GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran's nuclear and hydropower facilities are well protected from cyber attacks and even the most powerful earthquakes, Iranian environmental protection chief Mohammad-Javad Mohammadizadeh said on Friday.

Iran's only nuclear power reactor at Bushehr was unscathed when a strong earthquake that killed 37 people and injured 850 hit close to the site last month, Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it said.

But that has not stopped fears about safety in a country that sits on major faultlines, especially as Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said that more reactors would be built there, just hours after the earthquake.

Two U.S. think-tanks, the Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists, said before the earthquake struck that warnings over such events had "fallen on deaf ears".

"Most of the energy producing utilities - including all our power plants, being hydropower or even nuclear - they do comply with the minimum of 8, up to about 10, on the Richter scale for resistance to earthquakes," Mohammadizadeh told Reuters.

"The highest known levels of safety and environmental standards have always been observed and incorporated during construction and after the commissioning phase," he said, speaking through an interpreter during an interview at the Iranian diplomatic mission in Geneva.

Mohammadizadeh, also vice president, said Iran was aware of the risks from earthquakes and landslides, which he said applied equally to its hydropower dams.

"Some of the dams we have well over 3 billion cubic meters of water right behind the dam. Imagine what kind of catastrophe a leakage or destruction of the dam could impose," he said.

CYBER PROTECTION

Besides the threat of natural disasters, Mohammadizadeh also said Iran's defenses against cyber attacks were as good as any country's and its facilities were well guarded.

Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz was the first publicly known target of a computer virus used to attack industrial machinery.

The Stuxnet virus, widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered in 2010, although researchers at Symantec Corp have uncovered a version deployed two years earlier.

The West suspects such sites are used by Iran to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says it nuclear program is purely for peaceful means.

"Obviously we have very well managed to protect ourselves from such cyber attacks in not only nuclear facilities and establishments for nuclear power production but also oil and gas and also hydropower as well as the banking network and we have very well protected our system and our information," Mohammadizadeh said.

"We have developed locally the knowledge of counteracting such cyber attacks and we have very well mastered it," he said. "Up to now we have always had success in countering such attacks and we expect to continue to do so."

A senior U.S. Air Force official told reporters in January that Iran responded to the 2010 Stuxnet attack by beefing up its own cyber capabilities, and would be a "force to be reckoned with" in the future.

Indeed, Western analysts say Iran has launched increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks itself in a confrontation with its adversaries, including the United States, Israel and Gulf Arabs, as pressure increases on Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Mohammadizadeh likened cybersecurity to protecting one's health, with a need for preventive and protective steps.

"The issue of protecting against cyber attacks is not in a standstill situation. It will always be on the move and progress further to ensure a safe environment," he said.

(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by Alison Williams)

“Many adults put off treatment for varicose veins, so they miss the opportunity to manage this very common condition before it becomes more serious,” says Robert Feldman, MD, a surgeon at HVAS. “Unfortunately, people often wait to see a doctor until they are bulging, gnarled blue veins that cause throbbing, aching pain and discomfort, or more serious conditions such as skin ulcers, bleeding, and even blood clots.”

HVAS will host the event, beginning at 7:00p.m. at their Middletown location. The evening will consist of informal lectures by Dr. Feldman and HVAS surgeon Elliott Mayefsky, MD, about warning signs of varicose veins as well as simple outpatient procedures HVAS provides. These procedures, such as phlebectomies and ablations (RFA), require little to no recovery time.Facility tours and physicians will be available to answer individual questions.

“With all the available options, no one should needlessly suffer vein distress,” advises Dr. Mayefsky. “Treating varicose veins now means enjoying spring and the long, hazy, lazy days of summer just ahead.”

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So far, scientists have deployed about 25 of these GPS-equipped javelins in , and another four on the , said Hilmar Gudmundsson, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The javelins will automatically record and relay their positions for two to three years, allowing researchers to figure out how quickly the glacier is flowing into the ocean. Preliminary measurements show that the Pine Island Glacier's march to the sea is speeding up, Gudmundsson told OurAmazingPlanet.

Thefaster than any other glacier in Antarctica, and it's important to find out why and exactly how fast, Gudmundsson said. By some estimates, this glacier alone could be responsible for about 5 percent of global , although that is a rough calculation and varies by year, he added.

The javelins are designed to only partially embed into the ice, so that they are still able to communicate with satellites. To that end the devices are equipped with small parachutes and "ice brake" fins to keep them from disappearing beneath the ice sheet when they crash land, Gudmundsson said.

Like many glaciers in polar regions, the Pine Island Glacier's expanse of ice doesn't stop when it reaches the ocean. Instead, the ice flows into the sea, where it floats atop the water, forming a platform of ice called an ice shelf. Measurements have shown that the Antarctic Ocean is warmer than it used to be, and is melting the bottom of this ice shelf. That produces less resistance for the glacier on land, which, as a result, slides toward the ocean faster than before, Gudmundsson said.

And behind the Pine Island Glacier is an even larger section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, one of the largest in the world. The glacier acts like a plug in a leaky dam, and if it collapses, it could have devastating consequences for global sea levels, he added.

The javelins Gudmundsson and his team have deployed allow researchers to measure areas, like this one, that are difficult to access over land. "This opens up new possibilities. We can instrument areas that were previously out of reach," he said. "These data will give us a clear picture of what's going on but will also give us a valuable data set to test our [computer] models."

Email or follow him . Follow us, or . Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted on Tuesday that there will be more than a billion smartphones in use featuring its Android software within the next six to nine months.

Schmidt also noted that Google had no intention of blocking access to a new app from Facebook Inc, saying he was "phenomenally happy" with the app from Google's rival, which replaces the homescreen on Android phones.

The new Facebook Home app was released on Friday and gives the social networking service prominent placement on Android phones.

Removing Facebook Home from Google's app store would be counter to Google's "public statements, our policies, our religion," Schmidt said at a conference in New York on Tuesday organized by the technology blog AllThingsD.

Because the Android software is open source, companies are free to tinker with it and customize it to their needs. Facebook's Home app prominently displays Facebook's newsfeed and messages on the homescreen, stealing the spotlight from Google's own services such as Web search and maps.

The five-year old Android software has been a huge hit for Google, giving the Internet search company a strong footing with consumers who increasingly access the Web from mobile phones rather than from PCs. Android is now the world's No.1 mobile phone software, with more than 750 million mobile devices featuring Android in use across the world.

At the current rate, Schmidt said that Google should cross the 1 billion mark within six to nine months and will be "nearing 2 billion in a year or two."

Schmidt also said the European Union antitrust regulators were not looking at Android issues and he noted that regulators could be done evaluating a proposal to settle an investigation of the company within the year.

"If that proceeds think it will be a pretty good outcome for everybody," Schmidt said.

The European Commission, which began investigating Google's business practices in 2010, said Google may have violated antitrust rules by pushing its own services over those of rivals, copying travel and restaurant reviews from competing sites without permission and restricting advertisers from moving to competing services.

The world's most popular search engine formally submitted a package of concessions to European regulators last week. Neither the Commission nor Google have given details of the proposals. But people familiar with the matter have told Reuters these could include Google labeling its own services to differentiate them from rivals', and also imposing fewer restrictions on advertisers.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Alden Bentley)

The House cleared the way to debate the bill, which was designed to help Americans with pre-existing medical conditions while preventing the administration from using an alternate source of funding to implement its healthcare law.

But the "Helping Sick Americans Now" bill was pulled from the schedule before members could cast their votes, suggesting that Republican leaders did not have enough support from their own members. Democrats called the bill a political ploy by the Republicans.

An aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Republican leaders would bring the bill back up when Congress returns after a week-long recess in May. The legislation is not expected to go anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has threatened to veto it.

"We're going to continue working on the bill. We had positive conversations today and made good progress," the Republican aide said, noting that they had run out of time with some members leaving town.

Before the House debate, several Republican conservatives were openly opposing the bill and questioning why their leaders were even offering up the measure.

They said that House leaders should give first-term Republicans a chance to vote on repealing the entire Obama healthcare law. The Republican-controlled House has voted to repeal or defund the law more than 30 times since it was enacted in 2010.

"The issue I think many of us are having with this particular piece of legislation... you're replacing one big government program with another big government program," said Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho.

In January, at an annual meeting of House Republicans, party members examined how to respond to the November 6, 2012 election results in which they lost seats to Democrats.

Some Republican consultants advised the party to appear less dogmatic over budget issues, such as the need to cut government spending and domestic programs, and become more in tune with voters' day-to-day concerns.

Labrador, speaking on Wednesday at a press conference, said he agreed with House Republican leaders' goal to brush up the party's image with voters.

But he added: "Subsidizing healthcare is not what Republicans should be about. Republicans should be about managing health care" to lower costs for Americans.

The two-term Republican added, "I agree with his (Cantor's) premise that we need to do something about the struggles of ordinary Americans. Subsidizing the struggles of ordinary Americans is not the solution to the questions that we are facing."

The bill would reallocate about $4 billion from a special Prevention and Public Health Fund that the administration has been using to help finance the creation of health insurance exchanges, new state online marketplaces where low-to-middle income families can begin signing up for federally subsidized private insurance on October 1.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

A leading expert told The Associated Press that the last rhino in the southern African nation has been killed. The warden of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park the only place where the horned behemoths lived in Mozambique also says poachers have wiped out the rhinos. Mozambique's conservation director believes a few may remain.

Elephants also could vanish in Mozambique soon, the warden of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, Antonio Abacar, told AP. He said game rangers have been aiding poachers, and 30 of the park's 100 rangers will appear in court soon.

"We caught some of them red-handed while directing poachers to a rhino area," Abacar said.

A game ranger arrested for helping poachers in Mozambique's northern Niassa Game Reserve said on Mozambican Television TVM last week that he was paid 2,500 meticais (about $80) to direct poachers to areas with elephants and rhinos. Game rangers are paid between 2,000 and 3,000 meticais ($64 to $96) a month.

While guilty rangers will lose their jobs, the courts serve as little deterrent to the poachers: killing wildlife and trading in illegal rhino horn and elephant tusks are only misdemeanors in Mozambique.

"Their legal system is far from adequate and an individual found guilty is given a slap on the wrist and then they say 'OK. Give me my horn back,'" said Michael H. Knight, chairman of the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission.

A meeting of the group in February reported there might, possibly, be one white rhino left in Mozambique and no black rhinos at all, Knight said.

According to Abacar: "We have already announced the extinction of the rhino population in Limpopo National Park."

But Bartolomeu Soto, director of Mozambique's transfrontier conservation unit, told the AP, "We believe we still have rhinos, though we don't know how many."

Mozambican news reports have said the last 15 rhinos in the park were slaughtered in the past month, but park officials said those reports were wrong. Soto said the misunderstanding had arisen over Abacar's statement to journalists that he had not seen a rhino in the three months since he was put in charge of the large park.

The only official figure available for rhino deaths is that 17 of their carcasses were found in the park in 2010, Soto said. He said officials believe poaching must be taking place because rhino horn and elephant tusks carried by Asian smugglers are regularly seized at Mozambique's ports, although at least some of the contraband could be from animals killed by Mozambican poachers in neighboring South Africa. This week a person was arrested at the airport of the capital, Maputo, in possession of nine rhino horns, Soto said.

The price of rhino horn has overtaken the price of gold as demand has burgeoned in Asian countries, mainly China and Vietnam, where consumers wrongly believe that the horn made of the same substance as fingernails has powerful healing properties. Chinese traditional medicine prescribes it for everything from typhoid, infant convulsions and fever to an antidote for poison and to relieve arthritis and cure possessions by the devil. Syndicates from Vietnam, China, South Korea and Thailand have been identified as being involved in the trafficking.

Knight said rhinos first vanished from Mozambique around the turn of the last century, in the age of the big white hunters, when the animals also nearly disappeared in South Africa, now home to 90 percent of Africa's estimated 20,000 white rhinos and 4,880 black rhinos.

In 2002, leaders of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe agreed to establish a transfrontier park straddling their borders and covering some 35,000 square kilometers (13,514 square miles) of the best established wildlife areas in southern Africa with South Africa's famed Kruger National Park and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park. It is funded by several international wildlife organizations and the European Union.

Soto said some 5,000 animals of various species were moved from South Africa to Mozambique, including the first 12 rhinos to roam in Mozambique in a century.

In 2006, South Africa removed some 50 kilometers (30 miles) of fence between Kruger and Limpopo National Park. Soto said the entire 200 kilometers (125 miles) of fence was not removed because Mozambique still is working to resettle some 6,000 people living in the park.

A second phase was to include two other Mozambican parks, allowing the transfrontier park to extend over 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) that would make it "the world's largest animal kingdom," according to the South African Peace Parks Foundation.

Those plans now are in danger, as is the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Knight said South African officials are even discussing rebuilding their fence with Mozambique.

South African officials say their country has lost 273 rhinos to poachers so far this year. They say most have been killed by Mozambicans who cross into Kruger Park. Poachers killed 668 rhinos in South Africa last year.

The slaughter continues with the number of deaths increasing even though South Africa has declared war on rhino poachers and for two years has deployed soldiers and police in Kruger, a vast park which is the size of Israel.

Soto said Mozambique's government has been working since 2009 on a comprehensive reform of environmental laws involving consultations with all stakeholders. He said he expects the draft legislation to be presented to parliament soon. It includes criminalizing the shooting of wildlife and would impose mandatory prison sentences on offenders.

But it will come too late to save the last of the rhinos in Mozambique.

___

Associated Press writer Emmanuel Camillo contributed to this report from Maputo, Mozambique.

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - If you're looking for a show where politicians occasionally do some good, you might want to check out Netflix's "House of Cards." At least Kevin Spacey's conniving congressman does the occasional favor as he tries to slash his way to the vice presidency.

On "Veep," Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Selina Meyer already has the job - and it sucks. As the show returns to HBO Sunday for its second season, she's still abusive to her underlings, ravenously ambitious, and desperate for the POTUS to call. But she's also sleep-deprived after traveling the highways and byways of a country she doesn't seem to like, stumping for candidates she hates, trying to help the party she's ambiguous about win midterm elections.

The premiere takes place as those self-serving dreams are dashed, on election night and the harsh morning after. The stench of death is in the air.

"Apparently POTUS' chief of staff is telling everyone to write their will," one character says. Another fantasizes about being cryogenically frozen. Then comes this pronouncement: "Put everything in the wagons and shoot the dogs, because we have lost the House."

Have I mentioned "Veep" is one of the funniest shows on television? It is, because of the deadpan frankness with which it stares into a pit of petty avarice. There's nothing to do but laugh at the prospect of someone like Meyer in a position of such power and responsibility. But you're laughing through your tears, because, well.

Louis-Dreyfus won and Emmy for the role last season, and would be a safe bet for this one, too. Selina was a knife of a character from the first episode because Louis-Dreyfus and creator Armando Iannucci have made no effort to soften her with likability - or even good intentions.

Like so many of our leaders, Selina cared about issues once, probably. But now it's all about power and access. She competes with similarly insecure narcissists.

Most pathetic of all are the supplicants who try to win her favor. These are the characters we relate to the most, because some of them seem to have some idealism, or at least a willingness to pretend Selina's self-centeredness is a means to and end.

In order from most to least ruthless, they are Dan Egan (Reid Scott), Mike McClintock (Matt Walsh), Sue (Sufe Bradshaw), Amy (Anna Chlumsky), and Gary (Tony Hale). Presidential aide Jonah (Timothy C. Simons) is arguably more powerful than any of them, despite looking like a giant kindergartner.

Every one of them is excellent, with similar but uniquely formulated concoctions of fear, jealousy, and resentment that make any interaction potentially disastrous. In the premiere, we're treated to the spectacle of "My Girl" star Chlumsky and the most arrested of the "Arrested Development" clan, Hale, becoming desperate allies. But everyone gets their moment to shine, or at least have a public meltdown. The premiere finds Mike lamenting a foolish purchase as the ever-efficient Sue gets to turn her cold, barely-hidden contempt on the press.

The show manages to add to and improve on the mix with the addition this season of Gary Cole as number-crunching strategist Kent Davidson and Kevin Dunn as breakdown-prone presidential chief of staff Ben Caffrey.

Cole, of "Office Space" and "Brady Bunch" fame, tends to steal whatever he does, and poses the usual threat here as he exhaustedly outwits Selina at every turn.

Caffrey, meanwhile, gets to hide in a closet - his de facto bunker - and wait for the horrors to pass. Fortunately for us, they never do.

The Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 49.4, just below the 50 level that separates growth from contraction but well above a forecast for 48.0 in a Reuters poll of economists.

In March, the index stood at 47.2.

Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, said the sector appeared to have benefited from a catch-up in work after a disruption caused by cold weather earlier in the year.

"The overall survey findings are an early indication that construction will act as less of a drag on UK GDP over the second quarter of 2013," Moore said.

Construction was the biggest drag on Britain's gross domestic product between January and March, lopping 0.2 percentage points off economic growth in the period.

The signs of a slow recovery in construction mirrored a similar reading for the British manufacturing sector on Wednesday.

Residential construction grew in April but commercial and civil engineering activity contracted, Markit said.

Overall demand remained weak, with new business volumes falling for the 11th consecutive month. Although the fall was small, it added to the longest run of declining new business since the steep recession of 2008-09.

Britain's government has taken several measures to help the housing sector and plans to guarantee up to 130 billion pounds in higher-risk mortgages starting in January 2014.

(Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

This coastal strip is also home to a more blue-collar, solidly Democratic population; about one out of five of the districts residents are African-American. Their turnout in the May 7 special congressional election is key to an upset by the Democratic nominee, Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

Inside her campaign office here, having come straight from church in their Sunday best, Dot Brown and Ethel Campbell are planning an afternoon of phone banking and door knocking. Local television stations arent carrying the only debate pitting Colbert Busch against Sanford on Monday night.

Most people we come across tend not to understand the importance of a special election, so you have got to get out and let them know, said Brown, 67 years old, dressed in a marigold suit and bright pink scarf.

Campbell, 62, who immediately kicked off her pumps once she sat down, said she tries to explain to voters that electing another Democrat to Congress will help President Obama. I say, You had his back in 2012. Do you have his back in 2013? "

But Colbert Busch has flaunted her independence from a president unpopular in most of the district, assailing his budget plan for raising taxes, not cutting enough spending and meddling with Social Security. Not only does President Obamas plan fail to put our finances back in order, it would cut benefits for our seniors, which is wrong, . Colbert Busch alsoin his first term. Shes trying to be all things to all people, said Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer.

Interviews with black voters on Sunday found few knew much about the businesswoman and political novice -- beyond the fact that shes the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert. If they vote, disgust with her Republican opponent, former Gov. Mark Sanford, is more likely to be the driving force. The governor resigned in 2009 after admitting he disappeared from public view for several days to visit his girlfriend in Argentina.

We dont need people like him who set a bad example, said 78-year-old Virginia Rosemond, her wide-brimmed, red hat shielding her from a drizzly rain as left the Baum Temple AME Zion Church. Will she vote for Colbert Busch? If I get a ride, she responded.

Fellow churchgoer Charles Logan, 67, said he might vote for Colbert Busch. Im not messing with him, he said of Sanford. He left his wife. He left his office. What makes you think he wont go to Washington and do the same thing?

Colbert Buschs campaign did not respond to e-mails and phone calls about its outreach to African-American voters. Appealing to moderate Republicans and independents is also crucial to her success, so there is a political risk in appearing eager to court black Democrats. When she campaigned at historically black Burke High School in Charleston last week, the event was billed as a rally for women voters.

But the campaigns radio ad linking Sanford to allegations of voter suppression makes her intentions clear. With Isaac Hayes soundtrack from the 1971 movie about a black private detective as backdrop, the ad assails a new South Carolina law that requires voters to show photo identification. A federal court blocked the law from going into effect until after the 2012 election. Somebody doesnt want African Americans to vote, and it doesnt take Shaft to figure out who, a narrator says in the radio spot. Tuesday May 7th is your chance to show them they cant get away with it.

The spot doesnt mention that the ID law was signed after Sanford left office by Gov. Nikki Haley. A spokesman for the Sanford campaign, Joel Sawyer, released a written statement when the ad first aired earlier this month that called it a negative radio ad with some very unfortunate overtones.

Jaime Harrison, vice chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, defended the spot.

Voter ID has been a very hot button issue in the African-American community, said Harrison, who if elected chairman next month would be the first black to lead the party in South Carolina. Many folks who grew up in the civil rights movement have called it modern-day Jim Crow. The ad will help to pique the awareness of African-Americans in that district.

Sanford is not opposed to the law, Sawyer said, but he did not recall the ex-governor ever speaking publicly about it. Sawyer also noted that Sanford appointed a record number of African-Americans to his Cabinet and joined the state Supreme Courts chief justice in 2006 in calling for more diverse appointments to the bench. In 2003, Sanford offered an official apology for the Orangeburg Massacre, the 1968 shootings by South Carolina highway patrol officers that killed three black students protesting a segregated bowling alley.

The uncertainty of black turnout in the May 7 special election comes on the heels ofthat found blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and largely surpassed white turnout for the first time. If black turnout had matched 2004, Romney would have won in 2012.

In one of Colbert Buschs only campaign events aimed at African-Americans, she spoke at a black history celebration in February at Summerville High school. I give her credit for that, said Ava Graham, a 44-year-old child care worker whose daughter sang with her church choir at the event. Colbert Bush spoke about the impact of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy on her life. I hope the black community comes out, Graham said, because the Republicans want this seat and are going to do what they have to do.

Because of its wealth of information, including diet recommendations, the app has earned appsbar’s App of the Day honors. The app is optimized for both iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Launched in 2011, Appsbar opens up the mobile marketing category for small and medium-size businesses, artists and musicians, and individuals who want to create in that space. Appsbar has done this by removing the two largest barriers; cost and programming expertise. Appsbar is doing for mobile apps what companies like Intuit and Blogger have done for novices looking to publish websites and blogs.

To create an app of your own with the free and easy-to-use app maker, go to appsbar.com. To view download other interesting new apps for free, visit appcatch.com.

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