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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Thousands of Spaniards protest proposed security law

January 25, 2015

MADRID (AP) — Thousands of protesters are marching in Spanish cities to express their opposition to a proposed law that would set hefty fines for offenses like demonstrating outside parliament buildings or strategic installations.

Parliament approved the Public Security Law last month and it's expected to become official in February if passed by the government-controlled Senate. Protesters with tape over their mouths and carrying banners calling the measures a "gagging law" gathered Sunday near Spain's parliament under heavy police surveillance.

The bill is heavily criticized by opposition parties and human rights groups as an attempt by the government to muzzle protests over its handling of Spain's financial crisis. The law would allow fines of up to 600,000 euros ($745,000) for individuals demonstrating outside key buildings if they are deemed to breach the peace.

Spain aims to ensure Turkey's security with patriots

16 January 2015 Friday

Spain's provision of Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey will ensure its security and stability as a NATO ally, Spanish Defense Minister has said

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency on Friday in Madrid, Pedro Morenes said Turkey was exposed to "terrorist" attacks because of its borders with conflict-ridden countries.

He said: "Spain’s support to Turkey is very normal as we see Turkey as a friendly, allied country.

"We will also support a safety corridor which it wants to establish with other NATO allies - in this region."

Spain decided in September to send Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey as part of its NATO obligations to replace units from the Netherlands which were being withdrawn, and naval ships carrying the missiles arrived at the port of Iskenderun Limak in Turkey's southern province of Hatay on Jan. 9.

Morenes said he plans to visit Turkey in late January and the missile defense system is expected to be activated on the 26th of the month.

He said: "I believe that the relationship between Turkey and Spain is very important, because of the two countries' locations in the Mediterranean area.

"Our relationship is very important for the continuity of stability in the Mediterranean."

Referring to last week's gun massacre at the Paris headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Morenes said: "The latest incident is such a terrorist act, and it should not be seen as being related to Islamophobia.

"It is possible that terrorism has very different roots - and Spain and Turkey know that very well."

He went on: "The Paris attack is not something new - a different kind of violence was used in the latest attack - and special precautions should be taken”.

"Our priority is to ensure the safety of our citizens as state and government. The Spanish government does not recognize the Paris attack as a kind of religious issue."

'Possible struggles'

Moreness added: "The security measures will be taken only against terrorism. The possible struggles will face are just against terrorism and these are not related to Islam or Muslims."

Spain’s parliament unanimously passed a resolution last year urging the government to recognize Palestine as a state.

The defense minister pointed out the motion was carried out on the basis of consensus.

On Syria, Morenes said: "Syria's future can only be decided by the Syrian people" and added that, if a decision was taken by the United Nations in relation to Syria, Spain would take it into consideration.

More than 190,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict between the Assad regime and opposition forces began in early 2011, according to UN figures published in August 2014.

Referring to the controversial vote for the independence of Catalonia, which was held in last year, the minister said: "Catalonia does not respect the rule of law, but Spain is a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

"Democracy can only exist as long as the rule of law continues."

More than two million Catalans took part in the symbolic vote for the region's independence on Nov. 9, 2014 which Spain's authorities later claimed was a "complete failure" and vowed to sue Catalonia for going against a decision made by the Spanish Constitutional Court against the poll.

Catalan President Artur Mas said at the time: "We were able to use our votes, despite the intimidation of the Spanish state and despite their big obstacles."

But Morenes said: "Voting is not everything. Democracy and voting are not the same things."

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/153117/spain-aims-to-ensure-turkeys-security-with-patriots.

Spanish Foreign Minister arrives in Gaza

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo arrived Tuesday in the Gaza Strip through Erez crossing with Israel on a few hours' visit to the embattled enclave, a Palestinian official said.

Garcia-Margallo "aims to get acquainted with the impact of the recent Israeli offensive in the coastal enclave and hold talks with chief of UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA Pierre Krahenbuhl," Maher Abu Sabha, head of the Palestinian border authority, told The Anadolu Agency.

The top diplomat arrived in Ramallah on Monday, where he met with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

The visit comes as part of a regional tour for the Spanish minister to get familiar with the "status quo" in the Middle East, a statement by the Spanish Foreign Ministry said earlier.

In November, the Spanish parliament called for recognizing Palestine as a state.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16311-spanish-fm-arrives-in-gaza.

Portugal approves citizenship plan for Sephardic Jews

January 29, 2015

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Five centuries after burning thousands of Jews at the stake, forcing them to convert to Christianity or expelling them, Portugal is granting citizenship rights to their descendants as part of an attempt to make amends.

The Portuguese Cabinet on Thursday approved a law offering dual citizenship to the descendants of those Sephardic Jews — the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian peninsula. The effective date of the law will be made public soon and similar legislation in Spain is awaiting final legislative approval.

The Portuguese rights will apply to those who can demonstrate "a traditional connection" to Portuguese Sephardic Jews, such as through "family names, family language, and direct or collateral ancestry."

Like Spain, Portugal says its sole reason for granting citizenship is to redress a historic wrong. "There is no possibility to amend what was done," Portuguese Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz said. "I would say it is the attribution of a right."

The measure is the latest step in Portugal's modern efforts to atone for its past harsh treatment of Jews, whose ranks once numbered in the tens of thousands, but have been reduced to only about 1,000 today.

In 1988, then-president Mario Soares met with members of Portugal's Jewish community and formally apologized for the Inquisition. In 2000, the leader of Portugal's Roman Catholics publicly apologized for the suffering imposed on Jews by the Catholic Church, and in 2008 a monument to the dead was erected outside the Sao Domingos church where the massacre of thousands of Jews began at Easter in 1506.

Jose Ribeiro e Castro, a lawmaker who was involved in drafting the legislation, sees the persecution of Sephardic Jews as a "stain" on Portuguese history. He said he was contacted on social media by Sephardic Jews abroad who suggested granting citizenship rights to descendants of their persecuted ancestors.

"We wish it had never happened," Ribeiro e Castro said. "Given that it did happen, and that it can be put right, we thought we ought to do so." Applicants will be vetted by Portuguese Jewish community institutions, as well as by government agencies. They will have to say whether they have a criminal record. Jewish community leaders say they expect the application procedure to take four months.

"We regard it as an act of justice," Michael Rothwell, a delegate of the Committee of the Jewish Community of Oporto, which is one of the vetting organizations, said of the new law. He described it as "another important step toward reconciliation with the past."

Rothwell said the Portuguese legislation appears simpler than Spain's plan, which would require testing of candidates for their knowledge about Spain. The Jewish Community of Oporto has received about 100 requests from all over the world for certificates attesting ties to a Sephardic Jewish Community of Portuguese origin and say they expect to receive many more.

There is no accepted figure for the global Sephardic population. James Harlow, a descendant of Sephardic Jews who lives in San Jose, California, intends to apply for Portuguese citizenship because his Silicon Valley business is looking to expand abroad. Portugal, a member of the 28-nation European Union, offers an entry into a huge market.

"Citizenship makes travel, talent recruitment and operations easier," the 52-year-old said in emailed replies to AP questions. Harlow says his ancestors were advisers to the royal family when Portugal established an empire that would stretch from Brazil to Africa and India. His ancestors refused to convert and left Portugal in 1496.

Spain expelled the Jews in 1492, and historians that some 80,000 of them crossed the border into Portugal. In 1496, King Manuel I, eager to find favor with Spain's powerful Catholic rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, and marry their daughter Isabella of Aragon, gave the Jews 10 months to convert or leave. When they opted to leave, Manuel issued a new decree prohibiting their departure and forcing them to embrace Roman Catholicism as "New Christians."

Many converted, but kept their true beliefs and Jewish religious practices hidden. The "New Christians" adopted new names, inter-married and even ate pork in public to prove their devotion to Catholicism. Some Jews, though, kept their traditions alive, secretly observing the sabbath at home then going to church on Sunday. They circumcised their sons and quietly observed Yom Kippur, calling it in Portuguese the "dia puro," or pure day.

The New Christians were at the mercy of popular prejudice. In the Easter massacre of Jewish converts in 1506 in Lisbon, more than 2,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered. The Portuguese Inquisition, established in 1536, could be more cruel than its Spanish counterpart. It persecuted, tortured and burned at the stake tens of thousands of Jews.

Associated Press writers Helena Alves in Lisbon and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.

Japan police to run Tokyo Marathon to boost security

Tokyo (AFP)
Feb 4, 2015

Tokyo police officers will take part in the city's marathon this month among regular runners, the force said Wednesday, as Japan ramps up security after Islamists murdered two of its citizens.

With the country still reeling from the beheadings of journalist Kenji Goto and adventurer Haruna Yukawa by extremists from the self-styled Islamic State group, officials have gone into overdrive to show they are protecting the populace.

A total of 64 officers -- dubbed the "Running Police" -- will run the entire 26-mile (42-kilometer) course on February 22 among the 36,000 professional and fun-runners expected to take part, a Tokyo police spokesman told AFP.

"This is part of our effort to tighten security after the (2013) bomb attack on the Boston Marathon as well as the recent attacks in countries such as Australia and France," he said.

"Good runners will be selected from police ranks so that they can keep up with the pace of participants.

"They will wear a cap and vest showing the logos of the Metropolitan Police Department, so that they will also give participants reassurance and will help prevent crime."

Newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reported that the officers will also wear cameras on their heads.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered security be tightened at home and around Japanese overseas after the murders of its nationals by IS fundamentalists, who also released a video Tuesday purporting to show a Jordanian pilot being burnt alive.

Japan has never been the target of an Islamist attack although home-grown extremists have claimed lives, notably a religious cult that gassed the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 13 people and injuring thousands more.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Japan_police_to_run_Tokyo_Marathon_to_boost_security_999.html.

Wife of slain Japanese hostage expresses grief and pride

February 02, 2015

TOKYO (AP) — The wife of slain Japanese hostage Kenji Goto said Monday that she was devastated but proud of her husband, who was beheaded by Islamic State extremists.

In a statement issued through the British-based journalist group Rory Peck Trust, Rinko Jogo requested privacy for her family as they deal with their loss, and thanked those who had supported them. "I remain extremely proud of my husband, who reported the plight of people in conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia and Syria," she said.

"It was his passion to highlight the effects on ordinary people, especially through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the tragedies of war," she said. Goto left for Syria in late October just a few weeks after the birth of the couple's youngest daughter. Soon after, he was captured by the militants.

Appalled and saddened by news of Goto's death following the release of a video showing his killing, purportedly by the Islamic State group, Japan has ordered heightened security precautions at airports and at Japanese facilities overseas, such as embassies and schools.

The government also has called on all journalists and others in areas near the conflict to withdraw, given the risk of further kidnappings or other threats. Until now, Japan had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.

In parliamentary debate Monday, opposition lawmakers challenged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's effort to raise Japan's diplomatic profile through non-military support for countries fighting the Islamic State group, which control about a third of both Syria and Iraq.

Citing previous cases, including a 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo's subways, Abe said he did not see an increased terrorist risk following savage threats in the purported Islamic State group video, which vowed to target Japanese and make the knife Goto's killer was wielding Japan's "nightmare."

Japan will not be cowed by such threats, Abe said. "The terrorists are criminals," he said. "We are determined to pursue them and hold them accountable." Abe said Japan will persevere in providing humanitarian aid to countries fighting Islamic State extremists, saying that bowing to terrorist intimidation would prevent Japan from providing medical assistance and other aid it views as necessary for helping to restore stability in the region.

The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held by the Islamic State militants. Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near the Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press that "we are still ready to hand over" prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005. Al-Rishawi has close family ties to the Iraq branch of al-Qaida, a precursor of the Islamic State group.

With no updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh's family appealed to the government for information on his situation. But for Goto's family and friends, the beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue. Jogo, Goto's wife, said she had received several emails from unknown people claiming to be her husband's captors. But the hostage crisis became a national issue after the militants issued a demand for $200 million in ransom, to be paid within 72 hours, on Jan. 20.

Later, the militants' demand shifted to seeking the release of al-Rishawi, who survived the 2005 attack that killed 60 people when her explosive belt failed to detonate in the worst terror attack in Jordan's history.

Jordan and Japan reportedly conducted indirect negotiations with the militants through Iraqi tribal leaders, but late on Friday the Japanese envoy sent to Amman to work on the hostage crisis reported a deadlock in those efforts.

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement Sunday demanding "the immediate, safe and unconditional release of all those who are kept hostage" by the Islamic State group. Council members underlined the need to bring those responsible for Goto's "heinous and cowardly murder" to justice and stressed that the Islamic State group "must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."

Laub reported from Amman, Jordan.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Cairo, Najib Abu Jobein in Karak, Jordan, and Mari Yamaguchi, Yuri Kageyama, Noriko Kitano, Kaori Hitomi, Emily Wang, Miki Toda in Tokyo contributed to this report.

China vows no 'Western values' in universities

Beijing (AFP)
Jan 30, 2015

China's education minister has vowed to ban university textbooks which promote "Western values", state media said, in the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping.

"Never let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes," minister Yuan Guiren said, according to a report late Thursday by China's official Xinhua news agency.

"Remarks that slander the leadership of the Communist Party of China" and "smear socialism" must never appear in college classrooms, he added according to Xinhua.

China's universities are run by the ruling Communist party, which tightly controls discussions of history and other topics it construes as a potential threat to its grip on power.

The party often brands concepts such as multiparty elections and the separation of powers as "Western", despite their global appeal and application.

China has tightened controls on academics since President Xi Jinping assumed the party leadership in 2012, with several outspoken professors sacked or jailed.

Xia Yeliang, an economics professor at the prestigious Peking University, was fired from his post in 2013 after a 13-year tenure in a decision he attributed to persistent calls for political change in China.

Xia was one of the original signatories of the reformist petition Charter 08, whose main author Liu Xiaobo remains in prison even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The university attributed the dismissal to poor teaching, and he moved to the US last year.

Yuan's remarks came a month after Xi called for authorities to increase the Communist party's leadership of universities, and to "strengthen and improve ideological work".

Teachers must "stand firm and hold the "political, legal and moral bottom line," Yuan added, using a common expression for support of China's authoritarian political system.

A Chinese province last month announced plans to install CCTV cameras in university classrooms, sparking an outcry from lawyers who say the move would further curb academic freedom.

Authorities have in the past installed video equipment in the classrooms of outspoken academics, most notably Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced to life in prison for separatism in September.

Evidence from the classroom cameras was used to convict the scholar, in a case that was condemned by human rights groups.

China has greatly expanded its higher education system as its economy has grown, with the total number of universities and colleges more than doubling in the past decade.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_vows_no_Western_values_in_universities_999.html.

China 2015 military drills to focus on 'winning local wars'

By Kelly OLSEN
Beijing (AFP)
Jan 29, 2015

China's military training this year will focus on "improving fighting capacity" to win "local wars", the defense ministry said Thursday, with Beijing embroiled in several territorial disputes.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been tasked with improving its ability to "win battles" by President Xi Jinping, its commander-in-chief, who has also pushed a high-profile campaign to root out corruption in the world's biggest military.

"The PLA will firmly uphold the criteria of improving fighting capacity," defense ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Yang Yujun told reporters when asked about the military's exercise plans this year.

The army would also "take part in more joint exercise training and competition with foreign militaries so as to improve the capability of winning local wars", he said at a regular briefing.

Yang did not elaborate on the meaning of "local wars" but China has been involved in occasionally tense confrontations with Japan and the Philippines over maritime disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea respectively, amid fears that the disputes could result in armed clashes.

Japan and China have long been at odds over the sovereignty of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea which Japan administers and calls the Senkakus but which China claims as the Diaoyus.

The countries previously agreed in principle to set up a maritime hotline in a bid to avoid clashes but further discussions were suspended after relations soured in 2012 when the Japanese government angered China by nationalizing some of the islands.

Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in November held their first formal summit meeting on the heels of an agreement the two sides reached in an effort to paper over differences on the dispute.

Talks on the maritime issue subsequently resumed earlier this month in Tokyo, and Yang on Thursday reported progress.

He said that officials agreed, at China's suggestion, to change the system of communication to cover both sea and air.

"The change will facilitate the two sides to conduct exchanges and consultation on both maritime and air security issues," he said.

"Both sides agreed that the mechanism should be operative as early as possible since technical conditions for launching it have already been met," he added.

Asked separately about Chinese naval activities in the Indian Ocean, including submarines, Yang said that China has since 2008 been dispatching different types of ships to the Gulf of Aden to carry out escort duties and international anti-piracy operations.

"In the process we have notified relevant countries as to the escort missions of the PLA navy ships, including the PLA navy submarines," he said.

"These are quite normal activities and there is no need to read too much into them," he added.

China has been extending its naval reach, sending more vessels further away from its shores for operations including escort and anti-piracy missions, humanitarian assistance, disaster and medical relief, and search and rescue, Yang said.

"By doing so the Chinese navy is contributing to provide more international public service and is helping with peace and stability in the open seas," he said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_2015_military_drills_to_focus_on_winning_local_wars_spokesman_999.html.

Rebels, Ukraine govt forces jointly evacuate war-hit town

February 06, 2015

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine (AP) — In the freezing, muddy winter that plagues eastern Ukraine, dozens of buses rolled down a highway Friday, bringing a glimmer of hope to those trapped for weeks in the crossfire of a relentless war.

The government-held town of Debaltseve, a key railway junction, has been the epicenter of recent battles between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops. For two weeks, the town has been pounded by intense shelling that knocked out power, heat and running water in the dead of winter.

Separatist fighters have made advances, taking Vuhlehirsk, a rural settlement 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the west, as they sought to capture Debaltseve, which links by rail their two main strongholds, the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

On Friday, in a move not seen before in this war, the two sides briefly ceased hostilities to jointly evacuate the few residents still remaining. Dozens of buses traveled in convoys to Debaltseve from both rebel and government territory to ferry locals away from danger.

"We agreed with the Ukrainian authorities that this would be done jointly, to give people the right to choose to go to the Ukrainian side or to go to Donetsk," said Daria Morozova, a separatist official.

Despite earlier claims by Ukraine, the town of Vuhlehirsk appeared Friday to be fully under the control of the separatists. A three-story building on the main square was completely burned out, a gaping hole in its facade. Associated Press journalists saw half a dozen destroyed armored vehicles in nearby areas, a testimony to the town's intense battles.

It took a leap of faith and some gritty manual labor Friday to even get the evacuation convoys rolling in the heavy mist that enveloped the area. Rebel-organized buses had to stop along the road for several minutes after coming across huge concrete blocks placed by Ukrainian forces to halt advancing tanks.

After the obstacles were towed off by a car belonging to monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier came from the opposite direction. A soldier quickly dismounted and nervously trained his rifle toward nearby fields.

More Ukrainian military trucks and armored vehicles were parked on the artillery-riddled outskirts of Debaltseve. A bulldozer bore an inscription "Putin is a piece of crap," sprayed with white paint. Several residents didn't know the evacuation was taking place until the buses arrived. Some said they could not get back home and bring family members to the collection point in time. Many looked exhausted.

Alexander Klimenko, deputy head of the Donetsk regional government loyal to Kiev, estimated that 3,000 people still remained in Debaltseve out of its previous 25,000 residents. Eduard Basurin, a rebel spokesman, said some 1,000 civilians were expected to be evacuated Friday but Morozova later told the AP that only about 50 people left on the rebels' 20-odd buses.

One man, who gave his name only as Sergei, said he couldn't leave as he had nowhere to resettle with his friendly Labrador, Charlie. At one municipal building, those intending to remain in Debaltseve despite the evacuation and the imminent possibility of renewed shelling collected plastic bags stuffed with food, including rice, noodles, canned food, oil and other basic goods.

Arguments broke out at the food handout line. One woman complained that the labels showed the canned food had expired several years ago. Shortly after the bus convoys arrived, the Ukrainian army began firing outgoing artillery from positions near the center of town. Groups of Ukrainian military, separatists and international observers huddled to one side of the square where the food was being handed out, unfazed by the shelling.

"So when are the Americans going to send us some tanks?" National Guard officer Ilya Kiva asked AP reporters. To the west, artillery duels between rebels and government forces hit several places in Donetsk, including a cafe.

The evacuation unfolded ahead of talks in Moscow between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin. A day earlier, Merkel and Hollande had visited Kiev to discuss ways to achieve peace in the separatist region with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Russia has acknowledged that some of its citizens are fighting among the rebels, but rejects Ukrainian and Western charges that it's backing the insurgency with troops and weapons. Yet NATO's top commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, says Russia continues to supply the separatists with heavy state-of-the-art weapons, air defenses and fighters.

The fighting has killed more than 5,300 people since April and displaced over 900,000, according to the U.N. With Merkel's first trip to Moscow since the conflict broke out, France and Germany were hoping they could come up with a peace deal acceptable both to Ukraine and Russia — but locals in Ukraine were skeptical.

Speaking in Debaltseve, Zorian Shkiryak, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said he had little confidence that a lasting settlement could be reached for eastern Ukraine. "For that to happen, Putin has to remove his army and soldiers and allow the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian people to resolve matters on their own territory," he told the AP. "But I have little hopes in this respect."

A disenchanted Donetsk retiree also dismissed the new European peace initiative. "I don't expect anything. I'm so tired of this. It has been going on for so long," said Esfira Papunova.

Balint Szlanko in Donetsk, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

European leaders push new peace plan as Ukraine fears mount

February 05, 2015

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — In a new push for peace in eastern Ukraine, the leaders of France and Germany announced Thursday they were heading to Kiev and Moscow with a proposal to end the fighting. The surprise move came as the U.S. edged toward offering Ukraine lethal military aid.

The flurry of high-level diplomacy aimed to end the resurgent fighting in eastern Ukraine that is threatening European security. France and Germany hoped this time they could come up with a peace deal that both Ukraine and Russia could agree to.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was already visiting Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, and in Brussels, NATO prepared to boost its forces Thursday in response to Ukraine's unrest and Russia's increased military forcefulness.

Fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government forces picked up in January after a month of relative calm, with more than 220 civilians killed in the past three weeks alone, according to the United Nations. The U.N. has sharply criticized both sides for indiscriminate shelling and called for a temporary truce.

At least three people were killed in overnight shelling in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, local officials said Thursday, amid fierce fighting in several areas of eastern Ukraine. French President Francois Hollande said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would travel to Kiev on Thursday and then to Moscow the following day, with a proposal "based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine." In a sign of the importance of the initiative, this will be Merkel's first trip to Moscow since Ukraine's conflict broke out a year ago.

"It will not be said that France and Germany together have not tried everything, undertaken everything, to preserve the peace," Hollande said. Merkel's spokesman Steffen Siebert said "given the escalation of violence in the past days, the chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their months-long efforts for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine."

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that Putin, Merkel and Hollande will discuss "what the three nations can do to help put a quick end to a civil war in southeastern Ukraine, which has exacerbated in recent days with mounting casualties."

Kerry came to Ukraine to show support for its embattled government as the Obama administration weighs sending arms to Kiev to help it fight Russian-backed separatists. He brought $16.4 million in new U.S. humanitarian aid but the Ukrainian government is anxious to use the visit to reiterate its plea for lethal aid.

President Barack Obama has opposed the idea of sending weapons to Ukraine but sources in his administration say this position could change in the light of recent fighting. Officials with Kerry said he would discuss those needs with Ukrainian officials as well as new initiatives to resurrect a moribund cease-fire and resume a political dialogue to end the conflict.

Germany remains fiercely opposed to sending arms to Ukraine, a position that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier reiterated Thursday. Speaking after meeting with his Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkevics, in Riga, Steinmeier said it would not improve the situation if "we now bring more weapons to the region."

"We believe that we must make another attempt to finally bring the violence to an end," he said, according to the dpa news agency. In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the defense ministers meeting Thursday are expected to approve boosting the size of the alliance's Response Force from 13,000 to 30,000, in reaction to Russian actions in Ukraine.

Russia has vehemently denied allegations of helping the rebels in Ukraine. The Kremlin acknowledged that Russian volunteers are fighting in eastern Ukraine but insists that Moscow has not sent its troops or weapons to help the rebels.

Russia has expressed concerned about NATO's buildup in eastern Europe while defending a heavy military presence at its border with Ukraine. Hollande appeared to be offering a nod to Putin on one of his key demands: that Ukraine stay out of NATO.

"France is not favorable to Ukraine's entry into NATO, let us be clear," Hollande said Thursday. "We have to speak the truth to all the countries that are around us. ... For the Russians who are worried ... We have to settle this problem among Europeans. We are on the same continent."

Corbet reported from Paris. David Rising in Berlin, Matthew Lee in Kiev, John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

Civilian woes deepen as battle surges on Ukraine front line

February 04, 2015

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine (AP) — The morning silence is an uneasy prelude to the artillery fire that inevitably follows. Sealed off from the world by war, some inhabitants hesitantly approach visitors for news. There's no time for anything more than a few words, as soldiers bark instructions at exhausted people boarding evacuation buses with overflowing bags in hand.

On the front lines of Ukraine's separatist war, despair is deepening for a shrinking population that has been without power, heating and running water for almost two weeks. The relentless rebel advance on the railway town of Debaltseve is being slowed only by Ukrainian tanks, cannons and rocket launchers. A portable mortar stands untended in a sodden field opposite the western entrance to Debaltseve. The weapon has a short-distance range, so the foe is likely close.

As peace negotiations founder, Russian-backed separatists are vowing to swell their ranks and extend their reach. Escape is on the minds of those willing to brave the shells falling on the only open highway out of town. Several rickety government-run buses arrive to ferry people out daily, although those cowering in basements often remain oblivious to this method of flight.

"It is difficult to let people know that the evacuation is going on, and we are doing what we can for now," Sergei Radchenko, the town's barrel-bodied chief of police, said as rescue service workers helped people onto buses.

Fear of the unknown is fueling reluctance among residents to join the displaced. People with family or close friends in Russia or other parts of Ukraine hope for an invitation to move in. Those with nobody say they have nowhere to go.

Outside the town council, Ukrainian National Guard officer Ilya Kiva was overseeing the evacuation. He berated a man, clearly unsteady on his feet, who said he could not leave with his teenage son as his wife had stayed behind at home — telling him to quit drinking and at least let his son board the bus.

"I'll be here tomorrow, and I'll be sober," the man promised forlornly, before slinking away with his son. Kiva said that emptying the town would free Ukrainian troops' hand to engage in a more aggressive battle: "We come every day and talk to people, we wheedle, we bargain, we plead with them," he said. "We are ready to beg them on our knees to get out of here and let us do our job, which is to destroy the enemy."

Outgoing blasts from howitzers parked near the center of Debaltseve startle the uninitiated. Outside one municipal building — almost all its windows smashed — a group of women waiting in hope of a free bread delivery laughed off the sounds. The heavy artillery duels begin at nightfall, they said.

But distrust toward Ukraine's government and the forces fighting for it runs high. "All you hear is separatist this, separatist that. And that the National Guard is whiter than white," said Lyudmila, who refused to give her surname out of fear of reprisal from the authorities. "The separatists may have attacked in some places, but our town is mainly being destroyed by the National Guard."

That's an assertion Kiva mockingly dismissed as the provocations of an agitator enlisted by the separatists. The rebels have closed in around the town in a strategy they triumphantly refer to as the Debaltseve cauldron.

Further down the railroad, the separatists recently burst through government lines in Vuhlehirsk, a rural settlement around 10 kilometers (6 miles). Their progress has been systematic and clinical. Ukrainian military spokesmen paint a different picture in daily briefings: They declare that they have repelled rebel offensives, and repeatedly insist the line will hold.

But along the bottleneck of Ukrainian territory leading out of Debaltseve, evidence abounds of a contingency plan. Rows of defense trenches have been dug by a bridge 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the town. Diamond-shaped concrete bollards have been placed across fields to halt possible advances. Tanks parked in the charred remains of a shelled-out house in a village along the highway have their barrels trained on the road, as if in anticipation of an approaching enemy.

Ukraine and many Western nations say the separatists' vast weapons array, matching uniforms and unerring military readiness are all evidence of direct involvement of Russia's armed forces in the conflict.

Moscow denies the accusation. Rebels say their once-ragtag army of a few hundred graduated into a force equipped with tanks, armored trucks, rocket launchers and much else by poaching from Ukraine's notoriously underfunded army.

The leader of the rebels in the main separatist stronghold of Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko, stepped up the pressure on Ukraine, declaring this week that plans are afoot to expand the ranks of his forces.

"While we still have time before the spring, new detachments will be able to receive military training," Zakharchenko said. "We expect mobilization to yield at least five additional brigades — five motorized brigades, one artillery brigade and a tank brigade.

The Ukrainian rearguard for the Debaltseve front in Artemivsk, the home of one of the country's best-selling sparkling wines, looks increasingly like a garrison town. Auto-mechanics and tire shops have seen a sharp pick-up in business repairing damaged vehicles brought in by soldiers. Abandoned Soviet-era plants have been converted into bases. The local stadium is used as a landing pad for helicopters ferrying out the wounded.

Many troops are nervous, jumpy and ill-tempered. On Wednesday, a group of irregulars detained a group of international journalists in the center and threatened to escort them out of the town if they took pictures of military equipment.

The cannonades are fainter in Artemivsk, but they can still be heard. The significance of that is lost on few. "We have to get rid of these (rebels) in nearby areas, because soon, within a couple steps, they'll be in the town," said Maksim Letovchenko, an 18-year old student at a teaching college in Artemivsk. "If they arrive, there will be nothing left of this place."

Ukraine troops fight to avoid being surrounded by rebels

February 02, 2015

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukrainian troops fought Monday to defend a strategic railway hub, Russian-backed separatists pledged to boost the size of their force and Washington pondered whether to expand its assistance to Ukraine to include lethal aid.

President Barack Obama has so far opposed sending lethal assistance, but an upsurge in fighting in eastern Ukraine has spurred the White House to take a fresh look at supplying Ukraine with such aid, a senior administration official said.

Since the unrest in eastern Ukraine surged anew in early January, the separatists have made notable strides in clawing territory away from the government in Kiev. Their main offensive is now directed at Debaltseve — a government-held railway junction once populated by 25,000 people that lies between the rebel-held cities of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Almost 2,000 residents have fled in the last few days alone. Rebel forces have mounted multiple assaults on government positions in Debaltseve but all were repelled, a spokesman for Ukrainian military operations in the east, Andriy Lysenko, said Monday.

"The units that have arrived in support of our troops in Debaltseve are counterattacking and denying the enemy the opportunity to complete the encirclement," he said. Separatist fighters burst through Ukrainian lines last week in the village of Vuhlehirsk on the road west of Debaltseve, getting access to a ridge overlooking the highway running north from the town.

On Monday, Associated Press reporters saw Ukrainian tanks shooting from open fields at the tree line on that ridge. Minutes later, the tanks rolled back onto the highway, leaving a heavy trail of mud in their wake, and taking up new field positions a few hundred meters (yards) away.

In a coordinated defensive maneuver, Ukrainian forces fired barrages from Grad multiple-rocket launchers toward the same area. Despite the government's insistence that it intends to retain control of Debaltseve, rows of trenches near a bridge 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the north suggested a backup plan in case the town falls.

Elsewhere, the rebel stronghold of Donetsk came under heavy, sustained shelling once again. City authorities said Monday 15 civilians had been killed over the weekend in the fighting, while Ukraine authorities said five soldiers had been killed and 29 wounded overall in the east in the past day alone.

Meanwhile, the leader of the separatists in Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko, said new mobilization plans aim to swell the ranks of rebels to 100,000 fighters. It's not clear how many fighters the rebels have now or how many able-bodied men are still available in rebel areas. Zakharchenko didn't say where he aimed to find apparently tens of thousands of troops.

Russia has acknowledged that some of its citizens are fighting among the rebels as volunteers, but rejects the Ukrainian and Western charge that it's backing the insurgency with troops and weapons. Western experts say, however, that the sheer amount of heavy weapons under rebel control shows extensive help from Moscow.

"While we still have time before the spring, new detachments will be able to receive military training," Zakharchenko said. "We expect mobilization to yield at least five additional brigades — five motorized brigades, one artillery brigade and a tank brigade."

Zakharchenko blamed Ukraine for the collapse of the latest round of peace talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk over the weekend and argued that the rebel offensive was the only way to protect residential areas from Ukrainian shelling.

"Force is the only way to protect our cities, villages and streets from the shelling," Zakharchenko said. The U.S. official said Obama is reconsidering sending lethal assistance to Ukraine, but continues to have concerns about the effectiveness of that step and the risks of a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia.

The official, who insisted on anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Obama is specifically concerned about the besieged Ukrainian military's capacity for using high-powered, American-supplied weaponry. The president has also argued that no amount of arming the Ukrainians would put them on par with Russia's military prowess.

The U.S. so far has limited its supplies to the Ukrainian military to non-lethal aid, such as gas masks and radar technology to detect incoming fire. Speaking in Moscow, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament's upper house, warned Washington that supplies of lethal weapons to Ukraine would lead to "further escalation of the conflict," the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was on a trip to Beijing for a meeting with his Chinese and Indian counterparts, accused the United States of encouraging Kiev to crush the rebellion by force.

In Budapest, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country will not provide weapons to Ukraine and supports negotiations and a diplomatic solution to the conflict. "It is my firm belief that this conflict cannot be solved militarily," Merkel said Monday.

She said she prefers economic sanctions by the European Union and negotiations to "solve or at least mitigate the conflict." The conflict in eastern Ukraine that erupted after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March has claimed more than 5,100 lives and forced 900,000 to flee since April.

Balint Szlanko in Donetsk, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Ukraine, Julie Pace in Washington, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.

Civilians flee east Ukraine town as fighting intensifies

January 31, 2015

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine (AP) — Outgoing heavy-caliber fire boomed incessantly, shaking the ground and rattling windows around the besieged town. Residents of Debaltseve, seemingly inured to the racket, listened impassively as they mustered at the town hall on Saturday to be evacuated with as many belongings as they could carry.

The government-held town has been without power, water and gas for at least 10 days, prompting many to flee from an intense artillery duel between government and Russian-backed separatist forces. Almost every one of the largely deserted streets in the center showed signs of having been struck by projectiles.

A month of relative quiet in eastern Ukraine was shattered in early January by full-blown fighting as the separatists attempted to claw back additional territory from government hands. Rebel leaders accused Ukraine of mobilizing its forces in advance of an imminent offensive.

Efforts to hold talks on halting the escalating violence have to date been unsuccessful. Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a telephone conversation, all expressed hope that negotiations in Minsk, Belarus, will focus on a cease-fire and pulling out heavy weaponry from residential areas, the Kremlin said.

However, representatives for the rebels, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe left the government compound late evening on Saturday after spending four hours behind closed doors.

Ukraine's envoy, Leonid Kuchma, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the talks were derailed after the rebel representatives "refused to discuss steps to bring a complete cease-fire and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry."

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Saturday that 1,000 residents have been evacuated in the past days from Debaltseve. But the number of crammed civilian vehicles seen speeding out of the town's rutted, icy roads over the past few days suggests official figures may be on the conservative side.

"Six buses shuttle (refugees) from there and they constantly come under fire," Yatsenyuk said in comments carried by his press office. "As soon as they (the rebels) see that we are evacuating the people, they open fire."

Yatsenyuk has asked the defense ministry to help secure the evacuation and added that none of the refugees has been injured. Vyacheslav Abroskin, head of police for the Donetsk region, said 12 people had been killed by shelling in Debaltseve, which hosts a strategic railway hub. He did not specify over what period the deaths had taken place.

With the government apparently unable to handle all the people wishing to leave, volunteer groups are trying to fill the gap. "We are evacuating people from this hotspot, so they don't have to deal with what is going on, because this is not their war after all. This has nothing to do with them," said Andrei Vasilyev, a worker with a charitable organization based in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

As Vasilyev's minibus was being loaded, a small child held in his mother's arms pleaded plaintively to leave as soon as possible. Infirm and elderly passengers needed to be lifted into the tightly packed transport.

Leaving Debaltseve carries its own risks because of the encroachment of separatist forces on all sides. Roads running west and east are controlled by rebels, leaving the northbound road the only remaining corridor of relative safety. But fresh, scorched shell craters alongside that road testify that it is dangerous too.

Fighting inched toward Debaltseve this week when separatists burst through government lines to occupy part of the town of Vuhlehirsk. The towns are separated by 13 kilometers (eight miles) of road and railroad. When Ukrainian troops were overrun by formidably armed rebel attackers Thursday, some soldiers were forced to retreat to their positions in Debaltseve on foot.

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.

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. Ukraine's Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Saturday that 15 soldiers had died and that another 30 were injured over the previous day's fighting.

"This happened along the entire line of conflict, starting from the Luhansk region and ending in Mariupol," he said. The United Nations on Friday voiced concern about the deteriorating situation in Debaltseve and other densely populated areas where intense fighting is going on. Neal Walker, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, has called for an immediate humanitarian truce to allow humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians.

Associated Press journalists Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Sergei Grits in Minsk, Belarus, and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

Vatican prepares to open showers, barber shop for homeless

February 06, 2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Rome's homeless are about to get some TLC.

The Vatican said Friday it had finished renovations on public restrooms just off St. Peter's Square that will include three showers and a free barber shop for the city's neediest. Each "homeless pilgrim," as the Vatican called the clients, will receive a kit including a towel, change of underwear, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, razor and shaving cream. The showers will be open every day but Wednesday, when the piazza is full for the pope's general audience. Haircuts will be available Mondays.

Barbers volunteering on their days off - Rome's barber shops are closed Mondays - as well as students from a local beauty school will be donating their time, as well as some sisters from religious orders and other volunteers.

The bathrooms were made with high-tech, easy-to-clean materials to ensure proper hygiene, the Vatican said in a statement. The walls are grey, with white washbasins and a high-tech looking barber chair.

Francis' chief alms-giver, Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, has said the project is needed since homeless people are often shunned for their appearance and smell. The initiative is being funded by donations and sales of papal parchments sold by Krajewski's office.

Francis has stepped up the role of the Vatican "elmosiniere" as part of his insistence that the church look out for the poorest. In addition to small acts of charity, Krajewski's office handed out 400 sleeping bags to the homeless over Christmas, distributed 1,600 phone cards to new migrants on the island of Lampedusa, and this past week gave away some 300 umbrellas that had been left behind at the Vatican Museums to help the homeless cope with days of heavy rain in the capital.

Polish president Komorowski says will run for 2nd term

February 05, 2015

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski says he will run for a second five-year term in May.

The announcement Thursday was expected. Komorowski is a popular leader who is far ahead of other candidates in opinion polls. In Poland the president has many ceremonial functions, but also stands at the head of the military, has a say in foreign affairs and can veto laws.

Komorowski once belonged to the ruling pro-market Civic Platform party. He left it when he became president but still is aligned with that group. He took office in 2010 after his predecessor, President Lech Kaczynski, was killed in a plane crash in Russia.

Elections are to be held May 10, with a runoff if necessary on May 24.

Crimean Tatar leader to remain in detention

06 February 2015 Friday

February 6, Crimean Supreme Court decided to leave Deputy Chairman of Crimean Tatar Mejlis Akhtem Chiygoz in pre-trial detention center till 19 February, krymr.com reports.

The Supreme Court refused to grant an appeal on arrest of Akhtem Chiygoz on 29 January.

Chiygoz was detained on 29 January in the framework of criminal investigation of Crimean Tatars' rally that took place on 26 February 2014, when Crimean Tatars expressed their support of Ukraine's integrity.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/154499/crimean-tatar-leader-to-remain-in-detention.

Norway signs up to EU greenhouse gas targets

Oslo (AFP)
Feb 4, 2015

Norway announced Wednesday plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 as the oil-rich country aligns itself with targets set by the European Union.

"Norway should become a low-emission society," conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg told reporters.

In addition to slashing emissions, the Nordic country -- which is not an EU member -- intends to join forces and coordinate climate policies with the bloc ahead of global talks hosted by the United Nations in December.

Details of the new approach were not disclosed but Norway will reduce emissions through a mix of domestic cuts and by purchasing emissions credits on the European carbon-trading market.

Half of Norwegian emissions already fall under the current European quota system while reductions in sectors that do not -- such as agriculture and transport -- will have to be agreed with Brussels, the government said.

The Scandinavian country -- whose riches come from oil exploration in the North Sea -- will give up emissions trading with developing countries outside of Europe. Critics say it is a cheap but ineffective way of mitigating climate change.

Norway said it would continue to help those countries' climate efforts through development aid, funding for the preservation of tropical forests and contributions to the UN's Green Climate Fund.

Several environmental groups welcomed the commitments -- including the closer ties with the EU -- while others lamented the lack of details on how emissions will be cut.

"Norway has not met its objectives for a long time," the organisation Future in our Hands (FIVH) said in a statement.

"The EU has a better record with its (emissions) cuts. Perhaps this could set a good framework for Norway?"

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Norway_signs_up_to_EU_greenhouse_gas_targets_999.html.

A New "Republic" to Save Chile's Glaciers

By Marianela Jarroud

SANTIAGO, Feb 4 2015 (IPS) - Chile’s more than 3,000 glaciers are one of the largest reserves of freshwater in South America. But they are under constant threat by the mining industry and major infrastructure projects, environmentalists and experts warn.

The lack of legislation to protect them allowed the global environmental watchdog Greenpeace to create the Glacier Republic in March 2014 – a virtual country created on 23,000 sq km of glaciers in the Chilean Andes, which already has over 165,000 citizens and 40 embassies spread around the world.

“The Glacier Republic emerged in response to a need, because the glaciers in this country aren’t protected,” the executive director of Greenpeace Chile, Mat?as As?n, told Tierramérica.

A glacier is a huge mass of ice and snow that forms where snow in the wintertime gathers faster than it melts in the summer and flows slowly over an area of land. Most of the world’s freshwater — 69 percent — is locked away in glaciers and ice caps.

“These are strategic reserves of water that contribute in a significant manner during periods of drought and are found not only in the high mountains but also in the south of the country,” As?n explained.

“Many glaciers have been buried and conserve important reserves of water,” he added. “These supply water to the river basins, and not only the most basic human activities but also agriculture and the economy of the country depend on the basins.”

Chile, a mining country whose main source of wealth is copper, has 82 percent of South America’s glaciers, according to Greenpeace. However, most of them have visibly retreated due to the impact of climate change and large-scale mining activities.

Addressing the Chilean legislature in 2014, glaciologist Alexander Brenning, from the University of Waterloo, Ontario said the magnitude of interventions on glaciers in Chile was unparalleled in the world, and urged that the cumulative effects be assessed.

“The experts are emphatic: Chile has one of the worst records in the world in terms of destruction of glaciers,” As?n said. “This is the sad situation that forced us to found the Glacier Republic.”

“Because the glaciers were in no man’s land, we used that legal vacuum to found the Glacier Republic. We took possession of the entire surface area of glaciers in Chile and declared ourselves an independent republic,” he added.

The Glacier Republic, created as an awareness-raising campaign, was founded on the basis of the Convention on Rights and Duties of States, better known as the Montevideo Convention after the city where it was signed in 1933. The first article of the convention establishes four requisites for declaring the creation of a state: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

The aim of the Glacier Republic is to push for what the citizens describe as a “five-star” law on glaciers, which would guarantee the total protection of Chile’s glaciers.

The activists want protection of the glaciers as a national asset for public use to be introduced in the constitution.

They also argue that the law should establish that “the glaciers represent strategic reserves of water in a solid state,” and that it should include a legal definition of glaciers and descriptions of the different kinds of glaciers and their ecosystems, and specify what kinds of activities are permitted and prohibited in each ecosystem.

In addition, the idea is to establish in the law a grace period and specific timeframe for activities currently carried out in protected or potentially protected areas to adapt to the new law.

In May 2014, lawmakers from the self-described “glacier caucus”, which includes the former student leader and current Communist legislator Camila Vallejo, introduced a draft law in Congress to create a legal framework to protect the country’s glaciers.

The current legislation allows activities like mining or the construction of infrastructure to affect a glacier, if the impact is spelled out in the environmental impact assessment and compensated for in some way.

In August, Congress agreed to try to move towards passage of a new law. But the draft law, which has drawn criticism from different sides, has not yet been approved.

Chilean glaciologist Cedomir Marangunic, who works with different technologies to save and create new glaciers, told Tierramérica that he believes certain well-regulated activities, such as tourism or development projects, can be allowed in the areas of the glaciers, unless prohibiting all human activity is indispensable for the survival of a specific glacier.

But he said glaciers, especially the ones located on privately owned territory, should be in the public domain by law.

Marangunic, a geologist at the University of Chile with a PhD in glaciology from Ohio State University in the U.S., said that although “some mining” hurts glaciers, “the pollution caused by large cities like Santiago or the smoke from the burning of grasslands and forests” also damage them.

But for the Diaguita Community of Huasco Valley in the arid northern region of Atacama, where the Canadian company Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama gold and silver mine is located, there is no room for doubt.

“Glaciers are the reservoirs of water that we have had for thousands of years. And today, in times of drought, it is the glaciers that keep us alive and supplied with water,” the indigenous community’s spokesman, Sebasti?n Cruz, told Tierramérica.

Huasco Valley, in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, runs across the Andes mountains to the sea and is fed by water from the glaciers, added the representative of the Diaguita native community, who live in that vulnerable ecosystem.

Far from living up to the commitment expressed in the environmental impact study, the Pascua Lama gold mine has destroyed “nearly 99 percent of the Esperanza glacier and the Toro 1 and 2 glaciers,” Cruz said.

The Diaguita community argues that a new law on glaciers must guarantee protection for certain conservation areas and must ban any extractive or mining activities in the glaciers and the surrounding landscape.

Socialist President Michelle Bachelet promised to protect the glaciers, in a May 2014 speech to the nation. But since then she has not referred publicly to the issue. A group of legislators from the governing Nueva Mayor?a have backed the draft law.

The citizens of the Glacier Republic promise they won’t back down until a strong law on glaciers is passed.

“For the time being, the glaciers belong to the Glacier Republic, and we will be in a dispute with the Chilean state until we see a determined commitment to a real law,” As?n said.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/a-new-republic-to-save-chiles-glaciers/.

Burkina presidential guard calls for PM to step down: security sources

Ouagadougou (AFP)
Feb 4, 2015

Burkina Faso's elite presidential guard is calling for interim Prime Minister Isaac Zida to step down, security sources said Wednesday.

Members of the army's presidential security regiment (RSP) "are calling for the resignation of the prime minister," who has been in the job for little more than two months following a popular uprising last year, one of the sources told AFP.

Ties between the RSP and military-ruler-turned-prime-minister Zida have been strained after he called for the dissolution of the presidential guard in the wake of the revolt.

The RSP was widely criticized for its role in a heavy-handed crackdown by security forces on the mass protests that ousted former president Blaise Compaore in late October.

At least 24 people were killed in the demonstrations and more than 600 were injured, according to an official inquiry.

A planned meeting of the council of ministers on Wednesday morning had to be cancelled as Zida was called into talks with members of the RSP.

The uprising in Burkina Faso was triggered in part by Compaore's bid to change the constitution to seek a further term in office after 27 years in power.

After Compaore fled the country on October 31, the military briefly seized power but agreed to hand over to a transitional government in the face of international pressure.

Zida was then picked to become interim premier under civilian President Michel Kafando.

Last month, Kafando announced that presidential and legislative elections will be held in October.

Burkina Faso is a major exporter of cotton and gold, but almost half the population lives on less than a dollar a day and many are subsistence farmers.

Every change of regime in the country has been triggered by a coup since independence from France in 1960, when it was called Upper Volta.

Source: Africa Daily.
Link: http://www.africadaily.net/reports/Burkina_presidential_guard_calls_for_PM_to_step_down_security_sources_999.html.

Tens of thousands 'going hungry in drought-hit Madagascar'

Antananarivo
Feb 4, 2015

A prolonged drought has left tens of thousands of people struggling to find food in southern Madagascar, authorities in the Indian Ocean island nation warned Wednesday.

Local district leaders said more than 100 people had already starved to death, but the National Bureau for Disaster and Risk Management stressed it was still verifying the figure. "According to the information available from the Androy, Anosy and southeast regions, tens of thousands of people are struggling to find food," the office said in a statement.

The statement put the provisional death toll at 103, though it was unclear over which period the deaths were reported. A reported 98 people died the Bekily district alone, where local lawmaker Jean Daniel appealed to the media for help on Tuesday, warning that the food scarcity had also displaced nearly 3,000 residents since the start of the year. The bureau's executive secretary Ludovic Christian Lomotsy told AFP that the drought began in November and that teams had been sent to the affected a reas to assess the scale of the problem.

He stressed that the death toll had yet to be confirmed. "The figures we have are from district leaders," he said.

"Our problem is in verifying these facts. An assessment team has been dispatched to investigate." He also said his office was working with the UN's World Food Programme. The findings are expected in 15 days, said Lomotsy.

According to a statement by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) last month, "as much as 40 percent of crops in southern Madagascar are at risk" because of drought, cyclones, and a locust plague that has lingered since November 2012. "More than three-fourths of the population in the Atsimo-Andrefana and Androy regions, where maize and cassava production have declined sharply and rice output remains well below trend, currently face food insecurity," the organisation said.

A joint FAO-WFP food security report released in October last year also warned of rising food prices. According to the International Monetary Fund, 93 percent of Madagascans live on less than $2 a day.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Tens_of_thousands_going_hungry_in_drought-hit_Madagascar_999.html.

NATO beefs up response force to face Russia, Islamic threats

February 06, 2015

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO defense ministers agreed Thursday to more than double the size of the alliance's Response Force and create a new quick-reaction force of 5,000 troops to meet simultaneous challenges from Russia and Islamic extremists.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the decisions made during a daylong meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels will "ensure that we have the right forces in the right place at the right time."

NATO will now "be able to defend all allies against any threat, from the east or from the south," he told reporters. NATO's total Response Force was increased from 13,000 to 30,000 troops and its new rapid reaction force should start to deploy within 48 hours, Stoltenberg said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his counterparts from NATO's other 27 member nations also ordered the creation of command-and-control centers in the capitals of the three Baltic states — Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania — as well as in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. In an emergency the centers will help speed the arrival of the new quick-reaction force as well as later NATO reinforcements.

A new headquarters to help defend NATO members in northeastern Europe will also be created in western Poland, and Romania has volunteered to host a similar multinational divisional headquarters for southeastern Europe, the ministers said.

Six of NATO's largest European members — Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain — volunteered on a rotating basis to furnish the nucleus for the quick-reaction force, a brigade-sized, land-based unit accompanied by air- and sea-based elements that should be able to deploy in a week, Stoltenberg said.

"European allies are fully playing their part, taking the lead in protecting Europe," Stoltenberg said. For 2015, he said, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands have already begun training and exercising a prototype version of the force.

U.S. officials have said they plan to assist the new formation with non-troop support such as airlifts, intelligence, surveillance or reconnaissance capabilities. When asked if the U.S.-led alliance's latest actions might fuel a Cold War-style escalation with Russia, Stoltenberg said the measures are purely defensive and were being taken only because of Russia's actions.

"In Ukraine, violence is getting worse and the crisis is deepening," Stoltenberg said. "Russia continues to disregard international rules and to support the separatists with advanced weapons, training and forces."

Russia has vehemently denied allegations of being involved in the Ukrainian conflict, a stance that Western military experts dismiss. The top NATO commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, said Thursday that Russia continues to supply the separatists in Ukraine with heavy, state-of-the-art weapons, air defenses and fighters.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said NATO's new command and control centers and the high readiness joint task force are part of the alliance's "measures on land, air, and sea." "Everything NATO does is designed to reassure the alliance that we can defend the alliance," she said. "That is in stark contrast to what Russia has done (in Ukraine), offensively pouring weapons into another country, supporting separatists, taking over parts of territory and annexing them."

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.