Moroccan high-speed rail sparks debate

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat
06/10/11

With construction recently begun on Morocco's first high-speed train (TGV), there is a diversity of opinions on whether there are better ways to spend the kingdom's money. Officials laud the event as a great accomplishment for Morocco, while others voice their doubts.

The TGV project, which is scheduled to link Tangier to Casablanca in 2015, broke ground on September 29th. It is intended to reduce journey times by more than 50% and increase the number of passengers on the route from the current two million a year to six or eight million in the first few years of operation, bringing the two most dynamic regions in the Moroccan economy closer together: Casablanca-Rabat and the emerging hub around Tangier.

Despite these potential gains, deputy Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) Lahcen Daoudi says there are higher priorities in Morocco. He suggested expanding motorways and improving communications infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.

"We can't dig into the public purse to bring in a new train service with little added value. The cost is so high that we will be paying off the debt for some time. The state will have to stagger the project over many years. It will be difficult to achieve the 2015 deadline," he told Magharebia.

Economist Hachimi Mounir spoke in similar terms, freely criticizing the decision, which was made during a difficult economic and financial climate.

He pointed out that countries richer than Morocco have chosen to put off some of their plans due to the global economy. He framed the TGV as a luxury project while there were more important priorities such as promoting employment and reducing social inequalities.

Many members of the public expressed similar views.

Halim Chennaoui, an accountant in Tangier, pointed out that many farmers and other property owners would be affected by compulsory land purchases by the government.

"The amount of agricultural land will be reduced. This will lead to smaller harvests and will have an impact on the farmers' incomes," he said.

Houda Metrabi, a student from Tangier, said it was scandalous. She said the TGV would prove unprofitable, and thus public funds should be used to meet the public's more basic needs.

"Does Morocco really need a high-speed train when the present trains are falling apart and some regions are cut off, not even having normal roads?" she asked, adding that a broad swath of the Moroccan public had been waiting for years for jobs and decent housing.

According to transport Minister Karim Ghellab, funding for the TGV will not place a heavy burden on public expenditure. Most of the funding will come from foreign donors, namely the Arab Gulf states and France, which will provide 920 million euros. Morocco will contribute 414 million euros towards the 1.8 billion euro project, while the Hassan II Fund for social and economic development will provide a further 86 million euros.

"In total, over six years, 800 million dirhams of public investment will go into the TGV project every year, which is 1.4% of the general state investment budget," Ghellab explained, reminding his audience that the government sees the social sectors as a key area for investment.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2011/10/06/feature-03.

Libya gives ultimatum to militia groups

Wed Mar 12, 2014

The Libyan General National Congress (GNC) has given the militia groups controlling Libya’s eastern oil ports two weeks to lift the blockade of crude terminals or face fresh military action.

Nuri Abu Sahmein, the GNC president, said on Wednesday that Tripoli had “decided to give an ultimatum of two weeks at the most” for the militants to end the seizure of Libya’s eastern oil terminals.” The GNC is the highest political authority in Libya.

The Libyan senior official further stated that a military operation to retake the oil terminals was being suspended for the time being.

According to the GNC chief, if the militants refuse to respect the ultimatum, “the decision of the chief of the armed forces (Abu Sahmein himself) will be put into action by the Libyan army.”

Abu Sahmein had earlier ordered an offensive against the militants demanding regional autonomy in the east after they began exporting oil independently in defiance of the central government.

On Tuesday, the Libyan parliament sacked former prime minister, Ali Zeidan, after he failed to stop illegal oil sale by militants. The ex-premier fled to Europe shortly after his ouster.

On March 8, militants at the militant-held port of al-Sidra managed to load oil into a North Korea-flagged tanker, dubbed the Morning Glory, which had docked there without government permission.

Libyan authorities later said they had taken control of the tanker. However, the vessel broke through the naval brigade during inclement weather early on Tuesday.

Tripoli has tried to end a wave of protests at oil ports and fields across the country that has slashed oil output to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from 1.4 million bpd in July.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/354411.html.

Opposition cries fraud in Algerian election

April 18, 2014

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The main opposition candidate in Algeria's presidential elections cried foul late Thursday night hours after voting ended, alleging massive fraud and vowing to reject any results announced.

Ali Benflis told supporters at his headquarters that preliminary information indicated fraud on a grand scale with grave irregularities across the country. "Our history will remember this date as a great crime against the nation by stealing the voice of the citizens and blocking popular will," he said, while fireworks from celebrating supporters of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, his opponent, could be heard in the background.

The national commission charged with supervising the elections, however, insisted that aside from a few incidents, the election went smoothly with just 130 complaints. Turnout was 51.7 percent of the 23 million registered voters, according to the Interior Minister.

Benflis' speech essentially amounted to a concession of defeat, though he vowed to use "all peaceful political means as well as legal avenues" to resist the results. The election appears to have been the most competitive presidential contest in Algeria's recent memory with Benflis putting up a spirited fight against an ailing Bouteflika who had the full might of the powerful state to make up for his weakened condition.

The 77-year-old president is still recovering from a stroke last year that has left him speaking and moving with difficulty and he was entirely absent from the three week presidential campaign — leading some to question his fitness to lead this oil-rich nation and key U.S. ally in the war on terror.

The signature image of Thursday's vote was Bouteflika being wheeled into a polling station to cast his vote — however he still has a great deal of support in a country traumatized by a decade of civil war in the 1990s.

Turnout throughout the day in the sundrenched Algerian capital appeared to be fairly light with older people voting in numbers and the young — who make up a majority of the population — staying away. Memories of the brutal struggle against radical Islamists in the 1990s that claimed 200,000 lives are still fresh in many people's memory and for them Bouteflika has been synonymous with a return to peace.

"Young people don't vote, but people my age vote because they remember the dark times and they know what's important," said Nabil Damous, a 41 year-old man voting in the immense Abdel Kader high school, formerly a convent, on the edge of the low-income Bab el-Oued neighborhood. "People who don't vote don't want this country to move forward."

Sonia Izem, a middle-aged woman in a dark headscarf, said she was voting for Bouteflika because she, too, remembered when Bab el-Oued was a battleground between security forces and Islamists and because she felt the rampant corruption in the country would be less during the fourth term.

"The people around him have already stolen a lot and they have nearly filled their sack and they won't need to steal very much in the next term," she said as she entered the nearly empty school around midday. "If we bring in someone new, they will have to start stealing all over again."

Yet while Algeria escaped the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring, frustrated youth stage thousands of small demonstrations every year over the lack of jobs, opportunities and housing. In several cities around the country, young people clashed with police after attempting to destroy ballot boxes. The most serious of the clashes was near the city of Bouira, 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Algiers, in which 44 policemen and numerous demonstrators were injured.

Thanks to high oil prices over the last decade, dissatisfaction has been traditionally addressed by spending the country's impressive oil wealth but resources are dwindling and soon the government may have to pursue a different approach to meet the people's needs.

The government said 186,000 police were mobilized to protect the polls and there was a heavy security presence in Algiers on Thursday. A few small demonstrations by those calling for a boycott of the vote were quickly dispersed.

Algerian election faces disaffected populace

April 16, 2014

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The college students playing pick-up soccer along the faded grandeur of Algiers' sweeping waterfront say they won't be voting in Thursday's presidential elections, echoing the sentiments of many young Algerians.

They want jobs and housing when they graduate and lack loyalty to a political system run by an aging man too frail to show up for a single campaign event. Boycotting is the main form of protest against an election that 77-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is expected to win despite his glaring absence, because powerful institutions of the state are firmly wedded to maintaining Algeria's status quo. But dissatisfaction is growing in this key energy producer and U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism in the face of a sclerotic political system that does little to include the 80 percent of the population of 37 million under the age of 45.

"After we finish our studies there's only unemployment and you need connections to get to work," said Redouane Baba Abdi, as he sat on a bench before the game on the paved esplanade between the Mediterranean Sea and the flaking colonial-era buildings of the Bab el-Oued neighborhood. "Most people don't want Bouteflika for a fourth term. He's like the walking dead."

Bouteflika made no appearances in the three-week election campaign, leaving it to his ministers and close associates to rally interest in his re-election. After a stroke last year that left him speaking and walking with difficulty, he has limited himself to carefully scripted TV appearances with foreign visitors like U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this month.

Bouteflika changed the constitution in 2008 so he could remain president, but a fourth term might be a step too far even for a country that was barely affected by the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings. Several Bouteflika rallies were canceled after they were disrupted by demonstrations, raising fears that another victory could lead to greater unrest.

A small grass-roots movement called Barakat — "enough" in the Algerian dialect — that has come out against Bouteflika's fourth term attempted a protest Wednesday on the eve of elections, but were pounced on by police.

Members were dragged from the sidewalk and marched away by police who also scattered bystanders and journalists watching the protest, eliciting shock from the crowds of pedestrians on the busy tree-lined boulevard in downtown Algiers.

While Bouteflika's rule has been characterized by economic growth thanks to high oil prices and a return to stability after the battles against the Islamists in the 1990s, heavy government spending is running up against dwindling oil reserves and falling prices. The country is still run by the same generation that won the war of independence from France in 1962 and shows little interest in involving others.

"We are in a backward world. It's the old telling the young to get out of the way," said Abderrahmane Hadj-Nacer, a former central bank governor and analyst. "The people have been corrupted by the distribution of houses and jobs — productivity has been destroyed."

In fact, those disaffected young students playing soccer have their education and housing paid for by the government, and they talk about waiting to be given a job rather than going out and finding one. "We have taught our youth to just to stick out their hand," Hadj-Nacer added.

Stability and the largesse of the state have been the main themes of the campaign by the president's surrogates, who have warned that perks like free housing could come to an end or civil war could return if the president is not re-elected.

"He brought you from the darkness into the light, that is the miracle of Bouteflika," Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal roared at the final rally in Algiers Sunday, his voice hoarse from campaigning. Much of the 5,000-strong crowd at the rally came from public sector companies or unions with ties to the government. Supporters were bused in from across country.

"It is true he's tired, but his brains still work — he doesn't need to use his hands," Akila Kelloud, a union member from the nearby city of Medea, said after the rally. The country is in a delicate phase. Despite foreign reserves of $200 billion, international financial institutions are sounding alarm bells, describing the economy as overly dependent on oil even as prices are threatening to drop.

Oil and gas make up 95 percent of the country's exports and 63 percent of the budget revenue but employs only 2 percent of the labor force. Worse, reserves are dwindling and the country's trade balance is expected to go negative in the face of a massive importation bill.

In a February report, the International Monetary Fund warned that "wide-ranging structural reforms" are needed to reduce unemployment and grow the economy. While heavy state spending has dropped unemployment to less than 10 percent, it is still at 25 percent for young people.

The man who says he can fix this situation is Ali Benflis, a former prime minister and the main opposition candidate among the five running against Bouteflika. "I offer an alternative, a new project and I want to put the youth into the center of decision-making," he told The Associated Press.

He described how he visited all 48 provinces in the country and logged more than 100 hours of air travel in the course of the campaign — in contrast to Bouteflika's inactivity. Benflis' challenge is not just to win over the millions who don't vote, but also to guard against fraud, which local and international observers say often characterize Algerian contests.

"If there is fraud I will not be quiet," he said. "I will ask the Algerians not to accept a false election." Opposition is also appearing in grass-roots organizations like Barakat who have been staging small rallies around the country protesting the Bouteflika's fourth term and the corruption in the system.

Sid Ali Kouidi Filali, one of the group's organizers, said the real work is to raise people's consciousness and make them realize that they can change the system. "We are trying to re-engage the Algerian people in politics," he said.

Chafiq Mesbah, a political analyst and former intelligence officer, believes that all these scattered demonstrations — 10,000 of them in 2013, according to police — will slowly increase as the social and economic situation continues to deteriorate.

"I think all these little demonstrations will coalesce into a national movement," he said, citing the elections as a possible turning point. "It will be the beginning of a process, though the explosion won't happen immediately after."

Protesters heckle Algeria president's campaign

April 09, 2014

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Demonstrators threw stones at the Algerian prime minister's motorcade during an election campaign event Wednesday— the latest incident protesting the president's expected re-election.

Incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika is widely predicted to win the April 17 presidential election, despite suffering a stroke that left him unable to walk or campaign. Bouteflika's campaign is instead being carried out by Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and other top government officials, several of whom have been targeted by protests.

Journalists at the scene in a southern desert town of Metlili said protesters first heckled Sellal's speech and then pelted his motorcade with stones, before being driven away by police with tear gas.

The town is in the province of Ghardaia, where Arab-Berber riots over the past few months have killed seven people. Some 40 people were wounded in clashes there Monday. On Saturday, protesters in the city of Bejaia burned down the venue for another campaign speech by Sellal and clashed with police resulting in 15 wounded.

Thousands of students staged a peaceful protest against Bouteflika in the same town on Tuesday. The protesters oppose a fourth term for the ailing 77-year-old Bouteflika, who has run the country since 1999 and changed the constitution in 2008 so he could serve further terms.

Dozens of young men chanted "enough" outside the venue of a pro-Bouteflika rally in the city of Batna Wednesday, but were dispersed by police. Many of the protesters claim allegiance to the "Barakat" — which means "enough" — movement that opposes Bouteflika's lock on power, but on the whole their demonstrations have been small and scattered.

While Bouteflika is expected to win overwhelmingly against the other five candidates, turnout is traditionally low in Algerian elections and apathy high.

Algeria: Thousands Join Unprecedented Rally

22 March 2014

Algiers — Thousands of Algerian opposition supporters have called for a boycott of next month's presidential election, during an unprecedented mass rally.

The rally denounced 77-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's attempt to win a fourth term of office. They added a stroke last year has left him unfit to govern.

The unprecedented move was staged by Islamist and secular opposition parties.

In power since 1999, Mr. Bouteflika scrapped constitutional rules in 2008 limiting him to two terms in office.

The support of the governing National Liberation Front (FLN), army factions and business elites almost guarantees him victory at election, correspondents say.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201403240783.html.

Ukrainian unity on display with peaceful rallies

April 17, 2014

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands gathered for peaceful demonstrations Thursday in at least four eastern cities to denounce Russia for its perceived meddling in Ukrainian affairs, a day after the most lethal clash so far killed three pro-Russian activists.

Political developments in eastern Ukraine have for weeks been dominated by a small, vocal and armed opposition to the interim government in Kiev. Thursday's rallies, by contrast, drew crowds who listened to speeches condemning Russia and resisting the pro-Russian movement that is pushing for autonomy for eastern Ukraine.

Rallies were held in Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol and Kramatorsk, where key government buildings have been occupied by pro-Russian groups. Parliamentary deputy Oleh Lyashko, who is running for office in the May 25 presidential election, rejected charges that Russian speakers in the east had been subject to any discrimination. He also said the armed groups active in the seizures of buildings would not prevail.

"Let those who have weapons be afraid of us, we will fight back. Let the ones who want to split up our country be afraid, because we won't allow them to do it," Lyashko said. Hromadske television reported that police in Kramatorsk managed to thwart an attempt by pro-Russian activists to attack a pro-unity rally of about 500 people.

Overnight Wednesday, three people were killed and 12 injured after a mob of 300 pro-Russian protesters armed with stun grenades and firebombs tried to seize a National Guard base in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said shots fired by servicemen in the base initially proved insufficient to deter the mob. There were no casualties among Ukrainian servicemen, the ministry said. At least 63 people involved in the attack were detained, but local media cited police as saying 38 were later released.

Associated Press video filmed outside the base on Wednesday night showed an unidentified man coming out to speak to the armed masked men, who said they wanted no bloodshed. A short while later, however, a crowd of mainly masked young men armed with bats and sticks began throwing Molotov cocktails at the base's gate and the trucks parked in front of it. Sounds of gunfire were heard in response.

One soldier involved in the battle, a 20-year old conscript who gave his name only as Stanislav, said troops were forced to act in self-defense. "We were attacked by unidentified people and we didn't want to shoot, but they were behaving aggressively," he told the AP. "At first we fired in the air, but they continued advancing."

One protester admitted to a hospital with a bullet wound to the stomach said soldiers opened fire on them while they were attempting to force open the gates. "We just threw Molotov cocktails to light the way," said Sergei Shevchenko, a 40-year-old businessman from Donetsk.

Residents were divided about the night's events. "Russia isn't just exporting oil and gas, but also terrorism," said 43-year-old resident Yevgeny Nechiporenko. Yet passers-by berated Nechiporenko as he spoke, with one accusing him of being an "agent of the West."

"We are willing to give up our lives so long as we don't have to serve the fascists from Kiev," said resident Anna Govorko.

Peter Leonard reported from Donetsk.

Ukraine army's humiliations pile up as eastern push fizzles

Kiev (AFP)
April 16, 2014

The humiliation Wednesday of the Ukrainian army in its much-vaunted "anti-terrorist" push into separatist eastern territory makes an embarrassing string of failures even worse.

Allowing pro-Russian rebels to seize six of its armored personnel carriers and disarm its servicemen was evidence of a poorly planned and executed operation, analysts said.

They pointed out that the region, the Donbass, is hostile to Kiev's new, pro-EU leaders, and home to magnates and police reluctant to face down the separatists.

"It was a mistake to launch an 'anti-terrorist operation' in the Donbass where the overwhelming majority is against the government. Targeted operations against armed groups are one thing, but when there are tanks in the street, people block them," said a Ukrainian political analyst, Volodymyr Fesenko.

A military expert at the Razumkov think-tank in Kiev, Oleksiy Melnik, criticized the government for hesitating to use force and in the end sending in a smaller force than the one implied when it announced its "major operation" on Sunday.

"The arguments that 'We mustn't provoke Russia' are absurd in the current situation, because Russia needs no pretext to carry out its plan. The reason behind what happened is government inaction," he said.

- Demoralized army -

"The armored vehicles were stopped by unarmed civilians, who they cannot shoot. That showed how badly thought-through the operation was, Melnik said.

"These sorts of defeats are demoralizing the army, whose fighting spirit has already been undermined by the events in Crimea," where Ukrainian soldiers ended up abandoning their units without offering any resistance to the Russian forces, he said.

Under-funded and possessing outdated weapons, the 130,000-strong Ukrainian army is easily overshadowed by the Russian one, which is six times bigger -- and which currently has 40,000 men massed on Ukraine's eastern border, according to NATO.

Kiev asserts that the armed, pro-Russian rebels are being managed by Russian military intelligence officers on the ground. Several hundred trained military personnel carrying the sort of weapons used by Russia's elite forces and wearing uniforms stripped of any insignia can be seen in the region, but Moscow denies they are its soldiers.

Another military expert, Mykola Sungurovsky, said Ukraine has sent its best men and equipment to the border to protect it.

"But they are only capable of rebuffing a first assault. After that, they would need to turn to guerrilla actions because the balance of forces is not in our favor."

Several analysts observed that Ukraine's military is the main force loyal to Kiev's government in the east; the police, they said, did nothing to stop the pro-Russian assaults on public buildings and police stations in several towns in the region.

In Donetsk, the main city in the east, "the situation is very complicated," the interim first deputy prime minister Vitaliy Yarema acknowledged on Wednesday. "Some police officers are at the command of the separatists."

But Mykhaylo Kornyenko, a former deputy interior minister, said the police should not be blamed.

"Police stations were attacked by men with combat experience whereas they lack such experience. If they had used their weapons, the consequences could have been catastrophic."

Olexandra Rudneva, an analyst at the Strategic Studies Institute, said, however, that many police are also bitter towards the new authorities for not punishing those responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people during the mass protests in Kiev early this year, and for being used as scapegoats for that bloodshed.

"In this situation, whoever is in power in Kiev would have a tough time exerting influence over the police, especially in Donetsk," she said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Ukraine_armys_humiliations_pile_up_as_eastern_push_fizzles_999.html.

Côte d'Ivoire's Tech Solutions to Local Problems

By Marc-Andre Boisvert

ABIDJAN, Apr 15 2014 (IPS) - When Ivorian Thierry N’Doufou saw local school kids suffering under the weight of their backpacks full of textbooks, it sparked an idea of how to close the digital gap where it is the largest — in local schoolrooms.

N’Doufou is one of 10 Ivorian IT specialists who developed the Qelasy — an 8-inch, Ivorian-engineered tablet that is set to be released next month by his technology company Siregex.

“It is more than me feeling sorry for them. It is also about filling the digital gap between the south and the north, and bringing Ivorian education into the 21st century,” N’Doufou tells IPS.

Qelasy means “classroom” in several African languages, including Akan, Malinke, Lingala and Bamileke.

The Qelasy team began by converting all government-approved Ivorian textbooks into digital format.

“We were obligated to process everything in a way to have quality images for high definition screens. It is a lot of work,” explains N’Doufou, who is CEO of Siregex.

“We also enriched the curriculum with images and videos in way to make the educational experience more convivial.”

A solution to Ivorian problems

The tablet uses an Android operating system and is resistant to water splashes, dust, humidity and heat.

“The Qelasy is protected against everything that an African pupil without transportation might encounter during their walk home from school,” says N’Doufou.

“We knew we needed our own product … Our clients’ needs are very specific,” he explained.

The parent- and teacher-controlled tablet replaces all textbooks, correspondence books, calculators and the individual chalkboards often used in Ivorian classrooms.

It can also be programmed to allow kids to surf the web or play games according to a pre-defined timetable. Siregex staff has also developed a store where parents and educators can buy over 1,000 elements like apps, educational materials and books.

While the Qelasy is currently focused on education, its marketing director Fabrice Dan tells IPS that users will soon be able to use it for other things. “We believe in technology as a way to create positive changes. And we believe in education. But eventually, we will present solutions in other fields, like agriculture and microcredit,” he says.

Qelasy was launched at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress 2014.  Exactly how much it will sell for has not yet been determined, but it is expected to be priced between 275 and 315 dollars.

That’s a steep price in a country where, according to government figures, only two million of its 23 million people are classified as middle class, earning between two and 20 dollars a day.

While N’Doufou expects the government to purchase a few tablets for use in schools, this product will mostly benefit the country’s middle and upper classes.

For now, it is only available for the Ivorian market, but the firm is targeting Francophone and Anglophone Africa.

However, the biggest challenge to the success of the product remains the electricity deficit. In a country where, according to the World Bank, only 59 percent of the population has access to electricity, a tablet with an eight-hour battery life faces limited penetration.

But N’Doufou says “There is an 80 percent cellphone penetration rate in Côte d’Ivoire in spite of the low electricity penetration. People find solutions in villages. They will for this too.”

While N’Doufou says “most of the know-how comes from here,” the Qelasy was assembled in the Chinese manufacturing hub of Shenzen, where 10,000 units have been produced.

Other Ivorian Tech Solutions

The Qelasy is merely the latest in locally-developed technologies designed specifically to answer Ivorian problems.

Last week, young Ivorian programmer Regis Bamba launched an app to record the license plate numbers and other details of taxis. Taxi Tracker allows a user to send this information about the taxi they are traveling in to selected users who can follow their journey in real time.

It is an attempt to find a way to prevent incidents like the murder of young Ivorian model Awa Fadiga, who was attacked during a taxi ride home in March.

The story of Fadiga’s tragic death gripped the nation as it exposed gaps in the country’s security and healthcare systems. She had been left untreated in a comatose state for more than 12 hours at a local hospital, which allegedly refused to treat her until payment for her care was received.

“It is my reaction to her death. I saw her picture, and I thought that could be my little sister. I told myself that I could not just sit back with my arms crossed,” Bamba tells IPS.

“It is my concrete solution as a citizen until the authorities do something meaningful to protect citizens. So Awa’s death will not be in vain.”

Another application, Mô Ni Bah, was developed by Jean Delmas Ehui in 2013 and allows Ivorians to declare births through SMS.

Trained locals then transfer the information provided in the SMSes to a registration authority. It has been another important invention in a country where the great distance between rural areas and government centers has hindered birth registration. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, almost a third of births are undeclared here.

Bacely Yoro Bi, a technology evangelist, internet strategist and organizer of ConnecTIC — a gathering of Abidjan’s IT enthusiasts — says there is definitively a boom in the local IT business.

“There is a lot happening here in terms of technology, although it is still limited to Abidjan. There are several start-ups that have been created with a local focus,” he tells IPS.

Part of the success, says Yoro Bi, is because of the cooperation among developers.

“Qelasy has been possible because there is a techie community that support each other,” N’Doufou points out.

Yoro Bi says that Côte d’Ivoire’s inventions should be exported to the rest of West Africa and to the world.

With the creation of two free trade zones dedicated to technology in Abidjan’s suburbs, and investments in internet infrastructure, he predicts that inventors like N’Doufou and Bamba now have the potential to go beyond the national borders.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/cote-divoires-tech-solutions-local-problems/.

Philippines says peace pact should hold despite clashes

Manila (AFP)
April 16, 2014

The Philippines said Wednesday it was confident a peace deal with the country's largest Muslim rebel group would hold despite fresh clashes that left four of its members dead.

The fighting took place just two weeks after the 10,000-member Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace deal to end their decades-old rebellion that had claimed tens of thousands of lives.

MILF fighters helped a group of Islamic extremists fighting government forces on Friday, but did so without their top leadership's permission, President Benigno Aquino's top peace adviser Teresita Deles said.

Two soldiers and 18 gunmen were slain in the clashes on the remote southern island of Basilan, the military said, while the MILF acknowledged four of its members were among those killed.

"This will not affect the entire peace process," Deles told AFP.

"The resolve of both parties has not waned."

The peace treaty aims to set up an autonomous Muslim area in the south of the mainly Catholic nation early next year. The MILF is expected to disarm and put up candidates for a regional parliament in May 2016.

"We are still confident that the MILF leadership can bring a huge bulk of their fighters into the fold of the law," Deles said, though conceding a "small number" of the rebel force may opt to ignore the peace deal.

This faction would be "subjected to law enforcement activities", she added.

MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar had denounced the killings, and asked an independent body monitoring a ceasefire between the rebels and the government to investigate the fighting which he alleged was initiated by the military.

The military has said the slain MILF fighters were apparently drawn into the fighting because they had relatives among the Abu Sayyaf group involved in the shootout.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small gang of self-styled Islamic militants blamed for the country's worst attacks, including bombings, beheadings and kidnappings.

Military officials said it was founded with seed money from the Al Qaeda group in the 1990s, although it has since degenerated into a purely criminal gang.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen are believed to be still holding a number of foreign hostages on another island in the restive southern region, possibly including a Chinese tourist seized from a Malaysian dive resort on April 2.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Philippines_says_peace_pact_should_hold_despite_clashes_999.html.

ISS to Beam Video via Laser Back to Earth

by David Israel and Mark Whalen for JPL News
Pasadena CA (JPL)
Apr 16, 2014

A team of about 20 working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., through the lab's Phaeton early-career-hire program, led the development of the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) investigation, which is preparing for an April 14 launch to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX-3 mission. The goal? NASA's first optical communication experiment on the orbital laboratory.

Scientific instruments used in space missions increasingly require higher communication rates to transmit gathered data back to Earth or to support high-data-rate applications, like high-definition video streams.

Optical communications-also referred to as "lasercom"-is an emerging technology where data is sent via laser beams. This offers the promise of much higher data rates than what is achievable with current radio frequency (RF) transmissions and has the advantage that it operates in a frequency band that is currently unregulated by the Federal Communications Commission.

"Optical communications has the potential to be a game-changer," said Mission Manager Matt Abrahamson. "Right now, many of our deep space missions communicate at 200 to 400 kilobits per second." OPALS will demonstrate up to 50 megabits per second, and future deep space optical communication systems will provide over one gigabits per second from Mars.

"It's like upgrading from dial-up to DSL," added the project's systems engineer Bogdan Oaida. "Our ability to generate data has greatly outpaced our ability to downlink it. Imagine trying to download a movie at home over dial-up. It's essentially the same problem in space, whether we're talking about low-Earth orbit or deep space."

OPALS is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, part of a cargo resupply mission to the space station. The payload will be inside the Dragon cargo spacecraft. Once deployed, OPALS will be conducting transmission tests for a period of nearly three months, with the possibility of a longer mission.

After the Dragon capsule docks with the station, OPALS will be robotically extracted from the trunk of the Dragon, and then manipulated by a robotic arm for positioning on the station's exterior. It is the first investigation developed at JPL to launch on SpaceX's Falcon rocket.

The technology demo was conceived, developed, built and tested at JPL by engineers in the early stage of their careers in order to gain experience building space hardware and developing an end-to-end communication system. The system uses primarily commercial off-the-shelf hardware and encloses electronics in a pressurized container.

"We were not as constrained by mass, volume or power on this mission as we were by cost," said Abrahamson, and this approach allowed a lower cost development on an efficient schedule.

As the space station orbits Earth, a ground telescope tracks it and transmits a laser beacon to OPALS. While maintaining lock on the uplink beacon, the orbiting instrument's flight system will downlink a modulated laser beam with a formatted video. Each demonstration, or test, will last approximately 100 seconds as the station instrument and ground telescope maintain line of sight.

It will be used to study pointing, acquisition and tracking of the very tightly focused laser beams, taking into account the movement of the space station, and to study the characteristics of optical links through Earth's atmosphere. NASA will also use OPALS to educate and train personnel in the operation of optical communication systems.

The success of OPALS will provide increased impetus for operational optical communications in NASA missions. The space station is a prime target for multi-gigabit-per-second optical links. Fast laser communications between Earth and spacecraft like the space station or NASA's Mars Curiosity rover would enhance their connection to engineers and scientists on the ground as well as to the public.

OPALS is a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; the International Space Station Program based at Johnson Space Center in Houston; Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the Advanced Exploration Systems Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/ISS_to_Beam_Video_via_Laser_Back_to_Earth_999.html.

Continents May Be A Key Feature of Super-Earths

Jeremy Hsu for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Apr 16, 2014

Huge Earth-like planets that have both continents and oceans may be better at harboring extraterrestrial life than those that are water-only worlds. A new study gives hope for the possibility that many super-Earth planets orbiting distant stars have exposed continents rather than just water-covered surfaces.

Super-Earths likely have more stable climates as compared to water-worlds, and therefore larger habitable zones where alien life could thrive. In the new study, researchers used the Earth as a starting point for modeling how super-Earths might store their water on the surface and deep underground within the mantle. The work is detailed in a preprint paper titled "Water Cycling Between Ocean and Mantle: Super-Earths Need Not Be Waterworlds" that was published in the January issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Researchers typically expect super-Earths to exist as water-worlds because their strong surface gravity creates relatively flattened surface geography and deep oceans. But the new study found that super-Earths with active tectonics can have exposed continents if their water is less than 0.2 percent of the total planetary mass.

"A planet could be ten times wetter than Earth and still have exposed continents," said Nicolas Cowan, a planetary scientist at Northwestern University and co-author on the new paper.

"That's important for what the planet looks like and how it ages."

Cowan and Dorian Abbot, a climate scientist at the University of Chicago, built the model in the study. The model uses Earth as a starting point in defining how a planet's water distribution could end up balanced in a steady state between the surface oceans and the mantle, which allows the researchers to calculate whether a super-Earth is likely to be a water-world or not.

The movement of tectonic plates on Earth transfers water continuously between the surface oceans and the mantle. Ocean water enters the mantle as part of deep-sea rocks when one tectonic plate slides under another and goes down into the mantle.

"Earth is the only known planet with plate tectonics, a deep water cycle, etc., so it's a good place to start," Cowan said. "On the other hand, if it turns out that Earth's deep water cycle in nowhere near a steady-state, then our conclusions are way off the mark."

Water in the mantle can re-enter the ocean when volcanic activity splits the planet's crust at mid-ocean ridges. The loss of the crust causes a drop in pressure that leads the underlying mantle rock to melt and lose volatiles such as water. (An additional twist is that super-Earths with their stronger gravity could have greater seafloor pressure that suppresses the mantle's loss of water, so that more of the planet's overall water remains in the mantle.)

There are other uncertainties that could make a big difference in the model's accuracy in predicting a super-Earth's likelihood of having dry continents. One unknown is the amount of water hidden deep within Earth's own mantle; Cowan and Abbot cite estimates of one to two oceans worth of water.

Another factor is whether or not super-Earths have tectonic processes. If the researchers' assumptions about either factor are wrong, that would change their model's calculation of the "water-world boundary," which represents the mathematical model's dividing point between water-worlds and worlds with dry continents.

Cowan and Abbot tried to compensate for the unknowns by drawing conservative conclusions with the results from their mathematical model. But even those conclusions suggest that super-Earths need not be water-worlds.

"If some of our input parameters are wildly off, then the actual water-world boundary might differ by an order of magnitude," Cowan said. "No matter how you cut it, though, the water-world boundary is unlikely to be as damning as previously thought."

The debate over super-Earths will continue until space missions begin collecting hard data on how much water exists on such planets. A space telescope with an interior coronagraph or exterior starshade could block the blinding light of distant stars to get a peek at orbiting planets. But no active space telescopes can currently do the necessary work of mapping the surface of super-Earths.

"At the very least, you'd need a space telescope with a mirror a few meters wide, coupled to a starshade tens of thousands of kilometers away," Cowan explained.

"NASA is mooting this idea, but it is not the next priority." One space telescope that could fit the bill would be NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) - a planned 2.4-meter telescope with an instrument for imaging exoplanets. The $1.6 billion mission remains up in the air until NASA can squeeze it into the budget, but Cowan expects that WFIRST could get off the ground by the mid-2020s or 2030s. If so, that would bring researchers one step closer to understanding whether super-Earths truly work like our own world.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Continents_May_Be_A_Key_Feature_of_Super_Earths_999.html.

NASA Astronauts Will Breathe Easier With New Oxygen Recovery Systems

Hampton VA (SPX)
Apr 17, 2014

For NASA's long-duration human spaceflight missions, travelers will need to recycle as much breathable oxygen in their spacecraft environments, as possible. To turn that need into a reality, NASA is seeking proposals for lightweight, safe, efficient and reliable systems for regenerating oxygen on future human exploration missions.

The first of two phases of this new NASA solicitation will consist of a detailed design, development, fabrication, and testing of an advanced oxygen recovery technology. Under a two year Phase II contract, the proposer then will develop a prototype hardware system, capable of an oxygen recovery rate of at least 75 percent.

"Lengthy spaceflight missions in Earth's orbit and beyond must have life support systems that are more self-sufficient and reliable," said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for Space Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"The spacecraft life support system technologies for this proposal must significantly improve the rate of oxygen recovery while achieving high degrees reliability. NASA and its partners will need to develop new technologies to 'close' the atmosphere revitalization loop."

In addition to improving the oxygen recovery rate, the new systems must reduce mass required or take up less space and reduce power consumption. NASA's goal is to award technology development efforts that will increase the oxygen recovery rate to at least 75 percent without adversely impacting other design requirements.

The agency's Game Changing Development Program will accept proposals from NASA centers, other government agencies, federally funded research and development centers, educational institutions, industry and nonprofit organizations. NASA expects to make approximately six Phase I awards, ranging in value up to $750,000.

The Advanced Oxygen Recovery for Spacecraft Life Support Systems Appendix is part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate Game Changing Development Program NASA Research Announcement, "Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2014" for high priority technology areas of interest to NASA.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_Astronauts_Will_Breathe_Easier_With_New_Oxygen_Recovery_Systems_999.html.

NASA Signs Agreement with SpaceX for Use of Historic Launch Pad

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX)
Apr 17, 2014

NASA Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39A, the site from which numerous Apollo and space shuttle missions began, is beginning a new mission as a commercial launch site.

NASA signed a property agreement with Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., on Monday for use and occupancy of the seaside complex along Florida's central east coast. It will serve as a platform for SpaceX to support their commercial launch activities.

"It's exciting that this storied NASA launch pad is opening a new chapter for space exploration and the commercial aerospace industry," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

"While SpaceX will use pad 39A at Kennedy, about a mile away on pad 39B, we're preparing for our deep space missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars. The parallel pads at Kennedy perfectly exemplify NASA's parallel path for human spaceflight exploration -- U.S. commercial companies providing access to low-Earth orbit and NASA deep space exploration missions at the same time."

Under a 20-year agreement, SpaceX will operate and maintain the facility at its own expense.

"SpaceX is the world's fastest growing launch services provider," said Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX. "With nearly 50 missions on manifest, SpaceX will maximize the use of pad 39A to the benefit of both the commercial launch industry as well as the American taxpayer."

The reuse of pad 39A is part of NASA's work to transform the Kennedy Space Center into a 21st century launch complex capable of supporting both government and commercial users.

At the same time, NASA and Lockheed Martin are assembling the agency's first Orion spacecraft in the Operations and Checkout building while preparing Kennedy's infrastructure for the Space Launch System rocket, which will lift off from the center's Launch Complex 39B and send American astronauts into deep space, including to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

"Kennedy Space Center is excited to welcome SpaceX to our growing list of partners," Center Director Bob Cabana said. "As we continue to reconfigure and repurpose these tremendous facilities, it is gratifying to see our plan for a multi-user spaceport shared by government and commercial partners coming to fruition."

Launch Complex 39A originally was designed to support NASA's Apollo Program and later modified to support the Space Shuttle Program. Because of the transition from the shuttle program to NASA's Space Launch System and Orion programs, the agency does not have a need for the complex to support future missions.

Pad 39A was first used to launch Apollo 4 on Nov. 9, 1967; it is the site where Apollo 11 lifted off from on the first manned moon landing in 1969; and the pad was last used for space shuttle Atlantis' launch to the International Space Station on July 11, 2011 for the STS-135 mission, the final shuttle flight. This agreement with SpaceX ensures the pad will be used for the purpose it was built -- launching spacecraft.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_Signs_Agreement_with_SpaceX_for_Use_of_Historic_Launch_Pad_999.html.

Astronomers: 'Tilt-a-worlds' could harbor life

by Peter Kelley for UW news
Seattle WA (SPX)
Apr 17, 2014

A fluctuating tilt in a planet's orbit does not preclude the possibility of life, according to new research by astronomers at the University of Washington, Utah's Weber State University and NASA. In fact, sometimes it helps.

That's because such "tilt-a-worlds," as astronomers sometimes call them - turned from their orbital plane by the influence of companion planets - are less likely than fixed-spin planets to freeze over, as heat from their host star is more evenly distributed.

This happens only at the outer edge of a star's habitable zone, the swath of space around it where rocky worlds could maintain liquid water at their surface, a necessary condition for life. Further out, a "snowball state" of global ice becomes inevitable, and life impossible.

The findings, which are published online and will appear in the April issue of Astrobiology, have the effect of expanding that perceived habitable zone by 10 to 20 percent.

And that in turn dramatically increases the number of worlds considered potentially right for life.

Such a tilt-a-world becomes potentially habitable because its spin would cause poles to occasionally point toward the host star, causing ice caps to quickly melt.

"Without this sort of 'home base' for ice, global glaciation is more difficult," said UW astronomer Rory Barnes. "So the rapid tilting of an exoplanet actually increases the likelihood that there might be liquid water on a planet's surface."

Barnes is second author on the paper. First author is John Armstrong of Weber State, who earned his doctorate at the UW.

Earth and its neighbor planets occupy roughly the same plane in space. But there is evidence, Barnes said, of systems whose planets ride along at angles to each other. As such, "they can tug on each other from above or below, changing their poles' direction compared to the host star."

The team used computer simulations to reproduce such off-kilter planetary alignments, wondering, he said, "what an Earthlike planet might do if it had similar neighbors."

Their findings also argue against the long-held view among astronomers and astrobiologists that a planet needs the stabilizing influence of a large moon - as Earth has - to have a chance at hosting life.

"We're finding that planets don't have to have a stable tilt to be habitable," Barnes said. Minus the moon, he said, Earth's tilt, now at a fairly stable 23.5 degrees, might increase by 10 degrees or so. Climates might fluctuate, but life would still be possible.

"This study suggests the presence of a large moon might inhibit life, at least at the edge of the habitable zone."

The work was done through the UW's Virtual Planetary Laboratory, an interdisciplinary research group that studies how to determine if exoplanets - those outside the solar system - might have the potential for life.

"The research involved orbital dynamics, planetary dynamics and climate studies. It's bigger than any of those disciplines on their own," Barnes said.

Armstrong said that expanding the habitable zone might almost double the number of potentially habitable planets in the galaxy.

Applying the research and its expanded habitable zone to our own celestial neighborhood for context, he said, "It would give the ability to put Earth, say, past the orbit of Mars and still be habitable at least some of the time - and that's a lot of real estate."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astronomers_Tilt_a_worlds_could_harbor_life_999.html.