Want to change populer US seeks Pakistan PR triumph

Watches this enjoy US seeks Pakistan PR triumph



Obama administration wants to change popular Pakistani perceptions of their country's role in 'America's war', but this may take more than grand gestures [GALLO/GETTY]
A preacher I once knew said something which has resonated with me ever since. "There is no end to the good you can do," he said, "provided you are willing to give someone else the credit."

No doubt, a substantial amount of good will come from the $500mn in new, large-scale US-funded infrastructure projects announced by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in Islamabad this week. But the secretary and other senior US officials have made it clear: They want to be sure the US gets the credit.

Ever since 9/11 and Pakistan's abrupt - if partial - policy shift in favour of cooperation with the US against al-Qaeda and associated militants, US officials have been seized of the fact that the US' overwhelming unpopularity among the Pakistani public was making it all the more difficult for Pakistani officials to vigorously prosecute a campaign against militancy.

Try as he might, Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani president, though genuinely convinced of the domestic necessity to combat extremism, could not develop popular support for what was seen as "America's war".

Grand gestures

IN DEPTH
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The US and Karzai's little brother
'Condemned to civil war'
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Ominous signs for US-Pakistan ties
Why Karzai cannot choose his family
US leadership in non-proliferation
Follow the chain of command
Talking to the enemy
Striking at Afghanistan corruption
Pakistan needs friendly Afghanistan
Political umbrage in Washington?
Making room for the Taliban
The Obama administration has made it clear that it wants to fundamentally change the Pakistani perception of its relationship with the US, both at the leadership and popular levels.

The administration sees the need to move beyond the "transactional" nature of past US-Pakistan relations, in favour of a "broad partnership" which it hopes will overcome the "trust deficit" and convince Pakistanis that the US will remain committed to them and the region long after the current unpleasantness with the Taliban and al-Qaeda have ended.

In conducting this uphill fight, the US has opted for the grand gesture. Not only is the absolute amount of civilian developmental aid contained in the so-called Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill impressively high - some $7.5bn over five years - but in implementing this programme, the US has decided to place considerable emphasis on mega-infrastructure projects including dams, hydroelectric power plants, irrigation projects, and large hospitals.

These projects make a great deal of sense in their own right. Pakistan is beset with crushing deficits in water and electric power; addressing them is key to economic growth and long-term political stability in a nuclear-weapons state in which extremism exerts a substantial appeal.

Moreover, moving beyond the uni-dimensional pattern of the Bush administration, which largely limited itself to military aid, counter-terrorism assistance and military reimbursement for Pakistani troop deployments, promises to expand the US relationship to encompass the civilian side of the leadership class, again with long-term benefits.

However, if US leaders believe that investment in high-profile development projects is likely to fundamentally alter popular Pakistani perceptions of the US, they are likely to be disappointed.

That is not to suggest that Pakistani perceptions of the US must always remain deeply negative; nor does it suggest that popular views of the US cannot be improved. That notion was strongly rebutted by the popular reaction to rapid US disaster relief assistance - much of it delivered by the US military - to Pakistani earthquake victims in the Northern Areas and Kashmir in 2005.

The images of US helicopters carrying desperately-needed humanitarian assistance to devastated areas produced a very marked, though temporary, upswing in popular perceptions of the US. But large-scale, multi-year projects whose impact on the lives of ordinary Pakistanis will be incremental and difficult to trace will simply not have a commensurate impact on popular perceptions.

In these more ambiguous circumstances, which lack the emotional impact of placing food into the hands of a hungry child, the reflexive reaction of many Pakistanis will be that US largesse toward Pakistan must be meant to serve US interests, and that the benefit to ordinary Pakistanis is incidental to that larger purpose.

Even the $100mn earmarked to expand bank credit to small and medium-sized businesses is likely to be so heavily intermediated by Pakistani institutions as to blunt the public relations benefit to the US.

This is precisely in line with the current US experience in Afghanistan, where the local political impact of US development assistance seems to be inversely proportional to the size and ambition of the project.

For example, all the money invested by the US in newly-refurbished road systems in Afghanistan has generated very little gratitude on the part of Afghans, either toward the Americans or toward the Afghan government. Conversely, very modest projects selected and conducted with determinative input from people at the village level, and with local engagement in their administration, have had a far greater political effect, especially in terms of the return on dollars invested.
Misaligning cause and effect

Finally, it must be said that the US is not aided in its efforts by the fact that its interest in Pakistan is substantially - perhaps fundamentally - transactional.

While the US has a clear national interest in a more stable and prosperous Pakistan, the impetus for its current aid programmes - transparently so - is provided by the situation in Afghanistan and by the war on terror, of which the Afghanistan counterinsurgency campaign is currently the preeminent part.

Here too, the US is misaligning cause and effect: Pakistani policy toward Afghanistan will be driven by Pakistani perceptions of its interests across the Durand Line; and the domestic Pakistani campaign against extremists will be driven by Pakistani perceptions of threat, greatly changed by the recent Taliban infestation of Swat and the mass terror attacks on Pakistani civilians, and not by perceptions of the US.

This is not to suggest for a moment that the US investment in Pakistani economic and social development is a mistake: Far from it. But like so much of US policy, its ultimate benefit to US interests will necessarily be indirect, and will take the form of bolstering responsible Pakistani politicians whose stock is dependent on their ability to deliver for the people, and who are better served politically when seen at least to be gaining a dividend for Pakistan when providing support for "America's war".

Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/201072073415371952.html

We are enjoy meet this Allawi, Sadr meet in Syria to resolve Iraqi government impasse

We see this Allawi, Sadr meet in Syria to resolve Iraqi government impasse




DAMASCUS: Pro-Western Iraqi politician Iyad Allawi sought support on Monday to form a government from Iranian-backed cleric Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr, in the first meeting between the once bitter rivals.

Sadr, an anti-US figure who has emerged as a kingmaker in Iraqi politics, did not endorse Allawi but said Allawi had shown more willingness to compromise than Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is trying to cling to power after an inconclusive election in March.

Sadr and Allawi met at a hotel in the Syrian capital after they had separately been received by Syrian President Bashar Assad. They later met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who was on a brief visit to Syria.

Davutoglu flew in to Damascus and held talks with Assad, agreeing on the need “to speed up the formation of a government” in Iraq, their countries’ common neighbor, SANA said.

Iraq has been gripped by violence and political intrigue since the election, which failed to produce an outright winner. A bloc supported by Sunni politicians and headed by Allawi narrowly won the most seats.

Allawi was Iraq’s prime minister in 2004 when US forces surrounded Sadr and his followers at the Imam Ali shrine in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf before Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, an Iranian-born cleric, intervened and ensured Sadr safe passage, avoiding a bloodbath inside the grand mosque.



Allawi has had uneasy ties with the Najaf seminary and with Islamists in general. He has also criticized the role of Iraqi clergy in politics.

“If there were past differences, I am forgetting them so that the political process proceeds,” Sadr told reporters

“I don’t back specific names, but programs and mechanisms to arrive at the next premier,” he added, saying Allawi had promised him to draft a political program he would adopt if he became prime minister.

Allawi said Sadr’s views were “positive, showing care to preserve Iraq and accelerate forming a government”.

“Something I am sure of is that the Sayyed [Sadr] will honor his word,” Allawi said.

An aide to Allawi said he could become prime minister if he secured the support of Sadr and the two main Kurdish blocs. Allawi has good ties with key Arab rulers and the US, and has been trying to exploit discord between Iraq’s main Shiite factions over Maliki’s attempt to win a second term.



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Enjoy Turkey indicts alleged plotters

Watches this Turkey indicts alleged plotters


Saygun (second from left) and other defendants insist Sledehammer was just a normal war game [EPA]

A Turkish court has indicted 196 people, including four retired military commanders, over an alleged plot to topple the current government.

Monday's indictment accuses the suspects of planning to create choas to pave the way for a coup, in a suspected conspiracy called "Sledgehammer".

According to the indictment, the plan was drawn up at the Istanbul base of the First Army shortly after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK) came to power in November 2002.

The plot was to involve bombing historic mosques and provoking Greece into shooting down a Turkish war plane to create a war-like situation and destabilise the AK party, the media reports said.

Among those accused are Cetin Dogan, the former head of Turkey's First Army, and Ibrahim Firtina, a retired air force commander, both of whom were first arrested early this year.

'Overthrowing the government'

The indictment said the coup was created by Dogan on the grounds that "the Turkish state had begun to come under the influence of anti-secular and reactionary elements" after the election of the AKP, Anatolia said.

Ozden Ornek, a former navy chief admiral, Halil Ibrahim Firtina, a former air force commander general, and the former number two of the general staff, retired general Ergin Saygun, were also among those charged.

Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/2010719192736464547.html

Watched the Karzai reaffirms 2014 goal for Afghan-led security

We are see this Karzai reaffirms 2014 goal for Afghan-led security



KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday reaffirmed his commitment for Afghan police and soldiers to take charge of security nationwide by 2014 and urged his international backers to spend their money on long-term Afghan priorities.

Karzai spoke at a one-day international conference on Afghanistan's future that comes at a critical juncture: NATO and Afghan forces have launched a major operation to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds, and the insurgents are pushing back. Rockets fired at the Kabul airport Tuesday forced the diversion of a plane carrying U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sweden's foreign minister.

Wearing a traditional striped robe and peaked fur hat, Karzai said that Afghanistan and its Western allies share "a vicious common enemy." But, he said, victory will come in giving Afghans as much responsibility as possible in combatting the insurgency within its borders. He was flanked by international diplomats including Ban and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"I remain determined that our Afghan national security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout our country by 2014" - more than three years after President Barack Obama's date for the start of an American troop drawdown, Karzai said.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance will never allow the Taliban to topple the government of Afghanistan. He said that transition to Afghan-led security would be based on "conditions, not calendars."

"Our mission will end when - but only when - the Afghans are able to maintain security on their own," Fogh Rasmussen said.

Karzai also expressed his government's desire to take charge of more of its affairs. He asked his international partners to channel 50 percent of their foreign assistance through the government within two years. He also urged them to align 80 percent of their projects with priorities that have been identified by Afghans.

"It is time to concentrate our efforts on a limited number of national programs and projects to transform the lives of our people, reinforce the social compact between the state and the citizens," Karzai said.

While the international community recognizes that Afghans must increasingly take charge, corruption remains a major concern. Graft feeds frustration with the government that boosts support for the insurgency.

Clinton recognized that Karzai's administration had taken steps to fight corruption, but said more needed to be done.

"There are no shortcuts to fighting corruption and improving governance. On this front, both the Afghan people and the people of the international community expect results," she said.

Obama has said he wants to begin withdrawing American troops in July 2011. Though he has stressed the timetable is dependent on security conditions, it has raised concerns in Afghanistan and the region that the U.S. is eager to exit the war.

"The transition process is too important to push off indefinitely," Clinton said Tuesday as she sought to allay those concerns. "But this date is the start of a new phase, not the end of our involvement. We have no intention of abandoning our long-term mission of achieving a stable, secure, peaceful Afghanistan. Too many nations - especially Afghanistan - have suffered too many losses to see this country slide backward."

A military push in southern Afghanistan has seen violence and casualties rise in recent months. June was the deadliest month for U.S. and international forces with the deaths of 103 service members, including 60 Americans.

In the latest violence, a NATO service member was killed Tuesday in a bomb attack in the south. NATO said the dead service member was not American but did not provide the nationality or details on the death.

Security forces virtually shut down Kabul for the conference. Police added checkpoints throughout the already heavily fortified city and closed major intersections to traffic.

Even so, rockets fire prevented a plane carrying Ban and Sweden's Carl Bildt from landing at the airport Tuesday morning, officials said.

"Rockets hit the airport just as we were on our way to land," Bildt wrote on his blog. The plane was diverted to the U.S. Bagram base, outside Kabul, then the diplomats traveled aboard Blackhawk helicopters to the capital, Bildt said. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed the account.

NATO forces confirmed rockets hit around the city overnight but would not say where.

Afghan and international forces raided a compound on the outskirts of Kabul on Monday night, killing several insurgents who were believed to be planning an attack on the conference, NATO forces said in a statement.

The international military coalition said its forces came under fire from men who were barricaded inside buildings in the compound. The statement said two people were arrested in the operation but not how many were killed. Spokeswoman Lt. Commander Katie Kendrick also declined to say how many people were killed in the operation.

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We see this Suriname elects former coup leader

Watches this Suriname elects former coup leader


Suriname has elected Desi Bouterse, a former coup leader and convicted drug trafficking, as its new president.

Bouterse, who won a parliamentary vote on Monday, seized power in the small South American republic, twice before through military takeovers.

He was convicted in the Netherlands of cocaine smuggling in 1999and has been accused of human rights violations.

Thirty-six of Suriname's 50 members of parliament voted in favour of Bouterse on Monday, giving him the necessary two-thirds majority.

The vote followed an inconclusive one in May, when the new president's Mega Combination coalition won only 23 seats.

One of the country's richest and most popular politicians, Bouterse signed deals with several rival factions seeking cabinet posts in his new government ahead of the election.

Murder trial

The former military ruler is currently on trial for the murder of 15 political opponents in 1982.

When Al Jazeera spoke with Eddie Duncan, the brother of one of the victims, during parliamentary elections in May, he blamed Bouterse for the killing.

"[Bouterse] is a murderer. He thinks if he wins these elections, the court won't prosecute him"

Eddie Duncan, brother of slain politician

"[Bouterse] is a murderer. He thinks if he wins these elections, the court won't prosecute him," he said.

Bouterse rejects the claims, insisting that he is being persecuted by elites for defending the poor.

"Just look at Mandela. He fought for the poor and they locked him up for 27 years," he said.

Bouterse first seized control of Suriname in a coup in 1980, five years after it gained independence from the Netherlands.

He stepped down under international pressure in 1987, then briefly seized power again three years later.

In 1999, Bouterse was convicted in absentia by a Netherlands court for cocaine trafficking.

Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/20107205116955850.htm

We are saw this make progress on its space rock catalog

Enjoy the wish make progress on its space rock catalogish


NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is busy surveying the landscape of the infrared sky, building up a catalog of cosmic specimens -- everything from distant galaxies to "failed" stars, called brown dwarfs.

Closer to home, the mission is picking out an impressive collection of asteroids and comets, some known and some never seen before. Most of these hang out in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, but a small number are near-Earth objects -- asteroids and comets with orbits that pass within about 48 million kilometers (30 million miles) of Earth's orbit. By studying a small sample of near-Earth objects, WISE will learn more about the population as a whole. How do their sizes differ, and how many objects are dark versus light?

"We are taking a census of a small sample of near-Earth objects to get a better idea of how they vary," said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NEOWISE, a program to catalog asteroids seen with WISE.

So far, the mission has observed more than 60,000 asteroids, both Main Belt and near-Earth objects. Most were known before, but more than 11,000 are new.

"Our data pipeline is bursting with asteroids," said WISE Principal Investigator Ned Wright of UCLA. "We are discovering about a hundred a day, mostly in the Main Belt."

About 190 near-Earth asteroids have been observed to date, of which more than 50 are new discoveries. All asteroid observations are reported to the NASA-funded International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, a clearinghouse for data on all solar system bodies at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

"It's a really exciting time for asteroid science," said Tim Spahr, who directs the Minor Planet Center. "WISE is another tool to add to our tool belt of instruments to discover and study the asteroid population."

A network of ground-based telescopes follows up and confirms the WISE finds, including the NASA-funded University of Arizona Spacewatch and Catalina Sky Survey projects, both near Tucson, Ariz., and the NASA-funded Magdalena Ridge Observatory near Socorro, N.M.

Some of the near-Earth asteroids detected so far are visibly dark, but it's too early to say what percentage. The team needs time to properly analyze and calibrate the data. When results are ready, they will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. WISE has not found an asteroid yet that would be too dark for detection by visible-light telescopes on the ground.

"We're beginning the process of sorting through all the objects we're finding so we can learn more about their properties," said Mainzer. "How many are big or small, or light versus dark?"

WISE will also study Trojans, asteroids that run along with Jupiter in its orbit around the sun and travel in two packs -- one in front of and one behind the gas giant. It has seen more than 800, and by the end of the mission, should have observed about half of all 4,500 known Trojans. The results will address dueling theories about how the outer planets evolved.

With its infrared vision, WISE is good at many aspects of asteroid watching. First, infrared light gives a better estimate of an asteroid's size. Imagine a light, shiny rock lying next to a bigger, dark one in the sunshine. From far away, the rocks might look about the same size. That's because they reflect about the same amount of visible sunlight. But, if you pointed an infrared camera at them, you could tell the dark one is bigger. Infrared light is related to the heat radiated from the rock itself, which, in turn, is related to its size.

A second benefit of infrared is the ability to see darker asteroids. Some asteroids are blacker than coal and barely reflect any visible light. WISE can see their infrared glow. The mission isn't necessarily hunting down dark asteroids in hiding, but collecting a sample of all different types. Like a geologist collecting everything from pumice to quartz, WISE is capturing the diversity of cosmic rocks in our solar neighborhood.

In the end, WISE will provide rough size and composition profiles for hundreds of near-Earth objects, about 100 to 200 of which will be new.

WISE has also bagged about a dozen new comets to date. The icy cousins to asteroids are easy for the telescope to spot because, as the comets are warmed by the sun, gas and dust particles blow off and glow with infrared light. Many of the comets found by WISE so far are so-called long-period comets, meaning they spend billions of years circling the sun in the frigid hinterlands of our solar system, before they are shuttled into the inner, warmer parts. Others are termed short-period comets -- they spend most of their lives hanging around the space near Jupiter, occasionally veering into the space closer to the terrestrial planets. WISE's measurements of these snowy dirtballs will allow scientists to study their size, composition and density. Measurements of the comets' orbits will help explain what kicks these objects out of their original, more distant orbits and in toward the sun.

WISE will complete one-and-a-half scans of the sky in October of this year. Visit http://wise.astro.ucla.edu to see selected WISE images released so far.

JPL manages WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at

Coppied by http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-176

Worldwide average land surface temperature June, April to June, and Year-to-Date Global Temperatures are Warmest on Record

Watches this June, April to June, and Year-to-Date Global Temperatures are Warmest on Record


Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and January-June periods, according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature was the warmest on record for June and the April-June period, and the second warmest on record for the year-to-date (January-June) period, behind 2007.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.

Global Temperature Highlights – June

*

Temperature anomalies June 2010.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2010 was the warmest on record at 61.1°F (16.2°C), which is 1.22°F (0.68°C) above the 20th century average of 59.9°F (15.5°C).
* The global June land surface temperature was 1.93°F (1.07°C) above the 20th century average of 55.9 °F (13.3°C) — the warmest on record.

o Warmer-than-average conditions dominated the globe, with the most prominent warmth in Peru, the central and eastern contiguous U.S., and eastern and western Asia. Cooler-than-average regions included Scandinavia, southern China and the northwestern contiguous United States.
o According to Beijing Climate Center, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin had their warmest June since national records began in 1951. Meanwhile, Guizhou experienced its coolest June on record.
o According to Spain’s meteorological office, the nationwide average temperature was 0.7°F (0.4°C) above normal, Spain's coolest June since 1997.

* The worldwide ocean surface temperature was 0.97°F (0.54°C) above the 20th century average of 61.5°F (16.4°C), which was the fourth warmest June on record. The warmth was most pronounced in the Atlantic Ocean.
* Sea surface temperature continued to decrease across the equatorial Pacific Ocean during June 2010, consistent with the end of El Niño. According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, La Niña conditions are likely to develop during the northern hemisphere summer 2010.

Temperature Anomalies January - June 2010.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

April – June 2010 and Year-to-Date

* The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for April-June 2010 was 1.26°F (0.70°C) above the 20th century average—the warmest April-June period on record.
* For the year-to-date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 57.5°F (14.2°C) was the warmest January-June period. This value is 1.22°F (0.68°C) above the 20th century average.

Polar Sea Ice and Precipitation Highlights

* Arctic sea ice covered an average of 4.2 million square miles (10.9 million square kilometers) during June. This is 10.6 percent below the 1979-2000 average extent and the lowest June extent since records began in 1979. This was also the 19th consecutive June with below-average Arctic sea ice extent.
* Antarctic sea ice extent in June was above average, 8.3 percent above the 1979-2000 average—resulting in the largest June extent on record.
* China had near-average precipitation. Regionally, Guizhou, Fujian and Qinghai had above-average precipitation during June 2010, resulting in the second wettest June since national records began in 1951—according to Beijing Climate Center. Meanwhile, the province of Jiangsu had its driest June on record, while Shanxi had its second driest on record.
* According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the continent had its fourth-driest June on record.
* The first six months of 2010 were the driest since 1929 for the United Kingdom, according to the UK Met Office. The average rainfall during January-June 2010 was 14.3 inches (362.5 mm), just 3.4 inches (86.8 mm) above January-June 1929. The January-June long-term average is 20.1 inches (511.7 mm).

Scientists, researchers and leaders in government and industry use NOAA’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world's climate. This climate service has a wide range of practical uses, from helping farmers know what and when to plant, to guiding resource managers with critical decisions about water, energy and other vital assets.


Scientists, researchers and leaders in government and industry use NOAA’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world's climate. This climate service has a wide range of practical uses, from helping farmers know what and when to plant, to guiding resource managers with critical decisions about water, energy and other vital assets.
Additional Information

June 2010 Global State of the Climate – Supplemental Figures & Information

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the oceans to surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

Coppied by http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100715_globalstats.html

We are enjoy this Natural Gas Declines on Concern Production Will Exceed Demand

Supply of the ful power plant Natural Gas Declines on Concern Production Will Exceed Demand



July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas futures dropped for the fourth time this week on concern that supplies of the power- plant and factory fuel are ample to meet demand during a sluggish economic recovery.

Gas lost as much as 2.5 percent after Baker Hughes Inc. data showed the number of U.S. drilling rigs rose to the highest level in almost 17 months this week. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its forecast for gas prices in the second half of this year by 17 percent, citing surging U.S. production.

“People are looking at this market and understand that there are too many rigs working and production is too high,” said Scott Hanold, an energy analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Minneapolis. “There is concern that prices in the next couple of years could be pretty soft.”

Natural gas for August delivery dropped 6.7 cents, or 1.5 percent, to settle at $4.519 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures have fallen 19 percent this year.

U.S. gas drilling rigs rose 15 to 979 this week, the highest level since Feb. 20, 2009, according to Baker Hughes Inc. Horizontal rigs, which are mostly used in drilling for shale gas, declined for the first week in 10, down four to 859.

Goldman cut its forecast for gas prices in the second half to $4.63 per million Btu, analysts including David Greely said in a research report. The company reduced its estimate for 2011 prices to $5.25 from $6.

“U.S. natural gas production continues to surge this year, driven by the shale gas revolution,” Goldman said in the report.

Production Estimates

Output will average 61.26 billion cubic feet a day this year, up 2.1 percent from 59.98 billion in 2009, the Energy Department said last week.

The government “projects a continuing decline in Gulf of Mexico production, which is offset by gains in onshore production,” the department said in its monthly Short Term Energy Outlook.

Gas inventories this year will “remain very near last year’s levels” and stockpiles will reach 3.81 trillion cubic feet by the end of October, the department said in the outlook. Supplies rose to a record 3.837 trillion cubic feet on Nov. 27.

Prices gained 6.5 percent yesterday, the most in more than six months, after an Energy Department report showed a smaller- than-forecast inventory increase.

Supply Report

Gas stockpiles gained 78 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 9 to 2.84 trillion, the department said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected an increase of 80 billion. The five-year average increase is 89 billion.

“Looking forward, given where production is, I don’t see much upside to gas prices unless we reset the dial with a lower rig count,” said Cameron Horwitz, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. in Houston.

Temperatures will be above average in the U.S. East Coast and Midwest next week, according to the National Weather Service.

New York will have a high of 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) on July 21, 5 degrees above average, according to AccuWeather Inc. Chicago’s temperature is forecast to hit 90.

New York saw 103 degrees Fahrenheit on July 6, a record for the date, according to the National Weather Service.

About 22 percent of electricity is generated using natural gas, Energy Department figures show.

Cooling requirements in the U.S. will be 27 percent higher than normal from tomorrow through July 23, according to Weather Derivatives of Belton, Missouri.

Wholesale natural gas at the benchmark Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana, rose 25.1 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $4.6788 per million Btu on the Intercontinental Exchange.

Gas futures volume in electronic trading on the Nymex was 207,044 as of 2:47 p.m., compared with a three-month average total of 251,000. Volume was 414,981 yesterday. Open interest was 788,096 contracts, compared with the three-month average of 834,000. The exchange has a one-business-day delay in reporting open interest and full volume data

Coppied by http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-16/natural-gas-declines-on-concern-production-will-exceed-demand.html

We are see this Scientists unlock secret of Mona Lisa's face

Watches this image Scientists unlock secret of Mona Lisa's face

Cnn scientist e unlocked another Mona Lisa mystery by determining how Leonardo Da Vinci painted her near faultless skin tones.

Using X-ray techniques, a team "unpeeled" the layers of the famous painting to see how the Italian master achieved his barely perceptible graduation of tones from light to dark.

The technique used by Da Vinci and some other Renaissance painters to achieve this subtlety is called "sfumato," and unraveling it allowed the scientists to determined the composition and the thickness of the paint layers.

Philippe Walter, a senior scientist at the Paris-based Laboratoire du Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musees de France, told CNN: "This will help us to understand how Da Vinci made his materials... the amount of oil that was mixed with pigments, the nature of the organic materials, it will help art historians."

Walter and his colleagues used X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to determine the composition and thickness of each painted layer of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where the painting is normally kept behind bulletproof glass. Art historians believe it was painted by Da Vinci in 1503.

They found that some layers were as thin as one or two micrometers and that these layers increased in thickness to 30 to 40 micrometers in darker parts of the painting. A micrometer is one thousandth of one millimeter.

They believe this characterizes a technique of painting that uses a glaze, or very thin layer, to build up shadows in the face.

The manner in which Da Vinci painted flesh, "his softened transitions," were pioneering work in Italy at the end of the 15th century, say the researchers, and were linked to his creativity and his research to obtain new paint formulations.

Walter said it is almost impossible to see any brushstrokes on the Mona Lisa.

The research, which is reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, also looked at several other Da Vinci paintings and could eventually help to determine when and how he painted some of his masterpieces.

However, Walter, added: "There is still plenty of mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa. This does not tell us why he painted, about his motivation, just about the materials."

Coppied by http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/16/france.mona.lisa.face/index.html?hpt=C2&fbid=BmDxDBn4nc7

we are see the president Chavez exhumes Simon Bolivar's bones

Watches this Chavez exhumes Simon Bolivar's bones

he remains of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar have been exhumed in Venezuela to determine the cause of his death nearly 200 years ago.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered Bolivar's tomb be opened because he suspects he was murdered.

Most accounts maintain Bolivar died from tuberculosis in Colombia in 1830.

Mr Chavez announced the exhumation of his hero on Twitter, saying he "wept with emotion".

"What impressive moments we have lived tonight. We have seen the bones of the Great Bolivar!" He tweeted from the national pantheon in Caracas.

"That glorious skeleton must be Bolivar, because his flame can be felt. Bolivar lives!" he added.
'Important discoveries'

More than 50 experts including criminal investigators and forensic pathologists have been examining the remains to see if Bolivar was the victim of a conspiracy rather than disease, according to Venezuela's attorney-general, Luisa Ortega Diaz.

"We have important discoveries that will be announced to the nation at the appropriate moment," she said.

Known as "the Liberator", Simon Bolivar led the 19th Century revolutionary war against Spain, winning independence for Venezuela and several other South American nations.

The Venezuelan president claims him as the inspiration for his "Bolivarian" revolution, though some historians say Bolivar would not agree with Mr Chavez's socialist policies.

Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10669051