Sudan protesters march against 'killer' Bashir

Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese demonstrators called President Omar al-Bashir a "killer" on Saturday, the sixth day of protests sparked by fuel price hikes in a nation already burdened by economic pain and war.

The latest protest came as reformist members of Bashir's National Congress Party told him that the deadly crackdown on demonstrators betrayed his regime's Islamic foundations.

"Bashir, you are a killer," shouted about 2,000 men, women and youths after the burial of Salah Mudathir, 28, shot dead during a protest on Friday and hailed by demonstrators as a martyr.

"Freedom! Freedom!" they chanted.

Authorities say 33 people have died over the past week, but activists and international rights groups say at least 50 were gunned down.

An AFP reporter saw state security agents round up six people and put them into pickup trucks after police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators on Saturday.

On Friday, the interior ministry said 600 people had been arrested since the beginning of the protests "for participating in acts of vandalism".

Mudathir was an atypical protester as most are from Khartoum's underclass, an analyst said.

"Now you have neighborhoods revolting," said Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.

"These are the protests of the voiceless" who have no prospects in the mismanaged nation's bleak economy, Gizouli told AFP.

Saturday's protest occurred after thousands of mourners walked through the streets of the wealthy Mansheeya neighborhood escorting an ambulance carrying Mudathir's body, one witness said.

Mudathir, a pharmacologist, belonged to a family that is prominent in business and politics.

"He was killed by a bullet to the heart" while he demonstrated, a cousin told AFP.

Police did not release the victims' names, but said "unknown shooters" gunned down four civilians during largely peaceful demonstrations which were dispersed with tear gas after Friday prayers in Khartoum.

Demonstrations began last Monday after the government scrapped fuel subsidies, leading to soaring prices.

The government measures, which almost doubled pump prices of gasoline and diesel, have had a severe impact on civilians, the 31 ruling party reformers said in a letter to Bashir, which they made public.

The package of economic measures was not presented to parliament and citizens had no chance to give input peacefully, they added.

"The package that was implemented by the government, and the crackdown against those opposed to it, is far from mercy and justice and the right of peaceful expression," they said.

The powerful National Intelligence and Security Service, a bulwark of the regime that operates separately from police, has been involved in the protest crackdown.

It was key to suppressing smaller-scale nationwide protests sparked by high food and fuel prices in June and July last year.

At that time there was no mass loss of life when authorities tear-gassed and rounded up demonstrators.

But Gizouli insists those protests were different, driven by students and activists rather than ordinary Sudanese.

The Sudanese Journalists' Network, an unofficial group of reporters who demand freedom of speech, announced that its members would stop work from Saturday because of official attempts to censor coverage of this week's protests.

"We see the killing of our people and we cannot ignore this," said a statement from the group, which claims 400 members.

Text messages referring to the Friday protests were held up in transmission for several hours and received only early on Saturday.

The demonstrations began Monday south of Khartoum in Wad Madani, capital of the decaying agricultural heartland state of Gezira.

Rallies later spread to Nyala, the battle-scarred capital of troubled South Darfur state, and to Khartoum itself.

"The people want the fall of the regime," protesters have chanted in Khartoum, echoing the refrain of Arab Spring rallies that toppled several regional governments in 2011.

Massive protests in Sudan have brought down governments twice before, in 1964 and 1985, and late last year the government said it had disrupted an attempted coup.

The alleged leader of the plot, retired armed forces Brigadier Mohammed Ibrahim, signed the ruling party reformers' letter. Bashir pardoned him and the other plotters earlier this year.

Sudan falls near the bottom of a United Nations human development index measuring income, health and education, and it ranked 173 out of 176 countries in Transparency International's index of perceived public sector corruption last year.

Analysts say a major portion of government spending goes to the military and security agencies.

The military is fighting two-year-old rebellions in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where insurgents are allied with rebels from the far-west Darfur region.

That alliance in April widened its offensive to topple the government, while violence has also worsened in Darfur this year.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Darfur.

Death Toll Unclear As Sudanese Protesters Return to the Streets of Khartoum

27 September 2013

Thousands of people have again taken to the streets of Khartoum and other Sudanese cities to protest against fuel price hikes. Dozens have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

The protesters poured out onto the streets of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum following Friday Muslim prayers. The demonstrators were demanding that President Omar al-Bashir step down, a day after clashes with police in which an unknown number of people were killed.

On Thursday, the authorities said that 29 people have been killed in the unrest, including a number of police officers. However, human rights groups have put the death toll at more than 50.

The Reuters news agency reported that security forces fired teargas in an effort to break up Friday's demonstration of an estimated 5,000 people in Khartoum.

Protests were also reported in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, just across the Nile River, and in Khartoum's northern Bahri district, which has seen several days of unrest.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced that South Sudan's oil exports will continue to flow through his country's pipelines. (04.09.2013)

The country's interior minister, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad told the SUNA state news agency that security forces had arrested around 600 people suspected in connection with acts of vandalism and violence.

The latest protests broke out on Monday after a government decision to cut subsidies caused fuel prices in Sudan to virtually double overnight. The country has come under severe financial pressure since the secession of South Sudan two years ago, which saw Khartoum lose 75 percent of its crude-oil production capacity.

The demonstrations amount to the worst unrest Sudan has experienced since al-Bashir came to power in a 1989 coup. Al-Bashir has managed to cling to power over the past 24 years despite armed rebellions and US economic sanctions, as well as an indictment issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes committed in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309290141.html.

Sudan police fire on funeral march, protesters say

September 28, 2013

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudanese security forces in pickup trucks opened fire on Saturday on hundreds of mourners marching after the funeral of a protester killed a day earlier, the latest violence in a week of demonstrations calling for the ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir.

The man killed was a pharmacist from a prominent family, suggesting the heavy security crackdown could deepen discontent, spread unrest and upset the complex network of power centers al-Bashir relies upon to stay in power. In a rare scene to emerge online, video clips circulated by activists showed mourners kicking out al-Bashir's aide Nafie Ali Nafie from the slain protester's house where he went to pay condolences to the family.

Three female protesters interviewed separately said dozens of pickup trucks and security forces surrounded them in a main street in the capital Khartoum before firing tear gas and live ammunition. It was not possible to independently verify their account, but Sudanese activists and international rights groups say government security forces have routinely used live fire against protesters, often aimed at the head and torso. One of the three women was waiting at a hospital where she said two relatives were being treated for gunshot wounds.

The violent crackdown that aims to quash Sudan's most extensive street demonstrations in two decades could now actually be propelling them, activists said. "The excessive use of force means that the regime is becoming bare of any political cover and it is declaring a war against its own people," said Khaled Omar, a member of the Change Now youth movement, one of the groups calling for protests. "This will backfire internally, inside the regime itself and cause cracks within and lead to its collapse," he said, voicing a forecast held widely among activists but one that is difficult to predict.

Yet in what could be first sign of disenchantment within the ruling regime, 31 politicians, including members of al-Bashir's ruling party and military officials signed a petition calling on the president to carry out reforms because his rule is "at stake."

Among them are a leading member of the ruling National Congress party, Hassan Ali Rizk, and Ghazi Salah Eddin, a former information minister and a presidential adviser. The petition called for reversing austerity measures, creating a mechanism for national consensus and investigating the killings of protesters. Among the signatories are members of the Islamic Movement, a pillar of al-Bashir's regime, which activists say is looking out for its own survival.

The protests, which erupted Sunday night, were initially triggered by the lifting of fuel and wheat subsidies. But over the past days demands have escalated to call for the resignation of al-Bashir, who has ruled for 24 years.

"The cars came from the back and the front while we were marching in the street," another female protester said. "The tear gas was very strong. The people fled trying to escape, taking shelter inside homes," she added.

Earlier in the day, women, crying and hugging, blocked a side-street to prevent police from deploying to the funeral of 26-year-old pharmacist Salah al-Sanhouri. His family says he was shot outside his pharmacy as a march went by Friday, on the same street where the protest came under attack again on Saturday.

The death toll from a week of protests is sharply contested. Amnesty International and the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies have accused the government of using a "shoot to kill" policy against protesters, saying they had documented 50 deaths in rioting on Tuesday and Wednesday alone.

Youth activists and doctors at a Khartoum hospital told The Associated Press that at least 100 people have been killed since Monday. Sudanese police have reported at least 30 deaths nationwide, including policemen. Official statements have often blamed unknown gunmen for attacking protesters.

"Repression is not the answer to Sudan's political and economic problems," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch in a statement Saturday. "Sudan's authorities need to rein in the security forces and make it clear that using excessive force is not allowed," he added.

Activists have begun to compile pictures, names and personal details of each protester killed. The government appears to be trying to impose a media blackout. Gulf-based satellite broadcasters Sky News Arabia and Al-Arabiya said their Khartoum offices were ordered shut by the government. Sudanese news outlets online have reported photographers and cameraman were barred from covering the protests, while editors have said they were ordered to describe protesters as "saboteurs." Two editors, who like the female protesters spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals, said a total of three newspapers had stopped printing voluntarily and three others had seen issues confiscated, prompting a group of journalists to call for a general strike.

The unrest began early last week in the town of Wad Madani south of Khartoum when al-Bashir announced the subsidy cuts. It quickly spread to at least nine districts in Khartoum and seven cities across the country.

Protesters say austerity measures hit the poor particularly hard but leave intact a corrupt system where senior officials grow wealthy. "This is a government of thieves who looted the country and starved us," the slain pharmacist's uncle said. He refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.

The deaths have the potential to spread discontent among Sudan's big families. The Sanhouris are prominent in the capital, and one mourner identified himself as a senior official in the intelligence services. A chief editor of a leading pro-government paper, top security officials and famous actors belong to the same family, and an elegant mosque is named after a family member. The father, Moudthir al-Sanhouri is known to be close to presidential aide Nafie, who was driven away by mourners at al-Sanhouri house before paying condolences, according to video clips posted by activists on social networking sites.

"I hope this means that we will see curve of violence going down as the government starts to realize that it is hurting itself badly," says activist Sara Kamal. "It is not only about the family connections to the regime, but the fact that he (slain protester) was a pharmacist which doesn't match the government's allegations that protests are led by saboteurs."

Although he maintains a strong grip on power, al-Bashir has been increasingly beleaguered. The economy has been worsening, especially after South Sudan broke off and became an independent state in 2011, taking Sudan's main oil-producing territory. Armed secessionist groups operate in several parts of the country. And al-Bashir himself, who came to power as head of a military-Islamist regime after a 1989 coup, is wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

AP Photographer Khalil Hamra contributed to this report from Khartoum.

Bosnia: Angry protesters want new govt of experts

February 10, 2014

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Thousands are protesting in Bosnia for a sixth day, demanding that politicians resign and a new government of non-partisan experts be put in to address the country's nearly 40 percent unemployment and rampant corruption.

Protesters say "overpaid" politicians are detached from the peoples' reality and obsessed with inter-ethnic bickering decades after a 1991-95 war that killed 100,000. The crowd gathers daily in front of the presidency in Sarajevo — which they set ablaze on Friday — and other government buildings in other cities. On one they wrote: "He who sows hunger, reaps anger."

A banner held Monday by two elderly people claimed that one politician's monthly salary equals four years of the average pension payment. Every fifth Bosnian now lives below the poverty line.

A rush to evacuate as truce extended in Syria city

February 11, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Aid officials rushed to evacuate more women, children and elderly from rebel-held areas that have been blockaded by government troops for more than a year in Syria's third-largest city, Homs, after a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in the city was renewed for three more days Monday.

The truce, which began Friday, has been shaken by continued shelling and shooting that prevented some residents from escaping and limited the amount of food aid officials have been able to deliver into the besieged neighborhoods.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos sharply criticized the two sides, saying U.N. and Syrian Red Crescent workers were "deliberately targeted." The drama in Homs, where Amos said around 800 civilians have been evacuated so far, played out as activists on Monday reported new sectarian killings in Syria's civil war.

Al-Qaida-inspired rebels killed more than two dozen civilians, including an entire family, when they overran a village populated by minority Alawites on Sunday, Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They also killed around 20 local fighters in the village, he said.

The violence further rattled peace talks that entered their second round Monday in Geneva — and which quickly became mired in recriminations between President Bashar Assad's government and the opposition in exile.

The two sides' first face-to-face meetings adjourned 10 days ago, having achieved little. This time, the two appeared even further apart, with no immediate plans to even sit at the same table. U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was holding separate talks with each side.

"The negotiations cannot continue while the regime is stepping up its violence against the Syrian people," opposition spokesman Louay Safi told reporters after talks with Brahimi. The opposition insists the talks' aim is to agree on a transitional governing body that would replace Assad.

But Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the issue of Assad stepping down was not on the agenda. "Please tell those who dream of wasting our time here in such a discussion to stop it," he told a reporter.

The events of the past few days have only underscored each side's position. The government says it is trying to defeat an extremist, al-Qaida-style insurgency. Syria's opposition, in turn, points to government blockades of dozens of rebel-held areas that have caused widespread hunger and sickness among civilians as proof of the cruelty of Assad's rule.

The aid operation in Homs laid bare the desperation in the besieged areas. Homs, in central Syria, was one of the first cities to rise up against Assad, and while government forces have retaken much of the city, several rebel-held districts in its historic old center have been under a suffocating siege for more than a year.

Many of those evacuated since Friday "were traumatized and weak," Amos said in a statement. They reported "terrible conditions at the field hospital in the Old City, where the equipment is basic, there are no medicines and people are in urgent need of medical attention," she said.

She said around 800 had been evacuated since Friday, though the governor of Homs province put the number at around 1,070, including 460 evacuated on Monday. Under the U.N.-brokered truce, the government refused to allow males between the ages of 15 and 55 to leave, presuming them to be fighters. Those leaving are women, children and elderly.

Amos said the truce had been extended for three days. The original truce ran from Friday to Sunday, but the continued shelling and shooting between the two sides severely limited efforts. Eleven people were killed by the fighting.

Over the weekend, some women and elderly tried to leave but were unable to make their way through checkpoints to evacuation buses, according to Khaled Erksoussi, the head of operations of the Syrian Red Crescent.

He said some food aid was brought into the areas over the weekend — "but not the quantity we had hoped for" — and none made it in on Monday. On Sunday, residents rushed through gunfire to reach U.N. vehicles carrying food that did make it in. Then they fought over the oil, sugar and other supplies, according to one activist in Homs who uses the nickname Eman al-Homsy for security reasons.

"They didn't care about death; the hunger was killing them," Eman said. Erksoussi echoed the worries of activists who said they fear that once civilians are evacuated, fighting will only escalate. "We know that not all civilians will leave, but the fighting parties will claim that they did and step up the shelling and shooting," he said by phone from Damascus.

Around a quarter-million people in 40 districts besieged by government forces have been cut off from humanitarian aid for months, said Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program. In the Yarmouk area, on Damascus' southern fringe, activists estimate over 100 people have died from hunger-related illness and a lack of medical aid because of a year-long blockade.

At the United Nations, Russia threatened to veto Western efforts to push through a Security Council resolution that would raise the prospect of sanctions against Syria unless the government gives unrestricted access to deliver humanitarian aid.

Both Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and China's U.N. ambassador were no-shows at a meeting Monday to discuss the Western and Arab-backed resolution. The proposed resolution, obtained by the Associated Press, puts most of the blame for the humanitarian crisis on the Syrian government.

The new sectarian killings came in the village of Maan, north of the central city of Hama. Hard-line Islamic fighters overran it Sunday after mortars from the village hit rebels on a nearby road, according to Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory.

At least 25 of the victims were civilians, including an extended family of 11 — a man, his wife, and their sons and daughters — along with eight other women and six men, Abdurrahman told The Associated Press. Another 20 killed were village fighters defending their homes, he said. The ages of the civilians were not known. He said he obtained details on the killings from residents of nearby villages.

The villagers are predominantly Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad belongs and which is a pillar of support for his rule. The Syrian state news agency called the killings a "massacre" and said 10 women were among the dead. Information minister Omran al-Zoubi said the slain included four disabled residents. A Syrian army statement put the toll at 42 dead.

The rebels who overran the village belonged to two hardline factions, Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham. Both uploaded videos showing their fighters in the village, though neither claimed responsibility for any killings.

In Jund al-Aqsa's video, its fighters wave a black flag over the village and are seen grinning as they loot a house. One fighter shouts against Assad and against Alawites, whom extremists see as heretics to be killed. The bloodied body of one man in fatigues, apparently a village fighter, is shown lying on the ground.

The videos corresponded with the AP's reporting of the event. Jund al-Aqsa has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State in the Iraq and the Levant, a breakaway group from al-Qaida. Ahrar al-Sham is a conservative Muslim rebel group.

Islamic extremists — including foreign fighters and Syrian rebels who have taken up hard-line al-Qaida-style ideologies — have played an increasingly prominent role among the rebel fighters fighting forces loyal to Assad. But extremists have also turned on each other, with some Islamic factions battling the Islamic State, which they accuse of trying to control the rebellion.

On Monday, the Nusra Front announced it had pushed out Islamic State rivals from the eastern province of Deir al-Zour after four days of clashes, the Syrian Observatory said. Meanwhile, a third batch of Syria's chemical weapons material was shipped out of the country on a Norwegian cargo vessel, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Monday. The Hague, Netherlands-based OPCW, which is overseeing Syria's attempts to destroy its chemical weapons, said an unspecified amount of chemicals used in making weapons has also been destroyed inside Syria.

Syria has missed several deadlines on the timetable to have its chemical weapons eradicated by June 30 but insists it will meet the final deadline.

AP correspondents Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

600 evacuated from blockaded Syrian city of Homs

February 09, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of civilians were evacuated Sunday from the besieged Syrian city of Homs, braving gunmen spraying bullets and lobbing mortar shells to flee as part of a rare three-day truce to relieve a choking blockade. Dozens were wounded as they fled.

The cease-fire came as Syrian officials arrived in Switzerland for a new round of talks with opposition activists-in-exile to try to negotiate an end to Syria's three-year conflict. More than 600 people were evacuated from Homs on Sunday, said Governor Talal Barrazi. The operation was part of a U.N.-mediated truce that began Friday between the government of President Bashar Assad and armed rebels to allow thousands of women, children and elderly men to leave opposition-held parts of the city, and to permit the entry of food and supplies.

Forces loyal to Assad have blockaded rebel-held parts of Homs for over a year, causing widespread hunger and suffering. Dozens of people were wounded when they came under fire as they waited at an agreed-upon evacuation point in the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Qarabis, according to three activists based in Homs, who spoke to The Associated Press by Skype.

Despite the gunfire and exploding mortar shells, hundreds of women, children and elderly men ran toward a group of Red Crescent workers waiting less than a mile (kilometer) away, said an activist who gave his name as Samer al-Homsy. The Syrian activists said the gunfire came from a government-held neighborhood.

The Syrian news agency SANA also reported that civilians came under fire, but blamed "terrorists," the government term for rebels. At least four busloads of civilians were shipped out, according to footage broadcast on the Lebanese television station al-Mayadeen. Wide-eyed children, their prominent cheekbones suggestive of malnutrition, tumbled out of a bus, assisted by aid workers.

"Our life was a disaster, we had no food, no water," one distressed woman said. "There was nothing, my children are all sick. They were thirsty," she said, standing with a group of exhausted-looking children as khaki-clad Syrian soldiers, Red Crescent workers in red jump suits and U.N. workers in blue protective vests gathered around the buses.

Some evacuees were to be hosted in government-run shelters, others were going to join relatives in safer areas, while still others said they did not know where they were going. Khaled Erksoussi of the Syrian Red Crescent, which is assisting the operation, told the AP that the agency hoped to evacuate as many civilians as possible before the truce expires Monday.

On Saturday, gunmen opened fire on civilians, leaving aid workers wounded and two trucks damaged, Erksoussi said, speaking by telephone from Damascus. Despite the violence, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said in a statement that the truce showed "that even in the darkest of nights it is possible to offer a glimmer of hope to people in desperate need of assistance."

The Homs cease-fire was arranged by U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who urged the warring sides to aid the estimated 2,500 civilians trapped in the ancient, rebel-held quarters known as Old Homs, to build trust during the first face-to-face meetings of government officials and opposition figures in Switzerland last month.

But the truce only took hold after talks ended, and its last day, Monday, now coincides with the beginning of another round of U.N.-mediated negotiations in Switzerland. The Syrian delegation arrived in Switzerland Sunday evening.

Homs was one of the first areas to rise up against Assad in 2011 and has been particularly hard hit by the war. Over the past year, the government regained control over most of the city, except for neighborhoods in the historic center.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Aleppo, Syrian government aircraft dropped makeshift barrel bombs on a series of rebel-held districts, including one that killed more than 15 people in the neighborhood of Haydariyeh, said the activist group, the Aleppo Media Center. The bombs, crude weapons packed with explosives, fuel and metal, set nine vehicles ablaze, including some carrying civilians fleeing the area.

The bombings are part of a weekslong campaign by Assad's forces to wrest control of Aleppo, parts of which were seized by rebels in mid-2012. The Syrian uprising began with largely peaceful protests but gradually evolved into an increasingly sectarian civil war pitting predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad's government, which is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Syria's many minorities have thrown their support behind Assad, fearing for their fates should hard-line rebels come to power. On Sunday, extremist rebels killed at least two dozen Alawite gunmen defending their central village of Maan, the Syrian Observatory said. The Syrian state news agency said a "massacre" had occurred, but provided no further details. A video uploaded by rebel sympathizers showed at least one man killed, and bearded, grinning gunmen looting village homes. The Observatory said women and children had been evacuated before the gunmen entered.

Meanwhile, the Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera aired what it said was new footage of a dozen Syrian nuns who have been held captive by rebels since December. Rebels seized the nuns and at least three other women from the Greek Orthodox Mar Takla convent when fighters overran Maaloula, a mainly Christian village north of Damascus. The group, who work in the convent's orphanage, was taken to the nearby rebel-held town of Yabroud.

An activist from the area who uses the name Amer, said rebels belonging to the Nusra Front were holding the nuns. He said Qatar officials were trying to negotiate their release and that the video was likely issued to prove to mediators that the women were in good health.

Swiss anti-immigration vote stirs fears in Europe

February 10, 2014

BRUSSELS (AP) — The choice by Swiss voters to impose new curbs on immigration has sent shockwaves throughout the 28-nation European Union.

EU leaders were warning Monday that the Swiss — who are not in the bloc — have violated the "sacred principle" of freedom of movement. Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn says "one of the achievements of the European Union is the free movement of people and that can't be watered down." He says if Switzerland doesn't honor that, it could lose its easy access to the world's biggest market.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told RTL radio the EU's 1999 agreement with Switzerland has a "guillotine clause" that means if one element is challenged "then everything falls apart." The Swiss vote could also affect growing anti-foreigner movements in other countries.

Swiss voters back limit on immigration

February 09, 2014

GENEVA (AP) — Voters in Switzerland narrowly backed a proposal to limit immigration Sunday, in a blow for the government after it had warned that the measure could harm the Swiss economy and relations with the European Union.

The decision follows a successful last-minute campaign by nationalist groups that stoked fears of overpopulation and rising numbers of Muslims in the Alpine nation. Opinion polls before the vote put opponents of the plan in the lead, but as ballot day neared the gap began to close.

Swiss public television SRF reported that some 50.3 percent of voters eventually backed the proposal to introduce quotas for all types of immigrants. About 49.7 percent voted against it, a difference of fewer than 30,000 votes. Support was particularly strong in rural areas, while cities such as Basel, Geneva and Zurich rejected the proposal.

"This has far-reaching consequences for Switzerland...and our relations with the European Union," Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga said after the vote. "It's a shift away from the current system of free movement of people."

Although Switzerland isn't a member of the EU it enjoys close ties to the 28-nation bloc. Bern has painstakingly negotiated a series of bilateral agreements with Brussels, including one that allowed most of the EU's 500 million citizens to live and work in Switzerland with little formality. Swiss citizens, in turn, could do the same in the European Union.

Under Swiss law the government now has to renegotiate its treaty on the free movement of people, though it is still unclear what kind of caps will be placed on immigration, and when. Switzerland already introduced quotas for immigrants from eight central and eastern European nations two years ago.

The latest decision is likely to have much more far-reaching consequences though, as hundreds of thousands of well-educated foreigners from Germany, France, Italy and other EU countries work in Switzerland. Ahead of Sunday's referendum business groups warned that many of the 80,000 people who moved to Switzerland last year are vital for the country's economy, and curtailing immigration further could cost Swiss citizens' jobs too.

The Swiss Bankers Association expressed disappointment at the vote. "We urgently need to hold constructive talks with the EU to explain our position," it said. The EU said it regretted the outcome of the vote but would see how the government implements the mandate given to it by voters. The text of the referendum gives the Swiss government some leeway to decide how many immigrants can come to Switzerland each year, and how to divide the quota between different groups.

The text of the referendum also requires the government to introduce limits on foreigners' rights to bring in family members or access Swiss social services, and curtail asylum — a move that could dent Switzerland's humanitarian image.

Sunday's outcome is another success for the nationalist Swiss People's Party, which has more than a quarter of seats in the lower house of Parliament. The party has won a series of referendums in recent years, including a surprise victory in 2009 when voters approved a plan to ban the construction of new minarets.

Posters paid for by some supporters of the immigration cap showed a huge tree crushing a map of Switzerland, while others depicted a heavily veiled woman beneath the headline "1 million Muslims soon?"

According to official figures about 500,000 people in the nation of 8 million identified themselves as Muslim. Many of them are former refugees who fled to Switzerland during the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Only a minority are actively religious.

In a local referendum in the eastern municipality of Au-Heerbrugg, voters decided Sunday to impose a ban on Muslim girls wearing headscarves at a local primary school.

Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press writer Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this report.

British orchid display provides hint of spring

February 09, 2014

LONDON (AP) — The weather outside is frightful — it has been for weeks, with parts of the country experiencing the worst floods in decades — but it's positively warm inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory. It's humid too, tropical in fact.

The heat and moisture are necessary for the tens of thousands of orchids inside — orchids that are providing flower-loving Brits with reason to believe that this grim, soggy winter, with its record January rainfall, may soon be over.

The annual Orchid Festival at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is a rite of early spring as British as breakfast tea, a chance to celebrate the hardy flowers that seem to grow like magic on trees and rocks. Their ornate blossoms offer welcome reassurance that better days are near — as do the bulbs just starting to sprout in the beds of one of the world's oldest and best known botanical gardens.

"It's so brightly colorful," said Rich Cooper, leaving the glasshouse with a sweaty smile. "You're trapped inside by cruel weather for some time and suddenly, even in the rain, you can come to an almost tropical spot and just see lush jungle color. It's just beautiful."

The festival draws a cult-like following of likeminded enthusiasts, including many who, like the 58-year-old Cooper, return year after year. Officials won't release precise figures, but they say the month-long orchid extravaganza doubles attendance at a normally slow time of year.

This year's display highlights the grit of Victorian-era orchid hunters, who spent months or years on perilous expeditions designed to bring exotic plants from places like Papua New Guinea and the Amazon basin back to London, where rare orchids could sell for tens of thousands of pounds (dollars).

It is a testament to the softer side of Empire — not the hubris of the British expeditionary forces, but the curiosity of the British scientist, collector and eccentric. "It must have been horrific in Victorian times," conservatory manager Nick Johnson said. "It took a few months sea voyage to get out to these places. They had to hire 40 or 50 people to take equipment into the field, through dangerous territory, and they lost a lot of people. They would collect orchids from the Andes, and they would get rotten before they were even loaded onto ships. That's weeks and weeks worth of work lost."

The display includes letters back to Kew from hunters in the field and a replica of a makeshift hunters' camp as it would have been set up in the 1880s. "This British obsession with orchids has lasted 150 years now," Johnson said. "We try to do a little education but at the same time have a little fun and add a bit of color to peoples' lives this time of year."

African Union Election Observers Begin Work in Mali

BY PETER CLOTTEY
23 JULY 2013

The deputy chairman of the African Union (AU) says the group's election observer mission has arrived in Mali for the West African nation's presidential vote on Sunday.

Erastus Mwencha also says the AU has partnered with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to help Mali's interim government and support the country's efforts to return to constitutional rule.

Some Malians, including the chairman of the electoral commission, expressed concern about Sunday's vote because of rising tension despite a recent peace agreement signed by the government and the rebels.

"ECOWAS with the African Union and a number of other stakeholders and international partners have come to the conclusion that let's move ahead with the elections," said Mwencha. "Because you have a situation that you want to have a legitimate partner that would be able to get Mali back to normalcy."

Backed by the United Nations and ECOWAS, Burundi's former president, Pierre Buyoya, was appointed to be the AU High Representative for Mali and Head of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA). Mwencha says Mr. Buyoya has been coordinating efforts with various groups in Mali in the run-up to the vote.

"We are on the ground, we have given the necessary support that we could and so we hope that as we are now in the final stages of the election, it would be conducted in an atmosphere that allows the people of Mali to express themselves," said Mwencha.

Last week, gunmen released election workers who were distributing voter identification materials in preparation for the vote. Their capture and subsequent release sparked worry that a peaceful election cannot be guaranteed. Mwencha said AFISMA is working with Mali's security agencies as well as the candidates to ensure peaceful balloting.

"Our team on the ground has had to make sure that they interact with the various politicians to ensure that they give their commitment that they conduct themselves in a peaceful manner, and campaign on issues," said Mwencha.

He expressed hope that the candidates will accept the election results.

"The confidence that we have word that the various candidates have pledged themselves, [and] what we hope for is, of course, that the election body would be able to organize the elections in such a manner that all candidates would be satisfied," said Mwencha. "All the political parties are being held accountable by the people to commit themselves to accept the election results."

Mwencha says the election provides good prospects that the people of Mali can live in peace following the overthrow of the former government and the subsequent takeover by Islamic militants in parts of the country's north.

"We see it as an opportunity that you now have partners that would be able to move the peace and the political process forward." Mwencha said. "And that is why it is extremely important that at the end of the day the parties should accept whoever is chosen because that would be the first step in uniting the country."

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307241518.html.

Sole woman in Mali presidential race spreads word on the streets

Alex Duval Smith in Bamako
The Guardian
Tuesday 23 July 2013

Haidara Aissata Cissé's walkabouts have improved her following while rivals focus on stadium rallies and meetings with elders

A black Mercedes pulls up in a grimy street in Bamako and the back door swings open. A satin-shoed foot emerges beneath a crisp brocade gown and steps gingerly on to the litter-strewn asphalt.

Haïdara Aïssata Cissé, the only woman standing for president in Mali's upcoming elections, is greeted by deafening chants of "Chato! Chato!", her nickname.

Cissé is clearly popular among the market traders in Niaréla, the old business district of Bamako where sleek office buildings, hotels and embassies stand incongruously among ragtag, low-rise stalls.

She is the only candidate to visit the area – or indeed to include walkabouts in their campaign schedule at all. Most other presidential hopefuls have concentrated on rallies in stadiums, and visiting local dignitaries and elders.

Cissé tiptoes around the fresh produce laid out on the ground in the market stalls.

"They are so excited," she says. "They have never seen a politician come to them before."

It has been six months since France began a military intervention in its former colony to oust Islamist militants who had imposed sharia law in northern cities such as Timbuktu and Gao.

The capital, Bamako, was never occupied but its fragile economy has been crippled by the events of the past 18 months, including a military coup. Sunday's election has been imposed on Mali by the international community despite widespread fears that the country is not ready.

Cissé, a 54-year-old MP and former travel agent, is an outsider among 27 candidates for the presidency. But determined campaigning – and plenty of walkabouts – have improved her following and helped win the backing of Mali's women's groups.

If there is no outright winner on Sunday and the presidential election goes to a second round on 11 August, Cissé could drive a hard bargain between run-off candidates vying for the female vote. Despite the odds, she says she will be the next occupant of Koulouba, the head of state's palace on a rock overlooking Bamako. She even believes she can get there without giving away the tea, sugar, T-shirts or cash that are common currency in Malian elections.

"One of the market women said 'give me a wrap with your face on it and I'll wear it'," she said. "So I explained to her that there are 703 local authorities in Mali and if I give away fabric to all the women in every commune, it will cost me a billion CFA francs [£1.5m] which might be better spent on a project to help the poor. She liked that and said she would vote for me."

In common with the other candidates, Cissé does not provide a printed manifesto. She claims it would be copied by her rivals. But she tells a rally at Koulikoro, north of Bamako: "If I am elected, I will launch a Marshall plan to create 500,000 jobs. I shall introduce a program of excellence to reform education and training. I shall create grants of 100,000 CFA francs [£128] for the poorest mothers so that they can put their children, especially girls, in school."

In a country where welfare and education have, in living memory, been the responsibility of western aid agencies and Islamic solidarity, development issues are not vote-winners. Unicef, the United Nations children's fund, has drawn up a primer for candidates listing some of Mali's shocking statistics: 90% of women have undergone female genital mutilation; one million children are out of school; 2.2 million people defecate in the open air. Righting those wrongs seems less of a priority for ordinary Malians than building a strong army after the country had to depend on France – and now United Nations multidimensional integrated stabilization mission – Mali Minusma – to secure its borders.

For that reason, Cissé's campaign calls for "a united and strong Mali". It is the slogan of almost all of the candidates.

Traoré Oumou Touré, president of Cafo, an umbrella organization for Mali's women's groups, said that to do well Cissé must fight a gender-blind campaign. "Mali's crisis is the result of poor governance which, in turn, is the result of a dysfunctional society. Cissé must be seen as the candidate standing for equity, balance and the happiness of all men and women."

Despite looking slightly out of place in her Senegalese gown and pointy shoes, Cissé seems to impress.

Mariam Coulibaly, a trader, says: "She asked us about our lives. We said we need a market building because selling vegetables on the ground is not hygienic. It is the first time I have seen someone like her come into the market. Usually the only place you see politicians is on posters."

Source: The Guardian.
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/23/woman-mali-presidential-race.

Mali turns blind eye to everything as it pushes ahead with elections

2013-07-21

By Serge Daniel – BAMAKO

Seven million people are being urged to vote next week in elections to usher in a new dawn of democracy in deeply-divided Mali despite grave doubts over the possibility of a credible outcome.

The July 28 poll is seen as crucial to reuniting a country riven by conflict during an 18-month political crisis that saw French forces intervene to push out Islamist rebels who had seized the north.

But with just seven days to go, renewed violence in the north of the vast West African nation has cast serious doubt over its readiness to deliver a safe election and a result that will be accepted by its disparate population.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the results to be respected even if, in a country where 500,000 people have been displaced by conflict, the vote turns out to be "imperfect".

Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore has also conceded that the poll may not be beyond reproach, acknowledging the concerns of observers over the persistent security challenges threatening a free and fair vote.

Much of the worry is focused on the restive northern town of Kidal, occupied for five months by Tuareg separatists until a ceasefire accord allowed the Malian army in earlier this month to provide security for the polls.

Clashes between Tuaregs and black Africans -- apparently caused by rumors that the army was in sending more troops -- left four people dead and many others wounded Friday in a sign of growing tension coming up to the polls.

The security operation ahead of the election was further undermined on Saturday when gunmen abducted five polling staff and a local official in the northern town of Tessalit 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Kidal.

A Malian security ministry official said the kidnapping appeared to be the work of the minority Tuareg rebel group the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

"Everything indicates this is an attack by the MNLA, which doesn't want there to be an election," the official said.

All six were later released and an MNLA official has been arrested over suspicions that he ordered the kidnapping, an official from the Kidal region said on Sunday.

Tiebile Drame, chief negotiator in the ceasefire deal with the rebels that was a crucial precursor to the elections, announced last week he was withdrawing his candidacy as "the conditions for a fair vote are not in place".

Meanwhile Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan told a summit of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Wednesday that there was "a financial gap of $25 million" to properly fund the vote.

But the ECOWAS chief, Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara, told delegates it was crucial that the election went ahead as scheduled.

"The Malian people must be able to count on the experience of the political class and the support of the international community to ensure that the holding of these elections on July 28 is irreversible," he said.

Mali's Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly has insisted that a delay would only prolong the political crisis.

"The elections will be credible and transparent, given our conditions -- in other words, in a country that has experienced an occupation and where the population is traumatized," he said earlier this month.

The ballot will be the first since a coup in March last year that toppled democratically elected president Amadou Toumani Toure and created an opening that allowed the MNLA and groups allied to Al-Qaeda to seize northern Mali.

A UN peacekeeping mission integrating more than 6,000 West African soldiers into its ranks is charged with ensuring security during and after the elections, and will grow to 11,200 troops, plus 1,400 police, by the end of the year.

The deployment allows France to start withdrawing most of the 4,500 troops it sent to Mali in January to stop the Islamists from advancing towards the capital, Bamako, from their northern strongholds.

France plans to have just 1,000 troops on the ground before the end of 2013 and has been pushing for a quick election in the hopes of restoring order to the country, under the control of an interim government since the coup.

A European Union mission of 90 election observers will report on whether the polls, which go to a second round on August 11 if required, should be seen as credible a few weeks after the result is announced.

The list of candidates to Mali's next president features four former prime ministers and an array of political heavyweights -- but just one woman.

Haidara Aichata Cisse, a legislator for a constituency near the northern city of Gao, will go head-to-head with 27 men, including past premiers Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Cheick Modibo Diarra, Modibo Sidibe and Soumana Sacko.

Keita, prime minister from 1994 to 2000 and president of the National Assembly for five years from 2002, is seen as the main frontrunner alongside Soumaila Cisse, a former chairman of the Commission of the West African Monetary Union.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60253.

U.N. takes over Mali peacekeeping mission, doubts raised over vote

July 01, 2013

BAMAKO: The United Nations took over command of an African peacekeeping force in Mali Monday, bolstering the mission in a country still threatened by militants and weeks away from what analysts warn could be chaotic elections.

The transfer of command will bring in soldiers from beyond Africa and eventually see the operation more than double in size.

Western and regional powers want to keep order in the West African country after a tumultuous 18 months when soldiers toppled the president and AlQaeda-linked rebels seized the desert north.

France, fearing the militants could use the territory as a launchpad for foreign attacks, launched a lightning offensive in January and forced them out.

Paris still has troops in the country but wants to hand over most security responsibilities to the United Nations.

The U.N. mission, known as MINUSMA, will be the world body’s third largest with 12,600 soldiers and policemen once fully deployed.

“MINUSMA’s military force will be reinforced gradually in the coming months,” mission chief Bert Koenders said at the launch ceremony in Bamako.

“Contingents will deploy in the main population centers in northern Mali. … But MINUSMA cannot do everything. We are here to support the efforts of the government and its partners.”

The U.N. force will operate alongside troops from former colonial power France, some of whom will remain to tackle remaining Islamists.

There are currently around 6,000 troops from mainly West African countries and the United Nations is still seeking men, helicopters and intelligence support from contributing countries before the mission is fully up and running by the year’s end.

Diplomats say China has already pledged peacekeepers.

Bamako has secured an agreement with separatist Tuareg rebels to allow elections to take place in areas they still occupy ahead of further talks with an elected government.

But experts and some Malian officials have expressed concern about rushing to an election that is meant to lay the foundations for rebuilding a country that was seen as a model of democracy in the region before its implosion in 2012.

Brussels-based International Crisis Group has called for a delay of no more than three months to ensure newly printed ID cards can be distributed.

“Pressing ahead within the existing timeline could lead to a chaotic and contested vote and a new president without the legitimacy essential for the country’s recovery,” ICG said.

Diplomats say Western nations led by France and the U.S. are pushing for the date to be maintained as the current interim administration is unable to tackle Mali’s problems.

Speaking in Geneva Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said holding a poll on July 28 that was credible, peaceful and accepted by all Malians would be “an enormous undertaking.”

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Jul-01/222154-un-peacekeepers-begin-security-mission-in-mali.ashx.

Disarmament brigade attacked in Ivory Coast

July 3, 2013

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, July 3 (UPI) -- The United Nations condemned a deadly attack on a brigade charged with a disarmament campaign under way in Ivory Coast.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast, known by its French initials UNOCI, said it stood in support of a national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration campaign meant to restore nationwide security in a country divided by civil conflict in 2002.

The mission said at least one person was killed and three others were wounded when the brigade's convoy came under attack early this week by gunmen in the northwest.

UNOCI said the brigade's director general was travelling in the convoy but escaped injury. The mission said it was calling for swift justice nonetheless.

In a statement published Tuesday, UNOCI said it was calling "on the competent Ivorian authorities to take all measures to identify the authors of the attack and bring them before the law."

Presidential elections in Ivory Coast in 2010 were meant to unite a country divided by war. Rival claims to victory, however, pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

Human Rights Watch said in a Monday report extortion was common among security forces operating in western Ivory Coast near the eastern border with Liberia.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/07/03/Disarmament-brigade-attacked-in-Ivory-Coast/UPI-16931372864868/.

NASA to study almost absolute zero matter at ISS

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Feb 05, 2014

NASA has revealed its plans to create the coldest spot in the known universe on board the International Space Station in 2016. The researchers are preparing to study matter at temperatures near absolute zero, revealing the world of quantum mechanics.

The US space agency has announced that its researchers are currently working on the Cold Atom Laboratory , "the coolest spot in the universe", which will be ready for installation inside the International Space Station by December 2015.

There are several reasons underlying the scientific drive to explore characteristics and qualities of matter in conditions that are difficult to replicate on Earth. Space's low temperatures, unattainable in terrestrial laboratories, reveal the wave nature of atoms, as well as possibly new phenomena. The absence of gravity additionally allows such experiments to last longer - up to 20 seconds.

"We're going to study matter at temperatures far colder than are found naturally," said the project's head scientist Rob Thompson of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)."We aim to push effective temperatures down to 100 pico-Kelvin."

One hundred pico-Kelvin is remarkable in that it is a mere ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero (0K or -273.15 C) - a point on an imaginary thermometer where all thermal activity of atoms theoretically halts. When temperatures are so low, our traditional ideas of atomic behavior cease to apply. The matter is no longer solid, liquid or gas - its atoms tend to create quantum forms of matter.

Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that describes intricate and bizarre light and matter rules on an atomic scale. It is a wonderland where nothing is certain, where objects behave both as particles and as waves, and where matter can be in two places at once. "We're entering the unknown," said Thompson.

With the help of the Cold Atom Lab, the researchers will be able to conduct many exciting experiments.

"We'll begin by studying Bose-Einstein Condensates," he said. "The Cold Atom Lab will allow us to study these objects at perhaps the lowest temperatures ever."

The condensates, named after Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein, who predicted them in the beginning of the 20th century, were, in fact, discovered only in 1995. And in 2001, Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman shared the Nobel Prize with Wolfgang Ketterle for their independent discovery of the intriguing capacity of rubidium and sodium atoms to form a single wave of matter when cooled to temperatures slightly above the absolute zero threshold.

The researches, planned by NASA, are aimed at studying ultra-cold quantum gases in the microgravity of the ISS besides other experiments.

The technology, which would allow such experiments, includes an atom chip with on-window wires that enable simultaneous magnetic trapping and optical manipulation, in addition to compound silicon and glass substrate technology that leads to both magnetic and optical control of ultra-cold atoms.

The Cold Atom Lab, which actually is designed "for use by multiple investigators" and is "upgradable and maintainable on orbit," is scheduled to be launched inside the ISS in early 2016, where it will be able to function for 5 years.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_to_study_almost_absolute_zero_matter_at_ISS_999.html.

Russia proposes water-hunting instrument for future Mars rover

Moscow (UPI)
Feb 4, 2013

Russian scientists have proposed an instrument for an upcoming NASA Mars rover to search for underground water that could support life on the Red Planet.

The instrument designed by Russia's Space Research Institute was one of 58 proposals submitted to NASA this month for inclusion on the agency's upcoming Mars 2020 rover.

"On the surface everything looks the same, just layers of dust and rock, but our instrument can see minerals of scientific interest underground," institute lead scientist Igor Mitrofanov told RIA Novosti.

The proposed instrument would be based on earlier water-scanning devices built by the institute for a series of NASA probes.

One of those devices, the High Energy Neutron Detector on the Mars Odyssey orbiter, helped detect quantities of frozen underground water on the Red Planet in 2002.

The new detector would look for gamma radiation produced when cosmic rays crash into the martian surface.

"With gamma rays we can see the elemental composition of the soil. The spectral lines that are emitted by the soil when bombarded by cosmic rays indicate how much iron, silicon, calcium, etc. are present under the surface," Mitrofanov said.

NASA is expected to announce the chosen experiments for the upcoming rover mission in March.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Russia_proposes_water-hunting_instrument_for_future_Mars_rover_999.html.

SpaceX's next cargo mission to space station is Mar 16

Washington (AFP)
Feb 05, 2014

The next cargo supply mission to the International Space Station by the US company SpaceX has been set for March 16, NASA said Wednesday.

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4:41 am (0941 GMT) on its third trip ferrying supplies and equipment to the orbiting lab, the US space agency said in a tweet.

Owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX became the first commercial entity to reach the space station with its Dragon cargo ship in 2012.

The company has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for a series of future supply missions.

The Dragon, a reusable, gumdrop-shaped capsule, became the first commercial spacecraft to reach the ISS in 2012.

Since then, Orbital Sciences has also successfully reached the space lab with its own beer-keg shaped Cygnus spacecraft, which delivers similar loads of cargo but then burns up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.

Orbital has a contract with NASA worth $1.9 billion for eight cargo resupply missions to the global space lab.

The pair of private companies have restored the United States' ability to reach the ISS after the retirement of the 30-year space shuttle program in 2011.

Both capsules can carry thousands of pounds of gear, including hardware, equipment and science experiments.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/SpaceXs_next_cargo_mission_to_space_station_is_Mar_16_999.html.

Danish zoo kills giraffe to prevent inbreeding

February 09, 2014

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Saying it needed to prevent inbreeding, the Copenhagen Zoo killed a 2-year-old giraffe and fed its remains to lions as visitors watched, ignoring a petition signed by thousands and offers from other zoos and a private individual to save the animal.

Marius, a healthy male, was put down Sunday using a bolt pistol, said zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbaek Bro. Visitors, including children, were invited to watch while the giraffe was then skinned and fed to the lions.

Marius' plight triggered a wave of online protests and renewed debate about the conditions of zoo animals. Before the giraffe was killed, an online petition to save it had received more than 20,000 signatures.

But the public feeding of Marius' remains to the lions was popular at Copenhagen Zoo. Stenbaek Bro said it allowed parents to decide whether their children should watch what the zoo regards as an important display of scientific knowledge about animals.

"I'm actually proud because I think we have given children a huge understanding of the anatomy of a giraffe that they wouldn't have had from watching a giraffe in a photo," Stenbaek Bro said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

He said the zoo, which now has seven giraffes left, followed the recommendation of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria to put down Marius by because there already were a lot of giraffes with similar genes in the organization's breeding program.

The Amsterdam-based EAZA has 347 members, including many large zoos in European capitals, and works to conserve global biodiversity and achieve the highest standards of care and breeding for animals. Stenbaek Bro said EAZA membership isn't mandatory, but most responsible zoos are members of the organization.

He said his zoo had turned down offers from other ones to take Marius and an offer from a private individual who wanted to buy the giraffe for 500,000 euros ($680,000). Stenbaek Bro said a significant part of EAZA membership is that the zoos don't own the animals themselves, but govern them, and therefore can't sell them to anyone outside the organization that doesn't follow the same set of rules.

He also said it is important for the breeding programs to work. Bengt Holst, Copenhagen Zoo's scientific director, said it turned down an offer from Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Britain, which is a member of EAZA, because Marius' older brother lives there and the park's space could be better used by a "genetically more valuable giraffe."

Yorkshire Wildlife Park said it called the zoo on Saturday with a last-minute offer to house Marius in a new giraffe house with room for an extra male. It said it was saddened by the killing of Marius, but "without knowing the full details it would be inappropriate to comment further."

Copenhagen Zoo also turned down an offer from a zoo in northern Sweden, because it was not an EAZA member and didn't want to comply with the same high standards, Holst said. "I know the giraffe is a nice looking animal, but I don't think there would have been such an outrage if it had been an antelope, and I don't think anyone would have lifted an eyebrow if it was a pig," said Holst.

Copenhagen Zoo doesn't give giraffes contraceptives or castrate them because that could have unwanted side effects on their internal organs, and the zoo regards parental care as important, said Holst.

EAZA said it supported the zoo's decision to "humanely put the animal down and believes strongly in the need for genetic and demographic management within animals in human care." However, the organization Animal Rights Sweden said the case highlights what it believes zoos do to animals regularly.

"It is no secret that animals are killed when there is no longer space, or if the animals don't have genes that are interesting enough," it said in a statement. "The only way to stop this is to not visit zoos."

"When the cute animal babies that attract visitors grow up, they are not as interesting anymore," said the organization. Elisa Allen, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in the U.K., said Marius' case should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who "still harbors the illusion that zoos serve any purpose beyond incarcerating intelligent animals for profit."

She said in a statement, "Giraffes rarely die of old age in captivity, and had Marius not been euthanized today, he would have lived out his short life as a living exhibit, stranded in a cold climate, thousands of miles away from his true home."

Malin Rising reported from Stockholm, Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.