Chemical Weapons Watchdog Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Urging the destruction of an “entire category” of unconventional weapons, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2013 Peace Prize on Friday to a modest and little-known United Nations-backed organization that has drawn sudden attention with a mission to ensure that Syria’s stocks of chemical arms are eradicated.

The award, to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, surprised some Nobel watchers partly because of the unprecedented nature of its current task: overseeing the destruction of a previously secret chemical weapons program quickly amid a raging civil war.

“We were aware that our work silently but surely was contributing to peace in the world,” Ahmet Uzumcu, the director general of the organization, told reporters at its headquarters in The Hague after the award was announced. “The last few weeks have brought this to the fore. The entire international community has been made aware of our work.”

Among diplomats, the prize was seen as the high point of a startling rise to prominence for an organization that had worked in relative obscurity. Some Syrians, however, took strong exception to the idea of lauding chemical weapons watchdogs when the bulk of the more than 100,000 deaths in Syria’s 31-month-old conflict have been caused by conventional weapons, like airstrikes and artillery and rocket fire.

Despite the urgency and danger of its task, the organization had not been seen as a likely winner. In the days leading up to the award, much attention was focused on individual candidates, including Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani who risked her life to campaign for girls’ education and would have been the youngest recipient ever.

In its citation, the committee said the organization and the treaty under which it was founded in 1997 “have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law.”

“Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons,” the citation said.

It was the second successive year that the panel, based in Oslo, had chosen an organization. The European Union won the 2012 prize.

Inspectors from the 189-member organization began arriving in Syria early this month after a chemical weapons attack killed hundreds of people on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Aug. 21. Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Syria agreed to join the treaty banning chemical weapons and become the 190th member of the organization.

The attack initially drew an American threat of military reprisal before Moscow and Washington reached a compromise arrangement to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stocks under international supervision.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, hailed the award. “O.P.C.W. has worked tirelessly to rid the world of chemical weapons, and the organization is a deserved winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Mr. Gorbachev said in a statement issued by Green Cross International, an advocacy group based in Geneva that he founded, which has collaborated closely with the chemical weapons watchdog.

Angela Kane, the top United Nations disarmament official, who worked with the watchdog organization to lead an investigation into the Aug. 21 attack and other suspected uses of chemical weapons in Syria, said in a statement, “If he were alive today, Alfred Nobel would be gratified indeed that his committee has once again recognized disarmament for its great benefit to humanity.”

Thorbjorn Jagland, the former Norwegian prime minister who is chairman of the Nobel committee, said chemical weapons had been used by Hitler’s armies in their campaign of mass extermination and on many other occasions by states and terrorists. Mr. Jagland denied suggestions that the award represented a European-centered shift after last year’s award to the European Union. “It’s global,” he said.

The organization’s mission is to act as a watchdog in carrying out the Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into force in 1997 with four aims: to destroy all chemical weapons under international verification, to prevent the creation of new chemical weapons, to help countries protect themselves against chemical attack, and to foster international cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry.

Since its creation, the organization has sent experts to carry out 5,000 inspections in 86 countries, working discreetly, almost shunning publicity, with the small number of signatory countries that acknowledge possessing chemical weapons. By far the biggest of these are Russia and the United States. Four countries besides Syria have not yet signed or ratified the treaty: Angola, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan. Israel and Myanmar have signed the treaty, but their governments have not ratified it.

Malala Yousafzai wins European human rights prize

Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban for fighting for girls' rights to education, was awarded the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize Thursday.

"She is an icon of courage for all teenagers who dare to pursue their aspirations and, like a candle, she lights a path out of darkness," said Joseph Daul, chairman of the center-right European People's Party in the European Parliament.

The 16-year-old was attacked last year while on a school bus in northwestern Pakistan, but recovered after medical treatment in Britain. She is also a favorite among experts and betting agencies to be named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Yousafzai started her campaigning by writing blogs in 2009 in which she described how the Taliban prevented girls like her from going to school.

She quickly rose to international fame after appearing in numerous interviews with foreign media outlets. Her growing profile attracted the Taliban's attention and led to frequent death threats.

"I was not worried about myself that much. I was worried about my father. We could not believe they would be so cruel as to kill a child, as I was 14 at the time," Yousafzai said in a television interview with "The Daily Show" on Tuesday.

Her book "I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" is currently the second-best selling book on Amazon.com.

The Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought has been given by the European Parliament each year since 1988 to commemorate Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. Its past winners include Nelson Mandela and Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Edward Snowden had also been nominated for the award by the Green group in the parliament for what it said was his "enormous service" to human rights and European citizens when he disclosed secret United States surveillance programs.

Yousafzai was chosen as the winner after a vote among the heads of all the political groups in the 750-member parliament.

Apple Releases iOS 7-Ready iTunes 11.1

Apple has just released iTunes 11.1, the update to iTunes that brings iTunes Radio to its desktop music software. The Pandora-like streaming music service offers custom stations based on artists and genres, with ad-free streaming for those with iTunes Match subscriptions, or on an ad-supported basis completely free, with track skipping included.

The other big thing this update brings relevant to today is iOS 7 device support, which is necessary for those looking to update and sync their devices via the desktop when that new mobile OS goes live, likely in a couple of hours. If you still sync with your desktop regularly (I’ve stopped long ago thanks to iCloud), then you need to get downloading now to keep things running smoothly post-update.

Also new are the handy Podcast Stations, which allows you to make custom stations with the podcasts you follow regularly, which automatically update new episodes and sync playback position for each episode across devices. That’s a nice feature to have if you’re a commuter who regularly gets their podcast fix on the way to and from work, for instance.

One more new feature is Genius Shuffle, which you can use to play what iTunes determines are complimentary songs from your collection. I still miss iTunes DJ, but this is a feature that should help in similar situations, like when you’re soundtracking a party.

If you’ve been eager to try iTunes Radio, which really is a capable competitor to the best streaming radio services out there already, then this is your first chance, since it comes before iOS 7 hits. Also remember that iTunes Radio is for U.S. iTunes account holders only for now, with no word on when international users will gain access just yet

Friday the 13th: why do we fear it and how unlucky is it really?

The origins of the Friday the 13th being an unlucky date are shrouded in mystery.
The most commonly held perception is that Friday is an unlucky day and 13 is a particularly unlucky number.

In numerology 13 is considered to be an irregular number and is also the number of witches you need to form a coven.

Some say the roots of 13 being considered unlucky lie in a Nordic myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla.

The 13th guest was Loki, the god of mischief, who arranged for the god of joy and gladness to be shot with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. He died and the whole world was thrust into mourning.

There is also a biblical reference to 13 being considered unlucky. Judas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus who later betrayed him, was supposedly the 13th guest to sit down at the last supper.

Ancient Christianity may also yield some clues as to why Friday is perceived as 
unlucky. Christ was crucified on a Friday and Cain is believed to have killed his brother Abel on a Friday, perhaps even Friday 13th. Some biblical scholars believe that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit on a Friday.

In the 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer referenced Friday as being an unlucky day in his Canterbury Tales, “And on a Friday fell all this mischance".

Seafarers have long considered it is bad luck to set off on a journey on a Friday. It was also historically known as the day that people were usually hanged in Britain.
In the 1990s medical researchers tried to prove whether or not people are particularly prone to misfortune in Friday 13th.

The results published in the British Medical Journal, noted that the number of motor accidents in the South West Thames region increased from a total of 45 on the six Friday 6ths between 1989 and 1992, to some 65 accidents on the six 
Friday 13ths in the same period – an increase of 52 per cent.

Researchers in Sweden also claimed that the country was a more risky place to be on Friday the 13th.

According to historian Donald Dossey who told National Geographic that Friday the 13th costs the American economy approximately $800 or $900 million (£500,000-£570,000) because people will not fly or do business they normally would do.

However Dr Caroline Watt of the University of Edinburgh says that it is the belief in the Friday 13th superstition that could, in fact, prove the greatest risk to the average person:

“If people believe in the superstition of Friday the 13th then they believe they are in greater danger on that day. As a result they may be more anxious and distracted and this could lead to accidents. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
“It is like telling someone they are cursed. If they believe they are then they will worry, their blood pressure will go up and they put themselves at risk.”

Unfortunate events that have happened on Friday the 13th

The Da Vinci Code popularised the link between the Friday the 13th superstition and the decline of the religious order the Knights Templar.

On Friday 13 in October 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay to be arrested along with thousands of other Templars.
Buckingham Palace was hit by five German bombs on Friday September 13 1940 with both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth coming close to being killed. One member of the royal staff died and the palace chapel was destroyed.

A Chilean Air force plane ‘disappeared’ in the Andes on Friday 13 October 1972, with 16 survivors turning up two months later. They had been forced to eat dead passengers in order to survive.

The rapper Tupac Shakur died of his wounds on Friday September 13 1996 six days after being shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground on Friday 13 in January 2012 off the western coast of Italy killing 30 people.

Seaside Heights fire: Raging fire strikes at the heart of Sandy-hit NJ town

A raging fire spewing fist-sized embers engulfed much of an iconic Jersey shore boardwalk Thursday, destroying more than 50 businesses and undoing months of rebuilding efforts after the inundation of superstorm Sandy.

Workers joined the fire in tearing into the boardwalk — a last-ditch effort to rob the inferno of fuel that helped preserve what was left of the economic lifeblood of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.

The wind-whipped fire devoured eight blocks of boardwalk — four in each town — and caused millions of dollars in damage before workers halted its advance by ripping out a large section of boardwalk and piling up huge makeshift sand dunes meant to hold back fire, not water.

The blaze destroyed 32 businesses on the Seaside Park portion of the boardwalk, borough Councilwoman Nancy Koury told The Associated Press. Michael Loundy, a real estate agent who works with Seaside Heights on tourism projects, said 20 businesses were destroyed there.

The 6-alarm blaze began in the area of a frozen custard stand on the Seaside Park portion of the boardwalk. Fanned by 15-20 mph winds from an approaching storm system, it quickly spread north into Seaside Heights, the boardwalk town where the MTV series "Jersey Shore" was filmed — and

into Seaside Heights, the boardwalk town where the MTV series "Jersey Shore" was filmed — and where the October storm famously plunged a roller coast into the ocean.

The massive fire came just after the close of the summer tourist season that was marked by furious rebuilding efforts to fix damage caused by the winds and flooding of Sandy.

"It's devastating; I've been crying all afternoon," said Shirley Kreszl, who has rented a summer home inSeaside Park for decades. "Haven't we been hit enough? We try to rebuild and just when we think we saved a little bit of our town, this happens. It's just not fair."

The livelihoods of the two popular Jersey shore resort communities depend on summer tourism; they had just spent millions of dollars rebuilding their boardwalks, arcade games, pizza stands and bar and grills to be ready for the summer season. Seaside Heights rushed to rebuild its boardwalk in time for a May visit by Britain's Prince Harry, and finished with only hours to spare.

"I can't believe this is happening," Koury said as she watched the flames devour boardwalk structures. "Our small business people went through so much in the storm to get ready for summer and stay open all summer, and now it's all gone. I just can't believe it."

Gov. Chris Christie was typically blunt describing his thoughts.

"I feel like I want to throw up," he said.

The Hail Mary effort to save the remainder of the boardwalk began in the evening when public works crews tore out a 25-foot swath of boardwalk to serve as a makeshift fire break, depriving the blaze of fuel, and mounded up sand to hold off the advancing flames.

"That appears to have done the trick," said Seaside Park Mayor Robert Matthies.

Firefighters continued to pour water on the ruins well into the night, dousing a long line of now-gutted structures facing the beach.

Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County prosecutor's Office, said there was no immediate indication of whether the fire appeared to be suspicious or accidental. The first priority was putting it out and securing the scene, he said.

A detailed investigation was due to get underway on Friday.

Bill de Blasio on the brink as Democrats vote for New York mayoral nominee

Bill de Blasio, the unabashed progressive who lit up the New York mayoral campaign, faced a nervous wait to find out whether he would be the Democratic candidate on Wednesday as he hovered around the 40% needed to win the nomination outright.

A pledge by second-placed Bill Thompson to wait for the official totals mean it could be days before De Blasio finds out if he will run against Joe Lhota, who secured the Republican nomination.

But while the precise result may still be in the balance but the message from New York Democrats could not be more clear. The battle to succeed Michael Bloomberg as the next mayor of the biggest city in the United States will be an ideological fight led by a candidate determined to distance himself as far as possible from the billionaire incumbent.

Christine Quinn, the city council leader and Bloomberg ally who started the race as frontrunner, bowed out in a dismal third place with only 15% of the vote, her hopes to break ground as the first woman and first gay mayor dashed.

The final result will not be known until next week at the earliest: New York's 1960s lever-pull voting machines will not be opened until Friday, and 19,000 paper ballots not due to be counted until Monday. If the result is still close – and New York's Board of Elections is notoriously inefficient – Thompson could demand a recount. He declined to concede the race on Wednesday, vowing to wait until the official result.

Thompson told supporters on Tuesday night that he would wait for the official count instead of conceding defeat. "We took Mike Bloomberg on and we almost beat him. Now we're gonna finish what we started," said Thompson, who was the Democratic nominee in 2009 but lost to the incumbent billionaire.

"Every voice in New York City counts and we're gonna wait for every voice to be heard. We're gonna wait for every vote to be counted. So my friends this is far from over."

According to tallies collated by WNYC radio, Thompson had 26.10% of the vote on Wednesday morning, with Quinn in third place on 15.47%. Anthony Weiner, who had also looked strong earlier in the campaign, suffered the ignominy of a fifth-place finish with just 4.91% of the vote. After a tear-filled concession speech, in which his wife Huma Abedin was notable by her absence, Weiner made an inglorious exit: a picture showed him giving a one-fingered gesture of insult to reporters as he was driven away.

Valerie Vasquez, director of communications at the city's board of elections, confirmed that BOE staff would open the lever voting machines on Friday to get the official totals and stressed that current numbers are unofficial. She said the official count is done to safeguard against possible "human error" in the unofficial count – conducted by polling staff on Tuesday night.

The lever machines were wheeled out of retirement after the board of elections determined that its modern machines would not be able to be reset in time for a runoff vote, but problems were reported with some machines on Tuesday.

"There were isolated instances through the city. I would not say it was widespread," Vasquez said. "We did have instances where the machines did not work or had to be repaired or replaced, but in those instances no one was ever disenfranchised there was always an availability for an emergency ballot for a voter."

Amid the uncertainty over whether De Blasio would face a run-off with Thompson on 1 October, it was clear that Democratic New Yorkers had resoundingly voted for change. Exit polls indicated that seven out of 10 Democratic primary voters – the lion's share in this very liberal city – wanted to see a new direction at city hall, even though about half thought that the incumbent Michael Bloomberg had been doing a good job.

De Blasio's triumph has been attributed in no small part to his overt positioning as the anti-Bloomberg candidate, encapsulated in his campaign mantra "a tale of two cities" that played on the incumbent's personal wealth and his friendliness towards Wall Street. It was an extraordinary rise from relative nobody four weeks ago to a 15-point lead over the second-placed Thompson.

His early rival, Quinn, tried to muddy his campaign by portraying him as a flip-flopper on term limits: De Blasio promised to extend limits for city council members when he was wooing them in a run to be speaker of the council in 2005, then opposed Bloomberg's bid for a third term when New York mayors were limited to two.

But in the end his message was simpler: Quinn, a close ally of Bloomberg, had facilitated Bloomberg's unprecedented extra term in office and, in terms of policies, promised more of the similar, if not the same.

De Blasio also proved himself to be a nimble strategist. He defused the threat of competition from Bill Thompson, the only black candidate in the Democratic primary race, by running heavily against the unpopular "stop-and-frisk" policing policy that was last month ruled an unconstitutional form of indirect racial profiling.

On a more personal level, De Blasio played the oldest politician's trick in the book – he surrounded himself with his loving family. Which, in this case, included his African American wife Chirlane McCray, 19-year-old daughter Chiara and 16-year-old son Dante, whose Afro hairstyle became a symbol of De Blasio's campaign and who appeared in a widely circulated video saying that his father was the "only Democrat with the guts to really break from the Bloomberg years".

De Blasio's seemingly unstoppable ascension holds up the intriguing prospect of an ideologically intense general mayoral election on 5 November of the sort not seen in New York for decades.

If De Blasio secures his party's nomination and runs on the overtly liberal platform that he laid out in the primary, it will pitch him against the Bloomberg-friendly emphasis on wealth-creation and high-end investment promoted by Lhota, Tuesday night's Republican victor.

Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York subway, has already declared his intention to go after De Blasio as a radical firebrand and class-warrior, saying in his victory speech that the Democrat's politics was the kind that "brought our city to the brink of bankruptcy and rampant civic decay."

De Blasio and Lhota have already clashed at the polls, albeit from the sidelines. In the 1989 mayoral election De Blasio was part of the winning campaign team of the Democratic candidate David Dinkins, while Lhota acted as an economics adviser to the Republican Rudy Giuliani.

It remains to be seen whether Lhota's aggressive approach will work. New York has been transformed over the past 25 years, with its finances in much better shape and its reputation for crime and anarchy dissipated.

The legendary tribalism of New York politics, in which voters could be predicted to move in solid and often antagonistic blocs, has also been substantially overcome – not least by De Blasio himself. Exit polls showed that he had achieved what used to be considered in this city the impossible: he attracted majority support from almost all demographic groups.

That included black people and Hispanics as well as whites; women as well as men, gays as well as straights, residents from all five boroughs, as well as Protestants, Catholics and Jews. (Asians voted overwhelmingly for John Liu, the comptroller, or city auditor.)

Slate columnist June Thomas wrote of De Blasio: "He didn't just get more LGBT votes than the lesbian candidate, he got more votes in majority black precincts than Thompson, the African American candidate, and he drew more women voters than the female candidate."

The other imponderable now is how Bloomberg will react to De Blasio's likely Democratic candidacy and the challenge it poses to the incumbent's legacy. The present mayor has made it plain that he is not a fan of the Democratic frontrunner, going so far as to denounce his campaign as "racist".

But at a time when New Yorkers appear highly divided by the achievements of the 12 Bloomberg years, any intervention by the current mayor on the side of Lhota would run the risk of backfiring.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University tops world's top 200 university rankings

US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University on Tuesday topped an authoritative list of the world's top 200 university rankings that did not figure any educational institutions from India.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, the country's premier institution, comes in way down at No 222, dropping from 212 last year, in the 'QS World University Rankings' released here on Tuesday.

The list is predictably dominated with US universities, with MIT grabbing the top slot and Harvard at No 2, pushing Britain's Cambridge University to No 3.

As part of one of its most comprehensive global reviews, the 800-strong annual ranking includes 11 Indian institutions in all with the IITs leading the charge – IIT Bombay at 233, IIT Kanpur at 295, IIT Madras at 313 and IIT Kharagpur at 346.

"The stable performance of Indian institutions is a reflection on the country's efforts to internationalise its higher education system. However, it's clear that more efforts are needed in the area if the country's institutions wish to feature more prominently at the top of global rankings," said Ben Sowter, head of research at QS, a British firm specialising in education and study abroad.

"In a country where education is prized above all matters and competition for a coveted place at one of the country's top institutions is high, students need a broader comparison of domestic universities. QS is currently working closely with Indian institutions in a pilot ranking project for the 'BRICS' nations, which is due to be launched later this year," Sowter added.

The annual rankings take into account the subject range, research results and academic reputation offered by 3,000 institutions internationally.

In the list of the top 50 universties in Asia, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay come in at 38 and 39 followed by IIT Kanpur at 51 and IIT Roorkee at 66. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology tops the Asian rankings followed by a number of Chinese, Japanese and Korean institutions.

Pakistan's Quaid-e-Azam University ranks at 119 and the National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad is at 120 - both ahead of the University of Mumbai which is at 140 The best-performing countries in terms of number of universities ranked in 2013 include the US (144); UK (69); Germany (42); France (40), followed by Japan (38).

The UK now boasts six of the world's top 20 universities with Edinburgh and King's College, London edging into the top 20 slot alongside Cambridge, UCL, Imperial and Oxford in the top 10.

The researchers report that the average undergraduate tuition fees for the global  top 10 universities are up to a record high of around USD 34,000 per year, nearly double the 2007 average of USD 18,500.

With the rupee going through a period of extreme volatility, an elite world-class education for an Indian student may be at its costliest ever.

The 'QS World University Rankings' is made up of six indicators: academic reputation (40 per cent), employer reputation (10 per cent), faculty student ratio (20 per cent), citations per faculty (20 per cent), international students (5 per cent) and international faculty (5 per cent).

This year, 62,094 academic and 27,957 employer responses contributed towards the results, making the survey one of the largest of its kind in the world.

World's "Most Dangerous megacity": Karachi

Pakistan's financial hub is the world's "most dangerous megacity", with a murder rate of 12.3 for every 100,000 residents and the expanding presence of the Taliban who run criminal and smuggling rackets, according to a media report.

Over the past decade, millions of people have fled the fighting and terrorism in Pakistan's northwest to settle in Karachi, the pulsing commercial heart of the country. But the flood of migrants in search of jobs and opportunity has brought Karachi some less savoury additions.

"As a result, Karachi is far and away the world's most dangerous megacity, with a homicide rate of 12.3 per 100,000 residents, some 25 per cent higher than any other major city," influential Foreign Policy magazine reported.

From 2000 to 2010, the city's population grew more than 80 per cent. That's roughly equivalent to adding more than New York City's entire population in just a decade, it said.

Over the past four years, processions and mosques of minority Shia community have been brutally attacked by Sunni supremacists, triggering a sectarian war. Besides, gangs tied to political parties run extortion rackets and land-grab schemes.

"More recently, Pakistani Taliban militants have also gained a foothold in the city, where they run criminal and smuggling rackets, rob banks, and administer a cruel and terrifying justice. Pitched firefights that go on for days between gangs, or between gangs and the police, are not uncommon," the report said.

The magazine reported while 202 murders had occurred in Mumbai in 2011, Karachi had 1,723. The figure crossed the 2,000 mark in the Pakistani city in 2012.

Bashar Assad send his thanks to Russia for supporting Syrian government

Syria's foreign minister on Monday passed on the personal thanks of President Bashar al-Assad to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for his support, as he held talks in Moscow amid growing expectations of military action against the regime.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem held talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov as US lawmakers were to return Monday from a summer break and debate whether to approve limited US military action in Syria.

"The president asked me to pass on his thanks to Putin for his position during and after the G20 summit" in Saint Petersburg last week, Muallem told Lavrov at the start of talks.

Lavrov assured Muallem that Moscow's position on Syria was "well known and not subject to changes".

"There is no alternative to a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria" Lavrov said, rejecting any "military solution involving outside intervention".

Russia has vehemently opposed US-led strikes against the Assad regime, warning it could destabilise the whole Middle East, and Putin at the G20 has vowed to help Syria if it was hit.

Moscow has also made clear it is unconvinced the regime was behind a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus on August 21 that the United States and its allies say was carried out by the government and demands retribution.

Muallem told Lavrov that the US military intervention could destroy attempts to convene a peace conference in Geneva to end the bloodshed.

"Right up to now we are ready (to take part). But I do not know what could happen after an American aggression. It's possible the rockets will land and wreck this conference," he said.

His visit comes days after Putin refused to give ground on Russia's position over Syria in talks with world leaders at the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg.

Putin held an unscheduled meeting with US President Barack Obama but said afterwards that the two had failed to narrow their differences.

"He (Obama) disagrees with my arguments, I disagree with his arguments," Putin stated with characteristic bluntness.

Despite insistent Western pressure, Russia has refused to abandon its cooperation with the Assad regime throughout the two-and-a-half year conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives according to UN figures.

It has defiantly continued military cooperation, although Putin said last week Moscow had suspended deliveries of S-300 missile systems under a contract that outraged the West.

Russia's close ties to Damascus date back to the alliance between the Soviet Union and Bashar al-Assad's late father Hafez. The Kremlin fears losing arms contracts and influence if the dynasty falls.

Muallem last visited Moscow in February, when he vowed that the regime was ready for talks with anyone who favours dialogue, including armed rebels.

Russia and the United States agreed in May to organise the peace conference bringing all the sides to the negotiating table but the idea is far from materialising amid the tensions between Moscow and Washington.

The United States has indicated that it wants military action to punish the Assad regime for the suspected chemical attack. The strikes were delayed after Obama said he would first seek the approval of Congress.

Syria conflict: Bashar al-Assad threatens 'repercussions' if US launches attack

Syrian President Bashar Assad is warning there will be retaliation against the US for any military strike launched in response to a chemical weapons attack.

In an interview broadcast today on CBS' "This Morning," Assad said, "You should expect everything."

Asked by anchor Charlie Rose to elaborate, Assad said, "You should expect everything. Not necessarily from the government."

He said the US would "pay the price if you are not wise with dealing with terrorists."

President Barack Obama is seeking an authorisation from Congress to punish Assad for an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack that the administration maintains Assad ordered.

Assad denied that, saying his soldiers were "in another area" at the time. Asked about the case the US is arguing, Assad said, "nothing has been presented."

Australia election: Tony Abbott, the next Australian Prime Minister

Australia's opposition has crushed the governing Labor party in a general election that has returned the Liberal-National coalition to power for the first time in six years.

Early projections show Labor winning 55 seats compared with the coalition's 91.

Liberal leader Tony Abbott said he looked forward to forming a competent and trustworthy government.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier admitted defeat and said he would not stand again for the Labor leadership.

The main election issues were the economy, reducing the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat, and a tax on carbon emissions.

Mr Rudd called the election after defeating Julia Gillard in a leadership challenge in June, amid dismal polling figures that showed Labor on course for a wipe-out.

Under Mr Rudd, Labor initially saw its figures improve. But Mr Abbott, who enjoyed the strident support of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, then widened the gap again.

"From today I declare Australia is under new management and Australia is now open for business", Mr Abbott told a cheering crowd as he delivered a victory speech.

He said that he would put the budget back into surplus, and boats bringing migrants from Asia would stop.

He added that support for Labor was at its lowest ebb for 100 years, and said the results showed that the Australia people would punish anyone who took them for granted.

Mr Rudd said he had phoned Mr Abbott and wished him well.

"I gave it my all but it was not enough for us to win," he said. But he was pleased that Labor was preserved as a "viable fighting force for the future".

Mr Rudd retained his seat in the Brisbane constituency of Griffith but said he would not re-contest the Labor party leadership because the Australian people "deserve a fresh start".

"I know that Labor hearts are heavy across the nation tonight. As your Labor leader I accept it as my responsibility," he said.

With two-thirds of the votes counted, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the coalition had secured 85 seats in parliament and was on course to win 91. Labor had secured 54, with a predicted final tally of 55.

In the previous parliament, Labor relied on the support of independents and the Greens for its minority government, with 71 seats to the coalition's 72.

Mr Abbott took on the leadership of the flagging Liberal-National coalition in 2009.

A Rhodes scholar who once wanted to be a Roman Catholic priest, Mr Abbott has pledged to repeal both the mining and carbon taxes introduced by Labor.

He has also promised a raft of budget cuts, including reducing the foreign aid budget by A$4.5bn ($4bn, £2.6bn).

But he says he will fund an expanded paid parental leave scheme.

Mr Abbott will be charged with managing the transition as the mining and resources boom subsides, amid slowing demand from China and slumping commodity prices.

Ahead of the polls, his coalition highlighted bitter Labor infighting, seeking to portray itself as the more stable party.

And former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke blamed the internal divisions for Labor's defeat.

"I really believe this was an election that was lost by the government rather than one that was won by the opposition," he said.

Julia Gillard, meanwhile, congratulated the Labor candidate who succeeded her in her seat, as she bowed out of politics.

And in something of an upset, billionaire Clive Palmer - who founded the fringe Palmer United Party - appeared on course to win a seat in parliament.

More than 14 million people were expected to vote in Saturday's election. Voting is compulsory in Australia.

Tony Abbott - Profile

When Tony Abbott took over Australia's flagging Liberal-National coalition in December 2009, his election raised a few eyebrows.

A former Rhodes Scholar who once wanted to be a monk, Mr Abbott was a polarising figure, especially at the start of his leadership.

He attracted early criticism for gaffes and was famously called a misogynist by former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a fiery parliamentary speech.

But, amid bitter Labor infighting, Mr Abbott gradually transformed his image in the eyes of many from that of pugnacious politician to leader-in-waiting.

He took on Kevin Rudd - who ousted Ms Gillard as Labor leader - in the 7 September 2013 polls and secured a convincing win to become Australia's prime minister.

'Mad monk'
Tony Abbott was born in 1957 in England to Australian parents who returned to Sydney a few years later.

After graduating in economics and law from the University of Sydney, where he was also a leading student boxer, he attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, studying politics and philosophy.

He briefly trained as a Catholic priest, before working as a journalist for The Australian newspaper.

He then worked as an adviser to the Liberal Party, before entering politics in 1994 when he was elected to represent the affluent Warringah district of Sydney.

Under former Prime Minister John Howard's government, he served as an employment minister between 1998 and 2001, and as minister for health and ageing in 2003.

In 2009, he narrowly beat then leader Malcolm Turnbull in a party leadership vote, winning 42 votes to Mr Turnbull's 41. Many pundits were shocked by the result, given Mr Abbott's gaffe-prone history.

A writer for the Sydney Morning Herald said that Mr Abbott's career had provided "spectacular entertainment", while ABC news' chief political writer, Annabel Crabb, described Mr Abbott's last election campaign as "a tripping, cursing, roundhouse-punch-swinging triumph of political absurdity".

As leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott's aggressive attack-dog approach earned him several nicknames.

His tactics led some to call him "Tear-down Tony" or "all opposition and no leader". He was also nicknamed the "Mad Monk" - a reference to his time spent training as a priest.

'Stop the boats'
In the 2010 general election - called after Julia Gillard ousted Kevin Rudd as prime minister - Mr Abbott's coalition denied the government a majority, as the polls delivered a hung parliament. Ms Gillard formed a government that relied on the support of a handful of independents.

The opposition leader vowed to "ferociously" hold Labor to account. "My challenge now is to ensure that I'm not the best opposition leader never to have become prime minister," he said.

As Labor infighting continued after the election, more voters swung to Mr Abbott and his party.

Ahead of the 2013 polls, Mr Abbott argued for tough border controls, lower taxes and a smaller government.

He supported Labor's policy of processing asylum seekers offshore, and went further - calling for asylum boats to be turned around and for those in Australia approved as refugees to be limited to temporary visas.

Mr Abbott has in the past dismissed climate change as faddish, but says he is not a climate sceptic.

He has promised to revoke the controversial carbon tax introduced by Ms Gillard, and replace it with a programme of subsidies for companies and farmers to reduce emissions.

He has also pledged to remove the 30% mining tax introduced by Labor, which he says drives investment overseas.

'Women problem'
Mr Abbott has consistently voted against relaxing laws on abortion, same-sex marriages and stem cell research.

In 2005, as health minister, he opposed use of the abortion drug RU486 - although this was later overturned by parliament.

However, he has since then stated he has no plans for new abortion laws, and believes that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare".

His stance on social issues, and his poor polling amongst women, has led some to say that Mr Abbott has a "women problem". In October 2012, a blistering speech by Ms Gillard in parliament accusing him of misogyny went viral online.

Days before the 2013 election, a gaffe saw him praising a female candidate for her "sex appeal".

However, many of his supporters have fiercely denied that Mr Abbott is sexist.


"Tony Abbott gets women," his wife has said. "Tony has three sisters, he has a strong, capable wife and he has been part of a team who has raised three beautiful young women."

Russia warns against Syria strike, US says credibility at stake

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned America and its allies against one-sided intervention in Syria, even as US said it not only risks losing friends but also credibility at the world stage if no military action is taken against the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Putin said any military strikes without UN approval would be "an aggression", as he called for evidence on chemical weapons attack to be presented to the Security Council. He, however, softened his tone ahead of the G20 summit in Russia, saying he has not ruled out supporting a UN Security Council resolution authorising force, if it was proved "beyond doubt" that the Syrian government used chemical weapons.

In a wide-ranging interview with Russia's state Channel 1 television, Putin said it was "ludicrous" that the Assad regime, an ally of Russia, would use chemical weapons at a time when it was gaining ground against the rebels.

"If there is evidence that chemical weapons were used, and by the regular army... then this evidence must be presented to the UN Security Council. And it must be convincing," Putin, gearing up to host world leaders, including US president Barack Obama, at the G20 summit, said.

But he added that Russia would "be ready to act in the most decisive and serious way" if there was clear proof of what weapons were used and who used them. Meanwhile, US Congressional aides have said the Syria war resolution drafted by members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee permits up to 60 days of military action against the Assad regime and does not permit any boots on the ground.

Snowden 'strange guy' set for tough life: Putin

However, the text of the draft resolution was not officially released. The US has alleged that the nerve agent sarin was used by the Assad regime on August 21 and that at least 1,429 people were killed, including over 400 children.

The US has said it not only risks losing its international allies and friends, but also its credibility at the world stage if no military action is taken against the Assad regime for alleged use of chemical weapons.

"If we fail to act, we're going to have fewer allies. We are going to have fewer people that count on us, certainly in the region," Secretary of State John Kerry told the US Senate. Kerry said that the credibility of US is at stake.

"It's fair to say that our interests would be seriously set back in many respects if we are viewed as not capable, or willing to follow through on the things that we say matter to us," the Secretary of State said.

Describing the use of chemical weapons a violation of the world's "red line", Kerry said that no action by the US would set a dangerous precedent. "We would be opening Pandora's box with respect to a whole set of dangerous consequences as a result of the United States not keeping its word. And it would make our life very, very difficult with respect to North Korea and Iran," he said.

Ahead of US Congress' debate on whether to authorise President Obama to take military action against the Assad regime, a key Senate committee is expected to vote on the resolution.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Robert Menendez said that the draft resolution has been closed and the members are expected to vote on it later. The resolution is under consideration after last week Obama stepped back from a strike on Syria to first seek approval from Congress, which returns from recess next week.

Given the strength of the Democratic Party, the resolution is expected to sail through easily from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with even key opposition Senators like John McCain announcing his support for it.

Even as Russia and China oppose unilateral action outside UN's mandate, France has stood beside the US, calling for strong action against Syria. France has vowed to "punish" Assad for the alleged attack and this week released an intelligence report that blamed for the assault on the Syrian leader's regime.

French officials on Wednesday said a punitive military response would help shift the balance in the two and a half-year-old civil war in Syria. "If you want a political solution you have to move the situation. If there's no sanction, Bashar Assad will say 'that's fine, I'll continue what I'm doing,'" France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told France Info radio.

Syria's parliament speaker, in a letter to French lawmakers, on Wednesday urged them not to support military action. "We ask you not to hasten to commit a heinous, senseless crime, as you must steer the French republic away from the war path and towards diplomacy," Jihad Lahham said in a statement published by the SANA official news agency.

'ROCKY V' STAR TOMMY MORRISON DEAD AT 44

Tommy Morrison -- a former heavyweight boxing champ and star of "Rocky V" -- died in a Nebraska hospital Sunday night ... after a long battle with AIDS. 

Morrion's longtime boxing promoter, Tony Holden, confirmed the death. He tells TMZ, Morrison had been in the hospital for several months battling an illness ... he wouldn't specify what. He died peacefully, his wife by his side. 

Back in 1996 Morrison tested positive for HIV, thus ending his boxing career. He later denied having the disease or that it even existed. 

In 1990 Morrison starred in "Rocky V" with Sylvester Stallone, playing a rookie boxer training under Rocky Balboa. In 1993 he took home a real title, defeating George Foreman for the heavyweight championship.  He was 44.

Where Wages Have Grown the Most (and Least) Since the Recovery

Just in time for Labor Day, a recent Gallup poll has given some promising employment news. More than half of American workers say that their income has grown over the last five years, telling Gallup that they are making either a lot (28 percent) or a little (30 percent) more money since the onslaught of the economic crisis.

However, workers' wage growth has been uneven across the country's metros. To chart where wages have grown the most during America's recovery, my Martin Prosperity Institutecolleague Charlotta Mellander ran the numbers on average change in wages and salaries for all 350-plus U.S. metros between 2009 and 2012 (the latest year available) based on data from theUnited States Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Average wages have increased in most metros over the course of the recovery, as the map above shows. Workers in more than half of all metros saw their wages rise by more than $2,000. And in 16 percent of them, workers saw their average wages rise by more than $3,000 between 2009 and 2012. Conversely, workers in only 15 metro areas saw their average wages decline over this period, and just 63 metros saw average wages grow less than $1,000. Across the nation, workers saw their average wages increase by $2,330, as mean wages rose from $43,460 in 2009 to $45,790 in 2012.

Many of the largest green dots (the metros with the greatest wage growth) are in the economically vibrant, coastal metros that you'd expect -- San Francisco, Seattle, and New York -- as well as cities in the Energy Belt like Houston. But some metro areas in hard-hit industrial areas of the Rustbelt and a number of Sunbelt metros that were wracked by the housing crisis also saw substantial wage increases, which suggests that the economic recovery may finally be registering in workers' paychecks nationwide.

The table below lists the large metro areas (those with populations of one million or more people) that saw the largest "raises" in the post-recession era. 

Large Metros with the Biggest Average Increases in Wages and Salaries, 2009-2012
Rank	Metro	Total Raise	2009 Wages	2012 Wages
1	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$4,600	$60,090	$64,690
2	Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA	$4,320	$53,240	$57,560
3	San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA	$4,130	$61,940	$66,070
4	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX	$3,970	$44,880	$48,850
5	Providence-Fall River-Warwick RI	$3,740	$43,600	$47,340
6	Oklahoma City, OK	$3,460	$38,090	$41,550
7	Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH	$3,380	$41,930	$45,310
8	Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ	$3,310	$41,930	$45,240
9	New York-White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ	$3,300	$56,250	$59,550
10	New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA	$3,230	$39,210	$42,440

Data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Topping the list is Washington, D.C., where average wages increased by $4,600, from $60,090 to $64,690. D.C. has performed well over the course of the crisis and recovery, benefiting from its robust knowledge economy, highly educated talent pool and abundant federal spending. Two other tech-driven knowledge metros (San Francisco and Seattle) take second and third place. Both saw average wage increases of more than $4,000. In Seattle, wages rose $4,320, from $53,240 to $57,560. In San Francisco wages rose $4,130, from $61,940 to $66,070 -- the second highest average wages of all major metro areas, trailing neighboring San Jose-Sunnyvale. These metros also had high take-home pay to begin with -- above $60,000 in D.C. and San Francisco.

Metros in the and around the nation's Energy Belt also did particularly well, including Houston ($3,970), Oklahoma City ($3,460), and New Orleans ($3,230). Along with these Energy Belt metros and major knowledge economy hubs, workers saw substantial raises in the Rustbelt metro of Cleveland ($3,380) and Phoenix ($3,310) in the Sunbelt. This suggests that the economy in these struggling regions of the country is starting to rebound, as workers in at least some of these cities have begun to see their wages rise.

It's important to note that workers in Cleveland, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Providence, Houston and New Orleans were making far less to begin with, with wages in the $40,000s or below, compared to the $60,000 plus levels for the knowledge metros with the highest wages.

But the places where workers have seen the biggest gains to their average paychecks are mainly in smaller cities. The table below lists the top metro areas overall, by increase in average wage. Greater Washington, D.C. and Seattle are the only big metros to make the cut.

Overall Metros with the Biggest Average Increases in Wages and Salaries, 2009-2012
Rank	Metro	Total Raise	2009 Wages	2012 Wages
1	Midland, TX	$6,530	$40,770	$47,300
2	Fayetteville-Springdale-Rodgers, AR-MO	$4,970	$36,790	$41,760
3	Fairbanks, AK	$4,790	$48,330	$53,120
4	Iowa City, IA	$4,620	$40,390	$45,010
5	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$4,600	$60,090	$64,690
6	Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA	$4,590	$54,590	$59,180
7	Bellingham, WA	$4,440	$39,870	$44,310
8	Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA	$4,320	$53,240	$57,560
9	Peoria, IL	$4,200	$40,170	$44,370
10	Fayetteville, NC	$4,160	$35,150	$39,310

Data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Smaller metros in the Midwest and West now rise to the top of the list. Midland, Texas is first with a whopping $6,530 increase in average wages. This oil and resource boom town -- where a full quarter of workers are employed in the in the mining, logging and construction sector -- registered a  4.6 percent gain in population between 2011 and 2012, making it the fastest growing metro in the country over that period. And the unemployment rate was an astonishingly low 3.7 percent as of June this year. Wages also grew more in Fayetteville, Arkansas, ($4,970); Fairbanks, Alaska ($4,790); and Iowa City, Iowa ($4,620) than they did in Washington, D.C., the top-ranked large metro. And wage growth in Oakland, California ($4,590) and Bellingham, Washington ($4,400) outpaced the raise taken home by workers in Seattle. Peoria, Illinois ($4,200) and Fayetteville, North Carolina ($4,160) round out the top ten.

Many of these metros are building on far lower baseline wages than their larger counterparts. Half the metros on the overall top ten list (immediately above), and a whopping 80 percent of smaller metros (those with less than one million people) started out with wages below the national average in 2009.  

Despite the good news, there remain places where workers' wages have not begun to recover. Workers in 15 metros across the country actually saw their wages decline between 2009 and 2012. Most of these are in the Rustbelt and the Sunbelt, including  Decatur, Illinois; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Palm Coast, Florida; and Lubbock, Texas. Nearly all of these smaller struggling places are found in Michigan, Illinois, Idaho, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Texas and California. They are a mix of struggling old industrial centers, like Battle Creek, harder hit resort centers like Palm Coast, and agricultural towns in California, like Salinas.

The table below shows the large metro areas that have seen the smallest wage gains. While robust wage recoveries in Cleveland and Phoenix suggest that parts of the Rustbelt and Sunbelt are beginning to turn around, the list of places with the smallest wage gains remains dominated by Midwestern and Southern metros. It includes once fast-growing Sunbelt metros like Las Vegas ($1,330), Orlando ($1,000), Miami ($1,630), and Tampa ($1,640) -- all metros which were buffeted by the housing crisis -- as well as hard-hit industrial regions like Buffalo ($1,760) and St. Louis ($1,760).

But there are also some surprises on the list. Dallas, where wages increased by just $1,340, is often held up as an example of low unemployment, population and job growth, and relatively stable housing market prices. The twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul have also been seen as the center of a stable, knowledge-oriented economy, less susceptible to a boom and bust. But perhaps the biggest surprise is that Chicago, a city and metro that is often held out as a model of urban regeneration, is the only large metro area whose workers saw average wages rise less than $1,000.

Largest Metros with the Lowest Average Increases in Wages and Salaries, 2009-2012
Rank	Metro	Total Raise	2009 Wages	2012 Wages
1	Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL	$830	$48,910	$49,740
2	Orlando-Kissimmee, FL	$1,000	$38,430	$39,430
3	Memphis, TN-MS-AR	$1,310	$39,380	$40,690
4	Las Vegas-Paradise, NV	$1,330	$40,070	$41,400
5	Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX	$1,340	$46,110	$47,450
6	Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN	$1,570	$39,970	$41,540
7	Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL	$1,630	$41,070	$42,700
8	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	$1,640	$40,590	$42,230
8	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	$1,640	$48,670	$50,310
10	Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY	$1,760	$40,960	$42,720
10	St. Louis, MO-IL	$1,760	$42,900	$44,660

Data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The overall trend in wages give us cause for more optimism this Labor Day than we've had in quite a while. While there is still a ways to go and while too many workers in too many places remain out of work or underemployed, these data substantiate just how extensive the reach of wage recovery has been across the board. Nearly all U.S. metro areas - 96 percent of them - saw some increase in average annual wages over the first several years of the recovery. All in all, the extent and diverse nature of America's wage recovery is a good sign, as workers across the country have seen the beginnings of a return to wage growth.

Source:http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/09/best-cities-raise-americas-post-recession-economy/6668/