Statement by Mujahideen of Sinai in connection with massacre perpetrated by Egyptian army

20 September 2013

The Mujahideen of the Ansar Baytol Maqdes (or the Helpers of Jerusalem) group, operating in the Sinai Peninsula, issued a new statement on the massacre of peaceful Sinai inhabitants committed by the military junta of apostates who had organized a coup on July 3 and sank in the blood of Cairo, as well as the Sinai Peninsula, where the apostate regime launched a military offensive against women and children.

The statement of the Ansar Baytol Maqdes group tells the story of the massacre in the village of Al-Lifitat, in the Sheikh Zayed district. Here is the text of the statement:

- In continuation for the war of deportation and terrorism launched by the Egyptian army against the people of Sinai under the pretext of combating terrorism, and resumption for the operations of shelling and destruction of the unarmed civilian villages, and in continuation for the series disregarding the blood and properties of the sons of Sinai, the Egyptian forces in Sinai conducted new campaigns against the secure villages in the same way of shelling and destroying the houses and properties of the locals but that wasn't enough, it committed a horrible massacre in the Al-Lifitat village in Sheikh Zayed.

The criminal army sent a military campaign to the Al-Lifitat village on the morning of 7 Dhu Al-Qa'dah 1434 A.H. corresponding 13 September 2013 before Friday prayer, the campaign consisted of around 30 tanks and armored vehicles head to the small village in a time when the men of the village were preparing to go to the mosque to perform the Friday prayer.

The tanks fired its shells at the homes indiscriminately and for no reason since not even one bullet was fired at them and no introductions occurred for that crime rather it was clear that this was the mission of this campaign from the beginning which is destruction but greater than the previous since in the previous shelling of the homes the locals left their houses before the shelling but this time the shelling was surprising without any warning which led to the destruction of the homes over its inhabitants and dead fell, and there is no power and might except by Allah.

This aggressive shelling led to the destruction of many homes and victims fell from children and women when in this massacre seven innocents were killed without fault or crime including four children below seven years and two women and one young man and they are:

1. Girl child: Miriam Mustafa Dahbaish (3 years) was killed by tanks shelling.
2. Child: Al-Hassan Mustafa Dahbaish (1 year) was killed by tanks shelling.
3. Girl child: Zainab Maher Eid (7 years) was killed by tanks shelling.
4. Child: Salman Juma (3 years) was killed by tanks shelling.
5. Suad Atta (Um Salman) (40 years) Salman's mother was also killed in the shelling and she is a widow and breadwinner for her children.
6. Mrs. Askar Salem (37 years) was killed by tanks shelling.
7. Musa'ad Mohammed Salem (23 years) was killed by run over by an armored vehicle before his family.

Is that the terrorism fought by the army in Sinai, and is its goal is really providing security to the people of Sinai, and is from the methods of securing the people and preserving their safety the shelling their homes and killing them in cold blood???

This horrible massacre committed by the Egyptian army in this village is a conclusive indication for what we mentioned before that the goal of the army from this campaign is forced deportation of the people of Sinai from the border regions with the Zionist entity to be able to create a buffer zone with the Jews empty from the inhabitants that protect the Jews from any operations of the Mujahideen from inside Sinai after they were subject for three years of security alert on these borders which they for long boasted of its security and not hazardous, this alert which is dramatically expensive economically and morally on the fragile entity with receiving painful strikes from the Mujahideen in Sinai at all times and you remember the operations of Eilat and the Ghazwah of chastisement with Eilat being exposed (occupied Umm Al-Rashrash) which is a commercial and tourist port to bursts of rockets and what results form that from big economical impact on the Zionist commerce and tourism field.

Due to the above the first main goal for the Jews and by order of America to the army to secure the alleged Zionist borders and prevent the Mujahideen in Sinai from targeting the Jews from Sinai before completing the long war which the army is engaged against Islam in Egypt with cooperation with all the powers opposing Islam in this country but they will never be able to do that, and Allah encompasses them on every side.

We in Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis Assembly and all the Mujahideen in Sinai and all of Egypt reassure that the innocent Muslim blood will never go in vain, and the response to the army of crime and apostasy will be painful, and we have begun it Alhamdulillah with painful operations in which we destroyed its tanks which they destroyed the Muslims homes and demolished it over the heads of its inhabitants which will be clarified later and what is coming shall be most grievous and bitter.

"And to Allah belongs the might and to His Messenger and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know".

And our last prayer: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

Jamaat Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis

***

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/09/20/18301.shtml.

Al-Jazeera launches legal action against Egypt

September 12, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV is taking legal action in international courts against the Egyptian government for closing its offices, jamming its signals and arresting its reporters, the network said Thursday.

Al-Jazeera said it also appealed to the United Nations to "ensure that freedom of expression and freedom of the press do not die in Egypt." The network has been facing a crackdown by the military-backed authorities in Egypt, part of a campaign against media perceived as supportive of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.

An Egyptian court on Sept. 3 ordered Al-Jazeera's local affiliate to stop broadcasting, accusing it of hurting national security, "broadcasting lies" and vilifying the country's military. Three other, pro-Islamist stations were also ordered shut in the same court decision. The main Brotherhood station was also taken off the air the day Morsi was ousted.

The offices of the local affiliate, Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr, were raided after Morsi was deposed by the military on July 3, following days of street protests by millions against his rule. At the time, 28 staffers of the affiliate were detained and later released. And since August, at least two Al-Jazeera reporters have been in detention.

Two other Al-Jazeera offices in Cairo — the regional Al-Jazeera and Al-Jazeera English — were unaffected by the court ruling. But authorities have also closed in on their operations, deporting three members of an Al-Jazeera English crew after detaining them for nearly a week, and accusing them of working illegally.

"Al-Jazeera cannot permit this situation to continue," the network said in an emailed statement, citing an unnamed spokesman under its standard practice. Referring to the military-backed government that took over after Morsi, the statement said the new regime in Egypt has ignored the rights of journalists to report freely and "seems determined to silence all independent journalism and reporting in the country."

Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment. Al-Jazeera's local affiliate has extensively covered Brotherhood protests following the military coup and has also broadcast recorded messages from fugitive Brotherhood members sought by authorities.

While denying charges it is biased, the local affiliate has been running its studio operations from its headquarters in Doha, Qatar, and it has often relied heavily on amateur videos of protests and other events in Egypt. The station is broadcast on Egypt's state-run satellite NileSat, and it has complained that its signal has been heavily interfered with, so it has provided alternative signals through another Arab-owned satellite.

"Al-Jazeera has instructed lawyers to take all steps necessary worldwide to ensure that its journalists can operate freely in the country without fear of arbitrary arrest, assault, jamming or other forms of harassment and intimidation," the statement said.

The network's law firm, London-based Carter-Ruck, said it was instructed to take action in international courts and before the U.N. and other relevant bodies "to protect its journalists and to safeguard its right to report freely." It was not clear which international bodies the network will be addressing and calls to the lawyers were not immediately returned.

Egypt extends emergency laws for 2 months

September 12, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's interim president on Thursday extended a nationwide state of emergency for two more months, citing continued security concerns, as a senior Egyptian official warned of more terrorist attacks in the wake of a failed assassination attempt against the interior minister and suicide bombings in the Sinai Peninsula.

The nearly month-old state of emergency, which is due to expire within days, preserves greater powers for security forces amid a crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and increasing violence by Islamic militants. It was first declared in mid-August after authorities cleared two protest encampments held by Morsi supporters, unleashing violence that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 in subsequent days.

Ever since, a nighttime curfew has also been in effect in much of the country. The interim government will decide separately on whether to continue the curfew. Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi has said the curfew, now lasting for 7 hours most nights, would likely be eased.

The government Thursday announced new measures aimed at easing an economic crunch, in a sign it aims to show that it is tackling the nation's problems even amid the exceptional security conditions. The measures included relief for low-income families from school expenditures and reduction in public transportation costs. They also included an injection of $ 3.1 billion budget support to be spent on infrastructure projects and employment generation, which the government says it hopes will increase economic growth from the current 2 percent to 3.5 percent.

The spending will largely be financed from money pledged by Gulf countries to Egypt after Morsi's July 3 ouster, the government said. Egypt's continued political instability has badly hit the country's economy, decimating tourism and direct foreign investment. In recent rallies, Morsi supporters have increasingly sought to find public backing by evoking the hard economic conditions and authorities' failure to improve people's daily lives.

The extension of the state of emergency, which allows police wider powers of arrest, had been expected. The decree cited continued security concerns. Under the interim constitution, the state of emergency can only be imposed for three months, then must be put to a public referendum.

For most of the 30-year rule of Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt was under emergency law, lifted only after Mubarak's ouster. The extension came days after the Egyptian military launched a major offensive in northern region of Sinai, with troops backed by helicopter gunships raiding suspected hideouts al-Qaida inspired militants in a dozen villages. The three-day offensive left 29 militants dead, demolished houses and led to the seizure of weapons and explosives, including 10 anti-aircraft missiles, according to military officials.

In what appeared to be a backlash, a pair of suicide bombers hit military targets in Sinai, killing nine soldiers. Last week, a car bombing in Cairo believed to have been by a suicide attacker — targeted the convoy of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police. Ibrahim escaped unharmed but a civilian was killed, in the first such political assassination attempt since Morsi's July 3 ouster.

A senior Egyptian official said Thursday that authorities have foiled several "big terrorist attacks" recently. He said authorities expect more assassination attempts like the one on Ibrahim. He said there is an estimated 10,000 militants operating in Sinai, some of them former prisoners whom Morsi granted amnesty during his year in office.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Authorities have been cracking down on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists since his ouster, arresting at least 2,000 the past month. Senior leaders of the group have been charged or are under investigation on a string of allegations, particularly incitement to violence. At the same time, extremists' attacks on police stations, government offices and churches have grown more brazen in south Egypt.

Talk of reconciliation has largely faded. Indicating that the presidency is not concerned about negotiating with the Muslim Brotherhood, the official said that the presidency is only acting as "shepherd" to political factions which should be the ones holding talks with Islamists.

"We are not in direct talks with Muslim Brotherhood," he stressed. The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies have stuck by their demand that Morsi be reinstated as president. Morsi has been in detention in an undisclosed location and now faces several charges including inciting the killing of protesters last year.

Also Thursday, an Egyptian court acquitted 10 policemen and four civilians charged in the killings of several protesters who were among the first to fall in the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. The defendants were the latest to be acquitted from nearly 200 policemen and Mubarak-era officials charged with the killing of 900 protesters. In various trials, most of the defendants have been acquitted, prompting an outcry from families of victims and activists, as well as sometimes violent protests.

The court Thursday found the policemen, a businessman and his three sons not guilty of killing 17 protesters and injuring 300 others in January 2011 in the port city of Suez, which saw some of the first protester deaths in dramatic confrontations with police. Anger over the Suez clashes brought even larger crowds into the streets of Cairo and other cities against Mubarak and his security agencies.

Associated Press Maggie Michael contributed to this report.

Saudi activist says money given to Egyptian general to oust Morsi

July 30, 2013

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 30 (UPI) -- The Saudi government gave Egyptian military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi $1 billion to oust Mohamed Morsi from power, a Saudi activist says.

Saudi political activist Mujtahid bin Hareth bin Hammaam, known for his Twitter campaign against the Saudi government, said el-Sisi received the money July 3, the Tehran-based news network Alalam reported Tuesday. The Saudi government had hoped the money would help el-Sisi ensure a calm transition of power, the network said.

The Saudi government is concerned el-Sisi will be unable to restore order amid ongoing violence and demands by Morsi's followers he be reinstated, the network said.

"King Abdullah knows well that failure of the coup in Egypt will be a disaster for al-Saud because any new government will be stronger and will adopt anti-Saudi Arabia policies," Mujtahid tweeted. "That is why King Abdullah is one of the supporters of unlimited use of force in cracking down protesters. ... King Abdullah not only supported the coup and tried to convince others to accept new changes, he also helped el-Sisi," he said.

The Saudi king is using his political and financial powers to convince the West to refrain from adopting a strong stance toward the crisis in Egypt, Mujtahid charged. The Saudi government has yet to respond to the allegations.

Wikipedia describes Mujtahid as known for tweeting controversial information about the Saudi royal family. He has been nicknamed the Julian Assange of Saudi Arabia.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/07/30/Saudi-activist-says-money-given-to-Egypt/UPI-53881375183115/.

Egypt and UAE plot to topple Hamas

Wednesday, 04 September 2013

A retired Egyptian general has revealed details of an Egypt-UAE plot to impose a stranglehold on the Gaza Strip and overthrow the Hamas-led government. The plot, claims General Sami Hassan, is for the Egyptian army to act, with funding from the UAE government.

"The plan is led by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi," tweeted Hassan. "He aims to achieve political and military gains in the coming days."

General Hassan said that the military will impose even more restrictions on the Palestinians in Gaza, cutting all essential supplies which currently pass through the tunnels. Fuel supplies in particular are being targeted. The Gaza Strip relies on Egypt for 80 per cent of its fuel.

According to Hassan, the process has already started with a media demonisation campaign against the Palestinians and Hamas. As soon as the army creates calm in the Sinai Peninsula, he asserted, it will stir up popular demonstrations.

Al-Sisi has already met with Shaikh Hazza bin Zayed, an adviser to the UAE National Security Authority, and ex-Fatah "strongman" Mohammed Dahlan, said General Hassan. "A sum of $750 million has been allocated for the plot," he claims, "which will involve returning Gaza to Egyptian control or handing it over to the Palestinian Authority [in Ramallah]."

The decisive meeting, he noted, lasted one and a half hours in Al-Sisi's office. The following objectives were agreed upon:

Sinai will be "cleansed" of militant groups and nomadic tribes on the border with Gaza will be disarmed.

A drone base will be established by Egypt in Sinai under international supervision. Air strikes will be launched against the "global jihadist movement".

All tunnels between Gaza and Egypt will be closed, and Egypt will cut off all essential supplies going to Gaza.

Electricity supplies from Egypt to Gaza will be cut off altogether.

An agreement between the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Israel will be reactivated with the return of international observers to the Rafah Border Crossing.

Hamas will be toppled and the Gaza Strip will be returned to President Mahmoud Abbas's control.

Power in Gaza will handed over to the PA or people in the UAE's pay and control, such as Dahlan.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/7221-egypt-and-uae-plot-to-topple-hamas.

Up to 12 Uyghurs Shot Dead in Raid on Xinjiang 'Munitions Center'

2013-09-17

Authorities in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang have shot dead up to a dozen Uyghurs and wounded 20 others in a raid on what they said was a "terrorist" facility, according to local officials and residents.

Police confirmed the shooting in Poskam county (in Chinese, Zepu) near the Silk Road city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, home to some 9 million ethnic minority Muslim Uyghurs who say they have long suffered discrimination and religious controls under Beijing’s policies.

While police refused to give details of the incident, which had been kept under wraps for about three weeks, local officials and residents said it occurred in Jigdejay village around Kuybagh township on Aug. 23 during a raid on an alleged training camp and munitions center operated by a group of about 30 Uyghurs.

The raid came just three days after authorities in Kashgar's Kargilik (in Chinese, Yecheng) county gunned down 22 Uyghurs during another "anti-terrorism" operation on Aug. 20 while they were praying in a house at the edge of a desert area.

Nurmemet Tunyaz, the Jigdejay village head and local ruling Chinese Communist Party official in charge of "stability," said he was informed by local officials that six Uyghurs were killed and 20 others wounded in the Aug. 23 raid, but he and a senior local Islamic leader indicated that the death toll may be double the known figure.

A resident of Kuybagh township who witnessed the raid said that 12 people had died in the operation conducted by up to 80 security personnel.

"I do not know the details, but I have heard that they were making explosives and training in an excavated area," Nurmemet Tunyaz told RFA's Uyghur Service.

"We did not hear that any police were killed in this shooting. The injured suspects were transported to the county hospital but those killed were buried on the spot."

Security patrols

Some of the explosives in the camp were detonated during the raid, he said, which had sparked round-the-clock security patrols in the area.

Yasin Ahun-Karim, the leader of the Kuybagh central mosque, said he heard there were 30 Uyghurs in the group when the raid took place, 17 of them from Jigdejay village, suggesting that several others from neighboring villages may also have been gunned down.

"I heard that terrorists or separatists dug up a place near the edge of a desert in Jigdejay," Imam Yasin Ahun-Karim said. "They were hiding inside there and practicing how to make some sort of explosives. Their activities were discovered by a police helicopter, and police acted immediately to clean up the place," he told RFA.

He said he was given the information by Seypidin Ebey, the director of the village's United Front Work Department, an agency under the command of the Central Committee of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Officers in at least four village police stations in Kuybagh township, including one who was on duty on the day of the raid, confirmed the shooting with RFA but refused to provide details.  

Eyewitness

A Kuybagh resident who claimed he witnessed the raid but spoke on condition of anonymity said that 12 people had died in the incident.

"That's right, they killed 12 people," the Kuybagh resident said when asked about the police operation.

"[They were] training. The police discovered them. It was daytime. We were just in front, standing there. We saw them firing their weapons," he said.

He said the camp was run by local Uyghurs and raided by 70-80 armed police.

"They had made a huge weapon," he said. "The armed police went and raided them, and that was that.... There were more than 20 of them, and 12 of them were killed. Those who died were buried [right there]."

He said the camp had been discovered after the Uyghurs had made rocket launchers that exploded on testing, killing one of them.

"One of them blew their own head off, or they wouldn't have been discovered," he said.

"[We live] on the edge [of the county town]. The Gobi desert is right next door to us."

An official who answered the phone at the county government offices declined to comment on the incident.

Information blackouts

A Han Chinese resident of the regional capital Urumqi surnamed Zhang said local authorities frequently impose information blackouts on violent incidents in Xinjiang.

"They want to whitewash things so they can say Xinjiang is peaceful and harmonious," Zhang said.

"Also, if they reported all of these incidents of resistance, this could encourage other Uyghurs and maybe we would see even more of them."

Chinese authorities usually blame outbreaks of violence in Xinjiang on "terrorists" among the region's ethnic minority Muslim Uyghurs.

But rights groups and experts say Beijing exaggerates the terrorism threat to take the heat off domestic policies that cause unrest or to justify the authorities' use of force against Uyghurs.

Last week, the official Xinhua news agency reported that three ethnic Uyghurs had been sentenced to death for acts of "terrorism" in June in Xinjiang's Lukchun township of Pichan (in Chinese, Shanshan) county.

The punishments came about a month after Beijing sentenced two Uyghurs to death for their alleged links to another bloody incident in April in Kashgar prefecture's Siriqbuya township in Maralbeshi (Bachu) county.

Uyghur activists have blamed the Chinese government's "sustained repression and provocation" of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang for the two violent incidents.

Source: Radio Free Asia.
Link: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/raid-09172013222650.html.

China sentences 3 to death for 'violent terrorism' in Xinjiang

BEIJING | Thu Sep 12, 2013

(Reuters) - A court in China's restive far western region of Xinjiang sentenced three ethnic Uighurs to death on Thursday for acts of "violent terrorism", including murder and being part of a terrorist organization, state media reported.

One other defendant was sentenced to 25 years in jail for his part in a June outbreak of violence, the official Xinhua news agency said.

All four were ethnic Uighurs, judging by their names.

China labeled the June incident, in which 35 people died, a "terrorist attack" by a gang engaged in "religious extremist activities".

It was the deadliest outbreak of violence in the troubled region since July 2009, when nearly 200 people were killed in riots pitting Uighurs against ethnic Chinese in the region's capital Urumqi.

Violent discontent among the region's indigenous Muslim Uighurs had for some time been confined to southern districts.

But the June altercations in Shanshan county, in which state media reported gangs attacked a police station and a government building and set fire to police cars, marked a return of unrest to Xinjiang's north.

Xinhua said the accused had been involved in illegal religious activities and had been spreading religious extremism, which led to them decide to set up a terror cell and plan attacks.

"The methods used were merciless in the extreme and the incident had serious consequences so ought to be severely punished in accordance with the law, hence the sentences," the report cited the court judgment as saying.

Many of the Turkic-speaking Uighur people chafe at what they call Chinese government restrictions on their culture, language and religion. China says it grants Uighurs wide-ranging freedoms and accuses extremists of separatism.

Many rights groups say China has long overplayed the threat posed to justify its tough controls in energy-rich Xinjiang, which lies strategically on the borders of Central Asia, India and Pakistan.

(Reporting by Paul Carsten and Ben Blanchard; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/12/uk-china-uighur-idUKBRE98B0RU20130912.

Sharp rise in Europeans fighting in Syria

December 03, 2013

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A new wave of Europeans is heading to Syria, their ranks soaring in the past six months as tales of easy living and glorious martyrdom draw them to the rebellion against Bashar Assad.

The western Europe-based rebels, mostly young men, are being recruited by new networks that arrange travel and comfortable lodging in the heart of rebel territory, and foster a militant form of Islam that Western security officials fear will add to the terror threat when the fighters return home.

The 11 western European countries with the biggest contingents in Syria are estimated to have some 1,200-1,700 people among rebel forces, according to government and analyst figures compiled by The Associated Press. That compares to estimates of 600-800 from those countries in late spring.

The surge has occurred particularly in France, Germany, Belgium and Sweden. It reflects the increasing ease of travel to Syria's front lines and enthusiastic sales pitches by the first wave of European volunteers.

A 21-year-old Dane became interested in Syria during a prison term in Denmark for assault and robbery, mainly through online rebel videos. He made two trips into Syria that totaled a little more than one month. He drove trucks carrying relief supplies and transported people, he said, but never fought. Nevertheless, he posted photographs online of himself with heavy weapons.

"It is my duty to travel down there. This is a Muslim cause," said the young man, a Muslim convert who did not want to be identified for fear of pursuit by authorities. On his third trip this year, he said, he was stopped at passport control in Istanbul and sent back to Denmark. No reason was given, but he believes his time with the opposition put him on the intelligence community's radar. He described being questioned multiple times by Danish intelligence agents, including at the Copenhagen airport after returning from Syria for the first time.

"Right now, I cannot go to Syria," he said. "I wanted to help with humanitarian work and fight." Recruitment drives targeting people like the Dane are growing in intensity. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, one of two main al-Qaida linked groups fighting in Syria, is producing a video featuring a battalion of British fighters "who will be talking to other British Muslims to try and motivate, inspire and recruit them," said Shiraz Maher, a researcher at the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization. In France, authorities in recent weeks say they have dismantled two networks of former fighters who have returned from Syria to recruit.

Governments have reported no examples of ex-fighters from Syria creating trouble on their return. But France remains haunted by the case of Mohammed Merah, a French youth of Algerian descent who trained in Pakistan and returned to southern France to attack a Jewish school and kill seven people in 2012. The French government has since outlawed training in terrorism camps abroad.

The United States has also sounded the alarm about young Americans headed to Syria. But distance and expense have kept the numbers from the U.S. far lower: about 20 American citizens, according to the ICSR.

For the Syrian rebels, attracting fresh bodies for the fight has become a matter of urgency as Assad makes gains in the civil war with the help of Iran and Shiite militant group Hezbollah. And despite their lack of battlefield experience, Europeans are also a powerful propaganda tool for a rebel force that is trying to show that its appeal goes wider and deeper than the Middle East. The Europeans have the added potential of being able to raise money in places far wealthier than Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya, where many of the other foreign rebels have their roots and fighting background.

Many, if not most, are from second-generation immigrant families from outside Europe with parents who describe themselves as secular and fully integrated. Others — like the Dane — are converts with no prior ties to Islam.

France has counted between 300 and 400 European rebel fighters in Syria; Germany has counted more than 220; Belgium puts its number at 150-200, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, citing recent figures that double previous estimates. Sweden is about to double its estimates to 150-200, according Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism specialist with the Swedish National Defense College. Britain's total has stayed stable at less than 150, according to recent estimates from U.K. security officials. The Netherlands estimate, which officials said is rising rapidly, is 100-200, according to government and analyst figures. Denmark's intelligence service estimates "at least 80" fighters from there — with similar numbers from Spain, Austria and Italy. Norway believes about 40 of its citizens have left for Syria in the past year.

"More Europeans have gone to Syria than have gone to all the other conflict zones put together," including Iraq and Afghanistan, said Thomas Hegghammer, an analyst at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. "It's hard to overstate the importance of this for the future of Islamic radicalism in Europe. They're radicalizing and training a whole new generation of militants."

Ranstorp agreed: "In the last two months, there has been an acceleration in the number of people going to Syria." The first Europeans to leave for Syria tended to do so haphazardly — catching a flight to Turkey, hopping a bus and hoping for the best. That's how the 21-year-old Danish man first went, meandering into a refugee camp and stumbling upon people who told him where to go. Those men are returning home or contacting friends and acquaintances by Skype, Facebook, text message, YouTube, or word of mouth to encourage them to follow. They provide the travel arrangements, and say the life of a fighter in Syria is one of comfort punctuated by the adventure of war.

"I talk to fathers and mothers of young people who have left my city. It's all well-organized. The air tickets are paid for," said Hans Bonte, mayor of Vilvoorde, a city of 41,000 in Flemish-speaking Belgium that has seen at least 22 young people leave for Syria, including the most recent group in early November. Bonte, who is chief of security for his town as well as a federal lawmaker, speaks at length to each family and is in constant touch with both them and Belgium's intelligence services.

Bonte said Belgians who are leaving are younger now — teenagers instead of men in their late 20s, and adolescent girls are beginning to appear among the lists of the missing. "It's a process of following others (who) are trying to convince people to go over there. They are telling stories that it's fun over there ... they are living in a villa with a pool."

One Vilvoorde mother, whose older son had already left for Syria, was sleeping on her front steps to keep her 15-year-old from slipping out to follow his brother, Bonte said. One night this fall, the boy pushed his mother aside — threatening to kill her if she stopped him from joining the fight in Syria — and stepped into a waiting car. She has heard from neither son since.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the Assad government is discussing the issue with Western officials "and there is cooperation," although he did not name any countries. And authorities have encountered teens trying to board airplanes, including some carrying large amounts of cash for the rebellion, said Martin Bernsen, a spokesman for the police security services. "Of course it is difficult to prove where the money goes," Bernsen said, "so we are worried that it goes to terror-related activities."

Hegghammer said Syria has worrisome parallels with Afghanistan of the 1980s, where a young Osama bin Laden was among thousands of Muslims to wage battle against Soviet forces. "The gross number of departures is so high that almost whatever the return rate is, you're going to have substantial numbers of terrorists," he said.

Recent comments from Andrew Parker, director general of British intelligence agency MI5, underscore those concerns. "A growing proportion of our casework now has some link to Syria, mostly concerning individuals from the UK who have traveled to fight there or who aspire to do so," Parker said in a recent speech.

Maher, who is in regular contact with a contingent of Britons in Syria, said their cheery photos of fighters living bachelor-pad style in comfortable houses, with all the food they can eat and all the weaponry they could hope for, will continue draw ever larger numbers.

"They send pictures of sweets — of candy — and of pop. You can get all this out there. It's not a life full of privation," Maher said. "You get this comfortable life in Syria with the option, the possibility to die a martyr."

Hinnant reported from Paris. Mark Lewis in Oslo, Norway; Paisley Dodds in London; and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon contributed.

Palestinians: Soldiers shoot dead 15-year-old boy

December 07, 2013

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Relatives say Israeli soldiers shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the West Bank on Saturday.

Wajdi Ramahi from the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah said his son, Wajeeh, was killed by a shot to the back. Ramahi said his son was playing football on school grounds and then went to a nearby grocery store to buy something to drink. The father said his son was shot from an Israeli army watchtower in the nearby Beit El settlement. He said his son was dead on arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

The Israeli military says it is looking into the report. The Israelis and Palestinians are currently engaged in backchannel peace talks after a five-year lull.

Possible culprits in Hezbollah commander's killing

December 04, 2013

Senior Hezbollah commander Hassan al-Laqis was assassinated early Wednesday in southern Beirut — a sharp blow to the Iranian-backed Shiite group. Hezbollah has no shortage of rivals eager to strike at its strongholds and leadership:

— ISRAEL: Hezbollah quickly blamed Israel for al-Laqis' assassination, saying it had tried to kill him several times already. Israeli officials denied the accusations. Still, the Jewish state could view the fallout from Hezbollah's armed intervention in Syria — and the long list of enemies it has created — as cover to move against a senior figure.

Enmity runs deep between Israel and Hezbollah. The Lebanese group waged an insurgency against the nearly 20-year Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon before Israel withdrew in 2000. The Israelis have killed — or have been suspected of killing — high-ranking Hezbollah figures for decades. In 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships ambushed the motorcade of Hezbollah leader Sheik Abbas Musawi, killing him, his wife, his son and four bodyguards. Eight years earlier, Hezbollah leader Sheik Ragheb Harb was killed in south Lebanon. But one of the biggest blows came in 2008 when Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah commander, was killed by a bombing in Damascus.

— SAUDI ARABIA: Al-Laqis' killing came shortly after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, speaking to a TV station, accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the Nov. 19 suicide bombings at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. He indirectly blamed an alliance between Iran rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia for trying to strike at Hezbollah, which is Tehran's proxy in Lebanon. The allegations spotlighted the Syrian civil war's sectarian overtones and regional impact. Riyadh backs the predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels in Syria, while regional Shiite power Iran and Hezbollah support Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime is stacked with members of his heterodox sect of Shiite Islam. Saudi Arabia fears what it sees as Iran trying to spread its influence across the Arab world. Under this thinking, a Saudi strike against Hezbollah would be a blow to Iran and its regional ambitions. The kingdom does not however have a known history of sponsoring assassinations.

— AL-QAIDA-LINKED GROUPS: Sunni extremists linked to al-Qaida are staunch opponents of Hezbollah. One such Lebanese group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the Iranian Embassy attack and said more would follow unless Hezbollah withdrew its fighters from Syria. Extremists and al-Qaida-affiliated factions increasingly dominate the messy mosaic of Syrian rebels. Al-Qaida fighters, whose extreme interpretation of Islam considers Shiites to be apostates whose blood may be shed, have attacked Shiites elsewhere, particularly Iraq, in the past decade. Al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria have proven to be among the most effective in fighting Assad, and they have claimed responsibility for most of the suicide bombings in the war.

— SYRIAN REBELS: Syrian rebels have been threatening Hezbollah since the group sent fighters to Syria. Two previously unknown Sunni groups claimed responsibility for al-Laqis' assassination, although the claims could not be verified. Since Hezbollah's intervention in Syria began, its strongholds have been targeted by rockets and car bombings in apparent retaliation.

Senior Hezbollah commander killed in Beirut

December 04, 2013

BAALBEK, Lebanon (AP) — The attackers waited in an olive grove around midnight. As the Hezbollah commander pulled into the garage of his nearby apartment building, they went in after him. Five bullets were pumped into his head and neck from a silencer-equipped pistol — an assassination that reverberated across the Middle East.

The killing early Wednesday of Hassan al-Laqis, described as a member of the inner circle of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was the latest in a series of recent attacks against the Iranian-backed group.

Hezbollah blamed Israel, which denied involvement. However, the Shiite militant group's open support of Syrian President Bashar Assad has enraged Sunnis and left it with no shortage of enemies eager to strike at its strongholds and leadership. Dozens of people have been killed in deadly car bombings claimed by radical Sunni groups.

The group's participation in the civil war in Syria is highly divisive and unpopular in Lebanon, where many feel it has deviated from its raison d'etre of fighting Israel and exposed the Shiite community to retaliation.

Most recently, two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing 23. An al-Qaida-affiliated group claimed responsibility, saying it was payback for Hezbollah's support of Assad.

Al-Laqis' killing came shortly after Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the embassy bombings in a sharp escalation in rhetoric against the Sunni regional powerhouse. In a three-hour interview with a local TV station, he indirectly suggested an alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia was trying to destabilize his group.

The Saudi monarchy is engaged in a proxy war with Iran over influence in the region, and in that, Riyadh has increasingly found common ground with the Jewish state. "The assassination is another notch in tensions between Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia," said Kamel Wazne, founder of the Center for American Strategic Studies in Beirut.

"There will be repercussions. It's going to be more like an open battle," he said. Two previously unknown Sunni groups claimed responsibility on Twitter for al-Laqis' assassination, but the claims could not be verified.

Al-Laqis, 53, was killed as he returned home from work, Hezbollah said. "The brother martyr Hassan al-Laqis spent his youth and dedicated all his life in this honorable resistance since its inception up until the last moments of his life," a statement from the group said.

An official close to the highly secretive group said al-Laqis held some of Hezbollah's most sensitive portfolios and was very close to Nasrallah and his inner circle, often acting as a link with officials in Tehran.

"He was one of the brains behind much of the group's operations," the official said. Hezbollah distributed a photo of al-Laqis and said Israel had tried to kill him several times. The image showed a man wearing beige-and-khaki military clothes, with neatly cut black hair and a graying close-cropped beard.

There were conflicting reports on whether he was involved in the Syria war, where the group's fighters have helped Assad's troops gain the upper hand in key areas near the border with Lebanon. Marie Harf, deputy spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said the U.S. has seen reports of the killing and was looking to all parties "to cooperate with a full investigation."

"We've been very concerned by recurring instances of sectarian and political violence in Lebanon, and we have talked about the negative impact that Syria has had in Lebanon and Iraq," she said. Al-Laqis was shot with a pistol equipped with a silencer at close range after he parked in his apartment building in the Hadath neighborhood southwest of Beirut, according to a Lebanese security official and the official close to Hezbollah. Several assailants appear to have been involved, they said.

Muddy footprints led from the olive grove to the parking garage. Yellow police tape blocked off the area, and Hezbollah investigators were at the scene. He was struck by five bullets in the head and neck, the Lebanese official said. The gunmen fled, and al-Laqis was taken to a nearby hospital but died of his wounds, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

"I was trying to sleep, and I heard ... a bullet being fired and a dog barking," said Abdullah, a resident who asked to be identified only by his first name for security reasons. "I did not bother myself, but later I heard people screaming. ... Then our neighbors told us that one of the neighbors was assassinated," Abdullah said.

Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety, said none of the neighbors were aware that al-Laqis was a security man and that he went about his business like everyone else.

Al-Laqis did not have bodyguards with him, suggesting he did not want to draw attention to himself. The assassination marked a rare breach of the Shiite militant group's security — the fourth successful penetration of a Hezbollah enclave in recent months.

It also underscored how the militia has found itself engaged on multiple fronts: Shoring up Assad's rule in Syria while also keeping up the fight against Israel. Some of Hezbollah's most loyal supporters in the Shiite community have been reluctant to embrace its fight in Syria.

That involvement has raised tensions in Lebanon's Sunni and Shiite communities as each side lines up in support of their brethren in the Syrian civil war. That has fueled predictions that Lebanon, still recovering from its 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, is on the brink of descending into full-blown sectarian violence.

In Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city, there have been bloody street battles between rival sides nearly every day, with at least 12 people killed last week. Al-Laqis was buried later Wednesday in his hometown of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. A few thousand people took part in pouring rain, and women wept as Hezbollah pallbearers carried the coffin, wrapped in the group's yellow flag, through the streets. Hezbollah fighters fired in the air in mourning.

"The Israeli enemy is naturally directly to blame," the Hezbollah statement said. "This enemy must shoulder complete responsibility and repercussions for this heinous crime and its repeated targeting of leaders and cadres of the resistance."

Israeli officials categorically denied involvement. Still, Israel could view the fallout from Hezbollah's armed intervention in Syria — and the long list of enemies it has created — as cover to move against one of the group's senior figures and settle old scores with Hezbollah and Iran.

Hezbollah has fought several wars against Israel. Al-Laqis' son, Ali, died fighting Israel in the monthlong 2006 war. Israel's Mossad intelligence service has been suspected of assassinating Hezbollah commanders for more than two decades.

In 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships ambushed the motorcade of Hezbollah leader Sheik Abbas Musawi, killing him, his wife and 5-year-old son, and four bodyguards. Eight years earlier, Hezbollah leader Sheik Ragheb Harb was shot and killed in south Lebanon.

One of the biggest blows for the group came in 2008 when top military commander Imad Mughniyeh was killed by a bomb that ripped through his car in Damascus. Hezbollah and its primary patron, Iran, blamed Israel's Mossad for the killing.

Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem and Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

Ukraine opposition: no talks unless govt fired

December 07, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's opposition, preparing for what it hopes will be a gigantic protest rally on Sunday, says it will negotiate with President Viktor Yanukovych only if he fires the government and appoints a new one committed to deepening European integration.

Around 20,000 demonstrators crowded into Kiev's Independence Square on a windy and snowy night Saturday, but organizers of the protests, which are now in their third week, are calling for a massive turnout Sunday. A throng estimated at 300,000 or more showed up for a similar rally a week ago.

That turnout reflected wide anger over police violence against demonstrators the previous two days, and there are no signs that anger has dissipated. The square holds an extensive tent camp for protesters, including field kitchens, and demonstrators are occupying two nearby buildings, one of them functioning as an improvised opposition headquarters and media center.

The protests started after Yanukovych backed away from signing an association agreement with the European Union that would have deepened economic ties, thereby diminishing neighboring Russia's influence.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the largest opposition faction in parliament, told reports Saturday that Yanukovych must dismiss the government, and "we are ready to start the dialogue only if the president makes the first step."

Opposition lawmakers tried on Tuesday to fire the government in a no-confidence vote in parliament, but fell well short of the needed majority. That government must be replaced by one "that clearly sets the target to sign an association agreement and resume negotiations with the IMF." The opposition sees aid from the International Monetary Fund as key to helping Ukraine through economic troubles that have made Yanukovych lean toward Russia.

Russia wants Ukraine to join a customs union also including Belarus and Kazakhstan that would be a counterweight to the EU and put pressure on Yanukovych to shelve the EU agreement. Yatsenyuk called the customs union "a new version of the Soviet Union."

Distress over the customs was high after Yanukovych and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Friday. The leaders' offices on Saturday said the presidents didn't discuss the customs union, but suspicions persisted.

"It was clear that (Yanukovych's) way to the European Union was blocked from the start," Yatsenyuk said. "It was a big auction — who is to buy Ukraine." Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that the presidents paid special attention to "cooperation in the energy sphere." Ukraine's dependence on Russian natural gas gives Moscow considerable leverage, and economically struggling Ukraine has sought to negotiate lower prices.

Former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, who was propelled to power by 2003 mass protests that prefigured Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004, met on Saturday with Ukrainian opposition leader Viltali Klitschko and spoke before protesters, wearing a scarf in the colors of Ukraine's blue-and-yellow flag.

"What we are seeing in Kiev is a raider attack on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, an impudent and unprecedented attempt to steal the country and its future," Saakashvili said. "Putin's Russia says: We can turn your life into hell, we can hit you hard. This is the logic of a bandit, a racketeer."

Alexei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected head of Russian parliament's lower house, quickly responded on Twitter in blunt language that reflected the high level of Russia-EU tensions: "It's a raider attack, but by Brussels, not Moscow. They take you to paradise by the throat."

Also Saturday, the Interior Ministry said police have placed the Kiev broadcasting center under heavy guard, saying the move was necessary after hearing protesters express intentions to march on the facility and block access to the building.

The center houses the studios of several TV channels, including the national First Channel, which on Saturday was hosting a show featuring an array of government ministers.

Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Kiev contributed to this report.

Ukraine, Russia presidents meet; protests persist

December 06, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych met with his Russian counterpart Friday to discuss closer cooperation, while protests clung to the capital over Ukraine's decision to scrap a deal with the EU.

Yanukovych met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi on his way back from a state visit to China. Yanukovych's office said the talks were about trade and economic cooperation and preparations for signing a partnership agreement.

No details were given, but the meeting is a challenge to leaders of the protests that broke out last month after Yanukovych stepped back from signing a long-anticipated agreement to deepen economic and political ties with the European Union. Moscow has been pressuring Ukraine to join a trade bloc that includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

After Yanukovych backed out of signing the agreement, officials said Ukraine remained committed to deeper integration with the EU, a statement that opposition leaders met with derision. "Their attempts to sell Ukraine to Russia have not ended in any way," Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the main opposition party's faction in parliament, said Friday.

A sizable tent camp for protesters — including field kitchens for the long haul — has been set up on Kiev's main square. Crowds of protesters swell nightly to several thousand. Other protesters have occupied the city administration building and have blocked access to the presidential administration building.

Another top opposition figure on Friday said he was open to talking with officials to find a way out of the crisis, but only if the police who violently dispersed demonstrators are punished. Oleh Tyanhybok, head of the nationalist Svobooda party, told reporters on Friday that "the opposition is ready to sit down, talk, negotiate change in the situation" to seek "an exit from the current political crisis."

His statement, however, appeared to be only an incremental move toward a resolution of the tensions. Another opposition leader, world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said the opposition also would demand the resignation of the interior minister, who heads the police, and the freeing of all arrested demonstrators before talks could begin, the Interfax news agency reported.

Police say the dispersal and beating of demonstrators came after provocations. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov reiterated that point Friday, saying police "faced open violence." In comments released by his office, Azarov said "we are ready for dialogue, we are ready for maximum investigation of the actions of law-enforcement agencies," but noted that "in every country of the world to raise a fist against a police officer is considered a violation of the law."

The protests began after Yanukovych stepped back from the EU association agreement, but their intensity increased after the police violence. Public opinion surveys in recent months showed around 45 percent of Ukrainians favoring increased integration with the EU and far fewer supporting closer cooperation with Russia, which controlled or dominated Ukraine for centuries.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government kept urging Ukraine's government to reconsider its EU decision. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met on Thursday with Ukrainian government officials and opposition leaders, said U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.

"Her message in all of these meetings was the same: that the world is watching Ukraine, that we stand with the vast majority of Ukrainians who want a European future, who desire to bring their country back to prosperity and economic health," Harf said in Washington on Friday.

AP correspondent Deb Riechmann contributed from Washington.

Bonfires, borscht, humor in Kiev protest camp

December 07, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — While thousands of demonstrators call for ousting Ukraine's leaders, Yuri Onishchenko is also worrying about matters more pedestrian, such as where to find wool socks to help the demonstrators keep warm in snowy December weather.

As the acting head of the sizable protest tent camp in Kiev's central square, Onishchenko takes the lead in making sure the demonstrators have what they need to keep the flame of their passions burning.

The camp on Independence Square is both makeshift and sophisticated. Barricades of wooden pallets, fence sections and other scavenged material give the perimeter a rough appearance, and wood fires in large barrels add a primitive touch inside the barricades. But there's also a large stage with first-class lighting and sound system, and even a vast video screen to show the proceedings. Demonstrators can feed at field kitchens, dance to bands and even consult a volunteer psychologist.

The protests were sparked by President Vitkor Yanukvoych's refusal to sign a key pact with the European Union in favor of ties with Moscow and the violent police breakup of a peaceful rally protesting that decision.

Dozens of tents decorated with Ukrainian and EU flags sprung up in the square, some placed in the dry basins of the large fountains that young people love to jump into during the summer. The tents are covered with slogans denouncing Yanukovych and the police.

On Friday, as a light snow fell, some protesters warmed themselves up at the barrel fires and others lined up to receive hot tea with jam, part of the provisions that Ukrainians are donating to the camp.

Besides seizing the square, demonstrators also occupied the nearby city administration building, a concert hall and a labor union building, where most of the protesters sleep and use the bathrooms. Some shower in hotel rooms rented by opposition lawmakers, others are welcomed by sympathetic Kiev residents.

While the government demanded that the buildings be vacated, the protesters disagreed. "The Kiev City administration represents the population of Kiev. Therefore, this building is ours, it belongs to the people," Onischenko said, just after getting off the phone with someone he hoped could find socks to donate.

Iryna Horda, and 18-year-old student, rushed to the square as soon as her classes ended Friday afternoon, hours after her father had completed his overnight shift at the camp. Bundled in a winter jacket and a scarf, Horda lined up to receive a plateful of buckwheat, with two pickles and a slice of yellow pepper on the side, along with an open-face ham sandwich.

"I don't like how we live in this country. I don't like to be under the grip of Yanukovych," said Horda, who works in the camp's field kitchen, slicing bread, cheese and delivering food to organizers. "The future of our country is being decided now."

Nearby, 17-year-old Kostya Yarmulsky, a student at a forest rangers' school from the southern Mykolaiv region, stood vigil at the entrance to the camp, wearing a bright orange hardhat to protect him from riot police truncheons, which he felt on his back and neck last Saturday. "They surrounded us and simply started beating us. We fled, each his own way," Yarmulsky recalled.

For those protesters feeling under the weather Dr. Pavlo Vnesok, 49, was giving out medicine from a large beige tent labeled with a big red cross and sending out "mobile brigades" to disinfect the protesters' hands to avoid the spread of infection. The most common complaints were sore throats, runny noses and wet feet — all from standing out in the cold for hours at a time. "In order to fight, one must be healthy," Vnesok said.

Nearby, Father Yuriy, from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate, which broke away from the Moscow church after the Soviet collapse, was leading prayers that called for peace and love near a large wooden cross.

"We are supporting these people in their fight for liberty and freedom, which God granted to each man," Father Yuri said. As fears of yet another break-up of the demonstrations persisted, hundreds of retired military men, including those who fought during the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, descended on the protest camp to protect the activists.

"We have become a live shield between the authorities, riot police and the people, so that blood, the blood of our children, is not spilled," said veteran Vasyl Hryhorenko, 46, a beefy man clad in camouflage uniform.

There's a good amount of fun available to the demonstrators. Music blasts from loudspeakers, bands alternate with orators on the stage, and the huge video screen hanging on the side of the trade unions building shows everything at super-size, having come under the control of demonstrators when they seized the building.

Humor also plays a big role. One evening this week, activists mounted a suitcase on the stage and demonstrated to the crowd a giant train ticket to Russia written out to Yanukovych. The joke hit home well.

How long can the protests go on, in freezing temperatures and Spartan conditions? "Until New Year, until spring, until summer, until next fall," said Horda, the kitchen volunteer. "My parents and I will stand here until the very end."

Ukraine official rejects early elections demand

December 05, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A top Ukrainian official on Thursday rejected the opposition's demand for early presidential elections amid major street protests gripping the country, as Western officials scramble to help work out a solution to the crisis.

Thousands of angry Ukrainians have been rallying for days against President Viktor Yanukovych's abrupt decision to freeze ties with the European Union and then the use of force by riot police on demonstrators.

But Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov told 1+1 television ruled out the protesters' main demand of the Cabinet's resignation and pre-term presidential elections. "I don't see any sense in that," Arbuzov said. "There is no budget for early elections."

Meanwhile, Europe's top human-rights body said Thursday that Ukraine's government and opposition leaders seeking its downfall have accepted a proposal to create a panel to investigate the past week's violence against protesters.

Council of Europe spokesman Daniel Holtgen told The Associated Press the panel would include one member each, nominated by the government and the opposition, and that the council would nominate a third member who has substantial human right credentials.

The violent dispersal of protesters by club-swinging police Saturday and Sunday exacerbated opposition anger that was already high over President Viktor Yanukovych's shelving of an agreement to establish closer economic ties with the European Union.

Protesters are gathering on the Ukrainian capital's central square around the clock and are occupying the city administration building, along with blocking access to government offices. The move comes as a Kiev court ordered the demonstrators occupying the city administration building to get out by Monday and the city's police chief warned of violence if they don't.

"We are trying not to use force. But if there are violations of the law, we will act decisively and harshly," Valery Mazan said, according to the Interfax news agency. No nominations for the panel have been put forth, Holtgen said, and it is unclear when it would begin work. But "transparency and acceptance of this investigation will be the first step to rebuilding trust in Ukraine," Council of Europe head Thorbjorn Jagland said in a statement.

Western diplomats urged Ukrainian authorities Thursday to respect the huge protests gripping the country. Several thousand activists kept up the demonstrations in Kiev as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's ministerial council began its meeting on the other side of the river. The meeting had been scheduled long before the protests that have been dominating the country.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland challenged Ukrainian authorities to meet the protests constructively. "This is Ukraine's moment to meet the aspirations of its people or disappoint them," she told the OSCE meeting. "Democratic norms and the rule of law must be upheld."

Britain's minister for Europe, David Liddington, called on authorities to respect the right of citizens to "peacefully assemble." "The eyes of the world are on Ukraine today," he said. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov tried to put a positive spin on the tense situation, saying the protests "are a completely normal development in a country where democracy is developing."

"We will do everything we can to ensure this is a peaceful protest," Azarov said. But Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed former prime minister and a top opposition leader, urged for the peaceful protests to continue with renewed vigor. Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year term on charges the West calls politically motivated.

"Talk on the streets isn't enough," she said in a statement. "The people of Ukraine need to urgently take power into their own hands and not make sweet talk with a dictator." With Yanukovych away in China, the government showed no sign of yielding to the protests. Police have promised not to use force, but law enforcement bodies were detaining and investigating scores of opposition activists.

Azarov has also warned several pro-EU western cities in Ukraine which have gone on a strike that the central government in Kiev might cut off funding to them. The demonstrators were sparked by Yanukovych's decision to ditch a significant treaty with the 28-nation European Union after strong pressure from Russia. They were also galvanized by riot police's violent breakup of a small, peaceful rally last month.

Azarov chided the demonstrators, who have occupied or blocked government buildings, saying they are contradicting the values that they claim to support. "That is not the European way forward," Azarov said of the building occupations.

He also said Ukraine remains committed to moving forward with the EU association and characterized Yanukovych's shelving of the signing as only a pause. "The timeout we have taken is clearly taken only because of economic difficulties," he said.

Ukraine says it can't absorb the trade losses with Russia it likely would suffer if it had signed the EU agreement last month. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking directly after Nuland at the conference, notably didn't mention the Ukrainian protests, which have had a strong anti-Russian element.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's government is determined to bring Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, back into its area of influence.

OSCE meeting opens in Kiev, gripped by protests

December 05, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Foreign diplomats have converged on a tense Ukrainian capital, which is gripped by massive protests against the government's decision to freeze ties with the EU and turn to Moscow instead.

Several thousand activists continued rallying on a central square and besieging government meetings early Thursday as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's ministerial council began its meeting in a conference center on the other side of the river.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told the meeting that the protests "are a completely normal development in a country where democracy is developing." "We will do everything we can to ensure this is a peaceful protest," he said.

With President Viktor Yanukovych away in China, the government showed no sign of yielding to protests. Police have promised not to use force, but law enforcement bodies were detaining and investigating scores of opposition activists.

The demonstrators were sparked by Yanukovych's decision ditch a significant treaty with the European Union after strong pressure from Russia. They were also galvanized by a violent break-up of a small, peaceful rally last month.

The protesters are demanding the government resign and that early elections be called. Azarov chided the demonstrators who have occupied or blocked government buildings, saying they are contradicting the values they claim to support.

"That is not the European way forward," Azarov said of the building occupations. He also said Ukraine remains committed to moving forward with the EU association and characterized Yanukovych's shelving of the signing as only a pause.

"The timeout we have taken is clearly taken only because of economic difficulties," he said. Ukraine says it now cannot absorb the trade losses with Russia it likely would suffer if it had signed the EU agreement last month.

Boxing champ turns opposition leader in Ukraine

December 04, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Towering over his fellow protest leaders, Vitali Klitschko, the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, has emerged as Ukraine's most popular opposition figure and has ambitions to become its next president.

Thanks to his sports-hero status and reputation as a pro-Western politician untainted by Ukraine's frequent corruption scandals, the 6-foot 7-inch Klitschko has surpassed jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in opinion polls.

As massive anti-government protests continue to grip Ukraine, the 42-year-old boxer-turned-politician is urging his countrymen to continue their fight to turn this ex-Soviet republic into a genuine Western democracy.

"This is not a revolution. It is a peaceful protest that demands justice," Klitschko told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "The people are not defending political interests. They are defending the idea of living in a civilized country."

Dubbed Dr. Ironfist for his prowess in the boxing ring, Klitschko has scored 45 victories in 47 fights, 41 of them with knockouts. He has successfully defended his title 11 times, most recently in September 2012, and plans to have one more bout before he retires. He still spends several hours a day training.

Now Klitschko must prove that he has as much stamina in the political arena. Despite earning a doctorate in sports science, Klitschko has had to fight a stereotype of being intellectually unfit to run this economically troubled nation of 46 million.

Having been raised — like many Ukrainians — in a Russian-speaking family, Klitschko only recently learned Ukrainian and sometimes struggles to find the right word. Still, he appeals to many Ukrainians with his air of sincerity and his image as a handsome tough guy ready to defend his compatriots.

"He is a national hero and comes across as being decent," said Andreas Umland, assistant professor of European studies at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Klitschko was one of only a few opposition politicians who tried to stop several hundred radical protesters from storming President Viktor Yanukovych's office during a demonstration Sunday that drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of the capital, Kiev.

As the boxer called for peace, the jubilant crowd chanted his name. Beside him stood his wife, Natalia, an attractive brunette and former model who recently launched a singing career. The couple has three children.

The angry protests were sparked by the president's abrupt decision last month to ditch a political and economic treaty with the 28-nation European Union in favor of closer economic ties with Russia, which had threatened Ukraine with trade consequences if the country signed the EU deal.

On Wednesday, his party joined two other opposition parties in blockading the Ukrainian parliament as part of a nationwide strike. The demonstrations in Kiev were galvanized when Yanukovych's government sent in riot police with truncheons to break up a small, peaceful rally in the middle of the night, injuring dozens.

"They took away people's hope to implement reforms, to change the situation in the country," Klitschko told the AP, speaking inside the parliament building. "They stole our hope." Klitschko made his first foray into politics during the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, the mass protests that led to the annulment of Yanukovych's fraud-tainted presidential win and ushered in a pro-Western government. Fresh from a victory in the ring in the United States, Klitschko flew to Kiev and appeared in the heart of those protests wearing an orange scarf, the symbol of the revolution.

Next to him stood his brother, Wladimir Klitschko, now 37, another heavyweight world boxing champion who is engaged to the American actress Hayden Panettiere, star of the TV series "Nashville." After two failed attempts to be elected mayor of Kiev, Klitschko entered national politics last year when his pro-Western Udar party — Punch in English — finished a strong third in the parliamentary election, running on a reform and anti-corruption platform. He was able to capitalize on popular anger with Yanukovych, who quickly undid many of the democratic victories of the Orange Revolution, and with voters' disillusionment with the Orange leaders, now in opposition, including Tymoshenko.

A year before the 2012 election, Tymoshenko was jailed for abuse of office, charges the West considers politically motivated. Klitschko has joined other opposition leaders in campaigning for the release of Tymoshenko, long Yanukovych's biggest political rival.

Klitschko was born in 1971 in Kyrgyzstan, then part of the Soviet Union, to a school teacher mother and a father whose job as an army pilot took the family to remote military bases across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

He embraced Western values while training in Germany and the United States for matches, he says, and wants to bring that mindset home to Ukraine. "Those people who are in politics (now) do not make it their goal to change the country," Klitschko said. "They are simply plundering the country."

Unlike many Ukrainian politicians — including Tymoshenko — who are accused of making their fortunes in shady business deals in the tumultuous post-Soviet era, Klitschko's millions come from a transparent source — the boxing ring.

An opinion poll in September predicted he would get 15.5 percent of the vote in the first round of a presidential election, compared to Tymoshenko's 13.2 percent. Yanukovych would get 19 percent, but he would lose to Klitschko in a run-off, according to the Razumkov Center survey of 2,010 respondents. It had a margin of error of two percentage points.

Klitschko's political star has only risen since then. In October, he announced he would run for the presidency in early 2015, even though parliament, dominated by Yanukovych's allies, passed a law that sought to bar Klitschko from running on the grounds that he spent several years in Germany and paid taxes there.

Klitschko was appalled, calling Ukrainian politics a dirty business, unlike anything he has seen in boxing. "It's impossible to compare them because in boxing there are rules. In Ukrainian politics, the rules are absent," Klitschko said.

Klitschko has kept his two careers separate — never joining other Ukrainian lawmakers in the frequent brawls that have marred parliament. "Physical force plays no role in politics. The power of thought is much stronger," Klitschko said.

How good are Ukrainian lawmakers at throwing punches, anyway? "If you judge this from the standpoint of (my) profession, they don't have any talent," he said.

Former Ukrainian presidents warn of chaos

December 04, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — As protests roiled the Ukrainian capital and other cities, three of the country's former presidents on Wednesday gave support to the demonstrators and warned the tensions could be spinning into an uncontainable crisis.

Separately, the head of the Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights body, met with government officials and opposition members to try to persuade them to enter into dialogue, but said many in Ukraine are resistant to compromise.

The head of Ukraine's police ordered his officers not to use force against peaceful demonstrators, a statement indicating that officials are aware of how the club-swinging dispersal of protesters this week galvanized already strong anger over the president's shelving of a long-awaited pact with the European Union.

Thousands rallied again Wednesday night on Kiev's central square — where protesters have erected barricades on feeder streets — and other demonstrators were blocking the cabinet of ministers, a show of determination to press their demands for the government to step down.

But the government is showing no sign of yielding and a resolution remained elusive. In a statement released to Ukrainian news agencies, Ukraine's first three post-Soviet leaders said "we express solidarity with the peaceful civil actions of hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians."

"However, a solution to the crisis has not been found. The crisis is deepening and we see risks of losing control over the situation," said the statement from Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko.

Council of Europe head Thorbjorn Jagland said after his meeting with opposition figures and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov that "we are trying to find out whether and how a dialogue can be established. But I have also seen that too many are focusing on how to aggravate the situation."

He did not specify if the aggravators were among officials, protest leaders or fringe elements. Opposition leaders remained vehement. "The blockade of administrative offices will continue," declared Oleh Tyanhybok, head of the nationalist Svoboda party.

Azarov urged the opposition to end its blockade of government buildings and warned the western regions of the country — where protest strikes were announced — that they may be left without federal funding.

Azarov survived a chaotic no-confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday. Law enforcement bodies have brought dozens of charges against demonstrators, and nine people remain in detention following Sunday's rally, when several hundred thousand protested Yanukovych's decision and the use of force against a handful of peaceful demonstrators at an earlier protest.

"We must decide all this in a calm environment. Not in the streets, but in a responsible dialogue," Azarov told a Cabinet meeting. Demonstrators have set up scores of tents on Kiev's Independence Square and blocked several streets leading to it with tall barricades of wooden pallets and random material. Large piles of wood dot the square, fuel for fires that keep the demonstrators warm in the freezing temperatures.

"We are now defending ... 46 million people. Either they will defeat us, or we will defeat them," opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters. Last month, Yanukovych's government abruptly halted preparations to sign the key political and economic agreement with the EU and focus on ties with Russia instead. Russia has used strong economic pressure to derail the deal, unwilling to lose the former part of its empire to the West.

The EU has maintained that it is still open to a deal, with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy saying Wednesday that it "stands ready to respond to the deep European aspirations of the people of Ukraine, very present and visible these days."

Anger is also growing about the status of the nine demonstrators who were beaten and arrested. Officials have said the action was in response to provocations by the demonstrators, but supporters of the arrested say radical nationalists were responsible.

Six of those arrested are in intensive care and three others are in jail medical units, their relatives told a news conference on Wednesday. They complained the men have been denied adequate legal help.

"They didn't even allow us to send him a lawyer," said Yana Stepanova, the fiancee of Mykola Lazarovskyi, one of those in intensive care. She said she had lost touch by telephone with him during the demonstration on Sunday, then heard from friends that riot police had routed the protesters.

Hours later, he called and "he said just two words, that he was in the hospital," she said. Supporters of those arrested say state lawyers who had not met the defendants represented the arrested at court hearings and alleged that independent lawyers are being intimidated against taking any of the cases. The arrested face a possible seven years in prison if convicted of charges of organizing mass protests.

Nina Bolotova, whose husband Yuri was among them, sarcastically cast doubt on authorities' claim that the arrested were the organizers of the provocations. "It's interesting to me that out of so many people, the law-enforcement agencies were able to detain the specific organizers," she said.

Ukraine mass protests resume after gov't wins vote

December 03, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine appeared mired in a political standoff Tuesday, as massive protest rallies showed no sign of letting up and the government warned of its capability for force after a failed attempt to take it down.

The opposition lost its attempt to topple the government by parliamentary means when a vote of no-confidence failed by a sizable margin. President Viktor Yanukovych left on an official visit to China, where he is expected to sign an array of economic agreements, his office said. He is expected to be gone until Friday and the prospects for a definitive development in the next few days seem small.

Protest leaders vowed to continue their demonstrations, which have brought as many as 300,000 people to the streets of Kiev, in the largest outpouring of public anger since the 2004 Orange Revolution.

Soon after Tuesday's vote, about 5,000 protesters gathered outside the presidential administration building, then moved to the capital's central Independence Square, where the crowd grew to more than 10,000, according to police estimates.

The opposition called for the parliamentary vote over Yanukovych's shelving of a long-anticipated agreement to deepen political and economic ties with the European Union and the violent tactics used by police to disperse demonstrators protesting the decision.

Yanukovych has sought to quell public anger by moving to renew talks with Brussels. The government appears to recognize that the police violence may have galvanized long-brewing frustrations rather than stifle protests.

But while Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, attending the parliamentary session with his Cabinet, apologized for the violence, he also made a tough vow. "We have extended our hand to you, but if we encounter a fist, I will be frank, we have enough force," he said.

There is a question as to how long protesters' determination will last as winter sets in and the holiday period approaches, noted Adrian Karatnycky, a Ukraine analyst at the Atlantic Council think tank.

In addition to Yanukovych's trip to China, "these things suggest Yanukovych is playing for time," he said. The no-confidence measure got the support of 186 members of the Verkhovna Rada, 40 shy of the majority needed. Even if it had passed, Yanukovych would have remained president, but the prime minister and Cabinet would have been ejected.

In turn, Vitali Klitschko, the super heavyweight world boxing champion and leader of the opposition party Udar, vowed that the action would continue. "We will peacefully blockade the government building and not allow them to work," he told demonstrators at Independence Square after the no-confidence motion failed.

Oleg Tyahnybok, leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, accused Russia of having "an interest in a situation where more and more blood flows in Ukraine. The president should accept our conditions for preventing this scenario — he should resign and call elections for all branches of power."

Russia wants to turn Ukraine toward its orbit and away from the EU. Azarov, like Yanukovych, has said Ukraine wants further integration with the EU, but wants to negotiate better terms and can't bear the burden of the trade losses with Russia it would presumably suffer.

EU leaders have reaffirmed their willingness to sign the association agreement. Ukraine is also deeply dependent on natural gas from Russia, which previously has sharply raised prices for its neighbor.

Russia opposes closer Ukraine-EU relations, hoping to draw Ukraine into a trading bloc of several former Soviet republics. But Karatnycky said the size and vehemence of the protests effective derails Russia's desire, saying joining that bloc "would trigger a further escalation."

In Brussels at a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO member states, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Europe and its allies have "all declined to engage in a rather overt and we think inappropriate bidding war."

Lawmakers in Poland, a country at the forefront of EU attempts to bring Ukraine into the 28-nation bloc's fold, adopted a resolution calling for dialogue between Ukraine's opposition and the government. It also condemned the use of force during protests and expressed solidarity with pro-European Ukrainians.

Associated Press writers Jim Heintz and Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

Chevron suspends shale gas exploration in Romania

December 07, 2013

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — U.S. oil company Chevron has suspended exploration for shale gas in northeastern Romania after hundreds of anti-fracking protesters tore down fences.

Chevron won approval to drill exploratory wells in the town of Pungesti, but halted work for a second time Saturday after residents blocked access to the site. Hundreds of riot police couldn't prevent residents from demolishing fences and breaking into the site. Dozens were detained and 14 were charged with destruction of property and carrying knives.

Chevron said it had suspended work "as a result of unsafe conditions" and informed police of destruction to its property. Thousands of people have rallied across Romania in recent months to protest against government support for shale gas exploration. Chevron had resumed work at the site on Dec. 2.

Fierce storm lashes Europe; at least 3 dead

December 05, 2013

LONDON (AP) — Britain braced for severe flooding and the worst tidal surge in 60 years after a powerful storm with hurricane-force gusts hit the country Thursday and began moving across Europe.

The storm prompted evacuations, snarled transport and left tens of thousands of homes without electricity. At least three people died in accidents linked to the weather. About 10,000 homes along the eastern English coast were evacuated after Britain's Environment Agency warned the country could face its worst tidal surge in 60 years. The Thames Barrier — a series of huge metal plates that can be raised across the entire river — was being closed late Thursday to protect London from the surge.

Tidal floods — caused as the storm drives huge amounts of seawater toward the land — were expected in Britain, Germany and Scandinavia, together with freezing high winds from Greenland. The Environment Agency put out more than 50 flood warnings for different parts of the U.K., with the risk of flooding stretching into Friday morning.

Rescue teams ferried residents affected by flooding in north Wales to safety by boat, while officials in other areas handed out sandbags and set up emergency shelters. The Defense Ministry said "a small number of personnel" had been drafted in to help local authorities deal with flooding in Norfolk.

The storm first plowed into Scotland overnight, slamming the highlands with gusts up to 142 miles (229 kilometers) per hour. Trains were suspended for much of Thursday, but began to run fitfully later as some routes were cleared of debris.

Transportation troubles, however, spread throughout northwestern Europe. All flights to and from Copenhagen's international airport were halted late Thursday due to the storm, officials said. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were affected or how long the airport — Scandinavia's largest — would stay closed.

Almost all flights to and from Hamburg airport in northern Germany were also canceled, and federal authorities in Germany issued a warning for residents of Hamburg to expect a "very severe tidal flood" at about 6:30 a.m. Friday (0530 GMT; 12:30 a.m. EST). Residents were urged to evacuate low-lying areas of the port and along the Elbe River.

The German Weather Service said the storm front, which was gathering strength as it headed eastward from the Atlantic Ocean off Greenland, would also bring polar air and some snow to Europe. Some schools in the northern Netherlands closed early so children could get home safely to celebrate Sinterklaas — the traditional Dutch version of Christmas — with their families.

Passengers on an easyJet flight from London to Glasgow, Scotland, wound up landing in Manchester after aborted attempts to land in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. As the plane neared Scotland, "suddenly everything started shaking and bumping, we were going up and down, up and down," said passenger Hazel Bedford.

"An awful lot of people were being sick but the plane, it was incredibly quiet. When cabin crew said 'We're going to Manchester,' people started to realize this was serious," she said. An accident west of Edinburgh claimed the life a truck driver and a falling tree killed a man in Nottinghamshire.

Police in western Denmark said a 72-year-old woman died when the van she was in was knocked over in the storm. Forecasters predicted winds gusting up to 87 mph (140 kph) along Germany's North Sea coast.

Ferry operators canceled services to some of Germany's North Sea islands and the country's national railway, Deutsche Bahn, warned of likely disruptions across northern Germany. German authorities reported flooding on the tiny low-lying North Sea islands of Langeness and Hooge near Denmark, the DPA news agency reported. Residents protected their homes with sandbags against the rising waters but Langeness mayor Heike Hinrichsen warned if the seas rose as high as predicted, the "waves of the North Sea will be lapping at the houses."

"Nobody on the islands will be closing their eyes tonight," Langeness resident Fiede Nissen said. "It's already tense." The Netherlands closed water barriers to protect the low-lying country from high tides, including the Oosterscheldekering barrier in the southwestern delta region, which was closed for the first time since 2007.

Water authorities in the northern Dutch province of Friesland were patrolling dikes to make sure any breeches or damages from the high tides were quickly repaired. The dikes were built to withstand water levels 5 meters (nearly 16 1/2 feet) above normal.

Thursday's tide was predicted to be around 3.3 meters (10 feet) higher than normal, the authority said. In Scandinavia, Danish and Norwegian police urged people to stay indoors and avoid the gusts.

AP writers Cassandra Vinograd and Robert Barr in London, David Rising and Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Mike Corder in Amsterdam contributed to this story.

Thousands in UK face another day of flooding

December 06, 2013

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of people in Britain mopped up flooded homes on Friday after a powerful storm that scoured northern Europe with hurricane-force gusts kicked up the biggest tidal surge in 60 years, swamping stretches of shoreline.

The rising seas prompted evacuations along the eastern English coast, with 1,400 properties flooded and at least a half-dozen communities at great risk of exceptionally high tides and large waves. In London, the Thames Barrier — a series of huge metal plates that can be raised across the entire river— closed for a second time in as many days to protect the city from the surge.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said there would be "exceptionally high tides" on Friday and Saturday, though they were not expected to reach Thursday's levels, when water swamped seaside promenades and flooded homes. In the town of Hemsby in eastern England, several houses fell into the sea as waves eroded cliffs.

Britain's Environment Agency said that sea levels late Thursday in some areas exceeded those in a 1953 flood in which hundreds died. But flood defenses and evacuation warnings meant that only two people were killed in storm-related accidents.

Accidents linked to the storm that roared across Europe Thursday have killed at least eight people, from Britain to Sweden, Denmark and Poland. Traffic ground to a halt on icy highways and train service was canceled in large parts of Sweden. Tens of thousands of people lost electricity. Strong winds knocked down the city of Vaxjo's Christmas tree.

Scores of flights were canceled at airports in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Poland. More than 1,000 people spent the night at Copenhagen airport where 200 flights were canceled Thursday and about 70 on Friday.

Strong winds threatened a collection of Viking ships recovered from the bottom of a Danish fjord in the 1960s and put on exhibition. Museum workers boarded up the expansive windows of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Copenhagen amid fears water from the fjord would rise and shatter the glass.

Police in Denmark ordered the evacuation of people in the towns of Frederikssund and Frederiksvaerk, 25 miles (40 miles) northeast of Copenhagen, because of imminent flooding. The towns lie on the Roskilde fjord, which has seen water levels rise noticeably.

Hamburg airport, where almost all flights were canceled late Thursday, was open for business on Friday but cautioned that there would be cancellations because of wind and snow. Trains northward from Hamburg to Denmark and some other destinations were canceled.

Tidal floods that hit Hamburg in the early morning were akin to those that drenched the city in 1962, causing the worst flooding in living memory. But higher and better coastal defenses along the North Sea these days meant the impact of this week's storm on the city was negligible, with no reports of major damage or loss of life.

A further tidal surge is expected to hit Hamburg Friday evening. Soccer club Werder Bremen, whose game Saturday against German champion Bayern Munich had been in doubt, announced on Twitter Friday morning that flood water hadn't topped a levee near its stadium and the match would go ahead.

Meanwhile, wind farms in Germany reaped benefits from the storm. According to European Energy Exchange AG, an energy trading platform, production of wind energy in Germany surged in recent days. At 1 p.m. local time (12 GMT) the country's vast network of on- and offshore wind turbines produced 25,205.8 MW of electricity — the equivalent of 25 nuclear plants and almost 35 percent of the country's total energy output that hour.

Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Karl A. Ritter in Stockholm, Geir Moulson and in Berlin, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this story.

Nearly week of frigid temperatures for West

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
5th of December 2013, Thursday

DENVER (AP) — The jet stream hunkered to the south Wednesday, promising to bring nearly a week of temperatures that could dip to minus 20 or worse in the northern midsection of the country, and forcing much of the rest of the nation to deal with unexpectedly cool temperatures.

The wintry blast delighted Rocky Mountain ski resorts, some of which surpassed 100 inches of snow for the season on Wednesday. But the cold snap had public-safety officials warning of elevated avalanche risk and frostbite risk to anyone outside.

In Minnesota, the cold forced Salvation Army bell ringers inside and canceled holiday parties, while dense, cold air sunk into Rocky Mountain valleys and kept some lower elevations freezing in the West. A Christmas parade planned for Friday in the Colorado town of Erie was canceled.

The dip in the jet stream is allowing Arctic air to plunge deeper into the United States. To add to the cold weather trouble, AccuWeather senior forecaster Paul Walker said a new storm will likely develop in New Mexico and west Texas on Thursday and head east, bringing ice and potentially power outages.

Extreme cold is nothing new in the Rockies, with temperatures regularly dropping each winter to minus 20 or minus 25 degrees annually. The difference this year is how long the cold snap is expected to last.

National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Bernhardt said the last extended cold period in Montana he could recall was in the winter of 1996.

Low temperatures in Denver were expected to drop just below zero through Friday but remain below 20 through the middle of next week. The storm dumped several inches of snow in Denver, and parts of Colorado's mountains could get up to 3 feet by the end of the day. Heavy overnight snow canceled a men's World Cup downhill training in Beaver Creek because the skiers need a clean, slick surface to practice on.

Snowfall totals could also approach 3 feet in northeastern Minnesota, where the weather has contributed to hundreds of traffic accidents around the state, including at least five fatal crashes since Monday. Two other fatal crashes in Montana and North Dakota were blamed on the weather.

At the Denver Zoo, which was closed due to the weather, the polar bears were playing and lying in the snow and the Mongolian camels seemed friskier than normal, spokeswoman Tiffany Barnhart said. But many other animals remained in the indoor section of their quarters, close to their hay beds. Workers kept the lions occupied with toys and videos of African predators.

"It's a snow day for them too," she said.

The risk of frostbite was high for people doing every day activities, like waiting for a bus, unless they're bundled up. Tyler Elick wore a hat and gloves as he played with his dog, Coconut, in a parking lot downtown.

"It's fun, but my cheeks are frozen, so I may be slurring my words," he said.

Colorado homeless shelters opened extra beds, and Denver Police checked under bridges in search of homeless who may have been in danger.

Laramie, the home of the University of Wyoming, sits in a valley between two mountain ranges and could see temperatures dip to minus 29 Wednesday night and early Thursday. The record low for Dec. 5 at Laramie is 33 below zero, set in 1972.

In Montana, the cold spot will be the northern city of Havre, with low temperatures expected to dip as low as minus 30 between Thursday and Saturday. The city isn't expected to get warmer than minus 6 degrees during that period.

In California's Central Valley, temperatures dropped into the upper 20s overnight into Wednesday, not enough to cause any damage to citrus crops. Citrus farmers, however, are anticipating colder temperatures overnight and Thursday and are continuing to take precautions, said Bob Blakely, of California Citrus Mutual.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Bob Moen in Cheyenne, Wyo.; Matt Volz in Helena, Mont.; Steven K. Paulson and P. Solomon Banda in Denver; and Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee, Wis.