South Korea Says Cyberattack That Paralyzed Computers Was Traced To Chinese IP

A man walks past the Cyber Terror Response Center at National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea.

South Korea has traced a cyberattack that paralyzed more than 30,000 computers on Wednesday to a Chinese Internet protocol address, the Korean Communications Commission said Thursday.

Of course, as soon as the attacks happened, suspicion centered on Pyongyang. North Korea, of late, has been increasingly belligerent, threatening a nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea.

This Chinese IP is a curveball, but The New York Times
reports it's still not clear where the attack came from. It explains:

"Many analysts in Seoul suspect that North Korean hackers honed their skills in China and were operating there. At a hacking conference here last year, Michael Sutton, the head of threat research at Zscaler, a security company, said a handful of hackers from China 'were clearly very skilled, knowledgeable and were in touch with their counterparts and familiar with the scene in North Korea.'

Spring May Have Sprung, But Most Gardens Are Still Slumbering

Want it? You can't have it. At least not yet.

For vegetable lovers, the start of spring can be a cruel tease, hinting of a feast of just-picked peas and spinach and beets, but delivering instead tired iceberg and romaine shipped from distant climes.

"It's zero here right now," Terry Nennich reported Wednesday morning, the first official day of spring, from Grand Rapids, Minn. So much for spring. Not only was it well below freezing, but the ground remained blanketed by 2 feet of snow.

Nennich is a veggie guy, a horticulture research director at the North Central Research and Outreach Center of the University of Minnesota, which stands about 120 miles from the Canadian border. Undaunted by the fact that spring still looks a lot like winter, Nennich takes the bringing of vegetable bounty to the northland as a personal and professional challenge.

United Nations Will Investigate Possible Use Of Chemical Weapons In Syria

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The United Nations is launching an investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the announcement during a media briefing on Thursday.

"I have decided to conduct a United Nations investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," Ban said according to Reuters. He said the investigation will focus on "the specific incident brought to my attention by the Syrian government."

The use of chemical weapons is a big deal because the United States has declared that its "red line" in the conflict.

"I have made clear the use of chemical weapons is a game changer," President Obama said during a press conference in Israel yesterday.

With Obama In Ramallah, Palestinians Take To The Streets

Palestinians protest as U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinians Authority President Mahmud Abbas meet in Ramallah on Thursday.
Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images Palestinians protest as U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinians Authority President Mahmud Abbas meet in Ramallah on Thursday.

NPR's Larry Abramson is covering President Obama's visit to the Middle East. He sends this dispatch from the West Bank.

There were a lot of irritated Palestinians in the streets of Ramallah today. But it's hard to pinpoint the cause. Were they mad at President Obama, at Israel? Or were they angry at themselves?

All week long, different groups staged demonstrations against the Obama visit, here in Palestine's defacto capital city, and elsewhere, including Gaza. Mothers of those in Israeli jails demanded the release of their children. Many shouted that all Palestinians should have the "right of return" to land inside Israel. And all shouted at the Palestinian Authority security forces, accusing them of collaborating with Israel. They marched through the streets of Ramallah toward the center of government, challenged the police phalanx verbally and then ran out of gas and went home. Many with long experience in such things groaned that the turnout was just pathetic.

You Be The Judge: Is The Housing Market Really Improving?

A home for sale in Glenview, Ill. Existing-home sales hit the highest level in more than 3 years in February. But not everyone is convinced that the housing sector's momentum has staying power.
Nam Y. Huh/AP A home for sale in Glenview, Ill. Existing-home sales hit the highest level in more than 3 years in February. But not everyone is convinced that the housing sector's momentum has staying power.Nam Y. Huh/AP
This week, optimists had no trouble finding fresh evidence to suggest that the housing market is recovering.
On Thursday, they learned from a Realtors' report that existing home sales hit the highest level in more than 3 years. And earlier this week, a Commerce Department report showed homebuilding permits have been rising at the quickest pace since June 2008.
But not everyone is convinced that the sector's momentum has staying power. Skeptics point to reasons why the housing sector might falter, just as it has several times over the past six years.
If the optimists and pessimists had to face off in front of a judge, these are the exhibits they might enter as evidence:
The Optimists' Case

Europe's Central Bank Issues Cyprus Ultimatum

People line up at an ATM in Nicosia to withdraw cash on Thursday.

The clock is ticking on Cyprus' fiscal cliff.

The European Central Bank has given the Mediterranean country just four days to come up with its own bailout plan, or a eurozone lifeline to its struggling banks will be severed.

The ultimatum comes after Cypriot lawmakers on Tuesday rejected a highly unpopular proposal put forward by the European Central bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund to give the country's banks half of a $13 billion bailout package if they can raise the other half from a steep levy on the country's personal savings accounts.

Since then, the Cyprus government has been struggling to come up with a "Plan B" that will satisfy international lenders. If Cyprus can't do it by Monday, the ECB will pull the plug on Cypriot banks, which would likely precipitate a collapse of the island's financial institutions and send shock waves through European and world markets.

Here We Go Again: Leno, Fallon, And Why The Late-Night Wars Are So Boring

Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon pose in the press room during the Golden Globe Awards in January.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon pose in the press room during the Golden Globe Awards in January.Kevin Winter/Getty Images
When rumblings began in early March that NBC might be preparing in earnest to replace Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon, I felt more like Bill Murray than I ever have.
Not the Bill Murray in Ghostbusters
or the Bill Murray in Meatballs or even the Bill Murray in Stripes. No, this was the Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, who wakes up every morning to "I Got You Babe," over and over. And over.
A couple of disclosures seem appropriate.
As an audience member and a critic, my tastes are strongly pro-Fallon, even substantially more than they were pro-Conan O'Brien when we went through this entire hootenanny three years ago. And they are anti-Leno, and especially anti-"Jaywalking." "Jaywalking" is Leno's man-on-the-street segment that's nothing more or less than a zillionaire entertainer dripping contempt on people who do not own a car collection while his studio audience agreeably hoots at how stupid they are. He does not, of course, quiz his audience to see if they would do any better.

Obama's Speech In Israel: 5 Excerpts You Should Read

President Barack Obama waves after speaking on at the Convention Center in Jerusalem, on Thursday.

Speaking to Israeli students at the Jerusalem Convention Center on Thursday, President Obama delivered a rousing speech of inspiration, one brimming with talk of hope and change that echoed the Obama of 2008. While there were touches of specifics on where the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians should head, for the most part Obama stuck with highlighting fundamental similarities between peoples.

At one point, Obama was heckled by a protester. ("We actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home," Obama joked.) But aside from that, Obama was received by enthusiastic applause, even as he delivered a strong critique of Israel's settlement expansion and its failure to prosecute settlers who attack Palestinians.

We listened to the nearly one-hour speech and pulled out five excerpts worth reading. We've already posted on the news of the day.

On Peace Negotiations:

House OKs Bill To Keep Government Funded Through September

Alex Wong/Getty Images
The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that avoids a federal shutdown and keeps the government open through the end of the 2013 fiscal year, which winds up Sept. 30. The Senate approved the same measure Wednesday, so the bill now goes to the president for his signature.
The New York Times
characterizes the measure, which passed the House on a 318-109 vote, this way:

The funding plan for the rest of the year ... locks in across-the-board spending cuts that will usher in the most austere government outlook in decades.

But that doesn't mean an end to the partisan battles. The Washington Post
reports that Republicans and Democrats are still at odds over the budget, just not the 2013 budget:

NRA Represents Only A Fraction Of Gun Owners

Kentucky farmer James Gash is one of millions of American gun owners who don't belong to the National Rifle Association - the powerful lobbying group. Gash talks with host Michel Martin about why the NRA doesn't speak for him.

'Keep Google Reader Running' Petition Hits 100K; Fans Audition Replacements

Google's announcement this week that it would discontinue its Reader after the end of June has left loyal users angry — and scrambling for replacements.

Google's announcement this week that it will kill its Reader product on July 1 prompted moans of despair from those who rely on the free RSS service to monitor headlines. To illustrate the level of dependency they've come to feel, some are comparing the move to Google abandoning search.

The complaints are still rolling in — as of Friday afternoon, a petition at Change.org had gathered more than 100,000 signatures, protesting the move Google announced on its blog Wednesday. Google says that while the service it began in 2005 "has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined."

That decline has been attributed to people relying on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook both to stay current on headlines, and to stay connected with a community of people they're interested in — two strengths that helped Google Reader's fast initial growth.

Many observers see the move to retire Reader as Google prodding its users to engage more fully with Google+, the social network. Some folks will likely do that — but many people are also looking for new RSS readers, and they're comparing notes about possible contenders.

In the discussions, a consensus of criteria emerged, calling for a simple and reliable RSS reader that serves up headlines, stories and news digests in an efficient design, without advertising. And it should work well in both browsers and smartphones' operating systems.

At the website Replace Reader, which uses tweets to tally votes for Google replacements, the Feedly service was in the lead, with NewsBlur in second place.

Not far behind was The Old Reader, which is reportedly based on an older design of Google Reader. Or you can go in the other direction, visually at least, and try out Netvibes, which has a glossy, customizable look. In a similar vein, there's Flipboard, but the smooth design of that service is only available on smartphones and tablets.

Similarly, Taptu offers a sharp, clean user experience, and it offers versions for Nook and Blackberry users, as well. In the future, another option might come from Digg; the link-sharing community says it's building its own reader service.

Many of the RSS services that might replace Reader are free — up to a point. For instance, NewsBlur allows you to subscribe to receive stories from as many as 64 sites for free; if you want more than that, you'll need an upgraded account, which costs about $2 a month.

If you're wondering how you might export your RSS subscriptions to another reader, Google says you can use its Google Takeout service to download. And in the wake of Google's announcement, almost all of the services listed here are posting special "How to import your subscriptions from Reader" instructions.

If you've tried some of these RSS options, let us know what you thought. And if you have a favorite that we didn't include here (there are many of them out there, no offense intended) — share with your friends.

Angry Birds TV, Coming To A Mobile Screen Near You

A scene from the upcoming animated series based on the popular game Angry Birds. The show will be distributed to existing users of the digital game.

Rovio

People of all ages have been passing the time playing Angry Birds on their mobile devices. Now Rovio, the company that created the best-selling app, is offering fans a new cartoon series based on the game, which has so far been downloaded 1.7 billion times.

The concept behind Angry Birds is extremely simple: There are these colorful cartoon birds that are angry because some green pigs are after their eggs. Players of the digital game use slingshots to catapult the birds — who don't fly — to destroy structures hiding the pigs.

"At its heart, it's just fun to play. Basically its just slingshotting birds," says Kirk Hamilton, the features editor for Gawker Media's gaming website. "Anyone can understand it. Little kids can play it, adults can play it, senior citizens can play it — everyone can play it."

Hamilton says that because Angry Birds is so popular around the world, Rovio — which is offering the game through the app — is smart to target fans directly.

"They've already got this distribution network," Hamilton says. "They have this huge embedded audience who all have a way to just give them money already. So they're just giving them more stuff to spend money on."

The 99-cent app is addictive by design. Fans who master one game level go on to the next. Beginning this weekend, players will be able to watch the new three-minute cartoons for free by pushing a button on the app's latest update.

"If you take a fan's perspective, it makes sense for us to also distribute our content to people who are playing our games," says Andrew Stalbow, executive vice president of Rovio's strategic partnerships.

Three years after the game's launch, there are now Angry Birds plush toys, an Angry Birds theme park in Finland, Angry Birds lunchboxes, T-shirts and more. The company makes most of its money on these things, and also from advertisers on its games and YouTube channel, which has more than a billion views.

Rovio partnered with Lucasfilm to come up with an Angry Birds-Star Wars cartoon and game. There was an Angry Birds tie-in for the 20th Century Fox movie Rio. And Rovio has other deals with National Geographic and even NASA.

The Angry Birds show, like the game that inspired it, focuses on the long-standing battle between a group of colorful birds and the greedy pigs who have stolen their eggs.

Rovio The Angry Birds show, like the game that inspired it, focuses on the long-standing battle between a group of colorful birds and the greedy pigs who have stolen their eggs.

Rovio

A Year's Worth Of 'Amazing Stories To Tell'

Stalbow says the new episodes will be rolled out each week for 52 weeks. He says the animated series has storylines similar to the old Tom and Jerry cartoons, and that Rovio hopes to create a "Looney Tunes of the mobile generation."

"They're very unique birds," Stalbow says of the characters, "each with very special powers, each of which get very upset and aggravated by the very rascal-ish pigs who've stolen their eggs. There's a whole infrastructure to the pigs' world. They live on an island that has amazing stories to tell."

The new Angry Birds series will also be shown on international TV channels in Australia, Korea, Indonesia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Brazil, and through Comcast's Xfinity service in the U.S.

But mostly, Rovio is betting on new media and sidestepping the traditional distribution deals with major Hollywood players. By not working with broadcasters or cable partners, the company will be able to collect more of the revenue generated from its franchise.

Hamilton says Angry Birds has already thrown the video-game industry for a loop by offering tiny free games and getting rich, while multimillion-dollar game companies are in trouble.

"The fact that Rovio changed the game so much for video games, maybe they can do the same for TV distribution," Hamilton says. "Who knows?"

Stalbow notes that normally, entertainment franchises start with a TV show or movie, then make consumer products based on them, and then create a game as an afterthought. In this case, the big entertainment franchise started with a game.

"I'd say it's a business model inspired by somebody like Disney," Stalbow says.

In three years, Angry Birds is set to be a feature-length film. Where will the brand go next? How long will the birds be angry? When will the pigs stop stealing their eggs?

Stalbow says there are generations of bad blood between the birds and the pigs, so there are probably many more stories to tell.

Is All The Talk About Cyberwarfare Just Hype?

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the danger of a devastating cyberattack is the No. 1 threat facing the U.S. He made the assessment Tuesday on Capitol Hill before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats.
Susan Walsh/AP Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the danger of a devastating cyberattack is the No. 1 threat facing the U.S. He made the assessment Tuesday on Capitol Hill before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats.Susan Walsh/AP
U.S. government pronouncements about the danger of a major cyberattack can be confusing. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, and the head of the U.S. military's Cyber Command, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, delivered mixed messages this week while testifying on Capitol Hill.
Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the prospect of a computer attack on the nation's critical infrastructure is now the top security threat facing the country, surpassing terrorism.
"It's hard to overestimate its significance," Clapper said.
In a separate appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Alexander issued a similar warning.
"All our systems today — our power systems, our water systems, our governments, our industry — depend on computers, depend on computerized switches, depend on these networks," Alexander said. "All are at risk. If an adversary were to get in, they could essentially destroy those components."
Asked by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham whether such an intrusion would cause as much or more damage than the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Alexander answered, "That's correct. I think it would."
The Clapper and Alexander testimonies, however, were worded carefully. Clapper, in an assessment representing the views of the entire U.S. intelligence community, characterized the chance of a major cyberattack against U.S. infrastructure in the next two years as "remote."
"The level of technical expertise and operational sophistication required for such an attack will be out of reach for most actors during this time frame," the assessment stated. "Advanced cyber actors — such as Russia and China — are unlikely to launch such a devastating attack against the United States outside of a military conflict or crisis that they believe threatens their vital interests."
Alexander was similarly reassuring in his written testimony.

Maker Of 3-D Printer Guns Now Has Federal Firearms License

This AR-15 rifle's lower receiver (in soft green color) was produced with a 3-D printer. The 3-D printing industry has criticized the use of the technology for gun part making.
Courtesy of Defense Distributed Dev Blog This AR-15 rifle's lower receiver (in soft green color) was produced with a 3-D printer. The 3-D printing industry has criticized the use of the technology for gun part making.Courtesy of Defense Distributed Dev Blog
(get you ffl)
Defense Distributed, an organization best known for advocating open-sourced 3-D printing of guns, says its founder, Cody Wilson, is now a federally licensed gun manufacturer and dealer.
Wilson sent the application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in October. According to Ars Technica, the process, which usually can take as little as 60 days, took about six months for Wilson.

Can 'Smart Gun' Technology Help Prevent Violence?

This 9 mm semi-automatic handgun is configured with transducers in its handle that can detect the grasp of an authorized user.
New Jersey Institute of Technology/AP This 9 mm semi-automatic handgun is configured with transducers in its handle that can detect the grasp of an authorized user.New Jersey Institute of Technology/AP
For years, many have dreamed of so-called smart guns, weapons that know their rightful owner and won't fire in the wrong hands. Think James Bond's gun in Skyfall
.
A few major gun makers experimented with smart guns in the 1990s, but none came to market. Since then, it's been the domain of entrepreneurs and inventors.
Developers And Technologists
Jonathan Mossberg's company developed what he calls the iGun. It fires only if it recognizes a ring on a finger. The ring has a black square made of onyx and contains codes that identify the owner.
"It's totally inert. There's no batteries, nothing. Totally waterproof," Mossberg says.
Robert McNamara's TriggerSmart prototypes use radio frequency ID, the kind of technology stores use to track merchandise.
The gun looks for the RFID tag in a ring, bracelet, or, if this isn't too science fiction for you, it's embedded under your skin.

CEO Of Electronic Arts, World's Third-Largest Gaming Company, Resigns

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, seen here speaking at the E3 Expo in 2010, is stepping down, the company announced Monday.
Michal Czerwonka/Getty Images Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, seen here speaking at the E3 Expo in 2010, is stepping down, the company announced Monday.Michal Czerwonka/Getty Images
Electronic Arts, the world's third-largest video game company, announced Monday that CEO John Riccitiello would be stepping down.
Riccitiello, whose rocky six-year tenure saw a 60 percent drop in EA's stock price, according to the Wall Street Journal,
said in his resignation letter that he leaves feeling that EA "has never been in a better position as a company."
He said his resignation, however, ultimately comes down to accountability for the company's financial situation:

Internet Pioneers Win First-Ever Queen Elizabeth Prize For Engineering

The winners of the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering were announced Monday in London. Five Internet pioneers — Marc Andreessen, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, and Louis Pouzin — will share the honor and the one million pound prize. The new U.K.-based award aims to be a "Nobel Prize" for engineering. Robert Siegel talks to Lord Browne of Madingley about the winners.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
Engineers build the world as we know it. They invent the devices with which we approach the world. And today, five of them were jointly awarded the first Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, Louis Pouzin, Tim Berners-Lee and Marc Andreesen were acknowledged for their work creating the Internet. Vinton Cerf accepted his award via the Internet at today's news conference in London.
VINTON CERF: Since we turned the system on on January 1, 1983, 30 years ago, it has exploded in terms of its applications, not the least because of the work of Tim Berners-Lee and Marc Andreesen and their colleagues. Finally, I have to tell you that this is like waking up from a really exciting dream and discovering the geeks are winning.

Australia's Heron Island: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Coral Reefs?

Heron Island is located on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, about 25 miles off the northeast coast of Australia.
Ted Mead/Getty Images
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 1: Richard gets a hefty dose of bad news.
I've seen the future, and it isn't pretty.
That's a tough sentence to write because the setting for this unhappy discovery is spectacular. Heron Island sits in tropical turquoise waters about 25 miles off the northeast coast of Australia. It's an island on the far southern end of the Great Barrier Reef — one of our planet's most dramatic natural features, akin to the tropical rain forests, only submerged.

Cyprus Proposes Exempting Smaller Deposits From Tax

The government of Cyprus is trying to ease fears over a proposed tax on bank deposits. Newly proposed legislation would exempt savers with smaller accounts. It's part of a bailout plan for that Mediterranean country, negotiated with the E.U. and IMF over the weekend.

Ex-Weapons Inspector In Iraq Hoped 'There Would Not Be A War'

On the tenth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, Renee Montagne talks to Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector, who's mission in Iraq was ended by the invasion. The invasion's aim was to rid Iraq of its stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. But it turns out there were none.

Baghdad, A Decade Later

In this Wednesday, March 13, 2013 photo, traffic drives through Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after the start of the war, bullet holes still pockmark buildings, and towers wrecked by U.S. missiles and tank shells have not fully been rebuilt.
Hadi Mizban/AP In this Wednesday, March 13, 2013 photo, traffic drives through Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after the start of the war, bullet holes still pockmark buildings, and towers wrecked by U.S. missiles and tank shells have not fully been rebuilt.Hadi Mizban/AP
Ten years after the U.S.-led war in Iraq, NPR is looking at where the country stands now. NPR's Kelly McEvers recently visited Baghdad and offered this take on how the Iraqi capital feels today.
I think the single word that would best describe Baghdad these days is traffic. It can take hours just to get from one place to another. And I guess that's both good and bad.

E.U. Tax Proposal On Cypriot Bank Deposits Riles Russia

There has been angry reaction in Russia and Cyprus to the E.U.'s proposal to seize nearly 10 percent of large deposits in Cypriot banks, and roughly 7 percent of smaller deposits. That would force Russian oligarchs and ordinary citizens to bear much of the cost of the bank bailout in Cyprus.

Has The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Been Downgraded?

With President Clinton presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, signed an interim peace accord at the White House in 1993. Twenty years later, President Obama is heading to the region with peace efforts in the deep freeze.
Ron Edmonds /AP With President Clinton presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, signed an interim peace accord at the White House in 1993. Twenty years later, President Obama is heading to the region with peace efforts in the deep freeze.Ron Edmonds /AP
Every American president since Harry Truman has wrestled with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to no avail. Yet they keep trying based on the notion that the Middle East will never be calm until there's peace between these protagonists.
But as President Obama heads to Israel and the West Bank, expectations could hardly be lower. What's more, this long-standing feud, often seen as the Holy Grail of American diplomacy, no longer seems to hold the same urgency, according to many analysts.
The U.S. goal remains a two-state solution that provides security for Israel and a state for the Palestinians. And a new round of fighting could reverberate throughout the Middle East.

Dueling Claims In Syria After Unconfirmed Reports About Chemical Weapons

While state-controlled media in Syria are claiming that opposition forces are responsible for what may have been a chemical weapon attack Tuesday in the city of Aleppo, rebel spokesman Qassim Saadeddine is telling Reuters that the opposition was "not behind this attack."

As often happens when news such as this breaks, it's not possible at this point to confirm just what — if anything — has happened. Syrian state media are claiming that at least 15 people were killed in Aleppo by some sort of rocket. The watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is telling Reuters that as many as 26 people were killed.

American officials have said that President Bashar Assad's regime has prepared chemical weapons for use, and President Obama has warned the Syrian leader that "if you [Assad] make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

We'll watch for developments.

Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. No Evidence The Weapons Have Been Used, White House Says:

The Associated Press reports that "the Obama administration has no evidence to back up a claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons, the White House said Tuesday. A U.S. official went further and said there was no evidence either side had used such weapons Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, disputing a competing claim by rebels that it was regime forces who fired the chemical weapon."

Pope Francis Thrills Crowd Ahead Of Installation

Pope Francis thrilled tens of thousands of people on Tuesday gathered for his installation Mass, taking a long round-about through St. Peter's Square and getting out of his jeep to bless a disabled man — a gesture from a man whose papacy is becoming defined by concern for the disadvantaged.
The blue and white flags from Francis' native Argentina fluttered above the crowd that included princes, sheiks, rabbis and presidents. Civil protection crews closed the main streets leading to the square to traffic and set up barricades for nearly a mile (two kilometers) along the route to try to control the masses and allow official delegations through.
Italian media estimated some 1 million might attend, but the numbers at the start of the Mass appeared to be fewer.
For nearly a half-hour, Francis toured the square in an open-air jeep, waving, shouting "Ciao!" to well-wishers and occasionally kissing babies handed up to him as if he had been doing this for years. At one point, as he neared a group of people in wheelchairs, he signaled for the jeep to stop, hopped off, and went to bless a man held up to the barricade by an aide.
"As an Argentine, he was our cardinal. It's a great joy for us," said Edoardo Fernandez Mendia, from the Argentine Pampas who was in the crowd. Recalling another great moment in Argentine history, when soccer great Diego Maradona scored an improbable goal in the 1986 World Cup, he said: "And for the second time, the Hand of God came to Argentina."