Brazil top court approves graft investigation of politicians

March 07, 2015

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Supreme Court late Friday approved an investigation of dozens of top politicians, including a former president and leaders of congress, for alleged connections to what prosecutors call the biggest graft scheme ever uncovered in Brazil.

In total, 54 people are to be investigated by the attorney general, including 21 federal deputies and 12 senators — though that figure is expected to grow as evidence is gathered on corruption involving the state energy company Petrobras.

The investigations and any possible trials will take years to play out, but the action throws the young second term of President Dilma Rousseff into further disarray as she faces dueling political and economic crises. She is not being investigated despite serving as chairwoman of the Petrobras board for several years as the kickback scheme played out.

Experts say the investigations could create further gridlock in congress just as Brazil and its sputtering economy desperately need fiscal and political reform measures passed. But the investigation is widely viewed as a necessary evil for the nation's democracy to advance and shake off deep-rooted impunity for the rich and powerful.

"You can't put this genie back in the bottle. People are going to have to face the consequences," said Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "There used to be the idea that people in positions of power in Brazil were untouchable. They're no longer untouchable."

Federal investigators revealed a year ago that they had started an investigation into the scheme, and efforts until now focused efforts on big construction and engineering firms that allegedly paid over $800 million in bribes and other funds. The money purportedly won them inflated contracts with Petrobras, and prosecutors say some of that cash flowed into the campaign coffers of the president's Workers' Party and its allies.

During the first phase of the inquiry, investigators struck plea bargain deals with several "operators" who said they helped move the money around in the deals, along with former top executives from Petrobras who acknowledged raking in hundreds of millions in bribes. That testimony paved the way for the opening of investigations into politicians who also allegedly benefited from kickbacks.

Among those the high court said would now be investigated are former president and current senator Fernando Collor, who was forced from the presidency by a corruption scandal in 1992 before making a political comeback in recent years.

Also to be investigated are Senate leader Renan Calheiros and Eduardo Cunha, who is the leader of the lower house. Both are members of the powerful Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, part of the governing coalition led by the Workers' Party. Both have already shown they are ready to create serious gridlock in congress because of the investigation.

Rosemary Segurado, a political scientist at the University of Sao Paulo, said the two congressional leaders would use the investigation as a "bargaining chip" if Rousseff's government doesn't help protect them in some fashion, "causing problems by blocking important projects." She cited tax, fiscal and political reforms needed as Brazil's economy stalls into recession.

Also on the investigation list are Rousseff's former chief of staff and current senator, Gleisi Hoffman; Rousseff's former Energy Minister Edison Lobao; and Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister under the previous president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and who was Rousseff's first chief of staff.

Under Brazilian law, the Supreme Court must approve any investigation of legislators or top officials in the executive branch. Any criminal charges or trials of such figures must also must be approved and judged by the top court.

In an emailed statement, the Workers' Party said that it was "proud to lead governments that have relentlessly fought corruption. It was the governments of Lula and Dilma who have most fought corruption, strengthening the oversight and control agencies and guaranteeing the independence and autonomy of federal prosecutors and the federal police."

The scandal has seriously damaged the reputation of Petrobras, Brazil's largest company. It is responsible for tapping upward of 100 billion barrels of offshore oil found in recent years, wealth that leaders have repeatedly said they view as the nation's "passport" to achieving developed-world status. But the debt-plagued company is struggling — it was recently downgraded to junk status by Moody's Investors Service and it said this week it would sharply cut back investment and sell off assets.

Associated Press writer Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

Victory for Argentine leader as judge rejects cover-up case

February 27, 2015

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday firmly dismissed allegations that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez tried to cover up the involvement of Iranian officials in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, easing a crisis for her government fed by the death of the prosecutor who brought the case.

Judge Daniel Rafecas said the documents originally filed by the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman failed to meet "the minimal conditions needed to launch a formal court investigation." "There is not a single element of evidence, even circumstantial, that points to the actual head of state," the judge said.

Nisman had filed the complaint just days before he died on Jan. 18 under mysterious circumstances. Polls show many Argentines suspect officials had some hand in the death, though Fernandez and aides have suggested the death was actually aimed at destabilizing her government.

While the decision can be appealed, the judge's scathing wording appears to substantiate government insistence that Nisman's case was baseless, though his death still casts a shadow across the administration.

"Rafecas' decision gives the government some breathing room," said Roberto Bacman, director of the Center for Public Opinion Studies, a South American research firm. Before Thursday's decision, "the government had only been receiving bad news."

Tens of thousands of Argentines marched through the capital last week demanding answers a month after he was found in his bathroom with a bullet in his head. Nisman had asked judges to authorize a formal criminal investigation of the president, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and other figures on allegations that they agreed to grant impunity for eight Iranians accused in the attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in which 85 people died. In return, he said, Iran would increase trade with Argentina.

The prosecutor who took over the case after Nisman's death, Gerardo Pollicita, renewed his request. Rafecas also rejected Nisman's theory that the deal was linked to an agreement for the two countries to jointly investigate the bombing. He noted that the 2013 agreement, scuttled by Congress, never took effect.

Investigators say they are trying to determine if Nisman was killed or committed suicide. The president initially suggested the 51-year-old prosecutor had killed himself, then did an about-face a few days later, saying she suspected he had been slain.

She suggested that he might have been manipulated by disgruntled rouge intelligence agents, and pushed through a law to reform the spy service immediately after Nisman's death. Congress gave final approval to the measure earlier Thursday.

"Even with the dismissal of the charges against her, there are still questions about who killed Nisman," said Shannon O'Neal, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations a U.S.-based foreign-policy think tank.

While the decision will no doubt be scrutinized in very polarized Argentina, many constitutional lawyers had argued in recent months that Nisman's case was weak. Rafecas, 46, is a recognized expert on the Holocaust with a reputation as a champion of civil rights for many cases he has overseen involving crimes during the country's military dictatorship that ended in 1983.

While he was appointed to the federal bench in 2004 by Fernandez's predecessor and husband, the late President Nestor Kirchner, Rafecas has also overseen cases against the current government, making enemies along the way.

The respect he has in the Jewish community, one of the largest outside of Israel, will also go a long way toward getting people to accept the decision. Rafecas' ruling "deserves the the utmost respect," said Julio Schlosser, president of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations.

Fernandez also shuffled her Cabinet on Thursday, replacing three ministers with close aides. Anibal Fernandez, who had been the presidency's general secretary, will replace Jorge Capitanich as Cabinet chief. Fernandez's post will now be taken by Eduardo De Pedro, a lawmaker and leader of La Campora, a political group that is ultra-loyal to the president and that is led by her son, Maximo Kirchner.

The center-left government also named Daniel Gollan as new health minister. He replaces Juan Manzur, who is expected to run for governor in his home state of Tucuman during the October elections. "It's quite possible that the Cabinet reshuffle is connected to Nisman scandal but it's also her last administration," O'Neal said. "Argentina is heading into a series of gubernatorial elections and presidential elections in the fall so this is also a time of lots of political maneuvering."

Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao contributed to this report from Santiago, Chile.

Lightning kills five in Tanzania school

Dar Es Salaam (AFP)
Feb 23, 2015

A lightning strike in Tanzania killed four school children and their teacher on Monday as they sheltered in their classroom, a teacher said.

"Lightning struck at a classroom at Nyakasanda village and a teacher and four pupils died on the spot," said William Lituhi, local leader in the Kasulu district of eastern Tanzania's Kigoma region.

A total 17 other school-children were injured in the explosion.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Lightning_kills_five_in_Tanzania_school_999.html.

Party of Lesotho's prime minister ahead in election results

March 02, 2015

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The party of Lesotho's prime minister on Sunday led in initial results from an election in the mountain kingdom, which held an early vote in an attempt to overcome tension among political factions.

Lesotho's election commission said Prime Minister Thomas Thabane's All Basotho Convention party was ahead with wins in 35 out of 80 voting districts. Some supporters of his party, which performed well in the area of the capital, Maseru, took to the streets to celebrate the early results.

The Democratic Congress of Pakalitha Mosisili, a former prime minister, was second with 10 district victories in Saturday's election. The Lesotho Congress for Democracy, a party led by Mothetjoa Metsing, the prime minister's deputy, had won two.

More results were expected on Monday morning. Last year, Thabane suspended parliament after his coalition government splintered. He fled to South Africa, alleging he was the target of a coup attempt, and returned under the protection of South African forces.

Lesotho has a mixed election system, using voting districts as well as results in the nationwide popular vote to determine who gets the 120 seats in parliament. The country has 1.2 million registered voters.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Lesotho on "the peaceful conduct" of the elections, and said "the successful completion of this process will be an important step in Lesotho's return to political normalcy," according to a statement released by his spokesman.

Widespread winds and eedback from supermassive black holes

Keele, UK (SPX)
Feb 24, 2015

Astronomers have discovered that the winds from supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies blow outward in all directions, a suspected phenomenon that had been difficult to prove before now.

These new findings, by an international team of astrophysicists, were made possible by simultaneous observations of the luminous quasar PDS 456 with ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR X-ray telescopes, and support the picture of black holes having a significant impact on star formation in their host galaxies.

At the core of every massive galaxy in the Universe, including our own Milky Way, sits a supermassive black hole, with a mass some millions or billions of times that of our Sun. Some of these black holes are active, meaning that their intense gravitational pull causes matter to spiral inward, and at the same time part of that matter is cast away through powerful winds.

"We now know that quasar winds significantly contribute to mass loss in a galaxy, driving out its supply of gas, which is fuel for star formation," said Dr Emanuele Nardini, of the X-ray Astrophysics Group at Keele University in the UK and lead author of the study. "This study provides a unique view of the possible mechanism that links the evolution of the central black holes to that of their host galaxies over cosmic time."

With the shape and extent of the winds determined, the researchers could then figure out their power and answer general questions about the degree to which they can quench the formation of new stars.

Astronomers think that supermassive black holes and their galaxies co-evolve together, regulating each other's growth. For more than a decade astronomers have investigated the correlation between the mass of stars in the bulge of a galaxy and the mass of its central black hole, yet it is by no means obvious that the black hole could have an impact on its host galaxy as a whole.

"Black holes of this kind are very powerful, but their gravitational field only extends over the very inner parts of a galaxy," explains Dr Nardini. "For black holes to really influence the star-forming activity of an entire galaxy, there must be a feedback mechanism connecting the two on a global scale."

One possibility is that the propagation of winds driven by the black hole's accretion activity plays a role and, as reported in the journal Science, Dr Nardini and collaborators have obtained the first solid evidence supporting this scenario.

The researchers have looked at PDS 456, a galaxy that lies just over two billion light-years away and that hosts an exceptionally active black hole with a mass of one billion Suns. PDS 456 is a quasar, a class of galaxies that appear as a point source because the activity of the central black holes outshines the brightness produced by their stars.

A comprehensive view of the accreting activity of this quasar could be obtained by observing PDS 456 simultaneously with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. The observations were performed on four occasions in 2013, and once again in 2014.

Since the early X-ray detections, this quasar revealed a strong absorption feature caused by iron nuclei that have been stripped of all but one or two of their electrons.

"The absorption line is blue-shifted with respect to its expected energy in the laboratory, indicating that it arises in a gas that is moving away from the black hole; in other words, we are seeing an outflowing wind," explains Dr Nardini. This line has now been detected in many other quasars, but due to its relative vicinity to us, PDS 456 offers ideal conditions to observe it in detail.

Prior to this study, astronomers used this absorption feature to learn that the wind is blowing at one third the speed of light. But the data were not enough to determine the amount of matter and energy carried away from the black hole. This is where the new observing campaign made a difference, allowing the astronomers to uncover something new: not only they could see the absorption caused by the iron ions, now they also detected direct emission from those ions.

"It was a most welcome surprise," says Dr Nardini.

The emission signature in the spectrum was detected at a slightly lower energy than the absorption feature, indicating that the emitting ions lie outside our line of sight.

"We are seeing material that is flowing away from the black hole, not only towards us but in every direction," he adds.

Such a pair of emission and absorption lines is called a P-Cygni profile, as it was first observed in the variable star P Cygni. It is characteristic of a gaseous envelope expanding away from the central source, and it was never before observed in a wind launched from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole.

With this new feature detected in the spectra of PDS 456, the astronomers could finally study the geometry of the wind blown by the black hole, revealing a wide, almost spherical outflow of matter.

"Knowing the speed, shape and size of the winds, we can now figure out how powerful they are," comments Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, who is a co-author on the paper and the principal investigator of NuSTAR.

The data indicate that the outflowing material amounts to about ten times the mass of the Sun every year, and that the kinetic power it releases into the surroundings is about 20 per cent of the total energy emitted by the quasar.

The wide shape of the wind suggests that the black hole must have quite an impact on the host galaxy, and the estimated amounts of mass and energy that are being blown away seem to confirm that the outflow is able to trigger an effective feedback mechanism on the galaxy as a whole.

While the black-hole wind consists of ionized gas, its power has the potential to set larger outflows into motion, eventually driving away the galaxy's reservoir of molecular gas - the raw material that is needed for stars to form.

Because PDS 456 is relatively nearby by cosmic standards, in this new study astronomers might be witnessing the early stage of a feedback process that more distant quasars underwent around 10 billion years ago, when supermassive black holes and their fierce winds were much more common and possibly contributed to regulating the star-forming activity of the galaxies we observe today.

"This is a great example of the synergy between XMM-Newton and NuSTAR," says Norbert Schartel, XMM-Newton project scientist at ESA. "The complementarity of these two X-ray observatories is enabling us to unveil previously hidden details about the powerful side of the Universe."

Source: Space Daily.

Kremlin critic Navalny released after 15 days in custody

March 06, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was released Friday after spending 15 days in custody and vowed that he and his supporters will not be intimidated by the slaying of a top Kremlin critic.

Navalny, the driving force behind the 2011-2012 mass protests in Moscow, said the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov will not lead him to scale down his campaign against President Vladimir Putin's government.

"This act of terror hasn't achieved its goal, it will not frighten me or my comrades," Navalny said after his release. "We will not reduce our efforts, we will not step back." Navalny walked free after serving the sentence handed down by a Moscow court, which found him guilty of violating the law when he distributed leaflets in the subway campaigning for an opposition rally. The protest was turned into a mourning march to pay tributes to Nemtsov.

Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister and one of Putin's most vehement critics, was killed just outside the Kremlin hours after a radio interview in which he denounced the president for his "mad, aggressive" policies in Ukraine. Before his death, Nemtsov was working on a report about Russian involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine.

The West accused Russia of backing the separatist insurgency there with troops and weapons, the accusations the Kremlin denied. "Our task is to expose those lies and open the Russian society's eyes to Russian soldiers dying on the territory of brotherly Ukraine," Nemtsov's friend, Ilya Yashin, told The Associated Press. Yashin said he and fellow opposition activists had found some of Nemtsov's documents and would try to continue his efforts.

No suspects have been detained in Nemtsov's killing, despite a reward of 3 million rubles (nearly $50,000) offered for information related to the case. Kremlin critics say the spiteful nationalist propaganda on state television, which cast Nemtsov and other liberals as Western stooges, helped prepare the ground for his killing.

"The atmosphere of mad aggression created by the state television ... has signaled that you could do anything to the people expressing a different view, this will benefit the Motherland," Dmitry Muratov, the editor of the Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper critical of the Kremlin, told the AP.

Yashin also said Putin bears political responsible for Nemtsov's death because he encouraged "hatred, intolerance and aggression toward a part of society that disagrees with the current political course."

Many believe that Nemtsov's death in a tightly secured area near the Kremlin wouldn't have been possible without official involvement, and could be an attempt to scare other government foes. Putin dubbed Nemtsov's killing a "provocation." The nation's top investigative agency echoed that comment, saying it was looking into whether Nemtsov had been a "sacrificial victim" to destabilize Russia. It added that it was also investigating possible involvement of Islamic extremists because of Nemtsov's support for Paris terror attack victims, a possible Ukrainian link and Nemtsov's personal life.

Nemtsov and other Russians who supported the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shootings had faced threats, Muratov said. "With all possible reservations, I would look in that direction," he added. He voiced hope for a thorough official probe, adding that the investigator in charge of the case had solved the double murder of a human rights lawyer and a Novaya Gazeta reporter who were killed by extremist nationalists in Moscow in 2009.

30,000 marchers in Moscow mourn slain Putin foe

March 01, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — For the tens of thousands bearing flowers and tying black ribbons to railings in honor of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the solemn march through the Moscow drizzle on Sunday was a time for silence, not slogans.

The marchers occasionally broke into chants of "Russia without Putin," or "Say no to war," but often the only sound was the steady thwack of police helicopters overhead or the hum of police boats patrolling the shores of the Moscow River.

While the killing of Nemtsov has shaken the Russian opposition, which sees the Kremlin as responsible, it is unclear whether his death will be enough to invigorate the beleaguered movement. Despite the Ukraine conflict and Russia's economic crisis, support for President Vladimir Putin has been above 80 percent in the past year.

Since mass anti-Putin protests brought hundreds of thousands to the streets of Moscow in 2011 and 2012, Putin has marginalized and intimidated his political opponents, jailing some, driving others into exile, and ramping up fines and potential jail time for those detained at protests.

The 55-year-old Nemtsov was among the few prominent opposition figures who refused to be cowed. But while many at the march expressed respect for his long political career and grief at his loss, few believed that his death would spark major change in Russia because of the Kremlin's control over national television, where a vast majority of Russians get their news.

"Maybe if 100 people were to die people would rise up, but I don't really believe in that," said Sergei Musakov, 22. "People are so under the influence of the (TV) box that they will believe anything that television tells them. If it tells them that terrorists from the Islamic State group came to Russia in order to blow up the fifth column, they'll believe it."

The Kremlin had identified Nemtsov as among the leaders of a "fifth column," painting him and other opposition figures as traitors in the service of a hostile West. About 30,000 people attended the march, making it the largest opposition rally in more than a year. The demonstrators bore Russian flags and signs that read "I am not afraid" or "Propaganda kills." At the site where Nemtsov was killed, a pile of flowers grew by the minute, as mourners tossed down bouquets of every color.

Nemtsov was gunned down shortly before midnight Friday as he walked across a bridge near the Kremlin. The killing came just hours after a radio interview in which he denounced Putin's "mad, aggressive policy" in Ukraine.

At the time of his death, Nemtsov was working on a report that he believed proved that Russian troops were fighting alongside the separatists in Ukraine, despite the official denials. No one has been arrested in the killing. Investigators said they were looking into several possible motives and have offered 3 million rubles (nearly $50,000) for information about the shooting.

TV Center, a station controlled by the Moscow city government, broadcast a poor-resolution video from one of its web cameras that it said shows Nemtsov and his date shortly before the killing. The station, which superimposed its own time code on the footage, circled figures that it said were Nemtsov and the woman walking across the bridge on a rainy night. A snowplow that moved slowly behind the couple obscured the view of the shooting.

TV Center then circled what it said was the suspected killer jumping into a passing car. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed. Investigators said Sunday they were again questioning the woman, Ukrainian citizen Anna Duritskaya. Russian media have identified her as a model and shown photos of her in alluring poses.

Fellow opposition activists said they hoped Nemtsov's death would encourage people to take action, rather than intimidate them. "Essentially it is an act of terror," said Ilya Yashin, an opposition leader and friend. "It is a political murder aimed at frightening the population, or the part of the population that supported Nemtsov or did not agree with the government. I hope we won't get scared, that we will continue what Boris was doing."

Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister who joined the opposition, told the crowd the killing should be a turning point for Russia "for the simple reason that people who before thought that they could quietly sit in their kitchens and simply discuss problems within the family, now will start reconsidering everything that's going on in our country."

Since Nemtsov's death, investigators, politicians and political commentators on state television have suggested numerous motives for the attack. The most popular theory seemed to be that Western secret services were behind the hit, with the aim of destabilizing Russia. Putin's spokesman said the president saw the attack as a "provocation" against the state.

Some bristled at Western coverage that suggested Nemtsov was killed for his relentless opposition to Putin. "We haven't even recovered, the man hasn't even been buried, and the West is shoving down our throats that Russia supposedly has killed a key opposition politician," Dmitry Kiselyov, an influential television anchor famous for his anti-Western broadcasts, said on his Sunday evening show.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had no intelligence on who was behind the shooting. "The bottom line is we hope there will be a thorough, transparent, real investigation, not just of who actually fired the shots, but who, if anyone, may have ordered or instructed this or been behind this," Kerry said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Kiselyov noted that while Nemtsov was known in Russia from his political activity in the 1990s, when he served as a deputy prime minister overseeing reforms, he was no longer popular. The anchor suggested that the West may have believed his death would resonate more with average Russians than his political activity: "When he was alive, Nemtsov was no longer necessary to the West, he had no prospects. But dead, he was a lot more interesting."

For those at the march, it's that rhetoric on state television that makes the prospects for change dim. "From my experience, trying to convince people isn't possible," said Mikhail Trofimenko, a 42-year-old screenwriter. "I think things will only get worse, but I hope that by some miracle Russia will not fall apart and remain a united country."

He held up a painting of the Russian flag riddled with four bullet holes, the number found in Nemtsov's body. Another mourning march was held earlier Sunday in St. Petersburg, drawing several thousand people.

Nelly Prusskaya, a 66-year-old doctor, said she came to pay her respects to Nemtsov. "I also came to say that I'm against the war in Ukraine," she said. "I'm against political murders."

Lynn Berry in Moscow and Irina Titova in St. Petersburg, Russia, contributed to this report.