SELECCIONA EL MES

ADVERTISEMENT 2

ADVERTISEMENT 3

Error: No articles to display

ADVERTISEMENT 1

ADVERTISEMENT 4

A+ A A-

Obama to public: Don't give up on health sign-ups 
JULIE PACE, AP White House Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defending the shaky rollout of his health care law, President Barack Obama said frustrated Americans "definitely shouldn't give up" on the problem-plagued program now at the heart of his dispute with Republicans over reopening the federal government.

Obama said public interest far exceeded the government's expectations, causing technology glitches that thwarted millions of Americans when trying to use government-run health care websites.

"Folks are working around the clock and have been systematically reducing the wait times," he said.

The federal gateway website was taken down for repairs over the weekend, again hindering people from signing up for insurance.

Obama, in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, also disclosed that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Iran continues to be a year or more away from having the capability to make a nuclear weapon. That assessment is at odds with Israel, which contends Tehran is on a faster course toward a bomb.

He expressed optimism about the blossoming diplomacy between his administration and Iran's new president, but said the U.S. would not accept a "bad deal" on the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

The president spoke to the AP on Friday, four days into a partial shutdown of the federal government that has forced 800,000 people off the job, closed national parks and curbed many government services.

Obama reiterated his opposition to negotiating with House Republicans to end the shutdown or raise the nation's debt ceiling.

"There are enough votes in the House of Representatives to make sure that the government reopens today," he said. "And I'm pretty willing to bet that there are enough votes in the House of Representatives right now to make sure that the United States doesn't end up being a deadbeat."

On other points, Obama:

—Contrasted his tenure as a senator with the current crop of first-term Republican senators, saying he "didn't go around courting the media" or "trying to shut down the government" while he was in the Senate.

—Said he's considering keeping some American forces in Afghanistan after the war formally ends in late 2014, if an agreement can be reached with the Afghan government. He tried to do the same in Iraq but was unable to reach an agreement with its government.

—Suggested that the owner of the Washington Redskins football team consider changing its name because, the president said, the current name offends "a sizable group of people."

With no sign of a breakthrough to end the government shutdown, Obama said he would be willing to negotiate with Republicans on health care, deficit reduction and spending — but only if House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, holds votes to reopen the government and increase the nation's borrowing limit.

Some House Republicans are seeking health care concessions from Obama in exchange for approving government financing and want more spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling.

The Treasury Department says the nation will hit its borrowing limit around Oct. 17. Obama didn't specifically rule out taking action on his own if Congress fails to increase the debt ceiling, but said he doesn't expect to get to that point.

Obama, who successfully ran for president as a first-term senator, also spoke critically about first-term Republican senators, such as Ted Cruz of Texas, who have been leading efforts to shut the government if Republicans can't extract concessions from the White House.

The president said that when he was in the Senate, he "didn't go around courting the media. And I certainly didn't go around trying to shut down the government."

"I recognize that in today's media age, being controversial, taking controversial positions, rallying the most extreme parts of your base, whether it's left or right, is a lot of times the fastest way to get attention and raise money," he said. "But it's not good for government."

The deadline for keeping the government open coincided with the Oct. 1 start of sign-ups for the insurance markets at the center of the health care overhaul Obama signed into law during his first term. Government websites struggled in the first week to keep up with high demand for the new marketplaces. It's not clear that more than a few managed to enroll the first day.

Obama said he didn't know how many people had enrolled. Administration officials have said they do not plan to release real-time data on the number of people enrolling, though some states running their own exchange websites are doing so.

The president predicted that when the six-month signup window for the insurance exchanges ends, "we are going to probably exceed what anybody expected in terms of the amount of interest that people had."

In the flurry of domestic issues consuming his second term, Obama has launched a diplomatic outreach to Iran, aimed at resolving the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program. Last week, he spoke by phone with President Hassan Rouhani, marking the first direct exchange between U.S. and Iranian leaders in more than 30 years.

"Rouhani has staked his position on the idea that he can improve relations with the rest of the world," Obama said. "And so far he's been saying a lot of the right things. And the question now is, can he follow through?"

But Obama said Rouhani is not Iran's only "decision-maker. He's not even the ultimate decision-maker," a reference to the control wielded by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Given the supreme leader's broad influence, some countries, most notably Israel, have questioned whether Rouhani actually represents real change in Iran or just new packaging of old policies.

Khamenei said Saturday that he supported Rouhani's outreach to the West, but at the same time called the U.S. government "untrustworthy, arrogant, illogical and a promise-breaker," according to comment summarized on his website.

Obama also put distance between U.S. and Israeli assessments of when Iran might have the capacity to build a nuclear weapon. Israeli officials have said Iran is just months away from being able to build a bomb, while Obama said Tehran was a year or more away.

The president used the same timetable in March, before traveling to Israel. The U.S. and Israel contend that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at building a bomb, while Tehran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.

On the 12-year war in Afghanistan, Obama said he would consider keeping some American forces on the ground after the conflict formally ends next year, but acknowledged that doing so would require an agreement from the Afghan government. He suggested that if no agreement can be reached, he would be comfortable with a full pullout of U.S. troops.

"If in fact we can get an agreement that makes sure that U.S. troops are protected, makes sure that we can operate in a way that is good for our national security, then I'll certainly consider that," he said. "If we can't, we will continue to make sure that all the gains we've made in going after al-Qaida we accomplish, even if we don't have any U.S. military on Afghan soil."

All U.S. forces left Iraq at the end of 2011 after no deal could be reached to keep some there longer.

Obama, an avid sports fan, also weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Redskins as the name of Washington's NFL football team. The name has faced a new barrage of criticism for being offensive to Native Americans.

The president said he doesn't think Redskins' fans mean any offense by using the name. But he added: "If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they've had a storied history, that was offending a sizable group of people, I'd think about changing it."

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read more...

Strap on your computer, wearable tech taking off 
MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The digital domain is creeping off our desktops and onto our bodies, from music players that match your tunes to your heart beat, to mood sweaters that change color depending on your emotional state — blue for calm, red for angry. There are vacuum shoes that clean the floor while you walk and fitness bracelets, anklets and necklaces to track your calorie burning.

"Everyone agrees the race is just beginning, and I think we're going to see some very, very big leaps in just the next year," said tech entrepreneur Manish Chandra at a wearable technology conference and fashion show in San Francisco Monday that was buzzing with hundreds of developers, engineers and designers.

Wearable technologies have long been a sideshow to mainstream laptop and smartphones, but this year Google's glasses and rumors of Apple's iWatch are popularizing the field. Analysts forecast swift growth. Last year the market for wearable technology — encompassing everything from hearing aids to wristband pedometers — totaled almost $9 billion. That should climb to $30 billion by 2018, said analyst Shane Walker at IHS Global Insights.

Humans have been wearing technology for centuries, from strapped-on compasses to pocket watches. The current surging industry is centered in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay area, where mostly smaller startups design their products locally and have them manufactured in Asia to take advantage of cheap labor. Monday's conference was one of several focusing exclusively on wearable technology in recent years.

As wearable technologies proliferate, humans will need to adapt, said Georgia Tech professor Thad Starner. He advises Google on its glasses, which are lightweight frames equipped with a hidden camera and tiny display that responds to voice commands. Starner has worn his for several years.

"We're talking about paradigm changing devices," said Starner. "Capabilities that people haven't thought of before."

He said that, unlike computers and tablets that people engage with, wearable computers are designed to be in the background, secondary to the wearer's attention.

"It seems like a paradox, but when you pull the technology closer to your body, there's a seamless interaction, it's more an extension of yourself," he said.

But there are sure to be cultural and social issues. Google Glass — and some emerging competitors — have raised concerns of people who don't want to be surreptitiously videoed or photographed. And what about interacting?

At Monday's conference, attendees slipped on monitors that measured their heart rates and temperatures to reflect whether they really were enjoying a movie, and shot photos through their Google Glasses of Vibease, the world's first wearable vibrator controlled by smartphones, promising long distance intimacy.

"Do you really want a touch screen on the front of your t-shirt? Is it socially acceptable to be poked all over your body for somebody to use your wearable computer?" asked Geneviève Dion, who directs a fashion and technology lab at Drexel University.

The answer, for some, is no.

In a newly released survey from Cornerstone OnDemand, 42 percent of workers said they would not be willing to strap on wearable tech for their jobs, with older and more traditional employees more reluctant than their counterparts. The survey polled 1,029 Americans aged 18 and over in August, and had a 3.1 percent margin of error.

And then there's an issue of bandwidth, said Ritch Blasi, a consultant with SVP-Comunicano who researches the wearable technology market. At this point, there simply isn't enough network service to support universal and constant wireless use, he said. But that too will catch up.

"It almost makes you think everyone is going to turn into a cyborg," he said, referring to a fictional, prosthetic-laden high tech comic book superhero.

And will they?

"When you look at the world and everything people are doing?" said Blasi, pausing for a moment. "I think the answer to that is yes."

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read more...

Bomb kills 19 on government bus in north Pakistan 
RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press

 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb exploded in the back of a bus carrying government employees in northern Pakistan on Friday, killing 19 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but militants battling the government in northwestern Pakistan often target troops, officials and symbols of the state.

Friday's attack took place as the bus was traveling through the outskirts of the city of Peshawar, the provincial capital. It was carrying employees at the end of the work week back to their home city of Charsadda.

The explosion also wounded 46 people, said police officer Arif Khan.

Last year, at least 18 people were killed in the same neighborhood in a similar attack on a bus carrying government employees to Charsadda.

A school teacher Haroon Khan was critically wounded during that attack but recovered — only to die during Friday's blast, the officer said.

Pakistani television showed images of the bus with its tail end completely mangled.

One witness, who was not identified, told Pakistan's Geo Television channel that he was driving his car behind the bus when the blast ripped open the back end. He said people riding on the roof of the bus — a common sight in this country's overcrowded traffic — were thrown to the side.

One of the injured passengers speaking from his hospital bed said he was on his way to his village when the bomb went off.

"I was sitting in the bus, and all of us were chatting when suddenly a powerful blast shook us, and something hit me in the chest," said Mehboob Ali, 42, speaking from a hospital bed.

Militants in northern Pakistan who are trying to overthrow the government and establish a hard-line Islamic state have been waging war in the northwest against the military.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came into office in June with a promise to open negotiations with the militants to end years of conflict.

But the talks seem to have gone nowhere so far, and the militants have continued with attacks such as the one on Friday.

Last Sunday, two suicide bombers attacked a church in Peshawar, killing dozens of Christians. Militants in northwestern Pakistan also killed a Pakistan Army general earlier in September.

Many in Pakistan support talks with the militants whom they see as fellow Muslims unfairly targeted by the military at the behest of the U.S. government. Washington has repeatedly urged the government to deal with militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to the west.

University student Hazrat Bilal, 23, was wounded in Friday's the blast. He urged the government to hold peace talks with the militants.

"If the peace talks fail, then the government must take firm action against these militants," Bilal said.

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

Read more...

Rss Module

The News Gram Online. All rights reserved.

Register

User Registration
or Cancel