The Engadget Podcast is live tonight at 5PM!

It's that time again! Sure, Tim, Brian and Terrence aren't all in the same city, but at least they're on the same coast for once. They've got a lot of extra calories to burn off after last week's turkey hiatus, so get ready and follow along in the chat after the jump.

Continue reading The Engadget Podcast is live tonight at 5PM!

The Engadget Podcast is live tonight at 5PM! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Justin Bieber and Friends Help Light Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree


Let's face it: this is Justin Bieber's world. We merely live in it.

The superstar has been everywhere this holiday season, and not solely because some moron named Mariah Yeater sued him for paternity of her son. Bieber has released a Christmas CD and has spent weeks promoting it via talk shows, live performances and official video releases. The latest example of the latter? This duet with Mariah Carey.

So it's only appropriate that Bieber - along with friends Usher and Busta Rhymes - was featured on last night's tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Watch the teenage icon do his thing in the following two performance videos:


Justin Bieber and Busta Rhymes - Drummer Boy (Live)

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/justin-bieber-and-friends-help-light-rockefeller-center-christma/

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WWE Bring It Back: ANY classic WWE Title that?s NOT the Spinner (-CONT-)

<< Previous | WWE TITLE PHOTOS >>

WWE.com and the WWE Universe are not the only voices shouting to the rafters for the Spinner Title to be replaced. Several WWE Champions have weighed in on the issue. Never at a loss for words is current WWE Champion CM Punk, ready to lead the charge.

?YES! [The current title] is old and pass?,? proclaimed ?The Voice of the Voiceless.? ?It?s gaudy and ugly. It says ?Champ? instead of Champion! That?s ridiculous. I need a dignified title, not a blinged out rapper accessory.?

Despite The Second City Saint?s negative inference to John Cena?s rapping days of rhythmic glory, the very Superstar that first introduced the ?Spinner Title,? does not disagree. The 10-time WWE Champion stated on Twitter one week ago, ?I have thought that for three years. Either classic or new, it needs a change.?

?Well, you saw my effort to redesign the current title,? added always-outspoken Miz. ?But, I'd agree it needs to look less like a toy and more like a title.?

?I mean, think about it,? continued the self-proclaimed ?Most Must-see WWE Champion of All-time.? ?When football players win the Super Bowl or basketball players win the NBA finals, you'll usually see one of the players sporting a championship from WWE. But, it?s always the World Heavyweight Title. It doesn?t take that much to figure out why that is.?

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/bring-back-classic-wwe-title-2

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When babies awake: New study shows surprise regarding important hormone level

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 1-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Melissa Bright
mbright@uga.edu
706-542-2174
University of Georgia

Athens, Ga. Cortisol may be the Swiss Army knife of hormones in the human body -- just when scientists think they understand what it does, another function pops up. While many of these functions are understood for adults, much less is known about how cortisol operates in babies and toddlers, especially when it comes to an important phenomenon called the cortisol awakening response, or CAR.

For the first time, psychology researchers from the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences have shown that this response for infants is opposite of what it is for adults. The new information could have implications for how infants handle stress and why proper care from their mothers could affect how growing children react to cortisol in later life.

"Surprisingly, the CAR hasn't been widely studied in infants or young children," said psychology doctoral student Melissa Bright, who led the study. "There is consensus that the adult pattern of cortisol response isn't present at birth, but much less is known about when in the first year of life it is established."

Other authors of the research, just published online in the journal Developmental Psychobiology, are Janet Frick, a faculty member in UGA's department of psychology and director of the UGA Infant Research Lab, and Douglas Granger of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

Cortisol is produced in the adrenal gland and has dozens of jobs in the body. It is released in response to stress and can increase blood sugar, suppress the immune system and aid in metabolism. And yet it works in vastly more arenas than those. One such area is the CAR, and when adults awake, an organ "team" called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis works together to release cortisol -- somewhat as a sentinel -- alerting the body to stress or threats.

The new study discovered that in infants, cortisol levels actually didn't increase but stayed stable from the time they awoke in the morning and for half an hour afterward. Cortisol levels didn't change following naps, either. Interestingly, the research team also found a mother-infant cortisol association called "psychological attunement," confirming recent research that cortisol levels between mothers and infants are correlated.

"Taken together, these findings raise an interesting possibility," said Frick. "In infancy, cortisol responses may be less dependent on hard-wired biological rhythms and more influenced by the HPA axis activity of the baby's immediate caregivers."

The team conducted the research using 32 baby-mother pairs. Nineteen of the babies were female and 13 were males, and they ranged in age from 7.8 to 17.4 months. After agreeing to participate, mothers were instructed to collect saliva samples using cotton swabs from inside the mouths of their infants and then themselves four times on a single day: when the infants awoke in the morning, 30-45 minutes after the baby awoke, when the baby awoke from its first nap of the day and 30-45 minutes after that. Other requirements applied, but they weren't difficult for the mothers to follow, said Bright.

No one knows at precisely what age the CAR begins in humans, though it had previously been predicted to be present sometime in the first year. The current data indicates that it emerges at a much older age, however. Why babies don't emit rising amounts of cortisol in response to awakening isn't clear, either.

"It is possible that the CAR is absent or more difficult to detect in early childhood because of the developmental stage of the hippocampus and related structures," said Bright.

Understanding how the CAR develops in infants could offer clues as to how adults respond to such things as stress in later life. Other scientists have found, for instance, that women who as infants or children were subjected to maltreatment and inconsistency of care showed higher than normal levels of cortisol on awakening as adults.

The issue of psychological attunement also has possibly important implications for a close, caring relationship between mother and child. Other researchers have studied so-called "behavioral synchrony," a parent's ability to identify and appropriately respond to her or his child's emotions and behaviors. The psychological attunement suggested in the present study may be part of the same paradigm, said Frick.

Bright said that while there are some experimental-design limitations in the study, this first study of the cortisol awakening response in infants could lead to other research that clarifies why the response in babies is so different from that in adults.

###

The research was supported by a Graduate Research Fellowship that Bright received from the National Science Foundation.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 1-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Melissa Bright
mbright@uga.edu
706-542-2174
University of Georgia

Athens, Ga. Cortisol may be the Swiss Army knife of hormones in the human body -- just when scientists think they understand what it does, another function pops up. While many of these functions are understood for adults, much less is known about how cortisol operates in babies and toddlers, especially when it comes to an important phenomenon called the cortisol awakening response, or CAR.

For the first time, psychology researchers from the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences have shown that this response for infants is opposite of what it is for adults. The new information could have implications for how infants handle stress and why proper care from their mothers could affect how growing children react to cortisol in later life.

"Surprisingly, the CAR hasn't been widely studied in infants or young children," said psychology doctoral student Melissa Bright, who led the study. "There is consensus that the adult pattern of cortisol response isn't present at birth, but much less is known about when in the first year of life it is established."

Other authors of the research, just published online in the journal Developmental Psychobiology, are Janet Frick, a faculty member in UGA's department of psychology and director of the UGA Infant Research Lab, and Douglas Granger of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

Cortisol is produced in the adrenal gland and has dozens of jobs in the body. It is released in response to stress and can increase blood sugar, suppress the immune system and aid in metabolism. And yet it works in vastly more arenas than those. One such area is the CAR, and when adults awake, an organ "team" called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis works together to release cortisol -- somewhat as a sentinel -- alerting the body to stress or threats.

The new study discovered that in infants, cortisol levels actually didn't increase but stayed stable from the time they awoke in the morning and for half an hour afterward. Cortisol levels didn't change following naps, either. Interestingly, the research team also found a mother-infant cortisol association called "psychological attunement," confirming recent research that cortisol levels between mothers and infants are correlated.

"Taken together, these findings raise an interesting possibility," said Frick. "In infancy, cortisol responses may be less dependent on hard-wired biological rhythms and more influenced by the HPA axis activity of the baby's immediate caregivers."

The team conducted the research using 32 baby-mother pairs. Nineteen of the babies were female and 13 were males, and they ranged in age from 7.8 to 17.4 months. After agreeing to participate, mothers were instructed to collect saliva samples using cotton swabs from inside the mouths of their infants and then themselves four times on a single day: when the infants awoke in the morning, 30-45 minutes after the baby awoke, when the baby awoke from its first nap of the day and 30-45 minutes after that. Other requirements applied, but they weren't difficult for the mothers to follow, said Bright.

No one knows at precisely what age the CAR begins in humans, though it had previously been predicted to be present sometime in the first year. The current data indicates that it emerges at a much older age, however. Why babies don't emit rising amounts of cortisol in response to awakening isn't clear, either.

"It is possible that the CAR is absent or more difficult to detect in early childhood because of the developmental stage of the hippocampus and related structures," said Bright.

Understanding how the CAR develops in infants could offer clues as to how adults respond to such things as stress in later life. Other scientists have found, for instance, that women who as infants or children were subjected to maltreatment and inconsistency of care showed higher than normal levels of cortisol on awakening as adults.

The issue of psychological attunement also has possibly important implications for a close, caring relationship between mother and child. Other researchers have studied so-called "behavioral synchrony," a parent's ability to identify and appropriately respond to her or his child's emotions and behaviors. The psychological attunement suggested in the present study may be part of the same paradigm, said Frick.

Bright said that while there are some experimental-design limitations in the study, this first study of the cortisol awakening response in infants could lead to other research that clarifies why the response in babies is so different from that in adults.

###

The research was supported by a Graduate Research Fellowship that Bright received from the National Science Foundation.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uog-wba120111.php

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Europe delays major debt decisions for 10 days (AP)

BRUSSELS ? European finance ministers failed to deliver the broad outlines of a plan to shore up the euro Wednesday, delaying action until their bosses meet in less than a week and a half.

Though the meetings since Tuesday have not yielded anything concrete about what's likely to come out of the EU leaders meeting on Dec. 9, there's growing speculation that Europe is readying a plan to make the 17 countries that use the euro more unified and ruled by stricter budgetary rules. That, analysts said, could allow the European Central Bank to take a more central role in the crisis ? seen as crucial to stabilize the debt crisis that's seen three countries already bailed out.

"The new mantra seems to be 'Build it, and they will lend,' in the sense if they promise the ECB that they will gradually move to a fiscal union, the central bank will buy sufficient amounts of government bonds to stabilise the market," said Gary Jenkins, chief economist at Evolution Securities in London.

Markets appear to be giving Europe the benefit of the doubt for now especially after the world's leading central banks said jointly they would make it easier for banks to get hold of the dollars they may need.

The forbearance in the markets is unlikely to last long though, especially if the summit next week fails to match swelling expectations of a much tighter eurozone.

The EU's leading economic official said as much.

"We are now entering the critical period of 10 days to complete and conclude the crisis response of the European Union," EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

Wednesday's meeting in Brussels has brought in the 10 non-euro finance ministers from the 27-nation EU, who have been pressing hard for a swift solution for fear that their economies will suffer.

Sweden's Anders Borg said there was no more time to waste and that the markets don't provide "any honeymoons" for any countries that stray from fiscal austerity. He stressed that Spain and Italy need to "take out all the skeletons" from their financial closets and implement budgetary belt tightening measures.

Many economists say the 17 nations that use the euro have little choice but to back proposals for much closer coordination of their spending and budget policies.

"If the eurozone is to survive, there needs to be more fiscal union," said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University in the state of New York.

For struggling economies, this might be the necessary price of survival. With such discipline in place, the ECB could then agree to make major purchases of government bonds from Europe's troubled countries. Doing so could help lower their borrowing costs and enable them to finance their debts.

Potentially, the ECB has unlimited financial firepower through its ability to print money. However, Germany finds the idea of monetizing debts unappealing, warning that it lets the more profligate countries off the hook for their bad practices. In addition, it conjures up bad memories of hyperinflation in Germany in the 1920s.

So far, the ECB has been reluctant in taking on a bigger firefighting role as it may let profligate countries off the hook. Current rules only allow it to buy up government bonds in the markets on condition that it drains an equivalent amount of assets.

At a meeting Tuesday night, finance ministers for the 17 countries that use the euro handed Greece a promised euro8 billion ($10.7 billion) rescue loan to fend off its immediate cash crisis and promised to increase the firepower of a fund to help bail out ailing eurozone countries.

The ministers also called on the International Monetary Fund for more resources to help further protect Europe's embattled currency. The IMF has only about $390 billion available to lend, which wouldn't be anywhere near enough to rescue Italy.

The eurozone ministers agreed to seek new ways to increase the resources of the IMF through bilateral loans that could be used to protect EU nations facing financial trouble.

But they failed to increase the firepower of a European bailout fund to euro1 trillion ($1.3 trillion), as they had hoped to do.

"It will be very difficult to reach something in the region of a trillion. Maybe half of that," said Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager.

Klaus Regling, head of the bailout fund, tried to be upbeat, saying the ministers had committed to increasing its size from its current euro440 billion ($587 billion) but refusing to give a specific size. He assured reporters it was more than big enough to deal with Europe's immediate debt problems.

"To be clear, we do not expect investors to commit large amounts of money during the next few days or weeks," Regling said. "Leverage is a process over time."

The ministers did agree to use the bailout fund to offer financial protection of 20-30 percent to investors who buy new bonds from troubled eurozone nations.

"We made important progress on a number of fronts," eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker insisted late Tuesday. "This shows our complete determination to do whatever it takes to safeguard the financial stability of the euro."

Without a plan that the markets believe in, the eurozone faces the prospect of an unappetizing breakup, that could spark chaos around the global economy.

A default by one or more euro countries could also cause lending to seize up worldwide. Some European banks holding large amounts of government debt would likely collapse. As credit dried up, other banks around the world would probably hoard cash. The credit crunch could push European countries into a deep recession.

A European downturn would also slow the flow of exports to Europe from the United States and Asia and weaken their economies. U.S. stock markets would likely fall, reducing household wealth and consumer spending and further choking growth.

___

Associated Press writers contributing to this report included Angela Charlton in Paris, Melissa Eddy and Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Raf Casert and Don Melvin in Brussels and Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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The Best Cyber Monday Deals [Cyber Monday]

The Best Cyber Monday DealsWith Black Friday out of the way, online retailers have let loose their Cyber Monday deals, with deals on laptops, TVs, cameras, software, and plenty more. We've cherry picked our favorite deals below, including a few promotion codes to boot.

Amazon

  • Kinect Sensor w/ games $99.99 (normally $149.99)
  • Samsung UN40C6300 40" 1080p 120 Hz LED $726.37 (normally $1399.99)
  • Kindle DX with 3G $259 (normally $379)
  • Phiaton PS 320 Premium Dual Driver Luxury Headphones $79.99 (normally $159)
  • Corsair XMS3 16GB PC3-10666 1333MHz DDR3 Memory Kit $79.99 (normally $169.99)
  • Best Buy

  • iCADE $49.99 (normally $99.99)
  • Samsung 46" LED 1080p $799.99 (normally $1099)
  • $50 iTunes gift cards $40
  • Buy.com

  • SanDisk Ultra 120GB 2.5" SATA II SSD $141.99 (normally $179.99)
  • Google

  • $20 for $40 gift card at Newegg.com SOLD OUT
  • Lenovo

  • Lenova Ideapad Z570 $599.99 (normally $850)
  • Microsoft

  • 25% off accessories with promo code "SAVE25"
  • Living Social

  • $15 for $30 worth of merchandise at Threadless
  • Newegg

  • 15.6 ASUS A53E-EH91 2.1 GHz Notebook $300 (normally $450)
  • TRENTnet TEW-687GA Wireless N Gaming Router $20 (normally $60)
  • Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac $44.99 (normally $79.99)
  • Officemax

  • HP LaserJet P2035 $199.99 (normally $299.99)
  • Toshiba Satellite Laptop with AMD Dual-Core A43300M $379.99 (normally $549.99)
  • Tiger Direct

  • 55" Sharp Aquos LC-60LE810UN 1080p LED TV $899 (normally $1299)
  • Samsung CLX-3185 Color Laser All-in-One Printer $90 (normally $250)
  • Walmart

  • Toshiba 32" LCD $249 (normally $348)
  • Zagg

  • 50% off everything

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/rEnlOypfoD0/the-best-cyber-monday-deals

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus torn down, Ice Cream Sandwich gets everywhere

What sorts of mysteries does the Samsung Galaxy Nexus hold? Only the folks at iFixit and their trusty screwdrivers know for sure. Thankfully, the site is willing to share. Check out a teardown of one of the year's most eagerly anticipated smartphones. Thrill to the 1.2GHz dual-core processor, marvel to the five megapixel rear-facing camera and be astonished by the NFC antenna in the source link below.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus torn down, Ice Cream Sandwich gets everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Verge  |  sourceiFixit  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/29/samsung-galaxy-nexus-torn-down-ice-cream-sandwich-gets-everywhe/

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Review: iTunes Match wins cloud music war by wisp (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? In recent weeks, Apple, Google and Amazon.com have each launched the missing puzzle piece in their wireless mobile music systems.

Apple enabled storage and delivery of your songs over the Internet through iTunes Match. Google started selling music digitally. Amazon shipped an electronic-books device, called the Kindle Fire, that does much more than books.

With those additions, each system now lets you buy songs, store them on faraway computers called the cloud and retrieve them wirelessly on devices connected to the Internet.

But which system do you want to live with? It's a choice you can't make lightly because these companies don't play nice with each other. Once you've adopted one, it's hard to switch.

If this were the Music Cloud Wars, then Apple's iTunes Match would be winning ? but not by much.

Here's a quick primer, along with a few ways to get in and around their digital barriers.

___

iTunes Match.

There's a good chance you are familiar with iTunes. The software is on millions of computers, and many of you have iPods, iPhones or iPads that let you consume content bought through the iTunes online store.

ITunes Match is a $25-a-year service on top of that. It sees everything you have in iTunes and matches it to copies Apple already has stored in the cloud. Songs not already there will be uploaded from your computer to a personal locker in the cloud.

It's alone among the three to let you download songs to iPhones and iPads wirelessly. That means a full copy of the song is stored for listening anytime, rather than streamed on demand over wireless networks, which can be spotty. There's nothing more annoying than having your songs stop and start as your connection flutters.

You can have up to 25,000 songs on the service, plus an unlimited number bought through iTunes ? great for those with large music collections. Of course, most of you won't fit 25,000 songs on your device, so streaming is an option for songs you haven't downloaded yet.

If there's a tune you want to listen to offline, just tap an icon. It takes only a few seconds, and you can start listening before it's done.

One major caveat: You need an Apple device to use this, and specifically a newer one with Apple's iOS 5 mobile software. You're out of luck if you have a phone running Google's Android system, for instance.

___

Google Music.

Using Google's free Music Manager program, you upload music you own into Google's cloud. Unlike Apple, Google doesn't have songs preloaded, so this can take hours or days.

Google Music works best with an Android phone or tablet computer. You simply download the Google Music app to your device. Voila, your songs will be available for streaming. You can save songs for offline playback by "pinning" them with a digital push pin icon.

The service stores up to 20,000 songs, not including those bought through a companion music store run by Google. That's not as many as iTunes Match, but it's free.

I like Google's music store because it offers plenty of bargains. I found Coldplay's latest album, Mylo Xyloto, for $5 ? half the price on iTunes. Google plans to release lots of free music, too.

I also like that if you buy from Google's music store, you can share the songs with friends on its Google Plus social network. They get one full listen for free ? that's something not available anywhere else.

One downside: Google's store isn't as extensive as Apple's or Amazon's. For instance, it's missing songs from Warner Music Group, which accounts for about 20 percent of music sold in the U.S.

Google Music also isn't a great option for users of Apple devices.

Google found a way to make the system work on iPhones and iPads through Apple's Safari Web browser. It has a surprising app-like feel because of the way menus respond to touch. But you won't be able to store songs on your phone for offline use.

There's also a trick for Apple users to take advantage of music deals: Download the songs onto a computer, put the music in iTunes and upload the songs into Apple's cloud through iTunes Match. It's not pretty, but it works.

___

Amazon Cloud Drive.

The new Kindle Fire completed Amazon's music system, though it's not required. It works fine on Android devices through the Amazon MP3 app.

Released in March, Amazon's cloud storage system is free for up to 5 gigabytes of storage ? roughly 1,250 songs. If you bought Lady Gaga's latest album, "Born This Way," in a 99-cent promotion in May, you'll have 20 GB of space ? good for about 5,000 songs.

Amazon's uploader works about the same as Google's. It could take hours or days to get your songs into the cloud. But once there, you can stream or download songs to the Kindle Fire or to Android devices.

Like Google, Amazon sells songs and albums at a discount to iTunes, and its long-running music store has a selection comparable to iTunes.

Amazon has also found a way to make its system work on Apple devices, using Safari as well, but that workaround is clunkier than Google's and doesn't support downloads either.

One other downside to Amazon's service is that you'll likely have to pay for cloud storage, as you do with iTunes Match.

Having 5 GB of storage for free is kind of meaningless because most mobile devices have that already. The Kindle Fire comes with 8 GB on board. For a limited time, you can get 20 GB of storage for $20 a year ? and most music files won't count against the total.

___

Although there are things to like about Google's and Amazon's systems, they both favor streaming, which isn't how I want to listen to music when I'm not at a computer.

Apple's iTunes Match is fundamentally more oriented to work with downloading in mind, and it meshes well with your existing song library, either on your device or on your computer.

The iTunes store is also set up better ? showing what's new and popular, and acting as a barometer of popular culture. Google promotes what's free and Amazon emphasizes its bargains, but those picks aren't always what I'm looking for.

Ultimately it's great to have cloud services out there. It has helped me organize my music collection and reconnected me with songs stuck in the recesses of my computer.

In the end, though, these services ought to be as free and easy to access over multiple devices as email is. Instead, they come across as tools to get you to buy this or that device. And we shouldn't be made to pay for a song once and then again when we store it.

Music in the cloud has promise, but it hasn't fully delivered just yet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_on_hi_te/us_digital_life_tech_test_online_music

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Arab League prepares for Syria sanctions (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Syrian forces killed four people in Homs city on Saturday, activists said, shortly before Arab ministers were due to draw up sanctions against Damascus over its crackdown on protests and failure to let observers into the country.

Damascus missed a Friday deadline to agree an Arab League proposal to send monitors to Syria, where the United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Despite Syria's pledge this month to withdraw its army from urban areas and let in the monitors, the violence has continued, prompting reprisals from the Arab League, stinging rebukes from Turkey and French proposals for humanitarian intervention.

Damascus, where the Assad family has ruled for 41 years, says regional powers helped incite the violence, which it blames on armed groups targeting civilians and its security forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people, including a 10-year-old child, were killed on Saturday in separate incidents across Homs, a center of increasing opposition to Assad and deepening sectarian violence.

The British-based opposition group said at least 30 people were killed the day before including 13 members of Assad's security forces, most of them killed in a clash with army deserters in the eastern Deir al-Zor province.

Arab ministers had warned that unless Syria agreed to let monitors in, they could consider imposing sanctions including suspending flights to Syria, stopping dealings with the central bank, freezing Syrian government bank accounts and halting financial dealings.

They could also decide to stop commercial trade with the Syrian government "with the exception of strategic commodities so as not to impact the Syrian people," the ministers said.

IRAQ "HAS RESERVATIONS"

The League's economic and social council was due to meet on Saturday evening to recommend sanctions which will be put to a meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday.

But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said his country would not take part in the deliberations and said several of Syria's Arab neighbors had reservations about sanctions.

"Iraq is a neighbor to Syria and there are interests -- there are hundreds of thousands of Iraqis living in Syria are there is trade," he told reporters in Najaf. "Lebanon also has the same idea and Jordan too has shown its objection."

Lebanon was one of only two countries to vote against suspending Syria from the Arab League.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour has said his country would not impose sanctions on Syria, but Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon would implement Arab League decisions "because it is in our interest to be with the Arab consensus."

Syria's economy is already reeling from months of unrest, aggravated by U.S. and European sanctions on oil exports and several state businesses.

In neighboring Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country could take steps alongside the Arab League if Syria did not respond to the proposal for observers positively.

"I want to say clearly we have no more tolerance for the bloodshed in Syria," he said.

The stepped-up pressure followed a French proposal for "humanitarian corridors" to be set up through which food and medicine could be shipped to alleviate civilian suffering.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the plan fell short of a military intervention but acknowledged that humanitarian convoys might need armed protection.

The proposal could link Syrian civilian centers to the frontiers of Turkey and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean coast or to an airport, and enable supply of humanitarian supplies or medicines to people in need.

But United Nations humanitarian coordinator Valerie Amos suggested that setting up humanitarian corridors into Syria or buffer zones on the border could be premature.

"At present, the humanitarian needs identified in Syria do not warrant the implementation of either of those mechanisms," she said, adding that the United Nations had been unable to assess comprehensively those needs because of the limited number of international staff operating in Syria.

Amos said 3 million people had been affected by the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, and Syria's Red Crescent had sought support to feed 1.5 million people.

PILOTS KILLED

Alongside the mainly peaceful protests, armed insurgents have increasingly attacked military targets in recent weeks. Officials say 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed since the outbreak of uprising.

State news agency SANA reported funerals of 22 security force members on Saturday, including six pilots killed in an attack on an air force base between Homs and Palmyra two days earlier which the army says was carried out by an "armed terrorist group."

"This confirms the involvement of foreign elements and their support of these terrorist operations in an effort to weaken the fighting capabilities of our forces," the army said on Friday.

The account fits the government narrative that it faces an armed insurrection by trouble-makers backed by its enemies, rather than a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement inspired by the Arab Spring revolts which toppled the rulers of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and may have forced out Yemen's president.

State television showed footage of thousands of people demonstrating in the Mediterranean city of Latakia on Saturday, condemning the Arab League for taking a stance against Syria and chanting in support of Assad.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Markey in Baghdad; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/wl_nm/us_syria

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