Prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov shot dead

February 28, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down Saturday near the Kremlin, just a day before a planned protest against the government.

The death of Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, ignited a fury among opposition figures who assailed the Kremlin for creating an atmosphere of intolerance of any dissent and called the killing an assassination. Putin quickly offered his condolences and called the murder a provocation.

Nemtsov was working on a report presenting evidence that he believed proved Russia's direct involvement in the separatist rebellion that has raged in eastern Ukraine since last April. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with troops and sophisticated weapons. Moscow denies the accusations.

Putin ordered Russia's top law enforcement chiefs to personally oversee the probe of Nemtsov's killing. "Putin noted that this cruel murder has all the makings of a contract hit and is extremely provocative," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

President Barack Obama called on Russia's government to perform a "prompt, impartial and transparent" investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice. Obama called Nemtsov a "tireless advocate" for the rights of Russian citizens.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Nemtsov committed his life to a more democratic Russia, "and to strong relationships between Russia and its neighbors and partners, including the United States."

Nemtsov assailed the government's inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin's Ukraine policy, which has strained relations between Russia and the West to a degree unseen since Cold War times. In an interview with the Sobesednik newspaper, Nemtsov said earlier this month that his 86-year old mother was afraid that Putin could have him killed for his opposition activities. Asked if he had such fears himself, he responded by saying: "If I were afraid I wouldn't have led an opposition party."

Speaking on radio just a few hours before his death, he harshly criticized Putin for plunging Russia into the crisis by his "mad, aggressive and deadly policy of war against Ukraine." "The country needs a political reform," Nemtsov said on Ekho Moskvy radio. "When power is concentrated in the hands of one person and this person rules for ever, this will lead to an absolute catastrophe, absolute."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Nemtsov a personal friend and a "bridge" between the two countries. He said on his Facebook page that he hopes the killers will be punished. Nemtsov's lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said the politician had received threats on social networks and told police about them, but authorities didn't take any steps to protect him.

The Russian Interior Ministry, which oversees Russia's police force, said that Nemtsov was killed by four shots in the back from a passing car as he was walking over a bridge just outside the Kremlin shortly after midnight.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Alexeyeva told reporters that Nemtsov was walking with a female acquaintance, a Ukrainian citizen, when a vehicle drove up and unidentified assailants shot him dead. The woman wasn't hurt.

Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Russian prime minister now also in opposition, said he was shocked. "In the 21st century, a leader of the opposition is being demonstratively shot just outside the walls of the Kremlin!" Kasyanov told reporters as Nemtsov's body placed in a plastic bag was removed on a rainy and cold night, as the Kremlin bells chimed nearby. "The country is rolling into the abyss."

Sunday's rally was pushed to the city's outskirts by the authorities, but Kasyanov said the rally organizers decided that they will stage a demonstration in the center of the capital to commemorate Nemtsov. Officials' failure to authorize it would be certain to cause anger and could lead to unrest.

Garry Kasparov, a former chess champion who worked with Nemtsov to organize protests against Putin and now lives in the United States, said the killing shows that Putin and those who support him are lying when they say their popular support is strong.

"If you have 86 percent support, why do you kill someone like Boris?" he said. "He maybe can reach two million people online at best. A demonstration brings out a hundred thousand people at most. So if you are so confident, why do that?"

Opposition activist Ilya Yashin, who last spoke to Nemtsov two days before the killing, said he had no doubt that Nemtsov's murder was politically motivated. "Boris Nemtsov was a stark opposition leader who criticized the most important state officials in our country, including President Vladimir Putin. As we have seen, such criticism in Russia is dangerous for one's life," Yashin said.

Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky told Ekho Mosvky radio that he did not believe that Nemtsov's death would in any way serve Putin's interests. "But the atmosphere of hatred toward alternative thinkers that has formed over the past year, since the annexation of Crimea, may have played its role," Belkovsky said, referring to the surge of intense and officially endorsed nationalist discourse in Russia since it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Irina Khakamada, a prominent opposition figure who co-founded a liberal party with Nemtsov, also blamed a climate of intimidation and warned that the murder could herald a dangerous destabilization. "It's a provocation that is clearly not in Putin's interests, it's aimed at rocking the situation," she said in remarks carried by RIA Novosti news agency.

Russia's human rights commissioner, Yelena Panfilova, said "it wasn't just a shot in Nemtsov's back, it was a shot in the back of Russia." Vladimir Ryzhkov, a longtime political ally of Nemtsov, blamed Putin for fueling "the atmosphere of hatred toward those with different views, the atmosphere of violence and aggression that now exists in the country."

After Nemtsov's body was taken away, people put flowers at the spot where he was killed. "It's because of his activism, which was very important," said one, Yevgeniya Berkovich. "It's political in any case. Even if it was done by some random street cleaner who went crazy and had a gun, it's because he got it into his head that this is now the fashion."

Nemtsov served as a deputy prime minister in the 1990s and once was seen as a possible successor to Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first elected president. After Putin came to power in 2000, Nemtsov became one of the most vocal critics of his rule. He helped organize street protests and exposed official corruption.

He was one of the organizers of the Spring March opposition protest set for Sunday, which comes amid a severe economic downturn in Russia caused by low oil prices and Western sanctions. Nemtsov said during a radio interview just before his death that it was hard to live under constant intimidation and pressure.

"I won't hide the fact that the opposition is under strong pressure," he said. "Lies are spread about the people, and one has to be a very strong person to cope with all this. I know this from my own experience."

Associated Press writers Peter Leonard in Kiev, Ukraine and Jake Pearson in New York contributed to this report.

Russia offers Iran new missiles despite sanctions

Moscow (AFP)
Feb 23, 2015

Russia has offered Iran advanced surface-to-air missiles after scrapping a similar deal in 2010 because of UN sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program, the state defense company said Monday.

Any such a deal is likely to go down badly in Washington as Western countries seek to keep up the pressure on Iran to agree a comprehensive deal on its nuclear activities.

Sergei Chemezov, head of the Rostec corporation which manages Russia's defense industry, said Moscow has offered to supply Antey-2500 missiles, an upgraded version of the S-300 air defense system that figured in the previous contract.

"We have offered them the Antey-2500," Chemezov was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti news agency.

But he added: "The decision has not been made yet."

Moscow signed a contract in 2007 to deliver S-300 missiles to Iran worth $800 million.

The deal was intensely criticized by the United States and Israel, and Moscow later dropped it as being in breach of UN sanctions.

A UN resolution adopted in 2010 bans the supply, sale or transfer to Iran of missiles or missiles systems.

Chemezov said the Antey-2500 is a more modern version of the S-300, which Russia no longer makes. The same surface-to-air missiles were reportedly delivered to Venezuela in 2013.

Now under Western sanctions itself over the conflict in Ukraine, Russia -- a permanent member of the UN Security Council -- has strengthened its alliance with Iran.

During a visit to Tehran by Russia's defense minister last month, the two countries signed a military cooperation agreement touted as a joint response to US "interference".

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_offers_Iran_new_missiles_despite_sanctions_999.html.

Cambodia PM says work on mega-dam will not start until 2018

February 24, 2015

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Construction of a massive dam in southwestern Cambodia will not start until at least 2018, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday, in an apparent effort to stop heavy opposition to the project which has focused criticism on him.

Hun Sen's comments came a day after Spanish activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, who had campaigned against the dam, was deported for overstaying his visa. "From now until 2018, there will be no permission to build (the dam)," said Hun Sen, whose mandate as prime minister ends in 2018. "Now I beg you to stop talking about it."

Gonzalez-Davidson was a co-founder of non-governmental group called Mother Nature, which has vocally opposed construction of the hydropower dam in southwestern Cambodia's Koh Kong province. Cambodia has signed a deal to build the mega-dam with China's state-owned Sinohydro, but both sides have said more studies were needed before any construction begins.

The project, one of several dams being built by Chinese companies in Cambodia, sparked strong disapproval from the political opposition and environmental groups. In September, Gonzalez-Davidson led a protest that briefly blocked a government convoy from driving to the proposed site of the dam, in the Areng Valley of the Cardamom Mountains.

Environmental groups say the dam would destroy the natural habitat across a vast expanse of one of Southeast Asia's last great wilderness areas, which contains some of Cambodia's most profuse wildlife, including the world's largest population of almost extinct Siamese crocodiles.

Gonzalez-Davidson's visa expired Friday and the government refused to extend or renew it. On Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly appealed to Gonzalez-Davidson to leave the country and he was deported Monday evening.

"His visa had expired and he refused to leave Cambodia as ordered from the ministry, therefore we had no choice but to deport him," said Gen. Khieu Sopheak, an Interior Ministry spokesman. Without naming the activist, Hun Sen said Tuesday that foreigners should not give advice to Cambodia on forest conservation or the construction of dams.

Cambodia expels Spanish environmental activist after arrest

Phnom Penh (AFP)
Feb 23, 2015

Cambodia deported a Spanish environmental activist Monday after he was arrested in Phnom Penh, officials said, a move described by a rights group as the government's latest attempt to stifle dissent.

Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of the advocacy group Mother Nature, has been an outspoken and long-time campaigner against plans for a controversial dam in a protected forest area in the southwestern province of Koh Kong.

Interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told AFP earlier that authorities were compelled to "expel" him as he refused to leave the country voluntarily after his visa renewal application was refused.

Gonzalez-Davidson, a fluent Khmer speaker who has lived in Phnom Penh for years, was put on a plane bound for Thailand late Monday, an immigration official at the capital's airport, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The Spaniard, who has been lobbying to halt the construction of Stung Cheay Areng hydroelectric dam, urged Cambodian nature lovers to "stay strong" in a text message to his group before being deported.

"The battle is yours to be won. For Nature, our Life," he said, according to a statement released by Mother Nature.

The organization claims the proposed dam in Koh Kong would flood a valley home to around 1,500 ethnic minority people and destroy a unique ecosystem.

Sopheak said Monday that the activist's visa was not renewed because of complaints filed against him by the energy ministry and the Koh Kong governor.

But Am Sam Ath of local rights group Licadho said the deportation was directly linked to Gonzalez-Davidson's vocal opposition to the proposed dam.

"The arrest will harm the government's reputation," Ath said.

Gonzalez-Davidson was arrested at a Phnom Penh restaurant on Monday and detained just hours after strongman premier Hun Sen warned the defiant activist to leave Cambodia voluntarily or face being blacklisted from the country.

Hun Sen, who marked 30 years in power in January, has said the economic benefits of a series of controversial dams outweigh environmental concerns in a country where a quarter of the population still lacks electricity.

Nine dams, including several funded by China, are set to open by 2019.

Once they are operational the government has said they will together generate more than 2,000 megawatts, serving all of Cambodia's provinces.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Cambodia_expels_Spanish_environmental_activist_after_arrest_999.html.

Humpback whale freed from netting off Hawaii coast

by Brooks Hays
Maui, Hawaii (UPI)
Feb 23, 2015

After spending all of last week circling Hawaii's Big Island with its tail entangled in hundred of feet of fishing netting, a 40-ton humpback is now swimming free. During a rescue operation lasting several hours on Friday, experts with NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard were able to cut the line away from the whale's tail.

The 45-foot long humpback was first spotted off Hawaii's Kona Coast on February 13, but the whale proved difficult to locate, delaying a rescue operation until the whale surfaced in safer waters. A rescue attempt was nixed last Monday when the whale moved into rough seas.

"We decided to stand down and be patient and wait for the weather," Ed Lyman, the marine mammal response manager for NOAA, told West Hawaii Today. "It's hard enough to be towed behind a whale in a calm sea. We had to be patient."

On Friday, with calmer seas and good weather in their favor, the rescuers trailed the whale in an inflatable as the marine mammal remained close to the ocean surface.

A special knife affixed to a pole was used to cut away the tangled netting piece by piece.

"We had to make three approaches, four cuts was enough for last wrap to get gear off her," Lyman told local news station KHON2. "We went by the back and went really well, very slow, very methodical."

The rescuers used a GoPro camera to peer below the ocean's surface and ensure they'd removed all the rope. Only a short piece was left, embedded in a wound in the whale's tail that experts said would likely heal and slough off.

The NOAA's search and rescue efforts were assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as the West Hawaii Marine Mammal Response Network, and several other local organizations.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Humpback_whale_freed_from_netting_off_Hawaii_coast_999.html.

Ancient and modern cities aren't so different

Santa Fe NM (SPX)
Feb 24, 2015

Despite notable differences in appearance and governance, ancient human settlements function in much the same way as modern cities, according to new findings by researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Previous research has shown that as modern cities grow in population, so do their efficiencies and productivity. A city's population outpaces its development of urban infrastructure, for example, and its production of goods and services outpaces its population. What's more, these patterns exhibit a surprising degree of mathematical regularity and predictability, a phenomenon called "urban scaling."

But has this always been the case?

SFI Professor Luis Bettencourt researches urban dynamics as a lead investigator of SFI's Cities, Scaling, and Sustainability research program. When he gave a talk in 2013 on urban scaling theory, Scott Ortman, now an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at CU Boulder and a former Institute Omidyar Fellow, noted that the trends Bettencourt described were not particular to modern times. Their discussion prompted a research project on the effects of city size through history.

To test their ideas, the team examined archaeological data from the Basin of Mexico (what is now Mexico City and nearby regions). In the 1960s -- before Mexico City's population exploded -- surveyors examined all its ancient settlements, spanning 2000 years and four cultural eras in pre-contact Mesoamerica.

Using this data, the research team analyzed the dimensions of hundreds of ancient temples and thousands of ancient houses to estimate populations and densities, size and construction rates of monuments and buildings, and intensity of site use.

Their results, published in the new AAAS open-access journal Science Advances this month, indicate that the bigger the ancient settlement, the more productive it was.

"It was shocking and unbelievable," says Ortman. "We were raised on a steady diet telling us that, thanks to capitalism, industrialization, and democracy, the modern world is radically different from worlds of the past. What we found here is that the fundamental drivers of robust socioeconomic patterns in modern cities precede all that."

Bettencourt adds: "Our results suggest that the general ingredients of productivity and population density in human societies run much deeper and have everything to do with the challenges and opportunities of organizing human social networks."

Though excited by the results, the researchers see the discovery as just one step in a long process. The team plans to examine settlement patterns from ancient sites in Peru, China, and Europe and study the factors that lead urban systems to emerge, grow, or collapse.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ancient_and_modern_cities_arent_so_different_999.html.

Who's who in coalition against IS jihadists

Baghdad (AFP)
Feb 23, 2015

The US-led coalition against the jihadist Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria groups more than 60 countries, of which a dozen are taking part in air strikes.

Washington is carrying out its strikes in Syria with the help of Arab allies - Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

In Iraq it has the active support of seven Western countries - Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and the Netherlands.

The coalition has since August carried out 2,000 air strikes, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on February 8.

While excluding the deployment of ground troops, coalition countries have also sent more than 1,000 military trainers to work with Iraqi forces.

Below are contributions from the main coalition members:

UNITED STATES: The US started to bombard IS positions in Iraq on August 8, 2014 and extended operations to Syria on September 23.

The 2016 budget earmarks $8.8 billion for the fight against IS.

Around 1,830 American soldiers are currently deployed in Iraq to assist its armed forces in equipment, training and intelligence.

- STRIKES ON IRAQ -

AUSTRALIA: Canberra sent eight RAAF F/A18s to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to take part in air strikes. On October 19, it announced sending 200 members of its special forces as advisers in Iraq. It has also sent military equipment and humanitarian aid to Iraqi Kurds.

BELGIUM: Brussels has committed six F-16 fighter jets and 120 troops, based in Jordan.

BRITAIN: London has deployed eight Tornado fighter bombers and started to conduct air strikes on September 30.

The government announced in October the redeployment from Afghanistan to Iraq of several of its Reaper drones.

In late 2014, London announced the deployment of several hundred extra British soldiers to Kurdish zones of northern Iraq and to near Baghdad to train Iraq's infantry and help them fight against improvised explosive devices.

London has delivered machine-guns and ammunition to Iraqi Kurdish forces.

CANADA: Ottawa has deployed six F-18 fighter jets to Kuwait to take part in strikes in Iraq and officially deployed 69 members of its special forces to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

In the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and IS, Canadian special forces in January exchanged gunfire with jihadist fighters in Iraq.

FRANCE: Paris joined air strikes in Iraq on September 19, 2014. On Monday, it deployed the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Gulf to work alongside the USS Carl Vinson.

The ship carries 12 Rafale and nine Super Etendard fighters, in addition to nine Rafales in the UAE and six Mirage fighters in Jordan operating over Iraq, along with a maritime patrol and a refueling aircraft.

The Charles de Gaulle strike group includes an attack submarine, a French anti-aircraft frigate and the HMS Kent, a British anti-submarine frigate. A total of 2,700 sailors are involved, including 2,000 on the carrier itself.

NETHERLANDS: Apart from six F-16 fighter jets based in Jordan for missions in Iraq, and two others in reserve, The Hague on October 5 announced it was deploying 250 soldiers in Iraq as trainers.

- STRIKES ON SYRIA -

SAUDI ARABIA: The leader of the Gulf monarchies has been taking part since September in air strikes on IS positions in Syria and has accepted moderate Syrian rebels for training and equipping.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Abu Dhabi resumed air strikes on February 10 in Syria, having suspending the raids after IS captured a Jordanian pilot in December.

On February 7, the UAE ordered a squadron of F-16 warplanes to be stationed in Jordan to support it in strikes against the IS.

BAHRAIN: Home of the US Fifth Fleet, Manama has taken part from the start in air strikes in Syria and on February 16 announced the deployment of fighter jets in Jordan.

JORDAN: A neighbor of both Iraq and Syria, the kingdom has also taken part in strikes in Syria since the outset.

It stepped up raids after the February 3 announcement of the execution of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, burned alive by IS which captured him after his plane crashed.

On February 5, Jordan also joined air strikes on Iraq.

QATAR: Doha has supported air strikes in Syria, making available its Udeid air base, home of Centcom, the US central military command for the Middle East and central Asia.

TURKEY: Concerned by Kurdish activities, it joined the coalition on October 2 but has declined to take military action. After months of difficult negotiations, it signed a February 19 accord with the US to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels.

The US government hopes the program can start by late March and the first trained rebel forces become operational by year's end.

Other countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Norway and Spain, have either sent hundreds of soldiers to train Iraqi or Kurdish forces, or hosted training. Others have delivered arms and ammunition.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Whos_who_in_coalition_against_IS_jihadists_999.html.