Ex-Qaeda affiliate battles rebels in north Syria

2017-01-24

IDLIB - Al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria battled a range of rebel groups in the north of the country on Tuesday, as the government and opposition wrapped up new peace talks.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the clashes began early in the day with an attack by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front on a base belonging to the Jaish al-Mujahideen faction.

Fateh al-Sham, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is listed internationally as a "terrorist" group, despite formally renouncing its affiliation with Al-Qaeda in 2016.

But it has also been a key partner at times for rebel groups in Syria, and it leads a powerful alliance that controls all of Syria's Idlib province.

Despite the ties, tensions have occasionally flared between the jihadist group and other rebel forces, which accuse Fateh al-Sham of seeking hegemony.

The morning attack prompted further clashes which continued Tuesday afternoon along the border between Idlib province and northern Aleppo province, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Rockets fired during the fighting killed five members of a family, most of them children and women, he added.

The monitor said Fateh al-Sham had seized territory from rebel groups in Aleppo, while rebels advanced against the jihadist group in Idlib.

There was no official statement from either side on what sparked the clashes, which came after days of tension in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, including infighting between other rebel groups.

But Fateh al-Sham has been hit in recent weeks by a series of deadly air strikes, most believed to have been carried out by the US-led coalition fighting jihadists.

Abdel Rahman said the group appeared to believe that local rebels were providing coordinates for the air strikes.

The latest clashes come as Syria's government and rebel groups conclude fresh peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, building on a ceasefire in force since December 30.

Fateh al-Sham is excluded from the ceasefire and has rejected the negotiating process, creating fresh tensions with opposition groups.

The powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction, a close ally of Fateh al-Sham in Idlib, declined to take part in the talks, saying it wanted to avoid isolating the former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

But on Tuesday, its fighters were battling the group, and a leading Ahrar al-Sham official warned Fateh al-Sham that it was "at a crossroads".

"It either completely joins the revolution or it is a new Daesh," said Labib al-Nahhas on Twitter, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Syria's civil war has killed more than 310,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since it started in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=81055.

In midst of Aleppo wreckage, a Syrian family returns home

January 22, 2017

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — The street looks as if it was hit by an earthquake and the bombed-out building in a former rebel-held northeastern neighborhood of Aleppo is deserted — except for the second-floor apartment where Abdul-Hamid Khatib and his family are staying.

There is no electricity or running water. The apartment windows are covered with nylon sheets and a hole caused by a shell in the sitting room wall is closed with a piece of metal, pierced by the exhaust pipe for the wood-burning heater.

Khatib and his family are the only occupants of the six-story building and they keep its main gate locked with a metal chain, fearing looters. At night, they fumble around the two-bedroom apartment with candles.

But the family has nowhere else to go. The 56-year-old blacksmith had been jobless for months and could not afford to continue paying rent. He was worried their apartment in Aleppo's Ansari neighborhood would be completely looted if they stayed away.

"A few days ago a man who brought some stuff over told me, 'Is it possible that you live here?' I said where can we go? At least this is our house and no one will ask us to leave," said Hasnaa, Khatib's wife.

Life and war have been very unkind to the Khatib family. The eldest son Mohammed was killed in the bombardment of east Aleppo in 2013 and their granddaughter Hasnaa, 4, was killed a year later by a bullet as she played on the balcony of her parents' apartment. Their son Mahmoud died at work of severe burns while welding a metal container filled with gas.

Since rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad stormed east Aleppo in July 2012, the family had to leave the house twice to move to safer areas, before returning back home. But in August 2016, when government forces intensified their offensive on east Aleppo, an airstrike near their home forced them to flee for the third time.

"It was so dangerous and our kids were terrified so we could not tolerate it anymore. We used to tell the gunmen to move away from here but they would not listen to us," Abdul-Hamid said. In late December, government forces and their allies took control of east Aleppo, bringing the whole city under state control in the biggest victory for Assad since the country's conflict began in March 2011.

The Khatib family — like many of east Aleppo's residents — were taken to shelters in the village of Jibrin, just south of Aleppo, where they spent a week before returning to their hometown during the first week of January.

Having little money left to rent an apartment, they returned to their abandoned home in Ansari and fixed it as much as possible. They found many of their belongings looted including the refrigerator, stove, a microwave and seven gas cylinders. When asked who was behind the looting, Khatib blamed both rebels and pro-government gunmen.

The couple now lives in the apartment with their daughter Rasha, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, Abdul-Hamid and Rimas. Their apartment appears in relatively good shape compared with nearby housing units. The buildings on either side of theirs are uninhabitable. Most buildings in their area are either a pile of metal and stones, or so damaged they're no longer suitable to live in. Their home now attracts attention from curious passersby as it's the only apartment on the street with washed laundry hanging from the balcony and wood smoke coming from the heater.

Thousands of other families from east Aleppo have returned to their homes because they have nowhere else to go. Others come in every day to look at their homes and take whatever they can carry with them — especially those in heavily damaged buildings. One neighboring family came to check on their home about 50 meters away and found it could collapse at any moment.

Despite everything, Abdul-Hamid Khatib is optimistic that the situation in his city can only get better. But his wife, Hasnaa, wishes they had fled Syria and joined the nearly four million refugees who settled in neighboring countries, mostly Lebanon and Turkey.

"I feel life was so unjust to me. Although I am alive, I feel as if I am dead," she said, sitting on a plastic chair in her living room." I wish we left at the beginning of the crisis, even if we had to stay in the street."

Almost 180,000 Syrian refugee babies born in Turkey

January 20, 2017

As many as 177,568 babies have been born to Syrian refugees in Turkey over almost six years.

Sources in the Turkish health ministry told Anadolu news agency that about three million Syrians who are subject to the law of temporary protection benefit from health services free of charge across the country’s public hospitals.

According to the same sources, Turkey has established 65 specialized health centers to provide medical services for Syrian refugees while the health ministry will establish an additional 500 centers across the country.

During the period from April 2011 till the end of September last year, Turkish hospitals and health centers have treated millions of cases for the almost three million Syrian refugees living on Turkish soil.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170120-almost-180000-syrian-refugee-babies-born-in-turkey/.

IS advances on terrified citizens of Syria's Deir Ezzor

2017-01-18

DEIR EZZOR - As the Islamic State group closes in on Syria's Deir Ezzor, residents said they are terrified of falling victim to the mass killings for which the jihadists have become infamous.

Besieged by IS since early 2015, the government-held third of Deir Ezzor city is home to an estimated 100,000 people.

Since Saturday, IS has steadily advanced in a fresh assault on the city, sparking fears among residents of widespread atrocities.

"Civilians in the city are terrified and anxious, afraid that IS will enter the city since they accuse us of being 'regime thugs'," said Abu Nour, 51.

He spoke by phone from inside the city, roughly one kilometer (less than one mile) from approaching IS forces.

Deir Ezzor sits in the oil-rich eastern province of the same name, most of which is controlled by IS.

Abu Nour said that residents were haunted by previous abductions and mass executions carried out by IS in the broader province.

"The way they killed them is stuck in people's minds here," he said.

IS is notorious for using particularly gruesome methods to kill military rivals and civilians alike, including beheading, lighting them on fire, or launching rockets at them from just meters (feet) away.

As the group advanced on ancient city Palmyra in 2015, it killed dozens of civilians, accusing them of being regime loyalists, then staged mass executions of government troops in the city's theater.

According to one activist group, IS has already begun executing Syrian soldiers it took captive during the clashes in Deir Ezzor.

IS executed 10 soldiers "by driving over them with tanks", said Omar Abu Leila, an activist from Deir Ezzor 24, which publishes news on the city.

"If IS seizes regime-held neighborhoods, it could carry out massacres. This is a huge source of concern for us," he said.

- 'Hunger will ravage us' -

In its push for Deir Ezzor, the jihadist group has launched salvos of rockets on the neighborhoods it besieged.

"Shells have rained down on us for five days," Umm Inas, another resident, said by phone.

"There's very little movement in the street because people are afraid of these shells, which spare no one," the 45-year-old said.

She warned the humanitarian situation was getting increasingly dire, after the World Food Program said on Tuesday it could no longer carry out air drops over the city because of the fighting.

"If the situation continues like this, hunger will ravage us. The air drops were our only lifeline," Umm Inas said.

The WFP has been dropping humanitarian aid into Deir Ezzor since April 2016, and the government-held area is the only place in Syria where the agency has permission for the drops.

In the past, government and Russian warplanes have also delivered desperately needed humanitarian aid to the city via air drops.

A medical source in the city said more than 100 civilians had been wounded in the recent fighting, and some were taken north to the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli.

"Some intractable cases were flown to Qamishli because they need special treatment that isn't available in Deir Ezzor," the source said.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=80942.

Key Syria rebel group opts out of Astana peace talks

2017-01-18

DAMASCUS - Key Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham said on Wednesday it will not take part in peace talks between the regime and opposition factions in the Kazakh capital next week.

The group decided not to participate in the negotiations in Astana that start on Monday due to "the lack of implementation of the ceasefire" in force since December 30 and ongoing Russian air strikes over Syria, it said in a statement.

Ahrar al-Sham was among rebel groups that signed the ceasefire deal brokered by regime supporter Russia and rebel backer Turkey last month.

The truce has largely held across Syria although fighting has persisted in some areas, allowing Russia, Turkey and regime supporter Iran to organize the peace talks in Astana.

Ahrar al-Sham said "the regime's offensive against our people in Wadi Barada", an area 15 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of Damascus that is the capital's main source of water, was among the reasons it would not attend the talks.

Assad's forces have pressed an assault to retake the area from rebels after mains supplies were cut last month, leaving 5.5 million people in Damascus and its suburbs without water.

Ahrar al-Sham said however that it was giving its support to other rebel groups represented at the Astana talks.

Mohammad Alloush, a prominent figure of the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) faction, will in Astana head a "military delegation" of around eight people, backed by nine legal and political advisers from the High Negotiations Committee umbrella group.

Russia started air strikes in support of Assad's regime in 2015.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=80945.

Daesh lays siege to Syria regime airbase in Deir ez-Zor

January 17, 2017

Daesh laid siege to a military airport which is under the control of Syrian regime forces in the city of Deir ez-Zor yesterday, as forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad struggle to maintain any effective presence in the eastern Syrian city.

After days of fierce fighting, Daesh fighters managed to cut off all supply routes and divide the territories held by the Assad regime while taking control of important sites in the vicinity of the airbase.

Deir ez-Zor, which is the largest city in the eastern part of Syria,has long been under siege by Daesh.

However, the Syrian army forces were in control of certain neighborhoods, including the city’s airport. For long periods residents of Deir ez-Zor and the servicemen needed air drops for food and essential supplies.

The military airbase has been described as a “small island” surrounded by the territories under Daesh control. Since opposition forces took control of the region in 2014, militants made countless attempts to take control and besiege the airbase but had failed to take full control.

Safa news agency reported a military official who commented on the latest siege of the military airport saying that “this attack was the fiercest onslaught initiated by [Daesh] on the airport and the region.”

Daesh has now successfully cut through the only land supply route between the base and Deir ez-Zor.

If Daesh manages to control the airbase and Deir ez-Zor,it will be seen as a bigger blow to the regime than its defeat in Palmyra which, unlike Deir ez-Zor did not have an airbase with Syrian forces to defend it.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170117-daesh-lays-siege-to-syria-regime-airbase-in-deir-ez-zor/.

Italy president hugs those like him who lost family to Mafia

March 19, 2017

ROME (AP) — Italy's president, whose brother was murdered by Cosa Nostra, traveled on Sunday to an organized crime stronghold to honor hundreds of Italians slain by the country's crime clans over the past decades.

President Sergio Mattarella also praised the judges, prosecutors, police officers, union leaders, businessmen and politicians who courageously combatted or denounced organized crime. During the ceremony in Locri, a Calabrian town that is a long-time base of the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate, the names of innocent victims — some caught in the crossfire of turf wars — were read aloud. Among the names was that of the president's brother, Piersanti Mattarella, the Sicilian governor assassinated in Palermo in 1980.

The event anticipated Italy's annual remembrance day, occurring later this week, for victims of organized crime. Near Naples, hundreds of scouts filled a church in the mobster-infested town of Casal di Principe to pay tribute to a priest, Giuseppe Diana, who denounced the local Caselesi crime clan of the Camorra syndicate. Diana was shot to death in the church sacristy in 1994.

Mattarella lamented the "Mafia is still strong" and controls or tries to infiltrate much of Italy's economy. He denounced "gray areas, those of complicity," which mobsters exploit, a reference to corruptible politicians and public administrators who, investigations have found, help mafiosi win lucrative contracts in construction and social services, such as hospitals.

While rooted for generations in Italy's underdeveloped south, the 'ndrangheta, Camorra and other syndicates have also infiltrated businesses in affluent northern Italy. Mobsters have been laundering illicit profits in popular restaurants and cafes in Rome and elsewhere. Legitimate manufacturing businesses in the north turned to the Camorra to illegally dispose of toxic waste to save money and avoid bureaucracy.

Still, progress has come. Young people in Sicily inspired many shopkeepers and industrialists there to stop paying Cosa Nostra "protection" money. Locri Bishop Francesco Oliva insisted Calabria wants to break with a past "stained by the blood of crime feuds that sowed death and desperation."

Martin McGuinness, Irish rebel turned politician, dies at 66

March 21, 2017

DUBLIN (AP) — Martin McGuinness, the Irish Republican Army commander who led his underground, paramilitary movement toward reconciliation with Britain, and was Northern Ireland's deputy first minister for a decade in a power-sharing government, has died, his Sinn Fein party announced Tuesday on Twitter. He was 66.

The party said he died after a short illness. He suffered from amyloidosis, a rare disease with a strain specific to Ireland's northwest. The chemotherapy required to combat the formation of organ-choking protein deposits quickly sapped him of strength and forced him to start missing government appointments.

"Throughout his life Martin showed great determination, dignity and humility and it was no different during his short illness," Sinn Fein's President Gerry Adams said. "He was a passionate republican who worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation and for the re-unification of his country. But above all he loved his family and the people of Derry and he was immensely proud of both.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins said: "The world of politics and the people across this island will miss the leadership he gave, shown most clearly during the difficult times of the peace process, and his commitment to the values of genuine democracy that he demonstrated in the development of the institutions in Northern Ireland.

McGuinness' transformation as peacemaker was all the more remarkable because, as a senior IRA commander during the years of gravest Catholic-Protestant violence, he insisted that Northern Ireland must be forced out of the United Kingdom against the wishes of Protestants.

Even after the Sinn Fein party — the IRA's legal, public face — started to run for elections in the 1980s, McGuinness insisted as Sinn Fein deputy leader that "armed struggle" remained essential. "We don't believe that winning elections and any amount of votes will bring freedom in Ireland," he told a BBC documentary team in 1986. "At the end of the day, it will be the cutting edge of the IRA that will bring freedom."

Yet within a few years of making that stubborn vow, McGuinness was exploring the opposite option in covert contacts with British intelligence that led eventually to a truce, inter-party talks and the installation of the IRA icon in the heart of Northern Ireland's government.

Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole argued in January 2017 that McGuinness had been "a mass killer — during his period of membership and leadership the IRA killed 1,781 people, including 644 civilians — whose personal amiability has been essential to the peace process. If he were not a ruthless and unrepentant exponent of violence, he would never have become such a key figure in bringing violence to an end."

Unlike his close Adams, McGuinness never hid the fact that he had been a commander of the IRA — classed as a terrorist organization by the British, Irish and U.S. governments. Nor could he. Born May 23, 1950, he joined the breakaway Provisional IRA faction in his native Londonderry — simply Derry to Irish nationalists — after dropping out of high school and working as an apprentice butcher in the late 1960s. At the time, the Catholic civil rights movement faced increasing conflict with the province's Protestant government and police.

He rose to become Derry's deputy IRA commander by age 21 as "Provo" bombs systematically wrecked the city center. Soldiers found it impossible to pass IRA road barricades erected in McGuinness' nearby Bogside power base.

McGuinness appeared unmasked at early Provisional IRA press conferences. The BBC filmed him walking through the Bogside discussing how the IRA command structure worked and stressing his concern to minimize civilian casualties, an early sign of public relations savvy.

In 1972, Northern Ireland's bloodiest year, McGuinness joined Adams in a six-man IRA delegation flown by the British government to London for secret face-to-face negotiations during a brief truce. Those talks got nowhere and McGuinness went back on the run until his arrest on New Year's Eve in the Republic of Ireland near a car loaded with 250 pounds (110 kilograms) of explosives and 4,750 rounds of ammunition.

During one of his two Dublin trials for IRA membership, McGuinness declared from the dock he was "a member of the Derry Brigade of the IRA and I'm very, very proud of it." Historians and security analysts agree that McGuinness was promoted to the IRA's ruling army council following his November 1974 parole from prison and would have overseen many of the group's most spectacular and divisive attacks. These included bomb attacks on London tourist spots and the use of "human bombs" — civilian employees like cooks and cleaners at British security installations — who were forced to drive car bombs to their places of work and were detonated by remote control before they could raise the alarm.

His central role in the IRA command was underscored when Britain in 1990 opened secret dialogue with the underground group in hopes of securing a cease-fire. An MI6 agent codenamed "The Mountain Climber" met McGuinness several times as part of wider diplomatic efforts that delivered a 1994 IRA truce and, ultimately, multi-party negotiations on Northern Ireland's future and the U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord of 1998.

Northern Ireland's first power-sharing government, formed in 1999, was led by moderates and afforded only minor roles for Sinn Fein and the most uncompromising Protestant party, Paisley's Democratic Unionists. When Sinn Fein nominated McGuinness to be education minister, many Protestant lawmakers recoiled and insisted they would never accept what one called "an IRA godfather" overseeing their children's education.

That first coalition collapsed under the twin weight of Paisley-led obstruction and the IRA's refusal to disarm as the Good Friday pact intended. McGuinness served as the lead liaison with disarmament officials.

After election results vaulted the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein to the top of their communities for the first time, pressure mounted on the IRA to surrender its stockpiled arsenal. This happened in 2005, paving the way for Paisley to bury the hatchet with the group he called "the Sinners."

No observer could have foreseen what happened next: a genuine friendship between First Minister Paisley and Deputy First Minister McGuinness. Belfast wits dubbed them "The Chuckle Brothers" because of their public warmth, an image that quickly eroded Protestant support for Paisley and forced him out as Democratic Unionist chief within the year.

McGuinness maintained more businesslike relations with Paisley's frosty successor, Peter Robinson. Together they met Queen Elizabeth II for a historic 2012 handshake in Belfast and were guests of honor at Windsor Castle two years later. All the while, McGuinness expressed newfound support for the police as they faced attacks from IRA splinter groups — a U-turn that exposed McGuinness and his relatives to death threats in their Derry home.

His relations with the newest Democratic Unionist Party leader, Arlene Foster, turned sour with surprising speed. When Foster rebuffed Sinn Fein's demands to step aside, McGuinness resigned in January, toppling power-sharing in the process.

"Over the last 10 years I have worked with DUP leaders and reached out to unionists on the basis of equality, respect and reconciliation," a frail, weak-voiced McGuinness said as he resigned as deputy first minister. "Today is the right time to call a halt to the DUP's arrogance."

McGuinness is survived by his wife, Bernadette, two daughters and two sons.

Hungary opens base for army border patrols to stop migrants

March 20, 2017

HERCEGSZANTO, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's defense minister inaugurated a small military base on Monday on the country's southern border for soldiers patrolling to prevent the entry of migrants. Defense Minister Istvan Simicsko said that base built with the assistance of Austrian soldiers would provide "worthy" conditions for the 150 troops to be stationed there.

"The defense of the border ... so hundreds of thousands won't march across the country, deserves total respect," Simicsko told the soldiers. "Our most important common interest is the protection of the Hungarian citizens, our family members and civilians."

The Hercegszanto complex, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Budapest, was constructed from 90 containers and is that last of four bases built since January for soldiers patrolling the Serbian border in Bacs-Kiskun county.

The bases will significantly cut soldiers' commute to the border zone for the patrols carried out jointly with police "border hunters," Simicsko said. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last week that a new fence being built on the Serbian border equipped with surveillance tools would withstand even a major surge of migrants, which Hungary is anticipating this year partly because of the deteriorating deal between the European Union and Turkey to prevent migrants from reaching Greece.

"This will be a fence that will be able to block the path of even the largest crowds arriving from Turkey," Orban said on Hungarian state radio. "So in Austria and Germany people can sleep soundly, because Hungarians will be protecting Europe's external borders."

Hungary first built fences on the borders with Serbian and Croatia in late 2015, when nearly 400,000 people traveled through the country on their way to Germany and other destinations in Western Europe.

Simicsko said that he had no information about any abuses of migrants who are caught in Hungary and summarily deported across the fence to Serbia. Several aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have denounced numerous cases of migrants returning to Serbia from Hungary with dog bites and injuries from reported beatings by border patrols.

Recent changes to Hungary's asylum policy, allowing the detention of all migrants, including children over 14, in border container camps, have also been the target of sturdy criticism by U.N. agencies and human rights advocates.

Simicsko said Hungary's 2017 defense budget was 350 billion forints ($1.2 billion), or 1 percent of gross domestic product. Hungary plans to increase its defense spending by 0.1 percent of GDP a year until reaching 2 percent.

Thousands join rallies pro-Europe rallies across Germany

March 19, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of people have joined rallies across Germany and other European countries to show their support for the idea of a united Europe. The weekly protests began last year as an attempt to counter growing nationalist sentiment on the continent, often expressed in opposition to the European Union.

Protesters in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne and dozens of other locations danced, sang and waved the EU flag — 12 stars on a blue background — during the rallies Sunday. The protests are organized on social media by a group calling itself Pulse of Europe.

The group says it isn't tied to any particular political party.

Macron, Le Pen clash in first French election TV debate

March 21, 2017

PARIS (AP) — The two front-runners for the French presidency clashed spectacularly in the campaign's first televised debate between leading candidates Monday night. All five candidates landed punches during vigorous discussion on the big issues for France: jobs, terrorism, immigration, Europe.

But the faceoff between independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right populist Marine Le Pen provided political theater, even moments of high drama in pitting two opposing visions of France. Macron's performance, in particular, was being closely watched. One of the big surprises of the election has been the success of the former economics minister's new-look campaign, positioning himself as a centrist alternative to France's traditional left-right politics.

But Le Pen, the anti-immigration, anti-European Union leader of the National Front, was looking for opportunities to pounce. With polls suggesting that she and Macron could be direct rivals in the decisive May 7 runoff of the two-round election, both sought to score points against each other.

As Macron was discussing foreign policy, Le Pen portrayed him as wishy-washy, muttering: "It's empty, completely empty." "We don't know what you want," she said. Macron proved during the three-hour evening debate that overran and spilled past midnight that he can defend himself. With limited experience of public office, he sought to portray himself as presidential and hard to push around.

Some of the most heated exchanges centered on the place of religion in France and the separation of church and state. Macron reacted vigorously when Le Pen accused him of being in favor of Muslim swimwear — essentially suggesting that her rival isn't really committed to France's secular values and policies.

"I don't need a ventriloquist," he retorted. "When I have something to say, I say it clearly." He, in turn, accused Le Pen of using Islam to divide the French. Le Pen wants all visible religious symbols worn by people, including Muslim headscarves and Jewish kippahs, banned from public.

"The trap you are falling into, Madame Le Pen, with your provocations is to divide society," Macron said. Macron also used humor to defuse Le Pen's attacks. After a thinly veiled dig from Le Pen suggesting that the former banker would be beholden to financial lobbies if elected, Macron told her: "You'd be bored without me."

While they were feisty, conservative candidate Francois Fillon was noticeably and unusually restrained. Once considered a leading contender to move into the presidency's Elysee Palace, Fillon's campaign has been badly hurt by accusations that his wife and children were paid with public money for jobs they allegedly did not do, which he denies. The ex-prime minister appeared weary and at times absent during the debate.

"I may have made mistakes. I have defects. Who doesn't? But I have experience," Fillon said. Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon and far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, both looking to boost their poll numbers, were the first to take swipes at Le Pen.

Hamon described Le Pen's attitude as "sickening" after she spoke of French schools as "a daily nightmare," so dangerous that pupils attend with "fear in their stomachs." Melenchon interrupted Le Pen as she was calling for boosted French-language teaching.

"How do you learn French, dear madam? By speaking it!" he said. Of the 11 candidates in the election, only the five who are expected to be the largest vote-getters in the first round were included in the debate.

The first-round vote is set for April 23; the top two candidates go to the May 7 runoff.

French election: 5 top candidates to hold first debate

March 20, 2017

PARIS (AP) — The five leading candidates for France's presidential election are holding their first debate Monday, with centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading polls, and jobs and security among voters' top concerns.

The televised evening debate comes after France was shaken by a weekend attack on soldiers at Paris' Orly airport, a reminder of security challenges the new president will face. The list of 11 candidates was finalized Saturday. The first-round vote is set for April 23; the top two candidates go to a runoff May 7.

Macron and Le Pen will be joined at the debate by conservative Francois Fillon, Socialist Benoit Hamon and far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. The five are expected to be the largest vote-getters in the first round.

The countdown begins: Britain to start EU exit on March 29

March 21, 2017

LONDON (AP) — Britain will begin divorce proceedings from the European Union on March 29, starting the clock on two years of intense political and economic negotiations that will fundamentally change both the nation and its European neighbors.

Britain's ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow, informed European Council President Donald Tusk of the exact start date on Monday morning. "We are on the threshold of the most important negotiation for this country for a generation," Brexit Secretary David Davis said. "The government is clear in its aims: a deal that works for every nation and region of the U.K. and indeed for all of Europe - a new, positive partnership between the U.K. and our friends and allies in the European Union."

The trigger for all this tumult is the innocuous-sounding Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, a never-before-used mechanism for withdrawing from the bloc. British Prime Minister Theresa May, under the Article, will notify Tusk of her nation's intentions to leave the 28-nation bloc.

The article stipulates that the two sides will have until March 2019 to agree on a divorce settlement and — if possible — establish a new relationship between Britain, the world's No. 5 economy, and the EU, a vast single market containing 500 million people.

The European Commission — the bloc's legislative arm — said it stood ready to help launch the negotiations. "Everything is ready on this side," commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said. Leaders of the 27 other EU nations will meet by the month of May to finalize their negotiating guidelines.

May's 10 Downing Street office said the prime minister will make a statement in the House of Commons on the day Article 50 is triggered. Britons voted in a June referendum to leave the EU after more than 40 years of membership. But May was not able to trigger the talks until last week, when the British Parliament approved a bill authorizing the start of Brexit negotiations.

But like any divorce, things may not go to plan. The letter May sends next week will plunge Britain into a period of intense uncertainty. The country doesn't know what its future relationship with the bloc will look like — whether its businesses will freely be able to trade with the rest of Europe, its students can study abroad or its pensioners will be allowed to retire easily in other EU states. Those things have become part of life in the U.K. since it joined what was then called the European Economic Community in 1973.

It's also not clear what rights the estimated 3 million EU citizens already working and living in Britain will retain. And it's not even certain that the United Kingdom — made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — will survive the EU exit intact.

Scotland's nationalist first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is seeking a referendum on independence within two years. In the same Brexit vote in which most Britons chose to leave the EU, Scottish voters mostly wanted to stay. Sturgeon says Scotland mustn't be "taken down a path that we do not want to go down without a choice."

May has rejected that suggestion, saying "now is not the time" for another referendum on Scottish independence. Pro-EU Labour Party Lawmaker Pat McFadden said Monday it is now up to May to deliver the good deal for Britain that she has promised.

"The phony period is nearly over, and the real work of negotiations are about to begin," McFadden said. Conflicts are likely to arise soon. The EU wants Britain to pay a hefty divorce bill — estimates have ranged up to 60 billion euros ($64 billion) — to cover pension liabilities for EU staff and other commitments the U.K. has agreed to.

British negotiators are sure to quibble over the size of that tab. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said a "vast" bill is unreasonable, and suggested that May should follow the "illustrious precedent" of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who successfully sought a rebate from the bloc in 1984.

Negotiations will also soon hit a fundamental topic: Britain wants "frictionless" free trade, but says it will restore controls over immigration, ending the right of EU citizens to live and work in Britain. The EU, however, says Britain can't have full access to the single market if it doesn't accept the free movement of its people, one of the bloc's key principles.

May has suggested that if talks stall she could walk away, saying that "no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain." That prospect alarms many British businesses. If Britain crashed out of the EU without a trade deal it would fall back onto World Trade Organization rules, leading to tariffs and other barriers to trade.

Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has warned that the British government has not done enough to prepare for the "real prospect" that talks with the EU may break down, ending in no deal and "mutually assured damage" to both Britain and the EU.

Even if the talks go well, EU leaders say there is little chance that a final agreement on relations between the two parties will be reached by 2019. Some experts say the process could take a decade.

Associated Press Writer Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels

North Korea tests newly developed high-thrust rocket engine

March 19, 2017

TOKYO (AP) — North Korea has conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong Un is calling a revolutionary breakthrough for the country's space program, the North's state media said Sunday.

Kim attended Saturday's test at the Sohae launch site, according to the Korean Central News Agency, which said the test was intended to confirm the "new type" of engine's thrust power and gauge the reliability of its control system and structural safety.

Kim called the test "a great event of historic significance" for the country's indigenous rocket industry, the KCNA report said. He also said the "whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries" and claimed the test marks what will be known as the "March 18 revolution" in the development of the country's rocket industry.

The report indicated that the engine is to be used for North Korea's space and satellite-launching program. North Korea is banned by the United Nations from conducting long-range missile tests, but it claims its satellite program is for peaceful use, a claim many in the U.S. and elsewhere believe is questionable.

North Korean officials have said that under a five-year plan, they intend to launch more Earth observation satellites and what would be the country's first geostationary communications satellite — which would be a major technological advance.

Getting that kind of satellite into place would likely require a more powerful engine than its previous ones. The North also claims it is trying to build a viable space program that would include a moon launch within the next 10 years.

The test was conducted as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in China on a swing through Asia that has been closely focused on concerns over how to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

It's hard to know whether this test was deliberately timed to coincide with Tillerson's visit, but Pyongyang has been highly critical of ongoing U.S.-South Korea wargames just south of the Demilitarized Zone and often conducts some sort of high-profile operation of its own in protest.

Earlier this month, it fired off four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, reportedly reaching within 200 kilometers (120 miles) of Japan's shoreline. Japan, which was Tillerson's first stop before traveling to South Korea and China, hosts tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

While building ever better long-range missiles and smaller nuclear warheads to pair with them, North Korea has marked a number of successes in its space program. It launched its latest satellite — the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Brilliant Star 4 — into orbit on Feb. 7 last year, just one month after conducting what it claims was its first hydrogen-bomb test.

It put its first satellite in orbit in 2012, a feat few other countries have achieved. In 2013, rival South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time, though it needed Russian help to build the rocket's first stage.

S. Korea mulls constitutional overhaul following Park ouster

March 12, 2017

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean politicians want to ensure that the country never again sees a leader like Park Geun-hye, who was booted from office over an explosive corruption scandal. But they are far apart on whether doing so would require rewriting the country's 3-decade-old constitution, a treasured symbol of the bloody transition from dictatorship to democracy.

Several parties, including conservatives scrambling to distance themselves from Park, say South Koreans should vote in a new constitution in addition to a new president in early May. They say the shocking downfall of Park, who may face criminal charges over extortion and bribery, shows that the constitution places too much power that is easily abused and often goes unchecked into the hands of the president.

Their proposal for a new constitution is based on power-sharing, where the president is limited to handling foreign affairs and national security and leaves domestic affairs to a prime minister picked by parliament.

However, the party of liberal Moon Jae-in, who opinion polls show as the clear favorite to become South Korea's next leader, opposes a quick constitutional revision and accuses rival parties of plotting a short-cut to power.

The discussions about rewriting the constitution are ironic in that they come after a historic effort to protect it. Lawmakers voted to impeach Park in December on grounds that she "gravely violated" the constitution written in 1987, after the government of military strongman Chun Doo-hwan caved in to months of massive protests and accepted demands for presidential elections.

The debate also raises a fundamental question for South Koreans as they mull a new political landscape following Park's demise: Was it a flawed, imperious presidential system that allowed Park to abuse her powers, or a culture that long treated elected heads of states like kings?

The future of the constitution has instantly emerged as a major political topic after the Constitutional Court removed Park on Friday and triggered a two-month presidential race. Kweon Seong Dong, a lawmaker from the conservative Bareun party and chief prosecutor in Park's impeachment trial, touted his party's line immediately after the ruling.

"We need a constitutional revision based on power-sharing," Kweon said. "Absolute power absolutely corrupts." Critics refuse to see the court's decision to uphold Park's impeachment as proof that the constitution works as it is. They include none other than one of the court's justices, Ahn Changho.

In a supplementary opinion written into Park's ruling, Ahn found the constitution responsible for an "imperial presidency" that breeds "deplorable political customs," such as abuse of power and corruptive ties with the country's biggest companies, which have a tradition of bribing politicians for business favors.

Ahn said the president simply has too much power over the appointment of government officials, making of laws and policies, budget planning and other decisions, which lawmakers find difficult to check for most of the single five-year term.

"Our country has a winner-takes-it-all representative system where those who win an election, even by just one vote, obtain imperial political power and those who don't get swept to the side and are neglected," Ahn wrote.

A constitutional change would need the support of two-thirds of the 300-seat parliament and then pass a national referendum. Moon, who's likely to be the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, the largest in parliament, says he is open to discussions about constitutional revision, but opposes any changes that take place before or simultaneously with the upcoming presidential election.

He says that two months is too short to properly rewrite the constitution, which not only lays out fundamental principles for power and governance, but also defines the basic rights of citizens. Besides proposing power-sharing between the president and prime minister, the parties backing a constitutional overhaul also call for the next president's term to be reduced to three years so that a presidential vote can coincide with a parliamentary election in 2020. By then, the parties want a president to be able to serve two four-year terms or a six-year single term.

Some experts question whether South Korea's Constitution is really at fault for power-drunk presidents. On paper, it seems that the South Korean president domestically has significantly less power than, say, the president of the United States. The South Korean president can't issue executive orders without the consent of lawmakers. The president does appoint a large number of government officials, but needs lawmakers' approval when seating the prime minister, Seoul's No. 2 job.

It's hard to say a system for checks and balances isn't there when lawmakers and a court just combined to kick out a sitting president. This wasn't the first time South Korean lawmakers tried to remove a president either, although the Constitutional Court reinstated late President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004.

Perhaps, Park's saga is less of a reflection of the country's constitution than of a rigidly hierarchical culture, where people find it extremely difficult to disobey instructions from above, even when they are inappropriate or unlawful.

The scandal has inspired Democratic Party lawmaker Ki Dong-min to propose a law he says is aimed at allowing government workers to refuse "unjust" orders from their bosses. But when a society needs a special law so that people could avoid breaking other laws, then probably laws aren't what the problem is about.

"South Korea's imperial president wasn't created by laws, but by custom and culture," Won-Ho Park, a Seoul National University politics professor, wrote in a newspaper column. "The secret to why our president can influence so many things, even the appointment of public university presidents or the personnel decisions of private companies, could perhaps be found in our culture that calls presidential authority as the 'great power' and presidential contenders 'hidden dragons,'" he said.

S.Koreans celebrate Park's removal, but ousted leader silent

March 11, 2017

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A day after a court removed her from power over a corruption scandal, ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye maintained her silence on Saturday as her opponents and supporters divided the capital's streets with massive rallies that showed a nation deeply split over its future.

Park has been unseen and unheard from since the Constitutional Court's ruling on Friday, which ended a power struggle that had consumed the nation for months. Park, whose fate was left in the court's hands after her parliamentary impeachment in December, has yet to vacate the presidential Blue House, with her aides saying they need more time to prepare for her return to her private home in Seoul.

Carrying flags and candles and cheering jubilantly, tens of thousands of people occupied a boulevard in downtown Seoul to celebrate Park's ouster. Meanwhile, in a nearby grass square, a large crowd of Park's supporters glumly waved national flags near a stage where organizers, wearing red caps and military uniforms, vowed to resist what they called a "political assassination."

Police had braced for violence between the two crowds after three people died and dozens were injured in clashes between police and Park's supporters after the ruling on Friday. Nearly 20,000 police officers were deployed on Saturday to monitor the protesters, who were also separated by tight perimeters created by hundreds of police buses.

The anti-Park protesters shouted "The candles have won!" and "Arrest Park Geun-hye!" as they began marching toward the Blue House. The protesters, who held candles during their massive evening demonstrations in recent months, loosely call themselves the Candle Force.

The court's decision capped a stunning fall for the country's first female leader. Park rode a wave of lingering conservative nostalgia for her late dictator father to victory in 2012, only to see her presidency crumble as millions of furious protesters filled the nation's streets.

While the ruling might have irrevocably derailed Park's political career, analysts saw defiance in her silence, saying that Park was perhaps hoping to use the growing anger of her followers to rebuild support.

"By being quiet, she's making it loud and clear that she won't accept the court's ruling," said Yul Shin, a professor at Seoul's Myongji University. "Nobody knows when she will leave the Blue House, but maybe she wanted to see how large the crowd was tonight at the pro-Park rally."

The ruling allows possible criminal proceedings against the 65-year-old Park — prosecutors have already named her a criminal suspect — and makes her South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be removed from office since democracy replaced dictatorship in the late 1980s.

It also deepens South Korea's political and security uncertainty as it faces existential threats from North Korea, reported economic retaliation from a China furious about Seoul's cooperation with the U.S. on an anti-missile system, and questions in Seoul about the Trump administration's commitment to the U.S.-South Korea security alliance.

South Korea must hold an election within two months to choose Park's successor. Liberal Moon Jae-in, who lost to Park in the 2012 election, currently enjoys a comfortable lead in opinion polls. Kim Yong-deok, the chief of the National Election Commission, said Saturday that the election would be managed "accurately and perfectly" and urged the public to participate in a vote that would "determine the fate of the Republic of Korea," referring to South Korea's formal name.

The Constitutional Court accused Park of colluding with longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil to extort tens of millions of dollars from businesses and letting Choi, a private citizen, meddle in state affairs and receive and look at documents with state secrets. Those allegations were previously made by prosecutors, but Park has refused to undergo any questioning, citing a law that gives a sitting leader immunity from prosecution.

It is not clear when prosecutors will try to interview her. Prosecutors have arrested and indicted a slew of high-profile figures over the scandal, including Choi and Samsung's de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong.

Park's lawyer, Seo Seok-gu, who had previously compared her impeachment to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, called the verdict a "tragic decision" made under popular pressure and questioned the fairness of what he called a "kangaroo court."

Some of Park's supporters reacted with anger after the ruling, shouting and hitting police officers and reporters with plastic flag poles and steel ladders and climbing on police buses. Police and hospital officials said three people died while protesting Park's removal, including a man in his 70s who died early Saturday after collapsing near the court.

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Foster Klug contributed to this report.

Japan and Russia hold talks on security, territorial dispute

March 20, 2017

TOKYO (AP) — The foreign and defense ministers from Japan and Russia met in Tokyo on Monday for the first "two-plus-two" talks since Russia's annexation of Ukraine. The one-day meeting comes as the sides work to end a decades-long territorial dispute that is blocking them from forging a peace treaty. At the same time, Japan, Russia, China and other countries are mulling how best to deal with North Korea's launches of missiles and its nuclear program.

Plans by the U.S. and its ally South Korea to deploy a state-of-the-art missile defense system known as THAAD, meanwhile, have antagonized Beijing and Russia. Officials on both sides said the talks would largely focus on regional security.

"We will offer our view of the deployment of the U.S. missile defense system in the Pacific region," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. It said joint efforts in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking were also on the agenda.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida began talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, while Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada will sit down for talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The four ministers will also hold joint talks on international and bilateral issues.

Japan and Russia last held "two-plus-two" talks in November 2013. Meetings were shelved after that due to the crisis in Ukraine, as Japan joined sanctions against Moscow. The Tokyo talks are not expected to lead to a breakthrough on conflicting claims to islands north of Hokkaido — Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islets — that came under Russian control after Japan's defeat in World War II.

A Japanese foreign ministry official said Tokyo would raise concerns over Russia's installment of surface-to-ship missiles on Etorofu and other military activity elsewhere on the disputed islands, and seek an explanation from Moscow. It does not plan to push harder than that, said the official, who briefed reporters on the condition he not be named.

Japanese officials said the talks would include work on planning a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Moscow later this year. Logistics of visits by Japanese former residents of the disputed islands will also be addressed, they said.

While the countries remain at odds with no clear way forward in resolving the territorial dispute, they are discussing joint development of fisheries, tourism and other areas that might help bridge the gap.

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Hong Kong set to pick new leader anointed by Beijing

March 21, 2017

HONG KONG (AP) — The three candidates vying to be Hong Kong's next leader squared off in a feisty debate in front of hundreds of voters who peppered them with questions. They wrangled over policy proposals for the semiautonomous Chinese city and took jabs at each other at Sunday night's forum. In one particularly testy exchange, frontrunner Carrie Lam, a former chief secretary, sniped at rival John Tsang for keeping a clean desk during his time as the city's finance chief, implying that he hadn't kept himself busy enough.

"No files, no papers, so I really envied him," Lam said, adding that her desk was always covered in documents. Tsang shot back that "besides working hard, we have to work smart," drawing cheers from the audience.

With the vote for Hong Kong's next chief executive set for Sunday March 26, the forum was one of the last big chances for the contenders to drum up support from among the 1,194 members of an election committee who take their cues from Beijing. Voters from among Hong Kong's 7.3 million residents have no say in choosing the chief executive.

Although the mustachioed Tsang, nicknamed "Pringles" or "Uncle Chips" for his resemblance to the snack food mascot, enjoys broad support, Lam, the city's former No. 2 ranking official, is widely expected to win.

The election committee, whose members organized and attended Sunday's debate, is heavily stacked with representatives of business, trade and professional groups who vote according to the wishes of China's communist leaders. There are also about 320 pro-democracy supporters among their ranks.

The electoral system was the main target of 2014's massive pro-democracy street protests that gripped the city for 79 days and grabbed world headlines, altering common views of Hong Kong as a ruthlessly efficient business center with little interest in politics.

In contrast to Lam, Tsang has an affable, easygoing persona and has deftly used social media to connect with ordinary people. He earned kudos in 2015 for cheering on Hong Kong's soccer team in World Cup qualifier matches against China, while other officials took a more politically correct noncommittal stance.

In a mock poll organized by Hong Kong University researchers, Tsang had a net support rate of 87.7 percent from about 65,000 votes cast electronically or in person. Lam had net negative support of 94.5 percent. A third candidate, ex-judge Woo Kwok-hing, had negative support of 12.3 percent.

"Nobody is in doubt that Carrie will win," because Beijing has been heavily lobbying pro-establishment election committee members to support her, said Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Willy Lam and Carrier Lam are not related.

Lam has Beijing's backing but she's been ridiculed for gaffes that give the impression she's out of touch with ordinary people. In one incident, Lam said she couldn't find toilet paper for the new apartment she moved to after vacating her official residence upon launching her campaign for chief executive. She was forced to make a late evening return to her government apartment to spend the night.

Despite that, Lam has a reputation for being a pragmatic and effective administrator. Beijing's support for her candidacy is seen as a reward for her loyalty while serving under the deeply unpopular current leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, known by his initials, C.Y.

Leung has passed on the opportunity to seek a second term in office, citing family reasons. His surprise announcement was seen by analysts as an indication that Beijing asked him to step aside in favor of someone less unpopular but who could still be trusted to carry out its agenda in Hong Kong.

The city is supposed to have much leeway in running its own affairs but recent incidents have stoked fears that Beijing is tightening its grip. Analysts said Beijing wants to ensure Hong Kong's next leader will have more support than Leung, who could never shake off his nickname "689," a reference to the number of votes he received — barely half of the total.

"The last time it was a bit humiliating, 689 was considered to be a bit low," said Willy Lam. "This time their top priority (in Beijing) is that Carrie must be seen as doing substantially better than C.Y., so that means at least a vote closer to 750."

Lam been dubbed C.Y. 2.0, because many Hong Kongers believe she'll adopt the same hard-line policies pursued by her former boss. Samson Yuen, a politics lecturer at the Open University of Hong Kong, predicted a Lam administration would continue to take actions that constrain the "organizational resources" of pro-democracy parties, making it difficult for them to survive.

Under Leung, the government won an unprecedented lawsuit last year disqualifying two activist lawmakers who advocated Hong Kong independence over improperly taking their oaths of office. It's pursuing similar suits against four others.

Carrie Lam "will inherit the tactics of C.Y. Leung, because if Carrie wins that means C.Y. will have a lot of influence over the political system," said Yuen. "That means such kind of repression will still go on. I do think the space for the pro-democracy movement will shrink."

SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth

Washington (AFP)
March 20, 2017

SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, March 19, with more than 5,400 pounds of NASA cargo, and science and technology demonstration samples from the International Space Station.

Everything from stem cells that could help us understand how human cancers start and spread after being exposed to near zero-gravity, to equipment that is paving the way toward servicing and refueling satellites while they're in orbit will be on board.

After Dragon is recovered off the west coast of Baja California, some of the cargo will be removed and returned to NASA immediately while Dragon itself is prepared for a return trip to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas. There, the processing and further unloading of scientific samples and returning station hardware will continue.

A variety of technological and biological studies are returning in Dragon. The Microgravity Expanded Stem Cells investigation had crew members observe cell growth and other characteristics in microgravity.

This information will provide insight into how human cancers start and spread, which aids in the development of prevention and treatment plans. Results from this investigation could lead to the treatment of disease and injury in space, as well as provide a way to improve stem cell production for human therapy on Earth.

Samples from the Tissue Regeneration-Bone Defect study, a U.S. National Laboratory investigation sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, studied what prevents vertebrates such as rodents and humans from re-growing lost bone and tissue, and how microgravity conditions impact the process.

Results will provide a new understanding of the biological reasons behind a human's inability to grow a lost limb at the wound site, and could lead to new treatment options for the more than 30 percent of the patient population who do not respond to current options for chronic non-healing wounds.

Several external payloads were removed from the space station and placed in the Dragon's trunk for disposal. The Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) device tested the potential for using a laser to transmit data to Earth from space, indicating that high speed space to ground optical communications are possible from a fast moving spacecraft.

The Materials on International Space Station Experiment tested the radiation tolerance of a computer built from radiation-tolerant material to simulate work for a future long-term space mission.

The Robotic Refueling Mission Phase 2 tested new technologies, tools and techniques that could eventually give satellite owners resources to diagnose problems on orbit, repair failures, and keep certain spacecraft instruments performing longer in space.

The Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 19, carrying about 5,500 pounds of supplies and scientific cargo on the company's tenth commercial resupply mission to the station.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/SpaceX_cargo_ship_returns_to_Earth_999.html.

NASA says goodbye to a Pathfinder Earth Satellite after 17 years

by Kasha Patel for GSFC News

Greenbelt MD (SPX)
Mar 17, 2017

The first to map active lava flows from space. The first to measure a facility's methane leak from space. The first to track re-growth in a partially logged Amazon forest from space. But now, after 17 years in orbit, one of NASA's pathfinder Earth satellites for testing new satellite technologies and concepts comes to an end on March 30, 2017. The Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite will be powered off on that date but will not enter Earth's atmosphere until 2056.

Launched on Nov. 21, 2000, EO-1 was designed as a technology validation mission focused on testing cutting-edge satellite and instrument technologies that could be incorporated into future missions. Commissioned as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, the satellite was part of a series of missions that were developed at a cheaper price tag to test new technologies and concepts that had never been flown before.

"EO-1 has changed the way spectral Earth measurements are being made and used by the science community," said Betsy Middleton, EO-1's Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

EO-1 was launched with 13 new technologies, including three new instruments. EO-1's most important technology goal was to validate the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) for future Earth-observing satellites. The ALI provided a variety of Earth data including observations of forest cover, crops, coastal waters and aerosols. The ALI's instrument design and onboard technology directly shaped the design of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, currently in orbit.

EO-1's other key instrument is a hyperspectral instrument called Hyperion that allows scientists to see chemical constituents of Earth's surface in fine detail with hundreds of wavelengths. These data allow scientists to identify specific minerals, track vegetation type and vigor of forests and monitor volcanic activity.

The knowledge acquired and technology developed from Hyperion is being incorporated into a NASA concept for a potential future hyperspectral satellite, the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager, that will study the world's ecosystems, such as identifying different types of plants and assessing wildfires and droughts.

With both of these instruments, the EO-1 team was able to acquire images with high spatial resolution of events and natural disasters around the world for anyone who requested it.

The EO-1 team could point the instruments at any specific location and gather images every two to five days of a particular spot, which was very useful for scientists as well as disaster relief managers trying to stay informed of rapidly changing events. (Landsat typically looks at the same area once every 16 days.) EO-1 captured scenes such as the ash after the World Trade Center attacks, the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, volcanic eruptions and a large methane leak in southern California.

EO-1 also served as a valuable pathfinder for a variety of space technologies. Technologists installed and tested autonomy software on EO-1 that allowed the satellite to make its own decisions based on the content of the data it collected.

For instance, if a scientist instructed EO-1 to take a picture of an area where a volcano was currently erupting, the software could decide to automatically take a follow-up image the next time it passed over the location.

The mission also validated software that allowed "formation flying" that kept EO-1 orbiting Earth exactly one minute behind the Landsat-7 satellite, already in orbit. The original purpose was to validate the new ALI technologies for use in Landsat 8, which was accomplished.

EO-1 was originally only supposed to last one year, but after that initial mission, the satellite had no major issues or breakdowns. On a shoestring budget contributed by NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Reconnaissance Office and Naval Research Laboratory, the satellite continued to operate for sixteen more years, resulting in more than 1,500 papers published on EO-1 research.

On March 30, 2017, the satellite will be decommissioned, drained of its energy and become inert. Without enough fuel to keep EO-1 in its current orbit, the mission team will shut down the satellite and wait for it to return to Earth. When EO-1 does reenter the earth's atmosphere in about 39 years, it is estimated that all the components will burn up in the atmosphere.

"We'll probably just see EO-1 as a streak in the sky as it disintegrates," said Middleton.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_says_goodbye_to_a_Pathfinder_Earth_Satellite_after_17_years_999.html.

Slobbery kisses: Romania hosts show for 1,600 exotic pets

March 20, 2017

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A tabby feline with big furry claws, bald cats with shell-like ears and skinny tails, and slobbery wrinkled pugs were the stars as Bucharest hosted a show featuring over 1,600 exotic pets.

The pet show in the Romanian capital kicked off with a free dog handling session for some of the 1,500 dogs. Owners proudly paraded their pets at the March 10-12 event or entered them into beauty contests.

Rare breeds of dogs, cats and exotic animals are status symbols in Romania — but there was plenty of affection too, as owners cuddled or performed with their dogs. The array of pets included coiffed canines and bright-eyed cats. Exotic bald cats with webbed paws vied for attention with dogs like pugs or basset hounds.

One boy visiting the show got into a cage to hug a dozing cognac-colored dog about the same size as him. Dogs took part from Romania, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.

Three pugs with tightly coiled tails stood on their hind legs seeking their owner's attention. Two basset hounds had silver scarves wrapped around their necks. Lali the greyhound trotted along the red carpet with an alert expression, watching its owner toss a tennis ball in her hand.