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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A divided Egypt marks anniversary of Mideast war

October 06, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian jetfighters are staging celebratory flights over Cairo, ushering in a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the nation's last war with Israel on a day when rival rallies by supporters and opponents of the ousted Islamist president carry the potential for violence.

Security forces are deployed across much of the Egyptian capital in anticipation of clashes. Sunday's rallies in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak, are likely flashpoints. Authorities have vowed not to allow supporters of the ousted Mohammed Morsi into the square.

The possibility of bloodshed on an occasion revered by most Egyptians is seen as a sign of the schism that began soon after Morsi's narrow election victory in 2012. He was ousted in a July 3 coup.

Stabbed Egyptian politician decries violence

October 05, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian politician who has opposed the military crackdown that has killed or jailed hundreds of Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi was surprised to find himself under a violent attack when he accidentally drove through a pro-Morsi protest march in Cairo.

Khaled Dawoud, the spokesman for the liberal al-Dustour party, was pulled out of his car and stabbed after one of the protesters recognized him, shouted his name and accused him of being in favor of the clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. The 46-year-old politician couldn't escape because he was stuck in a traffic jam.

Friday's assault highlights the complexity of the political situation in Egypt, which has suffered from two and a half years of turmoil and chaos following the 2011 revolution that forced autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power. It also raised concerns that the Arab world's most populous nation is falling into a cycle of revenge attacks and random violence as the Brotherhood organization is frayed with its top leaders in prison or on the run.

"Those who resort to violence and killing fail to understand the lessons of history," Dawoud told The Associated Press from his hospital bed Saturday, where his left hand was wrapped in layers of bandages after his attackers tried to cut his wrist. His face bruised, Dawoud described how one man from the angry mob in the protest also stabbed him in his side, slightly missing his heart, twice.

Dawoud served as the main speaker for the National Salvation Front, the opposition grouping that had rallied against Morsi in the lead up to the massive protests against the Islamist leader that led to the military coup that toppled him on July 3.

But while he supported the military's intervention, Dawoud publicly opposed the decision to violently raze two pro-Morsi sit-in camps in Cairo, a move that killed more than 600 protesters and sparked nationwide clashes that left hundreds more dead.

He resigned in mid-August as NSF spokesman after the group praised the security agencies for their role in the violent dispersal of the camps. Egypt's vice president at the time, Mohammed ElBaradei, and the founder of al-Dustour party, also resigned over the bloodshed.

Dawoud has continued to speak out in weekly columns in favor of reconciling with the Brotherhood and integrating them into Egypt's political road map, backing initiatives calling for it. He also makes regular TV appearances despite a backlash, with Islamists still threatening him on social media sites

"I was told several times ... 'Whatever you do, your hands will always be covered in Muslim Brotherhood blood," he recalled. "It is a big sin in itself for them" that he backed removing Morsi. He said Friday's attack will not change his stance.

"I still don't approve of resorting to arbitrary violence" against any political forces, he said. "We want the rule of law. Human blood is precious. This is why we did our revolution. We want Egyptians to live for the sake of the country, not to die for it."

The Brotherhood political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, condemned the attack, denouncing "all acts of violence, even against those who supported the military coup." Dawoud rebuffed the condemnation, and questioned the peaceful nature of the pro-Morsi protests, adding that the attack against him was "a clear attempt to kill me."

A group of 10 young men started smashing the car's windows before one stabbed his left side with a 15-centimeter (6 inch) dagger. "Another guy told me 'we will cut off your hands' and started sawing my left hand back and forth", Dawoud added.

A few bystanders came to his rescue, breaking up the mob and capturing the man with dagger. "It was a miserable day. There was no ambulance and I had to walk for 10 minutes to the hospital," Dawoud said. "Every step I took I thought I was going to die. I was bleeding from everywhere."

Western Saharans protest EU-Morocco fishing accord

December 10, 2013

LAAYOUNE, Western Sahara (AP) — Police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators in a city of Western Sahara on Tuesday during a protest against a new fishing accord that gives EU boats access to rich coastal waters.

At first, only a few dozen people were able to gather at a time, chant anti-accord slogans and display banners before riot police chased them away in Laayoune city, knocking many people down. Protesters calling for independence from Morocco were chased through the streets of the city, and some Spanish activists were arrested.

By nightfall, the demonstrations had spread to other neighborhoods of the city and degenerated into stone throwing clashes between youths and police. Local hospitals said at least 90 protesters were injured, and the governor's office said 35 members of the security force were hurt.

A foreign journalist on the scene was stopped several times by police to prevent him from covering the protests and nearly had his camera taken away. Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the extreme northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

The European Union parliament recently approved a four-year agreement giving its fleet access to Moroccan waters for 40 million euros ($55 million) a year. The richest fishing waters are off the coast of the Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco in 1975.

Activists in the disputed territories say Morocco has no right to enter into treaties concerning their national resources and lobbied against the accord, which was approved by the EU parliament in a 310-to-204 vote, with 49 abstentions.

In December 2011, the parliament let lapse an earlier fishing agreement, partly over concerns about the situation in the disputed territories. Morocco declares the Western Sahara an integral part of its national territory, but the U.N. is supposed to organize a long-delayed referendum to allow the inhabitants to vote on their fate.

The desert region is also rich in phosphates, and international companies have started looking for off-shore oil deposits. Unlike in the rest of Morocco, demonstrations are not tolerated in the restive towns of Western Sahara, which are under heavy security.

Egypt halts tourism with Iran

Reuters
October 1, 2013

Cairo: Egypt halted tourism activities with Iran on Tuesday citing security concerns, a Tourism Ministry spokeswoman said, further distancing itself from Tehran after former Islamist President Mohammad Mursi tried to improve ties.

“At the moment the security situation does not allow the ministry to support travel with Iran, including flights and tourist visits,” spokeswoman Rasha Azaizi said, without giving details.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Cairo in February, the first visit by an Iranian leader in more than three decades.

The first commercial flight between Egypt and Iran in 34 years took off in March as Mursi tried to normalize ties broken after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Diplomatic relations remain severed. The state news agency said 43 Iranian tourists visited Egypt in April. But regular commercial flights never got underway.

Mursi, elected in 2012, was overthrown by the army in July after street protests against his rule. Azaizi said Mursi’s government’s plans to increase tourism with Iran had been put on hold.

Relations between Egypt and Iran broke down in 1979 when Cairo gave sanctuary to the deposed shah. Many in Egypt, a majority Sunni country, still harbor strong feelings against Shiite Iran.

The army-backed government views Tehran with deep suspicion.

In July, Egypt accused Iran of “unacceptable interference” in its domestic affairs for criticizing the military’s removal of Mursi. Iran called the ousting of Mursi a “cause for concern” and suggested “foreign hands” were at work in the Arab state.

Egypt historically has much stronger ties with Gulf Arab states, who have vied with Iran for regional influence.

Source: Gulf News.
Link: http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/egypt-halts-tourism-with-iran-1.1238087.

Morsi had refused to appoint General Al-Sisi as prime minister

Friday, 27 September

The Secretary General of the Al-Wasat Party, Mohamed Abdul Latif, revealed that during the rule of elected President Mohammed Morsi an agreement had been reached between party members to nominate Egypt's Defense Minister General Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi as prime minister instead of Hisham Qandil, however Morsi had refused.

According to Abdul Latif, at the time General Al-Sisi was a national figure that everyone could agree upon.

Abdul Latif described the army's involvement in the political process as "unjustified", pointing out that to overcome the current political crisis all parties should agree to an unconditional dialogue.

The Secretary General of Al-Wasat Party also asserted that the party is still intact, despite the arrests of its President, Eng. Aboul-Ela Madi, and Vice President, Essam Sultan, stressing that Al-Wasat is still active. Abdul Latif denied claims of splits within the party or dismantling it due to a few members' resignations, saying that, "the resignations do not affect the party's work".

According to Abdul Latif, the new constitution currently being drafted only reflects one political persuasion and therefore it might not survive even if it is approved in a referendum. He explained that, "the chances for a boycott of the referendum or a vote of ‘no' are high". Abdul Latif pointed out one article in particular that indicates the country's President can appoint the Defense Minister only with the approval of the armed forces, saying that this establishes the basis for an "armed forces dictatorship."

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/7558-morsi-had-refused-to-appoint-general-al-sisi-as-prime-minister.

Ukraine police stand down after protest grows

December 11, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Police in Ukraine on Wednesday pulled back as protesters claimed victory after an overnight face-off in which authorities removed some barricades and tents and scuffled with demonstrators occupying Kiev's main square.

Squadrons of police in helmets and bearing metal shields converged at about 1 a.m. on Independence Square, but thousands of protesters put up fierce resistance for hours, shoving back at police lines to keep them away from key sites.

The Ukrainian chief of police issued a statement saying that there would be no attempt to break up the demonstrations. Protesters have been gathering around the clock to demand the resignation of the government in a crisis that threatens the leadership of President Viktor Yanukovych.

"I want to calm everyone down — there will be no dispersal," Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko said on the ministry's website. "No one is encroaching on the rights of citizens to peaceful protest."

Three police buses that had been parked outside the building all night drove away to the protesters' shouts of "Shame!" Another group of police that had been stationed outside the Kiev city hall building, which has been occupied by protesters for weeks, departed from the scene.

Several thousand protesters who remained on the square after dawn cheered as police drove away. "This is a great victory," Arseny Yatsenyuk, a top opposition leader, shouted from the stage. Throughout the standoff the police appeared to be under orders to refrain from using excessive force, unlike the violent beatings of protesters in recent weeks. Several demonstrators and police were injured, but the policeman helped injured activists up from the ground and moved them away.

The protests began in late November when Yanukovych backed away from a pact that would deepen the former Soviet republic's economic ties with the 28-nation European Union — a pact that surveys showed was supported by nearly half the country's people.

The agreement would make Ukraine more Western-oriented and represent a significant loss of face for Russia, which has either controlled or heavily influenced Ukraine for centuries. Demonstrators who gathered during the night waved EU and Ukrainian flags and sang the national anthem.. Many of the protesters, wearing orange construction hats to protect themselves from police truncheons, locked arms and simultaneously jumped up and down to stay warm in freezing temperatures that plunged to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 Celsius).

Scuffles broke out between police and opposition lawmakers, one of whom lay down on the snow trying to block a vehicle from advancing on the camp. An Orthodox priest sang prayers, and a popular Ukrainian rock song with the lyrics "I will not give up without a fight" blared from loudspeakers over the square. Pop singer Ruslana kept up morale by singing the national anthem and cheering protesters from the stage.

One protester stripped to his waist in the frigid air, got down on his knees and shouted "Stop this ... We are one people!" At least one tent caught fire after a metal barrel where a fire was burning to keep demonstrators warm overturned.

After some of the barricades and tents were dismantled, police and city workers began to remove debris with bulldozers. Policemen used what appeared to be chain saws to clear the barricades. But as the sun rose over Kiev in the morning, the police had not been able to drive back the protesters on the square or to storm the city administration building, where demonstrators poured the building steps with ice to make seizing it more difficult.

There were no police left near the building or on the square by mid-morning, as a crowd of several thousand still lingered on the street. "They had to leave, there were just too many people here," said Andrei Govdun, a protester.

Western officials issued strong statements as the crackdown unfolded. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strong statement, expressing U.S. "disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest ... with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity."

"This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy," said Kerry, urging authorities to show "utmost restraint" and protect human life. "The United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They deserve better."

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko, who is a reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, urged Ukrainians to rush to the center of the capital to defend democracy. "We will say no to a police state, no to a dictatorship," he told protesters in the square.

The confrontation unfolded as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland were in the city to try to talk to the government and the opposition to work out a solution.

"The authorities didn't need to act under the coverage of night to engage with the society by using police," Ashton said in a statement after the police action started. "Dialogue with political forces and society and use of arguments is always better than the argument of force."

The protests are the biggest since Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution. Those protests, also centered on Independence Square, known as the Maidan, succeeded in forcing the annulment of Yanukovych's fraud-tainted presidential victory in 2004, and ushered his pro-Western opponents into power. Yanukovych returned to the presidency in the 2010 vote, drawing on support from heavily industrialized eastern Ukraine where there are many Russian speakers.

Aiming to defuse the latest crisis, Yanukovych had called earlier Tuesday for the release of the demonstrators previously arrested in the protests and vowed that Ukraine is still interested in integrating with Europe.

Yatsenyuk told demonstrators at the square that the protest leaders were still insisting on their key demands: that Yanukovych dismiss the government, appoint a new one committed to signing an association agreement with the EU, release all the arrested protesters, and punish police who beat peaceful demonstrators.

Riot police have twice previously dispersed demonstrators with clubs and tear gas, beating some severely enough to send them to intensive care. Tim Ash, an emerging markets analyst with Standard Bank in London, said that Yanukovych's decision to use force against demonstrators on Wednesday would only escalate the crisis.

"The result of today's actions will be an even more confrontational situation on the ground," Ash said. "The opposition will dig in even more, demanding real changes in the administration." The crisis was deepened by Ukraine's troubled finances. The economy is teetering on the brink of default and Yanukovych has been scrambling to get funding either from the International Monetary Fund or From Russia.

Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels, and Laura Mills in Moscow contributed to this report.

Bosnian musician to help poor Roma study music

December 10, 2013

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia's most popular musician — a man whose international career has been built on music inspired by Balkan and Gypsy tunes — is searching for talented Roma children to help them get an education in music.

Goran Bregovic, a 63-year-old former rocker, started his quest Tuesday with a visit to Sarajevo's biggest Roma settlement of Gorica. That's the same name he has given his new foundation, which will provide scholarships to Roma kids who wish to study music but can't afford to.

"Roma are very talented in music but most have no education," Bregovic said. Centuries-old prejudices and hostilities against Roma, also called Gypsies, have turned them into Europe's most underprivileged minority. Nearly half of the tens of thousands of Roma in Bosnia are illiterate and most live in extreme poverty on the margins of society.

"I cannot solve their huge problems, but as a neighbor to a neighbor, I can try to help as much as I can," Bregovic said. That's why the residents of Gorica were so excited about his visit. "No public figure has ever done something like this for us," said Zineta Hasanovic, 58. "We are so grateful."

Hours ahead of the artist's arrival, some of Gorica's 100-plus residents started a barbeque. When the children screamed "He's here!" a band begun playing. Bregovic quickly grabbed a guitar and joined in.

A turkey someone brought to the party interrupted the singing when it escaped from the man holding it. The crowd chased the bird around the square, eventually locking it up in an old car, before continuing the song. A group of young dancers shivered for a bit in light costumes as someone searched for an extension cord to play their music.

All these glitches were accepted by residents with good humor. "(Roma have been) present in Europe for six or seven centuries and they have left a beautiful musical trace," Bregovic said, adding that many European composers — from Beethoven to Liszt — had been influenced by Gypsy music.

He urged others to also help Roma walk a path to a better life. "To light a path that leads somewhere, you need a lot of little lights," the artist said. "If the foundation manages to educate a few little Roma, those will be a few little lights on their path."

Police clash with protesters in Ukrainian capital

December 11, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Security forces clashed with protesters during an overnight stand-off that carried into Wednesday morning in the center of the Ukrainian capital, in an escalation of a crisis that threatens the leadership of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Several thousand police in riot gear used their shields to push back protesters and successfully removed some of the tents and barricades at a large protest camp. But thousands of protesters, their ranks swelling through the night, put up fierce resistance for hours, shoving back at the police lines to keep them away from key sites at the camp set up in Independence Square in downtown Kiev.

The protests began in late November when Yanukovych backed away from a pact that would deepen the former Soviet republic's economic ties with the 28-nation European Union - a pact that surveys showed was supported by nearly half the country's people. The agreement would make Ukraine more Western-oriented and represent a significant loss of face for Russia, which has either controlled or heavily influenced Ukraine for centuries.

Demonstrators, waving EU and Ukrainian flags and singing the national anthem, shouted "Shame! Shame!" and "We will stand." Many of the protesters, wearing orange construction hats to protect themselves from police truncheons, locked arms and simultaneously jumped up and down to stay warm in freezing December temperatures that plunged to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 Celsius).

Scuffles broke out between police and opposition lawmakers, one of whom laid down on the snow trying to block a vehicle from advancing on the camp. An Orthodox priest sang prayers, and a popular Ukrainian rock song with the lyrics "I will not give up without a fight" blared from loudspeakers over the square. Pop singer Ruslana kept up morale by singing the national anthem and cheering protesters from the stage.

One protester stripped to his waist in the frigid air, got down on his knees and shouted "Stop this ... We are one people!" Several demonstrators and police were injured in the scuffles and ambulances were seen on the square. But police appeared to be under orders to refrain from using excessive force, unlike the violent beatings of protesters in recent weeks. Some policemen helped injured activists up from the ground and moved them away. At least one tent caught fire after a metal barrel where a fire was burning to keep demonstrators warm overturned.

After some of the barricades and tents were dismantled, police and city workers began to remove debris with bulldozers. Policemen used what appeared to be chainsaws to clear the barricades. Kiev police said authorities were merely trying to clear the streets leading to Independence Square, but not to remove the main encampment, the Ukrainian Interfax news agency reported. Police said that several of the most active demonstrators were detained.

Meanwhile, scores of protesters remained barricaded inside the Kiev city hall building, which they had been occupying for weeks. They hosed down the steps leading to the entrance with water so police would slip on the ice if they attempted to storm the building.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strong statement, expressing the United States' "disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest ... with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity."

"This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy," said Kerry, urging authorities to show "utmost restraint" and protect human life. "As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets of Kyiv, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They deserve better."

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko, who is the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, urged Ukrainians to rush to the center of the capital to defend democracy. "We will say no to a police state, no to a dictatorship," he told protesters in the square.

Hundreds of people heeded his call, heading to Independence Square as Kiev residents organized on social networks to arrange carpools. Another top opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk told protesters that Yanukovych "has spat in the face of America, EU countries and 46 millions of Ukrainians and we will not forgive that."

The confrontation at the protest camp unfolded as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland were in the city to try to talk to the government and the opposition and work out a solution to defuse the crisis.

"The authorities didn't need to act under the coverage of night to engage with the society by using police," Ashton said in a statement after the police action started. "Dialogue with political forces and society and use of arguments is always better than the argument of force."

The protests are the biggest in the former Soviet republic since Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution. Those protests, also centered on Independence Square, known as the Maidan, succeeded in forcing the annulment of Yanukovych's fraud-tainted presidential victory in 2004, and ushered his pro-Western opponents into power. Yanukovych returned to the presidency in the 2010 vote, drawing on support from heavily industrialized eastern Ukraine where there are many Russian speakers.

Aiming to defuse the latest crisis, Yanukovych had called earlier Tuesday for the release of the demonstrators previously arrested in the protests and vowed that Ukraine is still interested in integrating with Europe.

His efforts, however, stopped far short of opposition demands that his government resign, and the two sides appeared no closer to a resolution that would chart out a secure future for their economically troubled nation.

Soon after Yanukovych spoke in a televised broadcast, Yatsenyuk told demonstrators at the square that the protest leaders were still insisting on their key demands: that Yanukovych dismiss the government, appoint a new one committed to signing an association agreement with the EU, release all the arrested protesters, and punish police who beat peaceful demonstrators.

Riot police have twice previously dispersed demonstrators with clubs and tear gas, beating some severely enough to send them to intensive care. Tim Ash, an emerging markets analyst with Standard Bank in London said that Yanukovych's decision to use force against demonstrators on Wednesday would only escalate the crisis.

"The result of today's actions will be an even more confrontational situation on the ground," Ash said. "The opposition will dig in even more, demanding real changes in the administration." The crisis was deepened by Ukraine's troubled finances. The economy is teetering on the brink of default and Yanukovych has been scrambling to get funding either from the International Monetary Fund or From Russia. With the West condemning his actions, he is likely to renew efforts to get Russian aid, which may prompt even more protests at home, Ash said.

Moscow has worked aggressively to derail the deal with the EU and lure Kiev into its own economic group by offering price discounts and loans as well as imposing painful trade restrictions.

Yuras Karmanau in Kiev and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.

Western envoys go to Kiev hoping to defuse crisis

December 10, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Top Western diplomats headed to Kiev Tuesday to try to defuse a stand-off between President Viktor Yanukovych's government and thousands of demonstrators, following a night in which police in riot gear dismantled protesters' encampments outside government buildings.

Demonstrators have occupied the Ukrainian capital for weeks opposing Yanukovych's decision to freeze ties with the European Union and tilt to Russia instead. Riot police in full gear flooded Kiev, confronting protesters through the night on snow-slicked streets, while a leading opposition party said heavily armed security forces broke into its offices and seized computer servers.

Yanukovych planned to meet on Tuesday with Ukraine's three former presidents in a search for a resolution to the crisis. An opposition leader, Oleh Tyanhybok, was quoted by Ukrainian media as saying several protesters were injured in one of the confrontations, in which police tore down small tent camps locking access to government buildings. There were no immediate official figures on injuries, but the incident appeared to be less violent than the club-swinging police dispersals of demonstrators a week and a half ago that galvanized anger.

The police moves on Monday and Tuesday were against encampments set up after Sunday's rally and no action was taken against the extensive main camp on Kiev's central Independence Square, where crowds gather around the clock.

The protests, in their third week, started after Yanukovych backed away from signing an agreement on deepening ties with the European Union, a pact that many Ukrainians desired in order to tilt West and lessen Russia's influence on the former Soviet republic.

Police violence against those demonstrations outraged many and drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets the past two Sundays, turnouts perhaps larger even than the mass protests of the 2004 Orange Revolution that forced a rerun of a fraudulent presidential election. On Sunday protesters also toppled a landmark statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in a symbolic defiance of Russian influence.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland were expected in Kiev Tuesday, set to meet with Yanukovych and the opposition. Yanukovych was also due to meet his three predecessors, including Viktor Yushchenko, who defeated Yanukovych in the election forced by the 2004 protests, and Leonid Kuchma, who as president opted against the use of force against Orange Revolution demonstrators.

The nighttime confrontations were tense and angry, but the rally on Independence Square retained an incongruous air of merriment. Hyperenergetic pop star Ruslana led an aerobic dance routine to warm the demonstrators against the minus 5 C (23 F) freeze and servers with trays of hot tea passed through the crowd.

On Monday night, Ostap Semerak of the Fatherland Party, told The Associated Press that troops broke into the party's offices, some climbing in through its windows. The troops left after confiscating some computer equipment, he said. An Associated Press reporter later saw broken glass and smashed computers in the offices. Party member Marina Soroka also said the troops surrounded and blockaded several opposition-minded Ukrainian media outlets, making their and other media websites inaccessible.

The Fatherland Party is headed by imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a longstanding foe of Yanukovych, and is the largest opposition grouping in the parliament. Critics say Tymoshenko's conviction on abuse of office charges was a case of political revenge.

Ukraine's political standoff has been aggravated by its rapidly deteriorating finances. The economy has been in recession for more than a year, and the government is in desperate need of foreign funding to avoid a default. As talks stalled with the International Monetary Fund, Yanukovych has sought a bailout loan from Russia.

Ukraine's east still backs closer ties with Russia

December 09, 2013

YENAKIYEVO, Ukraine (AP) — In the Ukrainian president's eastern hometown, the buildings are grimy with black soot from the surrounding coal mines. The air is thick with pollutants. The men here die young, sometimes from industrial accidents.

And residents have about had it with the protesters who have besieged Kiev, the capital, and its central square — the Maidan — for three weeks. "It's time to disperse the Maidan and force those sponges to work," said Alexei Dzhugastranskiy, a 46-year-old coal miner in Yenakiyevo. "While we are working at the mine and risking our lives, they are striking in Kiev and killing Ukraine."

The battle over Ukraine's future has deepened the divide between the western part of this nation of 46 million and its east, where most people still speak Russian, watch Russian television and see ties with their giant neighbor as essential for Ukraine's economic survival.

The protesters rose up against President Viktor Yanukovych after Nov. 21 when he spiked a deal for closer integration with the 28-nation European Union and decided to restore trade ties with Russia instead.

Hundreds of thousands have rallied in Kiev on the past two Sundays and some protesters have set up camp on Independence Square, known as the Maidan, to demand that Yanukovych step down. Opinion polls show that the EU is more popular among Ukrainians than Russia, and many fear that the country's hard-won independence will be crippled if it moves back too tightly into Russia's orbit.

But in eastern Ukraine, the country's industrial heartland, most people are openly resentful of the pro-Western protesters, many of whom are students. The Kremlin has exploited this deep east-west divide in its determined efforts to thwart the EU deal and keep Ukraine in its political and economic sphere of influence.

Yenakiyevo, a city of 100,000 in the Donetsk region, is home to nine coal mines, six of which are operational, along with a metallurgical plant and a coke plant. Outdated equipment and poor safety standards make Ukraine's coal mines among the most dangerous in the world. At Dzhugastranskiy's Soviet-era mine, which is named after Karl Marx, a 2008 accident took the lives of 13 miners.

Pollution levels in Donetsk often exceed the officially admissible limit several times over. The average life expectancy for men in the region is 57 years, compared to the national average of 66. The Donetsk region, which accounts for more than a quarter of Ukraine's budget revenues, depends on Russian markets and — most crucially — supplies of Russian natural gas.

"Depriving us of ties with Russia is like cutting off a leg," said 33-year-old Vladimir Toporov, a foreman at the Yenakiyevo metallurgical plant. "We won't be able to walk to Europe on one leg." Ukraine's political standoff has been aggravated by its rapidly deteriorating finances. The economy has been in recession for more than a year, and the government is in desperate need of foreign funding to avoid a default. As talks stalled with the International Monetary Fund, Yanukovych has sought a bailout loan from Russia.

Nikolai Zagoruiko, the head of the Donetsk branch of Yanukovych's Party of Regions, claims the proposed pact with the EU would have forced some the region's biggest mines and industrial plants to close, with major repercussions felt throughout the country.

"We would have had an explosion in society," he said. "And the students from the Maidan in Kiev, who haven't earned a single kopeck yet, would have become the first casualties of the EU." Donetsk is also home to Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, and other tycoons who have stood behind Yanukovych. Akhmetov funded the construction of Europe's biggest sports arena in the city of Donetsk, which hosted soccer games during last year's European championships.

Anti-government protests have taken place in many cities outside of Kiev, but in Donetsk, a city of 1 million, they have drawn only a few dozen people. "We are isolated," said Volga Sheiko, a 38-year-old attorney who took part in a recent anti-government protest. "We are talking about freedom, democracy and integration into Europe, but no one hears us. Even if there are some who support integration into the EU, they are simply afraid to say so out loud. It's not quite safe here in the east."

Yanukovych had assured the EU of his firm intention to sign the political association and free trade agreement, but abruptly changed his mind just a week before the scheduled signing in late November.

This was seen as a victory for Russia, which had imposed import bans on some Ukrainian goods and threatened further trade sanctions to demonstrate the damage Moscow could inflict on Ukraine's economy if Yanukovych signed the EU deal.

Russia also promised Ukraine a rebate on Russian natural gas supplies and other privileges if it agreed to join the Russia-dominated Customs Union, a trade bloc of former Soviet republics that includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

A meeting between Yanukovych and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week has raised fears that Ukraine is on the verge of joining the Customs Union, a step that would almost certainly enrage pro-EU Ukrainians and energize the protests in Kiev.

But in the east, most people see Russia as the partner of choice and heed the Kremlin's warnings that the EU pact would rupture trade ties with Russia and lead to economic collapse. "Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan are our brothers. Why should we leave them?" said Yuri Galaburda, a 43-year-old miner in the town of Ukrainsk.

Unlike Yenakiyevo, where most of the mines and plants are active, Ukrainsk has just one mine in operation. With about 10,000 residents, the town is half the size it used to be. Many of its Soviet-era apartment buildings are abandoned, their windows broken. Packs of stray dogs roam the streets.

Galaburda said the town had seen even worse times after the 2004 Orange Revolution protests that led to a pro-Western government in Kiev. "We are afraid that it could get worse," he said. "Under the Orange government, we weren't seeing any pay at all. Now life seems slowly to be getting better."

Riot police storm opposition offices in Ukraine

December 10, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Heavily armed riot troops broke into the offices of a top Ukrainian opposition party in Kiev and seized its servers Monday, the party said, as anti-government protests crippled the capital for yet another day.

Elsewhere police dismantled or blocked off several small protest tent camps set up near key national government buildings in the city. Tensions also rose as a double cordon of helmeted, shield-holding police deployed in the street near Kiev's city administration building, which demonstrators had occupied and turned into a makeshift command post and dormitory.

Early Tuesday, electricity to the building was cut off and occupiers began leaving, some carrying out blankets and other goods, expecting that police were preparing to storm the site. But a small crowd remained on the steps and in the street. About three hours later, the lights came back on and some of the protesters returned to occupy the building.

Also, many cellular phones in the area received a text message early Tuesday addressed to protesters reading in part "You are surrounded, there are no chances." The number from which the message was sent rang to an unidentified voicemail.

The moves came a day after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crammed into Kiev, the biggest in three weeks of protests that started when Ukraine's president backed away from signing a long -awaited pact to deepen ties with the 28-nation European Union.

Protesters are angered not only by the thwarting of their desire to become closer to the West and spin out of Russia's orbit, but also by police violence against the demonstrators. Club-swinging police have twice broken up protest rallies.

Ostap Semerak, a member of the Fatherland Parry, told The Associated Press that troops broke into the party's offices on Monday evening, some climbing in through its windows. "They are storming us. The images are insane," he said by telephone.

The troops left after confiscating some computer equipment, he said. An Associated Press reporter later saw broken glass and smashed computers in the offices. Party member Marina Soroka also said the troops surrounded and blockaded several opposition-minded Ukrainian media outlets, making their and other media websites inaccessible.

The party is headed by imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a longstanding foe of President Viktor Yanukovych, and is the largest opposition grouping in the parliament. Critics say Tymoshenko's conviction on abuse of office charges was a case of political revenge.

In a surprise move, Yanukovych announced he would sit down with three former Ukrainian presidents on Tuesday to discuss a way out of the crisis that has paralyzed the country. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also was heading to Ukraine to help defuse the tensions.

Ukraine's political standoff has been aggravated by its rapidly deteriorating finances. The economy has been in recession for more than a year, and the government is in desperate need of foreign funding to avoid a default. As talks stalled with the International Monetary Fund, Yanukovych has sought a bailout loan from Russia.

This former Soviet republic of 46 million people is sharply divided over the prospects of drawing closer to its powerful neighbor, Russia. Yanukovych's stronghold in eastern Ukraine, the country's industrial heartland, is dominated by Russian speakers who want closer ties to Russia, in contrast to Kiev's students and residents in the west who see better EU ties as the way forward.

Opinion polls, however, show that the EU is more popular among Ukrainians than Russia. Wearing helmets and holding shields, Ukrainian police surrounded three tent encampments outside the government and presidential offices in central Kiev on Monday night. Riot police also began removing barricades on the approach to the government building. Most protesters remained standing.

World boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko warned the authorities against any further escalation in tensions. "We are calling upon law enforcement to restrain from using force against peaceful demonstrators," he said as he tried to stop police from removing the tents.

A large protest test camp remained in place on Independence Square, the downtown plaza that is the epicenter of the protests. The square is a few hundred yards (meters) from the protester-occupied city administration building, which a court has ordered demonstrators to vacate by Monday.

The appearance of riot police nearby raised anxieties inside, and some of the hundreds of people inside left. But hundreds remained inside, armed with wood planks, metal rods and bottles of sunflower oil, hoping to make riot police slip if they advanced.

"We won't let anybody into the building," said Vasyl Khlopotaruk, one of the activists. "But we hope there isn't bloodshed." Some activists approached police lines, urging officers to come over to their side and even offering them food.

As tensions mounted, Yanukovych announced on his website that he would meet with Ukraine's three former presidents to discuss the situation: Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko. But at the same time, prosecutors called in several opposition leaders for questioning.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso dispatched EU foreign policy chief Ashton to Kiev on Tuesday, saying she will try to help defuse "the very tense solution that Ukraine is living today." Barroso praised the demonstrators, saying they are "writing the new narrative for Europe."

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt cautioned the government against using force. "Peaceful demonstrations must be allowed to continue," he wrote on Twitter. "Dialogue and non-violence key, world watching. Opportunity must not be lost."

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Yanukovych by phone Monday and urged him to defuse tensions and begin talks with opposition leaders, the White House said. The protests that erupted on Nov. 21 have had an anti-Russian bent because Moscow worked hard to derail the Ukraine-EU deal, issuing threats of trade consequences.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for Yanukovych's ouster poured into Kiev, toppling a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and blockading government buildings. Protesters on Monday vandalized another Lenin statue in the southern town of Kotovsk.

"Only the legs are left standing," town spokeswoman Yelena Khaustova told the AP.

Associated Press writer Maria Danilova contributed to this report.

Italy's new leader of left vows to back government

December 09, 2013

ROME (AP) — Italy's new leader of the Democratic Party, the government's biggest coalition partner, is pledging to back Premier Enrico Letta.

Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi met with Letta in Rome on Monday, a day after being elected the center-left party's head. Renzi has made no secret of his ambitions to become premier. His election as party secretary Sunday raised some concern he might make Letta's tenure at the helm of government difficult.

But Renzi dismissed fears he might sabotage the coalition. After he held talks with Letta, also a top Democratic Party leader, both men pledged in a statement to "work well together." Letta's 9-month-old coalition is trying to end Italy's stubborn recession. It also includes center-right forces formerly loyal to ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Uruguay OK's first national market for legal pot

December 11, 2013

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay has become the first country to create a national marketplace for legal marijuana, with the government regulating the production, sales and use of pot in a bold bid to control addiction and drug violence.

The Senate gave final legislative approval to the bill late Tuesday, and President Jose Mujica, who campaigned for the legislation, is expected to sign it into law. The 78-year-old president has said he wants the market to begin operating next year.
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"Today is an historic day. Many countries of Latin America, and many governments, will take this law as an example," Sen. Constanza Moreira, a member of the governing Broad Front coalition, said as the bill passed with 16 votes in favor and 13 against. Congress' lower house approved the measure in late July.

The groundbreaking legislation to create a government-run marijuana industry was opposed by two-thirds Uruguayans, recent opinion polls said. But Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla who spent years in jail as a younger man while others experimented with marijuana, went ahead with the legislation anyway. He argued the global drug war is a failure and said bureaucrats can do a better job of containing addictions and beating organized crime than police, soldiers and prison guards.

Uruguay's drug control agency will have 120 days, until mid-April, to draft regulations imposing state control over the entire market for marijuana, from seed to smoke. Everyone involved must be licensed and registered, with government monitors enforcing limits such as the 40 grams a month any adult will be able to buy at pharmacies for any reason or the six marijuana plants that license-holders will be allowed to grow at home.

A government ad campaign launched Friday warns of pot smoking's dangers to human health. "This is not liberalization of marijuana. It can be consumed within certain parameters established by law. I think it will reduce consumption," Sen. Luis Gallo, a retired doctor who favored the bill, told The Associated Press.

Opponents warned of the possible effects on health. Former Health Minister Alfredo Solari, a Colorado Party senator, worried the law will make it easier for children and adolescents to get their hands on pot. "The effects of this policy on public health will be terrible," he said.

The government got help from a national TV campaign and other lobbying efforts supporting by billionaire currency speculator and philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundation and Drug Policy Alliance. In September, Mujica met with Soros and billionaire David Rockefeller in New York to explain his legal-market plan.

These deep-pocketed connections drew criticism from the president's opponents. "I would say to Mr. Soros, to Mr. Rockefeller, and to the president of the republic that you don't experiment with the Uruguayans. We are not guinea pigs," Colorado Party Sen. Pedro Bordaberry said Tuesday.

Hannah Hetzer, a lobbyist for the Alliance who moved to Montevideo for the campaign, watched closely from the Senate gallery. "Uruguay is seeking an alternative to a failed model. I think that this is the beginning of the end of a prohibitionist model and the beginning of a more intelligent focus," she said.

Associated Press writer Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

Uruguay's legal pot plan on verge of adoption

December 10, 2013

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's plan to set up a legal, regulated marijuana market has reached its final legislative stage, with the Senate expected to approve the plan by late Tuesday and send it to President Jose Mujica for his signature.

Senators prepared for a long day and night of speeches after debate begins Tuesday morning. The body is dominated by Mujica's ruling Broad Front coalition, which wants to make Uruguay the world's first nation to put the government at the center of a legalized marijuana trade.

Congress' lower house already passed it, and the Senate rejected all proposed amendments, so Senate passage would put the law on the desk of Mujica, who is one of the plan's biggest boosters despite saying he's never tried pot himself.

"This is a plague, just like cigarettes are a plague," Mujica told reporters recently. Polls say two-thirds of Uruguayans oppose the plan, despite a national TV campaign and other lobbying efforts funded by billionaire currency speculator and philanthropist George Soros, whose Open Society Foundation and Drug Policy Alliance campaigned for the proposal.

Hannah Hetzer, a lobbyist for the Alliance, moved to Montevideo for the campaign, and celebrated the Senate's expected passage. "It's about time that we see a country bravely break with the failed prohibitionist model and try an innovative, more compassionate, and smarter approach," she said in a statement Monday night.

Mujica says the goal is to get organized crime out of marijuana dealing, not to promote the use of pot. The government hopes that when licensed growers, providers and users can openly trade in the drug, illegal traffickers will be denied their profits and go away.

During its hearings, the Senate Health Commission received extensive arguments from educators, psychiatrists and pharmacists urging it to back away from the plan. Psychiatrists predicted a rise in mental illness. Pharmacists said selling pot alongside prescription drugs would harm their professional image.

Marijuana's negative impact on learning is well known, and "is related to educational failure, behavioral problems and depressive symptoms," teacher Nestor Pereira testified, representing the National Public Education Administration.

But Senate committees sent the proposal for a floor vote without changes, hoping to avoid a return trip to the lower chamber, where it passed by a single vote. Socialist Deputy Julio Bango, who co-authored the proposal, told The Associated Press: "This is not a law to liberalize marijuana consumption, but rather to regulate it. Today there is a market dominated by drug traffickers. We want the state to dominate it."

The project includes a media campaign, launched Friday, aimed at reducing pot smoking by warning of its dangers to human health. Uruguay's drug czar, Julio Calzada, said no pharmacist or other business will be forced to sell the drug.

Calzada said his office will have 120 days to craft regulations following adoption. Mujica pledged that his government will work through the traditional southern summer holidays to make the rules as precise as possible.

"There will be much to discuss and to work on. We'll spend the summer working. There's nothing magic about this," the president said. As for concerns that Uruguay could become a mecca for marijuana tourism, Mujica stressed that the measure would restrict the legal sale of pot only to licensed and registered Uruguayan adults.

Marijuana grower Marcelo Vazquez told the AP he can't wait to pay taxes on the weed he's grown illegally for 20 years. After repeated police raids and arrests, he's optimistic. He has a greenhouse of marijuana plants growing outside Montevideo and is thinking about creating a business catering to licensed growers who lack space in their own homes.

"This is a huge opportunity and we have to take advantage of it," Vazquez said. "My lifelong dream has been to legally cultivate marijuana, and to live off this, to pay my taxes."

Violence kills 7 as Argentina celebrates democracy

December 11, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Many Argentines armed and barricaded themselves in their homes and stores in fear of looting mobs Tuesday as the nation's celebration of 30 years of uninterrupted democracy was marred by police strikes for higher pay.

Politicians struggled to assert their authority over security forces even as they agreed to salary increases so steep that many provinces won't be able to pay their debts at month's end, adding stress to an economy already suffering from 25 percent inflation.

President Cristina Fernandez sought to contain the crisis Tuesday night, charging that anti-democratic elements were trying to undo Argentina's hard-won gains. "We must condemn the extortion of those who carry arms to defend society," she declared.

The speech was her first response to a weeklong series of provincial police strikes. As officers abandoned their posts, and in some cases allegedly encouraged violence to pressure authorities, many of Argentina's 23 provinces have endured long nights of chaos as roving groups smashed through storefronts and fought over the merchandise inside.

Hospital and political authorities said at least seven people had been killed, including a police officer in northern Chaco province who was struck by a bullet below his protective vest Tuesday and a store owner whose burned body was found last week in his looted and torched market in Buenos Aires province.

The others allegedly died while looting. One young man was electrocuted while stealing from an appliance store in a rainstorm. Another fell off a motorcycle while carting off a television. A third died in a fistfight over stolen goods inside a ruined store.

Hundreds have been injured and thousands of businesses damaged in the scattered violence. While most officers were back at work after securing new deals, police uprisings continued Tuesday in several cities. Commerce has been shut down in many places, and even some public hospitals have turned away non-emergency patients for fear of being looted.

With consumer prices soaring, Argentines are accustomed to annual labor protests in which workers threaten chaos if they don't get their way. But strikes by armed police are more ominous in a country where social chaos, police crackdowns and spiraling violence ushered in the 1976 military coup and a world-record debt default in 2001.

"This was executed and planned with surgical precision," Fernandez said in her speech marking the end of the last military junta. She claimed many people became unwitting instruments of extortion by police who "liberated" areas where looting could happen.

"We have promoted the integration of the armed forces into democratic processes, and the same must be done with provincial police, once and for all," she said. To free up cash for the raises, her Cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, announced a three-month delay in payments most Argentine provinces owe this month to the federal government on debts refinanced two years ago.

For their part, police complained that their unions aren't legally recognized, leaving them ill-equipped to negotiate for cost of living adjustments. "There are police who are in extreme poverty," said Salvador Barratta, who runs an unofficial union of police and prison guards. "Here we police are second-class citizens."

Human rights groups warned against giving in too easily to the security forces' demands. The deal Buenos Aires Gov. Daniel Scioli reached with rebellious officers Monday night includes an amnesty for rule-breaking officers, making them eligible for 14,000 promised promotions this month that will raise salaries far above the base pay he promised. The deal also lets officers who retired on 90 percent pay to return to work at twice their old salaries.

"The weapons given to security forces to protect citizens' life and property cannot be used to force decisions by constitutional powers," warned the human rights group Center for Legal and Social Studies. "We think it's urgent that the security forces stop intensifying the violence and feeding incidents that pose very high risks to our society and its institutions."

Tuesday marked three decades since President Raul Alfonsin's inauguration ended the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Fernandez invited all political parties to assemble on a huge stage in front of the presidential palace for a long night of speeches and music to celebrate democracy's consolidation.

The late president's son, legislator Ricardo Alfonsin, and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri both said the party should be called off, given the potential for another night of violence. Alfonsin called for "all political sectors to commit together to defend the democracy and its institutions."

The event went on as scheduled, however, and shortly after the president spoke, word spread that deals had been struck with police in Tucuman and Santa Fe, two of the last provinces where officers were holding out for higher pay.

Still, even governors who restored calm by agreeing to steep police pay raises days earlier seemed wary of declaring victory. Strikes by public health workers are spreading, and other public employees are clamoring for raises, too.

Gov. Jose de la Sota, who effectively doubled police salaries in Cordoba to about $1,915 a month at the official exchange rate, said governors should agree on single national pay scale to avoid more trouble.

Entre Rios Gov. Sergio Urribarri accused officers of "sedition, a crime against the democratic system."

Police strikes, mob rule testing Argentine cities

December 10, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Mobs of looters are swarming into the streets of more cities across Argentina as police officers abandon their posts in spreading copycat strikes called to pressure provincial governors into raising their pay.

While officers gather outside negotiating sessions, people are smashing storefronts and hauling out anything they can carry, from mattresses to baby carriages to beer. One group of six men in rural Tucuman province hauled an entire freezer unit from an ice cream store and loaded it onto a donkey cart.

The death toll climbed to at least five by Monday — four suspected looters and one shop owner, who died inside his market after a mob set it on fire. Hundreds of people have been injured, and thousands of stores and homes robbed as the violence spread to at least 19 of Argentina's 23 provinces.

As a heat wave raised tempers in the southern hemisphere summer, banks, supermarkets, retail businesses and public transportation shut down in many cities. President Cristina Fernandez was silent, but her Cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, described the crimes as "treason" aimed at creating a sense of chaos on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Argentina's return to democracy.

Tuesday marks three decades since the swearing-in of President Raul Alfonsin ended Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship, and a huge stage constructed in front of the government palace in Buenos Aires awaited a celebration to which all political parties were invited and expected to attend.

But the late president's son, legislator Ricardo Alfonsin, said the event should probably be postponed, "given what's happening in the country." "I wonder if it wouldn't be healthier to take advantage of this formal act of memory and have the government and all political sectors commit together to defend the democracy and its institutions and work without speculations to ensure domestic peace," Alfonsin said.

The government sent federal security forces to hot spots, and prosecutors were put on alert to build criminal cases against looters. Justice Minister Julio Alak warned that people coordinating violence through social networks would be charged.

Many called the surge of strikes and violence "the Cordoba effect" — for the city where looting first erupted last week after provincial police refused to leave their quarters until their pay was raised to match inflation.

Gov. Jose de la Sota, a Fernandez rival, settled the walkout by effectively doubling police salaries to 12,000 pesos a month, or about $1,915 at the official exchange rate. Officers elsewhere took notice and began staging their own walkouts, leaving citizens around the country undefended.

As the violence kept spreading Monday, even close presidential allies struggled to find money for police earning base salaries of less than 6,000 pesos ($960) a month. Two people died in the initial violence in Cordoba. Firefighters then found a shopkeeper's body in the burned wreckage of his store in Almirante Brown, in Buenos Aires province, where Fernandez loyalist Gov. Daniel Scioli appealed for calm. The fourth and fifth victims were young men who were inside stores being looted in Entre Rios and Jujuy provinces.

Most Buenos Aires officers agreed to a raise that brought entry-level salaries up to what Scioli called a "fair and reasonable" 8,570 pesos ($1400), but some were still on strike Monday night holding out for 12,500 pesos.

With consumer prices rising at more than 25 percent a year, other public employees were aiming to get raises, too. Public health workers were preparing actions in a dozen provinces, their union said.

World leaders to speak at massive Mandela memorial

December 09, 2013

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — An eclectic mix of world leaders including President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro will eulogize Nelson Mandela before a crowd of nearly 100,000 mourners at a massive memorial service Tuesday in the World Cup soccer stadium where the anti-apartheid champion made his last public appearance.

"What a fantastic gift God gave to us in this Mandela, who quickly became an icon, a global icon of forgiveness, of generosity of spirit," Archbishop Desmond Tutu told a gathering Monday at the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory.

"He really was like a magician with a magic wand, turning us into this glorious, multi-colored, rainbow people." Nearly 100 world leaders and tens of thousands of South Africans of all races and backgrounds were expected to pay their respects to the man who bridged this nation's black-white divide at the FNB stadium in Soweto — a locale heavy in symbolism as the black township that was at the center of the violent struggle against apartheid.

The 95,000-capacity soccer venue was also the spot where Mandela made his last public appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2010 World Cup. His body will then lie in state for three days at the Union Buildings in Pretoria — once the seat of white power — before burial Sunday in his rural childhood village of Qunu in Eastern Cape Province.

South African authorities rushed Monday to deal with the complex security, logistical and protocol challenges of hosting what promised to be one of the largest and most prominent gatherings of world dignitaries in generations. Besides Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were to attend Tuesday's memorial, along with Laura Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

At the stadium, workers busily constructed a stage protected by bulletproof glass and police promised "thousands" of officers would secure the stadium. Still, security appeared lax Monday as the owner of a private security company scrambled to hire guards for Tuesday's event, using his car as a mobile office.

George Mathabe, manager of the Sidas security company, said 1,500 guards would be on duty Tuesday. "I'm doing this from the bottom of my heart, just to thank Tata," Mathabe said, using the Xhosa word for father as an endearment for Mandela, who died Thursday at the age of 95.

"My son is coming tomorrow as a visitor too. He's going to live in a free country. He's going to be able to do whatever he likes, thanks to Tata." Mourners were already camped out Monday to be the first ones inside the Soweto stadium, where roads were to be closed for several square miles Tuesday. Authorities expect overflow crowds to watch a live broadcast of the event at nearby stadiums.

Officers will direct traffic, protect mourners and assist the bodyguards of visiting dignitaries, said Lt. Gen. Solomon Makgale, a spokesman for the South African Police Service. "We will be on hand to make sure people are able to grieve in a safe environment," Makgale told The Associated Press.

"Whether we have 10 heads of state coming, or 70 or 100, we do have the capacity and plans in place to facilitate their movement," he said. Besides Obama and Raul Castro, eulogies were to be delivered by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao. Other speakers include the presidents of Brazil, Namibia and India, as well as tributes from Mandela's grandchildren. South African President Jacob Zuma is to give the keynote address.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, French President Francois Hollande and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the prime ministers of Canada, Italy and Australia were among the nearly 100 heads of state, government and ministers who have confirmed their attendance, the government said.

The predicted turnout brought comparisons to the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II, which drew dignitaries from more than 80 countries, as well as a crowd of 300,000 people who filled St. Peter's Square. Millions of others watched on giant video screens set up across Rome.

Though security remains a concern, an AP reporter walked unsearched into the stadium Monday by showing only a national press card issued in Europe. It took about three minutes before a security officer asked journalists to leave the field, though reporters freely roamed stadium aisles to watch the ongoing stage construction.

South Africa's parliament held a special session Monday in honor of Mandela. Kgalema Motlanthe, the country's deputy president and a member of Mandela's African National Congress, opened the proceedings with a speech describing how the former leader's death caused a "sweeping feeling of sorrow" around the world.

"He belongs to all humanity," Motlanthe said. "Mandela's ideals saturate the face of the Earth." Helen Zille, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance political party, said South Africa inherited "an enormous responsibility" from Mandela.

"He has handed the baton to us and we dare not drop it," she said.

Associated Press writers Christopher Torchia in Cape Town, South Africa, Julie Pace in Washington and Ray Faure in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

2 French soldiers die in Central African Republic

December 10, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Two French soldiers were killed in combat in Central African Republic's capital, President Francois Hollande's office announced Tuesday, the first French casualties since he ordered a stepped-up military presence in the restive former colony to help quell inter-religious violence.

The presidential Elysee Palace, in a statement, provided no details about the killings in Bangui late Monday other than that they died during France's mission to restore security, protect civilians, and ensure access for humanitarian groups in the impoverished country.

French officials have warned of the dangers of the enhanced military mission alongside African Union troops, authorized under a muscular mandate approved last week by the United Nations Security Council. France's defense minister has warned militia groups to disarm peacefully — or French troops will do it by force.

The announcement of the deaths came shortly after the presidential palace said Hollande would travel to Central African Republic on Tuesday after attending a memorial in South Africa to Nelson Mandela.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French forces were conducting patrols by foot and vehicle through the dusty streets of Bangui. At one point, they intervened to pull away a Muslim man, who claimed to be a merchant, from a mob that accused him of being a rebel leader.

Muslim rebels known as Seleka overthrew the government of this majority Christian nation nine months ago. Bouts of violence in Central African Republic took an especially bloody turn last week with more than 400 deaths in two days of violence between Christians and Muslims. World leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama have called for calm.

C. African Republic mobs launch sectarian attacks

December 09, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Dozens of young men stood waiting for storm clouds to pass, as wind stirred up swirls of red dust on the largely deserted street in Central African Republic's capital. Through the drizzle, they spotted a man in a flowing white robe traditionally worn by Muslims, hand-in-hand with his adolescent son.

The style of dress was enough to confirm that this was their enemy. Hungry for revenge, the crowd descended upon the pair. The man's terrified son broke away, and fled on foot, abandoning his father as the knife-wielding mob clutched the middle-aged man.

Muslim rebels known as Seleka overthrew the government of this majority Christian nation nine months ago, sparking mounting sectarian violence that prompted former colonizer France last week to deploy troops to Bangui in an effort to stop the bloodshed.

In a city where more than 400 people died last week in two days of tit-for-tat violence between Christians and Muslims, it was clear Monday there is still enough pent-up rage left that a crowd will try to kill a man on sight.

The angry mob insisted their victim served as a general in the rebel movement accused of carrying out atrocities against the nation's Christian population, including tying victims together and throwing them off bridges to drown. "Seleka! Seleka! Seleka!" screamed the men as they encircled the Muslim man in a tornado of anger.

In this case, French forces intervened just in time, firing into the air as a warning. "I am a merchant! I am a merchant!," the man cried as the French pulled him away, his back covered in dirt and his gown ripped off. His tearful son came back, his white shirt covered in blood, and the French ferried them to safety.

Other Muslims were not as fortunate. In the Benzvi neighborhood, a mob descended upon two ex-Seleka leaders leaving their home Monday afternoon. One got away. The crowd took up the only weapons they had against the other, witnesses said.

"People picked up rocks from the ground and stoned him to death," said Junior Dagdag, 28, pointing to the pool of blood and stones in the middle of the road, where the victim's car burned and smoke plumed into the sky. "Some brought his body to the hospital while others set his car on fire."

The latest round of violence began Thursday, when armed Christian fighters who oppose the ex-Seleka forces in power attacked the capital and were later repelled by the ex-rebels. The French ambassador to the U.N., Gerard Araud, said a "modicum of law and order" had been restored in Bangui. Some 1,600 French forces are on the ground.

On Monday, they set about the work of disarming the rebels and the militias that have sprung up to counter them. Col. Gilles Jaron, a French military spokesman in Paris, said all armed groups on the ground have been told that only police and gendarmes are allowed to carry arms and wear uniforms. Seleka rebels have been told to return to their barracks in central Bangui and leave their arms there. Anyone still roaming the streets with a weapon will be disarmed, Jaron said.

He would not say how long the process would take. During the day, French helicopters buzzed overhead while dozens of military vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, snaked through neighborhoods where tensions ran high. French forces came under attack near the airport but the area was later secured.

In Washington, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed the U.S. Africa Command to begin transporting 850 troops from Burundi in coordination with France because the U.S. believes immediate action is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.

Since the country has no police and no real national army, fed-up Christians sought to enforce the law themselves, chasing anyone they suspected as being part of Seleka — even in civilian clothing — off of the streets.

Emmanuel Yakanga, 53, a Christian, said he walked by a group of Christians harassing some men they accused of being Seleka and that he understands their anger. Even as ex-Seleka elements promised to disarm and hand over their weapons to the French, Christian neighborhoods are coming under attack nightly, he said. Yakanga's 17-year-old niece was fatally shot on Thursday, he said.

"This talk of disarmament is merely superficial. They're just going to keep their weapons elsewhere," Yakanga said of the ex-Seleka. In the months since he seized power, it has become clear that President Michel Djotodia wields little control over the rebels who now see themselves as the country's national army. Over the weekend, Djotodia acknowledged his lack of power, telling reporters that not even "an angel from the sky" could govern his troubled nation now.

Central African Republic has suffered decades of dictatorship, coups and rebellions that have kept the diamond-rich country in many ways frozen in time since its independence from France in 1960. Life expectancy was a mere 48 years even before the latest humanitarian crisis, and aid officials warn an untold number of people forced to flee deep into the bush are dying of malaria and other illnesses.

The latest spasm of violence, however, is horrific even by the standards of the broken nation. As Muslims came under attack across the city, a Christian man in another part of the capital nearly lost his life to a fearful and angry Muslim mob.

Crowds said they spotted Sincere Banyodi, 32, as he made his way through the Kokoro 3 neighborhood and feared he was a member of the Christian militia known as anti-balaka, which has carried out massacres of Muslim civilians.

"This guy was walking through our neighborhood with two grenades. We asked him where he was from and he couldn't tell us. The people caught him and attacked him, but then decided to turn him over to the French instead of killing him," said Ali Moussa Terab, who was standing in the crowd.

Banyodi, who was identified by a friend, sat with pieces of cloth tied around his machete wounds on both arms, his pants soaked in blood. He said nothing, not responding to questions as he sat alone in front of a cluster of shops. Half a dozen armed French forces kept the large crowd swirling nearby at bay.

Even as French troops patrolled, some residents said they doubted the intervention would hold. Muslim resident Abdel Wahid, 32, and his friends said they heard rumors the Christian militia fighters were regrouping in the countryside. Despite the clear danger on the streets, they said, this was the calm before the storm.

"Why should Seleka have to turn over their weapons? They are the national army," Wahid said. "After the French leave, things will explode."

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Doha, Qatar, and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this story.

Thai democracy enters dangerous new crossroads

December 11, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Protesters waging a surreal political fight to oust Thailand's elected prime minister are trying to establish what amounts to a parallel government — one complete with "security volunteers" to replace the police, a foreign policy of their own and a central committee that has already begun issuing audacious orders.

Among the most brazen: a demand Tuesday that caretaker premier Yingluck Shinawatra be prosecuted for "insurrection," and another calling on the public to "closely monitor" her family's movements. Leading academics have slammed the scheme as undemocratic and unconstitutional. Critics have called its leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, delusional. But the ex-lawmaker's bid to seize power is backed by many in Bangkok and could become reality if the military or the judiciary intervenes, as they have in the past. Analysts say this Southeast Asian nation is at a dangerous new crossroads that could drag on, and end with more bloodshed.

"This is a combustible situation. We cannot have two governments in Bangkok running Thailand," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of Chulalongkorn's Institute of Security and International Studies. "Something will have to give."

Yingluck is desperate to end weeks of political unrest that has killed five people and wounded nearly 300 more. On Monday, she dissolved the lower house of Parliament and called for elections, now set for Feb. 2. But neither move defused the crisis, and a 150,000-strong crowd pressed on with a massive march against her in Bangkok.

Yingluck said Tuesday she would not resign despite a nighttime deadline issued by Suthep. But there was no hiding the nation's precarious state. Asked how she was holding up, tears welled in Yingluck's eyes.

"I have retreated as far as I can," she said, just before turning and walking quickly away. The protesters accuse Yingluck's government of abuse of power and say her party has used its electoral majority to impose its will on a minority. They say Yingluck is merely a proxy for her billionaire brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail time for a corruption conviction but still wields immense influence from abroad.

Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 army coup that laid bare a deeper societal conflict. On one side are Thailand's largely urban upper and middle classes, who along with staunch royalists want to end the Shinawatra family's grip on power. On the other side are the rural poor, who back the Shinawatras because they benefited policies that have brought them everything from electricity to free healthcare.

The coup triggered years of political upheaval and dramatic changes in government have underscored the power of Bangkok's elite. Controversial judicial rulings removed two pro-Thaksin prime ministers in 2008, one of whom never set foot in his Government House office: He worked for 10 weeks out of the VIP lounge of the capital's old airport until protesters evicted him from there, too. The same year, army-backed parliamentary maneuvering allowed the opposition Democrat Party — a minority that has not won an election for more than two decades — to take power for several years.

Yingluck led the ruling Pheu Thai Party to victory in 2011 elections. But anger against her government swelled after the lower house passed an amnesty bill that would have allowed Thaksin to return without going to jail. The measure was rejected in the upper house, and Yingluck has said it will not be revived.

Protesters say Pheu Thai lost its right to rule because of its support of the amnesty bill and other legislation they oppose. Yingluck and other members of her party say the constitution does not allow her to resign before elections are held — a ballot both sides know Pheu Thai would win.

Suthep, the protest leader, said late Tuesday that as of now, "there is no government." He said his People's Democratic Reform Committee would nominate a new prime minister to fill the vacuum, although it has no legal authority to do so.

The bespectacled 64-year-old career politician also ordered the head of police to order all his forces to return their posts within 12 hours and said soldiers should take responsibility for protecting government offices.

Government spokesman Teerat Ratanasevi dismissed the threats, telling The Associated Press on Wednesday: "We confirm that we are still the government. We are still running the country and things are normal."

Suthep had laid out other details of his plan Monday. Citing a clause in the constitution stating that "the highest power is the sovereign power of the people," he claimed his movement was assuming some government functions and called on civil servants to report to it.

He said a new constitution would be written that would ban populist policies, bar corruption convictions from being pardoned and ensure that "a single party cannot control things." He also said the movement will "fully respect our sovereign obligations and maintain good relations with all states and international organizations."

The reality, for now, is that no parallel government exists, and that protesters hold less ground than they did at the weekend. Ahead of Monday's march, they withdrew from the Finance Ministry and part of a vast government complex they had occupied for a week.

Still, Thitinan said, the momentum is on the side of Suthep, whose uprising has already triggered the legislature's dissolution and reduced Yingluck's power. The government is "at a disadvantage because they're not backed by the establishment and the powerful people in Bangkok," Thitinan said. The army has vowed neutrality, but when push comes to shove, they will side with the protesters, he said.

Thitinan said Suthep is "a front man for larger forces behind him, for the powers that be" among the elite. He said they want to "seize the reins of government because they want to preside over the transition ... we're talking about the monarchy, the succession, the constitution, the entire future of Thailand."

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, has suffered health problems for years, and anxiety over his health has grown in tandem with the country's deepening political divide. Thaksin, the ousted premier, was accused of disrespecting the king, in part by trying to curry favor with Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, the heir to the throne.

Thitinan added, however, that if Yingluck is deposed, her supporters "will come back to the streets" just as they did in 2010, when pro-Thaksin "red shirt" protesters erected bamboo barricades around a vast swath of the capital's glitziest shopping district and occupied it for two months.

A brutal army crackdown eventually dispersed the crowds, but not before more than 90 people were killed and the city's skyline was engulfed in flames. Suthep, who was deputy premier at the time, ordered the crackdown and is facing murder charges for his role in it. He also faces an arrest warrant — for insurrection.

The army and the courts have had opportunities to dislodge Yingluck's government but have not taken them. The conflict is likely to "go on and on until all sides sit down and negotiate a compromise," said Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee, a political science professor in Bangkok.

"That's going to take a long, long time," she said. "There is no easy way out."

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker, Grant Peck, Papitchaya Boonngok, Sinfah Tunsarawuth and Jinda Wedel contributed to this report.

Orbital Sciences Names Next Private Space Station Freighter for NASA Astronaut

by Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor
December 09, 2013

The next U.S. private spacecraft to fly to the International Space Station has been named for Gordon Fullerton, the late NASA astronaut who helped to deploy air-launched rockets built by the company behind the space freighter.

Orbital Sciences Corp. is preparing to launch its second Cygnus unmanned spacecraft to the station Dec. 18 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The flight will be the first of eight resupply missions the company will fly under a $1.9 billion contract with the space agency.

Orbital launched its first Cygnus spacecraft in September on a demonstration mission that proved it could safely fly the unmanned freighter to the orbiting outpost. Continuing a 25-year company tradition, Orbital's officials named their maiden Cygnus after someone who played an early role in its success.

"We named our first Cygnus spacecraft to go to the space station the G. David Low, in honor of a former astronaut, a classmate of mine and former Orbital employee who was involved in the early days of COTS [Commercial Orbital Transportation Services] from the very beginning and who we lost a few years ago unfortunately," Frank Culbertson, Orbital executive vice president and former astronaut, said in a media briefing. "We were very proud to name that one the G. David Low."

"Our next one, to continue the tradition, will be named for C. Gordon Fullerton," Culbertson said. "Gordo, as most of us knew him, was a two-time shuttle pilot, a long-time test pilot and research pilot at Dryden, but his connection with Orbital was that he was the pilot of the B-52 [swept-wing heavy bomber jet] that dropped our Pegasus [air-launched rocket] several times."

Fullerton's flights

Charles Gordon Fullerton died Aug. 21, three years after suffering a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He was 76.

After flying Enterprise, NASA's original prototype orbiter, on atmospheric test flights, Fullerton launched into space twice. He piloted the shuttle's third mission in 1982 and, three years later, was serving as commander when a main engine shutdown ended in the shuttle's only inflight abort.

Fullerton followed up his 16 days orbiting the Earth with 22 years of service as a NASA research pilot. It was in this capacity that he worked with Orbital Sciences.

Before developing Cygnus and the Antares rocket, Orbital Sciences introduced the Pegasus in 1990 as the first commercially-developed launch vehicle. Used to deploy small satellites, the winged Pegasus' first stage is an aircraft, initially the B-52 and today, the L-1011 commercial transport.

Fullerton flew NASA's NB-52B aircraft from Dryden Flight Research Center in California on the first six air launches of the Pegasus. When Orbital transitioned to using the L-1011, he switched to tracking the rocket in flight.

"Gordo was happy about that because he could fly the F-18 [jet] and not the heavy in order to chase our launches," Culbertson said. "So it is going to be an honor to name the December flight of Cygnus after C. Gordon Fullerton and continue that tradition."

Spaceship C. Gordon Fullerton

According to Orbital, the launch of Spaceship C. Gordon Fullerton is scheduled for approximately 9:42 p.m. EST on Dec. 18 (0242 GMT Dec. 19). Work to mate the Cygnus to the Antares rocket is scheduled for this week.

Assuming an on-time liftoff, the space freighter will arrive at the station on Dec. 21, where the Expedition 38 crew will use the outpost's robotic arm to capture and attach the barrel-shaped spacecraft on the side of Harmony node.

For this mission, Commercial Resupply Services-1 (CRS-1), the Cygnus will loft approximately 3,217 pounds (1,459 kg) of science equipment, spare parts and supplies to the space station for NASA.

The Spaceship C. Gordon Fullerton is planned to remain berthed at the station for 42 days, during which time the resident crew will unload the Cygnus of its cargo and then reload it with refuse for disposal. At the end of its stay, the freighter will depart the space station and be purposely destroyed while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.

Source: SPACE.com.
Link: http://www.space.com/23887-private-space-cargo-ship-astronaut-name.html.

MRO Reveals A More Dynamic Red Planet

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Dec 11, 2013

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed to scientists slender dark markings -- possibly due to salty water - that advance seasonally down slopes surprisingly close to the Martian equator.

"The equatorial surface region of Mars has been regarded as dry, free of liquid or frozen water, but we may need to rethink that," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson, principal investigator for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

Tracking how these features recur each year is one example of how the longevity of NASA orbiters observing Mars is providing insight about changes on many time scales.

Researchers at the American Geophysical Union meeting Tuesday in San Francisco discussed a range of current Martian activity, from fresh craters offering glimpses of subsurface ice to multi-year patterns in the occurrence of large, regional dust storms.

The seasonally changing surface flows were first reported two years ago on mid-latitude southern slopes. They are finger-like features typically less than 16 feet (5 meters) wide that appear and extend down steep, rocky slopes during spring through summer, then fade in winter and return the next spring. Recently observed slopes stretch as long as 4,000 feet (1,200 meters).

McEwen and co-authors reported the equatorial flows at the conference and in a paper published online Tuesday by Nature Geoscience. Five well-monitored sites with these markings are in Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system in the solar system.

At each of these sites, the features appear on both north- and south-facing walls. On the north-facing slopes, they are active during the part of the year when those slopes get the most sunshine. The counterparts on south-facing slopes start flowing when the season shifts and more sunshine hits their side.

"The explanation that fits best is salty water is flowing down the slopes when the temperature rises," McEwen said. "We still don't have any definite identification of water at these sites, but there's nothing that rules it out, either."

Dissolved salts can keep water melted at temperatures when purer water freezes, and they can slow the evaporation rate so brine can flow farther.

This analysis used data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and the Context Camera on the MRO as well as the Thermal Emission Imaging System experiment on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

Water ice has been identified in another dynamic process researchers are monitoring with MRO. Impacts of small asteroids or bits of comets dig many fresh craters on Mars every year.

Twenty fresh craters have exposed bright ice previously hidden beneath the surface. Five were reported in 2009. The 15 newly reported ones are distributed over a wider range of latitudes and longitudes.

"The more we find, the more we can fill in a global map of where ice is buried," said Colin Dundas of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz.

"We've now seen icy craters down to 39 degrees north, more than halfway from the pole to the equator. They tell us that either the average climate over several thousand years is wetter than present or that water vapor in the current atmosphere is concentrated near the surface. Ice could have formed under wetter conditions, with remnants from that time persisting today, but slowly disappearing."

Mars' modern climate becomes better known each year because of a growing set of data from a series of orbiters that have been studying Mars continually since 1997.

That has been almost nine Martian years because a year on Mars is almost two years long on Earth. Earlier missions and surface landers have added insight about the dynamics of Mars' atmosphere and its interaction with the ground.

"The dust cycle is the main driver of the climate system," said Robert Haberle of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

One key question researchers want to answer is why dust storms encircle Mars in some years and not in others. These storms affect annual patterns of water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, freezing into polar ice caps in winter and replenishing the atmosphere in spring. Identifying significant variations in annual patterns requires many Martian years of observations.

The data emerging from long-term studies will help future human explorers of Mars know where to find resources such as water, how to prepare for hazards such as dust storms, and where to be extra careful about contamination with Earth microbes.

Launched in 2005, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its six instruments have provided more high-resolution data about the Red Planet than all other Mars orbiters combined. Data are made available for scientists worldwide to research, analyze and report their findings.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/MRO_Reveals_A_More_Dynamic_Red_Planet_999.html.

NASA Developing Legs for ISS Robonaut 2

Washington DC (SPX)
Dec 11, 2013

NASA engineers are developing climbing legs for the International Space Station's robotic crewmember Robonaut 2 (R2), marking another milestone in space humanoid robotics.

The legless R2, currently attached to a support post, is undergoing experimental trials with astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory. Since its arrival at the station in February 2011, R2 has performed a series of tasks to demonstrate its functionality in microgravity.

These new legs, funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates, will provide R2 the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside and outside the space station. The goal is to free up the crew for more critical work, including scientific research.

"NASA has explored with robots for more than a decade, from the stalwart rovers on Mars to R2 on the station," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington.

"Our investment in robotic technology development is helping us to bolster productivity by applying robotics technology and devices to fortify and enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety in space."

Once the legs are attached to the R2 torso, the robot will have a fully extended leg span of 9 feet, giving it great flexibility for movement around the space station.

Each leg has seven joints and a device on what would be the feet called an end effector, which allow the robot to take advantage of handrails and sockets inside and outside the station. A vision system for the end effectors also will be used to verify and eventually automate each limb's approach and grasp.

NASA engineers have built the legs and R2 will be receiving them early next year. The new legs are designed for work both inside and outside the station, but upgrades to R2's upper body will be necessary before it can begin work outside the space station.

Technologies developed for Robonaut have led to new robotic devices for future spaceflight that also have direct applications here on Earth. For example, NASA is developing a robotic exoskeleton that could help astronauts stay healthier in space and also aid people with physical disabilities.

R5, next in NASA's Robonaut series of robots, will debut later this month when it competes in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) Robotics Challenge. During the challenge, robots will demonstrate capabilities to execute complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments.

Competing teams are expected to focus on robots that can use standard tools and equipment commonly available in human environments, ranging from hand tools to vehicles, with an emphasis on adaptability to tools with diverse specifications.

The International Space Station serves as a test bed for future technologies that will be vital to human exploration as NASA explores asteroids and Mars. NASA's Space Technology Program is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future missions.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Developing_Legs_for_ISS_Robonaut_2_999.html.