App downloads on Android overtake Apple – selling more than iPhone and iPad combined

Google’s Android platform has become the most popular platform for downloading apps, beating the iPhone and the iPad combined.
The operating system accounted for 44 per cent of all app downloads in the second quarter of this year, a survey has revealed.
Apple only got 31 per cent across all of its platforms. The figures were published the day after the release of Steve Jobs’ biography.
In the book the Apple founder rails against the Android and brands it a ‘stolen product’ for its similarity to the iPhone operating system.
He also threatens to fight until his ‘last dying breath’ and go to ‘thermonuclear war’ to stop it being a success.
Last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also derided the operating system, saying you needed to be a ‘computer scientist’ to understand Android phones.
But a flood of low-priced handsets this summer has catapulted Android ahead of Apple for the first time in terms of app downloads.
It follows in the wake of reports that Samsung’s Galaxy Android handsets had outsold iPhone during the last quarter.

Exclusive: Nasdaq hackers spied on company boards

By Jim Finkle | Reuters
(Reuters) – Hackers who infiltrated the Nasdaq’s computer systems last year installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies, according to two people familiar with an investigation into the matter.
The new details showed the cyber attack was more serious than previously thought, as Nasdaq OMX Group had said in February that there was no evidence the hackers accessed customer information.
It was not known what information the hackers might have stolen. The investigation into the attack, involving the FBI and National Security Agency, is ongoing.
“God knows exactly what they have done. The long term impact of such attack is still unknown,” said Tom Kellermann, a well-known cyber security expert with years of experience protecting central banks and other high-profile financial institutions from attack.
The case is an example of a “blended attack,” where elite hackers infiltrate one target to facilitate access to another. In March hackers stole digital security keys from EMC Corp’s RSA Security division that they later used to breach the networks of defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.
Nasdaq had previously said that its trading platforms were not compromised by the hackers, but they attacked a Web-based software program called Directors Desk, used by corporate boards to share documents and communicate with executives, among other things.
By infecting Directors Desk, the hackers were able to access confidential documents and the communications of board directors, said Kellermann, chief technology officer at security technology firm AirPatrol Corp.
Investigators have learned that hackers were able to spy on “scores” of directors who logged onto directorsdesk.com before the malicious software was removed, said Kellermann and another person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
It was still unclear how long Nasdaq’s system was breached before the attack was discovered last October.
A Nasdaq spokesman confirmed the investigation into the attack continues, but declined to give further details.
NSA HELPS NASDAQ
Executive Assistant FBI Director Shawn Henry said the financial services sector was losing hundreds of millions of dollars to hackers every year, and the attacks were increasingly “destructive” in nature.
“We know adversaries have full unfettered access to certain networks. Once there they have the ability to destroy data,” he told Reuters in a phone interview. “We see that as a credible threat to all sectors, but specifically the financial services sector.” Henry declined to comment on the Nasdaq attack.
U.S. Army General Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, said the NSA was working with Nasdaq to help protect its network against further attacks.
Alexander told security experts at a Baltimore conference that the United States was shoring up its defenses, but still had “tremendous vulnerabilities” to a growing number of increasingly destructive electronic attacks.
“Nation states, non-nation state actors and hacker groups are creating tools that are increasingly more persistent and threatening, and we have to be ready for that,” he said.
Amid a spate of high-profile cyber crimes, the Obama administration wants Congress to pass comprehensive cyber-security legislation that would increase the government’s ability to thwart the growing threat.
Alexander and other top officials held a classified meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the issue, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld said in July that the exchange is under constant attack, requiring it to spend nearly a billion dollars a year on information security.
“As we sit here, there are people trying to slam into our system every day,” Greifeld said in the interview. “So we have to be ever vigilant against an ever-changing foe.”
(Reporting by Jim Finkle. Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York, Andrea Shalal-Esa in Baltimore and Diane Bartz in Washington. Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Tiffany Wu, and Bob Burgdorfer

US security firm warns of new Stuxnet-like virus

AFP
US security firm Symantec has warned of a new computer virus similar to the malicious Stuxnet worm believed to have preyed on Iran’s nuclear program.
Symantec said Tuesday that the new virus, dubbed “Duqu” because it creates files with the file name prefix “DQ,” is similar to Stuxnet but is designed to gather intelligence for future attacks on industrial control systems.
“The threat was written by the same authors (or those that have access to the Stuxnet source code) and appears to have been created since the last Stuxnet file was recovered,” Symantec said on its website.
“Duqu’s purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party.
“The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility.”
Symantec said the virus had been aimed at “a limited number of organizations for their specific assets,” without providing further information.
The company said it had been alerted to the threat on October 14 by a “research lab with strong international connections.”
Stuxnet was designed to attack computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens and commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.
Most Stuxnet infections have been discovered in Iran, giving rise to speculation it was intended to sabotage nuclear facilities there. The worm was crafted to recognize the system it was to attack.
The New York Times reported in January that US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop the computer worm to sabotage Iran’s efforts to make a nuclear bomb.
Tehran has always denied it is seeking nuclear weapons.

Computer virus did not target US drone fleet: general

AFPAFP
A computer virus that affected the US military’s drone fleet last month was not “specifically” aimed at the unmanned aircraft’s network, the head of US Strategic Command said Tuesday.
“It was a virus that we believe at this point entered from the wild, if you will, not specifically targeted at the RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) activities but entered through some other process,” General Robert Kehler told reporters.
“We’re not quite sure how that happened yet,” he said.
Discovered in mid-September at Creech Air Force base in Nevada, the virus infected computers in the ground control system for the drones, which is separate from the drones’ flight control system.
Drone flights in Afghanistan and other war zones directed from the Creech base were not affected by the virus, according the US Air Force.
One possible route for the virus could have come through hard drives in the ground control system, as the removable drives are used to transfer data and moved from “machine to machine,” Kehler said.
“So that opens the possibility to get something introduced in the system,” he said.
Wired magazine, which first reported the problem, had said the virus spread through removable hard drives used to load map updates and transfer mission videos from one computer to another.
In this case, Kehler said cyber security safeguards had performed successfully.
“All the information that I have would suggest that the systems that we have put in place to detect such viruses worked,” he said.
“We were able to quarantine the virus fairly quickly, we are still doing cleaning activities in some isolated machinery.”
The general added that US military networks are constantly being probed by outsiders.
“We see multiple deliberate attempts to try to get into our networks, almost daily.”
The US military’s newly created cyber command falls within Kehler’s Strategic Command, which also oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal.

Yemen troops fire at anti-regime protest; 2 killed

By GAMAL ABDUL-FATTAH – Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni troops loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire Tuesday at thousands of protesters calling for his ouster in the capital Sanaa, killing two, a medical official said.
The protesters marched through the streets surrounding Change Square, a central intersection where the uprising against Saleh started in February.
“The people want to prosecute the butcher,” the protesters chanted, and some held posters saying that after the death of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, it was time for Saleh to “listen to your people.”
The shooting broke out between Saleh’s forces and renegade troops loyal to Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition and whose forces protect the protesters.
Mohammed al-Qubati, who runs a field hospital for the protesters, said two protesters were killed and at least 40 were wounded in the shooting. He said dozens had breathing difficulties from tear gas fired by the troops.
Saleh has clung to power despite more than nine months of massive street protests against him, inspired by Arab uprisings. After a June assassination attempt, he went to Saudi Arabia for treatment but abruptly returned to Yemen last month.
Saleh has also balked at signing a deal brokered by his powerful Arab Gulf neighbors and the United States in hopes of providing a smooth transition of power. Under the deal, Saleh would resign and hand power to his vice president in return for immunity from prosecution.
There are also worries that the intensified fighting could undermine U.S. and Saudi efforts to fight Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, considered by the U.S. to be the most dangerous of the terror network’s affiliates after it plotted two recent failed attacks on American soil.
On Friday, a U.N. Security Council resolution called for Saleh to immediately accept the deal and expressed grave concern at the situation in Yemen.
Also Tuesday, a Yemeni military plane crashed shortly before landing at the al-Ammad air base near the southern city of Aden.
Four people on board were killed and 11 injured, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The official said a technical problem might have caused the crash. He said there were eight Syrians and seven Yemenis on board.

Dark and Bright: European Space Agency Chooses Next Two Science Missions

The powerful influence of the Sun and the nature of the mysterious ‘dark energy’ motivate European Space Agency’s next two science missions. Solar Orbiter and Euclid were selected by ESA’s Science Programme Committee for implementation, with launches planned for 2017 and 2019.
These two missions are medium-class missions and are the first in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Plan.
Solar Orbiter will venture closer to the Sun than any previous mission. It is designed to make major breakthroughs in our understanding of how the Sun influences its environment, in particular how the Sun generates and propels the flow of particles in which the planets are bathed, known as the solar wind.
Solar activity affects the solar wind, making it very turbulent, and solar flares create strong perturbations in this wind, triggering spectacular auroral displays on Earth and other planets.
Solar Orbiter will be close enough to the Sun to sample this solar wind shortly after it has been ejected from the solar surface, while at the same time observing in great detail the process accelerating the wind on the Sun’s surface. The mission’s launch is planned for 2017 from Cape Canaveral with a NASA-provided Atlas launch vehicle.
Euclid is designed to explore the dark side of the Universe. Essentially a space telescope, the mission will map out the large-scale structure of the Universe with unprecedented accuracy. The observations will stretch across 10 billion light years into the Universe, revealing the history of its expansion and the growth of structure during the last three-quarters of its history.
One of the deepest modern mysteries is why the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. This cosmic acceleration must be driven by something that astronomers have named ‘dark energy’ to signify its unknown nature. By using Euclid to study its effects on the galaxies and clusters of galaxies that trace the large-scale structure of the Universe, astronomers hope to be able to understand the exact nature of dark energy.
Euclid’s launch, on a Soyuz launch vehicle, is planned for 2019 from Europe’s Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana.
“With the selection of Solar Orbiter and Euclid, the Science Programme has once more shown its relevance to pure science and to the concerns of citizens: Euclid will shed light on the nature of one of the most fundamental forces of the Universe, while Solar Orbiter will help scientists to understand processes, such as coronal mass ejections, that affect Earth’s citizens by disrupting, for example, radio communication and power transmission,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.
The announcement is the culmination of a process started in 2004 when ESA consulted the wider astronomical community to set Europe’s goals for space exploration in the coming decade. That exercise resulted in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Plan, which identified four scientific aims: What are the conditions for life and planetary formation? How does the Solar System work? What are the fundamental laws of the Universe? How did the Universe begin and what is it made of?
In 2007, a ‘call for missions’ was issued around these aims and resulted in a number of medium-class missions being considered.
“It was an arduous dilemma for the Science Programme Committee to choose two from the three excellent candidates. All of them would produce world-class science and would put Europe at the forefront in the respective fields. Their quality goes to show the creativity and resources of the European scientific community,” said Fabio Favata, Head of the Science Programme’s Planning Office.
The Science Programme Committee decided to maintain the PLATO mission, not selected for a flight opportunity on this occasion, as a possible competitor for a future flight opportunity.

Islamists claim win in Tunisia’s Arab Spring vote

By Tarek Amara and Christian Lowe | Reuters TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party was preparing to lead a coalition government on Tuesday after its election win sent a message to the region that once-banned Islamists are challenging for power after the “Arab Spring.”
With election officials still counting the ballot papers, the Ennahda party said its own, unofficial tally showed it had won Sunday’s vote, the first since the uprisings which began in Tunisia and spread through the region.
Seeking to reassure secularists in Tunisia and elsewhere who see a threat to their liberal, modernist values, party officials said they would bring two secularist parties into a broad interim coalition that would govern the country.
“This is an historic moment,” said Zeinab Omri, a young woman in a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, who was among a cheering crowd outside the Ennahda headquarters when party officials claimed victory late on Monday.
“No one can doubt this result. This result shows very clearly that the Tunisian people is a people attached to its Islamic identity,” she said.
Two days after an unprecedented 90 percent of voters turned out for the election, officials were still counting the ballot papers in some areas. They said nationwide results would not be ready before Tuesday afternoon.
Sunday’s vote was for an assembly which will sit for one year to draft a new constitution. It will also appoint a new interim president and government to run the country until new elections late next year or early in 2013.
The voting system has built-in checks and balances which make it nearly impossible for any one party to have a majority, compelling Ennahda to seek alliances with secularist parties, which will dilute its influence.
BROAD ALLIANCE
Moncef Marzouki, the former dissident whose secularist Congress for the Republic was in second place according to unofficial results, said he was ready to work with Ennahda and with other parties.
“I am for a coalition government,” Marzouki, who spent years in exile in France before Tunisia’s revolution in January, told Reuters in an interview. “We wish to have a national government as wide as possible with all the parties.”
“There are lots of challenges which await us, and the political class should be worthy of the Tunisian people, which has given an exceptional lesson for the world.”
Ennahda officials named Marzouki’s party, and the left-wing secularist Ettakatol party, as favored coalition partners. Their presence in a coalition government may help reassure Tunisia’s secularists.
Another secularist party, the Progressive Democrats, rejected a coalition. That party has been the most forthright in saying the Islamists will erode Tunisia’s freedoms.
The election result is likely to resonate in Egypt, which starts voting in November in a multi-stage election. An Islamist party which shares much of the same ideology as Ennahda is predicted to perform strongly.
Tunisia became the birthplace of the “Arab Spring” when Mohamed Bouazizi, a vegetable seller in a provincial town, set fire to himself in protest at poverty and government repression.
His suicide in December provoked a wave of protests which forced autocratic President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia the following month.
The revolution in Tunisia, a former French colony, in turn inspired uprisings which forced out entrenched leaders in Egypt and Libya, and convulsed Yemen and Syria — re-shaping the political landscape of the Middle East.
TURKISH MODEL
Ennahda is led by Rachid Ghannouchi, forced into exile in Britain for 22 years because of harassment by Ben Ali’s police. A softly spoken scholar, he dresses in suits and open-necked shirts while his wife and daughter wear the hijab.
Ghannouchi is at pains to stress his party will not enforce any code of morality on Tunisian society, or the millions of Western tourists who holiday on its beaches. He models his approach on the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
The party’s rise has been met with ambivalence by some people in Tunisia. The country’s strong secularist traditions go back to the first post-independence president, Habiba Bourguiba, who called the hijab an “odious rag.”
“I really feel a lot of fear and concern after this result,” said Meriam Othmani, a 28-year-old journalist. “Women’s rights will be eroded,” she said. “Also, you’ll see the return of dictatorship once Ennahda achieves a majority in the constituent assembly.”
Ennahda’s win was a remarkable turnaround for a party which just 10 months ago had to operate underground because of a government ban which had put hundreds of followers in prison.
In a slick and well-funded campaign, the party tapped into a desire among ordinary Tunisians to be able to express their faith freely after years of aggressively enforced secularism.
Western diplomats say Ennahda is largely funded by Tunisian businessmen, which they say means the party will pursue pro-market economic policies.
It also sought to show it could represent all Tunisians, including the large number who take a laissez-faire view of Islam’s strictures, drink alcohol, wear revealing clothes and rarely visit the mosque.
Secularist opponents say they believe this is just a cleverly constructed front that conceals more radical views, especially among Ennahda’s rank and file in the provinces.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond in Tunis; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jon Boyle and Elizabeth Piper)

Republican Perry proposes flat tax, corporate tax cut

By Steve Holland | Reuters GREENVILLE, South Carolina (Reuters) – Republican Rick Perry outlined a broad economic proposal on Monday to let Americans pay a flat 20 percent income tax rate and allow corporations to bring profits home from abroad at a discount.
The Texas governor is to lay out the “cut, balance and grow” plan on Tuesday in a speech in a Greenville suburb, part of an effort to recapture the imagination of conservatives still looking for an alternative to Republican front-runner Mitt Romney to challenge President Barack Obama in next year’s presidential election.
Perry laid out his plan in a Wall Street Journal opinion article. The aim is to generate the economic growth to create jobs and reduce America’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate. That is the key issue in the 2012 campaign and the reason why Democrat Obama is considered beatable.
Perry would give Americans a choice: pay a 20 percent flat tax or keep their current rate. To blunt criticism that a flat tax would cut taxes on the wealthy and increase them on the middle-class, he offered some sweeteners.
His proposal would preserve popular tax deductions for home mortgage interest, charitable donations and state and local tax exemptions for families earning less than $500,000 a year.
Perry is proposing the plan after consultations with Steve Forbes, the Republican who offered a flat tax plan in 1996 when he ran a losing race for the party’s presidential nomination. Forbes endorsed Perry on Monday.
Perry would lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. He would give corporations with a total in profits of $1.4 trillion overseas to pay a discounted tax rate of 5.25 percent temporarily to encourage swift repatriation of the money.
“TAX HOLIDAY”
Companies have been lobbying Congress hard for legislation to create a repatriation “tax holiday.” Its fate may have been hurt by recent studies finding that an earlier tax holiday failed to create new U.S. jobs, as had been promised.
Perry said he would move the United States to a “‘territorial tax system” — as in Hong Kong and France, for example — that only taxes in-country income.’”
Perry, whose campaign has been sagging after several shaky debate performances, is laying out his plan in South Carolina, a key state for any conservative seeking the White House.
He said he would eliminate the tax on qualified dividends and long-term capital gains to “free up the billions of dollars Americans are sitting on to avoid taxes on the gain.”
To help older Americans, he would eliminate a tax on Social Security retirement benefits and help those who see their benefits taxed if they continue to work and earn income in addition to Social Security earnings.
Perry said he would also establish a goal of balancing the federal budget by 2020 but admitted it would be hard given the tax cuts he says are needed to re-energize economic growth.
“It will be an extremely difficult task exacerbated by the current economic crisis and our need for significant tax cuts to spur growth. But that growth is what will get us to balance, if we are willing to make the hard decisions of cutting,” he said.
Perry said U.S. government spending is out of control and he would start moving toward fiscal responsibility by capping federal spending at 18 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, banning future bailouts and passing a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Obama mingles with the stars as he raises cash

By JIM KUHNHENN – Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Will Smith and basketball standout Earvin “Magic” Johnson for dinner and Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas for post-meal mingling. President Barack Obama waded into the domain of the stars Monday as he hit the California fundraising circuit in one of his busiest donor outreach trips of the season.
Smith, in an elegant three-piece suit, and Johnson, the standout former point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, were guests at the home of producer James Lassiter and his wife, Mai. About 40 contributors, including actress Hillary Duff, contributed $35,800 each for a cozy dinner and a chance to chat with the president. Obama, eager to reinvigorate his supporters, ticked off his administration’s accomplishments.
“Sometimes I think people forget how much has gotten done,” the president said as he urged his backers to rally once again, at the same time joking, as he often does, that he is older and grayer now. “This election won’t be as sexy as the first one.”
The Lassiter dinner, followed by a larger affair at the home of Griffith and Banderas, were part of a three-day, fundraising-rich swing through Nevada, California and Colorado. California, however, is his biggest donor state and he raised about $1 million in the Los Angeles area alone during the past two fundraising quarters, according to an Associated Press review of contributions above $200.
Testing a re-election theme, Obama is also telling donors that the country is suffering from an economic crisis and political crisis. “People are crying out for action,” he says.
Pointing to elements of his $447 billion jobs plan that was rejected by Republican lawmakers, Obama said they likely would linger as campaign issues in 2012.
“This is the fight that we’re going to have right now, and I suspect this is the fight that we’re going to have to have over the next year,” Obama told about 240 donors at a fundraising event earlier Monday at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. “The Republicans in Congress and the Republican candidates for president have made their agenda very clear.”
The Las Vegas fundraiser attracted about 240 people who paid from $1,000 to $35,800 toward Obama’s re-election campaign and to the Democratic National Committee. The bigger donors met the president personally.
Others at Lassiter’s Hancock Park home included Troy Carter, the manager of Grammy award winner Lady Gaga. The singer herself was a guest at a fundraiser last month at the Atherton home of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
The Griffith-Banderas event attracted about 120 donors and was aimed at Obama’s Latino supporters. It featured guests such as actress Eva Longoria and mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Julian Castro of San Antonio.
While in Las Vegas, Obama spelled out a plan to help homeowners refinance their homes even if their home values had dropped dramatically below what they owed on their mortgages. Obama ventured into a working class development in the Las Vegas suburbs that benefitted from a community revitalization program like one he is pushing Congress to approve now.
But the president displayed campaign-style vigor, wading into the neighborhood crowd to shake hands and even lift a baby. His handlers reminded him it was time to leave, but Obama strode to yet another group of residents for one last hand shake, autograph and photograph.
Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Obama headed to a diverse neighborhood minutes from Lassiter’s home south of Hollywood and stopped at Roscoe’s, a popular Los Angeles chicken restaurant chain. Obama roved through the dining booths greeting customers, leaving at least one awestruck young boy holding his hand aloft after shaking the president’s hand. One man gave him a hug and a Hispanic man told his daughter that if she studied hard “you’ll be like him.”
Most of his remaining time during this three-day Western swing is being spent raising money. On Tuesday he will tape an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” his second as president and fourth appearance overall. He also will attend fundraisers in San Francisco and Denver.

Prosecution rests in Michael Jackson doctor trial

By Alex Dobuzinskis | Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Prosecutors rested their case against Michael Jackson’s doctor on Monday after nearly four weeks of testimony intended to prove he was responsible for the pop star’s death.
The last of 33 prosecution witnesses in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray was anesthesiology expert Dr. Steven Shafer, who wrapped five days on the witness stand by telling jurors Murray should not have given Jackson the anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid.
“There’s very little, almost no precedent for this level of propofol exposure,” Shafer said. Medical examiners found that Jackson died from an overdose of propofol combined with sedatives.
Shafer said it was in some ways difficult to analyze the singer’s death because it was so unusual.
After prosecutors rested, Murray’s attorneys called their first witnesses in the trial.
Among the first defense witnesses was Jackson’s longtime physician, Dr. Allen Metzger, who told the court he visited the singer on April 18, 2009, and that Jackson asked him about an “intravenous sleep medicine” — a possible reference to propofol, which is given intravenously.
Metzger said he was unsure what type of medication Jackson was seeking, but he did not give it to him.
Also on Monday, Metzger and nutritionist Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who treated Jackson in 2009, testified the singer had complained to them of his severe insomnia.
DEFENSE STRATEGY
Defense attorneys have sought to portray Jackson as highly familiar with the powerful propofol, motivated to obtain it and able to use it on himself.
Murray told police he had struggled to control Jackson’s insomnia and tried to ween him off propofol in his final days.
Murray has admitted giving Jackson propofol, the key drug that caused the “Thriller” singer’s overdose, but defense attorneys have argued that Jackson gave himself an extra, fatal dose of the drug when Murray was absent.
Since the trial began roughly four weeks ago, jurors have heard from several doctors who slammed Murray’s treatment of Jackson on June 25, 2009 — the day the singer died — and for not keeping records in the weeks he cared for the singer.
Prosecutors have put Murray’s defense attorneys in a quandary by presenting the doctor’s account to police of what happened in Jackson’s final hours, then pointing out glaring inconsistencies between his statements and the evidence.
For instance, Murray never mentioned to police that he was on his phone after giving Jackson a cocktail of propofol and sedatives. But prosecutors have presented records showing Murray using his cell phone for more than 45 minutes before discovering that Jackson had stopped breathing.
Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to the charge of involuntary manslaughter, faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted.
Murray’ attorneys say they expect to finish presenting their case as early as Thursday.

Dark and Bright: European Space Agency Chooses Next Two Science Missions

The powerful influence of the Sun and the nature of the mysterious ‘dark energy’ motivate European Space Agency’s next two science missions. Solar Orbiter and Euclid were selected by ESA’s Science Programme Committee for implementation, with launches planned for 2017 and 2019.
These two missions are medium-class missions and are the first in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Plan.
Solar Orbiter will venture closer to the Sun than any previous mission. It is designed to make major breakthroughs in our understanding of how the Sun influences its environment, in particular how the Sun generates and propels the flow of particles in which the planets are bathed, known as the solar wind.
Solar activity affects the solar wind, making it very turbulent, and solar flares create strong perturbations in this wind, triggering spectacular auroral displays on Earth and other planets.
Solar Orbiter will be close enough to the Sun to sample this solar wind shortly after it has been ejected from the solar surface, while at the same time observing in great detail the process accelerating the wind on the Sun’s surface. The mission’s launch is planned for 2017 from Cape Canaveral with a NASA-provided Atlas launch vehicle.
Euclid is designed to explore the dark side of the Universe. Essentially a space telescope, the mission will map out the large-scale structure of the Universe with unprecedented accuracy. The observations will stretch across 10 billion light years into the Universe, revealing the history of its expansion and the growth of structure during the last three-quarters of its history.
One of the deepest modern mysteries is why the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. This cosmic acceleration must be driven by something that astronomers have named ‘dark energy’ to signify its unknown nature. By using Euclid to study its effects on the galaxies and clusters of galaxies that trace the large-scale structure of the Universe, astronomers hope to be able to understand the exact nature of dark energy.
Euclid’s launch, on a Soyuz launch vehicle, is planned for 2019 from Europe’s Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana.
“With the selection of Solar Orbiter and Euclid, the Science Programme has once more shown its relevance to pure science and to the concerns of citizens: Euclid will shed light on the nature of one of the most fundamental forces of the Universe, while Solar Orbiter will help scientists to understand processes, such as coronal mass ejections, that affect Earth’s citizens by disrupting, for example, radio communication and power transmission,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.
The announcement is the culmination of a process started in 2004 when ESA consulted the wider astronomical community to set Europe’s goals for space exploration in the coming decade. That exercise resulted in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Plan, which identified four scientific aims: What are the conditions for life and planetary formation? How does the Solar System work? What are the fundamental laws of the Universe? How did the Universe begin and what is it made of?
In 2007, a ‘call for missions’ was issued around these aims and resulted in a number of medium-class missions being considered.
“It was an arduous dilemma for the Science Programme Committee to choose two from the three excellent candidates. All of them would produce world-class science and would put Europe at the forefront in the respective fields. Their quality goes to show the creativity and resources of the European scientific community,” said Fabio Favata, Head of the Science Programme’s Planning Office.
The Science Programme Committee decided to maintain the PLATO mission, not selected for a flight opportunity on this occasion, as a possible competitor for a future flight opportunity.

Series of Bumps Sent Uranus Into Its Sideways Spin, New Research Suggests

Uranus’ highly tilted axis makes it something of an oddball in our Solar System. The accepted wisdom is that Uranus was knocked on its side by a single large impact, but new research being presented at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting in Nantes rewrites our theories of how Uranus became so tilted and also solves fresh mysteries about the position and orbits of its moons. By using simulations of planetary formation and collisions, it appears that early in its life Uranus experienced a succession of small punches instead of a single knock-out blow. This research has important ramifications on our theories of giant planet formation.
Uranus is unusual in that its spin axis is inclined by 98 degrees compared to its orbital plane around the Sun. This is far more pronounced than other planets, such as Jupiter (3 degrees), Earth (23 degrees), or Saturn and Neptune (29 degrees). Uranus is, in effect, spinning on its side.
The generally accepted theory is that in the past a body a few times more massive than Earth collided with Uranus, knocking the planet on its side. There is, however, one significant flaw in this notion: the moons of Uranus should have been left orbiting in their original angles, but they too lie at almost exactly 98 degrees.
This long-standing mystery has been solved by an international team of scientists led by Alessandro Morbidelli (Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur in Nice, France), who is presenting his group’s research at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting in Nantes, France.
Morbidelli and his team used simulations to reproduce various impact scenarios in order to ascertain the most likely cause of Uranus’ tilt. They discovered that if Uranus had been hit when still surrounded by a protoplanetary disk — the material from which the moons would form — then the disk would have reformed into a fat doughnut shape around the new, highly-tilted equatorial plane. Collisions within the disk would have flattened the doughnut, which would then go onto form the moons in the positions we see today.
However, the simulation threw up an unexpected result: in the above scenario, the moons displayed retrograde motion — that is to say, they orbited in the opposite direction to that which we observe. Morbidelli’s group tweaked their parameters in order to explain this. The surprising discovery was that if Uranus was not tilted in one go, as is commonly thought, but rather was bumped in at least two smaller collisions, then there is a much higher probability of seeing the moons orbit in the direction we observe.
This research is at odds with current theories of how planets form, which may now need adjusting. Morbidelli elaborates: “The standard planet formation theory assumes that Uranus, Neptune and the cores of Jupiter and Saturn formed by accreting only small objects in the protoplanetary disk. They should have suffered no giant collisions. The fact that Uranus was hit at least twice suggests that significant impacts were typical in the formation of giant planets. So, the standard theory has to be revised.”

Russians see room for moonbase in lunar lava caves

(Reuters) – The United States may have put the first man on the moon, but Russian scientists and space explorers are now gazing at a new goal — setting up a colony on the moon.
The discovery of volcanic tunnels on the moon could provide a natural shelter for the first lunar colony, cosmonauts and scientists said on Tuesday.
Researchers have long suspected the moon’s volcanic past left an underground network of lava tubes as its legacy, and 2008 images from Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft showed a possible way down — a mysterious, meters-deep hole breaching the surface.
“This new discovery that the moon may be a rather porous body could significantly alter our approach to founding lunar bases,” veteran spaceman Sergei Krikalyov, who heads Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, said at a forum on the future of manned spaceflight.
“If it turns out that the moon has a number of caves that can provide some protection from radiation and meteor showers, it could be an even more interesting destination than previously thought,” he said.
A slide-show image showing bunker-like inflatable tents dotting the lunar landscape helped forum participants imagine the lunar bases.
“There wouldn’t be any need to dig the lunar soil and build walls and ceilings,” said Krikalyov.
“It would be enough to use an inflatable module with a hard outer shell to — roughly speaking — seal the caves.”
The first such lunar colonies could be built by 2030, estimated Boris Kryuchkov, the deputy science head at the training center.
As the world’s space agencies debate where to fly beyond low-Earth orbit, including deep space missions to asteroids and Mars, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) head of human spaceflight programs said the moon also looked attractive.
“In ESA, there is still a very strong focus on the moon. It could be a natural first to go there,” Martin Zell told Reuters.
(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Warming could exceed safe levels in this lifetime

By Nina Chestney
LONDON, Oct. 23, 2011 (Reuters) — Global temperature rise could exceed “safe” levels of two degrees Celsius in some parts of the world in many of our lifetimes if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, two research papers published in the journal Nature warned.
“Certain levels of climate change are very likely within the lifetimes of many people living now … unless emissions of greenhouse gases are substantially reduced in the coming decades,” said a study on Sunday by academics at the English universities of Reading and Oxford, the UK’s Met Office Hadley Center and the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
“Large parts of Eurasia, North Africa and Canada could potentially experience individual five-year average temperatures that exceed the 2 degree Celsius threshold by 2030 — a timescale that is not so distant,” the paper said.
Two years ago, industrialized nations set a 2 degree Celsius warming as the maximum limit to avoid dangerous climate changes including more floods, droughts and rising seas, while some experts said a 1.5 degree limit would be safer.
It is widely agreed among scientists that global pledges so far for curbing greenhouse gas emissions are not strong enough to prevent “dangerous” climate change.
Next month, nations will meet for the next U.N. climate summit in Durban, South Africa, where a binding pact to reduce emissions looks unlikely to be delivered.
Instead, a global deal might not emerge until 2014 or 2015.
The study found that most of the world’s land surface is very likely to experience five-year average temperatures that exceed 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2060.
If emissions are substantially lowered, the two degree threshold might be delayed by up to several decades, it added.
However, even if global temperature rises are kept under two degrees by aggressive emissions cuts, some regions will still not avoid warming and the likelihood of extreme events such as heatwaves is still high in even a marginally warmer world.
A separate study by academics at Zurich’s Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the UK’s Met Office Hadley Center, among others, said it would be challenging to limit temperature rises to two degrees.
To achieve a greater than 66 percent chance of limiting temperature rise, global emissions will probably need to peak before 2020 and fall to about 44 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2020.
“Without a firm commitment to put in place the mechanisms to enable an early global emissions peak followed by steep reductions thereafter, there are significant risks that the 2 degree target, endorsed by so many nations, is already slipping out of reach,” the study said.

Russians see room for moonbase in lunar lava caves

Russia’s chief prosecutor on Tuesday blamed a recent spate of disasters threatening the future of the International Space Station (ISS) on negligence by the country’s underpaid rocket scientists.
A probe into the August 24 crash of the unmanned Progress cargo ship and an August 18 error that put Russia’s biggest satellite in the wrong orbit blamed both mishaps on the state-run Roskosmos space agency and its workers.
The decision said the Prosecutor General’s office would be pressing for disciplinary measures and fines against “those who caused the accidents” and singled out the agency’s executive for separate blame.
The prosecutor’s statement pointed to “a lack of proper control on the part of Roskosmos officials over the adoption of corresponding decisions.”
The once-vaunted Russian space agency was already rocked by a reshuffle in April when its chief Anatoly Perminov got the sack during celebrations for the 50th anniversary year of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight.
Roskosmos has acknowledged the criticism but complains of being underfunded and unable to compete for top talent with Western firms that draw the young away from its Soviet-era institutions with spartan conditions.
Perminov’s dismissal followed Russia’s loss of three navigation satellites that the prime minister and likely future president Vladimir Putin has promoted as a rival to the US-made Global Positioning System (GPS).
Roskosmos has since been forced to temporarily ground its main rockets — the longer-range Soyuz and the lucrative Proton-M — and left question marks hanging over Russia’s ability to safely deliver humans to space.
The US space agency NASA had been mulling the option of leaving the space station abandoned for the first time in 10 years should Roskosmos fail to solve problems with its Soyuz carrier rocket by mid-November.
The abandoned US space shuttle programme and and the failure of both private and Western state firms to step in thus far has left Russia as the only nation capable of ferrying ISS replacement crews.
Roskosmos on October 3 successfully test-launched a Soyuz model and has since scheduled the next crew to the ISS for November 14.

Hispanic voters: Stick with Obama or go with GOP?

By KEN THOMAS and CRISTINA SILVA — Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A year before the 2012 presidential election, Hispanic voters are facing a choice. They can continue to support President Barack Obama despite being hurt disproportionately by the economic downturn or turn to Republicans at a time when many GOP presidential hopefuls have taken a hard line on immigration.
Obama kicks off a three-day trip to Western states trip with a stop Monday in Las Vegas, where he wants to rally support for his jobs agenda in Congress. Nevada has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, 13.4 percent.
The trip comes as Republican candidates have taken a more strident tone on immigration.
Businessman Herman Cain recently suggested electrifying a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico to kill illegal immigrants; he later called the remark a joke and apologized. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has raised the issue of “anchor babies,” or U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants; it’s a term that some people find offensive.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been criticized by opponents for signing a law allowing some illegal immigrants to get in-state college tuition. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said most of the jobs created under Perry’s watch went to illegal immigrants. Perry lashed into Romney during last week’s GOP debate in Las Vegas for hiring a lawn care company that employed illegal immigrants.
Obama won 67 percent of Hispanic voters in 2008 but many of those voters have become disillusioned during the past three years. Unemployment among Hispanics tops 11 percent and many Latinos are losing their homes. Others criticize the number of deportations under Obama’s presidency and the lack of progress on a comprehensive immigration plan.
“I am willing to support him, but I would like him to keep his word on all the promises he made,” said Marcos Mata, 17, a Las Vegas high school senior who will vote for the first time next year. “Not just on immigration. But I don’t know if I see any improvement. The jobs act, it’s a good idea but he should have been doing that a long time ago.”
Recent Gallup polling showed Obama with a 49 percent job approval rating among Hispanics, compared with about 60 percent in the beginning of 2011. Hispanic voters could prove pivotal next year, especially in fast-growing and contested states such as Florida, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado.
Obama has said his jobs agenda would help Hispanics in the construction industry and provide tax breaks for small businesses. On immigration, he has targeted violent criminals for deportation and urged Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Obama also has sought support for legislation that would provide a route to legal status for college students and members of the military brought to the country as children.
Republicans sense an opening and have courted Hispanic voters through Spanish-language radio and television ads, criticizing Obama’s handling of the economy.
Crossroads GPS, a Republican political organization tied to strategist Karl Rove, ran a Spanish-language ad in five states last summer called “Despertarse,” or “Wake up,” depicting a young mother pacing her home early in the morning, worried about the economy and her children.
President George W. Bush was supported by 44 percent of Hispanic voters in 2004 but that level slipped for the 2008 GOP nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Party officials promote the success of prominent Hispanic Republicans, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, but some worry that a harsh tone on immigration could undermine their efforts.
“The fundamental question will be whether the economic concerns of the Latino community are so severe that they are less critical of anti-immigrant positioning by the Republican party,” said Adam Mendelsohn, a Republican strategist and former adviser to ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.
Mendelsohn warned that Romney could damage his general election prospects if he makes immigration a focal point during the primary. “If the conventional wisdom is that Romney won the nomination because he beat up Perry on immigration, that’s a narrative that will alienate Latinos.”
Voters like Jose Hernandez, a Republican, are watching closely. Hernandez said his Las Vegas real estate business has faltered with the housing market. Most of his neighbors and clients are more concerned about the economy than immigration but he has found the tone of the GOP debate offensive, including comments about illegal immigrants stealing jobs.
“That’s just ignorance,” Hernandez said. “The Republicans need to talk about making it easier for people to come here.”
Democrats say the immigration rhetoric in the GOP debates could have a similar impact that tough anti-immigration laws had in California during the 1990s under Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. Democratic presidential nominees have not lost California since 1988.
Obama’s campaign is aggressively courting Latino voters.
In Fort Collins, Colo., on Saturday, about a dozen volunteers walked door to door to register voters and hand out pamphlets. “If we turn out 15,000 to 20,000 votes, that’s going to make a big difference,” said Joe Perez, 67, of Greeley, Colo.
Turnout will be key. Many Hispanic Democrats say the Republican debate on immigration has turned off Latino voters but worry that a weak economy could make it more difficult to encourage Hispanics to support Obama.
“Building the excitement and the enthusiasm to go to the polls, that’s something we’re going to have to figure out how to do,” said Maria Elena Durazo, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. “They just feel down. The economy is terrible so our challenge is still going to be getting them to the polls. I think we can do it.”

NATO agrees to wind down in Libya over 10 days

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, AP

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO plans to end its seven-month bombing campaign in Libya at the end of the month, leaving the battle-scarred country’s new authorities on their own to ensure security after the death of Moammar Gadhafi and the ouster of his regime.
The alliance made a preliminary decision to end the campaign on Oct. 31 and will make the formal decision next week, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday after a meeting of the alliance’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council.
Diplomats said NATO air patrols are set to continue over Libya in the next 10 days as a precautionary measure to ensure the stability of the new regime. They will gradually be reduced in coming days if there are no further outbreaks of violence.
The council took into account the wishes of Libya’s new government and of the United Nations, under whose mandate NATO carried out its operations.
Victory in the war represents a major boost for the Cold War alliance, which is bogged down in the 10-year war in Afghanistan, the 12-year mission in Kosovo, and the seemingly never-ending anti-piracy operation off the Somali coastline.
It polished the reputation of France and Britain, the two countries that drove it forward, coming at a time when the alliance’s relevance is increasingly in doubt as countries make deep defense cuts and other austerity measures caused by the international economic crisis.
Rasmussen hailed the success of the operation which started on March 19 with a series of U.S.-led attacks designed to suppress Gadhafi’s formidable air defenses, including missile and radar networks. Libya’s former rebels killed Gadhafi on Thursday, and officials had said they expected the aerial operation to end very soon.
“It shows that freedom is the biggest force in the world,” Fogh Rasmussen said.
Fogh Rasmussen said NATO had no intention of leaving any residual force in or near Libya.
“We expect to close down the operation.”
He said it was up to the new government to decide whether to launch an investigation into the hazy circumstances of Gadhafi’s death.
“With regards to Gadhafi, I would expect the new authorities in Libya to live up fully to the basic principles of rule of law and human rights, including full transparency.”
NATO earlier said its commanders were not aware that Gadhafi was in a convoy that NATO bombed as it fled Sirte. In a statement Friday, the alliance said an initial Thursday morning strike was aimed at a convoy of approximately 75 armed vehicles leaving Sirte, the Libyan city defended by Gadhafi loyalists. One vehicle was destroyed, which resulted in the convoy’s dispersal.
Another jet then engaged approximately 20 vehicles that were driving at great speed toward the south, destroying or damaging about 10 of them.
“We later learned from open sources and allied intelligence that Gadhafi was in the convoy and that the strike likely contributed to his capture,” the statement said.
Intelligence gleaned during surveillance flights around Sirte on Thursday indicated that a “command and control group, including senior military leaders” were attempting to flee from the town, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman Steve Field said.
“There was a strike, there was damage to the convoy, the Free Libya Fighters then moved in — as to what happened next that is not entirely clear,” he said.
NATO warplanes have flown about 26,000 sorties, including over 9,600 strike missions. They destroyed about 5,900 military targets, including Libya’s air defenses and over 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Gadhafi’s command and control networks.
The daily airstrikes finally broke the stalemate that developed after Gadhafi’s initial attempts failed to crush the rebellion that broke out in February. In August, the rebels began advancing on Tripoli, with the NATO warplanes providing close air support and destroying any attempts by the defenders to block them.
NATO was sharply criticized by Russia, China, South Africa and other nations for overstepping the limited U.N. Security Council resolution that allowed it to protect civilians, and using it as a pretext to pursue regime change in Libya.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier Friday that “the operation has reached its end.”
But in London, Britain had suggested that NATO may not immediately complete its mission in Libya, wary over the potential reprisal attacks by remaining Gadhafi loyalists.

Saudi Crown Prince Sultan dies, focus on Prince Nayef

By Angus McDowall, Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Sultan has died, the royal court said on Saturday, opening the way for Interior Minister and reputed conservative Prince Nayef to become the likely heir apparent of the world’s top oil exporter.
Prince Sultan, whose age was officially given as 80 and who died in New York of colon cancer early on Saturday Saudi time, had been a central figure in Saudi decision-making since becoming defense minister in 1962 and was made crown prince in 2005.
Saudi analysts predicted an orderly transition at a time when much of the rest of the Middle East is in turmoil as populations have risen up against their autocratic leaders.
Sultan’s health had declined in recent years and he spent long periods outside the kingdom for medical treatment. A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks described him as “to all intents and purposes incapacitated.”
The country’s ruler, King Abdullah, is now likely to summon an untested Allegiance Council of the ruling al-Saud family to approve his preferred heir.
Most analysts believe that is likely to be Prince Nayef, who was appointed second-deputy prime minister in 2009, a position usually given to the man who is third-in-line to rule.
“The succession will be orderly,” said Asaad al-Shamlan, a professor of political science in Riyadh. “The point of reference will be the ruling of the Allegiance Council. It seems to me most likely Nayef will be chosen. If he becomes crown prince, I don’t expect much immediate change.”
He has gained a reputation as more conservative than either King Abdullah or Prince Sultan, with a close relationship with the country’s powerful clergy. However, as king he might be more likely to follow to a moderate line in keeping with the al-Saud tradition of governing by consensus, say analysts.
King Abdullah set up the Allegiance Council in 2006 to make the family’s complex succession process more transparent. In the past, the succession was decided in secret by the king and a coterie of powerful princes, before being made public.
Under the new system, the 34 branches of the ruling family born to the kingdom’s founder King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud will each have a vote to confirm the king’s nominee for crown prince or appoint their own candidate.
Prince Nayef has been interior minister since 1975 and has managed the kingdom’s day-to-day affairs during absences of both the king and crown prince.
KORANIC VERSES
Saudi television broke its normal schedule early on Saturday to broadcast Koranic verses and footage of pilgrims circling the Kaaba in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.
However, as the royal court prepared for the transition of Prince Sultan’s role to a new crown prince, shops, schools and universities were open as normal in Riyadh.
“With deep sorrow and sadness the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz mourns the death of his brother and his Crown Prince Sultan… who died at dawn this morning Saturday outside the kingdom following an illness,” said a Saudi royal court statement carried on official media.
Funeral services for Sultan, who died on Friday New York time, will be held on Tuesday in Riyadh. An official at the Saudi embassy in Washington confirmed that Prince Sultan had died in New York but declined to give further details.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her condolences over the death, saying U.S.-Saudi ties are strong.
“The Crown Prince was a strong leader and a good friend to the United States over many years, as well as a tireless champion for his country,” Clinton said during a visit to Tajikistan, in the first official U.S. comment on his death.
“Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is strong and enduring and we will look forward to working with the (Saudi) leadership for many years to come,” she told a news conference.
Kuwait, where the ruling family has been allied to the al-Saud for more than a century, said it would mark Sultan’s death with three days of official mourning.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said: “I would like to express my sincere condolences to my brother, the custodian of the two holy mosques. Jordan mourns the passing of such an Arab statesman and a leader and a champion of the Arab and Muslim cause.”
SUCCESSION
Saudi King Abdullah, who is in his late 80s, had undergone a back surgery earlier this month but has been pictured since then in apparently good health.
“The stability of Saudi Arabia is more important than ever,” said Turad al-Amri, a political analyst in Saudi Arabia. “All the countries around it are crumbling. The balance of power is changing in the Middle East.”
Abdullah has gained a reputation as a cautious reformer since becoming de facto regent of the conservative Islamic country in 1995 and as king since 2005.
He was absent for three months in late 2010 and early 2011 following treatment for a herniated disc that caused blood to accumulate around his spine.
Unlike in European monarchies, the line of succession does not move directly from father to eldest son, but has moved down a line of brothers born to the kingdom’s founder Ibn Saud, who died in 1953.
Sultan’s death also means King Abdullah will have to select a new defense and aviation minister, key posts in a country that spends billions of dollars on weapons procurement.
Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the son of the late crown prince, has been deputy defense minister since 2001 and is one candidate to replace his father as minister.
“There traditionally has been a way of balancing the power relationships within the family that are important,” said Robert Jordan, U.S. ambassador to Riyadh from 2001-03. “So I don’t think we should automatically assume that Khaled bin Sultan will become the defense minister, although he has much experience and his father was in place for many years.”
(Addtional reporting Sami Aboudi in Dubia, Asma Alsharif in Abu Dhabi, Tom Pfeiffer in Amman and Andrew Quinn in Dushanbe; Editing by Sami Aboudi and David Stamp)

Israel ‘ready for partial West Bank building freeze’

By Philippe Agret, AFP

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to partially freeze West Bank settlement building if it will bring the Palestinians back to direct talks, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
But the Palestinians said they were unaware of any such offer, and said that anything short of a full freeze would not be acceptable.

A view of the Jewish settlement of Har Homa in Arab east Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to partially freeze West Bank settlement building if it will bring the Palestinians back to direct talks, an Israeli newspaper has reported.(AFP/File/Ahmad Gharabli)

According to Haaretz, Netanyahu’s offer was made on Wednesday in talks with Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin.
During the meeting, which came a day after she held talks with president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah, Holguin told Netanyahu that the Palestinian leader desperately needed a symbolic gesture on settlements if he was to return to negotiations, a senior Israeli official told the paper.
In response, Netanyahu said he would be “ready to make such a gesture if it would return Abbas to the negotiating table” and agreed to freeze all government-sponsored construction and all building on state land.
But he said he would not agree to freeze settlement activity by private developers on privately owned land — which, according to a recent Palestinian study, constitutes around 80 percent of settlement activity.
The official said the offer would test whether or not Abbas was serious about returning to direct negotiations.
“Netanyahu said he was ready to test Abbas by making the gesture regarding settlements. ‘If Abbas is serious about negotiations, he will renew direct talks,’ Netanyahu said.”
The Israeli official said the new proposal was relayed to Abbas on Wednesday, but Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Friday said it was the first they had heard of it, and insisted that only a full halt to settlement, including in annexed east Jerusalem, would suffice.
“We want to hear officially from the Israeli government that they accept to stop settlement on all Palestinian lands, including in Jerusalem and natural growth, and to recognise the 1967 borders,” Erakat told AFP.
“The Israeli government knows very well how to inform us officially. Until now, no-one has told us anything,” he said.
In order to resume direct talks, the Palestinians are demanding a total freeze on all settlement activity, and a commitment from Israel that any future negotiations be based on the lines which existed before June 1967.
Israel says both demands are preconditions, and has refused to accept either of them.
Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment directly on the Haaretz report, saying only: “The prime minister’s position has not changed — he is ready for direct peace talks with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions.”
Earlier this week, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said the time was not right to resume meaningful dialogue with Israel in a rare comment on the political process.
“Our own assessment is that the conditions are not ripe at this juncture for a meaningful resumption of talks,” he told a pro-Palestinian lobby group in Washington on Wednesday.
He said the process had failed — but “not for lack of talks.”
“It’s precisely because those talks were attempted so many times before, but not on the basis of terms of reference that were consistent with what is required to bring this conflict to an end in a manner that is remotely related to what international law requires,” he said.
Direct talks were last held in September 2010 but ran aground within weeks after the expiry of a temporary freeze on West Bank settlement construction, which Israel did not renew.
The Palestinians say they will not talk while Israel continues to build on land they want for a future state.
Colombian mediation efforts began earlier this month when Abbas visited Bogota in an attempt to secure support for a Palestinian bid to secure state membership at the United Nations.
Colombia, a UN Security Council member, opposes the bid as does Israel and the United States, with all three saying a Palestinian state can only emerge through bilateral negotiations and not through a UN vote.
The request was formally presented by Abbas on September 23 and is currently being studied by the Security Council which could vote on it as early as November 11, a senior Western diplomat said on Wednesday.