BEIRUT (AP) ? Israeli warplanes flew over southern Lebanon Friday, two days after an airstrike near Damascus, as Syria's army chief of staff warned against testing his country's capabilities.
Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub made his comments Thursday during a visit to some military units in the country. The Al-Baath newspaper, the mouthpiece of President Bashar Assad's ruling party, quoted Ayoub as saying Syria will never change its stance "no matter how much the enemy carries out provocative and hostile acts."
The latest overflights came after officials said Israel launched a rare airstrike Wednesday inside Syria, targeting a convoy carrying anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militant group allied with Syria and Iran.
The general's comments reflected increased tensions between Syria and Israel, which up to now has refrained from actions that could be interpreted as intervention in Syria's civil war.
Israel had no comment on Lebanon's description of its air force flights over the border region Friday. There were no reports of airstrikes. Israeli planes frequently overfly south Lebanon, and Lebanon often files complaints with the U.N. over the incursions into its airspace.
According to a U.S. official, the Israeli airstrikes Wednesday targeted trucks containing SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. The trucks were next to the research center the Syrians identified, and the strikes hit both the trucks and the facility.
Advanced anti-aircraft missiles like the SA-17 in the hands of Hezbollah could change the strategic equation, which so far has allowed Israel to send warplanes over Lebanon practically unopposed.
The Syrian military denied that the target of the attack was a weapons convoy. It said low-flying Israeli jets crossed into the country over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and bombed a scientific research center.
The facility is in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese.
The air raid raised tension in the already boiling region as a result of Syria's 22-month civil war that has left more than 60,000 people dead, according to the U.N. Many fear Syria's civil war could spill to neighboring countries.
Syria and its close ally Iran threatened retaliation, and Arab nations along with Russia condemned the raid.
In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on Israeli media reports that its embassies were instructed to be alert of threats after Syria's warnings. Syrian-allied Hezbollah has been accused of staging deadly attacks against Israelis abroad in past years.
At home, Israel positioned an additional "Iron Dome" rocket defense system in northern Israel on Thursday, security officials said, after moving another to the northern city of Haifa earlier this week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the battery's placement with reporters.
Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli military spokesman, said the military's home front command has not raised its alert level.
Ayoub, the Syrian military commander, said the "battle with the Zionist enemy continues and did not stop." He said rebel gunmen fighting against his troops are "tools of the Zionist entity." Israel and Syria have been bitter enemies for six decades.
The uprising against Assad began in March 2011 with pro-reform protests and developed into a civil war. The Syrian government says there is no uprising in Syria but a conspiracy against the country because of its support of anti-Israeli groups.
"We know our capabilities and readiness to use all these capabilities at the suitable time," Ayoub said. "Those who think they can test our armed forces are mistaken."
In Lebanon, the security official said the Israeli fighter planes were seen heading from southern Lebanon toward the eastern Bekaa Valley that borders Syria. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Butros Wanna, a resident in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, said Israeli flights have been intense for the past four days.
"There is something not normal going on. Warplanes are always in the air," said Wanna.
____
Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor in Washington and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed.
You don't have to look much further than the millions of Galaxy Notes sold to realize that Samsung is serious about the stylus, but the company's now made that commitment clearer than ever by buying a piece of Wacom. It's not the biggest of investments for a company of Samsung's size, but the $58.9 million its laid out will give it a five percent voting stake in the company, and a further in with what is what is one of the world's leading stylus makers. According to Wacom, its share of the global pen tablet market stands at a whopping 85 percent, and its sales of its components for use in smartphones and tablets have nearly doubled from 2011 to 2012.
As for where the new cash infusion will be put to use, Wacom says that by March of 2014 the entire net amount raised from the sale of shares will be invested in "product development and manufacturing and supply system enhancements for products to be supplied to Samsung Electronics," adding that it aims to "expand its relationship" with Samsung even further.
International team observe 'hungry twin' stars gobbling their first mealsPublic release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Janet Lathrop jlathrop@admin.umass.edu 413-545-0444 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
A team of astronomers including Robert Gutermuth at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reports observing an unusual 'baby' star that periodically emits infrared light bursts, suggesting it may be twins, that is, a binary star
AMHERST, Mass. Just-forming stars, like growing babies, are always hungry and must "feed" on huge amounts of gas and dust from dense envelopes surrounding them at birth. Now a team of astronomers including Robert Gutermuth, a University of Massachusetts Amherst expert in imaging data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, reports observing an unusual "baby" star that periodically emits infrared light bursts, suggesting it may be twins, that is, a binary star. The discovery is reported this month in Nature.
The extremely young object, dubbed LRLL 54361, is about 100,000 years old and is located about 950 light years away toward the Perseus constellation. Years of monitoring its infrared with the Spitzer instrument reveal that it becomes 10 times brighter every 25.34 days, Gutermuth and colleagues say. This periodicity suggests that a companion to the central forming star is likely inhibiting the infall of gas and dust until its closest orbital approach, when matter eventually comes crashing down onto the protostellar "twins."
Gutermuth, who surveys star-forming molecular clouds with Spitzer to search for protostars, says, "The idea that this object is a baby binary system fits our data, so, twins fit our data. In single protostars, we would still see matter dumping onto the star non-uniformly, but never with the regularity or intensity of the bursts we observe in LRLL 54361. The 25.43-day period is consistent with the orbital period we would expect from a very close binary star."
The protostar twins, embedded in a gas "cocoon" many times larger than our solar system, offer an unusual chance to study what looks like a developing binary star system, he adds. Because dense envelopes of gas and dust surround embryonic stars, the only detectable light to escape is at longer, infrared wavelengths. "Spitzer's infrared camera is perfect for penetrating this cool dust to detect emission from the warm center," says Gutermuth.
"When you have two young stars feeding from the same circumstellar disk, the gravitational influence of the secondary companion can cause hiccups, an inhibition of infalling material from the disk. But when the orbital paths approach closely, that material can rush in, triggering feeding pulses for both stars and releasing a bright burst of light. The flash moves out from the center, reflecting off the disk and cavities in the envelope like an echo reverberating out from cave walls. We've seen the light flashes with Spitzer and have imaged the echo-tracing cavities in its envelope with the Hubble Space Telescope."
The light echo to which Gutermuth refers is seen in images taken at the near-infrared limit of the Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. The lead investigator for this work and the Spitzer study is UMass Amherst alumnus James Muzerolle, now of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore. The investigators are careful to point out that they're not sure what is at the center of object LRLL 54361, but if it is an embryonic binary star, the prospects are exciting.
Scientists have shown that close binary low mass stars are a somewhat rare outcome of the star formation process. But understanding their formation is critical to address some of the fundamental open questions in star and planet formation, such as how protostars form, how they accumulate their mass and how planets form from their circumstellar disks, Gutermuth points out. It's believed that most of a central star's mass is assembled early, whereas planet formation in spinning outer gaseous disks may take several million years to complete.
Another reason this object is so interesting, he says, is that it provides a new demonstration of the impact of time-domain astronomy. "By analyzing the variability of this object's light over time, we have obtained a unique set of constraints on its physical nature. This system offers us a rare chance to observe the evolution of the disk and envelope around a binary star in almost real time."
"Looking ahead, we'll characterize this system further at millimeter wavelengths with the aid of the Large Millimeter Telescope now becoming operational under a partnership between UMass Amherst and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Astrofsica, ptica y Electrnica. Studying millimeter variability over time will be part of our approach."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
International team observe 'hungry twin' stars gobbling their first mealsPublic release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Janet Lathrop jlathrop@admin.umass.edu 413-545-0444 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
A team of astronomers including Robert Gutermuth at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reports observing an unusual 'baby' star that periodically emits infrared light bursts, suggesting it may be twins, that is, a binary star
AMHERST, Mass. Just-forming stars, like growing babies, are always hungry and must "feed" on huge amounts of gas and dust from dense envelopes surrounding them at birth. Now a team of astronomers including Robert Gutermuth, a University of Massachusetts Amherst expert in imaging data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, reports observing an unusual "baby" star that periodically emits infrared light bursts, suggesting it may be twins, that is, a binary star. The discovery is reported this month in Nature.
The extremely young object, dubbed LRLL 54361, is about 100,000 years old and is located about 950 light years away toward the Perseus constellation. Years of monitoring its infrared with the Spitzer instrument reveal that it becomes 10 times brighter every 25.34 days, Gutermuth and colleagues say. This periodicity suggests that a companion to the central forming star is likely inhibiting the infall of gas and dust until its closest orbital approach, when matter eventually comes crashing down onto the protostellar "twins."
Gutermuth, who surveys star-forming molecular clouds with Spitzer to search for protostars, says, "The idea that this object is a baby binary system fits our data, so, twins fit our data. In single protostars, we would still see matter dumping onto the star non-uniformly, but never with the regularity or intensity of the bursts we observe in LRLL 54361. The 25.43-day period is consistent with the orbital period we would expect from a very close binary star."
The protostar twins, embedded in a gas "cocoon" many times larger than our solar system, offer an unusual chance to study what looks like a developing binary star system, he adds. Because dense envelopes of gas and dust surround embryonic stars, the only detectable light to escape is at longer, infrared wavelengths. "Spitzer's infrared camera is perfect for penetrating this cool dust to detect emission from the warm center," says Gutermuth.
"When you have two young stars feeding from the same circumstellar disk, the gravitational influence of the secondary companion can cause hiccups, an inhibition of infalling material from the disk. But when the orbital paths approach closely, that material can rush in, triggering feeding pulses for both stars and releasing a bright burst of light. The flash moves out from the center, reflecting off the disk and cavities in the envelope like an echo reverberating out from cave walls. We've seen the light flashes with Spitzer and have imaged the echo-tracing cavities in its envelope with the Hubble Space Telescope."
The light echo to which Gutermuth refers is seen in images taken at the near-infrared limit of the Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. The lead investigator for this work and the Spitzer study is UMass Amherst alumnus James Muzerolle, now of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore. The investigators are careful to point out that they're not sure what is at the center of object LRLL 54361, but if it is an embryonic binary star, the prospects are exciting.
Scientists have shown that close binary low mass stars are a somewhat rare outcome of the star formation process. But understanding their formation is critical to address some of the fundamental open questions in star and planet formation, such as how protostars form, how they accumulate their mass and how planets form from their circumstellar disks, Gutermuth points out. It's believed that most of a central star's mass is assembled early, whereas planet formation in spinning outer gaseous disks may take several million years to complete.
Another reason this object is so interesting, he says, is that it provides a new demonstration of the impact of time-domain astronomy. "By analyzing the variability of this object's light over time, we have obtained a unique set of constraints on its physical nature. This system offers us a rare chance to observe the evolution of the disk and envelope around a binary star in almost real time."
"Looking ahead, we'll characterize this system further at millimeter wavelengths with the aid of the Large Millimeter Telescope now becoming operational under a partnership between UMass Amherst and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Astrofsica, ptica y Electrnica. Studying millimeter variability over time will be part of our approach."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Property management can be a great resource for owners of residential, commercial, or industrial real estate. Property management works the same as management in any other field by monitoring the care and financial needs for any property. They work to locate long-term residents who pay promptly and maintain your property. We will act as a mediator between you and the tenant easing the responsibility of busy owners. Hiring a responsible property manager can make real estate ownership easy. Our managers have the skills and knowledge to make your ownership experience simple and painless. Take comfort in knowing that we will treat your real estate as if we own it ourselves. Residential Property Management Salt Lake
If you wrote a novel, which took you a decade to write, and you hear David E. Kelley, award-winning TV producer of such greats as Ally McBeal and Chicago Hope, wants to turn your book into a television show, what are you to think? Just ask Sanjay Gupta.
LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC is hiring a former U.S. deputy attorney general with a background in fighting drug cartels to help the global bank avoid a repeat of lapses in its anti-money-laundering controls that led to a $1.9 billion fine.
The penalty, the largest ever paid by a bank, followed a long U.S. investigation into HSBC's Mexican and U.S. operations that concluded last month with scathing criticism of the systems it used to stop the proceeds of organized crime passing through its accounts.
Jim Comey, who was U.S. deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005, will join Europe's biggest bank as a non-executive director in March and will be a member of a new committee to combat financial crime.
As U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York from 2002 to 2003, Comey set up a specialized unit to prosecute international drug cartels and supervised the prosecution of executives on fraud and securities-related charges.
He will be joined by two other non-executives - Rona Fairhead and Simon Robertson - and five independent advisers, including Bill Hughes, a former head of the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, and Dave Hartnett, who retired last year as the permanent secretary for tax at Britain's tax authority.
HSBC said on Wednesday the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee would help Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver simplify its business activities and enhance risk management and control by improving standards across the bank.
It will help HSBC meet tax transparency and compliance standards, the prevention of terrorist financing and association with illegal drugs activities.
HSBC said the committee would identify areas where the bank could be exposed to financial crime or system abuse, or where its bankers might "abuse their participation in the system by undertaking transactions or activities that are reputationally damaging to HSBC, even if not actually illegal".
Comey is the latest big American name hired by the bank to improve its controls and structure.
Stuart Levey, a former undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in the U.S. Treasury, joined last year as chief legal officer. Bob Werner, who had headed sanctions action against drugs traffickers and money launderers, became head of financial crime compliance, a new role.
(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Tom Pfeiffer)
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s49sR89Pk4zhxPodHBk8-RLxlayA7l2s3oGK7vjmCpT31rmYdOs_4j78pD3hZ_HHxoI1Y4fnzz1zcg5SeAt8h36V4XmzstqMuKk5UpBjo=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
Share ]