Hamas rejects intl. forces in Palestine

Sun Feb 16, 2014

The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has expressed its opposition to the idea of international troops being stationed in a future Palestinian state under a deal between the Israeli regime and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"From time to time we hear people making offers during the negotiations, primarily about the idea of an international force following the retreat of the (Israeli) occupier," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement released on Saturday.

He added that the presence of an international force in a future Palestinian state would be “just like the Israeli occupation.”

He further urged US Secretary of State John Kerry and others to revise their positions, stressing that Hamas would not let anyone undermine its rights.

This is while the Israeli regime insists on keeping a military presence along the Jordan Valley that runs down the eastern flank of the occupied West Bank, bordering Jordan. However, the Palestinians have rejected such an idea.

“This so-called Kerry plan was put together by the Americans and the Zionist entity to eradicate the Palestinian cause. We will not let such an agreement give away our people's rights,” Zuhri said, calling for “a united front of factions to reject the talks and their outcome.”

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh slammed the talks and said the Palestinian resistance movement would not be bound by any deal with Israel.

“The so-called American framework is not binding for us,” he added, referring to the US framework for the negotiations.

The US secretary of state is planning to unveil a framework document as part of the US-brokered talks between Israel and the PA.

Since the resumption of the direct talks, Palestinians have also objected to a number of other issues including the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/350959.html.

Lebanese PM belatedly forms his Cabinet

February 15, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's prime minister formed a Cabinet more than 10 months after taking office on Saturday, including a wide range of political groups after bridging serious divisions among them mostly over Syria's civil war.

Tammam Salam's 24-member national unity Cabinet was announced at the presidential palace and includes members of the Western-backed coalition as well as those of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies.

Fears of a spillover of Syria's civil war to its smaller neighbor have intensified pressure on Lebanon's rival faction to make concessions, facilitating Salam's job. "This is a unity Cabinet that represents at the present time the best formula for Lebanon with all the political, security, economic and social challenges it is facing," Salam told reporters shortly after his government was announced. "The national interest Cabinet was formed with the spirit of gathering, not divisions, and meeting, not defiance."

Salam said the Cabinet aims to "strengthen national security and stand against all kinds of terrorism." He said that the Cabinet will also face the social issue of nearly a million Syrian refugees who fled for safety in Lebanon, which has a population of some 4 million.

The Cabinet is not expected to remain in office long, as a new government should be formed after President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends in May and a new head of state is elected. The Syrian civil war has spilled over into neighboring Lebanon and sharply divided its population, who support rival Syrian groups.

Many Shiite Muslims in Lebanon back Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, while Sunnis support rebels trying to remove him from power. Clashes between pro- and anti-Assad groups have killed scores of Lebanese over the past months. A wave of car bombs also claimed the lives of dozens.

Hezbollah openly sent fighters to Syria last year to fight along Assad's forces while some Sunnis have joined the rebels. The Western-backed coalition, known as March 14, had previously said it will not take part in any national unity government until the militant Hezbollah group, Lebanon's most powerful, withdraws its members fighting in Syria.

March 14's leader, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, said last month that he is ready to share power with Hezbollah if it helps in ending the Cabinet formation deadlock. Hezbollah has also abandoned an earlier demand that it be given, along with its allies, veto power in the new Cabinet.

In April last year, the vast majority of legislators chose the British-educated Salam to form the Cabinet. He replaced Najib Mikati who abruptly resigned a month earlier over a political deadlock between Lebanon's two main political camps and infighting in his government.

Mikati, who had served as prime minister since June 2011, headed a government that was dominated by Hezbollah group and its allies. Salam is the son of the late former Prime Minister Saeb Salam, and leans politically toward the Western-backed anti-Hezbollah coalition. He studied in Britain and has degrees in economics and business administration.

He will be holding the top post in the country that a Sunni Muslim can hold. Lebanon's politics are always fractious, in part because of the sectarian makeup of the country's government. According to Lebanon's power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim. Each faith makes up about a third of Lebanon's population.

Salam's Cabinet included only one woman, Alice Shabtini, who was named Minister of Displaced People. As in the previous government, Hezbollah holds two posts. The U.N. Security Council issued a statement saying that it "appealed to all Lebanese people to preserve national unity in the face of attempts to undermine the country's stability and stressed the importance for all Lebanese parties to respect Lebanon's policy of disassociation and to refrain from any involvement in the Syrian crisis."

Libyan revolutionary group: UAE and Egypt plotting a coup in Libya

Sunday, 16 February

The Libyan "Revolutionaries Operations Room" (ROR) said on Sunday that it acquired "documented information" regarding plots by the UAE and Egyptian military-led authorities to meddle in the Libyan affairs and to abort the Libyan revolution.

In a Facebook statement, the ROR claimed that UAE's security agencies has recently formed two "cells" to circumvent the Libyan revolution and to stop Libyan oil exports.

The statement read: "We received information that UAE's security apparatus has formed two high level cells. The first aims at overthrowing the new Libyan regime, the Libyan National Congress, and confronting the rise of Islamists. The second cell is a specialized media one based in Amman, Jordan."

According to the statement, the "media cell" is primarily tasked with disseminating news that would serve the agenda of the "security cell". Part of its agenda is to distort the image of Islamists, particularly with their rising popularity in Libya, the statement claims.

The ROR claimed that it obtained all information related to the "security cell" in Libya, and that it is led and funded by the UAE. It claimed that the cell has been operating in Libya since January 26, 2013.

"A high level Libyan source told ROR that a group affiliated with Mahmoud Gebril abducted Abu Anas Al-Libi based on a request from the UAE which immediately handed him over to the American CIA."

The statement claimed that Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan leads the security cell, while the members of the cell are counter-revolutionary figures in Libya, including Al-Saadi Al-Ghadhafi who managed to escape from the rebels, and a Libyan close to the Egyptian coup leader Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi.

The ROR affirmed that the "security cell" is based in Abu Dhabi, and convenes regularly with the protection of UAE security.

The cell, claims ROR, has intensified its operations lately with the purpose of overthrowing the Libyan National Congress (LNC) and spreading chaos in the country, with February 2014 as a deadline for the end of the LNC.

Concerning the media cell, the statement added, its main goal is to denigrate the Islamists in Libya. It is led by the Libyan businessman Gomaa Al-Osta, a close aide to Seif Al-Islam Al-Ghadhafi who owns a television channel called "Al-Asema" [the Capital]. Al-Osta has been tasked with the supervision of Libyan news broadcast in a number of UAE-funded channels, including Sky News (Arabia) and Libya Al-Ahrar channel.

The UAE, according to ROR statement, aims at overthrowing the LNC and then assigning the president of the higher court Al-Dahan Zawary to lead a transitional phase. Al-Zawary has visited the UAE recently. After his UAE visit, he has been promoted in the press which indicates that he is being prepared for a specific mission, the ROR claimed.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/9780-libyan-revolutionary-group-uae-and-egypt-plotting-a-coup-in-libya.

Jailed daughter of Bahrain rights activist freed

February 16, 2014

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja was released from prison on Sunday after nearly a year behind bars for multiple convictions including participation in an illegal gathering.

Friends and supporters greeted her in a coffee shop in a main mall hours after her release. The cafe has served as a gathering point for activists since the small island-nation's Arab Spring-inspired uprising.

"One year of prison is nothing," she told journalists defiantly after her release. "We have a cause... This will not stop us." Bahrain's majority Shiites have led a three-year uprising seeking a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom, which is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.

Al-Khawaja, who is popular online and on Twitter, said international attention should focus on an estimated 3,000 prisoners believed to be behind bars in Bahrain on politically related charges. Her father is prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is among several opposition figures who are serving life sentences. He drew attention to his imprisonment with a lengthy hunger strike in 2012.

Her lawyer Mohammed al-Attiyah said she still faces two trials, one this month and one next month, on charges that include damaging police property, defacing a picture of Bahrain's king and insulting a police officer.

Bahrainis protest, wounded police officer dies

February 15, 2014

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahraini anti-government activists clashed with security forces as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday, sending tear gas into a major shopping mall and bringing the capital's streets to a standstill on the same day that authorities said a police officer died of injuries sustained from an earlier bombing.

The Interior Ministry said that the officer was one of two injured in what it called a "terrorist blast" on Friday in the village of Dair, near the country's main airport. It did not identify the officer. In a second statement, the ministry characterized recent attacks against security forces as "urban guerrilla warfare."

Chaos in the small Gulf-island nation highlights deeper regional sectarian tensions that continue to roil Bahrain three years after the country's majority Shiites began an Arab Spring-inspired uprising to demand greater political rights from the Sunni-led monarchy.

Neighboring Sunni-ruled Gulf countries with smaller Shiite populations, led by Saudi Arabia, sent troops to Bahrain in an effort to stem the uprising in 2011. More than 65 people have died in the unrest, but rights groups and others put the death toll higher.

Heeding calls by Bahrain's main Shiite coalition al-Wefaq, around 15,000 Bahrainis marched in the capital Manama's streets a day after the three-year anniversary of the start of the anti-government uprising.

The protesters marched for several miles (kilometers) before clashes erupted. Police fired tear gas at the crowd, which included women and children. The protesters carried the red and white Bahraini flag and signs that read "Democracy is the only solution".

"I came to say that I refuse the way that my government treats people like me with discrimination," prominent human rights activist Azhar Jaafar said. He was carrying the picture of a 22 year-old protester Nabeel Rajab, who is one of around 3,000 people believed to be behind bars for politically-related charges.

"Allahu Akbar!" or God is great, the crowd chanted as youth protesters erected makeshift barriers to keep police back. They burnt tires to block the effects of the tear gas and threw rocks back at the security forces. Some protesters were seen carrying Molotov cocktails.

Efforts to restart on-and-off reconciliation talks between the Shiite-dominated opposition and the Sunni monarchy and its allies have so far failed to bring an end to simmering unrest in the country, an American ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Activists frequently clash with police. Anti-government factions have been increasingly using small-scale bombs targeting government forces. Al-Wefaq said the protests Saturday were called to demand a democratic transition "in which the people are the source of all powers." The group said the protest was also called to denounce the "free reign" given to security forces to exercise "heinous violations" against citizens.

The Interior Ministry says police have shown "incredible restraint in their use of force in dealing with violent rioters." Former member of parliament and opposition figure Abdul-Jalil Khalil told The Associated Press that a "serious dialogue" is necessary, but that it cannot happen so long activists are imprisoned.

"Today's events come as a result of a culture of denial by authorities who insist on security solutions and refuse to enter into meaningful dialogue," he said.

Spaniards protest Coca Cola layoffs

Sun Feb 16, 2014

Thousands of Spaniards have taken part in a protest against controversial plans by Coca Cola Company to close some of its bottling factories, resulting in the layoff of many workers in the southwestern European country.

Demonstrators, wearing red caps and vests with the logo of the giant US drinks company, took to the streets in the Spanish capital Madrid on Saturday while carrying banners calling for a boycott of Coca Cola.

General Secretary of the General Union of Workers (UGT) Candido Mendez and leader of the Workers' Commissions (CCOO) Fernandez Toxo headed the protest rally.

Coca-Cola Iberian Partners, the company’s Spanish subsidiary, announced in January that it would shutter four of its 11 plants in about three weeks in the northwestern Asturias region, the Balearic Islands, near Madrid and in Alicante.

The move is expected to affect some 1,250 jobs, with 750 employees being laid off and 500 others relocated.

The company, however, insists that the closures are needed to improve efficiency, but workers describe the layoffs as unjustified since the company is making profit.

Earlier this month, crowds estimated to be about 2,000 marched in Madrid and the eastern city of Alicante over Coca Cola job cuts.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/350963.html.

Ukraine leader names new army chief after clashes

February 19, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — As fires burned at the barricades in central Kiev for a second straight night, Ukraine's embattled president replaced the army chief Wednesday and the military said it would take part in a national anti-terrorist operation to restore order.

The move, announced in a decree from President Viktor Yanukovych, came a day after 25 people were killed and over 425 injured in clashes between police and protesters at the sprawling protest camp in the Ukrainian capital. Officials have often referred to the protesters who have demanded Yanukovych's resignation for months as "terrorists."

The violence this week was the worst in nearly three months of anti-government protests that have paralyzed Kiev. The two sides are locked in a battle over the identity of this nation of 46 million, whose loyalties are divided between Russia and the West. The protests began in late November after Yanukovych turned away from a long-anticipated deal with the European Union in exchange for a $15 billion bailout from Russia.

The political maneuvering has continued, with both Moscow and the West eager to gain influence over this former Soviet republic. Three EU foreign ministers — from Germany, France and Poland — were heading to Kiev on Thursday to speak with both sides before an emergency EU meeting back in Brussels to consider sanctions against those responsible for the recent violence in Ukraine.

President Barack Obama also condemned the violence in Kiev, warning Wednesday "there will be consequences" for Ukraine if it continues. The U.S. has raised the prospect of joining with the EU to impose sanctions against Ukraine.

On a visit to Mexico, Obama said the Ukrainian military should not step into a situation that civilians should resolve and added that the U.S. holds Ukraine's government primarily responsible for dealing with peaceful protesters appropriately.

On the ground, tensions were escalating. Ukraine's top security agency accused protesters Wednesday of seizing hundreds of firearms from its offices and announced a nationwide anti-terrorist operation to restore order.

Demonstrators, meanwhile, forced their way into the main post office on Kiev's Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, after a nearby building they had previously occupied was burned down in fierce, fiery clashes late Tuesday with riot police. Thousands of activists armed with fire bombs and rocks had defended the square, a key symbol of the protests.

"The revolution has turned into a war with the authorities," Vasyl Oleksenko, a retired geologist from central Ukraine, said Wednesday. "We must fight this bloody, criminal leadership. We must fight for our country, our Ukraine!"

The bad blood now runs so high it has fueled fears the nation could be sliding toward a messy breakup. While most people in the country's western regions resent Yanukovych, he enjoys strong support in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions, where many want strong ties with Russia.

Neither side now appears willing to compromise, with the opposition insisting on Yanukovych's resignation and an early election and the president apparently prepared to fight until the end. Opposition lawmaker Oleh Lyashko warned that Yanukovych himself was in danger.

"Yanukovych, you will end like (Moammar) Gadhafi," Lyashko told thousands of angry protesters. "Either you, a parasite, will stop killing people or this fate will await you. Remember this, dictator!" For his part, Yanukovych blamed the protesters for the violence and said the opposition leaders had "crossed a line when they called people to arms."

"I again call on the leaders of the opposition ... to draw a boundary between themselves and radical forces, which are provoking bloodshed and clashes with the security services," the president said in a statement. "If they don't want to leave — they should acknowledge that they are supporting radicals."

He called for a day of mourning Thursday for the dead. In Moscow, the Kremlin said it put the next disbursement of its bailout on hold amid uncertainty over Ukraine's future and what it described as a "coup attempt."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters that he and his counterparts from Germany and Poland would meet both sides in Ukraine ahead of the EU meeting on possible sanctions. He said he hoped the two sides "will find a way for dialogue."

Possible sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes, which could hit hard the powerful oligarchs who back Yanukovych. Ordinary Ukrainians, meanwhile, are struggling amid a stagnating economy and soaring corruption. They have been especially angered to see that Yanukovych's close friends and family have risen to top government posts and amassed fortunes since he came to power in 2010. Yanukovych's dentist son, Oleksander, has become a financial and construction magnate worth $187 million, according to Forbes Ukraine.

The latest bout of street violence began Tuesday when protesters attacked police lines and set fires outside parliament, accusing Yanukovych of ignoring their demands to enact constitutional reforms that would limit the president's power — a key opposition demand. Parliament, dominated by his supporters, was stalling on taking up a constitutional reform to limit presidential powers.

Police responded by attacking the protest camp. Armed with water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets, police dismantled some barricades. But the protesters held their ground through the night, encircling the protest camp with new burning barricades of tires, furniture and debris.

On Wednesday morning, the center of Kiev was cordoned off by police, the subway was shut down and most shops on the main street were closed. But hundreds of Ukrainians still flocked to the opposition camp, some wearing balaclavas and armed with bats.

One group of young men and women poured petrol into plastic bottles, preparing fire bombs, while a volunteer walked by distributing ham sandwiches. Other activists were busy crushing the pavement into bags to fortify the barricades.

In the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where most residents yearn for stronger ties with the EU and have little sympathy for Yanukovych, protesters seized several government buildings, including the governor's office, police stations and offices for prosecutors, security officials and the tax agency. They also broke into an Interior Ministry unit and set it on fire.

In another western city, Lutsk, protesters handcuffed the regional governor, a Yanukovych appointee, and tied him on a central square after he refused to resign. In the city of Khmelnitsky, three people were injured when protesters tried to storm a law enforcement office.

Government buildings were stormed or besieged in other western cities. Ukraine's ailing economy is a major factor in the crisis. On Monday, Russia said it was ready to resume providing the loans that Yanukovych's government needs to keep the country afloat. This raised fears among the opposition that Yanukovych had made a deal with Moscow to stand firm against the protesters.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a statement that Putin spoke to Yanukovych overnight by phone. The next Russian bailout payment is on hold, he said, because the priority is to settle the crisis.

While the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement blaming the West for failing to condemn the opposition for the latest violence, EU leaders took the opposite stance. "Today, President Yanukovych has blood on his hands," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said.

__ Svetlana Fedas in Lviv, Ukraine, Laura Mills and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and John-Thor Dahlburg and Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this report.

Ukraine: 25 killed, 241 injured in Kiev clashes

February 19, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — As thick black smoke rose from the barricades encircling the protest camp in central Kiev, a tense calm descended Wednesday over the capital and the European Union threatened sanctions against Ukraine following deadly violence between riot police and protesters in which at least 25 people died and 241 were injured.

Thousands of defiant protesters faced rows of riot police who have squeezed them deeper into the Kiev's Independence Square, known as the Maidan, which has been a bastion and symbol for the protesters, after overnight clashes that set buildings on fire and brought sharp rebuke from both the West and Russia.

The violence on Tuesday was the worst in nearly three months of anti-government protests that have paralyzed Ukraine's capital in a struggle over the identity of a nation divided in loyalties between Russia and the West, and the worst in the country's post-Soviet history. The Kremlin said it put the next disbursement of its bailout on hold amid uncertainty over Ukraine's future and what it described as a "coup attempt"; it criticized the West for the escalation of violence.

President Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday blamed the protesters for the violence and said the opposition leaders "crossed a line when they called people to arms." The European Union appears poised to impose sanctions as it called an extraordinary meeting of the 28-nation bloc's foreign ministers.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called Wednesday for "targeted measures against those responsible for violence and use of excessive force can be agreed ... as a matter of urgency." Sanctions would at first typically include banning leading officials from traveling to the 28-nation bloc and freezing their assets there.

"It is the political leadership of the country that has a responsibility to ensure the necessary protection of fundamental rights and freedoms," said Barroso, who heads the EU's executive arm. "It was with shock and utter dismay that we have been watching developments over the last 24 hours in Ukraine," he added.

The protests began in late November after Yanukovych turned away from a long-anticipated deal with the European Union in exchange for a $15 billion bailout from Russia. The political maneuvering continued ever since, with both Moscow and the West eager to gain influence over this former Soviet republic.

The latest bout of street violence began Tuesday when protesters attacked police lines and set fires outside parliament, accusing Yanukovych of ignoring their demands to enact constitutional reforms that would limit president's power — a key opposition demand. Parliament, dominated by his supporters, was stalling on taking up a constitutional reform to limit presidential powers.

Police responded by attacking the protest camp. Armed with water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets, police dismantled some barricades and took part of the Maidan. But the protesters still held their ground through the night, encircling the camp with new burning barricades of tires, furniture and debris.

On Wednesday morning, the center of Kiev was cordoned off by police, the subway was shut down and most shops on Kiev's main street were closed. But hundreds of Ukrainians still flocked to the opposition camp, some wearing balaclavas and armed with bats, others, in every-day clothes and with make-up on, carrying food to protesters.

A group of young men and women poured petrol into plastic bottles, preparing fire bombs, while a volunteer walked past them distributing ham sandwiches to protesters from a tray. Another group of activists was busy crushing the pavement into pieces and into bags to fortify barricades.

"The revolution turned into a war with the authorities," said Vasyl Oleksenko, 57, a retired geologist from central Ukraine, who said he fled the night's violence fearing for his life, but returned to the square in the morning, feeling ashamed. "We must fight this bloody, criminal leadership; we must fight for our country, our Ukraine."

Yanukovych was defiant on Wednesday. "I again call on the leaders of the opposition ... to draw a boundary between themselves and radical forces which are provoking bloodshed and clashes with the security services," the president said in a statement. "If they don't want to leave (the square) — they should acknowledge that they are supporting radicals. Then the conversation with them will already be of a different kind." He also called a day of mourning for the dead on Thursday.

Yanukovych's tone left few with hope of compromise after a night of violence. He still enjoys strong support in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions, where many want strong ties with Russia.

The Health Ministry said 25 people died in the clashes, some from gunshot wounds, and Kiev hospitals were struggling to treat hundreds of injured. Activists also set-up a makeshift medical unit inside an landmark Orthodox Church not far from the camp, where volunteer medics were taking care of the wounded.

Meanwhile, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where most residents yearn for stronger ties with the EU and have little sympathy for Yanukovych, protesters seized several government buildings, including the governor's office, police stations, prosecutors and security agency offices and the tax agency headquarters. They also broke into an Interior Ministry unit and set it on fire. The building was still smoldering Wednesday morning and some protesters were driving around town in police cars they had seized during the night.

Tensions continued mounting. The government imposed restrictions for transport moving toward Kiev, apparently to prevent more opposition activists from coming from Western part of the country, and at least one train from Lviv was held outside Kiev. Several highways toward into Kiev were also blocked by police.

Acting Defense Minister Pavlo Lebedev told the ITAR-Tass news agency that he has dispatched a paratrooper brigade to Kiev to help protect arsenals. He refused to say if the unit could be used against protesters, the agency said.

Tensions soared after Russia said Monday that it was ready to resume providing the loans that Yanukovych's government needs to keep Ukraine's ailing economy afloat. This raised fears among the opposition that Yanukovych had made a deal with Moscow to stand firm against the protesters and would choose a Russian-leaning loyalist to be his new prime minister.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that Putin had a phone conversation with Yanukovych overnight. Peskov said that Putin hasn't given Yanukovych any advice how to settle the crisis, adding that it's up to the Ukrainian government.

Peskov also added that the next disbursement of a Russian bailout has remained on hold, saying the priority now is to settle the crisis, which he described as a "coup attempt." The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, blaming the West for the failure to condemn the opposition for the latest bout of violence.

EU leaders took the opposite stance, with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt putting the blame on Yanukovych in an unusually tough statement. "Today, President Yanukovich has blood on his hands," Bildt said.

__ Svetlana Fedas in Lviv, Ukraine, Laura Mills and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and John-Thor Dahlburg and Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this report.

Venezuelans clash as jailed opposition leader sits

February 20, 2014

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Violent clashes flared up across Venezuela on Wednesday as the nation waited to learn what charges jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez will face for organizing mass protests that have breathed new life into the movement challenging socialist rule in the oil-rich nation.

Gunfire echoed through downtown Caracas as President Nicolas Maduro spoke on live TV for more than two hours Wednesday night denouncing what he calls a "fascist" plot to destabilize the country. Elsewhere, protesters set trash fires in streets or threw rocks at National Guard troops, who fired tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

There was no immediate word on whether there were any new casualties, after a week of demonstrations and clashes that have resulted in at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries. Lopez, who dramatically surrendered to authorities before thousands of cheering supporters Tuesday, was supposed to appear before a judge inside a military jail to learn what charges he might face for organizing the protests that the government has blamed for the violence.

The hearing was closed and the outcome had not been announced by late Wednesday, but Maduro suggested in his speech that Lopez would remain in custody and face criminal charges. "I said, 'Send him to jail,' and that's what happened and that's what will happen with all of the fascists," Maduro said.

The government has accused Lopez, a 42-year-old former mayor and the leader of the Popular Will party, of attempting to foment a coup in the South American nation and authorities had said he could face charges that include homicide and causing grievous bodily harm.

Before the president's speech, a judicial official told The Associated Press that prosecutors were leaning toward discarding homicide and terrorism charges, opting instead to pursue less serious counts such as arson and incitement to commit crimes. That would allow the possibility of Lopez being released pending trial, according to the official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because the decision had not been made public.

Maduro made that seem unlikely. "I won't allow him to challenge the people of Venezuela, the constitution," he said. The president also said he would take harsh measures in Tachira, an opposition stronghold on the western border with Colombia where there have been fierce clashes between National Guard troops and opposition protesters. Maduro said he is prepared to declare a "state of exception," a form of martial law.

"If I have to decree a state of exception for Tachira and send in the tanks, I am ready to do it," he said. Early in the day, hundreds of supporters waited outside a courthouse for news of Lopez's legal fate, watched over by National Guard troops. Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, a member of a different opposition party, showed up at one point in a sign of unity among the various foes of the Maduro government.

"We are all united in demanding the release of Leopoldo Lopez," Ledezma told the AP. "We are rallying behind him." The crowd drifted away after hours of waiting when officials decided to hold the court hearing at the military jail outside the city where Lopez was being detained.

The opposition is planning marches across the country on Saturday to protest both his detention as well as the rampant crime, shortages of consumer goods and inflation rate of more than 50 percent that has made life difficult for many in the country of nearly 30 million people.

The jailing of Lopez has made him a cause celebre among opponents of Maduro, eclipsing to some degree Henrique Capriles, the opposition's two-time losing presidential candidate who was building support for another challenge in two years.

Capriles attended a rally on Feb. 12 in Caracas led by Lopez but did not appear on the stage to address the masses of demonstrators. Clashes with police erupted afterward, after the opposition leaders had left, and resulted in three deaths. In Twitter messages Wednesday, Capriles accused the government of infiltrating opposition demonstrations to provoke violence.

Maduro accused Lopez of leading a plot to oust the socialist government, the political legacy of the late Hugo Chavez, and authorities issued an arrest warrant for him. He surrendered theatrically Tuesday, dressed in white to signify peace, adorned with a crucifix from his wife and surrounded by a sea of supporters.

"If my jailing serves to awaken a people, serves to awaken Venezuela ... then it will be well worth the infamous imprisonment imposed upon me directly, with cowardice," he shouted. Much of the capital shut down afterward, fearing violent clashes, but the violence occurred in Valencia, the third largest city, where National Guard troops fired rubber bullets and unknown gunman on motorcycles fired live rounds at protesters. Genesis Carmona, a 22-year-old university student who had been Miss Tourism 2013 for the state of Carabobo, was struck in the head and killed by a bullet, a death that reverberated in a country that prizes beauty queens.

The troubles spread on Wednesday with a significant clash in the wealthy Altamira district of Caracas. In southern Bolivar state, gunman firing from a rooftop at a pro-government rally killed one person and wounded four, Gov. Francisco Rangel Gomez said.

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Joshua Goodman and Andrew Rosati contributed to this report.

Tense Venezuela awaits ruling on opposition leader

February 20, 2014

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Violence is heating up in Venezuela as the oil-rich country waits to find out the fate of a jailed opposition leader the government blames for a week of demonstrations that have left six dead and at least 100 injured.

Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who dramatically surrendered to authorities before thousands of cheering supporters this week, was supposed to appear before a judge inside a military jail Wednesday to learn what charges he might face for the mass protests that have rejuvenated the challenge to President Nicolas Maduro's government.

The outcome of the hearing had not been announced by late Wednesday, but Maduro suggested in a nationally broadcast speech that Lopez would remain in custody and face criminal charges. "I said, 'Send him to jail,' and that's what happened and that's what will happen with all of the fascists," Maduro said in a speech that lasted more than two hours. "I won't allow him to challenge the people of Venezuela, the constitution."

The government has accused Lopez, a 42-year-old former mayor and the leader of the Popular Will party, of attempting to foment a coup in the South American nation and authorities had said he could face charges that include homicide and causing grievous bodily harm.

As the waiting dragged into the night, anti-government protesters in Caracas and other cities set trash fires in streets and threw rocks at National Guard troops, who fired tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. Gunfire was heard in downtown Caracas while Maduro was on television. There was no immediate word on whether there were any new casualties.

Demonstrators are protesting Lopez's detention as well as the rampant crime, shortages of consumer goods and inflation rate of more than 50 percent that has made life difficult for many in the country of nearly 30 million people.

The president said he would take harsh measures in Tachira, an opposition stronghold on the nation's western border with Colombia where there have been fierce clashes between security forces and opposition protesters. Maduro said he was prepared to declare a "state of exception," a form of martial law.

"If I have to decree a state of exception for Tachira and send in the tanks, I am ready to do it," he warned. Early on Wednesday, hundreds of Lopez's supporters waited outside a courthouse for news of his legal fate, watched over by National Guard troops. Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, a member of a different opposition party, showed up at one point in a sign of unity among the various foes of the Maduro government.

"We are all united in demanding the release of Leopoldo Lopez," Ledezma said. "We are rallying behind him." The crowd drifted away after hours of waiting when officials decided to hold the court hearing at the military jail outside the city where Lopez was being detained.

The opposition is planning marches across the country Saturday to protest Lopez's jailing, which has made him a cause celebre among opponents of Maduro. It's helping him to eclipse to some degree Henrique Capriles, the opposition's two-time losing presidential candidate who was building support for another challenge in two years.

Capriles attended a rally on Feb. 12 in Caracas led by Lopez but did not appear on the stage to address the masses of demonstrators. Clashes with police erupted afterward, after the opposition leaders and most of the protesters had left, and resulted in three deaths. In Twitter messages Wednesday, Capriles accused the government of infiltrating opposition demonstrations to provoke violence.

On Tuesday in Valencia, the third largest city, National Guard troops shot rubber bullets and unknown gunman on motorcycles fired live rounds at protesters. Genesis Carmona, a 22-year-old university student who had been Miss Tourism 2013 for the state of Carabobo, was struck in the head and killed by a bullet, a death that reverberated in a country that prizes beauty queens.

The troubles spread on Wednesday, including a significant clash in the wealthy Altamira district of Caracas. In southern Bolivar state, gunman firing from a rooftop at a pro-government rally killed one person and wounded four, Gov. Francisco Rangel Gomez said.

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Joshua Goodman and Andrew Rosati contributed to this report.

Israel unveils "Super Heron" MALE drone

Jerusalem (XNX)
Feb 19, 2014

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on Tuesday unveiled the newest "Super Heron" drone at the Singapore Air Show, an aircraft that "redefines" Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial systems, said in a statement of IAI.

The newest drone features a heavy fuel engine and a propulsion system that enable it to operate at an altitude of 30,000 feet ( about 9 km), fly 1000 km when linked to satellite communications, and remain aloft for 45 hours, according to IAI's report at a press release.

"Its forte lies in the enhanced triple-redundant avionics, processing capabilities, operational flexibility, and simple integration of more diversified payloads, among other features," an IAI spokeswoman told Xinhua.

The Super Heron is a significantly upgraded version of the "Shoval," the first Heron-type drone to had entered service in the Israel Air Force (IAF) in 2007, where it has since been used in intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), maritime patrol and other missions, and has been sold to 20 foreign customers.

The IAI spokeswoman clarified that the Heron family continues to be dominated by the Heron TP, also known as Eitan, a fourth- generation craft delivered to the IAF in February 2010 which can reportedly be armed with missiles for long-range strategic strikes.

"Super Heron is positioned between the Shoval and the TP, and was developed to meet requirements specified by leading customers, " the spokeswoman said.

According to the statement, IAI's various drones have accumulated over 1.1 million operational flight hours around the world, while the Heron family has accumulated 250,000 operational flight hours worldwide.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_unveils_Super_Heron_MALE_drone_999.html.

Israel begins sending African migrants to Uganda

February 19, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has begun sending dozens of African migrants to Uganda, an Israeli official said Wednesday, a move that has sparked concerns that they are being coerced into going to a country that may not keep them safe.

The resettlement of people in Uganda, and perhaps other countries, marks a new phase in Israel's campaign to rid itself of thousands of Africans who have poured into the country in recent years. Migrants and activists said the arrangement, which includes a one-way ticket and a stipend, is questionable because it is unclear if there is an official agreement with Uganda that would secure the migrants' status. They said the new arrivals risk deportation to their home countries, where they may face conflict or persecution.

Uganda, for its part, denied any deal. The Israeli official said Israel paid $3,500 each in recent weeks to about 30 migrants who agreed to leave for Uganda, though he, too, said there was no formal agreement in place. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the matter.

Israel says the relocations are done on a voluntary basis. About 50,000 Africans, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have poured into Israel in recent years across the southern border with Egypt. The Africans say they are asylum-seekers fleeing persecution and danger. Israel says they are looking for employment, but it does not deport them because they could face danger in their conflict-ridden homelands. Critics say Israel has dragged its feet on reviewing the migrants' claims for refugee status.

Israel has grappled with how to deal with the influx, which has caused friction with locals and alarmed authorities who say Israel's Jewish character is threatened by the presence of the Africans. Israel has built a fence along the border with Egypt, all but stopping the influx, passed a law that allows for the migrants' detention and said it has a deal with an unidentified country to host some of the Africans until they are able to return home. It has used financial incentives in the past to encourage other African migrants to return home.

Rights groups say Israel has an obligation to protect the migrants, in part because of Israel's history of taking in Jewish refugees following the Holocaust, and because it is a signatory to the U.N. refugee convention.

"We are very concerned that these deportations are clearly not taking into consideration the safety and well-being of the deportees," said Elizabeth Tsurkov, of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, an advocacy group.

Ugandan officials denied any deal was in place. "We are not privy to such an arrangement," said David Kazungu, a Ugandan government commissioner who is in charge of refugees. Israel's Interior Ministry and the prime minister's office declined to comment.

Tsurkov said Israel's policies toward the migrants have forced many to accept the relocation offer. A recent amendment to an Israeli "infiltrators" law allows Israel to detain newly arrived migrants for up to a year.

The Interior Ministry also has begun ordering more veteran migrants to report to a new detention center in the southern desert when they try to renew visas that previously allowed them to stay in the country.

The Holot detention center is meant to be an "open" facility, where residents can come and go. But they must sign in several times a day and sleep there, making it impossible for them to stray far or hold jobs. Those who violate the rules, or reject what Israel calls "invitations" to report there, can be sent to a nearby prison.

The offers to relocate to a third country, and the threat of being sent to Holot, are part of a broader strategy to rid Israel of anyone it determines does not meet refugee status. In a speech last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "continue to work to return the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who crossed the border."

One Eritrean migrant who accepted the offer to move to Uganda said he did so because his options in Israel — detention or economic hardship — were bleak. He said that upon entering Uganda, he was given a two-month tourist visa, and he was not certain what his status would be once that period expired.

The 32-year-old man, who asked not to be identified for fear he would be sought out by Ugandan authorities, had worked menial jobs in Israel for two years. "I didn't want to go to Holot. That's why I left," said the man, who spoke to The Associated Press by phone from Kampala, Uganda. "Without a visa, you can't work. Without work you have no money. If you don't have money, how do you live in Israel?"

He said he approached Israel's Interior Ministry to ask how he could leave the country. He was offered a free ticket and some cash if he went back to Eritrea or else a free ticket to fly to Uganda. Fearing for his life should he return to his homeland, which is widely seen as one of the worst human rights violators, he chose Uganda, where he has lived for the past month.

Jack Zaidan, a migrant from Sudan's Darfur region who is still in Israel, said at least five Sudanese migrants he knows accepted the offer because of the situation in Israel. He said their fate in Uganda was uncertain.

"There is no protection in Uganda. You arrive and two days later police will catch you and send you away," he said.

Associated Press reporter Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin contributed to this report.

Thai court bans use of violence against protesters

February 19, 2014

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court ordered the government on Wednesday not to use force against protesters who are seeking the prime minister's resignation, a day after violent clashes between riot police and demonstrators left five people dead.

The Civil Court ruled that some orders issued by the prime minister and a special security command center under an emergency decree were illegal because they would violate the protesters' constitutional rights.

The prohibited orders included bans on gatherings of five or more people and the use of certain roads by the demonstrators. The court also prohibited the government from using force to crack down on the protesters.

The court, however, rejected a protester's request that it revoke the state of emergency, saying it was within the executive branch's power to enforce such a law. The Cabinet declared a state of emergency in the Bangkok area on Jan. 21 after the protesters threatened to shut down the capital by blocking key intersections and occupying government offices.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government has been attempting to avoid violence to keep the powerful military from stepping in. Thailand has been wracked by political unrest since 2006, when Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by a military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Police have been ordered to exercise restraint and avoid using force, but deadly gunbattles erupted Tuesday after they moved into several locations around the city to remove protesters. Five people were killed and nearly 70 injured, according to Erawan emergency medical services.

On Wednesday, thousands of protesters surrounded the prime minister's temporary office in Bangkok's northern outskirts to demand her resignation. The demonstrators asked officials at the Defense Ministry complex to prevent Yingluck from using it as her backup office. She has been unable to enter her regular office compound in downtown Bangkok because it is blocked by protesters and some of its gates have been cemented shut.

The demonstrators also vowed to target businesses owned by Yingluck's wealthy family. "Wherever she is, wherever she sleeps, we will go after her," protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told the crowd. "(We) must intensify our fight and we will attack Shinawatra businesses and their funding sources."

The prime minister and Cabinet ministers stayed away from their temporary offices on Wednesday to prevent further tensions, the military said. Protesters have camped out for a month at major intersections across the capital to press for Yingluck's resignation.

The demonstrators, who mostly draw their support from the urban middle and upper class and people in the south, want Yingluck to step down to make way for an appointed interim government to implement reforms they say are necessary to fight corruption and remove the Shinawatra family from politics.

In its decision, the Civil Court cited another court's earlier ruling that said the protests had been peaceful. It was unclear whether the Civil Court's ruling would affect arrest warrants issued for protest leaders for violating the state of emergency.

Lunar ownership laws: a future necessity?

by Boris Pavlischev
Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Feb 20, 2014

Private settlements and raw materials extraction enterprises could appear on the Moon in the future, thus leading to territorial disputes between their owners. In order to avoid that one must now register the property rights to the land plots on the Moon and other space objects and set up special preservation zones, US entrepreneur Robert Bigelow believes.

The Bigelow Aerospace Company, run by American businessman, designs inflatable housing modules. In the future they will be used to build flying hotels for tourists in the Earth's orbit. According to Bigelow's plan, a lunar base could also be built with the inflatable modules.

The businessman is now asking himself the question: is the owner of such a dwelling entitled to a special zone where others are not allowed to enter? The same question will be valid for the owner of a lunar enterprise extracting helium. In that case the lunar industry would not be able to function without exclusive rights to a specific territory.

To get an explanation the entrepreneur has turned to the department of commercial space transportation, a part of the Federal Aviation Administration.

He assumes that the institution could determine in each specific case the size of the protected territory by issuing licenses to companies engaged in space related business. Bigelow is convinced that the issue of the title to property outside the Earth's orbit does not violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

That intergovernmental document does carry a legal collision, explains Igor Lisov, deputy editor-in-chief of the News of Cosmonautics magazine.

"On the one hand, there is the rule of international law, according to which space objects and their surfaces cannot be claimed by any nation. On the other hand, these documents say nothing about private use of such objects".

In the past Dennis Hope, an American, used that loophole in the treaty and sent a request to the UN asking if he had the right to have property on the Moon. The officials did not bother to answer him. Having waited for half a year, Hope decided that nothing stood in his way to claim the Moon as his property, as well as other planets and stars.

In 1980 he started selling plots on the Moon. Another American Gregory Nemitz also made claims to asteroid Eros and informed various institutions of that. When in 2001 NASA landed a spacecraft on the Eros, Nemitz sent an invoice to the space agency for a rent payment in the amount of $20. NASA called his claims illegal pointing at the fact that it was based on a false interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty.

Nevertheless, what Bigelow now wants to hear from the American agency will become important as private astronautics develops and housing and enterprises are built on the surface of other space objects.

Most likely the international treaty on outer space will have to be amended to include the activity of private entrepreneurs. Below is the opinion of Alexander Zheleznyakov, a member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics.

"Private spacecraft are already flying in the unmanned mode, but soon they will be piloted. That means that people will spend more time in space. Naturally, some legal relations will occur between them as between representatives of different companies. They have to be regulated somehow".

It is better to think through these issues ahead of time and not at the last moment when everybody rushes to space and will start pushing each other, says the expert. In that sense Bigelow's addressing the Federal Agency would at least give a reason to start discussing the subject.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Lunar_ownership_laws_a_future_necessity_999.html.

Europe prepares spacecraft to observe a billion stars

Paris (UPI)
Jun 27, 2013

The European Space Agency say preparations are complete for a billion-star survey spacecraft ready to depart for its launch site in French Guiana.

The main goal of the Gaia space telescope during a five-year mission is to create a highly accurate 3D map of our Milky Way Galaxy by repeatedly observing a billion stars to determine their precise positions in space and their motions through it, a release from the Paris headquarters of ESA said Thursday.

The result of this cosmic census will allow astronomers to determine the origin and the evolution of our galaxy, researchers said.

"Gaia will be ESA's discovery machine," Alvaro Gimenez, the agency's director of science and robotic exploration, said.

"It will tell us what our home galaxy is made of and how it was put together in greater detail than ever before, putting Europe at the forefront of precision astronomy."

Gaia will be launched this year on an Arianespace Soyuz rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and will map the stars from an orbit around the sun at a distance of almost a million miles beyond Earth's orbit.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Europe_prepares_spacecraft_to_observe_a_billion_stars_999.html.

1 star, 3 habitable planets

Washington DC (SPX)
Jun 28, 2013

A team of astronomers, including Carnegie's Paul Butler, has combined new observations with existing data to reveal a solar system packed full of planets. The star Gliese 667C is orbited by between five and seven planets, the maximum number that could fit in stable, close orbits.

A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths found in the so-called habitable zone around the star-the zone where liquid water could exist. This makes them good candidates for the search for life.

Gliese 667C is a very well-studied star. It is just over one third of the mass of our Sun, and it is part of a triple star system known as Gliese 667. Gliese 667 is remarkably similar to our solar system, compared to other stars studied in the search for habitable planets.

Previous studies of Gliese 667C found that the star hosts three planets, with one in the habitable zone. Now, a team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escude of the University of Gottingen, a former Carnegie post-doc, reexamined observations taken between 2003 and 2012, along with new observations from a variety of telescopes, and found evidence for five, and possibly as many as seven, planets around the star.

If seven planets exist, they would completely fill the habitable zone; there are no more stable, long-lived orbits in which a planet could be so close to the star. Because Gliese 677C is part of a triple-star system, the other orange stars would be visible in daytime on each of these planets, and in nighttime they would provide the same illumination as the full moon on earth.

"We identified three strong signals in the star before, but it was possible that smaller planets were hidden in the data" said Anglada-Escude. "We reexamined the existing data, added some new observations, and applied two different data analysis methods especially designed to deal with multi-planet signal detection. Both methods yielded the same answer: there are five very secure signals and up to seven low-mass planets in short-period orbits around the star."

Three of these planets are confirmed to be super-Earths-planets more massive than Earth, but less massive than giant planets like Uranus or Neptune-which are within the star's habitable zone.

"This is the first time that three such planets have been spotted orbiting in this zone in the same system," Butler said.

Compact systems around Sun-like stars have been found to be abundant in the Milky Way. However, many of these systems consist of super-Earths lying very close to their star, within the orbit of Mercury. In systems built around Sun-like stars, these orbits are very hot and planets there are unlikely to be habitable.

This is not the case for cooler and dimmer stars Planets found very close to such stars could still be habitable planet candidates. The Gliese 667C system is the first example of a system in which a low-mass star is seen to host several packed planets with habitable conditions.

This discovery illustrates that low-mass stars are currently the best targets for searching for potentially habitable planets, an important finding given that around 80% of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy, and many stars near to us, fall into this lower mass bracket. If such packed systems are common around low-mass stars, the number of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy could be much larger than previously expected.

The team came to its conclusions by digging into previous data from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile, the Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) at the 6.5-metre Magellan II Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, and the HIRES spectrograph mounted on the Keck 10-metre telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Spectra taken using the UVES spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile were used to fine tune the properties of the star accurately.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/1_star_3_habitable_planets_999.html.

NASA's Voyager 1 approaches outer limit of solar system

Washington (AFP)
June 27, 2013

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is approaching the outer limit of the solar system but remains months or even years away from the farthest reach of the sun's magnetic pull, NASA said Thursday.

In the meantime, the US space agency's pioneering craft launched in 1977 is sending back a wealth of data on the final frontier of the solar bubble -- or heliosphere -- which scientists have dubbed the magnetic highway.

"This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind's most distant scout," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Three papers were published in the journal Science Thursday describing the last region that Voyager will cross before it enters interstellar space.

Voyager was about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the Sun -- or 122 times the distances from the Earth to the Sun -- when it reached the magnetic highway on August 25.

Also known as the depletion region, the magnetic highway allows charged particles to travel in and out of the heliosphere along a smooth magnetic field line instead of "bouncing round in all directions as if trapped on local roads."

In the span of about 24 hours after Voyager reached the depletion zone, the magnetic field started to pile up with particles "like cars backed up on a freeway exit ramp," researchers said.

"A day made such a difference in this region with the magnetic field suddenly doubling and becoming extraordinarily smooth," said lead author Leonard Burlaga, who is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we're still observing the field lines originating at the sun."

Scientists were able to detect low-energy cosmic rays that originate from dying stars for the first time since Voyager left Earth.

Meanwhile, the number of charged particles detected started to drop off dramatically, especially the ones that were shooting straightest along solar magnetic field line.

"They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway," said Stamatios Krimigis, a physics professor at Johns Hopkins University who is the low-energy charged particle instrument's principal investigator.

"We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago."

NASA has described Voyager 1 and its companion Voyager 2 as "the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore."

The twin Voyager craft -- Voyager 2 was actually launched first, on August 20, 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5 -- were designed primarily to study the biggest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn.

Taking advantage of a planetary alignment, they fulfilled that mission before pushing on to Uranus and Neptune, beaming back stunning images of the first two in 1979 and 1980, and the latter pair in 1986 and 1989.

But with those jobs complete and both craft still functioning perfectly, project managers decided to keep mining information as the devices fly further into the void.

The scientists controlling Voyager 1 -- whose 1970s technology gives it just a 100,000th of the computer memory of an eight-gigabyte iPod Nano -- decided to turn off its cameras after it passed Neptune in 1989 to preserve power.

It continues to send daily radio reports, which take about 17 hours to reach Earth.

Assuming the craft continues to function normally, they will have to start turning off other on-board instruments from 2020, and it is expected to run out of power completely in 2025.

Voyager 2 is currently about 9 billion miles from the Sun and still well inside the heliosphere.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASAs_Voyager_1_approaches_outer_limit_of_solar_system_999.html.

FEMA, Russian Ministry to Join Forces Against Space Threat

Moscow (RIA Novosti)
Jun 27, 2013

Russia and the United States will work together to improve protection against meteorites and other space threats, Russia's emergencies minister said on Tuesday following a joint Russia-US working group meeting in Washington.

"We have decided that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Russia's Emergencies Ministry will work together to develop systems to protect people and territory from cosmic impacts," Russia's Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told journalists.

The meeting also covered other kinds of natural emergencies, such as recent years' extreme weather in Russia and United States, but it was cooperation to counter space threats that stole the limelight at the news conference.

"I believe we can make a technological breakthrough in this area if the Emergencies Ministry and FEMA supervise this project, attracting the finest minds and research groups including in Canada, Europe, China, and Southeast Asia," Puchkov added.

On February 15, a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere over Russia's Chelyabinsk region and broke into pieces at an altitude of about 5-10 kilometers. The blast-wave shattered glass and damaged buildings in the region, and over 1,500 people sought medical assistance.

Members of the scientific community in Russia and America have suggested a variety of approaches to counter this threat, from launching ballistic missiles to using unmanned rockets and asteroids in a kind of "space billiards."

On June 22, a huge chunk of the meteorite that hit Russia earlier this year was found at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/FEMA_Russian_Ministry_to_Join_Forces_Against_Space_Threat_999.html.