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Friday, May 10, 2013

Tax Traps For Contractors | Stuff.co.nz

Working as a contractor may seem a great way to be self-employed and find a better work-life balance, or just a good way to find work when full-time jobs are scarce.

But there are many traps for the uninitiated and particularly on the tax front.

Tax experts offer six steps to avoiding trouble with the Inland Revenue Department.

1. Are you a contractor or an employee?
Ernst & Young partner Jo Doolan said with the economic downturn more companies have switched to hiring contractors rather than employing full-time staff, to cut down on costs such as sick leave and holiday pay.

But on closer examination these contractors have been deemed to be employees - without the advantages of being contractors or the legal rights of employees.

Accountant and tax advisor Denise Maffey said if you're unsure what your employment status is ask yourself "who has control?".

"Employers will typically put someone on contract because there is no requirement to play nice under the Holidays Act," she said.

"When you are on a contract you are engaged for a specific period. You do your own research and provide your own equipment.

"If the boss starts to tell you when to start, what to wear, what gear to use, you're an employee."

2.Withholding Tax is not PAYE
Most contractors have withholding tax of 20 per cent taken out of their earnings, which is okay if you earn under about $55,000 a year, said Maffey.

"But if you're on more than about $30 an hour that is not going to be enough and you're going to end up with a tax debt," she said.

"That problem is compounded by many contractors, particularly those working as labourers or agricultural workers, being unaware they need to file end-of-year tax returns.

"If those workers don't know they have to file returns, then they won't know they have not paid all their tax requirements. They end up being pursued by the IRD for failure to furnish."

By far the most common trap for contractors was a lack of discipline in setting aside enough income to cover tax payments, says Lou Draper, marketing manager for BW Chartered Accountants.

"It's tempting to think that what comes into your bank account is all yours," she said.

"Most contractors get their first few invoices in and are really focussed, setting some aside for tax and other expenses.

"Then time goes by and they borrow out of the work account always intending to repay it but never managing it. Then at tax time it all goes badly."

The answer was to get good advice or make use of cloud accounting packages like Xero to track income and outgoings.

3.Your first year is not tax-free
While it may seem as though you pay no tax in your first year as a contractor, that was not actually true, said Draper.

"You do pay tax for that first year, you just don't pay it at the end of that year," she said.

Instead contractors paid Provisional Tax in their second year, as well as Withholding Tax and end-of-year PAYE.

"You hear a lot about small businesses going under after two years," she said.

"Nine times out of 10 that's because they haven't allowed for the double lot of tax you pay in that second year. They can't afford to keep operating and find that extra amount of money to pay Provisional Tax."

It was the same with GST, she said.

"People see that 15 per cent they've invoiced for and forget that it has to be handed on. It's not theirs." Doolan suggested contractors combine Provisional Tax payments with GST in their first year to avoid being "pinged" with a double lot of tax in their second year.

4. Educate yourself
Before setting up, all prospective contractors should make an attempt to educate themselves on tax compliance and get good advice, Draper said.

Maffey said there was a general lack of "civic understanding" around tax among a lot of contractors, which caused problems down the line.

Apart from the issue of owing the taxman money, failure to furnish tax returns also impacted on contractors' ability to claim Working for Families entitlements and how much they were assessed for child support payments.

5. Should you become a company instead?
Contractors should not be lured into setting up a company based on the fact that they would taxed at 28 per cent rather than 33 per cent, Doolan said.

If you are the sole person operating that company then you'd still be taxed at the higher rate.

There were non-tax reasons for becoming a company, however, such as limiting liability and making it easier to grow your business and attract clients.

6. Ask for help
If you get into financial or tax trouble ask for help early, Draper said.

"Talk to a financial advisor or accountant and the IRD can be really helpful if you talk to them early and are upfront about having made a mistake," she said.

Doolan said an accountant wasn't always necessary but it was important for contractors to consider the value of their own time.

"In your first year you are trying to generate business and make a good impression," she said.

"Is spending time on your GST returns the best use of it?"

An IRD spokesman said anyone having difficulty meeting a payment date or who had made an error in their returns should talk to the IRD as soon as possible so the issue could be corrected.

Burying your head in the sand would only make things worse.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/8657945/Tax-traps-for-contractors

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Three kidnapped women in Ohio endured decade of isolation, rape, beatings

By Kim Palmer and Kevin Gray

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An ex-school bus driver accused in the abduction ordeal of three young Ohio women was due in court on Thursday to face charges he kidnapped and raped the victims, who authorities said were held captive in the dungeon-like confines of his house for 10 years.

As two of the women received jubilant homecomings from loved ones on Wednesday and the third remained in hospital, authorities in Cleveland disclosed details of the isolation and brutal treatment the captives endured before they were freed earlier this week.

Officials said the three women were at times bound in chains or rope and endured starvation, beatings, sexual assaults and in the case of one of them, several miscarriages deliberately induced by their captor.

Their imprisonment came to an end on Monday after neighbors, drawn to the house by cries for help, broke through a door to rescue Amanda Berry, whose disappearance in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday was widely publicized in the local media.

The recording of her frantic emergency-911 call that evening, declaring, "I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," has been replayed countless times on television news broadcasts around the world.

Rescued with Berry, now 27, was her 6-year-old daughter, conceived and born during her confinement, and two fellow captives - Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished at age 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who was 20 when she went missing in 2002.

Their accused abductor and tormentor, Ariel Castro, 52, who was fired from his job driving school buses last fall, was formally charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping the women. He was scheduled to be arraigned in court on Thursday morning, prosecutors said.

His two brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were initially arrested as suspects in the case but were not charged after investigators determined they had no knowledge of the abductions or captivity of the women, police said.

MISCARRIAGES INDUCED

However, the two brothers also were slated to appear in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

Berry told police that her escape on Monday marked her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was imprisoned, an opportunity occasioned by Castro's momentary absence.

It also became clear that Berry's pregnancy with her daughter was not an isolated incident, according to Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, who based his information on a police report from the initial investigation and briefing by police department sources.

Cummins said one of the three women - he did not know who - had suffered at least five miscarriages that Castro is accused of having intentionally caused by starving her for weeks and beating her in the abdomen.

Berry's baby was born in a plastic inflatable kiddy pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl's father.

All three women were held in the home's basement for long periods, restrained with ropes and chains and occasionally starved, according to Cummins. Authorities have described the condition of the home as squalid.

Cummins said the victims were kept apart in the house until their captor at some point gained sufficient confidence in his control over them to allow them to mingle. While separated in the house, the three women were isolated in different rooms but were aware of the others' presence, police said.

Authorities said the women recalled leaving the confines of the house just twice during their captivity, ushered on both occasions into a separate garage on the small lot while disguised in wigs and hats.

The women also told police their abductions occurred when Castro offered them rides and they accepted, authorities said.

Cummins said much of their ordeal was recounted by the women as soon as they were freed.

"En route to the hospital there was just a flood of information shared by these victims immediately," he said. "One can only imagine the mental distress and eruptions of joy and emotions."

JOYFUL HOMECOMINGS

On Wednesday, after spending a day in seclusion following their hospital evaluations, Berry and DeJesus were each glimpsed by television cameras being whisked to celebrations with family members - Berry and her daughter at her sister's house and DeJesus at her mother's home.

Neither Berry, who was last seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant, nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school, spoke publicly.

But DeJesus, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra and hiding her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt, raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting "Gina, Gina."

Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital, where she was listed in good condition.

Castro, owner of the modest, two-story house, had been thought by neighbors to live there alone.

Questions have mounted since the three women were freed as to how their captivity escaped notice for so long, despite what neighbors said were a number of suspicious incidents at the house in the low-income community of Cleveland's West Side.

Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-captive-tells-police-she-took-first-chance-000104440.html

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Microsoft retools Windows 8 to address gripes - Technology on ...

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Michael Liedtke The Associated Press

May 7, 2013 at 9:36 AM ET

FILE - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York, in this Oct. 25, 2012 file photo. Micros...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York on Oct. 25, 2012 file photo.

Microsoft is retooling the latest version of its Windows operating system to address complaints and confusion that have been blamed for deepening a slump in personal computer sales.

The tune up announced Tuesday won't be released to consumers and businesses until later this year. The changes, part of a software package given the codename "Blue," are a tacit acknowledgment of the shortcomings in Windows 8, a radical overhaul of Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous operating system.

With the makeover it released last October, Microsoft hoped to play a more prominent role in the growing mobile device market while still maintaining its dominance in PCs. But Windows 8's design, which emphasizes interactive tiles and touch controls, seems to have befuddled as many people as it has impressed. One leading research firm, International Data Corp., says Windows 8 contributed to a 14 percent decline in worldwide PC sales during the first three months of the year ? the biggest year-over-year drop ever.

Meanwhile, sales of smartphones and tablet computers are booming. The biggest beneficiaries have been Apple Inc., the maker of the iPhone and iPad, and Samsung Electronics Co., which sells the most devices running on Google Inc.'s Android software. Google is also benefiting from Android's popularity through increased traffic to its services, creating more opportunities for the company to display ads.

By contrast, leading PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., which primarily sell Windows-powered machines, have been mired in a financial funk that has battered their stocks and raised questions about their futures.

Despite the troubling signs, Microsoft insists it's pleased with Windows 8's performance.

The company, which is based in Redmond, Wash., says more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold so far, up from about 60 million licenses in January. The licensing volume "is in the same general ballpark," as Microsoft's previous operating system ? Windows 7 ? at a similar juncture of its sales cycle, according to Tami Reller, who serves as the marketing and financial chief for Microsoft's Windows business.

In an interview, Reller said Microsoft still realized changes need to be made to make Windows 8 easier to navigate and capable of taking full advantage of technology improvements that have come out since October.

"Are there things that we can do to improve the experience? Absolutely," Reller said "There is a learning curve (to Windows 8) and we can work to address that."

For now, Microsoft isn't saying what kind of changes will be introduced with the release of Blue, which the company plans to anoint with a different name when the update is available. Microsoft also isn't saying whether it will charge existing owners of Windows 8 devices to get the fixes in Blue. The company plans to release Blue in time for the holiday season.

Reller said more details about Blue will be released before Microsoft holds a developers conference in San Francisco in late June. Some of Blue's features are expected to be previewed at that conference.

If Blue is meant to make people more comfortable, the changes may incorporate more of the elements from earlier versions of Windows.

A common complaint has centered on the lack of a "start" button in the Windows 8 menu.

Other critics have pined for an option that would allow the system to begin in a desktop mode suited for running applications designed for earlier versions of the operating system. Windows 8 currently starts off showing a mosaic of interactive tiles tailored for swiping through programs with a finger instead of using a computer mouse.

Blue also might make it easier to find a set of controls ? known as "charms" in Windows 8's parlance ? that currently must be pulled out from the right side of a display screen.

Besides responding to customer feedback, Blue also will improve Windows 8's ability to work on smaller tablets with 7- and 8-inch display screens, Reller said. She declined to say whether Microsoft intends to make smaller version of its own Surface tablets. In a conference call with analysts last month, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said the company was working with other manufacturers to make smaller tablets.

One thing that Blue won't fix: the relatively small selection of mobile applications tailored for Windows 8. Reller said the Windows 8 store now has more than 60,000 apps. By contrast, there are more than 800,000 apps available for Apple's mobile's devices and nearly that many for Android devices, too. In one of the most glaring omissions on Windows 8, Facebook Inc. still hasn't designed an app to make its online social network more accessible on that system. Facebook has about 750 million mobile users.

Microsoft's decision to tweak Windows 8 so soon after it went on sale may reinforce perceptions that the product is a flop.

Reller is trying to frame the changes as evidence that Microsoft is becoming more agile and nimble as it responds to a rapidly evolving technology market. Smartphones and tablet computers have been at the epicenter of the upheaval, diminishing the demand for PCs as more people and businesses opt for the convenience of increasingly powerful mobile devices.

The mobile computing movement is the main reason that Microsoft made the most dramatic redesign of its Windows operating system since 1995. Given how different that Windows 8 is from its predecessors, Reller said Microsoft always knew it might have to make some adjustments less than a year after the software came out.

"It had to be a very big change to take advantage of the mobile opportunity," she said.

Analysts say one reason Windows 8 got off to a slow start is because there weren't enough devices designed to take advantage of the system's touch-screen features. But that is about to change as HP, Dell and other PC makers prepare to roll out a wide variety of laptops and tablets with displays that respond to touch. More than 2,400 devices have now been certified to run on Windows 8, up from 2,000 in January, Reller said.

Most of the touch-screen laptops will sell at prices $50 to $250 below the first wave of comparable machines running on Windows 8, reductions that Microsoft hopes will prod more people to check out the system.

"As we look at Windows 8, it's important to remember a lot of its full potential won't be realized until there are more touch devices on the market," Reller said.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/microsoft-retools-windows-8-address-gripes-6C9813861

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

All Europeans related? Genes reveal a continent of cousins.

All Europeans are related, sharing a common ancestor as recently as 1,000 years ago, according to a gene study published today.

By Tia Ghose,?Live Science Staff Writer / May 7, 2013

Maps that show where the distant cousins of modern-day people in the UK live, at three different levels of relatedness (recent on top, older on the right, oldest on the bottom). Bigger circles mean more ancestors, and numbers give average number of shared genetic alleles.

Ralph P, Coop G/PLOS ONE

Enlarge

Europeans all shared a common ancestor just 1,000 years ago, new genetic research reveals.

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Scientists drew this conclusion, detailed today (May 7) in the journal PLOS Biology, by calculating the length of regions of shared DNA from 2,000 Europeans.

The same technique hasn't been applied to other continents, but people in other parts of the world are just as likely to be closely related, the researchers said.

"In fact, it's likely that everyone in the world is related over just the past few thousand years," said study co-author Graham Coop, a geneticist at the University of California, Davis.?

All in the family

For more than a decade, researchers calculated theoretically that all people shared common ancestors fairly recently.

To test that theory, Coop and his colleagues analyzed 500,000 spots on the genome of Europeans, from Turkey to the United Kingdom. To untangle European ancestry, they calculated the length of shared segments of DNA, or the molecules that contain the genetic instructions for life. When two people share a longer stretch of identical DNA, they are likely to share a more recent common ancestor, since over time those gene segments evolve and diversify.

The researchers found that all Europeans shared a common ancestor just 1,000 years ago.

There were also some regional surprises.

For instance, Italians are slightly less related to one another than people from other European countries are to one another, perhaps because Italians have had a large, fairly stable population for a few thousand years.

In addition, people from the United Kingdom are more related to people from Ireland than they are to other people from the United Kingdom. That's possibly because many people have migrated from the smaller country of Ireland to the bigger United Kingdom in the past several hundred years, Coop told LiveScience.

The researchers also showed that people in Eastern Europe were slightly more related to each other than were those in Western Europe.

Recent history

That may be the signature of Slavic expansion and migrations, such as those of the Huns and the Goths, about 1,000 years ago, said John Novembre, a population geneticist at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study.

The new findings are exciting because they allow researchers to trace much more recent human history.

"In the past human geneticists have been able to focus on the types of population movement that have taken place over tens of thousands of years ? like moving out of Africa and into Eurasia," Novembre told LiveScience. "They're starting to see population movements that have taken place in the middle ages."

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/BooT4HygUW4/All-Europeans-related-Genes-reveal-a-continent-of-cousins

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Roach: Is there a link between cancer and stress?

Dr. Paul Roach

IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN CANCER AND STRESS?

BY KEITH ROACH, M.D.

DEAR DR. ROACH: Several of my friends developed breast cancer shortly after the death of their husband, child or someone else close. Your comments, please, regarding great stress and cancer. -- M.W.

ANSWER: I think there are two issues here. The first is that prolonged, severe stress predisposes us to illness -- including cancer, heart disease and infection.

The second is that caregivers don?t always take good care of themselves -- don?t recognize or pay attention to early signs that problems are coming on. One of my colleagues wisely reminds her patients that they always tell you on an airplane to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others. You need to be in good condition to be able to help others. I know (I really do) how hard it is, but take some time for yourself. That includes going for your regular check-ups and getting your appropriate screening tests.

DEAR DR. ROACH: Several, but not all, of our grandchildren strongly take after one side of the family. In complexion, hair and eye color and build, these kids are ?chips off the block? of this one side of the family. Is it also likely that they will then have a propensity to inherit that family?s most prominent health conditions: arthritis, blood pressure, dental, eyesight and drinking tendencies? -- G.P.

ANSWER: Both genetics and environment contribute to the likelihood of an individual showing signs or symptoms of diseases or medical conditions. However, there is roughly a 50 percent chance of any characteristic coming from a given side. Of the conditions you mention, all of them have some genetic component, but there isn?t a way to tell about one characteristic from another, in general. In other words, even if your granddaughter is the very image of her aunt with high blood pressure, there is no guarantee that she will have high blood pressure too. Her risk is only somewhat higher than the average person?s.

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have heard conflicting reports about flaxseed oil. Dr. Donohue recommended flaxseed oil, but I read another article that said it should not be consumed. I thought it was a good source of omega-3, but now I don?t know if I should throw out my capsules. I see far fewer flaxseed oil products displayed on counters compared to what there once was. -- S.G.

ANSWER: Flaxseed oil does contain large amount of ALA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid. There is pretty good evidence that this oil may reduce the risk of heart disease by acting favorably on cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

However, ground flax seeds contain both the ALA and also fiber and lignans. Fiber helps with bowel regularity (both for diarrhea and constipation), and lignans have estrogenlike properties and are purported to have anticancer properties, as yet unproven in humans. The estrogen effect of ground flaxseed is not enough to help with hot flashes, but it may be enough to cause problems in pregnant women or those with a history of breast cancer.

The article you sent recommended ground flax instead of flaxseed oil. Ground flax has the advantages of the fiber, and the mixed effects of the lignans. Both ground flax and flaxseed oil can go rancid unless stored in sealed containers or refrigerated.

* * *

Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Health newsletters may be ordered from www.rbmamall.com.

Source: http://lubbockonline.com/health/2013-05-03/roach-there-link-between-cancer-and-stress

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Tensions spike after new Israeli strikes in Syria

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

FILE -- In this Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012 file photo, the Iron Dome defense system fires to intercept an incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Israel. Israel's military has deployed Iron Dome defense system to the north of the country following Israeli airstrikes in neighboring Syria targeting weapons believed to be destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah militants. Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets and Hezbollah has thousands of such projectiles. (AP Photo /Tsafrir Abayov, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 file photo, an Israeli Iron Dome missile is launched near the city of Be'er Sheva, southern Israel, to intercept a rocket fired from Gaza. Israel's military has deployed Iron Dome defense system to the north of the country on Sunday May 5, 2013 following Israeli airstrikes in neighboring Syria targeting weapons believed to be destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah militants. Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets and Hezbollah has thousands of such projectiles. (AP Photo/Ahikam Seri, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Israeli warplanes struck targets in the Syrian capital Sunday for the second time in three days, officials and activists said, unleashing a series of massive explosions and raising fears of possible wider conflict in the region.

The attacks, which Israeli officials said targeted sophisticated, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, marked a sharp spike in Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near Damascus and caused casualties.

Syria's government called the attacks against its territory a "flagrant violation of international law" that has made the Middle East "more dangerous." It said "Israel should know that our people and state do not accept humiliation" and warned Syria has the right "to defend its people by all available means."

The generally muted response, read out by the information minister after an emergency government meeting, and appeared to signal that Damascus did not want the situation to escalate.

Instead, it tried to use the strikes to taint the opposition, claiming the attacks were evidence of an alliance between Israel and Islamic extremist groups trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

The air raids pose a dilemma for the regime: Failure to respond could make it look weak and open the door to more strikes, but retaliating militarily against Israel would risk dragging the Jewish state and its powerful army into a broader conflict.

The tempo of the new strikes added a dangerous dynamic to the conflict, fueling concerns that events could spin out of control and spark a regional crisis.

Israel's military, possibly bracing for Syrian retaliation, deployed two batteries of its Iron Dome rocket defense system to the north of the country on Sunday. It described the move as part of "ongoing situational assessments."

A senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose information about a secret military operation, confirmed that Israel launched an airstrike in the Syrian capital early Sunday but did not give more precise details about the location. The target was Fateh-110 missiles, which have precision guidance systems with better aim than anything Hezbollah is known to have in its arsenal, the official told The Associated Press.

The airstrikes come as Washington considers how to respond to indications that the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options ? including possible military action.

The White House declined for a second day to confirm or comment directly on the airstrikes in Syria, but said Obama believes Israel has the right to defend itself against threats from groups like Hezbollah.

"The Israelis are justifiably concerned about the threat posed by Hezbollah obtaining advanced weapons systems, including some long-range missiles" White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama traveled to Ohio.

Iran, a close ally of the Assad regime and Hezbollah, condemned the airstrikes, and a senior official hinted at a possible response not from Tehran but rather its proxy, Hezbollah.

Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, assistant to the Iranian chief-of-staff, told Iran's state-run Arabic-language Al-Alam TV that Tehran "will not allow the enemy (Israel) to harm the security of the region" and that "the resistance will retaliate against the Israeli aggression against Syria."

Israel has said it wants to stay out of the Syrian war on its doorstep, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the Jewish state would be prepared to take military action to prevent sophisticated weapons from flowing from Syria to Hezbollah or other extremist groups.

Israel and Hezbollah have a long history of enmity, and fought a punishing monthlong war in mid-2006. The militant group fired thousands of rockets at Israel, while Israeli warplanes destroyed large areas of southern and eastern Lebanon during a conflict that ended in stalemate.

With Syria now engulfed in an internal conflict, Israel is especially concerned that Hezbollah will take advantage of the chaos and try to smuggle advanced weapons into Lebanon, particularly those that could hamper Israel's ability to operate in Lebanese skies.

Officials in Israel say they have identified several "game changing" weapons that would trigger military intervention in Syria: chemical weapons, long-range Scud B missiles, the Fateh-110s, land-to-sea Yakhont missiles and SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles.

Israeli officials believe that Iran and Hezbollah are stepping up their efforts to smuggle weapons because they think Assad's days are numbered. They also think the Syrian leader is cooperating because he is weak and he owes Hezbollah, which is understood to be sending men to fight alongside government troops, for its support.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said Israel will continue to strike Syria if the smuggling attempts continue.

An amateur video said to be shot early Sunday in the Damascus area showed a massive explosion followed by fire lighting up the night sky. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting.

The state news agency said the Jamraya military and scientific research center near Damascus was hit. It added that there were casualties but did not give a number.

Damascus-based activist Maath al-Shami said the strikes occurred around 3 a.m. and that one of them hit near Qasioun mountain that overlooks Damascus. He added that the raid targeted a military position for the elite Republican Guards unit that is in charge of protecting the capital.

Mohammed Saeed, another activist who lives in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said "the explosions were so strong that earth shook under us." He said the smell of the fire caused by the air raid near Qasioun was noticeable kilometers (miles) away.

In Jerusalem, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu held an emergency meeting of his inner Security Cabinet. The prime minister's office declined comment.

The strikes are a calculated risk for Israel. Officials there say they do not think Assad will retaliate in the immediate future, but they hedged their bets with the deployment of Iron Dome batteries to Israel's north.

Earlier this year, the Iron Dome system was credited with shooting down hundreds of rockets during a round of fighting against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israel's military intelligence, said the strikes on Syria are a signal to Damascus' ally, Tehran, that Israel is serious about the red lines it has set.

"Syria is a very important part in the front that Iran has built. Iran is testing Israel and the U.S. determination in the facing of red lines and what it sees is in clarifies to it that at least some of the players, when they define red lines and they are crossed, take it seriously," he told Army Radio.

Like the Syrian regime, Iran also portrayed the strike as evidence of collusion between Israel and Syria's rebels.

Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying the attacks show a growing alliance of convenience between the Syrian opposition and Israel.

"These vain moves are not a sign of Israel's power," he said. "It rather shows the (Israeli) regime's despair in the face of regional developments."

Iran has provided both financial and military support to Hezbollah for decades, and has used Syria as a conduit for both. If Assad were to fall, that pipeline could be cut, dealing a serious blow to Hezbollah's ability to confront Israel.

The Fateh-110, or "Conqueror" in Farsi, is a short-range ballistic missile developed by Iran and first put into service in 2002. The Islamic Republic unveiled an upgraded version in 2012 that improved the weapon's accuracy and increased its range to 300 kilometers (185 miles).

Vahidi said at the time that the solid-fueled missile could strike with pinpoint precision, making it the most accurate weapon of its kind in Iran's arsenal.

Israeli officials say that Hezbollah managed to get an older version of Fateh-110s back in 2010, but the missiles that were destroyed in the recent airstrikes are an upgraded version. Israeli intelligence thinks Hezbollah has not succeeded in getting any of these game changing weapons since the Syrian civil war erupted, according to the officials.

An Israeli airstrike in January also targeted weapons apparently bound for Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials have said.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the research center in Jamraya was not hit, but instead an army supply facility that produced food products for the military. It quoted unnamed Syrian security officials as saying that three sites including military barracks, arms depots and air defense center were targeted by the strike.

The station aired footage showing a heavily damaged building as well as what appeared to be a chicken farm with some chickens pecking around in debris scattered with dead birds.A road apparently next to the site was filled with debris, and shell casings were strewn on the ground.

Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV, which has several reporters around Syria, said one of the strikes targeted a military position in the village of Saboura, west of Damascus and about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Lebanon border.

___

Deitch reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas in Beirut and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-05-Israel-Syria/id-e3d6615ad24849a7bb6197349a88ab83

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Monday, March 4, 2013

The Engadget Interview: Samsung's Nick DiCarlo talks Galaxy Note 8 at MWC 2013

The Galaxy Note 8 -- it's the next logical step in Samsung's ongoing Note saga, and it finally launched in Barcelona. We spoke with Nick DiCarlo, VP of Product Planning for Samsung mobile, about the company's latest tablet. He mentioned that the voice capability, which is a very polarizing feature for some, was a common request among customers. It's unclear if the US carriers will keep this functionality intact, but he suggested that you, dear readers, might be able to sway them by emailing in. We discussed some of the Note 8's other selling points, such as the S Pen-sensitive buttons (finally!) and the IR blaster, which we think is located in the wrong place (the right edge instead of the top) -- possibly the result of Peel's landscape-centric remote control app. Design was an other area we touched upon, and something we feel Samsung's been complacent about this past year. Materials and build quality just don't do the company's products justice, especially on flagships like the Galaxy S III and Note devices. Mr. DiCarlo acknowledged our concerns but pointed out that the entire Galaxy line is light, thin and durable, something everyone wants in a quality smartphone or tablet. Let's see what the Galaxy S IV brings to the table, right? Until then, watch our video interview after the break.

Filed under: Tablets, Mobile, Samsung