Chinese Farmers Fight Land Grabs in Two Provinces

By Tang Ming
March 23, 2013

Villagers in the provinces of Hubei and Yunnan have been resisting land grabs by local governments in recent days.

On March 18, villagers at Jingtoushan Farm in Hubei’s Yangxin County demonstrated against local officials for subletting without consent more than 1,000 acres of their farmland to a company in Fujian Province.

Numerous police officers and unidentified individuals arrived at the village, beat the protesters, and let off tear gas. They forced the villagers to sign an agreement to turn over the land, and arrested more than a dozen people. The distraught villagers stood in front of the police cars to prevent them from leaving.

A netizen identifying herself as a pregnant villager posted the message to Weibo: “Please save us. The government used threats and deception to force every family to sign, and in the afternoon they even used tear gas, and hired thugs to attack us. They arrested over a dozen people, including women.”

The next day, the villagers elected one representative per household to petition in Huangshi City, where almost 100 people knelt in front of the town hall in the rain until the authorities promised to investigate the matter.

A similar situation occurred in the Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, on March 20, where the Yunlong City government forcibly expropriated farmland in Shijin Village, Jianao Town.

The Yunlong County deputy magistrate led nearly 20 vehicles to the site, and a villager’s ribs were broken during the violent scene that followed, incensing the locals, who shouted, “Bury the magistrate alive.” The villagers managed to intercept 11 of the vehicles, including police cars, before the magistrate fled.

The authorities told media afterwards that their vehicles had been left at the scene, but denied that any villagers were injured.

A resident told The Epoch Times that the local government had expropriated the land of the Shijin villagers for silver and copper mining. The villagers thought there would be too much pollution, but the government took the land anyway.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-farmers-fight-land-grabs-in-two-provinces-367820.html.

Shanghai Petitioners Stage Protest Over Illegal Detentions

By Gu Qing’er
March 21, 2013

About 2,000 petitioners gathered in Shanghai on Wednesday, March 20, to protest against communist authorities, who they said had locked up a large number of petitioners in Beijing during China’s recent annual “Two Meetings.”

Every Wednesday, the Shanghai municipal government building at No. 200 Renmin Boulevard is crowded with petitioners. Many have filed requests for years, but without response. They spend their time recounting the injustices they have suffered under what they call the tyranny of the Chinese regime.

Shanghai petitioner Mr. Zhang told The Epoch Times that the police were closely watching the protesters, who were shouting slogans like “Down with corruption” and “Remove the corrupt officials.”

“There were about 100 police officers on site, with many other plainclothes police and about 10 police cars,” he said. “At about 11 a.m., police started moving in, but the protesters refused to leave. When police began arresting people, everybody started shouting.”

During the “Two Meetings,” many Shanghai petitioners traveled to Beijing seeking redress for grievances and injustices, but instead of being heard, they were detained by the authorities, Mr. Zhang said.

“The number of detainees was the largest ever,” he said. “Based on incomplete statistics, there were about 115 whose names we knew. Some of those people still have not been released as of today.”

According to an article written by a Shanghai petitioner, officials from the State Bureau for Letters and Calls revealed that over 10,000 petitioners made their pleas at the Bureau on March 5, a record number.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/shanghai-petitioners-stage-protest-over-illegal-detentions-366788.html.

Cyprus would do better to leave the euro

By PETER MORICI, UPI Outside View Commentator
March. 25, 2013

COLLEGE PARK, Md., March 25 (UPI) -- Cyprus would be better off to leave the euro than accept the terms of the bailout imposed by the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

Until recently, Cyprus was a prosperous island economy thriving through strong tourism, shipping and maritime related activities and a significant international financial sector.

Its major banks have branches in Russia, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom and other overseas locations and have attracted large offshore deposits. Cyprus has gained great popularity as a portal for Western investment into Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, China and India.

Much like New York, London and other big-city European banks, the Cypriot banking sector attracted deposits much larger than it could productively use lending in its local economy and invested in other financial instruments -- Cypriot banks invested heavily in Greek sovereign debt.

The 2012 Greek government bailout engineered by the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank imposed losses greater than 50 percent on foreign bondholders -- among those, Cypriot banks. Hence, the Troika, which is imposing severe conditions in exchange for aid to bailout Cypriot banks, bears substantial responsibility for the present sad state of their balance sheets.

During the recent U.S. financial crisis, the FDIC was adequate to restructure and secure deposits at smaller banks; however, the Federal Reserve printed hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase and work out souring bonds held by larger banks and the Treasury borrowed similar sums to inject new capital into those banks. More importantly, depositors -- large or small -- didn't lose any money during or after the U.S. crisis.

The European Central Bank lacks the tools to participate in such bank workouts and the European Union lacks the borrowing authority of the U.S. Treasury -- and the taxing powers to back up bonds. Hence, banks in Cyprus, just like those in Ireland and Spain in their banking crisis, lack a lender of last resort to keep them afloat while they restructure and work off losses through new, sounder business activities.

In the United States stockholders lost equity when banks went sour but it kept the banks open and depositors kept their money. The Troika, in exchange for $10 billion in aid, will likely impose losses of at least 20 percent on large depositors and require Cyprus to slash the size of its banking sector, relative to gross domestic product, to the average for the European Union as a whole.

If such a condition were imposed on New York, its economy would collapse and the Big Apple would suffer massive unemployment and huge population losses, as workers sought employment opportunities elsewhere.

Cypriots lack that option -- employment opportunities in depressed Greece are quite limited -- and most Cypriots lack the language skills to find jobs reasonably comparable to their current situations in other European countries. Instead, unemployment will rocket, GDP and tax revenues will plunge and eurozone rules limiting budget deficits will force Cyprus to impose severe austerity measures, further exacerbating the downward spiral.

Cyprus could turn down aid from the European Union, IMF and ECB, take its large banks through bankruptcy and withdraw from the euro altogether. That would also impose big losses on depositors and equally catastrophic consequences for confidence in the single currency. However, its comparative advantage as a portal into Eastern Europe and Asia would remain.

Taking its largest financial institutions through bankruptcy and establishing a local currency will be no cake walk but the austerity measures -- higher taxes, restraints on government spending and so forth -- that come along with EU aid would likely throw Cyprus into the same downward spiral as Greece and Spain.

Iceland is also a financial center but having its own currency, recovered rather quickly from a similar financial crisis. Cyprus, a similar island nation with substantial economic assets, would likely find it better to just go it alone, too.

With that, Greece, Spain and other could then see the wisdom of following Cyprus out of the euro, spelling the eventual end for the sham that is the European currency.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2013/03/25/Outside-View-Cyprus-would-do-better-to-leave-the-euro/UPI-88431364216756/.

Salmond sets independence vote date

March. 22, 2013

EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 22 (UPI) -- A referendum vote on Scottish independence will be held Sept. 18, 2014, First Minister Alex Salmond said Thursday.

Salmond introduced the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill, The Scotsman reported. He called the bill "the most important legislation to have been introduced since the Scottish Parliament was reconvened -- not in itself, but what it enables Scotland to achieve with the powers of an independent country."

As set down in the bill, voters will have to answer one simple question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

The government is expected to release a white paper in about six months detailing the process that would take place if voters approve independence. Polls so far have suggested a majority of Scots do not want to cut ties completely with Britain.

The vote is timed to take place after a re-enactment to mark the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, a historic Scottish victory over the English and before the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles golf course.

Scotland has been politically joined to England for more than 300 years.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/03/22/Salmond-sets-independence-vote-date/UPI-84381363931762/.

Bulgarian anger over living standards lifts nationalist party

By Tsvetelia Tsolova
SOFIA | Tue Mar 19

(Reuters) - Bulgarian nationalist party Attack is gaining support among voters with pledges to nationalize companies and raise wages while blaming foreigners for unsatisfying living standards, its leader told Reuters on Tuesday.

Attack party leader Volen Siderov blamed the "colonial" West for low wages and high prices in Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007 and has committed to budget restrictions and a currency peg in an effort to swap its lev for the single European currency used by 17 other EU member nations.

"I want to underline the negative role of the West, which through all these years of colonizing was actually pushing things in that direction - low incomes, cheap labor because foreigners benefit from it," Siderov said in an interview.

Attack's growing popularity, now about 5 percent, is raising questions over the political future of the poorest EU member ahead of a May 12 election where grudging support for Bulgaria's main parties looks likely to end in a hung parliament.

Public anger at consumer prices charged by energy monopolies led to widespread protests last month over Bulgaria's low standard of living and forced the resignation of the center-right cabinet headed by Boiko Borisov.

"Protesters said: 'Let's get Bulgaria back, let's get our property back' and this is our slogan I have here on my badge," said the 57-year-old Siderov, whose party also has an anti-Roma and anti-Turkish agenda.

In a powerful demonstration of public despair over Bulgarian living standards which stand at less than half the EU average, a 59-year-old man set himself on fire in protest on Monday in the western town of Bobovdol. He was the fifth man to set himself on fire and remains in critical condition.

Bulgaria's two leading political parties, Borisov's GERB and the Socialists each have the support of about 20 percent of voters and there appear few likely combinations for a coalition after the election.

Both GERB and the fifth-largest party, the pro-business Bulgaria for the Citizens, have indicated they will not work with any other group and Attack's surge in popularity to five percent from one percent after the protests has complicated the picture.

The most likely coalition combination would be the Socialists and an ethnic Turkish party, but it is unlikely they could command a majority on their own.

While Siderov's party is unlikely to have a major say over policy, its rising popularity in the country of 7.3 million may alarm investors, given Bulgaria needs to keep a tight rein on fiscal policy to hang onto its euro zone aspirations.

Attack informally supported Borisov's government, but is now pushing an agenda which GERB cannot support.

"Siderov is not a welcome coalition partner, as fierce people easily forget their pledges," said Rumiana Kolarova, a political analyst at Sofia University. "The bigger support for him, the bigger the uncertainty."

Attack wants to nationalize energy distributors, raise taxes against the rich and revoke concessions for gold and water granted to foreign companies, which Siderov says boost profits by underpaying their Bulgarian staff.

Seeking to quell public anger, the energy regulator has cut power prices by 7 percent and has begun a process to revoke the license of Czech CEZ, which provides electricity to 1.7 million clients in western Bulgaria.

Other distributors include Czech Energo-Pro and Austria's EVN, which said on Tuesday it would take Bulgaria to court if it fails to reach an agreement over electricity costs.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-bulgaria-government-nationalists-idUSBRE92I0RV20130319.

Japan seeks to improve its birthrate

March. 20, 2013

TOKYO, March 20 (UPI) -- Japan's government will embark on a program to boost the country's birthrate by encouraging citizens to get married and have children, a government source said.

The source told The Yomiuri Shimbun that an expert task force will be established next week to come up with a set of concrete measures by May to combat the country's declining birthrate.

Masako Mori, state minister for birthrate measures, will head the task force comprised of scholars, doctors, heads of local government and corporate managers.

Three bills that center on improving child care services and preschool education in Japan were passed into law last year.

The government calculates that establishing better conditions for childbirth and marriage can boost Japan's fertility rate from 1.39 children per woman to 1.75.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/03/20/Japan-seeks-to-improve-its-birthrate/UPI-48031363789297/.

Distant planetary system is a super-sized solar system

Toronto, ON (SPX)
Mar 18, 2013

A team of astronomers, including Quinn Konopacky of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-like planet beyond our Solar System.

According to Konopacky, "We have been able to observe this planet in unprecedented detail because of the advanced instrumentation we are using on the Keck II telescope, our ground-breaking observing and data-processing techniques, and because of the nature of the planetary system."

Konopacky is lead author of the paper describing the team's findings, to be published in Science Express, and March 22nd in the journal Science.

The team, using a high-resolution imaging spectrograph called OSIRIS, uncovered the chemical fingerprints of specific molecules, revealing a cloudy atmosphere containing carbon monoxide and water vapor  "With this level of detail," says Travis Barman, a Lowell Observatory astronomer and co-author of the paper, "we can compare the amount of carbon to the amount of oxygen present in the planet's atmosphere, and this chemical mix provides clues as to how the entire planetary system formed."

There has been considerable uncertainty about how systems of planets form, with two leading models, called core accretion and gravitational instability. Planetary properties, such as the composition of a planet's atmosphere, are clues as to whether a system formed according to one model or the other.

"This is the sharpest spectrum ever obtained of an extrasolar planet," according to co-author Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "This shows the power of directly imaging a planetary system. It is the exquisite resolution afforded by these new observations that has allowed us to really begin to probe planet formation."

The spectrum reveals that the carbon to oxygen ratio is consistent with the core accretion scenario, the model thought to explain the formation of our Solar System.

The planet, designated HR 8799c, is one of four gas giants known to orbit a star 130 light-years from Earth. The authors and their collaborators previously discovered HR 8799c and its three companions back in 2008 and 2010. All the planets are larger than any in our Solar System, with masses three to seven times that of Jupiter. Their orbits are similarly large when compared to our system. HR 8799c orbits 40 times farther from its parent star than the Earth orbits from the Sun; in our Solar System, that would put it well beyond the realm of Neptune.

According to the core accretion model, the star HR 8799 was originally surrounded by nothing but a huge disk of gas and dust. As the gas cooled, ice formed; this process depleted the disk of oxygen atoms. Ice and dust collected into planetary cores which, once they were large enough, attracted surrounding gas to form large atmospheres. The gas was depleted of oxygen, and this is reflected in the planet's atmosphere today as an enhanced carbon to oxygen ratio.

The core accretion model also predicts that large gas giant planets form at great distances from the central star, and smaller rocky planets closer in, as in our Solar System. It is rocky planets, not too far, nor close to the star, that are prime candidates for supporting life.

"The results suggest the HR 8799 system is like a scaled-up Solar System," says Konopacky. "And so, in addition to the gas giants far from their parent star, it would not come as a surprise to find Earth-like planets closer in."

The observations of HR 8799c were made with the Keck II 10-meter telescope in Hawaii, one of the two largest optical telescopes in the world. The telescope's adaptive optics system corrects for distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere, making the view through Keck II sharper than through the Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronomers refer to this as spatial resolution. Seeing exoplanets around stars is like trying to see a firefly next to a spotlight. Keck's adaptive optics and high spatial resolution, combined with advanced data-processing techniques, allow astronomers to more clearly see both the stellar "spotlight" and planetary "firefly."

"We can directly image the planets around HR 8799 because they are all large, young, and very far from their parent star. This makes the system an excellent laboratory for studying exoplanet atmospheres," says coauthor Christian Marois of the National Research Council of Canada. "Since its discovery, this system just keeps surprising us."

Konopacky and her team will continue to study the super-sized planets to learn more details about their nature and their atmospheres. Future observations will be made using the recently upgraded OSIRIS instrument which utilizes a new diffraction grating-the key component of the spectrograph that separates light according to wavelength, just like a prism. The new grating was developed at the Dunlap Institute and installed in the spectrograph in December 2012.

"These future observations will tell us much more about the planets in this system," says Dunlap Fellow Konopacky. "And the more we learn about this distant planetary system, the more we learn about our own."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Distant_planetary_system_is_a_super_sized_solar_system_999.html.

Opportunity Departing South Soon

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Mar 18, 2013

Opportunity is completing the in-situ (contact) investigation of the terrain on the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of 'Endeavour Crater' before departing to the south.

Flash memory issues appeared again on Sol 3244 (March 9, 2013), but were minor. Although, this time the symptoms were different from earlier incidents. The project continues to investigate this.

On Sol 3246 (March 11, 2013), Opportunity approached the Kirkwood outcrop with a 30 foot (9.2 meter) drive. The rover visited this site before the start of the regional 'walkabout' and has now returned for detailed investigation of the 'newberries' seen at this location.

As of Sol 3247 (March 12, 2013), the solar array energy production was 483 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.863 and a solar array dust factor of 0.598.

Total odometry is 22.14 miles (35625.03 meters).

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Opportunity_Departing_South_Soon_999.html.

Venezuelans flood streets for another Chavez coffin parade

By Andrew Cawthorne and Girish Gupta
CARACAS | Fri Mar 15, 2013

(Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans were on the streets again on Friday at a funeral parade for Hugo Chavez amid opposition protests that the government was exploiting his death to win the election.

Chavez's remains were transported for about 12 miles through Caracas from an army academy to a military museum on a hillside where the former soldier launched his political career with a failed coup in 1992.

The events were the culmination of 10 days of official mourning in the South American OPEC nation led by the flamboyant socialist president for 14 years until his death from cancer.

A state funeral was held a week ago.

"You are a giant," his daughter Maria Gabriela said in an emotional religious service before the procession began.

"Fly freely and breathe deep with the winds of the hurricane. We will care for your fatherland and defend your legacy. You will never leave, your flame is in our hands."

Though his remains will for now be placed in the museum on the edge of the populous January 23 neighborhood - arguably the most militantly pro-Chavez zone in the country - there was still doubt over his final resting place.

The government wanted to embalm Chavez "for eternity" in the style of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin and China's Mao Zedong. But embarrassingly, officials said the process should have started earlier and confirmed on Friday that it had been ruled out.

A Russian medical team told the government the body would have to be taken to Russia for seven to eight months to carry out the procedure, Venezuela's information minister said.

Parliament had been due to debate a motion this week to amend the constitution so that Chavez's body could be buried in the National Pantheon, close to the remains of his idol and South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

The constitution states that honor can only be accorded to leaders 25 years after their death.

But the debate was delayed amid talk Chavez's corpse might instead be taken to his hometown Sabaneta, in the Venezuelan "llanos," or plains, to fulfill his oft-stated wish to lie alongside the grandmother who raised him in a mud-floor home.

Crowds of red-shirted "Chavistas" lined the streets for Friday's parade. Some wore headbands with the name of acting President Nicolas Maduro, who was picked by Chavez as his preferred successor. He is running in an April 14 vote.

"Chavez, I promise you, my vote is for Maduro," read the headbands, repeating a slogan at pro-government rallies.

"I've got 500 and I'm going to sell them all easily. Chavez left Maduro in charge and he will be president," said Miguel Angel, 43, selling the headbands.

'PERVERSE PROSELYTISM'

The opposition, whose presidential candidate Henrique Capriles faces a tough battle to beat Maduro amid so much emotion over Chavez, says the government is mawkishly protracting the mourning and exploiting his coffin as a campaign prop.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor who views Brazil as his political and economic model, plans to begin campaigning around the country over the weekend.

"We urge those indiscriminately using the president's name for the capture of votes to halt this perverse method of electoral proselytism," an opposition communique said.

"Let's have a decent campaign, without unfair advantages or abuses of power."

That, many analysts say, looks unlikely given the government's vastly superior financial resources and pro-government supporters' dominance of state institutions.

Fighting back against that impression, however, the government says Capriles is a well-financed puppet of both Venezuela's powerful and wealthy elite and the U.S. government.

The deification of Chavez in death has taken surreal turns.

Maduro suggested that in heaven Chavez helped persuade Christ to choose a Latin American pope.

And the state oil company PDVSA has been distributing a flyer titled "Chavez Crucified" amplifying the government's accusation that he may have been infected with cancer by his enemies.

"Chavez is a Christ, he suffered for his people, he extinguished himself in their service, he suffered his own C Calvary, he was assassinated by imperialists, he died young ... and he performed miracles in life," it said.

That level of eulogy is drawing scorn in some circles for a man who, though loved by millions of Venezuela's poor for his welfare policies and down-to-earth style, was also hated as an authoritarian bully by large segments of society.

The election campaign has started in a nasty atmosphere, with both camps accusing each other of dirty tricks, and Capriles and Maduro landing highly personalized blows.

Photos of guns aimed at TVs showing Capriles have been circulating, while an opposition newspaper this week juxtaposed a photo of Maduro next to Hitler giving a Nazi salute.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who is trumpeting his working-class roots like Chavez, has a solid lead over Capriles of more than 10 percentage points, according to two recent opinion polls. Both came before Chavez's death.

At stake in the upcoming election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist revolution but also the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of leftist allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.

Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis and Mario Naranjo; Editing by Vicki Allen and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/16/us-venezuela-election-idUSBRE92E0T120130316.

Peru mulls replacing aged air force jets

March. 26, 2013

LIMA, March 26 (UPI) -- Peru is in talks with Spain and warplane suppliers as part of a low-budget plan to replace aging air force aircraft with second-hand Eurofighters and comparable fighters.

Cost is a major issue for Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, who is looking at competitively priced fighter jets that will fit the national budget.

Peru's cut-price fighter jet competition contrasts with Brazil's multibillion-dollar FX-2 replacement jet fighter program, which has gone on for more than two years without a decision on a final choice.

Peruvian news media said the government would be looking to replace aging fighter jets with Spanish Eurofighters -- or a mixed inventory that could include France's Rafale, Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, SAAB's Gripen NG and Russian MiG-35 and Sukhoi Su-30/35.

Industry analysts said Peru was unlikely to buy new aircraft because of cash constraints.

Government sources didn't say if any of the jets was likely to be given preference. However, the most likely scenario will be Peru's option on second-hand Eurofighter jets released from the Spanish air force.

Humala's government has already made a formal request to buy 16 of the Eurofighters from Spain at a cost $61 million each and a relatively young service life of 600 flight hours, Flight International reported.

Peru's Ministry of Defense is serious about upgrading its air force's fighter capabilities amid security threats raised by continuing guerrilla activity in the country, industry analysts said.

The Peruvian air force's current inventory includes Mirage 2000 and MIG-29 fighter aircraft, Mi-25D and Mi-35P attack helicopters and C-26B patrol aircraft. Most of the air force is considered to be approaching a stage where it may be rendered obsolete or require expensive repairs and upgrades.

As in neighboring Chile, which is also upgrading its long-neglected air force, the Peruvian military has struggled to keep pace with avionics and maintenance of the aircraft.

The air force suffered losses of fighter aircraft and combat helicopters in the 1995 border war with neighboring Ecuador and shortage of funds has prevented Peru from making good those losses.

Spain's government has tendered a proposal to Peru for the possible sale of 18 Tranche 1 Eurofighter combat aircraft in service with its air force, Flight International said.

The proposal was submitted at the request of the Peruvian Defense Ministry. If negotiations go forward, the intention would be to transfer all of the fighters to Peru within one year of a contract, Flight said.

Meanwhile, the government is continuing a costly overhaul of its Mirage fighters.

Neither the Mirage nor the MiG-29 is likely to remain in service beyond 2025. Questions have also been raised over the combat readiness of Peru's Russian SU-25 ground attack aircraft.

Peru is known to have at least 18 of the Soviet-era combat aircraft, which were widely used in Afghanistan after the 1979 Soviet invasion, in the Iran-Iraq war and other conflicts of the last century, but only four of those in the Peruvian air force are known to be operational, Flight International said.

Peruvian air force estimates say the upgrading of its Mirage 2000 and MIG-29 combat aircraft will entail an investment of $266 million, the Diario Correo newspaper reported.

Work on the upgrades is in progress and its completion is scheduled for 2014.

The Peruvian air force upgrade began about six years ago under the presidency of Alejandro Toledo and a key part, training of the pilots in the uses of new technologies, is continuing with French help.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/03/26/Peru-mulls-replacing-aged-air-force-jets/UPI-16101364290342/.

Brazil's Rousseff as popular as ever

By Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA | Tue Mar 19, 2013

(Reuters) - The Brazilian economy is hardly growing and inflation is rearing its head, but President Dilma Rousseff's popularity continues to climb to new highs.

The personal approval rating of Brazil's first woman president rose to 79 percent in March from 78 percent in December, according to a CNI/Ibope opinion poll released on Tuesday.

The number of Brazilians who say they trust her leadership climbed two points to 75 percent of those polled, and 63 percent of them view her government as good or very good, up from 62 percent in December.

Once-booming Brazil grew a meager 0.9 percent last year, dropping behind Britain to seventh largest economy in the world.

While Rousseff's efforts to revive growth with tax breaks and public spending have so far failed to bear fruit, pollsters say Brazilians are more concerned with having a job and access to consumer goods. Rousseff's popularity is buoyed by record low unemployment and unabated consumer spending, they say.

Inflation, though, is gaining speed and could derail Rousseff's re-election plans for 2014 if not curbed. The country is still haunted by the memory of the hyperinflation of two decades ago. In February, the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index hit 6.3 percent, a 14-month high.

But Rousseff has taken measures that directly benefit the pockets of Brazilians: she has brought down the prices of electricity and food staples this year.

In a country where politicians are viewed as serving their own interests, Rousseff quickly gained a reputation for not tolerating corruption in her government by removing six ministers in her first year in office due to graft allegations. She emerged unscathed from corruption scandals involving top aides to her predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The increases in Rousseff's popularity are within the two percentage point margin of error of the March 8-11 poll of 2,002 people.

Rousseff made her most significant gains in approval in the poor, drought-stricken Northeast of Brazil, a region that was once a solid bastion of support for the ruling Workers' Party (PT) but which has seen the rapid rise of a possible election rival, Eduardo Campos of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB).

(Additional reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-brazil-rousseff-popularity-idUSBRE92I0UM20130319.

Rain, landslides kill 16 in Brazil

March. 19, 2013

PETROPOLIS, Brazil, March 19 (UPI) -- Heavy rains Monday caused landslides that killed at least 16 people in Petropolis, Brazil, 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, officials said.

A baby and two first responders were among the victims after a swollen river flooded the center of the city, the BBC reported.

More "drastic measures" may be necessary to evacuate people in high-risk areas who ignored warnings, President Dilma Rousseff said.

"Our prevention system warns the people," Rousseff told Brazilian reporters in Rome after meeting with Food and Agriculture Organization head Jose Graziano.

"What I think is that a little more drastic measures will have to be taken so people don't stay where they are not supposed to be."

Some areas received nearly 12 inches of rain within 24 hours, and at least 50 people lost their homes to the landslides, authorities said. More heavy rain was in the forecast.

Similar slides in the area in 2011 killed 900 people.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/03/19/Rain-landslides-kill-16-in-Brazil/UPI-92051363672612/.

Daughter of Iran's Rafsanjani freed

March. 20, 2013

TEHRAN, March 20 (UPI) -- The daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was released from prison after serving a six-month term, her lawyer said.

Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of the former president, was imprisoned in late 2012 for making propaganda against the state. She was banned from political activity for five years.

Gholamali Riahi, her lawyer, said she was released from prison after serving a six-month term, state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports.

Rafsanjani was criticized by the conservative leadership for backing opposition leader and former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi during 2009 elections. Post-election violence that year sparked unrest not seen since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Iranian presidential elections are scheduled for June. Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is ineligible to run due to term limits.

Rafsanjani, who served two consecutive presidential terms beginning in 1989, said last year he was "no longer ready for this job (of president)."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/03/20/Daughter-of-Irans-Rafsanjani-freed/UPI-88811363786065/.

Central African Republic rebel chief to name power-sharing government

By Ange Aboa and Paul-Marin Ngoupana
BANGUI | Mon Mar 25, 2013

(Reuters) - The leader of rebels in Central African Republic pledged to name a power-sharing government in a bid to defuse international criticism of a coup that killed 13 South African soldiers and has plunged the mineral-rich nation into chaos.

Regional peacekeepers said that leader of the Seleka rebel coalition, self-proclaimed president Michel Djotodia, appealed for their help in restoring order after his own men joined in a second day of looting on Monday in the riverside capital Bangui.

The rebels' ousting of President Francois Bozize on Sunday was condemned by the United Nations and African Union. But in a sign of pragmatism, the United States, France and regional powerbroker Chad called on the insurgents to respect a January peace deal creating a unity government.

Some 5,000 Seleka fighters swept into the capital on Sunday after a lightning offensive in which they fought their way from the far north to the presidential palace in four days after the collapse of the power-sharing deal, the Libreville Accord.

Neighboring Cameroon confirmed on Monday that Bozize had arrived there but said it was not giving him permanent refuge.

The removal of Bozize, who had himself seized power in a coup backed by Chad in 2003, was just the latest of many rebellions since the poor, landlocked country won independence from France in 1960.

"We will lead the people of Central African Republic during a three-year transition period, in accordance with the Libreville Accord," Djotodia said in a recorded statement issued to reporters. It was not broadcast due to power cuts.

January's peace deal signed at Libreville, the capital of Gabon, was drafted by regional mediators after the rebels has besieged Bangui in December. The accord had created a government drawn from Bozize loyalists, rebels and the civilian opposition.

Djotodia said that civilian opposition representative Nicolas Tiangaye would remain in place as prime minister.

In Bangui, 600,000 residents of the capital remained without power and running water for a third day. Despite a curfew, there was widespread pillaging of offices, public buildings and businesses by rebels and civilians.

"Public order is the biggest problem right now," said General Jean Felix Akaga, commander of the regional African peacekeeping force. "Seleka's leaders are struggling to control their men. The president has asked us to help restore calm."

He said rebels would be confined to barracks from Monday.

International aid group Doctors Without Borders said its offices in Bangui and elsewhere in the country had been looted, and urged all sides to ensure people had access to health care.

"SAD MOMENT" FOR SOUTH AFRICA

With France's military contingent refusing to intervene, two heavily armed columns of insurgents in pick-up trucks stormed into Bangui the previous day, brushing aside a South African force of 400 troops which attempted to block their path.

South African President Jacob Zuma said at least 13 soldiers were killed and 27 others wounded in the fighting, the worst military setback for Pretoria since the end of apartheid in 1994 and an embarrassing snub to its efforts to project its power in the resource-rich heart of Africa.

"It is a sad moment for our country," Zuma said, adding that another soldier was still missing.

"The actions of these bandits will not deter us from our responsibility of working for peace and stability in Africa."

Zuma said South Africa had yet to decided whether to pull out its force, which he said had inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels during a nine-hour attack on the South African base.

"This is complete disaster for South Africa," said Thierry Vircoulon, Central African specialist at the International Crisis Group. "They did not at all understand they were backing the wrong horse. They did not consult within the region."

French troops patrolling the international airport in the capital killed two Indian citizens when three vehicles tried to enter the facility, France's defense ministry said.

Seleka, a loose coalition of five rebel groups whose name means "alliance" in the Songo language, was formed last year after Bozize had failed to implement power-sharing in the wake of disputed 2011 elections boycotted by the opposition.

It resumed hostilities on Thursday after military leaders of the group detained its five members of Bozize's government and accused the president of violating January's peace deal by failing to integrate 2,000 of its fighters into the army.

"The movements that make up Seleka have a long history of divisions," Vircoulon said. "The cohesion of Seleka will be tested now they are in full control."

Despite rich deposits of gold, diamonds and uranium, Central African Republic remains one of the world's least developed and most unstable nations.

Bozize rose in the military during the 1966-1979 rule of dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a self-styled emperor found guilty of the murder of schoolchildren and other crimes.

In recent years, Bozize's government had hosted U.S. Special Forces helping regional armies hunt down the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, led by a Ugandan warlord, who have killed thousands of civilians during decades of conflict.

FRENCH NATIONALS SAFE

Paris, which already had 250 soldiers in Central African Republic, has sent another 300 troops to ensure the security of its citizens and diplomatic missions.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there was no need to evacuate the 1,200 French nationals, most of whom are in the capital. "Things are under control from our point of view regarding French nationals," Fabius told Europe 1 radio.

French President Francois Hollande spoke to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chadian President Idriss Deby to suggest that any solution to the crisis should be based on the Libreville agreement, Fabius added.

"For now, there is no legitimate authority there," he said, adding that France did not see it as its place to intervene.

France offered its condolences to India for the killing of Indian civilians and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was due to speak with his Indian counterpart in the coming hours, the defense ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. State Department also called on Seleka to ensure the implementation of the Libreville agreement and provide full support to Tiangaye's government. Regional military power Chad said the same in a statement on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris and Richard Valdmanis in Dakar; Writing by Daniel Flynn and David Lewis; Editing by Peter Graff, Anna Willard and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-centralafrica-rebels-idUSBRE92O0EW20130325.

China, Russia embrace militarily

March. 25, 2013

MOSCOW, March 25 (UPI) -- The Chinese government aims to shore up military and political ties with Russia, Chinese President Xi Jinping said.

Xi is on a three-day visit to Moscow, his first since assuming office this month. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan as part of a growing military relationship.

"My visit to the Russian Defense Ministry is intended to confirm that military, political and strategic relations between the two countries will strengthen as will cooperation between the Armed Forces of China and Russia," Xi was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

China last year purchased $2.1 billion in military equipment from Russia, down from the $4 billion in peak trading in 2005.

Both countries have expressed concern about U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe. The U.S. Defense Department shifted missile defense plans to the U.S. West Coast in response to a growing North Korean threat.

The U.S. military is retooling its defensive posture now that the Iraq war is over and the Afghan campaign is winding down. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said last year the Asia-Pacific region was "one of the most prominent and important" issues for the Pentagon.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/03/25/China-Russia-embrace-militarily/UPI-56311364220303/.

Space crew returns to Earth from ISS

Arkalyk, Kazakhstan (AFP)
March 16, 2013

Three astronauts returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station early Saturday, aboard a Russian capsule which landed on the freezing Kazakhstan steppe, mission control said.

"There is landing!" flashed a Russian mission control center message transmitted by NASA. Rescue teams rushed to recover the capsule carrying NASA US astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin.

"The crew felt normal through the descent and landing, their mood is good," Russian agencies quoted the Russian mission control official commentator as saying.

It was the first space mission for the Russian cosmonauts, and the second for astronaut Ford, who was captain of the crew. They arrived at the space station in October.

Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed the landing time as 0305 GMT. "The landing was completed as planned," it said in a statement. "The crew is feeling good. In the coming hours, they will be transported to a permanent location for post-flight rehabilitation."

Saturday's landing had been delayed by a day due to poor weather conditions, but rescue helicopters still had to contend with thick ground fog which descended on the landing area and drastically reduced visibility.

The spherical Soyuz vessel landed upright and four workers were shown prying the hatch open to extract the three men. They pulled the crew members out of the capsule and helped them down a special slide.

Russian cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin pumped his fists as he sat on the edge of the capsule. The smiling men were then bundled up by the Russian rescue workers and sat recovering in special chairs.

They were rushed into a helicopter within minutes of arrival to escape the subzero temperatures, as no medical tent was brought to the location by the skeleton evacuation crew that braved nearly zero visibility, the NASA commentator said in footage broadcast online by NASA-TV.

NASA later uploaded a photo of the trio giving a collective thumbs-up at Kazakhstan's Kustanay airport, near Russia's border. Ford was holding an apparent departure gift on his lap: a traditional Russian nesting doll painted as an astronaut.

"The crew that landed today, they have an aura of a united, friendly team," said Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin in a televised press conference. "I think they have a great future in space."

The crew encountered no problems during their 143 days in space, where they conducted 34 scientific experiments, he added. "What will this crew be remembered by? That everything went as planned during their flight," he said.

The Soyuz TMA-06M Russian spacecraft had separated from the ISS on schedule and entered the earth atmosphere at about 0240 GMT.

"Just closed the hatch on the departing crew. The echo rang through the Station in many ways, we are now 3 onboard this huge ship. So cool," tweeted Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut who is now captain of the remaining ISS crew members, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

The current team will remain in space until May. They expect to be joined by Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, who will be sent into space later this month.

Since 2009 there have been teams of six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station, whose capacity was previously limited to only three people.

Soyuz spacecraft, used since 1967, are currently the only way to ferry astronauts to the ISS after the US retired its iconic space shuttle program in 2011.

Russia has suffered several recent setbacks in its space program, notably losing expensive satellites and an unmanned supply ship to the ISS last year, but the manned missions have been flawless.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Space_crew_returns_to_Earth_from_ISS_999.html.

Poll Finds Mounting Hostility Among Arabs towards Iran

By Katelyn Fossett

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 2013 (IPS) - A poll released Tuesday shows a stark decline in favourability among Arab and Muslim citizens regarding the Iranian government and its policies.

Some who follow the issue are warning that tensions between Shia- and Sunni-led governments could ultimately be driving these shifts in attitude.

The poll, released by Zogby Research Services, is the latest in a series of surveys that charts public opinion in the Arab world on Iran. It polled 20,000 citizens in 17 Arab countries and three other non-Arab Muslim countries (Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan), and was conducted over the course of several weeks beginning in September.

An earlier poll, conducted in 2006, had indicated skyrocketing public opinion in the Arab world on Iran, with favourability ratings around 75 percent. Six years later, the new poll shows those same rates plummeting to around 25 percent, a decline that is being attributed to shifting perceptions towards both the United States and Iran, as well as growing Sunni-Shia tension.

In an IPS article published almost two years ago, in July 2011, journalist Barbara Slavin noted that favourability ratings toward Iran in the region were already in steep decline. In an extreme case, the Egyptian attitude fell from an 89 percent rating to just 36 percent.

In 2012, the most favorable views of the United States were expressed in Saudi Arabia (30 percent) and Lebanon (25 percent). The least favorable views were found in Jordan (10 percent) and Egypt (six percent).

Numbers indicating favourability toward the United States were generally lower and more volatile than those toward Iran, in the five to 40 percent range.

Meanwhile, Iran was viewed most favourably in Lebanon, with 61 percent, and Egypt further behind with 38 percent.

Iranian favourability ratings began much higher in 2006 and fell in all countries over the next six years. Public opinion fell the least in Lebanon, where favourability toward Iran was the highest out of all the countries (65 percent) in the last year.

In virtually every question, including two on Iranian roles in Bahrain and Syria in which other countries’ favourability ratings severely dropped, Lebanese participants answered with favourability rates above 70 percent.

Different explanations for the results were discussed at the Wilson Center here on Tuesday.

James Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute, said that in 2006 Iran had benefited from the perception that it was the center of resistance against both the West, whose occupation of Iraq was then in its third year, and Israel, which had just fought a brief but very destructive war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Zogby suggested that Turkey was now supplanting Iran in this role, while the latter is perceived as stoking divisiveness in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and Syria. The U.S. profile in the region, he noted, has also been reduced by its withdrawal from Iraq.

But analysts who responded to the poll cautioned against reading the results too optimistically and confusing anti-Iranian and anti-Shia sentiment.

“What we’re seeing is entrenched in a really quite frightening spread of sectarianism,” Marc Lynch, a Middle East expert and international affairs professor, said Tuesday. The results of the poll, he noted, need to be read as much as a “cautionary tale about the future of the Middle East as a feel-good tale of declining Iranian influence”.

Hisham Melham, head of the Washington bureau of Al Arabiya News Channel, also expressed concern over growing sectarianism in the region, going so far as to say that the Sunni-Shia divide is the worst it has ever been in the region.

Syria factor

The civil war in Syria also appears to be playing a significant role in this dynamic. Marc Lynch warned that some of the events that have proved crucial in undermining Iranian influence in the region, including the ongoing conflict in Syria, are creating new opportunities for expanding Iranian influence.

“Iranian influence in Syria is not going to go away,” he cautioned, “and one can easily imagine an insurgency fighting against what appears to be a Western-backed government in Damascus” when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad falls.

Middle East observers have been increasingly expressing concern over the region’s deepening sectarianism, especially as it exacerbates the conflict in Syria. After the removal of former president Saddam Hussein in Iraq, sectarian conflict and perception of a threat posed by Shi’ism has grown in the region.

Baghdad has been led by a predominantly Shia government since Hussein’s ouster and subsequent execution.

In the Syrian conflict, the government of President al-Assad has been backed primarily by Iran and the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah, while the rebels, who are predominantly Sunni, are supported primarily by the Sunni-led Gulf kingdoms and, to a lesser extent, Turkey. The Shia-led Iraqi government has also provided backing for al-Assad.

According to the new polling data, Palestinians hold particularly unfavorable views toward Iran, with favourability ratings in the 20 percent range. That compares, for instance, with relatively favorable polling outcomes towards the United States, with two-thirds of Palestinians responding that the U.S. contributed to stability in the Arab world.

Barbara Slavin, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, expressed particular surprise at the Palestinian results, but likewise attributed the finding to the Syrian conflict.

“Iran and Hezbollah are rallying to the side of Assad in Syria, while Arab countries are funneling money and weapons to the largely Sunni rebels in Syria,” she told IPS.

Pan-Islamic image

One of the most striking results of the new poll was a change in Arab public opinion over the past half-dozen years regarding Iran’s efforts to expand its nuclear power program, producing enriched uranium that could be used for military purposes – a change Tehran denies.

In Saudi Arabia in 2006, for example, only about 15 percent of those polled believed Iran had nuclear weapons ambitions, compared with 78 percent in 2012. In Jordan, that number jumped from eight percent in 2006 to 72 percent in 2012.

The number increased in every country polled, albeit by smaller margins in the other six countries.

Although experts disagree on the underlying drivers of the shifting sentiments, it was clear that the polling results could potentially pose major problems for the Iranian government.

“Iranians have tried to project a pan-Islamic image of themselves since the 1979 revolution,” Slavin said, “which doesn’t work if they’re seen as a narrow sectarian power.”

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/poll-finds-mounting-hostility-among-arabs-towards-iran/.

Ancient 'Micro-Continent' Found Under Indian Ocean

By Charles Q. Choi, OurAmazingPlanet Contributor
Mon, Feb 25, 2013

The remains of a micro-continent scientist call Mauritia might be preserved under huge amounts of ancient lava beneath the Indian Ocean, a new analysis of island sands in the area suggests.

These findings hint that such micro-continents may have occurred more frequently than previously thought, the scientists who conducted the study, detailed online Feb. 24 in the journal Nature Geoscience, say.

Researchers analyzed sands from the isle of Mauritius in the western Indian Ocean. Mauritius is part of a volcanic chain that, strangely, exists far from the edges of its tectonic plate. In contrast, most volcanoes are found at the borders of the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the Earth.

Investigators suggest that volcanic chains in the middle of tectonic plates, such as the Hawaiian Islands, are caused by giant pillars of hot molten rock known as mantle plumes. Theserise up from near the Earth's core, penetrating overlying material like a blowtorch.

Mantle plumes can apparently trigger continental breakups, softening the tectonic plates from below until they fragment — this is how the lost continent of Eastern Gondwana ended about 170 million years ago, prior research suggests. A plume currently sits near Mauritius and other islands, and the researchers wanted to see if they could find ancient fragments of continents from just such a breakup there.

Digging in the sand

The beach sands of Mauritius are the eroded remnants of volcanic rocks created by eruptions 9 million years ago. Collecting them"was actually quite pleasant," said researcher Ebbe Hartz, a geologistat the University of Oslo in Norway. He described walking out from a tropical beach, "maybe with a Coke and an icebox, and you dig down underwater into sand dunes at low tide."

Within these sands, investigators discovered about 20 ancient zircon grains (a type of mineral) between 660 million and 1,970 million years old. To learn more about the source of this ancient zircon, the scientists investigated satellite maps of Earth's gravity field. The strength of the field depends on Earth's mass, and since the planet's mass is not spread evenly, its gravity field is stronger in some places on the planet's surface and weaker in others.

The researchers discovered Mauritius is part of a contiguous block of abnormally thick crust that extends in an arc northward to the Seychelles islands. The finding suggests Mauritius and the adjacent region overlie an ancient micro-continent they call Mauritia. The ancient zircons they unearthed are shards of lost Mauritia.

The researchers meticulously sought to rule out any chance these ancient grains were contaminants from elsewhere.

"Zircons are heavy minerals, and the uranium and lead elements used to date the ages of these zircons are extraordinarily heavy, so these grains do not easily fly around — they did not blow into Mauritius from a sandstorm in Africa," Hartz told OurAmazingPlanet.

"We also chose a beach where there was no construction whatsoever — that these grains did not come from cement somewhere else," Hartz added. "We were also careful that all the equipment we used to collect the minerals was new, that this was the first time it was used, that there was no previous rock sticking to it from elsewhere."

Peeling continent pieces

After analyzing marine fracture zones and ocean magnetic anomalies, the investigators suggest Mauritia separated from Madagascar, fragmented and dispersed as the Indian Ocean basin grew between 61 million and 83.5 million years ago. Since then, volcanic activity has buried Mauritia under lava, and may have done the same to other continental fragments.

"There are all these little slivers of continent that may peel off continents when the hotspot of a mantle plume passes under them," Hartz said. "Why that happens is still mind-boggling. Why, after something gets ripped apart, would it rip apart again?"

Finding past evidence of lost continents normally involves tediously crushing and sorting volcanic rocks, Hartz explained. The researchers essentially let nature do the work of pulverization for them by looking at sand.

"We suggest lots of scientists try this technique on their favorite volcanoes," Hartz said.

Kenya's Odinga challenges election defeat in top court

By Drazen Jorgic and Humphrey Malalo
NAIROBI | Sat Mar 16, 2013

(Reuters) - Defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga challenged his election loss in court on Saturday, alleging widespread ballot rigging in a fresh test of Kenyan democracy five years after a disputed vote triggered deadly tribal violence.

Shortly before the petition was filed, police outside the Supreme Court fired teargas to disperse a rally of around 100 Odinga backers. They were urged by the outgoing prime minister to stay calm and trust in the law to resolve his complaint.

Odinga's complaint threatens to prolong the period of uncertainty shadowing east Africa's largest economy.

Analysts say a swift, transparent resolution of the row will be critical to restoring Kenya's reputation as a stable democracy. Big Western donors worry about a nation seen as a vital ally in a regional struggle against militant Islam.

Odinga, head of the CORD coalition, refuses to accept the slim first-round election win by Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court over the explosion of bloodshed in 2007 that left more than 1,200 people dead.

The March 4 election and aftermath was largely peaceful by contrast. Kenyatta declared the vote "free and fair" in his victory acceptance speech, though he added that the electoral process could be made more refined and efficient in the future.

Kenya's electoral commission (IEBC) had promised a smooth election but the collapse of an expensive new electronic voting system led to a five-day wait for the winner to be announced.

Odinga's petition alleges widespread rigging and accuses the IEBC of inflating voter registration numbers and going ahead with the election aware that its systems were going to fail.

"These failures dwarf anything Kenyans have ever witnessed in any previous election," Odinga told reporters on the doorstep of his office in the center of the capital Nairobi.

"Every mechanism and every instrument the IEBC deployed failed miserably. Its failure and collapse, on a catastrophic scale on the polling day, so fundamentally changed the system of polling and the number of votes cast."

Kenyatta comfortably beat Odinga in terms of votes won, 50.07 percent versus 43.28 percent, but only narrowly avoided a run-off after winning just 8,100 votes more than the 50 percent needed to be declared the winner outright.

That slim margin has given Odinga allies confidence that they can force a run-off through the courts, though the petition calls for the whole process to be declared null and void.

Kenyatta said his Jubilee coalition would respect the rule of law and the outcome of the petition filed by CORD. "If the decision is not in our favor, then we are ready to face the electorate again," Kenyatta said.

By the time the petition was filed in the early afternoon, hundreds of Odinga supporters gathered outside the court, many wearing T-shirts with slogans such as "democracy on trial".

"I am not happy with the election results, since my rights have been stolen. President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta is not my choice," Florence Bolo, an Odinga supporter, said outside the Supreme Court. Others shouted: "Uhuru must go!"

"We Kenyans want justice and I am crying for the Supreme Court to look at this case as critical and come out with a fair judgment," said Hamsa Omondi, a 21-year-old street vendor.

Traffic was moving freely through Nairobi and there were no signs of further unrest in the capital.

Many had feared a repeat of the 2007 violence after this month's vote, and were relieved when that did not transpire.

Kenya's stock market, which surged 7 percent in the two days after the peaceful conclusion of the March 4 vote, then suffered three consecutive days of falls. Traders said the Supreme Court petition had unnerved foreign investors.

The IEBC has consistently described the vote as credible despite a series of technological glitches on voting day and during the tallying of ballots. The IEBC spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.

International monitors, commenting shortly after counting began, said the election was broadly credible up to that point. But the count went for five days, and monitors did not follow the entire count process, diplomats say.

TEST FOR REFORMED COURTS

Odinga's petition names four respondents - the IEBC, its chairman Issack Hassan, Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto, who is also under ICC indictment for crimes against humanity over the 2007 bloodshed. Both deny the charges.

Odinga's attempts to nullify Kenyatta's victory will be the first significant test for Kenya's new Supreme Court, established under a constitution adopted in a 2010 referendum.

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, appointed in 2011 to reform a legal system accused of serving the interests of the elite, will be under pressure to deliver a transparent verdict in a country where political tensions are more tribal than ideological.

Mutunga received death threats in the run-up to the vote but promised the judiciary would act without "favor, prejudice or bias" when handling election complaints. He invited the media to cover the proceedings live from the court.

Odinga's decision to contest the election outcome in the courts was a major departure from his response to the 2007 election outcome which he also described as rigged.

Odinga at the time summoned supporters out into the streets for peaceful protests, as he did not trust the judiciary to be fair. But violence quickly erupted between tribes backing competing leadership candidates and spread across Kenya.

(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/16/us-kenya-elections-idUSBRE92F03U20130316.

Congolese rebels surrender, flee after defeat by rivals

By Jonny Hogg
KINSHASA | Sat Mar 16, 2013

(Reuters) - Hundreds of Congolese rebels loyal to warlord Bosco Ntaganda have fled into neighboring Rwanda or surrendered to United Nations peacekeepers after being routed by a rival faction, rebel and U.N. sources said on Saturday.

Ntaganda's apparent defeat comes after weeks of infighting within the M23 insurgency and could open the way for rival rebel leader Sultani Makenga to sign a peace deal with Kinshasa, bringing an end to a year-long rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rebel spokesman Vianney Kazarama said Makenga seized control of the town of Kibumba, 30 km (19 miles) north of Goma, capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province, early on Saturday.

Ntaganda and an estimated 200 fighters fled into the forest while hundreds of others crossed the border into Rwanda, Kazarama said. At least seven were killed.

"We're sweeping the area and placing our soldiers at strategic points," Kazarama said. "It is finished."

Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of killing civilians during a previous rebellion. His links to M23 have been a stumbling block to peace talks with Kinshasa, which says it wants him brought to justice.

"We're following the situation very closely. The only thing we want is for Ntaganda to be arrested," government spokesman Lambert Mende said.

Ntaganda's whereabouts could not be confirmed independently and members of his faction were not reachable by telephone.

FORCED TO FLEE

About 300 uniformed M23 rebels loyal to Ntaganda sat in a clearing littered with empty beer bottles in a small village in Rwanda's Rubavu District near the frontier, as locals in tattered clothes looked on.

Rwandan soldiers, who walked around nearby, had collected heaps of the rebels' weapons - AK-47 rifles, 60 mm mortar rounds and grenades - and laid them out in the front yard of a house.

"They were fighting us on all sides so we were forced to come to Rwanda. We know we have international rights here," said Prince Andema Makamo, who told Reuters he was a member of the M23 faction's political unit.

Ambulances ferried the wounded to a nearby medical clinic.

A Rwandan military official said more than 700 rebel fighters arrived in several Rwandan frontier villages through the night and into the morning, and more than 150 of them were being treated for wounds sustained in the fighting.

M23's former political head Jean-Marie Runiga, a Ntaganda loyalist ousted from the rebel hierarchy last month, was among those who fled to Rwanda.

"I came here because the situation has been getting worse on the ground in Congo. I preferred to save my life," he told Reuters at Rwanda's Nkamira refugee camp. "For the moment, I am here to find asylum."

Dozens of other M23 fighters, including senior officers, had handed themselves over to U.N. peacekeepers in recent days, according to a U.N. source, who asked not to be named.

"It's over for the Bosco and Runiga faction," he said.

The United Nations has accused Rwanda of backing armed uprisings in its vast and unstable neighbor to tackle extremist Rwandan rebels who operate there and to protect its economic interests. Rwanda dismisses the accusations.

In 2009, Kigali played a key role in ending the last major insurgency when it arrested its former ally and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda as part of a deal with Kinshasa.

That agreement saw Ntaganda integrated into the Congolese army as a general. It was Kinshasa's alleged failure to honor that deal that the rebels say sparked the M23 uprising.

M23 is one of many rebel groups operating in eastern Congo, which has been torn apart by nearly two decades of fighting over land, ethnicity and resources which has left millions dead.

(Reporting by Jonny Hogg and Jenny Clover; Writing by Daniel Flynn and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/16/us-congo-democratic-rebels-idUSBRE92F03Z20130316.

Zimbabwe approves constitution curbing presidential powers

By Cris Chinaka
HARARE | Tue Mar 19, 2013

(Reuters) - Zimbabweans have approved a new constitution that curbs presidential powers after 33 years of Robert Mugabe's rule and puts the southern African state a step closer to a vote, the election commission said on Tuesday.

Nearly 95 percent of voters in a referendum approved the new charter, which was backed by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, political rivals who were forced into a power-sharing deal after disputed elections in 2008.

The turnout, at slightly more than half the 6 million eligible voters, was higher than many had expected. Analysts said the presidential and parliamentary election expected in the second half of the year could draw out even more voters in what will be seen as a showdown between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

A high turnout in the rural areas that have traditionally supported Mugabe's ZANU-PF party suggests the vote is headed for a tense rural-versus-urban split if Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) mobilizes supporters in high numbers.

The new charter sets a maximum of two five-year terms for the president. However, the limit will not apply retroactively, so Mugabe, 89, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, could still theoretically rule for the next decade.

Presidential decrees will also require majority backing in the cabinet, and declaring emergency rule or dissolving parliament will need the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers, changes that will take effect after the next election.

The new constitution and referendum were conditions of the 2008 power-sharing deal.

The turnout of more than 3 million people was the largest since 1985. Even bigger numbers are expected in the presidential and parliamentary elections, in which Mugabe will face a new crop of voters born since 1980.

"On the face of it, I think this referendum confirms that we are going to have a very tight electoral race," said Eldred Masunungure, professor of political science at Harare's University of Zimbabwe.

"People in urban areas were cynical and didn't put much value in the constitution, but the general election will be a different game altogether."

Although the referendum passed off without incident, Mugabe detractors are seizing on the arrest at the weekend of four MDC staff members and leading human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa as evidence that ZANU-PF is bent on intimidating rivals ahead of the elections.

Mtetwa appeared before a magistrate court Tuesday and was charged with obstructing police work. She was to spend a night in prison, together with the MDC officials, and their bail hearing will continue on Wednesday.

Thabani Mpofu, Mtetwa's attorney, said her arrest amounted to an assault on Zimbabwe's legal profession at a time when the country was celebrating a new constitution.

Tsvangirai told journalists he hoped the adoption of a new constitution would usher in respect for the rule of law, and urged his MDC ranks to stand up to any intimidation.

"We must remain steadfast and focused despite these attempts to divert our attention from our democratic agenda," he said. "Change is certain and inevitable."

Despite his age and fears that his health is failing, Mugabe has said ZANU-PF would fight like a "wounded beast" to retain power after being forced into a compromise unity government after the contested 2008 election outcome.

That vote took place amid a severe economic crisis, with hyperinflation of more than 500 billion percent and food shortages, many of which were blamed on Mugabe's policies.

The crisis has eased under the power-sharing government, but the recovery is fragile and the MDC says Zimbabwe will not realize its full potential if ZANU-PF retains power.

Mugabe, a devout Catholic, is in Rome for the inauguration of the new Pope and has not commented on the referendum result.

(Reporting by Cris Chinaka; Editing by Ed Cropley and Mark Heinrich)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-zimbabwe-referendum-idUSBRE92I0IP20130319.

Zimbabwe votes on curbs to president's power

By MacDonald Dzirutwe
CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe
Sat Mar 16, 2013

(Reuters) - Zimbabweans voted on Saturday in a referendum expected to endorse a new constitution that would trim presidential powers and pave the way for an election to decide whether Robert Mugabe extends his three-decade rule.

Mugabe, Africa's oldest president at 89, has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980 and has been accused of waging violent crackdowns on the opposition and weakening state institutions like the cabinet and parliament.

The new constitution would set a maximum two five-year terms for the president, starting with the next election, expected in the second half of this year. But the limit will not apply retroactively, so Mugabe could rule for another two terms.

Presidential decrees will also require majority backing in the cabinet, and declarations of emergency rule or dissolutions of parliament will need the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers, changes that will take effect after the next election.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the rival Movement for Democratic Change of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are backing the charter, making Saturday's vote almost a rubber stamp exercise.

Voting ended at 11.00 a.m. ET at the nearly 10,000 polling stations across the southern African nation, with results to be announced within five days, said Rita Makarau, head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Turnout at the poll was generally low across the country but both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have been optimistic the constitution would be approved before presidential and parliamentary elections later in the year.

"We want peace in the country. Peace, peace, peace. It must begin with Robert Mugabe and go on to you and everyone else," said Mugabe as he voted in the Highfield township near downtown Harare, accompanied by his wife and daughter.

After a violent and disputed vote in 2008, Mugabe was pushed into a power-sharing agreement with Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai made the referendum on the new constitution a condition of the power-sharing deal and said there would be no point in holding new elections without it.

"This is a new political dispensation and I hope it sets in a new political culture. From the culture of impunity to constitutionalism," Tsvangirai told journalists after voting in the town of Chitungwiza, some 30 km (20 miles) south of Harare.

FOCUS ON ELECTIONS

Hundreds of voters filed patiently into polling stations earlier in Kuwadzana and Mbare, the oldest township in the capital, which has witnessed clashes between ZANU-PF and MDC supporters in the past.

"It is a good constitution because now a president can rule for 10 years at the most," said Douglas Muchena, after voting at a polling station in Avondale, just outside central Harare.

The run-up to the referendum was peaceful. Analysts say they are more worried about presidential and parliamentary elections later this year, where ZANU-PF is expected to face a stiff challenge from the MDC, although there are no reliable polls.

The periods preceding previous elections since 2000 have been marred by violence, and the MDC says hundreds of its members have been killed at the hands of Mugabe's youth brigades and independent war veterans supporters.

Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in March 2008 but not by enough votes to avoid a second round of voting.

The former trade union leader was forced to quit the run-off race after a campaign of violence by Mugabe's supporters, but regional leaders intervened to force the two rivals to form a coalition government.

Although fragile and at times acrimonious, the unity government has eased political tensions and helped stabilize an economy which shrank 40 percent between 2000 and 2010.

Mugabe wants to continue with his nationalist policies, like seizing white-owned commercial farms and taking majority shares in foreign-owned firms.

The MDC says if it wins it will revive a once-vibrant economy, attract foreign investment and reduce the 80 percent unemployment rate, one of the world's highest.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Roger Atwood)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/16/us-zimbabwe-referendum-idUSBRE92F03G20130316.

Analysis: Khamenei mobilizes loyalists to swing Iran's election

By Marcus George
DUBAI | Tue Mar 19, 2013

(Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader may have helped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win two presidential elections, but he is now bent on stopping his turbulent protege from levering his own man into the job.

Time was when even reformist presidents would defer to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the ultimate authority in the Islamic Republic's clerical system. Ahmadinejad changed all that.

Ahmadinejad's relentless quest for power and recognition has led him into direct confrontation with Khamenei, the man to whom he arguably owes his second term, if not his first.

And as Iran's first non-clerical president since 1981, he has not stopped short of challenging the power of the clergy.

Even though he cannot stand for a third term, Ahmadinejad is widely seen as determined to extend his influence by backing his former chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie for president.

Khamenei loyalists accuse Mashaie of inspiring a 'deviant' trend that favors strong nationalism over clerical rule.

"So magical is the political prowess attributed to Mashaie and Ahmadinejad's populist appeal that Mashaie's prospective candidacy causes much concern in the Khamenei camp," said Shaul Bakhash, professor at George Mason University in the United States, weighing prospects for the election in mid-June.

Voters, preoccupied by bread-and-butter issues in an economy battered by Western sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear program, may only have conservatives to choose from.

Reformists are unlikely to get a look in. Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who ran against Ahmadinejad in a 2009 election they denounced as rigged, languish under house arrest.

The reformist movement "has no organizational capacity and no recognized candidate right now," said Scott Lucas of EA worldview, a news website that monitors Iranian media.

CLOSING RANKS

Iran's rulers, keen to avert any repeat of the mass protests and violence that shook Iran after the 2009 poll, will try to ensure that only obedient candidates pass the vetting process.

And to block Mashaie or any other pro-Ahmadinejad candidate, Khamenei is turning to a three-man alliance of principalists - hardliners loyal to him - to unite behind one candidate to secure a quick and painless election win, say diplomats and analysts.

The driving force behind this appears to be the supreme leader's foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati, who is one of the three possible contenders, along with Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and lawmaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel.

"If principalists are divided ... and the presidency is not in the hands of principalists in the future, we will have a tragedy," Velayati said last month.

"From these three people one person will be introduced as a candidate, so we can finish the job in the first round."

Analysts agree that Khamenei, deeply concerned about the election outcome, has given the nod to the initiative.

"Ayatollah Khamenei has systematically and effectively concentrated both power and authority in his person. No one in Iran today can become president without his approval," said Ali Ansari, an Iran scholar at St Andrew's University in Scotland.

Velayati appears to be leading a drive to eradicate Ahmadinejad's power and unite all principality's behind a single candidate - despite their own virulent political divisions.

A U.S.-trained doctor who served as foreign minister for 16 years until 1997, Velayati is now regarded as one of Khamenei's most influential advisers, often deployed to carry out high-level initiatives on the leader's orders.

Velayati's partners in the anti-Ahmadinejad alliance are established politicians, but less well known abroad.

Haddad Adel is the father-in-law of Khamenei's third son, Mojtaba, the gate-keeper of access to the leader himself. An MP and former parliament speaker, he commands influence in the assembly and much respect for his academic credentials.

His family ties to Khamenei have strengthened his position within the leader's inner circle, but have opened him to accusations that he is little more than a pawn of the leader.

The third member of the trio, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, is a former commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

He is regarded as a pragmatist who "reaches out to more moderate conservatives", said Scott Lucas of EA World view.

Popular, charismatic and boasting support from the Guards, Qalibaf's inclusion in the alliance may be intended to stifle any threat he might pose by running as an independent candidate.

"He is too popular in his own right and may represent IRGC constituencies that the supreme leader is nervous about," said a European diplomat who focuses on Iran policy.

DEMOCRATIC VENEER

Khamenei can tighten his grip on the poll via the Guardian Council, which can veto candidates - although barring too many would risk destroying public interest in a vote which, however circumscribed, bolsters Iran's claims to democratic legitimacy.

"Without these elections and high participation, even the pretence of democracy would fall apart," said Trita Parsi of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council.

But allowing an Ahmadinejad-backed contender - or dark-horse independents - to run has risks for the ruling establishment.

"Ahmadinejad has shown he isn't going quietly," said the European diplomat. "The danger will be if his candidate doesn't get in amid voter fraud speculation - then we've got a 2009 situation, involving regime insiders."

Tensions are already rising.

Last month Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani - also a principalist - was pelted with shoes and stones by Ahmadinejad supporters in the holy city of Qom, where he had come to make a speech on the 34th anniversary of Iran's revolution.

It was the latest skirmish in a personal feud that had exploded into public days earlier when the president accused Larijani's family of using its position for economic gain.

Larijani's brother, Fazel, described Ahmadinejad's behavior as a conspiracy carried out by "Mafia-like individuals".

Such public wrangling among Iran's conservative political elite is an embarrassment to the Supreme Leader.

"Khamenei no longer seems able to impose discipline eve among his own lieutenants when it comes to those fierce political rivalries," said Bakhash.

Among independents to throw their hats in the ring are former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaie, a losing candidate in 2009. Both are conservatives who could disrupt Velayati's campaign to close ranks for Khamenei and shut out any Ahmadinejad proxy.

A president loyal to Khamenei might prove slightly less adversarial than Ahmadinejad in relations with the West, but would still be unlikely to accept a major nuclear compromise.

"Since they are beholden to the supreme leader, I can't see much change other than a reduction in some of the rhetoric," said Ansari of St Andrew's University. "Although this would help, at least on a superficial level."

(Reporting By Marcus George; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Janet McBride)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-iran-election-idUSBRE92I0HY20130319.

Mining proponents win Greenland election

By JAN M. OLSEN | Associated Press
Wed, Mar 13, 2013

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Greenland is poised to get its first female prime minister after a centrist party that supports tapping the Arctic island's vast mineral wealth, including uranium, won national elections, a complete vote count showed Wednesday.

With all votes counted, Aleqa Hammond's centrist Siumut party won 42.8 percent and 14 seats, while incumbent Premier Kuupik Kleist's left-leaning Inuit Ataqatigiit mustered 34.4 percent.

The social democratic Siumut gained more than 16 percentage points since the last elections in 2009, while IA saw its support drop 9.3 points.

"I am very, very happy. I am thrilled as party leader," said Hammond, 47. "I am glad that Siumut is back."

Kleist conceded defeat in the battle for control of the 31-seat Parliament.

Hammond's party ruled for three decades and was ousted four years ago when Inuit Ataqatigiit grabbed the power for the first time since 1979, the year Greenland acquired semi-autonomous status from Denmark.

The party now needs to cobble together a coalition that will control at least 16 seats in Inatsisartut, or Parliament. She said she was open-minded about who might join her coalition.

Many Greenlanders want to use the island's mineral resources, including rare earth metals and uranium, as a way to reduce dependency on a subsidy from Denmark which now accounts for about two-thirds of the island's economy.

Developing a mining industry, however, would require inviting thousands of guest workers, a sensitive topic among the population of 57,000.

Kleist has headed efforts to attract international investment, but his Inuit Ataqatigiit party adheres to a zero-tolerance policy that forbids mining and selling of radioactive minerals, including uranium.

Hammond has said her party was ready to accept uranium mining if the ore contains a maximum 0.1 percent uranium oxide.

So far, the zero-tolerance policy could affect only exploration in southern Greenland, where an Australian company has estimated it could extract up to 40,000 tons or rare earth metals per year, with some uranium as by-product.

Some potential foreign investors believe Greenland could contain the largest rare-earth metals deposit outside China, which currently accounts for more than 90 percent of global production.

Rare earth elements are key ingredients in smartphones, weapons systems and other modern technologies.

An equally contentious issue is immigrant labor, which Greenland, which has a population of 57,000, will need if it is to develop a viable mining industry. Hammond's Siumut party has accused the current government of moving too fast, accusing it of rushing through a law in December that allows large mining projects to import labor from places like China.

Outsiders, including the European Union, are concerned that China is eyeing investments in Greenland as a way to gain a toehold in the resource-rich Arctic region.

Voter turnout was 74.2 percent of the 40,500 eligible voters — an approximate 3 percent increase from 2009.

Recovery slow as Japan marks 2 years since tsunami

March 11, 2013

TOKYO (AP) — Amid growing dissatisfaction with the slow pace of recovery, Japan marked the second anniversary Monday of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and has displaced more than 300,000.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the government intends to make "visible" reconstruction progress and accelerate resettlement of those left homeless by streamlining legal and administrative procedures many blame for the delays.

"I pray that the peaceful lives of those affected can resume as soon as possible," Emperor Akihito said at a somber memorial service at Tokyo's National Theater. At observances in Tokyo and in still barren towns along the northeastern coast, those gathered bowed their heads in a moment of silence marking the moment, at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake — the strongest recorded in Japan's history — struck off the coast.

Japan has struggled to rebuild communities and to clean up radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, whose reactors melted down after its cooling systems were disabled by the tsunami. The government has yet to devise a new energy strategy — a central issue for its struggling economy with all but two of the country's nuclear reactors offline.

About half of those displaced are evacuees from areas near the nuclear plant. Hundreds of them filed a lawsuit Monday demanding compensation from the government and the now-defunct plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, for their suffering and losses.

"Two years after the disasters, neither the government nor TEPCO has clearly acknowledged their responsibility, nor have they provided sufficient support to cover the damages," said Izutaro Managi, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

Throughout the disaster zone, the tens of thousands of survivors living in temporary housing are impatient to get resettled, a process that could take up to a decade, officials say. "What I really want is to once again have a 'my home,' " said Migaku Suzuki, a 69-year-old farm worker in Rikuzentakata, who lost the house he had just finished building in the disaster. Suzuki also lost a son in the tsunami, which obliterated much of the city.

Further south, in Fukushima prefecture, some 160,000 evacuees are uncertain if they will ever be able to return to homes around the nuclear power plant, where the meltdowns in three reactors spewed radiation into the surrounding soil and water.

The lawsuit filed by a group of 800 people in Fukushima demands an apology payment of 50,000 yen ($625) a month for each victim until all radiation from the accident is wiped out, a process that could take decades. Another 900 plan similar cases in Tokyo and elsewhere. Managi said he and fellow lawyers hope to get 10,000 to join the lawsuits.

Evacuees are anxious to return home but worried about the potential, still uncertain risks from exposure to the radiation from the disaster, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986. While there have been no clear cases of cancer linked to radiation from the plant, the upheaval in people's lives, uncertainty about the future and long-term health concerns, especially for children, have taken an immense psychological toll on thousands of residents.

"I don't trust the government on anything related to health anymore," said Masaaki Watanabe, 42, who fled the nearby town of Minami-Soma and doesn't plan to return. Yuko Endo, village chief in Kawauchi, said many residents might not go back if they are kept waiting too long. Restrictions on access are gradually being lifted as workers remove debris and wipe down roofs by hand.

"If I were told to wait for two more years, I might explode," said Endo, who is determined to revive his town of mostly empty houses and overgrown fields. A change of government late last year has raised hopes that authorities might move more quickly with the cleanup and reconstruction.

Since taking office in late December, Abe has made a point of frequently visiting the disaster zone, promising faster action and plans to raise the long-term reconstruction budget to 25 trillion yen ($262 billion) from 19 trillion yen (about $200 billion).

"We cannot turn away from the harsh reality of the affected areas. The Great East Japan Earthquake still is an ongoing event," Abe said at the memorial gathering in Tokyo. "Many of those hit by the disaster are still facing uncertainty over their futures."

The struggles to rebuild and to cope with the nuclear disaster are only the most immediate issues Japan is grappling with as it searches for new drivers for growth as its export manufacturing lags, its society ages and its huge national debt grows ever bigger.

Those broader issues are also hindering the reconstruction. Towns want to rebuild, but they face the stark reality of dwindling, aging populations that are shrinking further as residents give up on ever finding new jobs. The tsunami and nuclear crisis devastated local fish processing and tourism industries, accelerating a decline that began decades before.

Meanwhile, the costly decommissioning the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant could take 40 years as its operator works on finding and removing melted nuclear fuel from inside, disposing the spent fuel rods and treating the many tons of contaminated wastewater used to cool the reactors.

Following the Fukushima disaster, Japan's 50 still viable nuclear reactors were shut down for regular inspections and then for special tests to check their disaster preparedness. Two were restarted last summer to help meet power shortages, but most Japanese remain opposed to restarting more plants.

The government, though, looks likely to back away from a decision to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s. Abe says it may take a decade to decide on what Japan's energy mix should be.

Associated Press writers Malcolm Foster and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Emily Wang in Kesennuma, Japan, contributed to this report.