Euroskeptic leaders unite, aim for parliament bloc

November 13, 2013

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Two prominent Euroskeptic politicians united Wednesday in a bid to form a bloc in the European Parliament next year to "liberate Europe from the monster of Brussels."

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, announced an alliance with the anti-EU, anti-Islam Freedom Party of Dutchman Geert Wilders, who issued the "liberate" quote. "The time of patriotic movements being divided is over," Le Pen declared, calling it "a historic day."

Their alliance is being launched as the 28-nation European Union is struggling to recover from a debilitating financial crisis that has forced wealthy northern EU nations to bailout struggling southern economies like Greece and Portugal.

But the announcement by Wilders and Le Pen fell short of declaring a grand coalition of Euroskeptics across the continent. "There are also other parties in the European Union or Europe that we would like to work together with," Wilders said, acknowledging that one of the highest-profile Euroskeptic groups, the United Kingdom Independence Party led by Nigel Farage, was not yet ready to join forces.

Wilders said he hoped the UKIP would be prepared to join their alliance after European elections scheduled for late May. The EU's economic malaise has fueled a rise in Euroskepticism among voters who question whether the grand idea of one continent, one market, one currency is capable of delivering prosperity for all. Some are also growing increasingly frustrated at what they see as too much devolution of national powers to EU bureaucrats in Brussels.

Wilders' party has long advocated that the Netherlands should pull out of the EU altogether. Le Pen says France should hold a referendum on the issue. Standing next to one another at a packed press conference in The Hague, both acknowledged that their parties do not agree on everything.

In the past, Wilders has been reluctant to associate his party with the National Front, because of controversial comments by its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine's father. Jean-Marie Le Pen has been convicted and fined for racism and anti-Semitism, but his daughter has sought to soften the party's message and turned its anger toward what she calls the "Islamization" of France.

That brings the National Front more closely into line with Wilders' PVV, which is pro-Israel and outspokenly anti-EU and anti-Islam. Wilders has called for a halt to building mosques in the Netherlands and for a ban on the Quran.

About 30 protesters, watched over by dozens of police, staged a noisy protest against Le Pen's visit on a square outside parliament on Wednesday. Wilders is a polarizing figure in the Netherlands, attracting adulation from supporters and death threats from a tiny section of his opponents. He has for years lived under round-the-clock protection because of those threats.

Tony Brown, a board member of Ireland's Institute of International and European Affairs, questioned whether groups with strongly nationalistic backgrounds from across Europe will be able to work together successfully, but said they could form a new voice at the European Parliament despite their limited numbers.

At the moment, the PVV has four seats in the European Parliament and the National Front three, but they do not sit together in the 766-seat legislature. Even assuming both Euroskeptic parties make gains in May, they will likely remain dwarfed by Europe's established political groups. Currently the largest two blocs at the European Parliament are the center-right European People's Party, made up of Christian Democrats, which has 275 seats, followed by the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, which has 194 seats.

Bulgarian police, protesters clash near parliament

November 12, 2013

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian protesters tried to blockade the parliament on Tuesday, clashing with police as they demanded the country's left-leaning government resign and early elections be called.

Several hundred protesters, mostly students, tried to form a human chain around parliament in an attempt to trap lawmakers inside. Police used force to try to push them away and several people were injured.

The protest halted traffic in downtown Sofia, the capital. Organized by students who have been occupying Bulgarian universities for several weeks, the protest was part of a 5-month-old movement that accuses the Socialist-led government's leaders of having ties to shady businessmen.

Several people were arrested as protesters tried to stop police cars by lying on the ground. Later in the day, police in riot gear pushed away the protesters and formed a corridor to enable legislators to leave the parliament building.

Bulgaria's growing economic troubles and political gridlock have fueled tensions and hatred, dividing former friends, neighbors and even families. The country's society reminds many of the divisions between communists and democrats that paralyzed the country twenty years ago.

The governing coalition of the Socialists and an ethnic Turkish party commands only 120 seats in the 240-seat parliament and has to rely on the tacit support of a nationalist party. It took office after an early election in May, following the resignation of the previous cabinet amid anti-austerity protests. But the June 14 appointment of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as head of Bulgaria's national security agency sparked public anger and sent people back into the streets.

His appointment was immediately revoked. Demonstrators, however, were already convinced that it was a clear sign of corruption and nepotism involving an influential group of businessmen and politicians who are believed to be in charge of Bulgaria's post-Communist transition.

Public opinion polls show the protesters are supported by about two-thirds of Bulgaria's 7.3 million people, who have the lowest incomes in the 28-nation European Union.

Venezuelan shoppers amass outside seized stores

November 09, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — As soon as Dorisbell Pena received a text message informing her that President Nicolas Maduro seized control of a nationwide chain of appliance stores Friday, she rushed to the nearest outlet in the hopes of finding what's become one of the scarcest items of all these days in Venezuela: a bargain.

A 34-year-old teacher, Pena has watched as the price of a new stove she needs has doubled in recent weeks to 40,000 bolivars even as her 2,500 bolivar-a-month salary stays the same. "I've got to take advantage of this opportunity today because tomorrow the prices keep going up," Pena said while huddled among friends on the concrete sidewalk outside the Tiendas Daka store in the eastern Caracas neighborhood of Bello Monte.

She's not alone. At 1:30 a.m., shoppers were still arriving to join the hundreds who began amassing in the afternoon after price inspectors said they found evidence of "usury" and Maduro ordered the chain's "occupation." In a televised address Friday night, the president vowed to reopen the stores Saturday and unload their stock of plasma televisions, washing machines and other seized merchandise at "fair prices."

"Leave nothing on the shelves, leave nothing in the warehouses," he said. The Friday night frenzy, described by one bargain hunter as an "organized looting," cut across Venezuela's normally insurmountable political divide — a reflection of how near-record 54 percent inflation and shortages of basic goods such as milk and toilet paper are affecting all families in South America's biggest oil producer.

In a bid to bring down prices that have jumped in tandem with demand for dollars on the black market, Maduro on Wednesday tightened controls on currency transactions. With hard-fought municipal elections approaching next month, he also ordered the military to shut down businesses found hoarding products or speculating on prices.

In their second full day in the field, inspectors, followed by state television cameras, took control of two Daka stores in Caracas. Come nightfall, National Guardsmen, some brandishing assault rifles, helped maintain order at the Bello Monte outlet by assigning numbers to shoppers as they filed into a line that stretched around the block.

Jose Solano, shopper number 223, sides with Maduro and blames an "economic war" waged by enemies of the socialist revolution started by the late Hugo Chavez for pushing up prices beyond reach. With his son, he plans to spend the night sleeping in line so they can purchase a 46-inch, Sony plasma TV at a quarter of the 54,000 bolivar listed price still visible through the glass store front. The TV costs $8,571 at the official exchange rate and about $1,000 at the black market rate.

"I heard the owners of this store don't even live in Venezuela, they're in Miami," said Solano, a 49-year-old salesman of engine varnish. "They import at 6.3 but then sell it to the people and six times the amount," he said, referring to the gap that has opened between the dollar exchange rate some companies are able to import goods at and the black market one used to set prices for everything except the most basic, price-capped goods. "We can't allow this to continue."

The store's owners haven't yet responded to the accusations. Even opponents of Maduro expressed sympathy for his effort to check price gouging by private business. Sipping on a cup of white rum with her well-dressed, middle class friends, 24-year-old Ana Aquino said her salary as a public relations manager doesn't go as far as it used to.

"I'm not here taking a political position," said Aquino, who sometimes helps organize anti-government protests online. "I'm just against anyone abusing the Venezuelan people." Pena was even more circumspect about her politics. Uniquely in this polarized country, she refuses to say whether she'll support the opposition or pro-government candidates in what's shaping up to be a referendum on Maduro's rocky, seven-month rule.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a Chavista or opponent," she said. "We're all shoppers."

Pentagon ending buys of Russian-made helicopters

November 13, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department said Wednesday it is canceling plans to buy additional cargo helicopters from the Russian arms export agency that has supplied Syrian President Bashar Assad's military forces with arms and ammunition.

The additional 15 Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters were to be purchased next year at a cost of $345 million and then delivered to Afghanistan's national security forces. Bipartisan opposition to the Mi-17 acquisition grew as the violence in Syria escalated and U.S. relations with Russia deteriorated. A growing number of lawmakers from both political parties objected to acquiring military gear from Rosoboronexport, which has provided Assad's regime with weapons used against Syrian civilians.

"I applaud the Defense Department's decision to cancel its plan to buy 15 additional Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport," Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said in an emailed statement." ''Doing business with the supplier of these helicopters has been a morally bankrupt policy, and as a nation, we should no longer be subsidizing Assad's war crimes in Syria." Cornyn, the Senate's No. 2 Republican leader, said he was informed of the decision last week by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said the department re-evaluated the requirements for Mi-17s in consultation with Congress. "We currently do not have plans to purchase additional Mi-17s from Rosoboronexport beyond those" already under contract.

Top U.S. military officials have maintained the Russian-made helicopters are ideally suited for the Afghans, who are rebuilding their air force and need a reliable and easy-to-operate helicopter for transporting troops throughout the country's harsh environment. Overall, the Defense Department has paid more than $1 billion since 2011 for 63 Mi-17s that have been delivered to Afghanistan or are on order.

Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, told Cornyn in a letter last year that the Defense Department "condemns the actions of Rosoboronexport in supplying arms and ammunition to the Assad regime n Syria, whose forces have used these weapons to murder Syrian civilians."

But the urgent need to supply the Afghans with Mi-17s had trumped congressional calls to terminate the contract with Rosoboronexport. Cornyn and other members of Congress also argued the Defense Department should have more seriously considered acquiring an American-made helicopter for the Afghans. The U.S. Army's Chinook, manufactured by defense giant Boeing, and a transport helicopter made by Sikorsky, were among the possible options.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, called the move a welcome, if long overdue, first step and she urged the Pentagon to spend U.S. tax dollars on American-made systems. "I am proud Congress united in a bipartisan manner to deliver that message, and that the Pentagon has finally heard us," she said.

Carter told House lawmakers in September that multiple reviews and assessments were conducted of more than two dozen helicopters that were either available or in development. Carter said the Afghans are very familiar with the Mi-17 and none of the other aircraft examined met the requirements.

Despite the Pentagon's certainty the Mi-17 was the right choice for the Afghans, Congress refused to let up its campaign to end the business relationship with the Russians. In an August letter to Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 13 Republican and Democratic senators questioned whether Afghanistan could ever be fully independent of Russia if the country continues to operate Russian aircraft for decades to come. They also expressed concern the arrangement could put the United States at a disadvantage on matters of strategic importance.

They questioned whether the "overreliance on Russia fostered by this Mi-17 program put the U.S. at risk of Russian coercion or blackmail on other security issues," including the crisis in Syria, Iran's drive to obtain nuclear weapons, and U.S. missile defense.

Big drone plan in the United States

by Olga Yazhgunovich
Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Nov 11, 2013

US airspace could be crowded with some 7,500 commercial drones within the next five years, this is part of the Federal Aviation Administration's new roadmap unveiled on Thursday.

The announcement is the latest step toward transitioning drones from military use in the war on terrorism to collecting survey and weather data to assisting rescues and law enforcement operations.

"From advancing scientific research and responding to natural disasters to locating missing persons and helping to fight wildfires, drones can save time, save money and, most importantly, save lives," said a statement by Michael Toscano, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems.

"By the end of the year, we plan to choose six test sites for civil unmanned aircraft. Congress required us to do so, and we need to make sure we use these sites to obtain the best data that we can," FF Administrator Michael Huerta said.

Michael Huerta however cautioned that there could be delays for those looking to obtain certificates to operate unmanned aircraft once regulatory guidelines are in place. He said ensuring safety in increasingly congested skies was his agency's top priority, The Washington Post reports.

"We must fulfill those obligations in a thoughtful, careful manner that ensures safety and promotes economic growth," he said in a speech to aerospace industry executives.

The FAA plan has also set the stage for law enforcement agencies, businesses, universities and hobbyists to begin flying drones by 2015.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems estimated that the commercial drone industry will create more than 100,000 jobs and generate more than $82 billion over the next 10 years.

The 74-page roadmap however immediately raised concerns among some privacy advocates, who say that the FAA needs to clarify how the government and private users can use video and other data from surveillance drones, and how long it can be stored. The FAA is requiring future test sites to develop privacy plans and make them available to the public. The policy also requires test site operators to disclose how data will be obtained and used.

"Make no mistake about it, privacy is an extremely important issue and it is something that the public has a significant interest and concern over and we need to recognize, as an industry, that if we are going to take full advantage of the benefits that we are talking about for these technologies, we need to be responsive to the public's concerns about privacy," Huerta said.

Christopher Calabrese of the American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel told The Washington Times that, while the FAA's requirement for public disclosure of data and retention policies are needed and welcome, the safeguards do not go far enough.

"It's crucial that, as we move forward with drone use, those procedural protections are followed by concrete restrictions on how data from drones can be used and how long it can be stored. Congress must also weigh in on areas outside of the FAA's authority, such as use by law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, which have the ability to use drones for invasive surveillance that must be kept in check," Calabrese said.

"People are really worried about drone use. You see it in a huge number of state bills and laws, and I think the FAA needs to understand that if they don't address privacy issues then drones are not going to be a useful technology," he added. "Privacy can't be swept under the rug".

The ACLU has also urged Congress to support laws, introduced to the House and Senate, that would require police to obtain judicial approval before using a drone.

Under a law passed in 2012, the FAA must provide for the "safe integration" of commercial drones into domestic airspace by 2015.

If passed, this legislation would require law enforcement agencies to obtain warrants before using drones to collect surveillance data on US soil.

Twenty-four states including California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, have already applied to host the tests.

According to the FAA, the state governments or universities that oversee the test sites must describe their policies for privacy, data use and data retention. The document released on Thursday said drone operators must "comply with federal, state, and other laws on individual privacy protection".

Until testing is complete, the FAA said, it will grant flight privileges to unmanned aircraft operators on a case-by-case basis.

Unmanned aircraft come in many shapes and sizes. Military drones are used for surveillance or missile strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, while similar aircraft could be used domestically to monitor traffic conditions, weather patterns and assorted other things.

"In that airspace of the future, we will have new users," Michael Huerta said. "We will have more commercial space launches, and we'll have more unmanned aircraft systems. As you know, it requires significant consensus of how we can safely integrate game-changing technologies such as these, and I'm pleased to say we've made very solid progress. We are dedicated to moving this exciting new technology along as quickly and safely as possible."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Big_drone_plan_in_the_United_States_999.html.

Mali's president replaces junta-linked army chief

Sat Nov 9, 2013

(Reuters) - Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has replaced the head of the army, further marginalizing officers involved in a coup that helped plunge the West African nation into turmoil last year.

A military junta led by Amadou Sanogo, then a captain and now a general, overthrew President Amandou Toumani Toure in March 2012. The chaos created by the putsch allowed al Qaeda-linked fighters to seize more than half the country until a French-led intervention this year broke their grip.

The decision to replace army chief of staff General Ibrahim Dahirou Dembele, who was appointed to the post by Sanogo following the coup, was taken during a cabinet meeting on Friday, a government statement said.

Keita, who won an August presidential run-off meant to draw a line under a year and a half of political turmoil, has sought to sideline the junta's leadership as he moves to reassert civilian authority and reunite the country.

The director of the national police force and the head of Mali's military academies, both considered close to Sanogo, were also replaced on Friday.

Keita replaced the head of state security, another senior junta member, last month and he has also abolished a military reform commission that Sanogo had headed.

Sanogo was summoned for questioning this week over suspicions that he had been involved in an army protest in September that left six soldiers dead and a colonel missing.

General Mahamane Toure, the new army chief of staff, is currently the director of the Alioune Blondin Beye peacekeeping school in Mali's capital Bamako.

(Makes clear Dembele was appointed after coup, not during transitional administration)

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alistair Lyon)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/09/us-mali-army-idUSBRE9A80CD20131109.