1815 revisited: Ceremonies mark fateful Battle of Waterloo

June 18, 2015

BRUSSELS (AP) — Royalty, dignitaries and soldiers commemorated the 1815 Battle of Waterloo on Thursday, a watershed moment in European history that marked the end of the continent's domination by France and its emperor Napoleon and the beginning of the British century.

Belgium's King Philippe led a ceremony for hundreds of guests Thursday, while thousands of re-enactors gathered under the Lion's Mount monument at the Waterloo battle site. The commemorations took place exactly 200 years after more than 10,000 soldiers died in a half-day battle between French troops and an international coalition led by Britain's Duke of Wellington.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said "the enemies of yesterday have become staunch allies" and descendants of the top military leaders of that battle joined hands on the very grounds where their ancestors had fired guns and cannons at one another.

Still, two centuries later, Waterloo often remains an unmentionable topic for the French. Even if royalty and nobility from several of the 1815 belligerents attended the ceremony south of Brussels, France only sent a lower-key delegation — and Paris had already strongly objected to the minting of a commemorative Waterloo coin.

Yet one Frenchman on Thursday saw Waterloo as a decisive defeat. Pierre Moscovici, the European Union's financial affairs Commissioner, said the eurogroup meeting of finance ministers needed to keep struggling Greece on board the shared euro currency. "I don't want today's #Eurogroup to be another Waterloo," he said.

And the Le Monde newspaper, too, viewed the battle in the same light, exhorting Britain on Thursday to stay alongside France in the 28-nation EU. "We solemnly say to our friends across the Channel: beware, Brexit could be your Waterloo!"

To Britain, though, Waterloo is nothing but a glorious victory. Prince Charles came to the battlefield on Wednesday, then was joined by Prime Minister David Cameron at a Waterloo commemorative service Thursday at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Descendants of those who fought, including the 9th Duke of Wellington, also marked the occasion at a service, which featured readings of extracts offering accounts of the battle.

St. Paul's is the resting place of the first Duke of Wellington. "This anniversary means a great deal. The battle changed history. Had we not won, we probably would be speaking French now," said Squadron Sergeant Major Tony Gray, 76, of the Light Cavalry.

And at NATO facilities in Kabul, Afghanistan, British and other NATO soldiers also marked one of the most famous battles in history.

Danica Kirka contributed from London

Exit poll: Danish governing bloc, opposition neck-and-neck

June 18, 2015

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt's governing coalition and the center-right opposition were in dead heat Thursday in Denmark's parliamentary election, according to an exit poll by broadcaster TV2.

The poll results gave the opposition 88 seats, and 87 for parties supporting the center-left government. That would still leave the race open because it doesn't count the four seats from the semi-autonomous territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.

The poll was based on about 6,000 interviews and had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points. Kasper Jensen of polling institute Megafon sounded a note of caution, saying the exit poll wasn't a final result.

It's "only an indication of what a representative group of people had voted," Jensen said. Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democrats and opposition leader Lars Loekke Rasmussen's Liberals depend on other parties to build a majority in the 179-seat Folketing, or Parliament. The campaigns focused on immigration and welfare spending, among other issues.

In addition to the 175 seats decided by voters in Denmark, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland get two seats each. If the vote is close, those four seats could swing a result in favor of either Thorning-Schmidt or Loekke Rasmussen. Currently, the government bloc has three of the four seats. Polling stations in the Faeroes close at 1900 GMT (3 p.m. EDT) while those in Greenland shut down three hours later.

Both Thorning-Schmidt and Loekke Rasmussen have promised to further tighten Denmark's controls on immigration. Loekke Rasmussen, a former prime minister, needs support from the populist Danish People's Party, which wants to reintroduce border controls against neighboring countries. That's a controversial among many in the European Union who feel it would challenge the idea of a borderless Europe. But Loekke Rasmussen appeared to endorse the proposal as he cast his vote in Copenhagen.

"I want an open Denmark, but I also want a Denmark that is efficiently shut for people who don't want our country," Loekke Rasmussen told reporters. Thorning-Schmidt voted not too far away, accompanied by her husband, Stephen Kinnock, who was elected to Britain's Parliament for the Labour Party in Aberavon last month. He wasn't voting.

Thorning-Schmidt, a prime minister since 2011, emphasized Denmark's economic growth in recent years. "That road we have steered Denmark onto, where we have a grip on the economy, where there is money for the welfare, if that is the way you want to take, then you must vote for the Social Democrats," she said.

Thorning-Schmidt has pledged to raise welfare spending by 39 billion kroner ($5.7 billion), while the opposition says that improvements can be achieved without expanding the public sector. Candidates were campaigning until the very end, handing out leaflets, flowers, balloons and sweets to voters on the streets and squares of the Scandinavian country of 5.6 million. According to pollsters, up to 20 percent of Danish voters had not made up their minds before the election.

Left, right are neck-and-neck as Danes vote in elections

June 18, 2015

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danes are voting in parliamentary elections that will determine whether the center-left government of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt can continue or whether the center-right opposition will be back at the helm.

Both Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democrats and opposition leader Lars Loekke Rasmussen's Liberals depend on other parties to build a majority in the 179-seat Folketing, or Parliament. Ahead of Thursday's vote, polls show them neck and neck, with their campaigns focusing on the impact of immigration on the welfare system, among other issues. Both sides have promised to further tighten Denmark's controls on immigration.

In a voting day poll in the Politiken newspaper and on the TV2 channel, the government side would get 49.1 percent and the opposition 50.1 percent. Pollster Megafon said some 1,800 interviews were carried out Wednesday and the margin of error was 3 percentage points.

Loekke Rasmussen, a former prime minister, needs support from the populist Danish People's Party that wants border controls back to stop foreign criminals from entering the country. Some 4.1 million Danes are eligible on Thursday and can pick among 10 parties and 799 candidates, including 16 independents. The vote will elect 175 lawmakers in Denmark, two in the Faeroe Islands and two in Greenland, which are semi-autonomous Danish territories.

Haitians booted from Dominican Republic uncertain of future

June 19, 2015

FONBAYA, Haiti (AP) — Saint-Soi Souverin sat on a bench resting and thinking about his plight after being uprooted from his longtime home on the other side of the border in the Dominican Republic, far from the Haitian shelter where he is staying.

Dominican authorities deported the 35-year-old farm worker along with his wife and four children early this week, leaving Souverin to ponder what he will do in Haiti — a deeply poor country that he left at age 17 to find work in the relatively more prosperous Dominican Republic.

"I'm not taking this well," he told The Associated Press in Spanish as his small daughter fell asleep on the shelter's concrete floor Thursday. "They sent me here with two empty hands. Everything I own was left behind."

The Dominican Republic has long had uneasy relations with migrant workers like Souverin and it is becoming decidedly more unfriendly. Human rights activists worry that tens of thousands of people will face Souverin's plight in the coming weeks and months now that the Dominican government is pledging to deport non-citizens who did not submit applications to establish legal residency before Wednesday night's deadline. Most of those affected are from neighboring Haiti or of Haitian descent.

An estimated 460,000 Haitian migrants live in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Officials have said nearly 290,000 people had enrolled in the immigration registration program, but only about 10,000 provided the required documents.

Many people had expected authorities to immediately start deporting people after the deadline passed, but the government said it would be a slow, developing process. The repatriations are not going to be "a witch hunt," Interior Minister Ramon Fadul said. "It will be a gradual process, as it should be, without any sudden surprises."

But Dominican officials also warned that people should start carrying documents to prove they are legal residents, to avoid deportation in case authorities stop them. Advocates for the migrants have criticized the registration plan as discriminatory regardless of the pace of deportations.

Dominican military officials and immigration agents have consistently raided communities with a high concentration of Haitians and detained people based on the way they look, said Wade McMullen, managing attorney for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in Washington.

"The Dominican Republic is shooting themselves in the foot, and it seems to be for short-term political gain," he said in a phone interview. "Over the long term, they're going to realize that there's not only going to be a significant economic impact, but that the human toll is going to be even greater."

One of those worrying about what will happen is 27-year-old Julio Mato, a moto-taxi driver who says he was born in the Dominican Republic to a Haitian mother and a Dominican father. During an interview by phone, Mato said many people he knows are fearful of being deported, and added that he doesn't understand why the Dominican Republic wants to chase off Haitians, who mainly work in low-wage jobs, often in construction and agriculture and as maids and gardeners.

"We live off the Haitians and the Haitians live off us," he said. Fadul expressed surprise at the number of people who sought to obtain legal residency, with dozens complaining they were turned away when the deadline expired at midnight Wednesday after standing in line for more than 24 hours.

"I don't know why in recent days thousands of people have come," he said, noting that the registration for legal residency began a year ago. "Who has brought them? Why didn't they come before?" The program began last June after legal challenges delayed its original launch in 2004. Non-citizens can qualify for legal residency if they can prove they have been in the Dominican Republic since before October 2011.

Souverin said he has lived in the Dominican Republic for nearly two decades and obtained an official document two years ago with help from a nonprofit organization only to have it seized at the border when he returned from a quick trip to Haiti.

He also accused school officials of seizing the papers of his Dominican-born children, forcing them to quit school, echoing a common complaint among migrants. "I don't like this one bit," he said. "Why do they treat me this way?"

The government implemented the registration program amid international criticism of a 2013 decision by the Dominican Supreme Court that people born in the Dominican Republic to non-citizens did not qualify for citizenship under the constitution unless they had at least one parent who was a citizen or legal resident. The ruling rendered thousands effectively stateless. Officials said they will grant citizenship to some 50,000 people in this category.

Souverin is now one of nearly 50 deported migrants staying at the shelter in Haiti, including women who are breastfeeding their babies. He said he doesn't know what he is going to do or how he will provide for his family.

"I don't have a house," Souverin said. "I lost all my resources."

Associated Press writer Evens Sanon reported this story in Fonbaya, Haiti, and Danica Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. AP writers Ezequiel Abiu Lopez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Pierre Richard Luxama in Fonbaya contributed to this report.

Burundi: 100 students seek refuge at US embassy in capital

June 25, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — About 100 university students in Burundi are in the U.S. embassy's parking lot seeking refuge amid the country's political turmoil, an embassy statement confirmed Thursday.

The students had been camping at a construction site adjacent to the embassy grounds after their university was closed on April 30 due to political turmoil. Police persuaded them to leave the site and some went to the embassy's parking lot, the statement said. Four people received minor injuries during the incident, the embassy said.

The students said they fear aggression after violent demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's efforts to run for a third term in elections in July. Landry Ndikuriyo, a history major at the National University of Burundi, said the police threatened the use of force to evict them from the building site causing a melee as students scampered for safety.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said some of the students were starting to leave and that all the embassy workers were safe. "There was no violent action against the embassy. This wasn't directed at the United States," Kirby told reporters. "There was never any penetration of the actual embassy compound, and none of our State Department employees were under any physical threat whatsoever."

At least 77 people have died in street protests against Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in the July 15 presidential elections, according to rights activists. Also Thursday, Burundi's second vice president said he fled the country fearing for his life after opposing the president's controversial effort to extend his time in power that sparked off violent protests in the capital in recent weeks.

Gervais Rufyikiri, who went to Belgium last week, said in an interview on Radio France International that he has not officially resigned. He is the most senior government official to publicly oppose Nkurunziza's efforts to stay in power. Dozens of opposition and civil society activists, government officials and journalists have gone into exile after opposing the president's candidacy for another term.

Critics say Nkurunziza's push for another term violates the two-term limit for presidents set by the constitution. The street protests started April 26, after the announcement of Nkurunziza's candidacy. The demonstrations triggered an attempted coup in mid-May that was quickly put down.

Moon engulfed in permanent, lopsided dust cloud

Boulder CO (SPX)
Jun 22, 2015

The moon is engulfed in a permanent but lopsided dust cloud that increases in density when annual events like the Geminids spew shooting stars, according to a new study led by University of Colorado Boulder.

The cloud is made up primarily of tiny dust grains kicked up from the moon's surface by the impact of high-speed, interplanetary dust particles, said CU-Boulder physics Professor Mihaly Horanyi. A single dust particle from a comet striking the moon's surface lofts thousands of smaller dust specks into the airless environment, and the lunar cloud is maintained by regular impacts from such particles, said Horanyi, also a research associate at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

The cloud was discovered using data from NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, which launched in September 2013 and orbited the moon for about six months. A detector on board called the Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) designed and built by CU-Boulder charted more than 140,000 impacts during the six-month mission.

"Identifying this permanent dust cloud engulfing the moon was a nice gift from this mission," said Horanyi, the principal investigator on LDEX and lead study author. "We can carry these findings over to studies of other airless planetary objects like the moons of other planets and asteroids."

A paper on the subject appears in Nature. Co-authors include Jamey Szalay, Sascha Kempf, Eberhard Grun and Zoltan Sternovsky from CU-Boulder, Juergen Schmidt from the University Oulu in Finland and Ralf Srama from the University of Stuttgart in Germany.

Horanyi said the first hints of a cloud of dust around the moon came in the late 1960s when NASA cameras aboard unmanned moon landers captured a bright glow during lunar sunsets. Several years later, Apollo astronauts orbiting the moon reported a significant glow above the lunar surface when approaching sunrise, a phenomenon which was brighter than what the sun alone should have been able to generate at that location.

Since the new findings don't square with the Apollo reports of a thicker, higher dust cloud, conditions back then may have been somewhat different, said Horanyi. The dust on the moon - which is dark and sticky and regularly dirtied the suits of moonwalking astronauts - was created over several billion years as interplanetary dust particles incessantly pounded the rocky lunar surface.

Knowledge of the dusty environments in space has practical applications, said Horanyi. Knowing where the dust is and where it is headed in the solar system, for example, could help mitigate hazards for future human exploration, including dust particles damaging spacecraft or harming astronauts.

Many of the cometary dust particles impacting the lunar surface are traveling at thousands of miles per hour in a retrograde, or counterclockwise orbit around the sun - the opposite orbital direction of the solar system's planets. This causes high-speed, near head-on collisions with the dust particles and the moon's leading surface as the Earth-moon system travel together around the sun, said Horanyi.

The Geminid meteor showers occur each December when Earth plows through a cloud of debris from an oddball object called Phaethon, which some astronomers describe as a cross between an asteroid and a comet. "When these 'beams' we see from meteors at night hit the moon at the right time and place, we see the cloud density above the moon skyrocket for a few days," said Horanyi.

Horanyi also is the principal investigator on a CU-Boulder student dust-counting instrument on board NASA's New Horizons spacecraft that will whip by Pluto on July 14 after a journey of more than nine years.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Moon_engulfed_in_permanent_lopsided_dust_cloud_999.html.

Dissolving Titan

Paris (ESA)
Jun 22, 2015

Saturn's moon Titan is home to seas and lakes filled with liquid hydrocarbons, but what makes the depressions they lie in? A new study suggests that the moon's surface dissolves in a similar process that creates sinkholes on Earth.

Apart from Earth, Titan is the only body in the Solar System known to possess surface lakes and seas, as seen by the international Cassini mission. But at roughly -180 C, the surface of Titan is very cold and liquid methane and ethane, rather than water, dominate the 'hydrological' cycle.

Indeed, methane and ethane-filled topographic depressions are distinctive features near the moon's poles. Two forms have been identified by Cassini. There are vast seas several hundred kilometers across and up to several hundred meters deep, fed by river-like dendritic channels. Then there are numerous smaller, shallower lakes, with rounded edges and steep walls, and generally found in flat areas. Many empty depressions are also observed.

The lakes are generally not associated with rivers, and are thought fill up by rainfall and liquids flooding up from underneath. Some of the lakes fill and dry out again during the 30-year seasonal cycle on Saturn and Titan.

But quite how the depressions hosting the lakes came about in the first place is poorly understood.

A team of scientists have turned to home for the answer and discovered that Titan's lakes are reminiscent of 'karstic' landforms seen on Earth. These are terrestrial landscapes that result from erosion of soluble rocks such as limestone and gypsum in groundwater and rainfall percolating through rocks. Over time, this leads to features including sinkholes and caves under humid climates, and salt-pans under more arid climates.

The rate of erosion depends on factors such as the chemistry of the rocks, the rainfall rate and the surface temperature. While all of these aspects clearly differ between Titan and Earth, the underlying process may be surprisingly similar.

A team lead by ESA's Thomas Cornet calculated how long it would take for patches of Titan's surface to dissolve to create these features. They assumed that the surface is covered in solid organic material, and that the main dissolving agent is liquid hydrocarbons, and took into account present-day models of Titan's climate.

The scientists found that it would take around 50 million years to create a 100 m-deep depression at Titan's relatively rainy high polar latitudes, consistent with the youthful age of the moon's surface.

"We compared the erosion rates of organics in liquid hydrocarbons on Titan with those of carbonate and evaporite minerals in liquid water on Earth," describes Thomas.

"We found that the dissolution process occurs on Titan some 30 times slower than on Earth due to the longer length of Titan's year and the fact it only rains during Titan summer.

"Nevertheless, we believe that dissolution is a major cause of landscape evolution on Titan, and could be the origin of its lakes."

In addition, the scientists calculated how long it would take to form lake depressions at lower latitudes, where the rainfall is reduced. The much longer timescale of 375 million years is consistent with the relative absence of depressions in these geographical locations.

"Of course, there are a few uncertainties: the composition of Titan's surface is not that well constrained, and neither are the long-term precipitation patterns, but our calculations are still consistent with the features we see today on Titan's relatively youthful billion-year-old surface," says Thomas.

"By comparing Titan's surface features with examples on Earth and applying a few simple calculations, we have found similar land-shaping processes that could be operating under very different climate and chemical regimes," says Nicolas Altobelli, ESA's Cassini-Huygens project scientist.

"This is a great comparative study between our home planet and a dynamic world more than a billion kilometers away in the outer Solar System."

Source: Saturn Daily.
Link: http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/Dissolving_Titan_999.html.

Titan's atmosphere even more Earth-like than previously thought

London, UK (SPX)
Jun 22, 2015

Scientists at UCL have observed how a widespread polar wind is driving gas from the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. The team analysed data gathered over seven years by the international Cassini probe, and found that the interactions between Titan's atmosphere, and the solar magnetic field and radiation, create a wind of hydrocarbons and nitriles being blown away from its polar regions into space. This is very similar to the wind observed coming from the Earth's polar regions.

Titan is a remarkable object in the Solar System. Like Earth and Venus, and unlike any other moon, it has a rocky surface and a thick atmosphere. It is the only object in the Solar System aside from the Earth to have rivers, rainfall and seas. It is bigger than the planet Mercury.

Thanks to these unique features, Titan has been studied more than any moon other than Earth's, including numerous fly-bys by the Cassini probe, as well as the Huygens lander which touched down in 2004. On board Cassini is an instrument partly designed at UCL, the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS), which was used in this study.

"Titan's atmosphere is made up mainly of nitrogen and methane, with 50% higher pressure at its surface than on Earth," said Andrew Coates (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory), who led the study. "Data from CAPS proved a few years ago that the top of Titan's atmosphere is losing about seven tonnes of hydrocarbons and nitriles every day, but didn't explain why this was happening. Our new study provides evidence for why this is happening."

Hydrocarbons are a category of molecules that includes methane, as well as other familiar substances including petrol, natural gas and bitumen. Nitriles are molecules with nitrogen and carbon tightly bound together.

The new research, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, explains that this atmospheric loss is driven by a polar wind powered by an interaction between sunlight, the solar magnetic field and the molecules present in the upper atmosphere.

"Although Titan is ten times further from the Sun than Earth is, its upper atmosphere is still bathed in light," says Coates. "When the light hits molecules in Titan's ionosphere, it ejects negatively charged electrons out of the hydrocarbon and nitrile molecules, leaving a positively charged particle behind. These electrons, known as photoelectrons, have a very specific energy of 24.1 electronvolts, which means they can be traced by the CAPS instrument, and easily distinguished from other electrons, as they propagate through the surrounding magnetic field."

Unike Earth, Titan has no magnetic field of its own, but is surrounded by Saturn's rapidly rotating magnetic field, which drapes forming a comet-like tail around the moon. In 23 fly-bys which passed through Titan's ionosphere or its magnetic tail, CAPS detected measurable quantities of these photoelectrons up to 6.8 Titan radii away from the moon, because they can easily travel along the magnetic field lines.

The team found that these negatively-charged photoelectrons, spread throughout Titan's ionosphere and the tail, set up an electrical field. The electrical field, in turn, is strong enough to pull the positively charged hydrocarbon and nitrile particles from the atmosphere throughout the sunlit portion of the atmosphere, setting up the widespread 'polar wind' that scientists have observed there.

This phenomenon has only been observed on Earth before, in the polar regions where Earth's magnetic field is open. As Titan lacks its own magnetic field the same thing can occur over wider regions, not just near the poles. A similarly widespread 'polar wind' is strongly suspected to exist both on Mars and Venus - the two planets in the Solar System which are most Earth-like. It gives further evidence of how Titan, despite its location in orbit around a gas giant in the outer Solar System, is one of the most Earth-like objects ever studied.

Source: Saturn Daily.
Link: http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/Titans_atmosphere_even_more_Earth_like_than_previously_thought_999.html.

Putin's ally suggests Russian leader could hold early vote

June 18, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Vladimir Putin's long-time ally suggested Thursday that the Russian president could order an early vote to win a mandate for much-needed economic reforms, comments that sent shock waves through Russia's business and political elite.

Russia's economy, hit by Western sanctions and its own dependence on oil prices, has entered a recession, dropping 2.2 percent in the first quarter of the year. Prominent economists have warned that unless Russia makes drastic reforms, it is doomed for stagnation.

Alexei Kudrin, Russia's finance minister from 2000-11 and the man who invited Putin in for a job in Russia's presidential administration in the late 1990s, suggested at an investment conference Thursday in St. Petersburg that Putin could hold an early election in order to "win the mandate" for economic reforms.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Kudrin said he hadn't discussed the idea with Putin, whose current term expires in 2018. Still, he insisted the move was necessary, because of a "dire need of serious measures to restore the economy."

"If you're not ready to conduct (structural reforms) before the re-election, which anyone hardly does, then you need to do it after the election and do the election early," Kudrin explained. Kudrin, one of the few believed to still have Putin's ear, said Putin may not be prepared to undertake the painful reforms just now.

"He is a pragmatic man with an acute feeling of the political situation and it is possible that he will delay the reforms," he said. Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000, began his third term in 2012 amid massive anti-government protests and low approval ratings. Those ratings then skyrocketed last spring after Russia annexed Crimea.

Sergei Neverov, a senior lawmaker at the ruling United Russia party, accused Kudrin on Thursday of trying to "destabilize the society" with his provocative statements. Russia's economy is in recession and its manufacturing and investment are declining as the country reels from lower commodity prices, the backbone of its economy.

But the recession is only partly a product of Western sanctions, Kudrin said, adding it was largely because Russia has not addressed its oil dependency, has not reformed its court system and did not improve its investment climate. The current government policy, according to Kudrin, addresses only short-term goals and is not looking further than three years ahead.

In an interview Thursday with The AP, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich sought to contest claims that the Kremlin has given up on economic reforms. "We're committed to big structural reforms, we've improving the investment climate," Dvorkovich said, quoting Russia's recent progress in moving up in ratings that rank where doing business is easiest.

The Russian parliament, meanwhile, is expected to give the green light next week to a bill that would allow the 2016 parliamentary election to be moved from December to September — a move that critics have interpreted as an attempt to weaken the opposition.

In an opinion piece in the RBK newspaper, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian tycoon who spent ten years in prison after running afoul of Putin's government, this week warned of a clash between the interests of Russian elites, who are advocating isolationist policies and militarization, and those of ordinary Russians, who want better schools and health care.

In Kudrin's opinion, there is no such clash, but he says many of the elite are reluctant to voice any dissent — silence that he says is dragging down the Russian economy. "The elites are silent and don't talk about certain things openly because of our domestic political peculiarities," Kudrin said. "This is bad. This slows down the review of our goals and slows down the reforms."

Myanmar's parliament blocks changes to constitution

June 25, 2015

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's parliament voted against several constitutional amendments Thursday, ensuring that the military's veto power remains intact and that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi cannot become president in an election this year.

The legislature ended a 3-day debate on proposed changes to the 2008 constitution, which bars Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from seeking the presidency and gives the military an effective veto over constitutional amendments.

Changes to both those clauses were rejected in the vote, which was viewed as a final chance to lift obstacles blocking Myanmar's most famous politician from a shot at the presidency in the immediate future. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is expected to see heavy gains against the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party in an election likely to take place by November. No date has been set.

"I am not surprised with the result," Suu Kyi told reporters after the vote. "This makes it very clear that the constitution can never be changed if the military representatives are opposed." She said she didn't see the vote as a loss, since the result had been anticipated, so her supporters should not lose hope.

Suu Kyi and her party had said that the current constitution needed to be amended to meet democratic norms and that the amendments were essential for a free and fair election. "The people should not be disappointed with the decision. It is clearer now how to proceed," she told reporters after the vote, looking defiant and energetic. "The public will clearly understand who wants change and it will help the public to clearly decide who they should vote for in the election."

The NLD swept the last free general election in 1990 but the then-ruling military junta ignored the results and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest and detention for a total of 15 years. The nation's transition from a half-century of brutal military rule to a nominally civilian government in 2011 was marked by early, fast-moving successes. Suu Kyi's 2010 release and her 2012 election to parliament were a catalyst for the West to end years of diplomatic isolation of Myanmar, also called Burma, and roll back sanctions.

But four years after President Thein Sein took office, the military has refused to loosen its grip on parliament or amend the junta-era constitution, which ensures the military's continuing influence in government. It gives the military a mandatory 25 percent of parliamentary seats, handing it veto power over any change in the constitution, which requires greater than 75 percent approval, followed by a nationwide referendum.

Thursday's vote rejected a proposal to trim the share of ballots required to amend the constitution from over 75 percent to 70 percent, a change that would essentially have removed the veto power. The U.S. State Department said Thursday the lack of civilian control over the military and the military's veto power contradicted democratic principles. The U.S. would continue to encourage the government "to allow the people of Burma to elect freely the leaders of their choice," said Michael Quinlan, a spokesman for the department's East Asia bureau.

Two prominent voices in Congress on U.S. policy toward Myanmar said the legitimacy of the November elections was in doubt. "Today's move by the Burmese military in the parliament only solidifies concerns that the country's upcoming elections cannot be free, fair, or credible," Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley and Republican Rep. Steve Chabot said in a statement.

Many viewed the proposed amendment, which could have paved the way for more constitutional change, as key to Suu Kyi's chances for gaining eligibility for the presidency. The opposition leader turned 70 last Friday, raising concerns that time is running out in her political career.

The parliament also rejected amending a clause that bars anyone whose spouse or children are loyal to foreign countries from becoming president or vice president. Suu Kyi's late husband and her two sons are British citizens. The proposed amendment would not have stricken the clause entirely, just dropped the reference to foreign spouses as an obstacle to candidacy.

During this week's debate, lawmakers in military uniforms said it was necessary to keep the clauses intact. "If the person who will become the country's head of state and his or her family members owe allegiance to foreign countries, the country will indirectly fall under foreign subjugation," Brig. Gen. Tin Soe, one of 166 military appointees in parliament, told fellow lawmakers on Wednesday.

Brig. Gen Tin San Naing said Tuesday that the military's veto power helped ensure stability as the country moves away from military rule. "Myanmar is in a democratic transition period," he said. "It has not reached its maturity in democratic practices to ensure peace and security in the country."

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Armenian protesters block road for 3rd day over energy hikes

June 24, 2015

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators protesting a hike in electricity prices entered a third straight day of standoffs with police in Armenia's capital Wednesday, with no visible progress toward resolving the worst unrest the country has seen in years.

President Serge Sarkisian has offered to meet with representatives of the protesters in the impoverished former Soviet nation, but they have refused, demanding instead that he announce on television that the price hikes will be scrapped.

Sarkisian, who hasn't yet commented publicly on the protests, headed to Brussels late Wednesday to attend a conference. The unrest is raising concerns about political stability in Armenia, which has relied on close ties with Russia and joined a Moscow-dominated economic alliance.

Russia has a military base in Armenia, and Russian companies control some of the most prized economic assets, including the power grid. The protest was triggered when an Armenian government panel agreed to raise electricity rates sharply at the request of the power company.

Some politicians in Russia have suggested that the West or Western non-governmental organizations had a hand in fomenting the unrest, comparing the protests to those in Ukraine in 2013 that led to the overthrow of the Russia-friendly president.

The Kremlin, however, took a conciliatory tone, voicing hope that the standoff will be settled peacefully. The demonstrators in Yerevan have denied any links either to foreign organizations or to opposition parties in Armenia. The protesters, most of whom are young, have used social media to organize their actions, which began Friday with three days of sit-in protests.

"No one is controlling us from either West or East," said Yeghia Nersesian, a 36-year-old photographer and activist who is one of the organizers of the protest. "We will look after ourselves. Our reputation is what matters."

Seeking to win broader public support for their action, activists handed out leaflets urging people to "join the struggle from home" by making noise with their utensils from their balconies. They also called on Yerevan residents to switch off the lights in their apartments for an hour as a sign of protest.

On Monday, about 5,000 demonstrators marched toward the presidential residence, but were blocked by police, who early Tuesday used water cannons to forcefully disperse the peaceful demonstration. Nearly 240 protesters were detained, and 15 people were injured.

The demonstration resumed with new force Tuesday evening when thousands launched a new attempt to march on Sarkisian's residence. They were again stopped by police, who this time refrained from any use of force.

Police have released all those detained and dropped charges against them. Hundreds of protesters remained sitting on the road Wednesday, ignoring police appeals to disperse. Many others sought shelter from the sun under trees and umbrellas as the temperature soared to about 40 C (104 F).

Some restaurants, bars and stores provided protesters with free food and drinks. The two sides also were separated by a barricade of large trash containers that the protesters had placed across the road.

When the evening came and the sizzling heat abated a bit, the number of protesters grew to 10,000. People from the suburbs and nearby cities joined the crowds. The atmosphere was relaxed and even festive with people shouting chants, singing national songs and dancing.

Fully renewable energy system is economically viable in Finland in 2050

Lappeenranta, Finland (SPX)
Jun 16, 2015

A fully renewable energy system, including all energy consuming sectors, is not only a possible but a viable solution for Finland, according to a new research. Researchers from Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) have investigated renewable energy system options for Finland in 2050. Results indicate that a fully renewable energy system is possible, and represents a competitive solution for Finland with careful planning.

In order to achieve the national greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2050, all sectors of the energy system need to be nearly emission free by 2050. Renewable energy system modelling shows that a fully renewable energy system featuring high shares of wind and solar energy includes smart interaction between the electricity, heating/cooling and mobility sectors.

Power-to-Gas technology, i.e. converting electricity into gases such as hydrogen or synthetic natural gas, and energy storage solutions, such as batteries, heat storage and synthetic natural gas storage, also have a central role as enabling technologies.

The research includes for the first time the cost and quantified dimensioning of the future energy system for Finland, which means the capacities for each of the production, consumption and storage technologies were defined. The study proposes an economically and technically feasible architecture as first vision for a feasible future energy system for Finland that could be later developed to a roadmap.

This system includes installed capacity of solar power of up to 35 gigawatts and 44 gigawatts of wind power, an amount well above those seen in previous analyses, but supported by an established potential for wind and solar photovoltaics in Finland.

This could create more than 166 TWh of electricity annually, approximately double the current level of final electricity consumption. The excess electricity would then be used to create synthetic fuels that can be consumed when needed for variety of purposes.

In addition, electricity would directly replace fossil fuels in the provision of many energy services, such as heating and transport. These results include stationary battery storage capacities of up to 20 GWh, three million electric vehicles with respective storage capacities and power-to-gas capacities of up to 30 GW.

In the study total annual costs for 100% renewable energy systems are approximately 25 billion euros, slightly less than scenarios with lower shares of renewable energy and a business as usual scenario (26 billion euros). The same trend was found for scenarios with lower shares and higher prices of forest biomass, albeit at higher overall annual cost. By comparison, the current energy system has an annual cost of approximately 18 billion euros and is set to rise to 21 billion euros by 2020 using the same method of calculation.

"The main message is the option of a fully renewable energy system must be seen as a valid option for the future, rather than a radical alternative. Finland certainly has an abundance of renewable resources, such as solar, wind, bioenergy and already exploited hydropower, which can be sustainably utilized," says Christian Breyer, LUT's Professor for Solar Economy.

Modelling the components of future energy systems and calculating future costs are important because the Finnish energy system is at a crossroads. The current power generation system is aging, there are responsibilities to mitigate climate change and worries about fluctuating energy prices.

At the same time, Finland has goals regarding national energy security as well as the need to retain a competitive industrial sector and meet the needs of a future society. Bioenergy alone cannot solve the energy supply problem.

The current study has concluded that flexibility will be a key, defining feature of future energy systems. By unlocking the full potential of all the flexibility available, more efficient and cost effective solutions can be found.

"Energy technologies will be a big part of these solutions, but let's not underestimate the impact that we can have on our own future. We have the opportunity to be more flexible energy consumers, and many individuals will become more active energy producers at the same time. We can become prosumers," states researcher Michael Child.

The researchers are part of LUT's Solar Economy Group. The research has been carried out in the NEO-CARBON ENERGY project. The results will be presented at the World Conference "Futures Studies Tackling Wicked Problems" in Turku on June 11th.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Fully_renewable_energy_system_is_economically_viable_in_Finland_in_2050_999.html.