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ORLANDO, Fla.–At BlackBerry Live 2013, the phone maker announced that it would roll out
BB10.1 software to its Z10 handset. The upgrade will also include access to the Skype video chat application.

BlackBerry also handed out the Z10 device to attendees here at the BlackBerry Live show so many folks no doubt will be able to enjoy the fresh infusion of software. Stay tuned as he get hands on with our upgraded Z10.

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Savar, Bangladesh (CNN) — Across from the detritus of Bangladesh’s deadliest industrial disaster, up four flights of narrow stairs and inside the makeshift offices of the recovery operations, stands a dry erase board that marks, in neat black handwriting, each life a nine-story building claimed when it pancaked to the ground last month.

On some days, as rescue workers pulled body after body from the mountain of steel and concrete, the number would spiral past 100.

On Monday, it settled at zero.

And so, after 20 days of non-stop digging, the army-led effort to pull out every last body from the ruins of Rana Plaza in the Dhaka suburb of Savar came to an end.

“We said we wouldn’t stop until there were no more victims, and we didn’t,” said army Capt. Ibrahim Islam. “We are confident we have found them all.”

Bangladeshi talks about surviving factory disaster

Heavy equipment sifts through the rubble of the garment factory building collapse in Dhaka, on Sunday, May 12. More than 1,100 people died when the Rana Plaza, which housed garment factories and shops, collapsed on April 24. Workers continue to find bodies, many of them decomposed and difficult to identify.

A white board at the recovery command center near the disaster is used to track the climbing death toll on Monday, May 13.

A woman cries holds a portrait of a missing relative believed to be trapped in the rubble of the Rana Plaza building on Saturday, May 11.

Bangladeshi garment worker Reshma Begum, a seamstress who survived 16 days trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building, rests in Savar Cantonment Hospital on the outskirts of Dhaka on May 11.

Relatives search through a long line of covered decomposing bodies to try to identify their family members on May 11.

Rescue workers retrieve Reshma from the rubble in Savar, Bangladesh, on Friday, May 10. She got rescue workers’ attention by waving an iron rod. She was found in a pool of water, which allowed her to stay alive.

An injured worker who survived the building collapse is carried by her husband to collect her wages in Savar near Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Wednesday, May 8.

Garment workers who survived the building collapse line up to collect their salaries in Savar on May 8.

Workers continue rescue and recovery operations on Tuesday, May 7, nearly two weeks after the Rana Plaza building’s collapse outside Dhaka.

Rescue workers recover a body from the rubble on May 7.

Relatives place a body in the back of a truck on May 7.

A woman attempts to identify one of the bodies kept in a schoolyard on May 7.

Members of the Bangladeshi army and firefighters carry the body of a garment worker from the scene of the building collapse in Savar, outside Dhaka, on Sunday, May 5.

A woman holds a portrait of her missing relative as she sleeps on Saturday, May 4.

Relatives attempt to identify the bodies of loved ones on May 4.

Rescue workers dig out debris from the Rana Plaza building as Bangladeshi army personnel continue the second phase of a rescue operation using heavy equipment on Friday, May 3.

A woman reacts on May 3 after identifying a body found in the rubble.

A man stands amid the destruction as rescue and army personnel continue recovery operations on May 3.

A woman holds up a picture of a missing person believed to be trapped in the rubble on May 3.

A garment worker rescued from the wreckage of the Rana Plaza building lies in a hospital in Dhaka on Thursday, May 2.

A woman weeps after identifying her daughter’s body in the rubble in Savar on May 2.

Rescue workers move debris as Bangladeshi army personnel continue the second phase of a rescue operation at the site of the collapsed building in Savar on May 2.

A woman mourns before a mass burial in Dhaka on Wednesday, May 1.

Unidentified bodies from the rubble lie on the ground as people gather for a mass burial in Dhaka on May 1.

Workers dig graves during a mass burial of unidentified garment workers on May 1.

Sohel Rana, owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, wears police-issued body armor and a helmet while being escorted to court in Dhaka on Tuesday, April 30. Rana was arrested near the Indian border, and protesters called for him to be hanged.

Bangladeshi troops carry the body of a garment worker out of the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar on April 30.

Clothing with Joe Fresh labels lies in the debris on April 30.

Cranes operated by Bangladeshi army personnel work on Monday, April 29.

Firefighters try to control a blaze that started while they were trying to rescue a woman with heavy equipment on April 29.

Bangladeshi army personnel begin the second phase of the rescue operation using heavy equipment on April 29.

Rescuers look for survivors on Sunday, April 28. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society says the chances of finding anyone alive in the rubble at this date are remote.

A woman mourns on April 28 at the site of the building collapse in Savar.

Rescue workers search for survivors on April 28.

Volunteers sleep before they begin more rescue operations on April 28.

Rescue workers carry a victim’s body recovered from the rubble on April 28.

Clothes lie in the rubble on Saturday, April 27.

An arrested owner of a garment factory is escorted to an appearance at the court in Dhaka on April 27. Four people were arrested and four others are being questioned by police.

Relatives hold photos of missing and dead workers outside the factory April 27.

Two Bangladeshi women look at a board with notices posted of missing and dead workers on April 27.

Bangladeshi relatives and workers load a body onto a truck on April 27.

An excavator operated by the Bangladeshi Army removes debris on April 26.

Volunteers and rescue workers conduct rescue operations on April 26.

Rescue workers use textile as a slide to move bodies out of the rubble on April 26.

Rescue workers look for trapped garment workers on April 26.

Rescue workers stand on the rubble of the collapsed building on April 26.

Rescue workers search the rubble for victims and survivors on April 26.

A rescue worker looks for trapped workers on April 26.

Bangladeshi army personnel recover a survivor from rubble on April 26, 48 hours after the collapse.

Volunteers and rescue workers assist in rescue operations on April 26.

A physician assists a survivor after he was recovered from the rubble on April 26.

Two bodies clutch each other in the rubble on Thursday, April 25.

People rescue garment workers on April 25.

A Bangladeshi woman shows a picture of her missing daughter-in-law she believes is trapped in the collapsed building on April 25.

Bangladeshi firefighters cut a hole through concrete during rescue operations on April 25 in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka.

Volunteers and rescue workers work at the scene on April 25.

A woman appears devastated on April 25 after identifying the body of her husband killed in the building collapse.

Bangladeshi garment workers help evacuate a survivor by using a roll of fabric on April 24.

People rescue garment workers on Wednesday, April 24, after the building caved in, leaving a chaotic mass of broken concrete and twisted metal.

Relatives who lost a brother mourn outside a hospital on April 24.

Rescuers help an injured garment worker to escape from the Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of Dhaka on April 24.

Civilians help an injured garment worker on April 24. Work was proceeding slowly to avoid causing further collapse, an official said.

Rescue workers search for trapped garment workers in the Rana Plaza building on April 24.

An injured Bangladeshi lies on the hospital floor on April 24.

The injured receive treatment at a hospital on April 24.

An injured person rests in a hospital bed on April 24.

People wait anxiously on April 24 while rescuers search for survivors.

Rescuers help an injured person out of the seventh floor on April 24.

Civilians help out in rescue efforts at the collapsed building on April 24.

Hundreds watch the rescue operations on April 24.

People search for garment workers trapped under the debris on April 24.

Rescuers help an injured worker on April 24.

A body is trapped under the damaged building on April 24.

A woman is carried away from the building on April 24.

A rescue worker carries a worker to an ambulance on April 24.

Crowds gather around the collapsed building on April 24.

Rescuers bring out an injured garment worker from the building’s sixth floor.

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Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh

Companies pledge improved factories

Factory survivor ‘out of danger’

Bangladesh survivor remains in hospital

Diplomat: Factory collapse caused change

The tally stands at 1,127 dead and 2,438 rescued alive. But Islam is the first to admit that only God knows exactly how many occupants were inside the building when it came tumbling down April 24.

“We never were able to get a full accounting from the factory owners,” Islam said, referring to the five garment factories housed in the building.

At least 98 people are still missing.

Another 59 bodies are at a morgue, waiting to be identified through DNA tests.

More than 230 bodies are unclaimed, prompting a civics group to bury them in a Dhaka cemetery.

And what of the three severed heads and four unattached limbs that are listed in red ink on the board?

But, in the last several days, the number of bodies had dwindled, Islam said.

And after recovery crews made their last rounds Monday — combing through the flooded basement of the structure and finding no one — they felt comfortable they had done their due diligence.

On Tuesday, the army handed over the site to local authorities to complete the cleanup. Mourners gathered one last time to remember the souls who perished and pray for those still missing.

In the crowd stood Rohima, clutching a picture of her 18-year-old son, Azam Khan.

Rohima, who, like many women in Bangladesh, go by one name, said she’d urged Khan to stay at home that day. But he insisted. They were getting paid, he said.

That’s the last she’s seen of him. She’s been to the morgue, to the hospitals, to the cemetery.

Around her, other mothers wailed and screamed. Some fell to the ground in tears; some fainted.

“We’ve prayed to Allah, begged him, cried to him,” Rohima said. “But he won’t give our children’s bodies back. He won’t.”

Gupta: How could woman survive 16 days in rubble?

The scene

Early Tuesday morning, the yellow excavators that roared night and day, picking up tons of steel, fell silent.

People gathered and gawked at the yawning gap left in the cramped, congested skyline of Savar where the gargantuan plaza — the size of a city block — once stood.

“Aha re,” the people shook their heads and tsked sympathetically. So sad.

“Shoitaner shoitan,” they cursed. The devil’s devil.

Their anger was directed at Sohel Rana, the building owner who dismissed concerns that the cracks on Rana Plaza made the structure unsound.

“This building will stand a hundred years,” he boasted on April 23.

The next morning, it came down.

Rana, who fled after the disaster but was arrested trying to cross into India, is in police custody. He is a man so hated that even the most pacifist of Bangladeshis wish death upon him.

There was a time when fliers bearing his beaming face festooned the walls around Savar. They’ve now either been torn down or defaced.

“Kutta!” someone had scrawled on one.

Kutta, the Bengali word for dog.

Opinion: Stop cashing in on Bangladeshi workers

A cracked system

But, human rights activists say, if fingers are to be pointed, there are plenty of targets and plenty of blame to go around.

And in the next few days and months, Bangladeshis will have to acknowledge the rude reality that it wasn’t just a cracked building; the deaths were as much a result of a cracked system.

The garment industry is a $20 billion-a-year money-generator for Bangladesh. Some 4,500 factories employ 3.6 million workers and account for 77% of the country’s exports.

Deadly accidents and deplorable conditions are all too common, but pay is still a lure for many in this impoverished country, where the minimum wage is the equivalent of $38 a month.

And so, the workers continued to work. And the government continued to turn a blind eye to the disasters.

In the last decade, despite several other deadly accidents, no factory owner has faced charges in court.

Until now.

Changes afoot

The outrage over Savar has reached such a fever pitch that the government not only arrested Rana and the owners of the factories in the building, but it also said it will form a committee to raise the minimum wage of garment workers.

On Monday, the government went a step further. Bangladesh’s Cabinet approved the draft of a law that will force factories to offer life insurance for workers.

Internationally, several clothiers signed on to a plan to help prevent fire and building collapses in Bangladesh. Among the clothiers are HM and Inditex — which owns the Spanish brand Zara — and PVH, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

The five-year plan calls for independent safety inspections and for companies to publicly report the findings. It also requires retailers to help finance fire safety and building improvements in factories with which they work.

Companies who sign on will have to terminate business with any factory that refuses to make necessary safety upgrades.

PVH is the only American company to sign on. A Wal-Mart spokesman said the world’s largest retailer had nothing to announce right now. And Sears said it “assessing” the agreement.

“This is a crucial victory in the fight for companies to take responsibility for the workers who make our clothes,” said Ruth Tanner with the charity War on Want.

“A tragedy like the Rana Plaza disaster cannot happen again.”

But for many garment workers, it was a case of too little, too late.

In Ashuriya, a Dhaka suburb close to Savar, the garment trade group on Monday night shut down 100 factories indefinitely. Workers there had refused to work, citing safety fears.

“For the last 14 days, workers came to work, clocked in, walked out,” said Shahidullah Azim, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

“We decided, ‘No work, no pay.’”

Opinion: The bloodshed behind our cheap clothes

The last survivor

Rana Plaza housed five garment factories, several shops and a bank.

The collapse occurred April 24, a day after cracks appeared in the structure. The bank ordered its employees not to report for work, and the shops were closed because of a strike.

But garment workers were told to come in despite their concerns that the building’s structure was not sound.

The first few days after the collapse, rescue workers were buoyed by hope as many survivors emerged from the rubble.

But then, for days, nothing.

On Friday, their spirits got a boost when Reshma, 19, was pulled out alive after 17 harrowing days.

“I did not have any food to eat. I had four biscuits and some water in 17 days,” she told reporters Monday as she recuperated at a military hospital.

“The people who were with me under the rubble died. I heard people screaming. ‘Save me, save me,’ they screamed. But I couldn’t find them. I tried.”

For 20 days, so did the rescuers above ground.

But come Tuesday morning, they will wipe the deaths off the dry erase board.

It’s time for a clean start.

Bangladesh vs. the U.S.: How much does it cost to make a denim shirt?

CNNMoney’s Emily Jane Fox contributed to this report.

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CD Projekt Red’s REDkit offers fans of The Witcher 2 the tools to create objects, characters, environments and even complete modifications of the game.

CD Projekt Red has announced the opening of the REDkit public beta – allowing fans of The Witcher 2 to create their own games using the engine and a set of powerful tools.

A simplified software development kit (SDK) designed for use by modders, REDkit is both a gift to the community and a clever way for CD Projekt Red to drive sales of its 2011 hit The Witcher 2 even as it works on its successor. Designed to be simple to use, the REDkit software includes methods for users to create non-linear adventures featuring their own characters, custom-made objects and even specially created landscapes – with CD Projekt claiming it’s possible to plant a realistic forest, driven by the SpeedTree foliage system, in just a handful of clicks.

While the SDK itself is free, the REDkit tool requires a PC version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings patched to version 3.3. Those who wish simply to play mods created by others – one of which, Lykaon, is already available thanks to a closed beta process – need only update the game using REDkit Gamers’ Edition, which upgrades the game to version 3.4. Steam users, meanwhile, will find this done automatically if the game is installed from their Steam Library.

While the REDkit Modders’ Edition requires registration with the site, the software itself is free – as is a mesh importer that allows users to bring objects created in 3DS Max 2009 and 3DS Max 2013 into the game. Sadly, it does come at a cost: those with a Steam copy of the game will find all Steam functionality broken when the Modders’ Edition is installed – leaving CD Projekt recommended that Steam gamers wait for the official release of the REDkit Modders’ Edition.

Mods created using the software can be shared through CD Projekt’s official website, which promises to prolong the life of the role-playing title quite considerably – and while the community will have some catching up to do in order to compete with the wealth of mods available for Skyrim, the tools provided by CD Projekt will certainly help them on their way.

The REDkit Beta can be downloaded from the official site now, while the below video from CD Projekt Red demonstrates its capabilities.

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(Credit:
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ORLANDO, Florida — At BlackBerry Live 2013, the phone maker announced that it would roll out BB10.1 software to its Z10 handset. The upgrade will also include access to the Skype video chat application.

BlackBerry also handed out the Z10 device to attendees here at the BlackBerry Live show so many folks no doubt will be able to enjoy the fresh infusion of software. Stay tuned as he get hands on with our upgraded Z10.

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Fierce PC Prodigy GT Review

Manufacturer: Fierce PC
UK Price (as reviewed): £1,134.79 (inc VAT)
US Price as reviewed): N/A

Despite its shortcomings, namely slightly wobbly FiberFlex feet, BitFenix’s Prodigy (check out our review of it here) is proving to be pretty popular choice for those wanting to compact but powerful PC. BitFenix has since released it in a variety of colours too, meaning it’s pretty easy to build and own a distinctive looking PC. The case is also making waves with system builders too and Fierce PC has sent us its Prodigy GT overclocked system to take a look at.

Fierce PC has chosen the white variant of BitFenix’s case – colour is nearly as subjective as the overall shape of the case itself but if you like super-clean looking cases, then a white Prodigy will probably score highly in your books. It’s the first time we’ve seen an alternate colour Prodigy and we have to say we’re pretty impressed with the paint finish.

You have the option of a black or white case and Fierce PC’s website also offers the usual array of options allowing you to tweak your system quite extensively. Our sample retails for £1,135 including a copy of Windows 8 – thankfully you can ‘downgrade’ to Windows 7 and pick and chose pretty much any component, although being a high-end pre-overclocked gaming PC you’ve only got the option of a Core i5-3570K or Core i7-3770K CPU (both overclocked to 4.2GHz). However, you can select from a range of SSDs, power supplies and graphics cards – all the way from an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 2GB to a GeForce GTX 680 2GB.

Our sample sports 8GB of RAM, a Zotac GeForce GTX 670 2GB and the 4.2GHz Core i5-3570K option. This is cooled by Thermaltake’s Water 2.0 Performer all-in-one liquid cooler. This has a single 120mm-fan radiator, which sports two fans and exhausts air from the case, while a single 120mm fan acts as in intake at the front of the Prodigy case.

To make way for the hefty graphics card in such a small case, Fierce PC has done away with the middle 3.5in hard disk caddie. However it still comes with a 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk for bulk storage and a Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA 6Gbps SSD located behind the side panel for the boot drive, to keep things nice and speedy.

Fierce PC has opted for a 650W Fractal Design Integra 80+ Bronze PSU. There’s a DVD Re-writer (upgradeable to blu-ray for £20) but no discrete sound card due to the mini-ITX motherboard only having one PCI-Express slot, which is occupied buy the graphics card. So, using either the motherboard’s onboard sound or a USB sound card will be the way forward.

Finally, the motherboard of choice is Gigabyte’s GA-Z77N-WiFi. It’s a cheaper model than Asus and ASRock’s current Z77 mini-ITX offerings and does have the limitation of no vcore control, meaning overclocking will be fairly limited. Even so, a 4.2GHz overclock is nothing to be sniffed at. The motherboard also sports built-in WiFi, a total of four USB ports (two via on board header and two at the rear) as well as dual Gigabit LAN ports.

Specifications

• CPU Intel Core i5-3570K overclocked to 4.2GHz
• Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WiFi
• RAM 8GB 1,600MHz Kingston HyperX
• Graphics card Zotac GeForce GTX 670 2GB
• Case BitFenix Prodigy
• CPU Cooler Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer
• Storage 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 240GB Kingston HyperX SSD, DVD Rewriter
• Operating system Windows 8 Pro
• Warranty Two years Return To Base

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Microsoft’s touch-centric Modern UI is the company’s focus, but Windows Blue is claimed to bring improvements for keyboard-and-mouse aficionados.

Rumours that Microsoft is – at least partially – back-tracking from its Modern UI with the launch of Windows Blue later this year have come to a head, with sources indicating that Blue will include include both a Start Button and the option to boot the desktop along with additional tweaks to make things easier on keyboard and mouse users.

That Windows 8, and its tablet-centric Windows RT cousin, is based on a touch paradigm is undeniable: its Modern UI, based on the Metro user interface originally developed for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, just begs to be poked with a finger thanks to its blocky tile-based design. It’s also the source of much user dissatisfaction with the next-generation OS: few are complaining about the performance or features of Windows 8, but there are plenty of people queuing up to deride the experience of using Windows 8 on the desktop.

For some, it’s enough to delay an upgrade from Windows 7 – even having purchased Windows 8 at its knock-down time-limited £25 upgrade price; for others, it’s a reason to break out third-party modifications and extensions that seek to bring the Windows 8 experience back to the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer) paradigm that has driven every previous version of Microsoft’s iconic operating system. While Microsoft may have hoped that touch-capable hybrids and all-in-one (AIO) systems would push Windows 8 adoption, relatively high prices – now dropping – mean that most users are still interacting with their Windows systems in the old-fashioned way: with a keyboard and mouse.

Microsoft recently confirmed that Windows Blue, also known as Windows 8.1, would be launched later this year – around August, if rumours are to be believed – but has been quiet on exactly what changes it will bring. Several leaked disc images have provided hints, ranging from a brand-new kernel revision to Modern UI tweaks – and, more importantly, the ability to bypass the divisive Start Screen altogether and boot directly to the desktop.

Now, sources speaking to ZDNet‘s Mary Jo Foley claim that Windows Blue is all about winning back those who have been lost in the transition to the Modern UI. While it won’t be a ground-up redesign, and Modern UI will still be Microsoft’s focus for the future, the sources claim that there will be tweaks made to improve the experience for mouse users: as well as the ability to add back a Start Button – though not, it would appear, a Start Menu, with the Button simply loading the Modern UI Start Screen – and boot straight to the desktop, Windows Blue is claimed to include Start Screen and Charms Menu improvements that make them easier to use with a mouse rather than a finger.

Microsoft, for its part, is refusing to comment on precisely what new features and improvements Windows Blue will bring – but with a preview release expected to launch at the end of June, reasons to avoid upgrading from a prior Windows version could be in short supply pretty soon.

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Editor’s note: Each month, CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout sits down with three China experts to discuss what’s really driving the world power and economic giant. This month’s episode will focus on China’s pollution problem. See here for air times for CNN’s “On China.”

Hong Kong (CNN) — Quick question: Who is the world’s third biggest smartphone maker?

BlackBerry? Guess again. HTC? Nope. It’s Huawei.

Yes, it’s a paltry 5% of the global market, but the Chinese company that made its name selling telecom equipment is making a big push into the already crowded global smartphone market.

I saw that ambition first hand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. Huawei ads were posted all over the airport to greet the throngs of international conference-goers. The company also occupied a huge booth at the venue positioned just across from Samsung.

But just how big does Huawei — the smartphone maker — want to get?

Chinese companies as Trojan horses?

Huawei on the hot seat

Cell phones a front for China spying?

At company headquarters in Shenzhen in southern China, I talked to Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group. He told me his division hopes to boost its mobile business revenue from $7.5 billion to $9 billion this year.

“Last year, we shipped out 32 million smartphones in quantity and this year we hope we will ship out 50 to 60 million smartphones worldwide,” he said. “We are growing.”

The market priority for Huawei’s Consumer Business Group is China, followed by Europe and Japan. But — when it comes to smartphones — it’s not ruling out the U.S. market despite the recent back and forth about Huawei’s commitment there.

In the U.S., the name Huawei is widely regarded with suspicion. Lawmakers are worried that Huawei products can be used as a hidden channel for Chinese spies and cyber hackers — a charge that Huawei has denied.

READ: Congressional report warns of security threat

Despite the trust issues and the fact that many Americans can’t even pronounce the name of the company, Huawei has sold and will continue to sell its phones in America under the Huawei brand.

“Gradually, step by step, more and more people will trust Huawei,” said Yu. “I think with a brand, the most important thing is trust.”

Huawei prides itself on its investment in research and development — 70,000 of its 150,000 employees are in RD — as well as its high-end products like the $500 Ascend P2, which is billed as the “world’s fastest 4G LTE smartphone.”

Yu told me his personal favorite is the Ascend D2, Huawei’s $600 flagship smartphone that is water-resistant — a point famously made by Yu when he posted a photo of himself swimming with the smartphone on his Sina Weibo account.

But Huawei is more widely known for its $100 (Y-300) smartphone — a cut-price device that Josh Ong of The Next Web says is the company’s competitive advantage and branding bane.

“Huawei is going to be able to execute on smartphones at lower costs than some of its international competitors,” he said.

“It doesn’t have the cachet or consumer loyalty that Apple and Samsung do.”

My colleague Dayu Zhang in Beijing offered this on-the-ground Chinese consumer perspective: “To me and my friends, Huawei is more like a brand of low-end, cheap smartphones.

“(Such) Chinese brands are popular among the ‘ant tribe community,’ which refers to young people who come to the city for a better job but got stuck with low-paid jobs and high costs to live in the city. In their eyes, these Chinese smartphones are a lot cheaper than big brands like the iPhone and almost as good.”

Huawei has a reputation for making smartphones that are just good enough. But that’s not good enough for Huawei.

To upgrade its image, the company says it will bypass expensive branding campaigns and splashy ads to focus on innovation to generate viral, word-of-mouth recommendations.

And that will take time.

“Rome was not built in a day,” said Yu. “We have the ambition to be the best — to have the best products and be the best solution provider.”

Would you buy a Huawei smartphone? Perhaps, if that’s what you’re after. They’re “good enough.”

Would you want to buy one? Not yet.

And that’s the question Huawei has its designs on.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/09/business/china-huawei-smartphones-stout/index.html?eref=edition

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Smoke rises from an explosion in a Syrian village near the Israeli border on Tuesday, May 7. Tensions in Syria first flared in March 2011 during the onset of the Arab Spring, eventually escalating into a civil war that still rages. This gallery contains the most compelling images taken since the start of the conflict.

Multiple explosions hit a Syrian village near the Israeli border on May 6.

A photo released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows destruction from what is said was bomb attack in the Al-Hama area of Damascus on Sunday, May 5. According to the Syrian government, Israel launched an attack on a research center in the Damascus suburbs early Sunday.

People run for cover after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s Raqqa province, on May 3.

People walk past a damaged building and multiple destroyed cars at the site of an explosion in Damascus where at least 13 were killed on April 30.

Cleaning takes place following another explosion in an upscale Damascus neightborhood on Monday, April 29. Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived the bombing targeting his motorcade.

A smoke cloud rises from shelling on the the al-Turkman mountains in Syria’s Latakia province on Thursday, April 25.

Searchers use a flashlight as they look for survivors among the rubble created by what activists say was a missile attack from the Syrian regime, in Raqqa province, Syria, on April 25.

A handout photograph from Syria’s national news agency SANA shows damage and debris from a mortar attack in the suburb of Jarmana near Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday, April 24. The attack killed seven and wounded more than 25, according to activists and state media. No group claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, which SANA said hit a municipality office and a school building.

A Kurdish fighter from the “Popular Protection Units” (YPG) takes position inside a building in the majority-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsood area of Aleppo, on Apri. 21.

People walk past destroyed houses in the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Sunday, April 21.

Free Syrian Army fighters take positions prior to an offensive against government forces in the Khan al-Assal area, near Aleppo on Saturday, April 20.

Men inspect damage at a house destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo on April 15.

Syrian and Kurdish rebel fighters walk in the Sheikh Maqsud district of Aleppo on April 14.

A Syrian boy holds an AK-47 assault rifle in the streets of Aleppo on Sunday, April 14.

A female rebel monitors the movement of Syrian government forces in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on April 11.

A rebel runs to avoid sniper fire from Syrian government forces in Aleppo on Thursday, April 11.

Syrian rebels observe the movement of Syrian government forces around Al-Kendi hospital in Aleppo on Wednesday, April 10.

Rescue teams and security forces check out the scene of a deadly car bomb explosion in Damascus on April 8.

The fighting has taken a toll on buildings in Aleppo’s Saladin district, seen here on April 8.

A Syrian rebel runs for cover in Deir ez-Zor on April 2.

A rebel checks for snipers across the street toward the Citadel in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.

A Free Syrian fighter mourns the death of a friend in Aleppo on March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.

A Syrian opposition fighter runs for cover from Syrian army snipers in Aleppo on Wednesday, March 27.

A Syrian girl covers her face to protect herself from fumes as a street covered with uncollected garbage is fumigated in Aleppo on Sunday, March 24.

A Syrian man and his family drive past damaged buildings in Maarat al-Numan, on Wednesday, March 20.

Syrians carry the body of a Syrian army soldier during a funeral ceremony in Idlib province on Tuesday, March 19.

Syrian rebels take position in Aleppo, the largest city in the country, on March 11.

Syrian men search for their relatives amongst the bodies of civilians executed and dumped in the Quweiq River on March 11.

A Free Syrian Army fighter looks back as smoke rises during fighting between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on the outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday, March 2.

Residents read Shaam News newspapers published by the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo on March 2.

A member of the Free Syrian Army reacts to the death of a comrade who was killed in fighting, at Bustan al Qasr cemetery in Aleppo on Friday, March 1.

A rebel fighter throws a home-made grenade at Syrian government forces in Aleppo on February 16.

A member of the Free Syrian Army stands with his weapon as he looks at a rainbow in Aleppo on February 16.

A Syrian woman looks through a bus window in Aleppo on February 14.

Free Syrian Army fighters walk through a dust-filled stairwell in Damascus on February 7.

A Syrian rebel gestures at comrades from inside a broken armored personnel carrier in Al-Yaqubia on February 6.

A rebel fighter throws a hand grenade inside a Syrian Army base in Damascus on February 3.

People stand in the dust of a building destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on February 3.

Free Syrian Army fighters run as they enter a Syrian Army base during heavy fighting in the Arabeen neighborhood of Damascus on February 3.

An unexploded mortar shell fired by the Syrian Army sits lodged in the ground in Damascus on January 25.

Fighters from Fateh al Sham unit of the Free Syrian Army fire on Syrian Army soldiers at a check point in Damascus on January 20.

A Free Syrian Army fighter walks between buildings damaged during Syrian Air Force strikes in Damascus on January 19.

A Syrian rebel fighter tries to locate a government jet fighter in Aleppo on January 18.

Syrian rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Albab on January 16.

A Syrian boy walks near rubbish next to tents at a refugee camp near the northern city of Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border, on January 8.

Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in Aleppo on January 7.

A father reacts after hearing of a shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on January 3.

A patient smokes a cigarette at Dar Al-Ajaza psychiatric hospital in Aleppo on December 18, 2012. The psychiatric ward, housing around 60 patients, has lacked the means to function properly since fighting broke out there in July.

Syrians mourn a fallen rebel fighter at a rebel base in the al-Fardos area of Aleppo on December 8.

Members of Liwa (Brigade) Salahadin, a Kurdish military unit fighting alongside rebel fighters, monitor the area in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.

A member of Liwa Salahadin aims at a regime fighter in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.

Two young boys sit underneath a washline in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near Azaz on December 5.

The bodies of three children, who were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in Aleppo, on December 2, are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital at an undisclosed location of the city.

Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo on December 1 as fighting continues through the night.

Damaged houses in Aleppo are seen after an airstrike on November 29.

A Syrian rebel mourns the death of a comrade in Maraat al-Numan on November 20.

Syrians protesters stand on Assad’s portrait during an anti-regime demonstration in Aleppo on November 16.

A Syrian rebel takes cover during fighting against Syrian government forces in Aleppo on November 15.

Syrian opposition fighter Bazel Araj, 19, sleeps next to his pistol in Aleppo on November 11.

A rebel fighter fires at a Syrian government position in Aleppo on November 6.

A Syrian rebel leaps over debris left in the street while running across a “sniper alley” near the Salahudeen district in Aleppo on November 4.

Rebels hold their position in the midst of a battle on November 3 in Aleppo.

A man cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo on October 31.

A man is treated for wounds after a government jet attacked the Karm al-Aser neighborhood in eastern Aleppo on October 31.

A Syrian rebel interrogates a handcuffed and blindfolded man suspected of being a pro-regime militiaman in Aleppo on October 26.

Smoke rises from a fuel station following a mortar attack as Syrian women walk on a rainy day in the Arqub neighborhood of Aleppo on October 25.

A Syrian rebel fires at an army position in the Karm al-Jabal district of Aleppo on October 22.

A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to a hospital following an attack by regime forces in Aleppo on October 21.

A man lies on the ground after being shot by a sniper for a second time as he waits to be rescued by members of the Al-Baraa Bin Malek Battalion, part of the Free Syria Army’s Al-Fatah brigade, in Aleppo on October 20.

Syrian army soldiers run for cover during clashes with rebel fighters at Karam al-Jabal neighborhood of Aleppo on October 20.

Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet fired missiles at the suburbs of the northern province of Idlib on October 16.

A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on October 11.

A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on October 10.

A rebel fighter is carried by his friends and laid on a gurney to be treated for gunshot wounds sustained during heavy battles with government forces in Aleppo on October 1.

Syrian rebels help a wounded comrade to an Aleppo hospital after he was injured in a Syrian army strike on September 18.

Free Syria Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16.

A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo on September 14.

A woman walks past a destroyed building in Aleppo on September 13.

Free Syrian Army fighters battle during street fighting against Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo on September 8.

A Syrian man wounded by shelling sits on a chair outside a closed shop in Aleppo on September 4.

A woman sits in her wheelchair next to her house, damaged by a Syrian air raid, near Homs on August 26.

Members of the Free Syrian Army clash with Syrian army soliders in Aleppo’s Saif al-Dawla district on August 22.

A man mourns in front of a field hospital on August 21 in Aleppo.

Wounded civilians wait in a field hospital after an air strike on August 21 in Aleppo.

People pray during the funeral of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Amar Ali Amero, on August 21.

A man cries near the graves of his two children killed during a recent Syrian airstrike in Azaz on August 20.

A Syrian woman holds her dead baby as she screams upon seeing her husband’s body being covered following an airstrike by regime forces on the town of Azaz on August 15.

A Syrian rebel runs in a street of Selehattin during an attack on the municipal building on July 23.

Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin on July 23.

Members of the Free Syrian Army’s Mugaweer (commandos) Brigade pay their respects in a cemetery on May 12 in Qusayr.

Syrian rebels take position near Qusayr on May 10.

A Free Syrian Army member takes cover in underground caves in Sarmin on April 9.

Rebels prepare to engage government tanks that advanced into Saraquib on April 9.

Men say prayers during a ceremony in Binnish on April 9.

A young boy plays with a toy gun in Binnish on April 9.

A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his horse in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, a year after the uprising began.

Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14.

A rebel takes position in Al-Qsair on January 27.

A protester in Homs throws a tear gas bomb back towards security forces, on December 27, 2011.

A man stands under a giant Syrian flag outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 24, 2011.

A member of the Free Syrian Army looks out over a valley in the village of Ain al-Baida on December 15, 2011.

Members of the Free Syrian Army stand in an valley near the village of Ain al-Baida, close to the Turkish border, on December 15, 2011.

Displaced Syrian refugees walk through an orchard adjacent to Syria’s northern border with Turkey on June 14, 2011, near Khirbet al-Jouz.

A Syrian man holds up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally to show support for the president in Damascus on April 30, 2011.

Syrians rally to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 30, 2011.

A screen grab from YouTube shows thick smoke rising above as Syrian anti-government protesters demonstrate in Moaret Al-Noman on April 29, 2011.

A screen grab from YouTube shows Syrian anti-government protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces in Damascus on April 29, 2011, during the “Day of Rage” demonstrations called by activists to put pressure on al-Assad.

Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of al-Assad during a rally to show their support for their leader in Damascus on March 29, 2011.

A woman sits by the hospital bed of a man allegedly injured when an armed group seized rooftops in Latakia on March 27, 2011, and opened fire at passers-by, citizens and security forces personnel according to official sources.

Syrian protesters chant slogans in support of al-Assad during a rally in Damascus on March 25, 2011.

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(CNN) — While the world’s attention was focused on Boston and North Korea, the conflict in Syria entered a new phase — one that threatens to embroil its neighbors in a chaotic way and pose complex challenges to the Obama administration.

What began as a protest movement long ago became an uprising that metastasized into a war, a vicious whirlpool dragging a whole region toward it.

Many analysts believe the United States can do little to influence — let alone control — the situation. And it could make things worse. Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics argues against the United States “plunging into the killing fields of Syria … because it would complicate and exacerbate an already dangerous conflict.”

Others contend that if the United States remains on the sidelines, regional actors will fight each other to “inherit” Syria, and hostile states such as Iran and North Korea will take note of American hesitancy. They say inaction has given free rein to more extreme forces.

And in the wake of the strikes against Damascus, apparently by Israeli planes, critics argue that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is now more vulnerable than ever and U.S. intervention could help finish him off.

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Syrian opposition: Russia changed stance

Obama takes aim at Syria, North Korea

A war wary village

Difficulty of proving chemical weapons

Republican Sen. John McCain has revived calls for a no-fly zone. And introducing legislation to arm the Syrian rebels in the U.S. Senate on Monday, Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez said: “There will be no greater strategic setback to Iran than to have the Assad regime collapse, and cause a disruption to the terror pipeline between Tehran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

But more than two years since the revolt against al-Assad began, regional analysts say Syria is in danger of becoming the next Somalia, which collapsed into fiefdoms 20 years ago and has been stalked by anarchy, terrorism and hunger ever since. Except Syria would be worse. Its religious and ethnic fault lines extend across borders in every direction; Somalia’s anarchy was largely self-contained. Somalia never had chemical weapons, nor the missiles and modern armor that make Syria one of the most crowded arsenals in the world.

And unlike Syria, Somalia was never central to a titanic struggle between different branches of Islam: Sunni and Shia.

Kerry announces more aid to Syria

Given that background, here are five reasons Syria’s war suddenly looks more dangerous.

1: Israel and Hezbollah’s proxy war

For two years, Israel has looked on with growing anxiety as brutal repression in Syria has become de facto civil war. Now a high-octane game of regional poker is under way. The Israelis have not admitted carrying out the devastating strikes of last week, but U.S. officials tell CNN they have no doubt Israel was responsible.

Why would Israel suddenly become an active participant? While much has been said about President Barack Obama’s “red line” — that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would make him reassess U.S. involvement — the Israelis have a different threshold: the transfer of advanced missiles to al-Assad’s ally, the Shiite Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Their main worry, U.S. officials say, was the possible transfer of Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles, whose accuracy would pose a new threat to Israel. A consignment of these ballistic missiles had recently arrived at Damascus’ airport. Similarly, the second Israeli strike before dawn Sunday was on a “research facility” near Damascus where weapons destined for Hezbollah were kept.

According to Jane’s Intelligence, Iran’s Defense Ministry reported the test firing of an upgraded Fateh-110 last year, and the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organization claimed it had a range in excess of 180 miles (300 kilometers.)

Israel’s motive was not to degrade the Syrian military. It was about sending al-Assad a message (copied to Iran and Hezbollah): “If you try to raise the regional stakes by passing a new generation of short-range ballistic missiles to Hezbollah, the response will be swift and severe.”

Gerges, author of “Obama and the Middle East,” told CNN that we are seeing “an open-ended war by proxy. … On the one hand you have Israel, regional powers and the Western states; on the other hand you have Iran, Hezbollah and Syria.”

Is Syrian war escalating to wider conflict?

Middle East analyst Juan Cole agrees, writing on his blog: “It is not that the Israelis and Hezbollah are in any direct conflict, but they are gradually both becoming more active in Syria on opposite sides. It is an open question how long this process can continue before the conflict does become direct.”

One miscalculation could provoke a wider escalation.

The stakes for Hezbollah are enormous. For nearly 30 years, it has been sustained by Iranian and Syrian support. If Syria becomes a Sunni-dominated state, Hezbollah’s “rear-base” vanishes, and suddenly it looks more vulnerable to its archenemy Israel, one of whose strategic goals is to counter the growing missile threat from the north.

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Israel bolsters defense near Syria

Military analysts believe Hezbollah has an arsenal of some 50,000 missiles and rockets, supported by a sophisticated, hardened infrastructure that would be even harder to uproot than during its last conflict with Israel in 2006. Little wonder that Israel has deployed two of its Iron Dome missile-defense batteries in its northern cities.

Will the Syrians retaliate for the strikes, which they describe as a declaration of war by Israel? To do so would divert resources from the regime’s battle for survival. Not to do so would convey an image of weakness in the face of the “Zionist enemy.”

Al-Assad has a history of not retaliating against Israel, most notably when the Israelis took out what was purported to be a Syrian nuclear installation in 2007. According to Cliff Kupchan with the Eurasia Group, Israel has calculated that “Bashar al-Assad is incapable of fighting on two fronts, that Iran will keep its powder dry for a possible future conflict over its nuclear program, and that Hezbollah will not attempt significant retribution without approval from its sponsors.”

But one risk to Israel is that in weakening the Assad regime, it may strengthen some of the best organized and most potent rebel factions: jihadist groups such as the al-Nusra Front, which has already declared its affiliation with al Qaeda in Iraq.

2: More than ever, it’s sectarian

In the early days of the Syrian uprising, people who were anti- and pro-regime shared one common dread: that Syria would descend, Bosnia-style, into sectarian horror. Now, in the fight to prevail, that has become a reality.

Moderates have been sidelined, and despite efforts to revitalize the opposition’s political leadership in exile there is still no umbilical cord between the government-in-waiting and the fighters inside Syria.

The Free Syrian Army coexists with a strong Sunni jihadi element, while the regime is mobilizing “irregular” Alawite militia and Hezbollah fighters.

Syria’s (largely Sunni) rebels say hundreds if not thousands of (Shia) Hezbollah fighters are now fighting for the Assad regime. Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, said last week that his party would not stand by and watch the Assad government fall. Regional analysts believe there is a very real risk that along the poorly marked Syrian-Lebanese border, Sunni jihadists will come up against Hezbollah units, setting off a vicious war-within-a-war.

The Syrian opposition sees Iran and Hezbollah everywhere. The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel-Rahman told the newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that “Iranian and Hezbollah officers are running the operations room in the battle for Homs and are controlling the army operations in the city.”

He warned of “massacres against the Sunni community living in the besieged areas if the army captures these areas.”

Such massacres were reported in the past week in the coastal Sunni enclaves in Baniyas and al-Bayda. The State Department said over the weekend that “regime and shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire, then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children.”

3: Al-Assad goes for broke?

After being on the defensive for months, the Syrian regime has recently launched a series of brutal counterattacks against areas controlled by rebel factions, seeking to restore precious lines of communication and reconnect Damascus with other parts of the country. In so doing, it appears Assad has relied even more on the shabiha — loyalists with an existential stake in the regime’s survival.

As veteran Middle East watcher Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has put it: “The Assad regime seems ready to escalate in any way it can to either preserve power or effectively divide the country.”

Among the areas where this counteroffensive has been most intense is Daraya, south of the capital, which has been reduced to ruins on the principle that “if we can’t control it nor shall you.” To the east of Damascus, regime forces have encircled rebels in the Gouta region, relieving the immediate threat to Damascus airport, which is at one end of the critical air bridge between Syria and Iran.

As critical as these areas around Damascus is the town of Qusayr between Homs and the Lebanese border, once home to 50,000 people. Videos uploaded in recent days show the regime pouring artillery fire into the town and conducting airstrikes from above; whole blocks have been demolished. Claims emerged Wednesday from opposition sources of new massacres around the town.

Qusayr sits astride one route to the Syrian coast and another to the Lebanese border. For the rebels, holding Qusayr is important because it’s another way of strangling the regime’s ability to sustain itself, and it complicates Hezbollah’s access to Syria.

The signs are that al-Assad is investing heavily in trying to break the rebels’ hold in key parts of south and central Syria, reversing the gains they had made in a series of hard-won victories last year.

Short of forceful foreign intervention, some military analysts argue for tying al-Assad’s hands behind his back by providing the rebels with more anti-armor and anti-aircraft missiles and a communications infrastructure. More ambitiously, some say the international community should enforce what might be called a “no-move” zone, selectively picking off regime forces from the air or with missiles.

In essence, that’s what NATO’s mission in Libya became. But it would take considerable airpower and the use of facilities across the region to gain control of the Syrian sky. The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said at the end of April: “The U.S. military has the capability to defeat that system (of Syrian air defenses), but it would be a greater challenge, and would take longer and require more resources” than in Libya.

4: Chemical Weapons

For much of last year, Obama’s “red line” seemed a largely hypothetical one. But as al-Assad’s situation grows more desperate and control of chemical weapons stocks more difficult to guarantee, there are indications that some chemical agents have been used in limited quantities in places like Daraya. The questions are: how much, of what and by whom?

The announcement by a senior U.N. official Monday that rebels may have used sarin gas during an operation near Aleppo in March means this red line is even more difficult to discern. The U.N. commission subsequently said it “has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict.”

Establishing “custody” and the systematic use of such weapons is very difficult in the absence of monitors on the ground.

A U.S. State Department official on Monday would say only: “We take any reports of use of chemical weapons very seriously and we are trying to get as many facts as possible to understand what is happening.”

But understanding and countering the threat are miles apart. The Pentagon estimated last year it might take 70,000 troops to secure or destroy Syria’s massive stockpiles — and the situation on the ground has deteriorated since then.

In Cordesman’s view, “Any U.S. forces that tried to deal with the chemical weapons in Syria through ground raids would present the problem of getting them in, having them fight their way to an objective, taking the time to destroy chemical stocks, and then safely leaving.”

5: Players and Puppets: Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan

Syria is surrounded by neighbors with a stake in influencing the outcome of its civil war. Most — and other more distant states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia — are backing their own factions as well as supporting the “government-in-waiting.” Now more than ever they feel the force of that whirlpool.

Iraq’s beleaguered Sunni minority is more and more in confrontation with a Shia-dominated government in Baghdad allied to Iran. The Sunni tribes of Anbar and Ramadi have historical connections with their brethren across the border and would welcome a Sunni-dominated government in Syria as a valuable counterbalance to a hostile government at home.

For more than a year, there have been persistent reports of weapons crossing the border to help the Syrian resistance and evidence of co-operation between Syrian and Iraqi jihadists. Resupply convoys headed through Iraq to the Syrian regime have been ambushed in recent months.

In the view of Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, “Iraq is teetering back towards civil war, with direct implications for the investment climate across the country, and deepening geopolitical conflict between Iran and the Sunni monarchies” of the Gulf.

Turkey is also growing alarmed at the prospect of a more “Balkanized” Syria. It already has 322,000 refugees on its soil, according to latest figures from the UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, with another 100,000 clamoring to cross.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has upped his rhetoric in recent days, criticizing the Israeli strikes but reserving his most passionate denunciation for the Assad regime.

“You, Bashar Assad, will pay for this. You will pay heavily, very heavily for showing courage you can’t show to others, to babies with pacifiers in their mouths,” he told an audience over the weekend.

But Erdogan is struggling to turn indignation into influence. As the International Crisis Group noted in March: Turkey “now has an uncontrollable, fractured, radicalized no-man’s-land on its doorstep.”

The Jordanians know how that feels. They are trying to cope with 450,000 Syrian refugees — equivalent to some 7% of the Jordanian population — growing restless and desperate in makeshift camps. The number in Lebanon has shot up to 455,000, according to the United Nations. In all, the Syrian conflict has generated an extra half million refugees in just two months.

Lebanon — whose sectarian equation mirrors that in Syria — cannot help but be dragged into the war next door. Several Salafist sheikhs in Lebanon have declared jihad against the Syrian regime in response to Hezbollah’s growing involvement. One of them, Sheikh Ahmed Assir, called on Sunnis in the city of Sidon to form brigades to help the resistance in Qusayr. And rocket fire, apparently from the Free Syrian Army, has landed in Shiite areas around the Lebanese town of Hermel.

A land of bad options

Some critics of the Obama administration say there is a moral imperative to intervene in Syria in the face of slaughter (at least 70,000 Syrians have died so far.) In the Washington Post, former Obama adviser Anne Marie Slaughter has recalled the “shameful” failure to confront genocide in Rwanda.

But Cordesman writes: “Syria has become the land of bad options. The Obama administration has reason to hesitate in intervening.”

And Joshua Landis, who runs the blog Syria Comment and is director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, warns that even “a humanitarian intervention will become a nation-building project, as was the case in Iraq.”

With the number of internally displaced now put at 4.25 million people, that would be a huge project.

The dream among diplomats a year ago was that a moderate opposition could be brought together with some regime elements to ease al-Assad from power. As the Syrian war threatens to become a regional one, the United States and Russia are dusting off that option, calling for an international conference within weeks that would be attended by both the government and the opposition.

“The alternative is that Syria heads closer to the abyss, if not over the abyss and into chaos,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/08/world/meast/syria-more-dangerous/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/XsnPl1w1Jgk/why-syrias-war-suddenly-looks-more-dangerous

(CNN) — Thiago Silva knows his history — it’s a good job too given it’s very much weighing on his shoulders.

Brazil’s iconic Maracana Stadium may have been given a $500 million upgrade, but beneath the new shiny exterior, the scars of pain and anguish are still raw for many Brazilians.

But next year Brazil has a chance to exorcize those demons as the South American country hosts the World Cup for the first time since 1950.

Then football’s greatest show ended in tears and failure after a 2-1 defeat against Uruguay in the final match of the tournament crushed any illusion of supremacy and left a proud country nursing a pain which still runs deep to this very day.

Luiz Felipe Scolari first took over Brazil in 2001, turning around their 2002 World Cup qualification campaign and leading them to a record fifth tournament win in Japan and South Korea.

“Big Phil” also enjoyed a degree of success in charge of Portugal. When the Iberians hosted Euro 2004 all appeared to be going to plan as Portugal reached the final. But Scolari and his team were beaten 1-0 by underdogs Greece in the Lisbon final.

Portugal bounced back and reached the last four of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. But Scolari’s team ran into a Zinedine Zidane-inspired France in the semifinals, with “Zizou” scoring the winning penalty.

Chelsea’s oligarch owner Roman Abramovich hired Scolari in 2008. Despite Scolari’s Chelsea starting the season in fine attacking form, he was fired in February 2009 after a run of poor results.

Scolari joined Sao Paulo-based Palmeiras in 2010. With his team struggling, Scolari departed the club in September. Palmeiras were consequently relegated to Brazil’s second tier.

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“Every day there’s something going on in my head,” Brazilian captain Silva, whose hands could grasp the famous old trophy 64 years on should Brazil be victorious, told CNN.

“Even the Brazilian press won’t allow us to forget the World Cup in 1950 in a full Maracana.

“So that idea gets stuck in your head, but that’s good. It’s something we can resolve.

“We expect a lot from ourselves. We talk a lot and our commitment is very big, so I believe we are going to have a lot of success.

“It’s not going to be easy but we are on the right track.”

Read: Brazil unveils shaky answer to the vuvuzela

At the age of 28, Silva has established himself as one of the most accomplished defenders in the world following an outstanding season with Paris Saint-Germain.

All this in the space of five years since arriving in Europe with AC Milan from Fluminese in 2008.

After winning the 2011 league title with Milan and being honored as the top defender in Serie A, he made a $55 million move to PSG the following year along with striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Now, following a series of glowing performances on the domestic front and in the European Champions League, the defender is aiming to peak in time for next year’s global blockbuster.

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Juventus supporters celebrate after Sunday’s 1-0 win over Palermo gave their team a 29th Italian Serie A title.

Arturo Vidal, who scored the winning goal from the penalty spot, holds a placard bearing the number 31 — referring to the two titles Juve lost due to a match-fixing scandal.

Coach Antonio Conte celebrated after leading his team to a second successive scudetto.

The Turin side’s fans invaded the pitch at the Alps stadium after the match to get mementos of Juventus’ success.

Dutch club Ajax clinched a third successive Eredivisie title after beating relegated Willem II in the penultimate match of this season. It was the Amsterdam side’s 32nd overall.

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29th scudetto for Juve

“I see myself as an important player on the pitch and in the tactical scheme of the National team,” said Silva.

“I see myself as a reference for the rest of the group. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but so far (at the moment) I’m the captain of the Brazil team.

“It’s a unique experience in my life, to represent thousands of Brazilians across the world. It’s not for everyone.

“Fortunately things have been going well. We are not 100% aware of our capabilities, but we are very close to what we can achieve.”

Read: Two stadiums miss deadline

One man who could prove intrinsic to Brazil’s success is the precociously talented Neymar — largely considered to be one of world football’s hottest properties.

The Santos striker, who is reportedly being courted by both Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, is expected to spearhead Brazil’s attack.

But Neymar does not come without his critics — one of whom is Brazilian legend Pele, who has accused the youngster of being more interested in his hairdo than his football.

A lack of playing experience in European competition has also cast question marks over Neymar’s ability to compete on the very highest stage.

His anonymous showing in the final of the London Olympics against Mexico in 2012 led to a barrage of criticism and accusations that he is simply not living up to his hype.

But Silva says Neymar will only prove successful when his critics allow him to get on with what he does best — playing football.

“Our biggest star nowadays is Neymar and I think people have to have a little bit more respect with the professional that is Ney,” said Silva.

“He’s a great guy with a very pure and good heart and people sometimes make things up and start talking rubbish where there’s nothing to talk about.

“I would like to ask for people to have a bit more patience with him because he’s our biggest star at the moment.

“If he’s not relaxed and ready to play and doesn’t have support, the team can suffer a lot from it.”

Read: Brazil passes hosting of 2015 Copa America

The man charged with harnessing Neymar’s talent is coach Luis Felipe Scolari — the mastermind behind Brazil’s last march to World Cup glory in 2002.

Scolari, who was reappointed last November, will first target June’s Confederations Cup with success there likely to further boost expectations in Brazil.

The 64-year-old, affectionately known as “Big Phil”, first took on the job in 2001 before guiding Brazil to success in Japan and South Korea the following year.

“He’s a serious guy,” Silva said of the national coach, who has also enjoyed time in charge of Portugal and Chelsea amongst many others.

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“On the other hand, he’s happy as well, very joyful,” added the Brazil captain.

“He has his moments to have fun, but he’s a guy that when it’s time to work, it’s time to work and to be serious about what you are doing.

“What I like about him is his personality. He’s a firm guy in his words, if you are not playing well, you will get benched.

Read: England stuns Scolari

“If you are benched and are training well you will have your opportunity.

“He’s a very open person. If you are playing well you will play, if not, you won’t play, that’s the way football should be.

“I see in him a very positive guy. He’s a person who has won it all and wants to win even more.

“I hope we can have success together since we are getting a strong group for the World Cup and to win titles, which is the most important in football.”

Read: Scolari “obliged” to win World Cup

Scolari’s selection policy will no doubt be heavily scrutinized with question marks still hanging over the likes of Ronaldinho and Kaka.

World Cup winner Ronaldinho, 33, played against England in January 2013 having not featured on the international stage for nearly a year.

Kaka, 31, was once considered the finest player in the world but has seen his career stagnate since moving from Milan to Real Madrid in 2009.

Both men still harbor ambitions of pulling on the famous yellow shirt in front of their home fans — a dream which is still intact according to Silva.

“There’s always room in our team for players who are in good form,” he added.

“I’m sure if they are playing well, they will have other opportunities.

“Brazil’s team is like that, it’s filled with opportunities and players of great quality.

“When you’re talking about Kaka and Ronaldinho — I don’t even have words to describe those two great players that the Brazilian football has.

“You can be sure that if they are playing well in their clubs, I’m sure Scolari will give them another opportunity.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/10/sport/football/football-thiago-silva-psg/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/Ey72Txy_2AE/brazil-star-silvas-world-cup-hopes

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Smoke rises from an explosion in a Syrian village near the Israeli border on Tuesday, May 7. Tensions in Syria first flared in March 2011 during the onset of the Arab Spring, eventually escalating into a civil war that still rages. This gallery contains the most compelling images taken since the start of the conflict.

Multiple explosions hit a Syrian village near the Israeli border on May 6.

A photo released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows destruction from what is said was bomb attack in the Al-Hama area of Damascus on Sunday, May 5. According to the Syrian government, Israel launched an attack on a research center in the Damascus suburbs early Sunday.

People run for cover after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s Raqqa province, on May 3.

People walk past a damaged building and multiple destroyed cars at the site of an explosion in Damascus where at least 13 were killed on April 30.

Cleaning takes place following another explosion in an upscale Damascus neightborhood on Monday, April 29. Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived the bombing targeting his motorcade.

A smoke cloud rises from shelling on the the al-Turkman mountains in Syria’s Latakia province on Thursday, April 25.

Searchers use a flashlight as they look for survivors among the rubble created by what activists say was a missile attack from the Syrian regime, in Raqqa province, Syria, on April 25.

A handout photograph from Syria’s national news agency SANA shows damage and debris from a mortar attack in the suburb of Jarmana near Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday, April 24. The attack killed seven and wounded more than 25, according to activists and state media. No group claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, which SANA said hit a municipality office and a school building.

A Kurdish fighter from the “Popular Protection Units” (YPG) takes position inside a building in the majority-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsood area of Aleppo, on Apri. 21.

People walk past destroyed houses in the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Sunday, April 21.

Free Syrian Army fighters take positions prior to an offensive against government forces in the Khan al-Assal area, near Aleppo on Saturday, April 20.

Men inspect damage at a house destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo on April 15.

Syrian and Kurdish rebel fighters walk in the Sheikh Maqsud district of Aleppo on April 14.

A Syrian boy holds an AK-47 assault rifle in the streets of Aleppo on Sunday, April 14.

A female rebel monitors the movement of Syrian government forces in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on April 11.

A rebel runs to avoid sniper fire from Syrian government forces in Aleppo on Thursday, April 11.

Syrian rebels observe the movement of Syrian government forces around Al-Kendi hospital in Aleppo on Wednesday, April 10.

Rescue teams and security forces check out the scene of a deadly car bomb explosion in Damascus on April 8.

The fighting has taken a toll on buildings in Aleppo’s Saladin district, seen here on April 8.

A Syrian rebel runs for cover in Deir ez-Zor on April 2.

A rebel checks for snipers across the street toward the Citadel in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.

A Free Syrian fighter mourns the death of a friend in Aleppo on March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.

A Syrian opposition fighter runs for cover from Syrian army snipers in Aleppo on Wednesday, March 27.

A Syrian girl covers her face to protect herself from fumes as a street covered with uncollected garbage is fumigated in Aleppo on Sunday, March 24.

A Syrian man and his family drive past damaged buildings in Maarat al-Numan, on Wednesday, March 20.

Syrians carry the body of a Syrian army soldier during a funeral ceremony in Idlib province on Tuesday, March 19.

Syrian rebels take position in Aleppo, the largest city in the country, on March 11.

Syrian men search for their relatives amongst the bodies of civilians executed and dumped in the Quweiq River on March 11.

A Free Syrian Army fighter looks back as smoke rises during fighting between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on the outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday, March 2.

Residents read Shaam News newspapers published by the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo on March 2.

A member of the Free Syrian Army reacts to the death of a comrade who was killed in fighting, at Bustan al Qasr cemetery in Aleppo on Friday, March 1.

A rebel fighter throws a home-made grenade at Syrian government forces in Aleppo on February 16.

A member of the Free Syrian Army stands with his weapon as he looks at a rainbow in Aleppo on February 16.

A Syrian woman looks through a bus window in Aleppo on February 14.

Free Syrian Army fighters walk through a dust-filled stairwell in Damascus on February 7.

A Syrian rebel gestures at comrades from inside a broken armored personnel carrier in Al-Yaqubia on February 6.

A rebel fighter throws a hand grenade inside a Syrian Army base in Damascus on February 3.

People stand in the dust of a building destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on February 3.

Free Syrian Army fighters run as they enter a Syrian Army base during heavy fighting in the Arabeen neighborhood of Damascus on February 3.

An unexploded mortar shell fired by the Syrian Army sits lodged in the ground in Damascus on January 25.

Fighters from Fateh al Sham unit of the Free Syrian Army fire on Syrian Army soldiers at a check point in Damascus on January 20.

A Free Syrian Army fighter walks between buildings damaged during Syrian Air Force strikes in Damascus on January 19.

A Syrian rebel fighter tries to locate a government jet fighter in Aleppo on January 18.

Syrian rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Albab on January 16.

A Syrian boy walks near rubbish next to tents at a refugee camp near the northern city of Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border, on January 8.

Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in Aleppo on January 7.

A father reacts after hearing of a shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on January 3.

A patient smokes a cigarette at Dar Al-Ajaza psychiatric hospital in Aleppo on December 18, 2012. The psychiatric ward, housing around 60 patients, has lacked the means to function properly since fighting broke out there in July.

Syrians mourn a fallen rebel fighter at a rebel base in the al-Fardos area of Aleppo on December 8.

Members of Liwa (Brigade) Salahadin, a Kurdish military unit fighting alongside rebel fighters, monitor the area in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.

A member of Liwa Salahadin aims at a regime fighter in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.

Two young boys sit underneath a washline in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near Azaz on December 5.

The bodies of three children, who were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in Aleppo, on December 2, are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital at an undisclosed location of the city.

Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo on December 1 as fighting continues through the night.

Damaged houses in Aleppo are seen after an airstrike on November 29.

A Syrian rebel mourns the death of a comrade in Maraat al-Numan on November 20.

Syrians protesters stand on Assad’s portrait during an anti-regime demonstration in Aleppo on November 16.

A Syrian rebel takes cover during fighting against Syrian government forces in Aleppo on November 15.

Syrian opposition fighter Bazel Araj, 19, sleeps next to his pistol in Aleppo on November 11.

A rebel fighter fires at a Syrian government position in Aleppo on November 6.

A Syrian rebel leaps over debris left in the street while running across a “sniper alley” near the Salahudeen district in Aleppo on November 4.

Rebels hold their position in the midst of a battle on November 3 in Aleppo.

A man cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo on October 31.

A man is treated for wounds after a government jet attacked the Karm al-Aser neighborhood in eastern Aleppo on October 31.

A Syrian rebel interrogates a handcuffed and blindfolded man suspected of being a pro-regime militiaman in Aleppo on October 26.

Smoke rises from a fuel station following a mortar attack as Syrian women walk on a rainy day in the Arqub neighborhood of Aleppo on October 25.

A Syrian rebel fires at an army position in the Karm al-Jabal district of Aleppo on October 22.

A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to a hospital following an attack by regime forces in Aleppo on October 21.

A man lies on the ground after being shot by a sniper for a second time as he waits to be rescued by members of the Al-Baraa Bin Malek Battalion, part of the Free Syria Army’s Al-Fatah brigade, in Aleppo on October 20.

Syrian army soldiers run for cover during clashes with rebel fighters at Karam al-Jabal neighborhood of Aleppo on October 20.

Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet fired missiles at the suburbs of the northern province of Idlib on October 16.

A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on October 11.

A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on October 10.

A rebel fighter is carried by his friends and laid on a gurney to be treated for gunshot wounds sustained during heavy battles with government forces in Aleppo on October 1.

Syrian rebels help a wounded comrade to an Aleppo hospital after he was injured in a Syrian army strike on September 18.

Free Syria Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16.

A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo on September 14.

A woman walks past a destroyed building in Aleppo on September 13.

Free Syrian Army fighters battle during street fighting against Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo on September 8.

A Syrian man wounded by shelling sits on a chair outside a closed shop in Aleppo on September 4.

A woman sits in her wheelchair next to her house, damaged by a Syrian air raid, near Homs on August 26.

Members of the Free Syrian Army clash with Syrian army soliders in Aleppo’s Saif al-Dawla district on August 22.

A man mourns in front of a field hospital on August 21 in Aleppo.

Wounded civilians wait in a field hospital after an air strike on August 21 in Aleppo.

People pray during the funeral of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Amar Ali Amero, on August 21.

A man cries near the graves of his two children killed during a recent Syrian airstrike in Azaz on August 20.

A Syrian woman holds her dead baby as she screams upon seeing her husband’s body being covered following an airstrike by regime forces on the town of Azaz on August 15.

A Syrian rebel runs in a street of Selehattin during an attack on the municipal building on July 23.

Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin on July 23.

Members of the Free Syrian Army’s Mugaweer (commandos) Brigade pay their respects in a cemetery on May 12 in Qusayr.

Syrian rebels take position near Qusayr on May 10.

A Free Syrian Army member takes cover in underground caves in Sarmin on April 9.

Rebels prepare to engage government tanks that advanced into Saraquib on April 9.

Men say prayers during a ceremony in Binnish on April 9.

A young boy plays with a toy gun in Binnish on April 9.

A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his horse in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, a year after the uprising began.

Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14.

A rebel takes position in Al-Qsair on January 27.

A protester in Homs throws a tear gas bomb back towards security forces, on December 27, 2011.

A man stands under a giant Syrian flag outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 24, 2011.

A member of the Free Syrian Army looks out over a valley in the village of Ain al-Baida on December 15, 2011.

Members of the Free Syrian Army stand in an valley near the village of Ain al-Baida, close to the Turkish border, on December 15, 2011.

Displaced Syrian refugees walk through an orchard adjacent to Syria’s northern border with Turkey on June 14, 2011, near Khirbet al-Jouz.

A Syrian man holds up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally to show support for the president in Damascus on April 30, 2011.

Syrians rally to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 30, 2011.

A screen grab from YouTube shows thick smoke rising above as Syrian anti-government protesters demonstrate in Moaret Al-Noman on April 29, 2011.

A screen grab from YouTube shows Syrian anti-government protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces in Damascus on April 29, 2011, during the “Day of Rage” demonstrations called by activists to put pressure on al-Assad.

Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of al-Assad during a rally to show their support for their leader in Damascus on March 29, 2011.

A woman sits by the hospital bed of a man allegedly injured when an armed group seized rooftops in Latakia on March 27, 2011, and opened fire at passers-by, citizens and security forces personnel according to official sources.

Syrian protesters chant slogans in support of al-Assad during a rally in Damascus on March 25, 2011.

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(CNN) — While the world’s attention was focused on Boston and North Korea, the conflict in Syria entered a new phase — one that threatens to embroil its neighbors in a chaotic way and pose complex challenges to the Obama administration.

What began as a protest movement long ago became an uprising that metastasized into a war, a vicious whirlpool dragging a whole region toward it.

Many analysts believe the United States can do little to influence — let alone control — the situation. And it could make things worse. Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics argues against the United States “plunging into the killing fields of Syria … because it would complicate and exacerbate an already dangerous conflict.”

Others contend that if the United States remains on the sidelines, regional actors will fight each other to “inherit” Syria, and hostile states such as Iran and North Korea will take note of American hesitancy. They say inaction has given free rein to more extreme forces.

And in the wake of the strikes against Damascus, apparently by Israeli planes, critics argue that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is now more vulnerable than ever and U.S. intervention could help finish him off.

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A war wary village

Difficulty of proving chemical weapons

Republican Sen. John McCain has revived calls for a no-fly zone. And introducing legislation to arm the Syrian rebels in the U.S. Senate on Monday, Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez said: “There will be no greater strategic setback to Iran than to have the Assad regime collapse, and cause a disruption to the terror pipeline between Tehran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

But more than two years since the revolt against al-Assad began, regional analysts say Syria is in danger of becoming the next Somalia, which collapsed into fiefdoms 20 years ago and has been stalked by anarchy, terrorism and hunger ever since. Except Syria would be worse. Its religious and ethnic fault lines extend across borders in every direction; Somalia’s anarchy was largely self-contained. Somalia never had chemical weapons, nor the missiles and modern armor that make Syria one of the most crowded arsenals in the world.

And unlike Syria, Somalia was never central to a titanic struggle between different branches of Islam: Sunni and Shia.

Kerry announces more aid to Syria

Given that background, here are five reasons Syria’s war suddenly looks more dangerous.

1: Israel and Hezbollah’s proxy war

For two years, Israel has looked on with growing anxiety as brutal repression in Syria has become de facto civil war. Now a high-octane game of regional poker is under way. The Israelis have not admitted carrying out the devastating strikes of last week, but U.S. officials tell CNN they have no doubt Israel was responsible.

Why would Israel suddenly become an active participant? While much has been said about President Barack Obama’s “red line” — that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would make him reassess U.S. involvement — the Israelis have a different threshold: the transfer of advanced missiles to al-Assad’s ally, the Shiite Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Their main worry, U.S. officials say, was the possible transfer of Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles, whose accuracy would pose a new threat to Israel. A consignment of these ballistic missiles had recently arrived at Damascus’ airport. Similarly, the second Israeli strike before dawn Sunday was on a “research facility” near Damascus where weapons destined for Hezbollah were kept.

According to Jane’s Intelligence, Iran’s Defense Ministry reported the test firing of an upgraded Fateh-110 last year, and the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organization claimed it had a range in excess of 180 miles (300 kilometers.)

Israel’s motive was not to degrade the Syrian military. It was about sending al-Assad a message (copied to Iran and Hezbollah): “If you try to raise the regional stakes by passing a new generation of short-range ballistic missiles to Hezbollah, the response will be swift and severe.”

Gerges, author of “Obama and the Middle East,” told CNN that we are seeing “an open-ended war by proxy. … On the one hand you have Israel, regional powers and the Western states; on the other hand you have Iran, Hezbollah and Syria.”

Is Syrian war escalating to wider conflict?

Middle East analyst Juan Cole agrees, writing on his blog: “It is not that the Israelis and Hezbollah are in any direct conflict, but they are gradually both becoming more active in Syria on opposite sides. It is an open question how long this process can continue before the conflict does become direct.”

One miscalculation could provoke a wider escalation.

The stakes for Hezbollah are enormous. For nearly 30 years, it has been sustained by Iranian and Syrian support. If Syria becomes a Sunni-dominated state, Hezbollah’s “rear-base” vanishes, and suddenly it looks more vulnerable to its archenemy Israel, one of whose strategic goals is to counter the growing missile threat from the north.

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Israel bolsters defense near Syria

Military analysts believe Hezbollah has an arsenal of some 50,000 missiles and rockets, supported by a sophisticated, hardened infrastructure that would be even harder to uproot than during its last conflict with Israel in 2006. Little wonder that Israel has deployed two of its Iron Dome missile-defense batteries in its northern cities.

Will the Syrians retaliate for the strikes, which they describe as a declaration of war by Israel? To do so would divert resources from the regime’s battle for survival. Not to do so would convey an image of weakness in the face of the “Zionist enemy.”

Al-Assad has a history of not retaliating against Israel, most notably when the Israelis took out what was purported to be a Syrian nuclear installation in 2007. According to Cliff Kupchan with the Eurasia Group, Israel has calculated that “Bashar al-Assad is incapable of fighting on two fronts, that Iran will keep its powder dry for a possible future conflict over its nuclear program, and that Hezbollah will not attempt significant retribution without approval from its sponsors.”

But one risk to Israel is that in weakening the Assad regime, it may strengthen some of the best organized and most potent rebel factions: jihadist groups such as the al-Nusra Front, which has already declared its affiliation with al Qaeda in Iraq.

2: More than ever, it’s sectarian

In the early days of the Syrian uprising, people who were anti- and pro-regime shared one common dread: that Syria would descend, Bosnia-style, into sectarian horror. Now, in the fight to prevail, that has become a reality.

Moderates have been sidelined, and despite efforts to revitalize the opposition’s political leadership in exile there is still no umbilical cord between the government-in-waiting and the fighters inside Syria.

The Free Syrian Army coexists with a strong Sunni jihadi element, while the regime is mobilizing “irregular” Alawite militia and Hezbollah fighters.

Syria’s (largely Sunni) rebels say hundreds if not thousands of (Shia) Hezbollah fighters are now fighting for the Assad regime. Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, said last week that his party would not stand by and watch the Assad government fall. Regional analysts believe there is a very real risk that along the poorly marked Syrian-Lebanese border, Sunni jihadists will come up against Hezbollah units, setting off a vicious war-within-a-war.

The Syrian opposition sees Iran and Hezbollah everywhere. The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel-Rahman told the newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that “Iranian and Hezbollah officers are running the operations room in the battle for Homs and are controlling the army operations in the city.”

He warned of “massacres against the Sunni community living in the besieged areas if the army captures these areas.”

Such massacres were reported in the past week in the coastal Sunni enclaves in Baniyas and al-Bayda. The State Department said over the weekend that “regime and shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire, then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children.”

3: Al-Assad goes for broke?

After being on the defensive for months, the Syrian regime has recently launched a series of brutal counterattacks against areas controlled by rebel factions, seeking to restore precious lines of communication and reconnect Damascus with other parts of the country. In so doing, it appears Assad has relied even more on the shabiha — loyalists with an existential stake in the regime’s survival.

As veteran Middle East watcher Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has put it: “The Assad regime seems ready to escalate in any way it can to either preserve power or effectively divide the country.”

Among the areas where this counteroffensive has been most intense is Daraya, south of the capital, which has been reduced to ruins on the principle that “if we can’t control it nor shall you.” To the east of Damascus, regime forces have encircled rebels in the Gouta region, relieving the immediate threat to Damascus airport, which is at one end of the critical air bridge between Syria and Iran.

As critical as these areas around Damascus is the town of Qusayr between Homs and the Lebanese border, once home to 50,000 people. Videos uploaded in recent days show the regime pouring artillery fire into the town and conducting airstrikes from above; whole blocks have been demolished. Claims emerged Wednesday from opposition sources of new massacres around the town.

Qusayr sits astride one route to the Syrian coast and another to the Lebanese border. For the rebels, holding Qusayr is important because it’s another way of strangling the regime’s ability to sustain itself, and it complicates Hezbollah’s access to Syria.

The signs are that al-Assad is investing heavily in trying to break the rebels’ hold in key parts of south and central Syria, reversing the gains they had made in a series of hard-won victories last year.

Short of forceful foreign intervention, some military analysts argue for tying al-Assad’s hands behind his back by providing the rebels with more anti-armor and anti-aircraft missiles and a communications infrastructure. More ambitiously, some say the international community should enforce what might be called a “no-move” zone, selectively picking off regime forces from the air or with missiles.

In essence, that’s what NATO’s mission in Libya became. But it would take considerable airpower and the use of facilities across the region to gain control of the Syrian sky. The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said at the end of April: “The U.S. military has the capability to defeat that system (of Syrian air defenses), but it would be a greater challenge, and would take longer and require more resources” than in Libya.

4: Chemical Weapons

For much of last year, Obama’s “red line” seemed a largely hypothetical one. But as al-Assad’s situation grows more desperate and control of chemical weapons stocks more difficult to guarantee, there are indications that some chemical agents have been used in limited quantities in places like Daraya. The questions are: how much, of what and by whom?

The announcement by a senior U.N. official Monday that rebels may have used sarin gas during an operation near Aleppo in March means this red line is even more difficult to discern. The U.N. commission subsequently said it “has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict.”

Establishing “custody” and the systematic use of such weapons is very difficult in the absence of monitors on the ground.

A U.S. State Department official on Monday would say only: “We take any reports of use of chemical weapons very seriously and we are trying to get as many facts as possible to understand what is happening.”

But understanding and countering the threat are miles apart. The Pentagon estimated last year it might take 70,000 troops to secure or destroy Syria’s massive stockpiles — and the situation on the ground has deteriorated since then.

In Cordesman’s view, “Any U.S. forces that tried to deal with the chemical weapons in Syria through ground raids would present the problem of getting them in, having them fight their way to an objective, taking the time to destroy chemical stocks, and then safely leaving.”

5: Players and Puppets: Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan

Syria is surrounded by neighbors with a stake in influencing the outcome of its civil war. Most — and other more distant states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia — are backing their own factions as well as supporting the “government-in-waiting.” Now more than ever they feel the force of that whirlpool.

Iraq’s beleaguered Sunni minority is more and more in confrontation with a Shia-dominated government in Baghdad allied to Iran. The Sunni tribes of Anbar and Ramadi have historical connections with their brethren across the border and would welcome a Sunni-dominated government in Syria as a valuable counterbalance to a hostile government at home.

For more than a year, there have been persistent reports of weapons crossing the border to help the Syrian resistance and evidence of co-operation between Syrian and Iraqi jihadists. Resupply convoys headed through Iraq to the Syrian regime have been ambushed in recent months.

In the view of Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, “Iraq is teetering back towards civil war, with direct implications for the investment climate across the country, and deepening geopolitical conflict between Iran and the Sunni monarchies” of the Gulf.

Turkey is also growing alarmed at the prospect of a more “Balkanized” Syria. It already has 322,000 refugees on its soil, according to latest figures from the UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, with another 100,000 clamoring to cross.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has upped his rhetoric in recent days, criticizing the Israeli strikes but reserving his most passionate denunciation for the Assad regime.

“You, Bashar Assad, will pay for this. You will pay heavily, very heavily for showing courage you can’t show to others, to babies with pacifiers in their mouths,” he told an audience over the weekend.

But Erdogan is struggling to turn indignation into influence. As the International Crisis Group noted in March: Turkey “now has an uncontrollable, fractured, radicalized no-man’s-land on its doorstep.”

The Jordanians know how that feels. They are trying to cope with 450,000 Syrian refugees — equivalent to some 7% of the Jordanian population — growing restless and desperate in makeshift camps. The number in Lebanon has shot up to 455,000, according to the United Nations. In all, the Syrian conflict has generated an extra half million refugees in just two months.

Lebanon — whose sectarian equation mirrors that in Syria — cannot help but be dragged into the war next door. Several Salafist sheikhs in Lebanon have declared jihad against the Syrian regime in response to Hezbollah’s growing involvement. One of them, Sheikh Ahmed Assir, called on Sunnis in the city of Sidon to form brigades to help the resistance in Qusayr. And rocket fire, apparently from the Free Syrian Army, has landed in Shiite areas around the Lebanese town of Hermel.

A land of bad options

Some critics of the Obama administration say there is a moral imperative to intervene in Syria in the face of slaughter (at least 70,000 Syrians have died so far.) In the Washington Post, former Obama adviser Anne Marie Slaughter has recalled the “shameful” failure to confront genocide in Rwanda.

But Cordesman writes: “Syria has become the land of bad options. The Obama administration has reason to hesitate in intervening.”

And Joshua Landis, who runs the blog Syria Comment and is director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, warns that even “a humanitarian intervention will become a nation-building project, as was the case in Iraq.”

With the number of internally displaced now put at 4.25 million people, that would be a huge project.

The dream among diplomats a year ago was that a moderate opposition could be brought together with some regime elements to ease al-Assad from power. As the Syrian war threatens to become a regional one, the United States and Russia are dusting off that option, calling for an international conference within weeks that would be attended by both the government and the opposition.

“The alternative is that Syria heads closer to the abyss, if not over the abyss and into chaos,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

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