SubhanAllah,,, telah ditemukan Bintang yang lebih besar 20x lipat dari matahari,  ini merupakan hasil dari penelitian Badan Antariksa Amerika Serikat (NASA),Peneliti NASA, Stefan Kraus dan astronom dari Universitas Michigan, Ann Arbo.

Seperti dikutip di laman resmi NASA, Rabu 14 Juli 2010, Kraus mengungkapkan bahwa Teleskop Luar Angkasa milik NASA, Spitzer, berhasil merekam gambar suatu bintang yang dinamakan IRAS 13481-6124. Gambar dari Teleskop Spitzer itu juga didukung oleh pantauan dari stasiun teleskop di Chile.

Rekorbaru tercipta, Seorang pengusaha asal Spanyol siap membeli Paul Si Gurita, yang meramal kesebelasan Spanyol akan menjadi juara dunia dan terbukti benar, dengan harga 38.000 poundsterling atau sekitar Rp 515 juta.

Di Piala Dunia 2010 Afrika Selatan, Paul meramal tujuh pertandingan kesebelasan nasional Jerman dan laga final antara Spanyol dan Belanda. Tak satu pun ramalan itu meleset. Itu menjadikan Paul sangat terkenal dan layaknya orang terkenal, selain banyak yang menggemarinya, tak sedikit yang ingin menghabisinya, terutama orang-orang yang tim kesayangannya gagal juara.

Seperti diberitakan Telegraph, pengusaha itu menilai Paul berjasa kepada Spanyol dan ingin menjadikannya maskot acara-acara kuliner di Spanyol.

Selain itu, Menteri Lingkungan dan Perikanan Spanyol, Elena Espinosa juga berniat mengajukan undang-undang perlindungan Paul dalam pertemuan menteri-menteri Eropa.

Consumer goods are being allowed but a "blacklist" of items including weapons and materials that could have a military use will be barred or limited.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, dismissed the concessions as of no use and said the blockade should be fully lifted.

Israel says its blockade of the Palestinian territory is needed to prevent the supply of weapons to Hamas.

Israel came under international pressure to ease its four-year blockade of Gaza after nine Turkish activists were killed in a 31 May Israeli raid on a flotilla that was trying to carry aid to the Palestinian territory

The international Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, told the BBC he believed the international outcry which followed that raid persuaded it to accelerate the easing of the Gaza blockade.

"It is true to say that the Israeli government, I think, were moving towards a different policy anyway, but of course what happened has hugely accelerated the idea," he said.

'Worthless'

Under the new measures, materials such as steel, cement, certain fertilisers and chemicals will be allowed in for Palestinian Authority-approved projects that are under the supervision and for the use of the UN or other international agencies.

Aid agencies say building materials are badly needed in Gaza as the blockade has prevented much reconstruction taking place since Israel's devastating 22-day military offensive, which ended in January 2009.

The blacklist includes so-called "dual-use" items that could be used to manufacture weapons and explosives, such as ball bearings and fireworks.

Meanwhile, exports are not permitted, making it hard for the enclave's devastated economy to pick up, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Gaza.

The sea blockade will remain and, most importantly for many Gazans, the restrictions on the movement of people remain. It is extremely difficult for Palestinians to get Israeli permission to leave Gaza.

Under its old rules, Israel allowed only a few dozen types of products, including basic food and medicine, into Gaza. Now everything will be permitted freely into the territory, except for items on the blacklist.

Mr Blair said: "These changes are significant and, once implemented, should have a dramatic influence on the daily lives of the people of Gaza and on the private sector."

But a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, told the Associated Press news agency that the new policy was "worthless", adding: "The problem is not to approve new merchandise but to lift the blockade."

Our correspondent says the timing of the announcement is key, coming as it does on the eve of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US to meet President Barack Obama.

Israel tightened the blockade on Gaza in 2007 when the militant group Hamas seized control.

The aim of the blockade was to weaken Hamas, end rocket attacks from Gaza and get back captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The restrictions have been widely described as collective punishment of the population of Gaza, resulting in a humanitarian crisis.

Turkish threat

Turkey has for the first time threatened to break diplomatic ties with Israel over its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Turkey's foreign minister said a break could only be averted if Israel either apologised or accepted the outcome of an international inquiry into the raid.

The Israeli government said it had nothing to apologise for.

Ankara curtailed diplomatic relations with Israel after the naval raid.

Turkey - which until recently was Israel's most important Muslim ally - withdrew its ambassador and demanded that the Israelis issue an apology, agree to a United Nations inquiry and compensate the victims' families.

China's football team did not make it to the World Cup this year, but that does not mean the country's presence has not been felt: The Asian giant has cornered the market on perhaps the most unforgettable off-field aspect of the World Cup -- the vuvuzela.

Ninety percent of the vuvuzelas, the plastic South African trumpet whose loud rasp has become synonymous with the 2010 World Cup, are made in China, according to the China Daily.

The Chinese did it the same way they have done for so many other products: low costs and quick production at factories like the one run by Wu Yuye just outside the southern Chinese city of Ningbo. With a few dozen staff, they make more than 20,000 bugles a day. So far this year, they have churned out more than 1 million of them.

"I'm very proud that our vuvuzelas made it to World Cup in South Africa, especially since we have such a small family factory," Wu said.

And she is not alone. A recent poll in the state media found that more than 60 percent of respondents were proud the "made in China" vuvuzelas were so popular in South Africa.

Making the trumpets is simple: plastic is melted into a mold and then it sets. A small group of women take off the sharp edges to finish off the process.

Wu said it costs about US$0.40 to make each vuvuzela. But outside the stadiums in Johannesburg, the vuvuzelas can sell for up to $8. Despite the markup, not much is coming back to the Chinese manufacturers. Wu said she makes just a few cents on each one.

"Although we don't make a lot of money, I'm sure we'll have a good future making these," she said.

That's because Wu and all the vuvuzela makers in China are looking beyond the World Cup. Domestic orders are starting to come in, including for the Asian Games in Guangzhou later this year. Wu is hoping that the vuvuzela will be the next must have accessory for all sports fans -- maybe the next giant foam finger -- at events like baseball, basketball or rugby.

While a lot of debate has centered on the loud and droning noise of the vuvuzela, Wu has the tact of a business person who knows where the sales are.

International condemnation poured in Monday after Israeli soldiers stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid intended for Palestinians in Gaza, leaving at least 10 people dead in the resulting violence.

Israel claimed it was defending itself, with the Israel Defense Forces saying the soldiers' lives were in danger after they were attacked with "severe physical violence, including live fire, weapons, knives and clubs."

IDF spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibowitz said light weapons and handguns were confiscated. "We basically encountered a lynch," she said. "We had to control this violence."

But other nations condemned the military action and called for an investigation.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said the United States "deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy."

World reaction

The Spanish and French governments called the action "disproportionate." The Italian foreign minister asked the European Union to investigate, and several nations, including Greece and Sweden, were summoning their Israeli ambassadors.

An indignant Turkey recalled its ambassador from Israel, canceled three planned military exercises with the Israeli military and called home its youth national football team, which had two games scheduled in Israel, said Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc.

Q&A: What is the blockade about

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Chile, but will return after meeting with the Chilean president, Arinc said. The chief of the Turkish military was cutting short a trip to Egypt. The Turkish foreign minister, in Venezuela, was calling the United Nations Security Council to an emergency meeting, Arinc said.

"This operation will leave a bloody stain on the history of humanity," Arinc said. A Turkish group, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation or IHH, was one of the organizers of the flotilla, but people from various nations were aboard.

In a statement, Bahrain called it a "barbaric attack" on the part of Israel.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an envoy for the Middle East Quartet, a group of nations working toward peace in the region, said in a statement Monday: "There obviously has to be a full investigation into what has happened. Once again I repeat my view that we need a different and better way of helping the people of Gaza and avoiding the hardship and tragedy that is inherent in the present situation."

Current Foreign Minister William Hague said: "We have consistently advised against attempting to access Gaza in this way, because of the risks involved. But at the same time, there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations."

Five Israeli soldiers were wounded, the military said. The ships of the flotilla were being taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, according to IDF.

The Free Gaza Movement, one of the groups sponsoring the flotilla, disputed Israel's claim of violence by people aboard the ships.

"At about 4:30 am, Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto deck of Turkish ship, immediately opened fire on unarmed civilians," said a post on the group's Twitter page.

Video aired on CNN sister network CNN Turk showed soldiers abseiling onto the deck of a ship from a helicopter above. The boarding of the ships took place more than 70 nautical miles outside Israeli territorial waters, according to IHH.

The Turkish foreign ministry said the incident "might cause irreversible consequences" in the nation's relationship with Israel.

"Israel has once again clearly demonstrated that it does not value human lives and peaceful initiatives through targeting innocent civilians," the statement said. "We strongly condemn these inhuman acts of Israel."

Meanwhile, a protest that began outside the Israeli embassy in Istanbul on Sunday continued into Monday. Although largely peaceful, police did use water cannons at one point to keep demonstrators at bay. Israel issued a "serious travel warning" for Israelis visiting Turkey. Those planning to travel to Turkey were asked to postpone their trip, while those in Turkey were advised to stay indoors.

The Israeli PM office has issues a serious travel warning for Israeli travelers visiting Turkey. The warning calls Israelis who are about to travel into Turkey to postpone their trip and for Israelis in Turkey to remain indoors and avoid presence in the city centers.

In Gaza, where the flotilla was headed, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called for global support of the Palestinian cause.

"The Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla is an ugly crime and against international law and this reflects the nature of the criminal Israeli occupation," Zuhri said. "We call upon the free world Arab and Muslim world to stand in support and help and support the international activists who have been subjected to killing in the middle of the sea."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for three days of mourning in the Palestinian territories to honor the lives lost.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev accused the leaders of the flotilla of looking for a fight.

"They wanted to make a political statement. They wanted violence," according to Regev, who said Israel wanted a peaceful interception of the ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. "They are directly responsible for the violence and the deaths that occurred."

The convoy of boats approached Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade and had been shadowed by three Israeli warships. Free Gaza had reported Sunday that they had been contacted by the Israeli navy.

The boats left European ports in a consolidated protest organized by two pro-Palestinian groups to deliver tons of food and other aid to Gaza to break a blockade imposed by Israel in 2007.

The maritime convoys were organized by both the Free Gaza Movement and the IHH, a humanitarian relief foundation affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood religious group.

Israel said Sunday that Western and Turkish authorities have accused IHH of having "working relations" with different terrorist organizations.

Source : http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/05/31/gaza.protest/index.html?hpt=T1

Peneliti NASA telah berhasil menyelesaikan demonstrasi pertama dari sebuah sistem prediksi tsunami prototipe. Dengan menggunakan data real-time global dan regional dari ratusan situs GPS, sistem  ini dapat dengan cepat menilai gempa bumi secara akurat dalam memprediksi ukuran yang dihasilkan tsunami.

Sistem baru, dikembangkan oleh Song Tony Y. dan rekan-rekannya di NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, menggunakan data GPS dari NASA's Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) dan informasi tentang lereng benua (di mana dasar laut turun dari tepi benua ke laut bawah) untuk memperkirakan energi ditransfer ke laut oleh gempa bumi bawah laut. Setelah gempa berkekuatan 8,8 di Chili pada tanggal 27 Februari 2010, tim Song berhasil meramalkan ukuran tsunami yang dihasilkan. Hanya beberapa menit setelah gempa terjadi, jaringan data GDGPS ditangkap gerakan tanah dan menyampaikan ke Song, memungkinkan dia untuk menghitung gerakan dasar laut dan akurat peringkat sumber energi tsunami sebagai moderat (4,8 pada skala sistem 10-point).

gelombang Tsunami yang paling sering ditimbulkan oleh gempa bumi bawah laut besar (lebih besar dari besarnya 7 pada skala Richter) yang merupakan akibat dari pergerakan lempeng samudera dan benua. Ketika piring kelautan padat slide di bawah pelat kontinental ringan, dasar laut bergerak secara vertikal, yang cepat memungkinkan transfer energi dari bumi ke laut. Karena setiap gempa yang unik, menunjukkan panjang gelombang yang berbeda setiap tsunami, ketinggian gelombang, dan directionality - peramalan tsunami membuat tugas yang menakutkan.

sistem peringatan tsunami tradisional telah mengandalkan pada perkiraan lokasi gempa bumi itu, kedalaman, dan besarnya untuk menentukan apakah tsunami besar akan terjadi. Namun sejarah telah menunjukkan bahwa magnitudo tidak selalu merupakan indikator yang dapat diandalkan ukuran tsunami. Gempa bumi Samudra Hindia 2004 menghasilkan tsunami besar, sedangkan 2005 Indonesia gempa tidak, meskipun keduanya memiliki besaran yang sama.

Song mengatakan sistem baru menunjukkan bahwa sistem GPS pesisir secara efektif dapat memprediksi ukuran tsunami, yang dapat mengurangi kesalahan laporan yang mengganggu kehidupan warga pesisir. alarm palsu yang berulang-ulang juga dapat mengarah pada puas diri di antara penduduk pesisir, yang dapat menurunkan respon masyarakat untuk peringatan di masa depan.

Menurut Kelautan dan Atmosfer Nasional Administrasi, sejak tahun 1850 tsunami menyebabkan kerugian lebih dari 420.000 nyawa dan miliaran dolar di seluruh dunia properti kerusakan.

Di sisi bisnis, baik dari penjualan album maupun ring back tone, di Afsel saja sudah menembus pendapatan lebih dari Rp 1 triliun, bahkan jika dihitung secara teliti, mungkin prodpek bisnisnya bisa lebih dari itu.

Tidak hanya dari sisi bisnis, ketenaran juga menjadi keniscayaan. Sepanjang bulan ini, Waka Waka mampu bertengger di posisi puncak tangga lagu terpopuler di Afsel. Padahal Shakira baru merilis resmi pada bulan Mei.

Total statistik yang berhasil dibuat Waka Waka dalam dua pekan terakhir adalah diputar sebanyak 518 kali di 30 radio dan enam stasiun televisi di Afsel.

Waka Waka sukses mengalahkan Rise Up Mzansi, yang digawangi artis-artis lokal yang tergabung dalam SABC1 All Stars, dengan catatan 303 kali tampil.

Di posisi ketiga asa Kick It Up dari Don Clarke dengan 209 kalo. Sementara theme song piala dunia 2010 yang dinyanyikan K’Naan, Wavin Flag, hanya diputar 142 kali.

Selain keempat lagu tadi, nyanyian bertema piala dunia yang cukup populer adalah Sign of Victory (Robert Kelly, 43 kali)n +h Africa (Akon and Keri Hilson, 36) dan Jabulani 2010 (15).

Consider this study in contrasts: During his first White House news conference last year, President Obama called on a liberal blogger, Nico Pitney, and CNN recently hired conservative blogger Erick Erickson to provide on-air commentary. On the other hand, despite such inroads, "bloggers" in general have increasingly become scapegoats and bogeymen for the mainstream press and politicians.

For example, while praising print media last year, Obama juxtaposed the traditional media with the New Media by voicing reservations about the ethics of blogging: "I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding," he said.
Could it be that the president (who until recently was thought to be tech-savvy) is not happy with the online criticism he has received? Perhaps any modern-day president, regardless of party, would be unnerved by the power of the nascent New Media -- and of citizen journalists -- to gin up dissent.

To be sure, the anti-blogger demagoguery is bipartisan. The "just a blogger" trope has been used by Democratic and Republican politicians to discredit unflattering stories that originated in the blogosphere.

While defending South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley from accusations she had an affair with a prominent South Carolina blogger, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said: "Nikki categorically denies the accusation that was spewed out there by a political blogger who has the gall to throw the stone, but then quickly duck and hide and proclaim he would not comment further on the issue. Quite convenient."

It's no surprise that Palin would defend Haley -- she recently endorsed her. And I have no idea whether the allegations are true or fabricated. What caught my attention was Palin's use of the term "political blogger" as a pejorative -- as if that, in itself, discredits the critic.

This seems to be a trend with Palin, who now mocks bloggers with regularit
This seems to be a trend with Palin, who now mocks bloggers with regularity. During an interview on Fox News, she criticized the media for taking cues from "some blogger probably sitting there in their parents' basement, wearing their pajamas, blogging some kind of gossip or -- or a lie."

She ought to know better. The "pajamas" reference was famously employed as a dismissive insult against conservatives by former CBS News executive Jonathan Klein, who ridiculed bloggers questioning Dan Rather's bogus Air National Guard memos, saying: "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of check and balances [at '60 Minutes'] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing."

In that instance, the mainstream media finally did take their cues from bloggers, and in so doing finally got the story right. The blogosphere was hardly intimidated. Out of that episode grew a conservative online outlet, Pajamas Media, run by Roger L. Simon, and Klein himself is now president of CNN, which recently hired Erickson to provide commentary.

On yet another occasion, Palin referenced "bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie to annoy me."

In fairness to the former vice presidential candidate, she has every right to be angry with some bloggers. She and her family have endured scurrilous attacks, including one from a liberal blogger who "broke" the bogus story of her divorce. Worse yet, right after her nomination as John McCain's running mate, Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic invented a new type of "birtherism" when he went on a bizarre and misguided quest to prove Trig was not really Palin's baby. Sullivan went so far as to demand a paternity test.

On the other hand, it was blogger Adam Brickley (my former intern) who began the "Draft Sarah Palin" blog -- and was widely credited with helping to bring her, then an obscure governor from a distant state, to the attention of the McCain campaign. One could argue that Palin owes her fame to a blogger.

According to Maegan Carberry, who has been both a mainstream reporter at the Chicago Tribune and a blogger at Huffington Post, part of the problem is a failure to distinguish between the different types of bloggers: "Are we talking about the Josh Marshalls or Erick Ericksons? Are we talking about the Chris Cillizzas? Are we talking about the proverbial kid in PJs in his parent's basement?" she asks. "I appreciate the need to establish a trusted brand, which is harder for individuals than decades-old institutions."

Ultimately, bloggers must establish their own credibility if they are to be trusted. As such, they have an incentive to strive for accuracy. But should the accurate and honorable ones face constant criticism that should rightly be aimed at the irresponsible ones?

Clearly, Palin has been both attacked and supported by bloggers. As such, one would hope that she wouldn't paint with a broad brush. Instead, she and others seem to relish going after bloggers the way Spiro Agnew enjoyed blasting the "nattering nabobs of negativism."

But it's not just the politicians who are guilty of this. Mainstream journalists have increasingly gotten into the act, as well. On MSNBC's "Hardball" recently, Howard Fineman said he believes Rand Paul's now infamous Civil Rights Act gaffe had "something to do with the Internet age and the blogging age," adding that there are "a lot of blasting position papers out there. It's a lot of saying, 'I feel great because I've made this statement.' But the fact is, nobody's cross-examining you" about that statement.

Aside from the fact that Paul's comments had nothing to do with blogging, Fineman (who works for Newsweek, which is in danger of going out of business) clearly thinks bloggers just spew opinions without any accountability to readers. For better or worse (and trust me, I could do without some of the comments people leave on my blogs), online writers and bloggers are much more accountable to readers than was the case in the supposedly halcyon days of traditional journalism. It is a mistake to yearn for a time when the only hope a reader had of responding to a "serious" journalist was submitting a letter to the editor and hoping it got published.

As Tim Fernholz, staff writer at the American Prospect magazine, explains: "Many public figures, especially those in the older generation, confused the medium and the message, equating anyone who publishes solely on the Internet with the craziest people who publish solely on the internet. It's as if someone read the Weekly World News and then criticized the New York Times for also being printed on paper -- two totally different products, but ignorance leads to broad brushes."

Other bloggers see the media criticism of bloggers as sour grapes. "At least with newspapers, magazines and TV, they had producers and editors they could count on to keep the blemishes covered," says Andrew Griffin, an Oklahoma-based conservative blogger who was a reporter for various outlets, including a Gannett newspaper in Louisiana. "But now, bloggers and online journalists -- the responsible ones, anyway -- are covering the hard news stories that the Big Paper editors ignore or don't have time for. We have broken stories at my two websites that to this day have been ignored by the local Big Paper and the lapdog TV stations."

In recent weeks, Bill Clinton voiced concern over anti-government rhetoric, and Rand Paul voiced concern over anti-BP rhetoric, yet nobody -- not even the bloggers themselves -- seems terribly concerned about all the anti-blogger rhetoric. As the Erickson, who runs the popular conservative blog RedState, told me, "Bloggers have always been under rhetorical attack. It's no different from people attacking the media in general -- everyone paints with a broad brush. It comes with the territory."

This all makes me wonder if, ultimately, the "blogger" brand will be destroyed. Will bloggers be forced to find a new name for what they do -- just as many liberals now insist on calling themselves "progressives"? Is blogger the new lawyer? Will we have to say, "No, Buffy, I'm not a blogger. I'm an online opinion journalist!"?

Of course, bloggers have no union reps to defend them, and there is no Blogger Anti-defamation League or watchdog group to turn to. And because many political bloggers are more loyal to their ideology than to their profession (or avocation), bloggers rarely defend others of their kind. Case in point: When CNN hired Erickson, the liberal blogosphere went nuts. And when Jane Hamsher, founder of the progressive blog FiredDog Lake defended Erickson as an "honest broker," the left turned on her, too. More recently, conservative bloggers ravaged Will Folks, the blogger who alleged had an affair with Nikki Haley.

Still, some actually see these attacks as a positive sign. "Criticisms of a blogger's credibility further justify their entrenchment in our country's conversation, because once you become a scapegoat in the news cycle it means influential people are paying attention," Maegan Carberry told me. "If something isn't credible or relevant, high-profile figures would not acknowledge it at all."

Chuck DeFeo, CEO of Campaign Solutions, a top online strategy firm (and formerly my boss at Townhall.com), agrees: "As bloggers have expanded their audience and their influence, their ability to impact public opinion has become as strong as some in the mainstream media. With that influence comes the likelihood that some in power not only won't like what you have to say but, more importantly, they now need to respond."

Of course, not everyone would say the attacks are a form of flattery. What is clear, though, is that the hostility toward bloggers isn't merely relegated to politics. Just the other day, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz publicly told a tech blogger to "f--- off." Those words are not unusual for a blogger to hear, mind you, but what is unusual is for someone to say it while on stage. And it's not a convincing argument.

Source : http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/30/anti-blogger-rhetoric-a-sign-of-what-the-blogosphere-is-doing-r/

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday that Northeast Asia -- which includes the Korean Peninsula -- must push for peace and avoid violent clashes in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship, state news reported.

"We must promote peace and stability in the Northeast Asian region through every effort," Wen said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "We should be considerate of each other on a grave issue, deal reasonably with a sensitive matter and strengthen political trust."

His comments to reporters came after two days of meetings with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on the South Korean island of Jeju.

The summit came amid mounting regional tension, but was scheduled before the release of a report accusing North Korea of firing a torpedo that sank the Cheonan warship, killing 46 sailors.

Why are the two Koreas so hostile?

Lee has said that his government planned to bring the issue before the U.N. Security Council. But any attempts to seek penalties against North Korea there would need the cooperation of China -- which has veto power on the council.

North Korea has denied the South Korean report's claims. And China, long North Korea's main international supporter, has steered clear of publicly taking sides on the issue.

See CNN's coverage of North Korea

Wen did not mention North Korea directly in his remarks Sunday, Yonhap reported, despite political pressure from South Korea to take a stand.

And during talks with Lee in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, he said that China had not decided whether to accept the results of South Korea's investigation into the ship's sinking, South Korean officials said.

During Sunday's press briefing, according to Yonhap, Hatoyama said the leaders shared a common view that the Cheonan's sinking was a "serious issue related with Northeast Asia's peace and stability."

Lee said Sunday that he had agreed with Wen and Hatoyama to "cope appropriately with the matter and continue consultations to maintain regional peace and stability," Yonhap said.

The leaders discussed a wide of regional economic and political issues during the two-day summit, including trade and nuclear disarmament.

"We share the view that denuclearized Korean Peninsula would greatly contribute to enduring peace, security and economic prosperity in Northeast Asia," they said in a joint statement.

Source : http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/30/south.korea.trilateral.meeting/index.html

Staring down a smoking homemade bomb and dismantling it is dangerous enough. Doing it with news cameras rolling on a busy Saturday night in the middle of Times Square is something Det. Patrick LaScala of the New York Police Department swears never entered his mind.

Until the following day.

"You're home the next day, and you're really thinking about it. Then, you start to put the pieces together and you think, 'Wow,' " LaScala said in an exclusive interview.

LaScala was manipulating the police robot that laid the groundwork for one of his partners, Det. Raymond Clair.

"This was the first time that I went down on a vehicle, and I saw clocks and wires and gas and propane. I identified it as a bomb, and I had to look twice," Clair said.

After 13 years as a bomb tech, that night was the one Clair says he'll remember the most.

Clair and LaScala are part of New York's elite bomb squad, a unit whose size is a closely guarded secret.

CNN was given special access to the unit in order to find out what a more typical day can be like.

During one recent 16-hour shift, I watched the same five-man team who worked the bungled bomb plot in Times Square check their equipment, catch up on paperwork and make sure Dan-O, their explosives-sniffing dog, was raring to go. The K-9 is named for a member of the squad who died in the 9/11 attacks when one of the twin towers collapsed.

On a busy side street outside their Manhattan offices, neighbors watched them go through their paces with the robot.

"We think they're great," one man said.

Another passerby snapped a picture of the robot with her cell phone.

"Is that the robot that checks out bombs?" she asked. It was.

But robots, as sophisticated as they are, can only do so much. They're capable of blowing out windows, blasting a suspicious package to bits, photographing an object from several angles and sending those images to investigators. The squad doesn't want to publicize more specific details. Still, a human touch often can't be avoided.

With help, bomb techs first crawl into an 85-pound protective suit that covers their bodies from head to toe.

The feet nearly look like those of a platypus, the material is stiff and hot, and the chest plate is heavy. A helmet is cinched on around the neck, and an air hose keeps outside air flowing into the mask. Put on gloves, and it's hard to imagine that anyone in such bulky gear could maneuver and dismantle possible bomb components. But that's what they're trained to do.

"The more you do, and the more you get involved, the better you'll get when it's the real thing," Clair said.

Det. Greg Abbate also was there for the "real thing" in Times Square. He said his training kicked in.

"There's a strong bond between us. We go to a job, there's very little talk. Everyone knows what they have to do," he said.

Despite the immense dangers associated with the work, whenever the unit checks out a suspicious package, bomb technicians jockey for the opportunity to suit up.

"We actually have arguments over who's taking the job," added Abbate.

When CNN traveled with them on a call, it was Abbate's turn to wear the gear.

The bomb squad was called to check out a backpack found in a park near a police headquarters checkpoint.

The team sped to the scene with sirens screaming. Other units ringed the perimeter. X-rays were taken. Abbate moved in. This time, he determined that this time, there was nothing to it.

Sgt. John Ryan said it's necessary to assume the worst until the team moves in.

"Everything is a bomb until we say it's not a bomb, " said Ryan.

The days are long, but the men say they feel "blessed" to be part of the bomb squad. They laugh when people suggest they must be a little crazy to do such a dangerous job.

"It's an honor," LaScala said.

And it never gets old.

"At the end of the day, it's just one day down and a lot more to go," said Det. Mike Garcia.

Source  :http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/31/new.york.bomb.squad/index.html?hpt=C2

New York (CNN) -- "Fatwa on your head?" a new series of provocative ads on New York City buses asks. "Is your community or family threatening you? Leaving Islam?"

The ads, sponsored by an organization called Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), direct viewers to refugefromislam.com, a website designed "for people who are thinking of leaving Islam or are leaving Islam and need resources" to protect them from harm.

Practicing Muslims who find the ads offensive should "ignore it," SIOA leader Pamela Geller told CNN. "It's not directed to them."

Speaking on conservative Sean Hannity's radio show recently, Geller said, "it's time for Americans to stand up against the evil of Islamic jihadi terrorism and Islamic supremacism." The SIOA, which is funded by its online readership, is currently lobbying to block a mosque proposed near the World Trade Center site.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations in New York says the ads are nothing more than "Islam bashing."

"Islamophobes are notorious for their cheap tactics that seek to marginalize American Muslims and divide communities," CAIR Community Affairs director Faiza Ali said in a statement.

"Pamela Geller uses the same tactics as tobacco companies, hiding the cancerous nature of her agenda behind a smokescreen of feigned concern. Geller is free to say what she likes, just as concerned community members are free to critique her tactics and motives," Ali said.

Speaking at a Tennessee "Tea Party" convention earlier this week, Geller called CAIR an "unindicted co-conspirator Muslim-brotherhood front Hamas-tied" organization.

Although the same campaign caused controversy when SIOA bought ad space on public buses in Miami, New York Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan told CNN that no one has asked the MTA to remove the ads yet.

"We have not gotten complaints on it, to be honest," he said. Like most ads seen on MTA subway cars and buses, the campaign will run a month. Last April, Donovan remembered, the MTA ran ads for whyislam.org -- an organization which encourages visitors to explore the Quran and seeks to "challenge popular stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam" -- on the subway system.

An exhibit in Paris brings together some of the thousands of mobile phone videos shot by anti-government protesters after last June's disputed presidential election.

Tehran largely banned international and Iranian media from freely covering the massive wave of protests over alleged fraud in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

But Iranians overcame the reporting ban by using their cell phones and social-networking and image-sharing websites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The Paris exhibit, "Action 1," gives visitors a firsthand look at the demonstrations and the crackdown that seem to have changed the lives of millions of Iranians.

'Solidarity Beyond Imagination'

The exhibit's organizers viewed thousands of Internet videos before making the selection to display in 59 Rivoli, a gallery off Paris' busy rue de Rivoli. The group calls itself the Green Ribbon, after the symbol of Iran's opposition movement. It is made up of Iranians living in France as well as some French artists who came together after last year's election to support Iranian artists.

Orash, one of the Green Ribbon's leaders, came to Paris from Iran a year and a half ago. He doesn't want to give his last name in case he returns — and out of solidarity with the exhibit's anonymous video artists. Orash says last year's demonstrations ended the isolation of millions of Iranians.

"Personally ... I thought that I don't want this regime, but I am the only one. It's no good to shout, it's no good to write, to create. But after these events, I saw that millions and millions of [people] are thinking the same way. So it gave new hope for Iranians all over the world, and it has created a solidarity beyond imagination," Orash says.

Scenes of violence play out on TV screens all over the gallery as black-clad Basiji militia beat people and chase crowds of young people through the streets. French subtitles translate some of the conversation of those filming. "They look just like the Gestapo," says one witness.

Generation Gap

Scottish visitor Stephen Riley said he was seeing the footage for the first time.

"The contrast between the physical arms of the militia and the communication arms of the protesters, which seems to amount to mobile phones and cameras, is quite a striking paradox," Riley says.

Riley came to the exhibit with his friend, a 50-year-old Iranian who calls herself Aryan H., because she also fears giving her last name. Aryan H. has lived in Paris for 20 years. In 1979, she demonstrated to overthrow the shah and bring Ayatollah Khomeini to power. She says many young people still blame her generation for that.

"My generation, we [were] very ashamed, because it was our fault what's happened to them," she says, adding that the latest demonstrations have helped bring the two generations back together.

A Gathering Point

The exhibit has become a gathering point for Paris' Iranian community. Expats converse in Farsi on the sidewalk in front of the gallery.

Giant reproductions of some of the Twitter messages sent during the protests hang in the gallery's tall windows. "It's getting harder to log on to the Net," reads one. "Our phone line was cut and we lost Internet," says another.

The gallery's top floor is pitch dark, except for some tiny electric candles placed around the floor. The room is filled with the sound of people chanting "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," from the rooftops of Tehran.

Another Green Ribbon member, Azam, 27, says this chanting went on every night for more than six months after the June 12 election, turning what was once a mantra of the Islamic revolution into a call for protest. She says the nightly ritual brought people closer.

"They went to the top of their house or behind their window, and they say 'Allahu akbar,' and in front of your house there's another house, and there's someone there who says 'Allahu akbar,' and they know each other after one month. And it's so kind," Azam says.

These young Iranians say they believe it is only a matter of time before the movement that began last summer leads to real change in Iran. 

Source : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127136155&ft=1&f=1001