High Planetary Tilt Lowers Odds for Life?

by Adam Hadhazy for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffet Field CA (NASA)
Feb 08, 2012

If you think summer is too hot or winter unbearably cold, take solace that in the distant past seasons on our planet might have been much harsher. However, the advent of milder seasons did more than offer comfort, some scientists suggest.

Subdued seasonality might be linked to the emergence of complex life on Earth around 600 million years ago. On alien worlds, extreme seasonal spikes and plunges in temperature could likewise determine whether life teems, scrapes by, or dies.

Seasons arise when the axis of a planet's spin is tilted relative to the plane of the planet's orbit. Recent research has suggested that a loss of axial tilt and its attendant seasonality, which helps moderate global temperatures, could doom extraterrestrial creatures. Scientists are also considering the opposite case: worlds where blazing summers and devastatingly frigid winters make the development of life with any complexity a long shot.

"Axial tilt, or obliquity, is a crucial parameter for climate and the possible habitability of a planet," said Rene Heller, a postdoctoral research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, Germany. Heller was the lead author on two papers last year on obliquity loss due to tidal interactions on habitable planets around red dwarf stars.

Seasonally maladjusted
Many phenomena influence obliquity over a planet's history. Major examples include the impacts of large cosmic bodies, as well as the gravitational pulls from companion planets and central stars. Over the course of a year on a tilted planet, varying amounts of warming sunlight strike the northern and southern hemispheres.

The Earth presently has an obliquity of about 23.5 degrees. Along with daily rotations, this moderate obliquity ensures that the temperature differences between the coldest polar and hottest desert regions are not too extreme.

Unlike our planet, another world with a low axial tilt of no more than a few degrees would not experience much seasonality. The colder poles would lead to a narrower habitable region, and if coupled with a too-hot equator could render the world a difficult place for complex life. It is an even grimmer picture for high-obliquity planets in a planetary system's "Goldilocks" zone, the orbital band where water can stay in liquid form on a world's surface.

Take the case of an Earth-like planet with an obliquity close to that of Uranus, about 90 degrees. The north pole would point at the central star for a quarter of the year and then directly away for another quarter.

"Your northern pole will be boiled during part of the year while the equator gets little sunlight," said Heller. Meanwhile, "the southern pole freezes in total darkness." Essentially, the conventional notion of a scorching hell dominates one side of the planet, while an ultra-cold hell like that of Dante's Ninth Circle prevails on the other.

Then, to make matters worse, the hells reverse half a year later. "The hemispheres are cyclically sterilized, either by too strong irradiation or by freezing," Heller said.

Some like it hot . . . or cold
Life - always resilient - could still find ways to persist on planets that spin on their "sides," Uranus-style. Maybe migrating critters could follow a survivable, fast-shifting climatic zone while others find refuge at the equator. Hardy organisms might just ride out the temperature extremes. Examples of these rugged creatures right here on Earth, mostly bacteria, are known naturally enough as "extremophiles."

A class of these organisms, called thermophiles, thrives in hot springs and in the lightless oceanic depths around hydrothermal vents. The species Methanopyrus kandleri can reproduce in high-pressure waters hotter than 250 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other end, psychrophiles grow in ice-covered cavities of briny seawater down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

When conditions get too hot or cold, sporulating bacteria go into stasis, encasing themselves in tough structures called endospores. The microorganisms can lie dormant in ice for millions of years and upon thawing go right back to replicating.

Earth becomes more Earth-like
For more than the simplest biota, such feats of durability would surely pose a lot of challenges on exoplanets with higher obliquity than Earth's, though far less than that of Uranus.

"Perhaps an obliquity of just 40 degrees would be tough for complex animals due to the very hot summers and cold winters that would affect much of the globe," noted George Williams, a geologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Climatic conditions of this very sort might have held back the evolution of big and diverse creatures on our planet, Williams suggests. Prior to about 580 million years ago, scientists think most of earthly life consisted of microscopic algae and bacteria. Complex animals such as jellyfish and worms arrived on the scene thereafter.

Then, starting about 540 million years ago, in what is known as the Cambrian explosion, life went nuts. All sorts of intricate body types sporting spines, shells, eyes, legs and more suddenly show up in the fossil record.

Could Earth have once possessed a high obliquity? Computer models say yes. The cataclysmic impact with a Mars-sized body 4.5 billion years ago, thought to have created the Moon, could have knocked Earth's spin axis well off-kilter from the plane of the planet's orbit. Intriguingly, some geological evidence is consistent with Earth having a high obliquity for much of its history, up until about 600 million years ago.

Glaciers provide crucial information in this regard. As shown by numerous geophysicists headed by Phil Schmidt at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, glaciers used to form preferentially in formerly low latitudes. (Somewhat counterintuitively, an obliquity exceeding 54 degrees renders the equator cooler than the poles, on average.)

Magnetic directions fixed in glacial deposits have revealed this ancient icy activity. Associated sand-wedge structures, like those that occur in modern-day polar regions, suggest big seasonal temperature fluctuations as well. From winter to summer near the former equator, temperatures varied in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. If that were to occur today, blizzards could dump snow on the Amazon rainforest.

Geological markers of high obliquity peter out around the so-called Precambrian-Phanerozoic boundary. After this time, significant glaciations occurred in just the high latitudes, and life took off.

"There seems to have been a dramatic improvement in the habitability of the Earth at around the Precambrian-Phanerozoic boundary," Williams said. "I have suggested that reduction of obliquity was the main cause of this major change in habitability." Models of the Earth's climate with a high obliquity by atmospheric physicist Gregory Jenkins at Howard University buttress this idea.

Of course, many other explanations have been offered for the Cambrian explosion, though each has its drawbacks. Ideas include a greater concentration of atmospheric oxygen or calcium or phosphorus in seawater, or even the evolution of eyes jumpstarting biodiversity.

Williams' hypothesis has its own big gap: a mechanism that could have clipped the planet's tilt by about 30 degrees in 100 million years prior to the Earth's oldest confirmed circumpolar glaciation. Research into the history of tectonic processes within the Earth and gravitational interaction with the Moon may illuminate the matter.

A "Goldilocks" obliquity?
At this point in exoplanetary research, very little is known about the characteristics of most alien worlds beyond their size, mass and orbital period. Discerning axial tilts and the effect they have on planetary habitability will be an important aspect of the search for alien life in the decades ahead.

It could turn out that Earth's obliquity of 23.5 degrees, like its orbital distance from the Sun, is a "Goldilocks" figure for seasonality - not too extreme in either direction - and therefore ideal for complex life.

"Obliquities of bodies in the Solar System have been studied extensively," said Heller. "But with exoplanets we are entering new territory."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/High_Planetary_Tilt_Lowers_Odds_for_Life_999.html.

Mars Express radar gives strong evidence for former Mars ocean

Paris, France (ESA)
Feb 08, 2012

ESA's Mars Express has returned strong evidence for an ocean once covering part of Mars. Using radar, it has detected sediments reminiscent of an ocean floor within the boundaries of previously identified, ancient shorelines on Mars.

The MARSIS radar was deployed in 2005 and has been collecting data ever since. Jeremie Mouginot, Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) and the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues have analyzed more than two years of data and found that the northern plains are covered in low-density material.

"We interpret these as sedimentary deposits, maybe ice-rich," says Dr Mouginot. "It is a strong new indication that there was once an ocean here."

The existence of oceans on ancient Mars has been suspected before and features reminiscent of shorelines have been tentatively identified in images from various spacecraft. But it remains a controversial issue.

Two oceans have been proposed: 4 billion years ago, when warmer conditions prevailed, and also 3 billion years ago when subsurface ice melted following a large impact, creating outflow channels that drained the water into areas of low elevation.

"MARSIS penetrates deep into the ground, revealing the first 60-80 meters of the planet's subsurface," says Wlodek Kofman, leader of the radar team at IPAG.

"Throughout all of this depth, we see the evidence for sedimentary material and ice."

The sediments revealed by MARSIS are areas of low radar reflectivity. Such sediments are typically low-density granular materials that have been eroded away by water and carried to their final destination.

This later ocean would however have been temporary. Within a million years or less, Dr Mouginot estimates, the water would have either frozen back in place and been preserved underground again, or turned into vapor and lifted gradually into the atmosphere.

"I don't think it could have stayed as an ocean long enough for life to form."

In order to find evidence of life, astrobiologists will have to look even further back in Mars' history when liquid water existed for much longer periods.

Nevertheless, this work provides some of the best evidence yet that there were once large bodies of liquid water on Mars and is further proof of the role of liquid water in the martian geological history.

"Previous Mars Express results about water on Mars came from the study of images and mineralogical data, as well as atmospheric measurements. Now we have the view from the subsurface radar," says Olivier Witasse, ESA's Mars Express Project Scientist.

"This adds new pieces of information to the puzzle but the question remains: where did all the water go?"

Mars Express continues its investigation.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Express_radar_gives_strong_evidence_for_former_Mars_ocean_999.html.

Iran shipping line masks 'arms vessels'

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UPI)
Feb 7, 2012

Iran's state shipping line is reported to renaming many of its freighters in a bid to circumvent international sanctions on arms transfers and the clandestine supply of high-tech equipment for its contentious nuclear program.

A study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released Jan. 30 said the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines has renamed 90 of its 123 vessels since 2008, many with innocuous English names like "Bluebell" or "Angel." One was simply named "Alias."

SIPRI reported the company has also reflagged a "significant percentage" of its fleet to further mask its clandestine arms shipments to Tehran's allies, such as Syria, and proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This is also intended to confuse U.S. authorities striving to block Iran's acquisition of components and high-tech machinery for what Washington insists is a secret program to develop nuclear weapons.

Western intelligence officials say Iran has consistently used IRISL to transport nuclear components, largely bought clandestinely through front companies in the West.

"The Iranian ships are being shuffled like a deck of cards in a Las Vegas casino," observed Hugh Griffiths, SIPRI arms trafficking expert and one of the authors of the institute's report.

"There is a constant game of cat and mouse being played and the renaming and reflagging of vessels is a way of trying to avoid inspection because of sanctions."

The United States launched a crackdown on IRISL in 2008. Stuart Levey, then U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, observed that Iran's merchant fleet was "a critical lifeline for Iran's proliferation and evasion.

"Some of Iran's most dangerous cargo continues to come and go from Iran's ports, so we must redouble our vigilance over both their domestic shipping lines and attempts to use third-country shippers and freight forwarders for illicit cargoes."

SIPRI reported that the Iranian shipping companies reflagging efforts, aimed at shielding their vessels from international scrutiny, has meant that on paper the Islamic Republic's maritime fleet has shrunk dramatically.

Until 2011, IRISL was ranked the 23rd largest container line in the world. Now it's not even listed in the top 100.

In 2008, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, invoked regulations designed to freeze the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and initiated sanctions against IRISL for working with the arms of the Revolutionary Guards Corps that oversees Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

That brought a swift response from companies around the world, which stopped dealing with IRISL.

It was then, the Financial Times reported, that the Iranian company "started to use an array of deceptive and practices to conceal its identity and skirt sanctions -- including falsifying shipping documents, changing names and nominal ownership of vessels and even repainting ships.

"It has also sought to assign vessel ownership to front companies outside Iran," the Financial Times reported.

Most of the vessels originally identified as belonging to IRISL are listed as being owned and operated by companies that don't appear on the U.S. blacklist. These companies are invariably located far from Iran, in places such as Hong Kong, Germany, the Isle of Man, Malta or Cyprus.

But in most cases, international investigators have established from corporate records that these fronts are either run by IRISL officials or are wholly owned by the Iranian company.

IRISL denies any involvement in clandestine weapons or nuclear shipments but the unmasking of its corporate camouflage efforts underline the extent of Tehran's maritime operations.

Lloyd's of London, the international shipping registry, says at least four IRISL vessels have been scuttled.

Lloyd's issues large merchant vessels with unique identifying numbers and tracks them across the globe during their operational lifetimes.

SIPRI reported that in October 2010, Germany removed ships suspected of being owned by IRISL from its shipping registry after the European Union imposed sanctions on the Iranian company.

But, the institute noted, other EU members, including Cyprus and Malta, continue to have Iranian ships on their registries.

Since the U.S. Treasury crackdown began, the United Nations has named three IRISL subsidiaries for international sanctions and granted powers to allow Iranian-flagged ships, and vessels carrying cargoes to or from Iran to be inspected.

The U.S. Treasury later sanctioned five IRISL front companies and 27 ships and identified many IRISL vessels that had been renamed.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_shipping_line_masks_arms_vessels_999.html.

Europe sends in ice-breakers to battle big chill

Belgrade (AFP)
Feb 7, 2012

Authorities employed explosives, icebreakers and tractors Tuesday in the battle to overcome Europe's big freeze, as dozens more died of hypothermia and tens of thousands remained cut off by snow.

Around 400 people have now died from the cold weather in Europe since the cold snap began 11 days ago and forecasters warned there would be no early let-up to some of the lowest temperatures seen in decades.

While there was some respite for people in Ukraine -- where more than 130 deaths have been recorded -- the mercury plunged overnight to minus 39.4 degrees Celsius (-38.9 Fahrenheit) in the Kvilda region of the Czech Republic.

More bodies were found either on the streets, in their cars or in their homes in Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Hungary and across the Balkans.

Authorities in Serbia said that 70,000 people were trapped in snow-bound villages in the south as officials declared an "emergency situation".

In a dramatic effort to prevent two of the country's main waterways from becoming completely blocked, officials called up army explosive experts.

As ice layers threatened to cause widespread floods on the Ibar, Alexander Prodanovic, the country's top water official, said dynamite would be detonated to break up the huge blocks which had formed.

Authorities also hired icebreaking ships from Hungary to ease the flow on the Danube, the main waterway for all commercial shipping in Serbia. The port authority said the Danube was navigable around Belgrade but with difficulty.

There was similar chaos elsewhere in the Balkans with train linking Croatia's central coastal town of Split and the capital Zagreb derailing as a result of a snow drift. There were no reports of injuries.

The army, firefighters and rescue services were trying to get food and medicine to the population in several hundred villages in southern Croatia where snow up to 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) high was piled up.

"This is a disaster, we have been cut off from the rest of the world ... Snowploughs cannot reach us, so we have to walk to get some bread and basic things," Marko Ancic told the Slobodna Dalmacija daily after trekking some 17 kilometers (10 miles) from his village to reach the nearest town.

Large parts of eastern and southern Bosnia were also cut off by the snow and avalanches. There has been no contact since Friday with the hamlet of Zijemlje, some 30 kilometers from the town of Mostar.

"We don't know what is going on there. They have not had electricity since Friday and phone lines are cut, they have no running water," Radovan Palavestra, the mayor of Mostar, told AFP.

"There are elderly people who are very fragile and children including a baby of two months."

A helicopter which should have flown in aid to Zijemlje was unable to take off Tuesday morning because of heavy snowfall.

In Romania, two heavily pregnant women had to be flown out by helicopter in the eastern area of Iasi after their villages were completely cut off. Another pregnant woman had to be ferried to hospital by tractor in the eastern Paltinis area after her ambulance became stuck in the snow.

Schools were shut in large parts of the country, including Bucharest, while many train services were cancelled. Around 40 percent of roads were also closed, although flights did resume from Bucharest airport.

Snowstorms lashed Bulgaria, a day after eight people drowned in raging rivers and the icy waters from a broken dam that submerged a whole village to the southeast.

A Briton living on the Greek island of Symi drowned in a river which had been swollen by heavy rains as he tried to move his moped to safety.

The numbers killed by hypothermia in Poland rose to 68 after the authorities there recorded another six deaths in the last 24 hours. The majority of those who have died were homeless, many of whom had been drinking heavily.

The cold snap has also seen a sharp rise in the number of people being killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty gas heaters.

According to the state weather forecaster in Ukraine, temperatures there could rise to a relatively modest minus six degrees. But the respite will be short-lived with temperatures expected to plunge to minus 30 by the weekend.

The UN weather service said temperatures would remain low until March.

"We might expect the change in the current cold wave to to start easing from the start of next week up to the end of the month," Omar Baddour, a scientist at the World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.

It was a similar message from Britain where forecasters said the cold spell could last for two more weeks and heavy snow at the weekend.

And in France, authorities appealed to households to save power where possible as they predicted electricity use could hit a record high.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Europe_sends_in_ice-breakers_to_battle_big_chill_999.html.

Commerce returns to Iran-Iraq border river

Al-Nashwa, Iraq (AFP)
Feb 7, 2012

Commercial traffic has resumed on the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway after a three-decade break with the official opening of a port for oil giant Shell, an Iraqi official said on Tuesday.

Part of the 200-kilometre-long (120 miles) waterway forms a section of the border with Iran.

An unresolved boundary dispute was a major reason for the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran that resulted in the waterway's closure.

"The Shatt al-Arab is reborn again after being closed for 31 years," Mehdi Badah Hussein, head of a joint committee to develop Majnoon oil field, told AFP at a ceremony to open the port.

"There are other harbors on the Shatt al-Arab, but commercially, this is the first time Iraq succeeded in turning the Shatt al-Arab into a maritime passage which will help in transporting heavy equipment," Hussein said.

Dia Khalil, an Iraqi engineer and joint committee member, told AFP the journey up the Shatt al-Arab to the new port is about 80 kilometers (50 miles), and that ships will pay customs fees in Umm Qasr to the south before heading to the new harbor.

A consortium of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell and Malaysia's Petronas signed a contract with Iraq in January 2010 to operate the enormous Majnoon field.

"We believe this is the first jetty harbor to bring in ships that can come from all over the world back off the river with heavy equipment in 31 years," Shell Majnoon general manager Ole Myklestad told AFP.

"This is very important," Myklestad said at the ceremony. "I hope that ships leaving this harbor in the future will also be carrying goods."

Myklestad said the first ship arrived at the harbor on January 5 and clarified that the port would not be used to export oil which is to be carried by pipeline.

"This is a happy day," said Khalaf Wadi, deputy manager of Iraq's Southern Oil Co, a partner with Shell and Petronas. "We are officially opening the first commercial jetty in the Shatt al-Arab since the start of the war with Iran."

The port's main function will be to facilitate the transportation of equipment to the massive Majnoon oil field.

But ordinance in the field, which was a major battleground during the eight-year war with Iran, poses a danger.

Simon Mawdslag, Shell's Explosive Remnants of War Coordinator, said "over 4,000 individual items of ordinance" have been located and removed from a roughly eight square kilometer (three square mile) area -- the only part cleared so far.

"These items are handed over to the Iraqi armed forces and their explosive ordinance disposal team. They actually do the destruction of the items," he said.

The Majnoon field was discovered in 1975 by Brazilian firm Petrobras but its work was interrupted in 1980 by the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, after it had drilled 20 wells.

In 1990, French firm total negotiated a contract for the field but was unable to sign due to international sanctions after Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of that year.

Oil sales account for the vast majority of Iraqi government income and around two-thirds of gross domestic product.

Source: Energy-Daily.
Link: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Commerce_returns_to_Iran-Iraq_border_river_999.html.

China to face electricity shortages?

Beijing (UPI) Feb 7, 2012

China could face power supply outages this year due to a shortage of coal, China's Electricity Council warned.

CEC, an association representing power firms, estimates the country's power shortages to reach 40 million kilowatts in 2012, compared with a 30 million kilowatt shortage in 2011, it said on its Web site.

China relies on coal for more than 70 percent of its energy needs.

To address electricity supply shortages, CEC recommended differentiating electricity charges, limiting exports of electricity-consuming products and increasing the development of hydropower and nuclear power plants.

Acknowledging projections that China's economy -- the world's second biggest -- is headed for a slowdown in 2012, CEC said the country's power supply could still be affected by other factors besides energy-consuming economic growth, including strained coal supply and drought, which could threaten hydropower.

CEC urged China's coal sector to increase coal production and imports and also to restrict exports of the raw commodity.

CEC projects coal usage by China's power plants to reach 150 million tons in 2012, requiring an extra 300 million tons of new coal supplies.

Aside from pressures on China's energy supplies from economic development, the country's now-regular power shortages are also caused by struggle between the coal and electric power industries over the price of coal supplied to power stations, says Tim Wright, author of "The Political Economy of the Chinese Coal Industry: Black Gold and Blood Stained Coal."

"The power stations, who have to accept electricity prices fixed by the state, have argued that they cannot afford the ever-increasing price of their main fuel, coal," Wright told The Wall Street Journal.

"The state has attempted to pressure the mines to supply coal at cheaper prices but of course this has reduced the mines' incentive to produce, resulting in occasional shortages and power cuts."

Figures from the National Energy Administration indicate that China used a total of 4.69 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2011, an increase of 11.7 percent from 2010.

Broken down by sector, industries including manufacturing, water and electricity production consumed 3.52 trillion kilowatts in 2011, an increase of 11.9 percent from 2010; industries including agriculture, livestock husbandry, fisheries and forestry used 101.5 billion kilowatts of electricity, an increase of 3.9 percent; service industries used 508.2 billion kilowatts, an increase of 13.5 percent; and households, including urban and township residents, used 564.6 billion kilowatts, up 10.8 percent from 2010.

Source: Energy-Daily.
Link: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/China_to_face_electricity_shortages_999.html.

Hezbollah says gets support, not orders, from Iran

Tuesday, February 07, 2012
By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged Tuesday for the first time that his militant movement received financial and material support from Iran, but denied it took instructions from the Islamic Republic.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah previously only confirmed Iranian political and moral backing because it did not want "to embarrass our brothers in Iran," but had changed policy because Iran's leadership had announced its support in public.

"Yes, we received moral, and political and material support in all possible forms from the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1982," Nasrallah told supporters by videolink in a speech marking the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Mohammad.

"In the past we used to tell half the story and stay silent on the other half ... When they asked us about the material and financial and military support we were silent."

Nasrallah said Iran had not issued orders to Hezbollah since the movement was founded 30 years ago, adding that if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear sites, the leadership in Iran "would not ask anything of Hezbollah."

He said if that were to happen, Hezbollah's own leadership would "sit down, think and decide what to do."

Speculation has grown that Israel might be planning to attack Iranian nuclear facilities after strong public comments by Israeli leaders about Iran's atomic ambitions.

Many analysts believe that in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran, Hezbollah - which fought a punishing 34-day war with Israel in 2006 - would attack the Jewish state.

Nasrallah's statement will not surprise world powers, including The United States, which lists the group as a terrorist organization, and says it has military support from Iran and Syria.

Hezbollah was set up 30 years ago by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces which had invaded Lebanon.

DENIES MONEY LAUNDERING

Nasrallah denied U.S. charges that his movement was involved in money laundering or drugs smuggling, saying Iran's support meant the movement was not in need of cash.

Federal prosecutors in the United States said in December three Lebanese financial institutions linked to Hezbollah laundered more than $240 million through the U.S. used car market.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials have also said Hezbollah has become involved in the drug trade, facilitating distribution and sale of cocaine in West Africa.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah was not involved in money laundering, nor in drug smuggling which was religiously forbidden. "No drugs, no money laundering and not trade at all," he said of Hezbollah activities.

The Hezbollah leader also defended his support for close ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush an 11-month uprising against his rule. The United Nations says Assad's crackdown on protests has killed 5,000 people.

Nasrallah, who has praised the uprisings in other Arab countries which toppled three entrenched leaders last year, said Assad still enjoyed support from the army and a large section of the population, and criticized Syria's opposition for rejecting Assad's promised reforms and offers of dialogue.

"They say we don't want dialogue and we don't want reform (because) it's too late ... It's too late when there is fighting in Syria and there are people pushing it to civil war?"

"They are betting on the West, on America, on money and weapons to overthrow the regime. But this is a losing bet," he added.

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: The Star.
Link: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/8/worldupdates/2012-02-07T220222Z_1_TRE81629O_RTROPTT_0_UK-LEBANON-HEZBOLLAH.