Exoplanet formation surprise

Washington DC (SPX)
Jun 18, 2013

A team of researchers has discovered evidence that an extrasolar planet may be forming quite far from its star-- about twice the distance Pluto is from our Sun. The planet lies inside a dusty, gaseous disk around a small red dwarf TW Hydrae, which is only about 55 percent of the mass of the Sun. The discovery adds to the ever-increasing variety of planetary systems in the Milky Way. The research is published in the Astrophysical Journal.*

This dusty protoplanetary disk is the closest one to us, some 176 light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The astronomers made Hubble Space Telescope observations over a wide range of wavelengths from visible to near infrared and modeled the color and structure of the disk in a way that has not been done before. They found a deficit of disk material, or partial gap, at about 80 astronomical units (AU) (1 AU is the Earth/Sun distance).

Their models indicate that the depression is about 20 AUs wide, just slightly wider than necessary for a planet-opening gap and consistent with a planet of between 6 and 28 Earth masses. The feature is seen at all wavelengths indicating it is structural and not a local compositional difference. The team believes the evidence is strong for planet formation causing the gap.

"TW Hydrae is between 5 and 10 million years old, and should be in the final throes of planet formation before its disk dissipates," remarked coauthor Alycia Weinberger of the Carnegie Institution and principal investigator of the observations.

"It is surprising to find a planet only 5 to 10% of Jupiter's mass forming so far out since planets should form faster closer in. In all planet formation scenarios, it's difficult to make a low-mass planet far away from a low mass star."

The goal of these observations was to understand not only whether planets have formed, but also what conditions can result in planet formation and what chemical constituents are available for new planets.

Models by coauthor Hannah Jang-Condell, a former Carnegie postdoctoral researcher, showed that the disk was brighter than expected, which indicates that very small dust grains are being lifted high above the midplane. This is surprising because observations with radio telescopes have previously shown that the disk contains dust that has conglomerated into pebbles.

Weinberger designed the observations to be able to detect large water ice grains in the surface layer of the disk. These grains weren't seen, which probably means that they have grown and sunk to the midplane of the disk where they can aggregate into water-rich planets.

Planet formation far away from a small parent star is at odds with the conventional planet-making dogma. Under the most accepted scenario, planets form over tens of millions of years from the slow accretion of dust, rocks, and gas. That happens most easily close to the central star, where orbital timescales are short. Even under a disk instability scenario, in which planets can collapse quickly from the disk, it's not clear such a low mass planet could form.

Carnegie astrophysicist Alan Boss, who works on disk instability models, said "If the mass of this suspected planet is as low as it seems to be, this presents a real puzzle. Theory would say that it cannot exist!"

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Exoplanet_formation_surprise_999.html.

Peru protesters push to stop $5 billion Newmont mine

Mon Jun 17, 2013

By Mitra Taj

(Reuters) - Thousands of opponents of a $5 billion gold project of Newmont Mining circled a lake high in the Andes on Monday, vowing to stop the company from eventually draining it to make way for Peru's most expensive mine.

Lake Perol is one of several lakes that would eventually be displaced to mine ore from the Conga project. Water from the lakes would be transferred to four reservoirs that the U.S. company and its Peruvian partner, Buenaventura, are building or planning to build.

The companies say the reservoirs would end seasonal shortages and guarantee year-round water supplies to towns and farmers in the area, but many residents fear they would lose control of the water or that the mine would cause pollution.

"Hopefully, the company and the government will see the crowd here today and stop the project," said Cesar Correa, 28, of the town of Huangashanga in the northern region of Cajamarca.

He was one of many protesters who arrived at Lake Perol on foot or on horseback, some wearing ponchos, as well as traditional broad-brimmed straw hats or baseball caps.

Others carried blankets and bags of potatoes and rice - planning to camp out at the site for weeks to halt the project.

The company said about 1,000 protesters were present, though protesters said their flock swelled to 5,000 or 6,000. A Reuters witness estimated 4,000 people at the protest.

"Why would we want a reservoir controlled by the company when we already have lakes that naturally provide us water?" asked Angel Mendoza, a member of a peasant patrol group from the town of Pampa Verde.

The controversy over Conga - which many in the business sector see as essential for the country's bustling economy - has posed a major challenge to President Ollanta Humala during his nearly two years in office.

He has twice shuffled his cabinet in the face of violent protests against the project.

The protest on Monday was largely peaceful and there were no clashes with police, though a handful of protesters threw rocks and set fire to a wall near one reservoir.

Newmont and Buenaventura said in a statement: "As stated previously, we will only build the proposed Perol reservoir if we are able to secure all the necessary permits and complete an intensive public involvement process with neighboring communities."

"We respect everyone's right to safely and responsibly express their opinion, whether they oppose mining or support economic development," the statement said.

In May, a minor clash between protesters and police marked an ended nine months of relative calm when Humala's government said it would stop trying to overcome local opposition to the mine.

The new round of protests came after a top official for the Conga project, Chief Executive Roque Benavides of Buenaventura, told Reuters water from Perol would be transferred to a new reservoir later this year.

He later said the project might be in jeopardy if water from the lakes could not be transferred.

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/17/peru-mining-politics-idUSL2N0ET1Q620130617.

Biggest protests in 20 years sweep Brazil

By Todd Benson and Asher Levine
SAO PAULO | Tue Jun 18, 2013

(Reuters) - As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.

The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil's Congress building and then stormed it.

Monday's demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil's sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.

While most of the protests unfolded as a festive display of dissent, some demonstrators in Rio threw rocks at police, set fire to a parked car and vandalized the state assembly building. Vandals also destroyed property in the southern city of Porto Alegre.

Around the country, protesters waved Brazilian flags, dancing and chanting slogans such as "The people have awakened" and "Pardon the inconvenience, Brazil is changing."

The epicenter of Monday's march shifted from Sao Paulo, where some 65,000 people took to the streets late in the afternoon, to Rio. There, as protesters gathered throughout the evening, crowds ballooned to 100,000 people, local police said. At least 20,000 more gathered in Belo Horizonte.

The demonstrations are the first time that Brazilians, since a recent decade of steady economic growth, are collectively questioning the status quo.

BIG EVENTS LOOM

The protests have gathered pace as Brazil is hosting the Confederation's Cup, a dry run for next year's World Cup soccer championship. The government hopes these events, along with the 2016 Summer Olympics, will showcase Brazil as an emerging power on the global stage.

Brazil also is gearing up to welcome more than 2 million visitors in July as Pope Francis makes his first foreign trip for a gathering of Catholic youth in Rio.

Contrasting the billions in taxpayer money spent on new stadiums with the shoddy state of Brazil's public services, protesters are using the Confederation's Cup as a counterpoint to amplify their concerns. The tournament got off to shaky start this weekend when police clashed with demonstrators outside stadiums at the opening matches in Brasilia and Rio.

"For many years the government has been feeding corruption. People are demonstrating against the system," said Graciela Caçador, a 28-year-old saleswoman protesting in Sao Paulo. "They spent billions of dollars building stadiums and nothing on education and health."

More protests are being organized for the coming days. It is unclear what specific response from authorities - such as a reduction in the hike of transport fares - would lead the loose collection of organizers across Brazil to consider stopping them.

For President Dilma Rousseff, the demonstrations come at a delicate time, as price increases and lackluster growth begin to loom over an expected run for re-election next year.

Polls show Rousseff still is widely popular, especially among poor and working-class voters, but her approval ratings began to slip in recent weeks for the first time since taking office in 2011. Rousseff was booed at Saturday's Confederations Cup opener as protesters gathered outside.

Through a spokeswoman, Rousseff called the protests "legitimate" and said peaceful demonstrations are "part of democracy." The president, a leftist guerrilla as a young woman, also said that it was "befitting of youth to protest."

WIDE ARRAY OF GRIEVANCES

Some were baffled by the protests in a country where unemployment remains near record lows, even after more than two years of tepid economic growth.

"What are they going to do - march every day?" asked Cristina, a 43-year-old cashier, who declined to give her surname, peeking out at the demonstration from behind the curtain of a closed Sao Paulo butcher shop. She said corruption and other age-old ills in Brazil are unlikely to change soon.

The marches began this month with an isolated protest in Sao Paulo against a small increase in bus and subway fares. The demonstrations initially drew the scorn of many middle-class Brazilians after protesters vandalized storefronts, subway stations and buses on one of the city's main avenues.

The movement quickly gained support and spread to other cities as police used heavy-handed tactics to quell the demonstrations. The biggest crackdown happened on Thursday in Sao Paulo when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in clashes that injured more than 100 people, including 15 journalists, some of whom said they were deliberately targeted.

Other common grievances at Monday's marches included corruption and the inadequate and overcrowded public transportation networks that Brazilians cope with daily.

POLICE SHOW RESTRAINT

The harsh police reaction to last week's protests touched a nerve in Brazil, which endured two decades of political repression under a military dictatorship that ended in 1985. It also added to doubts about whether Brazil's police forces would be ready for next year's World Cup.

The uproar following last week's crackdown prompted Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin, who first described the protesters as "troublemakers" and "vandals," to order police to allow Monday's march to proceed and not to use rubber bullets.

The protests are shaping up as a major political challenge for Alckmin, a former presidential candidate, and Sao Paulo's new mayor, Fernando Haddad, a rising star in the left-leaning Workers' Party that has governed Brazil for the past decade. Haddad invited protest leaders to meet Tuesday morning, but has so far balked at talk of a bus fare reduction.

The resonance of the demonstrations underscores what economists say will be a challenge for Rousseff and other Brazilian leaders in the years ahead: providing public services to meet the demands of the growing middle class.

"Voters are likely to be increasingly disgruntled on a range of public services in a lower growth environment," Christopher Garman, a political analyst at the Eurasia Group, wrote in a report.

(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel and Eduardo Simões; Editing by Paulo Prada)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/18/us-brazil-protests-idUSBRE95G15S20130618.

Protesters back in streets of Brazilian cities

June 18, 2013

SAO PAULO (AP) — More than 100,000 people took to the streets in largely peaceful protests in at least eight cities Monday, demonstrations that voiced the deep frustrations Brazilians feel about carrying heavy tax burdens but receiving woeful returns in public education, health, security and transportation.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic hub, at least 65,000 protesters gathered at a small, treeless plaza then broke into three directions in a Carnival atmosphere, with drummers beating out samba rhythms as the crowds chanted anti-corruption jingles. They also focused on the cause that initially sparked the protests last week — a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares.

Violence was seen in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and the southern city of Porto Alegre. Police clashed with clusters of protesters in those cities, at times using tear gas to disperse them. In Rio, about 50 protesters tried to break into the state assembly building before being driven off. The newspaper O Globo, citing the state security department, said 20 police officers and 10 protesters were injured in Rio. In Porto Alegre, some protesters set a bus on fire and threw rocks at empty commuter trains.

Thousands of protesters in the capital, Brasilia, peacefully marched on congress, where dozens scrambled up a ramp to a low-lying roof, clasping hands and raising their arms, the light from below sending their elongated shadows onto the structure's large, hallmark upward-turned bowl designed by famed architect Oscar Niemeyer. Some congressional windows were broken, but police did not use force to contain the damage.

Rarely since the end of the 1964-1985 dictatorship has Brazil seen protests of such size. "This is a communal cry saying: 'We're not satisfied,'" Maria Claudia Cardoso said on a Sao Paulo avenue, taking turns waving a sign reading "#revolution" with her 16-year-old son, Fernando, as protesters streamed by.

"We're massacred by the government's taxes — yet when we leave home in the morning to go to work, we don't know if we'll make it home alive because of the violence," she added. "We don't have good schools for our kids. Our hospitals are in awful shape. Corruption is rife. These protests will make history and wake our politicians up to the fact that we're not taking it anymore!"

The protests come after the opening matches of soccer's Confederations Cup over the weekend, just one month before a papal visit, a year before the World Cup and three years ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The unrest is raising some security concerns, especially after protests last week in Sao Paulo and over the weekend in Rio produced injury-causing clashes with police.

Protest leaders went to pains to tell marchers that damaging public or private property would only hurt their cause. In Sao Paulo, sentiments were at first against the protests last week after windows were broken and buildings spray painted during the demonstrations.

Police, too, changed tactics. In Sao Paulo, commanders said publicly before the protest they would try to avoid violence, but warned they could resort to force if protesters destroyed property. During the first hours of the march that continued into the night there was barely any perceptible police presence.

The Sao Paulo march itself was a family oriented affair: A group of mothers received a rousing cheer when they arrived at the plaza where the march began, brandishing signs that said "Mothers Who Care Show Support."

"I'm here to make sure police don't hurt these kids," said Sandra Amalfe, whose 16-year-old daughter chatted with friends nearby. "We need better education, hospitals and security — not billions spent on the World Cup."

Officers in Rio fired tear gas and rubber bullets when a group of protesters invaded the state legislative assembly and hurled things at police. But most of the tens of thousands who protested in Rio did so peacefully, many of them dressed in white and brandishing placards and banners. Many people in the city left work early to avoid traffic jams downtown.

In Belo Horizonte, police estimated about 20,000 people joined a peaceful crowd protesting before a Confederations Cup match between Tahiti and Nigeria as police helicopters buzzed overhead and mounted officers patrolled the stadium area. Earlier in the day, demonstrators erected several barricades of burning tires on a nearby highway, disrupting traffic.

Protests also were reported in Curitiba, Belem and Salvador. Marcos Lobo, a 45-year-old music producer who joined the protest in Sao Paulo, said the actions of police during earlier demonstrations persuaded him to come out Monday.

"I thought they (the protests) were infantile at first because of my preconceived notions," Lobo said. "Then I saw the aggression." Another protester, Manoela Chiabai, said she wanted to express her dissatisfaction with the status quo.

"Everything in Brazil is a mess. There is no education, health care — no security. The government doesn't care," the 26-year-old photographer said. "We're a rich country with a lot of potential but the money doesn't go to those who need it most."

In a brief statement, President Dilma Rousseff, who faces re-election next year and whose popularity rating recently dipped for the first time in her presidency, acknowledged the protests, saying: "Peaceful demonstrations are legitimate and part of democracy. It is natural for young people to demonstrate."

Ariadne Natal, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo whose research focuses on violence, said protesters want to "take advantage of this moment when we have foreign visitors, when the world's press is watching, to showcase their cause."

"The problem we've seen is that the police action is trying to prevent these protests," she said. "What we need to figure out is how the protests as well as the big events can be carried out democratically."

Brazilians have long accepted malfeasance as a cost of doing business, whether in business or receiving public services. Brazilian government loses more than $47 billion each year to undeclared tax revenue, vanished public money and other widespread corruption, according to the Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo business group.

But in the last decade, about 40 million Brazilians have moved into the middle class and they have begun to demand more from government. Many are angry that billions of dollars in public funds are being spent to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics while few improvements are made elsewhere.

Protests are routine in Brazil, but few turn violent. Security experts say the demonstrations aren't the main danger for the hundreds of thousands of visitors who will descend on Brazil from now through the Olympics in 2016.

However, Joe Biundini, whose FAM International Group provides security details to executives attending the Confederations Cup, said there is a danger of escalating violence from the protests if authorities don't negotiate with demonstrators.

"If the government doesn't sit down with them it could get worse in future matches," Biundini said.

Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield in Rio de Janeiro, Marco Sibaja in Brasilia and Jill Langlois in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

Brazilians protest high cost of hosting World Cup

June 15, 2013

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — At least 500 protesters complaining against the high cost of staging the World Cup rallied Saturday in front of the National Stadium in Brasilia just hours before Brazil played Japan in the opening match of the Confederations Cup.

Riot police were called up to keep demonstrators from getting too close to the stadium as thousands of fans arrived for the inaugural match in the nation's capital. There was no confrontation, but a few tear gas bombs were thrown by the police to try to control the protesters as they moved near the venue.

Protesters carried banners saying that too much money was being spent on the Confederations Cup and next year's World Cup while the majority of the population continued to struggle. "We are demanding more respect to the population," said 21-year-old Vinicius de Assis, one of the protesters. "They are building these overpriced stadiums and are not worrying about the situation of their own people."

The demonstrators also shouted against FIFA, saying that football's governing body doesn't have the right to make demands on the Brazilian government. "FIFA, go away," they chanted. The protesters said they are being excluded from the tournaments because of the high prices of match tickets.

"This is a shame, this is our money that they used for these tournaments," said demonstrator Jaisson Peres. "Millions and millions spent and we don't get anything in return." The local government said only about 200 demonstrators participated in the protest. It said in a statement that police used "progressive force" to keep the protest under control but said they would take action if needed to keep the demonstrators away from the stadium.

"Authorities will not allow any disturbance of public order or any threats against the match," the government said. "It's guaranteed that fans have complete access to the stadium." The protest came two days after police clashed with demonstrators angered by hikes in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city.

Protest organizers said more than 100 demonstrators were injured. Police would only say that 12 officers were hurt and that more than 230 people were detained and later released in the Thursday night demonstrations in Sao Paulo.

Similar protests were held Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and in Porte Alegre. The conflicts come just as the Confederations Cup football tournament opens and the nation prepares to host Pope Francis next month on his first international trip as pontiff.

Since the end of the 1964-85 military dictatorship, Brazil has witnessed few protests as violent as those in recent days. The focus of the protests is a 10-cent hike in public transport fares. Protesters said that seemingly small increase released pent-up frustrations in a nation with a heavy tax burden yet woeful public education, health and transport systems.

Newspapers and TV images showed bloodied protesters and journalists with battered, swollen faces, a young couple being beaten by police and tear gas canisters and rubber bullets being fired into crowds. Protesters set fire to garbage bags piled in streets, broke windows and spray-painted graffiti on buildings and buses.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo criticized Sao Paulo police for using "extreme violence." "Police can never act in the arbitrary and violent fashion," he told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. Police Col. Reinaldo Simoes Rossi, responsible for the officers policing the protest in Sao Paulo, said force was used only after demonstrators had altered an agreed upon route they marched along, instead moving toward main avenues in an attempt to halt traffic. He also said protesters hurled stones and other objects at police.

"Brazilian police must avoid excessive use of force," Atila Roque, director of Amnesty International's Brazil office said in a statement. "The increasing level of violence amid these protests is deeply troubling."

"Any excessive use of force beyond that permitted by law must be dealt with decisively by bringing those responsible to justice," he added. Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin and Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad have said alleged uses of excessive force by police will be investigated.

Haddad has called for talks with protesters but said he would not negotiate a reduction transport fares. The Free Pass Movement that organized the protest in Sao Paulo said on its Facebook page that a new demonstration will be held Monday.

"They want to shut us up, separate us and weaken us. But we won't let them. No one can deny us the right to protest until transport fares drop," the movement said.

Protests hit Brazil's biggest cities, adding to unrest

Fri Jun 14, 2013

* Violence erupts at protests over bus fare increase

* Police take hard line, fire rubber bullets, tear gas

* Protests come as Brazil in spotlight with soccer event

By Brian Winter

SAO PAULO, June 14 (Reuters) - Small but violent protests in several Brazilian cities this week have added to a sense of growing unrest in Brazil at a time when inflation, crime and President Dilma Rousseff's popularity are all taking a turn for the worse.

An estimated 5,000 protesters, including many university students, blocked main avenues and vandalized buildings in central Sao Paulo, causing traffic chaos for the fourth time in eight days on Thursday. When police tried to disperse the crowd, violence erupted, injuring dozens and leading to nearly 200 arrests.

Demonstrations also were held in Rio de Janeiro and the southern city of Porto Alegre, raising the prospect they could spread as Brazil prepares to host soccer's Confederations Cup - a warm-up event for next year's World Cup - for two weeks starting on Saturday.

Police have taken an increasingly hard line against the protests, firing rubber bullets and tear gas, injuring several bystanders and journalists covering the demonstrations. One widely circulated image showed police firing pepper spray at a TV cameraman filming the protests in Sao Paulo.

The crackdown has touched a nerve in a country that endured two decades of repression under a military dictatorship that ended in 1985.

The protests themselves have rallied around opposition to a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares to the equivalent of about $1.60, leading some pundits to blame them on inflation running at 6.5 percent annually and an economy that has cooled down considerably after last decade's boom.

Those issues contributed to a decline of 8 percentage points in Rousseff's public approval rating in a poll released this week, although it still remains high at 57 percent.

Interviews with protesters indicate a wide range of grievances, from rising murder rates to anti-abortion laws to growing frustration with insufficient and overcrowded public transportation.

Many of the protesters in Sao Paulo appeared to be middle-class university students, carrying smartphones and high-end cameras, while local media reported a significant presence of left-wing political parties.

Some said they were inspired by protests in Istanbul - "Peace is over, Turkey is here!" was one chant on Thursday night. Others said they opposed the notion of bus and subway fares at all, arguing public transportation should be free.

'A PIECE OF TRASH'

"This city's a piece of trash and we shouldn't have to pay anything for terrible services," Lucia Pereira, a 19-year-old student, told local TV in Sao Paulo.

After previous protests severely disrupted traffic and damaged storefronts and subway stations in Sao Paulo, a metropolitan area of about 20 million people and Brazil's financial capital, local authorities promised not to let a tiny group wreak havoc again - a stance supported by editorials in the city's two largest newspapers.

"Vandalism, violence and obstruction of public roads are not acceptable," Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin wrote on Twitter on Thursday night as the crackdown was taking place.

"The right to free protest is a basic pillar of democracy. So is the right to come and go and the right to protect public property," he added.

A survey of Sao Paulo residents by polling firm Datafolha, taken before Thursday night's protest, indicated that 55 percent of respondents supported the demonstrators, although 78 percent thought they had been too violent.

Demonstrators said they planned another march in Sao Paulo for Monday evening. Twitter and other social media crackled on Friday morning with calls for more students to join upcoming marches.

Sao Paulo's newly elected mayor, Fernando Haddad, said he would not backtrack on the fare increase, but he also expressed regret over the violence.

"On Tuesday, I think the image was of violence by the protesters," he told reporters. "Unfortunately, (Thursday), there's no doubt that the image was of police violence."

Haddad is a prominent member of Rousseff's left-leaning Workers' Party, and finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having to confront a cause many in the party support. Alckmin, a former presidential candidate, is from the more conservative PSDB, the leading opposition party.

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/brazil-protests-idUSL2N0EQ08520130614.

Iran's Rohani hopes all will seize chance of friendly ties

By Yeganeh Torbati and Jon Hemming
DUBAI | Mon Jun 17, 2013

(Reuters) - President-elect Hassan Rohani held out the prospect on Monday of better relations between Iran and the world, including the United States, and progress on resolving the nuclear dispute.

But the moderate cleric who scored a surprise election victory on Friday insisted Washington and the West must recognize what he said was Tehran's right to enrich uranium, not interfere in Iran's internal affairs and end their hostility.

Rohani said his new government, to be formed after his inauguration in August, would "revive ethics and constructive interaction with the world through moderation".

"I hope that all countries use this opportunity," he told his first news conference since his election win.

Asked if he would be prepared to hold direct talks with the United States, Rohani said: "The issue of relations between Iran and America is a complicated and difficult issue."

"It is an old wound that needs to be ... healed," he said.

Rohani set three conditions for direct talks.

"First of all the Americans have to say ... that they will never interfere in Iran's internal affairs. Second, they have to recognize all of the Iranian nation's due rights including nuclear rights, and third they have to put aside oppressive ... policies towards Iran," he said.

The White House said on Sunday the election of Rohani was a "potentially hopeful sign" if he lives up to what it said were his promises to "come clean" over the nuclear program.

Western countries believe Iran's nuclear program is cover for plans to develop the means to one day build an atomic bomb. Washington and the European Union severely tightened financial and trade sanction on Iran last year, forcing sharp cuts to its oil exports and causing serious harm to its economy.

Iran says its nuclear program is for energy and medical purposes only, and its sovereign right under international treaties which guarantee countries access to peaceful atomic technology if they forego weapons.

Rohani was Iran's nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005 during which time he negotiated a suspension of Tehran's uranium enrichment. He said Iran would not halt those activities again.

"That period has ended," he said, but added that Tehran would be more transparent about its activities in the future.

"Our nuclear programs are completely transparent. But we are ready to show greater transparency and make clear for the whole world that the steps of the Islamic Republic of Iran are completely within international frameworks," he said.

REFORMIST OUTBURST

A close associate of hardline Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for more than 40 years, Rohani also received the backing of former presidents Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, and pragmatic political heavyweight Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Though a renowned bridge-builder, Rohani will have a hard task balancing the public demand for more openness and the likely resistance of the conservative establishment.

Underlining that challenge, the news conference ended when one man shouted a slogan in favor of reformist Mirhossein Mousavi, held under house arrest since 2011.

Mousavi ran for president in 2009 and led the "Green Movement" of mass demonstrations contesting his defeat, which became the biggest challenge to Iran's ruling system since its founding in the 1979 revolution.

"Rohani remember, Mirhossein must be (present)," the man shouted live on state television. Rohani left the dais and state television cut to scenes of people voting and music.

Rohani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had clashed with Iran's conservative establishment despite winning Khamenei's backing to suppress the Green Movement protests four years ago.

In a sign of the country's deep divisions, Ahmadinejad - who remains president until Rohani's inauguration in August - was summoned on Monday to appear before a court on unspecified criminal charges. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, whose powerful family Ahmadinejad accused of corruption, has made complaints against him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the Iranian election was evidence of popular discontent with the Tehran government, but said Rohani did not have the power to change nuclear policy, which is in the hands of Khamenei.

Iran's desire for better relations, Rohani said, only applied to countries with which Tehran recognizes, a category that would exclude Israel.

As well as the nuclear dispute, relations with the West and Iran's internal divisions, Rohani also has to cope with an economy damaged by international sanctions and mismanagement and a civil war in Syria where it backs President Bashar al-Assad.

Better relations with other countries and the recognition of Iran's nuclear rights through negotiation would lead to the lifting of sanctions and improvement of the economy, he said.

The civil war in Syria, the bespectacled grey-bearded cleric said, would be resolved "with the vote of the people of Syria ... that which worries our people is the civil war and the interference of foreigners, which must end."

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian and Marcus George; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/17/us-iran-election-relations-idUSBRE95G0G920130617.

Iran's new president hails 'victory of moderation'

By Zahra Hosseinian
DUBAI | Sat Jun 15, 2013

(Reuters) - Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran's presidential election on Saturday with a resounding defeat of conservative hardliners, calling it a victory of moderation over extremism and pledging a new tone of respect in international affairs.

Though thousands of jubilant Iranians poured onto the streets in celebration of the victory, the outcome will not soon transform Iran's tense relations with the West, resolve the row over its nuclear program or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But the president runs the economy and wields broad influence in decision-making in other spheres. Rohani's resounding mandate could provide latitude for a diplomatic thaw with the West and more social freedoms at home after eight years of belligerence and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

"This victory is a victory of wisdom, a victory of moderation, a victory of growth and awareness and a victory of commitment over extremism and ill-temper," Rohani told state television, promising to work for all Iranians, including the hardline so-called "Principlists" whom he defeated at the poll.

"I warmly shake the hands of all moderates, reformists and Principlists," he said.

The mid-ranking cleric seemed to strike a new tone in the way he talked about Iran's relations with the rest of the world.

Rohani said there was a new chance "in the international arena" for "those who truly respect democracy and cooperation and free negotiation".

Celebrating crowds sprang up near Rohani's headquarters in downtown Tehran and across the city and country as his victory was confirmed.

"LONG LIVE REFORM!"

"Long live reform! Long live Rohani!" chanted the throngs, according to witnesses at the scene. "Ahmadi, bye bye!" they added in reference to Ahmadinejad, the witnesses said.

"Tehran has exploded with happiness. I have never seen so many people so happy in my life," said Negin, a 29-year-old photographer.

Others flashed the victory sign and chanted slogans in favor of Mirhossein Mousavi, who reformist supporters believe was robbed of the 2009 election by what they say was vote rigging to return Ahmadinejad to office.

"Mousavi, Mousavi, I got back your vote!" and "Mousavi, Mousavi, congratulations on your victory!" the crowds shouted.

Another eyewitness named Mina told Reuters tearfully by phone: "I haven't been this happy in four years. I feel that we finally managed to achieve a part of what we have been fighting for since the past elections. They finally respected our vote. This is a victory for reforms and all of us as reformists."

Rohani will take up the presidency, the highest elected office in Iran's hybrid clerical-republican system, in August.

Several people were killed and hundreds detained when security forces crushed protests after the 2009 election, and Mousavi and his fellow reformist candidate are still being held under house arrest. Authorities say the election was free and fair.

BRIDGE-BUILDER?

Though an establishment figure, Rohani was known for his nuanced, conciliatory approach when he was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

He could act as a bridge-builder between hardliners around Khamenei who reject any accommodation with the West and reformers marginalized for the last four years who argue that the Islamic Republic needs to be more pragmatic in its relations with the world and modernize at home in order to survive.

Emphasizing political continuity, Khamenei congratulated both the people of Iran for the high turnout in the polls and Rohani for his electoral success.

"The true winner of yesterday's election is the great nation of Iran that was able to take a firm step with God's help," Fars news agency quoted Khamenei as saying.

But Rohani's wide margin of victory revealed a large reservoir of support for reform with many voters, undaunted by restrictions on candidate choice and campaign rallies, seizing the chance to rebuke the unelected elite over Iran's economic miseries, international isolation and security crackdowns.

Rohani's nearest rival was conservative Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a long way behind with less than 16 percent. Other hardline candidates close to Khamenei, including current nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, scored even lower.

Iran's rial strengthened about 4 percent against the U.S. dollar on Saturday after partial vote tallies pointed to an easy Rohani victory, web sites tracking the currency said.

Washington said it stood ready to engage with Iran to reach a "diplomatic solution" over its nuclear program, which the West suspects is intended to produce nuclear weapons - something Iran denies.

"We respect the vote of the Iranian people and congratulate them for their participation in the political process, and their courage in making their voices heard," the White House said in a statement.

"It is our hope that the Iranian government will heed the will of the Iranian people and make responsible choices that create a better future for all Iranians."

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/15/us-iran-election-idUSBRE95C1E120130615.

Al-Qaida's Iraq head defies boss over Syria fight

June 15, 2013

BAGHDAD (AP) — The leader of al-Qaida's Iraq arm defiantly rejected an order from the terror network's central command to stop claiming control over the organization's Syria affiliate, according to a message purportedly from him that was posted online Saturday.

The latest statement by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who heads the Islamic State of Iraq, reveals a growing rift within al-Qaida's global network. It also highlights the Iraqi wing's determination to link its own fight against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad with the cause of rebels trying to topple the Iran-backed Syrian regime.

His statement surfaced as rockets rained down on a Baghdad camp housing Iranian exiles, killing three people in the latest sign of growing unrest inside Iraq. The attack drew sharp condemnations from Washington and the United Nations.

In an audio message posted online, the speaker identified as al-Baghdadi insists that a merger he announced in April with Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group to create a cross-border movement known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant will go on.

Al-Nusra is an al-Qaida affiliate that has emerged as one of the most effective rebel factions in Syria. Its head, Abu Mohammad al-Golani, has rejected the takeover attempt by al-Baghdadi. "The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant will continue," al-Baghdadi said. "We will not compromise and we will not give up."

Al-Qaida's global leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has tried to end the squabbling and bring the group's local affiliates back in line. In a letter posted online by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV last Sunday, al-Zawahiri declared that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant will be abolished and that the Iraqi and Syrian groups would remain independent with al-Baghdadi and al Golani as leaders of their respective branches.

Al-Baghdadi is now defying that command. In his statement, he referred to "the letter attributed to Sheik al-Zawahiri," suggesting he was calling into question the authenticity of the letter. "I chose the command of God over the command that runs against it in the letter," al-Baghdadi said.

He urged his followers to rise up against Shiites, Alawites, and the "Party of Satan" — a reference to the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which has been sending fighters to Syria to fight alongside President Bashar Assad's regime. Assad comes from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

It was not possible to independently confirm whether the speaker was al-Baghdadi, but the man's voice was similar to that of earlier recordings. Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center, said there are indications that Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant are operating as distinct groups inside of Syria.

He described al-Baghdadi's defiance as "a potentially very damaging split within al-Qaida's senior leadership." "Al-Baghdadi's statement underlines an extent of division between himself and Zawahiri but also with another al-Qaida affiliate," Lister said. "Fundamentally, al-Baghdadi appears to be acting according to his own interests, instead of those of his ultimate 'employer,' al-Qaida."

Violence has spiked sharply in Iraq in recent months, with the death toll rising to levels not seen since 2008. Al-Qaida in Iraq is thought responsible for many of the car bombings and other violent attacks targeting the country's majority Shiites and symbols of the Shiite-led government's authority.

Iraq risks growing more deeply involved in the Syrian civil war raging across its western border. Iraqi border posts along the Syrian frontier have come under attack by rebels, and Syrian truck drivers and soldiers have been killed inside Iraq.

Iraqi fighters are moving across the border, with Sunni extremists cooperating with the rebels and Shiite militants fighting alongside government forces. Also on Saturday, an Iranian exile group living in a camp near Baghdad airport reported multiple casualties when the compound, known as Camp Liberty, came under attack from rockets.

The group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, is the militant wing of a Paris-based Iranian opposition group that opposes Iran's clerical regime and has carried out assassinations and bombings in Iran. It fought alongside Saddam Hussein's forces in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq. It renounced violence in 2001, and was removed from the U.S. terrorism list last year.

Camp residents Kolthom Serahati and Javad Naghashan were killed and several others were wounded, according to the NCRI. Several Katyusha rockets struck the area, according to Iraqi security officials. Police and hospital officials said an Iraqi was also killed, and that the wounded included at least nine Iranians and seven Iraqis. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Iraq's government wants the MEK out of the country, and the United Nations is working to relocate residents abroad. Several residents moved to Albania last month. U.N. envoy Martin Kobler condemned the attack, which he said happened despite "repeated requests to the government of Iraq to provide Camp Liberty and its residents with protective measures." He urged U.N. member states to do more to help resettle the residents abroad.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the rocket strikes as "brutal, senseless, and utterly unacceptable." He said in a statement that Washington has urged the Iraqi government to provide medical assistance, ensure residents' safety and bring those responsible to justice.

"We must find a permanent and long-term solution that ensures their safety," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack. A similar deadly attack in February was blamed on Shiite militants. The head of one Shiite militia, the Mukhtar Army, later that month threatened further strikes on the compound.

In another attack, Sunni cleric Khalil al-Fahdawi was killed when a bomb stuck to his car exploded late the previous night near Ramadi, police said Saturday. The cleric has been a supporter of Sunni anti-government protests that have been raging for months and exacerbating sectarian tensions.

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed reporting.

Egypt cuts relations with Syrian government

June 15, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime.

Mohammed Morsi told thousands of supporters at a rally in Cairo that his government was also withdrawing the Egyptian charge d'affaires from Damascus. He called on Lebanon's Hezbollah to leave Syria, where the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group has been fighting alongside troops loyal to embattled President Bashar Assad against the mostly Sunni rebels.

"Hezbollah must leave Syria. This is serious talk: There is no business or place for Hezbollah in Syria," said Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president. Assad's regime, he said, will have no place in the future of Syria after committing what Morsi called "horrors" against its people.

Morsi's address, particularly his call on Hezbollah to leave Syria, and the fiery rhetoric used by well-known Muslim clerics this weekend point to the increasing perception of the Syrian conflict as sectarian. At least 93,000 people have been killed since turmoil there began more than two years ago.

The rally that Morsi addressed on Saturday was called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria. Morsi addressed the rally after several hardline Islamist clerics spoke, all of whom called on him to do everything he could to help the Syrian rebels. Those attending the rally, about 20,000, chanted for solidarity with the Syrians, but occasionally deviated to shout slogans in support of Morsi.

The Egyptian president picked up a flag of the Syrian revolution and another of Egypt and waved them to the crowd as he entered the indoor stadium in a Cairo suburb. Morsi also used the occasion to warn his opponents at home against the use of violence in mass protests planned for June 30, the anniversary of his assumption to power. Before he spoke, one hardline cleric, Mohammed Abdel-Maqsoud, recited an often repeated Muslim prayer against the "enemies" of God and Islam but used it to refer to the June 30 protesters.

The climate in the Cairo indoor stadium where the rally was held appeared to further entrench the division of Egypt into two camps: one led by Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, and the other grouping the secular and liberal opposition together with moderate Muslims, minority Christians and a large percentage of women.

In his address, Morsi repeated the allegation that Egyptians loyal to the now-ousted regime of autocrat Hosni Mubarak were behind the planned protests and that they were working against the January 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak. As customary since taking office, he spoke of himself as a guardian and protector of the revolution, an assertion hotly disputed by his critics.

"Some who are delusionary want to pounce on the January revolution and think that they can undermine the stability that is growing daily or undermine the resolve that people have clearly forged with their will," said Morsi.

"We will deal with them decisively and there will never be a place for them among us," he told his supporters. Morsi's government is widely thought to have failed to tackle any of the seemingly endless problems facing the country, from power cuts and surging crime to unemployment, steep price rises and fuel shortages. The declared aim of the June 30 protests is to force Morsi out and hold early presidential elections.

Morsi's allies say the protests have no legal basis and amount to a coup against his legitimate rule. They have been calling on opposition leaders to enter a national political dialogue to resolve the crisis, but the opposition has turned down the offer, claiming that previous rounds of dialogue did not yield results.

Spearheading the opposition to Morsi's rule now is a youth protest movement called Tamarod, or rebel, which claims to have collected millions of signatures of Egyptians who want Morsi to step down. Organizers say they aim to collect the signatures of more people than those who voted for Morsi in the June 2012 election.

Some of the hard-line clerics who support Morsi have branded Tamarod activists as infidels or heretics and sought to frame their movement as an act against Islam.

Turkey unrest goes on despite end to park protest

June 17, 2013

ISTANBUL (AP) — Riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannon to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Sunday, unbowed even as Turkey's prime minister addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters a few kilometers away.

The contrasting scenes pointed to an increasing polarization in Turkish society — one which critics say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fueled with the fiery rhetoric he has maintained since they began more than two weeks ago.

A police crackdown Saturday evening that ended an 18-day peaceful sit-in at Taksim Square's Gezi Park sparked daylong unrest on the streets of Istanbul, while police also broke up demonstrations in the capital, Ankara, and the southern city of Adana.

The protests began in Gezi Park more than two weeks ago and spread to dozens of cities across the country. Erdogan has blamed them on a nebulous plot to destabilize his government. Five people, including a policeman, have died and more than 5,000 have been injured, according to a Turkish rights group.

Elected to his third term just two years ago with 50 percent of the vote and having steered his country to healthy economic growth, the protests are unlikely to prove an immediate threat to Erdogan's government. But they have dented his international image and exposed growing divisions within Turkish society. Never before in his 10-year tenure has Erdogan faced such an open or broad expression of discontent.

Critics have accused him of an increasingly autocratic way of governing and of trying to impose his conservative Muslim views on the lifestyles of the entire population in a country governed by secular laws — charges he vehemently denies.

"They say, 'Mr. prime minister, you are too harsh,' and some (call me) 'dictator'," he said during his speech in his second political rally in as many days. "What kind of a dictator meets with people who occupy Gezi Park as well as the sincere environmentalists?" he questioned, referring to a meeting Thursday night with protest representatives.

Erdogan defended his decision to send police in to end the occupation of the park, where protesters had set up a tent city complete with a library, food distribution center, infirmary, children's activity area and plant nursery. Water cannon and tear gas forced thousands to flee, and cleanup crews ripped down the tents and food overnight.

"I did my duty as prime minister," he told his supporters. "Otherwise there would be no point in my being in office." About 10 kilometers (six miles) away in the center of the city, police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of protesters trying to converge on Taksim Square. In some neighborhoods, protesters set up barricades across streets while youths threw stones at police.

In others, police broke up demonstrations with dense clouds of stinging tear gas that sent protesters fleeing into side streets. Some took refuge in nearby cafes and restaurants, where waiters clutched napkins to their faces to ward off the gas.

Similar scenes developed in Ankara, where around 50 demonstrators were injured, including a 20-year-old woman who was in critical condition after being hit in the back of her head with a tear gas canister, according to Selcuk Atalay, secretary-general of the Ankara Medical Association.

In the southern city of Adana, police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. A fight broke also broke out between the demonstrators, with one group trying to prevent the other from throwing stones at police.

Anadolu said a total of 105 people were detained in Ankara, including a Russian and an Iranian. Rights group Amnesty International said more than 100 people were believed to have been detained during Saturday's demonstrations in Taksim and nearby districts, and said police were refusing to give details of their whereabouts.

Some among the thousands who fled Gezi Park during Saturday night's police operation had still not managed to return home by Sunday afternoon, fearing being arrested by the police. Erdogan has repeatedly labeled those who attended the park protests as troublemakers and illegal groups, although he has also said he understood the complaints of those who had truly environmental concerns at heart.

One young man who had been demonstrating for days in Taksim Square and Gezi Park, said that as he and his friends fled the police operation in Gezi Park, they ran into a group of men armed with iron bars who chased them through the streets. It was unclear who they were.

Kenan, who spoke on condition his full name not be used for fear of arrest or being targeted in reprisals, said the group took refuge in an apartment building, where they were still hiding late Sunday afternoon.

Labor unions called for a one-day strike that would include doctors, lawyers, engineers and civil servants in support of the protesters. Strikes, however, often have little visible impact on daily life in Turkey.

In a potentially worrying development suggestive of a possible escalation in the violence, Erdogan said two police officers had been injured by bullets fired during the overnight unrest. "(One) was shot with a bullet in the stomach, the other was shot in the leg," he said.

On Sunday, TV footage showed police detaining white-jacketed medical personnel who had been helping treat injured protesters, leading them away with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Istanbul Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu denied they were medical staff.

"They wore doctors' white coats but had nothing to do with medicine or health. In fact, one of them had seven separate criminal records for theft," he said on his Twitter account, contradicting earlier comments in which he had said several doctors had been detained.

Amnesty International noted that the health minister had previously stated that the improvised infirmaries set up by protesters to treat those injured in clashes or during police intervention were illegal and that doctors could face prosecution.

"It is completely unacceptable that doctors should be threatened with prosecution for providing medical attention for people in need," Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey, said in a statement. "The doctors must be released immediately and any threat to prosecute them removed."

Fraser reported from Ankara. Burhan Ozbilici and Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.

For Belfast, keeping peace means a city of walls

June 16, 2013

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — When President Obama comes to Belfast, he's expected to praise a country at peace and call for walls that separate Irish Catholics and British Protestants to come tumbling down.

Barely a 10-minute walk from where the U.S. leader is speaking Monday, those walls have kept growing in size and number throughout two decades of slow-blooming peace. Residents today on both sides of so-called "peace lines" — barricades of brick, steel and barbed wire that divide neighborhoods, roads and even one Belfast playground — insist the physical divisions must stay to keep violence at bay.

Belfast's first peace lines took shape in the opening salvos of Northern Ireland's conflict in 1969, when impoverished parts of the city suffered an explosion of sectarian mayhem and most Catholics living in chiefly Protestant areas were forced to flee. The British Army, deployed as peacekeepers, erected the first makeshift barricades and naively predicted the barriers would be taken down in months.

Instead, the soldiers' role supporting the mostly Protestant police soon inspired the rise of a ruthless new outlawed group, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, committed to forcing Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom and into the Republic of Ireland.

For all the unlikely triumphs of Northern Ireland diplomacy since the U.S.-brokered 1998 Good Friday peace deal — a Catholic-Protestant government, troop withdrawals, police reform, and disarmament of the IRA and outlawed Protestant groups responsible for most of the 3,700 death toll — tearing down Belfast's nearly 100 "peace lines" still seems too dangerous a step to take.

"I'd love to see that wall taken down and I could say hi to my neighbors, but it isn't going to happen. There'd be cold-blooded murder and I'd have to move out," said Donna Turley, 48, smoking a cigarette at her patio table in the Short Strand, the sole Irish Catholic enclave in otherwise Protestant east Belfast.

Right behind Turley's backyard refuge towers a 50-foot (15-meter) wall. It starts as brick, transitions into fences of corrugated iron, and is topped by more steel mesh fence. Each layer marks the history of communal riots like the growth rings of a tree. Higher still, two batteries of rotating police surveillance cameras monitor Turley and her Catholic neighbors, as well as the Protestant strangers living, audibly but invisibly, on the far side.

"It's terrible looking. But I wouldn't feel safe if it wasn't there. I couldn't imagine that wall being torn down. Nobody here can," said Tammy Currie, 21, who is Turley's nearest Protestant neighbor, standing in her own small cement patio backed by the wall. Her 3-year-old son jumps on a trampoline that a few months ago had to be cleared of shattered beer bottles thrown from the other side.

Both families rent state-subsidized homes provided by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which is responsible for making their homes as safe as possible from the risk of further rioting. That means both have triple-layered Perspex windows that are foggy-looking and unbreakable, and metal-tiled roofs that can't be set on fire.

It was a lesson hard learned. The Protestants of Cluan Place and the Catholics of Clandeboye Drive used to be able to look, from upper floors, into each other's back yards until 2002, when militants on both sides sought to drive each other out with homemade grenades, Molotov cocktails and even acid-filled bottles. An IRA gunman shot five Protestants, none fatally, while standing atop what was then only a brick wall. Most homes in the area were burned, abandoned and rebuilt, and British Army engineers doubled the height of the wall in 2003. Nobody's been shot there since, even though both sides continue to host illegal paramilitary groups billing themselves as community defenders.

This stretch of wall connects with other security lines that date back to the early days of the modern Northern Ireland conflict in 1970, when IRA men in Short Strand shot to death three Protestants allegedly involved in attacking the district's lone Catholic church. To make it less of an eyesore, Belfast City Council has funded imaginative art works all along that stretch, but it still leaves Short Strand looking a bit like Fort Apache.

Last month, the Catholic and Protestant leaders of Northern Ireland's unity government announced a bold but detail-free plan to dismantle all peace lines by 2023. British Prime Minister David Cameron formally backed the goal Friday. Obama is expected to do the same Monday.

The politician working closest to the Cluan-Clandeboye wall, Michael Copeland, says both G-8 leaders are out of touch. "Removing the walls would be a catastrophic decision," said Copeland, a former British soldier and a Protestant member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, who keeps his office just around the corner from Cluan Place.

"The biggest walls to be addressed are in the minds of the people. And what people in here remember is being shot at, being bombed, having their street burned," Copeland said while sitting on a Cluan Place bench outside one resident's home. He knows everyone living in all 23 homes on the Protestant side and, in fact, helped get many of them get their housing assignment.

"The walls will come down when the people who live in the shadow of these walls, and look to those walls for a sense of security, can feel secure without them. Memories will have to fade. It will take another generation at least," he said.

The two sides mark their cultural divide in ways petty and profound. Each morning, two sets of children depart in different directions, wearing different uniforms, as Catholics head for their own church-run schools, the Protestants for state-run ones. At night, the two sides usually order fast-food deliveries from their own areas, fearful that someone from "the other side" might spit in their food. They use separate taxi companies and favor different newspapers.

Short Strand's community association has erected house numbers bearing each family's name in Gaelic, the little-used native tongue of Ireland that is loathed by most Protestants. Reflecting their anxiety that the faster-growing Catholic community wants to push them out, the Protestants of Cluan Place have painted the gable end of one house with a mural featuring a massive Union Jack and a list of attacks on their street since 2002. "Still loyalist, always British, no surrender," it says.

The house opposite Currie's, belonging to an aunt, has a dog strutting about sporting a Union Jack collar, and Ulster loyalist music blaring loudly enough from a stereo to carry to Catholic ears beyond the wall.

Across the divide, 56-year-old Maggie McDowell cocks an ear at the sectarian tune. "Och, him again," she said, identifying her Protestant neighbor not by a name or face she's never known, but by his musical taste. Unlike most living on both sides of this wall, she was here for the 2002 rioting — and credits the wall's extension with ensuring no repeat.

She and her husband, James, keep a collection of the most interesting objects that have crashed into their house or back garden, including one smooth stone used as a doorstop. He points out holes in their home's brick wall marking strikes from past violence. Golf balls, a favored weapon for both sides, she collects by the bucket to give every so often to her golf-enthusiast brother.

When asked if she'd like the wall to come down, Maggie McDowell said, "It's a terrible thing to say, but I wish they could make it higher."