Spain's new King Felipe aims to inspire his people

June 19, 2014

MADRID (AP) — Taking the Spanish throne on Thursday, King Felipe VI sought to inspire his beleaguered countrymen amid troubled economic times and lift patriotic spirits a day after the national team's humbling exit from the World Cup.

"We are a great nation. Let us believe and trust in ourselves," Felipe said at his swearing-in ceremony. Felipe, 46, became monarch after his father Juan Carlos announced his surprise decision to abdicate. The 76-year-old said he was stepping aside after a four-decade reign so younger royal blood could energize the country.

Felipe, and Spain, face plenty of problems. The country is struggling to shrug off a double-dip recession and drive down its 26 percent jobless rate. Scandals have tarnished the royal family and fueled campaigns to abolish the monarchy, while influential groups in some Spanish regions continue to push hard for independence.

Appearing self-assured in a dark military dress uniform, Felipe sought to draw a line under Spain's recent past, promising "a reinvigorated monarchy for new times." Felipe made clear that he intends to restore public trust in the monarchy.

"Today, more than ever, the people rightly demand our public lives be guided by ... moral and ethical principles," he told lawmakers, who shouted "Viva el Rey (Long live the king)!" Saying he felt the suffering of those whose living standards were hurt by the economic crisis, Felipe urged Spaniards to shun resignation and unleash their ambitions. He said finding jobs for the unemployed was "a priority for society and the government."

In an oblique reference to separatist groups, Felipe insisted, "We all have our place in this diverse Spain." He ended his speech by saying "thank you" in three regional Spanish languages — Catalan, Basque and Galician — where independence movements are strongest.

Thousands of people lined the streets of Madrid streets as Felipe and Queen Letizia drove from parliament to the royal palace in an open-topped Rolls-Royce, waving to the crowds. The royal couple's daughters, Princesses Leonor, 8, and Sofia, 7, accompanied them for most of the day.

Authorities prohibited a demonstration by groups seeking to abolish the monarchy. The cheering crowds and pageantry provided a welcome distraction as Spaniards reeled from the embarrassment of the national team's shock defeat by Chile in the World Cup, which ended Spanish hopes of winning a second consecutive title.

Felipe's inaugural speech came at a ceremony in the country's parliament, where the 18th-century Spanish crown and 17th-century scepter were on display. Later, a reception for 2,000 guests at the royal place featured finger foods instead of an elaborate banquet, a deliberately modest touch that acknowledged the financial hardships being endured by many Spaniards.

Juan Carlos, who for most of his reign was held in high esteem for helping steer Spain from a military dictatorship to democracy, drew fierce criticism when he went on a luxurious elephant-hunting safari in Africa two years ago while many Spaniards were losing their jobs.

In another scandal, Juan Carlos' youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, testified this year in the fraud and money-laundering case engulfing her husband, Inaki Urdangarin.

Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.

Artur Mas: Catalonia's unlikely revolutionary

June 16, 2014

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Artur Mas doesn't seem like a political revolutionary. He wears sober, expensive suits and has shunned fiery speeches during his three-decade career as a risk-averse, pro-business civil servant.

Yet Mas is the architect of a daring attempt to carve out a new European country by achieving independence for Catalonia, a wealthy region of northeastern Spain, including the city of Barcelona, that is fiercely proud of its language and distinct cultural traditions.

If Catalonia's regional president wins backing in a planned Nov. 9 local referendum on whether to secede, his success will not only fuel the independence cause in the nearby Basque country, it will also encourage other separatist-minded regions across the continent, such as Belgium's Dutch speakers. In Britain, Scotland will vote on its own proposal for independence in September.

Mas says his path was set in June 2010, just months before he took power, when the Spanish constitutional court struck down key parts of a groundbreaking law that would have granted Catalonia more autonomy and would have recognized it as a nation within Spain. That legal setback after decades of political struggle only made Catalans more determined to distance themselves from the national government in Madrid, Mas said.

"There was a change of mindset," he told The Associated Press in an interview. "Many people in Catalonia said, 'if we continue in the same way as the last 30 years we won't get anything, we will go backward instead of forward.' Four years have passed and the movement has kept growing."

In 2012, more than 1 million Catalans demanding an independence ballot took to Barcelona's streets in the largest nationalist rally since the 1970s. The Spanish government says it won't let Catalonia break away. Parliament in April overwhelmingly rejected Catalonia's petition to hold the referendum, and the government says the independence vote is impossible under the Constitution. If Mas goes ahead with the ballot, as he says he will, the government can go to court to stop it. But Mas' message to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is that the vote will help ease political tensions.

"If the Spanish government and institutions don't let us vote, the relationship between Catalonia and Spain will become even more frayed," Mas said. With unofficial talks with the Madrid government going nowhere, Mas said he hoped Spain's new monarch, Felipe VI, who will be proclaimed king on Thursday, will help mediate the conflict.

"A new head of state, a new king of Spain, is always a new scenario," said Mas. "I hope I will have the opportunity to be in touch and talk to (him) and try to convince him." Polls show that while a strong majority of Catalonia's 7.5 million residents want to hold the ballot as an expression of self-determination, only around half of them are in favor of severing ties.

Mas believes a win for the "yes" vote in Scotland on Sept. 18 could boost Catalonia's independence bid. "If in Scotland the 'yes' vote wins then the main advantage for Catalonia will be that the negotiation between Scotland and the United Kingdom and the European Union will give us a very direct sign" on how a new European state could fit into the EU, Mas said.

The 58-year-old Mas was born into Barcelona's industrial bourgeoisie. Like others of his generation, he was prohibited from studying in the Catalan language — which is spoken in tandem with Spanish in the bilingual region — during General Francisco Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship.

Mas said that when he was young his family, like many in the region, was comfortable with a dual identity of feeling both Catalan and Spanish, but they "changed their mentality and they became more Catalan than Spanish, and with the passage of time only Catalan."

Fluent in French and English, Mas insists one of his goals is to earn wider international recognition for the political situation of a region best known for its Barcelona football team, the flamboyant creations of Salvador Dali and Antoni Gaudi, and as a leading tourism destination.

If the courts block the November vote, Mas may be forced to put his job on the line and call early regional elections. That could endanger his leadership role in the movement, with many pro-independence voters ignoring his party in favor of another, that has a more extreme and longer-standing pledge to break centuries-old ties with the rest of Spain.

"He put all his eggs in the basket of the political process," said Ferran Requejo, professor of political science at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University. "There is no question, if the process fails, Mas fails with it."

China executes 13 over terrorism, violent crimes

June 16, 2014

BEIJING (AP) — China executed 13 people on Monday over terrorism and violent crimes in the far western region of Xinjiang, including three men accused in an attack that left at least 34 people dead, state media said.

The executions took place on the same day that a Xinjiang court sentenced three other people to death for planning a deadly car ramming at Beijing's Tiananmen Gate last year that killed five people. The government has been waging a harsh crackdown after a series of deadly attacks blamed on Muslim separatists in the Xinjiang region.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the 13 executed people were convicted of crimes such as organizing, leading and participating in terrorism groups, arson, murder, burglary, and illegal manufacturing, storage and transporting of explosives.

The government says it faces grave terrorist threats from people seeking independence for Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, and has vowed severe punishments. Among those executed, three men organized an assault that killed 24 people last June in the town of Lukqun, Xinhua said. It said the attack targeted the local police station, a SWAT team, a government office building and the living quarters for officials and their families, a housing construction site, a business administration office, as well as a hair salon and a hotel. Xinhua earlier reported that police had killed at least 10 of the attackers and that the three men were sentenced to death last September in a one-day trial.

Xinhua said a fourth person who was executed had detonated an explosive device at an illegal preaching site in June 2012, killing a child. It did not provide any details of the remaining nine people. Simmering ethnic tensions in Xinjiang have escalated in the past year, as assailants have begun to strike outside the region and at civilians, a departure from their previous targets of government offices, police stations or other symbols of rule by the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

Beijing says unrest among Uighurs is caused by extremist groups with ties to Islamic terror groups abroad, but has provided little direct evidence. Uighur activists say public resentment against Beijing is fueled by an influx of Han settlers in the region, economic disenfranchisement and onerous restrictions on Uighur religious and cultural practices.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the German-based group World Uyghur Congress, said Beijing has unjustly labeled disgruntled Uighurs as terrorists. "China's policy has caused extreme acts, and it is the only fight Uighur people in desperation are willing to wage with their lives," Dilxat Raxit said.

A court in the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi sentenced three other people to death Monday for planning the deadly car ramming, the first attack to strike Beijing in recent years. The three were accused of providing funds to carry out the Oct. 28 attack, in which a car plowed through tourists and ended up in a fiery crash in the heart of Beijing. It killed a Chinese visitor and a tourist from the Philippines, along with the vehicle's driver, his wife and mother-in-law, according to Chinese authorities.

Five other people were given prison sentences, with four receiving terms of five to 20 years and one getting a life sentence, Xinhua said. They had traveled to Beijing on Oct. 7, 2013, to deliver money to buy a jeep, gasoline, knives and other materials related to the attack, Xinhua said.

The eight were arrested within days of the incident. Dilxat Raxit said the speedy trials were politically motivated and deprived the defendants of their legal rights. The Tiananmen Gate attack was followed by similar incidents, including one on May 22 in which men driving off-road vehicles and throwing explosives plowed through a crowded market in Urumqi, killing 39 people. Police said four suspects were killed at the scene and a fifth was caught that evening in an area about 250 kilometers (150 miles) south of Urumqi.

Death sentences in China are automatically forwarded to the Supreme People's Court for appeal but are rarely overturned. While official figures are not released, China is believed to execute more prisoners than the rest of the world combined.

Polish leader: crisis may force early elections

June 19, 2014

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Trying to tough it out in an accelerating government crisis, Poland's prime minister said Thursday that early elections within weeks may be necessary to calm the situation sparked by eavesdropping on political leaders.

Donald Tusk called for the popular magazine Wprost — and other media — to release all of the secret recordings of leaders' private conversations that they may have. He said Poland was facing a "deep crisis" and that until it is all published the state will be unstable and his team vulnerable to blackmail.

The hastily arranged news conference on a national holiday sparked a whirl of speculation of an imminent dismissal of one or more officials, or possibly even Tusk's resignation. But responding to a journalist's question, Tusk said he saw no reason to step down.

"I will not resign in response to actions that, we all know, had criminal character, and, maybe were .... aimed at the government's resignation or fall," Tusk said. He said that early elections "in a matter of a few or more weeks" may be necessary if this "crisis of confidence becomes too deep." He is to decide next week on the fate of Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who is heard on the tape.

Supporting the idea of early elections, President Bronislaw Komorowski said a democratic decision is called for when state institutions cannot react to difficult situations. But that is an unpalatable option for Tusk, whose Civil Platform party is trailing the opposition Law and Justice party in opinion polls after seven years in power.

Tusk's news conference followed an attempt Wednesday evening by police and state prosecutors to seize evidence from the headquarters of the magazine. The chief editor, Sylwester Latkowski, put up strong resistance and demanded a court order. The authorities left without taking away any computers.

Wprost recently released transcripts and online audio of recordings of a restaurant conversation last July between National Bank of Poland chief Marek Belka and Sienkiewicz, in which they discussed how the central bank might use its power to help the government win re-election in 2015. Critics have decried the apparent collusion as a violation of the bank's independence from political interference.

Tusk, Sienkiewicz and Belka all say the discussion was about hypothetical scenarios and had no influence on policy. At one point in the conversation, Belka is heard demanding that Jacek Rostowski be removed as Poland's finance minister. Rostowski was fired four months later.

The magazine said it is working to have more recordings published on Monday. It says it obtained the recordings from a third party, whose identity it is allowed to protect under Poland's media law. On its pages, the magazine posed the key question: Who taped the conversations? It suggested that past or current secret agents, businessmen or Tusk's political opponents were possibilities.

Prosecutors said that the manager of the restaurant, identified only as Lukasz N., was detained in the case and is formally a suspect on two counts of unauthorized access to information. In Poland, bugging or wiretapping to get unauthorized access to information is punishable by up to two years in prison.

Stubb wins party leader vote, will be Finnish PM

June 14, 2014

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Finland's ruling conservative party has elected Foreign Trade Minister Alexander Stubb as party leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen.

At a party congress Saturday, Stubb defeated rival social affairs minister Paula Risikko with 500 votes against her 349. Stubb represents the liberal wing of National Coalition Party, the main government party in the five-party coalition.

The 46-year-old Finn will not be officially confirmed as prime minister until next week when the coalition meets to decide a government reshuffle. Katainen, who has led the party since 2004, announced his resignation In April, explaining only that he was seeking a top post in Europe.

New Harry Potter park: 5 first impressions

June 19, 2014

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Universal Orlando Resort opened its new, richly detailed Harry Potter-themed area to media and other travel industry insiders on Wednesday night.

The new park zone, called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-Diagon Alley, will delight fans of the hit book and movie series with a marquee ride, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. But Diagon Alley is also heavy on experiential retail, with stores so entertaining and visually stimulating that you almost forget you're shopping.

The attraction doubles the size of the Harry Potter footprint on Universal's property. Diagon Alley opens to the public July 8 at Universal Studios. A train called the Hogwarts Express connects the new area to the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction, called Hogsmeade, which opened in 2010 on the other side of the theme park at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

If fans want to see both Harry Potter areas, a two-park ticket is required. For adults, a two-park ticket for one day costs $136; for children, it's $130. Helena Bonham Carter, Matthew Lewis and Domhnall Gleeson were among the actors from Potter films walking a red carpet at Universal Wednesday night.

Here are five first impressions of Universal's new Diagon Alley, which was inspired by the fictional London location famous for wizarding supplies in the Harry Potter series: WINDOW SHOPPING The level of detail in Diagon Alley is amazing, and nowhere are the features more fun and true to the novels and movies than in shop windows. There are lots of things for sale, but others are simply great decorations. Books play a central role in the decor; window-shoppers will see animatronic versions of "The Monster Book of Monsters," a tome with teeth, along with self-knitting needles and Harry Potter's snowy owl, Hedwig.

UNIQUE GIFTS With seven shops in Diagon Alley, there's plenty to buy. (There are five shops in Hogsmeade, Universal's original Harry Potter attraction.) Among the offerings: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (chattering teeth, expandable ears), Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions ($250 for a wizard's robe), Quality Quidditch Supplies (everything for playing the real-life sport based on the game in the series) and Scribbulus (implements for paper, pen and ink lovers). Magical Menagerie sells cute stuffed animals (pygmy puffs are popular), while Borgin and Burkes — located off Diagon Alley in the book, on Knockturn Alley — is a "dark arts" shop that sells skulls, black T-shirts and Death Eater masks. Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment sells telescopes and binoculars.

INTERACTIVE WANDS For $35, guests can buy interactive wands at Ollivanders Wand Shop, located in both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. When wand-wielding guests see a medallion symbol in either area, they can wave the wand and cast spells. The wands make trolls dance, light lamps and chandeliers, and silence some shrunken heads, among other things. Maps of the medallion areas are available, but Universal says there are also some hidden spell areas for guests to discover.

WIZARD WARDROBES In addition to robes, fans can buy capes and preppy button-down cardigans inspired by the four houses where Harry and his fellow students live at Hogwarts school. Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions also has on display a wedding dress and two costumes that aren't for sale: an intimidating black-beaded cape ensemble worn in a promo for the new attraction, and a costume worn by Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in the "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" movie. The wedding dress is white with white feathers at the hem and softly twinkling lights within the skirt.

PHOTO OPS As you enter Diagon Alley, look toward Gringotts Bank — which is the entrance to the centerpiece thrill ride, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. A dragon is perched atop the bank, and it breathes fire —an instant Facebook photo or Instagram shot. Once you enter the bank, while in queue for the ride, don't miss the three enormous glass chandeliers. Finally, find 12 Grimmauld Place where Kreacher the House Elf peers eerily from a window.

Santos re-elected Colombia president in peace vote

June 16, 2014

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Juan Manuel Santos convincingly won re-election Sunday after Colombia's tightest presidential contest in years, an endorsement of his 18-month-old peace talks to end the Western Hemisphere's longest-running conflict.

Santos got 53 percent of the votes for candidates, against 47 percent for right-wing challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, the hand-picked candidate of former two-term President Alvaro Uribe, who many considered the true challenger. More than 600,000 voters cast "blank" ballots, a protest vote for neither candidate.

Zuluaga and Uribe accused Santos of selling Colombia out in slow-slogging Cuba-based negotiations, and said Zuluaga would halt the talks unless the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, ceased all hostilities and some of its leaders accepted jail time.

Santos said the win affirmed his claim to be ably steering Colombia through a historic moment — out of a crippling conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, mostly civilians. "This is the end of more than 50 years of violence in our country and it is the beginning of a Colombia with more justice and social inclusion," Santos told cheering supporters. "In four years no one will regret having voted for us."

He flashed his palm emblazoned with the word "Paz," or peace — his campaign slogan. Many palms in the crowd were similarly inscribed. A FARC spokeswoman in Havana said the rebels had no comment on the election's results.

The campaign was Andean nation's dirtiest in years, and Uribe alleged widespread vote-buying by the Santos camp. After Santos' victory speech, he stunned the nation by appearing on TV to accuse the winner of "the biggest corruption in history."

Uribe also alleged that leftist rebels used armed intimidation against pro-Zuluaga voters. He presented no evidence, and independent election observers did not report serious irregularities. Zuluaga made no such claims in a gracious concession speech two hours earlier. The Associated Press could not immediately reach him or his campaign to ask if they endorsed Uribe's accusations.

Santos' win was a comeback of sorts — Zuluaga beat him in the first round of five candidates May 25. His 900,000-vote victory hinged in large part on winning Bogota and major gains on the Caribbean coast, where his party machinery was strong. The region does indeed have a tradition of vote-buying.

In the first round, Santos finished third in the capital, stronghold of defeated leftist candidate Clara Lopez, who endorsed him in the runoff. Voter turnout rose somewhat, too, from 40 percent in the first round to 48 percent Sunday, and was seen as favoring Santos.

The University of Kansas-educated incumbent got the backing last week of 80 top business leaders and announced exploratory talks with the National Liberation Army, Colombia's other, far smaller rebel band.

Uribe had accused Santos, grandnephew of a president from a blue-blood Bogota newspaper clan, of offering impunity to the rebels. Bogota industrial designer Felipe Quintero said he voted for Zuluaga, a previously little-known finance minister, because Santos was conceding too much to rebels.

"They need to be punished, not to be rewarded" with seats in Congress, Quintero said. Santos, 62, denies he will let war criminals go unpunished. And he is no dove. As Uribe's defense minister and then president, he wielded Colombia's U.S.-backed military to badly weaken the FARC, including killing its top three leaders.

Analyst Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America called the election less a vote on the peace process than "a referendum on Alvaro Uribe and his role in Colombian society." "The eight years he was president were a time of some of the worst corruption and biggest scandals," said Bogota business consultant Maria Eugenia Silva, who voted for Santos.

A victory for Zuluaga would have lessened chances that Uribe might face prosecution for alleged crimes. Blemishes of his 2002-10 government included extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians to boost military body counts, illegal spying on judges and journalists and the funneling of agricultural subsidies to well-heeled ranchers.

Uribe, who is constitutionally barred from another presidential run, won a Senate seat in March. But Santos will continue to dominate Congress. "Even skeptics of the peace process voted with Santos," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. "They didn't want to go back to Uribe-style politics."

Zuluaga was backed by cattle ranchers and by palm oil plantation owners, beneficiaries of a deal Uribe made with far-right paramilitaries that dismantled their militias. Big landholders had by then consolidated control over territory that the militias largely rid of rebels while driving at least 3 million poor Colombians off their lands. As part of the Santos-negotiated peace process, those stolen lands would be returned.

The slow pace of peace talks did not help the incumbent. So far only framework agreements have been reached on agrarian reform, dismantling the illegal drug trade and creating a role for rebels in national politics.

Still, the peace process ranks relatively low on most Colombians' list of priorities. The Gallup poll found less than 5 percent of respondents believe the FARC is Colombia's main problem. For many, spreading the benefits of a growing economy is more important. Economic growth averaged 4.5 percent annually during Santos' four years and 2.5 million jobs were added, but analysts say he has done little to improve education, health care and infrastructure.

Associated Press writers Cesar Garcia and Libardo Cardona contributed to this report.

French Jews leave for Israel in increasing numbers

June 19, 2014

PARIS (AP) — Increasing numbers of French Jews are leaving for Israel, citing dim economic prospects and a sense of being caught between an increasingly influential far right and militant Islam. More than 5,000 are on track to leave this year, the most since after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel, seeing the influx as a success, is doubling down on its efforts to attract Europeans, planning to dedicate $29 million over two years to bring in new immigrants. France has the world's third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States — about 500,000, according to rough estimates in a country that has outlawed any official documentation of a person's religion since the Holocaust.

Since World War II, France has redoubled efforts to make Jewish families feel welcome. But many say dramatic acts of anti-Semitism coupled with France's stagnant economy — which includes a 25 percent youth unemployment rate, compared with 11 percent in Israel — make a hard choice easier.

Laurie Levy, 26, left in 2013. A native of the southern city of Toulouse, her departure came after attacks by a French-born Islamic radical on a Jewish school and soldiers left seven people dead, including three children and a rabbi. She has given up on a career in French law and left behind her parents and siblings.

In Tel Aviv, she no longer feels the need to hide the Star of David she wears around her neck. But there are other concerns: Her parents are unlikely to uproot themselves and she worries about their future back in France. They, in turn, worry about her, living alone in a different country.

"Life is beautiful here. You work. You go to the beach. You see your friends. You're not afraid," said Levy, who now works at an Israeli design firm. "The irony is that I am more concerned about them than they are about me."

That she was able to switch fields and find a job is a demonstration of Israel's economic allure. The country annually welcomes 1,000 French youths for a year abroad and 70 percent of them decide to stay in Israel, according to Ariel Kandel, who runs the Jewish Agency for Israel in Paris.

The agency, which works closely with the Israeli government, aims to strengthen ties between Jews in the diaspora and Israel and spends tens of millions of dollars each year to bring Jews to Israel permanently. The $29 million in new spending targets European Jews and another $8 million will help them resettle.

The Jewish Agency cites an influx of immigrants from France and Ukraine, which has been fighting with separatists and seen some anti-Semitic leaflets distributed amid increasing tensions with Russia. France doesn't pose such a dramatic danger. Its economy is stagnant and joblessness is high, but France has among the world's strongest social safety nets and highest standards of living.

"Never would anyone have thought there would come a time when Israel would be more attractive than France," Kandel said. The number of people obtaining French citizenship is down about 45 percent from a high in 2010 and the general mood among French of all faiths is one of deepening pessimism.

French Jews say they have the added burden of watching the rise of an increasingly militant Islam and a revitalized far right. In May, on the eve of Europe-wide elections that saw the National Front party — whose founder has been repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism — sweep into first place in France, a gunman attacked a Jewish museum in Belgium. The suspect arrested was a Frenchman who authorities say recently returned from fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria.

"They are finding themselves between the extreme right of Europe and the radical Islam of Europe," said Kandel. The number of French Jews migrating to Israel has been around 2,000 annually since the mid-1990s, decreasing from a peak of 5,292 after the 1967 Six-Day War. At the current rate, the Jewish Agency for Israel says French migration appears set to surpass that peak.

The French government is aware of the increase in departures, Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said. "Emigration is an individual choice and it's not our place to comment," he said. Jewish Agency head Nathan Sharansky expects the French number to top out at over 5,000 this year. That would be about 1 percent of France's total Jewish population, and compares with 3,300 in 2013 and 1,900 in 2012.

With the French economy flat and one in four youths unemployed, the immigration to Israel fits with "a trend in France of young people migrating and trying to find opportunity elsewhere," he said. David Kadoch is among those on the cusp of departure. Born in a Paris suburb, the married father of two will be joining his two brothers in Israel in August. A network administrator, he's confident that his skills will translate well in his new home even though he speaks what he laughingly describes as "Biblical Hebrew."

"People laugh when I speak Hebrew. I can make myself understood more or less, but I lack any grammar," he said. Kadoch cited a combination of economic, social and spiritual factors for leaving, including concerns about the future for his two daughters, ages 1 and 3, if Europe returns to its dark past.

"There is a rise in anti-Semitism, there's a difficult social climate, there's a horrid economy," he said of his native land. "From one side and the other, you have people who are hostile to Jews, for completely divergent reasons. And I don't see how, in this context, history can fail to repeat itself."

He acknowledged that Israel's security situation can appear more precarious than that of France, but emphasized that for him, there's a compelling difference. "The security of Israel at least is handled by people who have the same interests as we do," he said. "That is not necessarily the case in other countries of the world."

Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer George Jahn contributed from Vienna.

Israel arrests 51 former Palestinian prisoners

June 18, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army has re-arrested 51 former Palestinian prisoners as part of a furious search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said on Wednesday that the 51 were among more than 65 Palestinians detained overnight in the search for the teens. The 51 were part of a group of 1,027 Palestinians released in 2011 from Israeli prisons in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in 2006.

Israel believes Hamas was behind the abduction of the teens, who disappeared last week on the way home from a religious seminary. Lerner says that since the disappearance, a total of 240 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank.

EU alarmed by anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka

June 18, 2014

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The European Union expressed alarm Wednesday at recent violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka in which three people died and more than 50 were injured, and urged the government to ensure that the rule of law is upheld.

"Incitement of communal violence and hatred can only be counterproductive to Sri Lanka's stability," the EU delegation in Colombo said in a statement. Hard-line Buddhists hurled gasoline bombs and looted homes and businesses in attacks Sunday evening in several towns in southwestern Sri Lanka. The attacks were led by a mob from Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force, which rails against the country's Muslim minority.

The group has been gaining followers and is believed to enjoy state support. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's powerful defense secretary and the president's brother, once made a public appearance supporting the group's cause.

Muslim residents say armed mobs broke into their houses and burned them after stealing jewelry and money. Associated Press journalists who visited the attacked towns saw dozens of shops gutted, and motorbikes and bicycles piled up and set on fire. Residents said mosques were also defaced.

A curfew imposed on the towns after the violence was lifted Wednesday. Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, the leader of Bodu Bala Sena, said the Buddhists were angry over an alleged attack on the driver of a Buddhist monk.

Sri Lanka is still deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and ethnic Tamil rebels, who are largely Hindu, but Buddhist-Muslim violence has been relatively rare.

The U.S. Embassy in Colombo on Monday condemned the violence and urged restraint by all sides.

Spain out; Netherlands cruising; Africa struggles

June 19, 2014

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The king is dead. The World Cup will have a new champion.

And the Netherlands look increasingly like credible pretenders for that newly vacated crown. Just like France in 2002 and Italy in 2010, defending champion Spain is going home tail between its legs. Chile delivered the mortal blow to an uninterrupted 6-year era of dominance for Spain, the European and world champions whose dazzling footballers ran out of puff in Brazil. They were made to look vulnerable last week in losing 5-1 to the Netherlands and then simply plain ordinary in a 2-0 loss to a physical and quick Chilean side.

The Netherlands, 3-2 winners against Australia on Wednesday, and Chile are now both sure to advance to the next knockout round having won their two first matches. They will now play each other Monday to determine which of them tops Group B and avoids a possible encounter with host Brazil in the first knockout game on June 28.

In Wednesday's evening game, Croatia ensured Cameroon won't go further, delivering a 4-0 thumping to the African side whose injured star, Samuel Eto'o, didn't come off the bench. This is shaping up as another tough World Cup for Africa. Only Ivory Coast has won so far — its opener, 2-1, against Japan. It plays Colombia in Group C on Thursday, with the other matches Uruguay vs. England in Group D and Japan vs. Greece in Group C.

With strikers Mario Mandzukic and Ivica Olic both scoring and midfielder Ivan Perisic getting a goal, too, Croatia presents a tough challenge for Mexico in their last Group A match next Monday. Mexico needs at least a draw to guarantee a place in the last 16. In the other Group A match, Brazil should have little difficulty against the feeble Cameroon side that was reduced to 10 men after 40 minutes against Croatia when Alex Song was shown red.

At the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, fevered Chile fans yelling "It's over! It's over!" taunted Spanish supporters, some of them in tears, bitterly contemplating the end of an era for one of football's greatest ever teams. Its success — back-to-back European titles and the World Cup in 2010 — has provided succor in brutal economic times for Spaniards.

"The only happiness we've had in recent years has been football," said Beatriz Corral, who came to Rio from Madrid to cheer for Spain. "Now the crisis is complete. We don't have bread or the circus." Demolishing Spain last week showed the Dutch can be spectacular. Toughing out a come-from-behind 3-2 victory against Australia showed them to also be resilient and cool under pressure — vital qualities for the knockout rounds.

Arjen Robben opened the scoring for the Netherlands before Tim Cahill brought the sides level a minute later with a stunning volley, one of the best strikes so far in the tournament that has seen 60 goals in 20 games.

Mile Jedinak then converted a 54th minute penalty and Robin van Persie equalized for the Netherlands with his third goal of the tournament. A goalkeeping blunder by Maty Ryan then handed substitute Memphis Depay his first international goal, the winner for the Netherlands.

With no points from its first two games, Spain will play only for pride when it meets Australia — also winless in its first two games — in their last match Group B match. Then it will be "adios" and a return home to the inevitable post-mortem of how a team that played like clockwork in defending its European title two years ago could fall so far, so quickly.

In Brazil, the advancing age of key players, grievous mistakes from captain Iker Casillas and others, and coach Vicente del Bosque's failure to read the writing on the wall fatally threw the Spanish machine out of gear.

Spain's demise was also a reminder of how difficult it is to retain the World Cup and for coaches to keep teams fresh and motivated in the four-year gap between tournaments. Only Italy — winners in 1934 and 1938 — and Brazil —champions in 1958 and 1962 — have won back-to-back World Cups.

Del Bosque came to Brazil with a goalkeeper, Casillas, who is no longer undisputed No. 1 at his club, Real Madrid, with a midfield playmaker, Xavi Hernandez, who at 34 is passed his peak, and with a new striker, Diego Costa, who has been a major disappointment, not finding the net once.

"We have no excuses," said del Bosque. "We were too slow, timid from the start today. It's a sad day for all of the players. Time to think about the future."

Spain playing for World Cup survival vs Chile

June 18, 2014

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The magnitude of Spain's opening 5-1 loss to Netherlands comes into sharper focus Wednesday when the defending champions must fend off World Cup elimination against Chile, less than a week into the tournament.

Spain and 2010 runner-up Netherlands were expected to advance from Group B, but plenty of pundits — including Brazilian great Pele — tipped Chile as a genuine contender to progress at the expense of one of the European powers.

The Chileans opened with a 3-1 win over Australia, and a second straight victory by the South Americans almost would certainly knock Spain out of the competition. The Dutch play Australia, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, in the first of Wednesday's three matches. That is followed by Spain vs. Chile and the Group A match between Croatia and Cameroon.

THE CHANGE IN SPAIN

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque stuck with the core group of players who have helped deliver two European championships and a World Cup in a tremendous streak starting in 2008. But after the humiliating loss to the Netherlands, he has forecast changes. Spain needs at least a draw against Chile to remain in contention.

There's speculation that Cesc Fabregas could replace Diego Costa and Pedro Rodriguez could come in for David Silva. Captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas' spot is also under close scrutiny.

"In life, there are solutions for everything," Del Bosque said. "It's still in our hands."

Chile hasn't beaten Spain in 10 games.

"A draw is not bad, but this group of players does not come with the idea to draw a game," midfielder Marcelo Diaz said. "We came out with the idea of winning."

Big games by Arturo Vidal and Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez are crucial to Chile's chances. Vidal, the creative midfielder from Juventus, is recovering after knee surgery and played for an hour against Australia.

DUTCH TREAT

Even after its stunning win over Spain, Netherlands doesn't want to leave anything to chance when it comes to qualifying for the next stage. That means Australia could be in serious trouble.

Wesley Sneijder put it bluntly: "We have three points, and we want six more."

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal's strategic masterstroke of playing a 5-3-2 formation worked perfectly against Spain as his team blunted their attack and then made the most of the counterattacking opportunities. Forwards Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben capitalized by tearing the Spanish defense to shreds.

Even so, van Gaal may revert to a more traditional Dutch 4-3-3 system against Australia, which has had two injury setbacks since its opening loss: defender Ivan Franjic and veteran midfielder Mark Milligan are ruled out with hamstring injuries.

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou doesn't want his team to sit back and try to defend the whole match, and he has given them orders to attack at every opportunity. Getting the ball to Tim Cahill, the Socceroos' all-time leading scorer, is the key for Australia.

ETO'O AND OUT

Both Cameroon and Croatia are looking to bounce back from defeats, with Cameroon losing 1-0 to Mexico, and Croatia enduring a 3-1 loss to Brazil in the tournament's opening match. It appears Croatia has come out of defeat in better shape than its African rival.

Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o had a brace on his right knee as the Cameroon squad left its training base to travel to Manaus and already has posted on social media that he's unlikely to play against Croatia.

Losing the captain is a big setback for Cameroon, which has won just one of its 13 World Cup games since reaching the quarterfinals in 1990.

Barcelona's Alex Song will have to take on extra responsibility in midfield, while Mainz forward Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting is likely to cover for Eto'o and 22-year-old Lorient striker Vincent Aboubakar may get his chance at the World Cup.

Croatia playmaker and Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric is expected to recover from a foot injury and take his place against Cameroon.

The Croatians were furious about a penalty awarded to Brazil in their opening match, which allowed the home team to take the momentum, and are desperate to put that behind them with an important win.

Brazil, Belgium tough day; Russia-Korea draw

June 18, 2014

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The headline from the World Cup, Day 6: Big favorite Brazil is vulnerable.

Those who thought the World Cup host or world champion Spain — thumped 5-1 last week by the Netherlands — would walk away with this should think again. Proving the old adage that there are no easy games in football's showcase, Brazil failed to beat Mexico for the first time at the World Cup, held Tuesday to a 0-0 draw in their second game in Group A.

Belgium — a long-shot pick for the title — also struggled to break down Algeria, but got help off its bench to win 2-1 in Belo Horizonte. In steamy Cuiaba, an evenly matched and entertaining back-and-forth contest ended Russia 1, South Korea 1. Substitutes scored all but one of the five goals on Tuesday, proving the importance of having a Plan B.

All 32 teams have now played at least once. The Netherlands and Germany, which scored four Monday against Portugal, are the standouts so far. With Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant in the crowd of 60,342, Tuesday's big surprise was Brazil's failure to find the net in the northeastern city of Fortaleza.

With Neymar rampant through the middle, Marcelo ever-willing to go forward and Oscar supplying passes and inventiveness, Brazil should be able to score almost at will. Time and again, Brazil's yellow shirts swarmed over Mexico's penalty box.

But shots and passes went awry, Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa made outstanding saves and Brazil is clearly missing a top-notch center-forward. Other attackers — Thomas Mueller for Germany, the Netherlands' duo of Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben, France's Karim Benzema — all bought their scoring boots to Brazil, finding the net at least twice. Neymar also got two for Brazil in its opening 3-1 defeat of Croatia. But his teammate Fred is yet to get off the mark.

Mistiming his run, the striker had a first-half effort disallowed for offside, didn't weigh heavily on the game and was substituted in the second half. This was the second scoreless draw at this tournament, where goals have rained in.

If goal scorers struggled Tuesday, it was also because goalkeepers had a good day. Before Tuesday, the first 14 matches saw an average of more than 3 goals per game — bettering the rate of all World Cups since Brazil's first victory in 1958.

But that dipped to 2.9 goals per game following Tuesday's three matches. Ochoa's seven saves in the tournament — six of them against Brazil — are the most by any goalie so far. He got an outstretched hand to Neymar's superb first-half header. After another spectacular two-handed reflex save in the second half, batting away Thiago Silva's header, Ochoa high-fived a team-mate.

Despite letting in two, Rais Mbolhi was impressive for Algeria, making six saves that put him just behind Ochoa. For Russia, Igor Akinfeev frustrated South Korea's long-range attempts until the power of a 25-yard shot from substitute Lee Keunho seemed to surprise him and bounced out of his hands into the net.

Aleksandr Kerzhakov equaled up the score for Russia just three minutes after coach Fabio Capello put him in. Belgium looked anything but frightening in a first half where Algeria was more watchable than its brief appearance in 2010. Algeria moved and kept the ball well, looked to hit Belgium on the counterattack and took the lead from a penalty.

Credit Belgium coach Marc Wilmots for turning things around. His second-half substitutions pushed aside the bus — two banks of four players — that Algeria had parked in front of goal. Dries Mertens and Divock Origi came off the bench to inject much-needed speed and ideas. Wilmots' other substitution, Marouane Fellaini, played better Tuesday than for Manchester United this season, planting himself in Algeria's box.

He headed in Kevin De Bruyne's fizzing cross and equalized in the 70th minute. Mertens curled in the winner 10 minutes later. Sofiane Feghouli's score off a penalty snapped Algeria's scoreless streak at World Cups stretching back through a record-tying five matches and 505 minutes, just 12 minutes short of the longest World Cup goal drought — 517 minutes for Bolivia.

"We made one error and we paid for it," said Wilmots. "The bench made the difference. We showed mental strength and we came back."

D-Day for the International Space Station

by Morris Jones
Sydney, Australia (SPX)
Jun 18, 2014

So, Russia hasn't stopped operations on the International Space Station. Soyuz spacecraft will continue to carry cosmonauts and astronauts there, despite growing international tensions on Earth. We can all breathe easy for a moment. Okay, that's done. Now it's time to consider what happens next.

It would seem that things will probably remain on a similar course until 2020. After that, who knows? We have recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the legendary D-Day that marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

Now it's time to start planning for another important (if less critical) event: Decision Day for ISS. Russia has stated that it will probably suspend its participation in the International Space Station in 2020, posing serious questions over its entire future. Even without a Russian pull-out, ISS would still be a program with an uncertain course.

Right now, it isn't clear how, or if, the International Space Station will progress after the 2020 mark. It is a decision that cannot be taken by America alone. Several other nations are involved. Removing Russia from the Station will have profound implications for all.

Russia has been the sole provider of crew transport and a major supplier of logistics. Sure, we will probably see at least one US crew transfer vehicle introduced before 2020, and US commercial cargo vehicles will continue to operate. But Europe is rounding off its ATV cargo vehicle program. Japan's promised convoy of HTV cargo ships is also finite. Financial austerity is gripping the space programs of all nations. How can this complex and unstable web of activity be untangled?

The silence from some partners involved in the ISS is curious. It suggests that there is no clear plan of action, and concerns over the future of the program. ISS has been a costly and troublesome project. The pull-out of Russia and the growing age of the Station could serve as effective cues for some nations to cut and run.

This could result in a diminishing stock of participants. As nations leave the project, the political value of ISS will also diminish. The more nations withdraw, the easier it is for the remaining partners to pull out. And eventually, there's nobody left.

ISS could be operated in a scaled-down mode for some time after 2020, possibly by NASA and some of its remaining partners. This could involve smaller crews, with fewer logistics support vehicles. The level of productive work performed on the station will decrease markedly, as the reduced crews will need to spend a higher proportion of their time just maintaining the station itself.

Mechanical failures could increase as the station gets older, and some failures could be difficult to fix. Spare parts launched to the station in the twilight days of the Shuttle program could run out sooner than expected. At some point, it may become impractical to operate the station for engineering reasons.

Prior to the Russian annexation of Crimea, there was talk of extending ISS operations to 2024. This may still be possible, but an extended ISS program won't be as large or as useful as we had originally expected.

Then there's the question of the Russian modules attached to ISS. Some pundits speculate that Russia may detach these modules and use them as the core of an independent Russian station. This is technically possible, but ownership and control of a Russian module built with US money could prove thorny. A full discussion of this point is beyond the scope of this article.

Compensating for the loss of Russian hardware could require the launch of new modules to compensate for their functionality, assuming that there is enough interest in keeping the Station operational.

We still probably have several years of operations to go on ISS in its current format, but this does not change the seriousness of the problem. It takes time to develop plans in spaceflight. It takes even longer to implement them. D-Day for the International Space Station is closer than some people think. Governments and space agencies around the world need to act quickly.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/D_Day_for_the_International_Space_Station_999.html.

Julian Assange marks 2nd year in Ecuador's embassy

June 19, 2014

LONDON (AP) — The gathering at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London has the feel of something which may become an annual fixture.

For the second time in as many years, journalists were invited Thursday to the embassy to mark the anniversary of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange's stay there — a bid to escape extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted over allegations of sexual misconduct, and to the United States, where an investigation into WikiLeaks' dissemination of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents remains live.

Supporters — including one with a figure of Assange on a crucifix — chanted slogans outside the embassy. Inside, Assange said he has no intention of going to Sweden because he has no guarantee he wouldn't subsequently be sent to the U.S.

Dressed in a suit and sneakers and appearing relaxed, he traded pleasantries with Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino as reporters crowded around to listen in on the banter. "I can see that your beard is longer now," Patino joked via videolink from Ecuador, referring to Assange's wispy white stubble. Assange in turn paid tribute to Ecuador's "robust resistance" to pressure from outside powers — which he said is why "I have a liberty to work today."

Assange had been under a form of supervised release in the U.K., but shortly after losing his battle in Britain's highest court he jumped bail and applied for asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy on June 19, 2012.

British police on guard outside the embassy have orders to arrest him should he ever step out. That doesn't seem likely. Patino told journalists that negotiations with Britain over Assange's fate were at an impasse and that there would be no attempt to force him back to Sweden.

"We will protect Julian Assange for as long as necessary," he said.