Catalans protest sedition case, court declares vote illegal

October 18, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain's top court ruled Tuesday that an independence referendum in Catalonia was unconstitutional, adding weight to government efforts to block the region from breaking away from the rest of the country but not persuading demonstrators demanding the release of two jailed separatist activists.

The Constitutional Court's ruling was not a surprise. The Spanish government had repeatedly insisted the referendum was illegal. Regional leaders defied the Madrid-based central government and held the Oct. 1 vote even after police seized millions of ballots and used force to close polling stations.

Supporters of secession maintain the "Yes" vote won and Catalan officials have a mandate to declare independence. Portraying the central government as repressive, they showed no signs of giving up despite the court ruling that concluded the referendum was invalid.

Thousands of people holding candles and banners flooded a main avenue in Barcelona on Tuesday night to demand the release of the two Catalan activists jailed by Spanish authorities on possible sedition charges a day earlier.

Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leaders of grassroots organizations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, are being investigated for organizing rallies last month that allegedly hampered a judicial probe of preparations for the secession vote.

"We are facing an executive power in the state that uses the judiciary branch to block the legislative," Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told reporters shortly after the Constitutional Court ruling was announced.

Spanish Justice Minister Rafael Catala said Sanchez and Cuixart, were jailed because they are suspected of committed crimes by interfering with a judge's orders. Catala rejected the term "political prisoners" to describe the two, saying it could be considered a case of "politicians in prison."

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont made an ambiguous statement about the region's future last week, saying he has the mandate to declare independence but adding that he would not immediately move to implement it in order to allow time for talks with the central government.

Spain has said that no dialogue can take place with independence on the table because a reform of the country's Constitution with an ample majority in the national parliament is the only legal way to achieve secession.

On Monday, a Madrid judge provisionally jailed Sanchez and Cuixart, leaders of different grassroots groups promoting independence for Catalonia. The judge ruled they were behind huge demonstrations Sept. 20-21 in Barcelona that got in the way of a police operation designed to prevent the referendum.

Participants in the Tuesday protest chanted, "Political prisoners, freedom." Meanwhile, Agusti Alcoberro, the man who standing in for Sanchez as head of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana, said peaceful protests would be the local response to what he said was the Spanish government's heavy-handed approach.

"No modern state in the 21st century can survive if it bases its legitimacy on subjugating politically and dominating part of its population with the police and military," Alcoberro told The Associated Press. "That is suicidal, and somebody should explain it to the Spanish government."

Ciaran Giles contributed from Madrid. Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal also contributed.

Catalonia: New protests after secession leaders jailed

October 17, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Protesters are gathering for a fresh round of demonstrations in Barcelona to demand the release of two leaders of Catalonia's pro-independence movement who were jailed in a sedition probe.

A Madrid judge on Monday provisionally jailed Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leaders of grassroots organizations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural. The judge ruled they were the orchestrators of massive demonstrations Sept. 20-21 in Barcelona that hindered a police operation against preparations for the Oct. 1 independence referendum.

Protests have been called at midday Tuesday in Barcelona, the Catalan capital, and an evening demonstration is also planned. Thousands of supporters, carrying posters reading "Freedom for the political prisoners" banged pots and pans and honked car horns in Barcelona following the jailing Monday.

Infighting threatens to derail Catalan separatists in Spain

October 14, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia's separatist movement is at risk of breaking apart over deepening infighting about the right strategy to culminate the long-held desire for the prosperous region to secede from Spain and become an independent state.

Diehard separatists are pushing for a definitive declaration of independence in the next few days. Moderates still hope to open negotiations with Spanish authorities who insist the disputed referendum on which such a declaration would be based was illegal.

The fault lines widened on Saturday, when the far-left CUP party demanded an unambiguous affirmation of Catalan independence from regional president Carles Puigdemont by the Monday deadline given by Spain's central government.

If Puigdemont does not comply, CUP spokeswoman Nuria Gibert said the party will threaten to withdraw its support for his ruling coalition in Catalonia's regional parliament. Such a move would likely bring down Puigdemont's government and force elections.

"Until there is (a declaration of independence), we don't see any sense in continuing normal parliamentary activity," Gibert said. CUP had initially given Puigdemont a month to attempt talks with the Spanish government. However, he disappointed the party and the secession movement's grassroots groups when he wavered on making an outright declaration of independence before the regional parliament on Tuesday.

Instead, Puigdemont asked separatist lawmakers to delay the declaration to provide more time for dialogue. Gibert said Puigdemont's ambiguous position only creates "confusion." While CUP upped the pressure on Puigdemont, his main ally appealed to supporters of secession to stop bickering and stand behind their leader.

"We must preserve the unity that is necessary to go all the way on this path to a republic," Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras said. Junqueras delivered his message to 200 members of his Republic Left party at its headquarters in Barcelona. The party forms a governing coalition with Puigdemont's conservatives in Catalonia's parliament.

Junqueras said the best way forward was for secessionists to show the world "who wants to offer dialogue and who rejects it." Spain's conservative government, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, is also leaning heavily on Puigdemont. The Monday deadline it gave him to clarify his position on independence came with an ultimatum: fall in line by Oct. 19 or face losing some or all of the region's autonomous powers.

"Time for reflection is running out for Carles Puigdemont," Andrea Levy, a member of the Catalan parliament from Rajoy's Popular Party, said Saturday. Along with being flanked politically, Puigdemont has economic factors to consider. Banks and businesses are discussing relocating their headquarters from Catalonia to other parts of Spain over fears they would be out of the common European Union market if the region breaks away from the country.

The Spanish government has warned that the constitutional crisis in Catalonia is already hurting the economy. Puigdemont claimed he had the mandate to declare an independent Catalonia after an overwhelming "Yes" vote in a Oct. 1 referendum that Spain's top court had suspended on grounds the vote was likely unconstitutional.

Only 43 percent of eligible voters cast ballots amid a brutal Spanish police crackdown. Parties against secession boycotted the referendum. Polls show roughly half of Catalonia's 7.5 million residents don't want to leave Spain. Pro-union forces have held large rallies in Barcelona this week.

The European Union supports a united Spain and no foreign country has voice support for Catalonia's separatists.

Venezuela officials: Ruling party wins most governorships

October 16, 2017

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's National Electoral Council said candidates for the socialist movement founded by the late President Hugo Chavez won nearly all of the 23 governorships up for grabs in Sunday's regional elections. Opposition leaders disputed the accuracy of the vote count.

Independent pollsters had projected the opposition would ride a wave of discontent over Venezuela's economic calamity and win a majority of the state elections for the first time in nearly two decades of socialist rule.

Tibisay Lucena, the pro-government president of the electoral council, said socialist party candidates won 17 of the 22 races in which the outcomes were considered "irreversible" late Sunday. One race was still undecided.

Lucena said 61 percent of the nation's 18 million voters participated in the elections, far higher than many people had anticipated. Even before the results were announced, opposition leader Gerardo Blyde said there was reason to question the results. He said the opposition's count would be "very different" from the electoral council's results.

"We have already alerted the international community and we are alerting the country," Blyde said. The disputed result threatened to heighten an already tense standoff between the government and opposition.

"There is a wide disparity between the poll numbers and the results which show that these elections were not free and fair and don't reflect the will of the people," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue. "I think that's going to deepen the polarization."

The election comes during one of the most turbulent years in recent Venezuelan history. Four months of anti-government protests that began in April left at least 120 people dead, mostly young men in their 20s and 30s. In August, a new pro-government constitutional assembly was installed with virtually unlimited powers after an election that was boycotted by the opposition and that electoral officials were accused of manipulating by more than 1 million votes.

Throughout Sunday, President Nicolas Maduro and socialist party leaders said the election would be proof that Venezuela remains a democracy and not a dictatorship, as a rising number of foreign leaders have begun to call the embattled nation. Few checks and balances remain on Maduro's rule after the constitutional assembly declared itself superior to all other branches of government and replaced the nation's outspoken chief prosecutor with a socialist ally of the president.

"They've said we are a dictatorship," Maduro said in a televised address to the nation during the day. "No. We are a democratic people, rebellious, and with an egalitarian sensibility." After results were announced, Maduro said he had "absolute faith" in the count and would ask the constitutional assembly to order an audit of the vote in order to extinguish any cries of fraud.

The regional elections were originally scheduled to take place last December, but the electoral council postponed the vote after polls indicated socialist candidates were widely to lose. The vote was rescheduled for this December, but the constitutional assembly moved it up to October.

Days before the vote, the electoral council announced it was moving more than 200 voting centers, predominantly in opposition strongholds, one of several unusual changes before the election. The opposition accused the council of trying to suppress turnout among its base — a significant portion of which has grown disillusioned about the possibility of change and lost faith in leaders they perceive as disorganized and divided.

Council officials defended the relocations as a security measure in areas where violent protests took place in July. Opposition-arranged buses transported voters to the new sites Sunday — some of which were nearly an hour away. Other voters from middle-class neighborhoods were sent to vote in poor communities where crime is high.

Susana Unda, a homemaker who voted for Carlos Ocariz, the opposition's candidate in populous Miranda state surrounding Venezuela's capital, used her truck to transport voters whose polling sites were relocated.

"I was born in a democracy and I want to die in a democracy," she said. Lucena said earlier Sunday the election was proceeding with the lowest number of reported irregularities that Venezuela had seen in an election, but the independent Venezuelan Electoral Observatory reported several incidents of voter intimidation.

Luis Lander, the group's director, said those incidents included reports of pro-government supporters on motorcycles threatening voters gathered at polling sites. He said the number of voting centers that opened late was also higher than in previous elections.

Socialist candidates had urged Venezuelans to stick with the egalitarian principles installed by Chavez while also promising change. Sergio Camargo, a private security guard who backed the socialist candidate in Miranda, said he hoped his vote would set Venezuela on the right path.

"I hope that after this vote, the people against the government of President Nicolas Maduro are more sensible and let him govern," he said.

Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez reported this story in Caracas and AP writer Christine Armario reported from Bogota, Colombia.

Venezuelan socialists claim victory as opposition cries foul

October 16, 2017

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's National Electoral Council proclaimed candidates with the socialist movement founded by the late President Hugo Chavez won a vast majority of the 23 governorships at stake in Sunday's election, results the opposition immediately rejected and which threatened to further divide the nation.

An hour before results were announced, the opposition's command centers had been filled with smiles and jubilation. Leader Ramon Guillermo Aveledo told a room filled with journalists and supporters that while he couldn't share the preliminary results, they showed a victory of "historic dimensions" for the Venezuelan people.

But shortly before Tibisay Lucena, president of the government-stacked council, declared the results, opposition mayor Gerardo Blyde came out to warn that leaders believed the official count would be off.

"We have already alerted the international community and we are alerting the country," he said. According to the CNE, socialist party candidates won 17 of the 22 races in which the outcomes were considered irreversible. One race was still too close to call a victor. In all, 61 percent of the nation's 18 million voters participated in the election, far higher than many people had anticipated in a country where many have grown disenchanted and apathetic.

Lucena and others praised the vote as an example of Venezuela's democracy but Blyde claimed fraud. "Neither the Venezuelan people nor the world buy that story," he said of the results. The disputed result threatened to heighten an already tense standoff between the government and opposition.

The election comes during one of the most turbulent years in recent Venezuelan history. Four months of anti-government protests that began in April left at least 120 people dead, mostly young men in their 20s and 30s. In August, a new pro-government constitutional assembly was installed, ruling with virtually unlimited powers after an election that was boycotted by the opposition and that electoral officials were accused of manipulating by more than 1 million votes.

Maduro said he had "absolute faith" in the CNE's results but would ask the constitutional assembly to request an audit in order to extinguish any doubts that the results were inaccurate. "A triumphant victory for chavismo!" he proclaimed, referring to the name used for his predecessor's movement.

The regional elections were originally scheduled to take place last December, but the electoral council postponed the vote after polls indicated socialist candidates were widely slated to lose. They were repeatedly delayed for a variety of reasons, including a requirement for political parties to "renew" their status with electoral authorities.

Then in May, during the height of opposition protests, Lucena announced the elections were being scheduled for December, after a vote for delegates to a constitutional assembly in July. Opposition leaders blankly refused to participate in the July vote, choosing instead to mount street protests in hopes of pressuring Maduro into canceling the vote. The vote continued as planned and CNE rectors proclaimed that more than 8 million Venezuelans participated in the election for delegates. International voting software company Smartmatic came out days later to assert that Venezuelans electoral officials had deliberately altered turnout results.

The new assembly charged with rewriting Venezuela's constitution quickly removed the nation's outspoken chief prosecutor and declared itself superior to all other branches of government. Assembly delegates also decided to move up the delayed gubernatorial elections to October.

Projections by independent pollsters showed opposition candidates would win a majority, if not nearly all offices, while socialist party contenders were expected to claim a small handful of victories.

Still, opposition candidates vying for votes proved to have their work cut out with them. Many young supporters who had participated in the street protests are upset at leaders they perceived and disorganized and unable to unite behind a single strategy on how to loosen Maduro's grip from power. Others were skeptical any change might happen at the ballot box, given the electoral council's repeated favoring of the ruling party and accusations of fraud.

Meanwhile, pro-government candidates like Hector Rodriguez waged competitive campaigns, trading the polarizing red shirts identified with the socialist party for neutral colors. Rodriguez's campaign focused largely on resolving the daily problems of Venezuelans and healing the divisions that have come to define the nation.

It was a message that resounded with voters like Sergio Camargo, a private security guard who backed Rodriguez. "I hope that after this vote, the people against the government of President Nicolas Maduro are more sensible and let him govern," he said before getting on a bus to vote Sunday.

Electoral experts voiced repeated concern at several changes made by the CNE in the lead-up to the vote, though many believed that the vote count was likely to be accurate. Unlike the July vote, opposition parties would be on site to compare paper print-out tallies with the electronic ones in the final tally. The CNE was also slated to use Smartmatic software utilized in the 2015 legislative race, the last national electoral faceoff between the government and opposition.

The CNE did not allow the opposition to remove several candidates who lost in a September primary, despite an electoral law permitting political parties to substitute contenders up until 10 days before the vote. Less than three days before voting, the council also announced it was moving more than 200 voting centers, predominantly in opposition strongholds.

Council officials defended the relocations as a security measure in areas where violent protests took place in July. Opposition-arranged buses transported voters to the new sites Sunday — some of which were nearly an hour away. Other voters from middle-class neighborhoods were sent to vote in poor communities where crime is high.

Susana Unda, a homemaker who voted for Carlos Ocariz, the opposition's candidate in populous Miranda state surrounding Venezuela's capital, used her truck to transport voters whose polling sites were relocated.

"I was born in a democracy and I want to die in a democracy," she said. Lucena said earlier Sunday the election was proceeding with the lowest number of reported irregularities that Venezuela had seen in an election, but the independent Venezuelan Electoral Observatory reported several incidents of voter intimidation.

Luis Lander, the group's director, said those incidents included reports of pro-government supporters on motorcycles threatening voters gathered at polling sites. He said the number of voting centers that opened late was also higher than in previous elections.

Attention is now likely to shift to any impact such irregularities might have had. "There is a wide disparity between the poll numbers and the results which show that these elections were not free and fair and don't reflect the will of the people," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue.

The opposition called for an audit and urged Venezuelans to mobilize on the streets Monday in support. Government supporters called on detractors to respect the results and said the count is proof that the movement started by Chavez remains alive and well, despite Maduro's low approval ratings.

"The cradle of the revolution doesn't surrender," said Argenis Chavez, the late president's brother and declared winner of the race in Barinas, where Hugo Chavez spent his early years.

Armario reported from Bogota, Colombia.

Poland's president signs divisive law on civic group funding

October 14, 2017

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's president has signed into law a bill on funding for non-governmental organizations that critics fear the conservative government may use to undercut groups with missions that conflict with the ruling party's positions.

International human rights organizations and a federation of Poland's NGOs had appealed to President Andrzej Duda to veto the bill, which they saw as setting back the development of formerly communist Poland's civic organizations.

The law establishes at the prime minister's office a new National Freedom Institute that will distribute public funds from the government and the European Union among Poland's 100,000 NGOs. It also adds 40 million zlotys ($11 million) to the existing pool of 60 million zlotys.

Duda's office said he signed the bill late Friday. The new law's main proponent, Culture Minister Piotr Glinski, said the institute overseeing the dispersal will focus on small regional projects, local academies, volunteer activities and consumer protection.

Glinski said the new system would be "fair and well-balanced," noting that NGOs would be "watching our hands" as money is allotted. Opponents said the law was intended to put NGOs under the political control of a government that has worked to consolidate power. A recent state television campaign that undermined the reputations of some groups and a raid on a women's rights organization that took part in anti-government protests have contributed to the concern.

The law is an "Orwellian idea" to regulate civic activity and its true purpose is to "watch if all NGOs follow the line" of the ruling Law and Justice party, pro-democracy activist Henryk Wujec said. "Of course, many fantastic initiatives will get financing, just like now, but all actions politically undesired will not get the means," Wujec said, citing women's and LGBT rights organizations as examples.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights called the bill a "departure from the idea of support for the civil society and a systemic threat to the independent operation and development of NGOs in Poland."

Populist billionaire's party wins big in Czech Republic

October 21, 2017

PRAGUE (AP) — The centrist ANO movement led by populist Andrej Babis decisively won the Czech Republic's parliamentary election Saturday in a vote that shifted the country to the right and paved the way for the euroskeptic billionaire to become its next prime minister.

With all votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said ANO won in a landslide, capturing 29.6 percent of the vote, or 78 of the 200 seats in the lower house of Parliament. "It's a huge success," the 63-year-old Babis told supporters and journalists at his headquarters in Prague.

Babis is the county's second-richest man, with a media empire including two major newspapers and a popular radio station. Although he was a finance minister in the outgoing government until May, many Czechs see him as a maverick outsider with the business acumen to shake up the system. With slogans claiming he can easily fix the country's problems, he is, for some, the Czech answer to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Since the leader of the strongest party usually gets to form a new government, Babis could be the country's next leader despite being linked to several scandals — including being charged by police with fraud linked to European Union subsidies.

The charges will likely make it difficult for Babis to find the coalition partners he needs to build a parliamentary majority. He didn't immediately say which parties he preferred but has invited all parties that won seats in parliament for talks.

In a blow to the country's political elite, four of the top five vote-getting parties Saturday had challenged the traditional political mainstream. Some have exploited fears of immigration and Islam and have been attacking the country's memberships in the EU and NATO.

The opposition conservative Civic Democrats came in a distant second Saturday with 11.3 percent of the vote, or 25 seats. They were the strongest mainstream party. The Social Democrats, the senior party in the outgoing government, captured only 7.3 percent — 15 seats — while the Christian Democrats, part of the ruling coalition, won only 5.8 percent support or 10 seats.

"It's a voting hurricane," analyst Michal Klima told the Czech television, referring to the poor results for the mainstream parties. The Pirate Party won seats for the first time, coming in third with 10.8 percent of the vote, while the most radical anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-EU party, the Freedom and Direct Democracy, was in fourth place with 10.6 percent support. The two parties won 22 seats each.

Babis' centrist movement stormed Czech politics four years ago, finishing a surprising second with an anti-corruption message. Babis has also been critical of the EU and opposes setting a date for when his country would adopt the shared euro currency.

Like most Czech parties, ANO also rejects accepting refugees under the EU's quota system. But Babis played down his euroskeptic views after his victory. "We're oriented on Europe," he said. "We're not a threat for democracy. I'm ready to fight for our interests in Brussels. We're a firm part of the European Union. We're a firm part of NATO."

Still, some experts saw a strong shift to the right for the Czech Republic if Babis works out a coalition government with Tomio Okamura, head of the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, who wants to ban Islam and organize a referendum to exit the EU.

"Should (Babis) join forces with Okamura, the Czech Republic would be facing difficult times," Klima said. A record nine parties and groupings made it into Parliament. Those included the Communists, who got 7.8 percent of the vote and 15 seats, the pro-EU conservatives with 5.3 percent and seven seats and a group of mayors who won 5.2 percent support and six seats.

Italy's 2 richest regions seek more autonomy from Rome

October 22, 2017

MILAN (AP) — Voters in the wealthy northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto are heading to the polls to decide if they want to seek greater autonomy from Rome, riding a tide of self-determination that is sweeping global politics.

While the twin referendums Sunday are non-binding, a resounding "yes" vote would give the presidents of the neighboring regions more leverage in negotiations to seek a greater share of tax revenue and to grab responsibility from Rome. The leaders want more powers in areas such as security, migration, education and the environment.

Lombard President Roberto Maroni has lowered expectations, saying he would be happy with a 34 percent turnout among the region's 7.5 million voters, equal to the national turnout in a 2001 constitutional referendum.

The Veneto autonomy drive dies if voter turnout is below 50 percent plus one of the region's 3.5 million voters. Even though the referendums — which are approved by Italy's constitutional court — don't seek independence, the autonomy drive is a powerful threat to Rome's authority. Together, Veneto and Lombardy account for 30 percent of GDP and nearly one-quarter of the nation's electorate.

Both regions are run by the anti-migrant, anti-Europe Northern League, which has long given up its founding goal of secession as it seeks a national profile. Also supporting the referendum is former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the populist 5-Star Movement.

With the Democratic Party urging its voters to abstain, the votes Sunday will measure the mood ahead of a national election next year, when Berlusconi says he will make autonomy a goal for all of Italy's regions.

Critics of the referendum argue that the non-binding vote carries no legal weight, is not needed to trigger autonomy negotiations and is a costly waste of resources. Yet such arguments play into the hands of the "yes" campaigners, who see such put-downs as part of an anti-democratic, elite, centrist decision-making in Rome. Those sentiments have been echoed in the Catalan independence drive in Spain, in the U.S. election of Donald Trump as president and in Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation European Union.

The Italian constitution already grants varying levels of autonomy to five regions in recognition of their special status: the largely German-speaking Trentino-Alto Adige; the French-speaking Aosta; the islands of Sardinia and Sicily; and the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia for its position on the border with then-Yugoslavia as a Cold War hedge.

Veneto was twice denied by the constitutional court to chance to hold a referendum for autonomy before a 2001 constitutional change that allowed Italy's 15 regions to seek autonomy. These votes Sunday are the first referendums to pose the question to voters, while Emilia Romagna, a center-left region, has recently opened talks with Rome on greater autonomy without a popular vote.

Bavarian town honors horses' patron saint in procession

October 31, 2017

WARNGAU, Germany (AP) — Townspeople and farmers in the small Bavarian town of Warngau have donned traditional costumes for their annual procession in horse-drawn carriages to a local church in honor of St. Leonard, considered the patron saint of horses and livestock.

The "Leonhardi pilgrimage," which was revived in the town south of Munich in 1983 after an 80-year break, takes place every year on the fourth Sunday in October. In wet weather on Sunday, participants huddled under umbrellas in their carriages.

Similar processions are held in several other southern German towns.

New German parliament meets, with nationalists taking seats

October 24, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's newly elected parliament is set to hold its opening session, with lawmakers from the nationalist, anti-migration Alternative for Germany taking their seats for the first time after last month's election.

The lower house meeting Tuesday under the dome of Berlin's Reichstag building is Germany's biggest yet, with 709 lawmakers. It has six caucuses, among them the 92 lawmakers from Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

Lawmakers are expected to elect outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc, as the new speaker. They are also due to elect six deputy speakers from the various parties, who are traditionally approved with cross-party support.

A clash between AfD and others is likely over its nominee, Albrecht Glaser, who is opposed by lawmakers from mainstream parties.

France's Audrey Azoulay wins vote to be next UNESCO chief

October 14, 2017

PARIS (AP) — UNESCO's executive board voted Friday to make a former French government minister the U.N. cultural agency's next chief after an unusually heated election that was overshadowed by Middle East tensions.

The board's selection of Audrey Azoulay over a Qatari candidate came the day after the United States announced that it intends to pull out of UNESCO because of its alleged anti-Israel bias. The news rocked a weeklong election already marked by geopolitical resentments, concerns about the Paris-based agency's dwindling funding and questions about its future purpose.

If confirmed by UNESCO's general assembly next month, Azoulay will succeed outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, whose eight-year term was marred by financial woes and criticism over Palestine's inclusion in 2011 as a member state.

Azoulay narrowly beat Qatar's Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote after she won a runoff with a third finalist from Egypt earlier Friday. The outcome was a blow for Arab states that have long wanted to lead the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

UNESCO has had European, Asian, African and American chiefs, but never one from an Arab country. In brief remarks after she won the election, Azoulay, 45, said the response to UNESCO's problems should be to reform the agency, not to walk away from it.

"In this moment of crisis, I believe we must invest in UNESCO more than ever, look to support and reinforce it, and to reform it. And not leave it," she said. The new director will set priorities for the organization best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions. The agency also works to improve education for girls, promote an understanding of the Holocaust's horrors, defend media freedom and coordinate science on climate change.

The next leader also will have to contend with the withdrawal of both the U.S. and Israel, which applauded its ally for defending it and said Thursday that it also would be leaving UNESCO. The election itself had become highly politicized even before the U.S. announced its planned departure.

Azoulay started the week with much less support than Qatar's al-Kawari but built up backing as other candidates dropped out. She went on to win a runoff with a third finalist, Moushira Khattab of Egypt. Egypt's foreign ministry has demanded an inquiry into alleged "violations" during the voting.

Jewish groups opposed al-Kawari, citing a preface he wrote to a 2013 Arabic book called "Jerusalem in the Eyes of the Poets" that they claimed was anti-Semitic. He wrote, "We pray to God to liberate (Jerusalem) from captivity and we pray to God to give Muslims the honor of liberating it."

In March, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre wrote an open letter to German Ambassador Michael Worbs, chair of the UNESCO Executive Board, to criticize the organization for accepting the former Qatari culture minister's candidacy.

During the months leading up to the election, Egypt and three other Arab nations were engaged in a boycott of Qatar over allegations that the government funds extremists and has overly warm ties to Iran.

French media reported that Qatar recently invited several members of the UNESCO executive board on an all-expenses-paid trip to the country's capital, Doha. Azoulay's late entry into the leadership race in March also annoyed many UNESCO member states that argued that France shouldn't field a candidate since it hosts the agency. Arab intellectuals urged French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw his support for her.

She will be UNESCO's second female chief and its second French chief after Rene Maheu, UNESCO's director general from 1961-74. While she is Jewish, her father is Moroccan and was an influential adviser to Moroccan kings, so she also has a connection to the Arab world.

The Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, but the timing of the State Department's announcement that it would leave at the end of 2018 was unexpected. Along with hostility to Israel, the U.S. cited "the need for fundamental reform in the organization."

The outgoing Bokova expressed "profound regret" at the U.S. decision and defended UNESCO's reputation. The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh in on policy behind the scenes. UNESCO says the U.S. now owes about $550 million in back payments.

Azoulay acknowledged the image of the organization — founded after World War II to foster peace, but marred by infighting between Arab member states and Israel and its allies — needed rebuilding. "The first thing I will do will be to focus on restoring its credibility," she said.

While UNESCO's general assembly must sign off month on the executive board's leadership pick, but officials said the confirmation vote typically is a formality.

Masha Macpherson contributed to this report.

Populist parties gain more victories in European politics

October 16, 2017

The issue has been at the forefront of European politics since 2015, with the influx of more than two million migrants fuelling voters' fears of unrestricted immigration. Populist politicians across Europe have seized on the issue to warn that migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East could undermine Europe's way of life.

The strategy has paid off at the polls, boosting backers of Britain's move to leave the European Union and helping put a far-right candidate into the final round of France's presidential elections. On Sunday, the right-wing Freedom Party received more than a quarter of the vote in Austria's parliamentary elections, putting it in a strong position to join the next government. Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache has described people fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as "invaders," and claimed earlier this year that Muslim immigrants create "no-go areas" wherever they settle.

Ahead of the Austrian election, the leader of Austria's centrist People's Party, Sebastian Kurz, adopted the Freedom Party's stance on immigration in a bid to woo their voters. Whereas such tactics might previously have earned the Freedom Party and even Kurz a rebuke from other European countries, there was little outside criticism this time.

"The consensus in the European Union has become to throw refugees out and it's become difficult to say the Freedom Party is breaking taboos," said Carsten Koschmieder, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University.

Even German leader Angela Merkel, who was lauded for her humanitarian response in opening her country's borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees trapped in Hungary in the summer of 2015, has shifted markedly on the issue amid pressure from members of her own center-right Union bloc.

Merkel sought Monday to play down the threat from the right after the nationalist Alternative for Germany won seats in the state legislature in Lower Saxony, a month after becoming the third-strongest party in a national vote.

The party, which goes by the German acronym AfD, now has seats in almost all German states and at the national and European level, giving it a strong platform — and millions of euros (dollars) in public funding — to attack the German chancellor's policies on immigration.

While Merkel has refused to publicly admit any mistakes, she recently agreed to limit the number of migrants German takes in each year — a key demand from her CDU's Bavaria-only ally, the Christian Social Union. The party is fearful of losing its absolute majority when Bavaria elects a new state assembly next year.

"The CSU and CDU must become a home for conservative voters that have left us," the Bavarian party's former leader Edmund Stoiber said. "This is a matter of survival for both parties." Across the continent, populist, anti-immigration sentiment has driven the political agenda in many countries for months.

French far right leader Marine Le Pen set the tone for France's presidential campaign earlier this year by blaming immigration and the EU's open borders for economic troubles and extremist attacks, forcing other candidates to mimic or respond to her proposals.

Mainstream conservatives and even centrist President Emmanuel Macron adopted some of Le Pen's positions, notably on tougher border controls. Even former Socialist President Francois Hollande ratcheted up expulsions of immigrants in the later part of his term in part because of Le Pen's growing influence on public opinion.

In the Netherlands, the anti-immigration Party for Freedom led by anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders finished second in March elections. Mainstream parties ruled out a coalition with Wilders, but a policy blueprint published by the incoming four-party coalition includes a raft of measures clamping down on immigration, including pledges to cut the length of residency permits for refugees.

In Italy, Paolo Gentiloni's Democratic Party-led government has pressed a controversial new strategy by Libya's government to enlist militias as a de-facto police force to crack down on migrant smuggling. The move — intended to diffuse growing anti-migrant sentiment that could play into the hands of more populist and right-wing parties heading into Italian elections expected by spring — has succeeded in reducing the number of new arrivals.

Poland's right-wing government came to power in 2015 on a hard-line anti-migrant agenda and continues to refuse to accept any Muslim migrants. The position appears to be extremely popular, with the ruling Law and Justice party riding high in opinion polls.

Koschmieder, the German political scientist, warned that attempts to edge out right-wing rivals by co-opting their policies might work in first-past-the-post electoral systems such as Britain — but it could backfire in countries like Austria and Germany, where a campaign focused on immigration can shift the entire political system to the right.

"The Freedom Party wasn't weakened by this, it was made stronger," said Koschmieder. "If it gets into government then that doesn't exactly demonstrate the strategy was successful," he said, citing the fact that the Freedom Party and People's Party together took almost 60 percent of the vote in Austria.

Koschmieder said mainstream parties might fare better by addressing some of the reasons underlying voters' anxiety about immigration, by creating jobs, improving schools and strengthening police forces.

Angela Charlton in Paris, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

Freed Crimean Tatar leaders fly back to Ukraine, vow to return to peninsula

October 27, 2017

Two Crimean Tatar activists sentenced for their political activities by Russian authorities in the annexed peninsula arrived in Ukraine Friday after being released thanks to an apparent deal brokered by Turkey.

Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after their flight from Ankara, the Kiev ally to which they had flown from Crimea upon their unexpected release Wednesday.

The men are two of the Crimean Tatars' most high profile community leaders and have irked Moscow by opposing the Black Sea region's seizure from Ukraine in March 2014.

The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to Crimea who were deported under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and only returned to their homeland in the 1990s.

Umerov and Chiygoz both vowed to return to Crimea in the future after being given a rapturous welcome by their supporters at the Kiev airport.

"I am definitely going home to Crimea, no matter what awaits me there," Umerov told reporters upon his arrival.

"No one gave me any terms or conditions upon my release," he said.

Chiygoz added that he did not see himself as a free man because the Crimean Tatars still remained under Russian rule.

"This is not freedom," the 60-year-old said in a quiet voice. "We will not be free until every person [jailed in Crimea] is released."

Chiygoz was sentenced in September to eight years in prison over deadly clashes at a rally.

Umerov received two years in a penal colony on charges of separatism but was allowed to remain at home pending an appeal. He suffers from Parkinson's disease and diabetes as well as other conditions.

Neither man explained what exactly prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign off on their handover to the Turkish authorities.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, the respected spiritual leader of the Crimean Tatar community, told the French Press Agency he had asked Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call for the activists' release in talks with Putin.

The two men also thanked Poroshenko for playing an instrumental role in their release. Erdogan met Poroshenko in Kiev earlier this month.

The Turkish leader has tried to preserve good relations with both Russia and Ukraine and has slowly begun to assume the role of mediator between the two countries.

Crimean Tatars are traditionally pro-Ukrainian. Since the annexation, they have been subjected to intimidation, house searches and arbitrary detention, rights groups say.

Moscow says the overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to join Russia in a proper and fair referendum.

Source: Daily Sabah.
Link: https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2017/10/27/freed-crimean-tatar-leaders-fly-back-to-ukraine-vow-to-return-to-peninsula.

Austrian poised to become Europe's 1st millennial leader

October 16, 2017

VIENNA (AP) — At age 31, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz is poised to become the first millennial to lead a European country following his party's victory in a national election Sunday. While no party won a majority, the telegenic Kurz is most likely to be sworn in as Austria's next chancellor — and Europe's youngest leader — after the tough coalition government negotiations that lie ahead.

Near-final results from Sunday's balloting put his People's Party comfortably in first place, with 31.4 percent of the vote. The right-wing Freedom Party came in second with 27.4 percent. The center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria, which now governs in coalition with People's Party, got 26.7 percent.

Becoming head of government would be the next leap in a political career that started eight years ago when Kurz, then studying law, was elected chairman of his party's youth branch. Smart and articulate, he eventually caught the eye of People's Party elders. He was appointed state secretary for integration, overseeing government efforts to make immigrants into Austrians, in 2011.

After a Social Democratic-People's Party coalition was formed four years ago, Kurz, then 27, became Austria's foreign minister — the youngest top diplomat in Europe. He hosted several rounds of talks between Iran and six other countries on Tehran's nuclear program, meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other powerbrokers. Other international events further boosted his visibility and party influence.

When a new wave of migrants and refugees seeking to relocate to Europe became a continent-wide concern in 2015, Kurz recognized Austrian voters' anxiety over unchecked immigration involving large numbers of Muslim newcomers.

He called for tougher external border controls, better integration and stringent control of "political Islam" funded from abroad. He also organized the shutdown of the popular overland route through the West Balkans many newcomers were using to reach the EU's prosperous heartland.

By now, Kurz and his traditionally centrist party had drifted considerably to the right of their Social Democratic government partners, making governing difficult. Kurz's moment came when both agreed this spring to an early national election.

The People's Party, then lagging in third place and long seen as a stodgy old boys network, made him leader. Kurz set out to reinvent the party's image after securing guarantees for unprecedented authority.

The youthful, Vienna-born politician turned out to be the tonic the party needed, helping it shrug off criticism that it's been part of the political establishment for decades. He mostly goes without a tie, works standing behind a desk and flies economy class. He has a girlfriend, but is private about his life outside politics.

Noting that his center-right party had triumphed over the rival Social Democrats only twice since the end of World War II, Kurz called Sunday's election a "historic victory."

Election produces likely right turn, young leader in Austria

October 15, 2017

VIENNA (AP) — Austria's 31-year-old foreign minister declared victory for his party Sunday in a national election that set him up to become Europe's youngest leader and puts the country on course for a rightward turn.

Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz claimed the win as final results announced by the Interior Ministry showed his People's Party had a comfortable lead with almost all the ballots counted. Noting that his center-right party had triumphed over the rival Social Democrats only twice since the end of World War II, Kurz called it a "historic victory."

"Today is not the day of triumph over others, but today is our chance for real change in this country," he told cheering supporters. Still to be counted are more than 800,000 absentee ballots and ones cast by voters outside of their home districts. The outstanding votes are due to be tallied by mid-week.

However, the votes counted so far show that Austria, where moderate policies have been the norm for decades, will have a government with a harder line on migration and Muslims than one running the country now.

Both Kurz's party and the right-wing Freedom Party — Kurz's most likely government coalition partner — campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quickly deporting asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and cracking down on radical Islam.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said the People's Party received 31.4 percent of the vote, a gain of more than 7 percentage points from the 2013 election. Kurz described that as the biggest jump in support in the party's history.

The Social Democratic Party of Austria, which now governs in coalition with People's Party, had 26.7 percent, while the Freedom Party had 27.4 percent. The election returns suggest a harder line on immigration resonated with voters more strongly than Social Democratic calls for social equality. Social Democratic Chancellor Christian Kern acknowledged as much, saying Sunday's results reflected "a push to the right."

The Social Democrats were also hurt by charges of dirty campaigning after Israeli political adviser Tal Silberstein, while under contract to the party, launched Facebook platforms crudely mocking Kurz and suggesting the young foreign minister was anti-Semitic.

Much of the People's Party's appeal has been credited to Kurz. Since taking the helm in the spring amid growing strains within the governing Social Democratic-People's Party coalition, he moved his center-right party further to the right.

Even though he is part of the present government, Kurz also presented himself as an engine of change for voters disenchanted with the political status quo. But he avoids the inflammatory rhetoric of the Freedom Party and its head, Heinz-Christian Strache. That made Kurz's party appealing to voters who were uncomfortable with the Freedom Party, but increasingly concerned about immigration since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim migrants flowed into and through Austria in search of better lives in prosperous European Union nations

Strache has modified the tone of his message when speaking to the broader public. The party is keen on shedding its past links to anti-Semitism, but continues to attract a small neo-Nazi fringe. The last time the Freedom Party was in government was 17 years ago. While no expects a repeat of the EU sanctions slapped on Austria because of the party's participation, critics of the Freedom Party in and outside Austria have expressed alarm at any government role for the euroskeptic party.

President Alexander Van der Bellen, who must swear in the new government, said he "puts great value on pro-European government." He narrowly defeated a Freedom Party candidate in last year's election for head of state.

With the pro-EU Kurz at the helm, "EU membership is not likely to be questioned," analyst Pepijn Bergsen, of the Economist Intelligence Unit said. Among the greatest losers were Austria's Greens, with projections showing the party short of the 4 percent support needed to make it into parliament.

The environmentalist party, which had 12.42 percent in elections four years ago, was showing now at 3.9 percent. Two other small parties, the liberal NEOS and the Liste Pilz led by a renegade former Greens politician, just cleared the threshold for parliament seats.

Royal Canadian Air Force to buy air-to-air missiles from U.S.

by James Laporta
Washington (UPI)
Nov 1, 2017

The State Department announced Wednesday a possible sale of up to 32 AIM-120D Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles to one of America's "Five Eyes" partner, Canada.

Congress was notified of the possible $140 million sale on Tuesday, which includes the 32 AMRAAMs, as well as 18 AMRAAM Captive Air Training Missiles; four AMRAAM Non-Development Item-Airborne Instrumentation Units, two AMRAAM Instrumented Test Vehicles, seven spare AMRAAM guidance units and four spare AMRAAM control sections for use on their F/A-18 aircrafts.

"Included in the sale are containers; storage and preservation; transportation; aircrew and maintenance training; training aids and equipment, spares and repair parts; warranties; weapon system support and test equipment; publications and technical documentation; software development, integration, and support; system integration and testing; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support; and other related elements of logistics and program support," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release.

The missiles will be used on Royal Canadian Air Force fighter aircraft and are said to contribute to the foreign policy and national security objectives of the U.S. by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally.

DSCA says the sale of armament is required to support the Royal Canadian Air Force fighters to "optimally fulfill" both North American Aerospace Defense and NATO missions. The deal also meets the U.S. Northern Command's goals of combined air operation's interoperability and standardization between Canadian and U.S. forces, according to the press statement.

The State Department assesses that the proposed sale of equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region, in addition to having no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of the sale.

Raytheon Missile Systems, out of Tucson, Ariz., will provide the equipment and support for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force_to_buy_air-to-air_missiles_from_US_999.html.

South Korea will not develop nuclear weapons: president

By Jung Ha-Won
Seoul (AFP)
Nov 1, 2017

South Korea will not develop atomic weapons of its own despite the threat from the nuclear-armed North, President Moon Jae-In declared Wednesday.

"A push by North Korea to become a nuclear state cannot be accepted or tolerated," Moon said in an address to parliament. "We also will not develop or own nuclear" arms.

In recent months Pyongyang has carried out its sixth nuclear test -- its most powerful by far -- and launched missiles apparently capable of reaching much of the US mainland, raising concerns in Seoul about its security alliance with Washington.

South Korean media and opposition politicians have called for US tactical nuclear weapons, which were withdrawn from the peninsula in the 1990s, to be returned.

Some have suggested that if Washington does not agree -- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed doubts about the concept in a visit at the weekend -- Seoul should develop a nuclear capability of its own, in order to ensure what they dub a "balance of terror" on the peninsula.

But Moon said in his address that Seoul's approach would be "based on the joint declaration to denuclearize the Korean peninsula declared by both Koreas" in 1992.

Then the two Koreas agreed not to develop nuclear arsenal on the flashpoint peninsula, and two years later the North forged an aid-for-denuclearisation deal with the US.

The 1994 deal fell apart in 2002 when the North walked out and resumed its atomic weapons program after Washington raised suspicions Pyongyang was secretly pursuing nuclear arms.

Pyongyang carried out its first atomic test in 2006, and has made significant progress in its weapons technology under current leader Kim Jong-Un, who has overseen four atomic blasts and numerous missile tests since inheriting power in 2011.

- 'Tragic history' -

The North hails its nuclear arsenal as a "treasured sword" to protect itself from potential invasion by its "imperialist enemy" the US, but has threatened to bracket the US Pacific island of Guam with missiles.

Kim and Donald Trump have also traded personal insults in recent months, sparking concerns of a conflict on the peninsula where the 1950-53 Korean War left millions dead.

Tensions escalated further as Trump warned of "fire and fury" against the North and a "calm before the storm".

But Moon insisted there could be no US military action without Seoul's agreement, saying Koreans had to "determine the fate of our nation ourselves".

"There should be no military action on the peninsula without our prior consent," he said.

"We will not repeat the tragic history like colonialisation and division during which the fate of our nation was determined regardless of our will," he added.

Japan colonized the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and after Tokyo's surrender ended the Second World War it was divided into separate zones of occupation by Russia and the US.

Even some Trump advisers say US military options are limited when any armed conflict on the peninsula is expected to cause massive casualties.

The South's capital Seoul is home to 10 million people and only about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the border, within range of Pyongyang's artillery.

One study by the Nautilus think-tank in California estimated around 65,000 civilians would die in Seoul alone on the first day of a conventional North Korean attack.

Trump is scheduled to visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines during his first Asia trip this month, with all eyes on his message to the North and Kim.

How to curb the North's threats is expected to top the agenda when Trump visits the South -- a key Asian ally of Washington's, which hosts 28,500 US troops -- for a summit with Moon on November 7.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/South_Korea_will_not_develop_nuclear_weapons_president_999.html.

Japan PM Abe begins new term with vow to increase North Korea pressure

By Hiroshi HIYAMA
Tokyo (AFP)
Nov 1, 2017

A newly re-elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday pledged increasing pressure on North Korea to force the nuclear-armed country to the negotiating table, days before a visit by US President Donald Trump expected to be dominated by the threat from Pyongyang.

Kicking off a fresh term in office after he was formally re-elected by parliament, Abe hailed his recent thumping election victory as a means to further squeeze a North Korean regime that has alarmed the region with missile launches and a sixth nuclear test in recent months.

"A strong mandate from the people is a source of strong diplomacy," Abe told a press conference Wednesday, adding that a tough line could persuade Pyongyang to ask for negotiations.

"When President Trump visits Japan, we will spend sufficient time analyzing the latest North Korean issues and discussing ways to deal with them," Abe said.

Signs of any message by Trump to the North will be closely watched during his Asian tour, which begins at the weekend and will see him visit Tokyo from Sunday through Tuesday. Trump will also visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

During his election campaign Abe, a staunch conservative, stressed the need for strong leadership to deal with what he called Japan's "twin crises": a shrinking birth rate and the actions of a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korea, which has sent missiles over northern Japan in recent months.

- Abe's super majority -

Abe's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) swept to a two-thirds "super majority" in the 465-seat lower house on October 22. He was reinstated as premier by a huge majority Wednesday and then reappointed all of his cabinet ministers.

The 63-year-old is now on track to become Japan's longest-serving premier.

Abe now has the parliamentary numbers to start a process to change Japan's pacifist constitution -- an ambition he has long cherished.

But he told reporters he will move cautiously on the divisive issue, saying that he will first seek an open discussion on the subject.

Abe also said he will improve the nation's productivity, offer free early childhood education and expand childcare support.

Despite his October poll victory, Abe's popularity ratings are relatively low and most observers attribute his election success to a weak and fractured opposition.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP), effectively disbanded after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike launched a new conservative group and vowed to do away with "old school politics".

Several DP lawmakers defected to Koike's new "Party of Hope" and the more left-leaning MPs formed a new party, the Constitutional Democrats.

In the end, Koike's support imploded, mainly because she failed to stand herself in the election -- confusing voters who did not know who would be premier if she won.

The Party of Hope finished with a mere 50 seats while the Constitutional Democrats won 55.

They were both dwarfed by Abe's conservative coalition, which secured 313 lower house seats, obtaining the "super majority" required to change the constitution.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Japan_PM_Abe_begins_new_term_with_vow_to_increase_North_Korea_pressure_999.html.

As China aims for 'world-class army', Asia starts to worry

By Ludovic EHRET
Beijing (AFP)
Nov 1, 2017

Chinese President Xi Jinping's pledge to build a "world-class army" by 2050 is making his neighbors nervous, but analysts say Beijing's military ambitions do not constitute a strategic threat -- for now.

With purchases and construction of fighter jets, ships and hi-tech weaponry, China's military budget has grown steadily for 30 years, but remains three times smaller than that of the United States.

Now, Beijing wants to catch up.

"We should strive to fully transform the people's armed forces into a world-class military by the mid-21st century," Xi told 2,300 delegates of the Chinese Communist Party, which he heads and which controls the army.

The comments, made during the party's twice-a-decade congress, were aimed in part at domestic nationalists, but also intended to show other countries "China's desire to be strong economically as well as militarily," said James Char, a military analyst at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

During China's so-called Century of Humiliation, starting around the mid-19th century, the country lost almost every war it fought, and was often forced to give major concessions in subsequent treaties.

"That's why China, more than any other country, dreams of a strong army. Not to bully other countries, but to defend ourselves," said Ni Lexiong from Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

- Worried neighbors -

But Xi's call to build a military that can "fight and win" has alarmed China's neighbors, several of whom are embroiled in tense border disputes with the superpower.

This summer India and China engaged in a bitter, weeks-long military confrontation over a disputed area in the Himalayas.

Japan regularly faces off with Chinese maritime patrols close to the Senkaku islands, which are called the Diaoyu in Mandarin and claimed by Beijing.

And Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, despite rival claims from countries including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Beijing has reclaimed islands it controls in the sea in order to cement its claims and installed military aircraft and missile systems on them, causing tensions to spiral in recent years.

"Chinese activities are a security concern for the region encompassing Japan and for the international community," said a recent Japanese defense report.

"It is incontestable that the country's rise as a military power is setting off an arms race in Asia," said Juliette Genevaz, China researcher at the France-based Military School Strategic Research Institute.

"This arms race in Asia has several causes," she said, noting North Korea's nuclear weapons program as one of the contributors.

But, "China's military build-up and reclaiming activities in the South China Sea is a major factor."

China's military expenditure in 2016 was an estimated $215 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, putting it in first place in Asia, well ahead of India ($56 billion), Japan ($46 billion) and South Korea ($37 billion).

The country has not participated in any conflict since a month-long border war against Vietnam in 1979 that killed tens of thousands of people and a 1988 skirmish, also with Hanoi, over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, that left 64 dead.

But it has been busy boosting its military activities abroad.

This year, Beijing opened its first foreign military base, in Djibouti. Since 2008, its navy has participated in anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.

The country is the largest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations among the permanent members of the security council, with some 2,500 soldiers and military experts deployed.

The moves are all part of a larger, decades-long effort to modernize the country's military, which had become riddled with corruption, incompetence and waste.

- 'Absolute control' -

But while Xi flexed his muscles at the head of China's central military commission during his first term, he is likely to observe more caution in future, having consolidated his power base by bringing down two of the country's highest-ranking army officers for corruption, said James Char.

He also reaffirmed the party's "absolute control" over the army during the recently concluded congress.

"Now that it's done, he does not need to risk an external crisis any more. Therefore, we can reasonably expect Beijing will conduct less coercive diplomacy in the near- to medium-term," Char said.

"The Chinese military will continue to operate further and further away from China's shores, and probably also establish more overseas bases," he added.

But, while it will continue to aggressively defend its own territorial claims, "it will likely act cautiously abroad and will not engage in overseas constabulary missions such as those carried out by the US military in Iraq or Afghanistan for example."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/As_China_aims_for_world-class_army_Asia_starts_to_worry_999.html.

Overlooked Treasure: The First Evidence of Exoplanets

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Nov 02, 2017

Beneath an elegant office building with a Spanish-style red tiled roof in Pasadena, California, three timeworn storerooms safeguard more than a century of astronomy. Down the stairs and to the right is a basement of wonder. There are countless wooden drawers and boxes, stacked floor to ceiling, with telescope plates, sunspot drawings and other records. A faint ammonia-like smell, reminiscent of old film, fills the air. Guarding one storeroom is a short black door with a sign saying "This door to be kept closed."

Carnegie Observatories hosts 250,000 photographic plates taken at Mount Wilson, Palomar and Las Campanas observatories, spanning more than 100 years. In their heydays, the Mount Wilson 60-inch and 100-inch telescopes - the bigger saw its first light on Nov. 1, 1917 - were the most powerful instruments of their kind.

Each indelibly changed humanity's understanding of our place in the cosmos. But these technological marvels were ahead of their time - in one case, capturing signs of distant worlds that wouldn't be recognized for a century.

Mount Wilson is the site where some of the key discoveries about our galaxy and universe were made in the early 20th century. This is where Edwin Hubble realized that the Milky Way cannot be the extent of our universe, because Andromeda (or M31) is farther away than the most distant reaches of our galaxy. The photographic plate from the 100-inch Hooker Telescope from 1923, which captured this monumental realization, is blown up as a huge poster outside the Carnegie storerooms.

Hubble and Milton Humason, whose Mount Wilson career began as a janitor, worked together to explore the expanding nature of the universe. Using the legendary telescopes, as well as data from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, they recognized that clusters of galaxies are traveling away from each other - and the more distant galaxies move away from each other at greater speeds.

But there is a far lesser known, 100-year-old discovery from Mount Wilson, one that was unidentified and unappreciated until recently. It's actually: The first evidence of exoplanets.

A detective story

It started with Ben Zuckerman, professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was preparing a talk about the compositions of planets and smaller rocky bodies outside our solar system for a July 2014 symposium at the invitation of Jay Farihi, whom he had helped supervise when Farihi was a graduate student at UCLA. Farihi had suggested that Zuckerman talk about the pollution of white dwarfs, which are faint, dead stars composed of mainly hydrogen and helium.

By "pollution," astronomers mean heavy elements invading the photospheres - the outer atmospheres - of these stars. The thing is, all those extra elements shouldn't be there - the strong gravity of the white dwarf should pull the elements into the star's interior, and out of sight.

The first polluted white dwarf identified is called van Maanen's Star (or "van Maanen 2" in the scientific literature), after its discoverer Adriaan van Maanen. Van Maanen found this object in 1917 by spotting its subtle motion relative to other stars between 1914 and 1917. Astronomer Walter Sydney Adams, who would later become director of Mount Wilson, captured the spectrum - a chemical fingerprint - of van Maanen's Star on a small glass plate using Mount Wilson's 60-inch telescope.

Adams interpreted the spectrum to be of an F-type star, presumably based on the presence and strength of calcium and other heavy-element absorption features, with a temperature somewhat higher than our Sun. In 1919, van Maanen called it a "very faint star."

Today, we know that van Maanen's Star, which is about 14 light-years away, is the closest white dwarf to Earth that is not part of a binary system.

"This star is an icon," Farihi said recently. "It is the first of its type. It's really the proto-prototype."

While preparing his talk, Zuckerman had what he later called a "true 'eureka' moment." Van Maanen's Star, unbeknownst to the astronomers who studied it in 1917 and those who thought about it for decades after, must be the first observational evidence that exoplanets exist.

What does this have to do with exoplanets?

Heavy elements in the star's outermost layer could not have been produced inside the star, because they would immediately sink due to the white dwarf's intense gravitational field. As more white dwarfs with heavy elements in their photospheres were discovered in the 20th century, scientists came to believe that the exotic materials must have come from the interstellar medium - in other words, elements floating in the space between the stars.

But in 1987, more than 70 years after the Mount Wilson spectrum of van Maanen's Star, Zuckerman and his colleague Eric Becklin reported an excess of infrared light around a white dwarf, which they thought might come from a faint "failed star" called a brown dwarf. This was, in 1990, interpreted to be a hot, dusty disk orbiting a white dwarf. By the early 2000s, a new theory of polluted white dwarfs had emerged: Exoplanets could push small rocky bodies toward the star, whose powerful gravity would pulverize them into dust. That dust, containing heavy elements from the torn-apart body, would then fall on the star.

"The bottom line is: if you're an asteroid or comet, you can't just change your address. You need something to move you," Farihi said. "By far, the greatest candidates are planets to do that."

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has been instrumental in expanding the field of polluted white dwarfs orbited by hot, dusty disks. Since launch in 2004, Spitzer has confirmed about 40 of these special stars. Another space telescope, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, also detected a handful, bringing the total up to about four dozen known today. Because these objects are so faint, infrared light is crucial to identifying them.

"We can't measure the exact amount of infrared light coming from these objects using telescopes on the ground," Farihi said. "Spitzer, specifically, just burst this wide open."

Supporting the new "dusty disk" theory of pulled white dwarfs, in 2007, Zuckerman and colleagues published observations of a white dwarf atmosphere with 17 elements - materials similar to those found in the Earth-Moon system. (The late UCLA professor Michael Jura, who made crucial contributions to the study of polluted white dwarfs, was part of this team.)

This was further evidence that at least one small, rocky body - or even a planet - had been torn apart by the gravity of a white dwarf. Scientists now generally agree that a single white dwarf star with heavy elements in its spectrum likely has at least one rocky debris belt - the remnants of bodies that collided violently and never formed planets - and probably at least one major planet.

So, heavy elements that happened to be floating in the interstellar medium could not account for the observations. "About 90 years after van Maanen's discovery, astronomers said, 'Whoa, this interstellar accretion model can't possibly be right,'" Zuckerman said.

Chasing the spectrum

Inspired by Zuckerman, Farihi became enamored with the idea that someone had taken a spectrum with the first evidence of exoplanets in 1917, and that a record must exist of that observation. "I got my teeth in the question and I wouldn't let go," he said.

Farihi reached out to the Carnegie Observatories, which owns the Mount Wilson telescopes and safeguards their archives. Carnegie Director John Mulchaey put volunteer Dan Kohne on the case. Kohne dug through the archives and, two days later, Mulchaey sent Farihi an image of the spectrum.

"I can't say I was shocked, frankly, but I was pleasantly blown out of my seat to see that the signature was there, and could be seen even with the human eye," Farihi said.

The spectrum of van Maanen's Star that Farihi had requested is now located in a small archival sleeve, labeled with the handwritten date "1917 Oct 24" and a modern yellow sticky note: "possibly 1st record of an exoplanet."

Cynthia Hunt, an astronomer who serves as chair of Carnegie's history committee, took the glass plate out of the envelope and placed it onto a viewer that lit it up. The spectrum itself just about 1/6th of an inch, or a bit over 0.4 centimeters.

Though the plate seems unremarkable at first glance, Farihi saw two obvious "fangs" representing dips in the spectrum. To him, this was the smoking gun: Two absorption lines from the same calcium ion, meaning there were heavy elements in the photosphere of the white dwarf - indicating it likely has at least one exoplanet. He wrote about it in 2016 in New Astronomy Reviews.

Exoplanets and debris disks

Scientists have long thought the gravity of giant planets could be keeping debris belts in place, especially in young planetary systems. A recent study in The Astrophysical Journal showed that young stars with disks of dust and debris are more likely to have giant planets orbiting at great distance from their parent star than those without disks.

A white dwarf is not a young star - on the contrary, it forms when a low-to-medium-mass star has already burned all of the fuel in its interior. But the principle is the same: The gravitational pull of giant exoplanets could throw small, rocky bodies into the white dwarfs.

Our own Sun will become a red giant in about 5 billion years, expanding so much it may even swallow Earth before it blows off its outer layers and becomes a white dwarf. At that point, Jupiter's large gravitational influence may be more disruptive to the asteroid belt, flinging objects toward our much-dimmer Sun. This kind of scenario could explain the heavy elements at van Maanen's Star.

Spitzer's observations of van Maanen's Star have not found any planets there so far. In fact, to date, no exoplanets have been confirmed orbiting white dwarfs, although one does have an object thought to be a massive planet. Other compelling evidence has emerged just in the last couple of years. Using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, scientists, including Zuckerman, recently announced that they had found evidence of a Kuiper-Belt-like object having been eaten by a white dwarf.

Scientists are still exploring polluted white dwarfs and looking for the exoplanets they may host. About 30 percent of all white dwarfs we know about are polluted, but their debris disks are harder to spot. Jura put forward that with lots of asteroids coming in and colliding with debris, dust may be converted into gas, which would not have the same highly detectable infrared signal as dust.

Farihi was thrilled about how his Mount Wilson archive detective work turned out. In 2016, he described the historical find in the context of a review paper about polluted white dwarfs, arguing that white dwarfs are "compelling targets for exoplanetary system research."

Who knows what other overlooked treasures await discovery in the archives of great observatories - the sky-watching records of a cosmos rich in subtlety. Surely, other clues will be found by those motivated by curiosity who ask the right questions.

"It's personal interaction with data that can really spur us to get invested in the questions that we're asking," Farihi said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Overlooked_Treasure_The_First_Evidence_of_Exoplanets_999.html.

China's reusable spacecraft to be launched in 2020

Beijing (XNA)
Nov 02, 2017

China plans to launch its reusable spacecraft in 2020, according to a statement from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Tuesday.

Unlike traditional one-off spacecraft, the new spacecraft will fly into the sky like an aircraft, said Chen Hongbo, a researcher from the corporation.

The spacecraft can transport people or payload into the orbit and return to Earth.

Chen said that the spacecraft will be easier to maintain and can improve the frequency of launches at lower cost, bringing new opportunities for more people to travel into space.

Source: Xinhua News.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_reusable_spacecraft_to_be_launched_in_2020_999.html.