EU approves military training mission to Mali

January 17, 2013

BRUSSELS (AP) — European officials had a message Thursday for French forces fighting on the front lines of the battle against Islamist extremists in the troubled African country of Mali: We're behind you all the way — and right behind you is exactly where we plan to stay.

European leaders agree that the Islamist radicals controlling a vast swath of northern Mali pose a global threat, saying they are capable of developing terrorist plots that could strike any country in the world. The U.S. government shares that view.

But after a decade bogged down in Afghanistan, also in a war against jihadists, there is scant appetite either in Europe or the U.S. to put boots on the ground in Mali — however much national leaders say that something needs to be done.

At an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday, EU foreign ministers approved sending a military training mission to Mali to shore up the army and so, it is hoped, enable the country's government to regain control of all its territory, perhaps with help from neighboring African countries. Even that is nothing new; the EU has long planned to send trainers, but the timetable is being expedited.

No European leader downplays the danger posed by northern Mali. "The threat of jihadi terrorists is something that should be a matter of great concern to all of us," Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said on his way into the meeting. "And there is not one European country that can hide if this threat would present itself to the European continent."

Yet no combat role is envisioned for the EU troops. Instead, France is out alone on the front lines, at least so far. "It is completely possible - but this is up to them - that others or the same European countries decide to offer not just logistical support, but also to make soldiers available," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. "But we're not going to force them to, obviously."

French officials say the opposition they've encountered has been fiercer and more heavily armed than they had expected, hardly words to encourage queasy national leaders to participate. A French helicopter pilot has died in the effort.

Of course, there can be other reasons for reluctance. European adventurism in Africa has a sorry history. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said this week that Mali is clearly a case where Europe should help, but one where it should also make sure that Africans are in charge as much as possible.

Heather Conley, Europe program director for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that such forays often have unintended consequences. In fact, Mali's current problems can be partially traced to the international intervention in Libya, where the fall of leader Moammar Gadhafi led weapons and fighters to spill across porous borders and spread throughout the lawless desert.

Another reason for the rest of Europe's reluctance to follow France's lead may be simple battle fatigue. Many European countries have been fighting militants in Afghanistan for more than a decade. Countries as varied as Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovakia, Lithuania and Poland still have troops deployed there. Larger countries, such as the U.K., Germany, Italy and France still have thousands of troops committed.

The Islamist radicals in northern Mali are said to have ties to al-Qaida, the terrorist group that made its home in Afghanistan. And history's verdict on whether, after so many years, the international operation in Afghanistan will in the end be called a success has yet to be delivered.

Similarly, French officials have given different goals at different times since the operation in Mali began last week. E.J. Hogendoorn, deputy director for the International Crisis Group's Africa program, said the French military could certainly take the cities of northern Mali if it puts all its might behind such a mission — but finding a durable, peaceful solution for an area the size of Texas would be another matter.

"Once this mission is stepped up, they'll be able to hold the major cities, but then the question comes up: who fills the vacuum?" he asked.

Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

French president bares tough side in Africa fights

January 14, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Bombing militants in Mali may be the most popular thing Francois Hollande has done as France's president.

The bespectacled and self-described "normal" man who was once lampooned as resembling flimsy yellow custard, is now flexing France's military muscle against al-Qaida-linked Islamist extremists who he believes pose a threat to northwest Africa, France and Europe. And in doing so, he has nearly united the French political class.

"His hand didn't tremble," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said of Hollande's order Friday for French troops to fight the insurgents blamed for kidnapping, drug-running and forcing oppressive rules on the people of Mali, a former French colony. "The president made his decision knowing the risks it implies."

Nearly simultaneously, across Africa's midsection, French commandos led a raid in Somalia in a failed effort to free a comrade held hostage there for 3-1/2 years. Officials said 17 Islamists and two commandos died and that they believe the hostage was killed. Hollande is said to have given the green light for that high-risk mission last month.

Both the Mali mission, which entered a fourth day Monday with continued French air strikes, and the Somalia raid bared an unfamiliar side of the French leader, who took power eight months ago and had seen his popularity slide.

For all his qualities, few French fancy Hollande as a warmonger. As Interior Minister Manuel Valls, quoted in Le Monde newspaper, said of his boss: "It's in exceptional and difficult times that a statesman emerges."

The French appear to welcome this new, hard Hollande in the guise of terrorism-fighter-in-chief. But it's not clear whether he can revive his own popularity in the long-term. "It's too early to draw conclusions about the benefits for Francois Hollande's image. We need to wait and see how the situation in Mali evolves," said Ifop agency pollster Frederic Daby. "But what we know is that Francois Hollande is benefiting from a movement of national unity — a sacred union because French interests are at stake."

An Ifop poll released Monday found that 63 percent of respondents in France supported the intervention in Mali. The poll of 1,021 adults was taken this weekend; the margin of error was about 3 percentage points.

The head of the conservative opposition, Jean-Francois Cope, said France's air strikes in Mali had "complete international legitimacy," and even far-right leader Marine Le Pen called the intervention "legitimate."

Hollande's order for the Mali operation is particularly perilous because seven French hostages are in the hands of the same al-Qaida-linked jihadist groups that France's troops are fighting in vast northern Mali.

Hollande's poll numbers have been on a steady slide ever since he handily beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in May's presidential election, becoming only the second Socialist head of state in France in more than 50 years.

He has been assailed for inconsistent handling of the economy. His backpedaling on campaign promises — like one to freeze fuel prices — or watering down others has frustrated many voters. And his romantic partner Valerie Trierweiler caused him no small embarrassment in June by tweeting a comment that was widely read as a nasty swipe against his ex-partner.

Hollande's headaches as president have mainly been domestic, including a jobless rate around 10 percent, few signs of economic rebound and a full-bodied debate on his plan to legalize gay marriage and thus allow same-sex couples to adopt and conceive children. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest against that idea.

Critics say Hollande cherry-picked the easiest and most politically palatable reforms proposed in a November report that he commissioned on ways to rejuvenate competitiveness in France's moribund economy — backing down from other ideas amid howls from labor groups that are a pillar of his leftist coalition.

Magazine covers have recently portrayed him under headlines such as "Hollande: The Surrender" and "The Rejection." Hollande also took office vowing to end a policy of "Francafrique," a paternalistic French buzzword for a cushy and corrupt relationship between political and economic elites in France and its former African colonies

Those hopes all but vanished on Friday — even if Hollande insists he still wants Mali and its African neighbors to take command of counterterrorism efforts in the region in the future. Internationally, until now, Hollande's most significant decision was pulling French combat troops out of Afghanistan last month — far ahead of the 2014 timetable of the United States and France's other NATO allies.

Until last week, Hollande had been talking tough both about the terror threat in Mali and against President Bashar Assad's repression in Syria's civil war, but hadn't taken any major concrete action. He'd repeatedly said that France would back up African troops in Mali, but not send troops to fight.

As with some other countries, international issues tend to have less impact on the French president's image than do pocketbook concerns such as jobs. Sarkozy, a brash, hard-nosed former interior minister, put France in a leading role along with Britain and the United States in NATO's air campaign in Libya that helped topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year. But he got little lift in the polls and lost the presidency to Hollande.

Still, Hollande could benefit from countering public expectations about him. Unlike tough-guy Sarkozy, he's better-known for glad-handing crowds than — as he did this weekend — looking sternly into TV cameras to defend risky military action and saying France won't give in to terrorists' "blackmail".

Mali rebels make gains, vow to avenge French bombs

January 14, 2013

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Despite a punishing bombardment by French warplanes, al-Qaida-linked insurgents grabbed more territory in Mali on Monday, seizing a strategic military camp that brought them far closer to the government's seat of power.

Declaring France had "opened the gates of hell" with its assault, the rebels threatened retribution. "France ... has fallen into a trap much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia," said Omar Ould Hamaha, a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one of the rebel groups controlling the north, speaking on radio Europe 1.

French fighter jets have been pummeling the insurgents' desert stronghold in the north since Friday, determined to shatter the Islamist domination of a region many fear could become a launch pad for terrorist attacks on the West and a base for coordination with al-Qaida in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

The Islamist fighters responded with a counter-offensive Monday, overrunning the garrison town of Diabaly, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Segou, the administrative capital of central Mali, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The French Embassy in Bamako immediately ordered the evacuation of the roughly 60 French nationals in the Segou region, said a French citizen who insisted on anonymity out of fear for her safety. France expanded its aerial bombing campaign, launching airstrikes for the first time in central Mali to combat the new threat. But the intense assault, including raids by gunship helicopters and Mirage fighter jets, failed to halt the advance of the rebels, who were only 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the capital, Bamako, in the far south.

The rebels "took Diabaly after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army, that couldn't hold them back," said Le Drian, the French defense minister. Mali's military is in disarray and has let many towns fall with barely a shot fired since the insurgency in the West African nation began almost a year ago. While the al-Qaida-linked extremists control the north, they had been blocked in the narrow central part of the landlocked nation.

They appear to have now done a flanking move, opening a second front in the broad southern section of the country, knifing in from the west on government forces. In response to the insurgent advances, Mauritania, which lies to the northwest of Mali, put its military on high alert. To the south, the nation of Burkina Faso sent military reinforcements to its border and set up roadblocks. Even Algeria, which had earlier argued against a military intervention, was helping France by opening its air space to French Rafale jets.

Many of Mali's neighbors, who had been pushing for a military intervention to flush out the jihadists, had argued that airstrikes by sophisticated Western aircraft would be no match for the mixture of rebel groups occupying northern Mali.

Leaders of ECOWAS, the regional body representing the 15 nations in western Africa, stressed that the north of Mali is mostly desert, and that it would be easy to pick off the convoys of rebel vehicles from the air since there is almost no ground cover.

Monday's surprise assault and the downing of a French combat helicopter by rebel fire last week have given many pause. Just hours before Diabaly fell, a commander at the military post in Niono, the town immediately to the south, laughed on the phone, and confidently asserted that the Islamists would never take it.

By afternoon, the commander, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly, sounded almost desperate. "We feel truly threatened," he said. He said the rebels approached Diabaly from the east, infiltrating the rice-growing region of Alatona, which until recently was the site of a large, U.S.-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation project.

French aircraft bombed a rebel convoy 25 miles (40 kilometers)) from Diabaly late Sunday, the commander said. "This morning we woke up and realized that the enemy was still there. They cut off the road to Diabaly. We are truly surprised — astonished," he said.

It was unclear what happened to the Malian troops based at the military camp in Diabaly. The commander said that he had not been able to reach any of the officers at the base, raising fears they were massacred.

A French squadron of about 150 troops and armored vehicles stationed in neighboring Ivory Coast was headed to Bamako to help with the offensive in Segou, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a spokesman for the French military in Paris. The troops were joining the 550 French forces already in Mali, said an African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The French national being evacuated from Segou said the email she received from the French Embassy indicated that small groups of rebel fighters were already heading to Segou, a drive that normally takes two to three hours.

Mali's north, an area the size of France, was occupied by al-Qaida-linked rebels last April following a coup in the capital. The international community has debated what to do, with most foreign powers backing a U.N. Security Council resolution in December that called for training the Malian armed forces before any military intervention was launched. Diplomats said no intervention could happen before September.

All that changed in a matter of hours last week, when French intelligence services spotted two rebel convoys heading south, one on the mostly east-west axis of Douentza to the garrison towns of Mopti and Sevare, and a second heading from a locality north of Diabaly toward Segou.

If either Segou or Mopti were to fall, many feared the Islamists could advance toward the capital. French President Francois Hollande authorized the airstrikes, which began Friday, initially concentrated in the north. France has sent in Mirage jets stationed in Chad that can carry 550-pound (250-kilogram) bombs.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that the United States has "a responsibility to go after al-Qaida wherever they are," including in Mali, adding that the U.S. is already providing intelligence-gathering assistance to the French in their assault on Islamist extremists.

Besides France and the U.S., 11 other nations have pledged troops or logistical support. Britain over the weekend authorized sending several C-17 transport planes to help France bring more troops. "Not a half hour goes by when we don't see a French plane either taking off or landing," said Napo Bah, a hotel worker in Sevare, the central town that is a launch pad for the operation. "It's been a constant since last week, when they authorized the military operation."

At least 30,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since the insurgents began moving south last week, said U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey. __ AP writers Greg Keller and Jamey Keaten in Paris, and Lolita C. Baldor aboard a U.S. military aircraft, contributed to this report.

Amateur Astronomers Discover 42 Alien Planets

By Elizabeth Howell | SPACE.com
Sat, Jan 12, 2013

A team of amateurs has discovered evidence for 42 alien planets, including a Jupiter-size world that could potentially be habitable, by sifting through data from a NASA spacecraft.

Forty volunteers with the crowd-sourcing Planet Hunters project discovered the new planet candidates, which include 15 potentially habitable worlds and PH2 b, a Jupiter-size planet that the team confirmed to be in the habitable zone of its parent star.

This is the second time Planet Hunters project, which is overseen by Zooniverse, has confirmed a new exoplanet discovery. What's more, several candidate planets found by the project may be in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These candidates are awaiting confirmation by professional astronomers.

Researchers suggested this bonanza of planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone around a star, a habitable zone in which conditions are liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface and potentially supportlife, could mean there is a "traffic jam" of worlds where life could exist, project officials said.

"These are planet candidates that slipped through the net, being missed by professional astronomers and rescued by volunteers in front of their web browsers,” said the University of Oxford's Chris Lintott, who helms the Zooniverse, in a statement. “It's remarkable to think that absolutely anyone can discover a planet.”

Life on an 'Avatar'-like moon

The planet PH2 b was found using data from NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope and confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence by observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Ph2 b is considered much too large to host life. However, any moons orbiting the planet could be strong candidates, astronomers said. The atmospheric temperature on the planet would range between 86 and minus 126 degrees Fahrenheit (30 and minus 88 degrees Celsius) in the habitable zone.

“Any moon around this newly discovered, Jupiter-sized planet might be habitable," stated Ji Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. He is lead author of a paper about the discoveries, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal and is available on the pre-publishing website Arxiv.

If a theoretical moon were to host life, it would likely have a rocky core, plus a greenhouse atmosphere of some sort that could have liquid water on its surface, the researchers said.

"It’s very similar to what was depicted in the movie ‘Avatar’ – the habitable moon Pandora around a giant planet, Polyphemus," Wang added.

A telltale dim

Volunteers spotted PH2 b by watching its parent star. As the planet passed in front of the star, the apparent brightness from Earth dimmed.

This is one of two commonly used techniques for finding exoplanets; the other is looking for wobbles in a star's gravityas a planet speeds around it.

Excluding PH2 b, citizen scientists recently discovered 42 planetary candidates, with 20 of those likely in their respective stars' habitable regions.

"These detections nearly double the number of gas giant planet candidates orbiting at habitable zone distances," the paper stated.

Planet Hunters includes participation from Oxford, Yale and several other institutions. Volunteers pour over data from Kepler. Once the strongest candidates are identified, professional astronomers take a look at them.

Planet Hunters has found 48 candidate planets so far. The first confirmed planet, PH1, was revealed in October 2011.

Large protest for return of Basque prisoners

January 12, 2013

BILBAO, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of Basque separatist sympathizers marched in downtown Bilbao on Saturday calling for an amnesty that would allow ETA prisoners to serve out the remainder of their sentences in the northern Spanish region rather than in jails further afield.

Protesters marched to the city's town hall behind banners saying "Human rights, resolution, peace. Basque prisoners back home." Some protesters waved Catalan flags in solidarity with another northern Spanish region with an important separatist movement. One large banner included a slogan in English, saying "Repatriate all Basque prisoners."

Spain has for more than two decades dispersed ETA prisoners under an amendment to the country's 1975 anti-terrorism law. One of the purposes of the law was to stop convicted Basque militants from communicating easily among themselves to plan subversive strategies.

"A large percentage of the Basque nation has been at this demonstration to ask the Spanish government to make a change," 58-year-old protester Maite Perez de Mendiola said. There are an estimated 700 ETA prisoners held in jails dotted around Spain and France, and only around two dozen are believed to be in Basque region prisons.

ETA has killed 829 people since the late 1960s in bombings and shootings to force the creation of a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France. The organization pledged in October 2011 to stop using weapons in its bid for Basque independence, but it stopped short of saying it would disarm and allow inspections of decommissioned weapons, as happened with the IRA in Northern Ireland.

Inaki Olasolo, a spokesman for the protest, said the Spanish government could take advantage of "a historic opportunity to reach a solid peace with justice, with recognition and healing" if it allowed prisoners back.

Olasolo also called for the release of those suffering from terminal illnesses, of which it is believed there are three. Although ETA — classified as a terrorist organization by Spain, the U.S. and the European Union — has declared two previous "permanent" cease-fires, many observers think this time they mean it. Waves of arrests in recent years have repeatedly weakened its structure and diminished its ability to carry out attacks or collect funds.

However, French police late Friday arrested two people who reportedly acknowledged being ETA members and one of the suspects was in possession of a firearm.

Associated Press writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.

29 Belfast cops hurt in Catholic-Protestant clash

January 13, 2013

DUBLIN (AP) — Northern Ireland police fought day-and-night street battles with Protestant militants Saturday as a protest march to Belfast City Hall degenerated into riots when many marchers returned home to the Protestant east side.

The Protestants, who have blocked streets daily since Catholics on the council decided Dec. 3 to curtail the flying of the British flag, have frequently clashed with police in hopes of forcing politicians to overturn the decision. The street confrontations have stirred sectarian passions, particularly in Protestant east Belfast and its lone Catholic enclave, Short Strand, flashpoint for the most protracted rioting over the past six weeks.

Saturday's violence began as police donning helmets, shields and flame-retardent suits tried to shepherd the British flag-bedecked crowd past Short Strand, where masked and hooded Catholic men and youths waited by their doors armed with Gaelic hurling bats, golf clubs and other makeshift weapons. The two sides began throwing bottles, rocks and other missiles at each other and, as police on foot struggled to keep the two sides apart, Protestant anger turned against the police.

Police marched down the street with shields locked, backed by blasts from three massive mobile water cannons. Officers also fired at least a half-dozen baton rounds — blunt-nosed, inch (2.5-centimeter)-thick cylinders colloquially known as plastic bullets — at rioters.

After the initial two-hour clash subsided, police at nighttime confronted a renewed mob of Protestant youths on nearby Castlereagh Street, where a car was stolen and burned as a barricade. A police helicopter overhead shone its spotlight on the crowd, which chanted anti-police and anti-Catholic slogans.

Police commander Mark Baggott said 29 of his officers were injured in the two operations, bringing total police casualties above 100 since the first riots outside city hall on Dec. 3. The clashes have cost Northern Ireland an estimated 25 million pounds ($40 million) in lost trade and tourism and in police overtime bills.

Baggott described Saturday's police deployment as "a difficult operation dealing with a large number of people determined to cause disorder and violence." He credited his officers with "exceptional courage and professionalism."

The Protestant hard-liners, however, have accused police of pursuing heavy-handed tactics that have worsened the riots. Police have provided no casualty figures for civilians, who often avoid hospital treatment so that they are not identified as rioters and arrested. More than 100 rioters have been arrested since Dec. 3. The Associated Press photographer in Belfast, Peter Morrison, suffered serious injuries to his head and hand when clubbed by policemen on Dec. 3 outside city hall.

The Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party said 10 Short Strand homes were damaged during Saturday's clashes. Sinn Fein councilman Niall O Donnghaile, who represents Short Strand, said it was the 15th illegal Protestant march past the Catholic enclave since last month. He said the marchers clearly wanted to attack Short Strand residents.

"People do not come to 'peaceful protests' armed with bricks, bottles, golf balls and fireworks," O Donnghaile said of the Protestant marchers. Belfast used to have a strong Protestant majority, but the Dec. 3 vote demonstrated that Catholics have gained the democratic upper hand, stoking Protestant anxiety that one day Northern Ireland could be merged with the Republic of Ireland as many Catholics want.

Sinn Fein council members had wanted to remove the British flag completely from city hall, where the Union Jack had flown continuously for more than a century. But they accepted a compromise motion that would allow the UK flag to be raised on 18 official days annually, the same rule already observed on many British government buildings throughout the United Kingdom.

South Sudan sees rich gold reserves, eyes copper, uranium mining

By Carl Odera | Reuters
Fri, Jan 11, 2013

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan is rich in gold and has probably also reserves in other minerals such as copper, uranium and clay which it hopes to exploit with the help of investors, a senior mining official said.

South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, wants to attract mining investment to kickstart development in the African republic, one of the world's least developed countries after decades of civil war with Khartoum ended in 2005.

Juba is trying to diversify the economy away from oil which used to make up 98 percent of the budget until South Sudan shut down its output of 350,000 barrels per day a year ago during a row with Sudan over export fees.

Both countries agreed in September to resume cross-border flows but they still have to secure their disputed border first.

To attract mining investment the government is trying to get funding from donors to do more mapping to get reserve estimates, a difficult task in a country the size of France where only 300 km (190 miles) of paved roads exist.

South African firm New Kush has done some airborne exploration in Eastern Equatoria state bordering Kenya and Uganda, according to the mining ministry. Two other firms have done some mapping in the area of Galji, Gungu and Papa, 40 kilometers west of the capital Juba.

"We have not reached the level of quantifying, but we are sure that there are minerals in South Sudan, the most of which is gold, gold appears to be so abundant in every part of the South (Sudan)," said Arkangelo Okwang Oler, director general for mineral development in the ministry of petroleum and mining.

"There (also) are indications of radiations...and indication of minerals like uranium," he told Reuters late on Thursday.

There were also indications of copper in some of the areas and industrial minerals including clays, micas and marble, Oler said.

He said a mining bill had been passed by both chambers of parliament but still needed to be signed by President Salva Kiir. "It will be very soon," he said.

According to a copy of the bill seen by Reuters, holders of the existing 42 exploration licences signed before independence will have 60 days to renew their licence on a priority basis.

Mining licence will initially be allocated for a maximum of 25 years on a renewable basis, and the government has the right to acquire a maximum of 15 percent of a concession.

"As far as the number of people wanting to carry out exploration in South Sudan, we have a very big interest, we have seen it already, a number of companies trying to ask about South Sudan," Oler said.

Protesters mark 11th year of Guantanamo in London

January 11, 2013

LONDON (AP) — Dozens of activists have staged a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London to mark 11 years since the opening of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo.

About 50 protesters, some wearing orange jumpsuits and masks of President Barack Obama or a dark sack around their heads, turned out for the peaceful demonstration in central London. The activists called for the release of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident still held at the prison. Aamer, originally from Saudi Arabia, was detained in Afghanistan in 2001 and has been held at Guantanamo since 2002. He has not been charged and has insisted he was in Afghanistan to do voluntary work.

Obama promised when he took office to close the prison but congressional opposition has prevented him from fulfilling that vow.

French taxi drivers' strike clogs roadways

January 10, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Taxi drivers across France clogged traffic, slowed access to airports and forced would-be passengers to find alternate transport as they held a strike Thursday over government deregulation proposals they fear will cut into their business.

Thousands of protesting taxi drivers lined up in single file on roadsides across the country, refused fares or traveled highways at a crawl. At one point in the late morning, a trip into Paris that would normally take 20 minutes was listed on traffic signs at more than two hours. The drivers called it "Operation Escargot."

Taxi associations oppose government proposals to allow private companies to transport the sick to medical appointments and allow for new chauffeur businesses. At Paris' Orly airport, with riot police on hand, scores of taxi drivers prevented access to the drop-off point at the West terminal, forcing air travelers to walk further to get inside.

After hours of negotiations, the Interior Ministry announced late Thursday that the government wouldn't make any decisions about deregulation without consulting the taxi unions. It also said it would work to eliminate any confusion between the roles of traditional taxis and the new chauffeur businesses.

Those concessions are expected to put an end to most of the striking. But earlier an official close to the French president, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting, said the government was still determined to implement some measure of deregulation.

Winter storm batters Mideast, 8 dead

January 09, 2013

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.

In Lebanon, the Red Cross said storm-related accidents killed six people over the past two days. Several drowned after slipping into rivers from flooded roads, one person froze to death and another died after his car went off a slippery road, according to George Kettaneh, Operations Director for the Lebanese Red Cross.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a Palestinian official said two West Bank women drowned after their car was caught in a flash flood on Tuesday. Nablus Deputy Governor Annan Atirah said the women abandoned their vehicle after it got stuck on a flooded road, and their bodies were apparently swept away by surging waters. Their driver was hospitalized in critical condition.

In the Gaza Strip, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said storms cut electricity to thousands of Palestinian homes and rescuers were sent to evacuate dozens of people. Parts of Israel were bracing for snow a day after the military was forced to send helicopters and rubber dinghies to rescue residents stranded by floodwaters. In Jerusalem, streets were mostly empty as light snow began to stick Wednesday night. School was canceled for the next day because of the weather, which Israeli meteorologists said was the stormiest in a decade.

The unusual weather over the past few days hit vulnerable Syrian refugees living in tent camps very hard, particularly some 50,000 sheltering in the Zaatari camp in Jordan's northern desert. Torrential rains over four days have flooded some 200 tents and forced women and infants to evacuate in temperatures that dipped below freezing at night, whipping wind and lashing rain.

"It's been freezing cold and constant rain for the past four days," lamented Ahmad Tobara, 44, who evacuated his tent when its shafts submerged in flood water in Zaatari. A camp spokesman said that by Wednesday, some 1,500 refugees had been displaced within the camp and were now living in mobile homes normally used for schools.

Weather officials said winds exceeded 45 miles (70 kilometers) per hour and the rain left two feet (70 centimeters) of water on the streets. The storm dumped at least a foot of snow on many parts of Jordan and was accompanied by lashing wind, lightning and thunder. It shut schools, stranded motorists and delayed international flights, Jordanian weatherman Mohammed Samawi said. The unusually heavy snowfall blocked streets in the capital Amman and isolated remote villages, prompting warnings from authorities for people to stay home as snow plows tried to reopen clogged roads. It forced at least 400 families to evacuate their homes and move to government shelters overnight.

Samawi called it the "fiercest storm to hit the Mideast in the month of January in at least 30 years." The snowstorm followed four days of torrential rain, which caused flooding in many areas across the country.

In Lebanon, several days of winds and heavy rain along the coast and record snow in the mountains caused power outages across the country, blocked traffic and shut down mountain passes. Later Wednesday, snow is forecast at altitudes higher than 200 yards (meters), while rain that has already flooded suburbs of the capital, Beirut, should continue.

In Egypt, rare downpours, strong winds and low visibility disrupted Suez Canal operations over the past three days and also led to the closure of several ports. The number of ships moving through the Suez Canal had fallen by half because of poor visibility, the official MENA news agency reported. A canal official said that by Wednesday, operations had returned to normal. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

MENA also reported that ports in the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Dakhila were shut down, while cities in the Nile Delta suffered power outages and fishing stopped in cities like Damietta, northeast of Cairo.

MENA also reported 10 fishermen went missing after their boat capsized near Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean. In Syria, where a civil war is raging, snow was piling up in and around the capital, Damascus. Officials said many villages in central Homs province and along the southern border with Israel have been cut off after heavy snowfall. Torrential rains are expected over the next three days with temperatures around freezing. Some 2.5 million people within Syria have been displaced in fighting that has stretched on for nearly two years now.

Surk reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporters Mohammad Hannon in Zaatari, Jordan, Amy Teibel and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed.

World's first subway marks 150 years in operation

January 09, 2013

LONDON (AP) — Busy, congested, stressful. This is how the world's first subway system was depicted by London newspapers in 1863. It's a situation that would be familiar to nail-biting passengers of the present as the Tube turned 150 years old Wednesday.

"The constant cry, as the trains arrived, of 'no room,' appeared to have a very depressing effect upon those assembled," The Guardian newspaper reported on the public opening of London's Metropolitan Line on Jan. 10, 1863. The first stretch of rail had opened the day before, on Jan. 9.

The line — the first part of what is now an extensive London transport network that has shaped the British capital and its suburbs — ran 120 trains each way during the day, carrying up to 40,000 excited passengers. Extra steam locomotives and cars were called in to handle the crowds.

Architectural historian David Lawrence said the rapid expansion of the subway network — better known in London as the Tube — had a major impact on the city's design. The Tube helped lure people away from the inner city into new areas where new housing was being built near the stations.

The houses were built in a village style mocked by some historians as already dated. "They were selling an England which had already passed by that time," said Lawrence, a principal lecturer at Kingston University.

In 1919, the Metropolitan company became directly involved in developing what came to be called "Metro-land" on surplus land. One of the company's promotional posters displayed drab rows of inner city terrace houses and urged people to, "Leave this and move to Edgware."

However, they were also selling the dual benefit of a quiet, unpolluted suburban life paired with rapid access to the cultural and economic benefits of the metropolis, Lawrence said. The pioneering Metropolitan Line sparked a new wave of underground development which today has grown into a 249-mile (402-kilometer) system carrying 1.2 billion passenger journeys each year.

Although Londoners love to complain about its sometimes sketchy performance, the Tube and its related rail lines can be a remarkably efficient way to move vast numbers of people in and out of the city, with roughly 3.5 million journeys completed each day. It provided nearly flawless transport during the recent London Olympics despite fears that it would buckle under the extra strain.

Charles Pearson, a lawyer who saw the line as a tool of social reform which would enable the poor to live in healthier surroundings on the perimeter of the city, began promoting the line in the 1850s.

Pearson made a crucial contribution by persuading the Corporation of the City of London — the governing body of the financial district — to invest in the line. Like many an innovation, the proposal to build a three-mile (4.8 kilometer) underground rail line from Paddington Station in central London to Farringdon on the edge of the financial district in the east aroused great skepticism and criticism when it was first proposed.

An editorial in The Times of London at the time found the concept repulsive: "A subterranean railway under London was awfully suggestive of dank, noisome tunnels buried many fathoms deep beyond the reach of light or life; passages inhabited by rats, soaked with sewer drippings, and poisoned by the escape of gas mains," the newspaper declared.

"It seemed an insult to common sense to suppose that people who could travel as cheaply on the outside of a Paddington bus would prefer, as a merely quicker medium, to be driven amid palpable darkness through the foul subsoil of London."

London's Daily News took a more macabre view: "For the first time in the history of the world men can ride in pleasant carriages, and with considerable comfort, lower down than gas pipes and water pipes," the newspaper said, adding, "lower down than graveyards."

For the anniversary celebrations, Transport for London will run old-style steam powered trains underground — but only on Sunday, so as not to disrupt its crucial people-moving function during the working week.

Indonesian authorities battle floods in capital

January 18, 2013

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Authorities were working Friday to repair a dike that collapsed amid floods that swamped the Indonesian capital as the waters gradually receded from the main streets of the teeming city.

But more monsoon rains were expected over Jakarta later Friday into Saturday, raising the prospect of fresh flooding, said Fadli, an official at the country's meteorology agency who goes by a single name.

Jakarta, a low-lying city on the sea, has long been prone to floods, but their scale has become worse over the last 10 years as infrastructure development has not kept pace with the city's growth. Other Southeast Asian cities, Bangkok and Manila especially, have also proved vulnerable to widespread floods in recent years.

Authorities said the death toll had risen to 11, most electrocuted or drowned. Police were searching for at least three other people reported missing in the flooded basement of a building in central Jakarta.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, from the city's disaster mitigation agency, said electricity supplies had been cut to several areas to prevent electrocutions. "Our focus now is to save more lives," he said. While life slowly got back to normal downtown, tens of thousands remained affected by the waters elsewhere in the city of 14 million people. The police and army deployed rubber boats to help evacuate or bring supplies to people, said Jakarta Police Spokesman Col. Rikwanto.

Elsewhere, hundreds of soldiers used backhoes to attempt to repair a collapsed canal dike that let floodwater pour into parts of downtown Jakarta on Thursday after hours of rains caused rivers and canals to burst their banks.

At their peak, almost 250,000 people were affected by the floods, which covered about 30 percent of the city. They were the most widespread to hit the city since 2007, when almost 80 died and more than half of the city as affected.

Unlike in 2007, Jakarta's downturn area was swamped this time around. Successive governments have done little to mitigate the threat of flooding, the latest made worse by heavy downpours Wednesday and Thursday that added pressure to rivers already swollen by a long monsoon season.

Deforestation in the hills to the south of the city, chaotic planning and the rubbish that clogs the hundreds of waterways that crisscross the city are some of the factors behind the floods. Corrupt city officials turn an eye to building violations and lack the skills and ability to build flood defenses.

Indrado, a resident in Central Jakarta, said the floods should cause a rethink. "We cannot only blame the government," he said. "We the people also have to support it by not littering rivers."

Palestinian protesters evicted from West Bank site

January 13, 2013

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian protesters who pitched tents at a strategic West Bank site to protest plans to build a Jewish housing project there were evicted early Sunday, police said.

Palestinian activists erected tents in the area known as E-1 on Friday saying they wanted to "establish facts on the ground" to stop Israeli construction in the West Bank. The Palestinian activists were borrowing a phrase and a tactic, usually associated with Jewish settlers, who believe establishing communities means the territory will remain theirs once structures are built.

Palestinian activist Abdullah Abu Rahma said the protesters hoped to repitch their tents to continue their protest. "Today, we will see if we can return," he said. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police evicted about 100 protesters from the site early Sunday morning after a court decision authorizing their removal. He did not know which court had allowed the eviction.

Haaretz reported that the eviction was carried out despite a temporary High Court injunction preventing it. Rosenfeld said no arrests were made during the half hour operation and that no injuries were sustained on either side. He said the tents were not dismantled and that a decision on that would be made later in the day.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening ordered roads closed leading to the area and had the military declare a closed military zone and shut off access. Netanyahu's office said that the state was petitioning the Supreme Court to rescind an earlier injunction blocking the evacuation.

Israel announced it is moving forward with the E-1 settlement after the U.N. recognized a de facto state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in November. Palestinians say E-1 would be a major blow to their statehood aspirations as it blocks east Jerusalem from its West Bank hinterland. Palestinians are demanding these areas, along with Gaza, for their future state.

Activists said they wanted to build a village called Bab al-Shams at the site. The construction plans drew unusually sharp criticism from some of Israel's staunchest allies including the U.S. who strongly oppose the E- 1 project.

Israeli officials have said actual construction on the project may be years away if it ever gets off the ground, while Israeli critics have questioned whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually intends to develop E-1, or is pandering to hard-liners ahead of Israel's Jan. 22 election.

In a separate incident Saturday, the Israeli military said soldiers shot at a Palestinian who "tried to infiltrate Israel" from the West Bank. The military said soldiers called on the man to stop, then fired warning shots in the air, and finally fired at his legs when he refused to stop.

Palestinian police said he later died of his wounds. It was the second shooting death on the borders with the Palestinian territories in two days. On Friday, Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip said a man was shot and killed near the coastal territory's border fence. The Israeli military said he was part of a group that rushed the fence to damage it.

March protests immigrant's slaying in Greece

January 19, 2013

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Several thousand people marched through central Athens on Saturday to protest a spate of anti-immigrant attacks in Greece, including the fatal stabbing of a 27-year-old Pakistani immigrant by suspected right-wing extremists.

Earlier in the day about 150 members of Greece's Pakistani community and a handful of Greeks gathered outside Athens City Hall to say prayers and pay their respects to Shehzad Luqman, the Pakistani who died Thursday. His coffin was displayed on the ground while mourners unfurled a banner in Greek and English reading "Punishment to the fascist murderers of Shehzad Luqman." A hearse took the coffin away at the end of the ceremony.

"We want to be peaceful. We are simple workers, and we will not do what the fascists do. In the last three years they have attacked 700 to 800 people. ... We go to our jobs and they attack us. It's the job of the police to arrest these people and send them to jail," Javied Aslam, head of Greece's Pakistani community, said after the prayers.

Greece has been suffering a surge in anti-immigration sentiment during its 3-year-old economic crisis, which has demolished living standards and led to high unemployment. The country also has long been the main gateway for illegal immigrants entering the European Union, with up to one-tenth of the nation's population born abroad.

Saturday's march was to be followed by a concert at Athens' Syntagma square. London-based anti-racism campaigner Sasha Simic said he traveled to Greece to attend the demonstration. "I'm here to show solidarity with Greek people fighting against Golden Dawn, an openly fascist organization that is trying to exploit the misery of the crisis that the bankers have caused to scapegoat immigrants, to scapegoat gay people, to scapegoat anybody that doesn't fit into their political schema. We know what happened in the 1930s with the rise of the Nazis. ... We are here to stop them," Simic told The Associated Press.

Golden Dawn, the ultra-right party running on an explicitly anti-immigrant platform, entered Parliament for the first time last June, polling nearly 7 percent of the vote and capitalizing on locals' resentment over a largely uncontrolled influx of immigrants that they blame for rising joblessness and crime.

Golden Dawn won only 0.29 percent of the vote in a 2009 national election, but the next year it secured a seat at the Athens City Council, polling well in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. As its following has since grown, the party has tried to distance itself from its neo-Nazi roots, emphasizing its "patriotic" ideology.

Two Greek men in their 20s have been charged with Luqman's murder. They have admitted carrying out the killing but said their attack was the unfortunate result of an unintended escalation of a heated argument that started when Luqman's bicycle blocked the motorbike they were riding on.

But police sources said the suspects had taken off their motorbike's license plate and that a search of one of the suspect's houses found Golden Dawn pamphlets and that several knives turned up in both their homes. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about the investigation.