Hasta La Gadget!

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Fresh U.S. sanctions over Iran’s disputed nuclear program being debated behind closed doors in the Senate aim to slash the country’s oil sales in half within a year of the plan being signed into law, an influential senator said this week.

Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in New York on Monday that a package of sanctions ready to move in his chamber has a goal of cutting Iran’s current oil exports to no more than 500,000 barrels per day.

The reduction being sought is about 500,000 bpd less than a more severe bill passed by the House of Representatives in July, which aimed to slash exports to nearly zero.

The Senate bill, which has yet to be introduced by the banking committee, has been widely expected to be weaker than the House bill, which some analysts had said was not realistic.

Since the beginning of 2012, U.S. and European sanctions have already cut Iran’s oil exports to about 1 million bpd from about 2.5 million bpd, costing the Islamic Republic crude sales worth billions of dollars a month, and helping to spike inflation and unemployment.

But international talks over Iran’s nuclear program have revived after self-described moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August in Tehran. Rouhani and President Barack Obama talked by phone in September, the highest level contact between the two countries since 1979.

That has led some to hope that Iran could eventually win some relief from current U.S. sanctions.

Menendez said Iran must freeze and dismantle its nuclear program and demonstrate it is complying before sanctions are lifted.

“This is not the time to loosen sanctions,” Menendez told AIPAC, according to a copy of the speech that was seen by Reuters. Menendez said he had told members of the Obama administration he was ready to work with fellow senators to move a new package of sanctions if necessary.

The United States and its allies believe Iran is seeking the capacity to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.

Menendez said the sanctions package would require China, India, South Korea, Turkey and Japan, Iran’s remaining oil customers, to further slash their purchases of Iranian crude and other petroleum products.

AVERSION TO CONFLICT

Bob McNally, a White House adviser on energy to former President George W. Bush, Obama’s Republican predecessor, said the House bill was seen by many lawmakers as too aggressive.

“The only thing stronger than love for Israel in the Congress is aversion to another military conflict,” said McNally. “There is a concern in the Congress about tightening the sanctions so much that it would lead to a conflict.”

The plan mentioned by Menendez could still undergo big changes in the banking committee and before being passed by the full Senate, reconciled with the House, and signed into law by Obama.

The Obama administration has pressed the Senate to hold off on introducing new sanctions in order to give the talks a chance.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew are set to hold a secret meeting with senators on Thursday about progress of the talks. The United States, China, Russia, Great Britain, France and Germany, the so-called P5+1, are due to hold a second round of talks with Iran in Geneva on Nov 7-8. (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Ros Krasny and Ken Wills)

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Nikon has been rumored to be getting themselves ready for a launch of one of their new cameras, a certain Nikon DF which is allegedly a hybrid full-frame mirrorless camera system, akin to Sony’s recently announced A7 AND A7R products. We had heard that an early November announcement of the camera was a possibility and now according to Nikon Rumors, an announcement for the 5th of November will most likely be taking place. We’re not sure where they are getting their information from, but presumably it is coming from one of their sources, so we guess you should take this news with a grain of salt for now.

As to what we might be able to expect, well the Nikon DF is said to feature a body whose design is similar to that of the Nikon FM2, giving it a more retro look. It is said to sport a full-frame sensor (the megapixels are unknown at this point in time), and will have the same AF system found on the Nikon D610, meaning that photographers can look forward to a 39-point AF system. It will also have settings for 1:1, 3:2, and 16:9 aspect ratios, and there is a chance that the camera might come without video recording capabilities.

Nikon DF Announcement Rumored For 5th November original content from Ubergizmo.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is nominating two supporters who raised hefty sums for his re-election campaign to be U.S. ambassadors.

The White House said Tuesday that Robert Barber is Obama’s pick for Iceland. Obama has also tapped Mark Gilbert, a former Chicago White Sox player, to be his envoy to New Zealand.

Both were members of the Obama for America national finance team, and both raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s campaign.

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Comcast subscribers who want to watch TV on mobile devices won’t have to stay at home in the future. The cable provider has confirmed to The Verge that it will soon offer live TV viewing from anywhere through Xfinity TV Go, a rebranded and refreshed version of its Xfinity TV Player app. The software …

By the time Hurricane Sandy rolled into the northeast last year, Alissa and Nichols Berse were still reeling from the miscarriage they had suffered that summer.

The couple had been trying to get pregnant, and carrying all the disappointment made them feel even worse when Sandy forced them to evacuate from their New Jersey home. “The storm was at the very bottom of things that could have happened to us,” Alissa told HuffPost Live’s Nancy Redd.

The hurricane took a toll on their lives, their home and all their possessions, but the experience brought with it a very bright silver lining — a brand new baby girl named Madison. “Once the storm hit and we were at the hotel, the power went out and we kind of didn’t know what to do,” Alissa added. “So this is how Madison came about.”

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