Tomorrow's Newspapers Online. 08-31-2013 | P

Kerry said it was essential not to let Syria get away with the attack, partly as a sign to those who might consider using chemical weapons in the future, and said the United States was joined by allies including France, "our oldest ally," in its determination to act.

"It matters here if nothing is done," Kerry said in a statement delivered at the State Department. "It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens."

Kerry laid out a raft of evidence he said showed Assad's forces were behind the attack, and the U.S. Government released an unclassified intelligence report at the same time including many of the details.

The report said the August 21 attack killed 1,429 Syrian civilians, including 426 children.

The intelligence gathered for the U.S. report included an intercepted communication by a senior official intimately familiar with the August 21 attack as well as other intelligence from people's accounts and intercepted messages, the four-page report said.

France said on Friday it still backed military action to punish Assad's government for the attack despite a British parliamentary vote against a military strike.

An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close Assad ally, seized on Thursday's British "no" vote which set back U.S.-led efforts to intervene against Assad, saying it reflected wider European worries about the dangers of a military response.

Any military strike looks unlikely at least until U.N. investigators report back after they leave Syria on Saturday.

The timing of any strikes may be complicated by Obama's departure late on Tuesday for Sweden and a G20 summit in Russia. He was not expected to order the strikes while in Sweden or Russia.

French President Francois Hollande told the daily Le Monde he still supported taking "firm" punitive action over an attack he said had caused "irreparable" harm to the Syrian people, adding that he would work closely with France's allies.

Britain has traditionally been the United States' most reliable military ally. However, the defeat of a the government motion authorizing a military response in principle underscored misgivings dating from how the country decided to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Russia, Assad's most powerful diplomatic ally, opposes any military intervention in Syria, saying an attack would increase tension and undermine the chances of ending the civil war.

This may sound like a scene from 1960s sci-fi cartoon The Jetsons, but the kitchens in coming decades may not be so far off those envisioned by futurologists.

Today, a number of significant developments in culinary tech are happening in the field of robotics. CNN's Blueprint team caught up with a group of design students in Poland who recently programmed an industrial robot -- usually tasked with building cars -- to cook. "Our project is called 'Let's cook the future' and we try to cook with robots -- we had a robot that initially was made just to be in factories and make cars and we tried to treat it as a human and put it in the kitchen." Says Barbara Dzaman, one of the students involved in the project.

The 'Let's cook the future' robot "prints" cookies three-dimensionally, building them up layer by layer in almost any shape you could imagine.

Dorota Kabala, an industrial designer working alongside the students says that the project looks towards a future where people can make dishes that are only limited by their imagination. "The problem we are addressing in this project is the need for personalization of production ... at the moment we can observe that people need more personalization, more customization of products than before and now it's possible."

Marek Cecula, a respected Polish designer, ceramicist and visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London, says that he was "amazed" by the students' robot chef but felt that "we simply don't know where this is going ... How will we relate to objects made completely by a machine? How will these objects relate to our emotions? Where will the relationship between person and object be when the object is made by a machine?"

The introduction of robots into the home is not new, of course. Many of us already live with electronics that have robotic components, such as self-cleaning ovens, single-touch microwaves that automatically adjust to the food you have put in them, and fridges that scan used-by dates.

The trend for robots to perform unskilled restaurant jobs has also led to robotic noodle slicers and mechanical waiters, though so far many are mere gimmicks rather than genuine technological solutions.

The Syrian Electronic Army, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, added it had "many surprises" to come.

Interviewed via email following the UK Parliament's vote against military intervention on Thursday, a spokesman told BBC News: "It's the right thing."

He added: "Military intervention in Syria has many consequences and will affect the whole world.

"Our main mission is to spread truth about Syria and what is really happening."

The SEA has targeted various media companies, including the BBC, CNN and the Guardian.

Brian Krebs, a former Washington Post reporter, wrote that clues discovered when the SEA's own website was hacked earlier in the year pointed towards at least one member of the group being based in neighbouring country Turkey.

But the SEA's spokesman dismissed these claims, saying that "they keep publishing names so they can get attention".

"All the media outlets that we targeted were publishing false/fabricated news about the situation in Syria," he told the BBC.

"Our work doesn't need funds. It just needs a computer and internet connection."

Explosion tweet

Until this week's attacks, the SEA's efforts had largely focused on "phishing" social media accounts, tricking users into handing over log-in details.

In one particularly effective attack, the Twitter account of the Associated Press was compromised, and the group posted a tweet saying US President Barack Obama had been hurt in an explosion.

The New York Times attack was more damaging, however, as the hackers were able to redirect people trying to visit the newspaper to the SEA's website instead, albeit briefly.

"Our goal was to deliver our anti-war message on NY Times website - but our server couldn't last for three minutes," the group said.

"The Twitter attack was because of the suspension of our accounts on Twitter by its management.

The British request, made to Times executive editor Jill Abramson by a senior official at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., was greeted by Abramson with silence, according to the sources. British officials indicated they intended to follow up on their request later with the Times, but never did, one of the sources said.

On Friday, in a public statement, Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, said his newspaper, which had faced threats of possible legal action from British authorities, on July 20 had destroyed copies of leaked documents which it had received from Snowden.

Rusbridger said that two days later, on July 22, the Guardian informed British authorities that materials related to GCHQ had made their way to the New York Times and the independent investigative journalism group ProPublica.

Rusbridger said in his statement that it then took British authorities "more than three weeks before anyone from the British government contacted the New York Times.

"We understand the British Embassy in Washington met with the New York Times in mid-August - over three weeks after the Guardian's material was destroyed in London. To date, no-one has contacted ProPublica, and there has been two weeks of further silence towards the New York Times from the government," Rusbridger said.

Rusbridger added that, "This five week period in which nothing has happened tells a different story from the alarmist claims made" by the British government in a witness statement it submitted on Friday to a London court hearing regarding an investigation by British authorities into whether the handling of Snowden's leaks violated British anti-terrorism and official secrets laws.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington told Reuters: "We are not going to get into the specifics about our efforts but it should come as no surprise if we approach a person who is in possession of some or all of this material."

The spokesman added: "We have presented a witness statement to the court in Britain which explains why we are trying to secure copies of over 58,000 stolen intelligence documents - to protect public safety and our national security."

And yet in truth, Barack Obama really does have only three options in Syria. It appears that the president, rightly the avoider-in-chief when it comes to Syria, has chosen option three, the least bad alternative. And here's why.

Do nothing

This isn't really an option. Forget the fact that the president a year ago drew his own red line against Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons. Disregard the reality that this is reportedly the largest single deployment of chemical weapons since Saddam Hussein used them against the Kurds in 1988; dismiss the fact that 100,000 Syrians have died in this civil conflict; and the president is accused of fiddling, Nero-like, while Syria burns.

Just focus on the events of the past five days in Washington. What has been emanating from administration officials both on and off the record is the most well-advertised and telegraphed military action in the history of modern warfare. Rarely do we get this kind of preview of the operation, its size and character.

Combine that with the Secretary of State John Kerry's brief but powerful statement of moral outrage the other day and the president's PBS interview, and you get as authoritative a commitment to strike as is humanly imaginable.

Indeed, forceful statements and actions of the past few days have now constituted their own red line. And if the president doesn't enforce it, he will be truly damaged goods when it comes to foreign policy for the remainder of his term.

Neither his regional allies (Israel and the Saudis) nor his adversaries (Iran, Hezbollah, Russia) will find him credible or believable. As it is now, everyone says no to the U.S. without much cost or consequence.

Do everything

From the beginning, Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham and a whole host of liberal interventionists and neoconservatives outside the government have repeatedly called for a more robust policy on Syria, even suggesting that the president, by not acting sooner, enabled all of this misery to unfold. Syria, the president's critics maintain, is a major threat to U.S. interests -- and to our allies in the region -- and only a takedown of the al-Assad regime through supporting the opposition and direct application of U.S. military power will begin to address the problem.

Clashes between police and Muslim Brotherhood supporters have broken out in several cites and at least three people are said to have been killed.

Earlier this month hundreds of protesters died when security forces stormed pro-Morsi camps in the capital.

The Brotherhood is demanding the reinstatement of Mr Morsi.

Egypt's military-backed interim government has cracked down on the Brotherhood since the army deposed Mr Morsi on 3 July, arresting most of its leaders.

On Thursday police detained Mohammed al-Beltagi, secretary-general of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), who is accused of inciting violence.

Scattered protests

Just after Friday prayers, about 500 protesters left Cairo's central Sahib Rumi mosque chanting: "The interior ministry are thugs" and "Egypt is Islamic, not secular".

Correspondents said demonstrators appeared to have held numerous scattered protests and avoided Cairo's main squares where riot police and tanks were deployed.

The interior ministry had warned that security forces had the right to use live ammunition against protesters who attacked public institutions.

By mid-afternoon, thousands were marching in several Cairo districts calling for the reinstatement of Mr Morsi - Egypt's first democratically elected president. Protests were said to be generally peaceful in comparison to recent unrest, although some clashes did break out, both between police and protesters and between pro- and anti-Morsi groups.

Violence was reported in Alexandria, Port Said and in the Nile Delta town of Zagazig.

The Brotherhood-led Anti-Coup Alliance had called for the rallies to be peaceful.

"We welcome any calls for calm, but we will continue protesting in a peaceful manner," said alliance member Salah Gomaa at a news conference.

On Thursday, officials said Mr Beltagi and Former labour minister Khaled al-Azhari - who served under Mr Morsi - were arrested in a flat on the outskirts of Cairo.

Police have already arrested the Brotherhood's most senior figure, Mohamed Badie, and his deputy Khairat al-Shater. They have been charged with inciting violence.

Spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, could struggle to regain momentum as other data on Friday showed consumer sentiment fell this month.

The reports added to a number of signs that have suggested a loss of steam in the economy early in the third quarter after a fairly sturdy performance in the April-June period even in the face of higher taxes and lower government spending.

"There has been a lot of optimism about the economy accelerating in the second half of the year as the fiscal drag waned. The latest data suggests that's not happening," said Michelle Girard, chief economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

The Commerce Department said consumer spending ticked up 0.1 percent, restrained by weak outlays on utilities and automobiles. Adjusted for inflation, spending was flat.

It is not likely to rebound anytime soon. A separate report showed the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index slipped to 82.1 in August from 85.1 in July.

The drop reflected concerns about higher borrowing costs. Long-term interest rates have risen more than a percentage point over the last three months in anticipation of the Fed scaling back its support for the economy.

"Less confident individuals don't become more active shoppers," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisers in Holland, Pennsylvania. "That does not bode well for growth."

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data as investors kept a wary eye on developments in Syria. Stocks were trading lower, while U.S. Treasury debt prices were up. The dollar touched a four-week high against a basket of currencies.

With demand tepid, inflation pressures were subdued last month. A price index for consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent, slowing from a 0.4 percent rise in June.

Over the past 12 months, prices have risen only 1.4 percent. While that is the biggest increase since February, it is well below the Fed's 2 percent target.

Excluding food and energy, the price index for consumer spending nudged up 0.1 percent after advancing 0.2 percent in June. For the fourth month running, core prices were up just 1.2 percent from a year ago.

NFLATION BELOW TARGET

The lackluster spending and soft inflation data would argue against the U.S. central bank trimming the $85 billion in bond purchases it is making each month to keep interest rates low.

They wanted to see if the iron would cause a bloom of algae that could promote fish numbers and absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Instead, in March, they were raided by Canadian officials for illegal dumping at sea.

"I think they (the officials) kind of expected to see Dr. Evil and his group planning to destroy the Earth with geoengineers," said James Straith, lawyer for Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. (HSRC), as the project called itself.

"What they got was a bunch of nice kids doing a lot of things on plankton scanning, scientific models and analyzing data... Did the officials really need bullet-proof vests?"

The Haida case highlights a growing legal, environmental and even geo-political conundrum.

The Canadian group is part of a debate about geoengineering - deliberate and sometimes sci-fi-like interventions designed to slow climate change. A U.N. panel of climate scientists says carbon dioxide and other gases are causing global temperatures to rise and change our climate and will lead to more heat waves, droughts, floods and rising seas. Geoengineers have proposed everything from brightening clouds to reflect more sunlight and heat back into space to - as in the case of the Haida - encouraging the oceans to soak up more carbon dioxide.

The idea behind the ‘ocean fertilization' experiment was simple: iron will promote the growth of algae which will provide food for fish and absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. When the algae die their remains fall to the seabed, removing them from the atmosphere.

Environment Canada, the nation's environment ministry, said the experiment was illegal under Canadian law and violated the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the London Convention, which governs dumping at sea. World leaders at a U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro last year urged "utmost caution" in ocean fertilization due to worries that it could disrupt marine life. Many scientists remain skeptical about whether any form of geoengineering will solve climate change. Allowing research, they argue, may detract from efforts to reduce emissions from cars, power plants and factories.

"Put simply, is it in Britain's national interest in maintaining an international taboo against the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield?" Cameron asked lawmakers. "I would say yes it is." Cameron told members of the House of Commons -- whom he recalled from summer vacation to debate a British response to the deaths of hundreds in a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus last week -- that the government would not act without first hearing from U.N. weapons inspectors, giving the United Nations a chance to weigh in and Parliament to have another vote.

But Cameron said a failure to act by the international community would give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad the unmistakable signal that he could use such weapons "with impunity."

In New York, meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council prepared for a closed-door meeting Thursday afternoon. The session was called by Russia, Syria's leading ally, a Western diplomat told CNN.

In Washington, the White House said it would be briefing American lawmakers Thursday evening. But a senior U.S. official told CNN the use of chemical weapons last week was not the act of a "rogue element" of the Syrian military, and that there was no doubt al-Assad's government was behind it. And in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, another U.S. destroyer was moving into position for another possible strike, joining four others already off Syria, a Pentagon official told CNN.

Cameron's government published an intelligence assessment Thursday that concluded it was "highly likely" that the Syrian government was behind last week's suspected poison gas attack. British intelligence said at least 350 people died, while rebel leaders have put the death toll at more than 1,300.

"It is not possible for the opposition to have carried out a (chemical weapons) attack on this scale," the British Joint Intelligence Organisation said in the assessment. The British dossier on Syria also concluded the Syrian government had used chemical weapons on 14 previous occasions. Cameron said he believes al-Assad opted to increase the scale of his chemical attacks as a sort of test for the world.

Hugo Barra was vice president of product management for Google's mobile platform Android, and had been at the company since 2008. Google confirmed his departure from the company, stating that it wished him well. "We'll miss him at Google and we're excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem," a spokesman said.

Lucrative investments

Mr Barra took to social network Google+ to discuss his departure.

"After nearly five and a half years at Google and almost three years as a member of the Android team - the most amazing group of people I've ever worked with in my life - I have decided to start a new career chapter," he wrote.

"In a few weeks, I'll be joining the Xiaomi team in China to help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally — as vice president, Xiaomi Global."

Xiaomi is a Beijing-based company that makes smartphones and other consumer electronics. They described the hiring of Mr Barra as "exciting news".

Since releasing its first handset in 2011, the company has enjoyed huge growth - now valued at $10bn (£6.5bn) thanks to two lucrative investment rounds. Critics have accused the company of lacking in innovation and copying ideas from Western competitors.

Brin split

Mr Barra's departure coincides with reports Google's co-founder Sergey Brin is "living apart" from his wife.

News site All Things Digital wrote that Mr Brin was involved with a female Google employee who had previously had a relationship with Mr Barra.

A source told the BBC the departure was unrelated to personal issues, adding that Mr Barra had been discussing his move with Xiaomi for some time.

Mr Brin, who founded Google with Larry Page, married Anne Wojcicki in 2007. The couple have two children.

She is the chief executive of 23andMe, a biotech firm in which Google has invested $10m (£6.5m).

A spokesman for the couple told Reuters that "they remain good friends and partners" and have not yet legally separated.

Ms Wojcicki's sister, Susan, is also at Google as senior vice president in ads and commerce.

The possible move, which Facebook revealed in an update to its data use policy on Thursday, is intended to improve the performance of its "Tag Suggest" feature. The feature uses facial recognition technology to speed up the process of labeling or "tagging" friends and acquaintances who appear in photos posted on the network.

The technology currently automatically identifies faces in newly uploaded photos by comparing them only to previous snapshots in which users were tagged. Facebook users can choose to remove tags identifying them in photos posted by others on the site.

The changes would come at a time when Facebook and other Internet companies' privacy practices are under scrutiny, following the revelations of a U.S. government electronic surveillance program.

Facebook, Google Inc and other companies have insisted that they have never participated in any program giving the government direct access to their computer servers and that they only provide information in response to specific requests, after careful review and as required by law.

Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said that adding members' public profile photos would give users better control over their personal information, by making it easier to identify posted photos in which they appear.

"Our goal is to facilitate tagging so that people know when there are photos of them on our service," Egan said.

She stressed that Facebook users uncomfortable with facial recognition technology will still be able to "opt out" of the Tag Suggest feature altogether, in which case the person's public profile photo would not be included in the facial recognition database.

Facial recognition technology has been a sensitive issue for technology companies, raising concerns among some privacy advocates and government officials. Tag Suggest, which the company introduced in 2011, is not available in Europe due to concerns raised by regulators there.

Google's social network, Google+, also employs similar technology, but requires user consent. And it has banned third-party software makers from using facial recognition technology in apps designed for its Glass wearable computer.

Egan said Facebook was not currently using facial recognition technology for any other features, but that could change.

And he sharply criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for allowing details about that potential military action to become public before any decisions have been made.

“I can’t imagine what they’re thinking, why they would want the Assad regime to have crystal clarity with respect to what they intend,” Rumsfeld said in an interview on the Fox Business Network.

Obama told the "PBS Newshour" on Wednesday that he hadn’t yet made a final decision about U.S. military action in Syria, though U.S. officials have been cited widely in news reports pointing to cruise missile attacks on military facilities as a likely American response to alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian regime.

Acknowledging it was difficult to fully ascertain the administration’s thinking as an outsider, Rumsfeld maintained it was puzzling the amount of information that’s made its way to the public.

"The idea of demystifying for the enemy what you're going to do is mindless,” he said.

Rumsfeld served a secretary of defense from 2001-2006, a period that saw the U.S. begin wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said in the interview, however, that current statements from Obama and his aides haven’t met the threshold for intervention in Syria.

“There really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation,” he said. “When you think about what’s really important in that region – it’s Iran’s nuclear program and the relationship between Iran and Syria, the Assad regime, with respect to terrorists that go around killing innocent men, women and children, including Americans.”

He added that Secretary of State John Kerry, who left the U.S. Senate earlier this year for the top diplomatic post, had been “dealt a bad hand” by his predecessor Hillary Clinton and Obama, who he claimed had created a global leadership void.