Taiwan stages mass anti-China trade pact rally

Taipei (AFP)
March 30, 2014

Tens of thousands of Taiwanese protesters took to the streets in Taipei on Sunday in a bid to pressure embattled President Ma Ying-jeou to retract a controversial trade pact with China.

The protesters, many wearing black shirts and headbands reading "defend democracy, retract service trade pact," crowded the streets leading to the presidential office, despite fresh concessions offered by Ma to further scrutinize agreements with China.

"The people cannot accept the government's reckless decision to sign the service trade pact with China. The government doesn't listen to the people who demand the pact be retracted," said protester Ko Hsuan-yu, a 25-year-old graduate student.

Security was tight as 3,500 police were deployed in the official presidential neighborhood.

The high security presences come after violent clashes on March 23, when a group of protesters stormed government headquarters. More than 100 people were injured when baton-wielding riot police used water cannon to disperse demonstrators and retake the government building in that incident.

Organizers aimed to attract more than 100,000 people to the Sunday protest and vowed to hold a peaceful demonstration. An initial police estimate of the crowd was around 87,000.

"We will not react to any violent actions from the police or other groups. We will maintain peace ... any form of violence is totally prohibited in this movement," said student leader Lin Fei-fan.

Around 200 student-led demonstrators have occupied parliament's main chamber for nearly two weeks in a bid to stop the trade pact with China.

Ma, who has sought closer ties with China since becoming the island's leader in 2008, said Saturday he would agree to demands that a law be introduced to monitor all agreements with China.

But he rejected the protesters' main demand -- that the service trade agreement signed with China in June last year be retracted, saying it could "cause too much damage to Taiwan".

The pact is designed to open up further trade in services between China and Taiwan, which split 65 years ago after a civil war.

But the protesters say the deal will damage Taiwan's economy and leave it vulnerable to political pressure from China.

The deal is a follow-up agreement to a sweeping Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement signed in 2010 to reduce trade barriers between China and Taiwan.

Ma, whose approval ratings sit at just 10 percent, has overseen a marked thaw in relations with Beijing since he came to power pledging to strengthen trade and tourism links. He was re-elected in January 2012.

But China still considers Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary.

Source: Sino Daily.
Link: http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Taiwan_stages_mass_anti-China_trade_pact_rally_999.html.

Taiwan deploys new powerful rocket system: report

Taipei (AFP)
June 05, 2013

Taiwan has deployed a powerful multiple-launch rocket system on an offshore island to guard against any amphibious landing by China, local media reported Wednesday.

The weapon, called Ray Ting 2000 or "Thunder 2000", went into service for the first time on Matsu island and could reach China's Fujian province across the Taiwan Strait, the United Evening News cited sources as saying.

The defense ministry declined to comment.

The system can launch 40 rockets in a minute with a range of 45 kilometers (28 miles), the report said.

"Thunder 2000" is expected to enhance the military's anti-landing capabilities as it phases out the current rocket system introduced three decades ago, military experts have said.

They said the longer range could destroy landing craft before they reach the shore, while the truck-mounted launchers could be combat-ready in eight minutes, less than half the time of the current system.

The ministry reportedly plans to produce more than 50 such systems at a cost of Tw$14.5 billion ($483 million).

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war, with the defeated Nationalists retreating to the island.

Ties have improved markedly since 2008, when a Beijing-friendly government came to power in Taipei.

But China still considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Taiwan_deploys_new_powerful_rocket_system_report_999.html.

Court orders stay on Japanese Antarctic whaling

March 31, 2014

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Court of Justice on Monday ordered a temporary halt to Japan's Antarctic whaling program, ruling that it is not for scientific purposes as the Japanese government had claimed.

Australia had sued Japan at the U.N.'s highest court for resolving disputes between nations in hopes of ending whaling in the icy Southern Ocean. Reading a 12-4 decision by the court's 16-judge panel, Presiding Judge Peter Tomka said Japan's program fails to justify the large number of minke whales it says it needs to catch under its current Antarctic program — 850 annually — and it doesn't catch that many anyway. It also didn't come close to catching the 50 fin and 50 humpback whales it aimed to take.

All that drew into doubt Japan's assertion that its whaling is for scientific purposes, he said. "The court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking, and treating of whales ... are not 'for purposes of scientific research'," Tomka said.

The court ordered Japan to halt any issuing of whaling permits at least until the program has been thoroughly revamped. Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Noriyuki Shikata told reporters that the country "regrets and is deeply disappointed" by the decision.

But "as a state that respects the rule of law ... and as a responsible member of the global community, Japan will abide by the ruling of the court," he said. Former Australian environment minister Peter Garrett, who helped launch the suit four years ago, said he felt vindicated by the decision.

"I'm absolutely over the moon, for all those people who wanted to see the charade of scientific whaling cease once and for all," Garrett told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I think (this) means without any shadow of a doubt that we won't see the taking of whales in the Southern Ocean in the name of science."

Although the decision is a major victory for Australia and environmental groups that oppose whaling on ethical grounds, it will not mean the end of whaling. Japan has a second, smaller scientific program in the northern Pacific — which now may also be subject to challenge. Meanwhile Norway and Iceland reject outright a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling Commission.

Nevertheless, environmental groups rejoiced. Activist Pete Bethune, a New Zealander who has clashed frequently with Japanese whalers in attempts to stop their hunt, said "justice was served" by the ruling.

"The court dissected their scientific program, pulled it to bits and it proved that the amount of science is tiny relative to the commercial aspects," he said. He said that if Japan had prevailed, it could have led other countries to begin whaling in the Antarctic and eventually a full commercial Japanese whaling program.

Japan had argued that Australia's suit was an attempt to force its cultural norms on Japan, equivalent to Hindus demanding an international ban on killing cows. Though consumption of whale meat has declined in popularity in Japan in recent years, it is still considered a delicacy by some. Most of the whale meat from Japanese hunts ends up being sold, though the court didn't find that that in itself makes the program commercial and not scientific.

The ruling did say explicitly that killing whales for scientific purposes would be legal under international law in the context of a better-designed study. Japan's program was supposed to determine whether commercial whaling of some species can resume without bringing them in danger of extinction.

The ruling noted among other factors that Japan had not considered a smaller program or non-lethal methods to study whale populations, and said Japan had cited only two peer-reviewed scientific papers relating to its program from 2005 to the present — a period during which it has harpooned 3,600 minke whales, a handful of fin whales, and no humpback whales at all.

US, Japan in historic plutonium return deal

The Hague (AFP)
March 24, 2014

Japan pledged Monday to return hundreds of kilos of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium given to Tokyo for research during the Cold War era, in the first major deal announced at a summit on nuclear security.

"By removing this nuclear material, we can prevent the risk of nuclear terrorism," Japan's special nuclear adviser, Yosuke Isozaki, said on the sidelines of the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in The Hague.

Washington has been pressing Tokyo over the return of weapons-grade material, stored at Japan's Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) northeast of Tokyo, which experts said made a tempting target for extremists.

According to reports, Japan has more than 300 kilos (660 pounds) of plutonium and almost 200 kilos of highly-enriched uranium 235, supplied by Britain and the United States and now stored at the FCA facility in Tokai about 140 kilometers (87 miles) from the capital.

Japan does not have the bomb but the material could be used to build dozens of nuclear weapons.

Monday's announcement is seen as a major victory in President Barack Obama's push to secure the world's radioactive civilian stockpiles.

"This is a very significant nuclear security pledge engaging hundreds of kilograms in weapons-usable material," US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told journalists.

"The material will be transported to the United States for conversion into proliferation-resistant forms," he said.

"It affirms that most research and development can be done without using weapons-grade material," Moniz added.

"This is a very significant announcement because it removes this nuclear material from a potentially dangerous situation," Miles Pomper, a senior researcher at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, told AFP.

"Although the FCA is a small mock-up facility to do nuclear tests, they have a lot of material stored there," he added.

Japanese media reports said Japan has strongly resisted returning the plutonium, saying it was needed for researching fast reactors.

Since last year, Japan and the United States have been actively discussing the matter, The Japan Times reported.

The third NSS being held in The Hague is Obama's brainchild after announcing in 2009 that "nuclear terrorism was one of the greatest threats to international security."

But the summit, set up to discuss ridding the world from nuclear terror, has been overshadowed by the escalating crisis in Ukraine, after Russia's absorption of the Crimean peninsula.

The NSS is to be officially opened by Obama later on Monday.

Source: Nuclear Power Daily.
Link: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/US_Japan_in_historic_plutonium_return_deal_999.html.

Donetsk Republic: Ukraine's one-building autonomy

April 11, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — To reach the People's Republic of Donetsk, you need to pass a few club-wielding young men in masks, wind through a narrow corridor of sand-filled sacks and enter a gray office tower standing in the heart of this eastern Ukrainian city.

The self-styled autonomous territory — really just an 11-story government building and its surroundings — insists it is the true voice of the 4.3 million people living in the Donetsk region. It has become the latest focus of protest in the largely Russian-speaking east since Kremlin-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in February.

The patch of Donetsk real estate where pro-Russia activists have been squatting for nearly a week is a hotbed of resentment against the perceived chauvinist Ukrainian nationalism taking hold among the nation's leadership.

"They hate us. They take it in with their mother's milk," said retiree Nelya Vladimirovna Ivanova, sitting along with hundreds of fellow rally members on the square. In its current form, the Donetsk Republic poses little real threat to the central government's authority, and rallies demanding autonomy have drawn at most a few thousand people.

Nonetheless, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited Donetsk on Friday with a pledge to give more powers to the regions. "We must tell people that we know it's tough, but we know how in the future to secure jobs, increase salaries, attract investors, distribute more authority, and what to do so people are content with life," Yatsenyuk said, laying out what he described as a recipe for national unity.

And some Donetsk residents say the Republic's hostility to western Ukraine doesn't represent their views. Vladlen Nebrat, a youth activist, said that most people in the city see few differences between Russians and Ukrainians, and that younger generations see even less of a difference.

"The problems we see today are problems created by political elites," Nebrat said. "It's the same in Russia and Ukraine. I don't see a problem between the people themselves." Since Sunday, crowds of hundreds have been standing round the clock in and around barricades of tires, sandbags, bricks and razor wires lining the regional administration headquarters in nervous anticipation of a raid that never arrives. Masked young men carrying bats and truncheons stand guard over the area. Groups huddle around barrel-fires for warmth against an early spring spell of drizzle and cold.

On an improvised stage, orators deliver angry speeches, often to chants of "Referendum!" — demanding a vote for total autonomy that constitutes the only clear policy of the Donetsk Republic, whose leadership is a ragtag band of about dozen political unknowns.

The movement is a pale imitation of the secessionist drive in Crimea that led to Russia's annexation of the peninsula — but the palpable unhappiness here points to deeper national tensions. Much of the conversation on the square revolves around well-rehearsed grievances over language, history and a sense of economic injustice.

After Yanukoych's downfall, a nationalist party handed opponents of the new authorities a valuable lifeline by pushing measures through parliament to strip the Russian language of its official status in regions where it is widely spoken.

The idea was swiftly rejected by the president, but the damage was done. Feverish speculation, all eagerly spiced up by Russian state television, has for many inflated the significance of a half-baked language proposal into a confirmation of Russian speakers' worst fears.

"The first thing they did was to deprive us of the right to speak our language," Ivanova said. "But this isn't just the language we use to speak, we think in this language as well." Language is something of an illusory fault line, since Russian — claimed as a native language by around one-third of the population — and Ukrainian are similar enough to be mutually understandable by almost all the population.

But the issue cloaks deeper historical antipathies undermining a confident sense of national unity. Donetsk Republic supporters claim that the boundaries of Ukraine in its current form are something of an anomaly — its eastern borders drawn in the early Soviet period, and the western one during and after the war. While they struggle to articulate any specific distinguishing values, it is clear that they see an alien nation in western Ukraine — often dismissively referred to as Galicia, the name of a historic Central European territory.

"In Galicia, they are Poles and Austro-Hungarians," said Donetsk resident Lena Marchuk. "We are totally different. You can't glue us together. We've never loved them." Yet Marchuk herself conceded that her own typically Ukrainian surname and Belarusian and Russian family heritage complicate attempts to draw ethnic and cultural distinctions in a country like Ukraine.

Instead, references are often made to the legacy of Nazi collaboration among Ukrainian nationalists in the west during World War II. The name of the leading Ukrainian nationalist insurgent, Stepan Bandera, who aided Nazis invading the Soviet Union, is used as a curse word by opponents of the government in the capital, Kiev.

A prominent role was played in the late, violent stages of the anti-Yanukovych protests by the largely marginal hardcore nationalist Right Sector movement, distinguishable for its adoption of the black-and-red standard of the war-era Ukrainian Partisan Army. The post-Yanukovych Cabinet includes several figures from the nationalist Svoboda party, which has aligned itself in the past with far-right wing groups in Western Europe.

These associations have earned the government a reputation among its most ardent critics as a "fascist junta." The tag bears especially noxious implications across the former Soviet Union, whose immense human sacrifice during World War II remains a subject of intense and passionate public reverence.

Anxieties over the loss of language and other rights for Russian speakers, expressed by the Donetsk Republic, are patently overstated. Interviews with 1,200 residents of Ukraine found that 74 percent of ethnic Russians living in the east and south of the country did not feel under threat because of their language, according to research by the Baltic Surveys Gallup Organization polling groups.

A potent and often aired gripe is that eastern Ukrainian regions, home to vital heavy industry that scars the landscape and wreaks incalculable damage on health, doesn't get its fair economic dues. "We want them to stop taking all our money through taxes," said Oksana Zherelnikova, who lives in a village outside Donetsk. "Many people in western Ukraine go off to work abroad in the spring and don't pay taxes. We stay here."

Donetsk, however, receives large government subsidies to support its heavy industry. And with this support inevitably to be slashed in line with requirements from International Monetary Fund creditors, an already lingering sense of injustice is only likely to deepen.

Yatsenyuk's decision to travel to Donetsk may go some way to mitigating another bone of contention in the east: that senior officials in the new administration have almost entirely failed to visit the region since the fall of Yanukovych.

Remarks by Yatsenyuk to local officials hinted at a vague compromise on devolution. The government in Ukraine has bristled at insistence that it push through federalization — not least when those calls come from Russia — but that may ultimately be what is needed to stop more adventures in self-determination.

"As the old saying goes, better a bad peace than a good war," Zherelnikova said. "We could live in a united Ukraine, but only if we can follow our own way."

Dozens leave offices seized by Ukraine separatists

April 09, 2014

LUHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's Security Service said Wednesday that 56 people held inside the agency's local headquarters in the eastern city of Luhansk by pro-Russian separatists have been allowed to leave.

The Luhansk security services building was among several government offices seized by pro-Moscow groups Sunday in an escalation of protests against the interim government in power since the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in February.

On Tuesday, security services said separatists inside the building, armed with explosives and other weapons, were holding 60 people hostage. It was not immediately clear if the 56 allowed to leave were among that number, or how many people were still being held.

Serhiy Tyhipko, a lawmaker associated with the previous Ukraine government and who is now in opposition, said he was able to enter the seized building Tuesday night and claimed there were no hostages inside. He urged Kiev to take note of the protesters' demands.

"The authorities are not listening to the southeast. People are putting forward certain demands, but nobody hears (them) and doesn't want to react," Tyhipko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine's industrial heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and economic and cultural ties to Russia are strong. Many residents are suspicious of government that took power in February.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the standoff in Luhansk and the two neighboring Russian-leaning regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv must be resolved within the next two days either through negotiations or through the use of force, the Interfax news agency reported.

"The regime of anti-terrorist operation in all three regions is still in force and we can begin carrying out all planned actions at any moment," Avakov was quoted as saying. There was little immediate evidence of any major deployment of Ukrainian special forces at the site.

Avakov was speaking as anti-government protesters in Luhansk erected high barricades along a thoroughfare running in front of the security service premises. Overnight, speakers at a gathering in front of the building condemned the government in Kiev and renewed demands to be allowed to hold a referendum on declaring autonomy for their region. That demand is similar to one that preceded Crimea's annexation by Russia.

The Ukrainian government and the U.S. have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest as a pretext for another Russian military incursion similar to last month's takeover of Crimea. Up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed along the Ukrainian border, according to NATO.

Speeches at the rally were occasionally interspersed with chants of "Russia! Russia!" and an unidentified speaker won cheers as he listed names of prominent politicians that he suggested should be executed.

Those occupying the building have issued a video statement warning that any attempt to storm the place would be met with force. In the video, posted by Ukrainian media, a masked man identified the occupiers as Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and warned the authorities against trying to retake the building. "Welcome to hell, then!" he said.

The security services said negotiations with the separatists were continuing and that parliamentary deputies had been able to enter and leave the building unhindered. The Russian Foreign Ministry hit back at the West on Wednesday, calling for the U.S. to stop using international organizations as a means of "exacerbating tensions surrounding Ukraine."

"The daily activity of Russian troops on national territory does not threaten the security of the U.S. or other member states of the OSCE," the Russian statement said. "Attempts to accuse Russia of a buildup of troops are unfounded."

Maria Danilova in Kiev and Laura Mills in Moscow contributed to this report.

Ukraine leader: Kharkiv protesters driven out

April 08, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian security forces on Tuesday drove pro-Russian protesters out of the regional government headquarters in Kharkiv that they had seized and arrested about 70 of them, the country's leader said.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told lawmakers in parliament that security forces retook control even as the separatists used hand grenades and unspecified weapons against them. Some police were injured in the melee.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described the measure on his Facebook page as an "anti-terrorist operation." Pro-Russia demonstrators, however, continued occupying the Donetsk regional administration in the nearby region and calling for a referendum on its status.

Both cities are in Ukraine's east, where hostility is strong toward the new government that took power in February after the ouster of Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych. The seizures of the buildings and calls for referenda were an echo of the events that led to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula last month. After Yanukovych fled to Russia, Russian troops took control of Crimea and the region soon voted to join Russia.

The West has not recognized the vote or the annexation and has retaliated with sanctions against Russia. Even as the United States warned Russia of further sanctions if Moscow continues to seek to destabilize Ukraine, the White House announced a high-level meeting among U.S., EU, Ukrainian and Russian diplomats in the coming days to try to solve the crisis.

Russia has refused to deal with Ukraine's new government since Yanukovych's ouster and, according to NATO, still has tens of thousands of troops along its border with Ukraine, which the alliance has called a threat.

Meanwhile, a fistfight broke out in Ukraine's parliament Tuesday as tempers rose between opposing factions. Nationalist lawmakers scuffled with communists, after the Communist Party leader accused the government of cracking down on dissent.

Romania presses for NATO redeployment over Ukraine crisis

Bucharest (AFP)
April 10, 2014

NATO should redeploy its forces in eastern Europe and take a firm stand to prevent a contagion of the Ukraine crisis, Romania's foreign minister urged in an interview Thursday with AFP.

"Romania has concrete expectations of redeployment and an eastward repositioning of NATO's naval, air and ground forces," Titus Corlatean said.

"The Black Sea region must be a top priority for NATO and the EU," he stressed.

Bucharest "is extremely concerned over developments in Ukraine which have a serious impact on international security," Corlatean said, stressing his country is "on the frontline".

Romania, a member of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, shares a border with Ukraine in the east and in the north.

In recent days pro-Kremlin activists have seized government buildings in several cities in Ukraine's east, declaring independence and vowing to vote on splitting from Ukraine.

The US has accused Moscow of trying to "create chaos" to justify a military intervention like in Crimea.

"Our expectations towards Russia are clear and firm: it should engage in a political dialogue and avoid escalation," Corlatean stressed.

EU and NATO should "stand firm in order to stop potential risks of contagion of the crisis from Odessa in Southern Ukraine to Transdniestr", a pro-Russian breakaway region in Moldova.

Trasndniestr, a strip of land on Moldova's eastern border, broke away from the rest of the country in the wake of the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union but is not recognized by any other state.

On Monday, its leader, Yevgeny Shevchuk, said his dream would be to see the region "together with Russia".

Moscow maintains thousands of troops there for years against the will of the pro-Western Moldovan government.

"We hope that a political dialogue will prevail", Corlatean insisted saying Russia could show its good will by participating in a new round of negotiations planned next week to solve the Transdniestr situation.

"It is important that these talks take place even if they are delayed because this will show if Moscow is more open on the matter or not.

"We have no interest in a clash between the European Union and Russia", but Corlatean warned that if Moscow chooses escalation, "further sanctions are still an option".

And the gas issue should not be a reason to "forget about the fundamental values of international law".

"There is a lot of talk about Europe's dependence on Russian gas but Russia is also depending on European markets" to sell its production, Corlatean said.

"Russia could have an interest in listening to what Europe wants on Ukraine", he says.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sent a letter to leaders of 18 European countries, warning them Russia could cut gas supplies to Ukraine.

But in what might be an overture to de-escalate the crisis, Putin also said that "Russia is prepared to participate in the effort to stabilize and restore Ukraine's economy", but only on "equal terms" with the EU.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Romania_presses_for_NATO_redeployment_over_Ukraine_crisis_999.html.

450 US, Romanian troops in joint military games

April 10, 2014

CAMPIA TARZII MILITARY BASE, Romania (AP) — Some 450 U.S. and Romanian troops and technical staff kicked off joint military exercises in northwestern Romania on Thursday, flying U.S. F-16 fighter jets alongside Romanian ones.

Four F-16s and one Romanian MiG-21 LanceR took off from Romania's Campia Tarzii military base as the Dacian Viper 2014 exercises began. The weeklong exercise at the base 300 kilometers (190 miles) northwest of Bucharest — the fourth of its kind between the two nations— was planned before Russia's annexation of Crimea last month.

Wing Commander Marian Petrus, commander of 71 Air Base, said Romanian pilots will be trained to fly F-16s. "The purpose of the exercise is to train in techniques and practices used by NATO armies. The final objective is to raise the level of training for the young pilots," said Wing Commander Adrian Motorga of the 711 Fighter Squadron.

NATO's eastern nations have been calling on the alliance to beef up its presence following the annexation and related tensions involving Ukraine. Romania, Ukraine and Russia all border the Black Sea.

NATO has already reinforced its Baltic air patrols and is performing daily AWACs surveillance flights over Poland and Romania. The U.S. said this month it was sending new troops and aircraft to a Romanian base near the Black Sea, a decision made before Russia took control of Crimea.

Romania's defense ministry signed a deal in October to buy secondhand F-16 fighter jets from Portugal to bring its air force up to NATO standards.

Greek unions hold general strike over income cuts

April 09, 2014

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek unions launched an anti-austerity general strike Wednesday that halted trains and island ferries while disrupting state hospitals and other public services. Thousands of protesters marched through central Athens in the first of two planned demonstrations.

The 24-hour strike also caused public transport disruptions in Athens, where the metro station in the city's central Syntagma Square outside Parliament was shut down for the protest marches. Police said at least 6,000 people participated in the initial demonstration, carrying banners and chanting anti-austerity slogans. Hundreds more were gathering in another central Athens square ahead of a second march.

Unions say they are seeking an end to the painful savings policies that successive governments imposed to secure international bailout loans after Greece nearly went bankrupt in 2010. "Today's strike is being held for the working class to respond decisively ... to the measures the government is deciding against workers' rights, to the problems of poverty, unemployment, the abolition of collective wage agreements," said Giorgos Pondikos, a member of the communist party-linked PAME union who was among the protesters.

The repeated income cuts and tax hikes deepened a six-year recession, while unemployment has reached a record 28 percent. But signs are emerging that things are slowly improving, with the economy expected to return to growth this year and the government planning a return to capital markets for the first time in four years.

Germany OKs law to allow more dual citizens

April 08, 2014

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Cabinet has approved legislation under which immigrants' children will no longer be forced to choose between German nationality and that of their parents.

Until now, German-born children of immigrants had to pick one nationality between ages 18 and 23 — a rule largely affecting Germany's Turkish community. Chancellor Angela Merkel's new center-left coalition partners insisted on dropping the requirement as part of their price for entering the government.

Legislation approved by Merkel's Cabinet Tuesday, which requires parliamentary approval, foresees allowing people who were born and grew up in Germany to keep two passports. The coalition agreed that the new rule will apply to people who have lived in Germany for at least eight years by age 21, spent six years at school, or completed school or vocational training there.

France's new prime minister wins confidence vote

April 08, 2014

PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers gave their country's new prime minister a vote of confidence Tuesday that is seen as an endorsement of his plans for an economic turnaround built on tax cuts and slashing bureaucracy to the extent of redrawing the map of France.

Manuel Valls appeared before the Socialist-led National Assembly for the first time since he was given the job in a government reshuffle triggered by his party's dismal showing in local elections, and won 306-239 votes. Eleven Socialist deputies abstained.

Despite the positive result, selling the proposals of a deeply unpopular president to his own Socialist lawmakers, Valls earlier acknowledged that the Socialist defeat in recent elections showed a France of "too much suffering and not enough hope."

Both allies and French conservatives are suspicious of the economic turnaround he is supposed to lead — and the 50 billion euros ($69 billion) he promised to cut from the budget by 2017. With unemployment hovering around 10 percent for more than five years, minuscule economic growth, and a public debt that is a source of tension with the EU, Valls and his boss, President Francois Hollande, will need more than just confidence — they're hoping the vote will give them much needed room to maneuver.

At stake are jobs for 3 million unemployed French workers and prospects for the entire eurozone economy. The Spanish-born Valls has carefully built a reputation as an uncompromising iconoclast. In 2009, he called on the Socialist Party to abandon the name "because the word 'socialism' is without a doubt outdated. It recalls 19th-century ideas." Valls remained in the party, as did the word "Socialist."

In 2011, he said the 35-hour workweek was holding France back. The policy aims to boost employment by limiting employees' work hours, but has been criticized as ineffectual. As interior minister, he weathered intense criticism that he was violating the rights of the itinerant Roma population when his officers dismantled their camps and sent them packing. Then he came under attack for banning the shows of comedian Dieudonne, whose Nazi-like salute touched off allegations of anti-Semitism.

But as Hollande's popularity tanked — the president now has a 17-percent approval rating, according to one measure — Valls' has steadily climbed. His new job is primarily as salesman of Hollande's economic plan, which on Tuesday Valls said would include massive cuts to payroll taxes that rank among the world's highest, cutting the corporate income tax to 28 percent from 33 percent, and 5.5 billion euros in tax cuts for middle-class workers and merchants.

Insisting that the aim is to increase "what you're getting at the end of the month," he said the cuts would mean that workers earning the 1,350-euro-a-month minimum wage would end up with 500 extra euros a year, for example.

Much of Valls's speech reiterated what had already been promised before — including cutting in half the number of administrative regions — but the hope is that his popularity will give households and businesses the confidence France needs to turn the economy around.

Valls eats only red meat — never fish — with his meals and maintains a gluten-free diet (no pastries), according to a report in the French daily Le Figaro that may have served only to enhance his reputation for austerity and toughness.

Neither one of those qualities is especially valued among French Socialists, who fear economic austerity will erode the country's famed safety net, cost them their hold on power, and still fail to bring the deficit back within the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP, which France has missed since 2007.

"The question is whether you have a political class that is willing to commit seppuku — honorable suicide — by doing something for the country," said Daniel Gros, director of the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies. "That is what they need to do in France, and the longer they wait the more painful it will be."

Many economic analysts predict the EU will give France a pass this year on its deficit, as it has every year. After Valls' appointment last week, Medef, the country's largest employers' association, said the question went well beyond the Socialists' dismal election results to the heart of France's ability to compete in Europe and beyond.

"Our country has been losing ground little by little for years," Pierre Gattaz, Medef's president, said in a statement. But many question whether Valls' main purpose is to repackage old, failed ideas.

"The change in person is meaningless unless it also means a change in policy direction, and that is ultimately decided at least in France by the president himself," Gros said. "One can only hope that the same man can have different ideas now and actually put them into action."

Valls himself was cautious, trying to sell new policies to a country that is prone to violent protest and crippling strikes. "We have to deal with our public spending but without shattering our social model and our public services. If not, the French will not accept it."

Austrian rightist withdraws EU parliament bid

April 08, 2014

VIENNA (AP) — An Austrian far-right politician has withdrawn his candidacy for re-election to the EU parliament amid massive criticism of pro-Nazi and anti-black comments he made.

In comments reported last month, Andreas Moelzer said that Europe risked turning into a "conglomerate of negroes ... where chaos multiplies (through) mass immigration." He also said that the European Union is a dictatorship that makes the Third Reich look "possibly ... liberal."

Moelzer said Tuesday that he was acting for the good of his FPO party and not because of pressure from Austria's "politically correct media landscape." Moelzer is on the far-right fringe of his party, which has made huge gains over recent years with a stridently Euroskeptic, anti-corruption and anti-foreigner message. It now regularly polls as the most popular of all Austrian parties.

In Peru, Low-Income Cancer Patients Find Fresh Hope

By Milagros Salazar

LIMA, Apr 10 2014 (IPS) - Her tiny fingers and toes have been painted with different shades of nail polish, the bright colors contrasting sharply with the bleak road she has been on for half her young life.

Since she was three years old, Claudia, who has not yet turned seven, has been fighting leukemia, with the help of a public health cancer treatment program in Peru: Plan Esperanza or Plan Hope.

As in the rest of the Americas, cancer is the second cause of death here, following cardiovascular disease. In this country of 30.5 million people, the annual death toll from cancer is 107 per 100,000 population, and each year 45,000 new cases are diagnosed, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry estimates that 157 people per 100,000 population suffer from cancer in this South American country.

To bring down these statistics and the high costs of cancer treatment, the Peruvian government launched Plan Esperanza in November 2012. The program is aimed at improving comprehensive treatment for cancer patients and providing guaranteed oncology services, especially for the poor.

Claudia Alvarado was diagnosed with leukemia in June 2010. Since then, she has undergone constant lab tests and often painful treatments.

Attending school and having friends have been replaced by long, exhausting trips between hospitals in Lima, the capital, and La Libertad, the northern department where she used to live.

Her hometown is Santa Rosa, a community of rice farmers. Her mother, Ivon Sánchez, told IPS that the one-hour bus ride to the public hospital in the city of Chepén took them through “three ghost towns.”

From Chepén, Claudia was referred to a public hospital in Chiclayo, the capital of another northern department, Lambayeque. And from there she was sent to the National Institute of Neoplastic Disease (INEN) in Lima, another public health institution.

At the institute, she underwent an aggressive treatment program, which was fully covered by the Intangible Solidarity Fund for Health (FISSAL), which finances care in cases of high-cost health problems like cancer for those affiliated with the national Seguro Integral de Salud (SIS – Comprehensive Health Insurance).

The SIS also provides free healthcare for people in the fourth or fifth income quintiles, such as Claudia’s family.

In January 2012, Claudia suffered a relapse. Her mother remembers that she broke down in grief and anger because she knew the term “relapse” might be a euphemism for a journey with no return.

The only option was a bone marrow transplant. But the tests showed that Claudia’s brother, 12-year-old Renzo, was not compatible as a donor. “We thought it was all over,” Claudia’s mother said.

But in November 2012, the government launched Plan Esperanza, and that year the SIS and FISSAL signed international agreements with two hospitals in the United States to perform bone marrow transplants on children who had not responded well to chemotherapy or who had suffered relapses.

Claudia received the transplant on Sep. 6, 2013 in the Miami Children’s Hospital in the U.S.

The operation took eight hours, followed by 28 days of fever as high as 40 degrees C.

She pulled through and flew back to Lima with her mother in December. Since then she has continued to fight her illness, in the house the family has rented in a poor district in the south of Lima, where IPS visited her.

Her family moved to the capital in order to be together, and her father, Fortunato Alvarado, left his job as a farm laborer and now works as a taxi driver.

As Claudia waits for the 200 critical post-operation days to pass, she has to rest and avoid active play, while staying away from other children to keep from getting sick. Her skinny body weighs just 18 kilos.

She is disciplined about taking her medicine, and eats lemon drops after swallowing the most bitter-tasting pills.

Up to late 2013, Plan Esperanza, whose services are completely free of charge, had benefited 57,531 people, with a total public spending of over 6.4 million dollars. The Plan also includes nationwide campaigns for cancer prevention and diagnosis.

So far 600,000 people have participated in mass screenings for early cancer detection, and three million people nationwide have received counseling and advice, oncologist Diego Venegas, the coordinator of Plan Esperanza, told IPS.

“The important thing is to provide patients with complete treatment, in order to save their lives,” he said.

Of those diagnosed, 75 percent had advanced stage cancer, so the plan began to include home treatments.

Venegas explained that treatment under the Plan is initially reserved for the nearly 13 million affiliates of the SIS.

The most common forms of cancer covered by FISSAL funds are cancer of the cervix, breast, colon, stomach, prostate, leukemia and lymphoma.

Forms of cancer that are not included in the Plan are still treated free of charge for SIS affiliates.

Treatment in each case costs an average of 260,000 dollars.

In the case of Claudia, the costs of the transplant in Miami, the plane tickets for the patient and her mother, and the six-month stay in the U.S. amounted to more than 300,000 dollars. Added to that are the costs of the chemotherapy and medicines she received in Peru before and after the transplant.

Susana Wong, president of the Club de la Mama (Breast Club) at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases, has seen hundreds of breast cancer patients who have benefited from Plan Esperanza.

“People now have a chance to live, because treatment is very expensive. When you are diagnosed with breast cancer, you immediately think your life is over. But if you find out there is a program that can help you, you carry on and fight,” Wong, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, told IPS.

Dr. Miguel Garavito, the head of FISSAL, said the state funding is compensated by the large number of patients – mainly from poor families – and the success of the transplants.

“Peru is one of the few countries in the world that have this kind of free coverage for cancer treatment,” he told IPS.

A more precise register of cancer cases is being drawn up, because currently statistics are only available from the three largest cities: Lima, Arequipa and Trujillo.

Venegas said more staff is needed, as well as training in advances made in cancer treatment, and greater decentralization so that treatment reaches patients in more remote regions.

A multisectoral commission is being set up to fight cancer on all fronts, including better access to clean water and sanitation.

The link between poor sanitation and cancer is exemplified by the central department of Huánuco, where 70 percent of the people lack potable piped water. Deaths from gastric cancer total 150 per 100,000 population, significantly higher than the national average.

This type of cancer, according to Venegas, is associated with drinking water quality.

As a public health problem, cancer merits a strong response from the state – at least as strong as Claudia has proven herself to be, after spending over half of her life fighting leukemia, and cheering herself up with her favorite colors of nail polish.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/peru-low-income-cancer-patients-find-fresh-hope/.

Rwanda orphans school teaches unity post-genocide

April 11, 2014

RWAMAGNA, Rwanda (AP) — Most of the kids in a school set amid the lush green, rolling hills of eastern Rwanda don't identify themselves as Hutu or Tutsi.

That's a positive sign for Rwanda, which is now observing the 20th anniversary of its genocide, a three-month killing spree that, according to the official Rwandan count, left more than 1 million people dead, most of them Tutsis killed by Hutus.

The teenagers attending the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, a school with dorms that creates tight-knit student families, say the ethnic slaughter that their parents or grandparents were a part of either as victims or perpetrators won't be repeated. The school director echoes the sentiment.

"This is the generation now that will in the future make sure that this kind of politics doesn't exist in the country. We promote unity and hope," said Jean Claude Nkulikiyimfura. "One of the major debates is that better education would help the kids not to think, 'Yes, I'm a Hutu. I'm a Tutsi.' Good education would promote the idea of how do you develop yourself, how do you develop your community, instead of this division that was created mostly by their parents," he added.

The school tries to bring in Rwanda's most vulnerable kids, especially those affected by the genocide. Most students are orphans, he said. Others have parents in jail because of their role in the violence.

"What we try to do is heal their hearts," he said. "These kids come wounded. They come with heavy scars in their souls." Though the school's first classes were populated by students orphaned in the genocide, today's 500 students are orphans because of other factors, such as HIV/AIDS and because of violence that took place in neighboring Congo or incursions from Congo after the genocide ended.

Unity is the theme. The school hopes to teach the students that their position in life will be achieved through merit. Gender won't matter, and more importantly, Nkulikiyimfura said, ethnic identity won't matter.

Sharon Kalisa's favorite subject is history, especially genocide studies. The 17-year-old said she wants to know how and why the genocide happened. Both of her mother's parents were killed in the 100 days of violence. Kalisa says she sees similarities between the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, most notably the undercurrents of poverty and unequal rights.

A decade after the genocide, New York City resident Anne Heyman and her husband attended a talk about Rwanda. There, they asked what the biggest problem the country faced was. They were told the number of orphans the genocide left behind was overwhelming. There was no hard number, Nkulikiyimfura said, but some estimates put the number of orphans in the low millions.

Heyman decided to open a school on the model used in Israel for orphans of the Holocaust. With help from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and corporate donor Liquidnet Holdings, she purchased land in 2006 to build a school and dorm-like homes. The school's annual budget is $2 million a year, or about $4,500 per child.

Almost all the operating funds come from donors in America but the school will soon get new funds from a $24 million solar project with 28,000 solar panels being built on school land by Gigawatt Global. The project will generate 8.5 megawatts, about 8 percent of Rwanda's electrical capacity, said Chaim Motzen, the project's coordinator.

Heyman died earlier this year at age 52 after a horse-riding accident. Coralie Keza, 20, said Heyman made a big impact on her. "The thing I liked about this place is it changed me, having good people around you," she said after eating lunch of rice, potatoes and cucumbers at the school cafeteria, a building boasting a colorful mural depicting people walking on a red-dirt road, some hand-in-hand, and other happy people. "Pushing you to do good things, being supportive of your breakdowns. Before coming here I was someone else, not this person. I felt hopeless. I had no desire of living."

She added: "Kids from here will do good things in life and I really wanted her to see that." Nkulikiyimfura, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, is proud of the school's graduation record. The first year of graduates, in 2012, saw 90 percent of the class go on to university, college or technical schools. About a dozen are studying abroad. Four students from the school attend classes at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Keza hopes to join them.

While the students at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village represent just a small section of Rwandan youth, Rwandan society overall hesitates to talk about the Hutu-Tutsi divide, following a directive from the Tutsi-led government that was issued to squelch tribal animosities. The students at this school give the impression that their generation may move past old ethnic distinctions and divides.

Rwanda marks genocide anniversary

Mon Apr 7, 2014

Rwandans have marked the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered.

Official mourning began three months ago with a flame of remembrance touring across the country and culminated Monday amid national grief when the torch arrived in the capital, Kigali.

President Paul Kagame will also light a flame that will burn for 100 days - the same length of time it took government soldiers and Hutu militia to kill 800,000 ethnic Tutsis back in 1994.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and several African leaders are due to attend ceremonies in Kigali’s football stadium.

The UN chief said on Sunday that the international community must learn lessons from the incident.

“Never again. And this should never happen in human history. We have learned the tragic and hard lessons from 1994 Rwanda genocide,” he said.

Ban also said that there are plans to dispatch thousands of peacekeepers to other African hotspots, including the Central African Republic, to avoid a potential repeat of what happened in Rwanda.

“I hope that the Security Council will take action as soon as possible on my recommendation to establish peacekeeping operations in central Africa to bring peace and stability, first of all,” Ban said.

Rwanda has accused France and Belgium of involvement in the killings, urging Paris to face up to the truth.

France has strongly rejected the accusation, while Belgium has apologized to Rwanda for failing to prevent the genocide.

The Rwandan genocide began following the shooting down of a plane carrying former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6, 1994. Then Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the plane crash.

After the crash, Hutus who were in majority, were incited to commit acts of ethnic violence against Tutsis. The genocide of 1994 lasted approximately 100 days and hence is called the “100 Days of Hell.”

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/357521.html.

UN approves force for Central African Republic

April 10, 2014

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously approved a nearly 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force for Central African Republic, which has been torn by mounting violence between Christians and Muslims.

The 10,000 U.N. troops and 1,800 police will take over from 5,000 African Union soldiers — but not until Sept. 15. A separate 2,000-strong French force in the Central African Republic was authorized to use "all necessary means" to support the new U.N. force.

Central African Republic has been in chaos since a March 2013 coup, when mostly Muslim rebels seized power and launched a brutal regime. Christian militiamen attacked rebel strongholds in early December. As the rebel government crumbled in January, the Christian militiamen stepped up the violence, forcing tens of thousands of Muslims to flee.

France, the country's former colonial power, took the lead in mobilizing international support to address the crisis but its ambassador, Gerard Araud, said the security situation remains volatile. "African Union troops supported by the French troops are doing tremendous work to protect the civilian population but it's not yet enough," Araud said after the vote. "The resolution we have just adopted is a key turning point."

Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, Central African Republic's foreign minister, who urged the council last month to send U.N. peacekeepers, thanked members for adopting the resolution, saying it "lays the foundation for a solution and a way out of the crisis."

The resolution expresses serious concern at multiple violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by both former Seleka elements and anti-Balaka militia including killings, torture and sexual violence against women and children.

It "demands that all militias and armed groups put aside their arms, cease all forms of violence and destabilizing activities immediately and release children from their ranks." The Security Council wanted a strong mandate and the resolution authorizes the new U.N. force to protect civilians and support the disarmament of combatants and the restoration of peace and law and order. It also authorizes the mission to help investigate violations of human rights and humanitarian law by armed groups and arrest alleged perpetrators.

While U.N. peacekeepers and police will not take over until Sept. 15, the resolution immediately establishes the U.N. mission, to be known as MINUSCA. It will take over all activities of the U.N. political office, including supporting the country's political transition.

The resolution urges the transitional authorities to accelerate preparations for free and fair elections no later than February 2015. With the establishment of MINUSCA, the African Union force on the ground will receive logistical support from the United Nations. Many of its members are likely to become part of the new U.N. force after being checked to ensure they meet U.N. standards.

Philippe Bolopion, United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, urged the U.N. and member states to make the U.N. force a reality on the ground quickly, "including by providing carefully vetted troops, so the U.N. mission itself does not become embroiled in any allegations of abuses."

"This resolution doesn't mean that the U.N. cavalry is going to roll in and save the day," he warned. In the coming months before U.N. troops deploy, he urged all countries, especially the European Union and African Union, "to do everything in their power to bolster peacekeeping capacities on the ground, protect CAR's besieged Muslim minority, and contribute to the tragically underfunded humanitarian effort."

On the streets of the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, there was a mixed reaction to the approval of a U.N. force. Cyrius Zemangui-Kette, 25, who is unemployed, said U.N. troops should have been sent in long ago, but the international community dragged its feet and now things have gotten worse.

"They say they'll arrive in September," he said. "Until then, lots of Central Africans will continue to die, so who are they coming to save?" Youssouf Adam, 45, a Muslim trader, praised the U.N. deployment but said there were other ways to resolve the crisis.

"If the International Criminal Court, for example, starts to identify the perpetrators of crimes and arrests them, that could worry the perpetrators and give a feeling of justice to the victims who would agree to lower the tensions," he said. "We also have to promote cohesion between the communities that are hostile."

Associated Press Writer Hippolyte Marboua contributed to this report from Bangui, Central African Republic.

Israel launches cutting-edge satellite to spy on MidEast adversaries

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Apr 11, 2014

Israel's Defense Ministry has successfully launched Ofek 10, a next-generation satellite that will provide highly-targeted surveillance of specific locations - such as Iran's nuclear sites.

"We continue to increase the vast qualitative and technological advantage over our neighbors," said Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon at the launch at a test site in central Israel, Israeli media reported.

"Our ability to continuously reach new levels of accomplishment, as with this launch, is what allows us to live a productive and prosperous life. Blessed is the state, and its people."

Ofek 10 is the seventh Israeli satellite currently in space, and the first launched by the Defense Ministry since its predecessor, Ofek 9, four years ago.

But it functions in a fundamentally new way - instead of automatically sweeping through vast swathes of territory with its cameras, it can momentarily switch between different locations.

This is due to the fact that its operators can alter the orbit of the 330 kilogram satellite between 400 kilometers and 600 kilometers from the Earth's surface in its 90-minute circumnavigation of the planet, while zooming in to take high-resolution images of objects as small as 18 inches across.

"The satellite has exceptional photographic ability," said Ofer Doron, CEO of the Israel Aerospace Industries' Space Division, which was responsible for developing the satellite. "It's designed to deliver very precise, high quality images under all conditions."

Apart from Israel, other countries that operate surveillance satellites include the US, Russia, China, France, Italy, Britain, South Korea, India, Japan, Ukraine and Iran.

Of these nations, Iran poses the greatest threat to security in the eyes of Israeli officials, who have repeatedly insisted that Tehran is on the verge of developing a prototype nuclear weapon. Israel also says it plans to use the new satellite to monitor hostile militant groups, presumably such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

In fact, for security reasons, Israel launches its satellites to the west, and not to the east, sacrificing payload, but making sure that no technologically sensitive debris fall on the territory of its rivals, particularly if any satellite fails to reach orbit and plunges to Earth.

But Ofek 10 avoided this fate, and has already begun relaying visuals and information from orbit. It is expected to become fully operational within three months.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_launches_cutting_edge_satellite_to_spy_on_MidEast_adversaries_999.html.

Jewish settlers clash with Israeli police

April 08, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — Dozens of Jewish West Bank settlers clashed with Israeli security forces on Tuesday, hurling stones and bottles at the officers in one of the most serious confrontations with militant settlers in years.

The violence was sparked when large numbers of Israeli police and paramilitary units arrived to the settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank to carry out a court-ordered demolition of several structures in the early morning hours. They were met by a crowd of settlers who tried to thwart the building removal.

"They were doing everything they could in terms of preventing units from working there and at the end, it turned into a full-scale incident," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. He said police dispersed the settlers using stun grenades and other non-lethal weapons and that six police officers were injured slightly by the stones.

Rosenfeld said the rioters also tore down a small military encampment located near the settlement. Israeli Channel 2 TV reported that gasoline was poured around the tents but that none of the soldiers stationed there was injured.

The incident comes after suspected settlers twice this week slashed the tires of cars belonging to military personnel visiting Yitzhar, one of the most militant settlements, whose residents have repeatedly been involved in clashes with Palestinian farmers.

Following the attack on the cars, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would act with "zero tolerance," calling the act "reprehensible," while his defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, called it "terror for all intents and purposes."

Yaalon said Tuesday's violence would be treated with "utmost gravity." Netanyahu instructed his defense minister to act against the "outlaws," according to a statement from his office. Gadi Shamni, a former military general who served as commander over the West Bank, said Israel lacked political will to properly battle settler violence.

"They call it terror but they don't fight against it as we know how to fight against terror," he told Channel 2. The rampage comes as Israel and the Palestinians are attempting to get U.S.-mediated peace talks back on track, which appeared in recent days to be headed for collapse. After Israel failed to carry out a planned prisoner release, the Palestinians retaliated by signing letters of accession for 15 international conventions.

Under the terms of talks renewed in July under heavy U.S. pressure, Israel had promised to release 104 long-held Palestinian prisoners in four groups. The Palestinians said they would suspend a campaign to sign up the "state of Palestine," recognized by the U.N. General Assembly as a non-member observer state in 2012, for as many as 63 U.N. agencies, treaties and conventions.

On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned the Palestinians that the prisoner release will not happen as long as they pursue what he called a "provocative" bid to join U.N. agencies.

Lieberman also accused the Palestinians of breaking the terms of the U.S.-brokered peace talks, saying they should "pay a price" for this. Lieberman said the final prisoner release was off the table unless the Palestinians reversed course on the U.N. bids.

"We are in favor of negotiations but the previous offer about releasing prisoners doesn't exist anymore," Lieberman told Israel's Army Radio on Tuesday. "Whoever broke the rules has to bear responsibility ... therefore the previous offer is not relevant anymore."

Mohammed Ishtayeh, an aide to Abbas, said on Monday that the letters of accession will not be withdrawn and that the step is irreversible. He said the Palestinians were ready to widen their bid. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said Arab foreign ministers would convene in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the breakdown in talks and Abbas will ask them for political and financial support.

The crisis in talks has also spurred U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has made more than 10 trips to the region in his attempt to secure a deal, to say the U.S. would rethink its mediator role.

Kerry originally hoped for a peace deal by April 29. But after months without progress in the Mideast negotiations, he lowered his sights, saying he sought a framework deal by that date. In recent weeks, negotiations focused on reaching agreement on extending the talks into 2015.

Thailand's Red Shirts brace for 'judicial coup'

April 08, 2014

UDON THANI, Thailand (AP) — On a scorching afternoon in northeast Thailand, about 1,000 black-clad supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra clenched their fists and punched imaginary opponents with forceful uppercuts. Following the directions of a trainer on a nearby stage, they fended off kicks and practiced footwork to loud speakers blaring music typically heard at a Thai kickboxing stadium.

Sweat streamed down their faces as the men and women shouted, "We will definitely win!" The scene in Udon Thani province last week was part of a two-day training course for farmers, laborers and others in the heart of pro-government "Red Shirt" country — Thailand's rural, poor north and northeast.

The Red Shirts have been largely quiet since anti-Yingluck protesters largely representing the urban elite and southerners shut down key intersections in Bangkok for several weeks earlier this year. But now, with growing speculation that Thailand's constitutional court and anti-graft agency may remove Yingluck from office in what critics say would be a "judicial coup," her supporters are gearing up to march on Bangkok themselves, raising the specter of renewed violence in Thailand's decade-long political turmoil.

"We need to show our force and stand by her side," said Sa-ngob Ratmuangsri, a 64-year-old farmer at the training session called "Volunteers' Ward to Protect the Country's Democracy." "I wouldn't be here if I was afraid to die," he said with determination.

Thailand has been convulsed by political conflict since Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was deposed in a 2006 coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Both sides say they reject violence, and the Red Shirts say the kickboxing practice sessions are for self-defense, not attacking people. But since late last year at least 24 people have been killed, including several children, and more than 700 wounded in drive-by shootings, gunfights, grenade attacks and other violence. The anti-government movement has employed armed guards to escort their protest marches, and gunfights have occasionally erupted.

"We know that there are militants on both sides who have been collecting weapons. The violence during the past few months testifies to this," Michael Nelson, a Southeast Asian studies lecturer at Walailak University in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. However, he said that the actions to follow "do not necessarily mean civil war" but rather "some sort of combination of protests and guerrilla warfare."

The Red Shirts — who got their name back in 2007 to distinguish themselves from their "Yellow Shirt" opponents at the time — see themselves as defenders of Thailand's democracy. Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party won in a landslide in a 2011 election that was deemed free and fair, but she faces strong opposition from a powerful minority that brings together staunch royalists, top army brass and Bangkok's middle and upper classes, as well as backers in the south.

For their part, the anti-government protesters accuse her party of subverting democracy through corruption and populist schemes that amount to vote-buying. Suthep Thaugsuban, leader of the so-called People's Democratic Reform Committee, told his own cheering crowds in Bangkok this past weekend he would seize power in the name of "the people" if legal rulings are issued against Yingluck's government. He promised to replace the current democratically elected administration with an unelected "people's council" that would carry out reforms to root out corruption.

The Red Shirts' new leader, Jatuporn Prompan, recently appointed head of the umbrella group United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, or UDD, has said his movement will remain peaceful, but promised to fight back if the country's judicial institutions remove Yingluck from power.

After Thaksin's overthrow, two pro-Thaksin premiers were forced out in controversial court rulings, and analysts say Yingluck is likely to meet the same fate. "On the day it appears without doubt that a person who becomes the prime minister is neither a member of parliament, nor is he or she elected by the people ... on that day, a long-lasting battle will commence," Jatuporn declared in a speech this past weekend.

"We have to fight openly, peacefully and nonviolently, but I can assure you that the number of our people will be several times bigger than the PDRC," he said. The last time the Red Shirts descended on Bangkok, in 2010, they occupied a central shopping district for two months. Suthep, deputy prime minister at the time, ordered a military crackdown that left the city's skyline in flames and nearly 100 dead.

The courts and independent state agencies are widely seen as being biased against Thaksin's political machine, and a decision by the country's anti-corruption agency in coming weeks could lead to Yingluck's impeachment by the Senate if she is accused of dereliction of duty in overseeing a contentious rice subsidy program. Yingluck said recently that she had "not been treated equitably or received any justice" in the case.

Her supporters say the country's institutions are conspiring against them. "Since we can't rely on anyone, not the military or sometimes not even the police, we have to take the matter in our own hands," said the man leading the Red Shirt training, Suporn Atthawong, known as "Rambo of the Northeast" for his blunt, confident speech.

Suporn said his recruits are not conducting weapons training. "We believe in nonviolent approach," he said. "But I can assure you that they are willing to sacrifice their lives if necessary." Last weekend, the Red Shirts staged their first rally in Bangkok since November. And Suporn's group has recruited about 24,000 volunteers, some of whom will be selected to join the next training later this month.

Thailand's army has staged 11 coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and there are fears it could do so again. "If the people clash and there's bloodshed then the military will have to come out," said Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, a law lecturer at Bangkok's Thammasat University.

Some grass-root Red Shirt supporters aren't too optimistic about a peaceful solution through negotiations. "I hope all sides can compromise," said Sumit Parito, a 43-year-old butcher who participating in the training session in Udon Thani. "But if they can't, I don't see any way for us but to rise again."

Sports chief: Brazil government must act on Rio

April 08, 2014

BELEK, Turkey (AP) — The head of Olympic summer sports federations has called for urgent action to resolve the critical delays facing the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and accused the Brazilian government of failing to support the project.

Francesco Ricci Bitti tells The Associated Press that Rio's troubled preparations are reaching a crisis stage and putting some sports venues in jeopardy. The Italian says "we need to act" immediately or else the situation will become "very serious'" and force some sports to consider backup venue plans.

He says Rio's organizing committee has "no leverage" with the government. Ricci Bitti heads the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which represents the 28 sports in the Rio Games. He also heads the International Tennis Federation and serves on the IOC coordination commission for Rio.

Journey to Mars Only Possible With International Cooperation

Mexico City (RIA Novosti)
Apr 09, 2014

Dmitry Znamensky - No single country has the resources to carry out an expedition to Mars, but together mankind does have the technological capability required to realize such an endeavor, according to Russian professor Vyacheslav Turyshev, speaking at Astronautics Week dedicated to the April 12 anniversary of Yury Gagarin's historic first manned spaceflight.

"These tasks cannot be tackled by any single country individually, but if we manage to motivate our respective space agencies and the governments of different countries to start a shared expedition preparation program, then I think we'll move up the date of the actual flight," said Turyshev, a professor at Mocow State University.

Turyshev added that the preparations for an expedition to Mars would span 20-25 years.

"Although unmanned missions should take place much sooner, possibly asteroid exploration flights or an extended stay [of astronauts] in space," the scientist noted.

In his opinion, such a project requires several tasks to be accomplished, including the creation of artificial gravity, a medical support system for humans in space and the psychological task of learning to work in a small team for a long time. Turyshev supposes a flight of this kind would last up to two years.

At the same time, Turyshev sees a manned Moon base as a more realistic project.

"If we factor out the funding question and look only at the technical capabilities, we are almost at the stage where we can launch a lunar base, as we have life support systems and a means of delivery," he noted.

The academic underlined that it is critical to prioritize well. "If the first mission to the Moon was driven by the political priorities of the USSR and the US, then today's reasoning revolves around the practical use of lunar resources and scientific research" Turyshev stated.

He sees 2015 as the start of commercial astronautics. "The first cars were very expensive and hardly anyone could afford Ford's first models, I think the first commercial space flights would not be affordable for most of us, but let's think about 50 years in the future. I think access to space will become more commonplace in the future, within the next generation people will easily travel to Earth's orbit to enjoy the beauty of our planet from space," Turyshev said.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Journey_to_Mars_Only_Possible_With_International_Cooperation_999.html.

India's mission to Mars crosses half-way mark

Bangalore, India (AFP)
April 09, 2014

India's first mission to Mars successfully crossed the half-way mark on Wednesday, four months after leaving on an voyage to the Red Planet scheduled to take 11 months, the space agency said.

"The spacecraft crossed the half-way mark Wednesday at 9:50 am on its journey to Mars," the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said in a statement from the southern city of Bangalore.

"The spacecraft and its five scientific instruments are in good health."

The gold-colored probe, the size of a small car, will aim to detect methane in the Martian atmosphere, which could provide evidence of some sort of life form on the fourth planet from the Sun.

The country has never before attempted inter-planetary travel, and more than half of all missions to Mars have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 2003.

The low-cost Mars Orbiter Mission, known as "Mangalyaan" in India, was revealed in August 2012 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shortly after China's attempt flopped.

The timing and place of the announcement -- in an Independence Day speech -- led to speculation that India was seeking to make a point to its militarily and economically superior neighbor, despite denials from ISRO.

NASA has also launched a spacecraft to Mars, on a mission to study how the air on the planet has changed over time, and is also expected to reach its destination in September.

India's mission cost 4.5 billion rupees ($75 million), a fraction of the cost of the US unmanned MAVEN spacecraft at $671 million.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Indias_mission_to_Mars_crosses_half-way_mark_999.html.

How Mighty Jupiter Could Have Changed Earth's Habitability

by Elizabeth Howell for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Apr 11, 2014

Is Jupiter a friendly planet, Earth's enemy, or perhaps both? For decades, scientists have talked about how the giant gas planet keeps some asteroids from striking our small world, while others have pointed out that Jupiter's gravity could send some civilization-shattering asteroids our way.

While that debate goes on, a subtler question arises about how influential Jupiter was in the early Solar System. Jupiter is by far the heavyweight planet in the Solar System, weighing in at 320 Earth masses. Its gravity not only influences small asteroids that go by, but also tugs on other planets in the solar system - including our own.

What if Jupiter had had a more eccentric orbit? Could that have affected the habitability of Earth? A new peer-reviewed study published on preprint site Arxiv, called "The role of Jupiter in driving Earth's orbital evolution," examines these questions in more detail. It was presented at the Australian Space Science Conference.

At first blush it appears Jupiter's position in the Solar System could vary greatly without hurting life's beginnings as we know it, but more studies of how other planets influence Earth's climate are needed before we can better understand what's going on, the researchers said. Depending on how Jupiter interacts with Earth in different scenarios, Earth's orbit could vary dramatically, thereby influencing the amount of sun we receive on the surface.

Once we begin to figure out the ranges of habitability in the models, this could help us narrow the search for other habitable planets outside the Solar System that have gas giants nearby.

Life-friendly scenarios

Surveys with NASA's Kepler space telescope and other observatories reveal one great truth about planets: they tend to form in groups. Most planets outside the solar system are found with companions. We've also seen an array of planetary systems, including those where gas giants known as "Hot Jupiters" are close to their parent star.

The search for habitability is often focused on finding rocky planets or moons similar in size to the Earth, and ones orbiting at the right distance from a star to make liquid water possible. However, other factors include the variability of a planet's orbit, or the tilt of its poles, both of which could be influenced by bigger planets in that planet's solar system.

Researchers got interested in the effects of nearby planets on life after observing the Moon.

"I started looking at the effects of the Moon on Earth's climate," said University of London geologist David Waltham, a co-author of the study. "It's often said the moon stabilizes the Earth's axis. It's wrong. It actually nearly destabilizes the axis."

Certainly, if you suddenly took the Moon away, the Earth's axis would destabilize. But Waltham said the better question is to ask what would happen if there was a larger moon from the beginning.

"Any initially stable planet will eventually become unstable as its spin slows but, without a moon, this could take tens or hundreds of billions of years," Waltham said.

"Having a moon increases the rate with which the spin slows so that, in Earth's case for example, it will only take 6 billion years (from formation) for the Earth's axis to become unstable."

In a nutshell, taking the Moon away today is not the same thing as not having a Moon in the first place. We've had 4.5 billion years of lunar-generated spin-deceleration.

From there, Waltham began considering scenarios where moons would not destabilize a planet as quickly. One of them would be if the solar system was precessing, or moving, more slowly. This led him to wonder about the influence of other planets on Earth, a question also preoccupying Jonti Horner, an astronomer and astrobiologist at the University of Southern Queensland, who is affiliated with the Australian Centre for Astrobiology.

Jupiter on the move

The researchers ran models of our Solar System. With each iteration, seven of the eight planets in the solar system are in the same starting conditions in terms of mass, location and orbit. The eighth, Jupiter, kept the same mass but was moved around in various ways.

The researchers used different orbital eccentricities ranging from perfectly circular to orbits that are moderately eccentric, or elliptical, where Jupiter's closest and furthest distances range 20 percent further than usual. In distance terms, this means Jupiter would rove as much as two astronomical units or Earth-sun distances in its orbit, ranging from 4.2 AU from the Sun to 6.2 AU from the sun.

In addition, the authors moved the entire orbit of Jupiter inwards and outwards (testing what would happen if it had formed closer to the Sun, or further away), and at each new location, again tested a range of orbital eccentricities between circular and moderately eccentric. This meant that, in their most extreme close-in scenario, Jupiter came all the way in to 3.4 AU at perihelion, while in the most extreme distant scenario, it ranged out to over 7.4 AU from the Sun.

Using tens of thousands of permutations, Waltham and Horner stepped forward each simulation through a million years of time, recording Earth's orbital parameters every 100 years and then charting the results.

"The default assumption is this is something that is important," Horner said. "There's a lot of flexibility where Jupiter will be, and you would assume that you'd have a very smooth, very gentle variation in how the Earth's orbit behaves over time."

The model showed that most of Jupiter's locations resulted in little change in Earth's orbit and tilt, although the effect on Earth's climate is unclear. Horner said he is working with James Gilmore, a climatologist at University of London, to better understand how changes in the Earth's tilt or orbit would affect its habitability. Changing the tilt would affect the seasons, while changing the orbit would alter the amount of sun on the surface.

Waltham, meanwhile, says there is a discrepancy between the results in this study and a previous one he had done with analytical equations showing that Jupiter's position has a striking influence on Earth's climate. While he believes this study is more accurate, he wants to go back to his earlier work to resolve the difference.

Searching for life beyond Earth

Although this simulation dealt specifically with the Earth-Jupiter relationship, there are implications for worlds that are beyond our Solar System's reaches, the researchers said. Take solar systems that are comprised of planets orbiting in spaces as small as Mercury's orbit of the Sun.

"It's about spacing," Waltham said. "I think there is a strong implication that compact solar systems are less likely to have planets with stable axes, which makes them less likely to be habitable."

That said, he warns there are no "absolute rules" about habitability. There could be scenarios where the axis moves too quickly for complex life to keep up, but simple life forms such as bacteria are be able to evolve fast enough to adapt to temperature changes.

Horner, meanwhile, is examining scenarios under which giant planets send giant impactors, such as asteroids, towards inner planets. For Earth, a Jupiter-sized planet is both a good and a bad thing. The gas giant absorbs some impacts from meteorites, but also alters the orbits of small bodies and could send them towards Earth.

He added that the new research underscores how a small change in parameters could change habitability wildly, pointing to the need to look at more solar systems in formation to see under what conditions planets form. Examining new solar systems will be a strength of NASA's forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope, which is launching into space in 2018.

Horner emphasized that the numerous simulations his team ran on Jupiter's influence in the solar system shows that where planets end up is often a result of chance as much as physics.

"Every object you add to [a planetary] system adds complexity, and the end result is a result of random chances," said Horner. "So if you change something very small when the solar system is forming, it's kind of chaotic."

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/How_Mighty_Jupiter_Could_Have_Changed_Earths_Habitability_999.html.

Veggie Will Expand Fresh Food Production on ISS

by Linda Herridge for KSC News
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX)
Apr 11, 2014

A plant growth chamber bound for the International Space Station inside the Dragon capsule on the SpaceX-3 resupply mission may help expand in-orbit food production capabilities in more ways than one, and offer astronauts something they don't take for granted, fresh food.

NASA's Veg-01 experiment will be used to study the in-orbit function and performance of a new expandable plant growth facility called Veggie and its plant "pillows." The investigation will focus on the growth and development of "Outredgeous" lettuce seedlings in the spaceflight environment.

"Veggie will provide a new resource for U.S. astronauts and researchers as we begin to develop the capabilities of growing fresh produce and other large plants on the space station," said Gioia Massa, NASA payload scientist for Veggie. "Determining food safety is one of our primary goals for this validation test."

Veggie is a low-cost plant growth chamber that uses a flat-panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation. Veggie's unique design is collapsible for transport and storage and expandable up to a foot and a half as plants grow inside it.

"The internal growing area is 11.5 inches wide by 14.5 inches deep, making it the largest plant growth chamber for space to date," Massa said.

Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wis., developed Veggie through a Small Business Innovative Research Program. NASA and ORBITEC engineers and collaborators at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida worked to get the unit's hardware flight-certified for use on the space station.

Because real estate on the station is limited, some adjustments to the growth chamber were made to accommodate space requirements. At Kennedy's Space Life Sciences Laboratory, a crop of lettuce and radishes was grown in the prototype test unit. Seedlings were placed in the Veggie root-mat pillows, and their growth was monitored for health, size, amount of water used, and the microorganisms that grew on them.

"I am thrilled to be a member of the Veggie and Veg-01 team and proud of all the work we have done to prepare for flight," Massa said. "Our team is very excited to see the hardware in use on the space station."

As NASA moves toward long-duration exploration missions, Massa hopes that Veggie will be a resource for crew food growth and consumption. It also could be used by astronauts for recreational gardening activities during long-duration space missions. The system may have implications for improving growth and biomass production on Earth, thus benefiting the average citizen.

For the future, Massa said she is looking forward to seeing all sorts of "neat payloads" in the Veggie unit and expanding its capability as NASA learns more about the food safety of crops grown in microgravity.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Veggie_Will_Expand_Fresh_Food_Production_on_ISS_999.html.

Vast ocean found beneath ice of Saturn moon

April 03, 2014

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — Scientists have uncovered a vast ocean beneath the icy surface of Saturn's little moon Enceladus.

Italian and American researchers made the discovery using Cassini, a NASA-European spacecraft still exploring Saturn and its rings 17 years after its launch from Cape Canaveral. Their findings were announced Thursday.

This new ocean of liquid water — as big as or even bigger than North America's Lake Superior — is centered at the south pole of Enceladus and could encompass much if not most of the moon. Enceladus is about 310 miles (499 kilometers) across.

The data do not show if the ocean extends to the north pole, said the lead researcher, Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome. At the very least, it's a regional sea some 25 miles (40 kilometers) deep under miles-thick ice. On Earth, it would stretch from our South Pole up to New Zealand — at the very least.

Cassini's rudimentary instruments also cannot determine whether the moon's ocean harbors any form of life. Another mission using more sophisticated instruments is needed to make that search. This latest discovery makes the interior of Enceladus "a very attractive potential place to look for life," said Cornell University planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine, who took part in the study.

Back in 2005, Cassini detected a plume streaming from cracks in the south polar region. Scientists suspected these jets of salty water vapor and ice — containing some light organic molecules like methane — might come from a subsurface ocean. On Thursday, they confirmed its presence. Their findings appear in the journal Science.

Cassini provided gravity measurements from three close fly-bys of Enceladus from 2010 to 2012. The Doppler data indicated a dense material beneath the surface of the south pole, most likely liquid water.

The ocean is believed to be sandwiched between miles of surface ice and a rocky core. "It's extraordinary what Cassini has been able to do for this small moon," California Institute of Technology's David Stevenson, part of the research team, told reporters this week. But "this is not like mapping the surface of the Earth or mapping the surface of the moon, it's nothing like that. It's much cruder, and it's amazing that we've been able to do as much as we can."

Enceladus is hardly the only moon in the solar system with a subsurface sea. Titan, the largest of Saturn's dozens of moons, is believed to have a global ocean. Evidence points to oceans inside the giant Jupiter moons of Callisto and Ganymede. And Jupiter's Europa also has a hidden reservoir similar to that of Enceladus, complete with plumes and a rocky bottom.

Cassini, already exceeding its life expectancy, is to make three more fly-bys of Enceladus before the mission ends in 2017.

Serbia experts use heavy machinery to move mammoth

April 11, 2014

KOSTOLAC, Serbia (AP) — Serbian archaeologists on Friday used heavy machinery to move a female mammoth skeleton — believed to be one million years old — from an open mine pit where it was unearthed nearly five years ago.

Workers with cranes and bulldozers worked carefully for hours at the Kostolac coal mine in eastern Serbia to transfer the mammoth, known as Vika, to an exhibition area several kilometers away. Chief archaeologist Miomir Korac told The Associated Press that preparations had lasted several months. He said that archaeologists secured Vika in a 60-ton structure of rubber and sand to avoid any damage.

"We are extremely sad and heavy-hearted about this, but we had to move her," Korac said. "It was just too complicated to leave the mammoth where it was found; that would have required securing a 500-square-meter (5,000-square-foot) area right in the heart of the coal mine."

Serbian archaeologists say Vika is a southern mammoth, or mammuthus meridionalis, one of the oldest species found in Europe, which originated from northern Africa and did not have fur. She was discovered during routine excavation at the coal mine at 27 meters (90 feet) below ground. Vika is more than 4 meters (13 feet) high, 5 meters (16 feet) long and weighed more than 10 tons.

Two years ago, an entire mammoth field of more recent date was also discovered in Kostolac, while another female mammoth skeleton, about 500,000 years old, was discovered in northern Serbia in 1996. That skeleton was named Kika, and is on display in the northern town of Kikinda, near the border with Hungary.

Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade.