Spain gov't approves new restrictive abortion law

December 20, 2013

MADRID (AP) — Spain's conservative government on Friday approved tight restrictions on abortion, allowing the practice only in the case of rape or when there is a serious health risk to the mother or fetus.

The previous government made abortion widely legal before the 14th week only three years ago. But the ruling Popular Party has long sided with the Roman Catholic Church on moral and social issues and made changing the law one of its main promises in the 2011 vote that brought it to power.

Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said the change was necessary to provide greater protection for both women and the unborn. "What the government understands is that in the dramatic circumstances of an abortion the woman is not guilty. The woman is always the victim," he said.

The bill has been vigorously opposed by most opposition parties and women's groups, who see it as an attack on women's rights and a step backward compared to Spain's neighbors in Europe. The legislation must still be approved by parliament, but the Popular Party's large majority means it is almost certain to pass.

More than 1,000 people marched to the Justice Ministry late Friday and scuffles with police broke out after a life-size effigy of Ruiz-Gallardon was burned. An Associated Press photographer saw four protesters arrested and at least one covered in blood and being treated for injuries after police charged toward them.

Women seeking abortions will need approval from two doctors who are not performing the procedure and doctors can decline to perform an abortion for reasons of conscience, Ruiz-Gallardon said. The likelihood of a child being born with disabilities will not be an acceptable justification for abortion.

Ruiz-Gallardon said 16- and 17-year-olds will once again have to obtain permission from their parents - and be accompanied by them - to have an abortion. The minister stressed that the reform was a campaign pledge, though critics say that the party has broken nearly every election promise, including his pledge not to increase taxes or cut public sector pensions, as it imposes biting austerity to try to get Spain out of its crippling economic crisis.

Francisca Garcia of the Association of Accredited Abortion Clinics, which represents the vast majority of Spain's abortion clinics, said that about 100,000 of the 118,000 abortions carried out last year would be illegal under the new legislation.

Women's groups across the country have called on women in parliament, regardless of their party membership, to reject the legislation.

Iain Sullivan contributed to this report.

EU opens finance probe into Spanish aid to soccer

December 18, 2013

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union announced a probe Wednesday targeting Real Madrid, Barcelona and five other top Spanish soccer clubs that it says may have received possible illegal state aid.

The EU also said it might widen its investigation to include soccer teams' outstanding tax debts to the Spanish government, which total in the hundreds of millions. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said clubs should use sound financial management rather than live "at the expense of the taxpayer."

Almunia's office is responsible for making sure that businesses across the 28-country EU face a level playing field — including multi-billion, immensely popular soccer industry. The probe is intended to see if teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid have been unfairly relying on state aid to face other clubs in Spain's top flight La Liga league and European teams like Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League.

Beyond the top two teams, the probe is also investigating Valencia, Hercules, Elche, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna. The Spanish government, which knew the probe was coming, has already said there was nothing illegal about the aid that the clubs received.

"Sometimes probes are opened and closed without any consequences," Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Wednesday. The objections the EU was looking into centered on how Spanish clubs and local authorities handled fiscal issues such as loan guarantees, land swaps or construction funding.

The EU ombudsman's services said a complainant in the case said the state aid totals several billion euros, adding that the Commissioner had been considering the issue for years before announcing Wednesday's opening of proceedings.

More importantly, Almunia also said he might look beyond the specific case raised Wednesday. "I have also read about the questions on the high debts of the (soccer) football clubs to the economics ministry," Almunia said.

In April, Spain's Sports Council said Spanish soccer clubs owed the government 670 million euros ($874 million) in taxes. La Liga is one of the toughest professional soccer leagues in the world and any EU decision could have a deep impact on its future. The probe may take several months and any decision could then be challenged at the EU's highest court in Luxembourg.

Debt-ridden Spain has been struggling financially for years since it faced a real estate implosion several years ago. Many Spanish league soccer clubs — like many other types of Spanish businesses — already face severe financial difficulties. A decision to force them to return state aid money could make their problems even more acute.

In the case of Valencia and its neighboring teams Elche and Hercules, state guarantees for over 100 million euros (nearly $140 million) in loans over the past four years have been seen as essential for the clubs' survival.

Yet such aid, doled out to some but not all, may have been skewing the fairness of the league. "The Commission has concerns that these measures provide significant advantages to the beneficiary clubs to the detriment of the clubs which have to operate without such support," the Commission said in a statement.

The Spanish league said in a statement that it "wants to publicly show its unconditional and absolute support for the clubs and affiliated managing institutions in general and those under investigation in particular."

In the case of Real Madrid, the Commissioner said it "appears to have benefited from a very advantageous real property swap" with the city. The land was re-evaluated at 22.7 million euros in 2011 instead of an earlier estimated value of 595,000 euros in 1998.

The EU Commission said Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna may also have profited from corporate tax privileges not granted to other clubs.

Joseph Wilson contributed from Barcelona.

7 protesters arrested near Spain's parliament

December 15, 2013

MADRID (AP) — At least seven protesters have been arrested near Spain's parliament and 23 were injured during a demonstration against draft legislation that aims to sets heavy fines for offenses such as burning the national flag.

Around 4,000 demonstrators were stopped from surrounding parliament by a strong police presence late Saturday. A regional government said the arrests were made after protesters damaged a police car. The protest was organized to oppose the introduction of a bill that will set fines of up to 30,000 euros ($40,800) for offenses such as burning the flag and insulting the state.

The measures, which were approved by the Cabinet but must be voted in by lawmakers, update a 1992 law and will also include fines of 1,000 euros for insulting or threatening police during demonstrations.

NKorea tries to project unity on death anniversary

December 17, 2013

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea vowed to unite behind leader Kim Jong Un during carefully staged events Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of his father's death, in an attempt to show it has returned to business as usual after the purge and execution of his once-powerful uncle last week.

Kim sat silently as a stadium full of military and party officials paid homage to his father Kim Jong Il at the day's main event. He was flanked by Kim Yong Nam, the ceremonial head of state, and Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae, representing the military. Conspicuously absent was Jang Song Thaek, who was executed after being accused of corruption and trying to overthrow the government.

Jang was widely seen as the second-most powerful man in North Korea before his fall. The regime's decision to execute and publicly vilify him — charges of everything from alleged drug abuse to womanizing to trying to create his own powerbase were trumpeted daily in the state media — heightened questions over the stability of Kim's two-year-old leadership and shattered the North's carefully cultivated illusion of total unity.

But with Jang now out of the picture — he is already being deleted from state media archives — North Korea's official message Tuesday was back to its usual calls for "single-minded unity" behind Kim's leadership.

As top officials sat with Kim on a wide stage at the Pyongyang Indoor Gymnasium for Tuesday's event with a huge portrait of Kim Jong Il behind them, heads bowed as the traditional North Korean funeral dirge played. At several points during the speeches, all rose to applaud the "immortal and glorious exploits" of the late leader. Kim Jong Un, wearing a gray Mao suit, did not speak at the ceremony.

"Once more, our people's army is firmly determined to guarantee the victory of our great general's revolutionary cause," Choe said, adding that the military would "hold high the flag of the part" and follow "the ever-victorious leadership of our supreme commander."

Three minutes of silence were observed at the start of the ceremony. Jang's wife, Kim Kyong Hui, who is Kim Jong Un's aunt, did not appear at Tuesday's memorial. But she was noted by state media over the weekend in connection with another funeral of a top official, a sign that she has survived Jang's removal.

Contradicting past assertions of unity and strength, North Korea has acknowledged its leadership had indeed been roiled by the challenge by Kim's mentor and uncle after the 2011 death of Kim's father. The acknowledgement of dissension and dangerous instability in the government has raised fears of what's ahead as Kim tries to revive a moribund economy while maintaining and advancing development of the country's nuclear arsenal.

On the eve of the anniversary Monday, tens of thousands of people crowded Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, where two giant bronze statues of national founder Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il stand. A mass rally of the military was also held outside the mausoleum where the two Kims lie in state to swear allegiance to Kim Jong Un and the ruling Workers' Party.

As the ceremony began Tuesday, Pyongyang's streets were empty. Regular citizens are often expected to attend memorial gatherings at their workplaces, some watching the live broadcast of the Central Memorial Meeting on state TV. Many then turned out in groups at portraits and monuments around the city to lay flowers before going back to work. The anniversary is not a public holiday and work continues around the memorial meetings and events.

There were no major displays of public grief like the tears and wailing that filled the days after Kim's death in 2011. State media, meanwhile, has already switched back to usual propaganda fare. Jang is no longer in the headlines and has been deleted from at least one recently aired documentary. The focus has shifted strongly back to the glorification of Kim Jong Il and a series of on-site guidance visits by Kim Jong Un, who has in the past several days traveled to a military institute, a ski resort and a fish factory, all in keeping with the long-standing propaganda message that he's deeply engaged in the business of running the country.

Japanese prime minister visits Yasukuni war shrine

December 26, 2013

TOKYO (AP) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid his respects Thursday at a shrine honoring Japan's war dead in a move that drew a quick rebuke from China warning that the visit celebrated Japan's military attacks on its neighboring countries.

The visit to the shrine, which honors 2.5 million war dead including convicted class A war criminals, appears to be a departure from Abe's "pragmatic" approach to foreign policy, in which he tried to avoid alienating neighboring countries.

It was the first visit by a sitting prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi went to mark the end of World War II in 2006. Visits to Yasukuni by Japanese politicians have long been a point of friction with China and South Korea, because of Japan's brutal aggression during World War II.

Abe, wearing a formal black jacket with tails and striped, gray pants, spent about 15 minutes at the Shinto shrine in central Tokyo. TV cameras followed him inside the shrine property, but were not allowed in the inner shrine where he paid respects to the war dead.

"I prayed to pay respect for the war dead who sacrificed their precious lives and hoped that they rest in peace," he told waiting reporters immediately afterward. He said criticism that Yasukuni visits are an act of worshiping war criminals is based on a misunderstanding.

"Unfortunately, a Yasukuni visit has largely turned into a political and diplomatic issue," he said, adding, "I have no intention to neglect the feelings of the people in China and South Korea." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang issued a strong rebuke in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

"We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader's acts," Qin said. He called visits to Yasukuni "an effort to glorify the Japanese militaristic history of external invasion and colonial rule ... and to challenge the outcome of World War II."

He added: "Japanese leaders are not only showing no moderation but have doubled their efforts and created a serious incident on historical issues. This poses a major political obstacle in the improvement of bilateral relations. Japan must take responsibility for all the consequences that this creates."

Thursday's visit came on the first anniversary of Abe's taking office as prime minister. Abe, who had visited previously when he was not prime minister, had expressed extreme regret over his decision not to visit Yasukuni during an earlier one-year term in office in 2006-2007.

"It's been one year since I took office and I chose this day to come here and report to the spirits about the progress over the past year and to renew my commitment to peace so that we will never cause anyone to suffer in war," Abe said.

Adding to the unease of Japan's neighbors is Abe's support for revising Japan's pacifist constitution and expanding the military to counter rising tensions over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea claimed by both Japan and China.

__ AP writers Mari Yamaguchi and Gillian Wong, in Beijing, contributed.

China to build two new Antarctic bases: state media

Beijing (AFP)
Dec 19, 2013

Chinese workers are on their way to build the country's fourth Antarctic research base and a fifth is being planned, state-run media said Thursday as the country expands its imprint on the icy continent.

Construction on the main building of the fourth camp, named Taishan, will be completed next year, the state-run China Daily reported.

It will be used during the summer season for research into "geology, glaciers, geomagnetism and atmospheric science", the report said, adding that its main building will be shaped "like a Chinese lantern."

Pictures showed a Chinese icebreaker heading through sheets of broken ice towards the frozen continent, carrying a reported 256-strong crew.

The expedition will also carry out site inspections for another research station, the report said.

The report came a month after Russia and China blocked proposals for two vast ocean sanctuaries in Antarctica to protect its pristine wilderness.

Environmentalists slammed the "stubborn self interest" of nations opposing the plan, saying that an ocean wilderness home to 16,000 known species including whales, seals and penguins was at stake.

China is a relative latecomer to Antarctic exploration, sending its first exploration team to the remote continent in 1984 and establishing its first research base a year later.

Approximately 30 nations operate permanent research stations in Antarctica including the US, China, Russia, Australia, Britain, France and Argentina.

Argentina, one of the closest countries to Antarctica, has 13 facilities on the continent, more than any other country, according to 2012 data from the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP).

The US maintains six facilities, while Russia has 12 and Japan five, according to COMNAP.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/China_to_build_two_new_Antarctic_bases_state_media_999.html.

China slams Japan defense spending plan

Beijing (AFP)
Dec 21, 2013

China has denounced Japan's plans to boost military purchases, accusing it of playing up regional tensions as an "excuse" to ramp up defense spending.

The cabinet of hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Tuesday to spend 24.7 trillion yen ($240 billion) between 2014 and 2019 -- a five percent boost to the military budget over five years.

Japan plans to purchase stealth fighters, drones and submarines as part of its efforts to boost military hardware that will beef up defense of far-flung islands amid a simmering territorial row with China.

China is "firmly opposed" to Japan's spending plans, defense ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement released late Friday.

He accused Tokyo of playing up the perceived military threat from China as an "excuse" to expand its military.

Japan's actions "must cause great concern to neighboring countries in Asia and the international community", Geng said.

Tensions between Beijing and Tokyo have flared over the last year as the two have engaged in a bitter war of words over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.

China has sent ships and aircraft into the area on scores of occasions, prompting counter deployments by Japan.

Tensions were ratcheted up last month when China abruptly declared a new Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea, including over disputed Tokyo-controlled islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

The simmering tensions have hammered diplomatic ties. Abe has not held direct talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping since sweeping elections late last year.

China has been boosting its defense budget for decades, and last year was the world's second biggest military spender with an outlay of $166 billion, according to Sweden-based think-tank the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

United States spent $682 billion on its military in 2012, while Japan spent $59 billion, SIPRI said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_slams_Japan_defence_spending_plan_999.html.

Ukraine leader warns defiant regions amid protests

December 26, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president is warning defiant western regions of the country, which have openly supported anti-government protests of recent weeks.

President Viktor Yanukovych has faced more than a month of mass demonstrations across the country since he decided to ditch an EU deal in favor of forging closer ties to Russia. Officials in three western regions have taken unpaid leave as a means of protest against the government, and the mayor of Lviv near the Polish border warned that his police force may defend protesters if central authorities send forces to disperse demonstrators.

Meeting with members of his party on Thursday, Yanukovch said, "We will never allow any legal nihilism or separatism." Protests, meanwhile, are continuing in the capital, Kiev.

Activist, journalist beaten in Ukraine amid unrest

December 25, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A prominent Ukrainian civic activist and journalist was brutally beaten outside Kiev Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks on activists and opposition members amid weeks of protests calling for the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych and his Cabinet.

Hundreds of journalists and opposition activists gathered outside the Interior Ministry headquarters in Kiev on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko after the attack on Tetyana Chernovil.

Some held pictures of Chernovil, who has also been one of the leaders of mass demonstrations that have rocked the Ukrainian capital for more than a month since Yanukovych decided to scrap a deal with the EU in favor of forging stronger ties with Russia.

Chernovil has written for Ukrainska Pravda, as well as other pro-opposition news outlets. "Shame! Shame!" yelled the demonstrators, some of whom held pictures of Chernovil's battered, bruised and swollen face.

Chernovil, 34, was attacked as she was driving home. Her car was cornered by a sports utility vehicle. When she tried to flee, she was beaten by several men. Chernovil sustained a concussion, as well as fractures to her nose and face, said her husband Mykola Berezovy.

The attack took place hours after Chernovil published an article on a posh suburban residence which she claimed was being built for Zakharchenko. The protesters have been demanding Zakharchenko's resignation after a violent crackdown on a small rally last month left dozens injured. They have also accused Zakharchenko and other members of Yanukovych's inner circle of profiting while other Ukrainians suffer.

Yanukovych is accused of illegally appropriating a giant estate outside Kiev and building a palatial complex in what critics have called an example of corruption. He denies owning the estate and says he only occupies a small house on its territory.

Chernovil unsuccessfully ran for Parliament on the opposition ticket last year. In the run-up to the election last summer, she also broke into Yanukovych's heavily guarded palatial residence in an attempt to expose corruption there.

Yanukovych condemned the attack on Wednesday and ordered a thorough investigation. "We express our concern at a strikingly similar series of events over the last few weeks, targeting individuals, property, and political activity ...," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

World boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko accused the authorities of trying to intimidate opposition activists and called for nation-wide boycott of the government. "They want to paralyze people with fear. This is not going to happen." Klitschko said.

The attack on Chernovil has been the latest in a series against activists. On Tuesday, Dmytro Pylypets, an organizer of opposition protests in the eastern city of Kharkiv was beaten and stabbed by unknown assailants.

Members of the watchdog group Road Control, which has accused Ukraine's traffic police of corruption, also say they've been subjected to more attacks since they started helping protesters in the sprawling protest encampments in Kiev.

In recent weeks, two of their activists were arrested, one was beaten and another one was shot after he refused to disclose information on the group. The group has posted videos which they say show officers extorting and accepting bribes. It also claims to have exposed a scheme during which police tow cars to private parking spots purportedly owned by people affiliated with police. After the car owners spend days trying to contest fines, they are reportedly slapped with huge parking bills.

"They want to destroy us — either jail us, or chase us away abroad or just kill us off one by one," claimed group spokesman Yehor Vorobyov. Authorities have denied waging a campaign against the group.

"There has been no so-called hunt," Interior Ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We only act within the framework of the law." Burlakov said police are investigating cases of alleged bribe-taking, but he denied the existence of the parking scheme.

Oleksandra Matveichuk, head of the Center for Civic Freedoms, said the harassment of activists goes to the heart of the anti-government protests spreading through Ukraine. "Here we are witnessing clear politically motivated persecution in various ways," Matveichuk said.

"If people who defend human rights are attacked ... it means we can no longer speak of any democracy. The line has been crossed."

Kiev anti-government protest draws 100,000

December 22, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — About 100,000 people rallied in Ukraine's capital Sunday to demand the ouster of the president and his Cabinet as mass anti-government protests entered their second month.

The rallies were sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's decision last month to choose ties with Russia over integration with the 28-nation European Union. That deeply angered many Ukrainians, who favor the democratic structures of the West over Russia's autocratic government.

After a violent police crackdown on a peaceful rally, the demonstrators turned against Yanukovych himself and have transformed Kiev into a giant protest encampment. "We will create such a hell for the authorities that the ground will burn under their feet," said Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the opposition nationalist party Svoboda.

Yanukovych's concessions of releasing some jailed opposition activists and suspending several top officials over the crackdown have failed to end the protests. After several attempts to clear the protesters by force drew strong condemnation from the West, he now appears set on waiting them out.

But Yanukovych's stance was strengthened this week by a major bailout package from Russia to help Ukraine fend off a possible default. The aid includes a $15 billion pledge to buy Ukrainian government bonds and a sharp decrease in the price Russia charges Ukraine for natural gas.

The opposition, however, has dismissed the agreements with Russia as a sell-out and insisted that Ukraine's future lies with the European Union. Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko urged the crowd to spend New Year's and the following weeks on Kiev's Independence Square to force Yanukovych into calling early presidential and parliamentary elections.

"They think that we will get tired, they think that we will go home," Klitschko said Sunday. "This will never dissipate, because we understand that we need to implement reforms and the only way to implement reforms is by changing the leaders."

The movement is also trying to widen opposition support in the east of the country, which remains largely loyal to Yanukovych. While Sunday's demonstration was smaller than on previous weekends, it was still a strong showing for a protest movement that has entered its second month in the frigid cold.

Kiev's main square, the Maidan, and an adjacent street were filled with protest tents, field kitchens and giant barricades made of sacks of snow, car tires and wooden planks. "The Maidan has become a symbol of Ukraine's change," said Mykola Razdel, 35. "Simple people want change and it is in our power to change everything."

Meanwhile, Maidan received another important message Sunday. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest men and the country's most famous prisoner until two days ago, expressed hope that Ukraine's most prominent prisoner, the former premier and key opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, would also soon be released from jail.

Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's top foe, is serving a seven-year sentence on charges of abuse of office which the West condemns as political. "I hope that President Yanukovych, who frequently communicates with the president of my country will follow his example in this matter — the release of a political prisoner," Khodorkovsky told a news conference in Berlin.

Maria Danilova contributed to this report.

Information battle in Ukraine amid mass protests

December 18, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Since the mass anti-government protests started in Ukraine about a month ago, authorities and the opposition have waged an information battle. Both sides have an interest in demonizing each other, and the opposition is also eager to keep up the protest spirit.

The controversial statements are also rooted in the "say-what-you-want" post-Soviet culture, in which many politicians are eager to exercise free speech, banned in the Soviet Union, but seldom have been held accountable for it.

Here is a look at some of the most unusual statements and actions during the standoff, which was sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's decision last month to freeze ties with the West and tilt toward Moscow instead, and a violent police raid against protesters on Nov. 30.
GAY MARRIAGE

In recent months, pro-Moscow lobbyists have dotted Kiev with billboards warning Ukrainians of the alleged horrors they will encounter if the country commits to deepening ties with the European Union, including job losses, price increases and gay marriage. On Saturday, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told a pro-government rally that a visa-free regime with the EU will come only after Ukraine legalizes same-sex marriage. "Is our society ready for that?" Azarov asked. The tens of thousands in attendance responded with a resounding "No." Soon after, the EU's ambassador said the 28-nation bloc was advocating against the discrimination of gays, not same same-sex marriages.
FAKE STUDENT LEADER

Yanukovych attended a round table last week where representatives of the government, the opposition, clergy and civil society discussed solutions to the political crisis. But the student leader at the negotiations, who claimed to represent the thousands of students who have been camping out on Kiev's freezing Independent Square, or Maidan, for weeks, was in fact a member of a Yanukovych party youth group. Pressed by journalists to explain himself, Dmytro Levin said "Student anarchy takes place on the Maidan."
CLONE CANDIDATES

Kiev residents intending to cast their ballots for opposition candidate Yuri Levchenko in a by-election to parliament on Sunday were in for a surprise: there were three candidates with the same last name on the ballot. Putting so-called clone candidates on voter lists is a strategy widely used by spin doctors in post-Soviet countries. It is aimed at confusing voters and pushing them to vote for the wrong candidate. "They are just trying to fool voters," Levchenko, a member of the opposition nationalist party Svoboda, told The Associated Press. In the end, Levchenko lost to a pro-government opponent.
KEEP THE WEST HOPEFUL

Even after the government announced it was freezing preparations to sign a key trade and political deal with the EU, Yanukovych and his officials kept insisting the pause was only temporary and kept making promises to sign it very soon. Kiev was simultaneously making overtures toward Moscow, stressing the importance of strong ties with its giant neighbor to the east. Just hours after EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with Yanukovych in Kiev to seek reassurance of a peaceful resolution to the crisis, he sent thousands of riot police to attempt to clear the protest square by force. In Brussels, patience was running out. EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele called to freeze negotiations with Yanukovych until he makes up his mind, saying his words and actions were "growing further and further apart."
OPPOSITION FIRES BACK

The opposition has responded with scare tactics of its own, constantly warning protesters of provocations being prepared by the government. Hardly a night went by without opposition leaders issuing warnings of an imminent violent night-time crackdown on the square and other opposition strongholds. One opposition lawmaker claimed that, unable to suppress the protests with force, security services were preparing to spray demonstrators with paralyzing gas, which would render them sick and virtually immobile. Yet another opposition leader claimed authorities were preparing to plant a corpse on the protest square, blame the death on the opposition and launch a crackdown.

Ukrainian opposition presses with massive rally

December 15, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — About 200,000 anti-government protesters converged on the central square of Ukraine's capital Sunday in a dramatic show of morale after nearly four weeks of daily protests, but the rally was shadowed by suggestions that their goal of closer ties with Europe may be imperiled.

A much smaller demonstration of government supporters, about 15,000, was taking place about a kilometer (less than a mile) away from Kiev's Independence Square. Anti-government protesters have set up an extensive tent camp there and erected barricades of snow hardened with freezing water and studded with scrap wood and other junk.

U.S. Sens. John McCain and Chris Murphy joined the anti-government demonstration to express support for them and their European ambitions, threatening sanctions against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych if authorities use more violence to disperse the protests.

The protests began Nov. 21 after Yanukovych announced he was backing away from signing a long-awaited agreement to deepen trade and political ties with the EU and instead focus on Russia, and have grown in size and intensity after two violent police dispersals.

In the face of the protests, which present a serious challenge to Yanukovych's leadership, Ukrainian officials this week renewed talks with the EU agreement and promised that they would sign the deal once some issues are worked out.

However, the EU's top official on expansion issues, Stefan Fuele, cast doubt on the prospect Sunday, saying on his Twitter account that work is "on hold" and that the words and actions of Yanukovych and his government are "further and further apart."

Yanukovych backed off the agreement on the grounds that the EU was not providing adequate compensation to his economically struggling nation for potential trades losses with Russia. Russia, which for centuries controlled or exerted heavy influence on Ukraine, wants the country to join a customs union, analogous to the EU, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The opposition says that union would effectively reconstitute the Soviet Union and remain suspicious that Yanukovych might agree to it when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Arseniy Yatsenyk, a top opposition leader, warned Yanukovych against making such a move.

"If the agreement is signed, he can remain in Moscow and not return to Kiev," Yatsenyuk told the crowd at the protest on Independence Square, also known as the Maidan. Yuri Lutsenko, another opposition politician and former interior minister, told the protesters they were fighting for Ukraine's independence.

"What is happening on the Maidan today? It is an anticolonial revolution," he said. "Above all, Ukrainians turned out to say to Moscow: 'We are no longer under your command, we are an independent country."

McCain, a Republican, and Murphy, a Democrat, told reporters after the rally that sanctions were possible and "that there will be consequences to our relationship if there is any more violence on the streets of Kiev."

"We are here because your peaceful process and peaceful protest is inspiring your country and inspiring the world," McCain told protesters. "Ukraine will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better."

The mood was starkly different at the smaller pro-government rally across town. Many people from eastern Ukraine, the country's industrial heartland and Yanukovych's support base, are against the protesters in Kiev and want the country to have closer economic ties with Russia.

"We'll become the slaves of Europe if we go into it," said 43-year-old demonstrator Segei Antonovich. "Look at history — only union with Russia can save Ukraine from catastrophe." Over the past week, Ukrainian officials have made some steps toward the opposition, with Yanukovych proposing an amnesty for demonstrators arrested in the police break-ups of protests and suspending two senior officials under investigation for the violence

The opposition, however, is holding to stronger demands, including the resignation of the government and early elections for both president and parliament. McCain suggested those moves may not be enough to end the crisis, referring to the suspended officials.

"At least some people have been held responsible," he told reporters. "Whether they are responsible or not is not clear."

Associated Press writers Jim Heintz in Kiev and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.

Pro-government rally planned in Kiev amid protests

December 14, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's embattled leaders are planning to bring thousands of supporters to the center of Kiev to counter weeks-long street protests by the opposition.

Ukraine is facing a deep political crisis, with Kiev's central square dotted by barricades and tents as protesters call for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych. The demonstrations were sparked by his decision last month to freeze ties with the EU in favor of Moscow.

Negotiations between Yanukovych and opposition leaders brought few results Friday. Yanukovych offered an amnesty to protesters detained in the standoff, but the opposition demanded early presidential and parliamentary elections.

Humiliated by the constant presence of thousands of protesters in the center of the capital, government supporters planned a counter-rally Saturday on a nearby square.

4 top Ukraine officials investigated in crackdown

December 14, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities on Saturday attempted to appease anti-government protesters who have been demonstrating in the center of the capital for weeks by opening investigations against four top officials over the violent break-up of a small rally last month.

But opposition leaders dismissed the move as a half-measure and around 100,000 protesters turned out singing the national anthem in Kiev central square to demand that the president and the government resign.

A legendary Ukrainian rock band, Okean Elzy, performed in front of the jubilant crowd, dedicating the concert to all those who were detained and injured in the protests. "This is just the beginning," band frontman Svyatoslav Vakarchuk said.

The brutal police raid in the early hours of Nov. 30 galvanized the pro-Western protests sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to back away from signing a key integration treaty with the European Union, and instead turned toward Russia. Since that day's violence, protesters have also been demanding Yanukovych's ouster and early elections.

The deputy head of the national security council, the head of the Kiev city administration, as well as the then-head of Kiev police and his deputy are being investigated on suspicion of abuse of office in the crackdown on protesters, Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka said, according to his spokeswoman, Margarita Velkova. Prosecutors will seek to place the suspects under house arrest.

Shortly after Pshonka's announcement, Yanukovych suspended two of the senior officials under investigation, Kiev city head Oleksandr Popov and the deputy head of the national security council, Volodymyr Syvkovych, while the investigation continues.

But the opposition said they will not be content until the entire Cabinet, including Interior Minister Vitali Zakharechnko, who they believe is responsible for the Nov. 30 crackdown, resigns. Opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk called for early presidential and parliamentary elections, so that Ukrainians can elect new leaders who will finally sign the EU agreement.

"We have forced Yanukovych to make concessions," Yatsenyuk told the crowd. "Today's dismissals are just the first steps to punish those who are responsible for violence." The Udar opposition party, led by boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko agreed.

"Each of the persons named has their own bosses who could not have not known about this crime," it said in a statement. Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of government supporters gathered in the center of Kiev for a large counter-rally in a square adjacent to the opposition rally on Saturday. The two demonstrations were peaceful but the atmosphere was tense as rows of riot police and barricades erected by opposition protesters separated the groups.

Some in the pro-government crowd admitted to having been bused in and paid to participate. Oleh Koloburda, a 43-year-old miner from the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, Yanukovych's stronghold, said he was paid 200 hryvna ($25) and brought here by bus. "I believe in Yanukovych with my entire soul. We chose him. He is one of us," Koloburda said. The rally ended after several hours, leaving an empty square, despite organizers billing it as a round-the-clock protests.

Later in the evening, tens of thousands opposition activists thronged Independence Square to press on with their demands. "Ukrainians have a European history, European culture and music," said Volodymyr Shedko, 36, who listened to the Okean Elzy concert. "What we have left to do is to return a European style of government to Ukraine."

Meanwhile, U.S. Senator John McCain flew to Kiev on Saturday to meet with government and opposition representatives amid Western efforts to mediate the crisis. "(Our) message is that we believe that the future of Ukraine lies in Europe," he told reporters. "We want a peaceful revolution which can be achieved through dialogue and at the same time make sure that every effort is made to make sure that Ukraine is aligned with Europe."

Kiev has been rocked by protests since Nov. 21, when the government announced it was shelving the economic and political treaty with the European Union, after strong pressure from Russia, which had worked aggressively to derail the deal.

The demonstrations swelled to hundreds of thousands, the biggest protests since the 2004 Orange Revolution. After two violent dispersals, the authorities flooded Kiev with several thousand riot police this week in an attempt to storm the protest camp, but security forces were retreated after thousands of protesters mounted a night-long resistance in freezing temperatures.

Macedonia extends anti-pollution measures

December 21, 2013

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonia has extended urgent anti-pollution measures in four cities including the capital until Tuesday.

The measures include a ban on trucks from city centers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and instructions to private and public sector firms to allow pregnant women and employees over 60 to stay at home. People with asthma were added in new instructions Saturday.

Schools have been advised to avoid outdoor activities. Heavy traffic and the widespread use of stoves as a cheap means of heating have resulted in pollutant concentrations up to 10 times over permissible levels.

Mask-wearing environmentalists marched Saturday demanding free public transport and a ban on imports of used cars to help alleviate pollution.

U.S. sending missiles, drones to Iraq

Dec. 26, 2013

BAGHDAD, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- The United States is sending missiles and drones to Iraq to counter attacks by al-Qaida, which have killed more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, officials said.

A shipment of 75 Hellfire missiles was sent to Iraq last week and 10 ScanEagle reconnaissance drones are scheduled to be delivered by March, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki warned Sunday al-Qaida-backed insurgents are "seeking to gain control of territory inside the borders of Iraq."

The affiliate, she said, is a "common enemy of the United States and the Republic of Iraq, and a threat to the greater Middle East region."

Michael Knights, an expert on Iraqi security at the Washington Institute for Near East policy questioned the lack of armed drones being sent to Iraq.

"The real requirement today is for a long-range, high-endurance armed drone capability," he said. "There is one place in the world where al-Qaida can run a major affiliate without fear of a U.S. drone or air attack, and that is in Iraq and Syria."

Iraq's foreign minister has suggested the idea of having U.S.-operated armed Predator or Reaper drones respond to the al-Qaida threat though Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hasn't formally requested such intervention, Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/12/26/US-sending-missiles-drones-to-Iraq/UPI-24801388059406/.

Attack on presidential palace thwarted in Bangui

December 27, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Assailants armed with heavy weapons attempted late Thursday to attack the presidential palace as well as the residence of the Central African Republic's embattled leader, but were pushed back, officials said.

Reached by telephone, Guy Simplice, spokesman for President Michel Djotodia, said there had been heavy fighting near the seat of government, before the army was able to block the aggressors. Although the attackers could not immediately be identified, for weeks there have been rumors that a Christian militia, believed to be backed by the president, who was ousted by Djotodia in a coup nine months ago, would attempt to seize back power.

The heavy arms fire could be heard from the five-star Hotel Ledger, near the center of town, where international journalists are staying. A rocket came over the hotel's wall, landing on the hotel grounds. As the shooting died down, helicopters could be heard flying overhead.

The events are only the latest indicating that this deeply poor, but until recently relatively stable nation, is tipping into anarchy. Earlier Thursday, international forces were sent to pick up truckloads of decomposing bodies of slain Muslims, whose remains had been left at a local mosque by their friends and relatives, who were too frightened to be seen burying them in a city where Christian-on-Muslim and Muslim-on-Christian attacks have become a daily occurrence.

It also comes a day after the African Union lost six peacekeepers, who were attacked in the Gobongo neighborhood of the capital. Their destroyed car, with at least one calcified body still inside, had not been removed a day later, underscoring how dangerous this chaotic country has become, even for the international forces tasked with pacifying it, said African Union spokesman Eloi Yao.

As the African Union was struggling to secure that crime scene, they discovered another: Close to the presidential palace, peacekeepers discovered a mass grave. "We found around 20 bodies in a state of decomposition in an area that we call Panthers' Hill. The 20 were scattered in different graves in a small area. You found five bodies in one hole, three in another, two in yet another and so on," said Yao.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is "appalled" by the continuing inter-communal violence, including reports Thursday of dozens more bodies found on the streets of Bangui, and called on the transitional authorities "to rein in those fomenting and perpetrating the violence," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The U.N. chief welcomed appeals for peace by Christian and Muslim leaders, reiterated that those responsible for atrocities must be held accountable, and expressed sadness at the deaths of the six peacekeepers and a U.N. national staff member, Nesirky said.

The Central African Republic has been plunged into chaos, as the country's Christian majority seeks revenge against the Muslim rebels who seized power in a coup in March. Both Christian and Muslim civilians are now armed, and the foreign troops brought in to try to rein in the violence have been sucked into the conflict, accused of taking sides.

The Chadians, part of an African Union force, are Muslim and are seen by the population as backing the Seleka rebels who toppled the nation's Christian president in March. On the flip side, the 1,600 French troops who were deployed here in the first week of December are accused of backing the nation's Christian majority, and their patrols have come under fire in Muslim neighborhoods.

Caught in the middle are civilians, both Christians and Muslims, who are now bearing the brunt of collective punishment. Militiamen have been seen desecrating the corpses of their victims. An AP journalist saw Christian fighters known as anti-Balaka brandishing the severed penis of one dead man, and the hacked-off foot of another. Unclaimed bodies left to rot were found missing their genitals. Another was missing his nose.

The United Nations estimates that 639,000 people out of a population of 4.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Altogether 2 million people need humanitarian aid — almost half the country. The barbarity unleashed on the streets of this capital has surprised many. Although chronically poor, Central African Republic was relatively stable for the 10 years following its second-to-last coup in 2003.That military takeover brought Christian leader Francois Bozize to power. Though he was accused of favoring members of his ethnic group, and marginalizing the nation's Muslim minority, who represent just 15 percent of the population, the country never saw violence on the scale it is witnessing now.

On Wednesday in her home in the Gobongo neighborhood where the peacekeepers were attacked, Elodiane Baalbe spent Christmas hiding underneath her bed, her six children squeezed next to her, in the foot-and-a-half below the mattress. When it finally died down on Thursday, she made a dash for safety, hiding behind houses in her district as she fled her neighborhood.

On her way out she passed the calcified car of a unit of Chadian peacekeepers, the charred body of one soldier still upright in the vehicle inside. The sight was so horrifying that she looked away immediately. "I had my 3-year-old on my back. I looked for a second, and then I kept running," she said.

__ Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press staffers Rebecca Blackwell in Bangui, and Baba Ahmed in Dakar, Senegal, also contributed to this report.

Dwarf Planet Ceres - 'A Game Changer in the Solar System'

by Nola Taylor Redd for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Dec 26, 2013

In March of 2015, NASA's Dawn mission will arrive at the dwarf planet Ceres, the first of the smaller class of planets to be discovered and the closest to Earth. Ceres, which orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is a unique body in the Solar System, bearing many similarities to Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, both considered to be potential sources for harboring life.

On Thursday, August 15, Britney Schmidt, science team liaison for the Dawn Mission, and Julie Castillo-Rogez, planetary scientist from JPL, spoke in an Google Plus Hangout titled 'Ceres: Icy World Revealed?' about the growing excitement related to the innermost icy body.

"I think of Ceres actually as a game changer in the Solar System," Schmidt said. "Ceres is arguably the only one of its kind."

The innermost icy body
When Ceres was discovered in 1801, astronomers first classified it as a planet. The massive body traveled between Mars and Jupiter, where scientists had mathematically predicted a planet should lie. Further observations revealed that a number of small bodies littered the region, and Ceres was downgraded to just another asteroid within the asteroid belt. It wasn't until Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006 that Ceres was upgraded to the same level.

Ceres is the most massive body in the asteroid belt, and larger than some of the icy moons scientists consider ideal for hosting life. It is twice the size of Enceladus, Saturn's geyser-spouting moon that may hide liquid water beneath its surface.

Unlike other asteroids, the Texas-sized Ceres has a perfectly rounded shape that hints toward its origins.

"The fact that Ceres is so round tells us that it almost certainly had to form in the early solar system," Schmidt said. She explained that a later formation would have created a less rounded shape.

The shape of the dwarf planet, combined with its size and total mass, reveal a body of incredibly low density.

"Underneath this dusty, dirty, clay-type surface, we think that Ceres might be icy," Schmidt said. "It could potentially have had an ocean at one point in its history."

"The difference between Ceres and other icy bodies [in the Solar System] is that it's the closest to the Sun," Castillo-Rogez said.

Less than three times as far as Earth from the Sun, Ceres is close enough to feel the warmth of the star, allowing ice to melt and reform.

Investigating the interior of the dwarf planet could provide insight into the early solar system, especially locations where water and other volatiles might have existed.

"Ceres is like the gatekeeper to the history of water in the middle solar system," Schmidt said.

Studying the surface
As large as Ceres is, its distance has made it a challenge to study from Earth. Images taken by the space-based Hubble Space Telescope provided some insight to its surface, but to be sighted, features could be no larger than 25 kilometers in diameter. Several round circular spots mar the terrain, features which Schmidt said could be any one of a number of geologic terrains, including potentially impact basins or chaos terrains similar to those found on Europa. The largest of these, named Piazzi in honor of the dwarf planet's discoverer, has a diameter of about 250 kilometers. If this feature is an impact basin, it would have been formed by an object approximately 25 km in size.

But for Schmidt, this is another possible indication about the dwarf planet's surface.

"It doesn't mean that Ceres hasn't been hit by something bigger than 25 kilometers," she said. "It just means that whatever is going on Ceres has totally erased [the topographic signature of that event]."

Ceres may have suffered major impacts, especially during periods of heavy bombardment early in the Solar System's history. If the surface contained ice, however, those features may have been erased.

Telescopes on Earth have also been able to study the light reflecting from the planet and read its spectra.

"The spectrum is telling you that water has been involved in the creation of materials on the surface," Schmidt said.

The spectrum indicates that water is bound up in the material on the surface of Ceres, forming a clay. Schmidt compared it to the recent talk of minerals found by NASA's Curiosity on the surface of Mars.

"[Water is] literally bathing the surface of Ceres," she said.

In addition, astronomers have found evidence of carbonates, minerals that form in a process involving water and heat. Carbonates are often produced by living processes.

The original material formed with Ceres has mixed with impacting material over the last 4.5 billion years, creating what Schmidt calls "this mixture of water-rich materials that we find on habitable planets like the Earth and potentially habitable planets like Mars."

A prime site for life?
Water is considered a necessary ingredient for the evolution of life as we know it. Planets that may have once contained water, such as Mars, as well as moons that could contain it today, like Enceladus and Europa, are all thought to be ideal for hosting or having once hosted life.

Because of its size and closeness, Schmidt calls Ceres "arguably more interesting than some of these icy satellites."

"If it's icy, it had to have an ocean at some point in time," she said.

Castillo-Rogez compared Earth, Europa, and Ceres, and found that the dwarf planet bore many similarities to Earth, perhaps more than Jupiter's icy moon. Both Earth and Ceres use the Sun as a key heat source, while Europa takes its heat from its tidal interaction with Jupiter. In addition, the surface temperature of the dwarf planet averages 130 to 200 degrees Kelvin, compared to Earth's 300 K, while Europa is a frosty 50 to 110 K.

"At least at the equator where the surface is warmer, Ceres could have preserved a liquid of sorts," Castillo-Rogez said.

Liquid water could exist at other points on the dwarf planet known as cold traps, shadowed areas where frozen water could remain on the surface. Such icy puddles have been found on Earth's moon.

"The chemistry, thermal activity, the heat source, and the prospect for convection within the ice shell are the key ones that make us think that Ceres could have been habitable at least at some point in its history," Castillo-Rogez said.

The future of Ceres

As scientists develop more information about Europa and Enceladus, there has been a greater call to investigate the two prime sites for life. But Schmidt and Castillo-Rogez think that Ceres could also be a great boon for astrobiology and space exploration.

"It's not a difficult environment to investigate," she said. "As we think about the future of landed missions for people and rovers, why not go to Ceres?"

Though it would be more challenging to drill into than Europa, which boasts an icy surface layer, the dwarf planet would make a great site to rove around on. Schmidt also noted that it could make a great launching point when it comes to reaching the outer solar system. Its smaller mass would make it easier to land on-and leave-than Mars, which could make it a good site for manned missions.

"We have such a big planet bias, we have such a bias for things that look exactly like us," Schmidt said.

"In this kind of special place in the Solar System, we have a very unique object that might be telling us a lot about what we don't know about building a habitable planet."

NASA's Dawn mission launched September 27, 2007. It traveled to the asteroid Vesta, where it remained in orbit from July 2011 to July 2012 before heading to Ceres. It is slated to spend five months studying the dwarf planet, though Schmidt expressed hope that the craft would continue working beyond the nominal mission, allowing the team to study the icy body even longer.

Castillo-Rogez pointed out that not only will Dawn reach Ceres in 2015, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will be escorting the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko around the Sun that year, while NASA's New Horizons mission will be reaching Pluto and its moon Charon.

"'15 is going to be a great year for icy bodies," Castillo-Rogez said.

"I think when we get to Ceres, it's just going to be an absolute game changer, a new window into the Solar System that we wouldn't have without going there," Schmidt said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Dwarf_Planet_Ceres_A_Game_Changer_in_the_Solar_System_999.html.

German protest over cultural center turns violent

December 21, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — German police say 22 officers have been injured in clashes with protesters opposed to the eviction of a left-wing cultural center in the northern city of Hamburg.

More than 7,000 people demonstrated Saturday against the eviction of the Rote Flora center, a squatted former theater in the city's Schanzenviertel area. Hamburg police said some of the protesters began hurling objects at the 2,000 officers shortly after the demonstration began.

They said an unspecified number of protesters were also injured.

Germany's Merkel starts 3rd term in new coalition

December 17, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Parliament elected Chancellor Angela Merkel to a third term as the leader of Europe's biggest economic power on Tuesday, nearly three months after an awkward election result forced her to put together a new governing coalition.

Merkel now heads a "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties — her conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats, which are traditional rivals. Parliament's lower house elected her as chancellor by 462 votes to 150, with nine abstentions

The new government will move Germany somewhat leftward, for example introducing a national minimum wage, but will take a largely unchanged approach to Europe's debt crisis. It features Germany's first female defense minister, conservative Ursula von der Leyen, and sees former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, return to his old job. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a powerful figure in Europe's debt crisis, is staying on.

The parties' effort to form a government after Sept. 22 national elections, in which Merkel's conservatives came close to a parliamentary majority but saw their previous coalition partners lose all their seats, has been the longest in post-World War II Germany.

It was extended by the Social Democrats' decision to put the coalition deal to a ballot of all their members. They won approval last weekend but some remain wary because the party emerged weakened from a previous grand coalition in Merkel's first term, from 2005 to 2009.

At least 42 government lawmakers didn't vote for the chancellor on Tuesday but, given the new coalition's enormous majority, that is unlikely to worry her. Conservatives and Social Democrats hold 504 of the 631 seats. Germany's best-known ex-communist, Gregor Gysi, becomes the opposition leader; his hardline Left Party is the bigger of two left-leaning opposition groups.

Germany's biggest-selling newspaper, Bild, declared on Tuesday's front page: "Dear grand coalition, we are your extraparliamentary opposition now!" Editor Kai Diekmann wrote that "this parliament is too weak; its opposition too small and too left-wing."

Germany gets its 1st female defense minister

December 15, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's new government will feature the country's first female defense minister and the return of a respected former foreign minister, while Chancellor Angela Merkel's influential finance chief will stay on as she starts her third term.

Merkel's new "grand coalition" government of right and left is to take office Tuesday — nearly three months after her conservatives won elections, but fell short of a parliamentary majority and saw their previous pro-business coalition partners lose their seats.

Ursula von der Leyen will become defense chief, Merkel said Sunday. The 55-year-old mother of seven inherits the job of modernizing the military, which is being overhauled after Germany abandoned conscription in 2011, and overseeing its deployment in Afghanistan as combat troops depart.

Von der Leyen has helped modernize the image of Merkel's party in her previous roles as minister for families and labor. She "has always been interested in international affairs," Merkel said. "It's an exciting job, also a challenging job, but I trust that she will master it very, very well."

Veteran conservative Wolfgang Schaeuble will stay on as finance minister after four years as Merkel's co-pilot in fighting Europe's debt crisis — underlining continuity in Berlin's approach. The 71-year-old "stands for the stability of the euro and the policies linked with that, for everything that's important in Europe," Merkel said.

The current defense minister, Thomas de Maiziere, returns to his previous job as interior minister, Germany's top security official. He is one of 10 members of the new Cabinet from Merkel's Union bloc; the other six seats went to their new partners, the center-left Social Democrats.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was foreign minister from 2005 to 2009, returns as Germany's top diplomat. The Social Democrats' leader, Sigmar Gabriel, described him as "perhaps Germany's most distinguished foreign policy expert."

Gabriel will become vice chancellor and head a beefed-up Economy Ministry. He will have full oversight of Germany's transition from nuclear to renewable energy, marred by bickering between ministries since Merkel's 2011 move to accelerate the exit from nuclear power.

"We have to make the energy switchover a success," Gabriel said, stressing that it "brings great opportunities for extra jobs, but it must ensure that Germany remains reliable and ... robust as an industrial location."

Left-winger Andrea Nahles becomes labor minister, responsible for launching a national minimum wage that was part of the party's price for going into government. Joerg Asmussen, currently a member of the European Central Bank's executive board, will be one of her deputies. Merkel said the new coalition will discuss who to replace him with at the ECB, but didn't say when.

Deputy Social Democrat leader Aydan Ozoguz, who was born in Germany but has Turkish roots, will become the government official responsible for immigrant issues — one rung below Cabinet rank. In a change championed by her party, people born in Germany who also hold a non-European Union passport will no longer have to choose one citizenship, largely benefiting children of Turkish immigrants.

Merkel said an extra official will be added at the chancellery to handle intelligence matters as "a consequence of the NSA ... affair." Germany has been seeking answers from Washington to allegations that U.S. intelligence monitored the chancellor's cellphone.

There was no immediate word on who will get that job.

German party clears way for Merkel's 3rd term

December 14, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's main center-left party cleared the way on Saturday for Angela Merkel to start her third term as chancellor, announcing that its members had voted by a large majority to join the conservative leader in government.

The ballot of the Social Democrats' nearly 475,000 members capped post-World War II Germany's longest effort to form a government. It set the stage for Parliament to re-elect Merkel on Tuesday — ending nearly three months of post-election political limbo in Europe's biggest economy.

Some 76 percent of members who took part approved a deal to form a "grand coalition" government of right and left under Merkel and about 24 percent voted against. "What we want to do now is to show the 24 percent over the next four years that the 76 percent were right," party leader Sigmar Gabriel said. He added that the party had shown a great "sense of responsibility" to the country.

Merkel's conservatives won Sept. 22 elections but fell short of a majority and saw their previous pro-business coalition partners lose their parliamentary seats — forcing them to reach across the aisle for new allies.

The Social Democrats already served as Merkel's junior partners once, between 2005 and 2009 in her first term, and emerged weakened from the experience. In September, they finished a distant second to Merkel's Union bloc.

In an effort to counter members' strong initial resistance to working again with their traditional rivals, Gabriel took what appeared the risky move of pledging an unprecedented ballot of the party's full membership on any coalition deal.

Gabriel and other leaders toured Germany over recent weeks to sell to members the deal Social Democrats and conservatives hammered out last month. It featured key center-left demands including the introduction of Germany's first mandatory national minimum wage, at 8.50 euros ($11.65) per hour, and a change to the pension system that will allow some longtime workers to retire at 63 on full pensions.

However, Germany's position in Europe's debt crisis will remain largely unchanged and Merkel's conservatives refused to raise taxes for high earners. Gabriel's Social Democrats will have six ministers in the 16-member Cabinet. They are getting the foreign and labor ministries, as well as a beefed-up Economy Ministry with responsibility for managing Germany's switch from nuclear to renewable energy.

Merkel's conservative bloc will keep the powerful Finance Ministry, along with the interior and defense portfolios. There was no official word on who will get what job ahead of party meetings Sunday, though veteran Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is widely expected to stay on.

The general secretary of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, Hermann Groehe, welcomed the result of the Social Democrats' ballot. "We are glad that our work together in government can now begin quickly," he said.

The new government will have an overwhelming parliamentary majority. It holds 504 of the 631 seats in the lower house; the rest are held by the left-leaning Greens and the hard-line Left Party.

Austrian civil servants' protest draws 40,000

December 18, 2013

VIENNA (AP) — Tens of thousands of Austrian civil servants have demonstrated for higher wages in Vienna, in a protest that shut down main avenues for hours.

Police and organizers estimate about 40,000 protesters turned up Wednesday in the largest demonstration of its kind in recent years. Among the EU's most prosperous countries, Austria has been spared the kind of labor unrest seen elsewhere on the continent.

Civil servants in Austria include professions as varied as police officers and kindergarten teachers. Their unions are seeking a wage increase of 2.3 percent, while the government is offering 1.7 percent.

Some protesters carried signs reading "Less money for the banks - more for us!" — a reference to bailouts of financial institutions hit by the eurozone debt crisis.

More than 15,000 rally against racism in Stockholm

December 22, 2013

KARRTORP, Sweden (AP) — Swedish police say over 15,000 people have participated in a rally against last week's neo-Nazi attack in a Stockholm suburb.

Police spokesman Kjell Lindgren says the Sunday demonstration remained peaceful. Support rallies were also held in Malmo, in southern Sweden, and Lulea in the north. The events were organized as reaction against an incident last Sunday when neo-Nazis hurled bottles, torches and firecrackers against a smaller anti-racism rally in Stockholm's suburb of Karrtorp.

Police detained 28 people after the attack, in which three people were injured. A neo-Nazi group called the Swedish Resistance Movement claimed responsibility for the attack.

Uruguay President Mujica signs marijuana law

December 24, 2013

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — A spokesman for President Jose Mujica of Uruguay says the leader has quietly signed into law the government's plan to create a regulated, legal market for marijuana.

Presidential secretary Diego Canepa told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Mujica signed the legislation Monday night. That was the last formal step for the law to take effect. Bureaucrats now have until April 9 to write the fine print for regulating every aspect of the marijuana market, from growing to selling in a network of pharmacies.

They hope to have the whole system in place by the middle of next year. But as of Tuesday, growing pot at home is legal in Uruguay, up to six plants per family and an annual harvest of 480 grams.

Officials: Baucus to be named ambassador to China

December 19, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama intends to nominate Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as ambassador to China, Democratic officials said Wednesday, turning to a lawmaker well-versed in trade issues to fill one of the nation's most sensitive diplomatic posts.

If confirmed by the Senate, Baucus would replace Ambassador Gary Locke, who announced last month he was stepping down. An announcement of Baucus' appointment is expected as early as Thursday. The Montanan's departure from the Senate would have an instant impact on one of Congress' most powerful committees and on the 2014 election for control of Congress. Under state law, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock has the authority to name a Senate successor to serve until the election, and speculation immediately turned to a fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. John Walsh, already a candidate for a full term.

Baucus, 72, sidestepped questions about the ambassadorship when asked in the Capitol. "It's not for me to comment on. ... This happens every once in a while. Names get floated around." There was no immediate comment from the White House on the disclosure, which was made by officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the nomination publicly before a formal announcement.

Kathy Weber, a spokeswoman in Baucus' office, declined to confirm the move but said, "Max has given his life to public service and when asked to serve he takes that request very seriously." Obama is in search of a new top diplomat in Beijing as he executes a so-called Asia pivot in U.S. foreign policy to more directly counter China after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The relationship between the two nations has grown more troubled in recent weeks, with Chinese authorities unilaterally declaring an air defense zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The United States subsequently flew a pair of B-52 bombers through the space last month without incident, and Vice President Joe Biden sought to calm matters on his recent trip through Asia.

Baucus was first elected to the Senate in 1978 and since early 2007 has been chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, health care and more. On some key issues, he has pursued a more moderate approach than some fellow Democrats would prefer, a reminder that he hails from a rural, Western state with a history of electing Republicans as well as Democrats to top political office.

Shortly after becoming chairman, he led the opposition to then-President George W. Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security. Two years later, with Obama in the White House, he struggled for months to assemble bipartisan backing for health care legislation in 2009 to the growing impatience of fellow Democrats. He managed to gain one Republican vote for legislation that cleared committee, but the final bill was thoroughly partisan.

As committee chairman, Baucus has pressed both Democratic and Republican administrations to take a harder line against what he says are unfair Chinese trade practices. The country has the largest trade surplus of any nation with the U.S. and American manufacturers claim it is manipulating its currency to maintain that imbalance.

Inside the Senate, Baucus' appointment would create a vacancy atop the panel that Senate Democrats would fill. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia is immediately behind Baucus in seniority and ordinarily would ascend to the chairmanship but has announced he intends to retire at the end of next year. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon is next in line in seniority.

In comments to reporters, Rockefeller indicated he would not seek to claim the spot, saying it would be good if Wyden succeeded Baucus. "I want that committee to be a little more aggressive and he will be," he said.

Wyden is chairman of the Energy Committee and would likely be replaced there by an oil state Democrat, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. If confirmed before the end of next year, Baucus would resign his seat and create a vacancy that Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, would fill. Walsh, the lieutenant governor, has announced he will run for the seat and will likely be a top candidate.

First-term Republican Rep. Steve Daines has announced his candidacy for the seat. With Democrats struggling to retain their majority in the 2014 elections, Baucus' announced retirement had turned the state into a challenging one for the party. Obama lost the state in 2012 to Republican Mitt Romney by 13 points.

Associated Press writers Matt Volz in Helena, Mont., and Martin Crutsinger, Ken Thomas and Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.

US military reveals laser can down drones, mortars

Washington (AFP)
Dec 16, 2013

The US Army has for the first time successfully tested a vehicle-mounted laser that managed to shoot down incoming mortar rounds and drone aircraft, officials said Thursday.

Installed in a dome-shaped turret atop a military vehicle, the high-energy laser hit more than 90 mortar bombs and several small unmanned planes over a six-week test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The experimental weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), likely would not be operational until 2022 if the Army decides to purchase the system, according to officials.

The weapon, with three to five lasers, is designed to protect remote bases from mortar, artillery or rocket fire. Such attacks were frequent against "forward operating" bases in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.

The laser used in the test this month had a strength of 10 kilowatts (kW), but the program will next use more powerful lasers of 50 kW and then, finally, 100 kW, officials said.

"If you're engaging a target at the same range, a 100 kW laser will destroy the target in one-tenth of the time than the 10kW would," said Terry Bauer, a program manager at Boeing, the lead contractor on the project.

In the test at White Sands, the laser was fired at 60mm mortar rounds, which have a range of 2,000 to 3,000 yards (1,800-2,700 meters).

Without providing a detailed account, officials said the laser scored a "significant success" against the mortar rounds and several drones.

"The system is capable of rapidly acquiring with the radar these very small targets and point a laser beam about the size of a quarter and destroy the targets while they're flying," said Mike Rim, a second program manager at Boeing.

A more advanced version of the weapon will eventually be able to knock out objects moving much faster than the mortar rounds, such as cruise missiles, according to military officials.

The military has invested in a variety of laser weapons over the past several years with mixed results.

The US Navy is due in 2014 to equip a ship converted into a "floating base," the USS Ponce, with a laser capable of destroying small boats or surveillance drones.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_military_reveals_laser_can_down_drones_mortars_999.html.

US to keep NSA and cyber command chief's job unified

Washington (AFP)
Dec 13, 2013

A White House review will conclude that a sweeping US spy agency program to collect data on telephone calls and Internet use should continue but with new privacy safeguards, a report said Friday.

The New York Times also reported that President Barack Obama's study would recommend making public the privacy protections foreign citizens can expect when their telephone or Internet records are gathered by the National Security Agency.

Separately, a US official said the White House had also decided to maintain the "dual-hatted" arrangement which sees a single military officer head the NSA eavesdropping service and US cyber warfare operations.

The move comes as the administration finalizes a review ordered by Obama into the NSA's sweeping worldwide data and phone record collection, following revelations by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The Times said that the committee conducting the review would recommend that top White House officials directly examine the list of foreign leaders whose communications are monitored by the NSA.

The protection will be introduced in the wake of a furor over revelations that US spies eavesdropped on the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Times also said that the White House review would create a body of legal professionals who would argue against lawyers for the NSA over espionage operations in the existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees surveillance.

White House officials declined to comment on the Times report, saying that the review was not yet finalized.

But officials said that the study into NSA operations in the wake of the Snowden affair was still expected to be delivered to the president by Sunday.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden also said that the White House had decided to maintain the current "dual-hatted" arrangement that sees a top military officer head the NSA and US Cyber Command.

Some critics of the current system had argued that the NSA and the military's cyber warfare command should be headed by different officials to avoid too much clandestine power residing in one official.

But Hayden said that after an interagency review, the administration "decided that keeping the positions of NSA Director and Cyber Command Commander together as one, dual-hatted position is the most effective approach to accomplishing both agencies' missions."

"NSA plays a unique role in supporting Cyber Command's mission, providing critical support for target access and development, including linguists, analysts, cryptanalytic capabilities and sophisticated technological infrastructure." Hayden said.

In practice, the decision means that the NSA will continue to be headed by a military officer -- as the head of Cyber Command will of necessity be a senior member of the armed services.

The current head of the two agencies, four-star General Keith Alexander, retires early next year.

Obama said last week that he would introduce some restraints on the NSA following the review.

It remains unclear when Obama will present unclassified findings of the report publicly.

A flurry of intelligence leaks from Snowden, who is living in temporary asylum in Russia, lifted the lid on a vast global spying network.

Tens of thousands of documents leaked by Snowden to The Guardian newspaper and other media outlets have detailed the vast scope of the NSA's shadowy activities.

Snowden's revelations made it clear that metadata and information from millions of emails and phone calls, incidentally, some of it about American citizens, has been systematically raked in by the NSA.

Civil rights groups have decried the NSA's activities as the actions of a Big Brother-like government, trampling on the rights of individuals with little oversight.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_to_keep_NSA_and_cyber_command_chiefs_job_unified_999.html.

Canada shipbuilding projects create, save jobs

Halifax, Nova Scotia (UPI)
Dec 11, 2013

Canadian shipbuilding modernization will create jobs and improve Canada's capacity to build a range of vessels in response to government and industry procurement instead of farming out contracts abroad, industry analysts said.

Adding to recent contracts, including those awarded by the government to shipyards and ancillary companies, Irving Shipbuilding announced it gave out new contracts worth $28.2 million.

Most of the contracts go to suppliers based within the country and are part of a Halifax shipyard modernization program.

The two-year program is seen to be injecting new funds into engineering and construction capacity growth that officials and industry experts will improve facilities for future building of warships.

"To date [contracts to] a total value of $175 million in contracts have been awarded as part of our overall investment of approximately $300 million in the Halifax Shipyard Modernization Program," Irving Shipbuilding President Kevin McCoy said in comments cited on the company website.

The company says work under way at the shipyard and set to begin in the coming few years is aimed at building capacity to build larger, more complex and versatile combatant vessels.

Canada's naval modernization program is still in early stages, officials say. Before work on large combatant ships can begin the Irving Shipbuilding shipyard will concentrate on building vessels for Canada's ambitious Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships program, said to be worth more than $4 billion.

Canada has stepped up its diplomatic, political and military effort to project its sovereignty claim on the arctic region north of the country.

Opposition critics of Prime Minister Stephen Harper say the campaign may be too late in some respects, because Russia and northern European countries have moved to register competing claims on the area.

The Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship program is a procurement undertaking for the Canadian navy and a part of a wider National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. Officials say the strategy is aimed at reviving and strengthening Canadian shipyards and making Canada self-sufficient, as much as possible, in the sector.

The navy aims to add up to eight ice-breaking vessels, likely to be modeled on the Norwegian Svalbard class. Officials have cited several successive deadlines for the military shipbuilding program, the earliest date of 2015 set for smaller ships and 2020 as the start of production of larger combat vessels.

"With so many significant changes under way, it is a constant reminder that 2015 is not far away and we'll be building navy ships at Halifax Shipyard very soon," McCoy said.

Irving said the selection of suppliers for the Modernization Program followed a rigorous procurement process where quality, reliability, experience and cost was assessed to select companies that would help Irving Shipbuilding deliver "best value to Canada," a shipyard news release said.

Of the contracts awarded so far, 82 per cent of the total contract value has been awarded to Canadian companies, while 52 per cent of total contract value has been awarded to companies owned or operating in Nova Scotia.

Among the winning bidders cited by Irving Shipbuilding are Harris Rebar, Dartmouth, and Dexter Construction, Pipe & Piling, Black & MacDonald, and Eastern Fence, all based in or owned by Nova Scotia interests.

Companies outside Nova Scotia awarded contracts include Bermingham Foundation Solutions, based in Hamilton, Ontario, and a subcontractor under Gulf Operators.

Other Canadian companies that won contracts include: Skyline Steel, St. Bruno, Q.C.; as well as Gulf Operators' subcontractor Con-Tech Systems Ltd., which has headquarters near Vancouver, B.C., the Daily Business Buzz reported.

McCoy said he expects more jobs to become available with the award of new contracts.

"The economic impacts, such as the jobs in shipbuilding, engineering, planning and supply chain, will scale up with the preparation and start of production on [Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship program] in 2015 while the indirect jobs within our supply chain and our suppliers' supply chains will follow," McCoy said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Canada_shipbuilding_projects_create_save_jobs_999.html.

South Sudan troops sitting outside rebel-held city

December 24, 2013

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — South Sudan's military spokesman says there is increasing tension at a United Nations camp in the rebel-held city of Bor because armed elements have entered the congested area where the U.N. says about 17,000 civilians are seeking protection.

Col. Philip Aguer said South Sudanese troops are outside Bor and will soon advance on the city. Bor is controlled by troops loyal to the country's former vice president. Aguer said troops will also soon advance on another rebel-held city, Bentiu, in the oil-rich region of Unity state.

The United States and Ethiopia are leading efforts to open peace talks on the 10-day-old crisis. Officials say President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar have agreed to meet but specifics including the status of Machar's imprisoned compatriots are holding up talks.

Rebels hold key oil capital in South Sudan

December 22, 2013

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — South Sudan's central government lost control of the capital of a key oil-producing state Sunday, the military said, as renegade forces loyal to a former deputy president seized more territory in fighting that has raised fears of full-blown civil war in the world's newest country.

Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state, is now controlled by a military commander loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, said Col. Philip Aguer, the South Sudanese military spokesman. "Bentiu is in the hands of a commander who has declared support for Machar," he said. "Bentiu is not in our hands."

The armed rebels were said to be in control days earlier of some of South Sudan's oil fields, which have historically been a target for rebel movements, endangering the country's economic lifeblood. South Sudan gets nearly 99 percent of its government budget from oil revenues, and the country reportedly earned $1.3 billion in oil sales in just five months this year, according to the London-based watchdog group Global Witness.

Although the country's capital, Juba, is mostly peaceful a week after a dispute among members of the presidential guard triggered violent clashes between military factions, fighting continues as the central government tries to assert authority in the states of Unity and Jonglei.

Bor, the capital of Jonglei, is said to be the scene of some of the fiercest clashes between government troops and rebels. Michael Makuei Lueth, South Sudan's information minister, said Machar was believed to be hiding somewhere in Unity state.

"He is a rebel, he's a renegade and we are looking for him. He's moving in the bushes of South Sudan," Lueth said of Machar. The U.N. Mission in South Sudan said in a statement Sunday that all non-critical staff members in Juba are being evacuated to Uganda. The mission said the move was "a precautionary measure to reduce pressures on its limited resources" as it continues to provide assistance and shelter to more than 20,000 civilians gathered inside its compounds in Juba, the mission said in a statement.

Hilde Johnson, the U.N. secretary-general's envoy in South Sudan, said the evacuation doesn't mean the U.N. is "abandoning" South Sudan. "We are here to stay, and will carry on in our collective resolve to work with and for the people of South Sudan," she said. "To anyone who wants to threaten us, attack us or put obstacles in our way, our message remains loud and clear: we will not be intimidated."

Hundreds have been killed in the fighting and world leaders are concerned about civil war in a country with a history of ethnic violence and divided military loyalties. The U.S. and other countries have been evacuating their citizens from South Sudan. The U.S. has evacuated about 680 Americans and other foreign nationals so far, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

President Barack Obama told U.S. Congress he may take further military action to protect Americans in South Sudan. In a letter to Congress, Obama said that about 46 U.S. troops were deployed Saturday to help evacuate Americans. That's in addition to another 45 troops deployed to reinforce the U.S. Embassy in Juba.

Obama is on his annual vacation in Hawaii, but he said in the letter to congressional leaders that he's monitoring the situation. "I may take further action to support the security of U.S. citizens, personnel, and property, including our Embassy, in South Sudan," Obama wrote.

On Saturday, gunfire hit three U.S. military aircraft trying to evacuate American citizens in Bor, wounding four U.S. service members in the same region gunfire downed a U.N. helicopter on Friday. The wounded troops are in stable condition, the White House said.

It remains unclear how many Americans are still stranded in Bor and other rural towns. Earlier this week, the top military general in Bor defected with his troops, starting a rebellion that appears to be spreading to other parts of the country.

Aguer said Bor is still under the control of pro-Machar forces, disputing reports the rebels had fled as government troops advanced on Bor. South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, said on Monday that an attempted military coup had triggered the violence, and the blame was placed on Machar, an ethnic Nuer. But officials have since said a fight between Dinka and Nuer members of the presidential guard triggered the fighting that later spread across the East African country.

Machar's ouster from the country's No. 2 political position earlier this year had stoked ethnic tensions. Machar, who has criticized Kiir as a dictator, later said he would contest presidential elections in 2015.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday urged South Sudan's leaders "to do everything in their power" to stop the violence. Foreign ministers from neighboring countries Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti were in South Sudan earlier in the week to try and diffuse the crisis.

South Sudan, which became independent in 2011 after decades of a brutal war with Sudan, has been plagued by ethnic discord, corruption and conflict with Sudan over oil revenues. Although the south inherited three-quarters of Sudan's oil production when it declared independence in 2012, its oil exports are pumped through pipelines running north, raising concern a rebel takeover of southern oil fields could invite Sudan into the conflict.

Josh Lederman in Honolulu contributed to this report.

Muslims march in Central African Republic

December 24, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Dozens of Muslims marched down the streets of Bangui on Tuesday to demand the departure of French troops, who were deployed to Central African Republic this month to try to pacify fighting, and have instead been accused of taking sides in the nation's sectarian conflict.

The marchers, almost all of them young and male, began their demonstration in the Kilometer 5 neighborhood, a mostly Muslim section of the capital which has been the scene of clashes with French forces.

It marks a dangerous turning point for the more than 1,600 French soldiers sent here, who were initially cheered by the population, who ran out to greet the arriving troops, waving tree branches, and holding up pieces of cardboard emblazoned with welcoming messages. That was before French President Francois Hollande bluntly said that the country's Muslim president needed to go, and before French forces were accused of only disarming Muslim fighters and ignoring the Christian militias who have infiltrated the city, organizing attacks on mosques, and on neighborhoods like Kilometer 5, where a majority of Muslims live.

On Tuesday the crowds making their way down the deserted city streets were holding signs that said: "We say No to France!" and "Hollande = Liar." Other signs had a hand drawn map of this nation located at the heart of Africa, but showed it split into two, with a Muslim homeland penciled in in the country's north.

Central African Republic slipped into chaos following a coup in March, which was led by a Muslim rebel group. They overran the capital and installed a Muslim president, while the nation's Christian leader was forced to flee with his family. The country is 85 percent Christian, and when the Muslim rebels began attacking Christian villages, first to steal their belongings and cattle, a sectarian divide emerged. Pillaging turned to killing, and by the time French forces arrived earlier this month, at least 500 people had been killed in communal violence, including mob lynchings, their bodies so numerous community leaders had to dig enormous holes for their mass graves.

The French have stepped up patrols and are working to debunk perceptions that they are biased in this war. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Vincent Floreani on Tuesday reacted to accusations that the French force, known as Sangaris, had targeted Muslims.

"Since their deployment Dec. 5, the soldiers of the Sangaris operation are operating according to three principles: impartiality, firmness, and controlled use of force," he said. "They are demonstrating this daily, in contributing to the disarming of all armed groups, without distinction, and in intervening between groups to avoid violence and abuses."

A young woman, Edith Benguere, a Christian, ran into the march by accident when she went to the bank to withdraw money. Frightened, she hid and watched, and saw how the demonstrators were acting aggressively against the French forces, positioned along the route.

"Armored personnel carriers had taken positions in different parts of town. But the soldiers would simply backtrack whenever the demonstrators came near them, to avoid conflict," she said. "One of the demonstrators was screaming at the top of his lungs: 'We are ready! We have grenades ... We are ready for whatever comes today, even if we need to die,'" she said.

Due to growing insecurity in the capital, religious leaders sent out a communique stating that the birth of Christ will be celebrated at 3 p.m. rather than during the usual midnight mass. International medical charity Doctors without Borders said that the momentary calm that prevailed after the initial arrival of French forces appears to have been shattered. In the past four days, the hospital they run in Bangui has treated 190 wounded people.

"In the days leading up to Dec. 20, we had seen fewer cases overall, and in particular a reduction in gunshot wounds," said Jessie Gaffric, project coordinator at the hospital in an email to reporters. "Then, suddenly on Dec. 20, we saw 49 gunshot wounds, and now continue to receive around 15 a day."

In a sign of spiking tension, witnesses confirmed that three Chadian civilians, attempting to flee the Central African Republic, were attacked inside their car and murdered. The Chadians, who are majority Muslim, are seen as particularly implicated in the conflict because a Chadian contingent of African Union peacekeepers is accused of having opened fire on Christian residents of Bangui.

"We have lost three of our compatriots and 10 others are wounded," said Adam Badica, a member of an organization working to repatriate Chadians from the Central African Republic. He said their car was attacked on Tuesday afternoon by a Christian militia in the Fou neighborhood.

An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw one of the bodies, his chest cut open. Belongings and glass were scattered across the street.

Callimachi reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press photographer Rebecca Blackwell in Bangui, Central African Republic, and reporter Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.