Ukraine: Russia-backed rebels overrun another town in east

January 29, 2015

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's military conceded Thursday that its forces had been overrun by Russian-backed separatist forces in another town in their battle to hold onto a strategically valuable railway hub.

A soldier wounded in combat for the town, Vuhlehirsk, said armored vehicles and tanks were used in the attack on government positions, forcing a hasty retreat. Defense Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said fighting is now under way to expel the rebels from Vuhlehirsk.

"We are trying to push the enemy out of the town," he said. The loss of full control over town will further complicate efforts to resist the onslaught on Debaltseve, a nearby railway hub that sits between the two main rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

While clashes in east Ukraine rage, hopes are still being invested in reviving a peace process that has been undermined with every new day of fighting. The leader of the separatists in the Luhansk region, Igor Plotnitsky, told a rebel news agency that the success of negotiations planned for Friday will hinge on lifting what he described as Ukraine's economic blockade of breakaway regions. Ukraine last year ordered the suspension of banking services in rebel territories, and stopped paying benefits to people not registered in government-controlled areas.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington strongly condemns the attacks on Debaltseve and underlined that the town is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) beyond a cease-fire line agreed at September's peace talks in Minsk.

"There can also be no mistake about Russia's role in the escalation of violence, which is causing suffering and death among those Russia has claimed it wants to protect," she said. Multiple flashpoints have flared up across eastern Ukraine since the start of the month, when full-blown fighting between Russian-backed rebels and government forces erupted anew following a month of relative tranquility. Since the conflict started in April, it has claimed more than 5,100 lives and displaced more than 900,000 people across the country, according to U.N. estimates.

Fighting also continued to rage Thursday near the main rebel-held city of Donetsk, where at least five civilians were killed by artillery shelling. Scared residents were huddling from the barrage in frigid basements, relying on humanitarian aid to survive.

"Our house is still OK, but it's really frightening to stay there, the walls are shaking," said Natasha Domyanova, who lives in the city's Petrovsky district. "It's damp and cold here. We call ourselves the children of the dungeon."

As Ukraine's military fortunes falter, the plight of civilians pinned down by fighting around Debaltseve is looking bleak. Residents say the town has been without power, water and gas supplies for more than a week. Several hospitals in and around Debaltseve have been hit by rebel shelling in recent days, forcing the grievously sick and wounded to embark on trips of more than an hour along roads targeted by artillery.

Speaking in a hospital bed in the city of Artemivsk, 21-year-old Ukrainian army soldier Vadim Pugovetsa said the attack on Vuhlehirsk began with an apparent tactical feint. "Some tanks tried to break through, but we repelled the first attack. But that was clearly a probing move," Pugovetsa said.

Armored vehicles and tanks charged toward the town through fields in a fresh assault two hours later, he said. Pugovetsa said he managed to shoot two attacking infantrymen who emerged from their armored vehicles before being wounded by incoming gunfire. Regional officials loyal to Kiev said two civilians had been killed as a result of the fighting in Vuhlehirsk.

Until earlier this week, Pugovetsa might have been taken for treatment to the nearby hospital in the town of Svitlodarsk, but that was hit by rocket fire, forcing the evacuation of 48 patients. National Guard medic Col. Ihor Ilkiv said multiple civilian hospitals have been damaged by what he called an intentional rebel attempt to strain the government's ability to provide medical treatment for troops.

Attacks on Ukrainian army position in Debaltseve have ticked up sharply since the start of the week, Ilkiv said. "Every day, around 40 or 50 wounded guys are brought in. Two, three or more of them badly. We also get about 10 or more civilians," he said.

Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander of separatist forces in the self-styled breakaway Donetsk People's Republic, said rebel fighters were under instructions to refrain from targeting residential areas.

"When there is a war, anything can happen. But the (Donetsk People's Republic) doesn't fire on towns and villages on purpose," he said. Basurin also claimed rebels now control the highway leading north out of Debaltseve and into government territory.

Despite claiming to rely solely on military equipment poached from the Ukrainian army, separatist forces have consistently deployed vast quantities of powerful weapons, some of which military experts say is not even known to be in Ukraine's possession.

Pugovetsa said the tanks he saw entering Vuhlehirsk appeared to be brand new and showed little sign of wear. Ukraine and NATO say Russia directly abets rebels with manpower, arms and ammunition, all passed through the large section of border that was wrested from Ukrainian control last year. Moscow denies those claims.

On Thursday, the head of Ukraine's Joint Staff, Viktor Muzhenko, said he had intelligence proving that Russian servicemen were involved in combat alongside rebels, but said that regular Russian army units were not engaged in the fighting.

In Brussels, Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders said the European Union had decided to extend a first set of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia separatist officials which were due to expire in March by six months because of the continued fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Koenders said Thursday that all EU foreign ministers agreed on the decision and called it a "strong signal toward Russia." In March, the EU imposed the first visa bans and asset freezes against officials linked to Russia's annexation of southern Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia to stop providing separatists with heavy weapons. "We want to see the Minsk agreement upheld," he said. "We want the violence to end."

Psaki urged Russia and the separatists to immediately cease offensive operations in eastern Ukraine, warning that "otherwise, U.S. and international pressure on Russia and separatists will only increase."

Associated Press journalists Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Balint Szlanko in Donetsk, Matthew Lee in Washington, and Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.

Ukraine rebels claim new key victory is within grasp

January 28, 2015

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Separatist forces in eastern Ukraine said Wednesday they have almost fully encircled government forces in a town that hosts a strategic railway hub, putting them within grasp of a decisive new victory.

Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander of the separatist forces, said the highway linking the town, Debaltseve, to other government-held areas has now fallen into rebel hands. The encirclement of the town has not, however, been fully executed, Basurin said.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko confirmed Debaltseve is surrounded on two flanks and is being heavily targeted with Grad multiple rocket launchers. Other officials denied government forces were close to folding and said separatist claims were exaggerated.

Debaltseve is one of multiple flashpoints that have flared up across eastern Ukraine since the start of the month, when full-blown fighting between Russian-backed rebels and government forces erupted anew following a month of relative tranquility. Since the conflict started in April, it has claimed more than 5,100 lives and displaced over 900,000 people across the country, according to Ukraine government estimates.

Advances by separatist forces threaten to definitively torpedo the chances of reviving an internationally brokered peace deal reached in September that established a line of contact between the warring sides. That agreement was signed in the Belorussian capital, Minsk, by rebel leaders and representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Basurin said the terms of the Minsk agreement are no longer in force. Roman Turovets, a spokesman for Ukrainian military operations in the east, said fighting is raging all along the more than 300-kilometer (190-mile) long perimeter between government and separatist territory.

Rebel offensives appear addressed at consolidating the viability of the would-be breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine and NATO accuse Russia of lending vast military support to the rebel cause. But few are suggesting Moscow is doing much to prop up the economy of the self-proclaimed republics, and it shows.

Anecdotal evidence suggests unemployment is rife. Tens of thousands have fled the region, most shops in the main separatist city of Donetsk are closed, and the pace of life in the war-stricken areas is a faint echo of peacetime.

Gaining control of key economic assets is become a pressing goal for the rebel command. Turovets said Deblatseve is important for its role as a transportation hub. "Deblatseve is a key railway link without which there can be no real connection between the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics," he said.

Another spokesman for operations in the east, Leonid Matyukhin, derided rebel claims that the fall of Deblatseve was imminent. "These are all lies, they are dreams," Matyukhin said. "(The separatists) need to stop smoking whatever it is they are on."

Battles are also raging in areas north of Luhansk city, where government forces have had mixed fortunes in holding back rebel progress in the direction of a large power and heating plant in the town of Shchastya.

The biggest prize of all for separatists, however, would be Mariupol — a port city with a major and lucrative metalwork plant. Artillery duels have been wreaking destruction daily in the countryside east of the city.

The violence reached Mariupol itself last weekend, when rockets crashed into a densely populated eastern district, killing 30 and wounding several dozen. International observers said a preliminary assessment indicated the attack had been mounted from rebel-held areas.

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced ahead of the attack that the rebel advance on Mariupol had begun. But as the scale of civilian deaths in Mariupol started to emerge, Zakharchenko swiftly changed tack and said no attempt would be made to storm the city.

The persisting unrest has dealt hammer blows to Ukraine's economy as a whole. Kiev has hopes foreign assistance could serve to halt its precipitous decline. Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said Wednesday that the United States has provided Ukraine with $2 billion in loan guarantees and is promising a further $1 billion following the implementation of reforms.

Jaresko made the announcement after meeting in Kiev with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who seized the opportunity to commend what he called Ukraine's commitment to taking "difficult steps to unleash Ukraine's economic potential."

"The loan guarantees are provided so Ukraine could handle its social spending and protect those who will suffer from the negative impact that the reforms might have," Lew said. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has said his country will require $15 billion worth of international assistance over the coming two years.

Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Ukraine moves to shut Russia-backed rebels out of talks

January 27, 2015

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday declared the Russia-backed separatist republics in the east to be terrorist organizations, formally eliminating the possibility of holding peace talks with their representatives, as fighting escalated.

The move came after Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed the Ukrainian government to speak directly to the rebels in efforts to end the fighting that has killed about 5,100 people in eastern Ukraine since April, according to U.N. figures.

The Kiev government has long called the separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics "terrorists," but now they can be subject to the counter-terrorism law, said Oleksiy Melnyk, a defense analyst at the Razumkov Center. That means the government has the right to restrict their movements within Ukraine, block their bank accounts, and most importantly stop them from participating in peace talks, he said.

Parliament is sending a message that Ukraine will negotiate only with Russia and not with its "puppets" in the separatist republics, Melnyk said. The parliament also declared Russia to be an "aggressor state" and called on the United Nations, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and parliaments in other countries to formally recognize it as such.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with troops and weapons. Russia denies that, but Western military officials say the sheer number of heavy weapons under rebel control belies that claim.

A lull in fighting in December raised hopes for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, but diplomatic efforts stalled. In recent weeks, the separatist forces have launched a series of new offensives to extend the territory under their control in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the Russian border.

Some of the fiercest fighting has been around the town of Debaltseve, a road and railway hub northeast of the main rebel-held city of Donetsk. Armed forces spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said the rebel forces were attacking from two sides in an attempt to surround the Ukrainian troops.

The fighting has left nine servicemen dead and 29 wounded over the past day, Seleznyov said, adding that artillery and mortar fire was hitting residential areas and there were reports of civilian casualties.

Fighting also has raged on the outskirts of Donetsk. The remaining highway into Donetsk was closed to traffic for the second day running Tuesday following a blast at a Ukrainian military checkpoint that left at least two soldiers dead.

Dozens of vehicles, including long-distance buses taking Donetsk residents home and trucks carrying goods for businesses in the city, were stranded along the road into Donetsk as drivers waited for the way to be reopened.

Bus passengers, some with small children, said Tuesday they battled for sleep as temperatures outside plummeted below freezing. A few hours after morning broke, a crowd angrily confronted soldiers barring the road, but were firmly told no passage would be permitted, even for those willing to make the trip on foot.

Shortly after lunchtime, shells fell in fields nearby, prompting many motorists to flee to safer locations in the nearby town of Kurakhove, which is under government control.

Associated Press writer Peter Leonard in Kurakhove, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Serbia grants citizenship to main rival of Palestine leader

February 01, 2015

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia has granted citizenship to a key political rival of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after he pledged millions of dollars in investments from the Emirates, where he has lived in exile, Serbian officials said Sunday.

Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that former Fatah party strongman Mohammed Dahlan, whom Abbas fired in a power struggle, was given the citizenship in 2013. His wife, four children, a relative and five Palestinian supporters were also given Serbian passports.

The 53-year-old Dahlan, a former Abbas' aide and Gaza security chief, was once seen as Yasser Arafat's heir apparent. He was kicked out of Fatah in 2011 after Abbas accused him of corruption and hinted he may have been involved in Arafat's death.

Dahlan was sentenced in absentia by a West Bank court to two years jail in 2014 on defamation and slander charges because he alleged in an interview that Palestinian security forces help protect Israeli settlers in the occupied territories.

Dahlan later said in a statement that the ruling was politically motivated and was meant to block him from competing in internal elections in Abbas' Fatah movement and in future general elections. Dahlan, who turned into a businessman in exile, has promised millions of dollars of investments from the Emirates to Serbia. The Balkan country's government can secretly grant citizenships to foreigners when it sees the individuals can serve special state interests.

Dacic said that Dahlan was not given the citizenship on political grounds, but due to the economic relations with the Emirates. "When Dahlan was in Serbia, we spoke only about relations with the United Arab Emirates," Dacic said. "Internal Palestinian issues were not on the agenda."

In December, thousands of Dahlan supporters protested against Abbas in the Gaza Strip amid reports that corruption charges involving millions of dollars will be filed against the former security chief.

Italy's lawmakers elect Sergio Mattarella as president

January 31, 2015

ROME (AP) — Sergio Mattarella, a Constitutional Court justice widely considered to be above the political fray, was elected Saturday as Italy's president in the third day of balloting by lawmakers.

He quickly set as priorities attention to his country's moribund economy and the need for unity in Europe's fight against a "new season of terror." Mattarella's election as head of state was clinched when he amassed 505 votes — a simple majority. The 73-year-old former minister with center-left political roots went on to garner a total of 665 votes from the 1,009 eligible electors.

Known as a man of few words, Mattarella cemented that reputation with his first remarks to the nation. "My thoughts go, above all, and before everything, to the difficulties and hopes of our fellow citizens. That's enough," he said in brief comments at his court office just down the street from the presidential palace. Italy is mired in recession and unemployment has hovered about 13 percent nationally. Young Italians are increasingly seeking work abroad.

Then he applied a European-wide vision to his largely ceremonial post when he made a surprise, private visit to the Ardeatine Caves, a monument to Rome's victims of its World War II Nazi occupiers, on the city's outskirts. After pausing in reflection there, Mattarella hailed the wartime alliance "between nations and peoples that knew how to defeat Nazi, racial, anti-Semitic and totalitarian hate" and called for more of the same solidarity now.

"The same unity in Europe and in the world will know how to defeat those who want to drag us into a new season of terror," the presidential palace quoted him as saying. Renzi pushed hard for Mattarella's election, and some of Renzi's rebellious Democrats resented the premier's imposing his choice on them. Mattarella's victory signals that Renzi for now succeeded in closing fractious ranks, including former Communists, in the governing coalition's main party.

"Thanks for being serious," Renzi and some loyalists wrote in a text message to Democrats during the balloting, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right opposition vowed to cast blank ballots. While acknowledging Mattarella's credentials to be guarantor of the Constitution and arbiter in political crises, they insisted Renzi should have reached agreement first with Berlusconi on a candidate.

Mattarella raised conflict-of-interest concerns when media mogul Berlusconi jumped into politics two decades ago. He also resigned as education minister in 1990 to protest legislation that helped Berlusconi transform what started out as several local channels into a business empire including Italy's three main private TV networks.

Mattarella, a Sicilian, was first elected to Parliament in 1983. His Christian Democrat party collapsed in corruption probes of the 1990s, but Mattarella was unscathed. His older brother, Piersanti Mattarella, governor of Sicily, was killed in 1980 by the Mafia.

The silver-haired Mattarella, a widower with three grown children, has been living in the modest quarters of Constitutional Court justices in Rome. He will take the oath of office, for a seven-year term, on Tuesday.

A year ago, Berlusconi pledged his support for the electoral reform agenda of Renzi, who had just assumed the Democratic Party leadership. Buoyed by the deal, Renzi quickly pushed fellow Democrat Enrico Letta out of the premiership. Berlusconi lost his Senate seat because of a tax fraud conviction but is keen on keeping political influence.

Reforms include changing Italy's electoral law to make governments more stable. Whether Berlusconi, irked over Renzi's picking the presidential candidate, will renege on the reforms deal is unclear. A pro-Berlusconi lawmaker, Maurizio Gasparri, predicted the media mogul's center-right lawmakers might be "less generous" with support.

Former Berlusconi allies now in Renzi's coalition chafed at the unilateral choice of the Mattarella candidacy. But the government's short-term survival seemed little threatened. Politicians are generally uneager to provoke a crisis that could bring early elections, with voters exasperated over their leaders' failure so revive the economy.

Renzi's choice of Mattarella as a nominee despite Berlusconi's opposition "will undoubtedly increase friction within and without the ruling coalition," London-based Eurasia Group analyst Federico Santi said in a statement on the eve of the successful balloting. "It may complicate reform progress at the margin. However, it will not derail reforms or threaten political stability."

Chances improve for Renzi's pick to become Italian president

January 30, 2015

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi forged ahead Friday with his candidate for president, even at the risk of losing broad support for his reform agenda, after initial rounds of balloting by lawmakers failed to yield a new head of state.

Chances of victory improve on Saturday for constitutional court justice Sergio Mattarella when the vote in Parliament needs only a simple majority, instead of the two-thirds threshold in balloting Thursday and Friday.

Renzi's strategy in the opening rounds was to advocate casting blank ballots. He apparently succeeded in closing the fractious ranks of his Democrats, who sometimes chafe over his almost imperious leadership, since hundreds of such ballots were counted. On Saturday, if those who cast blank ballots write down Mattarella's name, his candidate should clinch the 505-vote simple majority.

But secret balloting could invite sabotage from malcontent Democrats. In 2013, squabbling Democrats doomed their own candidates. Lawmakers ultimately resorted to voting Giorgio Napolitano into an unprecedented second term. Napolitano, 89, resigned this month.

Opposition leader and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi had pledged to support archrival Renzi's election law reform aimed at producing more stable governments. But Berlusconi opposes Mattarella, who decades ago raised conflict-of-interest concerns after the media mogul jumped into politics. Mattarella also protested legislation that helped Berlusconi transform his fledgling business of local TV channels into a media empire including Italy's three main private TV networks.

The risk for Renzi is that Berlusconi might now renege on the pledge of support. "It's evident that the reforms have become more complicated," because of Renzi's pick of Mattarella, said Nunzia De Girolamo, a lawmaker formerly in Berlusconi's fold.

Berlusconi, forced out of the Senate by a tax fraud conviction, has been trying to stay influential in politics.

Hungarians protest against premier's dealings with Putin

February 01, 2015

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Thousands of protesters demanded the ouster of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government Sunday, a day before a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Around 3,000 people attended the "Spring Comes, Orban Goes" rally outside parliament. Orban's Fidesz party easily won three elections last year but its popularity has nosedived since an aborted attempt in October to introduce a tax on Internet use.

Some in the crowd appealed to Merkel ahead of her meeting with Orban on Monday, holding up signs with slogans in German such as "Angela, don't negotiate with the mafia" and flags of the European Union.

"We want to show that the country is not equal to Orban, that the majority does not support his policies going closer to Vladimir Putin," said rally organizer Balazs Gulyas. "The majority of the people want to be in the EU."

Orban's dealings with Moscow, including an agreement for Russia to build new reactors at Hungary's nuclear power plant and a loan of 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion) to help finance the project, are expected to be on the agenda for the meeting between the Hungarian and German leaders.

Other topics which may be discussed include a series of special taxes aimed at multinational companies, including several German firms, and the rise of the far-right Jobbik party. Orban is one year into his four-year term. Protester Zsuzsa Cegledi said she wanted early elections to oust the government and complained about corruption.

"Everything is winding up in the pockets of Orban and his entourage," Cegledi said, standing on Kossuth Square.

Greek leader tamps down rhetoric, vows to pay off debts

February 01, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A day after Greece appeared on a collision course with its creditors, new radical left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has tamped down the rhetoric by vowing to pay off debts and not act unilaterally.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who had a tense meeting with Eurogroup leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem in Athens on Friday, has brought forward a trip to Paris, London and Rome to meet his counterparts.

Tsipras says he never intended to act unilaterally and expressed his certainty that Greece and the creditors will reach an agreement. He also pledged to pay back Greece's debt to the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which, along with the European Commission, form the "troika" of Greece's creditors.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias by telephone on Friday to congratulate him on his appointment and underscore "the United States' interest in continued close bilateral cooperation with Greece," said a senior State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said they also discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine and countering terrorism threats in the region.

Greece opposes Canadian gold mine, to scrap gas utility sale

30 January 2015 Friday

Greece's new left-wing government will cancel plans to sell the state natural gas utility and is firmly opposed to a Canadian gold mine that is among the biggest foreign investment projects in the country, the energy minister told Reuters on Friday.

The comments by Panagiotis Lafazanis, who represents the more radical wing of the ruling Syriza party, further reinforces early signs that the government is sticking to campaign pledges that have chilled investment and unnerved financial markets.

The Skouries gold mine operated by Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold in northern Greece was the flagship project of the last government's foreign investment drive and considered a test case that would reveal whether Greece could protect foreign investors despite local opposition.

"We are absolutely against it and we will examine our next moves on it," Lafazanis, a 63-year-old former Communist, told Reuters at his new ministerial office. He declined to say if the government would try to block the project from going ahead.

The project is among the biggest foreign investments in Greece since the country sank into a debt crisis in 2010, with Eldorado taking over the mine in 2012 and promising to invest $1 billion over five years.

But it has been beset by controversy and violent local protests for years and Syriza had criticized the environment impact of the project on the pristine Halkidiki peninsula landscape of beaches and forest surrounding it.

The new minister was even more categorical on gas utility DEPA, saying the planned sale of a 65 percent stake would be scrapped.

The previous government had planned to accelerate the privatization as part of commitments under Greece's 240-billion-euro ($271 billion) bailout from international lenders, after an initial attempt to sell to Russia's Gazprom in 2013 failed.

"In no way will we privatize gas utility DEPA and sell it to anyone, no matter who the interested party is," Lafazanis said.

The latest comments add to plans already outlined by the new government to freeze sales of stakes held by the state in the country's biggest port Piraeus Port, its main power utility Public Power Corporation (PPC), oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum and power grid operator ADMIE.

Greece has raised 3.1 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from privatizations since it was first bailed out five years ago by the EU and International Monetary Fund, far short of an original target of about 22 billion euros by 2013.

POWER

Lafazanis said his government would move fast to revoke a law that allowed the state to spin off power utility PPC and which opened the way for the sale of 30 percent of its production capacity to investors.

Under the previous government, Greece - which holds a 51 percent stake in PPC - had also planned to sell a further 17 percent stake in PPC in 2016.

"Once parliament resumes, we will table the relevant bill and the spin-off will be cancelled. We will not proceed with any further privatization," he said.

Greek businesses and households have been hit by four years of austerity and Lafazanis said the new government would seek to relieve them by cutting their electricity bills.

"Our concern is how PPC can operate more effectively so that power prices paid by businesses and households are reduced," he said.

But Lafazanis struck a more moderate tone on the 400-million-euro sale of Greek natural gas grid operator DESFA to Azerbaijan's state oil firm SOCAR, a deal agreed in 2013.

He said the government would act on the project only after the European Commission, which is investigating whether the deal violated competition rule, makes it decision later this year.

"We will wait for the EU Competition Commission's decision and then we will decide our own moves," he said.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/154090/greece-opposes-canadian-gold-mine-to-scrap-gas-utility-sale.

Flash floods hit Greece, Albania, force evacuations

February 01, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Flash floods caused by heavy rains have hit northwestern Greece and southern Albania, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of villagers Sunday and destroying a famous 18th-century stone bridge.

No casualties were reported in either country. Heavy rains began Saturday in the northwestern Greek province of Epirus, prompting authorities to evacuate four villages and several isolated farmhouses close to the city of Arta.

By Sunday, at least four rivers had overflowed their banks, three of them near Arta and another closer to Greece's border with Albania. The Plaka Bridge near Arta also collapsed. "The greatest problems are in the Arta area. But we have floods throughout Epirus, and problems from high winds and some flooding throughout Greece," a fire brigade spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was at the Fire Brigade's emergency command center in Athens, where he urged government experts to go to the flooded areas and inspect the roads and monuments at risk there. Tsipras said he was "very sad" to hear about the Plaka Bridge.

In southern Albania, heavy rain and snow caused rivers to flood thousands of hectares (acres), hundreds of homes and many roads. Police and army troops evacuated scores of flooded families and their livestock in the districts of Vlore, Fier, Gjirokaster and Berat, some 100-180 kilometers (60-110 miles) south of capital of Tirana, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

Many areas in southern Albania had no power or water. Police urged residents to cancel travel plans and more intense rain was forecast to hit over the next few days.

Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.

Turkish imams expelled from Crimea

04 February 2015 Wednesday

The enforced departure of the last of the original 23 Turkish imams and teachers who had been working in Crimea at the invitation of the Muslim Board means that all its imams and religious teachers are now local people, the Muslim Board spokesperson told Forum 18.

According to Forum 18 News Service, all but five of 23 Turkish imams and religious teachers invited by the Crimean Muftiate under a 20-year-old program have been forced to leave Crimea as Russia’s Federal Migration Service refused to extend their residence permits.

“If they want to begin mission work in Crimea they will need a visa from the Russian embassy in Turkey in accordance with Russian law,” Yana Smolova of the Federal Migration Service insisted to Forum 18. Despite being told that the Turkish imams and religious teachers were not seeking to “begin mission work in Crimea” but to continue work they have been doing in Crimea at the invitation of the Muftiate over many years, Smolova said the requirement to get a visa in their home country was irrespective of their work visa.

The Turkish imams and teachers had been supplied by the Turkish government's Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) under a program that has been running for 20 years. "These Turkish imams and teachers helped our communities to develop and people liked them and got used to them," a Muftiate spokesperson told Forum 18 in August 2014. "Of course we wanted them to continue working here. We can’t invite anyone now as they say we have no legal status,” said Jemil Bibishev “They told us we need to register first and then to reapply". When Crimea's chief mufti Emirali Ablaev met Mehmet G?rmez, the head of the Turkish government's Diyanet in Ankara in November 2014, he stressed the continuing need for Turkish teachers and imams to be based in Crimea. ""We've done all we can within our competence". A Russian law from 31 December 2014 extended the deadline for re-registering religious communities (and other entities) in Crimea until 1 March 2015.

The enforced departures of the Turkish imams and teachers came as a wide range of religious communities in Crimea complained to Forum 18 of surveillance by the Russian FSB security service.

Representatives of a range of religious communities have told Forum 18 that they are under surveillance by the FSB security service. Greek Catholic priest Fr Bogdan Kostetsky has been summoned several times. Among the questions were some about his attitude to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, who led the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church until his death in 1944. The duty officer at the Yevpatoriya FSB told Forum 18 he had never heard that Fr Kostetsky had been summoned.

Despite these concerns among a variety of religious communities, Aksyonov insists that his authorities will defend the rights of religious believers. "The rights of Crimea's religious believers, regardless of their confessional adherence, are well protected," he claimed on 19 January, in remarks quoted on the Crimean government website.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/caucasus/154329/turkish-imams-expelled-from-crimea.

Austria's first anti-Islam protest small, draws extremists

February 02, 2015

VIENNA (AP) — Protesters, including a few extremists flashing Hitler salutes, demonstrated Monday against perceived "Islamization" in the first rally of its kind in Austria. But the gathering drew only about 250 people, far short of the tens of thousands who have marched in similar rallies in Germany.

Originating in Dresden last year, PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, has attracted as many as 25,000 people to marches in that eastern German city and smaller crowds elsewhere in Germany.

Organizers in Vienna also call their protest PEGIDA. They sought to temper expectations of a huge turnout before their rally saying they only expected a few hundred participants. Both in Germany and Austria, organizers have insisted that the marches are not anti-Muslim. While there have been no reports of Nazi symbols or gestures at German PEGIDA protests, at least two demonstrators in Vienna were seen raising their hand in the Hitler salute.

The protesters were outnumbered by their opponents. About 5,000 demonstrators carrying anti-PEGIDA slogans marched through downtown Vienna, while several hundred activists blocked the PEGIDA demonstrators, stopping them from marching.

About 1,200 police, many in riot gear, were on duty. They detained several masked or drunk PEGIDA demonstrators but reported no violence. The Green Party criticized the PEGIDA marchers, but Heinz-Christian Strache, of the right-wing Freedom Party, warned against "defaming" what he called a serious civil rights movement.

Thousands protest right-wingers at Vienna ball, 38 detained

January 31, 2015

VIENNA (AP) — As elegant pairs waltzed under crystal chandeliers Friday, thousands of raucous demonstrators outside their lavish palace ball demanded an end to the black-tie event, which they say draws the far-right fringe from across Europe. Police detained dozens and at least two people were injured.

Police estimated the number of protesters at about 5,000 people. Isolated scuffles broke out with helmeted officers in riot gear, and riot dogs were used in at least one instance to disperse demonstrators.

Police spokesman Johann Golob said one officer was "wounded" by fireworks and at least one protester was also injured. With midnight approaching, 38 people had been detained and the demonstrators appeared to be dispersing, but Golob said police would remain on the streets until all danger of unrest was put to rest. He also spoke of unspecified damage. The full cost of vandalism from protests last year exceeded 1 million euros ($1.3 million) but could not be fully assessed until days later.

Balls in Vienna have been a tradition for centuries, with the moneyed class waltzing through wars and recessions, blissfully ignoring the occasional firebomb-throwing anarchist opposed to the alleged decadence associated with such events. Left-wing groups criticize some of Vienna's more opulent balls as a showcase for the rich, but none draws as much opposition as the Academy Ball, which has been held under various names for 60 years.

That event, at the ornate downtown Hofburg palace, started drawing demonstrators decades ago as Austrians started embracing the view that their country — long portrayed as one of Nazi Germany's first victims through its 1938 annexation — was in fact one of Hitler's most loyal allies.

Opposition peaked in 2012 with the Austrian committee reporting to UNESCO, the U.N. cultural organization, striking all Vienna balls from its list of Austria's noteworthy traditions because of the one ball, staged in part by dueling fraternities including far-right alumni who display saber scars on their cheeks as badges of honor.

The ball is sponsored by the Freedom Party, whose supporters range from those opposed to the EU to the far-right fringe. Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache denied that the ball drew right-wingers and criticized opponents as "jackbooted troops of the SA," using the acronym associated with Hitler's brown-shirted storm troops.

He insisted that he meant "Socialist Antifascists," an occasionally violent far-left-anarchist group.

Sri Lanka's new president to visit India, steers away from China

04 February 2015 Wednesday

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena will visit India on Feb. 16, his first state visit abroad, a government official said on Wednesday, part of efforts to repair relations with New Delhi which soured under the previous government.

Sirisena earlier pledged to pursue a more global foreign policy in a break with his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa's pursuit of close ties with China, a key supporter of Sri Lanka's economy since its 26-year civil war ended in 2009.

"In considering the past, we make a clear commitment towards following a foreign policy of the middle path, in friendship with all nations," Sirisena said during a speech marking Independence Day.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted he was looking forward "to welcoming President Sirisena later this month." Modi is scheduled to make a reciprocal trip in the second week of March, according to Sri Lankan government officials.

Sirisena's trip will last two days, the official told, declining to be identified.

Sri Lanka's January 8 elections unexpectedly ousted Rajapaksa and brought Sirisena, a former Rajapaksa ally, to power on a platform of rooting out corruption and bringing constitutional reforms to weaken the presidency.

Sirisena's administration has ordered a review of all Chinese infrastructure projects awarded under Rajapaksa, a move expected to sit well with India and Western nations concerned about Beijing's growing influence and military presence in the region.

Rajapaksa's decision to allow two Chinese submarines to dock in Sri Lanka last year angered India, as the move breached an existing agreement between the two countries.

In the run-up to the January vote, Sri Lanka expelled India's spy chief for helping to unite a fractious opposition to defeat Rajapaksa, according to diplomatic and political sources, although India denied any expulsion.

Sirisena's visit to India will mark the changing attitudes of both nations, said P. Sahadevan, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

"Earlier, though it was not displayed openly, there was quite a bit of antipathy from India toward the Rajapaksa regime," Sahadevan said. "That's gone."

Sirisena has also pledged to grant autonomy to the island's former northern war zone where members of the country's ethnic Tamil minority predominantly live, part of an agreement with India that the Rajapaksa government failed to fulfill.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/154361/sri-lankas-new-president-to-visit-india-steers-away-from-china.

NASA planning Europa mission, Jupiter's potentially life-hosting moon

by Brooks Hays
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI)
Feb 3, 2015

The big ticket items -- the Space Launch System, the Orion capsule, the Commercial Crew program -- grabbed the big bucks and the headlines, as NASA unveiled the White House's 2015 budget proposal. But some astronomers and science fans are most excited about the inclusion of a new mission: a trip to Europa, Jupiter's fourth largest moon.

While the capturing of an asteroid, a return to the moon and a trip to Mars remain the sexiest of NASA's long-term objectives, experts say a robotic mission to Europa could be the most likely to locate extraterrestrial life.

"Looking to the future, we're planning a mission to explore Jupiter's fascinating moon Europa," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at an event announcing the new budget on Monday.

"Without a doubt, the new commitment to Europa is the most exciting feature of the President's 2016 budget request for NASA," Casey Dreier, a blogger at The Planetary Society, wrote in the wake of the announcement.

Europa is appealing to astronomers due to the oceans hidden beneath its icy surface. Though the moon is far away from the warmth of the sun, the tidal forces exerted by Jupiter cause friction that warms Europa's innards and keeps its oceans melted and moving. Researchers believe there are likely hydrothermal vents on Europa's ocean floor, and that the moon's icy crust features plate tectonic-like behavior.

While Jupiter's moons are subjected to an overload of radiation, scientists say the Europa's thick surface of ice likely protects the water below (and any potential biosphere) from the ill effects. In fact, the radiation may be responsible for reacting with the icy crust to form nutrients that make life possible. Of course, many of these ideas are simply conjecture (even if they're based on plausible science), but only a more intimate look at Europa's icy world could settle doubts.

"Europa's ocean, to the best of our knowledge, isn't that harsh of an environment," Kevin Hand, deputy chief scientist for the Solar System Exploration division at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained at a media event on Monday -- according to Discovery News.

While fans of a Europa mission are no doubt hoping for a plan to plunge into the moon's oceans, the latest plans involve a flyby mission using a probe concept called the Europa Clipper. The flyby would include several low-flying orbits -- a chance for the Clipper to observe the moon's icy surface and gather data on the oceans below.

"The way we framed the Europa mission science objectives is not to specifically look for life, but to understand habitability; the ingredients for life," Hand said.

Europa missions have been stalled in the research and concept phases for years, but NASA engineers are hopeful that the new funding will make the mission official, and instigate the more specific planning phase -- a phase that would include more details on vehicle design, instrumentation and scientific teams.

"We are really looking forward to next spring when, hopefully, we'll become another flagship mission," Sara Susca, a Europa Clipper payload systems engineer, said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_planning_Europa_mission_Jupiters_potentially_life-hosting_moon_999.html.

Kremlin pursues military modernization despite economic woes

February 04, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Hundreds of new Russian aircraft, tanks and missiles are rolling off assembly lines. Russian jets roar through European skies under NATO's wary eye. Tens of thousands of troops take part in war games showing off the military's readiness for all-out war.

The muscle flexing suggests that Russia's economic woes so far are having no impact on the Kremlin's ambitious military modernization program. Most Russian economic sectors face a 10 percent cut this year as Russia heads into recession. The military budget, meanwhile, rose by 33 percent to about 3.3 trillion rubles (some $50 billion). The buildup reflects President Vladimir Putin's apparent readiness to raise the ante in a showdown with the West over Ukraine — but it is unclear whether Russia can afford the modernization drive amid slumping oil prices and Western sanctions.

A new Russian military doctrine, endorsed by Putin in December, names NATO as a top threat to Russia and lays out a response to what the Kremlin sees as the alliance's expansion into Russia's sphere of interests. In the Ukraine crisis, Moscow for the first time demonstrated its new capacity for what experts call "hybrid" warfare, a combination of military force with a degree of deniability, sleek propaganda and political and economic pressure.

It is not only in Crimea — the strategic peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine — that the nation's 1 million-strong military is beefing up its presence. Russia is also reviving Soviet-era airfields and opening new military bases in the Arctic. Last fall the military rattled sabers by briefly deploying state-of-the art missiles to Russia's westernmost Baltic exclave — Kaliningrad — and it is planning to send strategic bombers on regular patrols as far as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

NATO defense ministers, meeting Thursday in Brussels, are expected to approve further measures to enhance the alliance's ability to deter and, if necessary, respond to military threats from Moscow, officials said.

As outlined by NATO officials, key decisions expected include upgrading the existing NATO Response Force, an official go-ahead for a proposal to establish six new command and control centers in Eastern Europe, and expansion of a multinational headquarters in Poland.

The West first got a sense of Russia's revived military might during last February's Crimea invasion. The U.S. and its NATO allies were caught off guard when waves of Russian heavy-lift military transport planes landed on the Black Sea peninsula days after the ouster of Ukraine's former Moscow-friendly president, unloading special forces which swiftly took over key facilities in the region and blocked Ukrainian troops at their bases. Dressed in unmarked uniforms and equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, the Russian troops were a far cry from the ragtag demoralized force the military was just a few years ago. The Kremlin first claimed they were local volunteers, but Putin recognized after the annexation that they were Russian soldiers.

Another surprise for the West came a few weeks later, when well-organized groups of gunmen took over local government offices and police stations in several cities across Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland, triggering a rebellion that evolved into a full-scale war that has killed more than 5,300 since April.

As fighting escalated in the east, the Russian military showed its agility by quickly deploying tens of thousands troops near the border with Ukraine. Ukraine and the West said that thousands of them crossed into Ukraine, helping turn the tide in the rebels' favor. The Kremlin denies that, although it has acknowledged that Russian volunteers have joined the insurgency.

Unlike the past, when the Russian military was filled through unpopular conscription, the force has grown more professional and motivated. Relatively high salaries have attracted increasingly more contract soldiers, whose numbers are set to exceed 350,000 this year from 295,000 in 2014. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that by the end of this year all battalion tactical groups — the core units in the Army, the Airborne Forces and the Marines — will be manned entirely by professional soldiers.

And in sharp contrast to the early post-Soviet years, when combat jets were grounded and navy vessels rusted dockside for lack of fuel, the military has dramatically increased both the scope and frequency of its drills. Ground forces conducted massive maneuvers near the Ukrainian border involving tens of thousands of troops, while navy ships sailed on regular missions and combat jets flew regular patrols near European borders to probe NATO's defenses. The alliance said it intercepted Russian aircraft more than 400 times last year and complained they posed a danger to civilian flights.

In Crimea, Russia had leased a major naval base even before the annexation. Now it has deployed dozens of combat jets, including nuclear-capable long-range bombers, along with air defense missiles, modern drones and other weapons. It is also preparing to dispatch more troops there.

Another key priority for the military is the Arctic, where global rivalry for major untapped oil and gas reserves is intensifying as polar ice melts. The military has restored long-abandoned Soviet-era airfields and other bases in the region after two decades of neglect. It formed a separate Arctic command to oversee its troops in the region.

Russia's weapons modernization plan envisages spending 20 trillion rubles on new weapons in 2011-2020. It produced some highly visible results last year, with the military receiving the highest numbers of new planes, missiles and armor since the 1991 Soviet collapse:

—Last year, the Russian armed forces obtained a record number of 38 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. This year they are to get another 50, allowing the military to fulfill its ambitious goal of replacing Soviet-built nuclear missiles, which are approaching the end of their lifespan. Officials say the new ICBMs have the capacity to penetrate any prospective missile defenses.

—In a major breakthrough, the Russian navy finally conducted a series of successful test launches of the Bulava, a new submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missile, proving its reliability after a long and troublesome development. The navy already has two submarines equipped with the Bulava, and is to commission a third one next year. Five more are to follow.

—The ground forces are receiving large batches of Iskander missiles, which are capable of hitting enemy targets up to 500 kilometers (310 miles away) with high precision. Russian officials said the missiles, which can be equipped with a nuclear or conventional warhead, could be used to target NATO's U.S.-led missile defense sites. In a show of force, Iskanders were briefly deployed in December to the Kaliningrad exclave bordering NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

—The Russian air force received more than 250 new planes and helicopters last year and is set to receive more than 200 this year — numbers unseen since Soviet times. They include new models such as Su-34 bombers, Su-35 fighter jets and Mi-28 helicopter gunships equipped with sophisticated electronics and high-precision missiles.

—The Russian army this year is set to receive a new tank, which also will be used as the basis for a lineup of other armored vehicles. The model called Armata will be shown to the public during a Red Square parade in May. It surpasses all Western versions in having a remotely controlled cannon and a superior level of crew protection.

Its security enhanced by a new-look military, the Kremlin can be expected to pursue a defiant course in Ukraine and may raise the stakes further if the peace process fails. The threat for Putin — who has insisted that Russia will not be drawn into a costly arms race with the West — is whether the massive military buildup will stretch the nation's economic potential beyond the limit.

Despite such challenges, the Kremlin made it clear that it will not cut corners on defense. "The task set by the president not to allow anyone to get a military advantage over Russia will be fulfilled no matter what," Shoigu, the defense minister, said at a meeting with the top brass last week.

Associated Press writer John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.