Romania gov't rejects Canadian gold mine project

November 11, 2013

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The Romanian government won't allow a Canadian company to develop what would have been Europe's biggest open gold mine, the prime minister said Monday, shortly before a parliamentary commission nixed a bill that would have permitted the project.

The decisions were a boost to environmental advocates and come after 14 years of protest and debate about whether the foreign investment and the jobs that would have been created by the mine outweigh the costs to nature.

Immediate reaction was muted, with just a few dozen anti-mine activists rallying outside Parliament. Analysts say Canada's Gabriel Resources, which has invested hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in the project, could still devise a new proposal for the mine.

Its original plan proposed using cyanide to extract 314 tons of gold and 1,500 tons of silver in the town of Rosia Montana in northwestern Romania. The plan includes razing four mountains and creating a lake of cyanide.

The project appears to have grown increasingly unpopular over time. The commission of lawmakers rejected the bill sent by the government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta with 17 votes against and 2 abstentions.

Ponta, meanwhile, announced that his government had changed its mind on the project ahead of the commission vote — a statement that followed weeks of protests over environmental concerns and criticism that Romania would earn too little from the deal.

"The ruling coalition intends to reject the project," Ponta said, adding, however, that the government in principle supports foreign investment in its natural resources. He did not directly say the bill the government sent to the commission was flawed, but Ponta and coalition partner Crin Antonescu said the government intended to adopt broader legislation governing the use of Romania's mines and other natural resources.

In its report, the commission also suggested the need for a better legal framework covering such matters. The panel also recommended the Canadian company's 1999 license be declassified and made public. It added that there should be "a correct partnership between the main shareholder and the Romanian state," suggesting that Romania stood to earn too little from the deal.

Jonathan Henry, chief executive of Gabriel Resources, told The Associated Press by telephone that he was waiting to see the commission's report and declined to offer further comment.

Polish marchers try to breach Russian Embassy

November 11, 2013

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Young Poles torched cars, threw stones at police and tried to climb the fence at the Russian Embassy after setting a guard's booth ablaze during a march Monday by nationalists marking Poland's Independence Day.

Police responded with tear gas and stun grenades, while detaining around a dozen people from a group of a few hundred mostly masked men who initially walked in the march. Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski condemned the actions at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw in particular. "There is no justification for hooliganism," Wojciechowski wrote on Twitter.

Police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said five police officers and some other people were hospitalized with injuries they sustained during the clashes. Thousands of nationalists marched through downtown Warsaw chanting against the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Their Independence Day march has turned violent before, prompting many residents to call on city officials to ban it.

Warsaw authorities, who initially allowed Monday's march, declared it illegal after the violence, but that did not stop the marchers. Elsewhere in the capital and country, many Poles held peaceful events in memory of the country's regaining sovereignty in 1918 as a result of World War I.

'Apocalyptic' storm floods Sardinia, 18 dead

NICOLE WINFIELD | AP
Tuesday 19 November 2013

ROME: The Mediterranean island of Sardinia, prized by the jet-set for its white sand beaches and crystal-clear seas, was a flood-ravaged mud bath Tuesday after a freak torrential rainstorm killed at least 18 people, downed bridges and swept away cars.

Italian Premier Enrico Letta declared a state of emergency and set aside 20 million euros ($27 million) for emergency relief, saying the priority was reaching remote areas, saving the lives of those still unaccounted for and providing for those left homeless.

The island, which draws royals, entrepreneurs and ordinary tourists alike during the dry, peak summer months, received more than 44 centimeters (17.3 inches) of rain in 24 hours Monday — half the amount it normally receives in a year, officials said.

Italy’s civil protection chief, Franco Gabrielli, said the death toll may still rise as crews reach isolated areas in the countryside where some homes are submerged.

Transport was hampered by rivers of cocoa-colored mud gushing over roads that forced the closure of several major thoroughfares, including a tunnel into the city of Olbia, according to the Anas company which runs Italy’s roads and highways.

Olbia Mayor Gianni Giovannelli said the city had been destroyed by the “apocalyptic” storm, with bridges felled and water levels reaching 3 meters (10 feet) in some places. He described the ferocity of the storm’s rains as a “water bomb.”

Gabrielli defended the civil protection’s alert system, which had signaled an “elevated” risk of the storm on much of Sardinia, the highest level of alert. He warned against day-after finger-pointing, saying evacuation orders had been issued and ignored and that no weather forecast could have predicted the “exceptional” degree of devastation.

Sardinia’s governor, Ugo Cappellacci, said the 17 dead included a family of four, reportedly of Brazilian origin, in Arzachena.

Local newspaper L’Unione Sarda said a policeman helping to escort an ambulance died when the car he was traveling in was submerged in the collapse of a bridge in Dorgali. In hard-hit Gallura, three people died after their car was swept away in the collapse of another bridge, the paper said.

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean and is one of Italy’s autonomous regions. While it’s known to tourists for its pristine Costa Smeralda beaches, the island’s interior is known for its sheep and pastoral life. Sardinians are famed for their exceptional longevity.

Other parts of Italy were also hit by heavy rains Tuesday, including the capital, Rome, and Venice in the north, where residents and tourists donned rubber boots to slosh through a St. Marks’ Square flooded from the “acqua alta” high tides that periodically submerge the lagoon city.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/news/479866.

Dutch royals pelted with tomatoes in Moscow

November 10, 2013

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian opposition group says its activists have thrown tomatoes at Dutch King Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Maxima, as they arrived for a concert in Moscow.

Eduard Limonov, the leader of the banned National Bolshevik party, said two of its activists hurled tomatoes at the royals on Saturday. Russia's state security agency said they missed their target. Limonov said Sunday the action was intended to attract public attention to what he called the Netherlands' failure to properly investigate the death of the group's member, Alexander Dolmatov, who committed suicide in January at a Dutch deportation center.

The royal visit was aimed to celebrate the two nations' historical ties, but it came amid tensions caused by Russia's seizure of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship and other disputes.

Bulgaria: pro- and anti-government rallies

November 16, 2013

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Tens of thousands of supporters of the main political parties are gathering in Bulgaria's two biggest cities at pro- and anti-government rallies, which reflect the deep division that has paralyzed the Balkan nation for months.

At Saturday's rally in Sofia, supporters of the governing coalition of the Socialists and an ethnic Turkish party expressed solidarity with the Cabinet. In the second biggest city of Plovdiv, backers of the center-right GERB party accused the incumbents of incompetence and demanded early elections.

The Socialist-backed government took office in May, but ever since has been facing street protests fueled by concerns about corruption. Late last month, students staged full and partial blockades at a number of universities.

Somber US marks 50th anniversary of JFK death

November 23, 2013

DALLAS (AP) — Older Americans remember the day, 50 years ago, as the start of a darker, more cynical time. Many in the U.S. paused Friday to mark half a century since President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

The young, handsome president — who created the Peace Corps, spoke at the Berlin Wall and challenged the country to go to the moon — was shot dead while riding through Dallas, a conservative city that at times has struggled with the unwelcome fame of being forever "linked in tragedy."

"We watched the nightmarish reality in our front yard," Mayor Mike Rawlings told a crowd Friday. It was the first time the city had organized such a large event, issuing 5,000 free tickets. "Our president had been taken from us, taken from his family, taken from the world."

Two generations later, the assassination of a young leader still stirs quiet sadness in the baby boomer generation. Historian David McCullough said Kennedy "spoke to us in that now-distant time past, with a vitality and sense of purpose such as we had never heard before."

Rawlings' comments were followed by a tolling of bells and a moment of silence at the precise time that Kennedy was shot. Drew Carney traveled from Toronto to attend the ceremony. The history teacher said he became intrigued with Kennedy and his ideals as a teenager.

"It filled you with such hope," he said. Elsewhere, flags were lowered to half-staff and wreaths were laid at Kennedy's presidential library and at a waterfront memorial near the family's compound in Massachusetts.

Shortly after sunrise, Attorney General Eric Holder paid his respects at Kennedy's recently refurbished grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, where a British cavalry officer stood guard. A flame burned steadily, as it has since Kennedy was buried.

About an hour later, Jean Kennedy Smith, 85, the last surviving Kennedy sibling, laid a wreath at her brother's grave, joined by about 10 members of the Kennedy family. They clasped hands for a short, silent prayer and left roses as a few hundred onlookers watched.

The tributes extended across the Atlantic to Kennedy's ancestral home in Ireland. In Dublin, a half-dozen Irish soldiers toting guns with brilliantly polished bayonets formed an honor guard outside the U.S. Embassy as the American flag was lowered to half-staff. An Irish army commander at the embassy drew a sword and held it aloft as a lone trumpeter played "The Last Post," the traditional British salute to war dead.

More than a dozen retired Irish army officers who, as teenage cadets, had formed an honor guard at Kennedy's graveside gathered in the front garden of the embassy to remember the first Irish-American to become leader of the free world.

Together with Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore and embassy staff, they observed a moment of silence and laid wreaths from the Irish and American governments in JFK's memory.

Associated Press writers Bob Salsberg in Boston, Matthew Barakat in Washington and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

Chile's Bachelet favored to win presidency

November 17, 2013

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chileans were preparing to return Michelle Bachelet to the presidency on Sunday, hoping she can fulfill promises to reform a dictatorship-era system they blame for keeping the working classes poor and indebted to the privileged few.

Chile is the world's top copper producer and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. But millions of its citizens have taken to the streets in recent years, venting their frustration over the huge wealth gap between the rich and poor and a chronically underfunded education system.

Many voters blame policies imposed during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship for keeping wealth and power in very few hands. His regime privatized natural resources and many government functions and ended the central control and funding of public schools.

Bachelet, 62, is a former political prisoner, pediatrician, defense secretary and Socialist Party stalwart who is a centrist at heart. She left office with sky-high approval ratings after her 2006-2010 presidency despite failing then to bring about major changes in society. But this time, she's taken up the protesters' cause, vowing major changes in taxes and education to reduce the wealth gap.

Bachelet and her closest rival on Sunday, Evelyn Matthei, were childhood friends and daughters of generals who found themselves on opposite sides after Chile's 1973 coup, when Matthei's father ran the military school where Gen. Alberto Bachelet was tortured to death for remaining loyal to ousted President Salvador Allende.

The last survey by Chile's top pollster CEP found 47 percent of declared voters going for Bachelet, suggesting she has a good chance at an outright majority when voters who didn't reveal their preferences to pollsters cast ballots. Matthei got 14 percent in the poll, which had a 3 percentage point error margin. Seven other candidates trailed, although independents Franco Parisi and Marco Enriquez-Ominami were gaining ground on the right and left.

Chileans also will choose 120 members of the lower House of Congress and 20 out of 38 Senate seats on Sunday. Unfortunately for Bachelet, her New Majority coalition won't be able to secure more seats unless it wins at least two-thirds of the votes in each district, under Pinochet's "binomial" electoral system, which was designed to frustrate change.

"You almost feel sorry for her because she's going to be stuck between the future and the past," said Peter Siavelis, a political science professor at Wake Forest University and author of "Democratic Chile: The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition".

"There all these demands in the streets for constitutional reform but she's facing a Congress that's going to be elected by the binominal elections system," Siavelis said. "There's not going to be a majority there. So the influence of the dictatorship is going to impact on her reforms."

As Commonwealth summit opens, host faces scrutiny

November 15, 2013

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka faced international scrutiny over its human rights record on Friday as it opened the Commonwealth summit with a dazzling display of dancers, giant spinning pinwheels and 56 elephants. But the spectacle couldn't distract from boycotts by the leaders of Canada and India, while Britain's prime minister made a fact-finding mission to the country's war-torn north.

The Commonwealth has been harshly criticized for holding the three-day summit in this Indian Ocean country after its government repeatedly refused to allow independent investigations into alleged war crimes and rights abuses during and after a 27-year civil war. Recent reports of media harassment and rights abuses have also raised alarms.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who together with his brothers has controlled the Buddhist Sinhalese-majority nation since 2005, insists his army has committed no abuses and the courts and other institutions are handling any complaints.

He invoked Buddha in his opening speech with a quote that appeared to gently chastise nations questioning Sri Lanka's commitment to democracy and human rights. "Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone," he said, speaking briefly in Sinhala. He also warned against the Commonwealth turning into a "punitive or judgmental body."

The Commonwealth organization and other leaders have defended the meeting as a way to engage Sri Lanka on the issues, particularly the call for an independent war crimes investigation. A U.N. report in August suggested Sri Lanka's Sinhalese-dominated armed forces may have killed up to 40,000 minority Tamils, and that Tamil rebels killed civilians, used them as human shields and forcibly recruited child soldiers.

British Prime Minister David Cameron traveled Friday into northern areas that saw the worst of the fighting, in which the rebels sought an independent Tamil homeland. He met with the region's leader in the main city of Jaffna, as well as editors of a newspaper still targeted in attacks.

He also met with displaced civilians still living in a camp four years after the end of the war. Many of their homes and lands are still occupied by the military or designated as high security zones. "There is the problem of human rights as we speak today: the people who have disappeared, the lack of free rights for journalists and a free press," Cameron told reporters.

"Most important of all is the need for proper investigations to look into what happened at the end of this very long, appalling civil war," he said. Dozens of ethnic Tamils, including many carrying letters for the British leader, held a protest with photographs of relatives who were among thousands who went missing near the end of the war in 2009. They were prevented from speaking with Cameron, but a reporter traveling with him gathered the letters and offered them to British officials.

Dilipkumar Sutha said she believes her husband, taken by the army in 2006, is still alive. "I have complained to all places, participated in many protests, but have gotten no result," she said. "I am here in the belief that at least he (Cameron) can help me get his release."

Associated Press photographer Eranga Jayawardena in Jaffna contributed to this report.

Pope meets FIFA chief, Italy-Argentine rugby teams

November 22, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis met Friday with the head of FIFA and members of the Italian and Argentine national rugby teams.

Francis told the rugby players in town for a match on Saturday that theirs was a "tough" sport but one without violence, where individual and team greatness complement one another. Francis also met Friday with FIFA chief Joseph Blatter.

"We spoke the same language and it was language of football," Blatter said. "It was really a meeting between two sportsmen and two football fans." Blatter said he responded to the pope's request for FIFA to help the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 World Cup, with a promise to "do what we can."

"We cannot do everything," Blatter said. The soccer-mad Francis, a longtime member of his beloved San Lorenzo club in Buenos Aires, has amassed an impressive collection of soccer jerseys as gifts from visiting teams and players.

The two also unwittingly wound up confronting the relative strength in the numbers of active participants in their institutions, with those involved in football, including players and their families, slightly outnumbering Roman Catholics worldwide.

"We have 1.2 billion people and (the pope) said, 'I have no more than 1 billion,'" Blatter said with a laugh.

World Cup 2014: Algeria beat Burkina Faso to reach Brazil

19 November 2013

By Ian Hughes BBC Sport

Algeria beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in their World Cup play-off second leg in Blida to qualify for Brazil on the away goals rule after a 3-3 aggregate draw.

Trailing by one goal after last month's first leg, Algeria produced a patient and disciplined performance to stifle Burkina and nick the goal they needed.

Madjid Bougherra claimed Algeria's goal when the ball rebounded in off him from Bakary Kone's attempted clearance.

Algeria avoided a late own goal when the ball crashed back off their bar.

It would have been cruel on the hosts had Burkina profited right at the last, especially as the visitors barely created a chance of the own throughout the match.

And although Algeria hardly played an uninhibited game themselves they did enough to secure their fourth appearance at the finals and their second in succession.

In a tense first half, chances were virtually non-existent. Burkina had the ball in the net early on but the referee had long since blown for an earlier infringement and in the only other incident of note Islam Slimani sent a head off target despite being unmarked in the box.

With just one goal in it and the sides evenly matched, it was clear that neither side were prepared to take any risks.

And so the pattern continued after the break, until a slice of good luck handed Algeria the advantage.

After Bougherra had poked the ball towards goal, Kone attempted to thump the ball clear but instead it hit the Algerian skipper and the ball bounced off him and into net.

It was all Algeria needed to boost their confidence and they took almost complete control after that. And Slimani sent a shot just wide after swiveling to find space as Algeria threatened to add to their lead.

Burkina were unable to muster any attacking impetus as they were forced back by high pressing from Algeria and simply could not come up with any creative ideas.

With virtually the last action of the game, Algeria scrambled to get ball clear from a corner and the ball smacked against the bar, taking with it Burkina's hopes of a goal that would have sent them to Brazil.

Instead, Algerian players and fans celebrated wildly as the full-time whistle blew almost immediately after - even though it seemed there should have been at least six or seven added minutes time because of time-wasting.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24991552.

Tribes gather for Brazil's Indigenous Games

November 15, 2013

CUIABA, Brazil (AP) — Body paint in place of uniforms. Bare feet instead of high-tech shoes. And a loose notion of competition that assigns little value to winning.

Welcome to the 12th Indigenous Games being held in Brazil's Amazon region, a cultural as much as athletic event that many are calling a "holistic" alternative to the big sporting extravaganzas Brazil will host in the next few years, the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later.

"We're not looking to crown champions or find great athletes," said Carlos Terena, organizer of the games, who like many indigenous Brazilians uses his tribe's name as his surname. "This isn't about competition, it's about celebration. Competition is more a thing for the Western world anyway."

More than 1,500 participants from 48 Brazilian tribes, as well as from more than a dozen other nations, descended this week on Cuiaba, the capital of Mato Grosso state, for the games that end Saturday. All participants will earn "medals" carved from wood, seeds and other natural items.

The more traditional tribal sports are carried out as exhibitions rather than competitions. A crowd favorite is a wild tree-trunk relay race, with nine or more stout runners sprinting about 550 yards (500 meters) around a red-dirt arena, taking turns carrying a 220-pound (100-kilo) chunk of tree over their shoulders. Just getting to the finish line is considered victory.

Another sport called "xikunahity" resembles soccer, but with players crawling along the ground, only permitted to use their heads to push the ball forward. Several tribes have exhibited their own traditional forms of fighting, most resembling wrestling or judo.

Other events test the real-life skills of indigenous peoples, like archery, with bare-chested participants confidently carrying simple long bows, putting their toes along a line of long palm leaves laid down on the earth. About 40 yards away sits their target, the large drawn figure of a smiling fish leaping from the water, with most points scored for drilling the arrow right into its eye.

"This is the fourth time I'm participating in these games and for me they represent a cultural revival more than anything," said Yakari Kuikuro, who lives on the Xingu river in the Amazon and is part of his tribe's tug-of-war team. "Many of my family members stopped painting their bodies, they no longer dance in the villages. When I come here, I see pure Indians, with body paint, dancing together. It's important for others to see this and take it back to their villages."

Chief Willie Littlechild of the Cree Nation, a former member of Canada's Parliament, said attending the games was "truly a blessing, to see that such a rich culture exists with indigenous peoples around the world."

For the non-indigenous people in attendance, Littlechild said he hoped the games allowed them "to join us in a celebration of life, to join us in our holistic approach to wellness, to the physical, the mental, cultural and spiritual well-being of humans."

The games are held on a 17-acre (7-hectare) chunk of park, with large, white plastic tents dotting the land, each holding tables full of traditional crafts, like small pottery figures, wooden bowls, woven cloth and delicately carved musical instruments meant to mimic the songs of jungle birds.

Other tables hold the seeds of dozens of types of edible plants. Food security is one of the main themes of this year's event, with tribes from all corners of Brazil encouraged to trade seeds and take unknown varieties back to their villages.

Amelia Reina Montero, from the Nahua tribe of Mexico who was making her first trip to Brazil, succinctly summed up the prevailing mood of the gathering, saying it offered the rare chance for tribes from the Americas, often with limited contact to the outside world, to interact and learn from one another.

"Despite that fact that our languages are different, that are skin varies, we're uniting here with one heart," she said. "That's the Indian way."

Associated Press Television News cameraman Mario Lobao contributed to this report.

The Overprotection of Mars?

by Andrew Williams for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Nov 19, 2013

A recent commentary paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience argues that planetary protection policies and practices designed to guard solar system bodies from biological contamination from spacecraft need to be re-evaluated because they are "unnecessarily inhibiting" a more ambitious agenda to search for life on Mars.

In the paper, called The Overprotection of Mars, co-authors Alberto G. Fairen of the Department of Astronomy, Cornell University and Dirk Schulze-Makuch of the School of the Environment, Washington State University, also argue that, from an astrobiological perspective, the most interesting missions to "Special Regions" - where, in theory, Mars life could exist or Earth life could survive - are rendered "unviable" as a result of onerous Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) planetary protection protocols and the need to comply with "detailed and expensive sterilization requirements."

For Fairen, the key point of the paper is that, if life can be transferred to Mars in our spacecraft, then the transfer can also happen "naturally, with or without our spacecraft" - and that most likely it "has already happened."

"If Earth life cannot thrive on Mars, we don't need any special cleaning protocol for our spacecraft; and if Earth life actually can survive on Mars, it most likely already does, after four billion years of meteoritic transport and four decades of spacecraft investigations not always following sterilization procedures," he says.

"Planetary protection policies are at least partly responsible for the lack of life-hunting Mars missions since Viking, as they impose very stringent requirements for sterilization of the spacecrafts which, in my opinion, are not necessary," he adds.

A Bug in the Program
In Fairen's view, one of the main shortcomings of current planetary protection policies is that "no spacecraft is treated entirely" - including, for example, some pieces intended to burn in the Martian atmosphere, as well as the launching system - but the "actual" hardware touching down on the surface of Mars is in contact with these other "dirty" parts for several months

"This has happened in all Mars missions. Absolute sterilization does not exist, even treated spacecrafts carry hundreds of thousands of bugs. This has also happened in all Mars missions," he says.

"The best sterilization procedure is the exposure of the spacecrafts to solar and cosmic radiation during the trip and once on the surface of Mars," he adds.

According to Fairen, we already "know for sure that bugs from Earth vessels have landed on Mars" - and he firmly believes that all existing sterilization procedures will be "outdated the second we send a human to Mars."

"NASA's program of human exploration of the Solar System includes sending humans to Mars in the 2030's, and it won't be a surprise if other nations also try to put a human on Mars even earlier. You can't sterilize humans, and as soon as an astronaut steps on Mars, you will have Earth bacteria on Mars. Are all these complicated procedures valid just for the next two decades? What happens next?" he says.

The Search for Extant Life
Fairen also says that existing policies hinder the search for extant life on Mars because of the "costs in time and money associated with the cleaning." One example he cites is that of the Viking mission, which he says devoted over 10% of its one billion dollar budget to planetary protection measures.

"We are talking about over $100 million. You can do a lot of science with that amount of money. And we cannot forget that, if our target is a 'Special Region' of Mars where life can potentially exist, then the required protocols are even more stringent. [The] bottom line is that a thorough cleaning of a spacecraft aimed [at the] in situ search for life on a special region of Mars today would cost a lot of money and effort," he says.

Even if the complete sterilization of a spacecraft "cost only $1 million," Fairen still questions the sense of spending it, and expending 'a lot of effort' on something that he stresses is "not necessary."

"Of course, if sterilization was actually necessary the cost doesn't matter, you'd have to do it. If biological contamination of Mars with spacecraft would actually be a risk [there would be] no more to say, you'd have to sterilize whatever the cost, period. But our point is that such risk does not exist - and that's what we explain in the commentary," he says.

Looking ahead, Fairen argues that planetary protection policies "should be scaled down" - with only one exception: if a mission is "specifically targeted" to the search for life, he believes that sterilization "to some extent" could be in order - primarily to avoid the possibility of discovering what he calls "false positives."

"If we find life on Mars, we need to be sure that the life we are seeing did not come onboard the same spacecraft looking for it. And that's a complicated problem," he says.

Appropriate Protection of Mars
The following issue of Nature Geoscience features an article outlining a strong rebuttal to the commentary paper - written by Catharine A. Conley, the NASA Planetary Protection Officer with the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, and John D. Rummel, a professor of biology at East Carolina University.

Rummel is the current Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection and in previous years was the NASA Senior Scientist for Astrobiology and NASA's Planetary Protection Officer.

In the article, called Appropriate Protection of Mars, the authors state that efforts to limit spacecraft contamination "are already continuously scrutinized in light of the latest science developments, represent the consensus of the international scientific community, and are essential for any valid plan to search for any extant or extinct life on Mars."

Moreover, the authors also contend that the premise that planetary protection is too expensive "only pertains if the objectives aren't worth the cost" - adding that they "believe that the investment is not only worth it, but essential. Preventing the contamination of the Mars environment is the best way to ensure we have a chance to understand our own origins and the potential for life on Mars, now and in the future."

"I completely disagree with the paper, both because of the errors present in logic and because of the strawman planetary provisions that they posit for 'specific recommendations for the elimination or reduction of these protocols,' [which] are almost the same as the provisions currently in place," says Rummel.

"Note that they do not elaborate the benefits to be gained for astrobiology by going to regions that can grow Earth organisms, and then introducing Earth organisms into them," he adds.

In Rummel's view, astrobiology gains from the current planetary protection policies because those policies are focused - in the "forward contamination" direction - on preserving the conditions on Mars, and other bodies, so that scientists and researchers "don't end up studying their own contamination when searching for extraterrestrial life." Without such policies, he argues that we would lose the opportunity to study life, or the lack of it, on Mars.

"They [the current planetary protection policies] only hinder the search for human-associated contamination and the potential to contaminate resources that we may one day wish to use on Mars. I don't think that that is a problem," he says.

"Every aspect of planetary protection that might 'hinder' the search for extant life elsewhere, and protect Mars resources from Earth contamination, can be solved by engineering we already know how to do - witness the Viking missions launched in 1975. So I would recommend continued investment in the technology to make that engineering less expensive and more effective, and make [the policies] expected practice rather than done by exception - as with the Mars Science Laboratory," he adds.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/The_Overprotection_of_Mars_999.html.

NASA launches spacecraft to study Mars atmosphere

Cape Canaveral (AFP)
Nov 18, 2013

NASA on Monday launched its unmanned MAVEN spacecraft toward Mars to study the Red Planet's atmosphere for clues as to why Earth's neighbor lost its warmth and water over time.

The white Atlas V 401 rocket carrying the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter blasted off on schedule at 1:28 pm (1828 GMT).

"Everything is looking good," said NASA mission control.

The flawless liftoff of the $671 million spacecraft kicked off the 10-month journey to the Red Planet.

Arrival at Mars is scheduled for September 2014, with the science mission of the solar-wing paneled orbiter set to begin two months later.

The probe is different from past NASA missions because it focuses not on the dry surface but on the mysteries of the never-before-studied upper atmosphere.

Much of MAVEN's year-long mission will be spent circling the planet 6,000 kilometers (3,800 miles) above the surface.

However, it will execute five deep dips to a distance of just 125 kilometers (78 miles) above the Martian landscape to get readings of the atmosphere at various levels.

Researchers have described the mission as a search for a missing piece to the puzzle of what happened to Mars' atmosphere, perhaps billions of years ago, to transform Earth's neighbor from a water-bearing planet that might have been favorable for life to a dry, barren desert.

"MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere," the US space agency said.

"The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars' atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface."

One of its three scientific tools is a solar wind and ionosphere gauge called the Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

A second tool, called the Remote Sensing Package, was built by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado and will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

The third instrument, the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It will measure the composition and isotopes of neutrals and ions.

"With MAVEN, we're exploring the single biggest unexplored piece of Mars so far," said the mission's principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky.

NASA has sent a series of rovers to explore the surface of the Red Planet, including its latest, Curiosity, which arrived last year.

The deep space orbiter launched earlier this month by India seeks to find traces of methane from Mars and may arrive two days later than the US spacecraft.

The science goals of the two do not overlap much. The Indian probe will be searching for methane which could prove the existence of some ancient life form, while the US probe seeks answers about the planet's climate change.

MAVEN's findings are expected to help pave the way for a future visit by humans to the Red Planet, perhaps as early as 2030, NASA has said.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/NASA_launches_spacecraft_to_study_Mars_atmosphere_999.html.

11 of 30 Greenpeace protesters freed on bail

November 21, 2013

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian jails have freed on bail 11 of the 30 people arrested following a Greenpeace ship protest in Arctic waters two months ago, but the charges against them still stand.

Bail has been granted this week to 26 of the people on the Greenpeace ship, and the bail hearings were to continue Friday. The rulings by judges in St. Petersburg could moderate the strong international criticism of Russia over the case.

Brazilian activist Ana Paula Alminhana Maciel, who was released late Wednesday, was the first to walk free. Her lawyer, Sergei Golubok, said Maciel could move about St. Petersburg and was given back her passport but she "is not going to leave Russia before the situation is cleared up."

Ten others were freed Thursday, including Russians Andrei Allakhverdov, Yekaterina Zaspa and Denis Sinyakov, as well as Camila Speziale from Argentina, Tomasz Dziemianczuk from Poland, Anne Mie Jensen from Denmark, Sini Saarela from Finland, Cristian D'Alessandro from Italy, Francesco Pisanu from France and David Haussman from New Zealand.

Russia's Federal Migration Service issued a statement saying that those granted bail can't leave Russia until the criminal probe against them is over. But the state ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a well-connected Russian lawyer, Genri Reznik, as saying that the law doesn't ban them from leaving Russia pending their trial. He added that charges against them will likely be dropped under an upcoming amnesty marking the 20th anniversary of Russia's constitution.

Greenpeace will "continue to keep up public pressure to get them released," its leader Kumi Naidoo said in Warsaw, where Greenpeace was an observer at U.N. climate talks. "They have been through a very, very tough time. The prison experience has been extremely challenging for them to endure," Naidoo told The Associated Press.

All of those detained were initially charged with piracy, but investigators later changed the charge to hooliganism, which carries a potential sentence of seven years. Bail has been set at 2 million rubles ($61,500).

"Our case is not closed yet," said Allakhverdov. "We will fight for the case to be closed and for us to be found not guilty." Greenpeace lawyers said an appeal will be filed to release Australian Colin Russell, who was denied bail Monday. Sinyakov told reporters that he believes that a decision to grant bail to the Greenpeace team came from the top, and Russell was denied bail simply because his case was first and the judge hadn't got the signal in time.

The 30 were arrested in September after the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, entered Arctic waters. Some of the activists tried to scale an offshore drilling platform owned by the state natural gas giant Gazprom.

Greenpeace contends Arctic drilling poses potentially catastrophic environmental dangers, while Russia bristles at any criticism of its oil and gas industry, which is the backbone of the country's economy.

"It became a story of our imprisonment, which is a pity, because the main aim of all this was not any violence or was not confronting anything but to protest oil drilling," Allakhverdov told the AP. President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that while Greenpeace activists were pursuing noble goals, they were wrong in trying to scale the platform because they jeopardized its safety.

"Not all means are good for achieving even noble goals," he said.

Russian judge grants bail to three more Greenpeace protesters

Nov. 19, 2013

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A judge in St. Petersburg, Russia, granted bail Tuesday to three more Greenpeace activists awaiting trial for protesting at an oil rig in the Arctic Ocean.

The judge set bail at $16,500 each for a Brazilian citizen, a New Zealander and an Argentinean one day after bail was granted to two Greenpeace crew members and a freelance photographer, RIA Novosti reported.

The three defendants granted bail Monday were all Russian.

Twenty-eight Greenpeace activists and two reporters initially were charged with piracy for attempting in September to climb an oil platform owned by an affiliate of Gazprom in September to protest offshore drilling in the environmentally sensitive area. The piracy charge was downgraded to hooliganism.

In a statement, Greenpeace officials said they were waiting for Russia's Investigative Committee, which is handling the case, to provide details for a bank account into which the bail could be deposited.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/11/19/Russian-judge-grants-bail-to-three-more-Greenpeace-protesters/UPI-45881384868374/.