick Howard, the program director of the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA. "We've had ten or so technologies that needed to work in order to have this kind of telescope—mirrors actuators, the sunshade. We've made great progress, but it's taken longer and it's been harder than we thought. We've hand to invent new adhesives for carbon fiber because what we thought was the right chemical equation didn't work at all. Another source was inadequate early funding of reserves."

Seeing in Infrared

With the Webb in jeopardy, its mission to find out more about the nature of the universe may be postponed. The telescope is fundamentally different from Hubble, scanning the infrared spectrum rather than visual light. Being able to see in infrared is the key to the Webb making new discoveries. For example, it will be able to penetrate dust clouds that are opaque to normal telescopes.

But seeing in infrared is also one of the reasons the Webb is so expensive. Since all objects emit some infrared light, the telescope needs to be positioned much farther from the earth than normal satellites to shield it from potential interference. In fact, the Webb will ultimately be four times further from the earth than the moon. At such a long distance, servicing the telescope will be impossible, says NASA, so it cannot afford any screw-ups or design flaws. As such, testing the Webb's components is extremely detailed.

"We are very concerned about that," says Howard. " There's a huge amount of testing that goes on. We've gone to great lengths to build both sub-scale and full-scale prototypes in order to be able to make sure we fully understand this design. In addition to that we have a lot of testing going on of the flight unit."

What We'll Lose With the Webb

Once it's in place, though, the Webb is quite literally expected to unlock a universe of discoveries. Positioned so far from the Earth and shielded from outside infrared interference, the telescope will be able to see things the Hubble never could. Chief among them: seeing back in time. Since light only travels so fast, the further you look out, the further you look back. The Webb is expected to be able to peer into some of the universe's earliest moments, before even stars existed. This could give insight into how the cosmos came into being.

On top of that, the Webb is going to be looking at how the first galaxies were formed. From observations from Hubble and other telescopes, we know know most galaxies have huge black holes at their centers, but questions remain about how this symbiotic pairing of black holes and stars emerges. The answer likely has to do with "dark matter," the term for the missing matter in the universe that scientists can observe the gravitational effects of, but can't see directly. By looking into the formation of galaxies, the Webb may unlock the secrets of this mysterious substance.

"We'll be looking at the very first stars and galaxies in the universe, which right now are very fuzzy little blobs on the deepest images with Hubble," says Howard. "Not just seeing them, but getting [good] resolution on them. Because it'll be able to look back at the earliest galaxies, it'll be able to see how dark matter has affected light as it travels to us."

Finally, the Webb may help answer the question of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. The telescope will be able to see better than ever before planets in other star systems and more importantly—which ones have water. A planet with large amounts of water is a prime candidate for life, and the Webb could point us right to them.

"[We'll] be able to look at those planets and look at the spectra, the composition of the atmosphere, the composition of water— it's something only the [James Webb telescope] will be able to do," Howard says. "It'll be able to tell water in the atmosphere, maybe even on the surface."

Looking Back at Hubble

All of its potential discoveries come at a price, however, and it may be one Congress isn't willing to pay. The risk factor is high, too, since the telescope must set itself up perfectly at a vast distance from the earth. If anything goes wrong, it's billions in wasted taxpayer dollars.

In considering the fate of the Webb, it's informative to look back at Hubble, which led to almost two decades of cosmological discovery. Besides finding those galactic black-hole nuclei, Hubble's observations revealed the age of the universe, the repulsive force known as "dark energy," and that planets are common.

"When we launched Hubble, no one thought that it would be able to make the observations and discoveries that it has," Howard says. "Hubble's the only telescope that has ever made an actual observation of a planet orbiting another star. Nobody else has done that. When we launched Hubble, no one had even thought dark energy existed.

"The discovery space is huge for this observatory."

For more from Peter, follow him on Twitter @petepachal.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

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