LONDON: Israel is preparing for Iran to become a nuclear power and has accepted it may happen within a year, the London Times reported on Monday citing an Israeli security report.
The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) think-tank prepared scenarios for the day after an Iranian nuclear weapons test at the request of former Israeli ambassadors, intelligence officials and ex-military chiefs, the paper reported.
Israel has so far maintained it will do all within its power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities, but has shifted its position following recent United Nations' reports, according to the Times.
The UN atomic agency said Monday that Iran is now enriching uranium at a new site in a hard-to-bomb mountain bunker, in a move set to stoke Western suspicions further that Tehran wants nuclear weapons.
INSS specialists including a former head of Israel's National Security Council and two former members of the prime minister's office conducted the simulation study in Tel Aviv last week.
If Iran does test a nuclear weapon, INSS predicts a profound shift in the Middle East power balance.
According to extracts of the report seen by the British publication, experts believe the US would propose a defence pact with Israel, but would urge it not to retaliate.
Russia would seek an alliance with the US to prevent nuclear proliferation in the region, although Saudi Arabia would likely pursue its own nuclear programme, the report concluded based on current policies.
INSS specialists believe that an Iranian test in January 2013 would follow increasingly provocative demands by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, including the redrawing of its Iraqi borders and action against the vessels of the US Fifth Fleet.
"The simulation showed that Iran will not forgo nuclear weapons, but will attempt to use them to reach an agreement with the major powers that will improve its position," said a passage of the report published by the Times.
"The simulation showed that (the Israeli military option), or the threat of using it, would also be relevant following an Iranian nuclear test," it added.
Israel condemned intelligence chief Meir Dagan last June after he speculated that Iran may obtain nuclear weaponry.
Conclusions from the simulation have been sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Times reported.
Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful purposes, has repeatedly said it will not abandon uranium enrichment despite four rounds of UN Security Council resolutions calling on Tehran to desist.
While nuclear energy plants need fuel enriched to 3.5 percent, Iran says the 20-percent enriched uranium is necessary for its Tehran research reactor to make isotopes to treat cancers.
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Scientists discover the first physical evidence of tobacco in a Mayan containerPublic release date: 11-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gabrielle DeMarco demarg@rpi.edu 518-276-6542 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
High technology uncovers an ancient habit
Troy, N.Y. A scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an anthropologist from the University at Albany teamed up to use ultra-modern chemical analysis technology at Rensselaer to analyze ancient Mayan pottery for proof of tobacco use in the ancient culture. Dmitri Zagorevski, director of the Proteomics Core in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at Rensselaer, and Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman, a doctoral candidate at the University at Albany, have discovered the first physical evidence of tobacco in a Mayan container. Their discovery represents new evidence on the ancient use of tobacco in the Mayan culture and a new method to understand the ancient roots of tobacco use in the Americas.
Their research will appear in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, in an article titled "The detection of nicotine in a Late Mayan period flask by GCMS and LCMS methods."
In recent years, archaeologists have begun to use chemical analysis of residues from ancient pottery, tools, and even mummies in an attempt to piece together minute clues about ancient civilizations. Among the potential problems with isolating a residue for analysis is preservation and contamination. Many vessels serve multiple purposes during their lives, resulting in muddled chemical data. Once the vessels are discarded, natural processes such as bacteria and water can destroy the surface of materials, erasing important evidence. Additionally, researchers must be attentive to archaeological field handling and laboratory treatment of the artifacts that might lead to cross contamination by modern sources.
To make their discovery, the researchers had a unique research opportunity: a more than 1,300-year-old vessel decorated with hieroglyphics that seemingly indicated the intended contents. Additionally, the interior of the vessel had not been cleaned, leaving the interior unmodified and the residue protected from contamination.
The approximately two-and-a-half-inch wide and high clay vessel bears Mayan hieroglyphics, reading "the home of his/her tobacco." The vessel, part of the large Kislak Collection housed at the Library of Congress, was made around 700 A.D. in the region of the Mirador Basin, in Southern Campeche, Mexico, during the Classic Mayan period. Tobacco use has long been associated with the Mayans, thanks to previously deciphered hieroglyphics and illustrations showing smoking gods and people, but physical evidence of the activity is exceptionally limited, according to the researchers.
Zagorevski used the technology within CBIS at Rensselaer, usually reserved to study modern diseases and proteins, to analyze the contents of the vessel for the chemical fingerprint of tobacco. The technology included gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). Both are analytical chemistry techniques that combine the physical separation capabilities of gas or liquid chromatography with the analysis capabilities of mass spectrometry. The latter is used to determine molecular weights of compounds, their elemental composition, and structural characteristics.
Zagorevski and Loughmiller-Newman's analysis of the vessel found nicotine, an important component of tobacco in residues scrapped from the container. Both techniques confirmed the presence of nicotine. In addition, three oxidation products of nicotine were also discovered. Nicotine oxidation occurs naturally as the nicotine in tobacco is exposed to air and bacteria. None of the nicotine byproducts associated with the smoking of tobacco were found in the vessel, indicating that the vessel housed unsmoked tobacco leaves (possibly powered tobacco) and was not used as an ash tray. No other evidence of nicotine has been found, at this time, in any of the other vessels in the collection.
This discovery "provides rare and unequivocal evidence for agreement between a vessel's actual content and a specific ichnographic or hieroglyphic representation of that content (on the same vessel)," Loughmiller-Newman states in the paper. She is in the anthropology department at the University at Albany, studying ritual food stuff consumed by the Mayans.
Both Loughmiller-Newman and Zagorevski would like to see this technique used to analyze a greater variety of vessel types.
###
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Scientists discover the first physical evidence of tobacco in a Mayan containerPublic release date: 11-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gabrielle DeMarco demarg@rpi.edu 518-276-6542 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
High technology uncovers an ancient habit
Troy, N.Y. A scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an anthropologist from the University at Albany teamed up to use ultra-modern chemical analysis technology at Rensselaer to analyze ancient Mayan pottery for proof of tobacco use in the ancient culture. Dmitri Zagorevski, director of the Proteomics Core in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at Rensselaer, and Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman, a doctoral candidate at the University at Albany, have discovered the first physical evidence of tobacco in a Mayan container. Their discovery represents new evidence on the ancient use of tobacco in the Mayan culture and a new method to understand the ancient roots of tobacco use in the Americas.
Their research will appear in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, in an article titled "The detection of nicotine in a Late Mayan period flask by GCMS and LCMS methods."
In recent years, archaeologists have begun to use chemical analysis of residues from ancient pottery, tools, and even mummies in an attempt to piece together minute clues about ancient civilizations. Among the potential problems with isolating a residue for analysis is preservation and contamination. Many vessels serve multiple purposes during their lives, resulting in muddled chemical data. Once the vessels are discarded, natural processes such as bacteria and water can destroy the surface of materials, erasing important evidence. Additionally, researchers must be attentive to archaeological field handling and laboratory treatment of the artifacts that might lead to cross contamination by modern sources.
To make their discovery, the researchers had a unique research opportunity: a more than 1,300-year-old vessel decorated with hieroglyphics that seemingly indicated the intended contents. Additionally, the interior of the vessel had not been cleaned, leaving the interior unmodified and the residue protected from contamination.
The approximately two-and-a-half-inch wide and high clay vessel bears Mayan hieroglyphics, reading "the home of his/her tobacco." The vessel, part of the large Kislak Collection housed at the Library of Congress, was made around 700 A.D. in the region of the Mirador Basin, in Southern Campeche, Mexico, during the Classic Mayan period. Tobacco use has long been associated with the Mayans, thanks to previously deciphered hieroglyphics and illustrations showing smoking gods and people, but physical evidence of the activity is exceptionally limited, according to the researchers.
Zagorevski used the technology within CBIS at Rensselaer, usually reserved to study modern diseases and proteins, to analyze the contents of the vessel for the chemical fingerprint of tobacco. The technology included gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). Both are analytical chemistry techniques that combine the physical separation capabilities of gas or liquid chromatography with the analysis capabilities of mass spectrometry. The latter is used to determine molecular weights of compounds, their elemental composition, and structural characteristics.
Zagorevski and Loughmiller-Newman's analysis of the vessel found nicotine, an important component of tobacco in residues scrapped from the container. Both techniques confirmed the presence of nicotine. In addition, three oxidation products of nicotine were also discovered. Nicotine oxidation occurs naturally as the nicotine in tobacco is exposed to air and bacteria. None of the nicotine byproducts associated with the smoking of tobacco were found in the vessel, indicating that the vessel housed unsmoked tobacco leaves (possibly powered tobacco) and was not used as an ash tray. No other evidence of nicotine has been found, at this time, in any of the other vessels in the collection.
This discovery "provides rare and unequivocal evidence for agreement between a vessel's actual content and a specific ichnographic or hieroglyphic representation of that content (on the same vessel)," Loughmiller-Newman states in the paper. She is in the anthropology department at the University at Albany, studying ritual food stuff consumed by the Mayans.
Both Loughmiller-Newman and Zagorevski would like to see this technique used to analyze a greater variety of vessel types.
###
[ | 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.
BAGHDAD?? Iraq's Shiite-led government on Sunday demanded that authorities in the semiautonomous Kurdish region hand over the country's top Sunni official to face terrorism charges, turning up the heat in a political crisis that is stoking sectarian tensions.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi traveled to the Kurdish north in December just as the last American troops were leaving the country and charges against him were being drawn up.
The government accuses him of running a hit squad that assassinated government and security officials years ago ? allegations he denies. Fellow Sunnis, who made up the dominant political class under Saddam Hussein, see the charges as part of an effort to sideline them.
The resulting political crisis has been accompanied by a rise in coordinated car bomb and suicide attacks targeting Shiites that have claimed dozens of lives in recent weeks.
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A judicial spokesman for the Kurds, Dadyar Hameed, said authorities there received a request from Baghdad on Sunday to hand over al-Hashemi and 14 of his associates.
Story: Iraq blasts kill at least 72, raise specter of civil war
Although the Kurdish region is part of Iraq, it enjoys considerable autonomy. The Kurds have their own security force, and police under the control of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki do not operate there.
As long as al-Hashemi remains a guest of his boss, Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, he is effectively out of Baghdad's reach.
Hameed declined to say if the Kurds would comply with the Interior Ministry request, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
A senior official in the Kurdish region's Interior Ministry was less diplomatic.
"We are not policemen working for al-Maliki to hand over al-Hashemi," the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Shortly before the arrest warrant was issued in December, state-run television aired what it said were confessions by men said to be working as bodyguards for al-Hashemi. The men said they killed Baghdad police officers and officials working in the health and foreign ministries in exchange for payoffs from al-Hashemi.
The hits allegedly began during the height of the war in 2006 and 2007, when widespread violence between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites pitted neighbors against neighbors and killed thousands of Iraqi civilians.
Al-Hashemi has dismissed the charges as politically motivated and an effort to embarrass him, and says the supposed confessions implicating him were fabricated. He has said he cannot get a fair trial in Baghdad.
President Talabani came to the defense of his deputy in an interview with Al-Arabiya television that aired Sunday.
"Tariq al-Hashemi is not a fugitive. He is still the vice president. He is only accused, not convicted," Talabani said. He added that al-Hashemi is prepared to face trial in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk.
The dispute has paralyzed Iraq's government. Most of al-Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc is boycotting parliament and Cabinet meetings over what it sees as an effort by al-Maliki to further consolidate power and sideline them now that American troops are gone.
Talabani said he expects talks between the country's feuding blocs aimed at resolving the crisis to get under way in Baghdad later this week.
___
Associated Press writers Mazin Yahya in Baghdad and Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Supreme Court upheld Monday a long-established provision of campaign finance law that seeks to prevent foreign interests from influencing domestic politics.
The US Supreme Court on Monday summarily affirmed a lower court decision upholding a congressional ban on ?foreign nationals spending money to influence the outcome of American elections.
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The action upholds a long-established provision of campaign finance law that seeks to prevent foreign interests from influencing domestic politics.
And it signals a possible retreat ? in a presidential election year ? from the expansive free speech principles championed by the high court in its controversial 2010 decision, Citizens United v. FEC.
At issue in Bluman v. FEC (11-275) was whether the First Amendment protects a free speech right of foreign individuals in the US to spend money supporting or opposing a particular candidate or political issue.
The Bluman case was viewed as a potential sequel to the Citizens United decision. In that case the justices invalidated a congressional ban on corporate and labor union spending for election-related advertisements and other communications.
The high court ruled 5-4 that corporations and labor unions enjoy a First Amendment right to spend their money to run independent advertisements supporting a favored issue or candidate during election season.
The Bluman case raised a similar First Amendment issue. The case sought to extend the same free speech principles to campaign finance laws blocking election contributions and expenditures by foreign residents in the US.
The high court was apparently uninterested in examining the issue in greater detail. Instead, the justices delivered a four-word opinion: ?The judgment is affirmed.?
The First Amendment protects the broad right of non-citizens to comment on US elections and candidates. But Congress banned political contributions and electioneering expenditures from foreign entities and foreign citizens, other than those who are lawful permanent residents of the US.
The Bluman case questioned why First Amendment free speech protections don?t also extend to foreign citizens who are legally present in the US on a temporary work visa.
The case was filed on behalf of two individuals who are in the US on work visas that are set to expire in 2012.
Benjamin Bluman is Canadian and works as an associate at a New York law firm. Despite his status as a non-permanent resident, Mr. Bluman wants to contribute to Democratic candidates running in US elections.
Asenath Steiman is a dual citizen of Canada and Israel. She works as a physician in New York and wants to contribute to Republican candidates running in US elections.
Both claimed the First Amendment protects their right to make political contributions despite the fact that they are not permanent residents.
The Federal Election Commission countered that Congress was within its authority to bar participation by those who have no permanent connection to the country.
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Public release date: 11-Jan-2012
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