Where are the Best Windows Into Europa's Interior?

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Apr 15, 2013

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa exposes material churned up from inside the moon and also material resulting from matter and energy coming from above. If you want to learn about the deep saltwater ocean beneath this unusual world's icy shell -- as many people do who are interested in possible extraterrestrial life -- you might target your investigation of the surface somewhere that has more of the up-from-below stuff and less of the down-from-above stuff.

New analysis of observations made more than a decade ago by NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter helps identify those places.

"We have found the regions where charged electrons and ions striking the surface would have done the most, and the least, chemical processing of materials emplaced at the surface from the interior ocean," said J. Brad Dalton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead author of the report published recently in the journal Planetary and Space Science.

"That tells us where to look for materials representing the most pristine ocean composition, which would be the best places to target with a lander or study with an orbiter."

Europa is about the size of Earth's moon and, like our moon, keeps the same side toward the planet it orbits. Picture a car driving in circles around a mountain with its left-side windows always facing the mountain.

Europa's orbit around Jupiter is filled with charged, energetic particles tied to Jupiter's powerful magnetic field. Besides electrons, these particles include ions of sulfur and oxygen originating from volcanic eruptions on Io, a neighboring moon.

The magnetic field carrying these energetic particles sweeps around Jupiter faster than Europa orbits Jupiter, in the same direction: about 10 hours per circuit for the magnetic field versus about 3.6 days for Europa's orbit. So, instead of our mountain-circling car getting bugs on the front windshield, the bugs are plastered on the back of the car by a "wind" from behind going nearly nine times faster than the car. Europa has a "leading hemisphere" in front and a "trailing hemisphere" in back.

Earlier studies had found more sulfuric acid being produced toward the center of the trailing hemisphere than elsewhere on Europa's surface, interpreted as resulting from chemistry driven by sulfur ions bombarding the icy surface.

Dalton and his co-authors at JPL and at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., examined data from observations by Galileo's near infrared mapping spectrometer of five widely distributed areas of Europa's surface. The spectra of reflected light from frozen material on the surface enabled them to distinguish between relatively pristine water and sulfate hydrates.

These included magnesium and sodium sulfate salt hydrates, and hydrated sulfuric acid. They compared the distributions of these substances with models of how the influxes of energetic electrons and of sulfur and oxygen ions are distributed around the surface of Europa.

The concentration of frozen sulfuric acid on the surface varies greatly, they found. It ranges from undetectable levels near the center of the leading hemisphere, to more than half of the surface materials near the center of the heavily bombarded trailing hemisphere. The concentration was closely related to the amount of electrons and sulfur ions striking the surface.

"The close correlation of electron and ion fluxes with the sulfuric acid hydrate concentrations indicates that the surface chemistry is affected by these charged particles," says Dalton.

"If you are interested in the composition and habitability of the interior ocean, the best places to study would be the parts of the leading hemisphere we have identified as receiving the fewest electrons and having the lowest sulfuric acid concentrations."

Surface deposits in these areas are most likely to preserve the original chemical compounds that erupted from the interior. Dalton suggests that any future spacecraft missions to Europa should target these deposits for study from orbit, or even attempt to land there.

Dalton said, "The darkest material, on the trailing hemisphere, is probably the result of externally-driven chemical processing, with little of the original oceanic material intact.

While investigating the products of surface chemistry driven by charged particles is still interesting from a scientific standpoint, there is a strong push within the community to characterize the contents of the ocean and determine whether it could support life. These kinds of places just might be the windows that allow us to do that."

The study was funded by NASA's Outer Planets Research Program. NASA's Galileo mission, launched in 1989, orbited Jupiter, investigating the planet and its diverse moons from 1995 to 2003. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, managed Galileo for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Where_are_the_Best_Windows_Into_Europas_Interior_999.html.

Can One Buy the Right to Name a Planet?

Paris, France (SPX)
Apr 15, 2013

In the light of recent events, where the possibility of buying the rights to name exoplanets has been advertised, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) wishes to inform the public that such schemes have no bearing on the official naming process.

The IAU wholeheartedly welcomes the public's interest to be involved in recent discoveries, but would like to strongly stress the importance of having a unified naming procedure.

More than 800 planets outside the Solar System have been found to date, with thousands more waiting to be confirmed. Detection methods in this field are steadily and quickly increasing - meaning that many more exoplanets will undoubtedly be discovered in the months and years to come.

Recently, an organisation has invited the public to purchase both nomination proposals for exoplanets, and rights to vote for the suggested names. In return, the purchaser receives a certificate commemorating the validity and credibility of the nomination.

Such certificates are misleading, as these campaigns have no bearing on the official naming process - they will not lead to an officially-recognized exoplanet name, despite the price paid or the number of votes accrued.

Upon discovery, exoplanets and other astronomical objects receive unambiguous and official catalogue designations. While exoplanet names such as 16 Cygni Bb or HD 41004 Ab may seem boring when considering the names of planets in our own Solar System, the vast number of objects in our Universe - galaxies, stars, and planets to name just a few - means that a clear and systematic system for naming these objects is vital.

Any naming system is a scientific issue that must also work across different languages and cultures in order to support collaborative worldwide research and avoid confusion.

To make this possible, the IAU acts as a single arbiter of the naming process, and is advised and supported by astronomers within different fields.

As an international scientific organisation, it dissociates itself entirely from the commercial practice of selling names of planets, stars or or even "real estate" on other planets or moons. These practices will not be recognized by the IAU and their alternative naming schemes cannot be adopted.

However, the IAU greatly appreciates and wishes to acknowledge the increasing interest from the general public in being more closely involved in the discovery and understanding of our Universe.

As a result in 2013 the IAU Commission 53 Extrasolar Planets and other IAU members will be consulted on the topic of having popular names for exoplanets, and the results will be made public on the IAU website.

Meanwhile, astronomers and the public are encouraged to keep using the existing accepted nomenclature - details of which can be found on the Astronomy for the Public section of the IAU web page, under Naming Astronomical Objects.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Can_One_Buy_the_Right_to_Name_a_Planet_999.html.

Russia to Explore Moon, Mars by 2030

Blagoveshensk, Russia
(RIA Novosti) Apr 15, 2013

Russia will develop new technology including huge new rockets for manned flights to the Moon and Mars by 2030, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.

Rogozin, who oversees the space and military industries, said on Friday Russia is going to design a carrier rocket with a payload of 130 to 180 tons as well as powerful interplanetary vehicles.

The new technologies will lay the ground for manned flights to the Mars, Rogozin said.

Rogozin made his remarks while opening a meeting on the space industry in Russia's Far East on Friday, as Russia marks the anniversary of Yury Gagarin's first manned space flight on April 12, 1961.

Russia plans to start test of a new-generation spacecraft in the next two decades which could potentially be used for manned flights to the Moon, Rogozin said.

The Russian space industry is also set to develop a robot system for Moon exploration, as well as construct a permanent research base and a takeoff and landing pad there, he said.

The Soviet Union was developing a large rocket called the N-1 in the late 1960's for a lunar landing, but the project was abandoned after the United States won the race to land on the moon in 1969.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_to_Explore_Moon_Mars_by_2030_999.html.

Green Pea galaxies could help astronomers understand early universe

Ann Arbor MI (SPX)
Apr 04, 2013

The rare Green Pea galaxies discovered by the general public in 2007 could help confirm astronomers' understanding of reionization, a pivotal stage in the evolution of the early universe, say University of Michigan researchers.

Reionization occurred a few hundred million years after the Big Bang as the first stars were turning on and forming the first galaxies. During this period, the space between the galaxies changed from an opaque, neutral fog to a transparent charged plasma, as it is today. Plasma is gas that's electrically charged.

As for how this happened, the prevailing theory holds that massive stars in the early galaxies produced an abundance of high-energy ultraviolet light that escaped into intergalactic space.

There, the UV light interacted with the neutral hydrogen gas it met, blasting electrons off the hydrogen atoms and leaving behind a plasma of negatively charged electrons and positively charged hydrogen ions.

"We think this is what happened but when we looked at galaxies nearby, the high-energy radiation doesn't appear to make it out. There's been a push to find some galaxies that show signs of radiation escaping," said Anne Jaskot, a doctoral student in astronomy.

Jaskot and Sally Oey, an associate professor of astronomy in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, have found that the Green Peas could hold that evidence. Their findings are published in the current edition of the Astrophysical Journal.

"The Green Peas are compact, highly star-forming galaxies that are very similar to the early galaxies in the universe," Jaskot said. "Our analysis shows they may be leaking ionizing radiation."

The researchers focused on six of the most intensely star-forming Green Pea galaxies, which are between one billion and five billion light years away.

They studied their emission lines as observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Emission lines show how light interacts with matter, and in this case, they helped the astronomers understand the relationship between the stars and gas in these galaxies.

The emission lines told Jaskot and Oey how much light the galaxies absorbed. Then, to determine how much light was there to start with, they ran models to estimate, for example, how old the galaxies are and how many stars they contain.

The galaxies, the researchers determined, produced more radiation than the researchers detected, so they infer that some of it must have escaped.

"An analogy might be if you have a tablecloth and you spill something on it. If you see the cloth has been stained all the way to the edges, there's a good chance it also spilled onto the floor," Jaskot said.

"We're looking at the gas like the tablecloth and seeing how much light it has absorbed. It has absorbed a lot of light. We're seeing that the galaxy is saturated with it and there's probably some extra that spilled off the edges."

Jaskot says the Green Peas are exciting candidates to help astronomers understand a major milestone in the development of the cosmos 13 billion years ago.

The paper is called The Origin and Optical Depth of Ionizing Radiation in the 'Green Pea' Galaxies. The research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Green_Pea_galaxies_could_help_astronomers_understand_early_universe_999.html.

American charged, ex-general held in Venezuela

April 28, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An American filmmaker was formally charged late Saturday by Venezuelan officials who accuse him of paying right-wing groups to foment postelection unrest on behalf of U.S. intelligence.

The federal prosecutor's office said Timothy Tracy, 35, of West Hollywood, California, was charged with crimes including conspiracy, association for criminal purposes and use of a false document. On Thursday, President Nicolas Maduro said he had personally ordered Tracy's arrest on suspicion of "creating violence in the cities of this country" in the wake of an April 14 presidential election narrowly won by the hand-picked successor to Hugo Chavez.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles contends the election was stolen from him by fraud, setting up postelection tensions and bitter accusations between Venezuela's government and opposition. Friends say Tracy is an innocent, self-funded documentary filmmaker with no political aims or government ties.

The U.S. government has also said Tracy is innocent but declined comment on the specifics of his case. Venezuela's national prosecutor's office said a judge had ordered Tracy held until further notice in a jail run by the national intelligence service in the capital, Caracas, because he presented a risk of flight.

Tracy had a translator and private lawyers hired by him, or on his behalf, during the hearing, prosecutors said. The Georgetown University English graduate was a story consultant on the 2009 documentary "American Harmony," about competitive barbershop quartet singing, and produced the recent Discovery Channel program "Under Siege," about terrorism and smuggling across the U.S.-Canada border as well the History Channel series "Madhouse," on modified race-car drivers in North Carolina.

Separately, Venezuelan officials said Saturday that they have arrested a retired general who had become a fierce critic of the government, a detention the opposition called part of a hardening crackdown in the wake of the disputed election.

Retired Brig. Gen. Antonio Rivero gained fame for denouncing Cuban involvement in the Venezuelan military in 2010 and became a prominent member of the opposition, participating in post-vote protests this month.

Rivero appeared in a brief video of a postelection protest that prosecutors played for the press Thursday after announcing Tracy's arrest. They said the video was taken from Tracy's belongings, along with another short video that shows a group of young people talking, in what appears to be a joking, sarcastic manner, about being paid many millions of dollars to participate in anti-government demonstrations.

In a snippet that is clearly heavily edited, Rivero discusses demonstrators' use of clubs and rocks in a clash with National Guard members. It is unclear, because of the editing and brevity of the clip, whether he is encouraging them to use weapons or discouraging them.

The footage appeared to be taken at a protest in Caracas soon after the vote results were announced, in which university students and National Guard members traded rocks and tear gas. Leopoldo Lopez, national coordinator of the opposition Voluntad Popular party, called Rivero's detention illegal and part of a campaign to arrest and "morally assassinate" Venezuela's opposition leadership.

"The government errs if it thinks we are going to falter in our just solicitude that the truth be known about the April 14" election, Lopez said. Rivero is a member of Lopez's party. Venezuela's Public Ministry released a statement saying that Rivero would be presented before a tribunal "for his presumed connection to violent acts that have occurred recently in this country."

The statement said the retired general was arrested by Venezuela's intelligence service on Saturday. The government says postelection attacks by Capriles supporters killed nine members of the ruling Chavista movement, left dozens injured and damaged government offices and medical clinics.

The opposition vehemently denies the accusations.

Associated Press Writers Christopher Toothaker in Caracas contributed to this report.

Supernova remnant 1987A continues to reveal its secrets

Perth, Australia (SPX)
Apr 03, 2013

A team of astronomers led by the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have succeeded in observing the death throws of a giant star in unprecedented detail

In February of 1987 astronomers observing the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy, noticed the sudden appearance of what looked like a new star. In fact they weren't watching the beginnings of a star but the end of one and the brightest supernova seen from Earth in the four centuries since the telescope was invented.

By the next morning news of the discovery had spread across the globe and southern hemisphere stargazers began watching the aftermath of this enormous stellar explosion, known as a supernova.

In the two and a half decades since then, the remnant of Supernova 1987A has continued to be a focus for researchers around the world, providing a wealth of information about one of the Universe's most extreme events.

In research published in the Astrophysical Journal a team of astronomers in Australia and Hong Kong have succeeded in using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, CSIRO radio telescope in northern New South Wales, to make the highest resolution radio images of the expanding supernova remnant at millimeter wavelengths.

"Imaging distant astronomical objects like this at wavelengths less than 1 centimeter demands the most stable atmospheric conditions. For this telescope these are usually only possible during cooler winter conditions but even then, the humidity and low elevation of the site makes things very challenging," said lead author, Dr Giovanna Zanardo of ICRAR, a joint venture of Curtin University and The University of Western Australia in Perth.

Unlike optical telescopes, a radio telescope can operate in the daytime and can peer through gas and dust allowing astronomers to see the inner workings of objects like supernova remnants, radio galaxies and black holes.

"Supernova remnants are like natural particle accelerators, the radio emission we observe comes from electrons spiraling along the magnetic field lines and emitting photons every time they turn. The higher the resolution of the images the more we can learn about the structure of this object," said Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, Deputy Director of ICRAR and CAASTRO, the Center for All-sky Astrophysics.

Scientists study the evolution of supernovae into supernova remnants to gain an insight into the dynamics of these massive explosions and the interaction of the blast wave with the surrounding medium.

"Not only have we been able to analyse the morphology of Supernova 1987A through our high resolution imaging, we have compared it to X-ray and optical data in order to model its likely history," said Professor Bryan Gaensler, Director of CAASTRO at the University of Sydney.

The team suspects a compact source or pulsar wind nebula to be sitting in the center of the radio emission, implying that the supernova explosion did not make the star collapse into a black hole. They will now attempt to observe further into the core and see what's there.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Supernova_remnant_1987A_continues_to_reveal_its_secrets_999.html.

Swiss firm plans robotic mini-shuttle

Payerne, Sweden (UPI)
Apr 1, 2013

A Swiss firm says it intends to construct a robotic rocket plane that will launch satellites into orbit off the back of a modified jetliner.

Swiss Space Systems -- S3 -- says its unmanned suborbital shuttle could be traveling to launch height atop an Airbus A300 jetliner by 2017.

"S3 aims to develop, build, certify and operate suborbital space shuttles dedicated to launching small satellites, enabling space access to be made more democratic thanks to an original system with launching costs up to four times less than at present," the company, which has headquarters in Payerne, said in a statement.

While it will concentrate on launching unmanned satellites at first, it has plans beyond that, a company spokesman said.

"Our first priority is the launch of small satellites until 2018," Gregoire Loretan, S3's head of communications, told SPACE.com. "And the goal for S3 is to establish certification process and standards to help the development of manned flight afterwards."

The carrier aircraft would lift the robot rocket plane to a lunch altitude of about 33,000 feet, S3 said, at which point the rocket plane will utilize a liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket engine to reach an altitude of around 50 miles, high enough to put a satellite equipped with its own small rocket into orbit about 434 miles above Earth.

After deploying the satellite the robotic space plane would glide to Earth and land at a spaceport S3 said it will build in Payerne.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Swiss_firm_plans_robotic_mini-shuttle_999.html.

Young, hot and blue

Munich, Germany (SPX)
Mar 29, 2013

The Universe is an old neighborhood -- roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient -- some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old (eso0425). Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed. In this image, you can see some of the newcomers, the young stars forming the cluster NGC 2547.

But, how young are these cosmic youngsters really? Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547's stars range from 20 to 35 million years old. That doesn't sound all that young, after all.

However, our Sun is 4600 million years old and has not yet reached middle age. That means that if you imagine that the Sun as a 40 year-old person, the bright stars in the picture are three-month-old babies.

Most stars do not form in isolation, but in rich clusters with sizes ranging from several tens to several thousands of stars. While NGC 2547 contains many hot stars that glow bright blue, a telltale sign of their youth, you can also find one or two yellow or red stars which have already evolved to become red giants.

Open star clusters like this usually only have comparatively short lives, of the order of several hundred million years, before they disintegrate as their component stars drift apart.

Clusters are key objects for astronomers studying how stars evolve through their lives. The members of a cluster were all born from the same material at about the same time, making it easier to determine the effects of other stellar properties.

The star cluster NGC 2547 lies in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail), about 1500 light-years from Earth, and is bright enough to be easily seen using binoculars. It was discovered in 1751 by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille during an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, using a tiny telescope of less than two centimeters aperture...

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Young_hot_and_blue_999.html.

Croatians to vote on golf in historic referendum

April 27, 2013

DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AP) — In 1991, Croatians voted for independence and then last year to join the European Union.

Now, in only the third referendum ever in the country, the residents of the postcard-pretty Adriatic sea resort of Dubrovnik will vote on the construction of a massive golf complex on a hill above their ancient walled tourist city. The implications could be just as enduring.

Although the Sunday vote focuses on local issues, backers hail it as an unprecedented citizen referendum giving voters in post-communist Croatia a direct say in their democracy. But the project's investors warn it could have serious consequences on future foreign investment in the economically struggling Balkan country, which is to formally become EU's 28th member this summer.

Backers say the 1.1-billion-euro ($1.4 (€1.08) -billion) golf course designed by Australian golfing legend Greg Norman — which includes villas, hotels, tennis courts, a horse-riding club and restaurants — will be a tourist boon and the source of hundreds of jobs.

But others worry that the club will endanger their scenic city of red-roofed stone houses and aquamarine sea, dubbed the Pearl of the Adriatic. Foreign investors have already paid some 100,000 euros ($130,000) to buy the largely barren rocky land from private owners, but opponents say the construction would choke the old town, would represent an environmental hazard and would not bring financial gains for Dubrovnik residents.

"First and foremost, this is not a golf project at all," said Enes Cerimagic, a member of the group campaigning against the project, whose makeshift pro-referendum stand stood out on the city's main street of white stone 17th-century palaces and churches.

"Golf here serves just as excuse for a big real estate development," he said, that at 300 hectares (740 acres) dwarfs the area of the old walled town, would overburden the city's infrastructure and penalize taxpayers.

The private investors say the project would provide 1,000 new jobs in Dubrovnik, would bring wealthier golf-playing tourists to the area and stretch the main tourist season, which currently last only two summer months.

Maja Frenkel, the head of Razvoj Golf, the main Israeli investor group behind the project, insisted that the referendum and the opposition to the project is sending the wrong signal to other foreigners planning to invest in Croatia, which will enter the EU on July 1.

"Unfortunately, the message has already been sent," Frenkel said. "No matter the outcome of this referendum, I think that any other investor will be very carefully watching the development of our project and will think twice before entering the country, which has relatively unclear investment procedures."

Croatia split from Yugoslavia in the wars of the 1990s, and is currently going through a painful transition into a market economy. The privatization and the closure of once prosperous factories led to mass unemployment.

Its economy relies heavily on tourism, which brings some 7 billion euros ($9.1 billion) a year to the nation of 4.2 million, blessed with a spectacular Adriatic coast and stunning islands. The rocky 415-meter (1,360-feet) Srdj hill currently has only a cable car from the old town to the Napoleon-era Imperial fortress on its top, a large stone cross, a restaurant, a souvenir shop and the small village of Bosanka, with some 30 homes. The Bosanka residents are in favor of the golf park.

"We locals are all against the referendum," said Luko Paskojevic, as he pointed toward the stretch of dry bushes where the project is planned. "We are against someone else deciding what we are to do with our land. They are saying 'Srdj is ours,' but this is all a private land," he said. "We hope people will see that this golf project is good and that the referendum will fail."

Referendums in the Balkans have in the past been organized by ruling elites and dealt with issues such as secession of their countries from Serb-led Yugoslavia, or joining the EU or NATO. This is the first time that a referendum has been called by a group of citizens to deal with everyday issues.

Dubrovnik mayor Andro Vlahusic says that the Sunday referendum is a sign of Croatia's democratic development. But, he said he hoped Dubrovnik will vote for the golf park. "That area has been neglected for 15 centuries," Vlahusic said. During that period, there were two ideas of what to build there, he said.

"One was a railway station, the other was golf. Between the railway station and golf, golf is much better."

British Embassy in Somalia opens

April 25, 2013

MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 25 (UPI) -- The reopening of the British Embassy in Somalia is a sign of the country's hard-fought road to recovery, visiting British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Hague arrived Thursday in Somalia to open the British Embassy for the first time since it was evacuated in 1991.

Somalia last year established a functioning central administration for the first time since the 1990s. It's struggled to extend its authority beyond Mogadishu, however, because of separatist threats from al-Shabaab, a militant group aligned with al-Qaida.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an April bombing of a courthouse in Mogadishu. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates more than 50 civilians were killed in the attack.

"Somalia has been through a dramatic shift over the last year but continues to face huge challenges," Hague said in a statement. "We should be under no illusions as to the sustained efforts that will be required, in Somalia and from its international partners, to ensure that Somalia continues to make progress."

Somali Foreign Minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam said last month "the road to full recovery will be long."

An international meeting on Somalia is to convene in May in London.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/25/British-Embassy-in-Somalia-opens/UPI-90421366899887/.

Thousands to demonstrate during Putin's visit to Amsterdam

Monday 08 April 2013

Russian president Vladimir Putin is due in the Netherlands on Monday afternoon, on a whirlwind visit to mark 400 years of friendship between the two countries.

Putin’s visit has angered gay rights activists, and several thousand are planning to protest outside Amsterdam’s Maritime museum, where he will attend a state banquet on Monday evening.

Russia is poised to bring in new legislation which will make it a criminal offence to hold public events or spread information about homosexuality to minors.

Flags

So far over 3,300 people have said they will take part, making it ‘one of the biggest demonstrations’ in the history of gay rights lobby group COC.

During the demonstration Amsterdam drag queen Dolly Bellefleur will perform a version of the Bony M hit Rasputin, re-written to target Putin.

On Sunday, former Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen symbolically lowered a rainbow flag to half-mast outside a famous gay bar on the city’s Zeedijk. Campaigners have called for all rainbow flags – symbols of the gay rights movement - to be flown at half-mast throughout the city during the visit.

Human rights

Amnesty International has also written to Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte urging him to tackle Putin about the deterioration in Russia’s human rights record.

Putin is due in the Netherlands at around 14.00 hours. He will visit the Peter the Great exhibition at the Hermitage museum with queen Beatrix before holding talks with Rutte and various ministers.

The visit ends with dinner at the Maritime museum which will also be attended by Russian and Dutch business representatives.

© DutchNews.nl

Source: DutchNews.nl.
Link: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/04/thousands_to_demonstrate_durin.php.

Snow ties up European planes, trains, roads

March 12, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Frankfurt's airport closed, trains stopped running under the English Channel, and the French army was ordered to help clear roads — all because of a sudden dump of oddly late snowfall on Western Europe.

Less prepared for the kind of heavy snow that regularly hits northern and eastern neighbors, France, Germany, Britain and Belgium struggled Tuesday to keep moving amid the frosty, blustery conditions.

Instead of enjoying the onset of spring, travelers shivered in stranded cars, packed onto icy train platforms, or languished in airport waiting halls. Thousands of schoolchildren stayed home. Tens of thousands of homes were without electricity.

Frankfurt airport, Europe's third busiest, closed at midday after recording about 12 centimeters (5 inches) of snow. More than 355 flights had been canceled by mid-afternoon. The airport reopened one of its four runways only for takeoffs after a brief respite in the snowfall — but the snow then resumed. And it's unclear how much longer the other three runways would remain closed.

North of Frankfurt, the A45 autobahn was shut down after more than 100 cars and trucks crashed in a pileup near Muenzenberg. Police said dozens of people were injured but that no deaths were reported.

At Paris' Orly Airport, a Tunisair jet skidded off the runway because of icy conditions, according to the airport authority. No one was injured, but the incident caused even further delays at an airport that has suffered cancellations and problems all day.

Air France — the country's largest passenger airline — warned via Twitter that anyone planning to travel to Europe or France via Paris on Tuesday should delay their trip. Airport screens flashed with red warnings after the French civil aviation authority ordered about 300 flights — a quarter of the day's total — canceled out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. Other airports in northern France were closed, and Brussels' airport was operating on a single runway.

Service on the Eurostar trains that go under the English Channel was suspended mid-morning because severe weather in northern France and Belgium forced operators to close sections of the railway, said Eurostar spokeswoman Lucy Drake. As the snow continued to fall in the afternoon, service was suspended for the rest of the day, Eurostar later confirmed on its website. Other high-speed train services around the region were also halted.

The French army was called in to help as civilian authorities struggled to clear roads and rescue people stuck in cars and buses on snowed-in roads, notably in Normandy, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on RTL radio.

With up to 50 centimeters (19 inches) of snow in some areas of northern France, the government urged people to stay home unless absolutely necessary. The French housing ministry, meanwhile, said it will prolong until the end of March the winter-long ban on tenant evictions — owing to the biting weather conditions.

Office buildings in the French capital — like those in Brussels, the European Union's capital — were only partly full. The French train network SNCF urged commuters in the Paris region to stay home Tuesday instead of trying to reach downtown "because of the unfavorable evolution of weather conditions."

In southeastern England, snow and ice stranded hundreds of motorists as temperatures plunged as low as minus 3 Celsius (27 Fahrenheit), and many motorists abandoned their cars. Traffic backed up for 30 miles (50 kilometers) in some areas, with reports of people being stranded for 10 hours or more.

Among those stuck was a group of 120 German students who had to stay overnight in the town hall at Hastings on the south coast of England when families set to pick them up could not reach them. Police in Sussex reported responding to more than 300 auto collisions in 24 hours because of slippery roads but no serious injuries were reported.

Belgium had a record 1,600 kilometers (995 miles) of traffic jams during morning rush hour as snowdrifts turned roads slippery and reduced vision. A strong wind made conditions even tougher. Thousands of commuters were left stranded on snowed-in platforms after many trains around the region were canceled.

Snow affected even the workings of government and the royal palace: The start of budgetary negotiations within Belgium's governing coalition was delayed, and Prince Lorenz was unable to travel to Maastricht, the Netherlands, to visit a historical exhibition.

The U.S. Embassy in Brussels closed for the day "due to the continued weather conditions." Under the Eiffel Tower, two Canadian tourists were among those braving the soggy chill. "It's cold. Really cold," Heidi Nelson of Toronto said.

A fellow visitor from Toronto, Laura Martin, added: "Yes, kind of like Canada."

AP writers Raf Casert, Juergen Baetz and Don Melvin in Brussels, David Rising in Berlin, Thomas Adamson and Sohram Monemi in Paris and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.

Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Apr 15, 2013

New observations of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) have allowed NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. to further refine the comet's orbit.

Based on data through April 7, 2013, the latest orbital plot places the comet's closest approach to Mars slightly closer than previous estimates, at about 68,000 miles (110,000 kilometers).

At the same time, the new data set now significantly reduces the probability the comet will impact the Red Planet, from about 1 in 8,000 to about 1 in 120,000.

The latest estimated time for close approach to Mars is about 11:51 a.m. PDT (18:51 UTC) on Oct. 19, 2014. At the time of closest approach, the comet will be on the sunward side of the planet...

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Comet_to_Make_Close_Flyby_of_Red_Planet_in_October_2014_999.html.

Collision Course? A Comet Heads for Mars

by Dr. Tony Phillips for NASA Science News
Huntsville AL (SPX)
Apr 04, 2013

Over the years, the spacefaring nations of Earth have sent dozens of probes and rovers to explore Mars. Today there are three active satellites circling the red planet while two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, wheel across the red sands below. Mars is dry, barren, and apparently lifeless. Soon, those assets could find themselves exploring a very different kind of world.

"There is a small but non-negligible chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars next year in October of 2014," says Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at JPL. "Current solutions put the odds of impact at 1 in 2000."

The nucleus of the comet is probably 1 to 3 km in diameter, and it is coming in fast, around 56 km/s (125,000 mph). "It if does hit Mars, it would deliver as much energy as 35 million megatons of TNT," estimates Yeomans.

For comparison, the asteroid strike that ended the dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago was about three times as powerful, 100 million megatons. Another point of comparison is the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February of 2013, damaging buildings and knocking people down. The Mars comet is packing 80 million times more energy than that relatively puny asteroid.

An impact wouldn't necessarily mean the end of NASA's Mars program. But it would transform the program-- along with Mars itself.

"I think of it as a giant climate experiment," says Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters. "An impact would loft a lot of stuff into the Martian atmosphere--dust, sand, water and other debris. The result could be a warmer, wetter Mars than we're accustomed to today."

Meyer worries that solar-powered Opportunity might have a hard time surviving if the atmosphere became opaque. Nuclear-powered Curiosity, though, would carry on just fine. He also notes that Mars orbiters might have trouble seeing the surface, for a while at least, until the debris begins to clear.

A direct impact remains unlikely. Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program stresses that a 1 in 2000 chance of impact means there's a 1999 in 2000 chance of no impact. "A near-miss is far more likely," he points out.

Even a near miss is a potentially big event. The latest orbit solutions put the comet somewhere within 300,000 km of the red planet at closest approach. That means Mars could find itself inside the comet's gassy, dusty atmosphere or "coma." Visually, the comet would reach 0th magnitude, that is, a few times brighter than a 1st magnitude star, as seen from the Red Planet.

"Cameras on ALL of NASA's spacecraft currently operating at Mars should be able to take photographs of Comet 2013 A1," says Jim Bell, a planetary scientist and Mars imaging specialist at Arizona State University. "The issue with Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be the ability to point them in the right direction; they are used to looking down, not up. Mission designers will have to figure out if that is possible."

"The issue with the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers will be power for imaging at night," he continues. "Opportunity is solar powered and so would need to dip into reserve battery power to operate the cameras at night. Whether or not we will be able to do this will depend on how much power the rover is getting from dusty solar panels in the daytime. On the other hand, Curiosity is nuclear powered, so it could have better odds at night-time imaging."

Researchers will be keenly interested to see how the comet's atmosphere interacts with the atmosphere of Mars. For one thing, there could be a meteor shower. "Analyzing the spectrum of disintegrating meteors could tell us something interesting about the chemistry of the upper atmosphere," notes Meyer.

Another possibility is Martian auroras. Unlike Earth, which has a global magnetic field that wraps around our entire planet, Mars is only magnetized in patches. Here and there, magnetic umbrellas sprout out of the ground, creating a crazy-quilt of magnetic poles concentrated mainly in the southern hemisphere. Ionized gases hitting the top of the Martian atmosphere could spark auroras in the canopies of the magnetic umbrellas.

Even before the comet flyby was known, NASA had already decided to send a spacecraft to Mars to study the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere. If the probe, named MAVEN (short for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution"), is launched on time in November 2013, it would reach Mars just a few weeks before the comet in 2014.

However, notes MAVEN's principal investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, the spacecraft won't be ready to observe the comet when it reaches Mars. "It takes a while to get into our science mapping orbit, deploy the booms, turn on and test the science instruments--and so on," he explains. "MAVEN won't be fully operational until perhaps two weeks after the comet passes. There are some effects that I would expect to linger for a relatively long period--especially if the comet hits Mars--and we will be able to observe those changes."

Astronomers around the world are monitoring 2013 A1. Every day, new data arrive to refine the comet's orbit. As the error bars shrink, Yeomans expects a direct hit to be ruled out. "The odds favor a flyby, not a collision," he says...

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Collision_Course_A_Comet_Heads_for_Mars_999.html.

Russians Land Mars Rover

Mon, Apr 01, 2013

Roscosmos Sends Race Challenge To NASA
ANN April 1 Special Coverage

In what may be the ultimate off-road spectacle, Roscosmos has challenged NASA to a Baja-style race between Curiosity and Russia's' Mars rover that it secretly landed on the red planet last week.

"We kept the mission very, very quiet," said Roscosmos spokesman Uri Nuttinksi. "Just in case we had another failure, we needed to keep the launch out of the press. But now that our "Chelyabinsk" rover is on the planet, it's time to see just who's got the faster explorer."

Chelyabinsk is the Russian city over which a meteor exploded last month. The object is thought to have passed near Mars before it encountered the Earth, and a Russian school child thought it would be an appropriate memorial of the event to name Russia's first Martian rover after the city.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden accepted the challenge, saying that the space agency's association with NASCAR gives it an edge in go-fast technology. "We had gotten wind that the Russians were up to something," Bolden said, "and that computer switch we did in March was actually done to activate NASCAR-developed technology on Curiosity. Believe me, if the Russians want to Cha-Cha ... we're ready to put the pedal to the Martian metal." The agency has recruited "Top Gear" host Rutledge Wood, a well-known NASCAR fan, to drive Curiosity for the race.

NASA TV will carry the race live, which is expected to see speeds of up to 7.34 miles per hour. "That may seem slow," Bolden said. "But heck, people watch sailboat races on TV. We figure we'll at least be competitive with that."

The race has generated a friendly wager between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. If Curiosity wins, Putin will send Obama an An-124 loaded with Russian Vodka. Should Chelabinsk prevail, Obama will send Putin a C-5A Galaxy's worth of poi from his native Hawaii.

Source: Aero News Network.
Link: http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=20795e41-75dd-43d5-9737-18dd340bdb1d.

Michelle Bachelet says she's going back to Chile

March 16, 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who became head of the U.N. agency promoting women's equality in July 2010, said Friday night that she is giving up the post and returning home, an announcement that comes amid widespread speculation she plans to run for president again this year.

Bachelet, who was Chile's first woman president, ended a speech at the closing session of a two-week meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women on a personal note. However, she did not mention Chile's presidential race or give any specifics on when she was leaving or what her future plans are.

"This will be my last CSW," she said. "I'm going back to my country." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Bachelet had informed him of her intention to step down and expressed "tremendous gratitude for her outstanding service."

"Michelle Bachelet was the right person in the right job at the right time," he said. "Her visionary leadership gave UN Women the dynamic start it needed. Her fearlessness in advocating for women's rights raised the global profile of this key issue. Her drive and compassion enabled her to mobilize and make a difference for millions of people across the world."

Ban said her achievements include new steps to protect women and girls from violence, new advances on health, and a new understanding that women's empowerment must be at the core of what the United Nations does.

"This is a stellar legacy, and I am determined to build on it," he said. Bachelet is widely expected by Chileans to be a candidate in the Nov. 17 presidential election, though she did not address the political angle. Recent polls have said that 54 percent of voters support her, and the center-left opposition views her as its best chance to defeat conservative President Sebastian Pinera and regain power.

"I'm happy for the country," Osvaldo Andrade, leader of the Socialist party told CNN Chile. "There must be a nervous breakdown in downtown Santiago. It's an unequivocal sign." Carlos Larrain, head of the conservative National Renewal party, said a Bachelet candidacy "will be healthy for the system" by giving voters a choice between the social welfare policies of her previous term and those of Pinera's right-of-center government.

Chile is respected for its fast-growing economy and transparent institutions, but it also has the worst inequality rate among the 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and widespread protests of inequalities have harried the administrations of both Bachelet and her successor, Pinera.

Millions of Chileans have staged widespread and frequent protests demanding a wider distribution of Chile's copper riches, free education and the return of ancestral lands to Mapuche Indians in a southern region where members of Chile's largest indigenous group often clash with timber companies and landowners.

The 62-year-old Bachelet, who was elected president of Chile in 2006 and served one term that ended in 2010, is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured to death for opposing the coup that put Gen. Augusto Pinochet in power. She and her mother also were arrested and then exiled. After returning to Chile, Bachelet became a pediatrician and then entered politics, serving as minister of health and as minister of defense before winning the presidency.

After she left office, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chose her as the first head of UN Women, which combined four U.N. bodies dealing with the advancement of women under a single umbrella. Bachelet was tipped as a possible leader of the agency immediately after the General Assembly voted unanimously in July 2010 to create UN Women. But U.N. officials said she initially told them she wasn't interested because she wanted to remain active in Chilean politics after stepping down from the presidency in March 2010 with high approval ratings.

The secretary-general made no mention when he announced her appointment of what changed Bachelet's mind. But Ban said: "I am confident that under her strong leadership, we can improve the lives of millions of women and girls throughout the world."

Bachelet made her announcement minutes after more than 130 countries adopted a 17-page U.N. blueprint to combat violence against women after two weeks of tough negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women. She called the document "historic."

Maduro sworn in as Venezuela's president, urges dialogue

April 20, 2013

CARACAS (AFP) - Nicolas Maduro was sworn in as president of Venezuela on Friday, replacing the late Hugo Chavez and calling for dialogue with the opposition to build a better country "for everyone, by everyone."

To cheers in the National Assembly, Maduro dedicated his oath of office to "the eternal memory of the supreme commander" Chavez, who dominated this oil-rich South American country for 14 years until dying from cancer in March.

Maduro, 50, said he wanted to begin his presidency "with a call to all Venezuelan men and women to continue to build a better fatherland of peace, an inclusive fatherland for everyone, by everyone."

And he urged the opposition to "converse in the different settings where conversations can be held. I am ready to converse even with the devil."

But the new president also resumed attacks on the opposition, highlighting what has been a week of soaring political tensions since he was declared the winner of Sunday's snap elections by a narrow margin of 1.8 percentage points.

The new leader's speech was briefly disrupted when a man in a red shirt rushed onto the stage and roughly pushed Maduro aside to grab the microphone.

National television coverage of the event was suspended, causing momentary confusion until it returned minutes later after Maduro regained his composure and the intruder had been removed from the stage.

"Security has absolutely failed. They could have shot me here," Maduro complained. Then shaking it off, he added, "Incident overcome."

Watching the ceremony was a packed assembly with foreign leaders, lawmakers and other dignitaries in attendance.

Close allies Presidents Raul Castro of Cuba and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran were in the audience, along with the leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and neighboring Colombia.

Maduro had met the night before in Lima with regional leaders who extended their congratulations to the new government and urged all sides in the bitterly contested elections to accept "the official results."

The endorsement came just hours after Venezuelan election authorities announced they would conduct an expanded audit of Sunday's ballot returns in response to opposition demands for a full recount.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles immediately accepted, congratulating his followers on their "struggle for the truth."

Violent post-election protests left eight people dead and dozens hurt, igniting a crisis as Maduro and Capriles traded fiery accusations over who was to blame.

For Maduro, the election was the culmination of a political career that took him from one-time bus driver and union organizer to Chavez's handpicked successor.

"I am the first post-Chavez president in history," Maduro said on the eve of his swearing-in. The new first lady, Cilia Flores, is a heavyweight in her own right in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

But Maduro also lost the votes of hundreds of thousands of Chavez supporters to Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor who lost to the comandante in October by an 11-point margin.

The weak performance suggested Maduro has yet to step out of Chavez's giant shadow with a mandate of his own.

"Maduro is Chavez's legacy. To support him is to support the supreme commander," said Jose Rendo, a 38-year-old electrician who joined hundreds of other Chavez supporters in the nearby Plaza Bolivar for the inauguration.

As Maduro entered the National Assembly, supporters showered him with cheers of "Chavez lives, the struggle continues."

Later at an esplanade dedicated to the country's founders, Venezuelan military leaders pledged their loyalty to Chavez's socialist revolution and their new commander-in-chief.

Honor guards and military units paraded past him in pouring rain as he watched from a covered reviewing stand.

Ensuring the loyalty of the military could be tricky for Maduro, who has never served in uniform and must contend with an officer corps that has played key political roles under Chavez, a former coup leader who was himself briefly ousted from power.

While backed fiercely by the ruling PSUV and the deep pockets of Venezuela's state oil industry, Maduro must also contend with an emboldened opposition and a somber economic outlook.

Soaring inflation, a weak currency, shortages of basic necessities, and fiscal constraints are a growing challenge to the costly social programs that were among Chavez's signature achievements.

Although lacking Chavez's magnetism, Maduro nonetheless has taken on major political responsibilities before, serving as speaker of the national assembly, then as foreign minister, and finally as Chavez's vice president.

Seven Killed, Over 60 Injured in Venezuela Protests - Report

17/04/2013

MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - Seven people were killed and 61 injured in protests that flared up across Venezuela following the presidential election over the weekend, FoxNews.com reported, citing the country’s chief prosecutor.

Prosecutor Luisa Ortega did not give details of the causes of deaths, but said that the fatalities were from among the working class.

Nicolas Maduro, the handpicked successor of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was declared the winner of Sunday’s elections early on Tuesday Moscow time.

According to the Associated Press, Maduro accused the United States of financing and organizing protests in Venezuela following the election.

According to the latest official information, Maduro won by a tiny margin, gaining over 50 percent of the vote, while his election rival Henrique Capriles received almost 49 percent.

Capriles refused to accept the results, saying the polls were plagued by numerous voting irregularities, and called for his supporters to rally in peaceful protest.

Source: RIA Novosti.
Link: http://en.rian.ru/world/20130417/180678958.html.

Drone bill sent to Florida governor's desk

April 18, 2013

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., April 18 (UPI) -- A bill that would limit how local law enforcement can use unmanned drones is headed for the desk of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, officials said.

Scott has praised the bill and said he will sign it, The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reported.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Negro, bars local officials from using drones without a warrant or threat of a terrorist attack and also prohibits information collected by drones to be used as evidence in court.

Police could still get search warrants for aerial video spying on specific people, locations or vehicles, and the drones could still be used in the case of a missing person or a hostage situation, The Florida Current reported.

The bill passed the House Wednesday and the Senate unanimously last week without debate.

The Miami-Dade Police Department became one of the first major metro police agencies to get permission to operate drones two years ago, and sheriff's deputies in Orange County also have approval to use two drones.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/04/18/Drone-bill-sent-to-Florida-governors-desk/UPI-89501366291175/.

University of Tennessee professor's research shows Gulf of Mexico resilient after spill

Knoxville TN (SPX)
Apr 15, 2013

The Gulf of Mexico may have a much greater natural ability to self-clean oil spills than previously believed, according to Terry Hazen, University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor's Chair for Environmental Biotechnology.

The bioremediation expert presented his Deepwater Horizon disaster research findings at the 245th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

Hazen conducted research following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which is estimated to have spilled 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. His research team used a powerful new approach for identifying microbes in the environment to discover previously unknown and naturally occurring bacteria that consume and break down crude oil.

"The Deepwater Horizon oil provided a new source of nutrients in the deepest waters," said Hazen.

"With more food present in the water, there was a population explosion among those bacteria already adapted to using oil as a food source. It was surprising how fast they consumed the oil. In some locations, it took only one day for them to reduce a gallon of oil to a half gallon. In others, the half-life for a given quantity of spilled oil was six days."

This data suggests that a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep sea and other environs in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil-eating bacteria are natural inhabitants of the Gulf because of the constant supply of oil as food.

Hazen's team used a novel approach for identifying previously recognized kinds of oil-eating bacteria that contributed to the natural clean up of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Instead of growing the microbes in a laboratory, the team used "ecogenomics."

This approach uses genetic and other analyses of the DNA, proteins and other footprints of bacteria to provide a more detailed picture of microbial life in the water.

"The bottom line from this research may be that the Gulf of Mexico is more resilient and better able to recover from oil spills than anyone thought," Hazen said.

"It shows that we may not need the kinds of heroic measures proposed after the Deepwater Horizon spill, like adding nutrients to speed up the growth of bacteria that break down oil or using genetically engineered bacteria. The Gulf has a broad base of natural bacteria, and they respond to the presence of oil by multiplying quite rapidly."

Source: Energy-Daily.
Link: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/University_of_Tennessee_professors_research_shows_Gulf_of_Mexico_resilient_after_spill_999.html.

Solar becomes single largest source of new grid capacity in the USA

Washington DC (SPX)
Apr 16, 2013

For the first time, solar energy accounted for all new utility electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. grid last month, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) March 2013 "Energy Infrastructure Update."

More than 44 megawatts (MW) of solar electric capacity was brought online from seven projects in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Hawaii, Arizona, and North Carolina. All other energy sources combined added no new generation.

Solar also had a strong showing in FERC's quarterly generation numbers, accounting for about 30 percent of all utility-scale new capacity. The report focuses exclusively on larger facilities and does not include energy generated by net-metered installations. Net-metered systems account for more than half of all U.S. solar electric capacity.

"This speaks to the extraordinary strides we have made in the past several years to bring down costs and ramp up deployment," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

"Since 2008, the amount of solar powering U.S. homes, businesses and military bases has grown by more than 600 percent-from 1,100 megawatts to more than 7,700 megawatts today. As FERC's report suggests, and many analysts predict, solar will grow to be our nation's largest new source of energy over the next four years."

FERC's report supports other findings which show solar power to be one of the fastest growing energy sources in the U.S., powering homes, businesses and utility grids across the nation. The Solar Market Insight annual edition shows the U.S. installed 3,313 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaics (PV) in 2012, a record for the industry.

Some of this growth is attributed to the fact that the cost of a solar system has dropped by nearly 40 percent over the past two years, making solar more affordable than ever for utilities and consumers.

"In 2012, the U.S. brought more new solar capacity online than in the three prior years combined," Resch added. "These new numbers from FERC support our forecast that solar will continue a pattern of growth in 2013, adding 5.2 GW of solar electric capacity. This sustained growth is enabling the solar industry to create thousands of good jobs and to provide clean, affordable energy for more families, businesses, utilities, and the military than ever before."

Today, America's solar industry employs 119,000 workers throughout the country. That's a 13.2 percent growth over 2011's jobs numbers, making solar one of the fastest-growing job sectors in the nation.

Source: Solar Daily.
Link: http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Solar_becomes_single_source_of_new_grid_capacity_in_the_USA_999.html.

Red Cross chief criticizes drone use outside battlefields

Geneva (AFP)
April 16, 2013

Red Cross chief Peter Maurer on Tuesday condemned US drone strikes outside areas officially engulfed in armed conflict, warning against a creeping expansion of the definition of what constitutes a battlefield.

Washington's secretive and controversial use of drones was not a problem in itself, said Maurer, as in the context of an armed conflict drones are considered legitimate weapons.

"But if a drone is used in a country where there is no armed conflict... there is a problem," the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross told reporters in Geneva, urging the "very restrained use" of the weapon.

"A drone used in Afghanistan or Yemen is a drone used within the context of an armed conflict, and is thereby used legitimately," he said. But drone use in Pakistan was "particularly problematic" he said.

Returning from a trip to the United States, where he met with President Barack Obama, Maurer told AFP that "the US is very aware... of where we disagree with the use of drones".

The main problem with drone strikes today is a widening interpretation of what constitutes a battlefield, he said.

"To link (the definition of) battlefields to combatants on the move is an interpretation that we don't share," he said.

Lawmakers and rights advocates have criticized the US for its strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, but US officials refuse to publicly discuss any details of the covert campaign.

Maurer said he had also used his trip to urge Washington to swiftly address the problem of Guantanamo, where dozens of prisoners have been staging a hunger strike since February.

Obama moved to close the controversial US detention facility in 2009, but plans to try suspects in US civilian courts were stymied by Congress, leaving many inmates in limbo.

"I think the lack of perspective in terms of transfer... is at the origin of the big malaise that has been transformed into a hunger strike," Maurer said.

While the Red Cross regularly visits the Guantanamo detainees, its reports on the prison's conditions remain privy to the US government.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Red_Cross_chief_criticises_drone_use_outside_battlefields_999.html.

New crew takes express ride to space station

Moscow (AFP)
March 29, 2013

A new Russian-American crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Friday after a fast-track trip from Earth of under six hours, the swiftest ever manned journey to the orbiting laboratory.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts opened the hatches of their Soyuz-TMA spaceship and floated into the ISS to a warm welcome from the three incumbent crew, live pictures broadcast on Russian television showed.

Russia's Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and American Chris Cassidy are now expected to spend the next five months aboard the station after their hitch-free launch and docking.

Their record-breaking trip from blast-off at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to docking with the ISS lasted less than six hours, slashing the usual travel time by some 45 hours.

Previously, trips to the ISS had taken over two full days as spaceships orbited the Earth 30 times before docking with the space station.

However, under a new technique now employed by the Russian space agency with the help of new technology, the Soyuz capsule this time only orbited Earth four times before docking.

After blast-off at 2043 GMT Thursday, the Soyuz capsule docked with the ISS at 0228 GMT with the hatches opening just over two hours later.

The quick journey -- dubbed by NASA's official television commentator as a "chase into space" -- has been made possible by launching the Soyuz just after the ISS passes overhead in orbit.

After reaching orbit, the Soyuz capsule then had just over 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to make up to catch up with the ISS, which the Soyuz achieved with newly-improved thrusters and maneuvering.

The manned "express" flight comes after Russia successfully sent three unmanned Progress supply capsules in August, October and February to the station via the short six hour route rather than two days.

The successful fast-track voyage is a huge boost for the embattled Russian space program, whose reputation has been battered by several failed satellite launches in the last year.

However, there have been no problems to date with the manned spaceflight program.

After the retirement of the US space shuttle, Russia is now the sole nation capable of transporting humans to the ISS.

Ahead of the launch, the crew expressed satisfaction with the new fast-track schedule, including Vinogradov who at 59 is one of Russia's most experienced cosmonauts.

Vinogradov, who spent 197 days on board Russia's now defunct Mir space station in 1997-1998 and also flew to the ISS in 2006, said the shortened flight time has several advantages for the crew.

Firstly, as the crew only start to experience the tough effects of weightlessness after 4-5 hours of flight they will be in better shape when they arrive at the station for the docking procedure.

"During the initial time the crew feels completely normal and works normally," he said at the pre-flight news conference at Baikonur in televised remarks.

Also, the reduced time means that the Soyuz capsule will be able to deliver biological materials for experiments aboard the ISS in time before they spoil, something that would not have been possible with a two-day trip.

"With such a short time the crew could even take an ice cream -- it would not be able to melt," said Vinogradov.

On board the three spacemen are joining incumbent crew of station commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, Tom Marshburn of NASA and Russia's Roman Romanenko.

Hadfield has over the last months built up a huge following online with spectacular photographs on Twitter and managed to photograph from space the fiery moment of ignition of the Soyuz-FG rocket at the nighttime launch in Kazakhstan.

"Good morning, Earth! We've been up all night, getting the Soyuz safed and crew settled in. A long, great day. Six of us now here, together," he said on Twitter.

Cassidy is a veteran of US special forces who has served in Afghanistan and recorded a 15-day mission to the ISS aboard the shuttle in 2009. Misurkin is making his first space flight.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/New_crew_takes_express_ride_to_space_station_999.html.

Kerry spells out policy on Senkaku Islands

April 15, 2013

TOKYO, April 15 (UPI) -- The United States recognizes the Senkaku Islands are under Japan's administration but doesn't take a stand on their ultimate sovereignty, its top diplomat said.

Secretary of State John Kerry, concluding his Asia visit in Japan, commented on the East China Sea islands, which have become a source of serious territorial dispute between Japan and China. Tensions over their rival claims have led to violent protests in China and adversely affected their bilateral trade. The United States remains concerned that the issue should not get out of control.

Appearing with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at a news conference, Kerry said in his talks he reiterated U.S. principles governing the policy on the Senkaku.

"The United States, as everybody knows, does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands. But we do recognize that they are under the administration of Japan," Kerry said. "And we obviously want all the parties to deal with territorial issues through peaceful means."

The U.S. visitor said any action that raises tensions or leads to miscalculations would affect peace, stability and prosperity of an entire region.

"And so we oppose any unilateral or coercive action that would somehow aim at changing the status quo," Kerry said.

Kishida said while Japan-China relations are very important, he explained to Kerry that Japan cannot concede on issues of her sovereignty.

"I stated Japan is calling on China to reaffirm our mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interest, and I explained Japan's door is always open to dialogue," he said.

Answering a question, Kishida said there is "stable relationship" between the two major economies in the region and that both countries need to promote from a broad perspective the mutually beneficially relationship based on common strategic interests.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/04/15/Kerry-spells-out-policy-on-Senkaku-Islands/UPI-20751366006285/.

Ivory Coast littered with weapons

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, April 16 (UPI) -- Ivory Coast is still flush with weapons more than two years after an end to post-election conflict, a researcher from Amnesty International said.

Laurent Gbagbo was arrested with the help of French peacekeepers in April 2011 following the political violence. Ggabgo refused to stand down as president despite international recognition that Alassane Ouattara won a contest meant to unite a country divided by war.

Gbagbo is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes allegedly committed during the post-election violence. Rights groups say Ouattara supporters may have played a role in the crisis as well.

Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 3,000 people died in fighting from November 2010 to May 2011. Amnesty International West African researcher Salvatore Sagues told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN that Ivory Coast is littered with weapons despite an arms embargo enacted in 2004.

"Arms continued to be delivered to pro-Gbagbo forces during the 2011 post-election crisis" he said. "This shows that even a U.N. arms embargo is not enough to stop the illegal trade of weapons."

U.N. officials said they were keeping a close tab on security developments ahead of local elections scheduled Sunday in Ivory Coast.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/16/Ivory-Coast-littered-with-weapons/UPI-54811366119840/.

Chavez heir barely wins; opposition rejects count

April 15, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, won a razor-thin victory in Sunday's special presidential election but the opposition candidate refused to accept the result and demanded a full recount.

Maduro's stunningly close victory followed an often ugly, mudslinging campaign in which the winner promised to carry on Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution, while challenger Henrique Capriles' main message was that Chavez put this country with the world's largest oil reserves on the road to ruin.

Despite the ill feelings, both men sent their supporters home and urged them to refrain from violence. Maduro, acting president since Chavez's March 5 death, held a double-digit advantage in opinion polls just two weeks ago, but electoral officials said he got just 50.7 percent of the votes to 49.1 percent for Capriles with nearly all ballots counted.

The margin was about 234,935 votes. Turnout was 78 percent, down from just over 80 percent in the October election that Chavez won by a nearly 11-point margin over Capriles. Chavistas set off fireworks and raced through downtown Caracas blasting horns in jubilation. But analysts called the slim margin a disaster for Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver in the radical wing of Chavismo who is believed to have close ties to Cuba.

In a victory speech, he told a crowd outside the presidential palace that his victory was further proof that Chavez "continues to be invincible." But in a hint of discontent, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, who many consider Maduro's main rival, expressed dismay in a tweet: "The results oblige us to make a profound self-criticism. It's contradictory that the poor sectors of the population vote for their longtime exploiters."

At Capriles' campaign headquarters, people hung their heads quietly as the results were announced by an electoral council stacked with government loyalists. Many started crying; others just stared at TV screens in disbelief.

Later, Capriles emerged to angrily reject the official totals: "It is the government that has been defeated." He said his campaign came up with "a result that is different from the results announced today."

"The biggest loser today is you," Capriles said, directly addressing Maduro through the camera. "The people don't love you." Armed forces joint chief, Gen. Wilmer Barrientos, called on the military to accept the results.

A Capriles' campaign staffer told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the candidate met with the military high command after polls closed. But campaign official Armando Briquet later denied a meeting was held.

Capriles, an athletic 40-year-old state governor, had mocked and belittled Maduro as a poor, bland imitation of Chavez. Maduro said during his victory speech that Capriles had called him before the results were announced to suggest a "pact" and that Maduro refused. Capriles' camp did not comment on Maduro's claim.

Maduro, a longtime foreign minister to Chavez, rode a wave of sympathy for the charismatic leader to victory, pinning his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Capriles' main campaign weapon was to simply emphasize "the incompetence of the state." Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his 14-year rule.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime — one of the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates — that the opposition said worsened after Chavez disappeared to Cuba in December for what would be his final surgery.

Analyst David Smilde at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank predicted the victory would prove pyrrhic and make Maduro extremely vulnerable. "It will make people in his coalition think that perhaps he is not the one to lead the revolution forward," Smilde said.

"This is a result in which the 'official winner' appears as the biggest loser," said Amherst College political scientist Javier Corrales. "The 'official loser' — the opposition — emerges even stronger than it did six months ago. These are very delicate situations in any political system, especially when there is so much mistrust of institutions."

Many across the nation put little stock in Maduro's claims that sabotage by the far right was to blame for worsening power outages and food shortages in the weeks before the vote. "We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

In a Chavista stronghold in Petare outside Caracas, Maria Velasquez, 48, who works in a government soup kitchen that feeds 200 people, said she voted for Chavez's man "because that is what my comandante ordered."

Reynaldo Ramos, a 60-year-old construction worker, said he "voted for Chavez" before correcting himself and saying he chose Maduro. But he could not seem to get his beloved leader out of his mind. "We must always vote for Chavez because he always does what's best for the people and we're going to continue on this path," Ramos said. He said the government had helped him get work on the subway system and helps pay his grandchildren's school costs.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed the backing of state media as part of its near-monopoly on institutional power.

Capriles' camp said Chavista loyalists in the judiciary put them at glaring disadvantage by slapping the campaign and broadcast media with fines and prosecutions that they called unwarranted. Only one opposition TV station remains and it was being sold to a new owner Monday.

At rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves. Capriles showed Maduro none of the respect he earlier accorded Chavez.

Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland. The opposition contended Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy his re-election with government handouts. It also complained about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles said would end if he won.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit is equal to about 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Maduro focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez." And he promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

He will face no end of hard choices for which Corrales, of Amherst, said he has shown no skills for tackling. Maduro has "a penchant for blaming everything on his 'adversaries' — capitalism, imperialism, the bourgeoisie, the oligarchs — so it is hard to figure how exactly he would address any policy challenge other than taking a tough line against his adversaries."

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Jorge Rueda, E. Eduardo Castillo and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia contributed to this report.

Venezuelans vote on future of "Chavista" socialism

By Daniel Wallis and Todd Benson
Sun Apr 14, 2013

(Reuters) - Venezuelans went to the polls on Sunday to vote whether to honor Hugo Chavez's dying wish for a longtime loyalist to continue his self-proclaimed socialist revolution or hand power to a young challenger vowing business-friendly changes.

Acting President Nicolas Maduro had a double-digit lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in most polls heading into election day, buoyed by Chavez's public blessing before he died from cancer last month. But the gap narrowed in recent days, with one survey putting it at 7 percentage points.

Maduro supporters mobilized voters in the rough barrios of Caracas, where Chavez is revered as a hero of the poor, sounding pre-dawn bugle calls to rouse citizens to get out to vote. Lines formed under blistering sunshine at some voting centers, but many were notably shorter than they were at last October's election, when an ailing Chavez trounced Capriles.

Political strategists said that could mean there will be a surge in voting late in the day, or a smaller turnout than last year. Then, a record 80 percent of registered voters cast ballots following an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign by the Chavista camp.

"We're going to elect Maduro president because he's following the path set by Chavez," Morelia Roa, a 58-year-old nurse, said after casting her ballot in the same working class Caracas district where Maduro voted.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver, has promised to deepen Chavez's "21st century socialism" if he triumphs. Capriles, an athletic 40-year-old who has generated widespread enthusiasm among the opposition, wants to take Venezuela down a more centrist path.

Whoever wins will inherit control of the world's biggest oil reserves in an OPEC nation, where stark political polarization is one of Chavez's many legacies. Also at stake is the generous economic aid Chavez showered on left-leaning Latin American governments from Cuba to Bolivia.

Following opposition complaints that some people were illegally helping elderly voters cast their ballots, Capriles urged his followers to report any violations of election laws. But he also stressed he would respect the outcome of the vote, whatever it might be.

"Today, all Venezuelans are reporters. If you see something irregular, take a picture, air it on social media," Capriles said after voting. "But let there be no doubt, we will respect the will of the people."

Electoral authorities said voting was going smoothly and that there was no evidence of irregularities. Given the deep mutual mistrust on both sides, some worry that a close or contested result could spark unrest.

Some 170 international observers were on hand, many from left-leaning political parties across Latin America. Polls are due to close at 6 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET/2230 GMT), though voting could run longer if there are still lines.

Sunday's vote is the first presidential election in two decades without Chavez on the ballot. In many ways, though, it is all about the late president, who was viewed by the poor as a messiah for giving them a political voice and for funneling billions of dollars of oil revenue into social programs.

Maduro campaigned as a loyal disciple of Chavez, repeatedly calling himself an "apostle" and "son" of the late president. Chavez gave Maduro a huge boost by publicly endorsing him in his final speech in December before heading to Cuba for his last cancer operation.

True to form, Maduro dedicated his vote on Sunday to his political mentor.

"The last 21 years of my life have revolved around the dreams of a man, of a giant," an emotional Maduro said. "I never thought I'd be here. But here I am ... And I'm going to be president of the republic for the next six years."

POST-CHAVEZ CHALLENGES

If Maduro wins, he will immediately face big challenges as he tries to stamp his authority on a disparate ruling coalition while lacking his mentor's charisma, or the healthy state finances that Chavez enjoyed in last year's race.

It is hard to predict how he might do things his own way. Like many senior officials, Maduro was passionately loyal to Chavez and never voiced a different opinion in public.

Supporters say he could use his background as a union negotiator-turned-diplomat to build bridges, perhaps even with the United States after tensions during Chavez's 14-year rule.

But there was little sign of his softer side on the campaign trail. Maduro's rhetoric veered from outraged - alleging opposition plots to kill him using mercenaries - to light-hearted, such as poking fun at his often-cited tale of how he was visited by Chavez's spirit in the form of a bird.

More often he sounded indignant, accusing the "far right" of plotting a repeat of a short-lived coup against Chavez a decade ago if the opposition loses Sunday's vote.

Capriles will have an even tougher time if he pulls off an upset. One of the biggest challenges will be to win over suspicious supporters of Chavez and Maduro. Both repeatedly derided the opposition candidate as nothing more than a pampered rich kid, a traitor, and a puppet of "U.S. imperialism."

In last year's campaign, Capriles carefully avoided disparaging Chavez, in a bid to woo the poor. He has not afforded Maduro the same respect, denouncing him and his "coterie" as phony socialists who have enriched themselves while paying only lip service to Chavez's deeply held ideology.

Capriles touts a Brazilian-style model that mixes pro-business policies with heavy state spending on the poor, a recipe that made Brazil one of the world's hottest emerging economies in the past decade.

The opposition hopes bubbling discontent over daily problems such as rampant crime, high inflation, chronic power outages and occasional shortages of food staples and medicines will tip the vote in favor of Capriles.

"Capriles is our only hope. He's the best leader the opposition has had and could be a great president," Alberto Gomez, a 55-year-old bakery owner, said after voting in an upscale district of Caracas.

"The country is a mess," he added. "It's time to forget Chavez and create a new Venezuela outside of his shadow."

(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray, Jackie Frank and David Brunnstrom)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/14/us-venezuela-election-idUSBRE93C0B120130414.

Chavez's legacy gains religious glow in Venezuela

March 30, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Holding a Bible in her arms at the start of Holy Week, seamstress Maria Munoz waited patiently to visit the tomb of the man she considers another savior of humanity.

The 64-year-old said she had already turned her humble one-bedroom house into a shrine devoted to the late President Hugo Chavez, complete with busts, photos and coffee mugs bearing his image. Now, she said, her brother-in-law was looking for a larger house to display six boxes' worth of Chavez relics that her family has collected throughout his political career.

"He saved us from so many politicians who came before him," Munoz said as tears welled in her eyes. "He saved us from everything." Chavez's die-hard followers considered him a living legend on a par with independence-era hero Simon Bolivar well before his March 5 death from cancer. In the mere three weeks since, however, Chavez has ascended to divine status in this deeply Catholic country as the government and Chavistas build a religious mythology around him ahead of April 14 elections to pick a new leader.

Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has led the way, repeatedly calling the late president "the redeemer Christ of the Americas" and describing Chavistas, including himself, as "apostles."

Maduro went even further after Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis earlier this month. Maduro said Chavez had advised Jesus Christ in heaven that it was time for a South American pope.

That comes as Maduro's government loops ads on state TV comparing Chavez to sainted heroes such as Bolivar and puts up countless banners around the capital emblazoned with Chavez's image and the message "From his hands sprouts the rain of life."

"President Chavez is in heaven," Maduro told a March 16 rally in the poor Caracas neighborhood of Catia. "I don't have any doubt that if any man who walked this earth did what was needed so that Christ the redeemer would give him a seat at his side, it was our redeemer liberator of the 21st century, the comandante Hugo Chavez."

Chavistas such as Munoz have filled Venezuela with murals, posters and other artwork showing Chavez in holy poses surrounded by crosses, rosary beads and other religious symbolism. One poster on sale in downtown Caracas depicts Chavez holding a shining gold cross in his hands beside a quote from the Book of Joshua: "Comrade, be not afraid. Neither be dismayed, for I Will be with you each instant." The original scripture says "Lord thy God," and not "I," will accompany humanity each instant.

The late leader had encouraged such treatment as he built an elaborate cult of personality and mythologized his own rise to power, said Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, a University of Georgia media studies scholar who hails from Venezuela.

She said Chavez's successors are clearly hoping that pumping up that mythology can boost Maduro's presidential campaign, which has been based almost entirely on promises to continue Chavez's legacy. The opposition candidate, Gov. Henrique Capriles, counters that Maduro isn't Chavez, and highlights the problems that Chavez left behind such as soaring crime and inflation.

"They're fast-tracking the mythification," Acosta-Alzuru said of the government. "Sometimes I feel that Venezuelan politics has become a big church. Sometimes I feel it has become a big mausoleum." Teacher Geraldine Escalona said she believed Chavez had served a divine purpose during his 58 years on earth, including launching free housing and education programs and pushing the cause of Latin American unity.

"God used him for this, for unifying our country and Latin America," the 22-year-old said. "I saw him as a kind of God." Such rhetoric has upset some religious leaders and drawn the reproach of Venezuela's top Roman Catholic official, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, on the eve of the Easter holidays.

"One can't equate any hero or human leader or authority with Jesus Christ," Urosa warned. "We can't equate the supernatural and religious sphere with the natural, earthly and sociopolitical." Chavez, in his days, crossed paths frequently with Venezuela's church, which sometimes accused the socialist leader of becoming increasingly authoritarian. Chavez described Christ as a socialist, and he strongly criticized Cardinal Urosa, saying he misled the Vatican with warnings that Venezuela was drifting toward dictatorship.

Emerging this week from a church on the outskirts of Caracas, Lizbeth Colmenares slammed politicians from both sides for using derogatory language in the campaign, particularly during Holy Week. "They are not following the words of Christ," said Colmenares, a 67-year old retiree who was holding palm fronds woven into the shape of the Holy Cross. "They should be more humble and they shouldn't be attacking each other that way."

Of course, politics and religion have long mixed in Latin America, starting with the Spanish conquest of the New World, which Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes famously said was carried out "between sword and cross."

In the 20th century, Argentine first lady Eva Peron helped start a leftist Latin American pantheon after her untimely death in 1952. She's since become a veritable saint for millions in her homeland, with pictures of her angelic face still commonly displayed in homes and government offices. Like Chavez, Peron was worshiped as a protector of the poor as well as a political fighter.

Chavez tied his own legacy to Bolivar, incessantly invoking his name and delivering hundreds of speeches with Bolivar's stern portrait looming over his shoulder. Chavez renamed the whole country "The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" and ordered a giant mausoleum built to house Bolivar's bones.

A short animated spot shown repeatedly on state TV this month makes clear that Chavez has already become a political saint for millions. It shows Chavez, after death, walking the western Venezuelan plains of his childhood before coming across Peron, Bolivar, the martyred Chilean President Salvador Allende and Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, among others.

"We know that in Argentina we have a Peronism that is very much alive," said Acosta-Alzuru. "And there are other examples in Latin America where a leader, a caudillo, tries to be everything for the country. What Maduro and Chavez's followers are doing is trying to keep Chavez alive."

Some Chavez supporters waiting to visit his tomb on a hill overlooking Caracas said their comandante is with them in spirit — and for that reason they planned to vote for Maduro, confident that Chavez was guiding his hand.

Reaching the marble tomb means first walking through an exhibit celebrating Chavez's life and military career, with photos and text exalting a seemingly inevitable rise to immortality. "He's still alive," said 52-year-old nurse Gisela Averdano. "He hasn't died. For me, he will always continue."

AP writers James Anderson and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.