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Thursday, December 22, 2011

British wind turbine factory said a 'go'

HULL, England, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A $327 million wind turbine factory in the English port of Hull is moving ahead, German manufacturer Siemens and port officials said this week.

Plans for "Green Port Hull" are to come before local officials, signaling the renewable energy facility and its hundreds of promised jobs are a "go," the Yorkshire Post reported Monday.

Siemens and Associated British Ports have announced they will ask for permission to proceed with long-sought project, the newspaper said.

The ports of Hull and Goole got the nod because of their proximity to three of the world's biggest offshore wind farms, which were part of the 2008 round of wind leasing in British waters.

In all, more that 32 gigawatts were leased to developers in that round, along with another 6 gigawatts in Scottish waters leased in 2007. Three wind farms under construction near Hull and are all within 12 hours steaming time and require 5,000 turbines.

The Hull facility would manufacture 6-megawatt turbines -- twice as big as the biggest now being used and measuring nearly 500 feet each.

Until this week, no announcements of new wind turbine factories in Britain had been forthcoming since the leases were awarded, raising uneasiness among wind industry observers and politicians, the Norwegian renewable energy journal Recharge reported.

It said port owners have been locked in a "game of chicken" with turbine builders -- both approaching full-fledged commitments warily and waiting to see who would move first.

Nik Scott-Gray, development manager of seven Firth of Forth ports along Scotland's east coast, told Recharge port owners need to be careful about commitments to the wind power market, given the expensive upgrades their facilities need to accommodate ships carrying the massive turbine blades.

"If somebody arrived tomorrow and said, 'I have a plan for your port and I need 70 acres and here's the money' -- it's gone," he said. "We're not going to say, 'Could you hang on because we've been talking to turbine manufacturers for a year but they haven't committed.'"

British Labor Party MP Alan Johnson told the Yorkshire Post that should the Siemens plant successfully navigate the city's approval process, it could make a big difference in Hull, where latest figures indicated almost one in 12 people of working age are claiming unemployment benefits.

"We can't be complacent and we've got to get the planning order through but this is the best possible news for Christmas and it means the champagne corks can be half out of the bottle and I'm confident that we can get to the end of the course," Johnson said.

Local officials say the turbine factory will provide it will provide 700 highly paid engineering jobs along with 300 construction hires and the possibility of thousands more positions from spinoff and associated industries.

The jobs are much-needed in Hull, which economists say is one of the economically hardest-hit areas in Britain. Despite the potential for green energy jobs, Yorkshire is facing massive downsizings.

Defense contractor BAE Systems announced in September it was laying off 900 workers at its plant in nearby Brough, marking the virtual end of almost a century of aircraft construction there, the Hull Daily Mail reported.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/12/14/British-wind-turbine-factory-said-a-go/UPI-96611323862080/.

Putin insult prompts journalist firings

MOSCOW, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Journalists working for a Russian publisher say the firing of two top employees for printing anti-Vladimir Putin photos amounted to an act of intimidation.

The employees of Kommersant publishing house placed an open letter on an infotainment Web site Wednesday criticizing owner Alisher Usmanov's sacking of Andrei Galiyev, general manager of Kommersant holding, and editor Maxim Kovalsky of the weekly Kommersant Vlast, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The two were fired over several photographs that accompanied an article about the Dec. 4 Duma elections. The Duma is the lower house of the Russian parliament.

One of the photos showed a ballot cast for the liberal Yabloko party that had been signed by the voter wit an obscene suggestion for Putin, Russia's prime minister, that read "Putin, [expletive] off," The Moscow Times reported.

Kovalsky, who served as editor for 12 years, said he had no regrets. "I'm convinced I did everything correctly and don't regret that the issue was (handled) exactly as it was," he said.

One staffer at Kommersant told the Times the dismissals came after "enormous pressure from the Kremlin."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/12/14/Putin-insult-prompts-journalist-firings/UPI-27681323875145/.

Second phase of prisoner swap ready

JERUSALEM, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Israeli prison officials listed 114 Palestinian detainees to be freed in the second phase of a prisoner swap, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said Wednesday.

Israel released 477 prisoners Oct. 18 and agreed to free an additional 550 detainees within two months in a deal with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israeli media said the remaining prisoners would be released soon if the country's top court rejected petitions against the release, Ma'an news agency said.

Haaretz said the Israeli government worked with Egypt to choose which prisoners would be released. None of the prisoners had been convicted of killing Israelis, the official said.

Most detainees selected for release are affiliated with Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the official said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/12/14/Second-phase-of-prisoner-swap-ready/UPI-95761323877206/.

Portraits of Saturn Moons Captured by Cassini

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Dec 14, 2011

NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully completed its closest-ever pass over Saturn's moon Dione on Monday, Dec. 12, slaloming its way through the Saturn system on its way to tomorrow's close flyby of Titan.

Cassini is expected to glide about 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) over the Titan surface on Dec. 13.

In the selection of the raw images obtained during the Cassini Dione flyby, Dione is sometimes joined by other moons. Mimas appears just beyond the dark side of Dione in one view.

In another view, Epimetheus and Pandora appear together, along with Saturn's rings.

This Dione encounter was intended primarily for Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer and radio science subsystem.

However, the imaging team did capture views of the distinctive, wispy fractures on the side of Dione that always trails in its orbit around Saturn.

It also obtained images of a ridge called Janiculum Dorsa on the hemisphere of Dione that always leads in its orbit around Saturn.

While other flybys produced more detailed views of the surface, the best resolved images from this flyby have scales ranging from about 1,100 feet (350 meters) to about 1,600 feet (500 meters) per pixel.

Janiculum Dorsa will be imaged by Cassini at higher resolution in May 2012.

Source: Saturn Daily.
Link: http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/Portraits_of_Saturn_Moons_Captured_by_Cassini_999.html.

Microsoft co-founder unveils space travel plans

Washington (AFP)
Dec 13, 2011

A giant airplane that can in mid-flight launch a rocket carrying cargo and humans into orbit is the future of space travel, billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen said on Tuesday.

The first test flight of the ambitious venture by Allen's new company Stratolaunch Systems is not scheduled until 2015, but partners in the project vowed it would revolutionize orbital travel in the post-space shuttle era.

Using engines from six Boeing 747 jets, the biggest airliner ever built would tote a rocket made by SpaceX and be able to launch payloads, satellites, and some day, humans, into low-Earth orbit, said Allen, 58.

While he declined to say how much he was investing, Allen said it would be more than he spent on SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 was the first commercial craft to complete a suborbital flight and reportedly cost about $25 million to develop.

"For the first time since John Glenn, America cannot fly its own astronauts into space," Allen told reporters, referring to the US space shuttle's retirement this year and the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Mercury 7 in 1962.

"Today we stand at the dawn of a radical change in the space launch industry," Allen said, vowing greater flexibility than ground-based rocket launches and better cost effectiveness for cargo and manned missions to space.

"It will keep America at the forefront of space exploration and give tomorrow's children something to search for in the night sky and dream about."

Designs for the massive jet with a wingspan greater than a football field, a collaboration with aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan who designed SpaceShipOne, are at an advanced stage and a hangar is under construction in the Mojave desert.

"It is relatively close to building, as soon as we can get a building big enough," said Rutan.

Talks are under way about potential take-off points, since the plane would need a 12,000 foot (3,650 meter) runway, available at larger airports and air force bases.

The aircraft would "use six 747 engines, have a gross weight of more than 1.2 million pounds (544,000 kilograms) and a wingspan of more than 380 feet (117 meters)," press materials said.

The plane would take off and while in flight, deploy the rocket and send cargo into low-Earth orbit. The first test flight could take place in 2015, and the first launch could happen by 2016.

Allen and Rutan's project, SpaceShipOne, was followed by Virgin Galactic's commercial suborbital SpaceShipTwo Program.

Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, who is on the board of the Alabama-based Stratolaunch, said the project furthers the goal of making space travel a common endeavor.

"We believe this technology has the potential to someday make spaceflight routine by removing many of the constraints associated with ground launched rockets," Griffin said.

Advantages include the flexibility to launch from a larger number of locations, and potential cargo markets include the communications satellite industry, and NASA and Department of Defense unmanned scientific satellites, Griffin said.

Allen's announcement adds a new company to the race to replace the US space shuttle by offering an alternative made by private industry for carrying humans to low-Earth orbit.

The end of the space shuttle after 30 years has left Russia as the sole nation capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost per seat that will rise to $63 million in the coming years.

"So if you can come up with -- which we believe we can -- a manned version of this, we can be very, very competitive with those kinds of fees," said Allen, who resigned from Microsoft after being diagnosed with cancer in 1983.

Three subcontractors on the project include Scaled Composites which is building the aircraft, SpaceX which is contributing a multi-stage booster rocket based on its Falcon 9, and Dynetics which is mating the aircraft to the booster.

SpaceX, run by PayPal founder Elon Musk, has already successfully test-launched its Dragon capsule into orbit and back and is planning a cargo and berthing mission to the International Space Station in February.

"You have a certain number of dreams in your life that you want to fulfill and this is a dream I am very excited about seeing come to fruition," Allen said.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Microsoft_co-founder_unveils_space_travel_plans_999.html.

Mars-Bound Rover Begins Research in Space

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Dec 14, 2011

NASA's car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet.

Curiosity launched on Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles from the Sun, distant supernovas and other sources.

These particles constitute radiation that could be harmful to any microbes or astronauts in space or on Mars. The rover also will monitor radiation on the surface of Mars after its August 2012 landing.

"RAD is serving as a proxy for an astronaut inside a spacecraft on the way to Mars," said Don Hassler, RAD's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo."

The instrument is deep inside the spacecraft, the way an astronaut would be. Understanding the effects of the spacecraft on the radiation field will be valuable in designing craft for astronauts to travel to Mars."

Previous monitoring of energetic-particle radiation in space has used instruments at or near the surface of various spacecraft.

The RAD instrument is on the rover inside the spacecraft and shielded by other components of MSL, including the aeroshell that will protect the rover during descent through the upper atmosphere of Mars.

Spacecraft structures, while providing shielding, also can contribute to secondary particles generated when high-energy particles strike the spacecraft. In some circumstances, secondary particles could be more hazardous than primary ones.

These first measurements mark the start of the science return from a mission that will use 10 instruments on Curiosity to assess whether Mars' Gale Crater could be or has been favorable for microbial life.

"While Curiosity will not look for signs of life on Mars, what it might find could be a game-changer about the origin and evolution of life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"One thing is certain: the rover's discoveries will provide critical data that will impact human and robotic planning and research for decades."

As of noon EST on Dec. 14, the spacecraft will have traveled 31.9 million miles (51.3 million kilometers) of its 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) flight to Mars. The first trajectory correction maneuver during the trip is being planned for mid-January.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Bound_Rover_Begins_Research_in_Space_999.html.

NASA Developing Comet Harpoon for Sample Return

by Bill Steigerwald for Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt MD (SPX)
Dec 14, 2011

The best way to grab a sample of a rotating comet that is racing through the inner solar system at up to 150,000 miles per hour while spewing chunks of ice, rock and dust may be to avoid the risky business of landing on it.

Instead, researchers want to send a spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, then fire a harpoon to rapidly acquire samples from specific locations with surgical precision while hovering above the target.

Using this "standoff" technique would allow samples to be collected even from areas that are much too rugged or dangerous to permit the landing and safe operation of a spacecraft.

Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. are in the early stages of working out the best design for a sample-collecting comet harpoon. In a lab the size of a large closet stands a metal ballista (large crossbow) nearly six feet tall, with a bow made from a pair of truck leaf springs and a bow string made of steel cable 1/2 inch thick.

The ballista is positioned to fire vertically downward into a bucket of target material. For safety, it's pointed at the floor, because it could potentially launch test harpoon tips about a mile if it was angled upwards.

An electric winch mechanically pulls the bow string back to generate a precise level of force, up to 1,000 pounds, firing projectiles to velocities upwards of 100 feet per second.

Donald Wegel of NASA Goddard, lead engineer on the project, places a test harpoon in the bolt carrier assembly, steps outside the lab and moves a heavy wooden safety door with a thick plexiglass window over the entrance.

After dialing in the desired level of force, he flips a switch and, after a few-second delay, the crossbow fires, launching the projectile into a 55-gallon drum full of cometary simulant - sand, salt, pebbles or a mixture of each. The ballista produces a uniquely impressive thud upon firing, somewhere between a rifle and a cannon blast.

"We had to bolt it to the floor, because the recoil made the whole testbed jump after every shot," said Wegel.

"We're not sure what we'll encounter on the comet - the surface could be soft and fluffy, mostly made up of dust, or it could be ice mixed with pebbles, or even solid rock. Most likely, there will be areas with different compositions, so we need to design a harpoon that's capable of penetrating a reasonable range of materials.

"The immediate goal though, is to correlate how much energy is required to penetrate different depths in different materials. What harpoon tip geometries penetrate specific materials best? How does the harpoon mass and cross section affect penetration? The ballista allows us to safely collect this data and use it to size the cannon that will be used on the actual mission."

Comets are frozen chunks of ice and dust left over from our solar system's formation. As such, scientists want a closer look at them for clues to the origin of planets and ultimately, ourselves.

"One of the most inspiring reasons to go through the trouble and expense of collecting a comet sample is to get a look at the 'primordial ooze' - biomolecules in comets that may have assisted the origin of life," says Wegel.

Scientists at the Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory have found amino acids in samples of comet Wild 2 from NASA's Stardust mission, and in various carbon-rich meteorites. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes, the catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions.

The research gives support to the theory that a "kit" of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by meteorite and comet impacts gave a boost to the origin of life.

Although ancient comet impacts could have helped create life, a present-day hit near a populated region would be highly destructive, as a comet's large mass and high velocity would make it explode with many times the force of a typical nuclear bomb. One plan to deal with a comet headed towards Earth is to deflect it with a large - probably nuclear - explosion.

However, that might turn out to be a really bad idea. Depending on the comet's composition, such an explosion might just fragment it into many smaller pieces, with most still headed our way.

It would be like getting hit with a shotgun blast instead of a rifle bullet. So the second major reason to sample comets is to characterize the impact threat, according to Wegel. We need to understand how they're made so we can come up with the best way to deflect them should any have their sights on us.

"Bringing back a comet sample will also let us analyze it with advanced instruments that won't fit on a spacecraft or haven't been invented yet," adds Dr. Joseph Nuth, a comet expert at NASA Goddard and lead scientist on the project.

Of course, there are other ways to gather a sample, like using a drill. However, any mission to a comet has to overcome the challenge of operating in very low gravity. Comets are small compared to planets, typically just a few miles across, so their gravity is correspondingly weak, maybe a millionth that of Earth, according to Nuth.

"A spacecraft wouldn't actually land on a comet; it would have to attach itself somehow, probably with some kind of harpoon. So we figured if you have to use a harpoon anyway, you might as well get it to collect your sample," says Nuth.

Right now, the team is working out the best tip design, cross-section, and explosive powder charge for the harpoon, using the crossbow to fire tips at various speeds into different materials like sand, ice, and rock salt. They are also developing a sample collection chamber to fit inside the hollow tip.

"It has to remain reliably open as the tip penetrates the comet's surface, but then it has to close tightly and detach from the tip so the sample can be pulled back into the spacecraft," says Wegel.

"Finding the best design that will package into a very small cross section and successfully collect a sample from the range of possible materials we may encounter is an enormous challenge."

"You can't do this by crunching numbers in a computer, because nobody has done it before - the data doesn't exist yet," says Nuth.

"We need to get data from experiments like this before we can build a computer model. We're working on answers to the most basic questions, like how much powder charge do you need so your harpoon doesn't bounce off or go all the way through the comet. We want to prove the harpoon can penetrate deep enough, collect a sample, decouple from the tip, and retract the sample collection device."

The spacecraft will probably have multiple sample collection harpoons with a variety of powder charges to handle areas on a comet with different compositions, according to the team. After they have finished their proof-of-concept work, they plan to apply for funding to develop an actual instrument. "Since instrument development is more expensive, we need to show it works first," says Nuth.

Currently, the European Space Agency is sending a mission called Rosetta that will use a harpoon to grapple a probe named Philae to the surface of comet "67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko" in 2014 so that a suite of instruments can analyze the regolith.

"The Rosetta harpoon is an ingenious design, but it does not collect a sample," says Wegel. "We will piggyback on their work and take it a step further to include a sample-collecting cartridge. It's important to understand the complex internal friction encountered by a hollow, core-sampling harpoon."

NASA's recently-funded mission to return a sample from an asteroid, called OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer), will gather surface material using a specialized collector. However, the surface can be altered by the harsh environment of space.

"The next step is to return a sample from the subsurface because it contains the most primitive and pristine material," said Wegel.

Both Rosetta and OSIRIS-REx will significantly increase our ability to navigate to, rendezvous with, and locate specific interesting regions on these foreign bodies.

The fundamental research on harpoon-based sample retrieval by Wegel and his team is necessary so the technology is available in time for a subsurface sample return mission.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Developing_Comet_Harpoon_for_Sample_Return_999.html.

NJ Nets owner fails to buy Russia media holding

December 14, 2011 — MOSCOW (AP) — The owner of the New Jersey Nets, who is running against Vladimir Putin in Russia's presidential election, tried without success on Wednesday to buy a leading media holding company in the country.

Mikhail Prokhorov, who is worth about $18 billion according to Forbes magazine, announced his candidacy earlier this week for the March presidential election. Prokhorov offered to buy Russia's Kommersant publishing house, but its owner, Alisher Usmanov, said he doesn't plan to sell it.

"We're not considering the proposal. ... We're not going to sell the Kommersant publishing house," Usmanov told reporters. He said that he instead offered to buy Prokhorov's stake in the RBK media group, a competitor of Kommersant's.

He did not say how Prokhorov had responded, and its was not immediately possible to reach the owner of the U.S. pro-basketball team. Usmanov, a metals magnate, bought Kommersant for $200 million in 2006. The holding company, which includes Russia's top business daily and other publications, has since expanded into radio and television broadcast.

On Tuesday, Usmanov fired an editor and a senior manager after the Kommersant Vlast weekly published an article about alleged fraud in Russia's Dec. 4 parliamentary election and a photo of a ballot containing vulgar words directed at Putin. The weekly's editor, Maxim Kovalsky, said he was told that's why he was fired.

Russia's parliamentary election saw a sharp drop in support for Putin's United Russia party, and widespread allegations of ballot-stuffing and other violations. The ballot led last weekend to the largest anti-government protests that Russia had seen since the 1991 collapse of its communist government.

Usmanov said recent reports in Vlast "bordered on petty hooliganism," and Kovalsky's deputy, Veronika Kutsillo, said the offending photo was just a pretext behind the move by Usmanov, who previously had expressed his dissatisfaction with the magazine's contents.

"This isn't merely a punishment of an obstinate editor, it's a signal that the magazine's course must change," Kutsillo said in an e-mailed message, adding that she decided to resign. More than 50 Kommersant journalists signed an open letter to protest Kovalsky's dismissal. "We view this firing as an intimidation effort aimed at preventing any criticism of Vladimir Putin, even if this concerns photographs," the letter said.

On Wednesday Usmanov met with Kommersant's staff, saying he felt he "was able to explain his decision." He said, "Not only that, but I also told them that the same moral principals will be used in my future decisions on the ethics journalists must adhere to."

Putin has enjoyed blanket positive coverage from state-controlled television networks. Some of the print media, which have remained independent and often critical of the government, have faced pressure from owners fearing their business interests could be hurt as a result.

Prokhorov's presidential bid follows his botched performance before the parliamentary election when he formed a liberal political party with the Kremlin's tacit support but abandoned it under what he called Kremlin pressure.

Some observers said that Prokhorov may have made amends with the Kremlin and might be running for president to accommodate voters unhappy with the authorities. But Prokhorov denied that in his blog on Wednesday.

"Naturally, my candidacy is good for the Kremlin. Naturally, they want to play democracy and show that people have 'some kind of a choice'," he wrote. "But we must absolutely use the authorities, too, if we don't want to just make some noise and disappear, but to change our lives for the better."

Associated Press writers Sofia Javed and Gary Peach contributed to this report.

Gunman kills 2 in market in Florence

December 13, 2011 — ROME (AP) — An Italian man with extreme right-wing views opened fire in an outdoor market in Florence Tuesday, killing two vendors from Senegal, then critically wounded three other Senegalese immigrants in another Florence market before killing himself, authorities said.

Florence prosecutor Giuseppe Quattrocchi said the man shot himself in the head in an underground parking lot under the covered market of San Lorenzo, in the heart of the Tuscan capital, as police were approaching him.

Investigators identified the attacker as 50-year-old Gianluca Casseri. RAI state TV said he was known to police for having participated in racist marches by an extreme right-wing group. It said he used a .357 Magnum revolver.

Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano, decried what he called the "barbarous killing of two foreign workers" and denounced "this blind explosion of hatred." In a statement, Napolitano called on Italian authorities and society to "combat in the bud every form of intolerance and to reaffirm the tradition of openness and solidarity in our country."

Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi described the assailant as a "clear-headed, mad and racist killer," the Italian news agency ANSA said. Renzi added: "Florence is weeping." After the attacks, Senegalese immigrants in Florence started spontaneously marching toward the center of the city, yelling "Senegal, Senegal."

Many Senegalese work as vendors, selling scarves, wallets, belts, handbags and other items to locals and tourists near monuments in several Italian cities, including Florence and Rome. The attacks in Florence while many people were out for lunch came on the same day as a grenade attack on a crowd of holiday shoppers in the Belgian city of Liege. There, a man armed with grenades and an assault rifle attacked the crowd, leaving three people and the attacker dead and 75 wounded, authorities said...

Attack in Belgian city leaves 5 dead, 122 wounded

December 14, 2011 — LIEGE, Belgium (AP) — Summoned for questioning by Belgian police, a man with a history of weapons and drug offenses left home armed with hand grenades, a revolver and an assault rifle. Stopping at a central square filled with holiday shoppers, he lobbed three grenades into the crowd, then opened fire.

Four people were killed, including an 18-month-old toddler, and 122 were wounded in the assault Tuesday that brought tragedy to the pre-Christmas season of students reveling in exam results and preschoolers enchanted by brightly lit trees and holiday stalls.

Authorities said the shooter also died, but they were at a loss to explain the reason for the onslaught. The prime minister said it was not related to terrorism. In a second burst of deadly violence in Western Europe on Tuesday — attacks rare for the continent — a man shot and killed two Senegalese vendors at a market in Italy.

The midday attack in the eastern Belgian city of Liege sent hundreds of panicked shoppers stampeding down the cobbled streets of the old city, fleeing explosions and bullets. Belgian authorities identified the shooter as Nordine Amrani, a 33-year-old Liege resident who had done jail time for offenses involving guns and drugs, and had been called in for questioning Tuesday in a sexual abuse case.

Officials said Amrani left his home with a backpack, armed with hand grenades, a revolver and an FAL assault rifle. He walked alone to the busy Place Saint-Lambert, the central entry point to downtown shopping streets, then climbed onto an overpass that gave him an ideal view of the square, which was bedecked with a huge Christmas tree and crowded with shoppers.

From there, Amrani lobbed three hand grenades toward a central bus stop, which serves 1,800 buses a day, and opened fire. The explosions sent shards of glass from the bus shelter across a wide area. "I heard a loud boom," said Dimitri Degryse, who was driving near the square. "I thought it was something on my car that was broken or something. Then a few seconds after a second boom, and I saw all the glass breaking, I saw people running, screaming."

Hundreds fled the square as well as a nearby Christmas market. Video showed people, including a large group of preschoolers, rushing to seek cover, some still carrying shopping bags. Amrani died at the scene, but Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders told reporters he was not killed by police. It was unclear if he committed suicide or died by accident, though he still had a number of grenades with him.

Those killed were two boys ages 15 and 17, a 75-year-old woman, and an 18-month-old toddler who died Tuesday evening in the hospital, Liege police said. As police hunted for possible accomplices, residents were ordered to stay in their homes or seek shelter in shops or public buildings. Sirens blared and a police chopper roared overhead, and a medical post was set up in the nearby courtyard of the Prince Bishops courthouse. Dozens of emergency vehicles took victims away for treatment.

Police closed off the area but found no accomplices, and calm returned a few hours later. The Place Saint-Lambert and the nearby Place du Marche host Liege's annual Christmas market, which features 200 shops and attracts some 1.5 million visitors a year. A nearby Ferris wheel is also a central attraction.

By dusk, with the Christmas lights gleaming again, King Albert II and Queen Paola came to pay their respects, as did Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. Di Rupo stressed the attack was the act of a lone assailant, a man known to police who had no links to terrorism. "The whole country shares in the pain. This is an isolated case. This is not about terrorism," he said.

Herman Van Rompuy, a former Belgian prime minister who is now president of the European Council, said he was badly shaken by the attack. "There is no explanation whatsoever," Van Rompuy said. "It leaves me perplexed and shocked."

While such attacks are unusual in Western Europe, the continent has not been immune to such violence. There was another deadly shooting Tuesday in Italy, where a man opened fire in an outdoor market in Florence, killing two vendors from Senegal and wounding three other Senegalese before killing himself, authorities said.

Investigators identified the attacker as 50-year-old Gianluca Casseri, and RAI state TV said he was known to police for having participated in racist marches by an extreme right-wing group. In Norway last July, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik went on a bomb and shooting spree that killed 77 people in Oslo and an island retreat, apparently motivated by a hatred of Muslim immigrants and a deep grudge against the governing Labor Party. A psychiatric evaluation found him criminally insane, which if upheld by the courts means he would end up in compulsory psychiatric care instead of prison.

AP correspondents Don Melvin, Gabriele Steinhauser and Robert Wielaard in Brussels contributed to this report.

Gaza people celebrates Hamas foundation

14-12-2011

Al Qassam website - Gaza - Palestinian people is marking the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, foundation to affirm that it will continue all forms of resistance against the Israeli occupation until liberation, independence and the return of the Palestinian refugees.

Hamas in press statement said “On this day in the year 1987, our people started their revolution against the Israeli occupation, and made thousands of sacrifices for the sake of their land and holy sites,” Hamas’ statement reads, “Our people are still steadfast, determined to achieve full unity, and despite Israel’s excessive use of force, and bombardment, they are determined to achieve liberation, and to establish their independent state.”

The movement further stated that the Palestinian people, wherever their reside, share the strongest ties to their land and their identity, “…and will always remain united and determined to liberate Palestine and its holy sites.”

It also stated that all Arab and Muslim nations support the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people, despite the idleness of the international community, and the military and financial support the United States and other Western countries provide Israel with to maintain its illegal occupation of Palestine.

More than 1,500 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli forces during the first Intifada, while at least 120,000 were injured. Israel also arrested a total of 120,000 Palestinians and displaced more than 150,000.

The Ministry of Information in Gaza reported that the number of Palestinians who were killed since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in late September 2000 until now, arrived at more than 7,404, including at least 1,859 children, and more than 800 women. The number of wounded Palestinians exceeded 42,400.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://www.qassam.ps/news-5186-Gaza_people_celebrates_Hamas_foundation.html.

University staff strike over taxes

Wednesday 14/12/2011

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- University staff decided to strike from 10 a.m. Wednesday to protest the government's failure to abolish taxes on their end-of-service pay.

The union said in a statement that a protest would be held outside ministry buildings in Ramallah to demand that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad implemented a promise to abolish the tax.

The union also demanded the payment of university budgets approved by the government, noting that delays in the payment caused late salaries.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444784.

Hamas frees 75 prisoners to mark anniversary

Wednesday 14/12/2011

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The Hamas-run government in Gaza on Tuesday released 75 prisoners to mark the Islamist movement's 24th anniversary.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the prisoners had served at least two-thirds of their sentences and displayed good behavior in jail.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444800.

Egypt deports 17 Palestinians

Wednesday 14/12/2011

RAFAH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities on Wednesday deported 17 Palestinians who were in the country illegally, Egyptian security sources said.

Security officials at the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza told Ma'an that 17 Palestinians were detained on the road to Cairo and sent back to Gaza.

In some cases, the migrants' visas had expired while others had entered Egypt through underground tunnels, the officials said.

Some Palestinians try to enter Egypt through tunnels due to strict security rules and delays at the Rafah border terminal.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444816.

MP says he received death threat for his anti-Assad comment

2011-12-13

AMMONNEWS - A Jordanian lawmaker says he has received death threats for calling on Syria’s President Bashar Assad to step down.

Ali al-Khalayleh says an anonymous caller with a Syrian accent telephoned him Saturday, threatening to “behead” the lawmaker for remarks made about Assad in Jordan’s parliament two weeks ago. He says the call came from a Syrian number to his cell phone.

The parliamentarian had called the Syrian regime “corrupt and bloody” in his speech.

He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he notified security authorities about the threat. Police say they are investigating.

Al-Khalayleh is a member of a local committee to support the Syrian people.

Source: Ammon News.
Link: http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=14951.

Malaysian customs seize 15 tons of African ivory

Dec 14, 2011

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian customs officers have seized 15 tons of African elephant tusks and ivory products worth some 4 million ringgit (1.3 million dollars), officials confirmed Wednesday.

The goods were seized from a container at Port Klang, in the central state of Selangor, on Monday following a tip-off, an officer with the department said.

On Tuesday, customs director Azis Yacub announced that the seizure was the biggest haul yet of ivory products, adding that smugglers were using Malaysia as a transit point for their products to be shipped to countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

'The goods had come from Mombasa in Kenya and were headed for Sihanoukville, Cambodia when we intercepted them,' Azis was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

'They use our ports as a transit point, believing that the final port would not have a strict inspection,' he said.

Azis said officers discovered the elephant tusks packed together with handicraft items which were declared as soapstone, adding that the seized items would be sent for testing to confirm that they were made of ivory.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1680669.php/Malaysian-customs-seize-15-tons-of-African-ivory.

Myanmar president orders army to stop attacks on Kachin rebels

Dec 13, 2011

Yangon - Myanmar President Thein Sein has ordered the army to cease all attacks on armed ethnic groups in the country's northern Kachin state, government sources said Tuesday.

The sources said Thein Sein issued the order in a letter to army chiefs on Saturday, specifying that troops should only fire in self-defense.

It said the government did not want any new outbreaks of fighting to harm chances for a ceasefire agreement currently being negotiated with Kachin rebels.

Thein Sein, who has recently stepped up moves to reform the government and ease decades-long ethnic conflicts, instructed military units in Kachin State not to approach rebel camps, an apparent reference to Kachin Independence Army, which has been engaged in fierce fighting with government forces in recent weeks.

Myanmar's Minister for Information and Culture U Kyaw Hsan told reporters in Yangon recently that the Kachin Independence Army was the only armed group still engaged in combat operations with the Myanmar army.

A rebel source in Thailand said Thein Sein's letter was read by Kachin State Chief Minister La John Ngan Sai at a ceremony in Myitkyina City Hall in Kachin State on Monday.

Thein Sein's government recently signed a peace deal with another rebel group in Shan state, south of Kachin state.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited Myanmar early this month, said ending the decades-old ethnic conflicts was among Washington's main conditions for full normalizing of relations with Yangon.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1680554.php/Myanmar-president-orders-army-to-stop-attacks-on-Kachin-rebels.

French nuke giant Areva suspends investment in sites

Paris (AFP)
Dec 13, 2011

French nuclear giant Areva said Tuesday it is suspending building work at several sites in France, Africa and the United States, one day after forecasting a 1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) euro loss.

The investment freeze came amid mounting controversy over job losses at the majority state-owned group, with a minister denying claims from unions that a restructuring plan would see 1,200 posts cut in France next year.

Areva halted "capacity extensions" at its reprocessing plant in La Hague, in northern France, at its Melox factory in the Gard in the southwest and at two sites attached to its Tricastin power plant in the south.

Work has also stopped on extensions to the Eagle Rock enrichment plant near Idaho Falls in the United States and to uranium mines in Bakouma in the Central African Republic, Trekkopje in Namibia and Ryst Kuil in South Africa.

In total, Areva hopes to reduce its new capital investment by a third to 7.7 billion euros between 2012 and 2016.

Later in the day, the firm was due to announce a broad restructuring aiming to make a billion euros in savings per year from 2015. Between 1,200 and 1,500 job losses are expected in Germany, which is abandoning nuclear energy.

But the threat of job losses in France has generated controversy.

Unions representing Areva workers, which were briefed by management on Monday, claim that a freeze on new hires would see 1,200 retiring or leaving workers not replaced next year. They have demanded the plan be dropped.

But Industry Minister Eric Besson, speaking to Europe 1 radio on Tuesday, dismissed this figure as "fantasist" and insisted the government would prevent mass redundancies in France.

On Monday, Areva had warned its 2011 operating loss may top 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster hit the value of its uranium mining assets.

Source: Nuclear Power Daily.
Link: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/French_nuke_giant_Areva_suspends_investment_in_sites_999.html.

Iraq throws open doors to US firms as army exits

Washington (AFP)
Dec 13, 2011

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued an open invitation for US firms to help rebuild Iraq on Tuesday, as his oil-rich nation closes the door on a nearly nine-year American military presence.

Hailing a new phase in the country's history, Maliki declared the long war-scarred nation was ready to build a new economy that held "limitless" opportunities for US firms.

"It is not now the generals but the businessmen and the corporations that are at the forefront" of Iraq's future, he told a business gathering just steps from the White House.

"Circumstances have improved because of better security," said Maliki, playing the role of salesman-in-chief for an economy that was ravaged by authoritarian rule and multilateral sanctions even before the war began in 2003.

"We are not satisfied with the number of US corporations in Iraq," he added. "All sectors of the economy are there, open for business for American business."

Oil is at the top of that list of sectors.

With massive proven reserves of 115 billion barrels of oil, the fourth largest in the world -- much of it untapped -- foreign oil companies are girding to return to the country.

Output today is around 2.5 million barrels per day, but could be nearly doubled by 2016 according to oil cartel OPEC.

But a political tug-of-war between the semi-autonomous Kurdish north and Baghdad has stalled efforts to create a new law governing the sector for the last three years.

While many companies, including ExxonMobil, have piled into Iraq despite the absence of a clear regulatory framework, there has often been confusion about their legal status.

Crafting such a law that makes the most of the country's resources, while attracting knowledgeable and deep-pocketed foreign firms, will be essential to putting the country on a sound footing.

Oil exports already account for around two thirds of Iraq gross domestic product, but actual revenues could be increased dramatically if production can be ramped up and if an estimated $100 billion of funds to rebuild the oil sector can be found.

Maliki gave little indication that a deal on the so-called hydrocarbons law was imminent, but said, "we do need a great package of new laws."

On Monday Maliki held talks with US President Barack Obama in an attempt to create a new paradigm in relations that have frequently been overshadowed by Iraq's descent into civil war and fierce divisions in the United States over the war's prosecution.

Source: Energy-Daily.
Link: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Iraq_throws_open_doors_to_US_firms_as_army_exits_999.html.