A day many feared turns into a great one for EU

September 12, 2012

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — It was Super Wednesday — a day dreaded by many in the European Union not so long ago.

By nightfall though, a sigh of relief settled across much of the continent. From ornately dressed judges in Germany to Dutch voters biking to polling stations and nervous traders on the stock floors, much went the way European Union leaders were hoping.

Early in the day, perhaps the biggest decision of all came from the constitutional court in Germany, which had to rule on that country's participation in a euro500 billion ($640 billion) bailout fund, underpinning efforts to contain the debt crisis. Rule against it and financial chaos beckoned. A staunchly independent institution, the Federal Constitutional Court still went with the government and the rescue program.

"It is a good day for Europe," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. In the Netherlands, the strong showing of euroskeptic politicians during the summer campaign threatened to turn a founding member of the EU into a liability for those seeking closer cooperation in Europe to deal with the debt crisis.

When the exit polls showed, it became clear outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte and social democrat Diederik Samsom would be in the driving seat to form the next government. Both see European cooperation as the way ahead.

Boosted by the ruling in Germany, markets around the world were going up and the much-maligned euro breached $1.29 for the first time in four months. And instead of a fast slide downwards in case of a court rejection, stocks markets held their own, with some even showing slight gains.

"There is only good news today," Piotr Kaczynski of the Center for European Policy Studies said, in marked contrast with the months of depressing developments that had some predicting the demise of the euro currency and the disintegration of the 27-nation EU.

"It shows a Europe that is trying to turn the page. It is a good sign for Europe to get out of the rut," Kaczynski said. Whether it is a turning point is far too early to tell. As the positive news spread around Europe, Greece, as so often, spoiled the party with a new wave of strikes to protest spending cuts, which are key to provide the country with rescue loans.

HOW BIG WAS THE DECISION IN GERMANY? The creation of the European Stability Mechanism rescue fund for indebted governments is seen as crucial to contain the crisis that threatens the world economy, and so was participation of Germany, the economic juggernaut of the embattled eurozone.

Positive momentum had already been created by the European Central Bank's decision last week to buy unlimited amounts of short-term government bonds issued by troubled countries. A negative court decision could have dampened the upbeat mood immediately.

"Today, Germany is once again sending a strong signal to Europe and beyond," Merkel said. "Germany is assuming with determination its responsibility as the biggest economy and as a reliable partner in Europe."

"Within less than a week, the eurozone has finally received its long sought-after impressive bazooka," said Carsten Brzeski, an economist with ING in Brussels. WHAT WILL THE DUTCH ELECTION RESULT BRING?

Just a few weeks ago, polls and campaign talk were dominated by Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer, who bragged that fines imposed by EU headquarters for financial digression would only be paid "over my dead body," and by populist firebrand Geert Wilders, who predicts the death of the euro and wants the Dutch to turn their back on the EU headquarters in Brussels.

Both were left licking their wounds on Wednesday night, especially the anti-euro Wilders, who exit polls showed had lost almost half of his seats in parliament, dropping to 13. "In Brussels they are now celebrating but we are facing several tough weeks ahead," Wilders said.

Roemer, once vying to win the elections outright, was stuck at 15 seats. Instead, pro-EU prime minister Mark Rutte saw his VVD surge with 10 more seats to 41, just one ahead of Social Democrat Diederik Samsom, who also backs European integration, according to exit polls.

That should keep the Dutch firmly in Europe's camp, even though strategies are sharply different on how to deal with the widening economic crisis. The difference between Rutte and Samsom reflects the deep divisions within the EU and among the 17 nations who use the common euro currency. As a socialist, Samsom is in the camp of French President Francois Hollande and with nations who spend their way out of trouble. Rutte is with Merkel and wants to pare back spending to get government finances on track and lower borrowing costs.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED TO MAKE THIS SUCH A HUGE DAY? In Strasbourg, France, the European Commission was asking national governments to give up control of their banks to try to solve its crippling financial crisis.

In a proposal that represents one of the most significant surrenders of national sovereignty since the creation of the euro in 1999, the EU's executive arm proposed to make the European Central Bank the single supervisor for all 6,000 banks in the 17 countries that use the currency.

Here too, it promises a clash between the nations seeking closer integration and those who staunchly cling to as much national sovereignty as possible. "We cannot continue trying to solve European problems just with national solutions," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in his annual State of the Union address.

It is hardly a done deal though, since the plan could get vetoed by one or more of the EU nations. "You're unlikely to get unanimity by the end of the year," said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst with the Eurasia Group. "You're in a comfortable place now, but, at some point, it gets messy."

US sends Marines to Libya after deadly attack

September 13, 2012

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — The U.S. dispatched an elite group of Marines to Tripoli on Wednesday after the mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Officials were investigating whether the rampage was a backlash to an anti-Islamic video with ties to Coptic Christians or a plot to coincide with the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Tuesday's stunning attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi poses a daunting task for U.S. and Libyan investigators: searching for the culprits in a city rife with heavy weapons, multiple militias, armed Islamist groups and little police control.

The one-story villa that serves as the consulate was a burned-out wreck after the crowd armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades rampaged through it. Slogans of "God is great" and "Muhammad is God's Prophet" were scrawled across its scorched walls. Libyan civilians strolled freely in charred rooms with furniture and papers strewn everywhere.

President Barack Obama vowed in a Rose Garden address that the U.S. would "work with the Libyan government to bring to justice" those who killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, information manager Sean Smith and two other Americans who were not identified. Three other Americans were wounded.

Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty in 30 years. "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. None," said Obama, who also ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic posts abroad.

Republican Mitt Romney accused the Obama administration of showing weakness in the consulate killings, but the president retorted that his rival "seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later." Some in the Republican Party called Romney's remarks hasty.

The mob attack on Tuesday — the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strike in the U.S. — was initially presumed to have been a spontaneous act triggered by outrage over a movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that mocked Islam's Prophet Muhammad that was produced in the U.S. and excerpted on YouTube. The amateurish video also drew protests in Cairo, where angry ultraconservatives climbed the U.S. Embassy's walls, tore down an American flag and replaced it with an Islamic banner.

But a U.S. counterterrorism official said the Benghazi violence was "too coordinated or professional" to be spontaneous. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

The FBI was sending evidence teams to Libya, a law enforcement official said. Libya's new leadership — scrambling to preserve ties with Washington after U.S. help to overthrow former dictator Moammar Gadhafi — vowed to find those behind the attack. Interim President Mohammed el-Megarif apologized to the United States for what he called the "cowardly" assault, which also killed several Libyan security guards at the consulate in the eastern city.

Parliament speaker Omar al-Houmidan suggested the attack might have been planned, saying the mob "may have had foreign loyalties" — an apparent reference to international terrorists. "We are not sure. Everything is possible," he said.

A Libyan jihadist group, the Omar Abdel-Rahman Brigades, claimed responsibility for a bomb that went off outside the Benghazi consulate in June, causing no injuries. The group, which also carried out several attacks on the International Red Cross in Libya, said at the time that the bomb was revenge for the killing of al-Qaida's No. 2, Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan.

About 50 U.S. Marines were sent to Libya to guard U.S. diplomatic facilities. The Marines are members of an elite group known as a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, or FAST, whose role is to respond on short notice to terrorism threats and to reinforce security at embassies.

The Marines, sent from a base in Spain, were headed initially to the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, not to Benghazi, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

The consulate attack illustrated the breakdown in security in Libya, where the government is still trying to establish authority months after Gadhafi's fall. There also were indications that two distinct attacks took place — one on the consulate, then a second hours later early Wednesday on a nearby house to which the staff had been evacuated.

The crowd of several thousand that descended on the consulate was armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, said Wanis el-Sharef, the deputy interior minister of Libya's eastern region. A small contingent of Libyan security protecting the facility fired in the air, trying to intimidate the mob. But faced with superior size and firepower, the Libyan security withdrew, el-Sharef said. Gunmen stormed the building, looted its contents and torched it, he said.

Details of how the Americans were killed were still unclear. Stevens, 52, and a consulate staffer who had stayed behind in the building died in the initial attack, el-Sharef said. The rest of the staff successfully evacuated to a nearby building, preparing to move to Benghazi Airport after daybreak to fly to the capital of Tripoli, he said.

Hours after the storming of the consulate, a separate group of gunmen attacked the other building, opening fire on the more than 30 Americans and Libyans inside. Two more Americans were killed, he said.

Dr. Ziad Abu Zeid, who treated Stevens, told The Associated Press that he died of asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos, Stevens was brought by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, Abu Zeid said.

He said he tried to revive Stevens for about 90 minutes "with no success." The ambassador was bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but had no other injuries, the doctor said. Widely regarded as one of the most effective American envoys to the Arab world, Stevens brokered tribal disputes and conducted U.S. outreach efforts in Jerusalem, Cairo, Damascus and Riyadh. As a rising star in U.S. foreign policy, he retuned to Libya four months ago, determined to see a democracy rise where Gadhafi's dictatorship flourished for four decades.

Smith, 34, was an Air Force veteran who had worked as an information management officer for 10 years in posts such as Brussels, Baghdad and Pretoria. Smith was also well-known in the video game community.

The bloodshed stunned many Libyans, especially since Stevens was a popular envoy among different factions and politicians, including Islamists, and was seen as a supporter of their uprising against Gadhafi.

The leader of Ansar al-Shariah, an armed ultraconservative Islamist group, denied any involvement in the attack. "We never approve of killing civilians, especially those who helped us," Youssef Jihani said in a reference to Stevens. "We are well-educated and religious."

The violence in Libya raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world, but the reaction was limited. The movie, "Innocence of Muslims," came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic and posted on YouTube. The video-sharing website blocked access to it Wednesday. The trailer depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

In Cairo, some 200 Islamists staged a second day of protest outside the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, but there were no more attempts to scale the embassy walls. After nightfall, the group dwindled and some protesters scuffled with police, who fired tear gas and dispersed them, emptying the streets.

In a statement on his official Facebook page, Egypt's Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, condemned the movie, saying the government was responsible for protecting diplomatic missions as well as the freedom of speech and peaceful protest.

But, he added, authorities "will confront with full determination any irresponsible attempt to break the law." Romney's criticism of Obama didn't mesh completely with events in Cairo. A U.S. Embassy statement that Romney referred to as akin to apology was issued by the Cairo embassy at midday on Tuesday at a time the staff was aware of still-peaceful demonstrations nearby. It was four or five hours later when the mob breached the compound's walls and tried to burn a U.S. flag, and later still when the Libya attack happened.

The embassy statement condemned "the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions," and noted that religious freedom is a cornerstone of American democracy.

About 50 protesters burned American flags outside the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia's capital Wednesday but were kept away from the building by reinforced security. And in Gaza City, dozens of protesters carrying swords, axes and black flags chanted "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet." The rally was organized by supporters of a militant group aligned with the ruling Hamas movement.

Afghanistan's government sought to avert any protests. President Hamid Karzai condemned the movie, and authorities also temporarily shut down access to YouTube, said Aimal Marjan, general director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Communications.

The search for those behind "Innocence of Muslims" led to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes who acknowledged his role in managing and providing logistics for the production. A man identifying himself as Sam Bacile told the AP on Tuesday that he wrote, produced and directed the film.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told the AP in an interview outside Los Angeles that he was manager for the company that produced "Innocence of Muslims." Nakoula denied directing the film and said he knew Bacile. But the cellphone number that the AP used Tuesday to reach the man who identified himself as Bacile was traced to the same address near Los Angeles where the AP found Nakoula. Federal court papers said Nakoula's aliases included Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh and others.

Nakoula told the AP that he was a Coptic Christian and said the film's director supported the concerns of Christian Copts about their treatment by Muslims. Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

Nakoula denied posing as Bacile. During a conversation outside his home, he offered his driver's license to show his identity but kept his thumb over his middle name, Basseley. Records checks by the AP subsequently found the name "Basseley" and other connections to the Bacile persona.

Bacile told the AP he was an Israeli-born, 56-year-old, Jewish writer and director. But a Christian activist involved in the film project, Steve Klein, said Wednesday that "Bacile" was a pseudonym, that he was not Jewish or Israeli, and a group of Americans of Mideast origin collaborated on the film. Officials in Israel also said there was no record of Bacile as an Israeli citizen.

And even though Bacile told AP he was 56, he identified himself on his YouTube profile as 74. Bacile also said he is a real estate developer, but his name does not appear in searches of California state licenses, including the Department of Real Estate.

Film industry groups and permit agencies said they had no records of "Innocence of Muslims." A man who answered a phone listed for the Vine Theater, a faded Hollywood movie house, confirmed the movie had run for a least a day, and possibly longer, several months ago, arranged by a customer known as "Sam."

Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Matthew Lee and Stephen Braun in Washington, Gillian Flaccus in Los Angeles, Joseph Federman in Jerusalem and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

8 Ingredients You Never Want to See on Your Nutrition Label

By David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding
Aug 23, 2012

The year was 1950, and The Magic 8-Ball had just arrived in stores. It looked like a toy, but it wasn't. It was a future-telling device, powered by the unknown superpowers that lived inside its cheap plastic shell. Despite a bit of an attitude—"Don't count on it," "My reply is no"—it was a huge success. Americans, apparently, want to see their futures.

A few decades later, Congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act that, among other things, turned the 45,000 food products in the average supermarket into fortune-telling devices. Americans inexplicably yawned. I'm trying to change that. Why? The nutrition label can predict the future size of your pants and health care bills.

Unfortunately, these labels aren't as clear and direct as the Magic 8-Ball. Consider the list of ingredients: The Food and Drug Administration has approved more than 3,000 additives, most of which you've never heard of. But the truth is, you don't have to know them all. You just need to be able to parse out the bad stuff. Do that and you'll have a pretty good idea how your future will shape up—whether you'll end up overweight and unhealthy or turn out to be fit, happy, and energized.

While researching the new Eat This, Not That! 2013: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution, I identified 8 ingredients you never want to see on the nutrition label. Should you put down products that contain them? As the Magic 8-Ball would say: Signs point to yes.

BHA

This preservative is used to prevent rancidity in foods that contain oils. Unfortunately, BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) has been shown to cause cancer in rats, mice, and hamsters. The reason the FDA hasn’t banned it is largely technical—the cancers all occurred in the rodents’ forestomachs, an organ that humans don’t have. Nevertheless, the study, published in the Japanese Journal of Cancer Research, concluded that BHA was “reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen,” and as far as I’m concerned, that’s reason enough to eliminate it from your diet.

You’ll find it in: Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles


Parabens

These synthetic preservatives are used to inhibit mold and yeast in food. The problem is parabens may also disrupt your body’s hormonal balance. A study in Food Chemical Toxicology found that daily ingestion decreased sperm and testosterone production in rats, and parabens have been found present in breast cancer tissues.

You’ll find it in: Baskin-Robbins sundaes

Partially Hydrogenated Oil

I’ve harped on this before, but it bears repeating: Don’t confuse “0 g trans fat” with being trans fat-free. The FDA allows products to claim zero grams of trans fat as long as they have less than half a gram per serving. That means they can have 0.49 grams per serving and still be labeled a no-trans-fat food. Considering that two grams is the absolute most you ought to consume in a day, those fractions can quickly add up. The telltale sign that your snack is soiled with the stuff? Look for partially hydrogenated oil on the ingredient statement. If it’s anywhere on there, then you’re ingesting artery-clogging trans fat.

You’ll find it in: Long John Silver’s Popcorn Shrimp, Celeste frozen pizzas

FIGHT FAT WITH FAT! Some fats, like trans fat, will pad you with extra pounds, but other types can help you shed unwanted weight. See for yourself—pick up these 5 Fatty Foods that Make You Skinny today!

Sodium Nitrite

Nitrites and nitrates are used to inhibit botulism-causing bacteria and to maintain processed meats’ pink hues, which is why the FDA allows their use. Unfortunately, once ingested, nitrite can fuse with amino acids (of which meat is a prime source) to form nitrosamines, powerful carcinogenic compounds. Ascorbic and erythorbic acids—essentially vitamin C—have been shown to decrease the risk, and most manufacturers now add one or both to their products, which has helped. Still, the best way to reduce risk is to limit your intake.

You’ll find it in: Oscar Mayer hot dogs, Hormel bacon

Caramel Coloring

This additive wouldn't be dangerous if you made it the old-fashioned way—with water and sugar, on top of a stove. But the food industry follows a different recipe: They treat sugar with ammonia, which can produce some nasty carcinogens. How carcinogenic are these compounds? A Center for Science in the Public Interest report asserted that the high levels of caramel color found in soda account for roughly 15,000 cancers in the U.S. annually. Another good reason to scrap soft drinks? They’re among The 20 Worst Drinks in America.

You’ll find it in: Coke/Diet Coke, Pepsi/Diet Pepsi

Castoreum

Castoreum is one of the many nebulous “natural ingredients” used to flavor food. Though it isn’t harmful, it is unsettling. Castoreum is a substance made from beavers’ castor sacs, or anal scent glands. These glands produce potent secretions that help the animals mark their territory in the wild. In the food industry, however, 1,000 pounds of the unsavory ingredient are used annually to imbue foods—usually vanilla or raspberry flavored—with a distinctive, musky flavor.

You’ll find it in: Potentially any food containing “natural ingredients”

Food Dyes

Plenty of fruit-flavored candies and sugary cereals don’t contain a single gram of produce, but instead rely on artificial dyes and flavorings to suggest a relationship with nature. Not only do these dyes allow manufacturers to mask the drab colors of heavily processed foods, but certain hues have been linked to more serious ailments. A Journal of Pediatrics study linked Yellow 5 to hyperactivity in children, Canadian researchers found Yellow 6 and Red 40 to be contaminated with known carcinogens, and Red 3 is known to cause tumors. The bottom line? Avoid artificial dyes as much as possible.

You’ll find it in: Lucky Charms, Skittles, Jell-O

THE DOMINO EFFECT: Sugar doesn’t just come in the form of cookies and candy. Discover the insidious ways it can creep into your diet with 9 Sneaky Sources of Sugar.

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein, used as a flavor enhancer, is plant protein that has been chemically broken down into amino acids. One of these acids, glutamic acid, can release free glutamate. When this glutamate joins with free sodium in your body, they form monosodium glutamate (MSG), an additive known to cause adverse reactions—headaches, nausea, and weakness, among others—in sensitive individuals. When MSG is added to products directly, the FDA requires manufacturers to disclose its inclusion on the ingredient statement. But when it occurs as a byproduct of hydrolyzed protein, the FDA allows it to go unrecognized.

You’ll find it in: Knorr Noodle Sides, Funyuns

SAfrica labor unrest spreads; 36,000 miners strike

September 10, 2012

MARIKANA, South Africa (AP) — Chanting miners wielding machetes, clubs and spears marched from shaft to shaft of South Africa's beleaguered Lonmin platinum mine Monday, trying to intimidate the few workers who reported for duty in the fourth week of a crippling strike whose impact has already included dozens of miners killed by police.

At one point on their 10-kilometer (six-mile) trek, a striker lashed a whip at a man they accused of reporting for work. He took off across the scrubland with dozens of men waving machetes and clubs in pursuit. The man was saved by police officers who pulled him into their moving vehicle.

Meanwhile, labor unrest spread in the country, with an illegal strike by more than 10,000 workers halting operations at the west section of Gold Fields International's KDC gold mine. The strikes are rooted in rivalry between the main National Union of Mineworkers and a breakaway union.

At the KDC gold mine, for instance, spokesman Sven Lunsche said the strike started Sunday night and that senior managers met Monday with strikers demanding the removal of NUM shop stewards and a minimum monthly wage of R12,500 ($1,560).

Some 12,000 miners at east KDC staged a weeklong illegal strike to demand the removal of NUM shop stewards that ended Sept. 3. At a second platinum mine, Implats, 15,000-plus workers are demanding a 10 percent pay raise although they are continuing to work, spokesman Johan Theron said.

London-registered Lonmin PLC said just 6 percent of its 28,000 workers turned up Monday morning at its mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg. Mine drivers drove around looking for workers to pick up, but the buses returned to the mine empty.

In Marikana, hundreds of chanting strikers descended on one after another of the Lonmin mine shafts, chanting anti-government songs and blaming President Jacob Zuma for the police killings. They were monitored by armed police in riot gear, some in armored cars, others on foot.

As strikers approached Lonmin's Hossy shaft, police escorted a speeding cavalcade of buses and vans carrying working miners and trucks with explosives as they rushed to get from one mine shaft to another.

Strikers have threatened to kill any miners or managers who do not respect their demand for all work to stop until Lonmin agrees to a monthly take-home pay of 12,500 rand ($1,560), about double their current wages.

Lonmin had hoped many more miners would come to work since a peace accord was signed last week with three major unions. But it was rejected by a breakaway union and nonunion strikers. The government brokered the peace deal after police shot and killed 34 miners and wounded 78 on Dec. 16 at Marikana, a mass shooting reminiscent of apartheid-era days that has traumatized the nation of 48 million.

Ten people were killed in the week before the shootings: two police officers hacked to death by strikers, six union shop stewards and two mine guards burned alive in their car. The Legal Resources Centre, meanwhile, announced that it has hired forensic experts and pathologists to investigate the Marikana violence on behalf of the South African Human Rights Commission.

The commission has stepped in following local news reports alleging that some miners were shot as they tried to surrender to police, others were shot in the back as they ran away from the police fire, and some were run over and killed by police armored cars.

Police and government officials have refused to comment on the allegations, saying they must await the results of a judicial commission of inquiry that is to report to Zuma in January. Miners told The Associated Press they are getting desperate and do not have enough money to feed their families because of the no-work, no-pay strike. One said a loan shark is refusing to give money to any but long-time customers.

Still they said they remain resolute and will not return to work until their wage demand is met. The miners refused to give their names to a reporter. The National Union of Mineworkers said the Marikana strikers had gone around Sunday night threatening anyone who went to work.

Negotiations between mine managers, several unions and representatives of strikers who do not want to be represented by any of the unions were postponed for 24 hours because the strikers' representatives said they did not know about the meeting, Lonmin spokeswoman Sue Vey said. She said the talks would start off by working out a framework for salary negotiations and probably would last several days.

But Gideon du Plessis, general secretary of Solidarity union representing mainly white mine workers, said the strikers' representatives sent a message saying their position had not changed and they would not go back to work until Lonmin agrees to the salary demand.

The last of the miners killed by police were buried during the weekend, one in Lesotho and three in South Africa. The Daily Dispatch newspaper quoted a family member as saying that one of them, Thembelakhe Mati, was wounded in the shooting and got away to hide in a shack, fearing he would be arrested if he went to the mine hospital for treatment.

Half a dozen buses carrying mourners who had attended the funerals in far-flung parts of the country returned Monday to a shantytown of tin-walled shacks without water or electricity near the mine.

Faul reported from Johannesburg.

American killed in Libya protest over film

September 12, 2012

CAIRO (AP) — Protesters angered over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad fired gunshots and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing one American, witnesses and the State Department said. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and tore and replaced the American flag with an Islamic banner.

Tuesday's attacks were the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime leaders, Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, in uprisings last year.

The protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an Israeli filmmaker living in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed that one State Department officer had been killed in the protest at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. She strongly condemned the attack and said she had called Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif "to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya."

Clinton expressed concern that the protests might spread to other countries. She said the U.S. is working with "partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our missions, and American citizens worldwide."

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet," Clinton said in a statement released by the State Department. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."

In Benghazi, a large mob stormed the U.S. consulate, with gunmen firing their weapons, said Wanis al-Sharef, an Interior Ministry official in Benghazi. A witness said attackers fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the consulate as they clashed with Libyans hired to guard the facility.

Outnumbered by the crowd, Libyan security forces did little to stop them, al-Sharef said. The crowd overwhelmed the facility and set fire to it, burning most of it and looting the contents, witnesses said.

One American was shot to death and a second was wounded in the hand, al-Sharef said. He did not give further details. The violence at the consulate lasted for about three hours, but the situation has now quieted down, said another witness.

"I heard nearly 10 explosions and all kinds of weapons. It was a terrifying day," said the witness who refused to give his name because he feared retribution. Hours before the Benghazi attack, hundreds of mainly ultraconservative Islamist protesters in Egypt marched to the U.S. Embassy in downtown Cairo, gathering outside its walls and chanting against the movie and the U.S. Most of the embassy staff had left the compound earlier because of warnings of the upcoming demonstration.

"Say it, don't fear: Their ambassador must leave," the crowd chanted. Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy walls, and several went into the courtyard and took down the American flag from a pole. They brought it back to the crowd outside, which tried to burn it, but failing that tore it apart.

The protesters on the wall then raised on the flagpole a black flag with a Muslim declaration of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet." The flag, similar to the banner used by al-Qaida, is commonly used by ultraconservatives around the region.

The crowd grew throughout Tuesday evening, with thousands standing outside the embassy. Dozens of riot police lined up along the embassy walls but did not stop protesters as they continued to climb and stand on the wall — though it appeared no more went into the compound.

The crowd chanted, "Islamic, Islamic. The right of our prophet will not die." Some shouted, "We are all Osama," referring to al-Qaida leader bin Laden. Young men, some in masks, sprayed graffiti on the walls. Some grumbled that Islamist President Mohammed Morsi had not spoken out about the movie.

A group of women in black veils and robes that left only their eyes exposed chanted, "Worshippers of the Cross, leave the Prophet Muhammad alone." By midnight, the crowd dwindled. By early morning Wednesday, only about a dozen protesters remained, chanting "No God but Allah" for the benefit of news camera at the scene. Two bearded men nearby loudly debated about way to stop "America from harming the prophet."

Most streets leading up to the embassy reopened to traffic except for a side street employees use to enter the compound. Six Egyptian army armored vehicles were parked, next to a line of anti-riot police in helmets and body armor.

The embassy announced there will be no visa services on Wednesday. A senior Egyptian security official at the embassy area said earlier on Tuesday night that authorities allowed the protest because it was "peaceful." When they started climbing the walls, he said he called for more troops, denying that the protesters stormed the embassy. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

The Cairo embassy is in a diplomatic area in Garden City, where the British and Italian embassies are located, only a few blocks away from Tahrir Square, the center of last year's uprising that led to the ouster of Mubarak. The U.S. Embassy is built like a fortress, with a wall several meters (yards) high. But security has been scaled back in recent months, with several roadblocks leading to the facility removed after legal court cases by residents.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry promised in a statement to provide the necessary security for diplomatic missions and embassies and warned that "such incidents will negatively impact the image of stability in Egypt, which will have consequences on the life of its citizens."

One protester, Hossam Ahmed, said he was among those who entered the embassy compound and replaced the American flag with the black one. He said the group has now removed the black flag from the pole and laid it instead on a ladder on top of the wall.

"This is a very simple reaction to harming our prophet," said another, bearded young protester, Abdel-Hamid Ibrahim. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Egyptian police had removed the demonstrators who entered the embassy grounds.

Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. The 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

A 14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

The website's guidelines call for removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those that only express opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on specific videos. Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and who said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, "Innocence of Muslims," said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction.

Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

Bacile said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world. "Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said in a solemn, accented tone. Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed in Benghazi, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.

"I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it." Bacile said the film was produced in English and he doesn't know who dubbed it in Arabic. The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, he said.

Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in the U.S. known for his anti-Islam views, told The Associated Press from Washington that he was promoting the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.

Both depicted the film as showing how Coptic Christians are oppressed in Egypt, though it goes well beyond that to ridicule Muhammad — a reflection of their contention that Islam as a religion is inherently oppressive.

"The main problem is I am the first one to put on the screen someone who is (portraying) Muhammad. It makes them mad," Bacile said. "But we have to open the door. After 9/11 everybody should be in front of the judge, even Jesus, even Muhammad."

For several days, Egyptian media have been reporting on the video, playing some excerpts from it and blaming Sadek for it, with ultraconservative clerics going on air to denounce it. Medhat Klada, a representative of Coptic Christian organizations in Europe, said Sadek's views are not representative of expatriate Copts.

"He is an extremist ... We don't go down this road. He has incited the people (in Egypt) against Copts," he said, speaking from Switzerland. "We refuse any attacks on religions because of a moral position."

But he said he was concerned about the backlash from angry Islamists, saying their protest only promotes the movie. "They don't know dialogue and they think that Islam will be offended from a movie."

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington, Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles, and Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report.

Pussy Riot fest held in Russia despite pressure

September 10, 2012

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A music festival to support jailed members of the Russian band Pussy Riot went forward despite official pressure to cancel it, organizers said Monday.

Olga Kurnosova said city officials had tried to force her to stop Sunday's show in St. Petersburg — President Vladimir Putin's hometown — and firefighters had threatened to close down the Glavklub hall, claiming safety violations ahead of the concert.

About 1,000 people attended the "Free Pussy Riot Fest" headlined by the Russian rock protest bands DDT and Televizor, whose songs have long riled Soviet authorities and Putin's Kremlin. Last month three members of Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail for a "punk prayer" against Putin in Russia's largest cathedral in a trial that provoked an international outcry.

On Sunday, DDT frontman Yuri Shevchuk compared the spiraling Kremlin crackdown on political protests to Soviet-era repression of dissidents. "In 1992, we participated in a festival against political repression," he told the audience. "Twenty years have passed, but it seems almost nothing has changed."

Several younger rock bands and rappers voiced their support for Pussy Riot from the stage Sunday, and some spectators were wearing balaclavas — the feminist band's trademark headwear. Dozens of riot policemen surrounded the festival venue and detained four people afterward for alleged jaywalking, Russian media reported.

Proceeds from the show will be donated to Pussy Riot and other activists in jail under Putin, organizers said. One such activist is Taisiya Osipova, who was sentenced to eight years in prison after supporters say police planted heroin in her home for refusing to testify against her husband, a senior opposition figure.

More than 100 Russian intellectuals, including rock musicians, writers and film stars, signed an open letter to the Kremlin in July saying the Pussy Riot trial would divide Russia. But other Russian celebrities, including pop stars often seen on Kremlin-controlled television networks, have condemned the band's performance as disrespectful to Russia's dominant Orthodox Church.

Pussy Riot grew from a controversial art-protest group based in St. Petersburg. Among the group's most noted acts was the drawing of an enormous phallus on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg opposite the headquarters of the FSB, or Federal Security Service, the main KGB-successor agency.

Putin, a former KGB spy and FSB head, has compared Pussy Riot's stunt to a "witches' Sabbath." In a video made public last week, the members of Pussy Riot who have remained free said they were "going on with their musical fight" and burned a portrait of Putin.

Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report from Moscow.

French direct aid a dubious break for Syria rebels

September 07, 2012

PARIS (AP) — France's decision to send direct aid to Syria's opposition represents a break for the rebels after months of Western hesitation over fears that costly equipment intended for Syria's opposition could get lost or fall into the wrong hands. But even the French action, rebels and activists say, amounts to so little that it's all but useless.

France, Syria's one-time colonial ruler, began sending the aid without intermediaries last week to three regions of Syria where the regime of President Bashar Assad has lost control, in the first such move by a Western power, a diplomat said Wednesday. But it remains limited, primarily repairing bakeries, water systems and schools. And while apparently more than the indirect assistance extended by other Western countries, it's still far from the magnitude needed to make a difference, Syrian opposition activists said.

In the province of Aleppo, which includes Syria's largest city, and in the southern province of Daraa, activists said even the new French aid hadn't helped. When something is broken, it's locals who must fix it or just make do, said Mohammed Saeed, an activist in the Aleppo area.

"Instead of fixing water systems," Saeed said, "they should go and give food to 5,000 refugees stuck on the border with Turkey." France has pushed to secure "liberated zones" in Syria amid mounting calls for the international community to do more to prevent bloodshed. It has increased contact with armed rebel groups and started direct aid deliveries last Friday to local citizens' councils in five cities outside the government's control, the diplomatic source said, without disclosing the value of the assistance. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the French actions amid Syria's violence.

Britain has offered a total of $10 million in non-lethal aid to Syria's opposition, including medical supplies, communications gear and generators, intended to reach Syria through a small number of trusted intermediaries. Foreign Secretary William Hague says the supplies are for opposition activists — not fighters. U.S. and French officials have made similar comments about the destination of their aid.

"The amounts that have been delivered are even laughable," said Ausama Monajed, spokesman for the Syrian National Council, one of several groups of Syrians outside their homeland trying to win over Western backing.

Hague said Friday that EU countries can only provide non-lethal aid to Syrian opposition groups because of an EU arms embargo. "At the moment we have a European Union arms embargo on Syria, it's not possible or legal for any EU nation to send weapons to anybody in Syria and therefore our chosen route and is the same route of France and the United States, is to give non-lethal assistance and we're doing that," Hague told reporters in response to a question about whether France may be considering providing arms to the Syrian opposition.

He said Britain is also mulling sending protective clothing that doesn't fall under the arms ban. Hague has acknowledged that the West is cautious, offering equipment only to a small number of groups and in small batches. He said it had only been possible to send equipment after developing better ties to members of the country's varied opposition groups, some of whom are directing the deliveries.

The State Department set aside $25 million to supply the political opposition with non-lethal assistance, distributing 900 pieces of equipment through one program called the Conflict Stabilization Office. The gear includes cameras to document atrocities for potential future prosecutions, encrypted radios, phones, laptops and software that can be used to circumvent Internet controls, according to officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details.

The Assad regime, meanwhile, continues to get assistance from its allies in Russia and Iran. The Kremlin has insisted that the continuing Russian arms sales don't violate any international agreements and scoffed at Western demands to halt the trade. Syria's arsenal includes hundreds of Soviet-built combat jets, attack helicopters and missiles, as well as thousands of tanks and artillery systems. Russia also has said it has military advisers in Syria training the Syrians to use Russian weapons, and has helped repair and maintain Syrian weapons.

Iran also has been accused of helping to sustain the regime. The U.S. alleged this week that Tehran is flying weapons to the Assad regime across Iraqi airspace. The rebels have also benefited from weapons flowing to the rebels via Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere, according to activists and diplomats. Some of the arms, activists say, are purchased with Saudi and Qatari funds. Other sources are murkier.

In Istanbul, however, a rebel commander denied that the opposition was receiving arms deliveries via Turkey, dismissing the Assad regime's claims that foreign powers were stirring up the uprising. "If we were given any weapons assistance, the Syrian regime would not be standing now," Abdul-Qadir Saleh, the commander of the Tawhid Brigade, the main rebel outfit in Aleppo province, told a press conference. "The weapons we have are either looted from Syrian army depots or came with those who defected."

Peter Harling, of the think tank International Crisis Group, said Syria's opposition, although divided, was more than capable of handling aid. He criticized European and American diplomatic hesitancy as "a tendency to posture, to make statements as opposed to actual policy-making."

Harling said words without action would have long-term consequences among Syrians: "There's a huge disconnect which is causing a lot of frustration and will cause ultimately hostility on the part of Syrians who hear a lot of empty statements but see very little happening on the ground."

Associated Press writers Paul Schemm in Azaz, Syria; Greg Keller in Paris; David Stringer in London; Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon; and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Iran, North Korea sign technology agreement

September 02, 2012

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran and North Korea signed a scientific and technological cooperation agreement Saturday, bringing the two nations deeply at odds with the U.S. closer together.

Iranian state TV did not provide further details on the document but said it will include setting up joint scientific and technological laboratories, exchange of scientific teams between the two countries and transfer of technology in the fields of information technology, energy, environment, agriculture and food.

Any technical accord between Pyongyang and Tehran is likely to raise suspicions in the West. The U.S. has repeatedly accused North Korea of providing Iran with advanced missiles capable of targeting Western European capitals.

Last year, Iran denied a U.N. panel report saying that North Korea and Iran appear to have been regularly exchanging ballistic missiles, components and technology in violation of U.N. sanctions. Iran's state TV said the agreement was signed in Tehran in the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, by Iran's Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjoo and North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, that North Korea and Iran have "common enemies." "Arrogant powers don't tolerate independent governments," Khamenei told Kim. "In the march towards great goals, one should be serious, and pressures, sanctions and threats should not cause any crack in (our) determination."

In a separate meeting, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Kim's visit would have a "great impact on strengthening bilateral ties, expanding cooperation and boosting the anti-hegemonic front." Both countries are bitter enemies of the U.S. and the West. Iranian and North Korean officials have said in the past that their nations are in "one trench" in the fight against the Western powers.

Armenian protesters torch Hungarian flag

September 01, 2012

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Demonstrators in the capital of Armenia have set a Hungarian flag on fire to protest Hungary's decision to repatriate an Azerbaijani military officer who murdered an Armenian soldier in 2004.

The officer was pardoned shortly after returning to his homeland of Azerbaijan on Friday. He had been sentenced to life for killing the Armenian while both were attending a NATO course in Hungary. Hours later, President Serge Sarkisian of Armenia announced it was breaking diplomatic relations with Hungary.

Tensions are strong between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces since 1994. About 150 demonstrators gathered in Yerevan Saturday to set the Hungarian flag ablaze and demand an end to talks on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Protests decry Spain cuts to immigrant health care

September 01, 2012

MADRID (AP) — Some 300 people blocked a ring road in the Spanish capital Saturday to protest spending cuts that will leave large numbers of illegal immigrants without access to free health care.

Many undocumented immigrants who do not contribute taxes to social security are, as of Saturday, to lose the national health cards that had entitled them to free treatment The decision contradicts a pillar of Spain's welfare state — free health care for anyone in need — and it comes as the country struggles with 25 percent unemployment and massive financial problems.

The government expects to save €1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) a year with the measure. It puts the number of people affected at 150,000, although media reports say the real figure could reach 900,000. Protests over the measure have taken place in towns and cities across Spain in recent days.

Christoph Napene of Senegal was among those blocking the road in Madrid on Saturday. The 46-year-old said he's been unable to find a job in Spain and thus unable to apply for legal residency. "I've had strong stomach pains for over a week and have an appointment with a doctor on Monday," said Napene, whose work skills include teaching French. "We'll see what happens."

The measure allows for some exceptions: care during pregnancy, childbirth and post-birth emergency, and serious illness or accident. "In any case, foreigners under the age of 18 will continue to receive health care under the same conditions as Spanish nationals," a ministry statement said.

Manuel Cervera, health care spokesman for the ruling Popular party, said illegal immigrants could still have access to treatment, but they will have to pay for it, either now or later. If immigrants lack insurance or their countries don't have special deals with Spain, they will be billed for treatment once they get a job and start paying into the social security system, Cervera said.

He also noted that each of Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions retained responsibility on how to implement the payment requirements of the new measure. But many of the people protesting the plan did not seem reassured.

"I know a lot of people who will suffer as a result of this action," said Abuy Nfubea, organizer of Spain's Pan-African Movement, which he said represented some 5,000 members. Spain is in a double-dip recession, spurred largely by a real estate crash in 2008.

It has been trying to avoid following Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus in having to ask for an international financial bailout.

Wildfire kills 1 as it rages near Spanish resort

August 31, 2012

MADRID (AP) — A wildfire fanned by strong winds devoured hillsides around the wealthy Mediterranean resort city of Marbella in Spain on Friday. At least one person died, two sustained burns and more than 4,000 others were forced to evacuate their homes.

A dry winter followed by a scorching hot summer has left much of southern Spain tinder dry and susceptible to fires. About 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) of land in Spain has burned in nearly 12,000 wildfires so far this year.

Other European nations, including Greece, Portugal and Bosnia, also have faced blazes spawned by similar conditions. In Spain, regional Interior Ministry official Jose Luis Ruiz Espejo said the latest fire started outside the mountainside town of Coin, northeast of Marbella, and that authorities suspect arson as the cause.

All the residents of the nearby town of Ojen were forced to evacuate as flames swept through their valley. Most spent much of the night sheltered in sports centers in Marbella. Fernando Fernandez, mayor of the popular whitewashed hillside tourist destination town of Mijas, said many of its residents had been evacuated, but strong east winds had "fortunately for us, swept the fire westwards, toward Marbella."

Andalucia's regional government said a 78-year-old British man's charred body was found Friday "in a tool shed" near Ojen. Local police found the body while searching through the burnt embers of a house, the statement said.

Two 58-year-old people were in critical condition with burns covering more than 60 percent of their bodies, according to a regional government statement. Jose Antonio Grinan, the regional president, said two people were being treated for burns and bruises.

Grinan said if the suspicion of arson is proven true, it would be "a criminal act." Marbella, with its leisure craft port of Puerto Banus, is one of Europe's most luxurious seaside destinations. Its normally green hillsides are studded with mansions and palaces belonging to aristocrats, the rich and the famous.

High profile residents have included Scottish actor Sean Connery, the king of Saudi Arabia and descendants of wealthy European families such as the Bismarcks and Rothschilds. The wildfires have challenged the capacities of several countries in Europe this summer.

Bosnia's government said Friday it was considering asking for international help after a blaze around the southern mountain of Prenj, which has burned continuously for three weeks, has left the area resembling a smoking volcano.

Ciaran Giles contributed to this report.

IAEA establishes Iran Task Force

August 29, 2012

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency has created a special Iran Task Force of nuclear weapons experts, intelligence analysts and other specialists focused on probing allegations that Tehran has been — or is — secretly working on developing atomic arms, according to an internal document shared with The Associated Press.

The announcement from the International Atomic Energy Agency says the elite squad started work Aug. 10. Dated Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency statement says the unit will concentrate on implementing IAEA agreements with Iran, allowing it to monitor its nuclear activities as mandated by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

It also says it will focus on "relevant" IAEA and U.N Security Council resolutions on Iran. Both have demanded that Tehran stop activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons and cooperate with the agency's investigation of suspicions Tehran worked on nuclear weapons.

But while drawing together its best experts, the new task force will have no more power regarding inspections of Iran's known or suspected nuclear sites than previous IAEA inspectors did. Agency attempts to visit a site at Iran's Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran have documented IAEA limitations. For months, satellite images have recorded what the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects is an attempt to sanitize the site of suspected work on explosive charges used to detonate a warhead. At the same time, Iran has repeatedly rebuffed agency efforts for access — including last Friday.

The most recent satellite images now show what diplomats last week said appears to be pink material shrouding buildings apparently linked to the alleged experiments, effectively blinding agency attempts to monitor a site that they have been kept from visiting. The diplomats demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the IAEA's Iran investigation.

Iran says such allegations are based on evidence fabricated by the United States and Israel and insists its nuclear program is meant only for making reactor fuel, medical isotopes and peaceful research. But it refuses to give up uranium enrichment, which can produce both reactor fuel and the core of nuclear warheads, despite offers of fuel from abroad. And it has stonewalled an IAEA probe into its alleged weapons work for more than four years, increasing concerns that it has something to hide.

Creating a unit focused on only one country is an unusual move for the IAEA, reflecting the urgency the U.N. nuclear watchdog is attaching to Iran amid fears that it is moving closer to the ability to make nuclear weapons, despite its denial. With diplomatic efforts to engage Tehran on its nuclear activities stalemated — and Israel warning that it will not tolerate an Iran armed with atomic arms — concerns are growing that time is running short to defuse tensions peacefully

Israel is particularly worried about a fortified bunker at Fordo, where Iran has begun producing uranium enriched to a level closer to the grade used in nuclear weapons than its main stockpile of fuel-grade material. About 70 kilometers (40 miles) south of Tehran, Fordo has about 800 centrifuges operating so far, enriching to a 20-percent level, and continues assembling others without operating them — diplomats say that close to 3,000 are now fully or partially screwed together, including hundreds over the past three months

In Tehran, Iran's IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told reporters Tuesday that his country will "not suspend enrichment activities, even for a second." Diplomats had told the AP last week that the IAEA was forming a special Iran team. The announcement confirming that information was forwarded Wednesday by a diplomat who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to share confidential and internal IAEA documents. A phone call seeking comment from Soltanieh went to his voice mail.

Instead of focusing only one country, agency experts up to now have been tasked with following dozens of nations as they look for signs indicating secret attempts to make nuclear weapons. Some IAEA officials feel that means that they often spend an inordinate amount of time monitoring countries that are unlikely to engage in such activities — Western European nations, for instance — meaning that not enough attention is paid to potential proliferators.

One of the diplomats who spoke to the AP last week said the Iran team will be comprised of about 20 experts drawn from the main IAEA pool. The IAEA announcement said the squad will be headed by Massimo Aparo. A nuclear engineer, Aparo is an IAEA veteran who has held numerous senior positions linked to nonproliferation within and outside of the IAEA and was already in charge of the Iran file before the agency revamp.

The agency said he will be reporting to IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, the head of the agency's nuclear inspectors and the agency's point man on Iran.

Foreign activists to try again with Palestinian visit

Aug 28, 2012

AMMAN — US and European activists insisted Tuesday on making a new attempt to go to Palestinian territories, two days after Israel and Jordan barred them from entering the West Bank to deliver aid to students.

"We are thinking of going in December to the Palestinian areas to break the siege on them," Olivia Zemor, spokeswoman for the "Welcome to Palestine" group, told a news conference in Amman.

"We still do not know for sure if we want to go to Gaza this time or another place. It depends on whether the (Egyptian-controlled) Rafah crossing will be open or not."

Israeli and Jordanian authorities on Sunday prevented the group of 100 activists from going to the West Bank through Allenby Bridge border crossing for delivering a ton of school stationary to Palestinian students.

Their first bus was allowed by the Jordanian authorities but the Israelis turned them back. The second bus was prevented from crossing by the Jordanians at the request of the Israeli authorities.

"I think it is unfortunate that one of the two buses was prevented by Jordan at the request of Israel," Zemor said.

"We do not understand, and I think the Jordanian government should consider that Israel is not a respectable state because it does not respect international laws."

Jordan and Israeli signed a peace treaty in 1994.

"I think the Palestinians are being imprisoned, tortured and killed because there is cooperation between Israel and our countries," said Zemor, who heads CAPJPO-Europalestine, a French NGO seeking to help end the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"If you in Jordan accept and approve such cooperation, then our mission will be extremely difficult."

Zemor said the campaigners from France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and the United States will deliver their supplies on Wednesday to Palestinian children in the Jerash refugee camp, north of the capital Amman.

They plan on Thursday to hold separate demonstrations outside the French and Israeli embassies.

"We want to tell the Israelis they are occupiers and terrorists who keep terrorizing Palestinians and anybody who wants to support them," Zemor said.

"At the same time, we want to show the French government how shocked we are that it did not protest or make any statement against what the Israelis did."

The campaigners say their mission comes after an invitation by Bethlehem governor Abdel-Fatah Hamayel.

They tried to go to Israel in July 2011 and April 2012, but the authorities at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport denied them entry.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

Neil Armstrong, 1st man on the moon, dies

By LISA CORNWELL and SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press
Sat, Aug 25, 2012

CINCINNATI (AP) — Neil Armstrong was a quiet self-described nerdy engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved pilot he made "one giant leap for mankind" with a small step on to the moon. The modest man who had people on Earth entranced and awed from almost a quarter million miles away has died. He was 82.

Armstrong died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures, a statement Saturday from his family said. It didn't say where he died.

Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century's scientific expeditions. His first words after setting foot on the surface are etched in history books and the memories of those who heard them in a live broadcast.

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said.

In those first few moments on the moon, during the climax of heated space race with the then-Soviet Union, Armstrong stopped in what he called "a tender moment" and left a patch commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.

"It was special and memorable but it was only instantaneous because there was work to do," Armstrong told an Australian television interviewer this year.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the lunar surface, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs.

"The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to," Armstrong once said.

The moonwalk marked America's victory in the Cold War space race that began Oct. 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, a 184-pound satellite that sent shock waves around the world.

Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA's forerunner and an astronaut, Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamor of the space program.

"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."

A man who kept away from cameras, Armstrong went public in 2010 with his concerns about President Barack Obama's space policy that shifted attention away from a return to the moon and emphasized private companies developing spaceships. He testified before Congress and in an email to The Associated Press, Armstrong said he had "substantial reservations," and along with more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans, he signed a letter calling the plan a "misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future."

Armstrong's modesty and self-effacing manner never faded.

When he appeared in Dayton in 2003 to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, he bounded onto a stage before 10,000 people packed into a baseball stadium. But he spoke for only a few seconds, did not mention the moon, and quickly ducked out of the spotlight.

He later joined former astronaut and Sen. John Glenn to lay wreaths on the graves of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Glenn introduced Armstrong and noted it was 34 years to the day that Armstrong had walked on the moon.

"Thank you, John. Thirty-four years?" Armstrong quipped, as if he hadn't given it a thought.
At another joint appearance, the two embraced and Glenn commented: "To this day, he's the one person on Earth, I'm truly, truly envious of."

Armstrong's moonwalk capped a series of accomplishments that included piloting the X-15 rocket plane and making the first space docking during the Gemini 8 mission, which included a successful emergency splashdown.

In the years afterward, Armstrong retreated to the quiet of the classroom and his southwest Ohio farm. Aldrin said in his book "Men from Earth" that Armstrong was one of the quietest, most private men he had ever met.

In the Australian interview, Armstrong acknowledged that "now and then I miss the excitement about being in the cockpit of an airplane and doing new things."

At the time of the flight's 40th anniversary, Armstrong again was low-key, telling a gathering that the space race was "the ultimate peaceful competition: USA versus U.S.S.R. It did allow both sides to take the high road with the objectives of science and learning and exploration."

Glenn, who went through jungle training in Panama with Armstrong as part of the astronaut program, described him as "exceptionally brilliant" with technical matters but "rather retiring, doesn't like to be thrust into the limelight much."

Derek Elliott, curator of the Smithsonian Institution's U.S. Air and Space Museum from 1982 to 1992, said the moonwalk probably marked the high point of space exploration.

The manned lunar landing was a boon to the prestige of the United States, which had been locked in a space race with the former Soviet Union, and re-established U.S. pre-eminence in science and technology, Elliott said.

"The fact that we were able to see it and be a part of it means that we are in our own way witnesses to history," he said.

The 1969 landing met an audacious deadline that President Kennedy had set in May 1961, shortly after Alan Shepard became the first American in space with a 15-minute suborbital flight.

(Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin had orbited the Earth and beaten the U.S. into space the previous month.)

"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth," Kennedy had said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important to the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

The end-of-decade goal was met with more than five months to spare. "Houston: Tranquility Base here," Armstrong radioed after the spacecraft settled onto the moon. "The Eagle has landed."

"Roger, Tranquility," the Houston staffer radioed back. "We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."

The third astronaut on the mission, Michael Collins, circled the moon in the mother ship Columbia 60 miles overhead while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon's surface.

In all, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon between 1969 and the last moon mission in 1972.

For Americans, reaching the moon provided uplift and respite from the Vietnam War, from strife in the Middle East, from the startling news just a few days earlier that a young woman had drowned in a car driven off a wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island by Sen. Edward Kennedy. The landing occurred as organizers were gearing up for Woodstock, the legendary three-day rock festival on a farm in the Catskills of New York.

Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, on a farm near Wapakoneta in western Ohio. He took his first airplane ride at age 6 and developed a fascination with aviation that prompted him to build model airplanes and conduct experiments in a homemade wind tunnel.

As a boy, he worked at a pharmacy and took flying lessons. He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver's license.

Armstrong enrolled in Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering but was called to duty with the U.S. Navy in 1949 and flew 78 combat missions in Korea.

After the war, Armstrong finished his degree from Purdue and later earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. He became a test pilot with what evolved into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.

Armstrong was accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962 — the first, including Glenn, was chosen in 1959 — and commanded the Gemini 8 mission in 1966. After the first space docking, he brought the capsule back in an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean when a wildly firing thruster kicked it out of orbit.

Armstrong was backup commander for the historic Apollo 8 mission at Christmastime in 1968. In that flight, Commander Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell and Bill Anders circled the moon 10 times, and paving the way for the lunar landing seven months later.

Aldrin said he and Armstrong were not prone to free exchanges of sentiment.

"But there was that moment on the moon, a brief moment, in which we sort of looked at each other and slapped each other on the shoulder ... and said, 'We made it. Good show,' or something like that," Aldrin said.

An estimated 600 million people — a fifth of the world's population — watched and listened to the landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.

Parents huddled with their children in front of the family television, mesmerized by what they were witnessing. Farmers abandoned their nightly milking duties, and motorists pulled off the highway and checked into motels just to see the moonwalk.

Television-less campers in California ran to their cars to catch the word on the radio. Boy Scouts at a camp in Michigan watched on a generator-powered television supplied by a parent.

Afterward, people walked out of their homes and gazed at the moon, in awe of what they had just seen. Others peeked through telescopes in hopes of spotting the astronauts.

In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong's parents.
"You couldn't see the house for the news media," recalled John Zwez, former manager of the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum. "People were pulling grass out of their front yard."

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.

In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

He remained there until 1979 and during that time bought a 310-acre farm near Lebanon, where he raised cattle and corn. He stayed out of public view, accepting few requests for interviews or speeches.

"He didn't give interviews, but he wasn't a strange person or hard to talk to," said Ron Huston, a colleague at the University of Cincinnati. "He just didn't like being a novelty."

Those who knew him said he enjoyed golfing with friends, was active in the local YMCA and frequently ate lunch at the same restaurant in Lebanon.

In 2000, when he agreed to announce the top 20 engineering achievements of the 20th century as voted by the National Academy of Engineering, Armstrong said there was one disappointment relating to his moonwalk.

"I can honestly say — and it's a big surprise to me — that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," he said.

From 1982 to 1992, Armstrong was chairman of Charlottesville, Va.-based Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc., a company that supplies computer information management systems for business aircraft.

He then became chairman of AIL Systems Inc., an electronic systems company in Deer Park, N.Y.
Armstrong married Carol Knight in 1999, and the couple lived in Indian Hill, a Cincinnati suburb. He had two adult sons from a previous marriage.

At the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on Saturday, visitors held a minute of silence in memory of Armstrong.

___

Borenstein reported from Washington. AP Science Writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

New, Colorful Monkey Species Discovered

By Andrea Mustain, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer | LiveScience.com
(13.9.2012 Thursday)

A shy, brightly colored monkey species has been found living in the lush rainforests at the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a find that utterly surprised the researchers who came upon it.

"When I first saw it, I immediately knew it was something new and different — I just didn't know how significant it was," said John Hart, a veteran Congo researcher who is scientific director for the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, based in Kinshasa.

In fact, the find was something of a happy accident. Hart first spied the suspect monkey in 2007 while sifting through photographs brought back from a recently concluded field expedition to a remote region of central DRC.

Yet the image that caught his eye hadn't been taken in the field. It was snapped in a village, and showed a young girl named Georgette with a tiny monkey that had taken a shine to the 13-year-old.

What is that?

It was a gorgeous animal, Hart said, with a blond mane and upper chest, and a bright red patch on the lower back. "I'd never seen that on any animal in the area, so right away I said, 'Hmmm,'" he told OurAmazingPlanet.

Hart decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. Fast forward through five years of field work, genetic research and anatomical study, and today (Sept. 12) Hart and a list of collaborators formally introduced to the world a new primate species, dubbed Cercopithecus lomamiensis, and known locally as the lesula. Their work is announced in the online journal PLOS One.

It turned out that the little monkey that hung around Georgette's house had been brought to the area by the girl's uncle, who had found it on a hunting trip. It wasn't quite a pet, but it became known as Georgette's lesula. The young female primate passed its days running in the yard with the dogs, foraging around the village for food, and growing up into a monkey that belonged to a species nobody recognized.

Further investigation revealed the full story of the strange monkey. It turned out that C. lomamiensis, a cryptic, skittish primate, roams a swath of dense rainforest some 6,500 square miles (17,000 square kilometers).

"For a big mammal to go unnoticed is pretty unusual," said Kate Detwiler, a primatologist and assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University, and an author on the paper. Yet one visit to the area that the lesula calls home reveals why the monkeys escaped scientific notice for so long, Detwiler told OurAmazingPlanet. This region of the DRC is remote and vast.

The trees tower overhead, blocking out the sun, and the forest floor — the chief domain of the lesula — is steeped in a permanent gloom. The forest is full of sounds. At first light, the lesulas raise a lilting chorus of booming calls, distinct from the cries of their monkey neighbors who pass their lives in the trees high above the forest floor; at dusk, the cries of African grey parrots echo through the canopy. The earth is wet and soft, and feet sink into the ground with each step. There is a gentle, steady thud as fruit falls from the trees.

One gets the feeling of being on a ship very far out to sea, Detwiler said only here, the ocean is the endless expanse of the trees. "I felt so privileged to be there," she said. "I wish everybody could have that experience."

Blue buttocks

The lesulas live in this isolated region in groups up to five strong, and feeds on fruit and leafy plants. The males weigh up to 15 pounds (7 kilograms), about twice the size of the females. They also have some rather arresting anatomical features.

"They have giant blue backsides," Hart said. "Bright aquamarine buttocks and testicles. What a signal! That aquamarine blue is really a bright color in forest understory."

"So in terms of monkey viewing, females can definitely find males," Detwiler said.

"We don't really know what this means because it's very uncommon for monkeys in this lineage," she added.

The only other monkey to share this feature is the lesula's closest cousin — the owl-faced monkey, a species that lives farther east. At first it was thought the monkeys were close kin, but genetic analysis suggests the two species split from a common ancestor about 2 million years ago.

Now that the new species has been formally identified, Hart said, the next task is to save it. Although the lesula is new to science, it is a well-established sight on the dinner table.

What's for dinner

There's a thriving market for bush meat, particularly in urban areas, Hart said, and the monkeys are just one of dozens of species, from snakes to elephants to apes, that are targeted.

"People have disposable income, and this is the cheapest meat," he said. "Bush meat is a go-to item because it's less expensive than chicken or beef. This is not a new problem, but it's a problem that doesn't have a solution yet."

Hart and his wife, Terese, are partnering with local people to try to set up a national park in the lesulas' territory, but it's still a work in progress. In the meantime, researchers have set up camera traps in the dense forest to try to better understand the habits of the shy animals.

Georgette, the girl whose lesula companion started it all, is now 18. "The animal was very attached to her," Hart said. But one day the monkey disappeared.

"It was suspected that somebody in town had taken it in," Hart said. "And it ended up in their cooking pot."

King of Jordan Halts Fuel Price Increase

Written by Adam Nicky
Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Experts don’t see alternative fuel resources in the near future

AMMAN- King Abdullah II of Jordan has stepped in to stop the government from imposing an increase on gasoline prices, a move apparently aimed at easing growing public discontent over the government’s economic policy.

The king, who wields absolute power in accordance with the constitution, reacted one day after a 10 percent rise in fuel prices had been announced as part of a series of measures intended to trim the budget deficit and generate badly needed funds. The royal decree by the monarch, known for his pro-Western outlook, seemingly did the trick, absorbing at least some of the anger at the government’s fiscal policies visibly spreading among the poor and, according to some observers, even threatening the country’s stability.

When the price increase was announced, the government had explained the move as necessary to mitigate the impact on the budget. Following the cancellation of the fuel price hike, the king did not say what, if any, measures would be taken to compensate the treasury for the loss of funding the gas hike would have provided.

The move by Abdullah on Sunday came only hours after dozens of angry Members of Parliament vilified conservative Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh for raising fuel prices without consulting legislators. A motion of no confidence calling for Tarawneh’s dismissal was rejected on constitutional grounds.

Upon word of the intended increase in the cost of gas, economists had accused the government of turning a blind eye to the concerns of the country’s industrial sector which feared it would be harmed by a continued increase in production costs. Abdel Razaq Tabour, a member of the Zarqa Chamber of Industry, said the government took the decision without consulting the business sector and expressed concern over the future of laborers in the industrial sector.

“Industries have been suffering for the past years due to limited markets and high competition. With this frequent change in fuel prices, I am not sure how long we can continue,” Tabour told The Media Line. He said thousands of workers could lose their jobs and warned about growing social unrest in poverty stricken areas where unemployment is believed to be more than 15 per cent. Earlier Sunday, the streets of west Amman turned yellow after hundreds of taxi drivers staged a strike in busy parts of the capital to protest against the fuel increase.

“They are robbing us in broad daylight,” shouted one cab taxi driver referring to government reliance on taxation as a response to the shortage of cash. “Tomorrow, the prime minister will be fired after he puts in place the new increase. They are playing musical chairs games with us. One prime minister comes to increase prices, and another replaces him to absorb anger of the public,” said Zaidoun Abul Haq, an activist from the taxi drivers union.

Jordan is one of the poorest countries in the region in terms of oil and energy resources, with most of its needs imported from neighboring countries. Saudi Arabia supplies most of the country’s fuel needs at a comparably lower price – with discounts as large as 20% according to economists -- compared to the international market, while Egypt pumps gas from the Sinai desert.

Officials have been concerned that the cash-strapped kingdom of Jordan remains hostage to its political relationships with its larger neighbors, preventing it from finding energy from local resources while the government is accused of overpricing necessities such as fuel.

But despite the kingdom’s discounted gas prices, experts and economists still accuse the government of overcharging citizens when compared to what other nations pay. A senior official from Royal Jordanian Airlines says the company buys airplane fuel in more than 60 cities around the world, and of those, prices in Jordan rank highest. Speaking to The Media Line on the condition of anonymity, the source said he expects the national flag-carrier will continue to suffer in a highly competitive market. Just recently, the company was forced to shut down some of its operations to Europe and Asia due to its mounting losses.

The kingdom is currently looking into alternatives to conventional fuel for generating electricity, including atomic energy and extracting shale oil extraction. A multi-billion dollar project to build the first nuclear facility is under discussion, but the ambitious program has not yet been approved and under any circumstances is not expected to be functional for many years.

Efforts to tap into vast reserves of shale oil, however, began earlier this year, but experts believe it will produce enough to satisfy the country’s rising demands any time soon.

In the meantime, experts say the government will be struggling to meet the strict conditions of the International Monitory Fund to keep its books balanced as it looks toward borrowing more money in order to solve its urgent financial needs.

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